What to get your organist for Christmas 4

The Christmas 2023 edition of What to get your Organist is right here. I do the work so you don’t have to. And do see previous editions – links at the bottom of the page.

Firstly, books

I can’t recommend too highly Andrew Parrott’s extraordinary The Pursuit of Musick, published this year – an illustrated encyclopaedia covering 600 years of music comment from the Middle Ages to the invention of the pianoforte. Give it to a musical friend along with a cup of coffee and it will keep them absorbed for hours. Here’s my longer review with full details.

I’m currently enjoying The Great Passion, James Runcie’s novel imagining the 11-year-old Stefan Silbermann’s apprenticeship to J S Bach in the harsh world of eighteenth-century Leipzig. It’s published by Bloomsbury – more on James Runcie’s website.

For a jolly read to while away a rainy afternoon or two, here are three whodunnits set in our world of church, organs, organists, and general parish goings-on:

Canon Daniel Clement deals with the fatal stabbing in his church, with a pair of floristry secateurs, of the cousin of the Lord of the Manor, in Murder before Evensong by the Reverend Richard Coles. He also has to cope with his opinionated mother, irritating actor brother, and two dachshunds, as he solves the mystery. Richard Coles is the only vicar in Britain to appear on Strictly Come Dancing: Murder before Evensong is his first novel, but it became an instant bestseller, so I suspect there will be more in the Canon Clement series.

Holy Disorders takes Oxford don and part-time detective Gervase Fen to Tolnbridge, where the cathedral organist is murdered. Are German spies involved? (This was originally written in 1946.) How come the pub landlord knows that Stanford did not write a setting for Evensong in E flat? Literary and musical references come thick and fast in this sometimes slightly bonkers tale from author Edmund Crispin, whose real name was Robert Bruce Montgomery. He was elsewhere a concert pianist and composer of film scores, including for the early Carry On films. Holy Disorders has been reprinted by Harper Collins.

Another organist is murdered in The Organist, and The Magistrate, two stories by Richard Trahair, who has held both of these title roles in his time. Playing Schoenberg on the organ appears to be a dangerous game, but I won’t spoil the plot for you. Organ builders Harrison & Harrison and Noel Mander get a mention, though we also visit the works of the fictitious Osmundson & Rushworthy. The Organist, and The Magistrate has just been published by The Book Guild.

Bach’s Missing Pages – DVD/CD

Most organists are aware of the many ‘missing pages’ in Bach’s plans for his Orgelbüchlein, but few modern organists have the skills and confidence to take on the challenge of filling in the blanks. However Sietze de Vries, organist and presenter in a new DVD/CD boxset from Fugue State Films, does exactly that – and he does it through improvisation rather than creating laborious written-out scores. Seven thirty-minute films make up this boxset, along with two CDs: essential listening and watching for music students, Bach enthusiasts, and anyone wanting to learn more about the art of improvisation. It’s called Bach’s Missing Pages – find it in Fugue State Films’ shop, along with many other gift ideas.

Subscriptions

While you’re in Fugue State Films’ shop, you could generously sponsor on someone else’s behalf one of their current crowdfunding projects. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Messiaen and the Organ, a documentary exploring Choral Evensong – take your pick.

At this time of year many magazine publishers have special offers on subscriptions, whether print or digital. Just search the internet for ‘special offer’ then the name of your magazine of choice : Choir & Organ magazine is a good option, as is Organists’ Review.

Stocking fillers

Bach maybe wrote the Pedal Exercitium as a pedal exercise for his son C P E Bach; we don’t know. It’s 33 bars of fiendish leaps and jumps for the feet, and makes your head spin just to look at it. Get it for your organist printed on a handy mug (and then ask them to play it). Organmaster have produced one as a special edition this Christmas, gift boxed, find it here. Their store is worth exploring for other organist gifts – bags, shoe care, gloves, socks and accessories.

We chew through stacks of sticky notes, transparent tabs and Post-Its as we mark up registrations, practice points, notes-to-self on our music copies. A bumper selection of these is always welcome – smaller ones rather than larger, in my experience, to fit in between music staves.

And Overscore Manuscript Tape is very handy, particularly where you need to write out the redistribution of notes between the hands to make something playable (Vaughan Williams, I’m looking at you). From various online dealers, including Amazon.

Previous editions: