Description
The second Oxford Book of Ceremonial Music for Organ is a practical collection of repertoire covering a wide range of uses, from formal public events to more private occasions. The music is stylistically varied, encompassing both flamboyant extravagance and restrained solemnity. Selected with players of intermediate to advanced ability in mind, the collection includes established favourites and attractive new arrangements of well-known works, alongside newly commissioned pieces.
About the Author
On retirement from a teaching career spent successively at St Paul's Boys' School, Barnes, Radley College, Oxfordshire, and Glenalmond College, Perthshire, (where he was also a Housemaster and Senior Tutor), Robert Gower worked as Organist at St Barnabas Catholic Cathedral, Nottingham, before moving briefly to the most northerly parish in the Church of England at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Returning to Scotland so as to be nearer to family, he is now Director of Music at Dundee Parish Church. Robert's commitment to English 20th-century repertoire is reflected through his founding and leadership of the Percy Whitlock Trust between 1981 and 2016 and in his longstanding Chairmanship of the Gerald Finzi Charitable Trust, from which he retired in 2022. He enjoys transcribing music for organ (with a wide range recently embracing both Leroy Anderson and Maxwell Davies) and in liturgical composition, completing a three-year cycle of responsorial psalms for the Church Music Society.
Reviews
The first thing to say about this handsome new collection (2019) is that the word 'ceremonial', is somewhat misleading . . . Francis Jackson's Prelude on East Acklam is lovely (despite the weird harmonies of the hymn itself) though hardly ceremonial . . . There are some new commissions: Gabriel lackson's dashing (in both senses of the word) Carillon for Louise and Nick, for instance, with its dizzying changes of time signature. And the distinguished Paisley organist George Mcphee's expressive Prelude on 'Bunessan' (Morning has broken). A useful and well-produced selection of pieces for a 'wide range of uses' indeed. * Francis O'Gorman, Organists' Review, December 2019 *
This most welcome second collection, comprising no fewer than 25 individual pieces from a wide range of composers from J. S. Bach to Gabriel Jackson, offers items which are appropriate for almost any occasion where ceremonial organ music is required, presented in performing editions which will earn the gratitude of all organists. The presentation is of Oxford's customary immaculate manner, and amongst the well-known pieces . . . are such unusual (but enormously relevant and effective) pieces as Reger's Fugue on the British National Anthem and Sousa's Washington Post march. One surely cannot find a volume of comparable quality anywhere else a apart from in Book 1, that is. Most comprehensively recommended. * Robert Matthew-Walker, The Organ, Autumn 2019 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780193528369
Author Robert Gower
Page Count 144
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 516g
Dimensions(mm) 310mm * 231mm * 11mm
About the Author
On retirement from a teaching career spent successively at St Paul's Boys' School, Barnes, Radley College, Oxfordshire, and Glenalmond College, Perthshire, (where he was also a Housemaster and Senior Tutor), Robert Gower worked as Organist at St Barnabas Catholic Cathedral, Nottingham, before moving briefly to the most northerly parish in the Church of England at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Returning to Scotland so as to be nearer to family, he is now Director of Music at Dundee Parish Church. Robert's commitment to English 20th-century repertoire is reflected through his founding and leadership of the Percy Whitlock Trust between 1981 and 2016 and in his longstanding Chairmanship of the Gerald Finzi Charitable Trust, from which he retired in 2022. He enjoys transcribing music for organ (with a wide range recently embracing both Leroy Anderson and Maxwell Davies) and in liturgical composition, completing a three-year cycle of responsorial psalms for the Church Music Society.
Reviews
The first thing to say about this handsome new collection (2019) is that the word 'ceremonial', is somewhat misleading . . . Francis Jackson's Prelude on East Acklam is lovely (despite the weird harmonies of the hymn itself) though hardly ceremonial . . . There are some new commissions: Gabriel lackson's dashing (in both senses of the word) Carillon for Louise and Nick, for instance, with its dizzying changes of time signature. And the distinguished Paisley organist George Mcphee's expressive Prelude on 'Bunessan' (Morning has broken). A useful and well-produced selection of pieces for a 'wide range of uses' indeed. * Francis O'Gorman, Organists' Review, December 2019 *
This most welcome second collection, comprising no fewer than 25 individual pieces from a wide range of composers from J. S. Bach to Gabriel Jackson, offers items which are appropriate for almost any occasion where ceremonial organ music is required, presented in performing editions which will earn the gratitude of all organists. The presentation is of Oxford's customary immaculate manner, and amongst the well-known pieces . . . are such unusual (but enormously relevant and effective) pieces as Reger's Fugue on the British National Anthem and Sousa's Washington Post march. One surely cannot find a volume of comparable quality anywhere else a apart from in Book 1, that is. Most comprehensively recommended. * Robert Matthew-Walker, The Organ, Autumn 2019 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780193528369
Author Robert Gower
Page Count 144
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 516g
Dimensions(mm) 310mm * 231mm * 11mm
