English Organ Music from Jennifer Bate

The British organist Jennifer Bate (1944-2020) was known for her dedication to Olivier Messiaen's compositions, but she also recorded the complete organ works of Mendelssohn, Franck and compatriot Peter Dickinson, as well as other music from her own land.

For this 1981 LP, titled An English Choice, she chose music of a lighter sort - all compositions but one dating from the first half of the 20th century, representing the famous (Elgar, Vaughan Williams) and those less well remembered (Harvey Grace, Norman Cocker).

Jennifer Bate

The longest work on the program is the Plymouth Suite by organist-composer Percy Whitlock (1903-46). Bate's concise and informative sleeve note explains its genesis: "His [Whitlock's] compositions for organ are firmly based in the English tradition — always tuneful, with a fine, broad sweep of melody, occasionally influenced harmonically by his admiration for Elgar and Delius. This fine Suite, published 1939, was written for the 1937 Congress of the Incorporated Association of Organists held in Plymouth, and the dedicatory initials at the head of each movement are those of members. In addition, the venue patently brought to mind sea-songs as well as the changing rhythms and moods of the sea."

Harvey Grace, Percy Whitlock

Appropriately, Bate recorded her recital on the Rushworth & Dreaper organ in St. Andrew's Church, Plymouth. It's a historic parish, dating to the 9th century, with parts of the present building dating from the 13th. The church was heavily damaged in the Second World War, and the organ installed in the postwar years.

St. Andrew's, Plymouth, before 1870

Ralph Vaughan Williams' beautiful Prelude on 'Rhosymedre' is one of a set of three organ pieces based on Welsh folk tunes. As Bate mentions in her notes, much of the interest in the piece is in the composer's opening theme, which then acts as accompaniment to the hymn tune. Percy Whitlock was a Vaughan Williams student.

Harvey Grace (1874–1944) was best known for being the long-time editor of The Musical Times and for being the organist of Chichester Cathedral. The first movement of Whitlock's Plymouth Suite is dedicated to him. Grace's contribution to the set is a Postlude on 'Martyrs', one of three Psalm Tune Postludes, this one based on a theme from the Scottish Psalter, 1635.

Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941) was a composer, educator and broadcaster who was organist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and then Master of the King's Music from 1934 until his death. His Solemn Melody was originally written for organ and strings, and is here in an arrangement for organ alone by John E. West.

Henry Walford Davies, William Henry Harris

Sir Edward Elgar wrote his Imperial March for the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It's an early example of his patriotic marches, transcribed for organ by George C. Martin.

Sir William Henry Harris is represented by two brief works - A Fancy and Reverie. The former was dedicated to the memory of Percy Whitlock. The latter is one of Harris' Four Short Pieces. 

Harris was organist of New College, Oxford, Christ Church, Oxford and St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Bate writes, "He was highly respected as a fine player, excellent choir trainer, and composed very much in the Anglican tradition."

Rushworth & Dreaper Organ, St. Andrew's Church

Bate closes her program with Norman Cocker's Tuba Tune, a favorite of organists. Cocker was the organist at Manchester Cathedral for many years.

The LP's sound is good and the playing is splendid. As for the music, in his Gramophone review Gordon Reynolds wrote, "It is astonishing, and pleasing at the same time, to see the repertory of pre-World War II bobbing up again. Not only had all these pieces gone out of fashion, they were regarded even in their heyday as being rather below the salt, musically speaking. The earthy tunefulness, which made the aspiring organists of the thirties curl up, is the very quality which has guaranteed the resurrection of these pieces."

Below is an advertisement that the record company placed in The Gramophone, suggesting that the recording was on "the organ of the 'Pilgrim Fathers' church." Well, while it is said that the Pilgrims worshiped in St. Andrew's before embarking on their sea voyage, the organ, as mentioned above, is of recent provenance.

The Gramophone, February 1982