John Bennett - Old English tunes / melodies

[johnquinn39]

Does anyone know anything about the above organ pieces heard recently at a recital at the Edgbaston Oratory?

JQ

[JW]

There is a useful wikipedia page on John Bennett which gives a link to the IMSLP page where you can freely download his 10 Voluntaries. If you want to listen to some of these voluntaries, the Virtually Baroque website has some examples.

There were many composers writing similar organ music, specifically for the peculiarities of the English organs of the day and for the stops of the day. These were 2 or 3 manual organs with no pedal department. The Great went down to the G below the current bottom note of a manual. The Swell was a treble keyboard only, i.e, little or nothing below middle C. Pedals (often rudimentary) became common in London in about 1790.

I recommend you also look at music from the likes of John Stanley and Samuel Wesley and there are many others.

A good playing resource is the 6 books of "Old English Organ Music for Manuls", published by OUP. If you want to listen to more, Jennifer Bate has recorded 6 CD's of this type of music ("From Stanley to Wesley"), recorded on period organs.

Hope this helps.

[johnquinn39]

Many thanks JW

[Southern Comfort]

A good playing resource is the 6 books of "Old English Organ Music for Manuls", published by OUP.

I think it is Book 2 that has a slow movement in A major by Bennett. It is sublime, and places him head and shoulders above his contemporaries. He had clearly mastered sustained four-part contrapuntal harmony in way that Stanley, Walond and others never achieved, quite apart from the emotional content of this particular movement.

That is not to say that his contemporaries did not write good music — quite the reverse — but the sheer depth of expression shown here is quite unusual.