Next year’s Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies will feature an article in which I explore a little-known aspect of the late seventeenth-century English organ, namely the use of sash-windows on case fronts. I’ve found just four organs that had this peculiar feature, and all were associated with buildings in which Christopher Wren was at work, so I suspect he was the instigator of the idea.

I first came across the feature whilst researching the so-called ‘King James’s Travelling Organ’, a consort organ that was sold to an American many years ago and of which the whereabouts are now unknown. I suspect it was an organ built, or possibly adapted, by Renatus Harris for one of the royal Catholic chapels, I think most probably the Whitehall one. In England the use of consort organs was an unusual feature of the royal Catholic chapels at this time and was based on the contemporary Italian practice of employing a small organo di legno with the choir. James II then used the organ in his temporary military chapel on Hounslow Heath during the Glorious Revolution, hence the ‘travelling’ epithet. More on the use of consort organs in the royal Catholic chapels will be coming soon.

Look out for the JBIOS article for more on this and some thoughts on the origins of the swell box…

Despite the unexpected onus of having to transfer my teaching online during the COVID 19 lockdown, I have managed to complete two articles for publication. The first of these appears in Journal 14 of the Viola da Gamba Society and can be accessed here:

Titled Richard Cobb and Domestic Music in the Household of Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath, 1638-1655, it is a detailed examination of the musical provision within an aristocratic domestic household during the civil wars period, based on the extensive accounts that survive from Tawstock House in Devon. Additionally, the article identifies the composer Richard Cobb, known for his consort and keyboard works in a handful of surviving manuscripts, not as the servant of Archbishop Laud, as has hitherto been thought, but as the domestic organist of the Bourchiers at Tawstock.

The Tawstock accounts paint a vivid and detailed picture of the musical provision in the Bourchiers’ household, including the purchase of instruments, music and materials (including several consort organs, of course!), the engagement of professional musicians and tutors, and also the involvement of the wider household, including family and servants, in the music-making there. The narrative reveals that the Bourchiers, although sited remotely in rural Devon, were very much up-to-date with the latest musical trends being developed at the court in London.

I am delighted to report that the Open University has granted me Visiting Fellow status starting in August 2020, which will enable me to continue my research under the auspices of the university and to contribute to the work of the music department there. Many thanks to Professor David Rowland for his proposal and to Dr Byron Dueck for acting as my sponsor. My initial work will focus on preparing a series of sample chapters expanded from my thesis with a view to publication.

The Belgian viol consort L’Acheron have been recording a CD using the new organ built for them by Goetze & Gwynn, which is based on Dominic Gwynn’s extensive experience of documenting, restoring and copying consort organs. It is splendid to see a project like this taking place and hopefully it will illuminate our understanding of how the consort organ and viols interacted. I am not convinced by the use of the organ, virginals and viols all at once  – I can find no evidence for this at all – but I was intrigued by Francois Joubert-Caillet’s comment that the virginals has tonal similarities to the consort organ: there is some food for thought there! I’m looking forward to the release of the disc – let’s hope it’s not delayed too much by the present distracted times.

Here is a link to a video about the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRkgXGJ1YBI

I have collected a large amount of data on consort organs, including information on the instruments themselves, the contexts in which they were used, the people who owned them and played on them, and the repertoire used with them. I also have an extensive bibliography covering most of the extant instruments, as well as more general topics relating to the consort organ in seventeenth-century music. Some of that information will appear here, although how much will depend to some extent on the outcome of publishing options for my research in due course. For now I have added some information on specifications and compasses to the Resources page. If visitors to the site are seeking further information about individual instruments or their contexts they are very welcome to contact me to see if I can assist.

The list of seventeenth-century references to secular organs has been updated and now contains over 110 entries. I am grateful to Dominic Gwynn for alerting me to some of which I was unaware. Any further additions would be gratefully received.

The website is up and running! Many thanks indeed to the marvellous Michael Withers for offering his technical knowhow. More info and features will be added soon…