An organ recital in progress: part 69

Dear SMM Community,
 

The next part of my online organ recital is here, and I hope that you enjoy it. I offer up these musical meditations as part of our parish efforts to find ways to keep you connected at this time. Recorded on my house organ, the instrument is a musical facsimile of the great 'Father' Willis organ at Salisbury Cathedral.

Today, I present Ralph Vaughan Williams's Rhosymedre.


The nineteenth-century Welsh Anglican priest and hymnist John Edwards (1805-1885) named his hymn tune Rhosymedre after the village of Rhosymedre in the County Borough of Wrexham in Wales, where he served as vicar from 1843 until his death. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) used the hymn tune for the second of his Three preludes on Welsh hymn tunes. Originally for solo organ, he later set the work in an orchestral arrangement.



With best wishes,
Andrew Adair
Director of Music