Voluntary on "Nun danket" (Nine Hymn-Tune Voluntaries)

Alec Rowley was born in London on 13 March 1892, teacher, composer, organist, pianist, lecturer and writer, who studied at the RAM with Frederick Corder and where he won sundry scholarships and prizes. He was an organist at several London churches including, during the Second World War, St Margaret's, Westminster. He died on 11 January 1958 while playing tennis.

These 9 brief voluntaries will be not only to continue my "Rowley Riot," but also to demonstrate some of the colors on the now complete, and recently released Armley Shulze organ. I had a chance to play this organ in the 1980's, but that was before the complete and spectacular restoration was done.

The group of nine pieces are divided into "Opening" and "Closing" Voluntaries. They are conceived for manuals only (although I did the odd pedal note at times), and would be great "learning pieces," or an excellent first exposure to playing the works of Rowley. This one, the "Voluntary on 'Old Hundredth,'" is the fourth of the "Closing Voluntaries," and the last in the collection.

This time, it's the full organ throughout, passages on the Great alternating with the Swell. At the end it is the FULL organ that you hear. In this performance, I've made use of the Pedal throughout.

This is the "real" and not the Extended Version of the sample set.

I hope these nine pieces have shown the colors of the organ, plus provided some useful, quality pieces of short duration that many will find useful. :-)

The score is attached below, as well as THE photo of Rowley.