Nocturne

Arthur Blurton Plant (1853-1914) was a chorister at Litchfield Cathedral was organist of St. Paul's Church, Burton-on-Trent as well as municipal organist for over 40 years.

Dr. Arthur Blurton Plant, was organist of St. Paul's Church from 1874–1914. He was organist and choirmaster from the church's consecration in 1874 until his death. In forty years as organist of St Paul's, he only missed one Sunday!

This is not a "mystical nocturne," or cloudy and dark tone poem. Rather, it seems like the procession of the sheep (or bovines!) from their peaceful day in the pasture, back home to the safety of their shelter.

The conception is a simple one, but it will need some finesse to bring it off smoothly.

The work can be found in Volume 5 of the famous (at one time) series, "The Organ Loft," published by W. Paxton & Co. Ltd. in 1907.

The work is dedicated: "To Mrs. T. Burn," and is "No. 134" in the series.

You are hearing this on THE organ that the composer wrote it for!

Now, the problem is that this organ has had a difficult life, being abandoned and saved twice, and now installed at a Catholic church in Berlin.

This, however, is an exceptionally difficult sample set to use. In my opinion, it is recorded much too close, and the effect/attack is almost "percussive," despite the perspective that you use it at.

I've always thought that it was an excellent "exercise" to use a difficult organ without almost "unsolvable sound problems," and do your best to get good results from it.

I've done the best that I could here, although personally, I don't think the results are very satisfactory. I do NOT say that looking for compliments! I just can not get these pieces to hang together in a seamless manner, and there is a distinct lack of variety in the colors that you hear.

The score is attached below, as well as a photo of the Quire of Lichfield Cathedral, where Plant was a chorister, and several photos of St. Paul's Church, Burton-on-Trent where he served as organist.