Meditation on Psalm 130, Op. 109

John Henderson, probably Swindon's only full-time musicologist, acts as Honorary Librarian and Archivist to the Royal School of Church Music, a post he has held since 1995, and he serves as organist and choirmaster of Wroughton Parish Church.

He was trained at Magdalen College School, Oxford and is a medical graduate of St. John's College in Cambridge. He was formerly the senior partner of the NHS General Practice in Fairford, Gloucestershire. He retired from medicine in 1992 and lives in Old Town, Swindon. He describes himself as a 'train-spotter cum hoarder' of organ music and his personal library of 60,000 pieces of organ music supplies source material to many performers and recording companies world-wide.

Many of the fine and rare works that have I have uploaded recently were given to me by JH. THANK YOU, John! He is one of our members here "FRSCMJohn".

John was awarded the ARSCM (Associate of the Royal School of Church Music) in 1996 and named as an FRSCM (Fellow of the RSCM) in 2016.

He is the author/co-author of several books, his most famous being "The Dictionary of Organ Composers".

"Meditation on Psalm 130" is a moody, sectional work, portraying the text of the 130th Psalm. The score is dated August 4, 1989.

Psalm 130 is one of the Penitential Psalms. The full text, as per the Coverdale version is given in the First Comment. The moods and words vary and transform throughout, and this can be heard in the music.

In this case, the challenge will be making the various "sections" come together into a unified whole. I found this quite difficult to do, but I certainly like the outcome.

However, there are some challenged here that you will need to negotiate in order to get a dramatic and pictorial entity.

The score is attached below, as well as a photo of John Henderson, and two pictures of Wroughton Parish Church where he is organist and director of music.