HOLLINS: Funeral March, played on Mustel harmonium

Описание: Alfred Hollins (1865-1942) was a blind English organist, composer and teacher. He was famous as the organist of the Free St. George's Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh, and he also traveled the world giving concert tours. He introduced the practice of speaking directly to his audiences, in order to describe the music he was about to play. Apart from a fine output of music for pipe organ, his “Twelve Original Two-Stave Pieces” were published in 1899. They are a delightful and challenging set of late-Victorian miniatures for church or concert use; they work equally well on European harmoniums and American reed organs. A reprint of the set is available from my friend Robert Pacey in Lincolnshire, via his eBay shop (seller name "pendragonwriter"). This classic Funeral March in G minor starts as a dramatic processional dirge, played on the 16’ (2) rank and the 8’ (4) rank, played an octave higher. The music gives way to a passage of tender memories, first with the 16’ treble (6) Voix Celeste, then on the 8’ (4) rank alone. But the tragedy of the funeral march reasserts itself, the heart-cries and grating chords ultimatley resolving into bleak octaves, dark and open as the grave. The instrument is an art-harmonium built by the Mustel firm in Paris, their # 470, dated 1887, and # 4321 in the Reed Organ Society database. Performed by Michael Hendron, recorded 21 March 2021.