The wandering organist

Well, where have I been? Having never been to a civil Remembrance day ceremony, I decided to do the Worthing one. I checked the website which said it started at 11 with the silence, followed by a march-past of local uniformed organisations. I thought this a little eccentric, so turned up about a quarter of an hour early to find about two to three hundred people there, scattered across Chapel Rd, which might be a bit of a challenge for the mach-past. A band was providing music on a sporadic basis, and at about five to the hour they ended Nimrod and there was a pause in proceedings. Well, I realised that the tannoy system must be faulty when at two minutes to the hour, a solo bugler sounded the last post. There had to have been some speech before that ("They shall not grow old..."). It was all the more obvious that things were not quite as they should be when, at 11am, with the maroon gone bang and the Town Hall bell chiming the hour the bugler was already halfway through so...

Organist's view of the high altar Well, first Sunday away from the tied bench I wandered me over to St Mary, Kemptown, in Brighton. Such a friendly church, with all sorts of people. I love the way I don't stand out and can merge into the background more. This morning's service (All SS Sunday) also had 30 minutes of All Souls-tide remembrance (over 200 names read out), which stretched the service a weeeeny bit. My friend Alan Ireland was playing there for the first time, and did nicely improvising quietly over the congregational candle-lighting. Before the service he played some Mendelssohn I'd not heard before. He told me after it was the prelude to the G major P+F. The Bach Fantasia in c BWV 562 afterwards on full Great flues. Next week, no plans yet. Watch this space :-)