Manuals only heaven Part 2 - 'A Modern Day re-working of John Stanley's music'
- Tim Knight Music
- Jul 1
- 2 min read
This comment came from a reviewer in an Organ Magazine about one of the manual miniatures sets. If you are an organist, you will be aware of the 18th-century English school of organ voluntaries from not only John Stanley but Maurice Greene, William Boyce, Henry Heron, and my favourite, William Walond.
Many are slow diapason movements followed by a lively trumpet tune (recording below courtesy of our good friend Rien Schalkwijk); others are simply rather 'severe' slow-moving and rather melancholy movements.
It has been a year since a blog was released regarding the sets of Manual Miniatures - at that time, there were only three. Now there are six sets, all aimed at organists that may not be comfortable with the pedals, or may play an instrument that doesn't have pedals, or may even be a pianist reluctantly turned organist doing their best with the organ.
Writing 36 miniatures (one-page pieces) in as many different styles as I could think of that would be useful has been a challenge; after all, they needed to be useful to the player and not too difficult (some of the manuals only music from the composers mentioned above is by no means easy!) We are delighted by the reviews from the music press, some having described the pieces as wonderful teaching material and others as 'absolute gems'.
With the help of organists worldwide and a selection of wonderful recordings (many in the playlist above) these miniatures now find new homes around the world almost daily! It has been the most worthwhile composing project that I have undertaken in recent years and has reinforced the need for creating music that has a purpose and fulfils a need, so to speak.
We also have music for manuals in our Christmas selections featuring the winning entries from our recent competitions from composers around the world and some rather beautiful sets from Alejandro Consolacion II based in the Philippines. All of these composers have crafted beautifully constructed music without 'talking' down to the manuals-only performer.
There are links below to the two compilations of Miniatures for Manuals Sets 1-3 and Sets 4-6 and this weblink will take you to a page where all our Manuals only Organ Music can be found, and recordings will be on the product pages:
Finally, as creating new content is time-consuming, maybe you might feel like using the 'Buy me a coffee' app to support our work with a small donation, for which we would be ever so grateful. Please just click on the logo picture below to visit our page:
