Choral Prelude: Easter Alleluia - Alec Rowley: Furnishings from Hyndland Parish Church Glasgow

Rowley’s joyful piece is based on the hymn tune ‘Lasst uns erfreuen’, a German melody of 1623 originally set to an Easter hymn ‘Let us rejoice most heartily’. It is usually sung nowadays to ‘All creatures of our God and King’ or ‘Ye watchers and ye holy ones’. A celebratory opening gives way to a more contemplative central section, building to a grand laying-out of the whole tune, with the manuals and pedals in canon. The piece was published in 1952 as part of the collection ‘Choral Preludes based on Famous Hymn Tunes’.
Alec Rowley (1892-1958) was a British composer, organist and writer. Most of his music was written with music education and amateur performers in mind, but he also composed some more substantial works. Frequent key changes - sometimes startling - are typical of Rowley's style; he has been described as an immensely fastidious and nuanced composer, and at his best there is not a note out of place. Most of his work has now - undeservedly - fallen out of fashion.
Images: Selected pictures from the Scotland’s Churches Trust heritage recording survey of William Leiper’s 1887 Hyndland Parish Church, Glasgow, which was carried out in November 2023. The eminent stained glass is well covered in various online sites; other than the (liturgical) east window, this selection shows some of the wood, metal and stone fixtures and fittings. The church sadly closed in 2023 and is now being sold.
Played by Peter Christie on his Viscount Envoy FV-350 digital home organ as part of the online music programme for St John's Episcopal Church, Greenock, Scotland.