MUSICWEB (1):
This was actually the first disc of John Ellis's music to appear. The second was of songs for voice and organ (DRDD0194) which came out in 2002. Both have now been transferred from the original Dunelm label by Divine Art.

John Ellis studied medicine in Manchester specialising in paediatrics. Like so many doctors, he discovered early on that music grabbed him just as much as medicine. It is no surprise then to find that he has been a church organist and composer for most of his life. Organ music and songs have been his predominant interest but he has recently had performed an enchanting flute sonata.

I should declare that both John and I are members of the Lakeland Composer's Group and we have known each other for some time. I have got to know some of his music quite well and conducted some of his church music and he has played some of my music. Even so this disc had a few surprises for me.

St. Ann's Manchester is a Georgian (sometimes called Renaissance) church of 1712 which is in the city centre. It has a 1730 organ situated in the north-west gallery having been located there at its 1887 restoration. Its full history is given in the booklet. The composer writes about the music but the authorship of the rest, including the profiles and organ history, is anonymous.

The disc opens with what is the longest and in many ways the most sophisticated work on the disc. It's a very fine ‘Allegro and Passacaglia' in which the link between the two sections is that the ‘Tema' used in the latter is derived from the opening bars of the former. This truly is organist's music and could only have been composed by an organist. Although the composer writes about key, G major here, it is not an entirely tonal composition but inhabits a hinterland of tonalities. These eventually pull together into a sort of Howells-like language without being in any derivative. The lovely Pastorale in B has been described as “unmistakably English” as it strolls, often modally through “a variety of keys”. A suitable pre-service preamble.

A similarly nebulous and highly chromatic tonality can be heard in the ‘Meditation on the Coventry Carol' which highlights the painful background to the famous text. I can't say that I go much on the ‘Positive Krummhorn' stop selected for the main melody but Ellis wanted its curious noise to denote ‘Herod, the king in his raging'.

The Whitsun plainchant hymn ‘Veni Creator' is a very beautiful and popular melody and has been used as the basis of masses and motets and variations ever since the early Middle Ages. Ellis's variants are short - possibly too short to really get their point across. Even so they never outstay their welcome and instead offer the organist a chance to show off which Ronald Frost most certainly does, I especially liked variation 4 with its 8ft swell flute and 4ft flute on the pedals. The full organ specification is given in the excellent booklet notes on page ten.

‘Rockingham' is the tune for ‘When I survey the wondrous cross'. This is set unremarkably and simply using the clarinet stop coupled to 4 foot pedals. Ellis calls it a meditation which really is a sort of written out improvisational doodle - something organists must do regularly.

The ‘Three Hymn Tune Voluntaries' are similar stock-in trade pieces. It was a neat and original idea to turn the melody ‘Seelenbräutigam' into a French-style musette. The tune Kings Lynn which makes up the third piece was collected by Vaughan Williams for the English Hymnal which with its bold chords and tuba stop could also serve as a recessional voluntary. Talking of which the ‘Three Short Voluntaries' were written, during a church service apparently, a dull sermon I suspect. They would be suitable for ‘the reluctant organist' in so far as they are undemanding if somewhat unmemorable in the case of number one, the ‘Chorale'. The little pieces serve a purpose which organists have to do for much of their life. In fact the second one, ‘Air' has an irresistibly French accent which is quite haunting.

The composer readily admits that the ‘Suite in A' subtitled a ‘Divertimento' is “lighter music”. The same could be said of the ‘Concert Waltz' composed the following year except that the latter has a few more serious moments in its extended scenario. Light music for organ is not common. Ronald Frost, superb and committed throughout, makes the suite sparkle with such delightful colours that it made me wish that Ellis might one day orchestrate the work. It falls into three brief movements of which the third, a fleet-footed Scherzino, especially caught my imagination.

The disc ends with another hymn-based variations-cum-fantasia. This one is on the medieval theme ‘Orientis Partibus', known in the old ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern' as ‘Soldiers of the cross arise'. John Ellis retains the melody's original modality and its rousing quality with the full organ, complete with a fine tuba stop, bringing the recital to a fine conclusion.

I have much enjoyed exploring John Ellis's organ music some of which is available in print through ‘Fagus-Music'. It has charm, it is practical and is suitable for recital work or the Sunday-by-Sunday routine. The music is beautifully performed, recorded and annotated. Even for non-organists it would be well worth searching out.
Gary Higginson

MUSICWEB (2): (also refers to vol 2 on dda25087)
Music history has furnished us with many examples of composers who either through enthusiasm or necessity have pursued other career paths that preceded or ran concurrently with musical activities. Borodin was a professional chemist, Rimsky-Korsakov was an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, Miaskovsky a military engineer. In our own country Wilfred Josephs was a dentist before taking up composition full time, whereas Denis ApIvor was a consultant anaesthetist who found the time to write over a hundred works. To this illustrious group we can now add the name of John Ellis, who retired in 2002 after a professional life as a consultant paediatrician. In addition to his medical work, Ellis found time to play organ and piano, eventually obtaining the ARCO under the tutelage of William Morgan of Bolton Parish Church. Much of Ellis' music is for the church: anthems, cantatas and especially organ music. Despite coming late to composition there is not a hint of the novice; these 2 volumes from Divine Art attest to the composer's skill and subtle originality. Although broadly tonal the music shows considerable variety harmonically, ranging from the modally expressive to the quartal piquancy of Hindemith. Modulations happen by sleight of hand; the pivot chords provoke marvel, whilst melodies are plastic, limpid and show the influence of plainsong.

Works in variation form dominate the first disc which is a welcome reissue of a Dunelm recording made by Jim Pattison in 2000. When Ellis is not making modally inflected melodies of his own he is borrowing them from plainsong and hymnody in order to create sets of variations, hymn preludes and meditations. In doing so he is of course carrying on a tradition that goes back before the time of Bach. That such melodies can constantly be renewed in this way is a testament to a timeless beauty that can capture the imagination of each new generation of composers. Take Ellis' Variations on Veni Creator Spiritus, an absolute gem of a work that he wrote in 1999. The peerless melody inspires an array of delightful textures and ingenious working out, culminating in a maestoso closing chorale. In a sense this work encapsulates what I love about Ellis' music: its fluidity, its ease of skill, its quiet surprises, its occasional grandiose outbursts. Another piece that shows many of these qualities is the short 3 movement Suite in A from 1998. Here the composer's harmonic ingenuity is to the fore and it is most enjoyable to hear allusions to the harmonic worlds of Vaughan Williams (parallel triads), Cesar Franck (chromatic inflections) and Billy Mayerl (added note chords in the finale) yet within the context of a relatively ‘light' piece.

Of the more dramatic pieces on volume 1, the Allegro and Passacaglia stands out for its bold thematic material and its imposing structure. Here the allusions might be to Marcel Dupré and although the music sounds fine on the restored Glyn and Parker organ of 1730 (renovated by Sixsmith and Sons, 1996) at St. Anne's Church, Manchester, it would be interesting to hear Allegro and Passacaglia on a Cavaillé-Coll or the William Hill organ (renovated by J.W. Walker and Sons, and more recently Geoffrey Coffin) at York Minster, an organ whose gothic splendour thrilled me in the awesome 4 CD set of Francis Jackson's music on Priory. However the St. Anne's organ is a lovely and powerful instrument; the latter quality can be heard to good effect in the Finale-Fantasia on Orientis Partibus. Hymn tunes play an important part as starting points for pieces in John Ellis' organ oeuvre; no doubt such works are for use during contemplative moments of church services. In one case however dark thoughts enter in; the Coventry Carol Meditation is sombre and disturbing with the well known tune planted in a bed of slowly revolving dissonance; a moving response to the words of the carol – ‘Herod the King, in his raging, Charged he hath this day; His men of might, in his own sight, All children young, to slay. Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee, And ever mourn and say; For Thy parting, nor say nor sing, By, by, lully, lullay.' Ellis has made a small masterpiece with this meditation.

John Ellis has found two marvellous champions of his music in Ronald Frost and Robin Walker. Their playing is first rate and they both bring out many colours and contrasts in their use of different registrations. Most importantly they clearly believe in the music and give it their all. The recordings are excellent and the notes include extensive biographical details and complete specifications of the organs. I like the way the stops of the Bolton Parish Church organ have been assigned dates so that the reader can chart the growth of the instrument through the ages. The discs are both very reasonably priced and lovers of organ music should not hesitate to purchase them, they will not be disappointed. I look forward to hearing more of John Ellis' music in the future.
David Hackbridge Johnson

FANFARE:
John Ellis (1943-2010) was an English physician, composer, and organist. Though medicine was his career until retirement in 2002, Ellis held several organist positions throughout his life, and in his final years began composing music (organ solos, choral pieces, and art songs). All the works on this CD ( the first of two volumes of his organ music) were composed in the 1990s. The disc was originally released in 2000 on the Dunelm label, and has now been rereleased by Divine Art/Diversions. This first disc largely contains works of approachable character and suitable difficulty for church use. The second volume (recorded newly for divine Art/Diversions), performed by Robin Walker, contains larger-scale pieces including his magnus opus, an organ symphony. The composer died very shortly after the release of the second volume; he had supervised both recordings.

Ellis's music is tonal and falls firmly into a conservative English 20th-century “cathedral” idiom. Though it is all well made and inoffensive, its primary interest will be to organists seeking new service repertoire, for which it is very suitable. The most substantial piece on the CD is Allegro and Passacaglia (1995), which is the one most likely to be useful in a recital context. Probably the most enjoyable piece is the Concert Waltz (1999), which blends the Victorian English waltz idiom and aspects of the French organ style.

The noted English organist Ronald Frost performs well on the 1996 Sixsmith organ of his own parish at St. Ann's Church, Manchester. Recorded sound is fine.
Carson Cooman