For Trinity Sunday
Two gentle and meditative preludes based on the hymn tune ‘Nicaea' (which we sing to ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God almighty’), the first by Healey Willan (No 6 of ’36 Short Preludes & Postludes on well-known hymn tunes’) and the second by Eric Thiman (‘A Morning Prelude on Dykes “Nicaea” ‘ from Four Occasional Pieces).
Healey Willan (1880-1968) was born in England, but emigrated to Toronto in 1913 to become organist at the city’s largest church. He composed around 800 pieces, and is now mostly remembered for his choral and organ works. He famously said of himself: "English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption."
Eric Thiman (1900-1975) was born in Ashford in Kent, and was a leading organist in non-conformist churches. He published many vocal, choral and instrumental works (around 1300 in all), but his output has somewhat fallen out of fashion.
IMAGES: Stained glass representations of the Holy Trinity in churches in the UK, USA and France. The first image for the Thiman piece is the East window of Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church Dunoon.
Played by Peter Christie on his Viscount Envoy FV-350 home digital organ as part of the online music programme for St John's Episcopal Church, Greenock, Scotland.