Sunday Afternoon Organ Music
Sunday 7 September 2025 marks the 22nd anniversary of the first Sunday Afternoon Organ Music at Holy Trinity, Wordsley on Sunday 7th September 2003. This series followed Paul Carr’s ten-year series of Saturday Lunchtime Organ Recitals at Cradley Heath Methodist Church (1993-2003) where Paul played 100 recitals.
Since 2003 Sunday Afternoon Organ Music has happened every month until March 2020 after which the series was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, four months later from August 2020, Paul performed a short programme which was video recorded and released online each month for a year until September 2021 when the series alternated between live performances with an audience in the building and more online pre-recorded video performances. In total there have been 19 online performances and 240 live performances with this Grand Finale performance taking the total to 260.
Admission to the recitals has always been free with a retiring collection taken to assist in funding the ongoing care and maintenance of the instrument. The generosity of the audience over the 22 years has raised over £25000.00.
Programme
The 241st Sunday Afternoon Organ Music
Alfred Hollins (1865-1942)
Concert Overture in C minor
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Pedal-Exercitium BWV 598 Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV 542
Matthias Nagel (b.1958)
Danke – Swingfüglein
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) [arr. Maurizo Machella]
Aida: Triumphal March
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo Sinfonico
Norman Cocker (1889 – 1953)
Tuba Tune
Johannes Matthias Michel (b. 1958)
Petite Suite in Blue:
Entrée; Récit; Scherzo; Blues; Sortie
George Thalben-Ball (1896–1987)
Elegy
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) [arr. David Briggs]
The Organ Symphony: Finale
Paul writes…
One Saturday afternoon back in early 1993, while practising in an empty and locked church in Cradley Heath I came up with the idea of presenting a monthly organ recital series to enable me to share all of the wonderful organ music I was learning. This idea would become one of my projects as a first-year student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Complete with hand-written posters, programmes prepared on a typewriter and a lot more organ practice, the series began on Saturday 6 March 1993.
When I graduated and subsequently trained to be a classroom teacher, as I had planned to all along, I decided to continue the series, and with the help of a few visiting recitalists each year to reduce the pressure of preparing a 45-minute programme every month, the series continued. In June 2003 the series was brought to a close as the inevitable closure of the church loomed and the future of the building was unsure.
I first played the organ in Holy Trinity in 1990 in a concert with Dudley Schools Symphony Orchestra which included Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony. From 1999 while living nearby, and already having played for some services here, I was given access to the organ for practice. In 2003 it seemed logical to reinvent the monthly series in Holy Trinity, and so Sunday Afternoon Organ Music began on Sunday 7 September 2003.
In addition to continuing my tradition of playing a monthly programme, which had so successfully given me a focus to my organ practice for the previous ten years, the prospect of raising funds for the ongoing maintenance of the organ was a wonderful opportunity. For this reason, I have never taken a fee for these concerts, my wish being that all the retiring collection goes to the organ. To date the generosity of the audience, for which I am so extremely grateful, has resulted in over £25K being handed over to the organ fund. This has enabled targeted maintenance during the last 22 years, including some re-leathering of the winding system and restoration of some of the pedal chests. It is ongoing though – the 1982 electrical system, a bit like an old telephone exchange, is likely to be the next thing to need restoration or replacement as it shows signs of its age.
It is interesting to look back at the music played across 22 years of programmes. I tried not to repeat pieces within two years, though I’ve been less strict over this recently, and I’ve aimed to constantly present new repertoire. The most-played piece is unsurprisingly Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, played ten times, Sleigh Ride has featured nine times, as has Saint-Saëns Final from the Organ Symphony, so its inclusion on today’s programme brings it up to joint first place! I have played just under 650 pieces during the 22 years and 230 of those pieces have only had one performance in the series.
All 260 programmes, including the online only performances during the pandemic, are listed here
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the audiences for support of the series, to thank the church community at Holy Trinity, the clergy past and present, and to remember the many supporters over the years who are sadly no longer with us.
Read more about Sunday Afternoon Organ Music and view the 260 programmes here
