James McVinnie: Mountains and Waves 2

There can be few musical instruments as seemingly moribund as the organ. Immensely rich, overwhelmingly powerful and astonishing diverse, it is all too often associated with stodgy hymns and kitschy pieces of gothic. Despite boasting an incredible repertoire that stretches from Bach and Handel to Messiaen and Ligeti, it seems largely confined to a fanatical band of obsessives, and is no longer seen as an engine for musical innovation.
James McVinnie is helping to transform such perceptions. Classically trained at Clare College Cambridge, and formerly employed at St Paul’s and Westminster, over the last few years he has worked tirelessly to restore his instrument to its rightful place. Through collaborations with the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never and Shara Worden, he has proven that the organ is still vital. And by joining the Icelandic label Bedroom Community, which collapses the boundaries between classical, folk and electronic music, he has joined a group of like-minded trailblazers.
This spring, McVinnie is performing at St Giles Cripplegate as part of the Barbican’s Mountains and Waves season. Curated by Bryce Dessner – best known as a guitarist in The National, but also a respected composer in his own right, the two-day festival focuses around music that evokes America’s vast, epic landscape.
For his appearance, McVinnie will play as-yet-undisclosed works by three American greats and two young composers. There will be John Cage, supreme master of the US avant-garde whose organ work includes the longest piece of music ever composed, alongside minimalist legend Philip Glass. Morton Feldman, famed for his exploration of the minutiae of sound, will also make an appearance, almost certainly through his exquisitely unsettling Principal Sound (1980), his sole published work for the instrument. These modern colossi will be accompanied by work from McVinnie’s contemporaries Tino Andres and Nico Muhly, the latter of whom co-founded Bedroom Community and has extensively worked with McVinnie in the past. If you wish to get to grips with some of the most startling American music of the post-war era and see the organ unlocked to its full potential, this concert should serve admirably.