Last year for Holy Week I did a set of posts commenting on Marcel Dupré’s Chemin de la Croix one at a time. This year I am afraid I have not had time to prepare additional posts, but for the regular Wednesday post during Holy Week I am thinking about another set of musical Stations of the Cross.

This set is by Alan Ridout, written as much of his organ music was for Allan Wicks, and although challenging, less so that Dupré’s. The set of fourteen miniatures are variations on a theme, with the theme itself the last movement. Within the basic framework of variation there are moments of transparent word-painting (loud staccato chords for the nailin to the Cross, for example), moments of violence and others of tenderness and sorrow.

As a short post, I have little to suggest except that the set is very worth listening to (and quite fun, to play for any fellow organists among my readers) and I commend it to you for your Holy Week reflection and journey. Listen and pray, stand with Christ in the journey to the Cross.