ABSTRACT
There is an enormous quantity of English organ music written since World War II. Most of it creates the demands of church services by organists themselves or composers who have specialised in writing for the organ. In many ways the role of Malcolm Williamson in bringing contemporary techniques into English organ music is unique. As one of the most talented composers of his generation, Williamson was able to reinvent contemporary English organ music with his own works, buttressed by his enthusiasm for Messiaen. Williamson stayed close to the organ when he wrote Vision of Christ Phoenix, commissioned for the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral and performed by the composer on 27 May 1962. Williamson drew on serial procedures in an idiosyncratic way, after digesting Bartok, Stravinsky and Messiaen; Maxwell Davies was initially more consistent; but there were English serialists in the previous generation who brought that technique to their organ music.
