Meditation on an old Welsh Air

James Roland Middleton (1896-1983) served as organist of Chester, Chelmsford and St. Asaph's Cathedrals.

He published "Three Pieces" (Stainer & Bell, 1952), and "Mediation on an old Welsh Air" (Hinrichsen, 1954).

I found this to be a very attractive piece. The tune is "familiar," but in may just "sound" so. If you sing "Away in a manger," you can make the words nicely fit the tune. :-)

I uploaded a version of this yesterday on the soon-to-be-released sample set of the Church of Mary-le-Bow by Lavender Audio.

The piece is entirely new to me and I like it very much, so, I wanted to another recording, more in a "cathedral style," so, that's why I did the piece a second time.

I've attached several photos of the cathedrals where Middleton served as organist below.

Coming soon: Alan Gray's "Idyll No. 1" for the first day of spring. :-)