playlist | Kate Loder : the organ music

Kate Loder | Complete Works for Organ

Kate Fanny Loder (1825–1904) was born in the British city of Bath to a musical family several members of which were – by the second half of the nineteenth century – doing much to develop musical life and musical tastes throughout the Anglosphete.
At the age of 13 Kate Loder was enrolled as a student of the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK) and at 18 joined the professorial staff there.
She also had a much-acclaimed career as a concert pianist. This was a role from which she steadily withdrew after her marriage in 1851; her last public performance being in March 1854. Her husband was the eminent surgeon Henry Thompson (Kt. 1868; Bt. 1899. The couple lived at 35 Wimpole Street in London.
Kate Loder achieved considerable success as a composer. Her works include: an opera L’elisir d’amore; a symphinic overtire, string quartets; a piano trio, a sonata for violin and piano; works for solo piano and piano duet: solo songs; works for organ; and choral pieces.

Kate Loder as organist
The first evidence we have of Kate Loder’s connection with the organ is found in The Musical Examiner of 26 October 1844, which announced that Miss Kate Loder ‘the Talented Academician’ had been appointed as organist at St Peter’s Vere Street. This is a building located within strolling distance of the Royal Academy of Music. When Kate took up her post at Vere Street the organ there was a modest one of 2 manuals without pedal built in 1722 by Christopher Schrider (c.1675–1751) as follows:

Great organ. 1. Open Diapason; 2. Stopped Diapason’ 3. Principal; 4. Fifteenth; 5. Cornet III; 6. Trumpet.
Choir organ. 7. Stopped Diapason; 8. Flute; 9. Cremona.

According to Kate Loder’s obituary in The Musical Times (1 October 1904) she was still the Vere Street organist in 1853 and so would have overseen the 1852 rebuilding of the organ by the firm of William Hill & Sons, as follows:

Great organ. 1. Open Diapason; 2. Stopped Diapason; 3. Dulciana; 4. Flute; 5. Principal; 6. Twelfth; 7. Fifteenth; 8. Sesquialtera III; 8. Trumpet.
Swell organ . 1. Double Open Diapason; 2. Stopped Diapason; 3. Principal; 4 Cornopean; 5. Hautboy.
Pedal Organ 1. Diapason.

Kate Loder’s obituary noted that it was her time at St Peter’s “which doubtless caused her to compose two sets of organ pieces which have been published.”

Kate Loder autograph. McFarren Autograph Album. Royal Academy of Music, London (RAMAB WM 2023-2163).

The organ music
Kate Loder’s only compositions for the organ are two sets of ‘Six Easy Voluntaries’. The music was published in 1889 (set 1) and in 1891 (set 2) by the London firm of Novello, Ewer & Co. as part of a series called Original Compositions for the Organ. There is no known autograph or manuscript copy of this music.
Although termed ‘Easy’ these melody-driven chromatic miniatures are not pieces for the novice organist. They are finely crafted and nicely capture a wide range of moods from urgent & outgoing to calm & introspective, very much in the spirit of ‘songs without words’. NB Kate Loder’s nearly universal use of the Swell 8′ Oboe as part of the 8′ foundation colour is not uncommon in English organ music of this period.

Reception
On their publication each set was reviewed rather coolly by The Music al Times, as follows:

Set 1. Although female composers are more numerous than formerly, the organ has not as yet attracted much of their attention, and these pieces must therefore command a certain amount of interest, if only to those who are attracted by curiosities. It may be said at once, however, that the composer needs no allowance on the score of sex. Her voluntaries are musicianly, and she has mastered the legitimate organ style of writing. They are all suitable for church use, and a tendency to over-indulgence in chromatic harmonies is the only defect in them worthy of mention. (The Musical Times. 1 April 1889)

Set 2. … a second set of Six Easy Voluntaries, by Kate Loder, for the most part fresh and genial in character, if somewhat suggestive of Spohr in the numerous chromatic progressions. They will prove excellent as voluntaries or as teaching pieces for comparative beginners. (The Musical Times 1 May 1891)

And today …

There are a number of reasons to explain why Kate Loder’s organ music is still unfamiliar. Foremost must be their lack of availability with each set published only once. To this may be added the collections’ deprecating description as ‘Easy Voluntaries’, the relative brevity of each piece, the music’s minimal requirements of instrumental colour, the cool reviews in the musical press, and – of course – female authorship.
Playlist

References and further reading

Technical notes
– Edition: Kate Loder, Six Easy Voluntaries. Series ‘Original Compositions for the Organ’ No.112 Set One, 1888; No.140 Set Two, 1891 (Novello, Ewer and Co, London; facsimile editions by musicroom).

Temperament: Equal; pitch A=440
– Organ: Viscount Sonus 60
Microphone: Zoom Q2N-4K
– Recordings: ©Andrew Pink (2023–24). All rights reserved. Creative Commons licence: [Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International]

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