Margaret Phillips performs Philip Wilby's Organ Hours at the Portico of Ards in April 2021.

This clip is a recording of part of a live streamed organ recital at the Portico of Ards in Portaferry, County Down in April 2021. Organist Margaret Phillips performs 'Organ Hours' by composer Philip Wilby. The presenter is Neil McClure.
Portico is supported by Ards and North Down Borough and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Performer Margaret Phillips
One of Britain's outstanding concert organists and teachers, Margaret Phillips studied with the late Ralph Downes and Marie-Claire Alain. After her début at the Royal Festival Hall, she soon gained an international reputation as a soloist, playing at concert halls and cathedrals throughout Europe and in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and Mexico. Alongside her busy concert career, she was a member of Council of the Royal College of Organists for 20 years, and President of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 1997-99. Since 1996 she has been Professor of Organ at the Royal College of Music in London.
Programme note for Organ Hours
(Contrapuntal Exercises after the Medieval Clock of Wells Cathedral)
The Great Clock of Wells Cathedral, which is one of the oldest in England, has been delighting passers-by since 1390. So when the Wells Cathedral organist, Matthew Owens, asked him for a set of short fugues to play on his new House Organ, built by Klop in 2017, the composer Philip Wilby turned to the medieval clock and its many historical figures to provide a framework for this collection of contrapuntal exercises. Organ Clocks were very popular in eighteenth century Austria, and we have surviving music by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven for these instruments. Indeed, Mozart’s three compositions for ‘Orgel Uhr’ count as some of the finest pieces of his last years.
Prelude & Fugue: Brother Lightfoot’s Clocke. The inspiration here is from the mechanism of the Great Clock of Wells Cathedral, said to have been made in 1390 by Peter Lightfoot, one of the monks from Glastonbury Abbey. The movement is cast as a short prelude and fugue in perpetual motion.
The Inward Face: Sun, Moon and Stars. A short ground bass provides a musical equivalent to Lightfoot’s vision of the heavens. The celestial imagery of the inner clock face is fascinating, showing Earth at the centre, with the Sun, Moon, and Stars in circular motion over three concentric dials.
Double Fugue: Jack and the Knights of Old. The bell mechanism of the clock contains a pair of Automata: ‘Jack Blandifer’ is a humorous figure, who acts as ‘QuarterJack’, striking two bells every fifteen minutes. His rustic humour is counterpointed on the hour with a sudden appearance of jousting Knights. A double Fugue portrays both personalities and combines them at the movement’s close with a flourish of climactic sound.
Night Fugue and a Chime in the Dark. The final fugue imagines the sound of the clock in the Cathedral at night. Against the sound of the ticking clock, it begins in the organ’s highest register, and gradually descends to its lowest notes, ending with a threefold ‘Chime in the Dark’.
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Fantastic!!