RESIGNATION OF ORGANIST

Southland Times, Issue 23828, 27 May 1939, Page 9

RESIGNATION OF ORGANIST

Devoting Whole Time To Music

CLOSE STUDY MADE BY THE REV. G. E. LOMAS The Rev. G. E. Lomas, who, since March 1935, has been assistant priest and organist-choirmaster at St. John’s Church, has resigned as from May 31 to devote his whole time to music. Mr Lomas, like so many organists, learned to love good music as a choir boy. After two years in a parish church choir he went as a chorister to Christchurch Cathedral where he remained for four years. During this latter period he studied the pianoforte under Mrs Vere Livingstone. On his family being transferred to New Plymouth he commenced the organ under Mr R. Neville Renaud, organist of St. Mary’s Church. While still a pupil of the New Plymouth Boys’ High School he was for four years conductor of the school orchestra, comprising some 20 players, and was also organist for the school service which was held every Sunday morning in St. Mary’s Church. Returning to Christchurch in 1924 he studied the organ under Dr J. C. Bradshaw and for the next nine years was student-assistant to Dr Bradshaw at the Christchurch Cathedral, his duties consisting of training the junior choir boys and probationers, and playing for occasional week-day choral evensongs. In 1924 he was organist for the Children’s Choral Eucharist at St. Michael’s Church, until at the age of 19, he was appointed organist and choirmaster of the largest city parish church, St. Luke’s, Manchester street, which position he held for eight years. During this period he studied music at Canterbury College and while there took an active part in producing the students’ annual concerts. In 1926, 1931 and 1932 he produced the music and conducted for the whole of the “Revue,” and in 1929, 1930, with the exception of one section. While at St. Luke’s he did pioneer work so far as Christchurch was concerned, in exploring the possibilities of a good organ acting as a substitute for the orchestra, and with Mrs Wellbrook (well known to old Invercargill residents as M'.o3 Dorothy Browning) performed the Schumann, Grieg and Tschaikowsky pianoforte concertos, and with another old Invercargill resident, Mr Inglis Todd, the Mendelssohn violin concerto.

In 1933 Mr Lomas went to Dunedin as assistant-curate at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and during 1934 was acting organist-choirmaster while the organist was on a visit to England.

WORK AT ST. JOHN’S

In 1934 he was appointed to the dual posts at St. John’s Church. This dual position is unique in New Zealand, and although Mr Lomas had definitely decided to give up the organ when he left St. Luke’s in 1933, the authorities of the diocese persuaded him to see that one was given talents to use, and urged him to accept the appointments at St. John’s Church so that a pension could be paid to his predecessor, Mr Charles Gray, in recognition of the latter’s long years of devoted service to the church. Since coming to Invercargill Mr Lomas has more than maintained the traditions of good music ’at St. John’s, and has done much to foster the love of the best in English church music. He has . introduced many anthems new to Invercargill, and of the extended works, Vaughan-Williams “Fantasia on Christmas Carols,” Somervell’s “Passion of Christ,” Mendelssohn’s “Hymn of Praise,” and part of Brahm’s “Requiem” have been sung, and the whole of the “Requiem” is to be performed shortly. Mr Lomas has become well known as an organ recitalist, and those who have heard his recitals and his arrangements for the organ of the orchestral part of the Rachmaninoff and Schumann pianoforte concertos, will agree that he is one of the few organists in the Dominion who, while being a skilled church organist and able to give a faithfv! performance of standard organ works, is yet able to appreciate the possibilities of the king of instruments as a substitute for the orchestra, and obtain remarkably vivid and realistic orchestral effects.