Quoyloo Quill

 Jehan Alain  -  The Tragic Loss of a Musical Great One of my passions is organ music and on a wintry Orcadian evening there is no greater pleasure than settling down  to listen to a recording of work by the great Masters such as Widor, Vierne or Franck. With Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday almost with us, I am diverging from the usual blog theme of Orcadian writers, artists and musicians to remember and celebrate the life of organist and musician Jehan Alain , who, had he not been tragically killed in active service in France in 1940, may have been one of the greatest. Jehan Alain   was arguably one of the last of the French Romantic organists, but had he survived the war he would most likely have been considered a modern composer. He was the eldest son of the musical Alain family, born on 3 rd February 1911 in St-Germain-en-Laye, a western suburb of Paris, also the birthplace of Debussy. He had two sisters, Odile and Marie-Claire and a brother, Olivier. His father Albert studie

                    From Alaska to New Zealand                                                                                                                   It's time to meet Finstown writer extraordinaire Kate Barrett Kate Barrett was first published in her school magazine at the age of twelve and has hardly stopped writing since. She knows how to walk the walk. Her first book, 'Orkney on Foot', was published before anyone else had thought of the idea and has personally walked all of the walks featured in the book. Since then she has written 'Handmade', 'Orkney Murders and Mysteries' and numerous poems, as well as offering an historical tour of Kirkwall.  When life settles, she  plans to offer a tour of her travels: 'Alaska to New Zealand'.                                                         Orkney Colours                                                                                                         by Kate Barrett I had forgotten