Richard McVeigh
Richard McVeigh is a British organist. He operates the Youtube channel Beauty in Sound and produces a variety of Hauptwerk and real-life organ-related videos and recordings. His Youtube channel is particularly noteworthy for the Virtual Church series and professional-quality real-life recordings[1] of him and other organists.
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Organ Console[2]
In 2021, McVeigh held a successful fundraising campaign[3] to design and build a new Hauptwerk digital console. The design was based on the console of the screen organ at York Minster, but with the number of manuals reduced from five to four.
The reasons given for the new console included innovation, to enhance the playing experience (which would result in better content on Beauty in Sound), the wish to bring Hauptwerk "Into the more mainstream market", and the future plans to invite international organists.
The Beauty in Sound console uses physical stops that physically move to affect the organ registration. To accomodate different Hauptwerk samplesets, the stop-knobs can be pulled completely out and replaced with a stop of a different name.
Youtube
Beauty in Sound is a Youtube channel operated by Richard McVeigh which boasts "Quality Organ Videos & An Awesome Community"[4]. In addition to ordinary Hauptwerk and real-life organ content such videos performing organ repertoire, McVeigh runs several series to more directly engage with the community aspect of the channel.
The youtube channel was created in 2017. It is hard to assess when the current format of videos and livestreams were first uploaded, because McVeigh periodically privates old videos and livestreams[5].
On 1 May, 2023, Beauty in Sound crossed 100,000 subscribers.
Events
On 30 July, 2022, McVeigh hosted a live event with Paul Fey, in which both organists performed various pieces by Fey and other composers and Fey premiered Westminster-Toccata[6].
Virtual Church[7]
Virtual Church is a series of videos which feature a combination of solo organ repertoire and hymns. The series is usually livestreamed from home using Hauptwerk, but is occasionally pre-recorded at a real-life location[8].
One recurring aspect of Virtual Church is the audience participation. Frequently hymns are requested by viewers of the livestream, and McVeigh also chats with viewers in-between pieces and hymns.
Organ Festivals
McVeigh organizes seasonal organ festivals which are broadcast on Beauty in Sound. In the same way as Virtual Church, these events primarily use Hauptwerk with some real-life organ content.
So far, these festivals have occured in Summer 2021[9], Winter 2021[10] and Summer 2022[11].
One notable event that has been scheduled for the first two Organ Festivals is the Call for Composers series, which consisted of a performance of a selection of submitted compositions. In the third organ festival, this culminated in the publication of a selection of these compositions under the same name.
Other Series
Starting in August 2021, McVeigh produced a short-lived Friday Music Relay[12] series, in which viewers voted on a piece of music to be played in the next week's episode.
References
www.youtube.com/@beautyinsound, accessed 24 July, 2023.
www.beautyinsound.co.uk, accessed 24 July, 2023.
- ↑ See Recording the ORGAN of ST EDMUNDSBURY CATHEDRAL | Microphone Placement (uploaded 6 December, 2021, www.youtube.com) and others
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 28 July, 2023.
- ↑ Youtube channel bio, as of 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ Source: socialblade.com, accessed 27 July, 2023. There is occasionally a large amount of negative views, such as week of 7 Feb-14 Feb, 2022.
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ such as 🎵 Hymns and Organ Music from Gloucester Cathedral for ALL SAINTS' DAY | VIRTUAL CHURCH, accessed 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 27 July, 2023.
- ↑ www.youtube.com, accessed 27 July, 2023.
