In the Variations on Old Psalm-Tunes for Organ Dyson fully explores the composer’s chosen sources: ‘O God my strength and fortitude’ from Ravencroft’s Psalter (1621) ‘O for a heart to praise’ from Este’s Whole Book of Psalms (1592) ‘O God of Truth’ from the Scottish Psalter (1635) and Orlando Gibbons’s Song 22 ‘Love of the Father’. These works are popular for service voluntaries.Twentieth century composer and educator George Dyson was a writer of ambitious and critically well-received works that due to their unfashionably accessible late Romantic style were allowed to languish and are now in the process of reassessment and renewed performance. However Dyson’s worksfor unison Voice and church music in particular his two settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis have remained active in the Anglican repertoire.
