Howard Goodall's Organ Works, The Complete Series, and: Howard Goodall's Choir Works, Choirs Perform

Every once in a while, a passionate person comes along with a tireless zeal for spreading the love of music. Leonard Bernstein, with his Young People's Concerts, filled that role. Now, Howard Goodall seems to be stepping into his large shoes. Goodall, a composer for a variety of venues, including the TV series Mr. Bean and Black Adder, brings the zany humor of such shows to the music documentary. Three of his TV specials for the BBC are available on DVD: Big Bangs, reviewed in this journal in 2009; Organ Works; and Choir Works.

Organ Works, after a clever introduction at the Chicago Blackhawks hockey rink, whisks viewers through four segments of twenty-plus minutes each that outline the organ's history from medieval times to the present. We see and hear reconstructions of the earliest portative organs, travel across Europe and the United States to find the oldest, largest, and strangest organs, explore the world of harmoniums, Wurlitzers, and Hammond organs, and conclude with the question of whether the organ will be superseded by its electronic equivalents. It is unfortunate that the focus is so narrowly on the instruments that the pieces are never identified, even in the credits. The broad scope also leaves some finer details of these organs' workings under-explained.

Yet, Goodall effectively highlights the sheer power and variety of this instrument. As viewers watch Goodall traipse with glee to Spain to hear Baroque battle music or climb six stories of the inner workings of the organ at West Point Academy, they can hardly help but be swept up by a similar zest for this "king of instruments."

In 2007, the British government appointed Goodall "National Ambassador for Singing." Goodall fits this bill not only because of his choral compositions, but also his contagious enthusiasm for singing of all stripes. One can see this in Choral Works, which offers four segments, of approximately twenty minutes each, on: South African isicathamiya; cathedral choirs in Oxford and Salisbury; spirituals and gospel music in Nashville; and Bulgarian and Estonian traditions. Goodall's aim, as he states at the beginning, is to show how choral music is "central to how communities feel about themselves, their aspirations, histories, and politics." In South Africa, we learn how isicathamiya mixed Zulu and Western influences and helped maintain morale and tradition during apartheid. In Britain, Goodall celebrates the community and tradition of a 500-year old ensemble, the all-male Christ Church Cathedral Choir, but also welcomes a challenge to that tradition, the recently-formed girls' choir in Salisbury. In Nashville, Goodall emphasizes the power of music in the African-American religious experience, both in older traditions such as metered singing and spirituals and in the latest forms of gospel. In the final segment, Goodall explores how former communist countries such as Bulgaria kept alive a choral tradition whose antiquity he compares to a "saber tooth tiger," while Estonians gained freedom through a "singing revolution." Bonus features include full performances of songs by each choir. Although the brevity of these programs limits their detail, Goodall piques viewers' interest in a wide variety of choral styles, gives a human face to sounds that some listeners might otherwise find forbidding, and effectively demonstrates how powerful the experience of belonging to a choir can be.

Overall, Goodall is an excellent presenter whose obvious passion for music and flair for showmanship will make these programs both informative and delightful for students, professionals, and laypeople alike. One only hopes that more of his documentaries will make their way to video.