A versatile performer and teacher who has long been a presence in the world of the theatre organ, as well as a member of the Cinema Organ Society and the Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust, Joyce Alldred is a composer whose colourful and exuberant light organ music is a pleasing addition to the repertoire.
Tart with the Cart and Animo et Fide may be played in recital as a pair, for their contrasting moods of boisterous humour and high ceremony. Alternatively, they might be selected as individual pieces within a diverse programme of music for the instrument.
The background to Tart with the Cart was a visit Joyce made to Dublin in 1994 where, discovering the celebrated life-size bronze statue of Molly Malone in Grafton Street, she wrote this playful variation on the song 'Cockles and Mussels', which takes as its title the name by which the statue is known locally.
The march Animo et Fide was written in 2008 to commemorate the centenary of the Stockport Town Hall, home to a magnificent Wurlitzer theatre organ that was originally located in the Paramount/Odeon Theatre, Manchester. It is a stirring processional in the tradition of those by Elgar, Walton and Eric Coates, and it takes as its title the town’s armorial motto, which translated from the Latin means 'with courage and faith'.