What They Are Saying About Philip Goddard's Music

I played this for a friend who knows organ music very well who said that Philip Goddard must be the Lovechild of Gustav Holst and Jehan Alain. This is the prime stuff and his midi is so well-done that you almost forget. You wanna do something good for Music in general? Go to this guy's website and buy one of his CDs. They're worth it.

Paul Wehage (Saxophonist, Composer, Conductor, Music Publisher) reviewing the opening movement of The Great Wilderness at MP3.com

None of the Proms first performances have made me sit up and listen like your Symphony no.1 (at least since Tavener's Protecting Veil)

Jim Cooke (composer & conductor, of Newburgh, Lancashire, England)

...The midi is exceptionally well done here.... And the piece is an altogether rare experience on mp3.com. It's an honest, sincere, dignified response to a horrible event. I admire this work very much. Give it a listen!

Paul Wehage reviewing De Profundis Clamavi at MP3.com

I had time to download your UNKNOWN yesterday. Wonderful! The recording is full of subtleties, with very realistic presence. The tuba part is very realistic, too, so the blend is very attractive.This piece should be a big hit. To my ears, it is just the right length, and very appropriate for a live performance.
...It has...all the hallmarks of a GOOD modern organ piece, including discipline in the development of its musical ideas.
...The registrations seem to blend effortlessly and naturally, though in some cases I can only guess what they are! I have become aware that there are so many different sounds available, that many of the combinations have not yet been heard!

John McCoy (author of the Jeuxorgan Soundfont, a customized version of which is used for my recording)

...your MIDI realization techniques are superb. I have never heard PC realizations of works done so well (and in the course of my work I hear hundreds of MIDI tapes from composers.) As music director of the Invisible Philharmonic Orchestra, you do a fabulous job. What impresses me incredibly is that you have created all of these very major works without a notation package and just with a MIDI sequencer.

Carson P. Cooman (Concert organizer, Composer, Pianist, Organist), Rochester, NY

Washes of sound are studded with bell clusters, ecstatic drive, plentiful incident. Essentially music of spiritual contemplation but busy and active...

I must comment that Mr Woolf made a funny error in his full review of the music, because he mistook some of my orchestral sonorities (which are deliberately organ-like) for the use of an organ, and thus he thought that my use of the organ was much more pervasive than it really is; there is no organ in the 7th Symphony, for example. -- Philip

Summary of full review by Jonathan Woolf of 6 of my CDs at MusicWeb

Sono rimasto veramente abbagliato dalla qualità e dalla quantità della sua musica, lei è un vero e grande maestro ed un grande artista, la ammiro.

This translates as: "I am truly dazzled by the quality and quantity of your music; you are a true and great master and great artist, who I admire."

Giorgio Pacchioni, composer, currently holding the Chair of Recorder at the Conservatory "G.B. Martini" of Bologna, Italy

The CD arrived today, and I have given it a listen. Both pieces are beautiful, and I am excited to play Nordic Wilderness Journey on the real instruments.
I have to compliment you on your excellent MIDI work, by the way. Beautifully stormy, vivid, and colorful music, with what sounds like effective use of the instruments.
My only fear is that I may keel over and die of exhaustion in rehearsal! :-)...
...You do have the best MIDI sounds I think I've ever heard - very listenable!

The CD referred to is my CD 10, containing The Seen and the Unseen and Nordic Wilderness Journey.

Jay Easton, virtuoso on the whole saxophone and clarinet family and much more - he currently performs on and teaches more than forty woodwind instruments (!)

He commissioned Nordic Wilderness Journey.