Gisborne Herald
  • Gisborne Herald Home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Locations

  • Gisborne
  • Bay of Plenty
  • Hawke's Bay

Media

  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Gisborne Herald

HOW SWEET THE SOUND

Gisborne Herald
16 Mar, 2023 11:29 PMQuick Read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

FIRST 250th ANNIVERSARY RENDITION OF AMAZING GRACE: UK organist Ian Miles was thrilled to be in Gisborne so he would be the first person to play John Newton’s Amazing Grace for the 250th anniversary of it’s original performance in Olney. Picture by Liam Clayton

FIRST 250th ANNIVERSARY RENDITION OF AMAZING GRACE: UK organist Ian Miles was thrilled to be in Gisborne so he would be the first person to play John Newton’s Amazing Grace for the 250th anniversary of it’s original performance in Olney. Picture by Liam Clayton

On New Year’s Day 2023, the congregation at Matawhero’s historic church became the world’s first to sing Amazing Grace on the exact 250th anniversary of its first airing at Olney (Buckinghamshire, UK) at the turn of 1773.

At the organ on the day was Ian Miles, from Oxford, himself a player for 50 years.

Ian describes himself as “a musically active Anglican and Hymn Society member” who is here visiting young family in Gisborne with his wife Alison.

While here he also performed for other seasonal services and a couple of well-received midweek lunchtime concerts at St Andrew’s Church.

Ian said he was particularly eager to have this experience to play Amazing Grace in the place first to see the light of the new day.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“As will be widely known, John Newton (author of Amazing Grace) was a former slaveship captain whose life was indeed ‘saved’ and profoundly changed after he let out an almost involuntary prayer during a serious shipwreck,” Ian said.

Ian is a direct descendant of one William Miles (1728-1803, of Ledbury) who went via Bristol to Jamaica and back as a sugar merchant and large-scale venture-financier, becoming Mayor of Bristol in 1780 — much the same era, indeed, as Amazing Grace was penned.

“William’s son Philip was the city’s first millionaire, and William himself had no fewer than three ships named in his memory in the 19th century, at least two of which were used on colonist and/or convict runs to New Zealand and elsewhere.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

On Ian and Alison’s first visit to Gisborne in December 2007 an earthquake happened on their very first evening south of the Equator.

They also visited a Christchurch genealogist whose own direct ancestors had met in a shipboard romance in the 1860s on such a voyage aboard the William Miles, and been married just a fortnight after landing.

Ian said he was ambivalent about his seafaring ancestry, though his grandfather was a distinguished (twice-knighted) Admiral and military diplomat, and his father, as a 21-year-old newly-qualified submarine commander 100 years ago — escorted convoys across the embattled mid-WW2 North Atlantic, with the lives of six dozen crewmates in his hands.

As a church musician Ian said he had a deep respect for the Spirituals tradition, doing his best to include at least one such item in any programme he could.

In his days (2000-2006) directing the Oxford Welsh Male Choir, for instance, he would usually introduce a Spiritual arrangement with an apologetic, expiatory nod to his 18th-century ancestry.

“Thus in last Wednesday’s turn-of-the-year concert at St Andrew’s I included David Machell’s ‘theatrical’, yet deeply respectful, organ arrangement of Deep River.

“But to be (probably) the first organist on the planet to strike-up Amazing Grace, that iconic hymn of faith of the reformed slaver, on New Year’s morning just 250 years on is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Ian is a keen organist, shown by his continued performance during the Covid pandemic in the UK.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In the (European) ‘lockdown’ summer of 2020, he set up a YouTube channel ‘Ian’s Interludes’ using his home electronic organ across a range of styles and idioms, including some items (eg the Schubert Octet Scherzo, Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore overture and Deep River) that he has now also played in Gisborne.

His original profession of four decades is as a teacher, originally of modern European languages, though latterly he has spread his wings as more of a generalist. However, 2022 has been dominated by the arrival of many Ukrainians in his home village, where he has set up regular English language lessons three times a week with a nucleus of adult students, ably assisted by other volunteer colleagues.

This is Ian and Alison’s seventh visit, as stepson Matthew (Smith) has married locally and is raising children now aged 11 and nine.

Back in 2007 he had yet to begin a decade of parish organistship at home, but found himself playing a more-or-less New Year service impromptu and at pointblank notice at Hanmer Springs while touring there.

He said the experience of sitting down in shorts, sandals and short sleeves and playing carols about snowbound sheep

in the midsummer Kiwi sun was a bit “strange”.

Since then, he has developed a “cordial creative contact” with Catherine Macdonald and Gavin Maclean, and given lunchtime concerts with them each time family ties bring him and Alison to Gisborne.

On this visit his repertoire included stirring marches, attractive music in varying moods from the Home Nations, Commonwealth, Europe and ‘New World’, and a variety of pieces by women composers — including a delightful lullaby by Venezuelan Teresa Carreño.

The main feature last Wednesday, though, in duet with Catherine and Gavin’s daughter Belinda Behle, was Ian’s Carolcade medley: a ‘four-hander’ piano novelty (originally written back in 1982 for him to play with his brother!) in which a few dozen seasonal tunes get ‘played-with’ and intermingled over five minutes or so.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Gisborne Herald

Gisborne Herald

Dementia workshop to provide support and guidance for carers

10 Jul 10:00 PM
Gisborne Herald

Mahia Hunt holds final fixture after marking 125th anniversary

10 Jul 09:05 PM
Gisborne Herald

'Angel riding with us': Teen jockey remembered for selfless act just before tragic death

10 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Gisborne Herald

Dementia workshop to provide support and guidance for carers

Dementia workshop to provide support and guidance for carers

10 Jul 10:00 PM

The workshop is being held on July 24, from 10am to 12.30pm, at Gisborne Hospital

Mahia Hunt holds final fixture after marking 125th anniversary

Mahia Hunt holds final fixture after marking 125th anniversary

10 Jul 09:05 PM
'Angel riding with us': Teen jockey remembered for selfless act just before tragic death

'Angel riding with us': Teen jockey remembered for selfless act just before tragic death

10 Jul 05:00 PM
'We'll keep discussions up': Gisborne's push for regional deal

'We'll keep discussions up': Gisborne's push for regional deal

10 Jul 06:00 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Gisborne Herald
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Gisborne Herald
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP