Lister-inspired organ work gives the code to joy

Inspiration comes from all angles. For composer and organist Rebekah Okpoti it is the 19thcentury diarist Anne Lister, familiar to many from the BBC TV series Gentleman Jack. Okpoti’s Anne Lister’s Organ Sonata was premiered earlier this year at Halifax Minster – where Lister herself played the organ – and has now been published. Outspoken and often risqué, Lister’s extensive diary entries were also written in code. We presume that Okpoti hasn’t followed her muse’s example in her published score, or fellow organists are going to find themselves with a bit of a puzzle…