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Lollipops


David Drinkell

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I give a half-hour concert every Wednesday lunch-time here at the Cathedral in St. John's, Newfoundland. Since I arrived here in 2003, I've notched up over 400. It's very good for me, because it makes me practise - I've filled in a lot of gaps in my repertoire! Each week, I try to include something I haven't played before and I'm always on the look-out for something new. In particular, the audience likes a little lollipop in the form of something light and maybe amusing.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Over the years, I've played things like:

Albinoni - Adagio

Leroy Anderson - Sleighride

Barber - Adagio

Bedard - Fantasia on 'O Canada'

Ronald Binge - Elizabethan Serenade (thank-you, David P, for the copy)

Bizet - Entracte II (Carmen)

Bodro - Polka Finale

Bonnet - Romance sans Paroles and Songe d'Enfant

Canteloube - Bailero

Chuckerbutty - The Queen's Procession

Scotson Clark - Marche aux Flambeaux

Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man

Corrette - Grand Jeu avec Tonnerre

Couperin - Soeur Monique (arr. Farnam)

Debussy - Le petit berger

Delius - On hearing the first cuckoo in Spring and Two Aquarelles

Dvorak - Largo (New World)

Eddings - Newfoundland Sketch

Edmundson - Fairest Lord Jesus (and Vom Himmel hoch)

Elgar - Angels' Farewell, Dream Children 2 and Salut d'Amour

Faure - Pavane

Festing - Largo, Allegro, Aria and Two Variations (arr. GTB)

Gaul - The Pipes of County Clare

German - Morris Dance (from Henry VIII)

Gigout - Scherzo

Goss Custard - Chelsea Fayre

Gossec - Tambourin

Grofe - Mardi Gras Suite

Hollins - Morning and Evening

Holst - Second Suite for Band

Hovhaness - Prayer of St. Gregory

Jordan - Annie Laurie

Langlais - Pasticcio and Musette

Lefebure-Wely - the usual suspects

McCunn - Land of the Mountain and the Flood

MacDowell - To a Wild Rose et al

Mascagni - Intermezzo

Mawby - Scarborough Fair

Mendelssohn - Nocturne (Midsummer Night's Dream)

Monteverdi - Coronation March

Mulliner Book - Four Dances

Murschhauser – Variations on Lasst uns das Kindelein wiegen

Musorgsky – The Great Gate of Kiev

Nevin - Narcissus

Praetorius - Ballet des Coqs and Springtanz

Raff - Cavatina

Saint-Saens - The Swan and The Elephant

Satie - Gymnopodie I

Sibelius - Finlandia

Slogedal - Variations on O hvor salig

Sousa - The Liberty Bell

Strayhorn/Wyton - Lotus

Sullivan - March of the Peers (Iolanthe), Is life a boon? (Yeoman) and Introduction to Act III of the Tempest

Susato - La Mourisque and Pavane de Battaille

Tambling - Shenandoah

Vann - The Londonderry Air

Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Greensleeves, March-Past of the Kitchen Utensils

Walton - Popular Song

Watson - Happy Birthday, Herr Bach

Wolstenholme – Die Frage und die Antwort

Yon – Humoresque “l’organo primitivo”, Rimembranza and Il Natale in Sicilia

 

I'm not wild about Rawsthorne's Hornpipe Humoresque or Ives's Variations on America

 

Garth Benson: 'Why don't you play one of those vulgar pieces you play so nicely?'

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Hello,

Any suggestions?

Denis Bédard: »Cat Suite« especially the »Cats at play« (Editions Cheldar 42)

Nigel Ogden: »Scherzo for the White Rabbit« (Stainer & Bell)

W. A. Plagiavsky Mozart: »Four Pieces for Trumpet Clock« (Doblinger 02398)

 

Cheers

tiratutti

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The stars and stripes? (I've got a wonderful unpublished arrangment which involves a thumbed down melody if you want)

The Funeral March of a Marionette - Gounod arr. W.T. Best

Dance to Your Daddy - Sverre Eftestol

Concert Fantasia No.1 - Lemare (Rule Britannia / March of the Grenedier Guards / Sailors Hornpipe / Auld Langs Syne)

Entrance of the Gladiators

Dance Suite - Rawsthorne

 

Thinks thats a few of the more curious things i've played in recent years

 

db

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I've got the Michael Jacques - I must dig it out again. Our Casavant rep is called Michel Jacques, too!

 

I don't know the Jongen Scherzetto. I played his Menuet-Scherzo for ARCM in about 1973 and never opened the copy again until a few weeks ago, when I took a look and decided it was quite nice and worth resurrection.

 

I think I've got the Stanford somwhere....

 

I'm going to get some more of Nigel Ogden's pieces. I only have 'England's Glory' so far.

 

I think the Lemare might be available for download - I'll investigate.

 

I don't know Rawsthorne's Dance Suite, but I have Ridout's, which I've admired since hearing Allan Wicks play it.

 

I have the Gounod - in Rollin Smith's Great Transcriptions, I think.

 

Thanks for the other suggestions - I'd be interested to see 'Stars and Stripes' and I'll look out for the Bedard Cats.

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Hello again,

W. A. Plagiavsky Mozart: »Four Pieces for Trumpet Clock«

this piece has a story.

In 1985 (I think it was Wednesday 6-26-1985) we were at Vienna. Peter Planyavsky, the organist of St. Stephen Cathedral gave his 250th concert. Normally he improvised at the end, but there the whole concert was improvised. And a musical joke from the beginning to the end! For example the program stated that Liszt not only wrote the well-known Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H, but also for the inauguration of a chemical installation a Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-S-F. BASF is a great german chemical company and the four characters give a proper theme with the notes B flat, A, E flat and F. The whole piece long I thought: it sounds like Liszt's B-A-C-H, but the theme was every time B-A-S-F. It was real fun.

Another work at this concert was the Four Pieces for Trumpet Clock from "Mozart". For example the third piece was a "Largo ma non largo "(s' Lercherl) (the lark). Registration: reed 16' and reed 8'. The fourth a "Rondo alla Turkey" Alla marcia, molto penetrante ;-) I never heard a concert like this. Great great fun.

In 1991 the four clock pieces were published by Doblinger.

 

Cheers

tiratutti

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Guy Bovet - Fugue on Pink Panther (although he doesn't call it that)

Charles Stebbings - In Summer

Andreas Wilscher - Toccata alla Rumba

Cyril Jenkins - Dawn

Henry Marcellus Higgs - Toccata

Joel Martinson - Aria on a Chaconne

Eric Whitacre - October

Peter Maxwell Davies - Farewell to Stromness (using a piano copy)

Malcolm Archer - Bells Across the Snow

John Williams - Star Wars

John Williams - Harry Potter

Michael Jackson - Beat It!

Danny Elfmann - The Simpsons

 

 

I think I had better stop!

 

A

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There was a piece that Henry Fairs always used to play, at St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham, on the Feast of the Epiphany. I don't know what it was, although I do remember being told once. It was jolly good fun and always brought huge smiles to the faces of the congregation - you really could hear the camels making their way to the manger. I don't know but I suspect it was French!

 

Any takers?

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There was a piece that Henry Fairs always used to play, at St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham, on the Feast of the Epiphany. I don't know what it was, although I do remember being told once. It was jolly good fun and always brought huge smiles to the faces of the congregation - you really could hear the camels making their way to the manger. I don't know but I suspect it was French!

 

Any takers?

 

 

by Dubois?

 

A

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Guy Bovet - Fugue on Pink Panther (although he doesn't call it that)

"Fuga sopra un soggetto" to give it Guy's title - well worth it along with its companion "La Bolero du Divin Mozart"

 

here's a few inspired by brides and others:

 

Beatles - almost anything

Conti - Gonna Fly Now

Spector - Chapel of love

Massenet - Meditation (Thais)

Schiekel (aka PDQ Bach) - 3 Choral based piecelets (Aura Lee, Yankee Doodle & Au clair de la lune)

Cholley - Rumba sur les grands-jeux; Bret -Valse des anges & Laprida - Florinda all from "L'orgue et la danse"

Handel - Clock pieces

Debussy - Clair de Lune, Sarabande & Prelude a l'Apres-Midi d'un faune tr Cellier (Ed Jobert)

 

etc

 

Happy hunting!

 

M

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A few things haven't surfaced as yet, but here are a few suggestions:-

 

 

The "Giga" by Marco Enrico Bossi, was, I believe, a transcription for organ by his son (?) of an orchestral piece. Be afraid....be very afraid....this is a wickedly difficult piece because it leaves no breathing-space for registration, and apart from that, the left hand needs to be absolutely as nimble as the right one. It is a superb little gem however, and no-one ever did it better than the late Virgil Fox

http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/listings/2011/1125/

 

Bossi Giga (2nd item) Starts at 8m15secs

 

Why do we IGNORE Bossi's music; much of which is fantastic?

 

Listen to the above programme in its entirety, and you will appreciate why I ask this.

 

For sheer fun, the following gem from Hungary takes some beating:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHGWjLjqAmc Mozart Changes by Zsolt Gárdonyi

 

I'm not sure whether the organ trasncription is available, but the sounds easy enough to do from a full score or piano edition:-

 

Variations on "Happy Birthday" Peter Heidrich (transcription)

 

 

If you're up to it, there's always this:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1gbAJ2soII "Bach before the mast" George Malcolm

 

 

I know that it has been played on the organ at Leeds Town Hall by, I think, David Houlder.

 

Just for fun, let's remind ourselves of Gerge Malcolm's virtuosic genius:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNUXSiOA2Mo

 

No sound clip available, but Reginald Porter-Brown's very jolly "Tuba tune" is still available in print from the Musicroom.com

 

I think these will keep you busy for a while. Let us know when you've learned them! :rolleyes:

 

MM

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Bossi's organ concerto is a real winner. How I wish Halls and Organists would be less Poulenc orientated - inspiring and fun as that it is.

Perhaps it is the Radio 3 and Classic FM syndrome dictating taste (again).

N

 

=========================

 

 

Exactly Nigel!

 

Not only do I like the Scherzo in G Minor and the Giga mentioned previously, (of which I have a long out of print copy bought in 1965), but the warhorse "Etude Symphonique" is real crowd pleaser, and once you get the hang of the pedal part, not that difficult to play. My only reservation about tha latter, is never to play it on an old organ with Victorian iron, pedal-note pulls, because I broke one while performing a recital, and they were very difficult to get at.

 

There are also some very agreeable variations, which oddly enough, I've only ever heard from the Bavokerk, played on an excellent CD by Jos van der Kooy.

 

MM

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Bossi's organ concerto is a real winner. How I wish Halls and Organists would be less Poulenc orientated - inspiring and fun as that it is.

Perhaps it is the Radio 3 and Classic FM syndrome dictating taste (again).

N

 

Ah, but the Bossi needs horns - of which at least 2 need to be pretty good - and the Poulenc doesn't. And, actually, it also needs more rehearsal time!

 

B

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