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Manuals only music


Tony Newnham

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Hi

 

I've just had confirmation that I'm playing for a wedding in a couple of weeks. The organ is a single manual, no pedal job - a 1960's rebuild by our hosts of an earlier organ.

 

Can anyone point me in the direction of legal (and preferably free) downloads on manuals only versions of "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" & the Mendelssohn "Wedding March"? Unless I've got something lurking in the depths of my collection of Harmonium music (and I don;t recall anything) I only have arrangements for organ with pedals, and I don;t really want to have to pay out for new copies of something I'm not likely to use again.

 

Thanks in anticipation

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

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I've just been asked to play for a wedding on Saturday. I'm familiar with the organ so that bit's OK. It's one manual, no pedals, two stops, and is alleged to have been Charles Wesley's house organ. (Incidentally, does anyone know how I might get an educated opinion as to the possible truth of that without spending the sort of money the Church can't afford.)

 

Anyway, Wagner, Mendelssohn and a couple other things that the couple want are in an Elkin album I've had for years - Wedding Album for Manuals, edited and arranged by CH Trevor. Needless to say with that pedigree, the arrangements are good ones and work well. However, the couple also want "Jesu, joy". I've discovered I can sort of bodge it from a piano arrangement, but does anyone know of the sort of quality arrangement that CH Trevor might have made if he'd got round to it. Or perhaps he tried, and found the task impossible.

 

Best wishes

 

Ian

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Myra Hess recorded a very beautiful piano rendition of it on a 78 rpm record either before or during World War II. Presumably it was her own arrangement which can be downloaded from:

 

http://www.danmansmusic.com/members/notation/pdf/27906x.pdf

 

This does not directly address your problem because you indicate you have a piano arrangement anyway. However it might conceivably be of interest.

 

CEP

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Colin

 

Sadly, this one doesn't work without a sustaining pedal - or enormous hands!

 

Ian

 

Oops! There's Harvey Grace's organ arrangement in OUP's Book of Wedding Music (I don't have the exact title as it's so old it's lost its cover). If you have it, you will know the arrangement is very simple, and although it's for 2 manuals and includes a pedal part I imagine one could play the whole thing on one manual easily enough. I say this not having tried it though ...

 

CEP

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I've just been asked to play for a wedding on Saturday. I'm familiar with the organ so that bit's OK. It's one manual, no pedals, two stops, and is alleged to have been Charles Wesley's house organ. (Incidentally, does anyone know how I might get an educated opinion as to the possible truth of that without spending the sort of money the Church can't afford.)

 

____________________________________________________________________

 

I recall from somewhere that the Music Room of their house in Gt Chesterfield St, Marylebone had two chamber organs. Is there a builder's name, such as Gray, associated with it. If so it might be possible to use the British Organ Archive to search through builder's lists of built organs. Is it tuned and maintained? Maybe the tuner can search for a name pencilled on a building frame, or in the wind chest or recognises the builder of any wooden stops. Incidentally , you don't give the name of the church it is now in.

PJW

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Hi

 

Re Wesley's (reputed) organ - have you looked on NPOR? If there's a survey, look also at the BOA links - there might be info there to confirm or deny the rumours, and if there's anything there, it will be quicker than going through organ builders lists (if BOA have the relevant ones).

 

Re: Jesus Joy - the version in the "Oxford Book of Wedding Music" (which I've had for years, so it might be an older edition) has the melody as a tenor solo, pretty much ruling it out in a single manual only scenario without a lot of re-arranging. Thankfully, they haven't asked for that.

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

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I seem to recall some years ago a celebrated cathedral organist and his sidekick arrived at a modest parish church to play the Widor for a wedding only to discover the church's instrument was one manual, no pedals. At which point he turned to aforesaid sidekick and said words to the effect of, "I'll play the manuals if you can do a duet with me playing the pedals on the manual".

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I seem to recall some years ago a celebrated cathedral organist and his sidekick arrived at a modest parish church to play the Widor for a wedding only to discover the church's instrument was one manual, no pedals. At which point he turned to aforesaid sidekick and said words to the effect of, "I'll play the manuals if you can do a duet with me playing the pedals on the manual".

 

I played the 'Widor' on a one manual and no pedals - with 2 trombonists playing the feet!! Interesting experience!

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Many thanks to everyone for their help with both the things that I raised. I'll split my response between two posts, one for each topic.

 

Since it was too late to order music for the wedding online, I went up to Chappells in the West End - does anyone else remember going into that building in Wardour Street when it was still Novello's showroom? Unfortunately, they didn't have the Oxford volume in stock, but I found an arrangment of Jesu, joy by Noel Rawsthorne in a couple of Mayhew volumes. The problem I'd had was that I couldn't figure out how to keep the obligato line going during the appearances of the chorale; Rawsthorne solves the problem by leaving out the obligato, which I presume means he thought it was impossible to do what I'd been trying to do. His arrangement works well, though, once you've dealt with the error(?) at bar 2 beat 3 and bar 3 beat 1, which should surely be the same as bars 18 and 19.

 

Again, thanks for your help, folks.

 

Ian

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The little organ I was writing about is in NPOR at D01993, but that doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

 

Information which is produced at the Church says: "The remains of an organ which was once the property of Charles Wesley was presented to the chapel by Mrs LHE Foster of Bromley Common, Kent, in the 1950s. Spurden Rutt & Co. reported that it was a small Songman pipe organ ... The name plate on the organ states that it was made by Jonaman & Broderip ... "

 

If that really is the name on the plate, someone has done a much better job of deciphering it than I'm able to do. The other information on the label is quite legible, though, and says that the organ was repaired by Joseph Walker of 100 High Holborn, in 1820.

 

It would be good if it were possible to unearth evidence that links the organ decisively with Charles Wesley, but I'm mindful of the number of organs that Handel is alleged to have played. (Incidentally, I'm told by someone who knows that Wesley moved into the house in Marylebone after Handel, whose house had been only a few hundred yards away, had died.)

 

If anyone can point me in a useful direction for further enquiry, I'd be very grateful.

 

I wonder, Philip, if you've managed to recall where the "somewhere" with the information about the Wesley house organs is?

 

Best wishes to all

 

Ian

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iy45 - I had a recollection that it was under Charles Wesley in the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' which I accessed on-line with my County Library Card. I am mistaken, although it does remind me that Dorset History Centre has some Wesley diaries and correspondence which was useful to me when researching the organ once in Berkeley Castle played by Charles in the Gray workshops, not far away.

 

The Chamber Organ in Britain, 1600-1830 by Michael I. Wilson, an update on his earlier 1968 book p70-71, does mention two chamber organs in the house in Marylebone and that in 1779 there was a series of subscription concerts. Also that John Marsh heard them, with (Journals) mentioned so I suppose there is a slight chance he may have written about the instruments rather than what was played?

 

There is a bit more in Dr SS Wesley - Portrait of a Victorian Musician by Paul Chappell p4, mentions two chamber organs, a harpsichord, ten music desks and seats for 56 people but no direct details of the organ maker.

 

I suspect that if a builder's name is mentioned at all it will require some digging through all the various books/paperwork/diaries. Has it been written up in 'The Organ', Musical Times or Musical Opinion? Academics with access to JSTOR may throw up a reference (a source denied to rate paying Gloucestershire Library users). It may be quicker to ask John Mander or Dominic Gwynn to examine the pipes with their extensive knowledge of English pipework and suggest a builder. Sorry I can not be of more help.

 

PJW

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