innate

Just seen this in a Church Times advert for a Director of Music at St John the Divine, Kennington, London: “We will be installing a four-manual organ, currently in use at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 2025.” Presumably with a new, more streamlined action, but possibly lots of other new parts too. The Kennington church doesn’t seem to be short of money.

This is a tremendous recital beautifully captured with multi-camera video. The Rieger organ sounds beautiful and entirely appropriate for all the repertoire from Bach to Reubke under the musical hands, feet and ears of Richard Moore who registers everything with imagination and authority.

Because real organs have pipes.

So you’re deliberately inventing a definition of music designed to exclude the piece you don’t like? There are well-known and loved pieces of classical music that last about 1 minute. Wagner's Ring Cycle is around 16 hours. So there was already a massive range of durations. Satie's Vexations lasts 24 hours. Can you hum along to Perotin or Steve Reich? “There’s not a tune you can hum. You need a tune that goes “Dum dum dum di-dum”.” Stephen Sondheim, responding satirically to all the critics that said you couldn’t hum along to his tunes.

At the risk of outstaying our welcome I’d echo this; and not just for simulation of pipe organs. It’s quite an old-fashioned view but I still think synthesised orchestral instruments are more useful and coherent in live situations eg theatre than sampled instruments. In lock-down I bought Organteq and found it very good for doing recordings of hymns etc.

What is your preferred definition of what constitutes music? This is certainly organised sound. Other definitions are available.

That would equate to Leipzig Chorton, c. A=465. An excellent solution unless there’s a non-equal temperament involved.

I either repeat the previous note or play an octave higher than that. I’d like to know the latest musicological thinking on this moment of madness from JSB.

Another astonishing performance of a transcription. This time Guillou, aged 84, playing Pictures At An Exhibition.

Here’s the spec on the Dobson site: http://www.dobsonorgan.com/html/instruments/op99_sydney.html Even though the church has made much of the Dobson instrument in Merton College, Oxford providing the basis of choosing Dobson to build their new instrument (and full marks to the church for having the vision and the commitment to see this project through) the design and concept of the two organs could hardly be more different. The two digital 32' flues are a shame, in my opinion—yes, no one has to use them but they’ll sit there saying “Go on, you know you want to!”

This is new on YouTube (I think) and it’s astonishing!

Haringey didn’t exist as a London Borough until the 1960s or 1970s. I searched for West Green, which is now in Haringey but was probably in Tottenham before.

Is it this instrument? https://npor.org.uk/survey/N16890

Maybe he has turned down the offer of a knighthood. He accepted his CBE in 2007. Honourable list of decliners here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_declined_a_British_honour including people as diverse as Rudyard Kipling, Michael Frayn, Henry Moore, LS Lowry, Robert Morley, John Cleese, Virginia Woolf and Humphrey Lyttleton.

Lovely playing, Colin! It’s a funny one because, to my mind, the two chorale melodies should be absolutely equal in prominence but because the rh one is, by necessity, on the same stops as at least some of the triplet figuration parts (one you tube version has the left hand on a different manual) it’s harder to hear the rh melody if the pedal registration balances the manuals.