Peter Godden

Rubbra: Missa Cantuariensis

Ah ! (Peter Godden #49) HLF = array of committees (many members without specialist knowledge) = dilution of vision = compromises = final result ... but with £950,000, to spend on an organ or indeed on anything else. I'm sure they asked before they spent; they certainly did in Lincolnshire in 2005. And had they not done so, we might still be looking at a big black hole in the RFH.

Let us remember that the funding for the project was kicked off by the HLF, and they are more concerned about heritage than anything else, such as music. If the organ is part of our heritage, then it is, to their mind, proper to restore it as it was originally made. This was their reasoning in giving a lot of money to restore a historic organ in Lincolnshire several years ago; we were to restore it as far as possible to its 1878 condition, which was what we wanted to do in any case. So no case for tinkering with the stop list in the manner so beloved of English organists. I recall Dr Caleb Jarvis giving a demonstration of the St George's Hall organ in the 1960s, & talking about the post-war restoration, funded by Liverpool City Council. the brief was to restore the organ to its 1931 condition, i.e. what it what like immediately before war damage. he might have liked to do many things to it, but in the interests of history was not permitted to. I heard Messrs Scott, Bell & Trotter at the RFH organ this past weekend. The playing was outstanding, the musicianship impeccable, the organ, history and all, a quite suitable vehicle for the music played, and, bar the Saturday night, the place full. On the Saturday night, the majority of the audience was young. And they listened to a concert which included two hymns sung by a choir! And the Saturday lecture series well-presented and enlightening. Bravo, I say, to all involved.

Currently available on ebay - see http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sheet-music-for-Organ-2-vols-of-music-for-organ-by-Percy-Whitlock-/171238334138?pt=UK_Music_SheetMusic_RL&hash=item27de999eba PG

It's a great pity that the page turns in the OUP compilation are not better arranged. There should be no need for a page turn in a 2-side piece, such as the Scherzo from the 5 Short. This was not the case when all this music was available in separate albums. The compilation is full of it, and yet there is a blank page at the end.

you might like to contact The Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield in West Yorkshire. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=G00217 is looking for a new home.

I don't know about Lully, but I have 2 volumes of excellent transcriptions of M-A Charpentier by Jean-Paul lecot, published by La Sinfonie d'Orphee, & I believe they publish quite a lot more from this period. I came across the Charpentier in one of the music supplements to the French publication Orgues Nouvelles.

Associations are all very well, but your accurate description of the state of most of those which survive suggests that they may no longer be the way forward, especially if they operate on an amateur footing, requiring committed voluntary officers etc. (you can tell that I have several PCCs!). The Diocese of Lincoln was by no means the first diocese to appoint, some 3 years ago, a Diocesan Music Adviser (in some dioceses also known as a Diocesan Director of Music). Beavering away in a variety of contexts across a huge geographical area, she is bringing new life into a wide variety of areas of music in worship. Apart from the fact that she is both experienced in this sort of work and highly able, one of the principal advantages of her appointment is that it gives authority to the validity of church music as a serious element in what we do. It's no longer an optional extra; it's at the core of the church's mission, and by appointing our MDO the diocese (or to be more accurate the Bishop) has said so. There were those who said at the outset "What a waste of money; we should be appointing a Diocesan Missioner". She is the Diocesan Missioner, and, slowly but surely in quiet rural Lincolnshire, what she is doing is working. She has twigged, and we have twigged, that music speaks to the heart. THAT's what we really need to get right, anywhere.

I have 2 LP recordings of Mme Durufle playing her husband's Prelude & Fugue sur le nom d'Alain, one dating from 1973 at Soissons (traction mechanique), the other from 1976 at the National Shrine Washington, so very close together in terms of time, & we may assume Mme's technique was in much the same order. Both are beautifully played, but there is really no contest. The performance at Soissons is so much clearer, and one can quite hear that this is because of the direct link between the player and the pipes. Mme is equally at home at Washington, but the organ lets her down. It is simply not capable of responding in the same way. It is left behind. I too admit to a bias. The Victorian trackers I played as a student were so much more grateful to one's technique than the electric actions, some quite up-to-date, of the same time in my life. Peter Godden

If you have access to a 1961 Argo LP "A Procession with Carols on Advent Sunday", you'll hear how to do this with consummate good taste. I don't know why so much of this early 1960s recorded material hasn't been reissued. So much musicianship.

Lincoln Cathedral organ going flat out is inaudible in a full nave. It's ugly too. Peter Godden

Nigel You might find the 1903 Keates of Sheffield organ in St Wolfgang Munich worth a look. www.sawoga.net . Peter Godden

Chocolat. If I remember rightly, in this most authentic French village church, a local lady started to play the 'armonium, but we were regaled with rank upon rank of glittering mixturework.

I was organist at St Andrew's cathedral Inverness during the early 1980s, & got to know Fr Gregory Brusey, organist at Fort Augustus Abbey. The huge 5-manual organ in the church was not only far too large for the building, but also way beyond the resources of the Abbey community to maintain. Rushworth & Dreaper rebuilt it, either in in the late 60s or early 70s, as a moderate size 3-manual, perfectly adequate for the building. THis is the organ now in the RC church at Buckie, a very sensible home for it. Peter Godden

In 1967 I was responsible for turning http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=D05861 into http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=D05862. At the time I thought it was the cat's whiskers. Nowadays, I'm horrified to think what I did. I think I'd leave it as it was, though Professor Denny of Leeds University recommended changing the rather duck-like Oboe for "something rather more gentlemanly". Mind you, Swell Octave to Great was totally useless. A repentant sinner, Peter Godden