nazard

Being on the ludicrously tall side, I find that on many organs when my knees are banging on the underneath of the bottom manual I can just get my heels over the "white" notes with only socks on my feet. My feet are ludicrously wide and long as well (12 1/2 H) so with shoes I find it difficult to press only one pedal at a time. I have never hurt my feet on a pedalboard, but I do go barefoot quite a lot, so my feet are used to the hard life.

The catholics have quite a challenge now - can they design a suitably catholic altar with baldachinno or reredos, an altar of the blessed sacrament and a bishop's cathedra to match the style of the building? Can they produce a music department worthy of the space? Or will we get another heavy duty marble picnic table and a dismal guitar strummer so beloved of contemporary catholic parishes? If they can put on tridentine high mass with all the trimmings and the music from the graduale it could be quite an experience. Of course, they are well into spanish territory of old, and have their own Mexican Polyphonists. The possibiliies are endless and exciting, but it could well just turn into another musical nightmare. We will have to wait and see.

Screens are not so very useful. Being very tall, I can generally see the screen myself, but I get poked in the back by short people wanting me to move so that they can see. I prefer a book or a service sheet.

You sound to me as though you are doing very well. I foolishly offered to fill in at our parish ten years ago when the organist was taken ill, being the least underqualified parishioner. Like you I had been a chorister through all my senior school years and had learned the piano up to a bit less than grade 3. I do not have your ability to harmonise at the keyboard, but I do make a rough but passable job on paper. I had to do four hymns a week right from the start and a lot of simplification went on. No one ever complained, but I was embarassed by how banal it sounded. I was forty six at the time, old enough to have known better. I set about learning to play. The most important thing was a good teacher. I found pedaling very tiring at first, but I got the hang of it eventually. Now I learn most hymns in a few hours, and can play fair chunks of the Orgelbuchlein. Things to try: "Pearsall" is actually quite easy, either on manuals only, or pedaling, but sounds rather flashy and impressive. The first time you manage those pedal runs in Cwm Rhondda you will feel as though you have made it to heaven. It took me two years to learn "Guiting Power", so don't be put off easily. As for books, the parish uses "Celebration hymnal for everyone." Avoid this like the plague - tiny scrawling print, a lot of errors, and some poor rearrangements. For better arrangements I use Ancient and Modern Revised & New English Hymnal, which I found in charity shops. I have the ultimate advantage over you - my hands are big enough to manage a tenth. Gloves are difficult to find though.

I've always liked the Snetzler in Peterhouse, and the Abbott and Smith in the English Martyrs, which a certain Professor Stanford specified. Both are a bit off the usual tourist routes.

You might like this camp site, which I have heard recommended: Bucklegrove Camp Site Somerset It is very close to Wells cathedral. It is also handy for Downside Abbey, St Mary Redcliffe (Bristol), Bath Abbey, Bristol Cathedral, and Clifton Cathedral. Exeter, LLandaff and Salisbury Cathedrals are all within the range of a day trip. If you want a day by yourself you could send the family to look at these: Cheddar Caves Wookey Hole The local cider is pretty good too.

You can get a few frivolous ideas here: Latin Carol Translations My own favourite is "Reno erat Rudolphus".

Sorry, I got mixed up and posted twice.

I don't contribute very often, because I don't have much to contribute, but I do read the board every day. I feel I could add a certain something to the choruses of the proposed organ.

I always use socks myself. Anyone much over 6' tall will have difficulty moving his feet sideways over the pedals and the idea of heels of any sort is a non starter.

A few years ago a work colleague of mine was getting married. She turned up an hour and a bit late to find us all waiting outside the church as a funeral director was carrying a coffin in. They had to wait another hour and a half before they could get married.

This was a wonderful series, but now it has finished, I feel let down by its shortness. Whyever did they stop at Bach? Perhaps everyone would like to suggest composers for a further series or two to take us on to the present day. Here are my suggestions to kick off a second series: 1) Haydn & Mozart 2) Mendelssohn and Bruckner 3) Parry, Stanford, Terry and contemporaries 4) Howells, Leighton, Rubbra In the meantime, perhaps we should pester Channel 4 to repeat Howard Goodall's "Organ Works."

I once solved this problem by taking a fan heater and an extension lead with me. I had just about to start my pre service pieces when a churchwarden called up to the loft from the nave. "What's that buzzing noise?" he asked. "Its the organ blower," I replied. "That's OK," he said and disappeared about his duties. The organ in question was, of course, a toaster...

Ladies and Gentlemen, The problems you report are trivial. In our parish three individuals have convinced the clergy to let them form a "folk group", for want of a better name. They have never had any music lessons, and do not practice. They sing abominably. They say that lessons and practice are contrary to the spirit of church music, which is about the people singing "their" music in the spontaneous praise of God. Any attempt to get it right is a particularly nasty form of elitism. At least these people are getting on a bit now, having been "flower people" in the sixties, so they will soon be able to discuss their ideas with Himself and find out what He thinks. In the meantime the congregation is dropping at over 10% a year, so there could be a church on the market soon, unfortunately with not much of an organ.

These ideas are marvellous, but how much would they cost?