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  3. Claudia Grinnell has been appointed the first female Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/news/claudia-grinnell/?fbclid=IwAR1erEhotowBubQeNgf7aLGqepn3XZTiennku6fkHH9OAKHPn4dhFc3vS54
  4. 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.
  5. Barry, was she the lady who performed for Richard McVeigh on BIS?
  6. Here's a pleasing example of an organist taking a chance and populating the programme with several heavy hitters of the organ repertoire all at once. I rather enjoyed this recital for that respect of the audience's capacity in itself (and noted with interest, and a grin, the view of the very capacious and heavy-looking leather sofa in the loft towards the end). I've never heard the instrument in person, mind, so I've no sense of how this would sound in the building but it's good through headphones!
  7. I'm most impressed by the young Ukrainian lady organist, Dariia Lytvishko who has been giving some lovely recitals here in the UK and elsewhere in the world for the people in her war-torn country.
  8. Hear ! Hear! And I hope there are more to follow in her illustriuous footsteps too although I well suspect that there are still those dust covered fossils who will view things in their own stilted/ misogonystic/myopic manner. There is hope yet that the organ may yet be able escape from its centuries of being shackled ,in the main, to ecclesiastical structures as a mere hymn accompanying machine ,` into its rightful position - The Concert Hall.
  9. Brilliant. Thank you so much, SlowOrg. Truly scrumptious - and I really should have known it.
  10. Jeanne Demessieux: Attende Domine (from her Twelve Choral Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes) M
  11. This little demo film of the Christ Church Rieger is worth watching but what is the piece played on the fonds at 6.30? Many thanks!
  12. Hugo Kaun is an interesting man and quite a prolific composer. Born in Germany he emigrated to the US where he had a successful career, eventually, settling back in his home country. He was much in demand as a teacher but produced three symphonies, three piano concerti (although he refused to allow the first to be published), quite an amount of chamber music including four string quartets and four operas, one of which was premiered by the Dresden opera company. His 'Five 'cello pieces' Op. 124 have some difficult moments in them and bear some similarities to the 'cello works of Franz Schmidt, of whom, of course, he was a contemporary. Some of his music is available via IMSLP
  13. I'd expect reeds to be much less affected, because the abundant higher harmonics would hide deficiencies in the most affected fundamentals. Paul
  14. Apologies if this channel had been posted before - it is currently the organ channel presented in my feed by the mysterious algorithm. This player is all about the unknown composers - my jury is out as to whether some of them should remain unknown but Hugo Kaun seems worthy of further exploration.
  15. Very interesting discussion. I wonder how this affects 16' reeds, though I'm not sure whether anyone would use more than one at the same time.
  16. Yes indeed, and worse with large stopped (as opposed to open) flue pipes because they only speak from a single aperture (the mouth). Open flues speak from two apertures (top and mouth) which are well separated by a half-wavelength, so the pipes radiate a more complex dual pattern of standing waves which has a better chance of filling in some of the acoustic not-spots which you sometimes get with stopped pipes. The problem can be really bad in some buildings with stopped 32 foot pitch flues such as a Contra Bourdon. A lot cheaper because the pipes are only half length, but in other respects it can be a good example of you only get what you pay for. Haskelling an approximately 16 foot pipe can be more successful in getting a 32 foot pitch than stopping it, because again there is radiation from two apertures. But sometimes the tone quality is unsatisfactory for some purposes in this case. Similar issues can afflict electronic basses, where the number of speaker cabinets and their placement needs careful judgement, and sometimes a certain amount of experimenting, to reduce the not-spot problem. Phasing different cabinets (reversing the connections to one loudspeaker(s) relative to another(s) some distance away) can also be helpful. Pipe organ builders who elect to use digital basses, please note! Even so, these are different matters to the one I raised which was the slow dynamic beating effect due to two slightly out-of-tune bass pipes speaking simultaneously.
  17. This record was in a rather poor condition, but it still copied in. Music from Lizst, Bizet, Mendelssohn, Rossini and Chopin on this first side of "Classica" recorded by Reg Dixon at the 1929 Wurlitzer 205sp of the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool.
  18. The same can happen when you're listening live, of course. And even with a single pedal stop, there will be places where you get cancellation or reinforcement on odd notes (different at each place, so making an "ideal" microphone position hard to achieve - maybe this is a case where multimiking has an advantage over single-point techniques!). In my (non-commercial) organ recordings I've never really bothered about this - and I've not been troubled by the results. Paul
  19. Listening to a radio broadcast of organ music recently I noticed that a loud and sustained low note on the pedals seemed to come and go every few seconds. What was happening, of course, was that there must have been two 16 foot stops (probably flues) which were not quite in tune, resulting in a beat with a period of about 5 seconds in this case. It was most disconcerting that the sound almost vanished owing to phase cancellation at the microphones every few seconds. It implies that these stops would have been of comparable power otherwise there would not have been that degree of cancellation of the fundamental. I have sometimes noticed this effect in other circumstances, such as on organ recordings. Does it imply that one should check the tuning of such stops (e.g. an Open Wood plus an Open Metal) before combining them? Or only use one such stop at a time unless there are pressing reasons for doing otherwise? I've also noticed a similar effect where a sustained low G on the pedals resulted in a faster (c. 1Hz) beat with mains hum at 50 Hz, probably from the blower motor. This has nothing to do with the effect above which is caused by multiple pedal pipes speaking simultaneously, but it is equally annoying. This example occurred on a CD sold by a top flight firm, but all they said when I complained to them about it was "ah yes, the blower at (redacted) cathedral is rather noisy". I didn't notice any enthusiasm for refunding my money ... Mind you, either effect only happens if your listening system is good enough to render it noticeable.
  20. Thanks for this and congratulations on your 1000.
  21. I see that Anna Lapwood has scooped one of today's 'Best Classical' artist awards. Thank goodness there are a few such as her able to remind the public that there's an instrument called the organ still around.
  22. And in E flat too - much more satisfactory than in D - but I thought the re-harmonisation in the first clip was awful and anything but uplifting. Yes, there was a phase of organists providing an alternative harmony for a last verse but it was so often, like the first clip, so badly done that it fell out of favour. And some tunes don't need it because of their strong harmonic sense. In his edition of English Hymnal Vaughan Williams relegated the tune to, what he called his, 'Chamber of Horrors - where is appears in E. I'm not sure I agree about it deserving that accolade!
  23. I did enjoy those - thank you. I have an organist's surplice but the chap in the first clip surely needs the equivalent jacket for his suit - what a stretch to the music desk. I did like his last verse harmonisation but have always loved a good meaty final verse alternative. It sems to have lost favour in this country. The turntable and lowering the console into a pit made me roar - a bit too much like a crematorium for some maybe...
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  25. Something tells me that they ended up with Willis - but I couldn't be absolutely certain about that! Malcolm Cruise used to be organist at Almondbury Parish Church. He was also the music critic for the Huddersfield Examiner and active in the, now defunct, Huddersfield Organists Association. I googled him and he is still Organist Emeritus at Almondbury. Perhaps the Vicar, Rev. Felicity Cowling-Green, can point you in his direction. Philip Tordoff will know him! I'd be willing to bet money that Malcolm knows the whereabout of Conacher's records! Or you could try Woods Organ builders of Huddersfield. David Wood's father, Philip, now deceased, worked for Conachers in his early days 1000 posts!! Mostly worthless but I hope that, since coming here in 2010, I've been of some use!! I've been accused of being acerbic and a bit forthright! If I have offended then now is a suitable time to apologise!! Wishing all forumites a very Happy Easter - when it, eventually, arrives!!!
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