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Just read an organ recital programme of August 1923 in which the closing piece was, Abbott--Overture to Shakespear's, "Merchant of Venice". Can anyone help to identify this composer and piece?

David Saint, DoM at St Chad's RC Cathedral, Birmingham will be giving a recital on the historic 1867 Holdich organ at Hinckley United Reformed Church (LE10 1NL) on Saturday 18th May at 3.00pm. Programme includes Franck - Chorale no 3; Mendelssohn - Sonata no 6; Parry - Fantasia & Fugue in G. Adults £5.00, under 18s and students Free. It is a rare opportunity to hear one of the very few remaining organs designed by Henry Gauntlett who radically influenced the development of the organ in this country in the 19th century.

Not true, I hope but if it is I can only ask: "Has somebody gone quite round the bend??!" Dave

Might this be the revelation. https://slippedisc.com/2024/05/winchesters-plan-to-get-rid-of-choristers/?callback=in&code=MMYXYWE0ODETY2E4ZS0ZMZY1LWJHNJGTYTEZMMNJM2VMMDIY&state=17c08e44216a4c578252b3c02039acf0&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0CRLNCtgdljYG8XQqE3pCcba-eBIGUKLCr4qE32fX7yEqLZXEXKkug4lE_aem_AYG9_3l6VnrWR-kzd0HIzmNhAKj3CesyqxTcRMJ8pmWHE-7mcwBhOrGqNcPOI2EbQrC_slbpAYqcEp9vaa8l2-Pf

I have deleted some comments which were speculation. Please be aware when posting and making what some may consider, personal derogatory comments about an individual. This is likely to cause distress not only to the individual, but also to their friends and relatives so please do not do so in future. Thank you.

Likewise: I find it very useful for keeping updated with things. Dave

Quite a heartfelt tribute. It’s nice when a Director of Music is greatly missed - shows that ability and personal quality can be a wonderful combination.

He was an excellent conductor, but I think suffered from being pigeonholed as the Proms man. I remember a televised Belshazzar’s Feast from Leeds that was off the charts dramatic and exciting. And yes - also a fine organist.

Andrew Lumsden brings his time at Winchester to an end. https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/news/andrew-lumsden-director-of-music-to-stand-down/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR24SGzi-xRYqu3jKtJ-yfj2dlZE0aEOr6GZiT_QRWuFln3-UpOONBKHeic_aem_AbT0qt-bZ0dfq6IISQt19X-RnpI714ulK1BE9IaHA_OvnxNmF0xdyBQtQ23xN5f3vbu-1H2wlVD-d8EB6hp2b3k2

Hopefully I can clarify some of the confusion around the Otto/Schulze employees of Brindley. 'Herr Otto' was my gg-grandfather - Christian Rudolf Otto, known as Rudolf/ph. He was born in Horla, Prussia in January 1836. (I have copies of travel documents: an internal pass for 1864 and a pass to travel from Paulinzalle to Hull in February 1865.) He can be found in Doncaster in the 1861 census, living with his future brother-in-law, Carl Schulze who was married to Sarah, a widow with 4 children. Both Carl and Rudolf are listed as organ builders. Also with them is Ernst Kaestner, organ builder. Rudolf married Johanna Emeline Schulze, Carl's sister, at the German Lutheran Church in Hull in 1866. They moved to Sheffield where they remained until their deaths in 1906 (Emeline) and 1908 (Rudolf). They had 5 children: Sophia (1866-1942), Frederick William (1868-1952). Lily (1878-1878), Percy Holmes (adopted son, 1880-1918) and Ernest Rudolph (1882-1951, my grandfather). Ernest also worked as an organ builder before working as a cabinet maker for his brother at Otto & Son House Furnishers (shop on the corner of London Road/Randall St in Sheffield - now a Viewtnamese restaurant). Carl was born at Paulinzalle, Thuringen in 1836. His sister Emeline (my great grandmother) was born in 1842. I believe that they had two brothers (August and Louis?) and one sister (Dorothea).I have found a marriage for August Louis Martin Schulze (1846-) to Sophie Wilhelmine Christiane Hugo in 1876. German marriage certificates give more information than UK ones and this confirmed their parents as Johann Friedrich Scholtze and Johanna Katharina Sophie Scholtze. (Johann Friedrich Schulze is listed as a cooper (deceased) on Rudolph and Emeline's marriage certificate in 1866. Carl and Sarah had 5 children: Frederick Schulze(1861–1919), Female Schulze(–1863), Charles Schulze(1866–1874), John Henry Schulze(1868–1874) and Sarah Jane Schulze(1871–1917). Charles and John Henry died within 4 days of each other and were followed by their mother Sarah the following year. Carl worked for Albert Keates as foreman for over 20 years. Carl and Rudolf died within a few days of each other in January 1908. I am not aware of the link between my Schulze line and that of Edmund Schulze and would be happy to hear any links or theories from others.

I have been away from both my home in France and from the UK and was shocked to hear, when, briefly, arriving back in the UK, that Andrew Davis had died. He was 80 years old. His 'very model of a modern music festival' sung at the 1992 (?) LNOTP will go down in orchestral musicians folklore. And his moving tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, Sir Georg Solti and St. Mother Teresa at the end of the 1997 'prom' season showed a man who deeply cared about his craft and its effect on our emotions. He made his name as an International Orchestral Conductor but, of course, he began his career at the RCM followed by his appointment as Organ Scholar of Kings College, Cambridge from 1963 to 1966. May he rest in peace.

A reminder that Olivier Latry’s inaugural recital following restoration of the Cathedral organ takes place tomorrow, Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm. These are the programme details: Eugène GIGOUT (1844 – 1925) : Grand Chœur dialogué Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921) : Extracts from The Carnival of the Animals (Tr. Shin-Young LEE) – Aquarium – Aviary – The Swan Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 – 1750) : Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV 548 Louis VIERNE (1870 – 1937) : Troisième Symphonie : Adagio Jehan ALAIN (1911 – 1940) : Aria Marcel DUPRÉ (1886 – 1971) : Prelude and Fugue in G minor op. 7/3 Olivier LATRY (1962 – ) : Improvisation

Will this reincarnation write some more wonderful hymns? 🤗

News of the appointment of George Herbert to the post of Assistant Director of Music at New College Oxford. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=819578120197133&set=pcb.819580960196849

I have processed the above to remove the wow, and made decent fades in and out. Just that makes it a lot more listenable. Note that there is effectively no bass - there is nothing below 50 Hz. https://cassland.org/sounds/Christ Church, Oxford old organ (Paul Morgan)/ Paul

Update on Olivier Latry’s recital: Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm Eugène GIGOUT (1844 – 1925) : Grand Chœur dialogué Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921) : Extracts from The Carnival of the Animals (Tr. Shin-Young LEE) – Aquarium – Aviary – The Swan Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 – 1750) : Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV 548 Louis VIERNE (1870 – 1937) : Troisième Symphonie : Adagio Jehan ALAIN (1911 – 1940) : Aria Marcel DUPRÉ (1886 – 1971) : Prélude et fugue en Sol mineur op. 7/3 Olivier LATRY (1962 – ) : Improvisation

Saint-Saëns can be heard played live by Olivier Latry at Winchester Cathedral this week. I don’t know which work by S-S. The programme includes music by Bach, Gigout, Vierne and Alain so, understandably, French works predominate. Additionally Olivier Latry will improvise - an opportunity to hear him not to be missed by those who can come: Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm.

Personally, I don't see this as too much of a problem. My circle of friends and extended family are not, by and large, anything like as attracted to the organ as I am but I've never had any problem in making them just sit down and listen to the damn thing from time to time, on the basis of "how can you say you don't like something if you've never even tried it"! Poulenc's concerto seldom fails to work its magic, on one occasion leaving a 20-something youngster open-mouthed in astonishment bordering on rapture - admittedly, he was a bass guitar player in a pop band as well as running his own recording studio, so he had an educated and innate feeling for music beyond the organ. It helped that I belted it out at realistic volume on big speakers though - one has to be immersed in a realistic acoustic for pipe organ music to work properly in my view. Some time afterwards he received a commission to make a CD for a quite well known pop client, and persuaded him to include some riffs and other background snippets made on a big Compton theatre pipe organ. Beforehand I had no idea he was doing this until he invited me along to the recording session so that I could have a go afterwards! So his previous introduction to the organ via Poulenc had obviously made an impression and resulted in positive consequences. The Poulenc is a case in point in other ways as well. Written to a commission from an aristocrat, I believe this was his first composition for the organ and that he himself was not an organist. Perhaps these are reasons why the work seems to speak so powerfully to other non-organ music buffs? On a similar occasion I did the same thing with the final movement of the Saint-Saens organ symphony, and learnt something myself - the guinea pig on this occasion told me that one of the themes has been used by a pop singer, which I did not previously know. In so many words, she also said how much she enjoyed the sheer simplicity of nothing but scales in C being used in a masterly manner to weave such powerfully-emotive music, together with the integration of piano and organ sounds with the orchestra. The Saint-Saens also came into its own when I was conversing with a psychologist (another non-organist), and we veered towards the interesting psycho-acoustic phenomenon that our perception of musical pitch seems to go flat as volume is reduced fairly rapidly. Interestingly, I had already noticed exactly this effect on the same Saint-Saens recording after the final tutti chord is released. As the reverberation dies away on this particular disc, the effect can be heard distinctly. I played it to him and he made a note of the piece and the CD so that he could use it as a future object lesson. So perhaps the moral here is that the organ can speak at many levels to many people if the circumstances are propitious enough. Maybe one lesson which can be taken away is that arranging various types of interactive events, or informal lecture-demonstrations of the sort hinted at above, might be more effective than merely expecting people to file meekly into church and sit silently through a "recital" (what an awful and out-of-date image that word conjures up!) where the player says nothing and might not even be seen from start to finish. There's nothing new in this idea of course, but such events don't seem to be staged often enough in my view. Sorry for yet another over-long diatribe.

I tend to agree with what has already been expressed, although it’s marginally better than it once was. Georgia Mann, for example, does her best. But how do you educate the listening public to know there’s more than the Widor Toccata which has been hackneyed to death. I now turn the sound off whenever it’s broadcast.

Echo your opinions on this subject completely. I think that trying to educate classic FM listeners into the exciting world of organ music would only result in even more overkilling of 565, Widor V, et.al. " Radio 3 Breakfast Music " doesn`t fare much better either ( IMHO only of course ) Who in their right mind at Aunty Beeb would ever select say, the Canonic Variations as an easy start to the day? The organ per se and the music that goes with it will always be ( IMHO only again ) viewed in Marmite terms. Try sexing it up and you will still have problems.

Yes, No. 3 in A. An excellent musical intro to an excellent series despite its shortcomings and omissions which Clarke himself was prepared to admit to in the preface to his book of the same title.

It was interesting to hear one of Cesar Franck's chorales used as the intro music to Kenneth Clarke's 'Civilisation', the first episode of which was rebroadcast by the BBC last Saturday evening. He was standing opposite Notre Dame in Paris.

Has anyone caught wind yet of what the plan is at St Paul's in terms of the top organists/s posts? William Fox was originally appointed Sub-Organist under Andrew Carwood and Simon Johnson, and then, upon the latter's departure for Westminster Cathedral, he was appointed Acting Organist and Assistant Director of Music. Now he is moving to St Albans as DoM that leaves two vacancies - Organist and Assistant DoM + Sub Organist. I realise that they are not short of organists at St Paul's, at least, not at the moment. In addition to two top level 'outreach/education' people who replaced Tom Daggett, Martin Ford has been playing there as Acting Sub-Organist and there is an FRCO Organ Scholar. I haven't seen any announcements or advertisements and it's some while now since WF's appointment to St Albans was announced. Elsewhere... Presumably Claudia Grinnell's post at Winchester will be re-filled. Are there other significant vacancies or posts to fill?

From Google April 21st is: World Curlew Day · National Tea Day · World Creativity and Innovation Day · National Yellow Bat Day · National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day Is it any surprise the media don’t necessarily pick all these up? International organ day is a pretty new concept. And an attempt by RCO to promote itself. Time will tell whether it takes off.

Alas, even my Alexa, which tells me about all kind of international days hadn't a clue that it was International Organ Day. Ah well... there's always next year.