DaveHarries

In Bristol Cathedral the final hymn of the 10am Eucharist on Sunday 22nd September was no. 383 (Jesu, Lover Of My Soul) to Joseph Parry's tune "Aberystwyth". The voluntary at the end was by Stanford but the use of that hymn did make me think of the toccata on "Aberystwyth" by David Bednall (b. 1979, Choral Director of Clifton RC Cathedral, Bristol). For anybody who has never heard Bednall's toccata on "Aberystwyth" here it is played by Stephen Moore on the organ of Llandaff Cathedral. Dave

Greetings, Sad news from Southwark Cathedral regarding their Organist & DoM Ian Keatley who has passed away after being taken ill while on holiday. https://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/about-us/news/ian-keatley/ I never heard him in action other than through the livestreams of the cathedral services but the music was always very good. May he RIP.

News from St. Paul's Cathedral today of the appointment of James Orford, currently Organist and ADOM of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. He is described on the St. Paul's website as "a prize-winning organist and pianist, having completed both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the Royal Academy of Music, receiving first-class awards in both." https://www.stpauls.co.uk/news-article/james-orford-appointed-new-organist-of-st-pauls-cathedral Dave

Greetings, From Leer, Germany, via. the orgelnieuws.nl website, comes news of the death of the well-known master organ builder Jürgen Ahrend (b. 28-Apr-1930) on 01st August 2024 at the age of 94, whose business involved the restoration of historical organs in Groningen, Hamburg and others and also a good number of new instruments. You may have to use a translation means to read this article if your browser doesn't do the translation automatically. https://www.orgelnieuws.nl/orgelmaker-jurgen-ahrend-94-overleden/ Dave

One from Germany for anyone interested although it seems, from the source of information, that the appointment won't take effect for about another 13 months. Alexander Niehues, presently Kapellmeister (master of the (chapel) choir) of St. Lambertus, Dusselforf since November 2020, is to take up the same post at Cologne Cathedral effective from 01st September 2025. He has previously held posts in Mainz, Freiburg and Mannheim before taking up the role at Dusseldorf. Herr Niehues, who is in his early 40s, succeeds Prof. Eberhard Metternich who will resign the role of Kapellmeister role at Cologne Cathedral after nearly 40 years in post. The news release is here although you may need to use Google Translate to put it into English if your browser doesn't do it automatically. https://www.koelner-dommusik.de/choere/ab-01-09-2025-alexander-niehues-40-wird-neuer-domkapellmeister-an-der-hohen-domkirche-zu-koeln HTIOI, Dave

The website of the Diocese of Winchester has been updated this morning, 03rd July, with an item regarding the Bishop's Review of Winchester Cathedral. It will be conducted by a highly experienced ecclesiastical lawyer on behalf of Bishop Philip. There are 4 Terms of Reference for the review of which two seem to relate to the recent controversies. There is also a link to a letter from the ecclesiastical lawyer to the Cathedral community. Things might be about to get interesting. More information is in the full; article: https://winchester.anglican.org/terms-of-reference-for-bishops-review-of-winchester-cathedral/ Dave

The situation at Winchester is not going to end well for somebody, that's for sure. Two posts on SlippeDisc, both from 2nd June, sound interesting. One reports that the Canon Precentor was supposed to preside and preach for the service on Sunday 02nd June "but has stood down" (from presiding the service or from the job?) and employment lawyers have been consulted. https://slippedisc.com/2024/06/winchester-cathedral-more-storm-clouds/ Meanwhile the Dean of Winchester was due to preach at Bury St. Edmunds for a service marking the 30th anniversary of the ordination of women but she failed to show up for the service and sent a video address instead which is described on the link below as "inadequate". It could be that she returned to cover for the Precentor but as someone who was not there I don't know for sure. https://slippedisc.com/2024/06/another-absence-from-winchester/ Things may be about to get interesting but I am sure we will find out one way or the other in due course. Dave

The situation at Winchester is not going to end well for somebody, that's for sure: see my "Winchester" thread for more on that as I don't wish to potentially go off-topic on what I find to be an interesting thread. Dave

Greetings all, Mention was made elsewhere on this forum of the departure of Andrew Lumsden from Winchester Cathedral after 22 years amid some uncertainty as to the reasons behind it. Well I guess it was only going to be a matter of time before the national newspapers too an interest. Although I am not a reader of the Daily Mail I read this earlier today which was posted by a friend of mine unconnected to Winchester: if it is true it is rather telling and also rather obvious where the problem lies: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13460091/England-winchester-cathedral-bullying.html I realise that the DM is probably not he most accurate of publications though! Another interesting side to this is that Andrew Lumsden left with a mandatory NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) which is something that the Archbishop of Canterbury issued an edict against in 2021 and the Church of England's head of HR is duty bound to uphold it. The Church of England's head of HR? According to SlippeDisc it is Emma Trenier, wife of the Canon Precentor of Winchester. In the words of the "Slippedisc" website, "The Treniers must have some interesting silences at home." https://slippedisc.com/2024/05/cathedrals-nda-woes-deepen/ Dave

I can't for the life of me see how they are going to pull that one off: given that the decision as to which applicants to interview would take a decent amount of the remainder of the closing date so anyone getting interviewed would certainly have less than 24hrs notice so prepare, and get to WInchester for, the interview which, for some people at least, would be easier said than done. Why the hurry I wonder? Dave

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

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

Following the recent post about the passing of the Finnish organist & composer Kalevi Kiviniemi - https://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/topic/5083-kalevi-kiviniemi-rip/ - here are a couple of videos featuring him. Firstly an arrangement, presumably by Kiviniemi, of "Zug zum Münster" (Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral) from Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin". This clip is played on the Grönlund organ (2007, III+P/ 55) of the Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland and I very much like the effect given by the stop changes at 1:34 and again at 1:54. The Xylaphone (specification: http://www.gronlunds-orgelbyggeri.se/instrument/sibelius-talo/) goes well with this piece too at 3:13 which makes me wonder how the chimes or tubular bells of the Royal Albert Hall organ would sound in lieu for that bit. In my imagination the tubular bells would perhaps be better. Next up is Kviniemi's "Toccata" on the main organ (one of three in the building) of Turku Cathedral (Veikko Virtanen Oy, 1979-1980; IV+P / 78). The organ has its own website which is at https://www.turkuorgan.fi/en/; the specification, under the "Organ" tab, shows that the swell and pedal sections both contain 7-rank Mixtures. [b]Note:[/b] The clip does not appear here in the usual way that the one above does: embedding / playbaack on other websites has been disabled at the YouTube end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ki95-UbTeo Another one from Turku but this time a fantasia, by Kiviniemi (I presume) on the well-known tune "When Johnny". The shots of the ship hanging from the cieling of the cathedral seem quite appropriate given that "When Johnny" is a tune with maritime origins. A pity I never got to hear KK play live: may he rest in peace (or should that be "rest in piece"?) Dave

Well done to her. Dave

Here's an organ I would very much like to spend some time playing if the chance ever arose. St. Elizabeth, Wroclaw (Poland), built by Klais (Bonn, DE) / Thomas (Stavelot, BE) / Zych (Wolomin, PL) 2019-2022 as a replica, in all ways except the blowing mechanism, of the Michael Engler organ (1752-1760) which was worked on and somewhat altered before being entirely destroyed by fire on 09-Jul-1976 leaving absolutely nothing. This photo, taken after the fire of 1976, shows just how complete the destruction of the previous organ was: https://polska-org.pl/9069037,foto.html?idEntity=546812 This video is an improvisation (of what piece I don't know) played by Hubert Trojanek. Dave