Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

DaveHarries

Members
  • Posts

    774
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by DaveHarries

  1. Just come across this clip of the much-missed John Scott (1956-2015) directing the men and boys choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, New York during a concert in Leipzig back in June 2012. YouTube does not, for whatever reason, allow embedding of the video but here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PziXx6wzWH4 Dave
  2. Probably couldn't be bothered. Are they pulling the whole building down or just the ceiling? Disgraceful either way and frankly inexcuseable IMO. Dave
  3. Lovely sounds coming from it on YouTube. What a waste. Dave
  4. HI Barry, Just had a read through of the pages on Magedburg's organ: very interesting. One comment, however, is that some of the links to pictures in the first two parts produced blank pages when I clicked on them. The two pictures I tried were the one of the 17th Century woodcut and the organ picture above the picture of the bomb damage around the cathedral. Dave
  5. For anyone interested the Facebook page of Liverpool Cathedral Choir has some photos. https://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolCathedralChoir A neighbour who was having a clearout gave me a vinyl of NR playing the organ of Liverpool Cathedral. Sadly I don't think I have a turntable for listening to it but I am sure I still have the record somewhere. May he rest in peace. Dave
  6. "Präludium und Fugue D-Dur" by Franz Schmidt as played on the Nave organ in Cologne Cathedral. Sounds fab: wouldn't mind hearing this live (ie. not on YouTube) if I ever get the chance but the noise-cancelling headphones I have make it sound as if I am there. Good processional piece for the end of a service perhaps. Dave
  7. Maybe as assistant. Church website says that the current DoM has been there, on his second spell as organist, since 1994. Dave
  8. May I also add my condolences to those expressed above. There is nothing wrong with a loved one being played out to his choice of music at all so I would say that it is better to respect the wishes of the deceased and therefore that you have done the right thing. Dave
  9. Greetings all, Yesterday (20th October 2018) the new Bishop of Bristol (Rt. Rev. Vivienne Faull, lately Dean of York for anyone wondering) was enthroned in what was an enjoyable occasion in Bristol Cathedral. For the occasion there were four motets which were: - "We wait for thy loving kindness, O God" (William McKie) - "Jubilate Deo" (William Walton) - "Eternal light, shine into our hearts" (Canon Richard Shepherd, Director of Development at York Minster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Shephard) - "Ecce sacerdos Magnus" ("Behold, a great priest") (James MacMillan) The piece by Richard Shepherd was commissioned for the occasion and was a beautiful piece. The service booklet did not refer to him as Canon Richard Shepherd but the Bishop of Bristol, in her message in front of the booklet, referred to him as being a Canon of York. Anyway with the MacMillan "Ecce sacerdos" I have tried to find it on YouTube and I think this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Qi6cdH514 - may be it but I am unsure: the service I heard it at was the first time I have heard any arrangement of Ecce sacerdos magnus, let alone James MacMillan's. I have tried to find it on Amazon to see if there is a CD with MacMillan's rendition on but to no avail. Anyone know if it has ever been recorded previously on a CD that is no longer available? It would be both a pity and a surprise if the answer was no. Dave
  10. I have never played any instrument by KJ and Associates but, in my opinion, it surely doesn't say much for the quality of their pipework if they have problems at Rugby School with sagging pipes after only 18 years of use? Pipework problems like that I would normally associate with much older instruments. Dave
  11. I think the work on Bristol Cathedral will start sometime early next year as, in the meantime, there is the enthronement of the new Bishop of Bristol (who, for anyone wondering, is to be the now Rt. Rev. Vivienne Faull, lately dean of York) followed by Christmas to contend with. Info on the organ project can be found on Bristol Cathedral's website: https://bristol-cathedral.co.uk/music/organ-and-sound/ Dave
  12. Thanks Rowland for those pointers: there are more English-built organs in Lisbon than I originally thought. I will look for some more when I hopefully go back there next year. Dave
  13. Greetings all, I recently returned from a few days holiday in the lovely Portuguese city of Lisbon. While there I took time to visit several churches and look at the organs in them and saw some lovely instruments. I took photos of at least some of them and have used a selection of some of the resulting photos to make a Flickr album. One of the organs I photographed, and which features in the selection of photos, is given on the church's website as being "of English origin" and dating from 1872. An online source I have found since returning home - http://orgaos-portugal.net - gives the builder as Gray & Davidson but I think that the church in Lisbon might have acquired this organ second-hand, perhaps from a redundant church in England / Wales. If anyone has any more information as to where the organ in question (Santo Antonio) came from then I would appreciate knowing. The album can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/14103794@N04/albums/72157671870042677 and I hope that members of this forum will enjoy looking at the photos. Dave
  14. Evening all, Caught the last half hour of the Last Night of the Proms on BBC2 on Saturday evening (8th September) and it was good to hear the RAH organ used. However when Andrew Davis gave his thankyous during his speech he forgot to thank the organist. I looked in the TV schedule magazine under BBC Radio 3's schedule and there was, as far as I could see, no mention there either as to who was playing the organ. There is also no mention on the RAH website. However I did see the organist take a bow during the applause at the end of the night. Anyone know who was playing that mighty instrument? Dave
  15. Presumably he moved down to / near Worcester after leaving Durham. Good choice for interim DoM. Dave
  16. I love this. Kalevi Kiviniemi on the organ of Sibelius Hall, Finland with "Zug zum Münster" (from "Lohengrin") by Richard Wagner. Nice Zylophone (?) during the course of the piece too. Dave
  17. Can't access it as of 1605hrs today (Sunday). Dave
  18. Nice rendition of "Magyar Himnusz", the Hungarian national anthem, as recorded at Esztergorm. I was given some noise-cancelling headphones for my birthday back in February and this sounds fantastic on those. Dave
  19. Nicely done. I had meant to attend this but distance - I am in Bristol - made it tricky. Dave
  20. Greetings all, My Mother this morning drew my attention to an obituary in the Daily Telegraph for Basil Ramsey, founding editor of Choir and Organ magazine who died 13th June 2018 at the age of 89. The obituary appeared in the Daily Telegraph's edition of Wednesday 18th July. No doubt a tribute will appear in the next edition of Choir and Organ but anyone who fancies reading the DT's writeup (although you may have to signup to their website to do so) can find it at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/07/17/basil-ramsey-organist-writer-obituary/ May he rest in piece. Dave
  21. Indeed! Happy retirement John and good wishes to all at Manders. Dave
  22. Nice recording and instrument: thank you for posting it. Here's another offering from the Finnish organist Kalevi Kiviniemi on the 81-rank organ of Turku Cathedral, Finland which was built by Veikko Virtanen Oy, Espoo, Finland in 1980. It is a fantasy improvisation on the tune "When Johnny": composer unknown. Dave
  23. Engler signed the contract for his organ on 21st September 1750 but there were two years of preparatory work before construction could commence. The contract, from what I can tell in my book about the project (which is written in German and Polish) specified an organ of 54 stops but the resulting instrument had 3 manuals, 56 speaking stops and 3077 pipes with the following specification: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - HAUPTMANUAL: Principal 16 (lowest octave made of wooden pipes), Bourdon 16, Salicet 16, Rohr Flute 8, Octave 8, Salicet 8, Viola da Gamba 8, Doppel Quinte 6, Octave 4, Nasat 3, Super Octav 2, Sesquialtera (2rks), Mixture (8rks), Trompette 16, Trompette 8, Waldhorn 4 OBER-CLAVIER: Principal 8, Gemshorn 8, Unda Maris 8, Hohl Flute 16, Vox Humana (Rhorwerk) 8, Spitzflute 4, Salicet 4, Octava 4, Quinte 3, Super Octava 2, Sedecima 1, Hautbois 8, Theorbe 4*, Zimbel (5rks). (NOTE: * = never heard of these) RUCK-POSITIV: Principal 8, Flauttrav 8 (wooden), Quintadena 8, Rhor Flaute 16 (tin pipes), Quintadena 4, Octava 4, Nachthorn 2, Flauto amabile 4 (metal pipes), Tertian (2rks), Chalumeau 8, Scharff (4rks, "aus 2 fuß") PEDAL: Principal 16 (tin pipes)**, Principal 8 (tin pipes)**, Major Baß 32, Salicet 32 (starting at lowest F), Dulcian 16, "Open" Violon Baß 16, Gemshorn (Baß "von neuer Art") 16, Flaute 8 (wood), Gemshorn Quint 6 (Metal pipes), Clarinet 4, Mixture (10rks!) Posaune 32, Posaune 16, Trompa 8, Shallmey 4 (NOTES: * = trans. "of a new type". ** = given as being "ins Gesichte" so presumably display pipes) In addition to the speaking stops there was a Tremulant, Bells, Couplers (one for coupling all 3 manuals together, one for coupling only 2 manuals together) and also 2 "Sperr-Ventile" (not sure what they are) for each of the manual divisions and the pedal division. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - With this being an attempt to recreate Engler's original 1752-61 instrument I guess the intended stoplist will be something similar. The book I got the above stoplist from gives the manual compass as, in German, "C, D, Dis bis c3" making 48 keys. I find the idea of a 10 rank pedal mixture an interesting one which, on that division, should be interesting to try and recreate: surely it must have been one of the largest mixtures in Europe (if not THE largest) at the time. The church is a fairly big one rather than being an ordinary run-of-the-mill parish church: for anyone who has never been to Wroclaw the church of St. Elizabeth is right in the city centre next to one of the main squares. Hope this is of interest, Dave
  24. Indeed that is a lot of money but there will be research such as analyzing existing Engler pipework in other instruments of his to get the right metal alloys. The case of the original Engler organ was well decorated - see image below - so the work on that case will cost quite a bit in itself. This image below is, I believe, an idea of how the reconstruction is intended to look. Pictures elsewhere in a book I purchased in Wroclaw suggest that this is how the organ looked after Engler finished it in 1761. Dave
×
×
  • Create New...