Paul Carr
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Posts posted by Paul Carr
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An article on the school's webpage says that Nicholsons of Worcester are doing the work, which is costing £220,000. The project has been designed and lead by Paul Hale (rector chori, Southwell Minster) who is a former pupil of the school.
The article states that Paul Hale isn't the only renowned organist to have trained on the instrument at Solihull: others include David Briggs, John Butt and Ian Simcock.
The article is dated 26th February 2008:
http://www.solsch.org.uk/news/26_feb_2008.aspx
Dave
Birmingham Organists' Association are visiting for a talk, recital and play in July with Paul Hale (the talk and recital bit!) so if noone comes up with the goods before then, I should come back with everything needed to answer the questions...
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58 or 61 - agreed!
But I can't ever recall needing top F# or G on the pedalboard, so am quite happy with 30!
Don't you play Leo Sowerby's 'Pageant' then?
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If you listen to the Cochereau recording, the off beat chords have great gravitas against the choir....therefore, I suggest playing the OdC part on the Swell and the off beat chords, when they occur, with LH on full Great with pedal...it gives much the same effect.
Similarly here, keep the OdC part on the Swell but play the interjections when they occur with RH on full Great with pedal.
Doing it this way, is less intrusive to the player than lifting all fingers off and jumping to another manual lock, stock and barrel, so to speak!
A
Well put!
I do more-or-less the same, and was thinking about how to word it as I scrolled down to Adrian's answer. If you've got any sub octave couplers that makes life easier too as with a little redistribution of the notes within the chords you can create the effect of playing with all four hands!!
If you play it in the style of ND/Cochereau you'll have to play the GO chords ever-so-slightly late too...
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I'm sure that could be arranged, but I'd rather do it just after Christmas as things are very busy here in the Autumn term. Any takers??
A
Count me in - please!
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I have never had a problem with any hiss, (yet.) I use the ZOOM H2 and use the medium setting for the input level and recording level set at 95. I expermented with the higher 96.000khz 24 bit sampling, but the recording time was reduced to 70 minutes as compared to the 3 hours at 44.1 at a recital at hessle (Hull) last week, and after editing/normalizing in Soundforge 8 it saved the edits at the default setting of 44.1, but it did drop the sound level a bit. Quality wise, there was a marked difference listening through headphones. So will try it out on the nice small
willis at liverpool on monday ( with permision of course) Check THIS outRegards
Peter
Yes, I only get the 'hiss' on CD, and that's now cured by me putting what I have through Audacity and remembering
to record at 44100KHz if I want it to end up on CD in the future!!Sitting in my hotel room listening to my rehearsal at Rochdale Town Hall last week through headphones directly from the Zoom was very, very good quality. The 32' Open Wood sounded amazing. It also sounded great through the car stereo on the way home!!
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I was fortunate to play in the Philharmonie about 14 years ago and the extremely affable British orchestral pianist for the BPO told me that the organ was beset with technical problems and was, as you have heard, rarely played.
Does anyone know when the organ was built? It doesn't say on the Schuke site, unless I just can't see it!
Until I just looked i was thinking it was this one: http://www.schuke-berlin.de/en/orgeln/lux.htm which isn't very old at all... -
CD-audio is 16 bit at 44100kHz - you need to 'downsample' the 48kHz recording in order to get in to CD-audio. Audacity (mentioned here before) can do this for you (import the audio, change the project rate in the left under corner and export the audio as .wav).
I've read on forums that the zoom's may produce a very (very) weak distortion in the signal; for me this was a reason not to buy one (because I somehow always manage to 'get' that and be irritated). Just wondering if users here have found it?
Thank you, brilliant! The file is exporting as wav as I type.
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...the H4 is wellworth looking at. This has balanced combined XLR and jack mic inputs. Both units feature optional level limiting and compression on manual level recording and can record in various WAV and MP3 formats. Wav 44.1 Kbits/sec format will transfer directly to CD.
John R
Thanks for the last sentence; I think it has just answered a question for me.
I have a H4 which I use simply to place down the church/hall while I'm rehearsing, to check balances, etc. The recordings always sound very good through my headphones, even with the minimal thought I give to the H4 inbuilt mic placement!
Last week I decided to keep a couple of these recordings, just for myself, and so burnt them to CD. One is OK, but the other has an audible distortion or 'hiss' on it, not constantly, only when there is any organ sound. The other is fine, very good, infact.
The latter was recorded at wav 44.1KHz, the recording with the 'hiss' at 48KHz. For those of us who understand very little about these things can anyone explain it, please?
And, can the 48KHz recording be converted so that it will burn to CD without the 'hiss'?
Thanks!
P.
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Several years ago I did a course in advanced navigation techniques.
I was late for the first lesson.....I couldn't find the correct classroom.
A level geographer too?! -
I am not sure how useful this would be. Access to the tribune at Nôtre-Dame was changed from the North to the South Tower in Vierne's time. Surely this wouls simply be frustrating?
Ah yes, of course, it was the south tower which I was thinking of
, mental compass malfunctioned and it's a long time since I did A level Geography. (and not very well when I did!) -
No - actually. It would not pay the mortgage.
A bed in the North tower would do me...
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There's an excellent one by Thomas Murray which I'm playing this year, and slightly unusual. RH has the melody (of course), but LH has the bass part, and there is slow double pedalling throughout that fills in the harmony. Its rather good.
I'd never thought of playing it A minor, a bit like that version of the Brahms Fugue in A flat minor that was published in A minor to make it 'easier to play'!
Sounds interesting - is it published?
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Which transcription of the Bach Badinere are you playing?
It's my arrangement of an arrangement in some album I have, can't remember who that arr was by though. The main reason for re-arranging it was that it was in A minor instead of B minor, and having had a few stressful moments caused by having to transpose it, I decided to write it out in B minor and tweaked a few bits at the same time.
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I'm having fun this week playing recitals on two fine instruments, so thought I'd share it:
St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham May 14th 7.30pm
Walker 1993: 40 stops, 3 manuals - arguably the best in the Midlands...
Marche Nuptiale - Vierne
Basse et Dessus de Trompette (Suite du Premier Ton) - Clérambault
Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la cathédrale de Soissons - Duruflé
Résurrection from Symphonie-Passion- Dupré
Theme and Variations on 'Laudi Spirituali' - Briggs
Three Pieces: March - Meditation - Introduction and Toccata - Choveaux
Blues Chorale: 'Die ganze Welt hast du uns überlassen' - Kiefer
Chant de Mai - Jongen
In Organo, Chordis et Choro - Hakim
Rochdale Town Hall, Saturday 17th 12.00pm
Binns 1913, 4 manuals...
Grand Choeur Dialogué - Gigout
'Great' Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV 542 - J.S. Bach
Badinerie from Suite no. 2 - J.S. Bach
Organ Concerto no 10 in D minor - Handel
Trumpet Tune in D major - David Johnson
Be thou my vision - Gárdonyi
Blues Chorale: 'Die ganze Welt hast du uns überlassen' - Kiefer
In Organo, Chordis et Choro - Hakim
Will o' the Wisp - Nevin
Chant de Mai - Jongen
Finale from The Organ Symphony - Saint-Saëns/Briggs
More at http://www.paulcarr.co.uk
If you make it to either, please come and say hello!
All best,
Paul.
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...things like the Pink Panther, ....
In the 1980s an amazing version of the Pink Panther theme was broadcast on 'The Organist Entertains'. It was a transcription of the opening theme which accompanies the cartoon sequence which opens 'The Pink Panther Strikes Again', where he's being chased through places like night clubs, cinemas, etc. The Sound of Music, theme, Big Spender, etc are all woven in.
It was recorded at Coventry Cathedral. (possibly by Paul Leddington-Wright (?) if the memory cells are doing their job...)
Does anyone have a recording of it or, better still, has the score been published? Inet searches haven't thrown up anything.
P.
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...There is also a facility - All Pistons Next - which when that button is engaged makes every piston on the console into an advance piston...
Ooooo, I like that idea. Does anyone know if it exists anywhere else, or is it a new idea. I've not come across it before.
Finally, no need to search for the + button!
The whole piston set up there sounds very flexible - giving each organist a choice for his/her preference, rather than arguing the pros and cons of sequencers, steppers, generals, divisionals, etc...
(Ah, but can you turn them all off so that you can pretend there aren't any there at all for playing early music?
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Yes - Thursday lunchtimes according to the WOA newsletter:
May 8th: (ooooh that's today!) Trevor Tipple
June 5th: John Swindells
July 3rd: John Wilderspin
Sept 4th: Marcus Huxley
Tim Morris (Organist at St Georges Kidderminster) is the Town Hall Organist...
P.
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Theres a Binns in Wednesfield Town Hall thats rarely heard, I understand its condition is not good, it looks as if its one the the neglected instruments. It would be interesting to try and compile a complete list of such organs.
Barrie
It's Darlaston Town Hall - easy mistake as Wednesbury, Darlaston and Wednesfield all merge into one unless you know the area really well!!
The Binns is lovely, but in a very poor state, well at least that was the case when i last went in 2003. They were very happy for people to play it at that time, and i don't think the hall is voerly busy...
It still has the original 'setter' system, but I can't remember much detail about that.
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Yes, I have the CD and it is very good. It is very Briggs, which of course means its very French, yet not a pastiche in anyway. Well worth a look!
I have the CD too - it's excellent. We were also at the premiere at Blackburn a couple of years or so ago.
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Sennheiser HD 555. They cost me a little over £100 a couple of years ago, and were probably the best £100 I've ever spent.
My electronic organ sounds absolutely superb with them, and they cover a very wide frequency, certainly all the frequencies you're likely to hear. They're very comfy and light too.
The only downside, if you're using them in a room with somebody trying to listen to something else, is that the other person will probably hear some of what is coming through the headphones.
Courtesy of my local electrical shop (now unfortunately closed) I tried a number of headphones with my organ before purchasing a pair, and these came out best of all. There was a more expensive pair of Sennheisers (about £150 I think), but I didn't notice any difference.
Don't buy anything cheap - they're not worth it. I've tried cheaper headphones, and the quality is significantly poorer.
I would strongly recommend these - I love them!
See http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/icm_eng.nsf/root/05342
Mine are Sennheiser HD 465. Again very good and much, much, much better than hearing the faithful practice toaster through its speakers.
They're nine years old now and still going strong, the 555 can only be better! You can hear them from the 'outside' though, but not as loudly as the key tapping, pedalling, groaning during difficult or exciting bits and occasional bouts of under-the-breath swearing. (Usually brought on by excesses of double sharps in Vierne's music!)
Have a look at http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/headphones/22...eiser+HD555.htm Next day delivery and a 10% sale on...
P
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Yes they have a website. It's an odd URL:
http://66.70.247.75/index.shtml
I'm certainly tempted by the Homage a Franck piece, but I'm not sure I have the stamina for the "Dupré". Did he write any other organ music worth playing - that is not too difficult (ie. somewhere between Kevin Mayhew and Hakim.) Come to that is there anything else worth trying in the World-wide Catalog(ue)?
Stephen Barber
Thanks for the weblink, I'll have a browse. The 'Dupré' work is the only Hendrie I know. And yes, it needs stamina. Also, annoyingly if you leave it alone for a few months it's one of those 'back to square one' pieces the next time you come to play it!
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Ah-ha!!!!!!! There is a Chorale No 4 - written by Gerald Hendrie (called Hommage a Cear Franck) and published by Worldwide music publishers (Eric Fletcher). It's a cunning piece and not a pastiche -highly recommended. Also available is a tribute to Dupre as well.
Hector
Yes, the Toccata and Fugue from Le Tombeau de Marcel Dupré is a fantastic piece.
It sort of holds a mirror to the Dupré B maj P&F from Op. 7. John Scott, who it was written for, has recorded it on the Mander at St Ignatius in NY. A Priory recording, well worth getting.
I got the score, eventually from World Wide Music in 2001 - do they have a website (or a computer even) these days.
I seem to remember having to do it all by post!Very worth it though, even if it is difficult to play!
If the 'Franck' Chorale 4 is half as good it will be worth getting...
P.
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Copies now sent. Please allow time for them to arrive - sometimes the speed of light seems terribly slow - maybe it's living in the Frozen North.....maybe it's Internet Providers who give the minimum rather than the maximum attention to the service they actually provide. 'Up to' (as in 'speeds up to..') is the well-worn equivalent of 'From' in the advertising world. Sometimes it takes nearly a full morning for items to come from my wife's computer to mine and we're on the same IP!
Anyway, those of you who are still waiting, please let me know if your pdfs do not arrive. 'Many a slip' (on any type of keyboard, I'm afraid!).
If anyone reading this has not yet asked for copies, I have no problem with more requests for these. Probably the sooner the better, however; you are more likely to get efficient help.
Mine have just landed safely.
Many thanks Paul, I'm now thinking hard about anything I might be able to send you in return... Cheers,
P.
willis at liverpool on monday ( with permision of course) Check 
to record at 44100KHz if I want it to end up on CD in the future!!
Until I just looked i was thinking it was this one: 
They're nine years old now and still going strong, the 555 can only be better!
Solihull School
in The Organ
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Hi Tony,
That's no problem - will do, and have set myself a reminder too!
P.