Malcolm Kemp

No, but I would make the point that, generally speaking, weddings need more preparation time and more time at the church on the day. Malcolm

Stephen Aldridge would be able to confirm or deny this but I've got a feeling the 1970's 2-manual Walker console in St Botolph's, Heene, in Worthing has a double touch on the stop-keys. Malcolm

Superb piece, organ & church. I've not come across this piece before; does anyone know where you can get it? A quick glance through a couple of on-line catalogues hasn't thrown it up. Malcolm

I've heard it said by more than one person - including one who taught him the organ at school and much later worked with him as a colleague at Bourne Street - that he is often regarded as a re-incarnation of Whitlock! Both, of course, were connected, in their young days, with Rochester. Malcolm

Absolutely incredible playing and he looks so relaxed and happy with what he is doing. His improvisations during Solemn Benediction at St Mary's Bourne Street are just as good and you kneel there expecting to hear something like Percy Whitlock meets "I do like to be beside the seaside" at any minute. I've also overheard him practicing the accompaniment of a Mozart Mass and he was working very hard at it and in great detail. Malcolm

Going on from what I was saying earlier today, I have just been in a church where I know all the people involved fairly well. That church has all sorts of tensions and problems because people such as the director of music and the vicar don't actually talk to each other and discuss what they are each planning to do and what their vision is for the future. Like so many organists and vicars neither seems capable of telling anyone what they are going to do in a service until about five minutes before a service because neither of them is capable of deciding what they are going to do any earlier than that. Organists and vicars are both just as bad at this sort of thing. Malcolm

It would avoid a lot of unnecessary argument and unpleasantness in Anglican chruches if parish priests weren't afraid to "get involved" and both face and resolve potential confrontational situations at an early stage instead of sitting in the wings, waiting until a situation has got completely out of hand and then panicking. I've seen it happen so many times although, mercifully, I have never been directly involved. Malcolm

I've just ordered a copy of the Dupre Evocation, Op 37. Comparing prices between various on-line retailers I was amazed how much the price varied. The cheapest, even with postage added on, was cheaper by several pounds than the most expensive which tempted customers with free postage. Additionally, I suspect that the cheapest will arrive quicker than the most expensive would have done if I had used that retailer. We all need to be aware of this and shop around. Malcolm

Has anyone been involved in any of the localised trials of the revised syllabus for organ (grade) exams which are being introduced later this year? Am I alone in thinking that the present syllabus is pretty awful? I remember there being a far better choice of pieces some years back when I had several students taking these exams. Malcolm

Thank you MusingMuso for a wonderful post. All this is very relevant to this Board because all people who play the organ - especially, I suspect, those who do it in church out of a religious belief - will have times of self doubt. Without people to play them there would be no need for organs and therfore no need for organ builders! A few more thoughts which I hope will not make me seem too pompous. Years ago, when I used sometimes to go on residential courses at Addington Palace, I used to sit in the chapel in the evening and, through the clear glass windows, see the lights in the homes in, what was then the quite notorious council estate of, New Addington and I used to ponder that each of those homes there was a personal tragedy of some kind. Recently I have noted that, for me, on-line discussion boards and social networking sites are rather like going to daily Shrine Prayers (intersessions woven around the Rosary) at Walsingham because they all show you that other people's problems are worse than your own. That can, in itself, be a postive and healing thing. Over the years I have commented to a number of people that by dealing with, and being helped by others to overcome,their own seemingly insurmountable problems, that helps to give them a wonderful ability and gift in the future to empathise with and help others in similar situations. This is not necessarily a religious thing, I know that many people without any religious or church affiliation do it naturally without thinking about it and do it every day. One of the things we need to rmeember is that nobody is - or can be - perfect and that we all, at different times and to varying degress, need the hlep and support of others. Let's be personal. One of the most damaging and wicked things ever said to me was said by my mother when I was a young child namely "I want you to be perfect". Any deviation from being perfect was seen as reflecting badly upon, and embarrassing, her and what it was doing to me appeared to be irrelevant. Only in the past couple of years or so have I cme to terms with that. Philip Larkin was right in what he said about parents in one of his poems. In the last couple of weeks I have seen some passing comments by Charles Cleall in one of his books and, how I wish my mother had known and accepted what he was saying. I happen to find the Anglican Shrine at Walsingham an incomparible source of healing, peace and renewal; many others may find the whole place quite dreadful. However, I have had a lot of wonderful things happen to me there in the past 2 or 3 years and I got some very powerful messages when I was there three weeks ago, sitting silently for long periods. I came away with a renewed sense of what I needed to do. The first thing I saw on my e-mail when I got home was a message from a friend (initials BW) saying someone of whom I had only vaguely heard, in a totally different area of the UK, (not a member of this Board) was having a bad time and needed someone to talk to so would I ring that person and talk to them. So. Accept that we all sometimes need help and support from others. Accept also that we need to give that help and support to others and, rather like giving music lessons, when we are helping/teaching others what we are telling them we are also, in effect, telling ourselves. Malcolm

Partly it's the time you have to be there for and certainly at our local crems they insist that you stay in the chapel until every mourner has left. Malcolm

My big regret is that he flatly and constantly refuses to have any connection with this Board. We are the losers and I know very well of his immense kindness to a number of other people. Malcolm

And Brighton congregations absolutely love it - almost as muchg as they love that awful Sortie in E flat by the other, French, bloke! Malcolm

A lot of them were issued in a marvellous series published by Cramer and a lot were edited by Harry Wall. You get John Stanley voluntaries on three staves with fleshed out chords, full swells and even Tubas indicated. Utterly unhistorical, unstylistic, vulgar and wrong but they can be great fun to play. And useful fodder for sight reading and tranposition practice. You can sometimes pick up second hand copies via on-line music sites. Someone I knew, Leonard Lazell, had his own arrangements of the Minuet & Trio from Mozart's 39th and the Rondeau from Purcell's Faery Queen published in this series. Malcolm

When I started doing freelance funerals seriously I sent a flyer round to all FDs in the area other than those under the umbrella of "Destiny". If they have a service at either a crematorium or church that cannot provide an organist of their own there are a few FDs who regularly contact me and I get on well with them. One who gives me regulalr work even gave a me a large bottle of sparkling wine at Christmas. They will also sometimes recommend me to other FDs in a wider area. I find that churches in the more rural areas, especially those in the commuter belt/London-Brighton railway line area tend to pay beter fees than town centre churches and one even offered to pay quite expensive taxi fares for me (which I gladly accepted). On the other hand, someone else I know in another part of south east England has tried all avenues to get funeral work but with little, if any, success. I have said before on this Board, quite recently, that the crematorium owned and run by our City Council has two chapels and generally, especially in winter, they can keep a regular team of 5 or 6 organists quite happy with the level of work offered although the pay there is rather less than elsewhere. Malcolm

Personally, I don't have a problem with your showing posts to your priest - and that includes the private ones I have sent you. I know that the organist you spoke to last evening feels he did some good for you and that is encouraging. Obviously, I don't know details. Malcolm

Yes. I've always doubled fees for videos. Malcolm

Where you are going I should think an absolute minimum of £100 for a wedding and £75 for funerals. I should have thought even £120 for the weddings there. Probably rather more funerals than weddings in that town? Recent legislation prevents organisations like the ISM and RCO (both of which I belong to) and the RSCM (which I avoid like the plague) from suggesting fees. What they are able to do is issue complicated tables of average fees in various categories during the previous year. However, to a simple soul like me, they are even less clear than the Book of Common Prayer table of how to find the date of Easter after having first found its related Golden Number! I find the best funeral fees on a freelance basis can got from services where you are booked direct by the Funeral Director and you negotiate the fee with them. These days they are often so grateful if they can find someone who even knows that the manuals are played with the hands and the pedals with the feet! Malcolm

From a very young age I have been led to believe that certain characteristics are implied by the name Bertha. I shall now consult NPOR to see if these characteristics are likely to apply to the Bertha referred to here. Malcolm

Just a further thought that we all, perhaps, could bear in mind. Recently I was talking to our local Rural Dean about my tinnitus (don't we all just love talking about our health?) and he immediately commented that it sounded to him as if it was stress induced. This is the second time he has said something like this to me; the first time was a number of years ago. I remember things like that. If someone who normally performs well - at anything, not necessarily music - suddenly shows an obvious dip in performance the good thing to do is gently to ask them if they can think what may be causing it and offer to help or put them in contact with someone who can help. Criticism without a positive offer to help overcome the problem is useless. This shows that you care about them as people as well as someone who does a job, paid or otherwise. As well as being pastorally good in a church context, and whats good friends would do anyway, it is what gets taught on office mangement courses and, goodness knows, I have sat through enough of those in my time. Malcolm

Over the past few days I have made a determined effort to listen to and watch a number of the Youtube links that members have provided recently. What has struck me particularly is how when continental organists play Bach they seem to eschew the excessively fast tempi and constant over-detached playing that so many younger English organists seem to employ. I'm not saying for one minute that one should play Bach with the sort of legato one would use for Franck - of course not - but I do wonder whether our friends on the continent have got the right balance and we have gone over the top. Malcolm

My immediate reaction was to suggest slow, deep breathing so I second what has already been said. I wonder whether the height of the gallery has anything to do with it? You may know from other sources that I currently suffer from tinnitus which can also sometimes manifest itself in dizziness. Perhaps there is an element of stress-induced vertigo when you play for services whilst up there alone and which has been brought by something as yet unidentified? An organist friend of mine - not a member of this Board - is often told by members of his choir that if he is in a bad mood (notably when he has to play the Coventry Gloria and the Inwood Gathering Mass) he habitually gets louder and faster. Whilst I am not for one minute suggesting that you ever play whilst in a bad mood there may be a link to a root cause somewhere. It may, of course, have origins in matters totally disconnected from music or church. For what it is worth, and some of you may want to laugh at this, I find the Paul McKenna self-hypnosis CDs helpful for all kinds of symptoms, especially those relating to confidence and relaxation. A few members will be aware of an area where I have found this extremely helpful to me personally. I find self-hypnosis that concentrates on overcoming specific problems unhelpful because they concentrate on the problem rather than the state you wish to achieve, if you see what I mean. I believe one member of this Board practices hypnosis professionally although not in your part of the country. On the other hand you might want to talk to your doctor or even a sympathetic priest (I suggest you go to one not connected with your own church). It sounds far too patronising and futile to suggest that you try to immerse yourself totally in the music so I won't. You know where to find my e-mail address/phone numbers if you want to discuss this further with me. I could also put you in contact with another organist whose name you will know well and who has himself suffered from things like depression in the past. Malcolm

I notice increasingly that some players play from copies where an entire piece seems to be crammed, with very small font, on to a large sheet of paper or card. Provided one's eyesight can cope and one has learnt the music thoroughly (of course) I can see many advantages to this. I assume it is done by photocopying orginals at a reduced size and then sticking them on a backing sheet. I should be interested to know the legality of this practice and whether any Board members have experience of using it. (I think someone told me a while ago of a Board member who has used it at recitals he has given in Brighton.) Some of the You-Tube clips we have been linked to recently show this system being used. Particularly JSB pieces. One of the (few) disadvantages of not having a church job is that I no lnoger have personal access to a parish office and photocopier! Malcolm

In many ways I agree with this observation. I think service playing is a more difficult art to acquire and so much more specialised, especially where there are opportunities for improvisation such as at a lengthy offertory or at Communion. How often one hears superb playing of voluntaries before and after a service with the same player producing either an indifferent or even inadequate performance during the service. Good hymn playing seems to me to be quite rare. Recently, in another part of the country, I heard really good playing before and after a service yet in the hymns the rhythm was constantly unsteady, phrasing was lacking and the final beat in each bar tended to be cut short. Admittedly, there are now fewer opportunities for young organists to learn choral service accompaniment in parish churches but it is an important aspect of the craft of an all-round church musician which must not be allowed to disappear. After all, church organists tend to be employed primarily to play for services, not to give recitals. Malcolm

Yes. I was judging on what it looked like as obviously it couldn't he heard but the console was clearly 20th cent. Malcolm