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Malcolm Kemp

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Everything posted by Malcolm Kemp

  1. ............ but not by our very patient and tolerant hosts who have asked us not to talk about such matters on this forum! Malcolm
  2. I hope Santa didn't have too much trouble getting it down the vicarage chimney? Malcolm
  3. Have you also got (available from the Canterbury Cathedral on-line gift shop) the DVDs of a series of programmes that ITV did about Canterbury Cathedral) a couple of years ago? Well worth having. A lot about the choir and music, and of particular interest to me because, at that time, one of the lay-clerks was a former chorister of mine and the son of one of the present members of my choir. There is a very early recording of the Canterbury choir singing (I think) the Vaughan Williams Mass (under Campbell?) in which the treble soloist became variously an atheist, a lawyer and a house drummer at Ronnie Scott's. He is now am honorary curate at one of Brighton's more famous Anglo Catholic churches (and an extremely fine jazz drummer). Malcolm
  4. The G major Fugue that I have always greatly enjoyed playing but can find only in the Novello edition is BWV 576. Malcolm
  5. If all alse fails try Colin Brownlee on 0191 236 9808. He almost certainly will have a copy and will be able to provide you with what you want. Malcolm
  6. I often use the British Library on-line integrated catalogue to get details of publications. On one occasion several years ago I requested photocopies of some music from them and after a wait of several months, during which I heard nothing, I adopted a policy of making a nuisance of myself by ringing with increasing frequency so that eventually they would deal with my request purely to get rid of me. It worked. I hope you have more success than I did. Malcolm
  7. Try Roger Molyneux's catalogue at www.usedorganmusic.co.uk Even if it isn't in the current catalogue (I haven't checked) he should have new catalogue out towards the end of January. Otherwise try Richard Barnes on 01243 379968 once the holiday is over. Another possibility is www.abebooks.co.uk where, although primarily a source for books, it is possible to buy sheet music also. Malcolm
  8. I am unaware of any music suitable for the commemoration of the mass murder of young children, especially as I am informed by a local theologian that there is no historical evidence that Herod's instructions were ever actually carried out. I hope they weren't. (Apparently it would have got him into serious trouble with Rome apart from anything else and there are no records of it apart from the Gospels.) However, we are lumbered with it as a feast(!!!) so we have to make the best of it. Far better those churches that follow the Universal Calendar of the western church and celebrate the Holy Family on Sunday. I suggest you carry on with the festive Christmas theme. You will probably have a very small congregation anyway and they won't want to be thinking about death. We are doing "The infant King" arr. Edgar Pettman and I am playing Festival Voluntary by Flor Peeters so that my seasonal eating and drinking won't be unnecessarily interrputed by a need to practice. Hope this helps. Malcolm
  9. May I also echo everything that Peter says in his message. Seasonal greetings to everyone. No doubt most of us look forward eagerly to lunchtime on Christmas day when we can finally relax! Malcolm
  10. My error - there is just one tuba playable from either the Solo or the Choir. The NPOR shows a picture of the console where you can see what I mean about provision for seeing the easily from the console. I wonder why this was not adopted more often; I don't recall ever having seen another console arrangement quite like it. I've not been in the congregation at a service since Paul Brough took over as D-of-M but all reports say that he's doing a superb job there and is very popular. In the days when I used to go there a lot most of the organ playing was done by Nick Luff who was assistant to Harry Bramma. Like a number of other churches that specialise in a very high standard of choral music and have compartively little congregational singing, when the congregation does have a chance to sing (ie in the hymns) they sing extremely well. Hearing the Sunday evening congregation singing "Sweet Sacrament divine" enthusiastically but quietly during Benediction is an unforgetable experience, and all for the right reasons. They also seem to have had a policy of playing a soft final voluntary on Sunday evenings. The absolute silence in church before sung services - no sound at all until the sacristy bell rings as the service begins - is inspirational. Malcolm
  11. The organ in All Saints Margaret Street sounds magnificent although in the wrong hands it can sound deafening. There are two tubas and I think one came from Gloucester Cathedral (although I am open to correction on this). I once heard someone play the Whitlock Toccata as a final voluntary and it was so loud I had to leave the building quickly. In the right hands it is H&H at their best and from ppp up to fff it can sound very exciting. An ideal instrument for accompanyinhg and complementing the kind of liturgy they (literally) enjoy there. A few years ago I played there for the Golden Jubilee Mass of a former Vicar of mine (in the presence of at least two Greater Prelates) and I found it a very comfortable console to handle. My experience is that Harrison consoles are lmost always very comfortable. It is even designed so that you can see the conductor over the music desk without straining your neck. Malcolm
  12. Surely St Augustine's is Pearson's finest building and I think the present people there try to make it relevant and welcoming to the people living around. How wonderful it must have been between the wars when Anglo Catholic worship was at its peak and - possibly - most effective. I hav eonly heard the oran there once and was most impressed by it. Malcolm
  13. I can't find this is any of the on-line new or second-hand catalogues I am aware of. Is it still available, please? Malcolm
  14. Nowhere near as difficult as some Dupre (or even a lot of Dupre) but there are some quite big stretches in places for the hands (see the advice on this subject given earlier today on another topic by Cynic). Well worth learning but it needs careful control both technically and in the gradual build-up. You also need an instrument that can supply the necessary colour and build up. A very satisfying piece to learn and play. If you've never played Dupre before (apart perhaps from the short preludes) this is a very good place to start. Malcolm
  15. Michael Foley and Michael Fleming both ran the music at St Alban's Holborn. A former vicar, Fr Peter Priest, was himself an organist and Whitlock's Divertimento is dedicated to him. Marvellous church, music, liturgy and religion but awful acoustics - rathe like a giant bathroom. A former Vicar of mine (long deceased) used to refer to St Alban's as having three levels of dynamics - loud, very loud and deafening. Malcolm
  16. Charles MacDonald did some arrangements of accompaniments for albums that Neil Jenkins edited for Mayhew a few years back. In this part of the world there are few, if any, church musicians who do not still miss Charles for his wit, personality, eccentricity, humililty, understanding and acceptance of his own human failings and those of others. We also miss him for his wide musical knowledge and his superb practical musicianship. How many other church organists would have got a congregation of several hundred at their funeral in Brighton on an ordinary weekday afternoon including well-known organists from as far afield as Bath and York. Malcolm
  17. Living within ten minutes walking distance of two crematoria (one owned by a well known company and the other owned by the City Council) I am increasingly getting income from funerals, sometimes at a couple of hours warning or less. The Council owned crematorium has a team 5 or 6 of us who are happy to play for them because, although the pay is not marvellous, the work is regular and the staff are exceptionally nice, helpful and friendly. The privately owned one cannot get organists to work for them direct. Whilst the council owned crematorium is good regular work you get paid better doing funerals in local churches and, if you are approached direct by a FD for crematorium work you can charge what you like. I advertise in the diocesan monthly and quarterly publications; all the local independent FDs know that they can contact me, and this brings in extra work. In a way it is easy money but I find it pastorally very fulfilling. Indeed, my confessor, and others, are encouraging me to take a course in bereavement couselling. You go in, do what is asked of you, are greatly appreciated at a difficult time in people's lives (they even say so) and come away again. Not a PCC, Standing Committee, Synod or Worship Committee anywhere in sight. For the record, I get £25 per service from the Council (often for just one hymn) and the highest private fee I have had was £75. Malcolm
  18. What was anyone doing playing before or after a service in Holy Week anyway? Malcolm
  19. Who publishes it, please? Malcolm
  20. At Morning Prayer - Quicunque Vult - according to Uncommon Worship Whosoever will be saved; before all things it is necessary that he refrain from posting limericks about composers on the Mander Invision Power Board as these are verily indeed neither convincing nor comprehensible. They that have obeyed this injunction shall go into life everlasting; and they that have not will go into everlasting fire. There; I knew I'd find a use one day for that small book gathering dust on the shelf! Malcolm
  21. Limericks, like flowers and organ voluntaries are banned in Advent. (I am sure Fortescue and O'connell would gave included limericks in their edict if they had had access to this Board!) Malcolm
  22. I will enquire at my next lesson. Malcolm
  23. My choir absolutely loves singing the Robert Walker setting of In the bleak midwinter; it is very popular. We have sheet music copies but it is also in David Hill's book "Noel!" Published by Novello, it includes the verse that Darke did not set (Angels and Archangels). Time signature is 5/4 As a matter of interest, my own singing teacher, who works with a lot of well known choirs both here and in the USA does nbot approve of altered vowels n high notes. Malcolm
  24. Rheinberger organ concerto No 2 has a main theme remarkably similar to the Elgar Enigma Variations theme. The Rheinberger, of course, was written before the Elgar. Malcolm
  25. I only sent off an aplication for membership of the OC last Friday and still await a reply. I'm told that the previous trip to Paris was very good so I await details with interest. Trips like this are one of the main reasons I am joining. Malcolm
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