Malcolm Kemp

Come on, Peter! When did any self-respecting organist get through dinner with only one or two bottles of wine? Seriously, well done Gareth and many congratulations. Sounds like a very good time was had by all. I await with curious anticipation what Roger Norrington may say to the audience at the "other" L N o t P. Malolm Kemp

Metronome speeds - Dupre played it at crotchet 110, Langlais at 120 and Tournemire at 132. A few years ago someone came across a copy which supposedly had metronome pencil markings in Franck's own writing. Whilst most of these markings were considerably (and impractically) faster than tempi adopted everyone else (including Dupre, Langlais and Tournemire) it is noteworthy that in the case of the final it was slower with a marking of crotchet 100. Of course the organ and the acoustics of the building need to be taken into account. See Organists' Review of August 2000. Excellent books are "Toward an authentic Imnterpretation of the Organ Works of Cesar Franck" - Rollin Smith - Pendragon Press (New York) and "French organ music from the Revolutino to Franck and Widor" - Archbold and Peterson - University of Rochester Press Both are easily available on line. I have the Arthur Wills recording mentioned above and also a CD set of the complete works played by David Sanger. I don't number the Final amongst my favourite Franck pieces and have therefore never learned it. Malcolm Kemp

I agree entirely about the current poor stock of organ music in Blackwells. It is in such a small space apart from anything else. So much better when it was in Holywell Street. Russell Acott, almost opposite The Mitre, used to be a very good alternative for organ music and when I visited Oxford for the first time in August 1966 (for an IAO Congress) there was another, excellent and well stocked, organ music shop on the corner where Debenhams is now, opposite St Mary Mag's churchyard where St Giles becomes the Cornmarket. I seem to recall being told once that one person had worked, in turn, at the Cambridge Music Shop, Russell Acott and Blackwells and had introduced the same system of plastic folders at each in turn. As has been aired on this Board before, probably nothing has contributed more to the demise of music shops in which to browse more than on-line shopping. If you are in Oxford call into Antiques on High - in the High Street almost directly opposite the Queen's Lane Coffee Shop. If you go through to the back Austin Sherlaw Johnson has a stall where you can sometimes pick up worthwhile bargains of second hand organ and choral music. Browsing is quite easy. Malcolm Kemp

I think I may have hinted at this problem already on another topic but..... Does anybody know of a current, scholarly and reliable book on performance practice for 19th century German romantic organ music and which is published in English? Carus has a very good English translation of Jon Laukvik's "Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing" which goes up as far as the Classical period but his companion volume on romantic organ music is only available in the original German edition. Does anyone know whether an English translation edition is anticpated in the course of time? I think particularly of Mendelssohn/Reger/Rheinberger/Brahms/Liszt. Sandra Suderlund only touches on the issue very briefly in her book on Historical Approach to the organ and Graham Barber doesn't cover performance practice in his chapter on the Cambridge Companion. Obviously this was a period of transition in organ playing and piano virtuosity entered into the equation but there is rather more to it than that! Matters like touch, tempo markings, articulation and phrasing (not to mention interpretation of - sometimes ambiguous - phrasing marks) come to mind. Any suggestions please? Malcolm Kemp

Per the September ISM monthly magazine received today, Chimes third music shop is at Royal Academy of Music, York Gate Building, Marylebone Road, London NW1 All three Chimes shops - Barbican, Kensington and RAM - are open Mon-Fri 9 to 5,30 and Saturday 9 to 4. What, of course, they cannot guarantee is dry weather. Malcolm Kemp

An interim update for anyone who might be thinking of buying copies of the music by Mulder played by the young man on the You-Tube clips as above. Allegro Music, unusually, drew a blank. I then rang a friend in the church music publishing/retailing business and and the call was answered by his wife who is an excellent linguist, having lived on the continent. I got her to look up www.klavarskribo.nl and, lo and behold, she was that very afternoon visiting a friend who is Dutch. Apparently, klavarskribo is a system of musical notation different to ours and familiar to Dutch children. (Perhaps some of our members living on the continent know more about this?) On the basis that eveyone in Holland speaks excellent English my friend is going to ring them on Monday to try to establish whether these pieces are available in conventional notation. From what I can gather so far the stave is read vertically rather than horizontally. This reminds me that about 45 years ago a much older person used to practice in the same church as me and he used to play Durufle and similar composers using vertical rather than horizontal music. I have never some across this before or since. Malcolm Kemp

Barbican Music Shop in Chiswell Street is run by the same people as Chimes in Kensington and both do 10% discount for ISM members. The advantage of the Barbican is that they don't use the antiquated (and time wasting) method of writing down what you have bought in note books - one for each publisher - that Kensington uses. They also have a third branch somewhere very near the RAM but I have't tried that. Staff are very helpful in Barbican and Kensington. In Bell Street, just off Edgware Road - first right after you walk north under the flyover when coming out of the tube station - is a second hand book shop (I think it's called Archive Books or something like that) on the left about 2/3 of the way along. In the basement they do second hand music including organ music but it's very disorganised and cramped. If there's more than one person down there you feel claustrophobic and wonder what would happen if there was a fire but it's worth browsing if you have time and patience. Travis and Emery organ stock is normally listed on Abebooks.co.uk but they are worth visiting. I haven't been in Foyles for years so have no recent knowledge. Malcolm Kemp

The chant setting you are after is to the chant by C Hylton Stewart. It is in The New St Paul's Cathedral Psalter which is published by, and copyright of, St Paul's Cathedral but distributed by The Canterbury Press Norwish, ST Mary's Works, st Mary's Plain, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 3BH. THat certainly is the one recorded by St Paul's choir inder John Scott. Perhaps the RSCM in your part of the world could get it for you? Hope this helps. Malcolm Kemp

David has actually told us this on another current thread (the one about 4 and 2 foot dulcianas if I recall correctly) and I subsequently saw it mentioned on the St Peter's Bournemouth website. May I add my own congratulations to those already offered. Malcolm Kemp

Thanks for the response, Colin. Another member of this forum has sent me a PM pointing me in the direction of "The Organ Today", of which I have a copy and which gives me all the information I need. So, as I've said before, thanks to those members who have helped me so readily and ably. This is, surely, what this Board is intended for and so much better than odd those occasions when some members seem to spend all their time arguing unnecessarily with each other. Malcolm Kemp

It's amost the end of what we sometimes call the silly season and an organist friend of mine has sent me the following quote from a recent copy of "The American Organist". I make no comment about the content. "Dr Susan A Price of Williamsburg, Pa, read a paper on July 12, 1915, before the annual meeting of alienists and neurologists at the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago (The Diapason, August 1915, page 2). She noted that the woman whose mind most frequently gives way is one whose work is amid the most uplifting music and whose thoughts dwell on all that is noble and good in this life and the next - the church organist. "It might appear peculiar to the average layman, but it is a fact that insanity prevails among the church organists" said Dr Price. "I do not know what the cause is, but figures show that in nearly all institutions for the insane many patients are organists. The only cause I can assign for it is the fact that they as a rule devote all their time to religious matters. "It has been noted frequently that the young woman organist, a model in a community, reserved and modest, retiring and active in church and Sunday school work, becomes suddenly careless in her habits and a menace to the community. She begins to show hatred to her friends, who try to reason with her. Also, she displays aversion to good habits." There is not more that one can say about this apart from the fact that the article I quote from (hopefully within the bounds of copyright law - sorry if not) has above it a picture of an organist who is very obviously male. Perhaps one could end with the story I heard a copy of years ago. It amused a copy of Brighton vicars. Q What's the difference between an organist and a terrorist? A You can negotiate with a terrorist. Malcolm Kemp

Could anybody please give me the exact dimensions normally used for a standard RCO radiating and concave pedalboard, including the length of the visible part of the middle (tenor) D. Thanks Malcolm Kemp

Also on the subject of Franck, does anyone know why the Andantino in G minor was published by a different publisher and therefore not included with the other (Durand) pieces? Did Franck briefly fall out with Durand? Malcolm Kemp

I recall - possibly at a London Organ Day - a few years ago hearing Gerrard Brooks (who, I think, has studied in Paris) give a talk or masterclass which included virtually the same excellent advice that Nigel has given above. Malcolm Kemp

The young player on the you-tube clip seems to have the potential to develop into a really good player and is probably someone to watch out for in the future although we currently only know him as Hautbois8. I liked the reference to Rule Brittannia (shades of the Rawsthorne Hornpipe Humoresque) but was less impressed with some of the other clips of him playing. Thanks Michael for tracing the piece in a catalogue; I'll be on to Allegro immediately the Bank Holiday is over and the weather improves. Malcolm Kemp

Thanks, Holz G, for trying to introduce a bit of humour into what has become a rather tedious argument. You are lucky if you work with clergy what actually want to hold services. We are all extremely lucky that Adrian Lucas has given so much time and energy to keeping us fully informed, with copious excellent photos, about all aspects of the building of the new Worcester organ. I have a slight vested interest in that my first serious organ teacher (George Austin) had been an articled pupil to Ivor Atkins in the early years of the 20th century and I heard many tales of the organ as it was then. When in my late teens he took me into St George's Hanover Square to see the preserved Hope Jones console there and we happened to meet the Vicar who, by chance, was also called Atkins. We are never going to agree on whether it is best to rebuild/restore or replace and, as has already been said, what is right for one situation will be quite wrong for another. Perhaps this would be an apt time for members to agree to differ, whilst respecting each other's point of view, and close the subject? I am sure that Arian Lucas is a very reasonable chap but some of the comments posted on this topic must have made him wonder why he has bothered to be so helpful to us. My late night meditation in my bath tonight will be an amusing one of visualising Holz Gedeckt and Quentin Bellamy each trying to fit as many "preserved" organs as possible into the side aisles of their respective churches. Malcolm Kemp

I heard John Scott play the W T Best arrangement of the overture to St Paul last month in Winchester Cathedral and it was superb. Really beefy stuff. My copy arrived from Allegro Music last week and it is clearly a piece that needs a lot of learning. Lots of those funny black things called semiquavers! Malcolm Kemp

Indeed, thanks for the update and report of the recital. What a shining example he is to the rest of us, both as a musician and as a person. And I bet he's better at getting the spelling right on a computer keyboard than a lot of us - myself included!!! Malcolm Kemp

We haven't heard anythingof FJ recently but I think his Minster recital was supposed to be yesterday. Any news, please? Malcolm Kemp

I believe the RCO (quite rightly) likes to be made aware of people who falsely claim to have their diplomas. I know of at least one specific case and doubtless there have been many others over the years. About 40 years ago there was a gentleman who was organist of a Brighton church very briefly and he quickly lef tte area again. He is now dead but one of the publications of the Burgon Society indicatws that amongst his other false claims was that of being a D Mus (Oxon). The world of music - and especially the world of choirs and organs - has not been, and is not - beyond coming up with institutions and qualifications that are, to say the very least, interesting. Malcolm Kemp

A rather sumptuous piece with a nice, memorable tune, and not too long, is the Adorazione by Oreste Ravanello which has been recorded by Jane Parker Smith. Deserves to be better known. I got my copy from an on-line place in Florence via abebooks.co.uk and have enjoyed learning it although some of it is quite pianistic. Malcolm Kemp

There are at least two organists called Stephen Hicks. There is one whose biography has already been given above via a web-link and I recall having an LP of him demonstrating an Allen organ many years ago. There is another - I believe around the same age bracket - who graduated in music from Durham, having at some point switched from reading law. He has spent most, if not all, of his career as a teacher at Brighton College and for a while in the 1970s was director of music at St Paul's Brighton (very extreme Anglo Catholic church behind the Brighton Centre, having a tower looking vaguely like an early moon-rocket) which for decades has had the best church choir in the area by a very wide margin. I suspect that this is how the refeence to Brighton arose in an earlier psoting. Malcolm Kemp

The only time I have watched "Last Choir Standing" was for a very short time last Sunday evening whilst waiting for something else to start. It occurred to me that one of the judges himself has impressed me in the past by his supreme ablity to make his backing/accompanying orchestras appear to be playing sharp compared with his singing................ Malcolm Kemp

Have you tried our mutual friend with whom we both speak regularly? It's the sort of thing he would know. Malcolm Kemp

The item I was referring to is the last one on the list of eleven items and costing £10.50. A least that proves that you can still get it! Malcolm Kemp