Malcolm Kemp

Barry Williams has given me permission, in anticipation of this topic being raised here, to cut and paste here a posting he put on another forum yesterday. My own position now is that if I am asked to play for any kind of service in any place of worship they either pay the fee I request or they go without. None of this insulting nonsense of "Can you play for us next Sunday morning; we pay a fee of £40". Malcolm Barry's posting herewith: Regrettably, the article in question was wholly inaccurate. Moreover, the persons quoted did not make the remarks attributed to them. Here is the official response from the RSCM Website: Statement from Lindsay Gray regarding organists' fees for playing at weddings - Mon 23rd August 2010 Contrary to a press report this weekend, the Royal School of Church Music is NOT calling for organist's fees for filmed weddings to be scrapped. In a recent joint press release with the C of E Weddings Project, we explain that there are clauses in some (but not all) organists’ contracts which refer to doubling the fee for playing at a wedding which is filmed. Whilst the RSCM makes recommendations rather than hard and fast rules regarding the remuneration of organists, we also emphasise the point that churches have individual contracts with organists and these vary from place to place. It has been suggested that at some time in the future there might be a 'flat fee' to include recordings (whether they are made or not) but AT NO STAGE has the RSCM suggested that extra fees for filming should be abolished. Indeed, the RSCM believes strongly that organists should be properly and appropriately remunerated for their very important work in respect of church weddings - work which involves considerable preparation and responsibility. And here is Lindsay Gray's letter to the editor of The Telegraph: Letter from Lindsay Gray, Director, to the Sunday Telegraph regarding organists' fees for playing at weddings Sir, I should like to express the disappointment that I and so many involved in church music must feel on reading the article in the Sunday Telegraph (22nd August) in which church organists are criticised for being overpaid for weddings. Church organists work extremely hard in terms of preparation, preliminary meetings with the wedding couple and their own individual practice even before the actual playing for the service begins. I also wish to refute the statement in the article that the Royal School of Church Music has backed the call for ‘charges (for the filming of weddings) to be dropped’. Whilst there might in the future be a case for a complete all-inclusive fee to cover filming of services, the current position is that remuneration varies from church to church according to the organist’s contract, a position we fully support. The RSCM makes recommendations regarding fee levels, but contracts vary widely to reflect the many different types and sizes of church as well as the varying qualifications and skills of organists. An additional point in the article concerned the question of an organist taking a fee even if a friend of the wedding couple wished to play for the service. Again, it comes down to the organist’s individual contract but one would hardly expect a couple to approach the hotel where the reception is taking place and ask for their friend who happens to be an expert chef to replace the regular salaried member of staff! At the RSCM we delight in seeing couples married in church and we want music to be an important part of the service, but the skills and efforts made by organists and all church musicians must be recognised and valued fully and appropriately. Yours faithfully Lindsay Gray Director, The Royal School of Church Music, It will thus be seen that the article was an extremely irresponsible piece. It has the feeling of being a piece of mischief. All of this shows how important it is for organists to have a proper contract for their work in church, including full details of the arrangements for weddings and funerals. So that there is no doubt, I point out that the organist has a right to ask for a fee, (not necessarily double the main fee,) in respect of the waiver of their right not to be recorded. That right is imparted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1986, as amended. (See Sections 180 -184.) Barry Williams

I understand there is to be a service for E H Warrell - sometimes known as Ernie or John - in Southwark Cathedral at 2.30 pm on Wednesday 8th September. A friend of mine, who has known him for around 30 years, anointed him the day before he died. Malcolm

Stanley Houlgate, in Brighton/Hove, who is very much alive and well, was born in February 1912 and was playing the organ in public as a church organist until about a year ago. Malcolm

Patrick - as usual - is quite right. Ultimately the church is not there to be run as a business; it is there to care about people, meet them where (whoever and whatever) they are, love them and lead them to the experience of God. There is no doubt that beautiful buildings, beautiful music and beautiful liturgy can help enormously but they also need the experience of loving, caring people - lay and ordained. The Diocese in which I live - in the wealthy, commuter land of south east England - very openly claims to be virtually bankrupt and cutting back at an alarming rate on full time, paid clergy. The Deanery in which I live, and its neighbouring Deanery, a few years ago, conducted a very time consuming and expensive review which has left us all in a worse state than we were before they started. There are many reasons why, locally, we are in such a mess and these are some of them : * 35 years of diocesan bishops putting clergy into jobs for which they were totally unsuited * clergy imposing on congregations levels of churchmanship which were inappropriate for that church and parish * lack of forward planning by PCCs * putting business needs before people needs * having the church run by people experienced in finance but not in pastoral issues. * lack of mission and outreach in many places A few years ago I attended a parish meeting at a very famous local church whose parish was being enlarged and which was having residential housing in its parish for the first time in 40 years. There was a lot of enthusiastic and well intentioned talk about producing leaflets to give people when they came into the church. When I suggested to the meeting that perhaps there was a need to go out to the people first, in order to encourage them to come in, people seemed to think I was mad and talking nonsense. Please don't get me going on this one or I shall run the risk of getting very angry and very rude. Malcolm

Speaking as someone who spent 40 yars in the Civil Service, I doubt whether the Church of Wales can come up with anything that is any worse than some of the time and money wasting training that I have experienced! Nearly all imported from the ..... Malcolm

The new Assistant at Chichester is Timothy Ravalde. Malcolm

No syllabus will ever please everyone but, from a quick perusal yesterday, the new lists of pieces seem infinitely better than what they are replacing. The old lists, to my mind, are frankly dire but that is my personal opinion and others may like them. The Thalben Ball and the Karg Elert need a great deal of skill and musicianship to bring them off well; I've heard both played badly on many occasions. I think it is also an excellent test of candidates, preparing them for life in the real world, if they sometimes have to play pieces in exams which, at least initially, they don't necessarily like. I can think of several pieces I have played in exams which initially I didn't particularly like but gradually grew to like very much indeed. The people setting the syllabus don't always get it totally right. I recallsome years ago now Reger's Dankpsalm breing set simulataneously for Grade 8 and FRCO. Malcolm

When, at tthe Crem, I'm told "organist's own choice in and out" I always play "O rest in the Lord" and "Cast thy burden upon the Lord". Malcolm

Having seen the work of Mr Stewen on another website used by a number of members of this Board I bought his book on The Straube Code. I ordered it from his own website and it arrived very quickly. I can highly recommend it. Very short - 33 pages - but packed with useful information and insights. Malcolm I hope you don't mind if I post another, very interesting (and IMNSHO a very fine) performance of the Reger Toccata in D minor Op.59: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZzQzrVJhfw There's more on the website in the commentary.

Getting back on track, I remember going to the lunch in celebration of the centenary of the RCO getting its Royal Charter. This as held at Whitbread's place in Chiswell Street round the back of the Barbican and very nice it was too. Malcolm

These days the RCO does a lot of things like this - all aimed at getting young people interested, with hands-on experience - from an early age. This Board features a lot of unkind criticism of the RCO but it does now have full time staff specifically there to provide outreach of this kind. It may operate from a PO Box in SE London but that cuts overheads and means more money for this kind of thing. It is a good many years ago now that the RCO stopped being (or being seen as) merely an examining body. Malcolm

Over the past couple of years I have bought a number of items on-line from firms based in the USA. I have to say that their customer service and speed of delivery (taking into account distance &c.,) put many of our UK firms to shame. Malcolm

The words "Him the holy, Him the strong" are from "Firmly I believe and truly" (Newman - Gerontius). Malcolm

According to Paul Trepte's notes for the Priory recording "The Holy Eucharist" which he made with the St Edmundsbury choir some years ago now the words are by Douglas J L Bean and, perhaps predictably, Harris wrote it for the Windsor choir. Sorry I can't help further.

I have said on this Board before that Rheinberger is a greatly under-rated composer and there is a lot of church choral music by him (mainly published by Carus, and in print) which is fairly short, effective, tuneful and well within the capabilities of a reasonably good amateur choir. The Passacaglia from Sonata No 8 is superb and I tend to play it with a leaning towards classical without being too extreme. If you have the Novello edition my strong advice is to buy a different one. as has already been mentioned, the Amadeus edition is pretty reliable. Malcolm

My understanding is that organisations like the RCO, RSCM & ISM can no longer offer recommended rates of pay because it is illegal to do so. What they do issue - generally in incomprehensible format - is details of average pay in various cateogries during the previous year. This is less than helpful but, apparently, it is curently the law. Malcolm

I had my first organ lesson when I was 14 and, with a few short breaks, continued to have lessons quite regularly until last year when I was 61. Hopefully I shall still have occasional organ lessons but I now have regular singing lessons instead. If you are going to teach regularly it is important to be taught regularly (by the right people) because that way you are able to keep abreast with current thoughts on performance practice and teaching styles. Some years ago there was an organist in the Brighton area who died at age 100 and even in his 90s tried to get a lesson from a London teacher once a year to check that he wasn't getting into bad habits. What an example to the rest of us! My teachers - including Richard Popplewell, Douglas Hawkridge, Anne Marsden Thomas, Jeremy Suter, Peter Wright, William Whitehead and Martin Baker (improvisation) - have used a wide variety of teaching styles and techniques and I have learnt from all of them. It has enabled me also, I hope, to see which of those styles work best and, more importantly, wich styles work best for which students. I suspect we all especially watch out for, and identify in our students, faults that our own teachers have identified in us and, perhaps their teachers identified.......... I found one of the people listed above did not suit me particularly well yet a temporarily erstwhile member of this Board considered him a very good teacher. This shows that, as has already been said, what suits one person won't suit another. Other very good supplementary teachers include mirrors, video cameras, metronomes and digital sound recorders - not to mention ones own ears. Oh - and another thng - everyone needs to have a course of lessons in Alexander Technique. Unfortunately we don't all have the time, circumstances or money to do everything we would like to do. I am extremely grateful to the Inland Revenue that four yeas ago at age 58 - with 40 years' service in the bag - they let me take early retirement with a decent pension which I can supplement with income from music. I am very conscious that many others are not nearly so lucky. Malcolm

I charge £30 per hour and nobody has objected to paying this much, so far as I am aware. I have several decades of experience both at teaching and playing and I am well qualified in terms of diplomas &c., I am aware of others who charge more. My last two teachers each charged £40 which I was happy to pay. In central London you would probably pay significantly more. Look at the St Giles International Organ School website which, if I remember correctly, tells you how much its individual teachers (not all in London) charge. As in eveything else you get what you pay for. I think it is important that you go to a teacher you can relate to as a person and who will neither terrify nor belittle you. That is very important for anyone. Choosing the right teacher for you - one who understands your individual problems and needs - is, in my opinion and experience, more crucial than how much they charge. If you go to someone really first-class they may be more expensive but work out cheaper ultimately because you will learn more from them, and therefore progress, more quickly. For me, having lessons is a bit like the pilgrimage concept; you work harder, value it more and get more out of it simply by going a geographical distance to get them. I suspect if I went to someone ten minutes walk away I wouldn't work so hard practising for the next lesson! It is not uncommon for me to spend nearly an hour with a student just going over one page of music with them very thoroughly and then suggesting they go away and apply what we have achieved and covered to the rest of the piece also. Arguably, they learn more that way. I can't see much point in letting someone play straight all the way through a piece at a lesson; it's a waste of their time and mine. So, don't judge a teacher by how many different pieces you can get through in one hour. Malcolm

It isn't in the Priory on-line catalogue yet. Malcolm

All the chapels owned by Brighton & Hove City Council - crematoria and cemetries - have the same model of 2 manual classically voiced Allen; perfectly adequate for the job and at least they work. There are no obvious locations within these chapels for pipe organs nor obvious evidence of there ever having been any, so I don't know what they had previously. It certainly helps having the same model in each chapel, especially if you are playing for back-to-back services in adjacent chapels. Malcolm

Dupre had enormous hands; not everybody is so blessed. As has already been stated, fingering is a personal thing and what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for someon else. Dupre's fingering, generally, is much like dy some people, but is widely regarded as over fussy and nbot necessarily always helping historically informed peformance. If you find the Vierne Toccata in B flat minor easy you are lucky. Most people find it comparatively difficult because it doesn't fall comfortably under the hands. Personally I find Handel concerti easier than the Vierne Toccata any day of the week, but then we are all physically and temperamentally different - thank goodness! Malcolm

Sometimes it helps the cause of an argument to take something to its logical extreme. One August in the mid-1970s, whilst at a nearby summer school of music, I secured a play on the organ over which pcnd now presides. As he points out, some of the pipework is very old. Yet, I doubt whether anyone playing that organ and using those ranks of pipes would expect the instrument to be pumped by hand and the music desk at the console lit by candles. As Patrick has observed, we argue endlessly on this forum about Tierce Mixtures and the kind of organ Bach would have played on, just as "experts" argue endlessly about how to play Bach on the organ. We forget sometimes that humans now tend to be taller than they were at the time of JSB. We forget at our peril that tastes change and change back again. History shows time and time again how each generation tends to reject the ideas and practices of the immediate previous generation. That is how we progress whether it be organ design, liturgy, education or anything else. Of course we don't always get it right, but as Eastern cultures such as Zen point out, nothing is ever the same because the moment is past. I have been playing the organ since 1962 and was interested in the organ for several years before that. In that time I have seen fashions in repertoire, playing style and organ design change considerably and, in some cases, begin to turn full circle. On Saturday in north London I heard French classical organ music of the Clerambault period played in a rather romantic style on a digital organ which imitates Cavaille-Coll; to me it sounded totally wrong. Ultimately, nobody can say definitely what is right and what is wrong. Malcolm

I would be absolutely furious. Malcolm

This is all so depressing but it does support my belief that I was absolutely right to give up regular work, employed by one church, almost a year again now. I occasionally play at local churches on Sundays as a freelance and that is fine as long as I don't get asked too often. (I often turn down requests for me to play on Sundays.) I just turn up, do as I'm asked, get paid and come away again, no admin or hassle with the church apart from getting the Vicar and/or, more often, the regular organist to decide and tell me in advance what is going to happen and in what order. It also enables me to choose where I shall worship in the congregation and when I shall do so. It enables to worship at the kind of church where I feel most comfortable. By preference I go to said services where one does not have to listen to appalling musical standards but around here, on Sundays these have almost completely disappeared. To repeat what I wrote on another site recently, music and religion are, and always have been, major priorities in my life but increasingly I accept what I have always quietly known, that the two are incompatible. Crematorium work is a different matter; you are aware that you are exercising a sensitive ministry to people at a difficult time in their lives and that can be very rewarding. Mourners often take trouble afterwards to tell you how much they have appreciated your playing. Malcolm

I suspect that in reality different parishes invent or impose their own rules locally. Malcolm