pcnd5584
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Posts posted by pcnd5584
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Whilst I would not for a moment argue that the New College organ is an easy instrument on which to accompany an Anglican choral service, it is nevertheless GDB's magnum opus. Whilst I have little doubt that there are many who would gladly consign all of GDB's work to the skip and regard the world as a better place for it, I think this would be very short-sighted. To the unprejudiced, it is a superbly musical (albeit uneclectic) instrument and it would be a shame if it were lost.
As I wrote, I would not necessarily condone this course of action. However, it appears that ample precedent for the replacement of existing instruments has been set amongst the Oxbridge colleges. In reality, this organ may well be there for another fifty years.
For the record, although I suspect that I would not particularly care for the New College instrument*, the Degens and Rippin (as they were then) additions at Christchurch Priory were and are some of the most exciting sounds on this instrument.
* Visually, I cannot do other than to regard it as a serious impediment in this otherwise beautiful chapel. Some may consider the concept and execution of the case to be striking or even exciting. But it is difficult to deny that it is at odds with its surroundings. It has been said that contrast alone can allow an object to sit comfortably within a particular environment . To my eyes, the contrast here is too great to be effective.
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Bear in mind that there are three organists: the Organist and Master of the Choristers, the Assistant Organist, and the Second Assistant Organist & Director of the Parish Choir. There may be some scope for manoeuvre here.
This is a fair point.
However, I wonder - does the cathedral currently employ three organists because they are necessary (due to the workload), or is this possibly an example of a less-than-careful stewardship of resources? In any case, is it physically possible for one assistant both to play for services involving the Cathedral Choir and those which employ the Parish Choir - or would this result in an unreasonable workload (for the financial reward)?
In any case, I hope that the cathedral authorities will be able to find a way of safeguarding the musical life of the cathedral, with as little loss of 'resources' as possible.
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To appoint someone who wishes to replace the instrument according to current thinking would be a mistake, whatever their strengths as a musician and academic.
To be fair, this is arguable.
For one thing, there may be no financial provision for any work on the instrument - much less full replacement*. Secondly, it is not as if this type of thing has never happened before. (It is possible that there have been at least two cathedrals in which this has happened during the last twenty years.) In any case, some Oxbridge colleges seem to change or alter their instruments rather more frequently than many other places. Perhaps this is indicative of the environment. (Many opposing ideas and strong personalities, substantial money available or even a desire to 'make a statement' - or simply to have something new.)
I do not necessarily condone such a course of action - I merely offer the above as an observation.
* Although this hardly ever seems to be a problem at either Oxford or Cambridge.
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Can someone confirm exactly what is and what is not happening in this case, please, and correct my understanding of necessary?
The petition reports that the professional choir is being "shut down", but that's not quite the message I receive from the cathedral's magazine for December (http://www.llandaffcathedral.org.uk/documents/BELLDecember2013Final.pdf), Stephen Barber's link above and other information on the web. Rather it appears that the twelve gentlemen in the back rows are being reduced to six - by no means an unheard-of size for a cathedral choir. I do not know what is meant by the proposal to pay adult "choristers" on an occasional basis for weekends and special seasons - are these extras to be brought in as needed, or what?
The possible redundancy of the assistant organist seems a more serious and curious matter - if that is indeed what is meant.
I am not seeking to dispute or trivialise this calamity, but the cathedral has got itself into a financial fix - the reasons for which, better or worse, are a fait accompli - and it obviously has to find a viable way forward. In the circumstances I doubt that a petition will make any difference. An practical alternative business plan might.
This seems to be eminently sensible, Vox.
Whilst it appears that the situation is potentially rather serious (notwithstanding the somewhat mixed accounts), it does occur to me that any reduction in the resources of the musical life of the cathedral would need to be considered very carefully - something which I hope will be the case, here. Given that many worshippers attend cathedral services primarily for the quality and style of the music, any steps which could endanger this important facet of the worship may have an alarmingly negative impact on the life of the cathedral.
If, as seems possible, it is intended to abolish the post of Assistant Organist, surely it would be rather difficult to maintain the repertoire and quality of the choral services. With regard to our church, It is true that there are occasions when my colleague is absent and it is necessary for me to direct the choir whilst playing the organ, However this is made easier by the fact that the console is situated behind the Cantoris Gentlemen's stalls - and virtually on the same level. Our Decani Tenor competently relays my beat to the Cantoris.trebles and Gentlemen. However, given the location of the new console at Llandaff, I doubt that this will be quite so straightforward. In any case, this pre-supposes that, if indeed this information is accurate, the cathedral authorities can legally make such a move, without opening themselves to litigation.
Whilst I understand that there were many in the financial world who either did not see, or failed to heed warnings regarding the 'crash' of 2008*; it does seem a little strange that this situation appears to have taken the cathedral authorities almost by surprise. The organ was initially incomplete when first built, due to a shortage of funds. Surely the cathedral Treasurer must have had some inkling that all was not well?
This said, the loss of six Lay Clerks, whilst undesirable (particularly of one happens to be amongst that number), is sustainable. Salisbury - and Chichester - have indeed managed quite well on this number. (Although in the case of Salisbury, there have been several occasions when I have felt that this was an inadequate number, given the great size of the cathedral; the sound lacked 'body'.)
Perhaps someone will find a treasure which could be sold, in order to raise funds. Whilst I would not normally advocate disposing of items of great worth (as has often been the case with regard to stately homes since the introduction of Death Duties, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century), this is surely better than the alternative.
*For want of a better term. I am not a financial expert, so I am not really sure how to describe the events which took place in this year.
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Never rely on YouTube as an authority: you'll end up believing that there's an anthem "Rejoice in the Lord alway" written by Robert Redford (who, admittedly, is more likely to have written it than John Redford).
Some of those old movie stars were quite mufti-talented, you know....
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Many thanks to those who have replied.
I am now rather concerned; it is as I suspected - the instrument needs to be insured separately.
I shall contact our treasurer shortly.
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Looks like Edward Higginbottom is leaving New College Oxford (after an extraordinary tenure of 37 years!):
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AHS060/tutorial-fellowship-and-organist-lectureship-in-music/
Interesting.
I wonder if his successor will like the organ....
(I realise that playing it will probably be the last thing that he or she will have time to do - but it will still be necessary to listen to it accompany the choir and to play voluntaries.)
And, yes - I know. We have been here before, as well.
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The acoustics are good. The church has recently had the nave re-ordered - previously there were raised wooden areas on which the chairs stood - these have gone to be replaced with an all new floor with underfloor heating, and this has enhanced the acoustic. The mixtures on the organ certainly take flight!
Thank you for this. If only we could do something similar.
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... It was also interesting to note that my opinion of Britten is shared by a number of other members of the choir - so maybe he polarises opinion somewhat?
I think that this may well be the case. Amongst our gentlemen of the choir there is a similar feeling. About the only one who likes anything of Britten's works is our main alto - and even then, this is limited to Rejoice in the Lamb. (He also admits that this is due almost entirely to the presence of the alto solo 'For the mouse...'.) Whilst it would indeed be foolish to question either Britten's musicianship or his virtuoso piano technique, I am still not convinced that he really understood the organ. He certainly did not regard it highly as an instrument.
Britten's Hymn to Saint Cecilia: not twaddle, certainly. But I do not like it any more for this. I find several of the key changes unsatisfying. The various sections seem too disparate; to my ears, there is a lack of overall unity. A few parts of it sound like a classically trained musician trying to write what was perceived as a vaguely jazz style. Not my thing at all. I have tried to listen to both the King's College recording and that by The Cambridge Singers. Whilst both are beautifully sung, this music leaves me cold.
I suppose that we cannot all like the same thing.
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... As for the Jubilate in C, a miniature masterpiece of Mozartian perfection, hands would have been available for registration on both sides of the player at St George’s, Windsor. (I have never understood why many organists here shun the use of registrants. Perhaps it’s that we have more pistons, etc, than most continentals.)
To pick up on one point: I can think of a number of reasons why many organists shun the use of registrants. Here are just a few:
1) They would almost certainly wish to be paid - particularly if they were to be engaged regularly.
2) One would need to rehearse with them. Now it gets complicated. I have enough trouble finding time to practise on our organ when I am not teaching, when the building is not in use and when I am not too tired to achieve anything worthwhile. If one had also to allow for one or two others also to be available, the logistics become even more difficult.
3) What happens when one or both are ill or indisposed - or simply stuck in traffic?
4) I dislike using registrants. I have found that even reliable people can make mistakes - so this is yet another thing to worry about.
5) Using registrants (who would need to rehearse, whilst following a per-arranged registration plan) is too inflexible, What happens when a number of choir members are ill, or unable to attend on a particular day? On my own, I can simply re-set a few pistons with smaller-scale combinations. If one had to rely on registrants in such instances (more common than might be supposed), there may simply not be any time to explain a new scheme to them, with consequently different hand movements. it is also extremely likely that there would not be any time to rehearse an amended scheme.
6) If (as is likely), the registrants were not organists, then they could probably not be left to adapt or to 'improvise' in a given situation, since they would not necessarily understand the philosophy behind what the player required - or, in the wider sense, the art of registration.
I was once in the tribune at S. Sulpice, whilst Mme. Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin was rehearsing - with two registrants. Before each piece, it was necessary for all three of them to consult a large ring-binder, decide who was going to do what and when, then prepare the stops - and then to rehearse their hand movements; this necessitated much starting and stopping. I realise that the organ at S. Suplice is perhaps less manageable than most large British instruments, but nevertheless, it may serve to highlight certain problems inherent in using registrants. Furthermore, I wonder how long it took to draw up the registration schemes for each piece and compile them in this binder? Each was quite detailed. In addition, of course, there were many markings on the score - using a code presumably devised between the three of them. Some were on Post-it notes. These are fine - until they lose their adhesive properties.
With regard to Britten's hymn harmonisations in Noye's Fludde and Saint Nicolas. They are certainly different. I still find them gauche to my ears. Certainly, I have never felt that they actually worked effectively in performance.
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There are a number of stopped 16ft. ranks which are more effective than certain full-length 32ft. stops - particularly wooden ranks. One or two of them are even in buildings with dry acoustic properties. A stopped 16ft. can be a really good solution.
A Compton-type polyphone is indeed another possibility. An extant example is that in Launceston Central Methodist Church, Cornwall. This instrument was originally built by John Compton, in 1909. The Pedal Organ included a stop labelled 'Double Open Wood 32ft.' - which was, in fact, a polyphone. As far as I can recall, it consisted of six pipes in the 32ft. octave, each pipe being made to speak two notes, in order to provide a full octave.
Another possibility is his 'cube bass'. As far as I know, these units never went below E in the 32ft. octave - I believe that the lowest four notes simply repeated. Here is a link to an image of the cube bass* at Christchurch Priory: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/XMLFunctions.cgi?Fn=GetPicture&Rec_index=D06714&no=3 . A local organ builder has just constructed one for a church about twenty miles away. I believe that a well-known large firm supplied the plans, which were presumably either based on those of Compton, or were drawn up by reverse-engineering an existing unit.
Haskelled pipes can work - although those at the RFH never spoke well in that arid acoustic ambiance. Neither did they add anything much in the way of gravitas or real weight. (I am fairly certain that this was stipulated in this manner by Ralph Downes. The last thing that he would have wanted was a 'rolling' cathedral-style Double Open Wood effect, such as the type of 32ft. wood stop which is a feature of several large vintage Harrison organs.)
Perhaps an acoustic effect might be considered by some to be the worst option. However, if such a stop were to utilise the Bourdon from middle C of the pedal-board, with the Bourdon 'repeating' (at 16ft. pitch) for the lowest twelve notes and with independent quint pipes, this might work. On my 'own' church organ, I can obtain some surprisingly good effects, using the Bourdon 'on itself' - low D and A above is good, as is F# and C#. G and D are fairly good, as is bottom C and the G above. However, for A and B-flat, I play the C# and the D below, respectively. With no Pedal couplers, this gives a fairly realistic 32ft. rumble - although it should not work in this way. There is another example of a partly stopped and partly acoustic 32ft. Bourdon known to me: that at Kilkhampton Parish Church, North Cornwall. This stop (added to an already old instrument, by T.C. Lewis, in 1892), It is formed by extending the Sub Bass (16ft.) down to G, in the 32ft. octave, then sounding the fundamental with the fourth below. Again, this technically should not work. On paper, the resultant note would be a second inversion of whatever chord was played above. However, in practice, it is one of the most effective and realistic 32ft. stops I have ever met. The church is acoustically dead, so the good result is even more surprising. This may in part be due to the comparatively wide scale and substantial thickness of these pipes.
The problem with digital 32ft. stops is, that in order to be effective, the bass horn needs to be substantial - about sixteen feet long; and of very stout construction. A polyphone would take less room than this.
* Presumably I have these terms the correct way around. A polyphone is (as I understand it) a pipe with a number of holes along its length, over which are fitted large 'keys', which were controlled pneumatically (or electrically?). Thus a single pipe might be made to speak up to six notes - although, as you state, only one note could sound at any one time. However, a cube bass consisted of a wooden pipe, of about nine feet or so in length, with a shorter section on top of this. Inside were a number of chambers, which could be opened in various combinations, in order to produce the different pitches of the 32ft. octave - down to low E.
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If only I knew, pcnd! I was merrily typing and the 1 / 3 (without spaces) suddenly flipped to the ⅓ you see. It's never happened before. I would never even think of trying to achieve that on an online forum, although when working in other situations I will futz around trying to use the correct unicode fraction and font. I'll see which other fractions work here:
⅔ ¼ ½ ¾ 1/5 3/5 4/5 1/6 ... Ah, so a nice feature, but limited. 127/128? Does that feature in the new Notre Dame spec?
Thank you for this!
Nôtre-Dame? Goodness - I hope not. This instrument has acquired enough mutations over the years to please even the most ardent Baroqueophile.
(Is that even a word?)
(And in case anyone is wondering what I am doing posting at 18:57 on a Sunday, I have had a rare day off, with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta Chorus singing an unaccompanied Evensong. And very nice it was too.)
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I wonder if I could ask for some advice from other board members, please.
As far as I can ascertain, our pipe organ here is not insured separately, but only as part of the overall insurance of the building and its contents. I am not sure of the sum, but, whilst it is fairly substantial, if the unthinkable happened and the building was seriously damaged by fire (with the consequent loss of the organ), I am worried that the following might happen.
Our beautiful cruciform Minster church (parts of which date from the Saxon period), is severely damaged by fire. The organ, a large three-clavier instrument containing a few hundred pipes dating from 1664 and 1764, is virtually destroyed. After the clear-up is completed, the church authorities engage an ecclesiastical architect, who proposes a radical rebuilding and re-ordering of the church, together with some pieces of specially commissioned glass-work and sculpture, for example. This naturally takes much of the insurance. Then, we would be left with few choices. Either:
1) To install an somewhat smaller instrument, which would not be capable of supporting large congregations, for example.
2) Installing a redundant organ - which may be unsuitable by reasons of either size or design and may, in any case, need costly restoration of its own.
3) Have to launch an appeal to the wider community, in order to try to raise funds for a suitable instrument. (In the present economic climate, this could take a considerable time.)
4) Put up with an electronic substitute - possibly for several years.
The following information may help.
The Church:
Is cruciform in shape, with North and South aisles both East and West of the Crossing. There are two towers: one over the central crossing and one (with a belfry and a peal of thirteen bells) at the West end of the Nave. Predominantly the architecture of the Nave and Crossing is Norman (although unusually with slightly pointed arches to the arcades). The East end becomes gradually more Decorated in style, with some beautiful medieval glass in the East windows. Maximum seating capacity (with extra chairs), is probably around 850.
The Organ:
Is a three-clavier instrument, originally by Robert Hayward (1664), then Seede (1764), Robson (1856), then Walker (1867, 1899, 1965). It is currently maintained by Lance Foy, of Truro.
There are fifty-four speaking stops (which includes a small amount of extension on the Pedal Organ) and fourteen couplers, making a total of sixty-eight registers. The scheme includes sixteen ranks of mixtures, three full-length flues (two of spotted metal and one of wood), two full-length reeds (one of wood) and a horizontal reed (which stops at C13). The console is detached and is a handsome piece of work, with ivory keys, stop-and piston-heads and with rosewood key-cheeks and divisional stop-jamb panels.
The Music:
There is a four-part choir (involving gentlemen and both boys and girls). They sing a wide-ranging repertoire, from plainsong and a fourteenth-century mass setting, up to Britten and even Will Todd (Mass in Blue). There are normally two fully choral services each Sunday (with Choral Mattins on the second Sunday of each month). During Holy Week, there are often special services. In addition, the choir sings at all major festivals. The Advent Candlelight Service and the unaccompanied singing of the Litany with motets on Good Friday morning are particular highlights. Any instrument in this church would be called upon to provide a suitable accompaniment to a great variety of choral works, psalms and hymns, to lead the choir and congregation (often quite large) in the singing of hymns and to provide a great variety of voluntaries and improvised incidental music at several points - particularly during the mass.
Could anyone advise as to whether I should attempt to persuade our church authorities that this superb instrument should be insured against fire and malicious damage (for example), as a separate entity from the building and its other contents, please?
In addition, if anyone has any experience of this sort of thing, I should be grateful to hear from you.
Thank you.
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I seem to recall that the lowest few notes of the Montre 16' on the Rieger at Christ Church, Oxford are as Tony describes; 16' stopped + 8' open "helper". And the same technique is used, an octave higher, for the lowest notes of the 8' Diapason on small-ish church instruments. I too don't understand the 16' stopped + 5 ⅓' as described by Nigel. There would be a noticeable missing 8' partial.
With tenuous relevance to the question in hand: how did you get such a neat effect with your fractions, please, innate? Mine, even with super- and sub-script (but no unison off-script....) and the smallest type size still straggles above and below the line of type. Which is most unsatisfactory.
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My good friend who is organist at the church to which I allude recently managed to reharmonise Benson to include the Petrushka chord. I was glad not to have been there that day.
Malcolm
Indeed. There is also the slightly distressing (accidental) quote from Auld Lang Syne, in Darke's Communion Serivce, in F*. (Yes, I know that this is not a hymn - but it still bothers me.)
* Gloria - second system, bars three to five, treble line.
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That's the one. Of course, I shan't have a Tuba so can't play them exactly as written! And its Howells Coll Reg on Wednesday which goes without saying!
To quote 'Jazz Man' (The Fast Show): "Nice." What is the acoustic like? (I am thinking of the Howells, in particular.)
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I would concur entirely with the views of both Tony and innate, as above.
Indeed there are a number of clearly documented instances of well-known organ writers reviewing the Pedal Bourdon ranks on older instruments by FHW, for example. In these, one often finds the criticism that, in addition to a transient 'cough' the third harmonic is present to an unduly prominent degree - thus mitigating against good, clear speech. One commentator then went on to state that he felt that such Pedal Bourdons were inferior to the magnificent new Sub Basses being currently built at Durham (at that time).
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I do transpose the last verse very rarely. And upwards, of course. No wandering around in the between-verses, though I like the modulations of Rutter's "Look at the world"...
....but what I wanted to tell you, is one of the most amusing memories of a misunderstanding:
Years ago, I was a visitor to a service in a small R. C. church in Northern Germany, diaspora, so. There is a modern song (well, from 1961), which is usually stepped up a semitone in every of its six verses.
And normally, this is done by making the final note of the current verse the third of the modulating dominant seventh chord to the next verse - making the final C of the C major verse the third of the A-flat 7 chord, modulating to the following D-flat verse.
Well, of course you know that. And it works best with songs, where the first and the last note are the base of the scale, as it is the case with that vertain melody.
So, it should have been:
Well, the lady playing the toaster may have heard an explanation of this method. Once upon a time....
But, what did we hear on that sunday morning?
This happened two more times (they did not perform all the verses), and every time congregation, singers group and organist celebrated that metric stop at a verse's end, the listening to that isolated magic chord, and then started the next verse a whole tone higher...
It was so astonishing not to see ANYBODY with a trace of doubt, that this modulation rite was not the real thing...
Ha! So did the congregation manage the last verse without tears of effort streaming down their faces?
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Horrible habit! I have very occasionally done it to a worship song/chorus thing and I always do it to At the name of Jesus to Camberwell - though i have a slightly extended interlude and go up a tone with some silly harmonies. Goes down a treat and is at least as tasteful as the tune itself. (If anyone wants a copy, PM me.) I dare say Bach would have treated Camberwell with a little freedom as well!
I did once transpose the last verse of Amazing Grace up a perfect fourth - but only because I wished to kill it stone dead. It worked - we have never had to sing it since. (Whilst I would not normally resort to such an extreme course of action, I detest this hymn absolutely.)
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I'm playing Britten's Jubilate on Wednesday coming on an organ with no pistons (I'm sure pcnd knows the one as I've spoken of it before!). Fortunately it's been pre-registered for me (as are most things). I've not been looking forward to it since I saw it on the music list - it might help if I liked the piece but frankly I think its three minutes of absolute twaddle. Tomorrow evening I'm also on duty when the Hymn to St C is on the list - not a piece I know so I'll be interested to see what I make of it. Fortunately I have Blair and Howells to enjoy as the canticle settings, so all is not lost! I'm afraid I share pcnd's general lack of appreciation for Britten's music from what I've heard, although I couldn't say how he compares in terms of his output as a whole, not knowing it well enough.
I hope that it goes well for you. Thank you for your comments.
Blair - would that be Hugh Blair's setting of the Evening Canticles, in B minor? If so, this is indeed a good setting. I have to agree regarding the Britten Jubilate. I have often wished that HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh had been doing something else on that day.... I also once had to play it without pistons - on the old four-clavier toaster at Christchurch Priory. There were pistons - lots of them. However, the previous night, some workmen from Makin Organs had been doing something to it and had accidentally dropped a screw or something metal down inside the console and somehow, this managed to fuse the entire combination system.
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C to E are from a stopped 16ft and a Quint (5 1/3 of course - I imagined everyone would understand that) ...
Since you did not specify the pitch of the quint, actually - no.
I can see even less point in having an octave quint pitch sounding. We have such an effect here (although in this case the is stop derived from the Bourdon). Even allowing for separate pipes and different voicing, the effect here is utterly pointless. All one gets is a Bourdon with a parallel octave quint. There is no resultant with the combination of these two pitches. Neither does it enhance the 16ft. register. I have never encountered this marriage between two such pitches before - other than on my own church instrument. If the 5 1/3ft. quint is subsumed so successfully into the fundamental pitch, this begs the question as to whether it was necessary in the first place; a well-voiced Sub Bass (if there is insufficient height for a full-length stop) is surely entirely adequate.
I am reasonably familiar with resultant 32ft. effects - such as the mutations at Nôtre-Dame de Paris, S. Sulpice, Gloucester Cathedral (Briggs/Nicholson, 2000) and Belmont Abbey (Briggs/Nicholson, 2010) †. in addition, there are a number of instruments either by Compton, or with additions by Compton, which possess various 32ft. effects, or 'Harmonics' stops. There is a recent reconstructed example near here at Christchurch Priory - although in this case, the stop has been re-constituted by Nicholsons. It involves a number of pitches being tapped off the Bourdon. Another example is the former Compton instrument in Saint Peter's, Parkstone, Here, in 1982/3, the consultant Roger Fisher retained the two Compton 'Harmonics' stops - of 32ft. and 16ft.
However, as I stated, I have never encountered a 16ft. metal flue stop which peters out into a stopped bass - but with a parallel 5 1./3ft. quint inseparably linked to each of the lowest five notes.* As the only 16ft. flue stop, it would be interesting to learn of the rationale for this.
† Interestingly, in both of the English instruments cited, Briggs omitted the 5 1/3ft. register, instead providing a Quint at 10 2/3ft., a [Grosse] Tierce at 6 2/5ft. and a [Grosse] Septième at 4 4/7ft.
* Out of interest, what happens on low F? The stop-list, as sprondel points out, states that the Principal runs only to F#.
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Fascinating, David - thank you.
I can understand and appreciate your comments regarding Peter Grimes - I have tried with this, as I did with Billy Budd a few nights ago. Unfortunately, I just do not like Britten's harmonic language - nor, often, his construction. For me, the achievements of Gerontius and Belshazzar are such that it does not really matter if either composer never reached such sublime heights again - if indeed this is true.
However, I can happily respect your enjoyment of Britten. After all, I am well aware that many found Cochereau to be unconventional and even bizarre - particularly when playing repertoire (where his record is, it must be admitted, uneven). This said, I simply do not regard Britten as a great composer.
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Did anyone else watch the BBC 4 programme on Wells Cathedral on Tuesday night? Sadly I didn't find the first programme in the series (Wakefield) very inspiring ...
Indeed - in fact, I found it to be quite depressing in several ways.
Regarding the Wells edition, I have not seen it yet. I might watch it tonight. However, apparently at one point an interviewee states that the cathedral staff were very friendly - which I found odd. I found the vergers (on the two occasions that I had to play for visiting choirs) to be the least friendly and helpful I have ever encountered.
The last time I played there was at short notice. No-one had tried to book me any practice - and if they had, they would have been thwarted, since there was an evening concert and the building was in use for another rehearsal for most of the afternoon. When I got there, I was met by the organist for the evening event who said rather brusquely: 'You can't have any channels, I've used the last spare one.' Okay, I thought, you have a concert to play for. However, this was not particularly helpful. At this point, the choir was filling the stalls, and the director was about to begin the rehearsal. I had time to try the Swell pistons, then simply had to get on with it, hoping that the resident assistant's settings were 1) in crescendo order and 2) conventional for a four-clavier Harrison with some upper-work grafted on. No, I realise that this was not the vergers' fault - but they were still both unhelpful and unconcerned. Since we were providing the cathedral and its visitors with a free Choral Evensong, with good quality music sung well, I found this attitude to be rather unfortunate.
On the previous occasion, I had more practice time - but apparently only if I played at an almost inaudible volume. At one point (within a few minutes of the start of the full practice), I simply had to get some idea of balance, at least on the Swell, so I tried a few chords; almost instantly a verger bounded up the stairs and said loudly 'I told you yo play QUIETLY!'. Since he and his colleague had apparently been throwing pews around the Nave all afternoon, creating a huge din, I found this to be objectionable,. However, since I was a visitor, I held my peace, and merely wished that the wheels of his car would simultaneously work loose at an inconvenient moment (when no-one else was on the road, naturally).
This was quite a contrast to the resident staff of Chester Cathedral this summer - who could not have been more welcoming and helpful if I had announced my intention to donate a six-figure sum to the cathedral's coffers. For the record, I still did all my practice quietly there - on the Swell Stopped Diapason with the box closed, coupled to everything apart from the Solo clavier.
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Each to his own - we've been here before - but I've always admired Britten's organ accompaniments, especially the Jubilate and Rejoice in the Lamb. There are some tricky patches in the Jubilate, but I find it more organ-friendly than, say Kelly in C Magnificat and no more hairy than the introduction to Stanford in A. The crescendo is difficult - what usually works for me is to start it as bright as one can get away with, let the choir do most of the crescendo (a lot of which is inherent in the music) and do what I can with the odd tap on the swell pedal and possibly a couple of pistons en route. It helps to have more than one enclosed department. I love Rejoice in the Lamb and particularly how well the organ illustrates the various movements. It's not hard to play (or sing), especially compared with something like the Chichester Psalms. Noyes Fludde is another example of the imaginative and effective use of the organ.
As you say - each to his own. (Although I am afraid that I regard Britten as greatly over-rated. Give me Howells, or Elgar any day. I am not sure how one could state that Britten was 'Britain's greatest composer' * when compared with The Dream of Gerontius, or even certain works by Bax, or Walton. For me, Belshazzar's Feast towers over anything Britten wrote - including the War Requiem - which frankly leaves me cold.)
I should rather play Stanford, in A any day. I have never found the first page to be particularly troublesome. The clavier change to the Choir Organ at the end of the top line of the second page I regard as more awkward to pull off cleanly - particularly since it happens from one swiftly moving quaver to another - and one also has to remember either to play the pedals up an octave for a few bars, or to find time to cancel the Pedal 16ft. stop(s).
I would agree with you regarding Kelly, in C - although I view this setting with distaste, in any case. I once had to play it at Christ Church, Oxford - having learned it that morning. I thought that the effort involved greatly outweighed the end result.
The Britten Jubilate central crescendo: I am not sure this works. it really needs to be kept quiet (and more foundational) at first. In any case, since our third division here is a superb (but unenclosed) Positive Organ, one has to rely on pistons and, as you say, a few quick pokes at the Swell pedal. The problem with that here is that (thankfully) the connection is mechanical - but, as a result, heavy; so if the foot movement is too quick, or not quite forceful enough, nothing happens at all - or the shutters open fully, bounce back on the 'stop', then partly close again.
Again, it is, as you imply, a matter of taste, but I found playing the accompaniment to Bernstein's Chichester Psalms considerably more satisfying than accompanying Saint Nicolas, for example.
* I believe this was the BBC Music magazine - but it might have been an announcer on Radio Three or Four.
Aubertin at Vichy – that 16-foot Principal
in Nuts and bolts
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Thank you for this, Friedrich - this makes much more sense. (At least, your reply does - my ability to translate German is limited to brand-names of lager and organ stops.)