AJJ
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Posts posted by AJJ
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I do recall something about new soundboards - so you are probably correct. Perhaps there was room enough to squeeze both the Twelfth and Fifteenth on the new upperboards. I should also be interested to discover the pressure of the new G.O. 8ft. and 4ft. reeds. According to the NPOR, the choices are: 92mm or 225mm (Fanfare Trumpet). Neither sound right for the new reeds. I doubt that these days, H&H would make chorus reeds on such a low pressure for this relatively large building. Conversely, two hundred and twenty-five millimetres sounds too high. It is possible that no-one thought to include this detail in the survey, I suppose. I wonder if Andrew Lucas could shed any light on this matter?
A trip to the loft revealed that Andrew Lucas gives 3 5/8 inches for all the Great (presumably including the new reeds) and 9 inches for the Fanfare Trumpet in the 2009 book on the St Albans organ. The new 32/16 Fagotto on the Pedal is on 6 inches with the rest of the Pedal on 4 inches. Two blowers - one for the Fagotto and Fanfare Trumpet HP and another for the rest of the instrument.
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They have indeed. I wonder where they found the extra chest space for this - and the other additions to the G.O.? Perhaps this stop had originally united two slides in 1962 - although this does seem an unnecessary hindrance.
Weren't the chests renewed when the last work was done? The Swell also got its second 2' and another mixture.
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A bad organ is one that can not cope effectively with having music played on it - this is however not the same as one that a particular organist is not in sympathy with. I dislike intensely one particular instrument near here but can still make it sound musical. Whether or not it is fit for purpose is another matter - in this case it is not. Connsequently there is a strong argument for it to be replaced but I could not say in all honesty that it is actually a bad organ.
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I made my New Year's resolution just before Christmas when I handed in my notice. No more church work for me, ever again, after the end of January. This might sound sour, but in fact I feel the opposite. It is as if an unbearable weight has been lifted from my shoulders. As things stand, I have absolutely no desire to attend another church service until they carry me to one in my coffin. I wonder whether I'll be able to stick to my resolve... Yes, no problem!
'Just trying to find the 'like' button....... before remembering that this is the wrong forum for that!
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I will try and play at least something from the Orgelbuchlein every day, get the Langlais Suite Medievale sorted and not buy any more organ music till I've learned more of what I already posess.
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Yes - mind you - having heard a full evening demonstation of the ND organ reasonably recently at the hands of Phillipe Lefebvre it seems that it can be made to sound like anything you want. He certainly found some ideal Clicquot sounds, managed to register both the earlier and later Romantics/Symphonists authentically and then Chochereau and post Cochereau - almost like different instruments - this I think is the success of the organ - in the right hands. ND always was a special case yet recordings of Latry playing Vierne (and Messaien mind you) still sound very CC at their core.
It will be interesting to dig deep into the new CC DVD set - mine arrived yesterday and was spirited away as a Christmas present by Mrs AJ - looking forward to this - 'may need to leave the new Hammond Cochereau book for a while though!
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...and if you watch the new C-C DVD set which turned up as a present two days ago there is some quite revealing information about the organ from Olivier Latry. For instance on the effectiveness of the pretty much horizontal layout of the divisions, the full sets of C-C mutations and 16,8,4 reed choruses (incidentally, the C-C GO Bassons by all accounts are no longer so but reeds from another division exchanged at some point), the large ammount of older pipework, how the newer pipework was integrated, Cochereaus ideals and above all how the organ differs from S. Sulpiece for example in its 'quick fire' immediacy and 'National Church' situation. Furthermore they see the organ as continually evolving (as C-C seemed to have done) which would therefore give reason for new consoles and tonal 'updating' etc.
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I always play without shoes.
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Indeed - which is interesting. I would concur with this thought. I think that it is true to say that it is a similar case to that of the three Willis organs in the cathedrals of Hereford, Salisbury and Truro. The sound is identifiably Willis - yet each instrument has its own tonal 'personality', as it were. Each is readily identifiable - and not simply in the case of the 'missing' 32ft. reed at Truro.
Yes - mind you - having heard a full evening demonstation of the ND organ reasonably recently at the hands of Phillipe Lefebvre it seems that it can be made to sound like anything you want. He certainly found some ideal Clicquot sounds, managed to register both the earlier and later Romantics/Symphonists authentically and then Chochereau and post Cochereau - almost like different instruments - this I think is the success of the organ - in the right hands. ND always was a special case yet recordings of Latry playing Vierne (and Messaien mind you) still sound very CC at their core.
It will be interesting to dig deep into the new CC DVD set - mine arrived yesterday and was spirited away as a Christmas present by Mrs AJ - looking forward to this - 'may need to leave the new Hammond Cochereau book for a while though!
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There's a moral there somewhere I think...
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What was wrong with the not so old previous one?
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Jonathan Harvey taught me for a year at university - he was an inspirational teacher as well as one of the most imprtant and charismatic composers of his time. He was also a really decent person.
AJ
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Bristol Cathedral, Tuesday 4 December 1:15pm
Music for Advent and Christmas
Paul Walton plays a programme including Jackson, Bach, Baker, Hollins and Cochereau
This recital is the launch of Paul's new CD, Rejoice and be merry! Organ music for Christmas, recorded on Regent Records - Paul's first commercial recording and the first recording for 8 years of the organ of Bristol Cathedral. This will be available from Paul for £10. More details here:
http://www.paul-walt...ings/4569256178
Paul
And great fun it was too - very enjoyable!
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'Wouldn't play it myseif....... of course..... but would try and get hold of the services of Thomas Murray for the first half and Naji Hakim for the second half. I'd let them sort out their own programme from the point of view that the first would be bound to play something standard and/or transcriptions superbly well and the second something French and music of his own supremely well. It would be an interesting evening I think!
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I beg to disagree. Kenneth Tickell; Bruce Fowkes; Christopher Batchelor; Andrew Scott; Geoffrey Coffin; Trevor Crowe spring to mind. Two of these are FRCOs; another an ARCO.
And also down here in the West - Lance Foy, Stephen Cooke and David Coram.
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You'd be amazed what sounds you can get from a delicately out of tune Victorian job in a slightly cold and damp church. And as for clanking actions - 'plenty to choose from!
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I once turned up to play for a wedding in a particularly dark church where there were no lights functioning anywhere near the music desk or on the pedals - no one seemed particularly concerned either!
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Ha - the other one - now I have both!
Thanks
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'Got one now!
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Only one to play this year - Lessons & Carols on Christmas Eve. It will be packed and as ever fiendishly devious trying to work out how to achieve all the 'expected' effects on my now nicely restored Victorian 1 man. and ped. So - Balbastre Noels and JSB Orgelbuchlein before and BWV 729 and Robert Gower's arrangement of the Hallelujah Chorus (OUP book of Christmas music) for a change after. I usually try and write something to finish with but this year we're already doing a piece of mine earlier in the service so maybe best leave it at that!
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If you want to hear some superb playing on a great organ - and a transcription too - get hold of this:
https://itunes.apple...ite/id576298622
Only available as a download but you do get a digital booklet too.
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PS The link above seems to have $ but I got mine via iTunes in £.
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If anyone has a copy of this please could they pm me.
Thanks
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And nice to know there was nothing wrong with the 30 year old Nigel Church organ.......
Off topic but on the subject of instruments by Nigel Church - not quite 30 years old his largest at All Saints Friern Barnet (1984) is still going strong and sounding good. It was interesting to have had a small ammount of involvement when it was installed, although a short lived firm Church & Co, produced instruments of musical integrity.
http://npor.rcm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N07978
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I think St Alban's Abbey now has a Swell Suboctave that does not work on the 16' reed but does on the rest - presumably filling out the chorus but without the 'growling extremities' effects.
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I understand that Sheffield Cathedral has a Sing! programme - more details can be found on the cathedral's website. I wonder if this is similar?
And quite a few others these days too I seem to think.
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Exeter Cathedral Organ
in The Organ
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I have not heard the Exeter organ many times but when I have, in the context of a service in the Quire I felt it to be quite effective in a diffused Anglican sort of way. Certainly there are some nice 'service' sounds but the sum of the whole seems to have had so many tinkerings over the years as to have lost its sense of direction somewhat - also the case with other similar instruments. The fact though that the Swell and Great are both speaking through the side of the instrument rather than directly into Quire or Nave adds to this 'neither one thing nor the other' feel - Wells is similar in this situation.
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