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AJJ

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  1. I recently commissioned a piece from the young composer Amy Summers. She has been ‘in residence’ at Nottingham RC Cathedral and is currently studying on a masters course in composition at Trinity College in London. She has produced some lovely liturgical music that deserves investigating and has a fb page with information etc. I have written about her in a recent Organists’ Review article also.

    https://www.nottinghamcathedralmusic.com/blog/amy-summers-composer-in-residence-profile

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  2. At times I feel that we organists don’t do ourselves any favours and on occasions the stereotypical view ‘out on the streets’ so to speak is not always favourable. The fact that on many occasions the music comes firmly second to the ‘mystique’ with many organists or organ aficionados (do other instruments have similar I wonder?) must be enough to put many off regardless of gender! The technicality and tonal mysteries are all well and good but without the music what is the point?

    I recently went to a local organists meeting where the centre of attention was a nice medium sized typical ‘village’ instrument, good action and musical sounds. An encouraging number attended with a good number of young players (male and female) who all turned up with appropriate pieces and played really well. There was a significant number (all male) however who came without music and ‘improvised’ in a decidedly unmusical manner. Yet this seemed totally acceptable to them! Most were local church players and when not on the bench could be found in huddles mulling over the beauty of the Swell strings, the fact that there was no electronic combination action or what would make the instrument even better for playing French music on. Enough to put anyone off forever!

    Working as I do with musicians of all levels and ages (and many outside the organist fraternity) I really feel that gender aside we need to remember that this mystique should not replace musicianship. The instrument is only as good as the player as with a piano, flute or even rock guitar.  This applies to church music generally too I feel...but that’s for another forum!

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  3. On 12/03/2019 at 17:21, David Drinkell said:

    The stop-list in NPOR contains some inaccuracies - refer to the photographs to reveal all.   I remember this organ well from my student days (when it was quite new!) but I haven't heard it since it Nicholsons' work on it. 

    IMHO it sounds much more ‘rounded’ since the recent work. The ‘fonds’ are much warmer and  although very much in the style in which they were built the reeds are bettr regulated and again have more warmth. The new Positif reed is nice as are the new 16’ reed and Open Diapason on the Swell. It is still the same instrument but (maybe in a similar way to the last work at St Albans Abbey for instance) it sounds more comfortable and less edgy. I am starting to sound like one of those write-ups from ‘The Organ’ journal in the 50s and 60s but the above seems to convey things nicely. The mechanical action is also much better to play on. Well used for recitals etc. and worth a visit.

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  4. This can be obtained as a CD or iTunes download. I also heard his ‘Poème sur un Choral Imaginaire’ at ND some years ago - an extended piece using both the west end and east end organs. This is available on Youtube too and deserves to be better known - an amazing sonic experience!

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  5. I was thinking about all this with the recent death of Peter Hurford in mind. My ‘local’ diocesan cathedral back in the 60s and 70s was St Albans and I grew up with trips there as part of a visiting choir, being taken to performances by the St Albans Bach Choir, visiting the IOF and eventually playing for parts of a visiting choir service. To this enthusiastic youth it seemed that we had a cathedral organ like no other and whether in its liturgical role or as a recital instrument it never ceased to amaze. Even today after its recentish rehash and dare I say completion it still excites in the same way as Coventry and Windsor do.

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  6. 6 hours ago, MusoMusing said:

    I would be interested to know how you found the St Mary Boltons Compton...

    It was many years ago that I was there and I seem to remember that someone (possibly Walkers) changed the Swell Schalmei unit for an Oboe at some point since. It sounded quite pleasant with that ‘up front’ voicing one often finds with smaller Comptons. The organist who organised its installation (maddeningly I still can not recall his name) wanted something on which he could play more ‘classical’ schools of organ music with their associated colours and choruses as things seemed to be heading that way in other places. Boltons was likely a wealthy and fashionable church then and having Comptons do it was possibly a brave experiment. I remember Ralph Downes commenting that some of Roger Yates’ work had a ‘whiff of Willis III about it’ and I suppose that similarly with the Boltons organ some of the (perceived) classical elements were there but with quite a lot of Compton too.

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  7. 34 minutes ago, MusoMusing said:

    How interesting that you mention Roger Yates. He crossed my mind also, because he rebuilt an old Brindley organ at Oakham

    Going back to the mid--1950's, (post Festival Hall), one of the first to tread the neo-classical path was Noel Mander. Around this time, quite a few rebuilds saw the inclusion of unenclosed Positive organs playing "Organ Wars" with the rest of the pipework. There's one very close to me from the 1960's, at Bingley PC.....Hill organ, all mechanical with a Ruckpositive behind the console. The consultant was Francis Jackson at the time.

    Incredibly, Compton also indulged in this at St Bride's, Fleet Street, with an unenclosed Positive surrounded by Swell boxes containing the rest of the organ pipework. It's been re-cast with many new pipes since, but when I played it 30 years ago, I thought it actually blended rather nicely....but then....it was a Compton.

    I haven't exhausted the research yet, but it's fascinating to recall how a major organ-builder (which Compton were at the time) should so suddenly fall of a cliff and find themselves utterly unfashionable and even despised by some.

     

    Possibly the work at Bingley was done by Walker.

     http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N01703

    This Compton was always quite fun to play and hear. I once chatted at some length with the organist who designed it (I have forgotten his name) when he interviewed me for a degree place (which I never took up) in his later capacity as DOM at St John’s College York.

    http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N17245

    John Rowntree did a doctorate on some aspects of this, John Norman and Paul Hale also have much to share.

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  8. As an undergraduate I used to practice here before the Peter Collns organ arrived in the Turner Sims hall at Southampton University. A somewhat strange instrument with the console at the east end and the pipework far away in the west. I always wondered who was responsible for acquiring it from a small and somewhat obscure Hull firm for a downtown church. It always seemed to be freezing cold there! *

    http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N11626

    Somewhat later with mechanical action this time. 

    http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N08854

    Roger Yates was an interesting character who was in many ways ahead of his time. A few years back I did a considerable ammount of research into Yates resulting in an extended article for Organists’ Review. If anyone would like a copy please PM me here.

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    * It is interesting, however to look at what Hall & Broadfield did here. Their work here and above seems nothing like the ‘jobbing’ work they were mostly doing elsewhere.

    http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N04015

  9. 5 hours ago, robertsharpe said:

     

    ........one can see how the way the reeds are used to some extent differs depending on whether the action is in the Quire or the Nave. In the former, the Tromba(s) really act as the Solo Tuba(s) in the Father Willis style.....

    I had a flashback reading this to having lessons on the organ and ‘depping’ in the choir at Lincoln Cathedral during the mid ‘80s. The Great to Solo coupler to some extent turned the 8’ and 4’ Tubas into ‘uber’ Great reeds on the top manual to at least try to energise the huge space in the nave there. I am not sure how much it achieved this but the sound just west of the screen was stunning along with the full Swell and 32’ reed up in the triforium. I once tried adding the Tubas a Salisbury in the same way but due to the relatively enclosed space there the effect was decidedly more destructive to those below!

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  10. Continuing thanks for all this! The more one reads the more one sees the thought and consideration that thas obviously gone into the present work. For instance, a small detail but the ‘Enclosed Solo on Swell’ coupler. The possiblilities for liturgical work will surely be greatly enhanced and one can only but imagine the ‘uber’ full Swell effect complete with Tubas!  

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  11. It is interesting to compare the work going on at York with that at Canterbury, both at the hands of the same firm. Rather in the manner of ‘neo’ H&H at one and ‘neo’ Willis at the other.  Both look to being eventually excellent for their respective buildings and uses - I do wonder however whether the next incarnation at Worcester could be ‘neo’ Hope Jones. That would be fun and there is at least one builder I can think of who might be able to build it!

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  12. Depending on their ages - do not play anything too long even if it means excerpts. If they know what is ‘going on’ then the repertoire does not have to be all pieces they know. If you gain their attention then you will have achieved much. Pieces that you can enthuse about will work whether it be a selected chunk of JSB, Messiaen’s ‘Les Bergers’ the Duruflé ‘Scherzo’ etc. Also maybe find out what they have done at school. ‘Not sure how this would work but maybe also involve some participation - ‘prepared’ semi improvisations with ostinati, drones, pentatonic (or more exotic) scales etc. The younger the are the fewer preconceived ideas they have so as long as you gain their attention most things will work!

    Sounds exciting!

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