AJJ

Oops!! AJJ

There were a couple (?) of weighty articles about the ND organ in Organits' Review at about the time it was last worked on - 'can't remember who by but it covered everything in some detail. Paul Hale would know. AJJ

Aric Prentice is I think DOM at the Minster School too which may have been part of an intention to combine the two posts. The fact also that he is also a singer is an added advantage when one is i/c a choir. When I last heard them they sounded very good. AJJ

The 'front' console at Chelmsford Cathedral is like this too and seemingly not difficult to navigate. AJJ

Have a look at this - the printed version of the stoplist is a more complex one than I have seen in other places (where the divisions are better set out) but once one has managed to work out where everything is it makes quite interesting comparison with some of the ideas above. http://www.holyinnocents.org/Schoenstein.htm AJJ

All the same - the similarities between 'Postman Pat' and the start of the plainsong for the Te Deum are quite interesting - sometimes one could go one way and sometimes the other! AJJ

I think Schoenstein do this in the USA - it is also possible that they vary speed etc. on a 'Swell' type pedal. AJJ

Also - Arnold, Williamson & Hyatt used Basset Horns all over the place in many of their organs. I've never played one myself but I seem to remember they were often on the Swell duplexed onto the Pedals. I once heard the organ at Little Walsingham in Norfolk which has this but can't remember much about the sound. AJJ

Too true!! - and it accounts for the way many organists (and some church musicians) are perceived by the 'greater musical population'. AJJ PS This could be the start of another thread!

Often I improvise before the service and at the start of the Communion before the choir gets back - sometimes at the end of the service too. The 'before' and 'communion' slots are usually on the spur of the moment while those at the end have an elemnt of pre planning almost like working on a concluding voluntary. None of this I feel is laziness - rather doing things in a different way. Improvisation done properly needs thought and possibly also pre preparation if only in my case a glance through my manu. book in which ideas are jotted as I get them. Improvisation is also a sort of 'freeing up' to do something completely 'tailored' to the situation at the time and providing one has the confidence to do it it can work really well. My Rector now asks for 'one of your things' when he wants music at points in the service and is often very appreciative - likewise the congregation at the end of a service - those who listen. I am not able to improvise like Cochereau, Briggs or some of you who appear here (and with 1 manual and 8 stops I do not have vast resources to use anyway) but I have used Nigel Allcoat's ideas and some from the series of articles sometime ago in Organist's Review and know what I can do effectively and with some sort of 'freshness' which I believe is important. I have listened quite analytically to some of the service music improvised by a friend who works in Denmark and who is expected to produce such pieces as part of his work, to some of the younger European and American 'conservertoire' organists not trying to sound French and I still remember the colouristic and impressionist liturgical improvisations I heard as a child at the hands of my former choirmaster/organist. I try and keep in mind a sense of harmony, musical form and some sort of unity to a piece. Quite a lot of the work I do with students at school helps here. Above all I keep going - any 'slip' can then be used as a feature later on! Maybe improvising is just a matter of knowing what you want to do and the confidence to keep going - my all time pet hate, however is formless 'Anglican sounding' meandering - sometimes heard liturgically and frequently at organist's association meetings - the excuse there being to 'try the organ'. Upsetting perhaps (and certainly touching raw nerves if commented upon) but I do wish those who do this sort of thing would not bother or better still play from a score. To me THIS smacks of laziness and an attitude that the person/people concerned should be allowed to express themselves or whatever does not apply in my opinion - especially when the rest of us are forced to listen. AJJ

And also Gerre Hancock from the USA - I've mentioned this before but his improvised symphony on a JAV CD from Washington National Cathedral is a hugely enjoyable piece (not at all in Cochereau style) with some amazing moments, vey efficiently worked out and I suppose at times rather Dupre like. There is also an improvise set in alternation with plainsong - in a more 'antique' in style perhaps than the symphony. One of these days I will ask for his book for Christmas or something similar to see what he has to say on a more basic level. AJJ

They did that at Lincoln too - it sounded fabulous. AJJ

The one on the Solo at Bath Abbey is good - Klais have achieved something very effective here. AJJ

How badly I played!! AJJ

Let's also hope that any delay there might be will not be as great as with things I have had recently also labeled B & Q.......... AJJ

And when I made a complete hash of a piece during a local organist's association visit in 1998 in front of the then Assistant DOM - I hope he does'nt remember..... AJJ

Isn't there also one on the Mander organ just about to be replaced at Jesus College Cambridge? AJJ

Pierre You can also get a CD via the OHS - on Raven CDs - played by the Director of Music, Anthony Burke. (It all made me wonder though quite what I would do with the 73 note Choir Organ!) AJJ

At the RC church of the Assumption, Ansonia, Connecticut is the very much smaller 'sibling' of Atlantic City - built by Midmer Losh at the same time and not long restored by the US company Foley Baker. One can get an impression of things by listening to some of the effects there - double languid Great Diapason, vast Tuba and a Post Horn disguised as the Great Trumpet. http://www.assumptionansonia.org/Organ.html AJJ .............although the 'clip' on the website would not play on my machine just now!!

Now then chaps - lets not get too over excited!! AJJ

You could also trawl through the OHS catalogue - there are masses of flashy toccatas etc. by Americans (some based on hymn tunes) designed specifically to sound about 80% more difficult than they really are. This is the only way I can cope! Some are good - some totally lacking in musicality but if other congregations are anything like the lot I had for Harvest on Sunday (piece by Noel Rawsthorne - sounded like the middle of an Elgar P & C march plus the odd fanfare) after the first page they will be so heavily into coffee and chat that whatever you do will make no difference. http://www.ohscatalog.com/sheetmusic.html AJJ

I have also found Michael Brewer quite inspirational - not a 'church musician' as such but that's not such a bad thing! (Incidentally - I know John Bertalot achieves good results too - it's just that his articles - to me anyway - are still more annoying than of much use - perhaps one actually needs to experience the skills in action rather than read about them. I feel that if I were in a choir where the person in charge talked the way he suggests they should I would probably opt out fast.) AJJ

............and look what Lichfield cathedral is getting - all good fun with the recently rebuilt and enlarged pipe organ. It will be interesting to see how they use all this combined organ force! (Mind you I believe that the acoustics there are not brilliant.) http://www.phoenixorgans.co.uk/installatio...-cathedral.html AJJ

I must admit to agreeing with quite a bit of this (though maybe not about CC Oxford!) unfortunately pipes are not really an option here though if they were (if we had a bigger house, no small children and the cash) this might do - I believe it is now in Bournemouth - Robin Jennings built it. Great Stopped Diapason (wood) 8 Principal (metal) 4 Fifteenth (metal) 2 Sesquialtera II Swell Gemshorn (metal) 8 Chimney Flute (metal) 4 Flageolet (wood) 2 Oboe 8 Pedal Subbass (wood) 16 Couplers Sw/Gt Gt/Ped Sw/Ped Tremulant (My 'extra') AJJ PS A good digital version of this would do if necessary though but as stated above people do not seem to want to build them this small!

My brand new digital piano - for my needs & where it has to go is one of the best things I have ever bought (well nearly!) I now practice piano more, can play the harpsichord in Kirnberger etc. if I want and some of the organ sounds are quite like my 1 manual at church. Ok the touch is wrong for the last two but I am playing more proper music (as opposed to the stuff required for my 'day job') and for me that's a good thing. It aslo has no silly automatic chord things. (My old upright had just about got to the end of it's life - it had seen me through the ABRSM grades and moved 3 times as we moved. Latterly it started also to get mildew due to my wife putting washing on the radiators in the same room! It has now gone to a good home and two small girls are about to to grades 1 and 2 on it.) I now need to broach the subject of house organs - which should be fun! AJJ