wolsey
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Posts posted by wolsey
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Do many people play Scheidt today??
Only those with poor musical taste?
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There have definitely been Christmas pieces written by Gerre Handcock (Assistant at St. Thomas 5th avenue)...
Pedant that I am: Dr Gerre Hancock was John Scott's predecessor as Director of Music at St Thomas, Fifth Avenue. His wife, Judith, was his assistant.
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Forgive my ignorance, but who on earth was Douglas Fox?
MM
Dear, dear! How little you know of some of the unsung legends of early-20th century British music education. The website of the Old Cliftonian Society says:
"But the figure who, above all, dominated Clifton music was Douglas Fox, the first boy to be elected to a music scholarship at Clifton. He was denied the chance of a career as a recitalist, or cathedral organist, when he lost his right arm in action while serving with the Gloucesters. He nevertheless taught himself to play the organ with left hand and pedals and, after some years as director of music at Bradfield, came back to Clifton in 1931. He was described by one of his Clifton colleagues as having "the mind of a scholar and something of the waywardness of genius". His greatest contribution was inspiring the music scholars, while demanding of all boys the very highest standards. In his 27 years at Clifton, more than 50 boys were elected to music scholarships at Oxford or Cambridge. Among them was David Willcocks (now Sir David Willcocks), who succeeded another Cliftonian, Boris Ord, as Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge." John Pryer, currently Titular Organist of Alexandra Palace and whose improvisations are nothing short of stunning (at Birmingham Cathedral, a young chorister called David Briggs would often run to the organ console after services to watch and take in what John - who was the Assistant then - was doing) is another of Fox's pupils.
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It's passed many people by, but I would like to wish Peter Hurford many happy returns on his 80th birthday today, St Cecilia's Day. I remember him with much fondness as an inspirational teacher and a consummate performer. His insistence on musical line remains forever in my memory when playing or directing a choir.
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Apparently Tom Jones has volunteered to sing...
Well, it's not unusual...
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Report from Local TV news channel . May be time-sensitive.
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Revisiting the misprints in the Langlais, may I query the registration on the second page? After beginning the piece on full organ, Langlais instructs the removal of the doubles and the Positif and Pedal anches. At the top of p.2 both hands are on PR. Then comes the direction "GPR Anches", followed on p.3 by "+ Anches P" and then "+ Anches G". From this I assume that the direction "GPR Anches" should actually read "GPR + Anches R". Is this correct, or am I missing something? The registration directions on the first two pages do seem anomalous. Just which anches are to be removed on page 1? Presumably those on the GO are removed as well since they have to come off before they can be added back. How about the those on the Récit? Do they come off too, or do they stay?
Listening once again to the 1984 BBC recording of Langlais at Salisbury, he retains the Anches R at bar 7, and it is clear that the Anches G have been removed at this point, in addition to the groups of stops you've mentioned. Heaven alone knows what is meant by GPR Anches, but my guess is that the word 'Anches' shouldn't be there at all.
Another gem to mark into your scores: in the antepenultimate bar, Langlais observes his Lento, and in the RH, he plays a 'B' a third below the semiquaver D sharp tied to a minim. In the LH, he does not tie the lowest two notes of the chord leading into the antepenultimate bar, but makes a clear break (both hands) before this bar.
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Why can some people see Stephen Best's wall, and others not?
Because his privacy settings permit friends of his friends to see his profile?
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Well - going solely by this one picture it does appear particularly nastily made. For the local paper to carry absolutely nothing in outraged tones does rather suggest that this may not have been a great work of art.
Leaving aside impressions gained from photographs, one poster on Stephen Best's Facebook wall writes,
"Six organ companies were consulted - including Andover in Methuen, MA. where I apprenticed. Five of them had positive things to say about the organ. It was ONLY [builder named] who used such glaring words of disapproval over the status and construction of the organ. According to David Vredenburg [organ consultant for the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese Architecture and Building Commission] in my phone conversation with him yesterday, Fr. Busch accused all the other builders of "being in-bed together". Sounds more like Busch and [builder named] were the bed-fellows."
There have also been recent Facebook posts highlighting errors in the photograph captions.
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Has anyone found any independent verification of this on Google, please? You'd think someone somewhere in the media would see some mileage in this story, yet I can find nothing except the Facebook discussions (I don't subscribe to email lists). Maybe this vandelism really has happened, but the lack of comment elsewhere does strike me as strange.
There are six photographs to be seen in the local newspaper, the Queensbury Post-Star, if you make a search there. A careful study of all the posts and comments on Stephen Best's Facebook page will yield a good deal of additional information to that posted above. It is perfectly evident that the Pastor arranged for an organ-building firm (it is named several times in the Facebook posts) to remove the organ in some sort of undercover operation. The pipework appears to have been salvaged, but much of the mechanism was discarded in the skip, as the newspaper's photographs attest all too clearly.
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Thanks, DHM; you beat me to it. There you are, HarmonicsV. The dreadful tale has been truly verified.
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The Facebook link is correct; check the 'Wall' carefully. Searching 'The Post-Star' there will also yield more.
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If reports on another list are to believed, it seems that the Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Queensbury, NY (RC Diocese of Albany) is currently demolishing the church's 7 (yes, only seven)-year-old 3P/48 tracker organ and depositing it in a dumpster! See the postings which started here http://www.facebook.com/stevebest#!/stevebest?v=wall about "20 hours ago".
The deed has been done, sadly. From what I've read, it appears that the church's Pastor, thinks he can get away with it. I sense that this is where all of us need to use the power of the Internet to spread the word about this shocking piece of destruction, and to make our disgust known. The Pastor's contact details may be found here, but this may prove fruitless. His Bishop is the Very Revd Howard Hubbard who can be contacted here. I wonder what will be the reaction of the 300 or so donors who helped to raise funds the instrument?
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No, but it was also one of the first LP's I had. I rather liked the Festing but then I thought the whole of the series was a wonderful introduction to lots of organ music and Cathedral organs. My tastes have now changed somewhat over the years.
It was certainly a fascinating and ground-breaking series for its time, and thanks to my local record library, I remember working my way through much of EMI's GCOS when I was of school age. I am sure that many will be aware that selections from the series have been remastered and are available on four CDs (Amphion Recordings). Of all the players heard in the series, Francis Jackson alone is notable for having an entire CD devoted to him comprising pieces from his 1964 GCOS recording and from a 1973 recording for another label.
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All Hallows' Gospel Oak NW3, regularly used for recordings (though not usually with org).. 4-manual 1915 Arthur Hill (last new Hill & Son instrument). Fine acoustic. Mass on Sunday at 10.00 but free after that. Organ flat (A-435).
It is indeed a fine acoustic, as the Windsor choir's Tomkins and Parry recordings for Hyperion attest. Are you able to confirm its current condition though? It seemed somewhat precarious when I and others went to assess it for a recording some years and I went upstairs to play it.
A possible venue is Eton College Chapel...
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Holy Trinity South Kensington, St Peter Eaton Square, and St Stephen Gloucester road, all in West London too are also options for making bookings, and have suitable organs (3 manual R&D, new 4 manual Jones, and 3 manual N&B, respectively) with solo reeds, and all in good acoustics.
Many churches in the City of London, such as St. Stephen Walbrook that you've mentioned do not have services on weekends, so they could be the best options in London.
I was Assistant at the first two churches mentioned. The Rushworth & Dreaper rebuild at Prince Consort Road has a Posaune on the Great (also available on the Choir) but it is not a solo reed.
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....it is well worth getting the whole set of the 79 Chorales. Although most of them are too short for inclusion in church services, they are great for study.
They were indeed written for didactic purposes.
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Thanks for posting this - very useful, and I guess it only hints at the many hours M. Latry spent on this. I know it's been discussed before without conclusion, but does anyone know of a similar list of corrections for the Pieces en style libre?
A cursory 'google' suggests that there doesn't appear to be such a list. It's also somewhat unlikely in view of the new Carus and Bärenreiter editions (a thread about which appeared here two years ago) which attempt to draw together so many lists of variants.
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Is an Organ Adviser - either Diocesan or Independent - being approached?
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I'm sure others have noticed that those three, now, posters that are so positive about Mr Laube's playing all have very low numbers of posts. My experience in online forums leads me to smell a rat when a number of low posters start pushing a product, particularly in such a strident way.
Are not the people above who have written positively about Mr Laube's playing those who have heard him in person? And for the record, I have not colluded with anyone else who has commented on here in support of his playing.
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Why should the public school/choir school system produce the majority of capable organists in the UK?
Leaving aside choir schools which were not mentioned earlier when this was raised, I would suggest that a fair number of organists come from public schools which have a chapel with an organ and (sometimes) a choral set-up, and in which communal worship takes place almost daily. Some (e.g. Eton, Lancing, Clifton, Rugby, Ampleforth and Downside et al.) have buildings and/or instruments which are identical in scale to some of the largest university collegiate chapels; others are of near cathedral-like proportions. It is not surprising then that young people spending the waking hours of their formative years in such an environment could become organists. That being said, it's not the type of school but the presence of an instrument there which is the catalyst. I was the product of a state grammar school which had a two-manual Rothwell in its school Hall.
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Last summer, I drove from London to Christchurch Priory to hear Nathan Laube's recital there, and taking technical facility as a given, I was immediately drawn by his ability to make and communicate music on the organ. I have no time for showmanship and lack of musical depth which is found in certain virtuosi today, and Mr Laube's playing sets him apart from these prestidigital performers. From my experience at Christchurch, Mr Laube's performance of a transcription of Rossini's William Tell Overture provided ample evidence that he has already discovered "how to handle a good tune".
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* I tried not to end this sentence with a preposition but the result, whilst gramatically correct, was ugly and almost incomprehensible.
Surely that preposition was unnecessary. You've just used it with the relative pronoun.
*Teacher mode off having just come in from school*
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It is a great mystery to me as to how on earth I manage to receive the RSCM's Church Music Quarterly magazine (and associated stuff) without having a subscription. Does anyone else on this list receive this freebie? And if so, why/how ? Does the RSCM not have a computer system to advise them who subscribes and who doesn't??
Is there not information on the address cover sheet for CMQ to clarify this? In my case, the address sheet of one copy of CMQ which I receive has 'Individual Member of the RSCM' above my name and address. The address cover sheet of the other copy I receive has 'CORRESPONDENT 1: [Church]' above my name and address. As I understand it, the RSCM has the names and addresses of two 'correspondents' of all affiliated organisations in its database. Correspondence etc., however, is only sent to the first of them.
When to bring in pedal - Couperin mass
in The Organ
Posted
Would the lowest voice really be played on the pedals when the instruction is to have both hands on the Voix humaine? I would use only a manual to pedal coupler in order to negotiate the stretches, and would play as much of the section as possible on the manuals (Voix humaine) - including, of course, the tremblement.