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wolsey

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Posts posted by wolsey

  1. Bearing in mind the wide range of expertise covered by members of this forum, I thought I'd throw out a major challenge/query in the hope that someone will be kind enough to share their experience in order to help with a project of mine.

     

    In brief, I am due to record Saint Saens' Sept Improvisations Op.150 quite soon. A number of these are identified on the score as being associated with church festivals, but in others I sense that similar fragments of Gregorian Chant may have be used to provide S-S's initial theme. If I can interest anyone (familiar with traditional chants) in the challenge to spot more themes and identify them, this would be a major help. All such help with be publicly acknowledged. Please PM me if you're willing to collaborate.

     

    Thanks folks!

    P.

     

    Why not contact Dr Peter Wilton of The Gregorian Association?

  2. iPlayer will not be compatible with Macs for some (unspecified) time, which is ironic given its name implies an Apple connection cf. iPod, iLife, iWork, iTouch, iPhone etc.

     

    As a Mac user myself, it should be made clear that we can watch 'streamed' programmes - which I've done many times, but cannot download them.

  3. The programme can also be watched online for the seven days following broadcast, go to www.bbc.co.uk/songsofpraise and follow the link.

     

    It's very good that one can now 'View Again' as well as 'Listen Again' with BBC's iPlayer.

     

    If you want to add it to your computer browser's 'favourites'/'bookmarks' now, the link is here.

  4. Thank you to all those who replied. Your replies were helpful.

     

    The annual booklet Singing in Cathedrals published by The Friends of Cathedral Music may help. The 2007 edition is downloadable from the link at the top of the page here. The 2008 edition has yet to appear. Check carefully; the very early Easter (not since 1913 has this happened - and apparently it won't happen again this century) may cause a variety of starting dates for the easter term as far as [choir] schools are concerned.

  5. ============================

    Gerre Hancock being an ex-Kings' organ-scholar, I believe, when Sir David Willcocks was at the helm.

    The Canadian (Professor) Hugh McLean - who celebrated his 78th birthday yesterday - was a King's organ scholar, but he served under Boris Ord. David Willcocks was Fellow and Organist at King's from 1957-73.

  6. Thank you for those useful facts - DB wasn't knighted in 1963 - more like 67/68 when he left St Paul's. He was a Knight Bachelor, not a KCVO.

    There is an error in Enid Bird's book 20th Century English Cathedral Organists. It was indeed 1968.

    Sorry, I'm unclear why you are splitting hairs about "appointment" or "promotion" to CBE.

    As Dr Jackson was an OBE, the CBE is regarded as promotion within the Order. Neither of us should lose any sleep over it though.

  7. There is a difference here in that Dr Jackson has been appointed CBE and I do not know whether mere mortals like us can actually suggest the level of recognition we feel apt. I suspect they've decided that he's "just an organist" and a CBE is about right. Things have changed over the years - Christopher Dearnley only got an LVO when he finished at St Paul's. Dykes Bower was made CVO very soon after he arrived there, Harry Gabb was MVO for most of the time he was there at at St James's Chapel Royal, but D-B was knighted on his retirement and Gabb was appointed CVO when he finally left St Paul's. Mind you, I don't think Douglas Guest got anything at all when he left the Abbey.

    Dr Jackson was promoted - rather than appointed - to CBE.

     

    The public have been able to nominate people for a national honour since 1993, and the criteria for the different classes of honour are explained at the link given.

     

    Honours in the Royal Victorian Order, however, are in the Queen's gift. The LVO, which just precedes the OBE, is the usual honour today for organists at St Paul's and Westminster Abbey who have performed personal service to the Sovereign, viz. Christopher Dearnley, John Scott and Martin Neary. Organists at other royal peculiars are usually honoured by the Queen in due time.

     

    Sir John Dykes Bower was Organist at St Paul's from 1936-1967; he was appointed CVO in 1953 [the year is perhaps significant] and knighted in 1963. I am unable to ascertain though whether he was a Knight Bachelor or a KCVO.

     

    Harry Gabb (Sub-Organist at St Paul's 1946-74 and also Organist, Chapel Royal, St James's Palace 1953-1974) was appointed MVO in 1961 and promoted to CVO in 1974.

     

    Douglas Guest (Westminster Abbey 1963-1981) was appointed CVO in 1975 and Organist Emeritus in 1981.

  8. A radical, even wayward suggestion: how about O Come O Come Emmanuel to open Midnight Mass given that Jesus' birth is not proclaimed until the gospel? (This might mean restoring the Gloria to its former place after the Communion.)

    Peter

    Hmm... The hymn O come, O come is a paraphrase of the Advent antiphons, and for me, it seems to sit more happily in an Advent carol service, or else in the seven (or so) days up to and including 23 December. Interesting idea though.

  9. Yes it was the Gardner setting. There's an orchestral version that sounds better. "Oom-chahs" always sound gross on the organ.

    Both Gardner's 'The Holly and the Ivy' and 'Tomorrow shall be my dancing day' sound best when accompanied on the piano which, I believe, was how they were - and are - performed at the Christmas Concerts at St Paul's Girls' School, for whom they were written. Outside SPGS, one hardly ever hears the side drum and tambourine with the piano in the introduction and bridge between verses in 'Tomorrow shall be' as the composer intended. Like Francis Jackson, Gardner was 90 this year.

  10. What is the point in singing "O Come" at the END? "O go away all ye faithful"? It makes a wonderful opener.

    It may indeed make a wonderful opener, but its use at the end of service is no less valid. The 3rd line of the first verse makes all clear, "O come ye to Bethlehem".

  11. I've just had an exam programme rejected because I wanted to do BWV 552 (the E flat 'St Anne' one) and it was considered not comparable to the benchmark work the D major BWV 532.

    What precisely did you want to play? Just the Fugue (BWV552ii) - an Ass. Board grade 7 piece in the 1970s, or both Prelude and Fugue?

  12. Rather than digress from the topic “So what is happening in schools” I thought it beneficial to start a new topic which still involves young people. I have long been interested and amazed by the outstanding talent that is unearthed in the BBC’s “Young Musician of The Year” competition. I find it baffling that for all the many years this competition has been running that there has never been a young organist on the programme.

    Sorry, but this is untrue. Ashley Grote was a keyboard (i.e.organ) finalist in the 2000 competition; he played Simon Preston's Toccata. His appearance in the competition on television generated some discussion at the time.

  13. =====================

     

    I "think" you may be referring to a Passacaglia on BACH, which takes the form of a toccata.

    [snip]

    MM

     

    If indeed MusingMuso is referring to the Passacaglia quasi Toccata sopra 'BACH', then volume 40 of Priory's Great European Organs features a performance by John Scott; it's still available. Nicolas Kynaston's 1988 recording on Hyperion's Concert Pieces for Organ CDA 66265 is deleted, as apparently, is George Wilson's recording from Dunblane Cathedral which I have.

  14. QUOTE(Barry Williams @ Nov 30 2007, 07:53 AM) *

    (Dr Thalben Ball and Douglas Hawkridge were both first study pianists, destined for a career on the concert platform.)

    Come to think of it, so was Jane Parker Smith when she first came to the RCM.

    Dame Gillian Weir studied both piano (Cyril Smith) and organ (Ralph Downes) at the RCM. It was her success in the 1964 St Albans competition and the impact on her of the sound of Dutch baroque organs that led to her carving a career as an organist.

  15. Music plays an important part in most lodge meetings and it's usually provided by an organ of sorts. Freemasons' Hall, London, has an organ by Willis 3 in the main temple and there are organs in several of the Hall's other lodge rooms.

    Some clarification of this is needed. The 3-manual Willis III in the Grand Temple and the Robert & William Gray of c1796 (restored by Michael Broadway last year) in Lodge Room 3 are the only remaining pipe organs in the building; there were Willis organs in two other Lodge Rooms, but these have been removed. The other eighteen (?) Lodge Rooms of varying sizes have electronic organs, large and small, of variable quality.

  16. The Great Dame.....definitely,

    probably Kevin Bowyer too!

    Gillian Weir's 1975 recording from the RFH is on the fifth CD of Argo's boxed set of her, King of Instruments - The Art of Gillian Weir. Discs (new) now available separately on Amazon for under £3; look for The Art of Gillian Weir Vol. 5

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