wolsey
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Posts posted by wolsey
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I[...] On the 'before' pic, there is a stop knob down underneath the keyboards on the right hand side. Does anyone know what this was for?
To adjust the speed of the Solo tremulant, I think...
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20 minutes' preparation (for all the tests) precisely mirrors life in the organ-loft or school music department for me today. In other words, it equates to being told towards the end of a choral rehearsal that such-and-such will need to be transposed for the service, or that the exam accompaniment which I have to play for an indisposed school colleague is handed to me fifteen minutes before an informal concert or grade exam by a pair of sweaty teenaged hands. The RCO's Chief Examiner and Academic Board are breathing new life into the diplomas - without losing the rigour, and I, for one, applaud their efforts. For those who have missed it, the introduction next month of the Certificate of Accredited Membership follows hard on the transformation of the CertRCO into the Colleague Diploma (CRCO).
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Pieces and test have always been separate sections, both of which had to be passed, even before the exams became modular. You had to pass both the tests and the pieces, or take the whole practical exam again. Now of course you can retake one half of the exam. But the principle remains the same - you can't fail the tests and make up for it by doing brilliantly in the pieces (or vice versa). The fact that the total marks available for tests are much less than for pieces does not affect this. You can however fail one test and make up for it in the others.
Widening the discussion slightly, it is sometimes suggested that RCO keyboard skills are out of date or irrelevant. I think this is quite wrong, with the possible exception of FRCO score reading which requires playing from three different C clefs, rarely found these days apart from the Bach Gesellschaft. (Orchestral score-reading as mentioned by Wolsey might actually be more useful).
'clarabella' said that the examinations are now modular, and this is quite true, but the sentence, "Now of course you can retake one half of the exam" needs clarifying - i.e. you can now retake either Organ Playing or Keyboard Skills sections as necessary. The FRCO syllabus from next summer repays careful study because score reading will no longer include C clefs, and there will be flexibility in that while sight reading will remain compulsory, candidates choose three of the four other available tests. The examinations have been 'tweaked' more frequently than every ten years or so, by the way.
'Vox humana' wonders whether a further consideration might be the standard of performance expected.The detailed assessment criteria are already included in the examination syllabus (link given in my previous post), and even the Examiners' instructions are available on the College website for all to see.
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I really doubt if any of us here will be able to answer your question with much authority because the Keyboard Skills have been subject to constant revision, and unless we are now preparing candidates for these diplomas, our knowledge will be very out of date. The Keyboard Skills for ARCO changed this summer, and the ones for FRCO will change next summer. I suggest that the examination requirements which will be in force from next summer be studied here first of all. My own experience dates from passing the FRCO in July 1979 - at the end of my first year reading Music at Cambridge. At the end of my second year (then Part 1), I had to play a section from an orchestral score at sight on the piano. Such a skill is less often employed by a 21st-century organist in the course of their daily practical duties. Decades ago, my own organ teacher told me (and it was afterwards printed in the RCO examination syllabuses at the time) that the FRCO diploma was a graduate diploma (like the GRSM, GBSM, GLCM etc), and entitled Fellows to be regarded then as graduates for the purposes of the Burnham teachers' pay scales. In today's National Qualifications Framework, the FRCO still remains a graduate diploma, i.e. level 6.
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Huw Williams to Bath Abbey from January 2017.
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Erm... I thought Richard was Tony's nephew....
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Well-deserved congratulations to Dr John Kitchen MBE, Edinburgh City Organist.
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GTB's appearance on Desert Island Discs is indeed in the BBC's programme archive and available (as is every broadcast in the series) on iPlayer. The Radio Times archive is a priceless resource. A search under Thalben-Ball gives the this.
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I thought that David Wells of Liverpool was doing the work...
My mistake - apologies to all.
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Oxbridge colleges have, in the recent past, replaced fine instruments after only a few years and for whatever reason.
Which fine instruments did you have in mind?
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As can be seen from this video 80th birthday tribute last October, his legacy is a large number of pupils who have achieved prominence in their own right.
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I attempted just now to look at Nicholson's website about this (the company doing the work), but the URL is diverting to another site. Is it just me, or are others experiencing the same problem?
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Also on the site is the news that Daniel Hyde has been appointed to succeed the late John Scott at St. Thomas' New York.
Indeed. Mentioned earlier on in the week here by 'Positif' in the 'Appointments' thread.
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With respect, I think it is better to read here on the King's website about the details of the funding of the project rather than speculate on the finances of the college in relation to the organ. SL has given above a link to the college website. FAQs concerning the organ (including substitute instruments) are here.
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Sir Thomas Armstrong was Keeton's Assistant at Peterborough; perhaps the Cathedral can supply more information. Sadly, Enid Bird's 20th Century English Cathedral Organists doesn't include details of him, only his successors.
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For what it's worth, Hymns Ancient & Modern Revised (1950) and its two supplements (1969 and1980) were published as Hymns Ancient & Modern New Standard in 1983 - only to be superseded by Common Praise in 1998. This, in turn, was superseded by Ancient & Modern in 2013.
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A moving tribute to John Scott on The Choir (BBC R3). Very disconcerting to hear his voice in the extract from an edition of the programme some years ago which featured his work at St Thomas, Fifth Avenue.
For those of you who can get BBC iPlayer, the item is about ten minutes before the end of this episode. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06flbm9
Scroll to 1 hour, 16 minutes and 53 seconds into the programme.
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brilliant speech from Nigel on why he resigned as a Magistrate on the Today programme just now
Are you sure it was the Today programme? At 6pm in the evening?
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In the USA, Michael Barone has altered his Pipedreams schedule, and the next two-hour programme is in John's memory.
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I am surprised that there are apparently few obituaries to John Scott, given his status as one of the world's leading organists. There is a piece on Choir & Organ's website but it looks to have been cobbled together. Is it too much to expect that the BBC will perhaps do a tribute to John? I listened earlier today to one of his Hyperion recordings I have in my collection of works by Dupre. Made in 1998 at St Paul's, It was magic listening to it again.
Apologies for duplicating earlier on what DaveHarries had mentioned. The finest obituary so far is Ruth Gledhill's in The Times. If you are able to, do rush out and get a printed copy now, if you can, as the version circulating on Facebook which is said to come from that newspaper (online version?) is missing three moving paragraphs. It is to be hoped that there will be a mention on next Friday/Sunday's BBC Radio 4's Last Word.
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I find this shocking and devastating, and am typing this with moist eyes. May he rest in peace.
Toccata From Widor's 5th Symphonie
in The Organ
Posted
If anyone is wanting to purchase what is probably the most reliable edition (John Near) of Widor organ symphonies, they should do so here by 15th January. There is a discount of up to 35% on online orders.