David Drinkell
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Posts posted by David Drinkell
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So, do I understand you are prepared to take a fee, having done nothing to earn it?
I am not prepared to let someone else have the fee from the job which it is my prerogative and my duty to do. Occasional fees are part of the package and help to make up a salary which is by no means extravagant.
In a case where other musicians are involved, my permission as director of music has first to be gained. The Dean could over-ride my opinion, but there has never been a case where this was an issue. I will want to know who the musicians are, what instruments are involved and what they will be playing. I will be at the Cathedral early for the service, as I would be for any other service, and will be on hand to help and encourage in any way. I will, if necessary, meet with the musicians beforehand and facilitate any rehearsal they may wish to have in the cathedral. (I am entitled to ask for an extra fee for this, or for attending the wedding rehearsal, but I have never done so).
Although I don't think it makes any difference to the principle, this is part of my living. I will get the wedding schedule for the year and mark off those dates when a wedding is due to take place. If there is a request for someone else to provide the music, it does not alter the fact that I have ear-marked the time, and possibly turned down other engagements. I will be there anyway, in case anything unforeseen happens.
I have no qualms about accepting the basic bench fee in such circumstances.
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I believe the general principle for families at weddings/funerals who wish their own organist to play pay the 'resident' organist's fee regardless: it is in most contracts that the organist be asked to play at all such services.
I wonder what the situation is for families that want a CD played at the beginning and end, with no hymns, and therefore don't require an organist. My church recently had a state-of-the-art sound system installed (sounds much worse than it really is - the amplification for speech really is fantastic and very life-like and clear without distortion) and at the last funeral I was told my services weren't required as they wanted a CD.
In a similar vein, should the people organising the service want 'instrumental' music - e.g. a string quartet - should the resident organist still be entitled to a fee where he isn't asked for but would be normal to be included because music is involved?
I make my living from playing and teaching the organ, not as a hobby or second income, so I don't ask this lightly as it may affect me seriously were it to become a trend: "occasional" services such as these are, after all, a major part of the remuneration package of organists' posts. Should technology, or indeed "rival instrumentalists", be competing against organists in this area?
The agreement here is that I have the right to provide music when it is required for a service. If a request is put in for someone else - or something else - to provide the music, I am still entitled to the standard fee. We don't allow the playing of recorded music, and although we might make an exception in special cases, such an exception would not be made without my agreement, and it would not prejudice my entitlement to the fee.
I think the above is pretty much standard practice. I, too, make my living as an organist, but I don't think that should make a difference to the general principle.
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Personally I tend to only wear a hood on Sundays and it covers by back, not my face.
For something a little different, how about Dunblane or Clifton? Not exactly British Romantic choral accompaniment territory but I think both stunning examples of their genre and either would keep me happy for many hours.
I found Clifton more congenial as an accompanying medium than might appear from its style and stop-list. Certainly a model of its kind, and in a building which I think is one of the few true masterpieces of its period. I'm sure it's lost some of its edge (the organ, that is) over the years.
I haven't been in Dunblane Cathedral since the Flentrop went in. Everyone seems full of praise for its quality and sound, but everyone also seems to have some sort of caveat about it, mostly relating to the problems imposed by its position and the need to retain the Lorimer case. So, those who have played it, how far up the scale does it come?
A little-known Scottish job is Dornoch Cathedral - a two manual rebuild by Nicholson. Small - like its building - but very fine indeed (although not much to look at).
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My friend Theo Saunders played a Bach Trio-Sonata in his (successful) audition at Armagh Cathedral. The panel remarked on this and Theo pointed out that he thought they wanted to know if he was a skilled organist.
They always used to say if you could play the trio-sonatas, you could play anything....
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I've read that Unda Maris stops are generally tuned flat, but the only one I know of in my area (paired with a Dulciana) is tuned sharp.
Here is an unusual case: The Newberry Memorial Organ at Yale has no fewer than eleven celestes, with quite an interesting one by Steere:
Orchestral Organ
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Viole d'Orchestra 8'
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First Viole Celeste 8'(draws #1)
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Second Viole Celeste 8'(draws #1 & #2)
According to a recording by Thomas Murray, the first celeste is sharp, while the second is very sharp.
Hope-Jones had a three rank celeste at Worcester, with a half-on position for the stop-tablet for when the third rank wasn't needed. They're not all that uncommon in North America, although none can approach the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia which has a complete String organ of some ninety stops including multiple celestes.
The late Ted Holt of Cambridge worked in his retirement for the organ builder Norman Hall & Sons, and with their help rebuilt the organ at the United Reformed Church, Cherry Hinton. Ted had a methodical mind and liked gadgets. The Cherry Hinton organ has a device which causes the Celeste to flip off if left on as part of an 'unsuitable' combination for more than fifteen seconds.
(Ted's brother Charles used to write letters to 'Musical Opinion'. Their father David started collecting organ specifications and the result was the Holt Collection now at BIOS. One of them, I can't remember which, picked up some manuscript music on Cambridge market which turned out to be two unpublished sets of evening canticles by Stanford. 'The Queen's Service', since published by Stainer & Bell, was one of them. Ted's son Edmund was Music Adviser to Orkney Islands Council, and therefore my boss when I was teaching there. It's a small world).
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I've always understand that Celestes were always sharp and Angelicas flat. But I'm ready to be told I'm wrong :-)
I hadn't heard that, and I should imagine that it varies between builders. The Vox Angelica on the Swell ay Belfast Cathedral was definitely sharp.
I don't think the name signifies much, although I suppose one would think of a Vox Angelica as fairly mild - salicional rather than viole - whereas Voix Celeste could mean anything.
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Never mind, there's a whole lifetime to get around to it!
When you do, I wouldn't worry about a major or a minor chord at the end. Just learn it as well as Balint Karosi, the young Hungarian organist.
The following clip is just a marvel of immaculate control and what a feat of memory. Brisk, but perfect....a real "wow" performance.
MM
I thought it was on the slow side - now you've got me worried.....
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I would appreciate opinions about tuning celeste stops.
I prefer them sharp. Do most builders tune them this way? (When the Walker at St. Leonard-at-the-Hythe, Colchester was restored by ex-Walker man Ken Canter, he tuned the celeste flat because he said that Walkers' did it that way. I didn't like it and persuaded him to tune it sharp, as it had been before - a particularly nice one, I always thought).
It seems to me that one should tune celestes according to the beat with their companion stops, rather than in octaves, otherwise the trebles will beat too fast. Am I right?
Would a more stringy stop, say a Viole d'Orchestre, benefit from a slightly quicker beat, or vice versa?
I feel that about 3 beats per second is about right for an ordinary Vox Angelica type of stop.
My organ here has a sharp Voix Celeste (down to G8) in the Swell and a flat Viole Celeste (full compass, including extras for the octave coupler) in the Solo. I wonder if it would be worth sharpening the Solo celeste.
In 1971, I went with John Budgen to hold notes while he tuned the newly-rebuilt organ at Burnham-on-Crouch Church, Essex, in preparation for the opening recital by Gordon Phillips the same evening. When we got there, the parish organist asked John to tune the celeste flat. After getting half-way, it became apparent that the pipes wouldn't take it. A few words were said, and the stop retuned sharp. After the concert, the organist remarked how much better the celeste sounded now it was flat....
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I am afraid the situation you describe at St.Mary's RC in Burnley (I have never been there myself) seems all too common in the RC Church in this country. From my limited experience (I am a Catholic and Director of Music in my Parish) I know of other churches with decent pipe organs in situ, who will not fund the work needed to make them function again. Instead the dreaded toaster goes in and then after a few years starts to show its age..........
Sometimes it is the lack of immediate funds - but education and lack of culture plays a major role. I am very lucky, thanks to the support of two very enlightened priests that I am able to embark on a glorious three manual project (real pipes) stemming from the rescue of a fine Rushworth & Dreaper.
In my research, I have spotted a trend - that when Catholic Churches have spent money on organs they are usually too small and too under - powered for the building they are in. They are often unit organs.
In my own ParishChurch (built in 1959) the original organ was inadequate - put in on a tight budget - but only there because the choirmaster at the time, on his own initiative, raised the money with the choir. The Priest had said that there would be no money for a real organ and added that he could not be seen to have anything to do with the project! Now we have a large choir and a growing music tradition we have aquired the Rushworth to take us forward. We have also built a new extention to the choir gallery for the instrument. The old organ was burried in a chamber at the side of the gallery with the sound projecting through a hole in the wall only 44 inches square.
It would have made a fine "Echo" division, but of little use in leading a large congregation.
There is also the sad story to tell of the organ in the Sacred Heart Church in Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent, but I will save it for another time.
Oddly enough, I just came across a mention of Sacred Heart, Tunstall, in a back number (1970) of Musical Opinion while I was looking for something else. Reeves and Merner had just rebuilt it. I don't think it's on NPOR.
It seems to me, especially from experience in Ireland and here in Newfoundland, that if a Roman Catholic church has a priest who likes organs, that church gets an organ. Its subsequent fate then depends on whether succeeding priests also appreciate organs. In retrospect, the post VAT2 fashion for small, tracker-action, non-British instruments has not worked out as rosily as its protagonists promised. Some of them are pretty nasty and haven't lasted well.
Good luck with your Rushworth and congratulations on your perseverance in seeking out and acquiring it. At their best I think they were as good as any and you will hopefully have a fine instrument which is an asset to the church and its worship.
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Personally, I would not play the Passacaglia without the fugue.
Neither would I as a rule, or any of the other preludes and fugues, etc. But circumstances can dictate practice. For example, if I felt that the 9:15 service needed the Passacaglia to finish it off, but I had to be downstairs to rehearse the choir for the 11:00 service, I might leave off the fugue. Again, I quite often play the Passacaglia after funerals. The church would normally have emptied before I got to the fugue. I might carry on for my own satisfaction, or AMDG, but I wouldn't feel guilty about stopping at the end of the Passacaglia. Similarly, I sometimes play the St. Anne Fugue after funerals, although in other circumstances I wouldn't trot it out without the Prelude.
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I recently picked up a copy of a CH Trevor book - I can't remember the exact title and probably long out of print, but it was obviously a Book of Bach for students, starting with easier pieces, and ending with a prelude and fugue. All the pieces in the book were better known works, all well worth playing and useful service music. Presumably people here will agree with me that this kind of edition makes the prospects of learning this wonderful repertoire a bit less daunting for organ students? Is there any chance someone may publish a similar book in the future? I feel a bit more guidance is needed when it comes to learning Bach for most students (and it would help the teacher too...) Barenreiter offers almost nothing to the student player except for the notes, and I think it is only really good for the advanced player.
Sermon over... ;-)
CD
A.M Henderson edited 'The Student's Bach' - or something like that. It was a really excellent introduction, although very dated as to registration, even when I first encountered it.
Regarding the Great G minor - I might just possibly end on a major chord if not playing the Fugue, but more likely not. I would probably end the Passacaglia on a major chord if not playing the fugue.
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One extension organ that Willis worked on was St. Matthias, Richmond, which was originally built by Lewis, with pneumatic action(!), to the design of Kenneth Glencairn Burns with twenty-two ranks in four swell boxes, giving fifty-three speaking stops. Willis electrified it with a new console and prepared for straight Principal, Nazard and Fifteenth on the Great. It was later enlarged (by Walker?). The case, by Bloomfield (who was once choirmaster at the church), was similar to that at Southwark Cathedral and a further peculiarity was that the manual compass went up to e65. Burns designed a smaller instrument for a church in Yorkshire (was it Elland?).
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David Drinkell: Some weeks ago you asked on this forum whether I was the same Graham Dukes who fifty years ago wrote a paper on "two manuals, pedals and a budget" in The Organ. I am indeed - because of several weeks work in Kenya I am replying very late. I never put any of my specifications to the text ending up with a 10-stop instrument by Pels and Van Leeuwen of Holland.
Regards,
Graham Dukes, mngdukes@gmail.com
Oslo, Norway
I still find that article to be a model of its kind - and I still covet that beautiful little Dutch organ in one of the illustrations.
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Do you mean This one
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N16264
I played it for a wedding a number of years ago , if I remember correctly it is on the west gallery with a positive behiend the console
If I remember correctly , it was a bit " screetchy" !
I shall be interested to hear any other comments
Tony - please e mail me
best wishes
Peter
Yes, that's the one! Musical Opinion said Sydenham, so I looked there on NPOR. I see the Shepherd brothers have replaced the Nazat 1 1/3 with a 2' - makes sense in the build-up.
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"Musical Opinion" in March 1961 included the specification of an organ built by Kingsgate Davidson for the German Evangelical Church, Sydenham. It doesn't appear to be on NPOR, so here is the stop-list:
Hauptwerk: Prinzipal 8A, Rohrflote 8, Oktave 4, Nazat 1 1/3, Mixtur 12.15.22, Krummhorn 8B Pos/Haupt
Positif: Gedacktflote 8, Gemshorn 4, Blockflote 2 Solo Kornet 12.7, Scharf 26.29, Tremulant
Pedal: Sub Bass 16C, Prinzipal 8A, Flotenbass 8C, Flotenquint 5 1/3C, Flotenoktave 4C, Krummhorn 16B, Krummhorn 8B, Haupt/Ped, Pos/Ped
Compass: 61/30
This is remarkable for the date, predating such early neo-classical jobs as the Walcker at Coloma College (N08853) or anything along those lines by Degens & Rippin (but not the Brompton Oratory, or the Swedish and Danish Seamen's Missions). It would be interesting to know whether the voicing matched the stop-list, or whether it was just a slightly eccentric English organ with German names. And is it still in existence?
I find Kingsgate Davidson interesting because they sometimes produced some unusual schemes, and my experience is that their workmanship was of good quality.
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Again, interesting to hear different views. I feel that we have learned a very great deal about vocal health in the past 10 years, let alone 25, and both adults and children are pushed a very great deal harder than they were, but usually for shorter 'careers' - the days of boys going on until they're 15 whether their voices have held up or not are long gone. There may be some validity in the belief that standards generally have improved across the parts. (For an example, you only have to look at the choral writing of people like Heathcote Statham to realise that he couldn't rely on his altos to have a decent sound above middle G, so he used to miss them out when everyone else was in unison.) Routine repertoire by Kelly, Tippett, Britten, Chilcott et al is, frankly, harder to sing well than Walmisley in B minor. More cathedrals employ singing specialists like Hilary Jones and Jenevora Williams to get more out of the people they've got. A lay clerk is less likely to be the bloke who runs the post office and more likely to be someone straight out of the RCM. Recordings and broadcasts bring yet more pressure. Lives generally are busier, there is more pollution, churches are more frequently heated and dry in the winter, people generally drink less and spend much more time indoors. I think it's time to accept that discreet hydration is a necessity, but that's just me.
I've always put the tendency for boys' voices to change earlier down to increasingly better general health since the end of World War II. I think also that in some cases there's a preference for a different type of treble tone, which doesn't last as long, or doesn't have the scope for a sort of Indian Summer falsetto. And there's peer pressure. I would still regard it as unusual if a boy lost his treble voice before his fifteenth year.
Repertoire is better these days - you don't see run-of-the-mill stuff like Arnold in A or Nares in G around very much - and the standard of performance is higher. Some of the music sung today is more demanding than the repertoire of thirty or fifty years ago, but not all of it.
Fifty years ago, many foundations were singing daily Matins as well as Evensong, and it was rare for less than the full choir to sing at any service.
Overall, I don't think demands are any heavier. I do think that some singers have a prissy attitude instilled in them - after all, singing is a natural activity and all it needs is reasonable care and attention.
So I'm still of the opinion that there's no excuse for carrying a water bottle into a service which at most will last for an hour and a half. Neither would I look with favour on someone who habitually swigged out of a bottle during rehearsal.
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Apologies for stumbling across this discussion a little late.
Interestingly, I favour a short Tuba Solo at a different point in the Balfour Gardiner - about four bars before the third verse (the second loud entry) as the organ is building up in volume, there is a G minor chord and there is a nice little line which you can solo out there in the tenor, (D-E-G rising to a G# in the following bar). I picked this up from hearing someone else doing it and think it adds to the build-up (and a good way to learn is listening to other people).
I was having a think about a few other 'obligato' tuba solos - Dyson in D evening service is full of them. I think I recalled a couple more but forget them now. I think I'd thought of a couple of examples in organ repertoire too.
Picking up on something MM said, how common is the practice when accompanying to build up loudly during an organ interlude and reduce the volume below the voices? 'I was glad' is a particularly good example - the monumental introduction deserves to be loud as these are among the most momentous bars in any choral music, but in order for the voices to be heard the volume needs to be taken down a bit.
If you want a good example of a big choral accompaniment, the Stanford in A evening service goes all over the place - I'm not sure there's a more difficult evening service to play. Stanford provides some direction and suggestions. I registered it a while ago using general pistons and I think I had something in the realm of 40-50 registration changes, and even some of them weren't that seamless. I guess it's all part of the fun.
I cut down the Great and close the Swell box after the voices enter in 'I was glad'.
The tuba blasts at the beginning of the Gloria in Murrill in E never fail to please. The ends of both Coll Reg morning canticles provide an excuse for a good honk.
The opening of Stanford in A is a bugger, although maybe the hemiolae in Rubbra in A flat are worse. I cut my thumb badly minutes before an Evensong at Worcester Cathedral which included Stanford in A, with the result that the console looked like an abattoire by the end of the Mag.
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I'm rather intrigued about this, and wonder what other choir types think about it. Personally I take the view that just as cars need oil, voices need water - especially untrained or partially trained voices, frequently self-confessed amateurs, sometimes children, especially early in the morning, and very especially having had little or nothing in the way of a constructive warm-up. I'd rather see water in the stalls than hear strained voices straining further.
I suppose the first answer that comes to mind is that choirs managed fine without bottled water in the stalls for most of the first couple of millennia, it's just that a bottle of water seems to be indispensable to some people in any situation.
I guess my principal objection is that it looks terrible, especially if there's been some effort to make the choir look like a body of voices rather than a bunch of inidividuals.
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In about 1977, I saw in the Willis works at Petersfield an instrument which I think had started off as part of the Willis IV Junior Development Plan. As it stood then, the pipes were planted on a soundboard that curved around in a spiral. I think it may have been known to some as the Christmas Tree Organ. Again, I'm relying on memory here, but I think that on one manual it had Klein Gedackt 8 and Gemshorn 4, but the other manual was mostly extension of the gedackt rank. There may have been a Salicional in there somewhere, too. It had a stop-key console such as one might see on any number of jobs, rather than the characteristic Willis type. Not 'done on the cheap' - it was a decent piece of work - just not the usual Willis luxury production.
Also sprach Zarathustra:
'My name is Henry Willis, but it is also Peter Conacher.'
If a job was done with extension and without some of the 'Willis' features such as toggle touch, it would have a Conacher plate on it. I don't know if many such went through the shops - possibly it was a one-off - but that was how Henry IV explained it.
I saw recently a specification of a Willis with a Posaune as the Great reed and a coupler 'Posaune in Octaves'. I reckon it's pushing it to say that's not extension. The pre-War St. Mary, Southampton Willis had a coupler 'Great Reeds Sub Octave'. Then there's that odd arrangement at Hereford Cathedral where some Solo ranks are available at either 8' or 16'. However, I have never seen blatant manual extension on a Willis.
Didn't Laurence Elvin perpetrate a bloomer in his last book in claiming that St. Jude's, Thornton Heath had an extended reed chorus? (Now there was one fine organ!).
Can you give us more details about the organ you mention at Burnley?
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I have to ask this - how did your wife travel....?
Air Canada.
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When I moved to Newfoundland, I took a case-load of music with me. The rest followed six months later with furniture and wife, the former in a container, which took the route Belfast/Rotterdam,New York, Halifax/St. John's and took six weeks.
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Going tomorrow! The old console was certainly high, and, for me, a bit frightening.
Weren't you at St. Pat's, Dublin at one time, Stephen? I always found that fairly scary, but at least it was spacious. How do they compare for you?
I'm hoping to try Bury when I go home on holiday at the end of August. It makes me feel old, because I was at the opening of the Nicholson and shortly after Colin Goulden and I were asked by Fred Oxley to do the demo to the Organ Club.
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I guess you mean September 11th...
You're right. Living in Newfoundland for the last eight and a half years has fuddled my senses regarding the conventions of writing dates on different sides of the Atlantic.
Also, September 9th is my sister's birthday and therefore deeply embedded in my subconscious.
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Just an idle query. Can anyone tell me about Kingsgate Davidson? I believe that the firm started out as the Kingsgate Musical Instrument Company, or some such. Did Davidson buy in, or take over? When did they cease trading, and did someone take them over?
They seem to have produced some imaginative schemes, including revamping Brompton Oratory for Ralph Downes. Their ex-residence organ, which ended up in Holy Trinity, Brompton, was more interesting than the ex-Audley Street Rushworth which replaced it. And I think I remember seeing a ad in a sixties copy of Musical Opinion for a very advanced neo-Classical specification - all in German.
Maybe the execution didn't come up to the ambitions, although the examples I've played have generally seemed well done.
Thanks in advance.
Wedding/Funeral fees
in General discussion
Posted
I also make sure that the resident organist gets the fee if I play elsewhere. When I was at Belfast Cathedral, it was not uncommon to get requests for choristers to sing at weddings. In such cases, I would clear this with the clergyman concerned, arrange for the choristers to be transported, get them off school if necessary, play for them (not necessarily for the rest of the service) and get them home. They got five pounds each for this, but I didn't charge anything. In one case, where the groom had been a chorister at Ripon, I got a couple of bottles of decent wine.
I try to be flexible on music, but the bottom line is that this is the Anglican Cathedral, a Victorian masterpiece of Gilbert Scott's, the service is from the Book of Common Prayer (or, less often, the Book of Alternative Services), and any music has to be appropriate to the setting and the liturgy. Therefore, any keyboard accompaniments will be done on the organ and singers are expected to project naturally without the use of a microphone. The latter occasionally causes consternation with Mr Caruso-style RC cantors, but I believe it to be the only way to order things in our particular circumstances. As an Anglican church, we regard ouselves as open to all, but that does not mean the building and liturgical tradition can be treated as a stage set.