Martin Cooke

Has anyone caught wind yet of what the plan is at St Paul's in terms of the top organists/s posts? William Fox was originally appointed Sub-Organist under Andrew Carwood and Simon Johnson, and then, upon the latter's departure for Westminster Cathedral, he was appointed Acting Organist and Assistant Director of Music. Now he is moving to St Albans as DoM that leaves two vacancies - Organist and Assistant DoM + Sub Organist. I realise that they are not short of organists at St Paul's, at least, not at the moment. In addition to two top level 'outreach/education' people who replaced Tom Daggett, Martin Ford has been playing there as Acting Sub-Organist and there is an FRCO Organ Scholar. I haven't seen any announcements or advertisements and it's some while now since WF's appointment to St Albans was announced. Elsewhere... Presumably Claudia Grinnell's post at Winchester will be re-filled. Are there other significant vacancies or posts to fill?

Brilliant. Thank you so much, SlowOrg. Truly scrumptious - and I really should have known it.

This little demo film of the Christ Church Rieger is worth watching but what is the piece played on the fonds at 6.30? Many thanks!

Ah yes - thanks Rowland - I even contributed to it. And, you're correct, of course - Henry IV. As I said in the previous thread, he tried to sell me one of these. Would still be interested in knowing what became of the original organ.

An article in Country Life this week with a photo of St Martin's church by Lutyens caused me to look things up on NPOR. A 3-manual Father Willis house organ was installed in 1947 but this was replaced in the 60s by one of those Christmas tree, spiralling instruments of HWIII. It's hard to imagine this was an improvement, musically. Does anybody on here happen to know anything behind this and what happened to the FW.

So, two new instruments in the offing - one to replace the Nelson and another one by William Drake for the Chapter House.

It will be interesting to see what happens now at St Paul's as William was acting Assistant DoM (principal Organist) (since Simon Johnson went to Westminster Cathedral) and now they need a new Assistant DoM AND a Sub Organist - William's original role at St Paul's. I notice too that Canon James Milne, the Precentor, is moving to York Minster.

Many thanks, Stephen, for this and your earlier suggestion.

Thanks Damian - I'm not going to buy that volume. I've recently spent a lot of money on organ music and one must draw the line somewhere especially as OUP have some new volumes on the horizon. But...how did you discover that single pieces are available separately? (Edit - please don't feel the need to reply, Damian - that was a lazy response of mine. I can see what to do!!) (Edit 2 - I have taken a punt on the Beyer piece on Synagogue melodies.)

Yes, well... eek!! It This reminds me of an article I happened to read in the Exeter and District Organists' Association newsletter of, I think, January 2021. James Lancelot recalls his Organ Scholar interview... I found myself in the organ loft at King’s itself under the eye of David Willcocks, who put us through a series of keyboard tests (amongst them, improvising with a right-hand solo on Nazard, transposing down a twelfth; sight-reading Brahms’ Schmücke dich with the treble part played on the pedals on a 4’ reed, playing the final verse of a hymn and continuing an improvisation while David mimicked the motions of an old-fashioned television cameraman under one’s nose).

Alkan - Cripes! re those pedal studies of yours, Damien! 😧 Passing on those in favour of a Prière that is eminently playable (even if it requires a bottom B beyond the pedal board), and also looking at your "J'étais endormie" suggestion that might work well on the organ.

Many thanks Colin and Damien. I shall look up Alkan, and I know there are some organ pieces by him on IMSLP. Williamson - gosh! What an amazing project by Tom Winpenny. He clearly likes a challenge. I remember singing his 'Dignus est Agnus' as a boy and also the 'Procession of Palms' which were both a bit on the Light Programme spectrum harmonically. Imagine my shock when I confidently placed an order for some of his organ music including the JFK piece and found them to be from a totally different sonic landscape - all completely beyond my ability, too, I think. Frustratingly, I can't find any of my copies of his music and fear that they must have gone, long ago, into my 'reserve stock (attic), as opposed to 'reserve stock (other bookshelf).' It called for State Trumpets 16, 8 and 4, I remember. When I next need to tackle a wasps nest up yonder I shall look them out. Meanwhile, what I have discovered is that there is very little indigenous Australian organ music from earlier times of any quality, in print.

I feel very ignorant asking about this, and it's too late for this year now, anyway... but can anyone offer some pointers towards some Jewish organ music that would be suitable to play on this day next year, or close to it? I have been doing a little bit of 'looking online' but not really found something yet - well, nothing that is either free on IMSLP or is not in a rather expensive album. And then I find In will be playing for a service on ANZAC memorial day and I haven't found 'la pièce juste' to play at this. I'm very grateful to Martin Setchell who has scanned me a copy of the ANZAC day hymn, but I would like to find a nice Adagio written by a composer from that part of the world to play as a solo item at this service. If there are any suggestions, I'd be grateful. In the meantime, I am going to raid my Kevin Mayhew albums for music by Rosalie Bonighton and June Nixon, some of which would undoubtedly do. I suppose I can always play the Thalben-Ball Elegy and/or the William McKie Romance.

A good choice, Richard, thanks for that. Shortly after that, the school where I worked invested in a large Wyvern/Phoenix with the cabinetry for speakers and console all undertaken by Renatus. I played it again for the first time in 6 years or so at Christmas and it was sounding splendid, though I would have wanted a few little bits of revoicing done now, I think - Tubas not quite right and too shrill a mixture on the choir - (though I loved it at the time, I suppose... unless something has gone awry with it). Some truly lovely sounds on it. One doesn't hear anything of Phoenix these days. There's a smallish 2-manual Viscount with some external speakers newly installed in our local church and it sounds really good. I miss the 4ft flute on the Swell that a larger organ might have - (as at church - WIllis III, and here at home - Viscount 3-manual) - but one can go on and on adding stops, and you can download more or less anything you want from the onboard library, although it's not easy to achieve this during a service because the clicking of buttons is too noisy!

And 'welcome' from me, too, Jaco. Very good to have you with us.