Martin Cooke
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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.
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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.
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So, two new instruments in the offing - one to replace the Nelson and another one by William Drake for the Chapter House.
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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.
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Memorial music - (1) Holocaust Memorial Day & (2) ANZAC Day
Martin Cooke replied to Martin Cooke's topic in Organ Music
Many thanks, Stephen, for this and your earlier suggestion. -
Memorial music - (1) Holocaust Memorial Day & (2) ANZAC Day
Martin Cooke replied to Martin Cooke's topic in Organ Music
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.) -
Memorial music - (1) Holocaust Memorial Day & (2) ANZAC Day
Martin Cooke replied to Martin Cooke's topic in Organ Music
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). -
Memorial music - (1) Holocaust Memorial Day & (2) ANZAC Day
Martin Cooke replied to Martin Cooke's topic in Organ Music
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. -
Memorial music - (1) Holocaust Memorial Day & (2) ANZAC Day
Martin Cooke replied to Martin Cooke's topic in Organ Music
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.
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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!
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And 'welcome' from me, too, Jaco. Very good to have you with us.
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How odd! I had it on very good authority!
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The other thing about this, is that they took O come, all ye faithful in A flat major so that the 32ft reed could go down properly for WORD of the father.
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Quite right, Colin, and I wholeheartedly applaud the initiatives that Viscount have taken, working in some cases with Tom Daggett (now at Sheffield Cathedral), to get instruments into state schools. I suspect that it is a drop in the ocean so far, but haven't I seen a statement by some organisation somewhere saying that it is their ambition to get a digital instrument into every state school? Perhaps I'm making that up, but that would be a great ambition for a musical philanthropist, though the instrument still needs to be taught and pupils will still need to be able to practise on it. I'm not sure how accessible an organ in a school hall elsewhere could or would be during a busy school day.