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Martin Cooke

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Everything posted by Martin Cooke

  1. Thanks for all these interesting thoughts and contributions. S_L I do fear for the future of the church as we know it, put it like that. I haven't kept up with the saga but there is a lot of talk over here about 10,000 new churches being established without the expense of clergy to run them and all being done in people's homes - and as far as I can tell, this is coming from the top! There is an incredible shortage of money in many (all) dioceses with talk of clergy redundancies - Chelmsford seems to be particularly badly hit, but they are far from alone. A fifth church is just joining four others in a benefice I know in Cornwall... though there are two clergy + two retired clergy and at least 2 LLMs (lay readers) but I imagine it will only be one service per church n most Sundays. And, at what I would regard as the principal church in the benefice, the splendid organ hasn't been tuned for several years, when it used to be done quarterly - but, again, it's not alone in that! I agree that organists don't always do themselves favours. I watched a film recently of a splendid organist introducing his large instrument - it was probably intended for organ enthusiasts only. But he drew some diapasons and played some very dull chords and described it as a 'glorious sound.' Well, we all know what diapasons sound like and, honestly, anyone who thinks three of four together is a 'glorious sound' needs to get out more! And it doesn't need to be like that - just read the account of the tonal work that has been undertaken at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Organists' Review this quarter - it all comes over as really quite exciting. If I am really honest, I am not sure that all these improvisations that many seem to specialise in do the instrument and its players any huge favours. Many, to my humble ears, come over as a mad, discordant and over-long cacophony and I avoid them now. I am showing my ignorance in saying this, I know, but I would much rather listen to a short improvised 'choir in' voluntary by a master of the art, than a long improvised symphony of sorts. And are transcriptions of massive symphonies popular? And if so, who with? And to back up Rowland's thoughts about the good work going on at Oundle and other places - there are some really good people doing some fantastic work with organ and church music with young people. The whole Diocese of Leeds music scheme sounds brilliant, and then there is Anna Lapwood in Cambridge (but, actually 'everywhere') and Tom Daggett (based at St Paul's) who do outstanding work with organ and choral music, inspiring lots of young people. And I sense that this is a movement that is growing as more and more people are caught up in what is already happening. [The contribution from trusts and charities to organ rebuild schemes is often predicated upon the 'new' organ being used to inspire new young organists.]
  2. My latest addition to the luxuriant list is Reginald Hunt's Aria, attention to which is drawn by Kevin Bowyer in the latest Organists' Review, though I think I would play it slightly slower than Dr Bowyer (or Hunt intended). I bought my copy of the Six Pieces in 1978 but, rather shamefully, haven't touched them since so it's good to have been nudged into dusting them off. Lots of interest in the latest OR - I was particularly interested in Paul Hale's account of the tonal work that has been undertaken recently at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. It sounds most worthwhile. A visit to Paul Hale's recently revised website, by the way, reveals two illustrated talks by him which some may not have seen, about some recent organ projects. See here. Most interesting.
  3. Well, I am absolutely sure, Vox, that this is an entirely typical situation. So much comes down to money and the fact that cash is King, as they say, and you can't do anything without it! My initial response on reading this was that the DAC should have stipulated all sorts of conditions regarding the safety and welfare of the organ before all work began. If they are actually building something on to the church to accommodate the loos etc then a few hundred pounds to cover, uncover and retune the organ ought to be possible. But if the whole 'thing' about the organ and its condition and siting within a church that's about to be knocked about were taken into account, it would ,as you suggest, possibly endanger the project which would become financially unviable... and I presume that the DAC comes across this all the time. One is bound to wonder if the organ could go elsewhere if some pews were removed, but I know that this isn't as easy as it sounds... but it still comes back to money. It's great that they have an organist, of course, but if only they listened to his concerns about the instrument and his working conditions during coffee time! Sometimes, of course, money can be found, even unexpectedly. Only this last year in one village that I know, one parishioner, upon her death, has left a handsome sum to the church to allow their dreams (not involving the organ!) to go ahead, and another old lady has left her cottage to another local organisation which will undoubtedly be of great benefit. I think that experience alone might suggest that it's always worth a church having a plan worked out for its development.
  4. Yes, and to some extent, I agree, too. Nobody in their right mind is ever going to think that a four manual digital organ is going to be the equal of King's, or Truro, or Salisbury, etc. But I am jolly sure that many a well made, properly installed small digital organ is every bit superior to many a crumbling pipe organ. And yes, the pipe organ may go on for ever in the corner of the church, but many don't equal the some of their parts with poor tone, heavy action, short compass pedal boards, swells that go to tenor C only, pipework that goes out of tune the moment the tuner leaves, and the expensive of maintenance. I disagree that there is 'no comparison.' Of course there is comparison to be made and the the vast majority of people who make that comparison often cannot tell the difference. We're back to the Huw Edwards statement about our great 'heritage' of pipe organs. We do indeed have a great heritage, but not all pipe organs are worthy of membership, and we don't help the cause of pipe organ preservation and rescue if we imagine and cling to the idea that they are. The sheep need separating from the goats in our thinking. How do we that? How could responsible bodies such as the CofE or a diocese or a PCC go about deciding if their pipe organ should be kept and cherished or whether it should become a kitchen, a loo or a cupboard... especially if it is located awkwardly in shat has become a remote corner, and, if, Sunday by Sunday, there is nobody to play it or there is only a service every third week? I am happy to try to start answering this... but later! [And let's also remember that, yes, we have all these instruments, but the established church seems to be eating itself alive and in 30 to 50 years time will be gone. What will happen to all these pipe organs then?]
  5. Yes, but most of the time, in a cathedral or church setting, we are not dealing with an audience but with a congregation who are there for a different purpose. People who want to hear Benedetti and Wang pay good money to hear them in a concert setting. And are we really saying that we wouldn't go to hear, say, David Briggs playing on a digital instrument - something he seems perfectly content to do whilst the pipe organ in his present US church/cathedral is being redone following the fire? And don't organists have to make the very best of the instrument, whether pipe or digital? Surely that's part of the skill and craft of being an organist - somehow managing when a pipe organ's action is impossibly heavy, or the reeds are horribly out of tune, or a note isn't working on one of the stops... or the digital organ doesn't sound exactly like a pipe organ. And, I probably wouldn't go to hear B or W play a digital violin or piano, respectively, but I am not as interested in violin or piano music as I am in organ music. In the days when Chichester managed with their Allen, I am sure people like John Birch and Ian Fox saw it as part of their skill set to make the very best of the instrument - and they did just that, day in, day out, superbly. And the congregation didn't quibble and sit about thinking that the air wasn't moving in a natural way. In lots of ways, I think they thought the Allen was a pretty good improvement on their rather inadequate pipe organ, to be honest!
  6. Indeed, to my mind, it's a very generous donation and in addition to Tony's point about the original plans for the pipe organ, this is REPLACING an existing digital instrument. And isn't it getting just a little bit boring to hear reference to 'toasters' at every turn? Digital organs have kept a lot of organists going over the last 18 months and those that are properly and professionally installed (as I am sure most are these days) provide a lot of pleasure for organists, choirs and congregations that can't always afford maintenance or like-for-like replacement of their very expensive pipe organs. There is now a piece about this on the Church Organ World website that clarifies any points.
  7. The impression I gained from the announcement was the the speakers would be mounted on moveable platforms separate to the console. It's difficult to imagine that Makin will fall down on the sound system.
  8. Well, it all looks very nice - but the organ pipes are so unobtrusive as to be invisible in any of all those photos! Why the Acting Chancellor should deem it desirable that they be unobtrusive, is a mystery and I agree with undamaris. When a pipe organ is almost certainly the single most expensive and valuable item in a church, it seems extraordinary to want to hide it away, especially when re-ordering. Even speaker enclosures can be made to look attractive.
  9. Dr Keith Harrington, MD of Church Organ World, has announced that the largest ever Makin organ is to be installed in Liverpool Cathedral. 115 speaking stops over four manuals. It is to be positioned at West end of the building and replaces a much older Makin instrument. Everything will be moveable though so that it can be used elsewhere in the building if required. It will be called the Clark-Makin organ and has been provided through the generosity of the late Mr Peter Clark whose instrument this once was, though it is being modified and rebuilt before it's move to the cathedral. Dr Harrington reminds us that his will be the second Makin currently in the cathedral with the Rattenbury-Makin four manual instrument installed in the Song School. "For those who are counting, the Cathedral now has twenty-five manuals and eight organ consoles." He hopes that the instrument will be unveiled after the Anniversary Recital on 16th October.
  10. Thanks, Keith - I believe one is from Truro. I must look it all up. 2 minutes later... Oooh! No that doesn't seem to be right. He was doing a live recital there. Here are the details of the road trip - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ykch/episodes/guide
  11. Thanks, Vox - Musicroom still offer the three.
  12. Oh dear, yes! As it happens, I thought I had been quite careful trying to check interesting items against IMSLP but I slipped up here, obviously, and I also ordered an item by Ernest Tomlinson that is in an OUP album I have had for years. In fairness to Banks, though, they do say that they plan to include previews of items, and this will prevent this for the sharp-eyed.
  13. And a new arrival from Banks today qualifies, certainly, as a beautiful Adagio if not, perhaps, a luxuriant one! It's Coleridge Taylor's 'Melody' - one of their reprints
  14. Here's a new contender for the Luxuriant Adagio epithet... Vernon Hoyle's Idyll. https://www.fagus-music.com/composers/vh.htm More of his music is published by Banks though the Idyll takes the biscuit, in my view. And speaking of Banks - they now have the OUP organ archive and have listed all 690+ pieces on their website. Worth a look, I'd say.
  15. Somewhere, too, there is a photo of the 'new' ebonised (I think!) console when it was first moved to the south side. I think it is on an LP of Christopher Dearnley's. I think it's rather a shame that this finish has been done away with at Salisbury and at Truro. ps - Here it is... but I can't find one that I know exists of Truro's original 'new' console with David Briggs. pps - but there is this one of Truro with John Winter
  16. Thanks for all your insight into this, Paul. So it was a reasonable instrument, but not up on the same level, as such instruments as Lincoln, Salisbury and Hereford which have all stood the test of time in a pretty much un-interfered with way? When one thinks that fashion 'did for' instruments such as this and St Giles, Edinburgh, and lots of others - presumably New College... I wonder if at Lincoln, Salisbury etc, (including Truro) there was EVER any debate about 'improvements' such as there have been at other cathedrals - eg Wells, York, Westminster Abbey, etc.
  17. Pershore has just popped up on the British Pipe Organs facebook site - we have yet to see how the new instrument will turn out but the printed spec is certainly idiosyncratic. Will this be another case where a 'good pipe organ' has made way for something else? The old instrument's spec on NPOR looks most respectable but I know nothing of the circumstances or what it sounded like. I have formed the impression that the positioning of the old organ must have been an issue. Am I right? Was it too far from the choir? And one can't help but wonder if the old instrument couldn't have been retained but supplemented with a digital organ for some of the choral work, perhaps. (see my other post). But maybe that is just clumsy. (BTW, in suggesting a second (digital) instrument in some circs, I am certainly not advocating linking a digital organ to an existing pipe organ, though I believe this has been done.) Pershore has been written about elsewhere on this forum.
  18. Mmm... the Tuba certainly sounds a bit ropey unless that is just distortion on that discord.
  19. Crikey! The specification of the Willis on NPOR certainly supports your 'splendid' description, Rowland. How on earth did this come to pass?
  20. Our friend and long-standing contributor to this forum, pcnd, would, I am sure nominate the 'old' pipe organ in Worcester Cathedral. I can't help wondering about the previous organs in Trinity Cambridge, and Christ Church and Magdalen, Oxford, but I never heard them nor knew anything of any perceived deficiencies or advancing decrepitude. I remember, and played as a boy, once or twice, the Willis organ in the crypt chapel of St Paul's. This was removed and initially replaced by an Allen, but, as we know, there is now the splendid and more substantial Drake instrument.
  21. What about the sentiments expressed in Huw Edwards' article? I don't think it is necessarily desirable to preserve every pipe organ just because it's a pipe organ, but... what I DO feel is needed (in the C of E, at any rate) is a mechanism like a quinquennial inspection whereby all church organs are inspected every five years so that churches can have repairs and faults corrected and organs properly maintained. With many organs not being regularly played by a competent organist or maintained by a proper organ builder, there is no means by which PCCs can be kept informed of the state of their organs. And, let's face it, the organ is probably the least understood (by the layman) piece of apparatus in a church, but is yet probably the most valuable. This quinquennial idea would help, too, to separate out those instruments that are genuinely good organs, suitable for their location and purpose, and entirely worth preserving, and others that are not of this quality. I believe at least some PCCs would be proud to know that they have an organ built by a well-respected builder, or that their instrument is a fine example of the work of X & X or Y & Z, and that it would help them to see the importance of looking after it. Equally, I think some churches need to be helped to see that silk purses cannot always be obtained from a sow's ear, and that some pipe organs are not worth spending more money on. There are too many instances where poorish pipe organs are inadequate to support the earnest work of a goodish organist who wants to be able to play a reasonable range of repertoire, or they are badly sited in awkward corners of churches so that they are not close enough to the congregation to be effective. In the case of a fine, historic organ being awkwardly placed, perhaps the church could be encouraged to boost its musical resources by having a supplementary digital organ and whatever music is to be performed is shared, as appropriate between the two instruments. The concept of having two organs in different locations in a church, after all, is not a new one, and there are already instances of where quite modern pipe organs are having to be supported by the use of digital instruments. I'm thinking of St Mary's Nottingham and Clifton Cathedral but I am sure there are more. Could there be more scope for a happy coexistences like these where a supplementary digital organ would actually enhance the status and usability (for want of a better way of putting it) of the resident pipe organ? ("Evensong tonight in the chancel with our lovely Willis organ." "At Eucharist next Sunday Dr Snodgrass will be playing some Bach on the Marcussen and some Rheinberger on the Viscount." And... obviously... many more ideas more creative than these.) And... thinking aloud... might this sort of thing not help to create more interest generally so that the musical life of a church begins to blossom more and more with success breeding success... and then there will be more funding available to look after the historic pipe organ.
  22. A good point, Peter. I'm not clear which firm 'looks after' the RAH organ these days. Obviously, we met Michael Broadway on tv during this concert. I believe he also tunes at St Paul's but if repair work is needed at either venue, is this undertaken by Mander Organ Builders these days, or is another firm involved now?
  23. Many thanks for your most helpful post, John. One forgets the completely different nature of the true Spanish chamade trumpet stops compared with almost anything I have experienced over here. If you do have time to comment further, that would be most interesting. This has all come up in the process of looking for something to play as a concluding voluntary on Sunday - St James the Apostle, patron saint of Spain.
  24. I'm just wondering if anyone has discerned what sort of registration Lidon had in mind when he wrote this piece. I am very aware of George Guest's recording on the St John's, Cambridge instrument in which the chamade was used for both hands. I know little about Spanish organs but am I correct in thinking that the John's chamade is much louder than those in Spain? I have no opportunity to play this piece on an organ equipped with a chamade, but if I did, would it be appropriate to play the A section through on the chamade alone (both hands), repeat on some chorus work, and then repeat this pattern in the B section. If not, what? And, in this country, what would be the best instrument of all those with chamades, to play the piece on, even if the full Spanish organ sound is unattainable.
  25. I've listened to quite a few online services, Rowland, several with CG playing, and it has all sounded well and been very interesting, especially to hear some of her repertoire as you can tell from this thread. But I am always interested in what other organist play before and after services. I can't tell very much at all about the organ, and as I said in a previous post, I last played it over 40 years ago for an evensong. It's not hard to imagine that it's ready for a good 'seeing-to' but also not hard to imagine what a great job H&H will do.
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