Martin Cooke

I suddenly got it in my head that I should learn the Guilmant Grand Choeur in D alla Handel last weekend. I know, I know, I could have downloaded it from IMSLP - and I did but there's nothing quite like the real thing - but poking about on line I discovered Forwoods music store. I placed the order on Saturday and received the order yesterday, which, in addition to the Guilmant included a choral piece that had been printed from an archive collection. That's pretty good going, I would say. AND... and this is the nub... there is 25% discount on all Schott music until 31st January - Guilmant, Naji Hakim, Schroeder, transcriptions by Lemare & Guillou etc, though this is not just with Forwoods, I don't think - Schott celebrating 250 years. Anyway, I shall be using them again, certainly.

That's great, CM - thanks so much.

Gosh, that's useful, too. But, it's all a bit unfathomable. There is there was a musicians' diary that had info like this in.

That's a great starter, S_L - many thanks. So what do you actually type to get this list? I have just typed 'On the day wiki' and that works but the list of anniversaries is almost overwhelming. Can one limit it just to musicians?

St Paul's has announced a series of recitals celebrating 150 years of the 1872 Willis organ. I don't think I found the details on the St Paul's site, but got them from a tweet. However, this is a link to the first of William Fox's Bach series which he gave to an empty cathedral last Sunday. In the opening shots, you get the full 'poster' covering all the recitals. I thoroughly recommend listening to this performance of William's with some seasonal music for New Year, Baptism of Jesus and, coming up soon, Presentation of Christ in the Temple/Purification/Candlemas. Having played BWV 684, Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, at church that morning myself without a page turner, it is quite amusing to see the lengths [you will see this turns out to be a pun of sorts] that William has to go to to manage this piece without a turner. (Yesterday, I was engaged in the exercise of preparing a manageable score of Dubois' Fiat Lux for Candlemas.)

I was a bit frustrated to get back from playing for church on Sunday to see a tweet announcing that 'on this day' in 1941, Frank Bridge had died. Is there a list somewhere of information like this, or is it just up to individuals to know and find out these things? I'm sure I'm missing something useful and would be grateful for a pointer, please - and thank you! Martin

... sorry... and don't forget Highland Cathedral is not Scottish in origin. Christopher Tambling wrote a lot of organ music with a Scottish flavour, all of it published either by Mayhew or Dr Butz. I can narrow this down to a few favourites if you would like me to.

Also this - by AL Peace - https://ks.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/0/00/IMSLP64880-PMLP132155-ConcertFantasia1a.pdf

New volume published by Banks of Scottish themes arranged for organ by Anthony Baldwin. Out now.

Which organ did they use? Pipe or digital?

Thank you, Dave - and your sentiments are warmly echoed from this little region of Wiltshire. What better way could there be to help us look forward to the future than the splendid Nine Lessons and Carols from KIng's yesterday? The final part of the service went on giving! David Hill's fabulous extra descant for verse 7 of O come, all ye faithful was masterful and it followed Christopher Robinson's verse 6 stunningly. Then, after the blessing, we had the Chilcott Still, still, still followed by a spine chilling improvisation (?) that led into an a capella first verse of Hark! which was pure magic. And, there were, of course, many scintillating and delightful moments along the way - the VW Sussex Carol, for example and the Philip Moore. Happy Christmas, everyone. Martin.

Yes, very exciting - by Stuart Nicholson. It's in the second volume of Novello's Noel series - red cover.

I have never heard of him until now. There is no reference to him or any music in Henderson, I'm afraid. His name pops up on the Royal College of Music site and it looks as though he wrote an interesting cultural history of the ABRSM. (Not everyone would use the word 'interesting' in association with the ABRSM, but having in some way been involved in their examining process since I took Grade III Bassoon (Examiner: Garth Benson) about 50 years ago, it looks 'interesting' to me... though very expensive!) Anyway, his Three Pieces - also unknown to me - are just £5 including p&p from Nymet Music, so I look forward to their appearance shortly. If I can't think of anything else to do later I may recount a (slightly) humorous story about an (entirely good-natured) encounter with an ABRSM examiner!

Oh gosh... and new announcements on the King's website say that two choral scholars have had to self-isolate and The King's Singers have been in at very short notice to help with the recorded tv service, and that they will be using a new recording of 9 L&Cs for the Christmas Eve radio broadcast. It seems that they had foreseen the possibility of last minute difficulty and made a recording just in case. I do feel very sorry for everyone involved. Choristers have had a really tough time, I think, since first lockdown. A whole generation left their choirs in July without a proper send-off, and now the top boys at King's aren't getting this most memorable of events. I know it isn't the end of life as we know it, but it's sad for them.

And more recently, I am sure some cathedral sub organists were expected to function as DoM at the Cathedral School is there was one. Actually, wasn't John Sanders Director of Music at King's School, Gloucester, whilst also DoM at the Cathedral? Harry Gabb, sub organist at St Paul's was also Organist, Conductor and Composer at HM Chapel Royal at St James. And John Scott was initially simultaneously sub organist at St Paul's and at Southwark Cathedral.

Just caught up with the Radio Times and the order of service for Christmas Eve at King's. It look very interesting with some new arrangements of carols/hymns in the offing by Daniel Hyde and others. It says that, without a congregation, opportunity has been taken for more choir arrangements of the usual congregational items. But, I am surprised to see that Matthew Martin is listed as the organist for the occasion instead of an organ scholar and can't help wondering what this is about.

It's extraordinary really - and SUCH high standards in terms of skills required - and not just referring to Exeter. I wouldn't have thought the accommodation was worth anything like that - even at £1000 a month, it's only £12,000pa, and I doubt very much if the assistant DoM of any cathedral's accommodation equates to £1000 a month - more like £500. Music posts in independent schools (especially boarding schools) where in the best, similar standards and skills may be needed - along with others, of course - make a FAR more lucrative option.

Many thanks for that pointer, David.

I don't think there is, but someone may possibly have done one which your post will hopefully flush out as I'd be keen to have one too. To be honest, it's fairly easy to figure out from the full score but I haven't attempting it play it from the fs in a service - just at home.

Here's a quote from the St Peter's wikipedia entry: St Peter's has a large pipe organ[17] built-in 1888 for the Hampstead Conservatoire of Music by Henry Willis[18] and brought to Brighton in 1910. It is the sole survivor of three almost identical instruments in the town, the others having been at the Dome Pavilion[19] and in Hove Town Hall.[20] The latter is now at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree,[21] while the former was broken up in the 1930s. It is almost identical to the famous organ in Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro. The organ in St. Peter's has been unusable for some years due to asbestos. At a meeting of the Diocesan Advisory Committee held on the 14th March 2019, it was proposed that the organ be removed from St Peter's and installed in St John's College Chapel, Cambridge. So, it looks as though this is going ahead. Do we know any more about this project? Has St John's said anything? Who is the builder?

Does anyone know when they were recorded? I was surprised to see the digital organ at St Mary's Edinburgh as I thought the Harrison rebuild had been completed some months ago.

Yes, ditto. I'm sure the tuning must have been tickled up a bit - Salisbury is notably sharp for a start. I thought the whole thing was brilliant. It was a good organ day yesterday what with this and Anna Lapwood's Radio 3 recital from St David's Hall, Cardiff at lunchtime - brilliant playing of some really interesting and exciting music.

I don't think it plays the Tickell pipework.

There is a very insightful comment about this on this facebook site - https://www.facebook.com/groups/355269498442029/?fref=mentions - by Andrew Caskie of Nicholson Organs. I've lost it at the moment but it's there somewhere!

Be aware of this... https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cathedralorganistsplay