Martin Cooke

I am playing hymn preludes instead of the Gradual, Offertory and Communion hymns at church at the moment. It takes a bit of hunting to find ones which are (a) of good quality and interest that (b) fit with the theme of the Sunday as per the RSCM Sunday by Sunday scheme. Does anyone have favourite hymn preludes - I'm not thinking Bach, Buxtehude, Reger, Karg-Elert etc for this thread - perhaps someone might like to kick off a new thread for favourite chorale preludes??? I'm bound to say that I have found some gems both old and new in terms of publication date. In the Novello green seasonal volume for Harvest, there is a truly delicious little prelude by Lloyd Webber on a tune called 'Holyrood.' Trouble is... no-one will know the tune, but it's still a delightfully crafted piece. And some of the Kevin Mayhew volumes have done me proud. I played a super little piece on 'Melita' the other day by Richard Lloyd. In terms of older 'finds', I thoroughly recommend Charlton Palmer. Anyone else know his stuff? He was a master of his art.

No, I quite agree, Stephen. I've looked it out today and it's a bit too quirky, harmonically, for its own good. But... I will the giving the Gibbons one an outing soon.

Yes - there is also... Paean (OUP Album of Praise) Written for the Truro Cathedral organ, but can't have been very effective at the time of its writing as the Tuba was buried in those days. Would be good now. A piece that doesn't deserve to be forgotten long with a couple of other meritorious pieces in that album - Gordon Jacob and Flor Peeters items especially. Five Chorale Preludes (OUP) - several are beautiful regulars for me - Gibbons' Forth in thy name and Glory be to Jesus immediately come to mind, but there is also a Schmücke Dich which I ought to play more. Two Dialogues (Novello) - great stuff. A Fancy (OUP - Organ Music for Manuals only) - lovely sorbet-like music Chorale Prelude on 'Dickinson College' (Volume 3 of the The Bristol Collection) - Looks a bit inpenentrable along with most of the music in all three of volumes of this series. Fanfare on Old 100th (OUP Ceremonial Music for Organ I) A great piece - but not not a faint-hearted congregation in a confined space. And that's before I start rummaging in my Henderson!! I have a feeling there are a couple of other bits and bobs in OUP albums of the 60s but I certainly don't play them. Dialogue No 1 was a Grade 8 ABRSM piece when I took it in 1973/4... and very good it is too... and No 2!!

You could knock me down with a feather! I have never given this any thought, I must say, and assumed that French Carol was just the title Hurford gave that movement. Then someone mentioned that the opening sounds like a carol, and I assumed we were talking about A virgin most pure. But now I've looked this up - (p14 CforC 1) - and it's "English trad. arr. Charles Wood." Not much French about that! Is this the carol that you're thinking of, I wonder, S_L? I don't recognise any other sections of the tune but apart from the obvious few, I can't say I am knee-deep in French carols... and it doesn't seem to resemble any of the usual suspects. As to where he was when he composed them... perhaps, like David Willcocks, he wrote music on the train. The 'Gopsal' Fanfare in OUP's Ceremonial Music for Organ I is one such piece - and O Lord, did I really buy it in 1971? How time flies!)

Great news all round, JPM - so pleased to hear this. Martin.

Oh golly, it is a wonderful site, full of interesting comment, debate and discussion.

It looks most interesting. Many thanks for sharing. I am sure it will be much more fun than watching the news in a moment!

Well said, Colin! All the best, SL; Martin.

Adnos, have I read your post correctly? It does seem very ungracious. Some of those leaving have been valued friends and colleagues on here for a long time and I am sorry to see them go. One of the great things about this forum has been its broad church in terms of interest and knowledge, and we have all rubbed shoulders, for many years, in a good-natured way. I confess to being taken aback by the note your email appears to strike and only hope that I have misunderstood in some way.

Thanks, sotto, I hadn't spotted that. The forum has been full of interest for me all these years and not many days have passed when I haven't been on to see "what's new". No other organ has been anything like as successful in my experience and I, along with all the others who have expressed this, am full of gratitude to JPM for its inception and continuance all this time. I have loved involvement in it and am grateful, too, to all my fellow correspondents (forumites) who have contributed to my enjoyment of the forum for so long, and, indeed, have put up with my dull reminiscences and other posts over the years. Thank you all so much. Martin.

That's very good to read, CV. As the person who raised this thread I am really saddened that the good folk above have decided not to keep up their membership of the new forum and that someone has accused us of moving too quickly. I am genuinely at a loss to understand their reservations and, furthermore, I am sure that Noel Mander and John Pike Mander would be thrilled that despite the difficulties that have hit the company, the highly successful forum lives on in its new incarnation, and would give it their generous blessing. In suggesting that we 'got on with it' I was simply anxious to avoid a situation whereby we woke up one morning to find this forum closed and no idea where to turn to find all those with whom we have enjoyed corresponding for many years. The alternatives, prior to what Steve has set up as the natural sequitur to this Mander forum, gave little hope, frankly of meaningful engagement and correspondence, and I think it is brilliant that he has made something happen so quickly and that a good number have moved across already.

One of our members who is involved at the RCO is aware of the current situation and will raise the matter at the RCO as soon as he is able. Meanwhile ,i tis good to see that a number of active members of this current forum are joining the new one, though I realise that isn't the end of the story as Steve still needs a preparedness from one or two to play a part in its management.

I'm sure that's right, Vox. This could go at any moment whether we like it or not, and Steve has set up an excellent alternative that I am sure we need to decamp to pronto! I do hope that those who are delaying have noted the web address just in case.

We don't need to go through that process - one of our members has already set up a new forum and it's ready to go. https://www.houndscroft.co.uk/organ-forum/

This is great! Let's get some new topics up over there and try it out!

OK... so just to try to get back to the topic of whether the cathedral's principal pipe organ is working or not... my Friends of Cathedral Music newsletter arrived today. Page19 reports on a 'Gathering' in Worcester in the first weekend of March 2020. Quote: All services during the weekend were accompanied by the digital nave organ, not an easy feat for services in the quire. Yikes! Then came the recent video of Nicholas Freestone playing the Rogers - we can't tell if he's using Rogers sounds or Tickell pipes!! And, for the nonce before anyone harps back to it again... the organ blower failed in March 2019 which is when the temporary Viscount installation took place.

All that has been written above is most helpful and interesting and I certainly wouldn't be against the idea of paying to be a member. BUT... I think this will prove to be our downfall over time and new people won't join. I was amazed to read that there are 1000 or so members - it seems to me that only an infinitesimal proportion of these ever contribute though it has been good to welcome new contributors recently - bravo! However, I suspect that when push comes to shove, many of our 1000 members will head for the hills leaving the 20 or so of us who are regulars to foot the bill. I, too, had wondered about all the posts from the past - lots of wisdom and experience there from the likes of the late David Drinkell and others that we will not have access to. But, in all honestly, how often do we go rooting back? It's a bit like chucking out your lifetime's collection of Musical Times or Choir and Organ. You think you will always need them and can't live without them, but, actually, is it really like that? And, let's face it, with a lively/livelier forum, you can always ask again - who is going to object? New people and new 'stuff' is always coming along, after all. In sum, as things stand, my hope is that this forum will be replicated under Steve's kind auspices, but with the addition of a digital tab... and leave it at that. As has been mentioned by Stephen, our current webmaster, our present forum may close at any moment so I think we need to crack on. I think the next step is to hear from a few more of you - the 1000 members - about your willingness to pay for the forum, though we would be mad to reckon on more than 20% (if that) of the current members being willing to pay... and we have to remember Steve's point, that all the accountancy side of this and forum editing and supervision would need to be taken on by somebody. I still favour the 'free' route. Martin.

I'm not sure I have fully understood Barry's final point here, but I think his idea that we should be less reticent about discussing digital instruments is well made and I support it. I absolutely realise that digital instruments are a turn off to many - and pace to all Mander folk - but the digital world is full of interest with many interesting installations going on, and there are still thousands of interesting pipe organs in the UK to catch our interest and attention. I was hugely taken with Anna Lapwood's Bachathon this year through Pembroke, Cambridge, whereby all the Bach organ works were played in 24 hours, all over the world, in lockdown, with many eminent organists playing digital instruments - David Briggs, David Hill, Will Fox, Richard McVeigh, Daniel Cook, Anna herself, and many others besides. Where would everyone be without digital home organs at the moment? I know I would have been absolutely lost without mine all this time. I think what I am proposing - and what I take Barry to mean - is that we might carry on as now, but under Steve's auspices... with discussion tabs as now - Nuts and Bolts, Organ Music, etc... but we have a further tab called Digital organs. Would that be the end of things as we know it in a serious way?

It's certainly a very convincing sound! But... forgive me... we haven't yet pinned down whether the 'new' pipe organ is actually working. I realise it might be out of tune, and that services are in the nave, etc etc... but a highly reputable organist has commented on the Radio 3 forum that he thinks the Tickell organ has been out of action for some time. Perhaps nobody here really knows. Sotto... it sounds as if you know more about the Worcester set up than anyone else who has responded so far... do you happen to know how things stand?

Yes, thank you, Steve, for offering this. I would certainly appreciate it hugely. I would be happy to keep the same format/headings and I imagine that that would be simpler and less time-consuming for you. Thanks again; Martin.

I don't think it's that. The Radio 3 post suggested the organ hadn't been working for a number of years, but I simply can't believe it.

The other posting regarding alternative forums led me, just now, to the Radio 3 forum for the first time where I was shocked to read under a post about Tickell Organs that the Worcester Cathedral organ has been unplayable for some time. Is that... can that... possibly be true? The contributor says that a digital organ is doing duty there. I always thought that that was just for nave services whilst awaiting the rebuild of the nave/transept organ, but, actually, I saw a recent post from Nicholas Freestone (ADoM) in which he was playing the digital and surely he wouldn't be doing that from choice?!?! Does anyone know what the situation is? Splendid trumpet stop in the video. Would we know this was digital if we couldn't see it...(and were only listening through tiny laptop speakers)?

I worry that any time soon, this forum will cease to function. Would Mander forumites mind suggesting other sites where organ discussion takes place? As a long-standing member of this one and someone who has followed and been interested in Mander Organs since the announcement that they were to rebuild the St Paul's organ in 1972 - (I was able to undertake an O-level Music project on this topic) - I am greatly saddened by what has happened.

Yes, there's one available on the BBC Choral Evensong site now. Orr - Short Service; Parry - Hear my words; Leighton - Paean. All sounds jolly good - though it is a 2014 recording.

Thank you both - a whole world to explore here.