Martin Cooke

Does anyone know about the new organ here, replacing the Copeman Hart? Just received a forwarded tweet with a picture of a very attractive terraced console, but no mention of the builder.

Ah, many thanks, Tony, and sorry to have doubted your initial response! I have been in touch now and am waiting to hear. BW Martin.

Many thanks, all - and am I right in thinking it's Banks Musicroom I need, rather than Banks Music Publications?

1. Has anyone ever seen a copy of the Sumsion arrangements of the two Hymn Preludes (for Orchestra) by Vaughan Williams? One is on Eventide and the other on Dominus Regit Me. 2. Please could someone point me in the direction of an archive printing firm that handles the OUP archive? Allegro Music used to do this, of course, but now that they are no longer functioning, I am not sure to whom to turn. (Musicroom?? They do Novello offprints.) Many thanks.

John - not sure if it will help but the heading on your post says 2019.

I agree with Rowland that JPM was being very modest about their involvement at the RAH. Of course, there is some merit in keeping ancient console labels, but, I see no problem in a multi label that lists those who have been involved in the organ during its history. So, in the case, Henry Willis and Sons, Ltd 18xx, Harrison & Harrison, 19xx Mander Organs 19xx. Not sure if there is a Willis label anywhere at St Paul's - but surely the organ there is still described as a Willis of 1872 rebuilt by Mander in 1972-77, etc.

Thank you very much for your response, Colin. I have the sample rate on 44.1kHz. I'm uploading to a very new MacBook Air. And yes, I now what you mean about the different sort of clicks and the relevancy of much of what is on-line. I am absolutely new to this and am not using the Tascam every day, so I have to renew my knowledge and skills each time I come to it. But... I think I read something akin to your suggestion about the upload speed. Could there be a setting in Audacity that I ought to be look at at? If I can find reference to what I think I read, I will come back to you. And here I am coming back... So, I read this... If you hear crackling while playing and recording at the same time, try increasing the "Audio to buffer" setting in Recording Preferences. On Mac you may need to reduce the Audio to buffer setting, even if only recording. Is this what I ought to be looking at, do you think?

C90 cassettes! Ha! Those were the days - with my little Bush cassette recorder, and Lord knows how many batteries I put on my father's account at the ironmongers before scarpering back to boarding school - there was no mains option. I graduated from my Bush to a Phillips reel to reel which served very well in my later boyhood. I have forgotten much of the terminology associated with the actual tape, but I remember buying a spool of BASF tape that had triple the playing time, but goodness me it was desperately thin - a bit like C120 cassettes. It's great toi be reminded of all these things. Not just recorded media that falls apart, of course - some of my printed volumes of much used pieces from my youth - (Novello Bach volumes, for example... Thalben Ball Elegy... etc) are in a shocking state. And in the case of the Bach, did it do any good to coat them in fablon which is now all cracked and horrible on the most used copies. I try to ply Bach from the Barenreiter volumes now, but still refer back to the Novello for fingering etc. But I have had to purchase second copies of a few things. And, Gosh... my copy of Harris's Flourish for an Occasion cost 28p in 1972.

Can anyone just offer a little advice? So, I record with my Tascam, and then I upload the file into Audacity to add a bit of reverberation which seems to work well and then Ib turn it into an mp3 file for use. Last time I did this, I recorded some organ music, but when upon transferring it to Audacity, lots a little 'clicks' have become apparent. This only happened on the last occasion I used it. I can't hear the clicks in the original wav file, but do you think that, perhaps, I didn't have the 'gain' set correctly at the time of recording?

Ha - yes, I agree - there are two Stanley voluntaries fitting that description but I think I know which one you mean!

Buxtehude chorale preludes; The 'Tallis to Wesley' edition of the Stanley Voluntaries - been slogging away with those tedious OUP facsimile volumes for 30+ years - why didn't I invest in the TtoW version right from the start? So... do folk have a favourite Stanley voluntary?... or Buxtehude chorale prelude?

So might I in the end - our final hymn too - but don't tell pcnd!

Quite right, Colin - and my thoughts exactly... Amazon is due to deliver two volumes of his Chorale Preludes this evening!!

I could do with a bit of a steer on suitable post-eucharist organ music for this occasion. Last year I played the second of the two Orgelbuchlein chorale preludes - the A minor one - which I felt was worth learning for the occasion and kept me quite busy... but this and the other one (D minor) can be played at the start or during communion. In 2017, I happened to find myself in St Paul's for the 5.00pm Eucharist (replacing Evensong) and it was absolutely magical. Simon Johnson played the A minor chorale prelude at the end of the service which seemed apposite and ethereal on a dark February night, but I am wondering if something more festive is called for after a morning eucharist. I don't want it to be a damp squib.

Rotten luck, Tony. I'm sure you're glad to be home and I hope you're feeling much better. Martin.

I played the new Rutter Festive Peal after the Crib Service, the 9/8 Bach C major at midnight and the Vierne Carillon de Longport on Christmas morning. I think some of the more interesting fare was before the services and during communion. Bach Pastorella, and Biery Mendelssohn were the two principal communion pieces and there all the other usual suspects before the services - Bach, Corelli, Lloyd Webber, Archer, Nixon. I was sorry not to be able to include the Reger Weihnachten this year.

So, I have never used Audacity before, but it comes recommended. I have recorded a couple of 'trials' on my home Viscount to good effect, but I am slightly uncertain of the various Effects that can then be applied in Audacity. Reverb seems clear enough, but I feel I want to ply with the graphic equaliser. Do you recommend this, Colin and AJJ? And if so, what shape should the Equaliser curve adopt?

Two recent acquisitions have been David Bednall's Evocation of Wells Cathedral, and the Verdi Organ Album, both published by OUP in the last few weeks. I haven't had time yet to really get down to learning and practising any of this music, but I feel sure that these are both publications that others would enjoy.

A most welcome gift this Christmas is the DVD/CD set called The English Organ which Fugue State films has produced. I have only watched 70 minutes worth, but if I say that this is presented by Daniel Moult, I am sure that everyone will realise that this is something that is excellent. I think the set was about £65 but for that you get 4 DVDs and 3CDs of presentations and music played on a multitude of different organs. I cannot help but feel that most organists would learn a lot from this set of discs and would thoroughly enjoy them. I've been playing English organs for 50 years and there is so much that I have learned in the first 70 minute presentation. More details here.

I have just become the proud owner of a Tascam DR-40x. I haven't used it for anything remotely serious yet but would be interested in hearing other folks' experiences of these things. I understnd that the free software, Audacity, is very useful for processing audio files - again a new world for me.

I'm going to pop two or three new posts up based on a few things that have come my way this Christmas/birthday season which I hope will generate some new threads. So, stay tuned for (a) new publications; (b) new recordings/DVDs and (c) recording devices.

Mmm... not exactly replicating the bombed Bryceson, are they!

Thank you both very much indeed. I think I may have the Hinrichsen book (in the loft) but I'm going to see if I can make my own arrangement based on the solution David reports from AMT.

There is an interesting article on Nicholsons website here all about the considerable amount of work that they have been doing at St George's over the autumn. Some of the most interesting stuff is revealed by clicking on the Specification tab which reveals an annotated spec with details of their work. I don't know the instrument at all ,and have only heard it in the flesh once. It is, to my mind, amazing how much has been done in a comparatively short time.

Somewhere, I am (reasonably) convinced that I have seen an arrangement of the first section of this that tweaks the music back to F major so that it doesn't end in the dominant to lead into section 2. Can anybody point me in the right direction for this, please? It's not that I can't play section 2 or 3 (though 3 needs a bit of work) it's all a matter of time before a service. Many thanks in case you can help. (I worry that I may be thinking of a different piece of well known music entirely which in some arrangement or other prevents closure other than in the tonic).