Martin Cooke

Goodness, that's quite a list of issues... and my own cursory look through the volume had picked up none of them, I'm ashamed to admit! I have bought a copy even though I noted that I already had much of the contents in other guises - think all the Bach - (including God's time is best and Bist du), the Whitlock Folk Tune, the Parry pieces and the Fauré Pavane. In fact, of the 28 pieces, I already have 19 of them - but that won't necessarily be the case for younger organists, of course. (Though, I do wonder why any Bach Chorale Preludes are included - especially when so many of them could qualify for inclusion, and the same is true of other OUP albums - eg the Easter one, which contains O Mensch. Why not include a list of other music that could be suitable for funerals etc? And what SlowOrg says about Ave Maria is also true of Robert Gower's arrangement of I know that my redeemer liveth which appears (usefully) in the OUP Easter volume (which might also have been cited as a companion volume, surely) and occupies 6 pages of the 68. I bought the volume for the arrangement of Pavane pour une infante défunte, and also for Rebecca Groom te Velde Prelude on Crimond, and I shall use both. I'm less sure that I will have the patience to get my hands around the arrangement of the Adagio from Schubert's D.956.

And the Becker Sonata No 1 is available on IMSLP - as are two other organ sonatas by him.

It This seems to be the way with the publication of Bach's organ music. Novello could never decide what colour green their volumes were meant to be and my more recent NBA volumes are a different size to the ones I bought some years ago.

When I was last there about ten years ago I was there to try a Phoenix digital organ. I think they had the organ from Magdalen College - I don't know why this isn't in use - it may need a lot of money spending on it. Incidentally, OOTH, do you know about the website, npor? Very useful!!

I wonder if this thread has led down a rather 'off piste' route to rather - (to me) - unfamiliar works. I wonder if OOTH was possibly looking that might expand from pieces such as these which, are more mainstream 'flamboyant' pieces that a young organist would do well to start getting their hands around or, at least, listen to. There is a considerable variety of difficulty in teh following list - many will be available on IMSLP. Martin. Vierne - Final in D (Symphony 1) Vierne - Carillon de Longpont Boellmann - Toccata from Suite Gothique Widor - Toccata Widor - Symphony 6 - various Mulet - Te es Petrus Mulet - Carillon Sortie Bonnet - Variations de Concert (is that right?? Dubois - Fiat Lux Dubois - Toccata Mushel - Toccata Percy Fletcher - Festival Toccata Leighton - Paean Howells - Psalm Prelude Set 2 No 3 Howells - Paean Gordon Jacob - Festal Flourish Myron Roberts - Hommage à Perotin Bruhns - P & F in E minor Quite a bit of Buxtehude - eg the big G minor piece and P & F in F sharp minor Lots of JSB - T & F in F, Pièce d'Orgue, for example Mozart - Fantasia in F minor Rheinberger - Finale from Sonata No 3 in G Messiaen - Dieu parmi nous Messiaen - Transports de joie Dupré - P & F in B major Lefebure-Wely - Sortie in E flat Smart - Postlude in D Reger - Toccata and Fugue in D minor Mathias - Jubilate and...

Other than that, the old (1962) Nicholson/Yates case on the organ at St Michael's, Newquay that was destroyed by fire, was appealing, but if we're going to mention King's, Cambridge, I must bring in St Paul's Cathedral... and indeed, Westminster Abbey.

Gosh! This has been a most enjoyable thread so far - full marks to Ooth would might well be our youngest forumite, for initiating it. I have rarely come across organ cases on a scale of beauty of even the least attractive of those that members have drawn to our attention - I guess that St Mary's, Launceston, is the only one I can think of that comes anywhere close: to be continued...

My wife and I have just returned from a few days in Florence. I wonder if any forum members have any experience of the organs over there - hearing, playing etc? I had researched the Duomo organ a little and was looking forward to seeing a 5-manual organ, but as visitors to that edifice will know, unless you attend mass, or you go on a tour of the dome with its long climb, you can scarcely see the dome area and are kept from advancing up the nave of the cathedral at all. St Croce, I discovered after our visit, has a large 4-manual organ though the two rather small cases bely this, and I couldn't see the console - (part of the church was roped and screened off for maintenance. No sign at either building of recitals etc.

Not sure which of those possible titles floats your boat, but forumites may enjoy and be moved by this new piece by Philip Stopford and its performance by the boys and girls of Truro Cathedral Choir.

Ha! Yes - mine is 2011 and yours is 2014. Here's 2013 - I can't find 2012 - but this one is rather good! And here is Philip Stopford - (amazing composer) - introducing the stop.

It doesn't matter, but actually it's a different performance from a different Easter - same stop, though!

Oh... and... if you were to look at publications by Kevin Mayhew, there are several really excellent short fanfares by June Nixon - anything by her is excellent in my experience - but they are rather spread through the various volumes so it gets expensive unless you can find any second hand. I haven't the titles immediately to hand this moment, but I could look them up if you are interested. They are all about Grade VI-VII pianistically with not too much pedal and they are two sides of music - at least, the ones I'm thinking of are. Also published by Kevin Mayhew are some short fanfare like pieces by Noel Rawsthorne. And then there is this - Trinity Fanfare,composed and played by Ian Tracey, on a digital organ. One side of A4 - published Church Organ World - see here. This is very straightforward and almost as much as anything it might encourage you to write a few of your own. One day, you'll be able to write things like this, from the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York. They have this massive en chamade State Trumpet on the west wall below a rose window. Again, a visit in person is well worth the effort. See here. They demonstrate the organ every Monday at 1.00pm and they take you into the loft.

I agree - Leighton most worthwhile, and all three of the Bliss fanfares (published by Novello) are very straightforward and effective. (Find a recording of them by Christopher Dearnley - dating from early 70s prior to the 72-77 rebuild - on itunes or whatever.) (OK - here is the first of them in which you get to hear the famous 1930 Trompette Militaire in the North East quarter gallery of the Dome. An outstandingly fabulous stop you must make it your business to hear in the flesh asap!) And the Mathias Fanfare is also very good news - published by OUP in The Oxford Book of Wedding Music - a valuable album full of useful pieces. An album I have always found useful, published by Novello is Fanfares and Processionals. All useful and approachable pieces - especially Fanfare in D by Arthur Willis. You can find it on You tube played by Christopher Herrick on St Paul's organ in about 1968. (Here it is!) Not over difficult at all. You might get some of these second hand. Beware of shark-ish prices on Ebay. A very reasonable source of some second hand music is a gentleman called Adrian Self who has his own music publishing company called Animus. Type Animus Music into Google and explore his site. He has a tab on his homepage for second hand music as most sensible and encouraging prices, though, sadly, not the volumes I refer to. What he HAS got and which you ought to snap up, is Four Extemporisations by Percy Whitlock, the last of which is called Fanfare. This is a big piece needing a large organ with a Tuba - I suspect you have this at your disposal! It's not as easy/straightforward as the other pieces one or two of us have recommended but you will want to play it one day. It pairs very nicely with No 3 of the 4 - Fidelis - a classic Whitlock piece of immense charm for softer stops. My advice given a little while ago still holds - get involved with things like the Oundle courses so you can swap ideas with other young aspiring organists. Meanwhile, well done on starting some really excellent threads that have drawn a great deal of interest.

Well, I suppose there are an awful lot of very good organs upon which recitals are never given and whilst it's a shame from an organ enthusiast's point of view, it is good to see that the church you refer to is busy doing things that churches were set up to do - loving our neighbour, etc. At least the organ is in use at services!

And just seen in a tweet... Dan Mathieson, current Organ Scholar at Salisbury Cathedral is joining the music department at Radley College, and Benjamin Cunningham, OS at Westminster Abbey, is joining the music department at Winchester College. Nicholas, above, Dan and Ben are all former Organ Scholars of Worcester College, Oxford.

Nicholas Freestone, presently Acting Sub-Organist of St Paul's Cathedral, has announced his appointment as Assistant Director of Music and Assistant Organist of Worcester Cathedral.

Having only recently come back to the church world as opposed to the school chapel world, and therefore needing to play for weddings again, I have been taken by surprise by (a) the popularity of the Pachelbel Canon as bridal entry music, and (b) the fact that many brides want a recorded song to see them up the aisle. I suppose that it's all really understandable. The idea of a pompous bridal procession with something like the Jeremiah Clarke or the Purcell does seem 'out", and the Bridal Chorus appears to be dead in the water. But given that music like the Pachelbel with its opening rather dreamy, quiet properties is 'in' - (and the choice for the royal wedding of the Handel birthday ode is similarly gentle) - could we try to list pieces in our organ repertoire that would make gentle bridal entry music? Obviously, there are lots of gentle slow movements about but what immediately comes to mind if you were asked to make four suggestions today to a wedding couple? I can feel myself reaching for the 2nd movement of JSB's 4th trio sonata, my Kevin Mayhew/Martin Setchell volume of Fauré transcriptions - (and yes, Après un rêve is in there, but I think Pavane would be better), I might suggest the Finzi Carol (Five Bagatelles), and possibly the opening of the Michael Festing/Thalben Ball combo, whose title is long and complicated... um... Largo, Andante, Aria and Two Variations, or something very close to it. Oh, and thinking of Martin Setchell... and given that I play at a riverside church with a very long aisle and swans outside, I might go for his transcription of Saint-Saens' Le Cygne.

Yes very wise words, indeed. I have endeavoured to keep them firmly in mind during my morning practice of The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba - appalling how much I used to leave to chance in this! - Fauré Requiem accompaniment, BWV 651, and Howells' Paean, all of which I have coming up shortly. I quite agree re the 4' flute - practising Bach (eg 651) on such a light stop with an 8' in the pedal is very helpful and revealing - and delightful, actually. I must stop now to go and watch a steam train come past!

Many thanks indeed - I'd still quite like to hear from anyone who has the J on H piece.

As a boy, I guess that I thought of Charles Steggall as one of my top composers - well, it was because of his lovely and very atmospheric anthem, Remember now thy creator, which I wholeheartedly commend to choirs everywhere! However, there is very little Steggall available in places like IMSLP and I wonder if anybody happens to have a copy of his piece based on Jerusalem on high, that they might be willing to scan to me. I still have that splendid Choveaux Prelude-Improvisation that I could copy in return! Many thanks, in anticipation! I would be interested in hearing about any other Steggall that anyone knows too.

My five-penny-worth on this, firstly, to echo all that has been said about practising... and do start this early so that you do a little bit of preparation for each test every time you practise... and secondly, as I said when you first posted a few weeks ago, you need a good teacher who has experience of the RCO requirements, and if I were you, I would join the RCO so that you can take advantage of all the excellent things they are doing these days - (eg, preparation days for Oxbridge organ scholarships) - and look at what Oundle and St Giles Organ School are doing over the summer. Too late to sign up for anything eg, Pulling out the stops at Oundle?) Are you having organ lessons at school? Out of school? I can't stress too much how greatly I regret doing too much playing on my own, unchecked, so that I picked up bad habits with things like posture, pedal technique and fingering. Have you seen the excellent video on the RCO or iRCO website about taking a diploma? It's here. It makes clear, in the nicest possible way, how important it is to be thoroughly prepared. The pieces, as with ABRSM exams are the easy bit, really. (In ABRSM exams, candidates let themselves down so often with lack of preparation in scales, sight-reading and aural, and then get a Pass instead of the Distinction they really could get with proper preparation of all components.) Listen to the accomplished way in which the 'candidate' plays the Frescobaldi, Hindemith and Bach pieces - none of them breathtakingly difficult in any sense - but then notice her fluency and musicality in the score reading, sight reading and transposition. This is why you must give yourself plenty of time.

I thought that was likely - excellent! And what was the voluntary?

You might also enjoy looking up the organs of Lancing College Chapel on NPOR - a large 4 -manual Walker with en chamade trumpets on the west gallery and then a 2-manual Frobenius up near the choir. I believe you can play the Walker from the Frobenius by using blind general pistons.

I've lost the knack of how to do quotes but this adds a bit to what I said above about hymn accompaniment. So, today's Sunday Worship on Radio 4 from Lancing College would make perfect listening! [Actually, for all sorts of reasons it is well worth listening to - it is energetic from start to finish in just the way a school service needs to be - (let alone one at 8.10am on a Sunday morning!) - and the music is outstanding. I'm not sure whose setting the Mass is, but it is most stimulating.] Anyway, OrganistOntheHill, do listen to the accompaniment of at least the first hymn. A good strong introduction at a good reasonably fast-moving tempo - and... in the key of A flat major instead of the more dull sounding G major found in many hymn books, and all making good sense of the words across the ends lines as necessary. The organist on this occasion is Edward Picton Turbervill, formerly Organ Scholar of St John's Cambridge.

The trouble is, there is such a lot! When I was first playing for school services as a boy, C.H. Trevor was just producing two different series; Old English Organ Music for Manuals and Organ Music for Manuals. There were, or rather, there are, 6 volumes in each set. These are still available (published by Oxford University Press) but whereas Volume 1 of the former cost be 40p in about 1971, and Volume 1 of the latter, 65p a year or two later, they are now £10 a volume or more. Now, the thing is this... these are not very scholarly volumes (ornaments missing etc) but they are, in my opinion a very useful resource and some of these pieces will be in your repertoire always - you don't stop playing manuals only music just because you've found your feet! The first series mentioned includes voluntaries by people like John Stanley, Henry Heron, et al, whereas the second set of volumes is more wide ranging - nothing modern, but they cover the ground from people like Handel and Orlando Gibbons through to some of the manuals only repertoire of César Franck and Léon Boëllmann. Aged 14-16 and playing two or three services a week, I used to rely on these though I did have manuals and pedals pieces up my sleeve as well. There are some 'new' volumes around now - published by OUP and edited by Anne Marsden Thomas - they are called Oxford Service Music for Organ and there are FOUR volumes, I think... two are for manuals only and the next two for manuals and pedals. A quick hunt on Google will find them. You may already know the name Anne Marsden Thomas - she is a major figure in the UK in Organ Education and anything produced under here imprimatur will be wise and well worth having. There are plenty of other sources of manuals only music, and I think you could do a lot worse than pay a visit to Foyles in Charing Cross Road where there is a good stock of organ music including several drawers full of manuals only music. There are huge volumes produced by Kevin Mayhew - another publisher of church music - you often find these in your local music shop and whilst not scholarly editions, they can be useful for service use. [You may also find, in your local music shop, as I always find in mine, vast numbers of volumes of music by someone called Caleb Simper - I would avoid these - much better things to spend your money on! Not much of Simper's music is played any more.] The other thing to do is to familiarise yourself with a website called IMSLP. This is a vast repository of scanned music of all sorts but you can sort it by composer or instrument. Above, I mentioned César Franck. If you go to IMSLP, choose Franck from the composer list, and then find something called L'Organiste. Some of these are very playable and useful, and C.H. Trevor incorporated some of them into his Organ Music for Manuals volumes. You can print one piece at a time if you want to, or a whole volume. You might also like to find "L'Heures Mystique by Léon Boëllmann. Choose ones of these (and the Franck) which are not too 'corny' in terms of the harmony - not all are to current taste! [By the way, it is easy to spend a fortune in ink and paper printing off stuff from IMSLP and you need to be wary!] I hope that is a good start for you. I am sure you want to be looking at some straightforward music for manuals AND pedals, too. Well, where to start? Probably the next two volumes of Oxford Service Music for Organ.