Martin Cooke

Thanks for that tip - excellent.

There is lots of stuff in the Kevin Mayhew range based on Welsh hymn tunes and national tunes - and there is a good piece based on Aberystwyth by Ashley Grote in the new OUP Hymn Settings album for Lent. Not of immediate use to you, but you mention Rhosymedre... in the most recent OUP Hymn Settings album for Trinity. Whitsun etc, there is a beautifully crafted piece by David Blackwell on Down Ampney - he says 'Homage to RVW' and it has much Rhosymedre about it. W.T. Best wrote a Concert Fantasia on a Welsh March (Men of Harlech) - see IMSLP, but, if you want something simpler on M o H then there is deffo something in the Mayhew range - I think it's in a volume called Songs of the Isles or some such and it's possibly by Richard Lloyd - certainly, it's by one of his generation of Mayhew contributors. (Sorry, I'm not near my music to check.) Actually, I am doubting the detail that I am giving you here - I've just hunted on the Mayhew website to try to find the exact title of this album and in the course of doing so have found this which might be worth buying - I can't vouch for it at all! When it comes to using the tune Aberystwyth in a service (Jesu, lover of my soul) then try to use George Guest's acclaimed last verse arrangement from the old RSCM 'last verses' volume.

I can't find it on IMSLP either under Couperin or Gouin - (but, goodness me, Gouin has much to offer, doesn't he?!) Where are the Messes?

I heard a story that, upon receiving a reminder from his publisher, Sir David Willcocks composed Fanfare on 'Gopsal' (OUP) on the train between Cambridge and London.

One of the others from Thirty 20th Century Hymn Tunes - shamefully - has caught on a bit - that dreadful C major tune to 'O Jesus, I have promised,' and, of course, one of the hymns to which David refers - 'Lord, Jesus Christ' - comes from there, or, at least, is in that little volume. Lord of the Dance - I have always found that this works well in school with pupils of all ages. I go into a minor key for the verse about the sky turning black. Yesterday, when I started my short list of 'new hymns' I found myself wanting to include Highwood - 'Glory to God, all heav'n with joy is ringing' but the tune is by RR Terry who died in 1938! The words are 'new' though - and I think they first appeared in the A&M New Standard. Would we add John Dykes Bower's Amen Court to our list? - 'O King enthroned on high.' And then there is 'In Christ alone' which is modern evangelical but it has caught on, I feel and the young like it here at school. Of course, I left out 'My song is love unknown' yesterday. John Ireland only died in 1962, but the words are by Samuel Cross man who lived 1624 - 1683. I wonder if those words were sung to another tune and if not, how Ireland discovered them.

The print is small and the paper is very thin. It's my age, I know, but I find the new A&M exhausting - it's hard to imagine more than 5% of the new items catching on, to be frank. You turn page after page and recognise nothing so it's great if you're looking for hundreds of new ideas, but I suspect they'll only get sung once. Really, how many 'new hymns' (or new tunes) have become part of our nation's hymnody over the last 50 years. Are we counting on one hand? If I was starting a list... All my hope on God is founded Lord of the Dance How shall I sing that majesty There is a redeemer - ? Shine, Jesus, Shine I, the Lord of Sea and Sky Tell out my soul ... and a few notable others by Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith including Lord, for the years Christ triumphant (Guiting Power only - not the Youth Praise tune) There's a wideness - Corvedale East Acklam - has it caught on? Abbot's Leigh Struggling now without looking things up - I realise that I have forgotten some excellent other examples, but could we make it to 20, I wonder... ok... 30... 50??

... absolutely... and the Vierne will be a good romp too! Didn't they have a new 32ft reed when Exeter was rebuilt? If so, you'll have a chance to hear that in this piece for sure!

There are some new articles about the forthcoming work at King's on the college website here.

I agree - Common Praise - excellent. I have a copy of the new Ancient and Modern - Hymns and Songs for refreshing worship, but with 840-odd items, I find it over-facing. There is so much new stuff in it that you wonder if you will ever find a hymn you know. Opening the book now for a cursory look, it falls open at 'Prepare a room for me, your Saviour, Host and Priest;" Another try and... oh, here we are... "I do not know tomorrow's way;" Another go - ah, now we're talking - "Jesus calls us: o'er the tumult." The music print I find a bit on the small side and the pages are very thin - you can easily see through to the music/words on the other side. Those of us lucky enough to work in independent schools with a good choral tradition often produce our own hymn books usually through Gresham Books. I don't know how feasible this would be for a church, but it is a very enjoyable process. Some school hymn books have wonderful arrangements of things like Stanford in B flat morning and evening canticles and other longer works which the congregation joins in with. Libera Me from the Fauré Requiem is another favourite. On Friday, we doing the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves - As we sat by the waters of Babylon. The best of the crop is the Uppingham School Hymnbook which has all of these and many more within its covers. Trouble is, individual copies are not for sale.

I am sure that it will have been a profoundly moving occasion. I think the organ world has been more rocked by John's death than by anything that I can remember. People have written so admiringly of him both as a person and a musician. I thought the tribute in Choir and Organ was especially poignant, and David Hill and Christopher Robinson have also contributed their own thoughts on the St John's website. I only met John fleetingly on one occasion, but I feel his loss to the world of organ music very keenly. I would love to see some of the scholarly members of this board commenting on the proposals for the new organ at St Thomas. A carving of John and of other St Thomas luminaries is to be included in the casework, but what about the specification? Again, I can't bear to think of the fact that John hasn't lived to see this amazing project through to its conclusion.

This news piece relates. You will see that the recital detailed here is to include an arrangement of this work by GC Martin. Is anyone aware of such an arrangement? The one in common use - (well, I assume it's common use) - is by WH Harris, and I would be interested to see one by Martin if it truly exists. I just wonder if this is a mistake and they are thinking of the GC Martin arrangement of Imperial March. Can anybody throw some light on this?

Is this the pipe organ? Is it just me or is that a most curious choice of stops for the fugue?

Does anyone know what is happening with the organ here? I read somewhere that as part of a whole restoration project the organ is to be dismantled and refurbished but also that a new quire organ is to be provided. David Wells is doing the work which will be completed in 2017. Does anyone know what the scope of the quire organ is to be?

Worth also learning the beautiful Reverie - another of the Four Short Pieces - a real gem in a hauntingly beautiful key (G sharp minor) and a delightful, sun-coming-out moment, when it moves briefly into A flat major.

Certainly in 1975, two organists were almost always present at Chichester Cathedral for daily services. John Birch was most often downstairs with Ian Fox and then Richard Cock playing the Allen. But... JB had favourite pieces that only he accompanied - The Wilderness, for example. There were days when he was away (teaching at Sussex University and the RCM) and the sub organist had to manage with the lay clerks conducting either side like 'olden days.'

I can remember, faintly, special services, Robert, when Harry Gabb conducted the choir and, I think, DB must have played. Harry would bring his 'new' FRCO hood over from the Chapel Royal for these special occasions when he would be visible, rather than wear chocolate and blue. He would only have been visible if conducting and someone else must have been 'upstairs.' For normal services, there was no conducting of accompanied music at daily services and there was generally only one organist in attendance until well into Christopher Dearnley's time, I think. (Though,an exception might have been on Sunday mornings when I remember Richard Popplewell being in attendance upon DB.) Two choirmen - people like Maurice Bevan and Geoffrey Shaw would wave on either side, and Dearnley would fold back the dummy pipes to watch the beat. Later. Dearnley conducted a lot with Christopher Herrick or Harry Gabb playing but this may only have been on Sundays. Sorry hazy about all of this now - fifty years on!! As far as the consoles were concerned, I think two former consoles are kicking about somewhere in the cathedral, The old one from the north choir case was in the Minor Canons' aisle for a while at the foot of the old organ stairs, but it hasn't been there for many a year.

Goodness - what fun! Was it there just for decoration or did it have a few ranks of pipes?

Are you sure? It wasn't there in John Dykes-Bower's or Christopher Dearnley's time.

Ah! Thank you, Stephen, of course. I play from a very tatty copy I purchased while at school in the 70's and only happened to look on IMSLP recently when I was wondering what else of his I might like.

I mentioned earlier in this thread our (digital) Violes family - it's 16, 8, 8, 4 and III, and they speak from speakers mounted on the west wall, so have a nice distant effect at the front of the chapel, though you have to watch the volume (as with all 'remote' sections, digital or pipe) for those sitting nearer. Can anyone suggest passages of music where the full Violes chorus might be aired? They tend to get used most in improvisation, though rarely involving the 16 or the Cornet. The two 8fts are just right for the closing bars of Greater Love. I suppose I am looking for suggestions for where a good wash of string tone would be effective, especially if this could contrast in an antiphonal way with the chancel section. The (beautiful) third of the Trois Meditations of Ropartz is one such piece, but I would need more courage to add the 16 and III. If you don't know this piece - it's on IMSLP - a real gem. Any suggestions?

A parameter I would want to chuck into this discussion would be how often the instrument is tuned. I have known two or three large organs where tuning is infrequent because of cost, where the 4ft swell clarion has been unusable for much of the year, and may as well be removed. My regular instrument is a large 4 manual digital instrument which I designed and we all know that adding stops is a relatively inexpensive on such instruments. We have a west end division with some large reeds, and an enclosed diapason chorus topped off with 16' and 8' reeds - (there is also a small west pedal division). Then there are flutes 8' and 4', a clarinet, and... (and here I am finally getting to my point!)... a chorus of violes - 16, 8, 8, 4 and III. It is this last stop, the cornet de violes, which is probably the least used stop on the instrument even though it is perfectly effective. Another 'luxury' stop is on the chancel solo division and is the French horn. These are hardly two a penny on pipe organs but are they of much use when they are present?

Thanks Friedrich - in your penultimate sentence... would you include 17ths?? Martin.

Mention of the quint being brought in for the lowest notes on the Great when the Double Diapason is drawn is interesting. I have often wondered how useful the (separate) Quint is on the Great at St Paul's Cathedral - does it get used, I wonder, and what is its purpose? I have experimented on our school organ by coupling the Choir Tierce through to the Great at the sub octave but it isn't an effect that I've been longing for all my life, I must admit, but presumably I need to have 16' tone in the combination too. Does anyone have ready access to a manual 5 1/3 stop, and if they do, what combination needs to be drawn to reap that stop's full value?

The specification of the King's organ is now available on the Harrison and Harrison website. There are some minor alterations to the pedal organ only.

Recently published - £9.95 from allegro.co.uk