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Martin Cooke

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Everything posted by Martin Cooke

  1. Yes, it's staring me in the face, isn't it! I will splash out on some more Biery organ music. Thanks for the prompt!!
  2. I know I have extolled the virtues of the new OUP albums of Hymn Settings for Organists before. Now that the first volume is well and truly in season, as it were, I am finding some real treasures within its pages. One of these is a beautiful and very straightforward piece entitled Cantilena - Mendelssohn by James Biery. It is utterly charming and exquisite as are numerous other items in this volume including those by the likes of Malcolm Archer, Christopher Tambling, David Thorne, Philip Moore, David Blackwell, Ashley Grote and many others. Does anyone know of any other organ compositions by James Biery? Allegro list a few volumes but I would like a personal recommendation before making any purchases.
  3. So good to read this review - thank you Friedrich. The Grandjany certainly sounds delightful - I have just downloaded it. As I said somewhere on the forum the other day, it would be so good if members could write a few notes like this on recitals they have been to. I think of all those Sunday afternoons events in St Paul's, and the Henry Fairs Orgelbuchlein recitals on the new crypt organ and it would be great to hear something of them down here in the Dorset sticks. I know, I know, I should get out more!!
  4. Are the Farrar chorale preludes available from anywhere?
  5. I'm sure that church organists on the forum have lots of ideas for First World War composer items for Remembrance this year. In amongst other things, you may like An Eton Memorial March by CH Lloyd available on IMSLP, and don't forget Air from Serenade in G by EJ Moeran in that pink Novello Wedding Miscellany album - (it's the one with the Percy Fletcher Festival Toccata in it). Do share other ideas please!
  6. If anyone did, in fact, elicit a score of either or both of the Somervell pieces mentioned in this post, could you possibly share them with me? I have PM'd David Harrison to no avail - well, it was in 2010 he posted! Please PM me if you can help. Many thanks.
  7. Sounds interesting and it would be great to hear from someone who was there. I think it's a shame that although there are dozens of recitals by top players in cathedrals every week/month, and you can see they are coming up on cathedral websites, there are very rarely any reviews written afterwards. You would sort of hope that one of the music staff at these places might have the task of writing a short review for the web.
  8. Lots of activity at St Paul's - new sub organist and others.
  9. Interesting that you have raised this as I have been wondering what Simon Johnson uses. I would put my money on the new Dome 8ft Tuba though whether that would be the stop he would choose for a performance in an actual service would be interesting to know.
  10. 1. I have just 'inherited' from Ebay, an ex-library volume of arrangements of various JSB pieces published by J B Cramer. One item in the volume is a Prelude and Fugue on BACH by JSB. At the risk of displaying my ignorance, I have not come across the piece in any form before and the arranger (Francis G Walker) doesn't give its provenance. It is in B flat major in the style (roughly) of a French Overture. Can anyone possibly suggest where it comes from, please? 2. Also from Ebay, I acquired Harvey Grace's Legend - again, not a piece I have come across before, but a quick run through on the piano suggests it may be worth a proper look/ Does anyone know or play this - or indeed, any piece by Harvey Grace? I have those two volumes, the titles of which elude me - one contains a big piece called Resurgam which was one of John Birch's party pieces. The rest, if I recall are more modest in scale - I play the rather drearily named In Voluntary - a pleasant miniature in C major. Any thoughts on Harvey Grace's music anybody? 3. Does anyone play any of Desmond Ratcliffe's music? Festal Finale has been in my repertoire for a while - a quite powerful, slightly acerbic piece harmonically, and I have recently got hold of some others whose acquaintance I look forward to making.
  11. Having listened to the Abbey the other night, I shall be downloading Stanford Sonata 2 - Daniel Cook played the last movement 'Verdun' before the service - sounded very interesting. Lots of French NA. A reference to this on the ABRSM forum mentions the Hugh Blair Short Sinata in eulogistic terms. This, like the a Stanford is available from IMSLP.
  12. It is beyond doubt that John would have much rather had a good pipe organ but I can attest that he played the Allen at Chichester with considerable enthusiasm and I would venture, pride. He also demonstrated the RAH Rodgers to me and encouraged me to play it, again with considerable pleasure. I am sure that, at Chichester, some considerable pleasure would have been gained by the resident organists from having a large properly working instrument at their disposal. I didn't know the pipe organ in its previous incarnation but it must have been in a pretty forlorn state to have been taken out of use as it was, and I think that in addition to the acoustics, Allen made absolutely certain that the instrument was set up to the best possible advantage. I do accept that for some/many, my phrase "good electronic" is a contradiction in terms, but there are plenty of bad pipe organs - I'm not seeking to start an argument!
  13. Well, obviously, it was quite an early electronic instrument. As you say, the acoustics made all the difference, and those who played it regularly were able to get the best from it - like all good organists. Even then, I assure you that many people hearing it at evensong, especially when sounds emanated from the old organ case, thought they were listening to the pipe organ and would gaze lovingly at it! If you had played Transports de joie instead of Dieu parmi nous, you would have heard the instrument fight back at the size of those opening chords - it could only manage so many notes at a time. I think John Birch enjoyed it - he liked a good electronic! He was very proud of the Rogers substitute at the RAH which he was responsible for. I think the important thing about the Chichester situation is that they were prepared to manage with an electronic all those years while they waited for the restoration to the pipe organ to become possible. I don't think that is a bad model - to think that it can't be done now - let's get a very good electronic for a while - and save up. I have had to do much the same thing with a cricket pavilion here at our school. We want a decent looking pavilion as a worthy and permanent structure. The old wooden was finally beyond repair - we're making do with a new wooden one while we have to prioritise other things but the permanent solution is on the cards. The old one can be rebuilt for a junior pitch - rather like the Chichester Allen being shuffled along to the West End.
  14. By the by, there are at least three excellent chorale preludes by David Thorne in the two new OUP albums I mentioned in another thread.
  15. The Chichester Allen was reinstalled at the west end of the cathedral for concert use when the chairs are turned to face west. The console is (or was) repositioned in the triforium on the south side of the west nave - I imagine that the speakers were repositioned as well - well, they must have been as some of them were in the present organ case - others were in the triforium above the south transept and others to the west of the Bishop Bell screen. I don't know if it still used or even if it works but that was certainly what happened after the pipe organ was reinstated. The Tuba was, indeed, a pretty splendid sound achieved through entering the Orchestral Tuba computer card on all four alterable voices on the swell. These were then 'drawn' together with a tab called Reed Solo which increased their volume many fold. In John Birch's time, this was all set up on General 12 with fairly full choir and great accompaniment but you had to pop the Tuba card in four times after switching on, or you were stuck. I think, actually, that as some sort of failsafe, the swell Cornopean was set to come on on General 12 so that if you forgot to add put the Tuba cards in, at least you got something! Of all the cards in the drawer, the Orchestral Tuba was pretty much the only one used. There was a Spanish Trumpet which was dabbled with and fun was also had with a Chrysoglot - I think that this was specified in a William Albright Missa Brevis - one of the famous Chichester commissions of the Dean Walter Hussey/John Birch years.
  16. Tim Harper is leaving Birmingham Cathedral for Ripon as Assistant - see Choir and Organ.
  17. I can't get used to all these minsters springing up all over the place. What ever initiated it?
  18. Yes, I played it yesterday, and we do the hymn in B flat major to match, when I am following up with the fanfare.
  19. I couldn't bring myself to mention it!
  20. Tee hee! Yes, I would say that, whereas most of my Suffolk-based publisher's albums go unopened year on year except to play a tiny number of quality pieces - (I'm thinking June Nixon, whose compositions I rate very highly, Chris Tambling, Richard Lloyd, Malcolm Archer and Philip Moore) - I see this generally as a collection of intelligently crafted short pieces. Two or three that I have perused in the Epiphany album are quite beautiful - I think particularly of a Trio on Carlisle by David Blackwell, for example. I know one or two will immediately be scornful of the chosen subject, but Ashley Grote's piece on Be still is also delightful. I am very interested in what people like him and James Vivian are composing - are they the new Heathcote Stathams and William Harrises of the new day, as it were? There is a feeling of fresh air and a new twist about these volumes and not one of 'same old, same old,' and I really look forward to going through them carefully. If one wants to avoid spending too much, perhaps start with the (smaller) Epiphany album and take stock - there are several pieces in here which translate perfectly sensibly to other seasons and it wouldn't be necessary to wait until Epiphany to launch them into your repertoire.
  21. Somebody mentioned Chichester.. In John Birch's time, the 19th evening would be... Psalm 98 - Thomas Attwood in D - starts D, E, F sharp, down to A: an excellent fit for this exuberant psalm; Psalm 99 - Ouseley chant in A - starts A, C sharp, A, up to D. Nothing special, but very likeable and tuneful. Psalm 100 - Henry Ley chant in D - starts low D and then up the arpeggio to top D. Psalm 101 - the truncated Nicholson chant in G major as in the Parish Psalter. Atmospherically, this works very well and the change in the length of the chant is appropriately different without being unnecessarily arresting.
  22. Volume 1 of this new series is out now - Advent and Christmas. This is a very substantial volume and, although I haven't tried many of the pieces, I would say that it will become extremely popular. Unlike many OUP albums of the recent past (Wedding Music, Christmas Music, Ceremonial Music, Lent and Easter, for example) these are brand new compositions so you won't find you have to but how ever many pounds worth of music it is just to get the two new pieces you thought you wanted. Not cheap, but very good quality, full of interest, and an album for any of us interested in composition and improvisation to learn something from, I feel.
  23. I have just taken delivery of Oxford Hymn Settings for Organists Volume 2 (Epiphany) and would strongly recommend it to church organists of reasonable ability. There are 20 new pieces here each with something to say and I feel it's a few bob well spent. Almost every piece here is a real gem - some are really delightful miniatures. Volume 1 (much larger) hasn't quite appeared yet but is imminent. You can read up about these volumes and see sample music on the OUP website.
  24. Regarding the St Paul's Dome Chorus Cymbal, I agree that this had a thrilling effect - you hear it once or twice in some Dearnley recordings - but I think I read somewhere that this stop's composition was altered because it was difficult to keep in tune. Could that be right? Might JPM possibly comment?
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