passion_chorale

Far too late to be funny now oo arrgh

Actually, I liked the 2006 series a lot, was exposed to a lot of newer music which I enjoyed, and incidentally dislike the 'fossil' epithet, which implies I am not progressive enough for your tastes. This is a bold deduction to make from the limited source material available on these boards. Perhaps you should be more careful before you arbitrarily attach labels to people. .....Yes, it is meant to be a party. But the extent to which it is now stage-managed, and the lowest common denominator approach the BBC have to the (admittedly sensitive) nationalist aspect give it this corny, tacky, embarrassing atmosphere. A party which you wouldn't admit to your friends you were going to, if you like.

A bit off topic/Sorry to be negative. BUT: 1). But I really get the feeling that if the musical planners behind the Proms didn't include so many vulgar descants, harmonizations, and hackups of perfectly good national songs, the second half would be easier to sit through. 2). The RAH may have the acoustic of an aircraft hangar. But that is a whole lot better than an open-air situation. Why do they seek to demonstrate this, during the broadcast? Do the powers-that-be think that no one notices the difference? 3). Does anyone else not enjoy the flicking between the locations? Cameras panning to the sky...to the floor...up and down...(Producer on crack??)..does it not ruin the continuity? 4). Of course the variation in locations would be easier to take in if they didn't try (as in Henry Wood) actually varying the audio feed between the locations. Fanfare in London. Then a Fanfare from Belfast. Primary school kids in Scotland. No logic to it, at all. They have the technology, therefore it must be used. They also have the feelings of the Northern Irish/Scottish/Welsh and....er....Mancunians? to consider, therefore they must be included. Who cares, after all, if in the process of changing the audio feed, there is a slight but irritating variation in rhythm. That is a pedantic, petty interest. Obviously. Degradation of standards and cohesiveness in the pursuit of the prevailing fasionable views on the identity of the nations? never.......

A little 'case study': As a Sixth-Former, I was organist here: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N01152 According to the records, this instrument lasted a fairly long time with minimal work. I would guess that over those 70-80 years, some standard leather patching/small repairs went on, but the main point is that the first time the pipes had to come off the soundboards for a major overhaul was 90 years after installation. I wonder how many electronics would have been needed over that time, and what the cost would have been. (Although this argument may become redundant if Moore's Law drops the price of processing power to the level where it is economic to replace an electronic every 10 years....) A rolling programme of modest refurbishment, culminating with the 2003 action refurbishment, will enable this instrument to see me (and perhaps the Anglican Church) out, assuming it doesn't suffer some future calamity. The key here is that the congregation (smallish country parish size) acknowledge the organ as one of the most valuable parts of the fabric. A pretty good village choir make weekly use of it. And most importantly, the initial material (1903 Walker...think 1966 Burgundy :angry:) is of the highest quality. And looking at the specification, there are not many places an electronic could improve for the size of church. Perhaps a pedal trombone. Perhaps a smoother solo reed. Definitely not a great mixture, because the existing fifteenth seems to have magical properties.....! In fact the only improvement that could be made would be to strip out the existing nasty carpet to expose the chancel tiles. Contrast this with a church not far away. A 2 manual, 4-rank (Diapason,String, Std. flute, trumpet....), 80's ish electric action extension organ, shoehorned into a west tower chamber best described as a pantry, with horrific illuminated stop switches which seem to have a mind of their own. One of the ranks is a trumpet. I don't know why, since the thing desperately cries for more foundation tone and fewer screaming, derived mutaions and bad reeds. When the sun shines on the back of the chamber, it really is possible to understand about those trumpets they mentioned in Revelations. Don't know a vintage to describe this one, but sufficient to say that it is well corked. There has never been such a compelling case to rip an organ out, use the pipes for guttering, and install a modestly sized but high quality electronic, there being no suitable space in the church for a usefully sized organ chamber. So to echo what someone else has said, the whole matter seems to be very subjective, and so it is difficult to generalise, with the caveat that obviously good work should be preserved or at least stored for the future if possible. DWL.

Many thanks for the contribution, much interesting stuff. I do agree that the general request is very open-ended. I had no particular period or style in mind, its more a 'blue sky' exercise to see what people can come up with. Thanks again, DWL.

Hi. As a student currently 'on release' for a little while over the summer, i'm looking for some new suggestions for music to learn. The criteria are: 1) Suitable for somebody between Grade 7/8 2) Not a music student 3) Something that will give the hands plenty of work (out of scales practice...!) 4) Not ambitiously long 5) Challenging enough to not be considered 'sightreading fodder' (as in, will hold my interest..... I have a few ideas, but some creative suggestions from people on here would be most welcome! DWL

A few years ago, our local 'look north' ran a story about somone in Lincolnshire, who had found a clever way around the timing problems normally associated with MIDI for church hymns. Basically, he had soldered together a chord sequencer, which read the midi information from disk, but only changed the chord output when an 'advance' button was pressed. I have no idea whether it was commercialised. I do know (from an electrical engineering point of view) that anything to do with MIDI is sub-trivial, and so it's possible that units like these could be made very cheaply. Assuming that the church in question already possessed a disk reader and an organ with a MIDI input (big assumption....but some do), and assuming a production run of say 2000, I think these units could be made for barely £20 (production cost) each. The idea was that any layperson with a sense of rhythm would be able to control the flow of the hymn 'live', without needing keyboard skills. Of course, stepping through the Widor would probably induce vibration white finger. DWL.

more at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,...2091756,00.html. At first I thought it was just April 1st. But the EU seem to have surpassed themselves. And I don't say that as a standard hang 'em and flog 'em, oak-panelled Tory. The purpose of this directive is to prevent the release of lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury, and a few other nasty things into the environments of third-world countries, where old electrical equipment is often dumped. This is a laudable objective. I cannot imagine what it has to do with organs. I am sure that the matter will be resolved. I cannot imagine the organs of St Sulpice, or the Grote of St Bavo, or Passau being silenced, for instance. Perhaps the presumably lowly DTI spokesperson, insistent that the UK must 'harmonise', is not quite aware of what is at stake here, and gave the press a stock answer, without clearance. Surely just a case of sloppy legislation? But a raw deal if you are waiting, or are currently having your instrument restored, and you get caught up in the whole sorry mess. Pass the sick bag, Alice. DWL.

Hi there. Just a quick request for information. The BBC are undergoing a fairly major rationalisation of their London sites at the moment (including withdrawal of the World Service from Bush House, and of music services from the BBC Hippodrome in Shepherd's Bush), and I was wondering if anyone had any information on: i) How this affects the Compton Organ in the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting house (Historical information about this organ in Laurence Elvins' `Pipes and Actions' book, if I remember correctly). (current photographs of work on the radio theatre, [which look pretty far-reaching] accessible via this link and browsing the photographs:) http://www.bbc.co.uk/broadcastinghouse/timeline/index.shtml ii) How the move of the BBC music operation to the proposed new 'music box' development near White City will affect the Compton at Maida Vale. Many Thanks, David Lucas.

Just a word to say that I was fortunate to play this organ for a legal carol service at the end of 2004. With a little bit of careful registering around the most problematic faults, the quality and seemingly infinite tonal resources of this instrument left this student organist wanting more. And i'm sure that there is no truth in the rumour that Diapason I is used as the backup Humber Foghorn :-p. On a wider note... The appointments of Mr Derrett to Holy Trinity, and of Dr Pemberton (as curator of the City Hall organ, five minutes up Whitefriargate) are very encouraging. Perhaps this is none of my business-I grew up in Hull, but only visit in academic holidays now. However, I hope that if supportive audiences and friends of these fine instruments can be established and nurtured over the coming years, (coupled with a revitalised HT choir) then what has seemed like a bleak ten years for organ/liturgical music in central Hull can be gradually turned into something quite exciting - perhaps even a source of [lowers voice in case the 'thought police' hear] *Civic Pride*. All the best, David Lucas.