Brian Childs
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Posts posted by Brian Childs
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I do love constructive ambiguity. My favourite is the (apocryphal) reference: "You will indeed be fortunate if you can get this man to work for you."
BAC
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Well, OK - but according to my colleague in the Classics department here, capitularis means 'to surrender' (as someone has already mentioned). From it comes our word 'capitulate'. She did not mention anything about canons - fat or thin!
Please do not make me tell her she is wrong - this could be very dangerous....
Dear PCND,
Remember discretion is the better part of valour. Also , as someone about to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary I strongly recommend selective amnesia as an invaluable aid in dealings with the fairer sex. Well, it has worked for me!
BAC
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Hi
Bradford's Purcell Trumpet is now mounted "en chamade" at the top of the main organ case in the North choir gallery, speaking across the building.
Every Blessing
Tony
Bradford is one of the few English Anglican Cathedrals I have never visited so I can claim no familiarity with the building but my understanding was that it was long and narrow, hence the need for a nave division in the first place. If that is accurate, what is the logic behind having a directional reed like a chamade pointing across the longest axis of the building ? ( I know the Spanish originals do but that is in a quite different liturgical and musical context) Is it just to allow the organist to take pot shots at the Dean in a manner of speaking ?
I am further perplexed because I had thought that the Purcell Trumpet was on very modest wind pressure anyway and that the principal solo reed was called something like Trumpet - Major (I have the specification in a file upstairs but I dare not leave the computer chair or it will be annexed by the cat for the next three hours with all attempts at eviction stoutly resisted) so what exactly is its function in its new location ? Would anyone familiar with the instrument care to explain, please ? Just out of idle curiosity .
Brian Childs
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Am I the only person on this thread who thinks that MM's desire to send all lovers of Howell's organ music to Coventry had nothing to do with any organ to be found in that city but with a quite different use of the phrase "send to Coventry". I just wonder whether I am getting too cynical as I age but my first thought on reading his post was not to assume he was recommending that city as the locus of the ideal Howells organ !!
Brian Childs
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To this end, I dislike publishing my voluntaries, except at major festivals. This is because it gives me the luxury of being able to substitute a piece which is more suitable to a particular occasion - in fact, to the mood which is prevalent at the end of the service. If anything, it makes me practise more, because I need to have a selection of pieces available (and up to performance standard) on any given Sunday.
I also improvise frequently - partly because it is something in which I am greatly interested and also because, by so doing, I am able exactly to match the mood of the service. I often use plainsong or hymn-tune themes for this - usually I first check the Holy Days Proper section in the NEH. If nothing seems appropriate, I will cast my thoughts further afield to gain inspiration.
Another advantage of improvising, particularly before a service (or during the administration) is that one can be totally flexible as regards time. I dislike playing printed music before a service, because it is simply not possible accurately to gauge when the procession will have arrived at the stalls - and I have no intention of truncating (or artificially lengthening) a well-known piece of repertoire!
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I can fully appreciate the reasoning and logic behind this thinking and for gifted improvisers (which I am sure PCND is) this approach may well be the best. However, it is a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless, that not every organist is capable of performing at the level of David Briggs or Nigel Allcoat. There are some whose efforts can only have one cringing with embarrassment . For such as these, if they are unable or unwilling to learn to do it better, playing "something that was prepared earlier" is the only viable option. The composers amongst you should perhaps take note. A supply of good quality, but relatively easy to play, music would be a boon to these players and their auditors alike. Even more beneficial would be pieces deliberately designed to be elastic in length so that the problem to which PCND calls attention is provided for already. Since it is more difficult to write good quality music that is simple to play than it is to write technically difficult stuff doing this would not be without its challenges!
BAC
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I couldn't agree more, VH. A couple of years ago, I suggested to my Rector that we could omit organ voluntaries during Lent. He preferred to have organ music, but quiet, penitential stuff such as I've described. I'm happy to do this, but I'm afraid the Sunday congregation sees quiet music as an invitation to express themselves loudly
Anyway, after Sunday's shoutalong I had a moan, and a gentle reminder to worshippers to keep quiet will appear in next week's pewsheet. It won't work of course - it never does...........
But why is it that people who visit libraries, and even courts of law, speak in hushed, reverential tones? Something to do with the lack of organ music I guess?
One reason which may encourage people to behave with some decorum in law courts is that judges have power to commit to gaol for contempt people who disrupt the due administration of justice. The fear of immediate temporal punishment seems to weigh more heavily on the mind than the apprehension of divine displeasure at some indeterminate future date.
Perhaps I might add a couple of points from the point of view of someone who is usually to be found in the pew on Sunday rather than on the organ bench. It goes without saying that these points could not possibly be applicable to any member here.
(1) I have more than once in my life encountered an organist whose reach considerably exceeded his grasp in the matter of voluntaries. Those who know and love organ music are unlikely to wish to stay (either silent or physically present) while listening to an embarrassing approximation to a piece that they know: those who do not are unlikely to be converted to the cause and may well have enough musical sensibility to grasp the shortcomings on display. As I have said before it is not necessary to be able to lay an egg to recognise a bad one!
(2) It was Harvey Grace (and he died in 1944) who advocated that the introductory and concluding voluntaries should be on the music lists along with the psalms, anthems and hymns. He reasoned that this produced two benefits : only good music would be selected since nobody would wish to chance his or her reputation by advertising themselves as playing rubbish (query whether this would still be the case today) AND having committed to the piece it would encourage prior practice. In the military axiom proper prior preparation prevents p*@$ poor performance. How widely is his advice followed these days ? If the congregation were advised of what they would be hearing (and how long it was going to last) they might conceivably behave better, though there is no certainty they would.
Whenever we have a voluntary I do listen but our DM takes what to me appears a rather idiosynchratic approach that the piano should always be played more loudly than the organ. Perhaps he really wants to use the piano for voluntaries ?
Brian Childs
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There was also Paul Halley who seems still to be around running choral activities in the depths of the US country. He is a Brit. too I think - I have an interesting CD of him improvising at St J the D - called something like 'Nightwatch'. The improvising style is more 'UK cathedral' than Cochereau et al but a good demo. of the organ all the same.
http://www.livingmusic.com/biographies/phalley.html
AJJ
Yes, I have that too, though I cannot say it gets much playtime. I am fairly certain he is from my part of the world, by which I mean Essex where I come from, not Ulster where I presently reside.
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Wasn't one of the pieces included something of his own for organ and prepared tape?
AJJ
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I think you must mean "God of the Expanding Universe" by Richard Felciano. Original , though not as much to my taste as the pieces by one his predecessors, Norman Coke-Jephcott - Bishops' Promenade and Variations, Fugue and Toccata on a National Air - although Bradford's Purcell Trumpet is not really like the State Trumpet in St John , and presumably even less so now since I understand it has been relocated inside the main organ case. The sleeve photo is of the original Nave Organ which looks very fine in the Photo. There is a photo of Mr Pizarro on the back, looking very much like an Old Testament prophet in so far as it is possible to distinguish anything in the black and white photogaph . However, his biographical notes do not mention the fact that he was titulaireat St John's, only that he was a chorister there and was presumably taught by Dr Coke-Jephcott since it was during his time as incumbent that he was a chorister.
I should have made it clearer in my original post that I have the LP and my query was directed to the status of Mr Pizarro. Sorry about that.
St John's seems to make a habit of appointing Englishmen (no Englishwomen so far to the best of my knowledge). Do any of our American friends know why this should be ?
Brian Childs
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I seem to remember another Titulaire of St. John the Divine (David Pizzaro) who suffered an apparently similar fate. Perhaps it is not a very happy place in which to work....
What the same man who recorded the only LP ever made of the organ of Bradford cathedral, at least so far as I am aware ?
BAC
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I suppose we'll next learn that Agatha Christie had links to Hill, Norman & Beard !!
MM
And why not ? After all Percy Whitlock had links with Dorothy Sayers. ("For D.L.S. and Harriet" is the dedication of one of his pieces but I cannot recall which)
BAC
PS For the avoidance of doubt I do "get" the Christie reference. Where did you say the marble Arch organ was located ?
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Well it would seem there are quite a few ladies of the organ loft, and certainly more of them operating in our cathedrals and churches than on this forum!
Unless they have all chosen to hide behind a pseudonym !
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No one has mentioned June Nixon - St Paul's cathedral, Melbourne.
OK, not UK, but Anglican and with a fine T C Lewis!
True but then we would have to take in the United States, starting with Dorothy P at St John the Divine unless she has grown tired of waiting for the organ to be fixed and moved on.
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I suppose we can thank the Spanish for chamade trumpets as well though all those battle pieces doubtless add support to your assessment.
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Greetings,
Interesting. No offense intended, but is the organ encyclopedia accurate? Perhaps this is unfair, but I am a bit mistrustful of Audsley and some of the other sources frequently cited by the web site; especially Audsley though, as he seemed to be a theoretician with an axe to grind.
Is the construction as described accurate to what one might find in a mid-to-late 19th century English organ?
Best,
Nathan
I really do not know because these stops are not all that common. It seems to have been something of a Hill speciality : at any rate the 1862 specification for the Ulster Hall Organ shows one on the choir but it certainly no longer exists under that name even if the pipes are still in the organ. I seem to recollect that Peterborough Cathedral also had one but whether it survived the fire in the organ I do not know. I know of no recent example but have occasionally come across the name in organs which have survived pretty much untouched since the 19th century, however, not having examined the innards of these organs I simply have no idea what,if any, mistakes exist in the description given. Sorry I cannot be more helpful. Perhaps someone else knows ? Mr Mander might.
BAC
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Louise Reid - formerly assistant Wakefield then Guildford - married to DOM at Peterborough and (I think) now i/c the girls choir at Ely.
AJJ
And Hazel Gedge at Brecon of course!
I assume that Reid must be her married name since the surname on the Messiaen CD released from Wakefield was Louise Marsh and two female assistant organists with the same Christian name at the the same cathedral in such close temporal proximity seems too much of a coincidence.
BAC
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Greetings,
I am very curious to know about the Keraulophon and how it is constructed. Does this stop create a unique timbre or is it born out of affectation? Can it be paired with a celeste?
Best,
Nathan
Hi Nathan,
If you look at this link you will find it answers your question I think. Indeed about any stop you care to mention.
http://www.organstops.org/k/Keraulophone.html
Brian Childs
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Fascinating! Is the revised version published then? Who by?
Oh yes! I just wish I could play the ****** thing! If only I'd come across it when I was young and nimble... The first couple of pages are OK, then it starts to get a bit tricky.
Given the vintage of many contributors to this site I am surprised nobody has yet mentioned the performance by Noel Rawsthorne at Liverpool on the very first LP of EMI's Great Cathedral Organ Series, an oversight now dealt with.
As for more help on versions (and MM might perhaps be able to flesh out further details) there was a Dr Gwillym Beechey in the Music Department at Hull who was very interested in Durufle and wrote about his organ music, I believe in the Musical Times, but it would have to be some fairly erudite (and academically respectable) musical publication. An internet search against his name (and although I do not vouch for my spelling of his Christian name, no variant should turn up too many references) might yield results especially for anyone with library research facilities- something I am blessedly now free from.
Brian Childs
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Yes, Brian - of course this is eminently sensible. But you have missed one point - it is entertaining to sit back and produce schemes ranging in practicality from sensible to bizarre!
Sometimes it is nice to forget reality - and just dream.
Oh - excuse me - Anna K. is calling me again....
Now, where are those tissues?
I rather suspected this but wanted to have it confirmed. Released from all restraint I shall now settle down to devising a specification replete with tonal percussions, very smooth Tubas and all my other personal favourites.
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I shall avoid getting into history lessons, but the Moors were the civilising, tolerant and extremely educated people; the Christians intolerant, vindictive, stupid and untrustworthy.
I think the imagery I suggested relates to the departure of the last Moorish ruler, who on leaving Granada, looked back, bowed his head and "wept like a woman because he could not defend it as a man."
Thus, the Moors left Granada or converted to Christianity, and a remarkbale civilsation was effectively banished, following which, Spain went into decline.
MM
I do not disagree with what you have said in the first two paragraphs, and agree with the third if one is talking about a moral decline but hardly a material one since the wealth of the New World Empire was just beyond the horizon while in terms of culture the achievements of Cervantes (Don Quixote) and Velasquez are hardly insignificant.
For the avoidance of any doubt I am not an admirer of Torquemada nor of those who devised the "final solution" to the problem of European Jewry. It is interesting, if rather pointless, to speculate on whether we would be facing our present problems with extreme Islamicists had events in Spain followed a different path.
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I know what the problem is.........
Truro (Willis), Bristol (Walker) Redcliffe (Harrison) Salisbury (Willis), Kingston (Marcussen?), RFH (Harrison), Albert Hall (Willis/Harrison), Abbey (Harrison), Westminster Cath. (Willis), St.Paul's (Willis/Mander) Tewskbury (Mitchell & Thynne + other bits and bobs), Chichester (Mander), Wichester (Willis), Rochester (Willis) etc.
Leaving out Bristol, Kingston, Tewksbury (dangerously close to the Midlands), Oxford and Chichester, it's a bit monochrome isn't it?
To the Willis/Harrison list, one might add Exeter, Windsor, St.Albans, Cambridge (Kings), Croydon (Fairfield Hall), Worcester, Hereford, Canterbury etc etc.
In the North, we have notable organs by Cavaille-Coll, Gray & Davison/Wood, Walker (Met.Pot.Liverpool, York & Blackburn for example), Lewis, Compton, Marcussen, Wurlitzer, a few untouched Fr.Willis organs, Hill, H.N & B, untouched Arthur Harrisons, Binns, Nicholson, Forster & Andrews, Schulze...the list goes on and on.
It's the difference between the monotony of "East Enders" and the joys of "Coronation Street."
All we REALLY need is a superb new Mander, and I know just the place where it should go, if they ever raise the funds and dump the electronic substitute.
As the hymn goes, "Hills of the North rejoice."
MM
This is very naughty of you, and very selective: what about Tonbridge School Chapel, St John's Cambridge (Marcussen), Norwich Cathedral (HNB),The Dome , Brighton (HNB/Wells), Odeon Leicester Square (Compton), Southwark Cathedral (Lewis) ,Downside Abbey (Compton), Bath Abbey (Klais) , Christchurch Oxford (Rieger),Queen's College, Oxford (Frobenius), Farnborough Abbey (CC/Mutin), Wimborne Minster (Walker), plus of course the likes of St Mary's Rotherhithe, St Michael's, Framlingham and Thaxted Parish Church (unplayable, but thus still original).
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An absolutely intriguing set of pieces, coming from Spain, are the four "Saetas" by Eduardo Garcia Torres; based on the Andalusian Gypsy songs of that name, which were song spontaneously during Holy Week at Seville (and presumably elsewhere). (Torres was organist of Seville Cathedral...his dates 1872-1939)
If ever the Middle-East meets the West, this is it, and it is beautiful music.
I'm not sure it is in print.
Alan Spedding recorded number 4 at Beverley Minster back in the early 1970s. On the basis that organists' NEVER throw out music he might still have a copy which he would be prepared to lend you if you are in a position to call in aid the Old Pals Act[/color]
I also have a CD on which is a truly magical improvisation by Joyce Jones, played on the vast Moller (+) at Westpoint Military Acdemy, NJ, which she bases on a popular Japanese song called (I hope I spell this correctly!) "Aki Tombo." (The Red Dragonfly).
I have this too but it does use a harp stop and this will not meet with the approval of PCND
PS: I SHOULD go to bed!
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IWith a graceful bow, they left their treasures behind and departed Spain.
MM
I rather thought it was not quite this gentle and there was rather more of a"final solution" feel to it than this way of putting it would imply. After all it was the country of "their most Catholic Majesties" that gave us Torquemada who apparently scored over 2000 (burnings that is). Certainly they left their treasures behind.
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Probably something to do with Easter and Charles Wood's..."shall trump from East to West."
MM
I have that EP with the Bairstow Lamentation and his setting of Psalm 114 in addition to the Wood. FJ's sleeve note says: "The words 'Till 'trump from East to West' are dramatically underlined by a martial figure on an organ trumpet stop." Ron Perrin certainly lived up to that ! MM you would not by any chance be one of those "butter would not melt in the mouth" choristers standing behind FJ, Ron and the gentlemen of the choir in that sleeve photo would you ?
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[i have been following this discussion with some interest and also some perplexity. How is it possible to design an organ (or indeed anything else) on the basis of so little information ? I would have thought that before setting out to construct a specification one would need to know rather more about the building and rather more about the needs and requirements of the users of the building.
"a large parish church" does not give much information as to size. A quite small ship is much bigger than a very large lorry ! Nor does it indicate anything about the shape or layout of the building: are there side aisles, transepts, galleries ? What are the relative roof elevations ? Where is the organ located and how does the sound reach the congregation ? Surely different consideration apply if the organ is to go in an elevated west gallery than those that apply if the organ is to be put in a hut outside and the sound piped into the building through some kind of tone chute as was effectively the fate of some cinema organs.
As to the requirements of the end user, since this design is for a parish church it is a liturgical organ and presumably an Anglican one. Since the Church of England seems to embrace within itself a greater variety of liturgical practice than almost any other denomination, ranging from those who think that the only change effected by the Reformation was to replace the Pope with the King so that we should continue with the Latin Mass to those who favour a form of worship not out of place in an Ebeneezer Chapel, surely one would need to know the particular liturgical practices of this Parish before deciding what stops have to take priority in the scheme. A large building which is often full to capacity (as some evangelical ones are) may need to prioritise power over colour to avoid the Bridgewater Hall effect. One with a normal scale of attendance (that is to say almost nobody attends) will not have this problem but might if it was a very attractive location and therefore a much sought after wedding venue for those who select the place where they will marry on the basis of how it will appear in the wedding photographs !
Without at least some of this information, it seems to me that such questions as whether a 32 ft reed on the pedal is more or less important than a graded range of 16foot stops admit of no sensible answer. Indeed , even the basic assumption of 40 stops and three manuals might be up for reassessment, as further information could reveal that more might be needed or less would serve just as well.
Brian Childs
Herbert Howells
in The Organ
Posted
This would seem more than likely but I wonder whether it is not counter-productive for organists of all musicians given the static nature of the instrument (if one leaves out of account "toasters" and Reginald Foort's touring Moller) to become quite so hung up on "authentic" as opposed to "musical" performances.
To give a specific example how far does one go in the search for authenticity in the performance of Bach? Is it necessary not simply to forgo all playing aids, swell boxes and inappropriate stops but also to have the organ blown by hand, the lighting provided only by candles , and to adopt the dress of Bach's day in order to be subject to the same impediments to movement that his clothes would have imposed upon him ? I suggest few would actually see the need to go that far. Mr Lucas has pointed out that it is possible to play Bach very effectively at Kings and I have heard Peter Hurford play it very effectively at St Alban's as well as the Ulster Hall in Belfast (Passacaglia). What holds for Bach ought equally to hold for other composers; even those, like Howells, closer to our own time. After all , I bet few people on this Board wear a starched collar, even on Sunday, but Howells almost certainly would have done at the time he composed his first pieces and probably later as well. (I can recommend the practice for anyone with a slight inclination to masochism - it will not hurt 0toomuch.)
IMHO too much concentration on authenticity requires that nobody should perform anything for which their particular organ is unsuited. One consequence of this is to deny to congregations and audiences the opportunity to become acquainted with vast sections of the available repertoire- hardly the way to encourage knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the literature of the organ. Another is to confine some players of some instruments to the works of second or third rank composers or transcriptions.
For these reasons I am happy to settle for a musical performance of organ music, just as I do of a Beethoven Symphony, without enquiring too much into whether the orchestral forces precisely equate to those Beethoven had at his disposal and whether only authentic period instruments are used. Surely history should be the servant of the music: not its master ?
Brian Childs