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Alright, here for good measure are my own thoughts: Opening Voluntary: Prelude modal - Langlais (from 24 Pieces) Introit: Prayer of King Henry VI - Ley Responses: Leighton Office Hymn: From glory to glory advancing Psalm: 23 or 121 Canticles: Howells in G Anthem: Hail, gladdening light - Wood Hymn: Music sounds the joy (Cumbria) Concluding Voluntary: Rhapsody No. 1 - Howells There is an equally wonderful, but less well-known setting of the Introit by Francis Jackson that I would love to hear instead of the Ley from time to time; it is longer, however, so might be better kept for the anthem slot. Call me soft, but I've always liked those two psalms the best. For 121, it would have to be the incomparable Walford Davies chant; for 23, I would use (as I do at Kendal) the exquisite chant in G major by Vaughan Williams, recently discovered and published by the RSCM. Howells in G was a favourite of the Boys and Men at Bath Abbey. I've been itching to do it in Kendal, but may have to wait a few years until I can get the forces to where they need to be in order to take it on. (Purely as an aside, it's a shame Howells in G isn't thought of by RSCM Area Organisers when planning Diocesan Festival Evensongs - of all his canticles, I reckon it would be more within the grasp of massed local Parish Choirs than the other "dedicated" settings, "Col. Reg." excepted...) As an alternative, I'd do the Chester Canticles by Barry Ball - formerly DoM at the King's School in Chester, whose Choir I sang in as a treble and whose settings we were proud to perform. (Especially these canticles, which were zippy and fun - think Bryan Kelly but less tiring on the voice!) I've also let personal bias get in the way with the last hymn, which was written for me to mark my appointment to Kendal and isn't published (yet) - words by Paul Wigmore, tune by John Barnard; it's a cracker!

A most creative and clever handling by whomever this was! I hope the Visiting Choir's director got the hint...

Just got back from honeymoon, and am back at the grindstone tomorrow with ... another wedding! The couple on this occasion are having "Zadok the Priest" on entry and some mess or other by Andrew Lloyd Webber (from "Phantom of the Opera," I seem to recall) on exit. The latter will be via the medium of CD, but they asked if the former could be played on the organ. When the request came in, I was still busy getting ready for my own nuptials and couldn't do more than say (to the clergy, through whom all our couples communicate with me) that I didn't think it would work well without a choir, and that in any case I didn't know of any organ arrangements and in view of coming back from honeymoon a day in advance I would have only limited time to prepare anything "special." Not only was the message passed on, but it seems the couple have acted positively on it - they have procured an organ-only transcription and delivered copy to church ready for me to play tomorrow. My Assistant has had a quick look and informed me that it will be easily read at sight, so no worries there - but I still find myself wondering, what effect will it have without choir, and moreover at what point has the music been truncated to allow it to make its mark but not keep them waiting at the altar...?

This sort of thing can and will happen, and not just at weddings: last Sunday, I was approached (the second I'd finished playing a final voluntary!) by an elderly fellow who introduced himself as a former organ pupil of one of my predecessors and now working at a Parish Church in a nearby village. He announced that he would be playing for a funeral later in the week - for which I'd already been booked by the Vicar - and asked whether it would be possible for him to practice during the week. To deal with him as politely as possible (for as you may imagine I was very taken aback) I responded to his inquiry by telling him to book in with the Church Administrator, as it is she who has immediate access to the Diary from her desk. Then I had a word with the Vicar, who explained that the Funeral Directors had been in touch with him the previous day with a request from the family that this chap (a long-standing friend) be allowed to play. Being the supportive fellow he is, the Vicar responded that the regular organist (me) would still need to be paid, as it's "not on" for someone to waltz in and say "we want so-and-so to play instead of the appointed organist." (A point made by Messrs Williams and Leach in their excellent and oft-quoted book, I might add!) I think he'd been going to tell me about this, but unfortunately was beaten to it by my over-enthusiastic "stand-in..." As Williams and Leach point out in their tome, it's good practice for Vicars and Organists to grant requests of this sort BUT that the customary fee should still be paid to the Organist, whose right it is to play for all such services - unless perhaps there's something in his/her contract that says otherwise. Should a couple / funeral party ever object to being charged for the Organist - as they might do whether or not their own organist is charging a separate fee - it is worth reminding them gently but clearly that the Church employs its own Organist and that it is bad form, even slightly offensive, to tell them their services are not required. Sometimes, of course, it's likely that the couple are using their own organist because they can get his or her services for free, hence it makes them squirm when they realise they're not going to get out of that expense quite so easily! I believe quite a number of churches (great and small) now charge a fee - either full or partial - to bring in a visiting organist, which can act as a deterrent for such "behaviour." The point could be reinforced with an analogy - for instance, would you take an independent financial adviser into your bank branch to do something for you that the bank's employees are supposed to do? I doubt it very much.....

Hm, on second thoughts, perhaps I'll have the switches left as they are and encourage the Choir to do that if it happens again. It would be very dramatic and very appropriate - and if there are any complaints from clergy or crowd, I'll point it out to them afterwards...

Not as unusual an attitude as it may seem, this: as the poet Robert Browning once declared about a particularly enigmatic piece of his work, "When I wrote that, God and Robert Browning knew what it meant; now only God knows!" Curiously enough, I heard the opposite side of the coin from a former teacher of mine who had been a pupil of Howells at the RCM. He had prepared the famous Psalm Prelude Set 1 No. 2 for an exam, working on it with Howells to make sure he understood the music as deeply as possible. He was very satisfied with his performance in the exam, yet was very taken aback to find HH's comment on his mark sheet - "a most unsympathetic performance." I'm convinced that there's a risk involved in studying a composer-performer's works with them, namely that it can make the composer very self-conscious or simply annoyed at hearing their own material floating from practice rooms day after day... (Marcel Dupre once rebuked Langlais for playing the Symphonie-Passion "as if it were the only organ work" or words to that effect. You can see how it might have bothered him!)

This is all most interesting, and it goes to show that Howells - like Kenneth Leighton - has suffered the unfortunate fate of being "pigeon-holed" as a church composer when in fact he wrote far more for other media than is commonly known. I sometimes think of Howells as an "English Langlais" - each has a personal style that is infused deeply with a sense of his musical roots (Breton folk music in Langlais' case, Three Choirs and early 20th century English Renaissance in Howells' case), and each produced many rewarding moments in his music, but was prolific to the point of "note-spinning" -- hence there are a large number of pieces that all sound very similar. I've found myself enjoying those works of Howells that are "sidelined" in services or recitals: Rhapsody No. 2 has always fascinated me more than the others, even though they are richer in melody and have a superior musical structure. I enjoy the Partita - admittedly in small doses, particularly the exquisite "Sarabande for the 12th day of any October." Recently I've been looking at the Six Short Pieces from unpublished manuscripts (with Robin Wells' completions) and finding them richly rewarding - there is real variety between them and also some rather more unusual touches, including a plainsong-like "Aria" (Wells' title) that has a familiar ring to it, yet comes across as untypical. None of them outstays its welcome; each works well as a distillation of Howellsian style and could work well in services or as a suite for recital use. (I feel Gerard Brooks' observation about Reger revealing his true genius in short pieces could equally apply to Howells ... one need only look to "The Chosen Tune" for further evidence!) Coming a bit more onto topic: I've played over the "Siciliano for a High Ceremony" at least once in living memory (on the Harrison at Clifton College when I had a couple of hours to kill and when Chapel was quite empty) and found it to be a satisfying experience - again, not quite like the "usual" experience to be had with the Psalm Preludes or Rhapsody No. 1 - but came away wondering if I could possibly use it in public. The literature all says it was written for a wedding, but it is quite subdued in character ... not so much so that it could be used at a funeral, however! Nigel Allcoat has opined that Howells' organ music is all of a quasi-liturgical bent, and I think he's got something there: even the works explicitly destined for concert performance (the Sonatas) sound more in tune with the atmosphere of a cathedral set in the midst of the great English countryside. I would venture further and say that this music, like plainchant, is meant for something higher and less tangible than the experience of a casual listener - it's a spiritual offering, the sort of thing to be played for personal contemplation rather than for the entertainment of others. Perversely, the best situation in which to play Howells may be on your own, in the stillness of a great church at night with no-one but God to listen - so much the better if you're lucky enough for it to be Gloucester Cathedral or Tewkesbury Abbey! Back in 2002, I remember hearing Philip Moore opening a recital at York with Rhapsodies 1, 2 and 3 in order. Evening was falling, and the Minster had that stillness that can't quite be described (you just have to go there and feel it for yourself) ... and when Philip started playing into it, with immaculate sense of style and those luxuriant sounds that the Minster organ can conjure up, it was as if the music simply belonged to the space, same as the stained glass, wood carvings or pillars. It wouldn't have mattered if thousands of people were there, or no-one at all.

Hear, hear! Having been away from it for nearly a year now, I miss the Klais Organ in Bath Abbey very much and feel (as I did when working there) that in the end an organ's provenance doesn't matter in the slightest, as long as it turns out to be right for the building. Visiting recitalists and choirs, especially those of high calibre, never failed to be impressed by it. I have no doubt that the same will be true at Leeds when the current project is completed and I am certain that Ben Saunders will be delighted with the choice he and his team made - as will the Choirs, congregations and visitors to Leeds Cathedral for years to come! Incidentally, whilst the Bath organ had many new registers constructed, what a lot of people tend to overlook (or miss when reading the literature available) is that a lot of pipework was retained from the old Hill organ. In some cases it was revoiced, so as to match the aesthetic of the whole, but in other cases it was left untouched (e.g. Great Small Open Diapason, transferred onto the Swell; Solo Clarinet left exactly as it had been constructed in the C19th) ... so to anyone worrying about whether or not a foreign builder will respect the heritage of an English instrument entrusted to them, I would say "Klais do!" They certainly did at Bath, and they will do again at Leeds.

Something very similar happened to us on Maundy Thursday: in our case, the Wardens were switching off the lights whilst the Altar was stripped and we sang a psalm. Unfortunately, they switched off the lights in the Chancel - and since we have no candle sticks on our stalls, that meant we couldn't see and had to grind to a halt. Rather embarrassing... next year, I shall be putting red tape over certain light switches, that's for sure!

Not far down the coast from Barcelona is Tarragona, where you will find the Parroquia del Vendrell with its interesting (and slightly parlous) Scherrer organ in Spanish style. The organist there is a good friend of mine and I've been fortunate to play it in concert and at services there. http://aaov.wordpress.com/ Also in that neighbourhood is a shrine to the town's most famous musical son - the Villa Pau Casals. I urge you to visit this! http://www.paucasals.org/

"Sun Dance" - Bob Chilcott. It's in the OUP Album of Ceremonial Organ Music along with numerous other excellent pieces and arrangements. Typically fun with some tricky syncopations; one or two corners need quite a bit of work in fact, but it's worth the effort. (And it may be worth noting that Chilcott arranged it from his own "Organ Dances" for organ, strings and percussion...) You could also try Francis Jackson's "Georgian Suite," in which you will find a Gavotte, a Sarabande and a real foot-tapper of a Jig. Playable with or without pedals and handsomely printed by OUP, it's a useful collection in any case!

Goodness, brings back memories of my first job as Organist at Clifton College in the earlier part of this decade! The story I was told was that James Hills (the present Director of Music) had brought it with him from a previous post (not sure if it was Sudbury) and had it installed in Chapel partly to provide for the very occasional service sung up by the altar, as happened towards the end of the Lent Term each year. (The Girls of the Chapel Choir sang the Pergolesi "Stabat Mater" with strings and organ for one such service.) I think he also hoped to explore "double-organed" choral repertoire by Langlais, Vierne, Widor, Dupre et al, although it didn't happen while I was around. It has but two ranks of pipes - Dulciana and Open Diapason - and the console is mobile, at least as far as the cables will stretch. I first had occasion to use it one morning when the Harrison was broken - it just about held the congregation together, but only with all five manual stops drawn. Subsequently I found myself playing on it most weeks for Compline, held up close to the altar (I think on Tuesday evenings?) and attended by a small band of dedicated pupils. It really came into its own for that purpose! Incidentally, I also met and played the organ in the Pre Hall whilst I was at Clifton - also an extension organ by an unidentified builder. That does have an entry on NPOR, I believe. Sadly, I arrived just too late to meet the Big School Willis, which was mothballed for a few years before being rehomed in Bridgnorth. In 2004, I invited Martin Neary to play a recital in Chapel without realising that in 1972 he was one of the first to perform on the Big School Willis after it was rebuilt! He had fond memories, but (in an exemplary display of tactfulness) he didn't express them within earshot of any of the College Trustees...!

Incidentally - and again according to Geoffrey Haydon - if Tavener's notational skills leave something to be desired, it's probably due to the fact that right up until the premieres of his earliest works he needed help from his musically-more-literate friends at Highgate School, including John Rutter, in whose hand is written the score of "Genesis," the first large-scale Tavener choral work.

This is all most interesting, in light of what Geoffrey Haydon found when writing "Glimpses of Paradise" (the first in-depth study of John Tavener and his music)... He notes that the composer did not seem to care much for "Mandelion" (originally supposed to be an orchestral work) - he is quite pleased with the closing section "Dormition of the Mother of God" but "deplores the traces of Messiaen" throughout the rest of the piece. Indeed, it's a similar story with many of Tavener's earlier works: until he fully embraced Greek Orthodox music, he spent a lot of time experimenting with serialism and other formulaic methods which he subsequently came to detest. "Mandelion" therefore doesn't strike me as the sort of piece Tavener would want to revisit, much less revise. On the other hand, it remains his only solo organ work and as such it attracts periodic interest, as evidenced by those of us on this board who have copies (yes, I've got the scrawled m.s. too, and there are quite a number of other Tavener works available via Special Order which are also m.s. photocopies) and implicit in the publisher's response to the query. I guess we must wait and see what happens...

I too have this recording, and whilst period performance purists may shudder, I actually find it quite inspiring. The playing is astounding, especially in view of the breakneck tempo, and the opening registration (if not the whole registrational scheme) makes such sense to me that I find myself reaching for a pair of flutes plus a Gamba when playing it myself. Amongst the organists of his generation, Bairstow must surely have taken some beating!

I'm curious: did this original have German or English text? I've read that Mendelssohn originally set the work in German (which in itself sheds a new light on the music) and recently I conducted a performance in Kendal using the orchestrated version... The piece certainly has a number of different permutations!

I find the same little trick helpful in the First Choral too - the opening section has some equally nasty stretches in the context of quite a thick texture...

Here at Kendal PC my Assistant took the console for the main service at 10am - Choral Eucharist with Orchestral Mass - after a little ceremony to mark his 40 years of loyal and dedicated service. (He's on his 5th Vicar, and I'm his 4th DoM!) In addition to his party piece, "Introduction and Toccata on Lasst uns Erfreuen" by Nicholas Choveaux, he treated us to an abbreviated version of the Susato Mohrentanz at the request of the clergy, for whom he'd played it the night before. I was on duty for the 8am morning service, so I did Bach's "Erstanden ist der heil'ge Christ" (from Orgelbuchlein, together with the chorale itself as an introductory fanfare) and for Evensong I blasted the (typically small) congregation from behind with the Langlais Incantation.

I've had similar experiences: most notably, in a certain boarding school (which shall remain nameless) in which members of staff used to yell at me to stop because they intended to address a small group of pupils they'd asked to stay behind regarding some maths conference or other, and in which houses would occasionally try to sing "Happy Birthday" to one of their number whilst the voluntary was being played, and in which pupils would occasionally applaud loudly in an attempt to shut me up. (As if to say, "yeah, well done sir, now shut up and let us do our thing.") At a lecture I attended by John Bell (Iona community) some years ago, he said that the operative word in the phrase "organ voluntary" was "voluntary" - i.e. an organist need not feel obliged to play anything at all. Mindful of this, I have on occasion left complete silence before and/or after services, sometimes because I had been irritated by talkers like those described by others on this board and wanted to see if they would even care if no music happened. (Some of them did wonder why there had been no music!) I'm with Robert Leach / Barry Williams on how to solve the problem: their book advocates telling the offending person(s) how to behave in future, as others have said here. Another solution I've tried has been to choose short and sharp pieces as voluntaries - ideally enough to get the Choir and Clergy into the Vestry but not enough that there is any danger of congregation beginning to talk over it. Last week (Palm Sunday) I played the Monnikendam "Toccata" which lasts barely a minute and a half, perfect timing for the above sequence of events; on other occasions, I improvised or used little bits of Pachelbel / Clerambault / Blow / Gibbons / Tomkins etc. - saving the big pieces for big occasions like Easter Day. Of course, the underlying root of the problem is communication, or lack thereof. It's easy enough to lose one's temper, or hold one's ground over the right to play organ music unmolested and uninterrupted, because we are organists and that is what we are all about. However, we're also cogs in a much larger machine, and we do sometimes need to take stock of what the other parts of the machine are like and how they function - or expect to function... Sometimes, yielding to the other parties -- letting them drink their after-service coffee or make last-minute announcements without being blasted to pieces by Widor -- can give you ground to seek leeway from them in future -- asking them if you could play Widor for a big occasion that demands it, and pointing out that they usually get to enjoy their refreshments in peace or could always make their announcements before the service, through the Minister who will be announcing things at that point anyway....

When I left Bath Abbey, I did my usual pair of Sunday Parish Services: 9.15 Eucharist, for which I ended with Kodaly's "Ite Missa est" (endeavouring to use every pipe of the mighty Klais for one last time) and 6.30 Evening Service (simplified Compline) for which I chose Bach's "Mit Fried und Freud" using only one stop, the Great 16' Double Open Diapason played up an octave with Pedal coupled 'loco.' It seemed apt...

I used to play it - then my copy went missing (probably during my move up from Bath to Kendal) and I haven't yet replaced it. Very handy in services, and as a quiet interlude for recitals. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who wants an "easy" route into Durufle - along with the Soissons Fugue it is as straightforward and undemanding as his organ writing gets. According to the preface, both M. and Mme. Durufle used it in their own recitals. The first of its two themes is exactly like the opening of the "Agnus Dei" from his Messe Cum Jubilo (as pointed out by AJJ) although I'm not sure which came first...

Only just spotted this... I did indeed enjoy my time there, and am glad to have been invited back this September! I hope other members of this forum will consider going there - not just for the organ but for the village. I've always liked to think of that Bohm in terms of, say, a consort of recorders placed up in a high gallery with bass viol(s) accompanying and the solo (whatever it may be) somewhere lower down - hence I tend to reach for flutes or stopped diapasons for the right hand wherever I play it. On the other hand, as you rightly say, there are all sorts of things that could work well, depending upon the nature of the particular instrument. And Bohm himself does give the clue to register from the pedal upwards by marking "Pedal Forte!" I'm sorry for turning the organ purple with reference to Sesquialteras ... must be the latent influence of Bath Abbey on my mind! I did have someone on hand to make sure my combinations balanced in rehearsal, but I will be sure to get downstairs myself next time: I was aware that certain registers (such as the different Trompettes) all speak with their own individual voices that become easier to distinguish away from the console. Coming back to the shove coupler ---- sometimes one can only learn lessons the hard way, and I've certainly learned mine!

Don't know if anyone's mentioned Bath Abbey's Klais here, but there's an instrument on which the difference can be heard in a matter of moments - there's a Voix Celeste on the Swell and Unda Maris on the Solo. Peter King describes the latter (with its neighbouring Salicional) as the "quieter set of strings" on the organ; it just melts into the woodwork when the box is closed! The Swell strings have a more luxurious sound. Both stops are quite easily affected by the other 8s in their departments, however: just pull out the Solo Stopped Diapason with the strings and they cease to be as effective. However, couple all strings to the Great Gamba and you can have a (sonic) Turkish bath that not even the Bath Spa can provide...

Almost the exact same thing happened to us at Selby Abbey once: the semi-retired Curate was a bit of a music buff and would occasionally include a potted history of the anthem in his announcement of it, but clearly his edition of New Grove didn't go much past 1950 because he confidently informed the congregation that "Listen Sweet Dove" was set to music by the American composer Charles Ives ... and then gave a long spiel all about him! As it happens, Charles Ives did write some church music: a setting of Psalm 90 for SATB, organ and percussion springs to mind. Quite interesting, albeit worlds apart from anything Grayston (or Bill) would do! King's Cambridge recorded it many moons ago: http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/e/emi66787a.php

In my first job as an Organist at the Parish Church of St Mary without-the-Walls in Handbridge (Chester) I spotted a note in the tuner's book as follows: "The organ is in fine form for the most part, however when playing for a funeral today I noticed a slight wind tremor in all stops, almost as if" (the above phrase was crossed out and the following added) "Forget it - someone had left the Tremulant on! Sorry! R. A. Fisher"