Nick Bennett
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Posts posted by Nick Bennett
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I thought so, too. (And I believe it was on a 15-year contract, which has presumably been renewed.)
As the muppets who work in Radio 3 no longer seem to be able to distinguish between the Couperins, the Bachs or the Engelbert Humperdincks (I kid you not), it wouldn't surprise me at all to find this isn't Allan Wicks.
Or perhaps David Flood most generously gave up what would, presumably, have been his first broadcast CE to his predecessor.
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Wayne Marshall, again! *groan*
It's alright, he's not playing a note of actual organ music. It seems to be a concert for those who like the noise it makes rather than those who appreciate it. I'm sure they will enjoy it hugely.
I see David Briggs is playing mainly arrangements of non-organ works by Bach. I can't quite see who that's targeted at.
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All I am saying is people with minority interests should be entitled to have one 1 hour programme. Is that so much to ask ?
Colin Richell
I think it's blindingly obvious that it is! Where would you draw the line?
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It's suspicious that there is no precautionary natural on the D in the left hand. As they have been provided very generously elsewhere, it would appear that the absence of an accidental on this D is unintentional - though whether on Howells's part, the editor's or the typesetter's is another issue.
By the way, I am working from the collected edition, and the bar in question occurs exactly where you describe.
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Wow, fantastic. Superb rythmic drive. Superb organ, too.
This is rather reminiscent of St Albans last year, where by far the best performance of one of the Mendelssohn sonatas, which was set for the semi-finals, was given by the assistant organist, name of Winpenny, as part of a concert.
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It would have to be one of the easiest stops to add to any organ I would think. All you need is a direct connection to a reservoir and a block for it to stand on with no pallet etc.
Hmmm, maybe this could be the perfect alternative to a Fanfare Trumpet in the west gallery of my boss's church...
JA
Perhaps it is best viewed as a sort of mixture where all the pipes are tuned within a semitone of the nominal note rather than along harmonic principles.
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It would be a wonderfully economical stop: not only would there be no necessity to tune it but, since it would be manufactured with ciphers and runnings already in place, no attempt should be made to rectify these "faults" as it would spoil the true nature of the stop.
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Interesting exercise - rather like sitting through the rounds at St Albans, except that interpretations there tend to be much more similar to each other than this selection, and you hear the same piece sixteen times rather than a mere nine.
First place: No. 6
Second place: No. 3 (in spite of that dreadful reed)
Third place: Hmm ... difficult. I thought I was going to like No. 8 but eventually I started to find the performance rather mannered. Might have to plump for No. 1, though it was a bit robotic.
Nos. 4 and 5 were unbearable. No. 2 was terribly boring - was rather surprised to discover who it was.
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They do in France. I was in Chartres on August 15th some years ago - what a day! High Mass iin the Cathedral at 11 a.m. - a rather splendid lunch and then the Psalmody of Vespers in the church of St. Peter - followed by a long Procession, in the August heat, to the Cathedral arriving to a full Cathedral to sing the Magnificat, in Latin, preceeded by an amazing organ fanfare and accompanied by the most wonderful playing. Then a break for half an hour followed by an organ recital by Patrick Delabre (?) - the titulaire. The Cathedral was full and, at the end there was real applause and one felt a genuine affection from the audience to their recitalist. The music he played wasn't lollipops, by any stretch of the imagination.
What can we do? - no idea - but I sometimes think we ought to be less stuffy about it!!
And they do in Germany, as anyone who was on the IAO Congress in Cologne will know. The suggestion we should be in the cathedral an hour before the recital started in order to be sure of a seat sounded far-fetched, but was pretty accurate.
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I suspect MM's video gives us part of the answer. Unfortunately, there will be some of our number who will be as sniffy about that performance as they are about Carlo Curley or Cameron Carpenter. Who could captivate an audience better than George Thalben-Ball or hold people's attention more than Pierre Cochereau? It was people like that who inspired me as a boy.
The trouble is that so many organ recitals now are principally for the pleasure of the performer and his/her friends, not the audience. At one I went to last summer, I sat in the choir stalls as the best position to see and hear, only to be approached by the (well known) organist who told me curtly that he hoped I wasn't going to rustle any papers or shuffle about, because he was recording his recital and the microphone was nearby. What a welcome!
If we are going to bring an appreciation of the organ to the general public, we also have to give them something in "bite-size chunks". How many I-player tracks last more than three minutes? Fifteen minutes of Bach on a unchanging registration can be difficult to appreciate, even for afficionados. Every public recital needs to be like an art gallery, where you can find little gems that trigger your imagination among familiar and comfortable works. And it needs a bit of star quality from the performers. Britain's Got Talent... but you would be hard pushed to spot it in our corner of the musical scene.
JC
On the other hand, John, how many Wagner operas last less than four hours? Can you get a seat for a Wagner opera? Only if you are very quick off the mark when bookings open. And the Halle's Mahler 8 last month sold out pretty quickly, and that's a long haul, too.
It seems to me that the well-attended recitals are the ones where the pieces played are relatively few and substantial and are put over with all the formality of the concert hall. It's the recitals with 12 works in a 45-minute programme that are attended only by the recitalist's friends.
Continental organists do not find it necessary to pander to goldfish-like attention spans to get four-figure audiences. A Vierne symphony or half an hour of Reger is what does the trick over there. That said, I am damned if I know what would do the trick over here. The problem is that a generation or more of children have not been introduced to classical music (in the broadest sense of the term), whilst the wholesale rejection of Christianity means that the churchiness of the organ is an additional barrier in most peoples' eyes.
By the way, is it really our goal to bring an appreciation of the organ to the general public? Or is it the organ repertoire we are trying to promote? It's really rather bizarre to promote the instrument rather than the works played on it: this is what makes people think we are such a queer lot, more interested in mechanism than in music.
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Is it true that a paid Organist in the Anglican Church cannot be on the PCC? I was told that as a employee of the church, I cannot! In one way I'm glad!
R
It certainly isn't out of the question for the same person to combine the roles of trustee and employee of a charity. Indeed, this page on the Charity Commission website gives some guidance about the situation.
The situation is very confused, of course. If the organist can't be a member of the PCC because he profits from being the organist then surely, by the same token, nor can the vicar!
An alternative view is that neither the vicar nor the organist is employed by the PCC, (the vicar is employed by the Bishop, or possibly by God, and the organist is employed by the vicar) and thus they are both unquestionably eligible to be trustees.
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By the way, for the gardeners: volcanic ash is the best fertilizer one can have.
All the soils that have received it, worldwide (save...In Iceland, for obvious
climatic reasons), are among the best for crop and gardens.
Pierre
Surely horse manure is better? Fortunately it isn't delivered in the same way as volcanic ash.
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Like at least one other member of this forum, I have booked for an organ tour of Holland next week. I now have flight tickets and Eurostar tickets as well, so I should get there, and perhaps even get home again afterwards.
I hadn't considered the possibility of the organs being silenced for that week. Perhaps the hand-blown ones will still work, even if the electric blowers are turned off for fear of pumping too much dust into the works.
Good luck David, hope you enjoy it and manage to get home. Unfortunately I could get neither ferry not Eurostar tickets when I enquired on Saturday morning so I won't be there. The good news is that Johan is running this tour (based in Groningen and including several Arp Schnitger instruments) again either later in the year or next year so there is an opportunity for other board members to particpate.
If anybody has thought about an organ tour in Europe but been unsure about whether they will be well-organised and based in decent accommodation, I can thoroughly recommend Dutch Organ Tours.
Judging by the news tonight, evidence is that even aircraft flying through it aren't affected by it! I wouldn't worry too much about organs. Even the fabulous Klais in Reykjavik should be safe (for the moment) as all the ash is blowing away from it.
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This attitude seems to persist in the ultra-protestant churches of the Outer Hebrides - along with the idea that the Pope is the Antichrist (as several online sermons on church websites will attest!).
But they do have that extraordinary Gaelic psalm singing, which is (apparently) quite similar to Coptic chant.
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I'm only guessing, but I'd be prepared to bet it's to discourage teachers from complaining that their pupils deserved a pass/merit/distinction. Teachers complain enough about examiners markings as it is. I should know; I'm married to one!
And the top mark excluded to protect the friends of the candidate from the size of his/her head, perhaps?
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And the point of these allegedly forbidden marks is what exactly? Sounds like a mathematical nonsense to me.
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Hi
Have you tried your local library? They should have access to the British Library collection - but I'm not sure if they loan journals out, but I have had a few specialized books on loan from BL. Another possibility is a University Library if you can find someone who has access.
Every Blessing
Tony
I don't think you will be able to borrow it, but the BL ought to be able to supply a photocopy. You might even be able to get one through the BL Direct service at http://www.bl.uk.
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In view of the thread in "Nuts and bolts" regarding the ergonomics of consoles, and stop jambs in particular, what do people think of how this console is shaping up? Scroll down to the bottom of the above link: there are pictures of the console taking shape.
Difficult to tell at this stage. I do hope the ruckpositiv stops are going to be behind the bench on the back of the RP case. Shove couplers too perhaps?
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I quite liked the tune to the last hymn, but I'm not sure it quite fitted the words. 'O my Saviour lifted' is a pretty reflective, solemn hymn, and the tune seemed rather bright to me, almost in contrast to the words, and the repeat of the last verse with descant was a little odd. I wonder if you could set it to anything else. Who was it composed by - someone from Wakefield I assume?
I can't say I enjoyed the canticles much and indeed skipped through them. The introit was rather good though.
I understand "Carharrack" is by Jonathan Beilby himself.
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2010 Wedding fee is £120. If family recordings take place, we don't make an additional charge. We reserve the right to charge double fees should I or whoever is playing decide that there ought to be an additional fee,
You mean if they ask for a complete performance of Sorabji II, for instance?
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I go to recitals to hear the organ and the organist, usually in that order (of importance, not temporal - I hear them at the same time, of course!)
Personally I find the pieces played to be quite important and that the role of the organ and the organist is merely to convey the music.
I am beginning to think I am odd.
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Surely it's our job to educate, arouse interest and inform as well as to entertain, is it not?
Well yes - but why do we do it by talking at our recitals? You don't find this sort of thing going on (much) at "proper" concerts, recitals and opera performances. You may get a pre-concert talk, but it's a separate event you can choose to go to or not. What you do get, of course, are printed programme notes, which you can choose to read or not. In fact, these are ideal, since they offer an alternative source of amusement if the performance fails to hold your attention.
I recall the Halle having a visiting conductor about twenty years ago who rather liked the sound of his own voice. He was allowed to get away with it for a while, but I do recall one occasion when a groan went round the audience when he came on holding a microphone.
And on another occasion, Roy Goodman was conducting and turned to the audience to explain that the dry atmosphere in the hall was the reason why so much re-tuning of the strings was needed. He prefaced his explanation by saying "I am not a great believer in talking at concerts ..." at which there was a palpable - and possibly even audible - wave of approval.
Do we not have the confidence that our performances will speak for themselves?
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I once went to a recital where there were (IIRC) twelve major works on the programme, and the recitalist spoke about each of them for a good five minutes. And then played two encores. Talk about losing the will to live. The pubs had nearly closed by the time we got out.
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Sounds like one to be avoided at all costs.
I don't go to concerts to hear the performer's technique: I expect he'll play everything far too fast to ensure that the audience can't miss it, though. And it sounds like he's going to talk to the audience, which I hate. And he hasn't taken the trouble to prepare his recital properly - not to the extent of deciding what to play, for instance.
Gosh, it really has brought out the Grumpy Old Man in me, hasn't it? Better not take me too seriously!
Registration of Bach
in The Organ
Posted
I believe that on another thread, Herr Sprondel informed us that Buxtehude would have used 16ft manual stops, even when accompanying his choir, when he needed more volume, as opposed to drawing more upperwork. Perhaps this was common, too, in solo music.
When HIP people refer to playing a piece without changing registration, I think what they mean is not fiddling with the stops (much) during the piece. I don't think they mean also remaining on the same manual throughout. What are the other manuals FOR if not to bring in a contrasting colour? The point being that fiddling with the stops wouldn't have been terribly practical on the larger organs of Bach's time unless he had a registrant.
What I've never seen discussed is when the practice of having a registrant (or two) became common. Perhaps the academics on the board might pick this one up. Did organists from time immemorial recruit choirboys (who may also have been organ pupils) to draw the odd stop for them?