Nick Bennett

The Schulze at Armley has a particularly fine example.

John Bertalot's article in OR addresses the problem of ... how to deal with stroppy choir members!

Here's my two penn'orth Hoofdwerk Prestant 16 vt Prestant 8 vt Holpijp 8 vt Viola da Gamba 8 vt Octaaf 4 vt Fluit 4 vt Octaaf 2 vt Mixtuur IV Cornet III Trompet 16 vt Trompet 8 vt Rugwerk Prestant 8 vt Roerfluit 8 vt Fluit Travers 8 vt Octaaf 4 vt Fluit Dous 4 vt Superoctaaf 2 vt Flageolet 1 vt Mixtuur III Trompet 8 vt Dulciaan 8 vt Pedaal Prestant 16 vt Subbass 16 vt Octaaf 8 vt Fluit 8 vt Octaaf 4 vt Mixtuur IV Bazuin 16 vt Trompet 8 vt Klairon 4 vt Tremolo RW (foot lever) Couplers HW-RW, Ped-HW, Ped-RW Manual Compasses C - d''' Pedal Compass C - d' Temperament: Werckmeister III Usual number of pistons (i.e. none).

Yes, indeed, quite fascinating. Next time I hear a shapeless performance of anything it will be interesting to think about which of these points was the main culprit. Especially if I am playing!!

When people are fearful for their jobs, they tend to put any spare cash into savings to see them through a possible jobless spell, so aren't as generous as they would otherwise be when it comes to the organ appeal. So there will inevitably be something of a slow down. However, the state of the £ against the € is good news for British firms. It will effectively price builders based in the Euro zone out of work in the UK. And at the same time, British firms bidding for work on the continent will be able to come in with very competitive prices against the native builders.

Halifax Parish Church (Harrison & Harrison 1929) perhaps? I am just looking at Walker's specification and estimates for the work that was done in 1975 when it wasn't far off 50 years old. It amounts only to cleaning, releathering where necessary and the replacement of worn/corroded parts. The action is still pretty sound today, though it would benefit from another round of cleaning and replacement of worn parts. OK, I take David's point about this being a lot of work. But surely you would need to do a fair amount of work on a mechanical action organ to replace worn moving parts if the organ had seen a lot of use. What is interesting about the spec is the work that didn't get done, which would have turned it into a somewhat different instrument - especially the Choir Organ. It has just dawned on me that Sat 3rd October will be the 80th anniversary of the organ's dedication, at which Bairstow played. Perhaps we should have some sort of celebration.

Hmmm - not sure he'll get away that lightly at Christ Church, Oxford.

Just to endorse what other people have said, the Andriessen Thema met Variaties is a very effective piece and not too hard at all. And the chorale by Bedrich Janacek is also very good - especially if you have a devastating pedal reed! - and it's a piece that you really can't play too loud. I would have thought the Leighton Paean was considerably more difficult than Grade 6; an FRCO of my acquiaintance took quite some time to get to grips with it! However, it is probably worth getting the Leighton organ works for some of the other pieces. There's a good Fanfare (I think that's what it's called - the first piece in the book) that is quite straightforward and would suite your purpose. Plus there is an utterly stunning prelude on Rockingham that leaves me gasping in awe every time I play it - though it is pp throughout and thus not what you were looking for on this occasion. How about the Franck A minor chorale or the Allegro Marziale from Six Organ Pieces by Frank Bridge? Rather more off the wall, there's the first movement of Rheinberger's Sonata No. 2 in A flat, Opus 65 (publisher Amadeus) -Forte most of the way through with the odd quieter section, and fortissimo for most of the last page, and an excellent excuse to draw the Trombas!

In another thread somebody remarked that one person's interpretation of a particular piece has more "sense of architecture" than another's. That set me wondering what it is one has to do when playing a piece to increase the "sense of architecture" in one's interpretation. Any thoughts?

Surely boards such as this thrive on ill-tempered and uninformed opinions.

The church at which I used to be a sidesman required absolutely everybody, right down to tea brewers and the flower ladies, to have an ENHANCED disclosure. They then completely failed to follow up anyone who didn't submit a form. I was still on the rota 18 months after we were told we had 28 days to comply. Furthermore, they never set up any guidelines which, as another contributor has pointed out, can very effectively deny a would-be child fiddler the opportunity. By contrast, another voluntary organisation of which I am a member has had only key staff CRB checked, and has set up a rule that any minor must be accompanied by two adult members of staff whilst on the premises (or travelling to and from them), one of whom must be CRB checked. The occasional repeated breach of this rule has flushed out some worrying behaviour and the people concerned are no longer members. Interestingly, at least two of them had been CRB checked!

Possibly because they have the heating on too high. The tuner found it was 78°F at pipe level one bitterly cold day last spring. Guess what state the instrument was in!

It is a matter of opinion as to whether contempt or disparagement has been expressed - as opposed to dislike, criticism, disapproval, disapprobation, loathing, opprobrium, etc. From what I heard, the music was banal in the extreme and served only to trivialise the words it was setting. The first hymn was ineptly harmonised. There was a lack of joy and spontaneity: the congregation sounded as if they had been drilled to within an inch of their lives. I had to turn it off at the Gloria - I couldn't stand any more.

The British Library lists a copy in its online catalogue, publisher Lengnick (London) 1962. The title is shewn as "A Welsh Lullaby (based on the folk-song "Suo Gan")". Shelfmark is g.1378.k.(4.) It isn't available for loan but they will supply a photocopy; you can order one over the net with a credit card. Looks like it's going to cost about £15 though. This includes the copyright fee, so the copy if 100% legal. You may also be able to get a photocopy from the BL through your local library, and it may be cheaper than going direct since they will get cheaper rates than you can as an unregistered user, and they may subsidise it on top of that. My local library service (Bradford) is very good at this sort of thing, if a little slow. British library web site is http://www.bl.uk and I found it just be entering the composer's name.

It seems a little on the fast side. The opening, in particular, lacks the gravitas we have become used to. It is often said that composers are not always their best interpreters. I would normally put this down to their not having the technique - or in the case of them conducting, perhaps not being able to get over what they wanted within the available rehearsal time - which perhaps amounts to technique again. But Dupre, of all people, can't be accused of not having the technique, so perhaps there is more to it. But what? The way he plays the semiquaver theme is like one of those visual illusions that one moment appears to be a vase and the next is two faces in profile. He certainly isn't going out of his way to keep the emphasis off the third dot. Possibly those performers who do so are taking the dots too literally? I wonder why he didn't notate it with a dot over the first note and a slur between the second and third?

I am sure I have seen a long list of suggested corrections to Vierne's published scores not too long ago. Was it in the Organists' Review?

How about BWV 696, "Was fürchtst du, Feind Herodes"? Why are you so afraid, foe Herod, that Christ the Lord comes born to us? He seeks no mortal kingdom, he who brings his own heaven to us. It seems to address the issue. And you can be quite sure the congregation will spot the allusion .

What is it with Maassluis and Guilmant? Jaap Kroonenburg, the present organist there, has recorded a fair amount of Guilmant on it. To say that the organ is unchanged since 1773 is not quite true. A synopsis of its history is: 1732 New organ by Rudolph Garrels 1773, 1790, 1804 Several changes by Robberts, Wolferts and Heijneman 1840 Restoration by Jonathan Batz 1938 and 1960 Changes by van Leeuwen 1978 Restoration by Pels and van Leeuwen. Addition of Bazuin 32' Compass of both manuals and pedal have been extended (from c''' to g''' and d' to f' respectively). Jaap Kroonenburg played the Chorale and Fugue from Guilmant's Sonata no. 5 when we visited, and it came off very well. But I wouldn't describe it as an authentic sound.

How do you guys play the semiquaver theme that enters at the bottom pf page 2 - emphasis on the beat or syncopated (i.e. treating the first 2 notes of each phrase as if they were an upbeat)? I have heard eminent players do both.

I know there's a passacaglia for organ but I've never heard it played. Does anybody know it? Is it hard? And did he write anything else for organ? By the way, does anyone play the preludes and fugues op. 87 for piano? I've had a go at some of the simpler ones and find them fascinating. I hadn't realised until today that they were written in 1950 (or for publication then) as a homage to JSB on the bicentenary of his death.

Yes it does, but my experience of organ recitals in parish churches and elsewhere is that the audience are a pretty knowledgable bunch. But whether they are or not, finish with a great work and be done with it. Don't patronise the poor dears with "tunes they can hum"! After all, the RSC don't read out a Pam Ayres poem as an encore after performing Macbeth (perhaps on the grounds that the audience should be sent on their way with something that rhymes and is cheerful). It could be argued that, if you need an encore to take away the taste of the final work in the "official" programme, then your choice of finisher wasn't appropriate in the first place! I think Paul Morley is right about encores being used to bring a frenzied audience down. This especially seems to apply to high profile visiting orchestras with celebrity conductors. I bet Ted Downes wished he had a little encore the night he conducted Shostakovich 7 in the Bridgewater Hall (or was it the Free Trade Hall?) and dragged the leader off after about 8 returns to the podium with the applause showing no sign of abating.

I can certainly see a piece of that calibre working as an encore. Some might think it was the best piece on the programme! What can make encores such a let-down is to use a much lesser piece for that purpose, thereby creating an anti-climax.

In my experience most encores are a let-down. There are certain works that just cannot be followed. And if you have just been on the receiving end of a really profound performance of (say) Bruckner 8 or Tchaikovsky 6 you want to revel in it for as long as possible, not have it driven out of your head by some piece of trivia. There probably aren't that many organ works in the "unfollowable" category, but the Reubke Sonata and Liszt's Ad Nos are getting close. They create a mood that it is sacrilege to break. To do so is to ignore the emotional impact the piece has (or ought to have) on the audience. I find the idea that audiences can't be left in a minor key slightly patronising (sorry Paul!). But then again, I always did prefer the cheese to the sticky toffee pudding.

Anyone know whose arrangement of the final verse we heard from John's this afternoon? It was pretty spectacular. I suspect Andrew Nethsinga has either been poking around in the vestry cupboards or he composed it himself.

For what it's worth, I would advise against this set. I only have one CD from it (Zwolle) and the organ is recorded most unsympathetically. It is recorded far, far too close. The reeds sound honky, the pedal booms. The gaps between the notes are almost completely silent; some reverberation can be heard, very faintly, at the ends of sections: evidently the engineers failed in their mission to eliminate it completely! The organist presumably could hear the reverberation going on around him and was playing accordingly: because we can't, the result is horribly soulless. I haven't had the perseverance to listen to a single track right through.