Ronald Bayfield
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Posts posted by Ronald Bayfield
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Thank you. I have been converted!
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In the Final of Vierne's 1st Symphony the pedal enters at the end of the second bar. At the reprise (p 51 in my copy) it returns to 2 sharps and the pedal enters at the end of the THIRD bar. That second bar always seems superfluous to me; I think the listener expects to hear the pedal at the end of the second bar. I always omit that bar. Does anyone else?
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For my own wedding (58 years ago) the bride entered to "Sheep my safely graze" and we went out to a Stanford Postlude in D. It starts in d minor but ends in a very triumphant major. My late wife said she preferred the Mendelssohn, so at our ruby wedding "renewal of vows".we had it. She didn't want another renewal after 50 years.
I recommend the Pachelbel Canon for the register signing if the couple do not specify anything. It is the longest part of the ceremony as anyone who had any connection with the bride insists on getting in on the act. The Pachelbel can be used over and over again and can easily be interrupted when necessary.
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The most difficult bit is surely that sustained A in the left hand while the remaining fingers play a series of sixteenths. It starts OK but after a few bars you need to stretch a ninth. I find the easiest way is to use the left thumb in succession for GAG GBG etc. My question is: Vierne was quite a little man and probably have small hands. How did he play it?
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There is a manuals only version arranged by Christopher Tambling in "Essential wedding music for manuals" published by Kevin Mayhew. It won't deceive any organist who knows the real thing but is quite effective if asked to play it (as I was) on an organ with no pedals.
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I am surprised that such a popular piece in not available. My copy was published by Herman Zengerink of Utrecht but bears a stick-on label "Edition Peters 10-12 Baches Street LONDON N1 6DN". It cost £2.75
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I have an autographed copy of Flor Peeters's "Magnificat" (4 parts, organ accompaniment, Latin words). The inscription is "To Mr R Bayfield, Flor Peeters, 26.III.73. Supplemental with brass: 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass tuba (timpani & cymbals ad libitum", Would anyone like to have it? Ron Bayfield, ( 01273416544)
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Nothing to do with Dupre, but for anyone who wants only a moderately difficult, quietly reflective and very beautiful piece for Christmas, there's always "La Nativite" by Jean Langlais, which never seems to get played by anyone; though I'm sure it is.
MM
I agee: it's a beautiful piece and I always try to use it around Christmas time.
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Bearing in mind the fact that most of the congregation will not be regular churchgoers I would use the Bach "In Dulci" because (a) it is much easier than some of the other suggestions, and (
it has the tune, albeit somewhat slower than when t is sung. -
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At the closing service of a Brighton church we had a version of the Doxology sung to "Knees up, Mother Brown":
Glory to the Father, Glory to the Son,
Glory to the Holy Ghost, Glory to the Three in One;
As in the beginning, now and evermore,
Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost Amen! Hey!
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I am never convinced by the A natural in the left hand of the bar following the one discussed above. There is a sustained A flat in the right hand, so shouldn't the left hand A be flat too?
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I always have such books spiral bound as soon as I get them. It only costs a few shillings and solves the problem of not staying flat,
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I have to do the funeral of a close friend next week. I'm thinking of using Toccata in 7 by John Rutter at the end of the service. I have never seen any reference to the work in these pages so does anyone have any views?
JC
It's certainly cheerful.
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Lately I have found myself playing for a lot of funerals. Strangely, considering I'm not so very far away from my own, this is completely new territory for me as I never had to do it in any of my previous incarnations. I'm just wondering what sort of things you all play for voluntaries when you have a free choice, most particularly at the end. How funereal a tone is appropriate these days? I assume (and would hope) that the traditional Chopin and Handel warhorses are right out.
I ask because the other day I played the coffin out to Howells's Sarabande in modo elegiaco and it nearly had me in floods of tears, so God knows what it did to the bereaved!
I use Bach's "Wachet auf". It is not funereal, the tune was in a TV commercial some time ago, and the words hint at the resurrection.
I am now 79 and have already paid for my funeral under the "pay now, die later" scheme (although they don't call it that, of course). I want a CD of the "in Paradisum" from the Faure Rquiem.
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In this anthem John is quizzed by the Levites etc: "Who art thou?" And he answered and denied not "I am not the Christ". So he DID deny. Why does the narrator say he "denied not"?
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Mr & Mrs Dicite and their son Benny
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I have taught myself ordinary Braille and music Braille so that I can transcribe organ music for David Aprahamian Liddle, who helped me to learn how to do it. In addition to David I have helped two other organists, several singers and two composers, for whom I transcribe the other way, from Braille into staff notation. I make no charge for these services.
I am now looking for another sighted organist or pianist to whom I can pass on this skill as I am now 78. He/she must already know ordinary Braille and possess either a Braille machine or a computer. (Programmes which automatically transcribe text are useless for music).
If you are such a person please contact me on ecumorgue@tiscali.co.uk or 01273 416544.
I have had one promising enquiry and have sent him his first lesson. RON BAYFIELD.
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I have taught myself ordinary Braille and music Braille so that I can transcribe organ music for David Aprahamian Liddle, who helped me to learn how to do it. In addition to David I have helped two other organists, several singers and two composers, for whom I transcribe the other way, from Braille into staff notation. I make no charge for these services.
I am now looking for another sighted organist or pianist to whom I can pass on this skill as I am now 78. He/she must already know ordinary Braille and possess either a Braille machine or a computer. (Programmes which automatically transcribe text are useless for music).
If you are such a person please contact me on ecumorgue@tiscali.co.uk or 01273 416544.
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This piece is in 6/8 time yet the metromone marking is (undotted) crotchet equals 100. I tend to feel that dotted crotchet equals 100 goes better with the marking of Allegro Moderato yet I like the slower tempo (equating roughly to dotted crotchet equals approx 67. Probably I am happiest with a midway compromise. I know it is easy to follow what others do on recordings and I know you should take into account the building and the instrument but I whould be interested to hear what other Board members think. Is there a misprint?
Thanks
Malcolm
Having visited Soissons and heard the actual carillon I think dotted quarter=67 is a bit on the fast side.
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Slightly off topic, but as someone with a brother (52) who is a CF sufferer, I was delighted to see that "A Boy Called Alex" was amongst the choral scholars in evidence at the 9 lessons & carols.
The broadcast itself seems a bit of a farce. I found myself being impressed by the whole choir's ability to start unaccompanied carols without any given chord, but then frequently being reminded that the service is effectively fake by the pecularliarly changing lighting conditions in the chapel. How are you even supposed to believe its live when there is light streaming through the chapel windows at a time when, given the time of year, it should be pitch black outside?
I have always assumed that the builing is floodlit from the outside to show the stained glass at TV broadcast services.
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Are you supposed to believe that it's live? Says who?
I have always assumed it was live, but having read the other submissions I am beginnig to have doubts. I have always wondered why the sound broadcast is different: why not just record the TV version sound? Also, when I was in Cambridge in 1948 I attended a service of 9 lessons andcarols in King's but it was several days before Christmas Eve.
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I'm searching for the score of a Sowerby Toccata. Since Sowerby has apparently written more than one Toccata I've placed a file with the first minute of the piece on the web for identifying: http://members.ziggo.nl/theovis/sowerby.mp3
The piece is played by Cathrine Crozier on a CD-recording (organ Aeolian-Skinner op 1309).
This is NOT the Toccata in the Hinrichsen Series Anthology of Organ Music. Somewhere I read about a Toccata published by H.W.Gray but I cannot find and order it anywhere.
Any help is highly appreciated!
Theo Visser
Sheet Music Plus publish a lot of Sowerby. Go to www.sheetmuisicplus.com
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I have it on very good authority that earlier in the year Copeman hart were in negotiation with Viscount to use their (Viscount's) current system. It really is good, and much better than a 5/6 year old Wyvern nearby that I play from time to time.
I've often thought that if the electronic organ had been invented first and someone came along and said "I can produce these sounds by using thousands of pipes, lots of woodwork and metal, taking up cubic metres of space, requiring periodic tuning and costing much more" he would be laughed at.
it has the tune, albeit somewhat slower than when t is sung.
Vierne's "Carillon de Westminster
in The Organ
Posted
When necessary I just my left thumb repeatedly.