[Lord Of The Years]

Shurrly not, my dear Watson. Does that mean Mr Ravel also stole from the Kinght of the Realm (cf Bolero/Memory) and Mr Mendelssohn (cf slow mov't vln conc/I don't know how to love him)? Perhaps mr Lloyd Webber isn't as talented as we've all been led to believe.....

 

On the original matter, I actually quite like the stutter in the rhythm of the tune, though with two contrasting results. Yes, the church congregation never quite got it and did smooth over it a bit, but both my current and last school actually took to the rhythm very easily.

Has anyone else noticed that Franck uses "gotta pick a pocket or two" in his Andantino?

[Vierne's Arabesque From 24 Pièces]

The other correction in Carus is bar 4 - rhythm should be the same as bar 31.

 

Paul Walton

I had read this somewhere and have altered my copy. As printed the note values don't equal the dotted minim below. Regarding the C#, I have pencilled a sharp in my copy but on reflection I like the natural as it gives the oriental flavour which appears elsewhere.

[Dupre - Cortege Et Litanie]

I find playing the notes is not too difficult (you need a 32 note pedal board), but the main difficulty I find is managing the registration changes in the earlier parts unless you have a sequencer.

[Langlais - La Nativitie]

I can manage the tenth at that point, but it gets harder where you get F and B flat and a quaver A flat above that. I can just do it; you could try letting your right little fingernail grow a bit! But I have to give up 3 bars later where you have to hold A flat, C flat and play a quaver B flat in the middle of the bar. I confess that I delay the A flat until the third beat.

[Take My Life & Let It Be...a]

I always find the Mozart tune to be too short to stand six repetitions of a 4-line verse. I noticed that the last bars bear a striking resemblance to the end of the tune "Maidstone" usually sung to "Pleasant are thy courts above" so now I play the even numbered verses to the last 16 bars of "Maidstone" suitably transposed. To prepare the congregation for the change I play the tune all through at the playover, and I have always found that they take to it like ducks to water.

[Lest We Forget]

Many years ago I heard music from the Albert Hall at the ceremony of remembrance, which consisted of the Last Post played as short phrases, each interspersed with a "meditation" on strings. Can anyone identify this, please?

Since recommending the Royal Marines "Sunset" I have looked on the internet and found it on a CD. Log in to www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk and there is a disc entitled "Music at Sunset" available at £12.I think it is programme 1 track 8. The composer's surname is Green, but no initial quoted.

[Female Organists]

I have come across few lady organists. Are there any at Cathedral level? Or is it mainly a male preserve? Why are there not many females? Surely all-male choirs could do with a few young ladies to keep them on their toes... well at least to watch the conductors. I'm not looking for one by the way. I'm not made that way. So please tell me.

Sarah Baldock at Chichester has already been mentioned. Some years ago I had to play at St Malo Cathedral in France and wrote to the organist to ask for information about the organ. I had a very helpful replay from a lady, who gave a stoplist and explained that the divisions of Grand, Recit, Positif etc could only be identified by the colour of the borders on the paper labels.

[Lest We Forget]

Many years ago I heard music from the Albert Hall at the ceremony of remembrance, which consisted of the Last Post played as short phrases, each interspersed with a "meditation" on strings. Can anyone identify this, please?

 

I cannot help with your enquiry but the Royal Marines tune "Sunset" is appropriate. I thought you might be interested in my experience on 9.11.08. I deputise at a church where the minister is very "green" in the environmental sense and is also a pacifist, very much so. I offered to play "Last Post " and "Reveille" on the organ, but I was informed that under no circumstances would he permit anyhing with military overtones. We also missed out "God save the Queen", presumably because of the line "send her victorious". Likewise we missed "O God our help". However, he did allow me to play "Crown Imperial" afterwards.

[Playing From Memory]

Tis not as hard as it looks. The theory goes that there are three types of memory - muscle memory, visual memory (of the printed page and the shapes thereon), and aural memory. If you learn a piece consciously using a combination of all three, it stays. For instance, learning runs as note clusters and moving to a 'fistful of notes' at a time to initially get the arm used to the movement needed BEFORE adding the individual fingers, and meanwhile acclimatising the ear to the direction of the blocks of music before introducing each seperate element. Whilst this is going on the eye gets used (in conjunction with the ear) to the shapes before it. These three things make all kinds of recalls years down the line possible - whole trio sonatas have lived in my head for years, as well as more obscure and seemingly random pieces. Throw the metronomes out! As David Owen Norris often says, they work about as well as most easy solutions to complicated problems.

In my 20's (1950-60) I could play a few pieces from memory: Bach B minor Prelude & Fugue, Widor Toccata and a Pastorale from a Rheinberger sonata. I believe this was because it took me so long to learn to play them that by the time they were secure I had unconsciously memorised them. I did not set out to remember them. My piano repertoire was also learnt in this way. Now I learn pieces more quickly and cannot memorise them except for the difficult passages: the same reason: repetition. My memory was muscle memory; I remembered how the fingers fell and I knew that if I found myself playing a right note with the wrong finger disaster was just round the corner.

[Mulet's "tu Es Petra"]

'Petra' is simply the version of the Vulgate.

 

But what is even more interesting is the fact that Mulet omitts a part of the original text: Tu es Petrus et super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam.

 

I cannot comment on Petra/Petrus as I never did Latin, but if the title included "et super hanc..." it would make it even longer to print on a recital programme! Another long title is "Carillon sur le theme du carillon des heures a la cathedrale de Soissons" (Durufle, I think).

[Congregational Mass Settings]

I remember seeing the score of a mass setting by Gerre Hancock, then the organist of St Thomas on Fifth Avenue which is now occupied by John Scott. I no longer have the score but I remember the congregational part in the Gloria was based on a well-known hymn tune.