MusingMuso

========================== There's music by Sidney Torch of course, and I believe he wrote a "Torch Song". "Chariots of Fire" would have been perfect, of course. I had an altogether better idea for the passing of the Olympic Torch, which didn't involve music at all. The idea took shape in the local pub, when it was agreed that a friend of mine would attend the passing of the torch, and I would arrive with duck-tape and long canes. He would bring a two pronged instrument a little sharper than a tuning-fork; his brother would bring Hovis. Using the canes and duck tape, the idea was to break away from the crowd and run after the torch-bearer, with a piece of bread on the end of the two pronged fork. It would have been worth the ensuing arrest for a public order offence. The idiot slept in! Best, MM

========================== I'm not getting invlved with all this....too much of a minefield, However, the amusing thought occured to me that just about every theatre/cinema organist, since the days that the instruments were invented, have either parodied or re-arranged EVERYTHING, because there are probably less than half a dozen original cinema organ pieces. More interestingly, those parodies and arrangements are broadcast all around the world on YouTube, on dedicated radio channels, by the BBC, on CD's, videos, from old LP recordings etc etc. I mean, if a cinema organist plays thirty pieces in a concert, (mainly from the big shows and popular ballad classics), do they need to pay the original publishers £100 for each parody or arrangement? I think this might cast considerable doubt over the financial viability of ever playing a theatre organ in public. As for improvising on a theme by John Joubert....you're doomed. In the unlikely event that I were to attend a fancy-dress party dressed as a lady, could I be sued by the women's institute or some extreme feminist movement? I suspect that the truth of the matter is to be found in the hammering the recording industry has taken with the advent of computer technology and information exchange. Best, MM News alert: Schrodinger's cat currently thinking outside the box.

OK, but it ends abruptly. I haven't the music at home, but what I do is to repeat the opening bars, (as Rawsthorne did), for about three or four bars, and then jump to that pregnant discord, and hold it, (the one after which the hands run down in octaves; which I think needs to be transposed as a G augmented something or other), during which I use a pedal run Ab,G,F,Eb, Db,C, Bb,Ab,G,F,Eb,Dd and a final C below a resolution of the augemented chord. It's exactly what this Toccata needs. Doing that, you're actually still using Mushel's notes and motifs....just improving things a bit. Incidentally, it's not a Toccata at all.....more like a Tarantella, were it Italian. MM

Keep it on topic, you say? OK....lousy ending; needs something better. Rawsthorne's was better than Mushel's: mine is better than Rawsthorne's. First "discovered" by Noel Rawsthorne, the anecdote is that he played it in front of a large audience but with the disapproval of the communist authorities. Now the interesting, off topic part:- Born, I think, in the Ukraine, Mushel ended up at the Moscow Conservertoire. Eventually sent to Tashkent in Uzbekistan, where his job was to introduce main-stream Russian music and teach the locals. He taught at the Tashkent Conservatory. (Tashkent is the half-way point between Moscow and Bejing in China....think "Long way." "Big mountains" "Muslim people.") It was all part of the communist, cultural integration, and composers were expected to absorb the "music of the people," which in the case of Tashkent, probably meant music derived from Persia. The Toccata is, in effect, a Cossack Dance. Mushel wrote an opera or two, piano music and various other bits and pieces. He gave us a good (unfinished) Toccata, and board member Ben Saunders (Leeds Cathedral), has, or is about to, record all his organ music. I may have files of other pieces, but I will have to dig a bit. I can let you have my "improved" ending to the Toccata if you don't mind rushing about on the pedals a bit at the end, but I don't know where it is at the moment... Ideas for off-topic ramble: The influences of Persian music on Western culture. The integration of Indian music into Hungarian culture, via the Roma Gypsies. The introduction of the organ into Western society via the Islamic world. Tuvan throat singing for the parish choir. MM

============================ With regard to Wurlitzer Post Horns, they were supplied of course by Gottfried; the same maker responsible for the Trompette Militaire at St Paul's. It really doesn;t need further eleboration, because they are superlative reeds in the American tradition of such things. Of course, in a cinema, they sound brassy, snappy and sassy in equal measure, but in a building such as St Paul's, that smooths out and sounds a little different. The Dome, of course, is one of the key factors in the quality of the sound that we hear down below. The fire and edge are there. but the space and resonance add increased "body" to the sound. I suspect that the Royal Trumpoets at the back, are far closer to the party horn at St John-the-Divine in beng quite thin in tone, and thereofre very strident. I hope it's not an insult to our hosts to suggest that they're not quite as remarkable as the New York State Trumpet, but then, what other reed register actually compares anywhere in the world? It's worth the return air-fare just to hear it live! In fact, it's worth the return air-fare just to hear the reaction of visitors when the beast is unleashed above their heads! MM

===================== Yes of course! I should have known this, having lived with a Fr Willis for awhile. I don't think he ever did Bombardes. They were either Posaunes or Ophicleides. I need to buy a new anorak. MM

This stirs happy memories of some special moments in America, of which the simply divine "State Trumpets" were but one. I was lucky, because when I first heard them, they were in perfect tune, which is not always the case. Not many registers have "pet" names, but "The horn of the apocalypse" is just perfect; so incredible is the sound. There are probably louder stops in the world, but this has to be the best American organ "experience" and in such a wonderful building and acoustic. Of course, St Paul's has a "pet" name stop: the 32ft Bombarde, which I think they call "The Cement Mixer." When it comes to the Trompette Militaire, it always sounds to me like a Wurlitzer Post Horn played in a big acoustic, but let's not open that particularly exponential can of worms once more....please. Let them believe Willis re-voiced it! MM

===================== :lol: Excellent! OK....having listened to the Parry again, I think I know the answer to my question. I've just realised how difficult it is......things rushing about everywhere contrapuntally, including the pedals. It's the sort of piece which prompts that immortal line, when asked if one plays it. "Well, I did look at it in my student days." Look, being the operative word, but covering a multitude of possibilities. MM

==================== No apologies necessary! I'm just intrigued to know if I am in a minority of one with not ever having heard this Fantasia by Parry. I must have been to 600 recitals or so, and I have bought a huge number of recordings over the years.....never heard the Parry! This is not a lightweight or poorly constructed work....so again....why? I would recommend a listen on the BBC i-player to the Sheffield Evensong broadcast while it lasts; the Parry being played as the final voluntary. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jz401/Choral_Evensong_Sheffield_Cathedral/ MM

===================== No, because I've actually heard, (believe it or not), music of the period from Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria, England, Czechoslovakia (as was), Russia (as was)....even Spain and America. I reckon it's the Reger thing. MM

Well, well, well! Life is full of surprises; pleasant and otherwise. One of the more pleasant was a late discovery of a work by Parry, which was played by Anthony Gowing, quite brilliantly, after Evensong on Radio 3 to-day, from Sheffield Cathedral. Why, I wonder, have I never once heard the Fantasia on "O God our help" (St Anne) before now? Is ot too difficult? Is it too old fashioned? Is it poor quality music? Well, it is an unusually fine piece of music IMHO, but could the reason for never hearing it be due to one single factor? This is THE most Reger-esque British composition I've ever heard. MM

------------------------------------------- Wow! What fantastic singing/accompaniment! This version is completely unknown to me, but it is certainly effective. MM

I burst out laughing when I read this, because it brought back a moment I had long forgotten, when I spent a whole week in the company of James Hugh Reginald Dixon during an IAO congress. I was 15 at the time, and he must have been about 90: I'm not sure of his exact dates, but recall that he died in 1975 and was possibly born in 1878 (?) or thereabouts. It was utterly extraordinary that across a mere 75 years of age difference, two "soul mates" met, and for the entire week, we laughed and giggled like, (as Percy Whitlock described Dr Dixon), "naughty schoolboys at a party." Sitting on the coach journeying to Wales, someone commented that he could see the sea, whereupon Dr Dixon started to move just his left leg about, and playing an imaginary "air organ" (are there any other types?), he started to hum the tune, (complete with tremulant), to "Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside." I know that I have mentioned previously the extraordinary black & white photograph of he and I together, which appeared on the front page of the LIverpool Echo, and of which I have a much treasured copy. If ever a photograph captured a character, this one does, and "JH" sits there complete with his trade-mark gold earrings, the ever present Havanna cigar and those magical, twinkling eyes full of mirth. MM

I knew we would get to this! I puzzled over "O mensch bewein" for quite some time; trying this and that while attempting to make things mathematically correct.....which it isn't....and now we know why. In the end, having abandoned hope, I used my ears and ended up with something very close to what Murray does at Haarlem. MM

========================== No, I didn't miss the point you made, but I should have put my reply better. I was trying to make the point that a) most organists play CP very slowly or very, very, very slowly. I made the point, (rather badly), that tempo was less important than phrasing and daylight. Actually, I can see how the "galant" version and the original chorale are actually in accord, and presumably, the CP simply takes each note of the original chorale and embelishes it considerably. If the first note of each embelished section follows the next at chorale speed, the "tracery" moves at quite an alarming speed to ears more used to slower performances. To my mind, that requires rather more in the way of control and "daylight" if it isn't to turn into the musical equivalent of runny custard. In the performances I cited, a number of them are so pre-occupried with the vertical, they lose track of the horizontal tune of the chorale, and without naming names, some are so obsessed with ornamentation, all trace of the chorale almost vanishes. My favourite, irrespective of tempo, is the Haarlem clip.....solid, steady, unmannered and straightforward. Pushing the boat out a bit, I can see how the Haarlem performance could be doubled in speed and still sound musical. MM

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but at Worksop Priory, I recall the late Robert Andrews FRCO, commenting as the 32ft Sordun was drawn, "Listen! They've got death watch beetle in the roof." To my ears, it was just a silly rattling noise. MM

Two more examples to compare:- MM

========================= I'm sure that tempo is important; there are those who could turn "O mensch bewein" into a Toccata. However, most players play within a relatively small range of tempi; usually somewhere between Slargando and Adagio. Surely, the more important things concern a ) use of rubato b ) consistency of phrasing c ) well executed ornaments (a real problem with this CP) and perhaps most important of all, d) daylight in the notes of the melody. Judge for thineselves and react accordingly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz6MlY3MVQ0 I know which I like most! MM

======================== I shall not be seduced into using the Open 1 this Saturday coming, but I will be using the Trombas for Bach. MM

======================== For whatever reason, there was a flurry of interest in "number symbolism" after Schmend wrote his famous paper in 1947. For what must surely be the definitive response, I would commend the following link:- http://www.bachnetwo.../ub2/tatlow.pdf Ruth Tatler certainly did her homework, but I'm not sure that it answers the broader question of theological significance. Certainly, the separation of "high" and "low" instruments and voices is used to marvellous effect, (even symbolic effect), in the Matthew Passion, where things heavenly are "high" and things of an worldly or dark nature heard as "low" sounds. That was, of course, part of a much earlier tradition in oratorio writing. Whether it extends to a "Trinity" layout in the "St Anne", (itself a rather silly and meaningless title), is a matter for conjecture, but I think we can agree that it is a "divine" work in all respects. MM MM

============================== This is why organists should ALWAYS carry a very sharp pen-knife.....just for sharpening pencils of course. MM

=========================== Ha! I've watched "The only way is Essex." Shakespeare was north of Watford of course, and we have Alan Bennett; not to mention "Last of the summer wine." . Meanwhile, Manchester has "Take that" and Peter Kay . MM

Howells? You recorded your son playing Howells? Have you no shame? You expect me to listen to this? If that isn't as good an argument as any for people carrying firearms, I don't know what is. MM

========================== What exactly was the point of the guillotine if it didn't get rid of the aristos? I can see that the French need a new cutting-edge solution to this problem. MM

============================= Thank you for this interesting post. I feel that I have learned something, though i'm, not sure how significant it all is. At least David has played quite a few Conacher organs, whereas my experience is restricted largely to West Yorkshire, where there are any number of humdrum instruments from the firm, but at least they are still functioning. I wasn't actually aware that there had been more than one Conacher concern, which I had regarded as Huddersfield based only until David mentioned other places. However, apart from the interesting Schulze influence on early organs from the firm, I think it does tell us something about Victorian organ-building in particular. If one took a small geographic area like West Yorkshire and counted the number of organ-builders operating there in the mid to late 19th century, it would probably amout to quite a large number, relatively speaking, and an area like Manchester must have had an equal or greater number. The ones I know about include the following:- J J Binns (Leeds) Wordsworth Abbott (Leeds) (Later Abbott & Smith) Holt (Bradford) Driver & Haigh (Bradford) Booth (Wakefield) Booth (Leeds) Booth (Otley) Laycock & Bannister (Keighley) Conacher (Huddersfield) Hughes (Bradford) Andrews (Bradford) Even a short distance away, to the south and east, therer were other companies building organs for this area; notably Brindley, Ward, Keates and others, yet relatively few instruments ever made it over the Pennines from Manchester. I would suggest that, apart from the undisputed leaders such as Abbott & Smith, and J J Binns, the rest were what I would call "jobbing" builders, and the tonal qualities were seldom particularly good or, in certain cases, not good at all. Nevertheless, these companies between them, churned out possibly 3,000 or more instruments from workshops which were, without doubt, quite substantial commercial enterprises. Perhaps an indicator is the fact that John Laycock started out as a carpenter, but obviously very skilled, he made many half-decent instruments of magnificent build-quality. Tonally, they were what one might expect, but from time to time, one comes across something a little bit special, like the Stopped Diapason I came across in Sabden (Lancs), which is one of the most beautiful examples I've ever heard. Sadly, I would think that a majority of these instruments have now been destroyed or broken up for parts; others re-built beyond recognition. But what a huge demand for organs there was from around the mid-19th century! MM