MusingMuso

==================== Don't be sad....be happy! Here it is, with lots of other You Tube videos of the same broadcast! MM

============================ I was being hypothetical, because I can't recall the last time I either conducted a choir or accompanied one, except for a visiting choir at church, when I played the hymns and the visiting conductor misjudged the acoustics and tried to drive the congregation along too quickly in the opening hymn. The congregation just didn't go along with him. Interestingly, after the first hymn, he listened to my subsequent play-overs and followed that lead; deciding not to conduct the play-over. Anyway, I'm not a choral person at all, so it is only rarely that I am ever asked to do anything. I'd much rather listen to choirs than be a part of them, so I don't know too many choral people these days. Actually, I've just remembered the last thing I accompanied, which was the "Mozart" Requiem (with orchestra), (I forget who finished it), and the Pergolesi "Magnificat." I behaved myself, watched the conductor, re-hearsed with the choir and the whole thing went rather well; so I can't be as wicked as I make out! MM

I want an organ-case like this one. :) MM

======================= I only watch "Business Daily", "QI", "Jeff Randall" and "Family Guy." If I saw a conductor on TV, I would be so enthralled I would stop playing. Would it be a dove or a rabbit? MM

======================= Interesting! Firstly a negative. One of the materials used could not be Tabopan, because it didn't appear until 1962, but it could be something similar. Compton were certainly producing their own bakelite, but I doubt that they made their own fibre-boards. Still, nothing is impossible with that company, as I often discover. I presume that the entire instrument is built on the unit principle, and if so, the engineering would require nothing more than long-term stability and weight-bearing characteristics; neither bars nor sliders involved. I would also assume that the unit-chests are more or less standard. Compton certainly demonstrated that there was a different way of doing organ-building, using modular parts and construction, and they have been proved right, with many instruments still in good playing condition. Thanks for the information about the 32ft Harmonics. I wasn't aware that they derived from a unison rank and a single "harmonics" rank. The tonal characteristics would need to be as close to pure sine-wave as possible, and a Compton Tibia would fit the bill. MM

================= MM

============================= Ah! Not quite! I would say, "Don't flap your arms about, I haven't a mirror. You just follow the organ and everything will be fine." If that doesn't work, I do my impression of John McEnrow......"You cannot be SERIOUS!" Works every time....... MM

========================= It's probably down to paper quality. Lighter usually implies stronger/better, unless it's written by hand on velum, in which case you would need one of those cherry-picker cranes to carry it to the stalls. MM

Well, it's GOING to be a cathedral, isn't it? I've no idea why they ever referred to it as a cathedral, but as mega churches go, it's fairly mega. I wasn't aware of the suicide, but having read the reports, it seems that the poor man who shot himself had a bit of a history of mental illness. The people I feel sorry for are those who gave so much to establish the ministry and build the church, because they are about to lose everything. On the wider front, I think America has lost something too, because "The hour of power," for me at least, represented all that was best about America.....the easy charm, a sense of southern hospitality and good natured inclusiveness. It was a far cry from the uglier side of the big cities. Musically, it was right on the money; treading a careful path between that which was top-drawer quality, and that which had popular appeal devoid of the trashiness of pop-culture. The Albert Hall comparison is a good one.....Hollywood to Dollywood to Henry Wood....a place where things happen. MM

Thank-you, and a Happy (Happier?) New Year in New Zealand. MM PS: I should have wished everyone else a Happy New Year, and also conveyed my thanks to John Mander, Rachel & the team, which I now do.

======================= I would NEVER allow anyone to conduct or even beat-in the verses of hymns. If an organist can't exercise proper crowd-control, they should be sacked. My congregations wouldn't DARE step out of line! MM

=========================== I am reminded of an old Anglican Rector, who spoke rather like this. Famously, when it came to "He that hath ear to hear," it came out as, "He that hath years to year, let him year." It was more wonderous than wonderful, but it raised a smile every time. MM

======================== What do you expect when the organ was voiced by Denis Thurlow? Did you ever see or hear of the newspaper article about him while he was doing the voicing? Apparently, so dedicated to the job was he, Denis slept on the windchests in a sleeping bag, and I think there was a delightful photograph of him in said bag, with his head poking out. In spite of a slightly confusing acoustic, it IS a super organ; especially when heard beneath the funnel. MM

================================ Ah! I wondered if Compton had provided for independent mixture ranks, and it seems so. That pushes the total to about 22 - 24 ranks, which is quite a lot to work with. I quite approve of adding additional notes to the 32ft Harmonics......that's in the spirit of Compton......but all from the one rank? I'm sure that's not the way Compton did it, but if it works, fine. Apparently, each of those Harmonics stops were wired up on site, and they experimented with various tappings until it sounded right. It's sine-wave synthesis organ-pipe style, and it works very well in the best installations. Thanks for telling us about the console position. That makes a big difference, and explains a great deal. Although I lived half-a-mile down the Thames from there, I never did see, hear or play the instrument. I was probably having fun dropping in to hear the choir-practice at a gospel church, (very good) and playing the Trocadero Wurlitzer when it was in the South Bank Poly (now Uni). It was quite a unique corner of London back then, and apart from the loss of the Wurlitzer, still is. MM

=============================== I think St George's RC cathedral at Southwark, has about 18 ranks of pipes, which is actually quite a lot in Compton terms. (I assume that the Mixtures are derived throughout). The fact that it sounds so good....and it does.....is why Compton's methods so fascinate me, but make no mistake, it was not budget organ-building, so much as maximising what could be achieved within a given budget. Considering some of the things which could replace it, I think I'd be happy to live with the Compton day by day, but that is probably an unfashionable view. MM PS: It's still avaiulable to hear on iPlayer via the BBC, but not for long. I think it will disappear tomorrow, Saturday. PPS: I've just flipped through all the musical bits. I don't think the organist was entirely predictable or regular in holding everyone together, but I suspect that it was the trumpeter who caused mayhem for whatever reason. His timing was distinctly rubato, and I wonder if he actually couldn't hear what was going on? The only place for the trumpet player should have been near the choir and organ, rather than standing in what sounds to be London Bridge station. What a strangely syncopated descant.....a bit OTT in my humble estimation, and one bound to confuse the congregation.

============================== I'm glad that someone more or less agrees with me. The tone was, I think, fairly typical of the day, but I'm not old enough to remember it. Certainly, there was a sort of accepted presciousness of tone.....call it the Anglican establishment sound.....which was swept away in the 1960's fairly swiftly; giving way to some vibrant singing under people like George Guest, Sir David Wilcocks and, of course, Russell Burgess and the Wandsworth School Choir. Those three names probably established English choral-music at the very forefront internationally. Sadly, it arrived too late to make much of an impact on parish music, and the overall quality was not very good, even if a few choirs stood out from the rest. MM

=-============================ Indeed, John Birch enjoyed something of a l;egendary status as a choral trainer at Chichester, but being "deep south" it was far too remote to have any influence on me. However, through the wonderful Decca label recordings, the Wandsworth choir certainly had an impact far and wide, and whilst I can't verify the facts, I seem to recall that Britten wrote "Noyes Flood" specifically for them. I well remember the very real shock-wave which rocked the musical community when Russell Buirgess died very suddenly, (I think it was a massive heart-attack). He was just 48 years of age, but had crammed more into his short life than most manage in 80 years: the Isambard Kindgom Brunel of the musical world. My own school choir was rather exceptional, but nothing could touch Wandsworth in those days. It rather begs the question as to which bright set of sparks ever thought it a "progressive" idea to ditch school-choirs, which are now very few in number outside the religious institutions. I'm quite sure that the eloquence of older generations, which seemed to end with mine, derived as much from choral singing as it did from liturgy. Sadly, almost nothing is written about Russell Burgess on the net. MM

=================================== Adding to my previous post, I discovered a single item from the St John Passion, conducted by Britten, with the Wandsworth School Choir. The purity and balance of the boy's voices is just startling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6prxA7R-5fM MM

Incidentally, for anyone who admires the art & craft of organ-cases, the Polish web-site is a veritable treasure-store of simply mind-blowing beauty and ugliness; juxtopsed in the one site, and delivering an almost demographic and historical account of Poland's struggles and political upheavals. Some of the old cases, (quite a lot of them), are staggeringly beautiful, and from the web-site, there's a wonderful source of computer wallpaper to be had. Just to repeat, when you link to the site, click on 'instrumenty' then scroll down to the alphabetic city/town A - Z lisitng, which will open up a vast numnber of locations. http://www.organy.ar...instrumenty.php I wonder how many organs there are in Poland? The total must be absolutely staggering, and some of them are of very great historical importance. J S Bach applied for a job there....they turned him down! MM

St Petr & Paul's is a modestly large instrument. Not the best recording, but this will give some idea:- MM

======================= Silly me! It was there all along, but I'd forgotten how to spell organy when I tried searching. Anyways.....here is a link, which will need a bit of a quick briefing. Go into the site, then click on 'instrumenty'....then click on 'K' towards the bottom and link to Krakow, where you will finjd details of 121 church organs and others.....I kid you not! http://www.organy.ar....php?litera=K#w Happy searching. MM PS: If you like pretty organ cases, try this in or near Krakow http://www.organy.art.pl/instrumenty.php?instr_id=343

======================== I wrote quite a big article about Poland and Polish organ-music some years back, but unofrtunately, it did not cover any of the instruments or venues you mention. Fuirthermore, there WAS a simply marvellous organ sit named "organyart.pl.," which had details of just about every organ of note in this quite large country, with pictures of some incredibly beautiful old organ cases juxstaposed with rows of dull communist pipe-racks from the bad years. Unfortunately, it disappeared some time ago. I may be able to find something, but I'm not sure that I will, MM

============================ Akthough I never alugned myself to the chuchrmanship, I had enormous admiration for the original cocktail of marvellous singing, some fine piano and orchestral playing, Fred Swann at the organ, some great guest appearences and some fine preaching from a variety of people; not least Dr Schuller senior. It was incredibly professional, yet they were clearly over-reaching and over-spending from the outset. In some ways, it was the prostestant equivalent to the Mormon Tabernacle, and one which seemed to find favour with many people around the world. I suppose it comes down to financial management and a lack of foresight, because any institution relying on donations, which was both highly levereged and profligate in its spending, was extremely vulnerable to financial woes in the wider economy, and this is precisely what has happened. Servicing the debts and overdrafts must have been a nightmare for the church accountants, and the battle has clearly been lost. I just think it's a very great pity, because in some ways, the formula at Crystal Cathedral worked very well, and steered a new path for poepular worship, which avoided the banal and the sort of cheesy rubbish we now hear almost everywhere. I suppose on the plus side, they haven't yet plumbed the depth of events in Bethlehem, where the rival brethren ended up brawling (yet again), at the Basilica of the Nativity. MM

=================================== "Against all the odds" must apply to the truly brilliant days of Russell Burgess at Wandsworth Comprehensive. I don't know what his special quality was, but so brilliant were the results, the Wandsworth Boys Choir rose to international fame, and they even had Benjamin Britten writing music for them. I recall a famous anecdote, when they recorded the St John Passion by Bach. The story goes, that during a break, groups of boys were just sitting around crying and comforting each other; so powerful was the effect of the music and the performance. Martin How could inspire like no-one else I've ever come across, but I suspect that the late, (he is late incidentally), Russell Burgess was the ultimatechoral trainer/conductor, the likes of which have never been seen before or since. That said, "Libera" are fairly extraordinary. Did anyone ever know him or sing under Russell Burgess's direction, I wonder? There is just one "You Tube" clip of them in their heyday, which is here:- MM

======================= Oh dear! I am genuinely delighted that Martin How is still with us.....a magnificent choir-trainer. One should never assume, but I think I was perhaps 16 when Martin How conducted an RSCM festival, which must be 45 + years or so ago, and he must have been drawing towards middle age at the time. I'm sure he will get over it, as I did, when Simon Lindley announced my death! I was more concerned that no-one wrote an obituary. MM PS: I#ve discovered that Martin How was born in 1931; making him 80 years of age. So he must have been about 35 when I last saw him!