DQB123
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Posts posted by DQB123
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Some of these recent broadcasts of Songs of Praise have been pretty dull, and yesterday's from Thaxted was luke warm to say the least. However there was one moment of interest for me and that was film of the famous(?) Red Vicar, Conrad Noel at the High Altar. What was the organ music accompanying the film? None other than the Reubke!
Such fun, and VERY impressive. (shame about the hymn singing!)
There are lots of organ pipes in that church, but there was no console shot - perhaps the filthy-dirty keys shown in the previous week's broadcast from St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London, put them off for life. It kind of puts one in mind of a conscientious mother's warning to wear clean underwear lest you should be knocked down by a bus. In this case, dear organist, remember to clean your keys lest the BBC should arrive to record Songs of Praise.
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I sang there most weekends for some years in the mid 80s - the organ is a fantastic choral support in the Choir but as you say tails off considerably down the Nave. The Great to Solo coupler is of use there where the Tubas can almost be used as super chorus reeds.
AJJ
I recently visited our Cathedral where there is a Hill organ rebuilt (described as "disastrously") by a well-known firm in Yorkshire. Many of us helped with the fund-raising and "buy a pipe" appeals to get the thing installed, in place of the perfectly respectable (and vastly more successful) 1966 HNB job that was there previously. The "new" organ has a solo box (newly installed) which effectively blocks the sound from getting much further than the chancel arch.
I was particularly unlucky that day... as clergy seating was in the chancel immediately opposite the organ. Without a word of a lie there were two sounds in use that day. Full organ+tuba (octave) and full organ without the tuba. It was ear-shattering and I went home with a distinct ringing in my head.
Midway through the service a young harpist had to accompany a hymn to "The Ash Grove". She played the introduction very beautifully, and, come the first verse, the organ - full minus tubas came crashing in. The gal and her harp were washed away in a tidal wave of noise....
The Cathedral was not full on this occasion.
And I was not impressed.
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Indeed yes Boyo! There's lovely.......
So who played the organ today at HTH?
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Since this subject (brought up a few weeks ago) produced one of the largest responses to date on the Mander forum, and even produced a response from one of the trustees, I wonder if the matters raised have been brought to committee, and if there is to be any positive response from the RCO -- or do they hope that the subject has died and therefore gone away?
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Strange as it may seem, there are some of us clergy who long for a church with a decent musical tradition, and to revel in music played on a first class organ by a tip-top organist....
But somehow those jobs seem to be being filled by clergy who don't.
How do we explain this?
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What fun Mr. Derret is having building a Santa type organ. Lets hope he doesn't do it to another Nicholson and Lord like the one he added a 15th on a clamp to in Ketley near Telford. I tune the poor thing and it's suffering! I'm not amused!
Tsk tsk.....
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Call me cynical, but isn't the church *really* all about money? When was the last time you heard about Anglican church that thought it had enough money?
Yeah... that's right folks.... it's all about money....
Hey we need a new pipe organ for the organist to play for a couple of hours a week, and guess what... the organ builder is going to build it for free; Oh, and yippee.... the organist is going to play it for free. Oh and by the way, British Gas is going to give us our supply for free and Scottish Power, the same. What's that about the leaky roof? Oh the Vicar's wages? S/he can do it for free too--- after all s/he doesn't pay any bills does s/he...
C'mon.... if you think that the church is really all about money, then you must be living on another planet to the rest of us!
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I found that the very best way to deal with people who come up to the console for a full length chat during the voluntary is to appoint a chorister as page turner-overer and console guard. If anyone gets past the chorister, it is he who gets into trouble after the voluntary has finished. IT WORKS A TREAT!!!! One person did get past him, and I heard him pleadingly tell the offender "He doesn't like it when people talk to him during the voluntary...."
That day he didn't get a telling off :angry:
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Actually Tony it was the first time: not only that but I saw one of the piecs for the first time at the rehearsal earlier that day as the music teacher had forgotten to send me a copy. Oh the joys of Christmas...
Peter
I used to play the fairly late (1950s) Compton at St David's Cathedral in Cardiff in my University days. (sumptuous acoustics) I did once go into St Peter's but cannot for the life of me remember the organ there? Please remind me....
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So Santa's paying huh? Then I'd like him to upgrade my Wyvern Toccata III to a nice juicy four manual Wyvern Concerto! (but then, he's still getting over the shock of the cost of the Toccata III !)
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The new toaster boasts "Hill voicing".............
It is odd that we see all this organ activity and (I would imagine) considerable financial outlay on the Makin at Inverness, and then the Dean is talking in his letter of financial uncertainties. I'm very sad to note that insecure finances have put paid to what by all accounts was a lively and exciting and first class music programme. :angry:
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I wouldn't care whether I was playing Bach or Vierne (except that I don't play the latter), the final voluntary would have been miraculously improved by the astonishing re-discovery of a pedal cadenza; previously thought lost or discarded.
Call it a weakness of mine....call it improvisation....call it gluttony if you will, but I would have thanked the person holding the tray, removed it from their hands and given the entire contents to the poor and unrecognised of the parish.....myself.
I recall playing each year for a public school carol service in the Yorkshire Dales, and then being invited to just this particular delight; except that the mothers of the boys had supplied the mice-pies. This in turn meant that the mothers vied with each other to produce the very finest known to mankind, with exotic mixes, varied pastries, some with a clear hint of something stronger in them, brown ones, white ones and egg-coated golden-coloured ones.
The trick in this situation is never to remain static, but to be unusually gregarious: moving towards the tables where mince-pies and wine still remain unclaimed.
At each and every table or small gathering, you say the same thing, "Oh! I didn't know we had mince pies. I must try one."
A beaming mother watches the organist eat, and the organist must always say, "My words, that is the best mince-pie I have ever tasted."
You then get another one, but not before slipping your half-empty wine-glass alongside a full-one, and picking up the wrong glass!
I find a dozen mince-pies is about the upper limit, but music-cases are ideal hiding places. Always go prepared with a large paper bag.
At last! Profound wisdom....
(mouth open to receive mince (or mice) pies and mulled wine). After all, which is more important, voluntary or refreshments (presumably free because it's Christmas??) PS... nice touch, the silver tray n'est pas???
PPS... why couldn't the page turner grab some mince pies and mulled wine for you? Pretty useless bloke otherwise.... Have you not got one of those useful places at the foot of the stop jamb to place them on until the final chord of the Carillon de Vestmeenstair?
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Oh my goodness!
Clearly anyone capable of doing that couldn't care less about your contribution and the work you must have put into it.
Well we still haven't heard if this unfortunate dear organist ever got a mince pie and mulled wine. Surely they must have appreciated his offering or else a mince pie and mulled wine would not have been offered...
2) sharply telling the individual concerned to go forth and multiply (not quite in those words);3) pretending to lunge for a stop at the top of the jamb, but instead sharply thwacking the bottom of the tray upwards and backwards very hard - with luck the wine would ruin a dress or a shirt;
4) stopping dead and very publicly administering a loud harangue about interrupting a service before it has finished;
Shame on you!!!! Such unkindness in response to a kindness.... After all most people (clergy included) couldn't give a monkey's about organ playing after services - especially when refreshments are concerned!
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...being offered mulled wine and mince pies from a silver tray, whilst playing the outgoing voluntary for service of lessons and carols.
Yes, the service had ended with rousing singing of Hark the Herald, final blessing from the boss and away I go into Vierne C de W. I have a page-turner on my right. As the theme enters in the pedals for the first time, I become aware of a silver tray proffered toward me from the left, held above the left jamb of the console. Speechless (well, I'm not clever enough to talk and play at the same time) I press on, hoping against hope that the tray will withdraw. After almost a full minute it finally disappeared, the holder presumably assuming that I wish to abstain.
I still can't believe anyone could be so -------- daft.
Bah humbug.
H
So... ermmm.... were there any mince pies left?
Q
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........................
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I think that the issue here is that many of those things that seem to pass as hymns didn't seem to start out as such. Wasn't "How Great Thou Art" introduced at a Billy Graham Crusade (Haringay? or earlier) as a solo (sung by Bev Shea) with a choir joining in with the chorus? To me it makes far more sense when sung that way. I am sure that The Old Rugged Cross is more a song than a hymn - I don't like it very much, and I am sure that the good Lord JC would have his own thoughts as to whether the Old Rugged Cross was an item to be cherished!! Had I experienced an old rugged cross in the same way as he did, it would perhaps be the last thing I would want to cherish or even see again!
Light up the Fire was a pop song in the 70s by a group called Parchment wasn't it? So how on earth it found its way into the hymnal I know not....
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Not very long ago I was in a very low-church, evangelical set-up - not entirely my thing. We had a flourishing choir and a questionnaire was given to the church children generally. Amongst others, the question was asked 'which is your favourite service?'. Everyone (apart from my wife and I) were surprised and a little thrown when the answer came back 'Mattins'!. We used to sing it only once a month. The reasons those kids liked Mattins were
1. It's brisk - no long silences, plenty to do.
2. Once the anthem's done, the kids can go to their Sunday School groups and don't have to come back in. Perfect.
Needless to say, this was not the choice of service anyone wanted to hear!
And all God's people said....
WOW!!!
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Returning to the Chester Precentor job.... there was an invite to go to meet with the Dean on an "informal basis", which I did. I questioned this matter of vision and the music to find out precisely what the question meant. He observed that there were two/three choirs - the main one of boys/girls and men and the Voluntary Choir which is essentially equivalent to a Parish Church choir. The Cathedral Choir sing Evensong at 3pm and the Voluntary Choir sing... ermm.... Evensong at 6pm. Giving that example the Dean asked if there was a need to sing Evensong twice on a Sunday. Perhaps one could think of an alternative Sunday Evening Service for the Voluntary Choir.
(It was at that point that I heard an echo of the angry buzzing of hornets
). The guy who got the job did in fact introduce youth services, taize stuff, etc etc, and guess what?? The Voluntary Choir members were hurt when they were told that their well-attended evensong would no longer be the norm...
But ....
I am thankful to say that they were not hurt by me!
Dr Francis Jackson once told me that the big problem with the Church these days is the attitude that exists of "if it works.... change it!"
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Although I am not yet a member, I would like to say how helpful and encouraging the RCO has been to organists of the younger generation, particularly in Masterclasses.
In my time as a student in Birmingham I attended many of these things and probably my favourite one was the one they held at the Symphony Hall. They hosted a huge recital, where many young people had the opportunity to play a couple of pieces on the Klais organ. It's these sorts of things I like about the College and I hope many more are yet to come, as I believe it is important to get more young people to play what is a wonderful instrument that is the organ.
JT
Maybe this is it. Could it be that the RCO exists for sturdenty types? After all they get a discounted membership and other benefits denied to those of us in the real world....
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A former vicar boss of mine, when quizzed how he was getting on a year into the new parish, said "Oh, just watching". 2 years on... "Still watching".
Ahhh... the Anglican hornet's nest.... how easy it is to put one's foot in it. PCCs say they want a priest with leadership qualities, but really they don't. What they want is someone who they can lead by the nose into doing the impossible for the ungrateful. I reckon that many clergy wouldn't put their proverbial foot into the hornet's nest if those responsible for appointments would simply tell the truth. We are a happy congregation. If you don't like what we do, then DON'T COME HERE(!!!!) should be what they say. Instead, very frequently new clergy are faced with what is essentially a pack of lies.
When I sent off for the Application Form to be Precentor at Chester, I was surprised to see a question, "What is your vision for the music of the cathedral??" Hmm... I was suspicious of that question (not without good cause), since I thought that it is the job of the Director of Music to have vision for the music --- not the Precentor.... (so was the form telling another lie?) On the strength of that Application Form, I did not apply for the job. (Hornet's nest if ever there was one!)
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Even after all these years, Torch's playing is unsurpassed. Who else would have thought of using the tuned bird whistles in 'Hot Dog'?
My feeling about Torch at the cinema organ is that one tires of it after a while. Though it is always pleasant to come back to after a good break! What he said about his own playing is very enlightening. Apparently he felt that he could have done so much better. I often wonder what he would have achieved with today's modern consoles, midi etc etc....
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I have no doubt but that the RCO thread will continue in good time, but it seems to have died a death for the moment, if only because we've been discussing it for so long, and now find ourselves chewing the fat.
The fact that Quentin Maclean was an RCO recitalist gives us a tentative link as we divert.
Quentin Maclean was the son of Alec Maclean, known by the title "the God of Scarborough" in musical circles; for he was the resident conductor of the Spa Orchestra, which enjoyed a considerable reputation: possibly on a par with Bournemouth.
At quite an early age, young Maclean had lessons from C S Terry, the organist of Wesminster Cathedral, which suggests that Quentin was at a boarding school in, or around London at the time. Alec Maclean and C S Terry were good friends, and it was possibly for this reason that Quentin Maclean ended up as assistant organist at Westminster Cathedral.
SNIP!!!
Sorry to be pendantic, but isn't is R R Terry not C S Terry?? (Richard Runciman Terry - who wrote that tune to Praise to the Holiest in the height - can't remember the name of it - but it's a good tune!)
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Oh, give over.
(fart...)
(mouth open to receive mince (or mice) pies and mulled wine). After all, which is more important, voluntary or refreshments (presumably free because it's Christmas??)
Faults First
in General discussion
Posted
Maybe it's just felt that the church is a soft touch....
I can never understand why, if you want work doing on an organ, so many builders expect to get the tuning contract. I'm not sure that if you took your car for an MOT you would have to enter into an agreement with the garage that they would have the ongoing care of the car.
Time that was shot out of the water too....