DQB123
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Posts posted by DQB123
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That is the unanswerable question
Malcolm
Aye .....
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I suppose that this could lead to the question, what makes a piece of music "good"?
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Speaking from the other side of the great divide, I'm not sure if the clergy have friends. So why should organists be any different ???
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Hello,
Priory has a recording of the complete organ works of Sir Hubert Parry, played at Durham Cathedral by James Lancelot.
Lancelot does not add or subtract stops, he uses the swell box. The registration, as I here it from the CD: one of the many Diapasons for the solo (?) and a string-fluty combination for the Sw (?). No celeste.
Cheers
tiratutti
Oh yes there is that one; I'd quite forgotten about the Durham recording.
I wonder if the over-use of celestes is a bad habit....
Terrible thing however when an organ is without them...
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After years of very little playing
I am gradually re-visiting some of the repertoire that I learned as a teenager, 
and one piece which has arrived on the Wyvern in recent days is Parry's Choral Prelude on Rockingham. I always remember my organ teacher commenting that this is "very good" music... (though what that means I'm not sure!) 
Does anyone know if there are any recordings available? I learned it originally with strings and celestes as an accompaniment to the chorale - which appears as a tenor solo. But that seems kind of dull and unimaginative. 
Noting what Nigel Allcoat said in another thread about swell box use, the copy marks crescendos and diminuendos but no instructions to add or subtract stops. So are the changes in dynamic range brought about by use of the swell box, or are stops to be added or subtracted along the way?
Does anyone else play this piece and if so how and on what sort of registration?
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Members must surely rejoice with me that a considerable amount of work is being done soon on the great organ in St Augustine's. The whole of the Pedal division will be brought back to use and the Swell action will be restored thus making the organ complete once again. This is excellent news and I long for the day when I can play it again for a wonderful High Mass - an experience which I have sadly missed for a few years. Somewhere else on the Board is a photograph that I posted some time back. Others might know exactly where it is.
For those who do not know this church, it is a sensation in every sense and lifts the heart. Do visit.
Here's a link (just found!). ST AUGUSTINE'S KILBURN
All best wishes,
Nigel
Will the Prepared-For stops ever be added?
Q
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And there's a general knowledge rumour that an organist at a large church in the south of England wore an FRCO hood that he had acquired second-hand without troubling himself with the exams and so on. Can't imagine why - it would make me feel thoroughly fraudulent.
Hmmm.... Well I don't know about that.
But wasn't it W T Best who when asked if he would be taking the FCO diploma replied with the question "But who would examine ME??"
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It is good to note that organists feature in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. CBEs for Simon Preston and Stephen Cleobury.
Also pleasing to note is an MBE for one Glyn Hughes, living in Pentre Broughton in North East Wales, who has been Conductor of the Brymbo Male Voice Choir for 43 years and organist of his local Parish Church. Tomorrow he and the choir are coming to Prestatyn Parish Church to give a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Concert, and there will no doubt be great rejoicings!
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However, the discussion on pride distracts from the real point here, a real organist can always provide a better service than a machine!
Jonathan
That's arguable....
...and may even be pride
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It's the bee's knees: no difficult organists involved and no fees to pay. Nobody knows the difference. C'est la vie (no, wait a minute, it's the opposite, I suppose).
Don't know why it's called the "Wesley" system - definitely not S S., S, C or J.
Hmmm... wasn't it John Wesley who talked of the only good organ being a silent organ? So perchance the spectre of Wesley is looming larger than you may think ......
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<<SNIP>>
A
PS - My present console position is such that if I wanted to I could come dressed as a gorilla and no one would notice!! Mind you I did once in my not too youth get told off by a certain well known Dean of Lincoln for wearing open sandals to Choral Evensong - it was in the height of summer and another of us was even wearing shorts under his cassock. It didn't go down very well afterwards when I pointed out that Jesus probably wore open sandals too.
HEE HEE
WWJD
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Isn't it interesting to note that all these places giving away dodgy 'diplomas' seem to have people at the helm who profess to have the degree of "DMus"?! As far as my understanding goes, whilst these 'organisations' are allowed to grant so-called diplomas, they're not allowed to give degrees. Where do these DMus degrees come from, then? I doubt they're genuine. The USA, perhaps?
Just curious, but what actually is to stop someone from dishing out doctorates?
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I have decided that the last funeral I go to will be my own....
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All this talk of hoods makes me wonder what dubiosity there is out there.
I have a couple of hoods which essentially don't mean a thing. There is the Cuddesdon hood - a dark blue number, earned for just being at that college. (I think that the Principal at the time didn't even know that there was such a thing.)
Then I have a music hood from the Faculty of Church Music. Anyone got one of them? (Black velvet, blue and gold) I think that said Faculty of Church Music was a part of the University of Indiana.
Also sitting around the church is a hood belonging to a former organist (now in a nursing home) from the Lancashire School of Music (I think) Blue and Yellow (quite nice actually, but to be truthful can't say how she came by it)
I wear a hood so infrequently nowadays that I usually have to go a hunting for one.... and should it be the BMus or the MA hood?
aka the hoodless horsemanPS Don't know what's happened to my typing just lately - the title should read USELESS tat!
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Well I will voice my thoughts. There are a number of websites run by individuals common to the Crem website. All give away hoods based such flimsy requirements, such as the fact that one needs to have a pulse. These individuals who found such organisations are a menace, and devalue such diplomas that the likes of members of this board have worked long and hard for. About ten years ago to my eternal shame, I nearly joined one such society in desperation in order to get a hood (I didn't have one). My wife pursuaded me to work for them, and a few years down the line I now have a degree and five diplomas - and yes I worked hard for these, and am very proud to display my bling on appropriate occasions. I personally would like to ban the presentation of academic hoods to people in return for cold hard cash. At the end of the day, it's sheer hard work that counts. The fact that you have a nice 'ash grey' and red hood doesn't make you a good organist..........................
In reading this through the steam coming out of my ears, I realise that the English language is quite appalling as I cannot deal with grammar when I'm seeing red.
I looked at this and signed up out of interest. I can now add the letters FSCO to my name - and all for the click of a proverbial mouse! (Not that I will be doing that BTW). There is an attached YahooGroup and I also signed up to that. On it there is all the usual crematorium humour, which most of us who have to work at crems will have heard a million times over - such as dubious hymn choices - "light up the fire and let the flame burn", "always look on the bright side of life" - etc. There is also talk of hoods, and the ash grey FSCO hood is a snip at a cool [or should that be sizzling hot] thirty quid. Whilst it may appear to be a groovy hood, I am not about to rush out and get one.
What I was a bit sorry about is that there are some really serious issues facing those who have to play (and conduct funerals) at crematoria. Organist-pay in many places is quite low, and the introduction of canned music and this new Wesley Music System which we are hearing about, seems to me quite a major threat to live crematorium organists. It occurs to me that if such a Society is needed it should be for tackling the issues that could put organists of work - and not be for dubious crematorium humour and talk of worthless hoods and other tat.
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SNIP!!!
Whilst we are on the subject, what's the correct story about the removal of the original nave console and what what happened to it?
DT
I asked this some time ago and was hushed by none other than the Lord of the House of Willis....
The reason for my curiosity was/is whether there is a mammoth five manual console floating about somewhere; but I never did learn the answer.
Q
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The Priory DVD series is really well appreciated in this house. I wonder what the next offering is going to be...
Q
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Since nobody else appears to have said anything, I thought I'd just mention that I've just received a....
"Groovy new DVD from Kings"
Q
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again, that it would be nice to have an organ magazine which was free of items about choirs or choir training.... We have CHOIR and organ and we have endless items about choirs in Organists' Review,
but to have a magazine free from anything to do with choirs.....
....now that would be good!
HEE HEE!
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On July 4th, we are holding an Organ Day, here in Trelogan, in which organ music and organ playing can be fully discussed. The day is planned to be interesting and helpful to players of all levels of attainment.
We start at 11.a.m. and finish at 6.p.m. and my wife provides a hot lunch and mid-afternoon refreshments, catering for vegetarians if necessary. For this we charge £40 and I’m sending this Email in case you are interested or have any pupils or friends who would be interested in taking part. It is possible to attend as a participants or as an observer. We find that those who come tend to request an early repeat of the event.
We hope very much that you, or some of your pupils or friends may be interested in what promises to be an interesting and informative day of music making. I very much look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Roger Fisher (rogerfisher @ mac247.co.uk )
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Today one of our truly delightful (non-church-going) brides-to-be came to see me about the music for her wedding.
She is coming in to a CD (if you please!), and I guess that I really have no objection to that, especially as she wishes to leave the church to the strains of Mendelssohn on the organ.
She remarked that she'd noticed that at all the weddings she's been to just lately, the hymns are "All things bright and beautiful" and "Sing Hosanna". We looked through some wedding order of service cards that I've kept and she was absolutely correct!
Amazingly enough she declared that she didn't want "Sing Hosanna" at her wedding under any circumstances!! (However, the fiance said that he likes "All things bright and beautiful" - so it's Jerusalem and All things B & B 
- (which, I notice is also coming up a lot at funerals too). So what are the fave hymns for weddings right now??
Q
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I would DEFINITELY NOT be in favour of charging for the use for organ practice ... but I wouldn't expect that to be a one-sided arrangement, and I think that a little organistic help every now and then wouldn't go amiss
Just thinking of this reminds me of the debt of gratitude I owe to various churches and chapels in North Wales where I was welcome to practice (for almost all the hours that the Lord God sent) with ne'er a mention of a charge.
Alas, however the organ in this Parish is atrocious and not many people are clambering to play it! (Not even/especially not ME!) After all with a Wyvern Mega Toaster, why go out into the cold night air???
Q
I am gradually re-visiting some of the repertoire that I learned as a teenager, 
and one piece which has arrived on the Wyvern in recent days is Parry's Choral Prelude on Rockingham. I always remember my organ teacher commenting that this is "very good" music... (though what that means I'm not sure!) 
Does anyone know if there are any recordings available? I learned it originally with strings and celestes as an accompaniment to the chorale - which appears as a tenor solo. But that seems kind of dull and unimaginative. 
Amazingly enough she declared that she didn't want "Sing Hosanna" at her wedding under any circumstances!! (However, the fiance said that he likes "All things bright and beautiful" - so it's Jerusalem and All things B & B 
- (which, I notice is also coming up a lot at funerals too).
Llandaff Cathedral
in The Organ
Posted
I guess that list-members will have seen this