Paul Morley

Nah..you need Harrison trombas & tubas...

For just £200 you can spend half an hour on the Blackpool Tower Wurlizter Have you noticed how "just" in sentences such as this usually means the opposite of its dictionary definition? Doncha love marketing? One would have thought that anyone in reasonable travelling distance of Blackpool wishing to play a Wurlitzer could book time on the 4M+P 20rk instrument in Stockport Town Hall for considerably less than £200.00. (As I'm sure eveyone is aware, this is the organ built for the Odeon Cinema, Oxford Rd, Manchester, which also spent 20 or so years in the Free Trade Hall.)

Tut, tut, Paul. call yourself an Anglican? In the 39 articles we are told that members of the C of E are allowed to own personal property - '...not holding all goods in common, as some Anabaptists do vainly boast'. So, no Anglican member of this board should be coming up North to grab a piece of your house organ any time soon...

Thank you, FM-B

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Regarding robes...I was told this wonderful tale by a former incumbent of my parents' church. This gentleman had just acquired the services of a new lay reader, a doctor by profession. After the evensong at which said reader/doctor had preached his first sermon, my parents' friend was accosted by one of the ladies in his congregation. "Vicar", she said, "it's not right that xxx should have a nicer hood than you. If you let me have yours tonight, I'll sew some fur on it for next week".

Respec', bruv...

No one has yet mentioned the most overrated purveyor of formulaic, repetitive twaddle in the entire history of western art music….. ANTONIO VIVALDI He really should have stuck to his day job. I have heard X Factor rejects who have displayed more talent.

Were they that old fashioned? It's ten years or so since I last spun my copy of their recording of the Bach Double Violin Concerto, as it rests in the (domestic) loft with the rest of my vinyl. However, I seem to remember the outer mvts. being pretty crisp, brisk and exciting.

'Solus ad Victimam' psychologically damaging? By no means! The piece ends a tone higher that it began, for crying out loud! That makes it purest schmaltz in my book.

Surely the in the event of a work to rule, the penultimate chord of ‘Solus ad Victimam’ should be the one omitted on the grounds of either (i) too many notes per hand, or (ii) too many tonalities for a single chord.

The standards of sermons are the responsibility of the Church Wardens. In one of my local churches they do just that as well! Perhaps Frank would kindly let us know the legal authority for this interesting statement. I thought that the power to vet preachers only rested with churchwardens during an interregnum.

Peter Skellern was organist here http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N01512 in his younger days.

...such as Chester Cathedral's present arrangement, whereby Gt & Ped Combs is controlled by a reversible piston with indicator light, and the drawstops marked 'Gt & Ped Combs' actually controls the Gt 16' Diapason.

I’ve always thought that a ‘Pedal Stops Off’ would be most useful accessory, particularly when accompanying. I’ve never had regular use of an organ that possessed either a P.S.O. or divisional cancellers. However, at my last church but one, where the organ was well equipped with both divisional and general pistons, I had Pedal piston 1 set to ‘zero’. I’m pretty sure that I used this piston at least once every time that I played the instrument in public. Even for the most accomplished player, it’s surely more convenient to play a verse of a hymn with the pedals rather than without. If one wishes to play without 16’, but include a R.H. solo, being able to temporally disable the pedal stops is quite helpful. Similarly, I have encountered many situations when accompanying from keyboard reductions (particularly the more pianistic ones) where it makes life rather easier if one can play without 16’ for short passages but not have to forgo the use of the pedals. As regard repertoire, having a stop/piston that works rather like an appel in reverse surely has many applications when playing French romantic and post romantic music on an English organ. I would have thought that the usefulness of a Pedal or Great canceller would be much reduced if affected by the combination coupler.

How many terraced consoles did Hill make? Although one can, of course sometimes encounter Hill organs with the stops arranged in horizontal rows, I'd always thought that the wonderful (and now apparently very much endangered) instrument in Rawtenstall PC was the firm's one-off attempt at replicating an authentic French-style console.

What did she ask for....'Erlkonig'?!

MK's vocals on 'Tunnel of Love', 'Telegraph Road' and 'Brothers in Arms' also tend towards the Dylanesque, I would contend.

In the book, in large red letters, was written by (presumably) a visiting organist:- "This organ is the biggest load of ***** I have ever played upon" It might not have been a visitor, of course. It could have been an early draft of a letter from the titulaire to the PCC.

It might sound a tad morbid, bit it's worth setting out one's own wishes for when the day comes... I have already told my wife that I'm going out to 'Transports de joie'. I wanted it played at our wedding, but she vetoed it on the grounds that it might frighten the maiden aunts.

It’s difficult to know where to start (or should that be ‘Where do I begin). · ‘Star Wars’ in, ‘Star Trek’ out. This one was also memorable on account of the fact that the couple were of no fixed abode and the wedding car, which was also their home, was a 1950s fire engine. Apologies to MM and any other petrol heads out there, but I’m afraid that I can’t be any more specific than this about the vehicle’s specification. · ‘Blue Moon’ for two passionate Manchester City fans. · ‘Lady in Red’. I have no idea why. · ‘I don’t know how to love him’ from ‘Jesus Christ, Superstar’. Do folk not read or listen to song lyrics beyond the first line???!! · Wedding march from ‘The Sound of Music’. To the best of my knowledge, the bride was not an ex-nun, nor the groom a sea captain, but you never know. Maybe I should have checked the register. · One of the oddest though has to be the ceremony where the congregational items were ‘One more step’ and ‘Sing Hosanna’ and the entry and exit pieces were recordings of chart hits (I can’t remember what). However, during the signing. I was called upon to accompany an excellent counter-tenor in ‘Where’er you walk’ The incongruity of it all seemed lost on everyone but the soloist and me. · I also remember a rather nerve–racking occasion when I agreed to stand in for an indisposed colleague. I came home from work on the Friday to find copy of the Sydney Nicholson arrangement of ‘Let the bright seraphim’ on my doormat, along with a note from the soloist telling how much she was looking forward to working with me the following afternoon. · On another occasion, the bride and groom brought along some friends to play during the signing. They turned out to be Liverpool Phil. violinists and their equally brilliant pianist colleague. They proceeded to give a heartrendingly beautiful performance of the slow mvt of the Bach Double Violin Concerto. Unfortunately, I was completely unable to enjoy this, as the only thought in my tiny head was that the next music that the congregation would hear would be my interpretation of Widor’s warhorse.

I've seen "the best organist in the district" leave notes on 2 organs to the effect that "Voix Celeste not working below ten C". By whose estimation was s/he "the best organist in the district"?

A couple of tonally comprehensive organs that I've played have been furnished with a two-way switch labelled 'Bombarde 32'/16''', enabling the organist to make either the 32' or 16' pedal reed controllable by a single reversible piston. This strikes me as being a most useful device and I'm quite surprised that is isn't more common on large instruments.

I tend towards the view that the 'wonderful moments but terrible half hours’ observation can be applied rather widely when considering late Romantic German music. Most of it leaves me bored and baffled in more or less equal measure. However, if you are into this stuff, I would suggest that you simply have to accept that (with the obvious exception of Mahler) most late 19C/early 20C tonal Teutonic composers carried a certain amount of ‘cultural baggage’, and that this impacts either overtly or subliminally upon their work. Having gritted one’s teeth and done this, then surely it’s a case of appreciating the music on its own merits. After all, Levine and Solti found it within themselves to become visionary Wagner interpreters. A couple of years ago, I attended a BBC Phil. concert at the Bridgewater Hall. I had gone principally to hear the Labeque sisters perform the Max Bruch Double Piano Concerto. However, the programme also included Richard Strauss’ ‘Ein Heldenleben’. The programme notes insisted that RS had not intended in any way whatsoever that the ‘hero’ of his tone poem should be equated with Nietchze's Übermensch. Furthermore, any reference to German nationalism that might be found in RS’s works should be seen as being ironic, and not to be taken seriously. Yeah, right.

This organ http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N01836 was constructed by the then organist, who had a background in engineering. It should be stated for the record that he made a pretty good job of it – the standard of his workmanship being vastly superior to that of certain 'professional' organ builders who had been engaged by the church authorities at other times. The pipework is from a variety of sources, including a fine instrument by Hill, which had been dismantled in the late 60s/early 70s. http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N02046 However, as regards gadgets...the pedal stops were/are controlled by a bank of light switches placed at the bottom of the LH jamb.