Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

Paul Morley

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    410

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Paul Morley

    Appointments

    in General discussion

    Posted

    There was also the late Ronald Perrin...(apparently he had grown tired of dealing with the gentlemen of the choir (for whatever reason).

    Given the well-publicised troubles at that establishment a few years ago, might the problems also (really?) been with a (now deceased) senior member of the chapter?

    Proms 2012 - Organ music

    in General discussion

    Posted

    ========================

     

     

    Cameron Carpenter...has chosen the path of total virtuosity as a way of blowing people away by outright technique and showmanship above all else.

     

    Hearing Cameron Carpenter is not like hearing Rachmaninov or Prokofiev. They had virtuosity in abundance, but at a depeer level, they were fabulous musicians and mediums of artistic expression.

    MM

     

     

    Absolutely. However, might it be argued that CC is following in the steps of Liszt, rather than those of Rachmaninov. Whether or not this legitimises the liberties that he takes with the music of others is another matter.

     

    It could be interesting to hear an organ transcription of Schoenberg's orchestration of BWV 552:

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMjJhaWl4rI&feature=related

     

    Big, 'Technicolor' sound, of course. However, the array of orchestral colours do serve to highlight the counterpoint (as, of course, one would expect with Schoenberg). I can imagine this working, given that the prerequisites of a large enough instrument and a skilful enough player will be met.

    NEW ORGAN KEBLE COLLEGE

    in General discussion

    Posted

    No first-had knowledge, I'm afraid. However, a friend of mine, who was an invited guest at the opening recital (he was an O/S there in the late '70s) and also had the opportunity to play it himself for a reasonable ammount of time, considers it to be superb.

    Midnight Mass from the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint George in Southwark

    in General discussion

    The Nation's Top Christmas Carols

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Is this really such a bad thing? Shouldn't we be happy that a (any?) gifted classical composer is receiving some popular recognition? After all, we should have moved on from the 1960s 'four legs good, two legs bad' orthodoxy that decreed that, as far as contemporary art music was concerned, anything with a tune must be rubbish, and anything that sounded like a psychotic toddler kicking a tomcat to death must be a work of genius.

    Organs On Screen (not The Screen!)

    in General discussion

    Posted

    You can't dress up as a nun and go to a sing-along "Godfather" can you?

    Well, you might.. :rolleyes:

    Anyway, I seem to remember from the last time that I watched all three 'Godfather' films back-to-back, that the wearer of Catholic garb (or a police uniform) was far more likely to be a Mafia assassin than the genuine article.

    Organs On Screen (not The Screen!)

    in General discussion

    Posted

    I want that talking organ in "Beauty and the beast"

    I would imagine that it is possible to acquire substances which, if ingested shortly before playing or listening, will produce a similar effect...

     

    MM, I'm sure that at at some point during your many years' performing in grim northern towns, someone has said to you something along the lines of,

     

    'By 'eck, tha' can make th'organ talk'.

     

    Maybe they were not speaking figuratively... :rolleyes:

     

    Incidentally, what is it with Disney and the organ?

    Organs On Screen (not The Screen!)

    in General discussion

    Posted

    ...I believe its Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor BWV 582 or at least part of it is...

    Also, the scary bit from the D major P&F.

    Some years ago, I concluded the first half of a 'greatest hits/easy listening' type recital with this. I invited any non-organists in the audience to see me during the interval if they could tell me in which rather sinister context they might have already heard the Adagio. A couple of people got it right, which was quite encouraging.

    Guilty Pleasures

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Does anyone know if T Mee Pattison's albums of voluntaries are still in print? I binned mine many years ago in a fit of adolescent pretensiousness (I was actually about 22). This thread has got me thinking that I should revisit them.

    Organist Wayne Marshall Live in Manchester

    in General discussion

    Posted

    I'm neither a physicist nor an organ building expert. However...

     

    ===========================

     

    To me, the great tragedy of the Bridgewater Hall was the failure to do the obvious. They should have removed the Cavaille-Coll from the Town Hall, (where it was seldom heard, and now lies silent), and re-built it in the Bridgewater.

    Manchester Town Hall is not a big room; no bigger than the nave of a large(ish) parish church. Would an organ built for a space with a seating capacity of 400 really work in a space with a seating capacity of 2000, without the sort of revoicing/rescaling that would radically change its character? Perhaps this organ needs to go somewhere where it will be both heard and be accessible to students. There isn't an obvious place in Manchester, though one might fantasise that it find its way into the Whitworth Hall of the University, to supplant the catastrophically baroquized Willis II that languishes there.

    For my money, the Manchester organ that should have gone in the BH is this one:

     

    http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N02080

     

    It may not have the pedigree of the Town Hall instrument, but it made one heck of a sound, and stands in an auditorium of similar size to the BH

     

    The vacant gap at the Town Hall could then have been nicely filled by the large Wurlitzer from...the Free Trade Hall,

    Agreed

     

    I look forward to the day when consultants call for a blend of Lewis and Classical thinking in these situations, rather than a sound more appropriate for a highly resonant, continental church.

    You mean the sort of building for which ACC built most of his organs? :rolleyes:

×
×
  • Create New...