Murton

Yes it is - the collection has been discussed elsewhere and it is a fabulous set of CD's - I have thoroughly enjoyed dipping in to listen to some interesting music. The styles of playing are a revelation, for example, Sumsion's Elgar Sonata has made me want to re-learn it!

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The Lichfield committee has organised a one day convention at Wrekin College in Wellington, Telford. Saturday 11th May 2013 The day is aimed at all involved in worship, so the workshops include support for church musicians and clergy. These will include workshops on organ playing and service accompaniment, developing voices, using instruments in worship, contemporary styles of worship and the use of music technology for arranging. There will be a Young Voices workshop and a "Lets Sing" Faure's Requiem too. The workshop leaders include, Catherine Ennis, Rosemary Field and Frances Novillo. The day will be action packed against the backdrop of Wrekin College, using the music department and chapel, plus the Baptist/URC church next door. Wrekin College is only 3 minutes walk from the railway station. Here is a link to the RSCM site - do pass the word! It is not restricted to Lichfield area members and therefore all are welcome. http://www.rscm.com/...vention2013.pdf

You have to see it to believe it!

My reply is "ouch!" Everytime I've tried, its been mightily unpleasant. Oh and I do remember watching a Gillian Weir masterclass at the old RCO when she demonstrated some immaculate pedalling in some very high-heeled sandals! I can't remember the piece or the candidate.

I recall that I specified a Great Reeds on Swell for the rebuild of the two-clavier instrument at Saint Aldhelm's, Branksome, in 1995. This affected the G.O. Corno di Bassetto, the Orchestral Trumpet (8ft.) and the Orchestral Clarion (4ft.). Whilst I remembered to ask the action designers to ensure that theese stops did not 'return' through any of the Swell couplers, I forgot to request an additional transfer: Swell on G.O. - which would have been useful. We went the whole hog on our rebuild at school...specifying 'Gt Reeds on Swell and Sw on GO transfer' with one tab...it works beautifully, especially now that it has a red warning light to stop accidents!

Here is something different from a really fine organist: Friday 30th November 7.30pm Alex Mason (Shrewsbury School) will be improvising to the 1926 film: "The Phantom of the Opera" Wrekin College Chapel part of the Centenary Cinema season tickets £5 boxoffice@wrekincollege.com

How about this...yards away from me, its a great little instrument http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N06615

Sorry to hear the news. Bank St was the first organ I played with a trumpet stop and 32 (albeit acoustic!) it was at a KCOA meeting.

Its not just well-known organists! Murton

Try this on folks: Friday 11th November 7.30pm Wrekin College Chapel, Wellington, Shropshire Gordon Stewart Tickets £7...£5 for board members

I am getting more anxious by the day and dead jealous of the rest of you...my set duly arrived, but my wife has hidden them for a Christmas present...still, it'll give me something to do over the holidays! I have had a look at the gramophone archive and here are a couple more links: canterbury Link. Selby Selby.

Does anyone remember this series? Noticed a couple of extracts of Barry Rose on You tube and would love to see some more of the series... Does anyone have any leads please as a quick trawl on google didn't bring any luck?

I have given two recitals on the Halifax organ at the invitation of Philip Tordoff and while the instrument has its limitations, my impression was of an extremely musical instrument that was incredibly easy to control. Modern aids may give you more opportunities to get just the right sounds, but with care, the organ is extremely easy to handle. While the mixtures may have been altered, changing things back may be a retrograde step, many organs are changed and gradual improvements may be made, it seemed to me that the conservative changes worked. However, I don't live with the organ, unfortunately, but I think Iam pleased that the Walker suggestions were not undertaken and therefore I was able to play a really fine instrument. Having lived with two large instruments which had been given full blown "enlightened" rebuilds, we always bemoaned the loss of the old choir organ, or the solo clarinet and a decent open diapason. It didn't stop us using the new stuff though!

Thank you for your help. My French colleague, has been trying for some time with a company in France who are able to get a uniprint from the US. We will continue our search, including your two leads. Many thanks for the help.

A colleague and I want to perform two works by Dupre, namely the Ballade and the Sinfonia, both written for his daughter and published by Gray in the US. Extensive searches have brought nothing more than the first page of each or recordings. The music shops have drawn a blank, suggesting that most of Gray's published works are now out of print and the Us don't do a re-print service. I thought I'd ask the members of this panel as you usually are able to come up trumps for people! Does anyone know of a source for the music please? Many thanks

Try this about the boys of ST Pauls...not sure if this is on already. I couldn't get a direct link, so click below and its one of the first clips from the cathedral's website http://www.stpauls.co.uk/View-St-Pauls-Videos

Widor 6 Allegro - Allan Wicks and on same LP Transport de Joie -Messiaen Both inspirational and breathtaking

I am sure that Dartford PC had a mic on the choir organ to a speaker in the chancel, to aid pitch etc for the choir...I only went there once about 25 years ago so they probably don't have it now. I also believe that the BBC have done it in SofP...The service at Cound, Shropshire a few weeks back was in the village church, I was seated in the chancel so cannot confirm it actually happened, but they said that for the recording there would be some supporting organ sound from monitors at the west end to help support the congregation as the organ was a little instrument in the chancel.

I had a go about 25 years ago and most of the organ was working. However as an impressionable teenager having spent many hours in the park on its famous wooden rollercoaster, I was so disappointed by its surroundings. The old cinema had been converted to a bingo hall, with lovely state of the art 70's fittings, covered with cigarette burns and the like. The fantastic art deco features were still to be found. nut hidden behind curtains etc. I believe the original grand piano had been removed. The park is now a big hole and like many seaside towns is a shadow of its former self. The organ had some good stuff on it and I am pleased to hear that it is being restored - Kent will have another working 4 manual again, as there are not many around that part of the world.

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Here here, totally agree with you. I am planning a return to tour to Italy and our tour company have just been informed that La Duomo is not accepting visits from overseas choirs anymore...well perhaps someone on here may know differently, but I don't think I really want to bother singing there.

The famous Monty Python four Yorkshiremen sketch comes to mind while reading through this thread... so here's mine.... We took our school choir to Italy in 2002 and were asked to sing at a Mass in Florence Cathedral. A week before the tour we were told that we could not use the organ at the mass - it all had to be unaccompanied. With a week's notice, and a school choir the programme change was impossible, but Florence was not going to budge. Our tour company came up trumps however and Pisa Cathedral came to the rescue, asking us to perform there with the organ. (I sensed a little bit of politics going on behind the scenes) However, when we arrived in Pisa to perform Faure's Requiem we ran against more hassles...the authorities took a long time to let us in,(they wouldn't believe that we had been given permission to sing). It wasn't until the priest who had given the permission arrived that the police on duty would budge. They were visibly shocked when we mentioned using the organ; having use of the instrument was unheard of, leading to some "Italian moments", gestures shouts laughter etc etc. They finally agreed after having seen 2 letters granting permission and a return visit from the priest). Then we discovered that we would not be allowed to rehearse in the Cathedral, neither could we perform in jeans, nor could we change anywhere...to cut a long story short, they would not open the organ until 10 minutes until before our performance and we were not allowed to touch it until, at 2 minutes to the hour, the organ lights came on and the instrument sprang to life, my assistant was then given permission to sit on the stool. He shrugged his shoulders and got on with it totally blind as there was at least 100 feet between us and the choir were blocking his sight line to me. Nevertheless, we managed to get through the Faure with a few interesting sounds as it seemed that the organ was made up of a number of small departments dotted around the East end of the Cathedral - at least the stop tab console had a general crescendo pedal - its only redeeming feature!

Perhaps if we were to make a list of HNB instruments and their consoles from that era we may find them all to be comfortable? The 1970 console at St Mary's Luton is another fine example, but it also has the stops in threes making the console very compact and extremely easy to control. Yet I have always enjoyed playing on Walker consoles from the same era where everything looked and felt good (though possibly the leg room isn't always as even) Being so tall, the console has always seriously affected my experience on an organ, eg an ealier thread found the Binns at St Mary's Shrewsbury too awkward for comfort, but for me it was not a problem! I believe that many of the big firms were producing fine instruments with comfort a major factor, so that when one plays a victorian organ you do really feel that you have swapped your new Audi, for a post war Morris... The only problem I have is when you go to a modern organ to find that they have built it to make it as awkward to control as possible. I played a wierd instrument in Massachussets two years ago where the action was tracker but the stops had been placed too close together on either side of the manuals and low down at the manual height, making it impossible to see some stops while playing. with about 12 stops on each manual and the stop knps taking up the normal space of four, it was particualrly awful when I realised there were no registration aids and I had to accompany the whole of Faure's Requiem on it.