churchmouse

Hi everyone - Just to forestall writing another 100 emails in reply to very anxious inquiries from around the world, I can tell you virtually nothing about the fate of the Rieger organ in the Christchurch Town Hall after the 7.1 earthquake on Saturday that caused so much damage. We are unable yet to enter the CBD due to curfew and police cordons but are doing our best to check out the organ. First indications however suggest that superficially at least, there has been no major damage. It was built, along with all modern buildings in New Zealand, with earthquakes very much in mind. I am posting news on the www.nzorgan.com website and hopefully by Wednesday the area will have been cleared so we can access it to look more closely. I'll put something here also when we find out more. The fate of other organs is also unknown although I believe the Rugby Street church and St John's Hororata took a hit. Both cathedrals had superficial damage we are told but again, no word - if anyone can contribute news, that would be great. But best of all, there has been no loss of life so far. After shocks are continuing (a couple of 5.1 caused a little more distress) and many people have lost their homes but we are coping reasonably well. Thanks to all those very kind people who wrote with great concern in the hours after the initial hit. For more general info, see The Press newspaper Sorry if this is a little off-topic. cheerful noises from two very shaken and stirred kiwis, Jellified and wobbly churchmouse

Thanks to both Octave and Heva for their suggested sites - both new to me and will add those as well to the links page... These are a great help.

Many thanks tiratutti ! That's an excellent one - I'll add it to my links page as well :-) Much trawling still to be done before I go. . .

I might have known you'd be the guru to ask, MM!!! St Bavo will be a kind of pilgrimage - but as for the rest, yes, I'm sure the photogenic factor is very high there! My main problem (isn't it always?) will be getting access. And places that don't have a huge dangling light fixture bang in the middle that I then have to spend 2 hours photos hopping out! But these are rare.. BTW, are modern organ cases very common in the Netherlands? Thanks so much for your help MM - invaluable.

I am sure that many of you will have seen (and heard) some of the less-obvious Dutch organs that would make excellent photographic subjects. From June 20th I am spending four days in possibly the Rotterdam and Amsterdam area (but elsewhere can be arranged - am driving). Any suggestions, or contacts I could get in touch with? Hearing them of course would be a bonus but this time round the visuals are what I am looking for. Feel free to PM me or send me an e-mail - always enjoy hearing from listers anyway. An aside: I was trawling through that remarkable tome,"Organ CDs - a place-name index" by Jo Huddleston (ISSN 0960-488x). If you haven't got a copy, steal one. My edition is 1991 and I don't THINK there is a successor, but is no doubt the only book of its kind to begin with the words "Tiddley pom". And continues in much the same vein but with a huge wealth of information about organs that have been recorded (up until 1991 of course). He also comments alongside the Freiberg Silbermann "Who's a pretty boy, then?" . Full of joyous exploration and the only database of organs that makes compulsive reading Churchmouse

AW inspired me enormously- and other non-professionals like me - merely in the course of one week while at the RSCM course for overseas church musicians at Adding ton in 1981. I have put up a small tribute to a great man here "You won't forget him in a hurry" using the diaries that I wrote at the time - now I cringe at the naivety of what I wrote then but it may convey something of what AW did for the ordinary person.

Would dearly love to hear Olivier but sadly will be mid-air en route to another page-turning tour of Uk and Europe... It would really be a highlight if I was able to meet some of my forum friends (and in particular those who have helped so kindly with the birth of "organ-isms") at these page-turning concerts ... If you fancy seeing an experienced turner in action (subtle flicks of wrist, while balanced on tiny blocks of unstable decaying wood, how to collect dropped pages from pedals, as well as additional malevolent glares at chatters and sweet paper rustlers etc...) the venues are *Coventry Cathedral, Monday July 6th, 1pm *Oxford Town Hall, Tuesday July 7th, 1pm *York Methodist Central Hall, York, Friday, July 10th at 7.30pm *Leicester Cathedral, Tuesday, July 21 at 8pm *Bridlington Priory, Saturday, July 25 at 6pm and then it's on to Germany, France and Italy etc. Incidental background music will be provided on the organ by someone. Oh yes. Martin Setchell. I have to bring him along really. But it's the page-turning that will definitely be the winner here... If you want to see what scores I will be struggling to manipulate, view the programmes here: Pages being turned Please come and say hello!!! It truly would be wonderful to meet my forum friends! Chirps Churchmouse

Sorry Friedrich but I think you might find that no fewer than 5 organists have been credited with variations on this! Since all stories I have been told came with sworn affidavits as to their veracity, I suspect the truth lies in the fact that this happens often - (but none as good as those embroidered above!) Perhaps these have emerged as a result of organists venting their spleen after hearing a vicar announce yet again that the "organ will play" during the signing of the register - or some other such idiocy attached to "covering the action" music. I don't really understand the reason for this dehumanisation, other than maybe an organist out of sight is out of mind? Whatever, it certainly gets up organistic nostrils.

In "Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook", Montague Rhodes James wrote of the organ in the church in St-Bertrand-de-Comminges in 1883. The organ and church are certainly real enough. Those who don't know these wonderful stories have a treat in store. Pictures of the organ and more about this writer are here

Many, many thanks for these. For years I have been curious about how Darke would have registered Brother James' Air. Thank you for going to the trouble to get these for us. Churchmouse

Please forgive me for the following, but it might just forestall yet more emails asking for information - and since several of you (including, bless them, the Mander family) have been directly involved in contributing, I thought it useful to post that "Organ-isms: Anecdotes from the World of the King of Instruments" is now available from Allegro Music in the UK. Either online at www.allegro.co.uk or from the postal address at 43 The Hop Pocket Craft Centre, New House Farm, Bishops Frome, Worcestershire, WR6 5BT, UK. Contributors in the States can go directly to Lois Fyfe Music . And yes, to answer other questions, I'm still collecting stories for "Son of Organ-isms!" And soon ( Contributors and God willing) the volume will be available in Germany - in German. Am just hoping nobody wants a Swahili version. Churchmouse

I have never heard Allan play 'live' sadly but I certainly enjoyed his impish personality when attending the 6 week course for overseas church musicians at Addington Palace in the 1980s. He was a ball of fun, and one of the stories I vividly remember was how he disciplined fidgety choirboys : he simply hurled rubber chickens at them. Churchmouse

...and can I ask if you'll be having a little fry-up in the loft, Barry? Wish we could be there ....

Not forgetting the organ world way downunder, Martin Setchell will be playing in Brisbane City Hall on Wednesday, Feb 4th at 12.30pm (Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" is included) ; he will also play at Hobart Town Hall on Sunday 8th at 4.30pm; and on Thursday Feb 12th at 1pm at Collins St Baptist church, Melbourne. I'll be tottering behind carrying bags, cameras, iced water and listening out for anecdotes Churchmouse

Update on second printing! Just to let you all know that the second run of "Organ-isms: Anecdotes from the World of the King of Instruments" is now available. Sorry for the delay to those of you who have been waiting so patiently... Details from here Church (pass the cheese please) mouse

oooh I'll have to look out for that! The great thing was that although I learned about the concert from this board, most of the detail came from Pat and Peter Hurford themselves. It's a joy to get the picture from the horse's mouth. Next time I'll ask Gillian for pictures... And thank you for letting me know your copies have arrived. Unbelievable really since our Post had closed off posting overseas a week earlier!! I fear the bad weather in the states has delayed their Christmas delivery. And while I'm rabbiting on, just want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a serene 2009 - with heartfelt thanks for your support and kindness. Jenny

Am afraid already have a digitally bulging folder!! Suspect it is all only tip of iceberg...

Yep! Got that one Nigel! Cheers Churchmouse (exhausted after a day dispatching 230 books all over the globe! Look out for yours in your letterbox soon)

They do that for copyright reasons I think! Yes, the time slot was very generous especially since it wasn't really a 'sound' orientated interview. I believe that the Organist Entertains has been cut back quite a lot too - is that right? What else is there available from the Beeb these days - does anyone know of good listening links? I'd like to collect a few more to put on my links page. There are always the wonderful Pipedreams.org and OrganLive.com in the states - but from the UK? Churchmouse

At the risk of sounding as if I'm talking to myself, (don't say anything, anyone!! :-) ..... Some of you might be interested to hear a little more about the "Organ-isms: Anecdotes from the World of the King of Instruments" book via the marvels of modern radio and internet. Radio New Zealand ConcertFM programme Upbeat interviewed me the other day about it so if you want a bit more background and goss, it will be available at this link Upbeat interview as an MP3, and which will be there for another um, err, 5 days I think. Cheers Churchmouse

SORRY EVERYONE!!! The link to the cafepress book has changed so I have edited it to show the more generic link that won't change! The one above is now correct. And by the way, just so you know, the cafepress site is trying to be very friendly and changes the prices into British pounds ; but it is still based in the US so you will get international shipping charges.

Ah ooops hit the wrong button - never mind. This is a rider to my initial post to let those of you on the list who live in North America know that the "Organ-isms" anecdotes book is now available directly from the US-based CafePress website. It would make more sense to order from there than all the way from New Zealand!!! The short link that will take you there , which comes off the organgifts.com section, is here Cheers Chruchmouse whoops churchmouse

Dear all (I hope that this is not in breech of the board's rulz and regz! ! As the book features members of the Mander family, I might just get away with this blatant advertising!) It was nearly 2 years ago that I first threw out the challenge to you and other discussion boards around the world to send me your best organ-related stories. Since then I have contacted over 600 organ music lovers, extracted some 120 marvellous stories from over 120 of these, and am now finalising the publishing of the resulting book which is called "Organ-isms: Anecdotes from the World of the King of Instruments" . Dame Gillian Weir very kindly agreed to write the foreword, and many of the people you all know are in there somewhere, such as Fred Swann, Bob Elms, Marilyn Mason, Todd Wilson, Christopher Herrick, Sir David Willcocks, Peter Hurford, Paul Jacobs, Mary Mozelle, Cherry Rhodes, James Welch, Musing Muso, Raul Prieto Ramirez, Marie-Louise Langlais, and John, Noel and Polly Mander and so on ... the list is a very long one! It has been a sheer delight getting to know so many varied personalities and talents. A real labour of love... I'm writing to let you all know about this 272-page publication now because there is a special discount on pre-publication orders before November 30th. The book will be out in about 12 days and I do hope it will get to the UK in time for Christmas. But I am old and wizened and wise to the vagaries of the PO and delivery people and can't promise anything, despite all our best efforts! More details about the book and how to order can be found at the website dedicated to this book: Organ-isms: Anecdotes from the World of the King of Instruments And of course, you can always email me with any questions that aren't answered on the website! ok, ad break is finished! cheers churchmouse

Hi Alistair, will have to dig it out and see - in midst of getting windows double-glazed so house is almost literally upside down! May take a little while Churchmouse

in addition to Bovet's Hamburger Totentanz there is his fugue on the Pink Panther... short and sweet and best of all, usable on almost any instrument. Churchmouse