angwinpeter
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Posts posted by angwinpeter
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Lets not beat about the bush - a Directorate of Organists.
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I hadn't meant to come over as negative about the checks, merely the system. Any system which discourages or is likely to find abusers is to be welcomed, particularly as the church and musicians seem to have their fair share of bad publicity over the issue.
-If it is a government requirement to have the checks, then they should be paying for it, not the organisation. It is crippling Scouts, Cubs etc, not to mention the burden on smaller churches.
-A person should only be required to have one check, not by multiple employers. I have a colleague whose husband volunteers as a trustee to a charity which supports children's play areas. He has to have been checked by all eight play areas, as they are separate organisations, even though they receive funding from the same place. At £45 a shot, you can see who is raking it in here.
Two of many anomalies of the system!
I would be interested to know whether the RCO examiners have to be CRB checked or not. The other major exam boards (AB, Trinity/Guildhall, LCM) all do, but I can't find anywhere in the RCO literature that says the examiners are. Common sense would tell you that most (if not all) already hold a clearance from a cathdral, college or school.
Davidh, you highlight a problem of offences that are not reported or prosecuted. The non reporting ones is an issue, when in the past an employer has discreetly asked an employee to leave without causing a fuss. But authorities are much tighter about cautions, non-prosecutions, and prosecutions that don't result in a conviction. The Soham case revealed that information and intelligence was known about, but not acted on as the authorities couldn't be absolutely sure of a conviction. Having had a Child Protection INSET at school recently, and a high profile local case, the police only prosecute when they are pretty certain (90% was quoted) sure they will get a conviction. From my understanding, this so called 'soft' information from cases where there is only a caution, or even an allegation, the police are allowed to disclose it to the potential employer now, whereas in the past they weren't. This leaves a rather large grey area.
Regarding 'soft information' - as I understand it one has to accept one was guilty of the offence before the police can issue a caution - which does then count as a criminal record on a CRB. This will possibly include instances where the Police / CPS would not want to run the risk/expense of losing a case in court - and also where the defendant had not insisted a lawyer come to the police station to advise them about whether or not to accept a Caution!
When the CPS lose a court case the defendant is found 'not guilty' - which may not always be synonymous with 'innocent.' CRB clearance is - as several have said - a bit of a minefield.
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This may be a total blank but does anyone know of where I might get info. about Sir R R Terry's students - around 1900? He was of course DOM at the new Wesminster Cathedral from 1901 and a towering figure in the re introduction of Renaissance music into the UK and also in the revival of Gregorian Chant. This would really help in some current research. Maybe there is even a R. R. Terry Society somewhere out there somewhere?
Thanks
A
R R Terry has quite a detailed biography on Facebook, believe it or not! This gives full details of where he taught etc and schools may still have some useful leads.
PA
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Forgive my ignorance, but who on earth was Douglas Fox?
MM
Organsit of Great St Mary's Cambridge and previously DOM Clifton College, who lost his right arm serving in the
First World War. Probably born around the turn of the 20th century and really an Edwardian - had never heard Weston super Mare pronounced other than Mare as a french pronunciation (with acute accent on e) of the sea, that is until I referred to it as Mare (female horse). Oh for the sheltered life! He played with one arm and two feet and solo-ed the next keyboard down with his thumb. Balanced his breakfast toast in palm of his hand and manipulated the knife somehow to butter! And drove a Morris Minor whose only concession was the indicator (not flasher) control stalk on the LHS of the steering column!
PA
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Quite an impressive list by any standards, but it was a good era, with many fine French organists from whom to choose.
I can't help but be reminded of Dr Donald Hunt's tenure at Leeds PC during the 1960's and beyond (?).
What a galaxy of international artistes he managed to line-up, which continued when Simon Lindley became organist.
Apart from choral and orchestral events, the organ-recitals included such names as Roy Massey, Jane Parker-Smith,
Fernando Germani, Langlais (I seem to recall), Jiri Ropek, Melville Cook, Francis Jackson, Nicholas Kynaston, Alan Wicks, plus numerous other celebrity names of the day, from far and wide.
It didn't feel like it at the time, but this was really the last trump of a golden-age, when organ-recitals got big audiences whenever a celebrity recitalist played on a decent instrument.
Wonderful memories.
MM
.....and I remember marvellous recitals in St Nicholas Great Yarmouth from 1961 - 5 organised by my father; Fernando Germani, Flor Peeters, John Dykes Bower, Douglas Fox, Margaret Cobb, Robert Munns and many more. They all stayed at our home and to see Douglas butter a piece of toast with one hand was something else. I sold entrance programmes at the door for half a crown (12.5p).
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The worst howlers I've seen printed
"Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by G.F. Handle" and "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Sprite"
It is when it works
EC
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I agree about Gibbons 'the Finger of the Age' as he was known. Never Unsurpassed for Amens!
Of course I mean Unsurpassed - delete the never! These snow given extra days are good are they not?
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Fair comment. I think I probably have most of it.
Indisputably (though someone will dispute it!) I know it is customary to see Byrd as Britain's greatest composer and I don't feel inclined to disagree, but I have recently been immersing myself in Gibbons (those wonderful recordings by the late lamented Clerkes of Oxenford) and I really do think he is the Tudor equivalent of Bach. Consummate technique and pefection of expression. Sheer bliss. His keyboard and consort music are no less rewarding.
I agree about Gibbons 'the Finger of the Age' as he was known. Never Unsurpassed for Amens!
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Hi
Yes - there is such a book (or at least there used to be). IIRC it's called the Directory of Grant Making Trusts - and it's huge and takes a long time to wade through to try and find which trusts might even be interested. I used it once, several years ago. It may well all be computerised these days.
Others have mentioned various more directly relevant avenues. the other thing to look for is local trusts - even Bradford council seem to have buckets of money floating around for community projects (but you would have to sell the project as that). Also, (more generally - I don't know of anything in the Bradford area) landfill tax is available for local projects, and local businesses - especially contreversial ones - have a public relations budget. For example, at one time, local churches & charities in one area of Essex obtained substantial funding from the operators of the Bradwell nuclear power station.
I've not investigated anything locally (Ron's church is only a couple of miles away from here) because we werein the fortunate position when our organ was restored a couple of years ago (a much smaller instrument than Shipley!) of being able to draw on the church's legacy fund, which along with some donations, has covered most of the cost - the remainder coming from the church's reserves - in the past it was a large, rich congregation)
Every Blessing
Tony
The advantage of using the paper version this Directory (held in main reference libraries) is that one can also conveniently see a charity's recent income and expenditure and thus identify those who might not be so over-burdened with grant applications!
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I do all of my own typing in the office, about 3 hours a day solidly, and the risk of RSI is a real concern.
Learning to type properly certainly reduces the strain on the hands and arms.
Also, I type on one of these ergonomic keyboards whcih are split down the middle, with each side rotated slightly and lifted up so that your forearms lie at a completely natural level. I would not be without it. Whenever I have to type on a flat, square keyboard, within a few minutes I notice the strain on the outside of my forearms. You can get one at any good computer shop, and I highly recommend them.
M
I am sure there is something inherently problematic with word processor keyboard action and particularly the mouse. My wife is a trained typist of over 30 yrs experience who has suffered rsi since inputting on a database - onset during 2001. Mouse work seems more problematic than straight typing. She had no problems during the previous 20 years, which included old fashioned manual type writing. Working for the NHS, she has had full occupational health and medical investigations which recognise her condition; the employer has fortunately recognised the need to make industrial injury recompense. She finds the ergonomic keyboard helpful. Personally I avoid laptops with their flat and cramped keyboards which I find very uncomfortable and unnatural in use.
Surely Rubenstein & co would have suffered rsi if it were provoked by instrumental keyboards?
PA
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I fear this site is a bit in danger of being renamed 'Meander'.
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Oh yes, I completely agree.
I've just come back from teaching a bunch of Swedes about troubleshooting and problem solving, and, obviously, one of the key points to get across is that if you don't get the "problem statement" (i.e. What is wrong with what?) clear, then you're wasting your time.
But, for the Swedes, "Network problem" seems to fit with the "What is wrong with what?" question - in their mind, the Wrong with bit = Network, and the thing that's wrong with it is that it has a problem. What kind of problem? Oh, just a problem. Circular argument starts. And rages for several minutes, ending with the Swedish guy saying "Yeah, but I know what I mean".
Grr.
The whole point of writing something down is to communicate something to someone else, surely? If only the person "what wrote it"
knows what it means, then it's rather pointless! -
.........and, whilst I live in Birmingham and can drive to all the places mentioned above we also have - quite close to hand - Gloucester, Warwick, and Tewkesbury, each of whom offers their own regular programme of excellent musical events as well as hosting visiting performers. I can easily park at these venues, too.
All this is made practical by their postings on the internet. In a sense I feel a part time member of all three congregations! PA
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Rather shot yourself in the foot, Jeremy. MusingMuso and David Coram are correct in their latest postings on this topic. And I would agree with them.
North of Watford we don't all wear cloth caps and chokers, grass skirts and perform weekly clog dances.
I suspect the RCO needs to get out of London because it is the rip-off capital of the world and its running costs are spiralling.
I have not noticed any scarcity of culture in the northern half of England and where I've lived for well over 50 years. In these parts we have Symphony Hall, Birmingham, arguably the finest concert hall in Europe featuring world-class orchestras and recitalists. The Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent (Hanley) also has first-class orchestral concerts, recitals and features monthly organ recitals by eminent organists. Glyndebourne Touring Opera spend a week in the city evry November. Manchester has its Bridgewater Hall and the Royal Northern College of Music. And thanks to the enthusiasm of Simon Lindley, Leeds Town Hall usually features a weekly organ recital as well as orchestral concerts. You can just about say the same for every other large twn and city - Sheffield, Hull, Liverpool, Newcastle.
Now who should be getting real?
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