andyorgan
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Posts posted by andyorgan
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I tracked one down a good few years ago that was either published by Peters, or had that familiar light green cover that made it look like it was. However, understandably perhaps, no one would lend me their copy, so I ended up playing from the new Novello vocal score which I added a few bits to. This turned out quite well in the end (needs a trusty page turner, esp in the faster choruses), as the organ accomp version bit doesn't have any vocal cues etc.
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Yes, they were my links.
I am sorry to hear about the coffee. For once, I did not listen to the announcements, I think I was arranging my music or something. It sounds as if this was the first Sunday for ages that the Rector did not invite the congregation for refreshments after the service. He probably had a lot to think about with the other services (there were six that day, five of which were before lunch).
Did you notice that the congregation managed to get the melody wrong in the opening line of each verse of Guiting Power?
Rector did a remarkable job and so good to see the place so full, even at 9.30 when we arrived.
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Well that clears up a couple of mysteries about identities and locations then!
They weren't too frightened, and they were pleased we got lots of chamade during the rest of the service as we were sat down that aisle (were they your links between verses of Guiting Power?)
Actually, the one disappointment we did have was that we weren't aware that there were refreshments after the service. Maybe we missed it on the notice sheet, but none of the other very welcoming congregation mentioned it. Was just in the mood for first Easter choccie biscuits...
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A rare Sunday off out of term time, so we took the whole family to the other end of Dorset. We were treated to Vierne 1 at the end, complete with last couple of lines 'en chamade', much to the fright of my two little boys who decided to go and listen right next to the pipes. Pretty good music throughout (bits of Moz Spetz and Greater Love), but my lasting memory of the place was the vicar greeting people before the service, particularly people who obviously looked like first timers in the place. A certain encouragement to return!
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So what are the fave hymns for weddings right now??
'Fight the good fight', in preparation for what is to come
'Dear Lord and Father of mankind forgive our foolish ways', for what they've already been up to
'Forty days and forty nights', as that's how long most of them seem to last
For info, we had 'Guide me O', 'Great is thy faithfulness', and 'Love Divie' (to Blaeanwern). What does that say ebout me.
PS The vicar wanted us to have Crimond, apparently 'they sing it quite a lot in Scotland'.
Serioulsy, it must be hard for couples to choose between (a)hymns everyone will know, despite not being remotely appropriate or even liturgically sound and (b)the hymns they really want, but as none of their friends go to church, they won't know them.
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If we're going down the cheesy route, what about 'I just called to say, I love you', there won't be a dry leg in the house...
PS Are you the Nick Seddon that was at my school in Leeds in the 80s?
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Does anyone have any brief biographical information of our 'Will O The Wisp' friend? And does anyone else play any of the other pieces by him? (e.g. the Tradgedy of a Tin Soldier)
Thanks
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I met one who choked in a fit of coffin. He came from Gravesend.
R
Or as we used to say up north as a kid "It's not the cough that carries you off but the coffin they carry you off in!"
Also picking up coat...
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Are there any forum members in Derby or very close (or who knows someone) by who might be able to help me out next week. Long story, but I would really like to do some practice on a reasonable instrument for a recital later that week up north on either Wed or Thursday evening. I have to be in Derby for other musical reasons, none of which are connected with organs!
Thanks
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The rather good reading by McCall-Smith called 31 Scotland Street (I think, I can't find my copy at the moment) talks about the asst organist at St Giles in Edinburgh and his love of steam trains. He also knows the whereabouts of a secret tunnel under the New Town which the characters later take a trip down. I like the book, its an odd mix of fact and fiction. There are a number of 'real' characters in it.
I got the title wrong, it is 44 Scotland Street.
"Where did you pick up this arcane knowledge?" [about the tunnel and trains]
"From the Organist at St Giles, my friend Peter Backhouse. He knows everything there is to be known about railways, and he knows all about the old lines of Edinburgh. He can tell you about Bach and Pachelbel and so on, but he also knows all about track gradients and signalling systems and the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway. Remarkable isn't it? I'm always impressed by people who know a lot about trains."
"I've always thought that the Church of Scotland was a bit unsound on railways."
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The theme from Riverdance is a sooped up electric version of Lord of the Dance. If this is what you might be looking for, then the last movement of the Rawsthorne Dance Suite is based on this very tune, and has quite a Riverdance feel about it.
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Unspoken, but one hopes at least UK builders would be considered this time around.
As opposed to the now, thankfully scuppered RCO organ!
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Crude? I'd like to hear a better orchestration from that contributor, or anybody else. Mental capacity is indeed in question here...
I'm sure most of my orchestral musician friends (and certainly my clarinettist wife) would far rather wake up to that on a Sunday morning than 10 minutes of organo pleno (absolutely no double entendre intended).
That particular performance was exquisite and highly detailed too; the phrasing/slurring as expressive as any period chamber ensemble. So what if there was slurring across upbeats - 100 years ago we would all be playing like that and regarding it as 'gospel'.
Elgar's own interpretation (available on Naxos) is somewhat more restrained, actually, with a faster Fantasia and less rubato in the Fugue.
IFB
There's a quote somewhere about great music transcending its medium of expression (Rollin Smith?). The F and F is very good music, and probably even in ths hands of the all but dullest orchestrations, would stand up well; in Elgar's hands it comes off exceptionally well. I urge the original contributor to listen to some other orchestrations of Bach's organ music, and I would like to be sure that he will come away with some fresh ideas about interpretation.
"An arrangement of a well known instrumental adagio or andante is infinitely more preferable to the frequently dull specimens of modern organ music duly vaunted as being 'original'."
(WT Best)
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If a few choral events are the problem, why don't the RAM simply copy the management of The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. As is now common knowledge, when the massed Male Voice Choirs meet there for their annual bash, because the (once again, much-vaunted) Marcussen has proved inadequate to supply sufficient backing for their performances, even at full organ, they now hire a large electronic organ substitute (toaster to you) for the purpose.
I'm glad this thought had resurfaced because I heard the same from another source. Why, oh why, (and how) was this ever allowed to happen? I think the nrewly refurb at BirmTH would be more than a match for the same voices.
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Two additions.
The rather good reading by McCall-Smith called 31 Scotland Street (I think, I can't find my copy at the moment) talks about the asst organist at St Giles in Edinburgh and his love of steam trains. He also knows the whereabouts of a secret tunnel under the New Town which the characters later take a trip down. I like the book, its an odd mix of fact and fiction. There are a number of 'real' characters in it.
The other one I can't remember the name of, but its one of those grusome murders in Edinburgh books. There's a short bit where one of the characters is hanging around the back of the Waverly Station near the Scotsman steps. He can hear the organ being played in Old St Pauls, but I can't remember if he makes mention of the names of either of the organists of the time (Shankland/Kitchen) in it.
Perhaps others may have read either if these books?
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Sunday morning radio is full of dreadful shocks - I turned on to Radio Three this morning only to hear an unspeakably crude arrangement of a Bach organ fugue by Elgar - I don't know why the BBC thinks orchestral transcriptions of organ music are better to listen to than the real thing - there seems to be some strange preconceptions of listners mental capacity......
I'm sorry to disagree here, but I think these Romantic orchestrations are wonderful. If I can persuade you to look any further, Chandos have a couple of CDs worth listening to. There's the Schoenberg St Anne P and F, two different versions of the Pass and Fugue in Cm (Stokowski and Respighi), to name the two best.
We had another thread somewhere about transcribing for the organ, the orchestral transcriptions of the original (if you get that), and it turned out that quite a number of us had tried it at some stage.
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Thank you Robert for taking the trouble to post this, and I will investigate the other pieces you mention. Do keep us informed about performances next year.
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That's very kind Paul. Is that the same piece by a different name that you can see and hear here on track 8?
Thanks
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Does anyone know who publishes the Best transcriptions? Bardon Music do some, but not all. Among other things, I'm after the March from 'The Damnation of Faust'.
Thanks
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What if BIOS put one if its wretched Historic Organ Certificates on it? Do they have any sort of binding over non conformist denominations?
I know the sort of scenario you describe. The organ I first played in Leeds (in a Pentecostal church, though one that was enlighted in the 1920s to have a proper two manual pipe organ in itwas taken out early 80s, to be replaced by a Hammond (quite a good Hammond, but a Hammond, nevertheless), and not even the building appears on NPOR.
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I'm glad this has been resurrected. My enthusiasm for the piece (along with much Vierne) came from Jeremy Filsell, who I believe is the only one to have recorded it all. I may be wrong?
Is it as insanely difficult as the forty minute, nine-voice Sorajbi fugue in one of his organ symphonies?
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Rather impressive for a 16 year old to have...
"mastered harpsichord, accordion, keyboard, electric, acoustic and bass guitars since he first picked up a violin when he was six"
... not to mention the organ.
Has our regular Devon correspondant come across this fine youg chap?
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That's interesting. I go for this one like a half-cut symphony orchestra throughout, playing very few of the written notes, improvising all sorts of descants and figures with dropping dews of quietness and resting by Galillee and goodness knows what else. But that can just as easily be a two part invention, the congregation's melody being the third part, as the thick, sulphorous noise you're probably imagining. For the earthquake, wind and fire I crescendo madly, reharmonise on the very brink of sanity and do some rolling, thunderous broken chords upwards by two octaves or so, then reduce to half swell and Gt flutes for the last line (which, being a couple of octaves higher, is therefore more penetrating than it is loud, and still able to support), keeping a nice solo oboe or clarinet handy for the piece de resistance - the opening line of the tune soloed out over the very last still, small voice of calm.
The last bit I've been doing for years and I can't remember where I first heard it, though I know I copied someone else and it wasn't my idea!
With hymns of such a stirring nature I always take the line that the congregation knows the tune perfectly well enough without needing me to remind them, and so long as the beat is kept firmly on track (in this particular case, during the more florid offerings, by playing a staccato beat 4 and beat 1 only on a fairly fundamental pedal), the harmony fits and the texture is appropriate to the words and aiming for illustrative inspiration and beauty, then there is no limit (beyond those imposed by the ability and confidence of those in the room) to what you can do. They were bellowing their heads off last night, that's for sure.In my view, leading a congregation is about 90% about making them want to be a part of it and letting them know that the experience is going to be both safe and rewarding, so they can let go of their inhibitions, and only a small proportion about tune-bashing. But you have to take them with you, and I don't know how to do that - only that sometimes it just happens. I've spent a lot of time in a lot of churches finding out for myself what works, and in that sense every hymn is an experiment in which you constantly modify your approach until you find one which works, and never be afraid to back down. I wouldn't ever spring such a thing on a congregation I didn't know well or who couldn't cope with it (about 99% of crematorium congregations). And perhaps that's where a third party view comes in handy - a priest bringing his regular congregation to the crematorium, for instance, knows what his flock are used to and if he's willing to take the trouble to tell me that they're not very confident then that's useful information, and the fact that a view (perhaps strange at first) is coming forward in the way it is informs us of an experience this other person has had at some point. It's always worth gently enquiring why it is that they think what they think, all the while imagining the sensation egg running down face if you do it YOUR way and their predictions are fulfilled.
Very succinctly put. I particularly agree with the notion that different congregations need different treatments. As a late teenager, I split my organ playing between fairly-high-up-the-candle-Anglicanism (medium sized two manual Walker) and no-sign-of-a-candle-Pentecostal (medium sized two manual Hammond complete with rotating Leslie). Surprisingly, there were more than a few ocasions where the hymns overlapped, but both places required different treatment. One of the most annoying was the necessity fo playing a leading-starting note at the start of all verses (and slowing down at the end of each verse) in the latter venue. You are also right about crematoria, where none of my last verse harmonisations have ever been commented on, good or bad; perhaps they have other things on their mind.
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This might not be a goo time to profess my ignorance for the German language, so can you enlighten me as to what the publication is? Are they any good> Of the volume that arrived today, there are only two pieces worth playing IMHO, and even then, one must have chosen the audience carefully.
Liverpool Cathedral Organ Appeal
in The Organ
Posted
I would have to disagree here, where the end result is an infinite improvement on the ramshackle arrangement on what was there before hidden behind the console.
I do agree with much of what else you say in your post, particularly in your cynicism of some 'consultants' and 'advisers', some of whom appear to 'favour' certain preferred builders.