Arp Schnitger

CS Lang's Tres Magi de gentibus (Eastern Monarchs, Sages Three) is an easy barn-stormer- though some might say you need the Christ's Hospital Tuba to bring it off!- or for something gentler, Simon Lole's 'The Journey' (publ RSCM)is a setting of a Rosetti poem and easily sightreadable. If they are keeping it as Sunday after Epiphany (as opposed to Epiphany itsself) the theme is often the Baptism of Christ, or the 'three wonders' (Wise Men, Water into Wine, and Baptism of Christ) which might bring into play Britten's 'New Year Carol' (CFC2), or a 'Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day' (take your pick- the John Gardner is popular though Carl Rutti's version is worth a look- publ. Escorial), or indeed a setting of 'Tribus Miraculis'. As Epiphany is the Orthodox Christmas, you could reflect this with Tavener's 'God is with us' (though it would I suspect be a 'courageous' decision to plan this on one rehearsal!!!) Past broadcasts of the Trinity Cambridge Epiphany service usually reveal some interesting and unusual repertoire; a Polychoral Epiphany Responsory by Richard Marlow sticks in my mind! http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/details/67269.asp (Epiphany at St Pauls) may also reveal some ideas...

A few years ago, I recall seeing a review of a small privately produced collection of the hymn tunes of Ken Naylor, best known for Coe Fen. I'm only aware of one other tune by him, Eastville (to 'Breathe on me breath of God'), in Church Hymnal 5 of the Church of Ireland. Does anyone have the said collection or know from where it might be obtained? If the rest of his tunes are as good as Coe Fen, it should be well worth getting hold of! Many thanks in advance.

Following this thread I decided to order the Delvallée complete set from Amazon, which arrived today- a quick audition whilst importing to iTunes suggests they will make for good listening. The CD booklet sheds some light on the liturgical significance of each movement- not your typical organ mass with a grand entrée and stirring sortie, by any means... Is any one familiar with the paintings by Tom Walker inspired by this cycle? http://www.tommwalker.co.uk/tournemire.htm

Maybe worth contacting Ron Coates at Classic organs- http://www.classicorgans.co.uk/ who sells 2nd hand pedalboards reconditioned and converted for MIDI.

Part of the setup is computer hardware related, part software, and part midi hardware ('console'). 1. Computer hardware and accessories such as MIDI and Audio connections, headphones, etc. There is an excellent section on the Hauptwerk website at http://www.crumhorn-labs.com/Hauptwerk-Specs.shtml which explains the hardware choices. Whilst the computer choice was straightforward for me (I use Windows and Mac regularly for work and pleasure, but Hauptwerk on Mac won hands down!), I had to make choices about MIDI/audio interface, headphones, headphone amplifier, and touch-screen monitor, as well as the cables to connect them all. (If you want speakers- which I didn't- add these to the list as well.) Plenty of online research was involved, which I enjoyed, but I'm aware others might not be quite so keen on this. 2. Software- Hauptwerk is easy to install in itsself- as well as the CD, there is an anti-piracy dongle that needs to be plugged into USB. There are two versions, Studio and Concert, the latter having more features and a bigger price tag. Installing other sample sets is not always as straightforward as it might be as there are often multiple files to install and some choices that aren't always evident- it does depend on the way the install has been authored. Some sets (such as the excellent OrganArt Media samples) require the dongle to be updated by e-mail, but this isn't difficult. Once samples are installed, they need to be set up for your computer, and if you are not blessed with lots of RAM, you will need to make choices about 'single or multiple samples', 'stereo or mono', lossless compression and other options, all of which affect the memory used (and the sound quality); after a while it becomes easier, but it can take a lot of experimentation at first to get the right balance. Then there is the mapping of real keyboards, pedalboard, expression pedals to the sample set equivalent, easy the second time! It must be said that the software developer, Martin Dyde, provides excellent, fast and patient technical support, not to mention the active and knowledgeable userbase on the Hauptwerk forum. 3. Choosing a console and connecting it. The easy part is connecting it! Whether you choose an existing digital MIDI console, new or second-hand, a DIY console from companies such as those Douglas mentions (and he is right that all-in-one Hauptwerk solutions exist, though sadly not in this country at present), there are plenty of factors to be considered, as the MIDI implementation of every make is slightly different. The hardware does need to be setup in Hauptwerk so that it recognises the pistons, stops as well as keyboards, expression pedals, and this can be tricky- I have had to do lots of fiddling and translation of MIDI codes for stop mapping, for instance. Many of the processes explained aren't particularly difficult and only need to be done once, but these are the differences between opting for Hauptwerk as opposed to handing over a wad of cash to Wyvern/Makin/Phoenix etc, having the organ installed and voiced, and away you go. If you treat it as a small project, and can give it a little time at the start, then I think you will find it very rewarding. I also agree with Douglas that the cost will be no more than an equivalent toaster and most likely rather less. D.

Having just gone through this process, I thought I’d break my posting ‘duck’ and put in another vote in favour of Hauptwerk. The big advantage to my mind over the off-the shelf digital organs is that every pipe of every rank is sampled in high quality, often with multiple samples. The difference in quality is quickly evident. Some need a powerful computer, others can run on more modest machines, though a dual processor and 2GB RAM is I reckon a working minimum. I also like the historical integrity offered by Hauptwerk, allowing you to purchase and use organs ideal for different schools of composition. You expressed an interest for the French Romantic style and as well as the samples mentioned by Vox Humana (and yes the Aix organ is excellent, though quite a large, memory-hungry sample set), there is a smaller Cavaille Coll at Mainz which would fit a smaller computer- although prepared for the first release of Hauptwerk, listen to the MP3 demos at http://www.organartmedia.com/CCMainz-Demos.html and they don’t sound at all bad- and will be much better through Hauptwerk directly, where the sound is not compressed into MP3. I'd also claim to be a fan of the very high-quality sample set of the Bosch-Schnitger at Vollenhove- http://www.organartmedia.com/Vollenhove-Intro.html I’d also support the call for a good pair of headphones, far better than any internal speakers- I went for the AKG K701 which (once ‘broken in’- 300 hours non-stop iTunes library in my case!) are more than a match for any speaker system. I would recommend a headphone amplifier as well, which stops any hint of distortion. I’ve also added a touch-screen TFT monitor, which means that stops can be altered with the press of a finger, though mounting this in a suitable location is not yet solved. All in all I’m delighted with the solution; I'd have to say it’s not ideal for the technophobe as there are several different elements to integrate and as yet an ‘off the shelf’ all-in-one solution is not available.