Arp Schnitger

I've some Bose QC-2s which are great especially for flights, where they make a difference switched on but not even plugged in! However for my Hauptwerk installation I wanted to get a decent dedicated set and after reading lots of reviews went for the AKG K701 which are now just over £180 on Amazon. I have not been disappointed- they need running in, which I did by leaving them for a fortnight playing through iTunes, but they are very comfortable for sustained use and of excellent aural quality with some of the high quality 16 or 24 bit Hauptwerk samples. I'm using them with a headphone amplifier (Creek OBH-21) and this too is highly recommended for maximum effect.

Really helpful advice, and having just returned, you're quite right, the departmental stops were also split between the LH and RH stop jambs- they are named but the pitch was not indicated, though for most it was quite obvious. Also agreed, the cathedral staff were welcoming and helpful, so I can recommend Brussels Cathedral as a tour concert location; also not to be missed is the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels, with a fine collection, well displayed, enough to keep 28 9-13 yr-olds (albeit musical children) interested for over an hour! As for St Michael Ghent, it's one to avoid; a three manual of indeterminate origin, but electrified and badly out of tune with many missing notes. Downstairs in the South 'transept' is an elderly 3 manual toaster with even more notes missing and a tonal quality of a 1970's analogue toaster. I decided we should perform in the choir loft at the west end as the lesser of two evils- and in fact a good aural location for a choir of <30- there were just about enough stops usable for accompanying though any reeds were distinctly overripe, if not covered in penicillin!

I'm a bit late into this discussion, but I got an Edirol R-09 last summer and have been very happy with the results- works best for choirs/organ when quite close, I've found, but clear enough with headphones to pick out individual voices in the stereo spread.

A few years ago, I was in Paris in January and had heard of a place out in the Parisien sticks, at the end of the RER line at Robinson. I had bumped into Peter Wright of Southwark Cathedral and a friend of his at St Sulpice on Epiphany Sunday, and I had told him of this place which I had heard of on Piporg-l. We mounted an excursion the next day, and followed the address to a suburban house. However in the barn in the back garden was a treasure trove of organ music, CDs and books. I've had a google to see if I can find it, unsuccessfully, as I can't remember its name, but will try and keep digging. Flute de Pan I concur is pretty good, and there was a small selection of organ music to be found in La Procure near St Sulpice. However my last Parisien music visit was in 2003 so things may well have changed! FNAC are always a good place for CDs- in 1985 I was completing a student year in France within 30 mins of Gare St Lazare and I came home with plenty of LPs from FNAC- a year later and they would have been CDs. I've successfully ordered DVDs (such as the Cochereau tribute disc) from the FNAC.fr website.

Since stepping down from my church post some 18 months ago, I missed most of last Easter thanks to being abroad in Egypt, and, as I'm a pretty poor member of a congregation, in the end decided mainly to keep Holy Week over the airwaves this year. I must say that the services from St Thomas Fifth Avenue have been of the highest standard, from the drama of the Tenebrae with its Strepitus thunder at the end, to the 2hr 30 min Easter Vigil- both are still available to listen again, together with the rest of the services. I dipped into the Vigil at St Peter's Rome via video, which streamed well, but the Exultet seemed to run to about 15 minutes, and the Organ fanfare was rather underwhelming (in contrast to the StThomas proclamation of Easter, which was stunning- just as it should be done!) I tried Notre Dame, but there was unfortunately an error on their streaming video. I had planned to attend my old church today (we remain on excellent terms!) but my car battery decided not to play ball, so I've been stuck again- perhaps it's trying to tell me I should have been driving far and wide in search of spiritual nourishment instead of doing so on line! However it gave me a chance to watch Liverpool Met, which was well done, with a nice balance of chant, big hymns, a less well-known setting (Ives Missa Brevis) and a nice arrangement of 'Walking in a garden' by Tim Noon (wonder if this might be available, he thinks aloud, knowing that the afore-mentioned arranger drops into this forum occasionally). Incidentally, how long have the Met choir stalls been in a Dec/Can arrangement? It must be ten years since I was last there, and they were then in an arc. St Thomas are doing their Easter Morning mass live twice today! Just Winchester CE on BBC R3 to go...

Just looking out of the window, I wonder if anyone who decided to sing 'My Beloved Spake' tomorrow- '...for lo, the winter is past...' has changed their mind... Perhaps improv. variations on 'I'm dreaming of a White Easter' might be an idea...? Seasons greetings!

Thanks Pierre, very helpful- looks like the choir organ might be the one we use- just as well as I don't have a great head for heights! Now to try and discover more about the church in G(h)ent...

I'll be accompanying a school choir on a short tour to Belgium after Easter and I heard today that two of the venues are to be the St Michael Church in Gent and Brussels Cathedral. A quick web search has revealed nothing much on St Michael Gent, and a Swallow's Nest style part-Spanish influenced Nave instrument by Gerhard Grenzing. Though I have been to Gent quite a few years ago, St Michael's (from what I can remember and tell from photos) was closed, and I haven't been to Brussels so don't know if there is also a separate Choir organ. Does anyone on the board have experience of the instruments in these churches that they can share...? Many thanks in anticipation...

Given the number of people who have expressed their opinion on the Elgar Sonata, and the questions that have been raised about its history and performance demands, the following should be required watching! I’m writing this whilst enjoying a DVD that arrived today all about the Elgar Organ Sonata. It features a fine performance of the Sonata by James Lancelot at Durham Cathedral (though I wasn’t particularly convinced by the recorded sound quality on the DVD), but what makes it very special are the extras, including a study documentary of the sonata featuring Lancelot, Relf Clark and Jeremy Dibble, a feature on the organbuilding process with Mark Venning, James Lancelot’s tour of the console (enjoy those Solo strings and the French Horn- pure velvet!) and masterclass discussing performance and registration issues, this latter perhaps the highlight- worth following with the score. There are also three features about Elgar, his birthplace, the man and his music, equally fascinating. There is also a CD of the Sonata performance (which I have yet to listen to). Highly recommended- available for £19.99 from the Elgar Foundation Website- www.elgarfoundation.org Has anyone else seen it?

I spent many a happy hour playing this in my formative years, and heartily endorse the recommendation to pay it a visit! Incidentally the restoration was in 1987: spec and a picture here. St George's is a stone-vaulted J.L.Pearson church, so the acoustic portrait is ideal. H&H also restored this little gem: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N14988

Yes but he does get to have some fun with it beforehand- watch this clip first!

Unfortunately the cantor at the end was exhibiting- how shall I put it- doubtful tuning, and the Sortie (a Bach fugue- which I recognised but couldn't instantly assign a BWV number to without looking it up) was faded out within about 3 bars- BBC Morning Worship style. Shame about Hexham- one of my favourite organs!

Thanks for mentioning this- I had vaguely heard of SlimServer, but downloading it and playing with a software-only squeezebox convinced me that I would find it very useful indeed! As a result of a quick trip to PC World today, I am also now a member of the Squeezebox owners' club- works very well, though I'm still trying to get the box to talk to Live365. As I write this, I have found Radio Notre Dame (Paris), and the Credo 3 live from the Evening Mass- just onto the Offertoire now, but I don't know who's playing tonight...

Sorry, missed this thread when it started, and I know I'm too late, but... 'In memoriam Anne Frank' by Howard Goodall Howard Goodall Choral Works ... just for completeness!

There's also a Philippe Lefevbre demonstration of the Notre Dame organ that has just been added to 'Vous-Metro' (as Google translator might call the French YouTube ) http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=MHb30jZCMTE

With RSS, such content can be sent to a RSS feed reader (e.g. RSS Bandit) which then shows you what is new and allows you to easily see everything in one place. Google Reader allows you to do the same and is web-based rather than software sitting on a single computer, which may be helpful for those who access the web from a number of different places. http://www.google.co.uk/reader

John, It's now 2.30pm, and there have been a number of posts since the feed was enabled, but the RSS feed is still showing 12:17 as the most recent item- first post in the Certrco topic. Does the update interval need to be adjusted...? I also notice that of the topics it has posted, it shows only the first post in each topic rather than the latest one- which would be preferable. Hope this is helpful feedback.

Thank you so much for enabling RSS- much easier to follow the threads now!

Does anyone (Moderators?) happen to know if this message board is RSS enabled? I can see useful ways of keeping up with threads through e-mail, but I couldn't see any reference to RSS in the help pages. Thanks.

Looking to see if there was anything similar for Widor on Amazon, I came across this previously unknown arrangement from the maître of St Sulpice: http://tinyurl.com/3yx4ky

Replied by PM...

I've always been with the 'Once in Royal' brigade to open Lessons and Carols, and brought up (when I was playing as an assistant) on a Midnight Mass that was invariably : Procession: O come AYF (7vv) Gradual: While Shepherds Watched Offertory: O Little Town (with the 'Where Children pure & happy' verse) Comm: Stille Nacht Post C- Hark! the Herald We would tend to do home-grown descants at Midnight Mass and the CFC descants on Christmas morning. [i know this bit should be in the Descant discussion but the two threads do seem to overlap] More recently, I've taken a liking to the David Hill descants in the Noel! carol book- quite similar in some ways to the Willcocks descants but equally stylish IMHO. I do like the Hill brass fanfare to OCAYF as well. For our school 'six lessons and carols' I have though reinstated an original setting of OCAYF at the start, entitled Venite Adoremus and composed by a former DoM, who still plays for us. It opens Once in royal-like with a solo latin verse of Adeste Fideles in a fluid plainsong-type free rhythm and then another trebles verse of 'Deum de deo', then the procession begins with p organ interludes and a syncopated 'venite adoremus' motif. More latin on 'Ergo qui natus die hodierna' (ie 'v7') before a big organ crescendo and the trebles reach their seats in time for an ff 'We to the Christ Child' in English (which is always the spine-tingling moment for me), more ff organ interlude, and finally two verses for everyone in English (O come, and Sing Choirs of Angels- for which the descant is in Latin). Sounds complicated but it works very well indeed and the children enjoy it- I think there'd be mutiny if we tried to return to 'Once in Royal' now! I think this setting would work well at Midnight Mass as well- don't Westminster Cathedral do something similar...?

I'll second this- I discovered Paul Halley's music a few years back with the Nightwatch CD of Improvisations, and can also recommend 'Triptych', original Halley compositions for Organ, Piano and Harpsichord. I notice that these are now available on iTunes music store (search for 'Paul Halley'), as well as his arrangements recorded with his choirs 'Chorus Angelicus' and 'Gaudeamus' . I also really enjoy his Jazz/Gospel arrangements, many on the 'Sound over all waters' CD. There are also many CDs borne of collaboration with the saxophonist Paul Winter- organ and soprano sax is quite a haunting combination- including music from the annual Winter Solstice concerts at SJD. Search for 'Paul Winter', and though Halley is not always performing, many of the arrangements and compositions are his or partly his. Back on topic, I rather enjoy the Halley 'First Nowell' arrangement (also on iTunes store on Chorus Angelicus' 'What Child is this')- it's different! As you can tell, Hector, I'm also most definitely in the Halley/Winter fan club!

The Church of Ireland's 'Church Hymnal' (fifth edition, published by OUP) is very well worth a look. Plenty of good quality content, good musical editing (imho) and even where worship songs are included, they are often in a version suitable for organ and four part choir. There is no words only edition, either full music or words & melody. Contents here: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/ich2000.html Available here: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-147834-2 or cheaper at: http://www.allegro.co.uk/church-hymnal-fif...n-p-129086.html

The CD is Epiphanytide, I reckon- I'd agree that the Eccard (and Senex and Nunc Dimittis) are all on the CD for Candlemas/Presentation on 2nd Feb, but those readings are sometimes used, if my memory isn't failing, on one of the first two Sundays after Christmas if Epiphany doesn't get there first! Knowing the readings to be used would be helpful in planning the music. Another Magi carol, if you want to indulge, is Warlock's Bethlehem Down which I don't think anyone has mentioned.