gazman
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Posts posted by gazman
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Aw, Patrick! My toungue was at least a bit in my cheek, you know!
Joking aside, I'm fortunate with my "home team" who - generally - preach very well and are worth listening too. But, sometimes, some visiting clergy can be painful....
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And, also, that sermons take place half-way through a service, not after the blessing and dismissal. Mind you, I sometimes wish they'd preach them there instead so I could creep out....!
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I can see the other side of the coin, though....
To most people, organ voluntaries are quite irrelevant. They have done their worship, sung the last hymn, received the blessing and are ready to depart. I'm sure they'd wonder why they'd have to sit and listen to an instrument to which they'd never normally bother to listen.
Whereas most of us probably take care to play pieces which are relevant to the theme of the day, this is totally irrelevant to 99.999999 per cent of those in the congregation. The organ voluntary might be part of our worship, but I can imagine that they would think it wasn't part of theirs!
EDIT: Just noticed a bit of dreadful spelling!
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I was very pleased to see that everyone, including the priest, sat in silence and listened to the organ voluntary.
I may have told this story here before. If so, I apologize for repeating myself!
A number of years ago I was organist at a church which had a well-known annual fayre. The church had a tradition of having an organ recital at the beginning of the fayre, which was well attended.
I was giving the recital, and I heard loud talking. It got louder and louder and was so bad that I had to stop playing and to see what was going on. The audience was looking flabbergasted!
It turned out that one of the NSPs had decided to give a guided tour of the church to a group of people! I asked him if he'd noticed that we had a church full of people listening to an organ recital. He said that it sounded very nice, and wouldn't disturb his guided tour too much as long as I didn't play too loudly! He wasn't very pleased when I insisted - forcibly! - that he desisted his wretched guided tour until the end of the recital.
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Frigging heck!
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That's naughty! It reminds me that when the first distant ancestor of The Foghorn was built in 1735, the money for both the organ and the organist was raised by subscription. The major donor left further money in his will and the interest on the fund thus created and invested - which had charitable status - continued to help pay the organist's salary until 1924 when Harry Moreton (I'm sure it must have been he) persuaded the church to blow all the capital on an electric blower for the organ. When in 1951 the Charity Commission demanded to know what had become of the fund, a lot of squirming on the vicar's part ensued. The protracted correspondence leaves an indelible image of toilets and bricks!
Back to the music. You might find some suitable material here. I've not tried them, but Rink's variations on the National Anthem look as if they could be stomach-churningly entertaining.
Thanks Vox!
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Absolutely agree with that. I freely admit that my tastes are a bit too serious for my own good.
Yup, an "Evening with Messiaen" is unlikely to attract them. Well, they might come once.....
Probably a bit late for "Moonlight and Roses", but they'll love it even so.Actually, that's worth thinking about....! Thanks!
Ah. So about £10 then.
Nope, about two and six, actually....!
Joking aside, I used to give weekly organ recitals at the church, the proceeds going towards the organ fund. My idea was that the money would be reserved for future maintenance work on the organ as and when it needed it. And then, a couple of years or so ago, I read the minutes of a PCC meeting where the "organ fund" was discussed and discovered that the treasurer was using the money from the organ fund - which I had raised in weekly recitals - to pay me my stipend. I wasn't best pleased, as you can imagine.....
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Congratulations, Gareth.
Thank you, Vox!
Of course you'll have to continue being a tasteless blighter for evermore....That's the danger, of course. But I think there's something to be said for giving them something of "what they want"! If I want to get people to enjoy organ music which they'd normally probably not bother to listen to, it's only fair that I also give them music which will immediately delight them - it can only make them more receptive, and get them "on side".
Hey, well done and the bravery paid off! The Rawsthorne always goes down quite well. The secret with those type of pieces is in the length. I've heard so many attempts at 'comedy/quotation' pieces, and they nearly all go on too long.Yes, agreed. Thanks, Guilmant!
I expect you'll be canvassing ideas for the next one soon.Well, I'm calling October's one "Autumn Thoughts". We're looking at a colourful programme to reflect the colours of Autumn, so suggestions would be welcome. I'd also be grateful for anybody who might be able to lend a copy of the Jongen to save me purchasing one.......!
And November's concert - the last in the series for this year - is a request recital, so I know that BWV 565 and THE Widor will be on the cards!
How much did you raise....or is that classified information.Shall we just say that the church's treasurer won't need to worry about where my "salary" is coming from for a number of weeks yet?
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Thank you Peter and Malcolm. Yes, I did have a whale of a time and I was stopped by two different people in town this morning who told me how much they'd enjoyed the concert. I hope they'll come back....
Come on, Peter! When did any self-respecting organist get through dinner with only one or two bottles of wine?Hic!
Yes, the dinner, wine (and beer!) afterwards were all A1 too!
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Anyway Gareth, whatever your programme is do post it here please!
Ok, here goes, but I'm expecting everybody to say what a tasteless blighter I am! Bear in mind, though, folks, that I'm out to try and win friends for the organ in my part of the world, and to bring in people who would normally probably prefer to read a telephone directory or to watch paint dry than attend what they would normally consider to be an "organ recital". And, hopefully, to get them to return too....
This evening's concert attracted a full church of people with Union Jacks and all manner of instruments to make noise which they used at appropriate moments (and some inappropriate moments too!) with great gusto.
And we were fortunate to have an excellent soprano perform as part of the concert as well. Here's the programme....
Liberty Bell - Sousa (arr GLP)
Toccatina for the flute - Yon
Laughing song (Die Fledermaus) - J Strauss
Mimi's solo from Act 1 of La Bohéme - Puccini
Prelude in Classic Style - Young
Jerusalem (with audience participation)
Jewel Song (from Faust) - Gounod
Gigue Fugue - Bach (á la Virgil Fox, with the audience clapping in time, sounding hooters, blowing whistles, shaking rattles &c as soon as the first pedal entry arrived. And, yup, I'm told we had several people spontaneously get up and dance!)
Interval
The Entertainer - Scott Joplin (arr GLP)
Berceuse - Godard
Land of Hope & Glory + Extemporizations (With audience singing along and waving flags. We had the first verse in G, followed by an extemporization on various submitted themes (Skye Boat Song, Waly Waly, Greensleeves, National Anthem (in G minor!), Auld Lang Syne, Londonderry Air, all of which the audience joined in singing), before singing another verse (in B flat this time), followed by yet more submitted themes for extemporization (There'll always be an England, O God our help in ages past, English country garden, Sailor's hornpipe and the Prince of Denmark's March, and lots more singing), before finishing off with Land of Hope & Glory in C!
Waltz song from Romeo and Juliet - Gounod
Nimrod - Elgar (arr Harris)
Rule Britannia - Arne
Hornpipe Humoresque - Rawsthorne
(Encore:- O mio babbino caro - Puccini. They'd have happily had more than this. They kept shouting "More Organ!" but we'd already booked a table at a local restaurant which stopped serving at 9.30. As it was, we had to send a "scout" ahead to tell the restaurant we were running late and to ask them to keep our table for us!)
I don't think Paignton has ever had such a large number of people turn out for an organ recital, and they seemed to absolutely love it, especially all the opportunities they had to join in. As I type this, I'm listening to the recording we made of this and we're on the Gigue fugue, and it's great fun hearing me trying to manfully battle on whilst they blow whistles, cheer and clap!
I can honestly say that I can't remember the last time I enjoyed performing a concert quite as much as this. The audience loved every minute of it, and were incredibly warm and receptive throughout. I hope I've been able to persuade them that it's worthwhile attending organ concerts. Perhaps the complimentary glass or two of wine helped too.....!
An added bonus is the hefty amount of money taken at the door which I shall be handing on to the church treasurer. And I've never before experienced an "organ recital" where people have been cheering and shouting "more" quite so enthusiastically!
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Should the early and late Brahms works be treated as a unity, from the point of view of registration, performance practice etc?
That raises a very good point indeed.
Even in our time, what about those (albeit rather minor) composers who seemed to have in mind a neo-classical spitting machine 40 years or so ago, and might have something different in mind more recently...
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As it is, we're going to be using Land of Hope and Glory. However, I'm not playing the rest of the Pomp and Circumstance march. This is what I'm intending to do instead: I shall ask the audience beforehand to suggest some "patriotic" pieces. We'll sing a verse of Land of H&G, and then I'll improvise on some of those themes they suggest, before returning to LOHG, up a tone or so, and then improvise on some more themes, before returning again to LOHG again up a further tone or so, and so on, depending on how many themes are suggested.
Ok, I know, utterly tasteless! But I bet the audience will love it......!
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What about something like Walton's Crown Imperial March? A bit 'Land of Hope and Glory'ish.
I hadn't thought of that! Thanks!
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St Paul's Square in Birmingham boasts The Rectory, which has caused bemused expressions when visitors are invited to join us over in the rectory for a few pints afterwards
I guess that's after my time! There was a pub immediately at the end of the bit of road that leads to the church car parking, but I can't recall what that was called. Perhaps that's too much sampling of the same....
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(ps. Posting this from google's brand new web-browser, Chrome. Very very slick indeed!)
Yup, it appears to be miles ahead of IE8 in terms of speed, doesn't it! I wondered whether IE8's (and IE7's) incompatibility issues with Google where a ploy against Google by Microsoft and think that, if they were, Google is now going to come out on top!
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they should bear another name.
Agreed! Suggestions....?
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In theory this may be so; however, in practice, the fairly new instruments at Christchurch Priory and Sherborne Abbey do not bear this out.
In contrast, Chichester Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral (Oxford) are extremely comfortable to play, even when everything is coupled to everything else. In fact, at Chichester, I actually switched off the electric coupling when playing for a full Sunday last January. I played the Fugue from the Choral Fantasy on Wachet auf by Reger after Evensong and I found it perfectly acceptable - and very clean. This really is a superb organ.
Yes, there are always exceptions. But I think we can agree that it's much more likely for a modern tracker organ to be lighter in touch than most similarly sized instruments built in Victorian times!
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Are there any recitals on in central London during the day on Saturday?
Unfortunately there are none listed in www.organrecitals.com.
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One of my churches owns the pub just at the end of the churchyard, and leases it to the landlord.
Unfortunately, I've not been able to persuade them that free beer should be one of the perks of the organist.
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I suspect that this thread may well be deleted as the previous one on this subject suddenly disappeared......
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The organ in question is a older style Wyvern which as you say replaced a very ropey old Makin. It is about to be upgraded to a Wyvern Phoenix instrument. Installation is due at about the end of the month. I don't know if there is any improvement to be made to the facade though.
Thanks for those details. It'll be interesting to hear the new upgrade.
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Stvens Irwins' Dictioany of Pipe Organ Stops gives the following:
DULCET: A soft Dulciana at 4' on the manuals, intended to supply the octave form of the Dulciana or Dolcan. It may be called Dulcette or Echo Octave. The 2' rank would therefore rightly be called Dulcetina.
It is also interesting to note that a 4' Salicional is called a SALICET, and the 2' derivative a SALICETINA. I think that this should settle the matter!
Thank you for that confirmation Bombarde32! Good point about the Salicet too.
But it's been fun discussing it though!
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The Dulciana does not belong to the Strings family, but to the Principals.
That all depends upon the organ builder, though. Whilst it was so when Green introduced it (and I personally prefer a Dulciana to sound like more like a small-scale diapason than a string), they sometimes are voiced somewhat more like a Salicional.
I appreciated your joke, JC!
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Central Church, Torquay. When the most recent toaster was installed (to replace a large 4 decker 1970s Makin) they decided to install a row of pipes on a wall! And this display is the ugliest thing you could ever imagine. Why on earth they bothered I don't know.
Playing Too Loud In Sydney?
in General discussion
Posted
That's very true. On the other hand, I've come across organists who have taken pains to rehearse the voluntary when they might have been better off spending a bit of time on learning the rest of the service music instead.....!