Vox Humana

Perhaps that begs questions about current attitudes to music tuition in state schools in our governments and to church-going and choirs amongst the general public. A complicated picture, I suspect. The days when ordinary parish church choirs had large enough top lines to breed a steady trickle of organists seem long over.

Does that price suggest effectively a new organ? One wouldn't come amiss...

Perhaps it's also worth mentioning that football spectators still need to be socially distanced with total numbers limited to 25% of the stadium's capacity, up to a maximum of 10,000. What actually happens in practice I can't say as I have no interest in the sport. But why socially distanced amateur choirs are not also allowed I cannot guess, except that it seems entirely typical of the Keystone Cops style of government we have had to endure.

It's fine for me. (I'm using a desktop.)

I can only echo the comments above. We have lost an exceptional organist who was always worth hearing.

And does it contain a fugue? But of course! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JerkzA43OI

I was thinking only the other day that he has fallen out of favour. A pity that, as his organ sonatas are all first rate and very well written for the instrument - although IMO they are very much better suited to neo-classical organs than the Romantic ones he apparently had in mind. Hearing his organ concerto (played by Marie-Claire Alain, I think) on what was probably still then called 'The Third Programme' was the first Hindemith I ever heard. I was totally unprepared for his style of chromaticism. It remains the only time a piece of music has given me motion sickness.

Indeed it was—in 1971. https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio3/entries/7a95ff16-7e1e-368b-9e7e-e28114fca08b

This interpretation of the 'Dorian' is right on the nail for me. Speed, articulation and organ all first class. I do like the way Leo van Doeselaar carries the trill on the top E in bar 29 to carry right through to the end - but it's a pig to do; it took me weeks to get it right.

Hells bells, and I thought I played the 'Dorian' toccata fast. It works, though. Nice organ, too. One thought. Shouldn't the canonic chorale in O Lamm Gottes BWV 618 be double pedalled? Bach's MS seems to imply this, or at lease permits this interpretation. The chorale parts are notated at sounding pitch so must be played an octave lower on a 4' stop.

Guidance is there for people's safety - in theory, anyway. Throughout this pandemic people have been ignoring governmental safety advice when they find it inconvenient. Nothing new there. But the issue here is: why is the government treating amateur singers and professionals differently? What is the logic? I can guess, but had better not do so here.

The composer Lord Berkeley had something to say about this to the House of Lords last Tuesday (starting from 19:04:20 in the link): https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/7ef38a00-f644-4567-bb19-090a97b48563?fbclid=IwAR2XSEj0O18VA6hq9KiKHhP0CYyhzY52rueThXWhn7IqViToVQbMbTqQWuU

It's great! I used to look forward to that when it appeared in the music lists of my youth. Does anyone still do it? As I recall, it's not difficult and the ascetic texture (basically two-part, S+T, A+B ) makes for a pleasant change.

So the recitative intro in CfC3 is a Willcocks confection then?

You may! 🙂

Here is 'Wengen'. It was more tricky to find than I expected! https://archive.org/details/hymnsancientmode0000unse/page/552/mode/2up

O little town of Bethlehem Perhaps the standard hymn book of the Church of England at the end of the nineteenth century was Hymns Ancient and Modern. This was first published in 1861. In 1875 some 'Supplemental Hymns' were added and, in 1889, yet more in a 'Second Supplement'. This second supplement included the carol 'O little town of Bethlehem' to Walford Davies's tune 'Wengen'. I do not know whether this was its first publication, but searching other hymn books (many of which are online in the Internet Archive) would likely be the best place to test this. His tune 'Christmas Carol' appeared in the hymn book Songs of Praise (Oxford University Press), at least in the second edition (I do not have the first and neither seems to be available online). Songs of Praise gives just a plain, four-part arrangement of the tune with this name. Who gave the tune the name 'Christmas Carol' I do not know. Walford Davies's 'original version' is reprinted (from where I don't know), without any name for the tune, in Carols for Choirs 3 (Oxford University Press, 1978). This original version starts with a recitative introduction and the first two verses are unison or solo.

Yes, it seems to have keeled over. It was working when I posted - I checked the link.

I have mentioned this organ before. Rebuilt out of all recognition a few years ago, it was one of Hele's (or was it Dicker's?) more interesting efforts, being, for its modest size, a surprisingly effective orchestral concept. The reeds were not loud. Adding the Swell Cornopean to a flue ensemble gave the effect a whole orchestral string section joining the ensemble. The Great Trumpet was also more of colouring agent than a climax stop. No high pressure stop, it was quite thin toned—just the thing, in fact, for English Baroque trumpet voluntaries. As a solo stop it was quite useless. Until you added the Gt Open Diapason. This both filled out the tone and blended perfectly, producing a perfectly adequate, louder solo Trumpet. The problem then was that you didn't have all that much left with which to accompany it. I am not sure how well this ploy would work with louder, fuller-toned Trumpet stops: I've never had to try it.

I think the answer to that is 'on the whole, very well': http://trinitycollegechapel.com/services/service-list-archive/ No music is fatally compromised by a lack of 32's and there is more than enough quality music out there that doesn't require a Tuba. But sometimes you just wish...:

Having played St John's for a choir concert, what I can say is that it is somewhat underpowered—a result, I am led to believe, of the pipework being crammed into a relatively small space. I do like to be able to use the Sw Celestes on their own, but this was quite impractical with a choir singing. Of course one adjusts one's registration and you have to expect any organ to have its individual quirks—isn't that part of the fun? On that brief acquaintance, I thought it a fine instrument and comfortable to play. But I don't doubt that, if I had to play it daily, I would become aware of a greater range of drawbacks. I don't have that intimate knowledge, so I'm in no position to judge. Nevertheless I wonder how that Willis will fit in. I hope it won't go to the opposite extreme.

Online here, but it doesn't give anything away. https://johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk/articles/love-music/

But I've done it with a violinist. 😄

Thanks for that, Contrabombarde. My info was well out of date, it seems!

This is an old bone of contention. It depends how you measure them. Atlantic City has more manuals and stop-keys, but is just a monumental extension organ. The Wannamaker has more pipes and individual ranks. Don't the Americans tend to use the latter method? I'm sure someone can tell me. As for Rheinberger, when I was teenager I found his slow movements impossibly tasteless and sentimental, but I very much used to enjoy playing the fine last movement of Sonata no.12 and, of course, the Introduction and Passacaglia from no.8, having been inspired to learn it by Douglas Guest's recording of the old Harvey Grace edition. Ruth Gipps used to upbraid me regularly for my far-too-austere tastes (I didn't much care for the First Viennese School either!) and was forever exhorting me to 'Go and listen to Cosi!' or Wagner and, indeed, the whole orchestral and chamber repertoire in order to widen my musical horizons. I used to get the same from Sidney Campbell. They were wise people, of course. These days I am more tolerant—though, I am sure, still not enough to meet their approval. At any rate, there is plenty of mainstream music out there that is far weaker and more squidgy than anything Rheinberger wrote. His music is always well-crafted. If anything lets him down, it's that his themes tend to lack the strong character that would make his music truly memorable—at least to my mind—and in his sonatas there always seems to be one movement that lets the side down. Sonata no.4, for example, has a very fine first movement that could almost be from a Brahms symphony (it's not difficult, either) and an attractive slow movement (if a little queasy), but ends with a tedious fugue whose subject is just a chromatic scale that descends through a whole octave without any rhythmic interest.