Vox Humana

I should imagine that most of the lay clerks were the same. In those days a lay clerkship at Windsor (and not only there) was a job for life. I hope at this distance in time it is not too indelicate to say that several that Campbell inherited were well past their best, but apparently impossible to remove. Things began to improve in the early '70s with death, retirements and the appointment of younger men with fine voices. Nevertheless, it remained a mixed bunch. I do not know whether Christopher Robinson managed the impossible, or whether it was simply natural retirement that did the trick, but he certainly transformed (and enlarged) the choir into one of the finest of its type in the country. Roger Judd's book on the organs is beautifully produced, very detailed and well worth having. Your account is correct. Initially, in 1927, Harrison was perfectly willing to co-operate with Rothwell, even to the extent of using his keyboards. He changed his mind when he learnt that Davies wanted Rothwell to be responsible for the consoles, the action and the pipework of the Choir Organ and three stops in the Swell, leaving Harrison with responsibility for the rest of the pipework, including its 'adaptation', and the wind supply and pressures (subject to mutual agreement). Harrison complained that this would give Rothwell four-fifths of the work and leave him virtually nothing to do with the building of the new organ. From a letter he wrote to the dean it seems that he was convinced that the dual console mechanism and soundboard construction would soon start causing trouble and that, despite his minor part in the rebuild, his firm's reputation would become tainted. So Harrison bowed out and Walker was engaged to co-operate with Rothwell instead.

What an interesting account. Thank you, Rowland. The Walker/Rothwell organ can be heard on this Evensong. It may be Clement McWilliam playing rather than Campbell, judging from the plain psalm accompaniments—although Campbell would still have been new in post, which might be an alternative explanation.

Ooh! Hobby horse time! 🙂 Regarding hymns, my view (one that I was indoctrinated with by far better people than me) is that the organist has no business mucking around with them. The whole raison d'être of hymns (except perhaps plainsong office hymns) is communal. Even cathedrals accept this. Hymns are the congregation's territory. The organist's job is to support and encourage that communal singing, not to distract them with fancy fripparies.* (For the same reason, I strongly disagree with using the last line for the play-over). Psalms are a different matter. They really do sound their best when delivered by choir and organ alone. It's the choir's job to deliver the 'story' and, insofar as the DoM feels it appropriate, the emotions enshrined therein. The organist's job is to enhance the moods. Personally, I'm all for a bit of variety of texture, etc to keep the proceedings alive. However, while some DoMs like vivid, dramatic psalmody, others prefer a more refined, less demonstrative approach. In the latter case, plainer accompaniments may well be in order. Horses for courses, I think. The Campbell style of accompaniment requires great expertise and musicianship. To do it completely off the cuff, as he did, the pointing and the harmony of the chants all must be memorised so that they are second nature. If you are having to read either the text or the notation for anything more than an aide-memoire you are going to be at a disadvantage, especially if you don't want your registration to be shackled to your piston settings. In the old days, cathedral organists acquired this familiarity as a matter of course. With psalmody now so diminished in many places it must be much less easy. Apologies for hijacking yet another thread. Back to YouTube. * I have to admit that my liking for occasional last verse harmonisations is entirely inconsistent with this view. I have no excuse. In continental countries where unison hymns are the norm it is routine for organists to vary the harmonies for every verse: there it is accepted and expected—but not here. Nor have I any objection to arrangements of hymns for special occasions—brass fanfare introductions, for example.

Oh, yes indeed! It's thrilling! I understand that CJR altered the accompaniment in the first quarter and his version has spread to one or two other places, e.g. Salisbury. I prefer SSC's original. If you have the published sheet, you will have seen his single chant for psalm 114, which is also very gripping. This printed version is incorrect. Campbell claimed that he wrote it out for Novello's from memory and got it wrong. I'm not sure that I quite believe that, but the version he used at Windsor was certainly far superior. The correct version is somewhere in the archives of the Anglican Chant group on Facebook.

John Porter was an exceptionally fine player and a great loss. He was an organ scholar under Campbell before becoming his assistant, so had plenty of time to absorb his ways. When I first heard the original LP in 1983, I thought, "Yes, I can absolutely hear Campbell's playing." Judging from this Evensong (the only one I can find with him accompanying), his psalms accompaniments were quite reminiscent of Campbell's manner, with regular re-spacing of the harmonic textures and descants, although perhaps not as liberal as Campbell used to be. It's very difficult to analyse, though, as it's mostly very discreet. The psalms begin at 1:13.

Campbell didn't write much. This is the full list, so far as I am aware. Exultate (OUP, 1956). This is in much the same vein as Gaudeamus, but is more of a carillon-toccata hybrid with the hands doing most of the work. Gaudeamus (OUP, 1956) Epilogue on a Gallery Carol (in A Christmas Album, OUP, 1956). This is a fine, short Christmas postlude on a tune beginning like ‘Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day’. If you like Gaudeamus, you should like this. Canterbury Improvisations (Novello, 1961) 1. Impromptu based on a French Church Melody. This is effectively a chorale prelude on ‘Grafton’. 2. Lento This is harmonically very degenerate, as Campbell effectively admits in a footnote, but it was his favourite style amongst a seemingly inexhaustible variety for improvising the choir into the stalls before a service. 3. Fugal Epilogue This does what it says, predominantly in 5/8 time. Canterbury Interlude ((Hinrichsen, 1962) Pageantry (Novello, 1962). I am very fond of this, even though it is a bit vulgar. There’s just a hint of the brass band about it. Variations on the Plainsong Vexilla Regis (Novello, 1962) As above John Porter’s interpretations linked above are definitive: he captured Campbell’s manner perfectly. In addition to these organ solos, the RSCM book of last verse harmonies has Campbell's arrangement of ‘Easter Song/Lasst uns erfreuen’, which I would go so far as to say is the most impressive last verse arrangement I know (which is remarkable, considering that Campbell didn't believe in last verse harmonies: he wrote it at Gerald Knight’s request). The only problems with it are (1) he sets the original A&M Standard rhythm whereas probably everyone nowadays uses the EH one with the extra beats (I did my own adaptation) and (2) it doesn't suit the modern fad for fast hymn speeds: it’s very much written with a cathedral acoustic in mind and requires a feeling for grandeur.

I recently stumbled across this performance of Sidney [not Sydney] Campbell’s Variations on the Plainsong ‘Vexilla Regis’. I never knew him to play, or promote, his own organ compositions, but he did once recommend these to me, saying that he would ‘like to hear them again’. I did eventually learn them, but not until after he had died. John Pryer makes them sound very well here. The acoustic helps. Campbell knew how to tailor his compositions for a big space: his impressive Te Deum, written at Canterbury for the enthronement of Archbishop Ramsey in 1961 is another example. Some of the registration indications in the variations – RH Cornet, LH Trumpet; pedal Schalmei 4’; fanfare reeds – seem tailor-made for his organ at Windsor, but the piece was published in 1962, three years before the Windsor organ was built. Perhaps he had Coventry in mind. (The sung opening is not part of the piece. Why did the singers not use the correct English version of the tune that Campbell did?)

Not forgetting Rochester Cathedral.

You took me there yourself. It was just the two of us, so I think it must have been a second visit for you. I always wondered how you got to hear about it.

My book says that commas in an address may be omitted (my italics). I was taught at school to use them in addresses, but I no longer do so because it seems superfluous to demarcate separated lines. On the other hand, my daughter asked me this week to arbitrate an argument she was having at work about the punctuation of individual bullet points, viz capitals or not; commas or full stops? I had to admit that I wasn't 100% sure: I'm not sure they had been invented when I was at school. So I looked it up. Basically, bullet points are just a display format and do not affect the underlying grammar. The sentence is punctuated in the same way, irrespective of whether the sentence is printed in normal, running text, or whether bullets are used. I think that's what I've been doing... 🥴

There's a very fine Salve regina by John Bull, although, strictly speaking, it's an alternatim setting requiring plainsong interpolations.

Ah, so you've met my psychiatrist... 😎

Especially if shaken, not stirred, I imagine. (We really have gone off-topic, haven't we? Mea cupla.)

I remember a None on Peter Collins's organ at Shellingford, Oxon, way back c.1968-9, but I can't remember any more about it other than that I wasn't entirely convinced. NPOR tells me that it was subsequently replaced by (turned into?) a 1' Sifflöte.

The first movement of Messiaen's Les Corps Glorieux is based on the Salve regina - not that you'd recognise it simply by listening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_NGyXvyER4&pp=QAA%3D

Ah, thank you. That will be more up-to-date. I ought to get it. It's interesting how many different forms of guidance Oxford issue. I hope they all agree...

Thank you, Martin. Your previous post overlapped with mine, so I have only just seen it. The book I was referring to is somewhat different to your link; it's basically what used to be 'Hart's Rules' - now out of print: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Guide-Style-Language-Reference/dp/0198691750/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Oxford+guide+to+style&qid=1599848088&sr=8-3

The Oxford Guide to Style is unexpectedly silent concerning the plurals of nouns adopted from other languages - so far as I can see, anyway. It has always seemed logical to me to retain the native plurals for nouns that are still treated as foreign and thus printed in italics, but to pluralise nouns that have become fully assimilated into English and are thus printed in Roman (such as forum and syllabus) as if they were English - except where it is the plural itself that has become naturalised: no one talks of an agendum or a datum.

A collection I rate very highly is Carl Piutti's 200 Choral Preludes. The only downsides are that few of the tunes are used in Britain and the pieces are all a little bit on the short side (being intended as functional chorale preludes). Other than that, the pieces are professionally crafted, mostly very-to-quite easy and mostly very attractive in the classical Romantic vein - so Brahms is the style that springs most readily to mind (although a couple, such no. 45 Es ist das Heil, are almost Wagnerian). There are many real gems. The score is on IMSLP. Don't be put off by the dense look of the notation. None of the music is really fast and much of it is slow and atmospheric. There is a modern edition published by Bärenreiter in several volumes, but avoid this like the plague. Many of the pieces have been transposed down to suit modern German usage, often with disastrous results in the Pedal part where Cs have to become Bs, and every volume is copiously infused with misprints - or at least the original printings were; I've no idea whether subsequent ones were corrected.

This is excellent news.

As I admitted above, I do this a lot, but the downside is that, if I only read the emails and not the post on the forum, I miss any edits that are subsequently made. I say this one who is almost incapable of saying what I want to say first go - though maybe people aren't missing anything important.

I mentioned the Wayback Machine as a possibility on the new site. However, after experimenting a bit I concluded that it would not be a practical way of attempting to archive the Mander Forum. Basically, you can only archive individual pages, so, for the thing to work, you would need to archive every single page that ever existed and then remember the date on which it was archived in order to be able to find it again. However, if the webmaster knows a way of doing that easily...

Ah, that explains a lot. The discrepancy was very noticeable at the console. As you say, the Positive was beautifully voiced and the console was indeed extremely comfortable. Synchronisation problems apart, I thought the HNB organ was very fine. Dudley Holroyd thought it was superb. Yes, please do!

Hear, hear!

I'll be blunt. I would not be willing to pay an ongoing subscription fee unless it is quite nominal. In any case, even if I were, I don't know how much longer I am likely to live and I know there are members who are older than I am. Is a subscription basis really viable?