ajt

Well, for a start, you know me, and I know you know that I'm on the local committee.

As a member of the local (i.e. to David and Colin) RSCM committee, I feel obliged to say that we ARE trying to do something about supporting local church musicians. Basically, we're going out to churches and trying to offer them practical assistance/advice or just a friendly face. Please note that whatever I say is not under the official banner of the RSCM, though - I'm just a volunteer who has no official connection with the RSCM, save that I'm on a regional committee. In other words, the comments that follow are my opinions only. What has to be borne in mind is that the RSCM is about promoting and enabling music in all churches (in fact, it's not even specific to churches) in the country. It is not about promoting Anglican church music. A considerable number of churches in this country are, sadly, not run by professionally trained musicians, etc, etc. So, the RSCM has to appeal to this market, or at least respond to demand. The RSCM runs 3 educational strands: 1. Voice for Life 2. Skills of the Church Musician 3. Sacred Music Studies Voice for Life is, obviously, about singing, and promoting it everywhere - schools, communities, churches, in a structured fashion, and providing teachers/choir trainers with the resources to make this easy. Skills of the Church Musician is about providing practical training for people involved in Church Music, and, I guess, this is the banner under which the short organ courses would come. It is my opinion that many RSCM affiliated church musicians are in a post where the church has very little money, they themselves are either not paid, or not very well paid, and where playing the organ or making church music is not their primary role in life. Therefore, forking out a reasonable sum of money and taking a week off their day job is not something that they're likely to do in a hurry. Therefore, I can see why the interest was low, and why the RSCM might not have put all their resources behind it - I honestly don't know what the situation is here. I have considered attending these courses myself, but I would expect my church to pay for the course, and then I would have to consider whether I could countenance taking a week off my day job to take up the opportunity. Not all (many?) of us having the luxury of being retired or of being able to count church music as a full time job. For the likes of David, who is a full-time organist, it's money well spent, and he no doubt benefited greatly from it. However, I would contend that this kind of course should be run by a body such as the RCO - i.e. the people who are supposed to be specialists in the organ world. In other words, leave the RSCM to do what it's doing, i.e. trying to help the majority, and get bodies such as the RCO, St. Giles' and Oundle do the speciality masterclasses.

Thanks for the long and helpful response! I shall look into costs for getting new bearings etc - obviously I still need to find out specifics on what's wrong with it! Fortunately, the blower room is completely separate from the main body of the church and thus the organ - unless you can crawl up through the blower output tube, the organ should be reasonably safe. Stuart Fothergill is the current maintainer of both the blower and humidifer, and hence the person I need to track down to get specifics. Yes, you are right - St. Mary's, Southampton, and yes, it runs out of wind. Thanks again!

Apparently, at last week's annual maintenance, the blower was found to be "on its last legs". I don't know, yet, exactly what this means, but given that it's the original blower that was installed in '56, and, knowing how the rest of the project was begged and borrowed from other sources, it wouldn't surprise me if the blower wasn't new when installed. Is there a source for second hand blowers out there? I'm guessing that a new blower will be in the order of £10,000 + (for a large 3 manual instrument)...

No change there!

Back to Turner Sims again?

More than one, I'm certain. Mine is an extension of the choir 8' tuba. The bottom of the pipes run out of the bottom of the box, but the dampening effect of closing the box is very impressive. See: http://www.laudachoir.org/organ/gallery/large-20.html http://www.laudachoir.org/organ/gallery/large-21.html http://www.laudachoir.org/organ/gallery/large-22.html

I don't think I've ever found a situation where having an enclosed great was helpful - the toaster I played for 5 years was enclosed gt/pedal, and I never used it. However, I enjoy having my 32' pedal reed enclosed on my current instrument - with the box shut it's quite usable underneath a small choir, with the box open, it destroys everything in its path.

I'm not sure that they do offer any extra expression, just different. Given the choice, I'd rather have a balanced pedal, but the ISG's are fine by me. Of more concern is the general crescendo pedal in the same bank as the 2 swell pedals - no switch to turn it off - I've only once caught it by mistake, but I've heard other visitors swearing at it when they think they're going for a big opening of the swell box on swell strings, and end up with full organ instead! It's nice having these little indicator lights progress upwards though, rather like some sort of warp drive indicator. I came in to play the other day and found that the lady that had been in to practice for a funeral had resolutely shut both boxes (on a very hot day - gee, thanks!), but left the general crescendo as wide open as possible. (The general cresc pedal behaves like a normal balanced pedal, the other 2 are sprung - I guess she thought she was leaving the box open :-) ) Another oddity is the full organ foot switch - I'd expect this to be somewhere in the vicinity of the right hand end of the pedal board, like a "32ft reed" switch. Nope, it's on the left hand side of the swell boxes, very high up, so that you can't see it when playing. Weird place for it.

It's a bit odd, because despite gauges, you don't really know where the shutters are when playing (unless you want to keep glancing down to your left). Once you get used to the instrument, though, they're quite good - very easy to get a very slow and smooth crescendo/decrescendo. Talking to David Wyld of Willis earlier in the week, he implied that there a couple of other churches that still have them, plus Liverpool.

You should come try mine if you want original HWIII. It's had 2 changes since it was built in '56, both done by HWIII - a Claribel swapped out for a Gedeckt and a Vox Humana for a Cymbel Mixture. Other than, it's as it was built, complete with infinite swell & gradation pedals and ancient EM Skinner divisional piston electrics, etc. If you're ever down this way, do come try it... http://www.laudachoir.org/organ/Specification.html

Query for those in the North of England ... What choirs would you recommend in the Kirkbymoorside area? Friends of mine are moving up there tomorrow, a family of 4, all musical, 2 of whom are looking for choirs to join in the area. Church or secular... (Bass + Mezzo (16), both good sightreaders) Thanks, Adrian

Andy. Yes. The man is a genius. And such a nice chap.

I really like the Widor V at a sedate pace. I've got a Peter Hurford recording at 6:26, which is really well articulated.

Ah - I have the online/PDF version of the syllabus which says "Attention is drawn to the rubric concerning Pieces, Editions and Copyright on p. 5". I've downloaded all the other syllabi, and still can't find a page 5 ! I don't espcially want to use Novello - but I do have the compete set ; a gift from a relative. Shame really, 'cos I prefer Breitkopf

Yeah, he's sickening - just sits down and rattles off all these things from memory. Don't you hate talented people?

And phrased properly and articulated. I recently discovered a tape that was made of me playing the Allabreve when I was about 15. It was so dull - just a collection of legato notes, with no attempt to understand the music. I'm considering taking the ARCO next year. The Bach List looks remarkably straightforward - Trio in D minor (583), Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, C major fugue (545), A major Prelude (536) (amongst others). Just how fussy are the examiners? I note that they're fussy about editions - Novello not allowed, for example.

The tab couplers are a bit of a pain, 'cos there's no logical layout - well, there is logic, but the couplers aren't grouped with the stops which they affect. Most people are used to looking for couplers to "Great" under the great stop jamb, for example. As opposed to traversing left to right through the coupler bank to find the one you want. I'm slowly getting used to them - haven't quite got the swell oct->pedal mastered. (Handy, 'cos there's no 4' pedal reed) The inifite gradation pedals are ace. Since sending one of the gauges off to be refurbed, I've really enjoyed using them blind...

What a wonderful thing modesty is

Euuugh. Time for a hot shower - thinking about you oozing charm wasn't good . I quite often get requests for the Imperial March from Star Wars - I've played it at least 3 times this year already! It is around the time for the star wars generation to get married, I suppose. Myself included.

Pah, if you're not in the peripatetic virtuosi class, what hope for the rest of us mere mortals? Or did you mean that you're just not peripatetic?

Not that I wish to advertise for anyone, but if anyone's looking for a similar tool (i.e. to turn CD tracks into MP3's), then pcnd and I just found that Easy CD-DA Extractor seemed to do the trick on Windows... (http://www.poikosoft.com/)

Your best bet is to get an mp3 ripper, something like http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/ (I've never tried it, not being a Windows man - this was just the first thing that google threw up). Rip the tracks you want to mp3, then e-mail them to me, I'll stick 'em on my website so you can link to them. Oh, and Wimborne. I agree with you. As I've said on this board before, it's an instrument that I'd love to hear/play in a bit more of an acoustic, but noone can realistically argue that it's not an instrument of quality with superlative voicing.

The last time I played there, the H&H was barely used, barely usable, and not at all maintained. This was about 15 years ago, I guess - I think the organist at the time was David Norris?

Yup. Part of my budget plans will be to include both an ongoing maintenance budget, and a 10% extra lump, which will sit in a high-ish interest account, and be supplemented by a small sum each year, such that, next time there's something major that needs doing, there is a substantial sum in the bank.