ajt
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Posts posted by ajt
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What exactly does everyone use a Dulciana for? There is one on the Great at one of the churches where I play regularly, and I recently used it alone for the 1st time - after 33 years! - while improvising before a very late-starting service. On some organs I have tried it as an accompaniment for say the swell oboe, but it is invariably too quiet.
I have a Choir Dulciana, and never use it for anything on the Choir. However, it's borrowed on the pedal, and it's actually the most useful 16' pedal stop on the instrument, largely because it actually speaks, unlike a few of the others!
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Having been in the pipe organs business for 48 years I now play a good digital electronic thingy with a good speaker set up. This is fine for the needs of our village church (the congregation have cloth ears anyway) but such a relief to know the reeds will be in tune come what may. Likewise the Widor Toccata does not sound agressively continental with a sudden temperature change.
I played my old organ tonight, which is a toaster. First time I've played it in 3 months, since I took over a proper organ. I hadn't, until tonight, realised just how unrewarding that toaster is, particularly with the complete lack of acoustic in that church.
I was playing through wedding music for a couple, and everything just sounded, well, wrong. Clashy, and jangly, and lacking in depth.
Glad to hear that the digital organ works out for you.
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Greetings,
Generally speaking, I find that close-toned reeds such as Trombas or Tubas, or even Cornopeans like to go at the top, as well as many Oboes. French Horns absolutely need to be tuned at the top as well. The issue with these sorts of reeds is not so much that the pitch can't be changed at the spring, but rather how much (or little) adjustment can be made at the spring without upsetting the regulation of the pipe or even putting them off speech. Moller and Austin reeds are also quite stable being tuned at the top.
My tuner tunes mostly at the tops. I was sceptical about this at first, but, after he's been in, the organ sounds marvellous, so I'm a convert.
If only the church was properly heated, then I think the organ would stay that way! This weekend the vicar found that the heating hadn't been working, so decided to leave it on continuously from Saturday pm... I was left with not a single usable reed on Sunday morning.
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Is Geoffrey using CCP as a loan library? How really kind of him. Such a generous spirit, as always. What's the loan time, by the way?
NJA
No, it's not from CCP
It's a very kind loan of a rank that might have been destined for his house organ. -
Sorry, Adrian, got you muddled with someone else a bit there! Not that we've ever met.
No problem at all! Even my parents get my name wrong, and I'm an only child! I'm obviously just not memorable
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Dear Alastair,
Adrian
Your instrument (St.Mary's Southampton) certainly must have had enough wind once - evidence is there on the BBC CD! Some things take much more wind than others, and I would suggest that the first things you check for leaks are the stop and key action. Action wind tends to get the heaviest pressure available - that and (of course) your heavy reeds.Actually, if you listen carefully to his Wayneship's CD, then there is evidence of sag at the endings of some of the Liszt movements. He also had problems registering around the lack of wind; I know this from people who were "assisting" at the recording, including the tuners.
1. Corners, or even whole side joints of reservoirs. The best quality (i.e. most expensive) duck tape will fix these in an emergency. Obviously, a strong glue (best is Evo-stick impact) and leather/upholstery vinyl would be better.Yup, we've got a few side joints gone, particularly on the swell chests. Also the swell concussions are poor.
Good luck and don't give up. There's plenty of fun to be had out of such a job, even if everyone's agreed that there'll never be a rebuild out of church funds!Thank you.
BTW I still have that Flute Triangulaire, but it's coming up to Yorkshire in about a week if I don't hear from you or David C!Thanks again - I'm still trying to find out what was actually in there originally. It looks like it was a Claribel flute from physical evidence, but a lot of the paperwork I have from '56 suggests that it was always a Gedeckt... I've currently got 1.5 octaves of Claribel flute in there, on loan from Geoffrey Morgan, and it does make a lovely noise!
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If the Hohl Flute were on the piston before that, I might do it that way as well, because it's a matter of logic to add rather than substitute. Assuming all the usual things, for example they are in tune and that there is enough wind - not usually an issue on modern organs, bein all those built since the advent of blowing plant.
Oh, how I wish that were the case. My organ, built in 1956, is hideously under winded. I don't know if it's because the blower isn't big enough/knackered or if there are just too many leaks.
On a 70-odd stop organ, I use just 13 stops for full organ... The reeds are so huge that there's no audible difference with or without the chorus. Even that sags badly.
Those stops are:
Sw - Clarion, Trumpet, Waldhorn
Gt - Clarion, Tromba, Contra Tromba, OD 1
Ped - 32' Sub bass, 16' Violone, Contra Tromba 16 (ex-Gt), Contra Tuba 32 (ex Ch, enclosed), Double Tuba 16 (ex Ch, enclosed)
I would like to add a bit more of the Great chorus, but given that the above is unsustainable...
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I've heard Wachet Auf with the tune played on a 32' reed before - that was pretty, err, "interesting".
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For some strange reason, I was always under the impression that Cocherau was well-off and travelled to and from Paris to his home somewhere else....or is this pure fantasy?
I haven't got right through the dvd yet, but I believe he was head of the Nice Conservatoire and organist at Notre Dame.
Being able to *appear* rich, and actually being massively in debt doesn't seem to be that rare a feat... Perhaps his improvisation skills weren't restricted to the organ console?
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I'm with you there. Controversial, but one of my great allergies is Dupre - the early Preludes and Fugues are good, Choral and Fugue, Second Symphony and Tombeau de Titelouze - but things like Evocation and the Symphonie Passion (that Nativite movement especially), the Op 36 Ps and Fs and just about all the rest seem to me an utter waste of time. I am probably alone in this...
Nope, I'm with you on this. To be honest, I'm not particularly fond of much of that period in French organ music - I'm sure that others on here are now sucking their teeth in scorn at me
On a related note, I've recently been watching a DVD about Cochereau's life, which is very good, but the most interesting thing for me is the opening, which shows a number of newspaper headlines and TV bulletins about PC's death.
To my mind, here in the UK, the only way an organist would get on the TV news would be to do with charges of paedophilia. I appreciate that there's 20+ years between PC's death and the present day, but I don't recall ever seeing TV reports of famous organists dying. Is the culture that different in France with regards to the organ, or was PC just *so* famous?
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Has the Willis firm completely disappeared? It still has a web site. Admittedly, it hasn't been updated since June 2004, but the fact that it still exists means somebody is paying for the hosting. Didn't David Wylde buy the firm around 1998?
Yes, they're still going, and David Wyld is still in charge. I believe they're in the process of completing restorations in Port Sunlight and Lee-on-Solent ...
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I learnt a very good lesson at a Festival Hall recital given a few years ago by a well known concert organist about the need to start the Fugue in JSB's Fantasia & Fugue in G minor at a slower speed than one might otherwise wish. In the recital, the organist started the Fugue at a speed that simply was not sustainable once things got more complicated. The result was spectacular, rather like watching a car crash in slow motion as you gradually realise the inevitable is unavoidable.whol
That wouldn't be the same gentleman who recorded said same piece (542?) on my instrument for the BBC? The same chap who manages to play that Fugue well over a minute faster than my other 2 recordings? (4:52 as opposed to 6:07 !)
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Oh. Lord, that's bad.
"Wrestling Jacob" remains a prime choce for weddings in my book.
I always prefer Behold the bridegroom cometh....
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I have come across few lady organists. Are there any at Cathedral level? Or is it mainly a male preserve? Why are there not many females? Surely all-male choirs could do with a few young ladies to keep them on their toes... well at least to watch the conductors. I'm not looking for one by the way. I'm not made that way. So please tell me.
Sarah Baldock - Winchester, Rosemary Field - ex-Portsmouth, are 2 I can think of off the top of my head...
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Simply drawing conventional drawstops in that D H pattern would not lead to the effect seen in the photograph without the intervention of additional lighting but I am at a loss to explain how you could light to produce that effect.
Looks to me like they are illuminated drawstops, which I've seen on quite a few organs, usually toasters. I'm 99% certain that that is the case and that it's not Photoshopped.
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Jesu, Joy of man's desiring ranks a close third, as far as I am concerned.
Our boys hated it so much, they hid the copies (which we found about eighteen months later).
Unfortunately, to cover the gap, my boss decided, rather than replace the copies, he would purchase For the beauty of the earth, by Rutter.
Now our boys hate that one, too....
Goodall Psalm 23. I had a run of 5 weddings in a row - every bloody Saturday in August - same ****ing piece. Even the toaster objected - the pedals at one of the middle services decided that transposition was in order. But only of the pedals, and random intervals, anywhere up to a 4th. Quite disconcerting, because you start off thinking you just misplaced your feet. Then you start watching your feet, and it's just downhill from there...
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You reckon?
Yes.
It's not exactly got the same touch as a modern digital toaster, has it? And 3 manuals with quite different touches, too! -
Cunning! Thank you.
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hi Ade - you've lost me. How does "have a banana" fit in with Stanford in C?
Perplexed of Winchester
I wish this board had threading - we were talking about Sumsion in G Nunc, I thought.
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pcnd (I think it was) referred to Stanford in C. Quite recently I have introduced my own choir to Sumsion in G, you should hear how they sing when we come to the Gloria of the Nunc, its a natural reaction to the build up of the music.
Yes, I've had a similar experience with a young choir - they particularly latch on to the idea of "Have a banana" ...
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Bollocks to the congregation TALKING over the organ!
I once arrived at a chuch to play for a wedding to be buttonholed by the photographer demanding that I "don't play too loud at the end, 'cos I can't hear myself think if you do". Although I did not speak to the gentleman in question after the service (my cheery wave being greeted with a scowl), I am reasonably confident that the organ (another nice old Hill; N02068 to be precise) being played flat out was sufficiently audible to all concerned.
I can't believe the attitude of some people towards organ music. Even my parents, for example, just think it's a load of noise. And I've never played them any Messiaen!
It's amazing how memory plays tricks - it's only 6 months since I played that Hill I was talking about... Turns out it's tubular pneumatic, not tracker! N01946
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Langlais or big Chords reminiscent of Reger ! They soon get the message ! And if that dosen't work coupled up the Tubas or Chamades with Octaves for the Hymns they will be begging for mercy by the time the Wedding Service is over. With gasps of cursing from those dears oooh that Organist was too loud !
Hmmm, I played for a friend's wedding last year, on a beautiful 3-manual mechanical Hill. On the morning of the wedding, I got a text message from the bride saying that they now didn't want a CD to go out to, they wanted the ubiquitous Widor ... I managed to scavenge 10 minutes on the organ before the service to practice, at which the vicar marches up, and says
"How lovely to hear the organ instead of a CD. But, don't you think it's too loud?"
me: "No, I don't think so, it's supposed to be loud."
Vicar: "Well, the congregation won't be able to talk over you".
At which point I broke his nose. Well, ok, maybe not physically, but the mental image was there.
Which only made me, of course, draw even more stops (I'd been keeping the great reeds in reserve for the ending) for the whole thing. Bollocks to the congregation TALKING over the organ!
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organised DJ'ing, rap creating, computer music production, 'pop-idol' sessions which drew a lot of children in. We even had this ridiculous 'mat' with four arrows on it which the kids 'danced' onto accompanied by dance music in a sort of competition from a Playstation. It was very useful for teaching them about rythmn and timing.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing.
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My particular luck was a) in working as assistant to two brilliant choir trainers, from whom I learnt countless things and secondly when I arrived here in having a specialist child voice consultant ...
Precisely my point - the passing down of this knowledge relies on being assistant, or at least, having access to, someone who already knows what they are doing. Someone who, at one point, was assistant to someone else who knew what they were doing, etc. Then you go on to impart that knowledge to your assistant(s)... It's a great tradition, and works wonderfully well for cathedrals.
But, for those of us outside, barring a few larger, cathedral style parish churches, it's down to reading books and having singing lessons.
The RSCM is, of course, the organisation to which we look to provide this kind of training outside of the cathedrals.
So, what can we realistically expect them to provide? What is a practical way to train would-be choirmasters, outside of the assistant organist cathedral tradition?
It's a very kind loan of a rank that might have been destined for his house organ.
It's not exactly got the same touch as a modern digital toaster, has it? And 3 manuals with quite different touches, too!
Great Reed Of Choice:
in Nuts and bolts
Posted
I have a 16' Dulzian on the Swell - I'll try to dig out some pictures of it. Essentially it sounds like a mellower Contra Fagotto or such like.
I love it for creating a "full swell" effect at half the volume - the swell reeds are Dulzian 16, Oboe 8, Waldhorn 16, Trumpet 8, Clarion 4. The latter three totally dominate the flue work - there's very little point in having the 8 4 2 chorus drawn. However, with the Dulzian + Oboe + 8 4 2 (no Mixture), you get a lovely rich sound, perfect for choral accompaniment.