ajt
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Posts posted by ajt
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I have never heard of this happening elsewhere.
My usual experience of churchwardens on power trips (which this sounds like) is that they are usually "out to get somone", and should be shot on sight. If I were you, I'd try to find out exactly why they think it's a good idea (PCC minutes would be a good place to start), and find who they're targetting and why. Of course, I could be completely wrong, and you just have a management consultant on the PCC
You might also want to have a chat with the area Archdeacon about the churchwardens getting ideas above their station.
An appraisal can be either a positive or negative thing, though. Any half decent appraisal will concentrate on the things that you do well and developing you in areas that you and "your manager" deem you need improvement in.
It's presumably the case that the churchwardens don't have any expertise by which to judge your professonal abilities?
Do they have any management experience?
If the answer to both is NO, then you really can't be appraised by them.
I would also hazard a guess that you are employed neither by the churchwardens, nor the vicar.
Most organist appointments are made by the PCC - the vicar might make the selection, but the PCC has to approve it, rather like Parliament and the Queen passing Acts ..
Any appraisal, if you're going to have one, should be performed by the vicar and a representative from the PCC (presumably the churchwardens are the appointed representatives in this case).
The Vicar is the only person who has the power to hire and fire. He is the person you should talk to about such underhand methods from the PCC. NMost organist contracts are with the PCC - therefore the PCC has the power to hire and fire.
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My account was from JB so probably he had the best seat! (a good player though - 'best of luck in the new place - what are they doing at StMs?
AJJ
Unknown what the future is at St. Mary's. Current deal is 2 trad and 2 worship songs per week, vicar would like a more contemporary Anglo-Catholic worship style, so I've recommended that they produce a very tight job spec to get the right candidate. The problem is, of course, that this stlye of worship/music is in conflict with the very traditional choir (of about 4) who will probably all remember you, given that many of them remember the previous church...
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This takes me back to many a happy hour as an undergraduate experimenting with the weird and wonderous noises on this machine. Quite a lot of my music still has the registration marked in. A predecessor of yours played all six trio sonatas in one concert and by all accounts it sounded really quite acceptable!
AJJ
Jeremy Blandford? The accounts I've heard were, err, that it was a mushy blur!
Not mine for much longer - I finish on Easter Day.
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Swell strings + 16' Dulzian + 8' Hautboy + Sub + Octave (box half shut) accompanied by Pedal Contra Tuba 32 (box shut), 32' acoustic bass and selection of 16'.
Whatever you do, don't open the choir box on this registration ('cos the Contra Tuba turns into a road drill and obliterates the first 5 rows of the congregation)
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On paper, it looks very special indeed. Tenor C swell?
I'm surprised you haven't got in the car already ...
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The priest is in contact with some fellow from down south who has on occasion come up to Scarthingwell to look at it and then not done anything about it. I have to remind the priest on a weekly basis to get something done. So far, he hasn't.
What's actually wrong with it, apart from the swell to great thing?
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Yes - but if it did not work aurally, who cares?
Not me!
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If you might ever aspire to be DoM anywhere that expects the ability to conduct an orchestra, the knack - which is one of the easier ones to acquire - could be worth having documented. Bassoon and tenor trombone players in particular are adept at sensing out any uncertainty about which notes the blobs on the score really mean.
I don't think that's especially true. There's a fairly large difference between score-reading to play it on the organ, and score-reading to conduct an orchestra - with the organ playing, you have to read many lines simultaneously. Conducting, you're looking at a picture ; if you're really following each individual line and transposing each part as required, then I would suggest you're not paying enough attention to guiding the music and the orchestra. Being able to play a score and being able to say to the bassoons, in your own time, "that F in bar 147 is an F# " are quite different skills.
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I had the Vox Angelica tuned sharp at the Minster several years ago - it just did not have that magical effect which one associates with this stop. Now it is etherial and restful - and very beautiful.
I thought Angelicas were always meant to be flat, Celestes sharp?
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I am a naughty person. [No surprise there.]
To come clean: I won't/can't link you because I saw this on a members only site to which I do not officially belong*.
*NB No, not one of the 'adult' (i.e. seriously naughty) ones.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/col...icle1522558.ece ?
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Do you by any chance have a link to this article?
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In fact, how many organists DOES it take to change a light-bulb? What fascinating thread that would make.
Just one, but they do it with their feet.
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Quite lovely and beautiful. Stick at it David!
We certainly enjoyed singing it - the altos were milking it for all they were worth (which isn't much
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Should the Great and Pedal Pistons (or other Manual to Pedal Piston Couplers, if there) be affected by the General Cancel?
FF
great and pedal pistons?
I'm not sure I understand.
Do you mean should General Cancel cancel out "Gt & Pedal Pistons Combined"? If so, I prefer it if it's left alone by general cancel.
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I presume ending on a G major chord instead of the interrrupted cadence? Does anyone else play this as a "stand alone"? I'm having to do so later today as I've been asked to play a coffin out to it.
Yes, I do, quite often. I don't like the final section ; doesn't feel particularly Bach-y to me.
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Yup, my church gives me the morning off and uses the gospel choir instead.
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Point one - no comment. I wonder if it is mere co-incidence that, as far as I know, only one major instrument in the UK by Mr Collins (Mancroft) has not been substantially re-built by others.
Where does the Turner Sims bag of whistles sit on the scale of major instruments by Collins? it had the console modernised a while back, but I didn't think much else got done?
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I agree with you wholeheartedly how useful such "O" pistons and "Doubles Off" rockers are.
I also am amazed how much debate it has caused!!
R
I used the Pedals Off rocker switch for the first time ever this morning - for a pedal free verse in Rockingham...
Works quite well!
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At Truro they are actually fixed in the normal way and not adjustable. Adrian's idea of using them when making a smooth diminuendo is certainly used a good deal by my assistant, Chris Gray. Not only does it mean that no manual change is needed when both hands are occupied, also there is no need to take off the Great to Pedal (or other) coupler. The pedal stops are not affected unless the pedal cancel is pressed.
Remind me of the coupler layout at Truro, Robert? The Willis III I play has the couplers in the standard HWIII way, on tabs under the music desk, which I hated at first, but am now finding very convenient - things like jumping up on to the swell and being able to sort out couplers as you play without removing hands from manuals, e.g. killing gt to ped as you hop up, or adding ch-ped 4' for a nice pedal solo accompanied by strings that can cut steel from 30 paces.
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Imagine playing on a light registration on the Great or Choir, coupled to the Swell and wanting to reduce without having to make what could be an untidy manual swap - perhaps in a final playout of an anthem in a piece with rather thick chords needing both hands to accomplish. It's rather good to be able to make the move simply by canceling the stops on the "home" manual...jolly useful, I'd say...
One I use rather a lot - it has the added benefit on my own organ that the stops never go off together, so you get a nice subtle decrescendo
The great is particularly good at that this, the order's not perfect, but if you had, say OD 1 2 3 out, and hit cancel, they go off as 1, 3, 2. (the double never bloody goes off - takes about 5 seconds of continous jabbing at the cancel to get it to go in)Unfortunately using div cancel on the swell is not an option - every time you hit a swell piston you get a flash of Hautboy for the duration of the button press.
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Setter buttons as we know them only really became universal when solid state technology started to be affordable.
I have a setter button on a 1950's console, which uses 1930's Skinner technology to do this, albeit quite slowly and not particularly reliably.
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I used the Gt 0 quite a lot. The Willis "accessory list" is mightily impressive - reversible tremolo pistons in the right place for when doing a solo, for instance - but I still fail to see the point of Doubles On/Off and Pedal On/Off rocker switches.
Pedal On/Off - pointless
The doubles, I've never used, but it could, I guess be used musically.
Oh - so you did decide to leave, Adrian. To where are you moving, if I might ask?Boldre, in the New Forest. Small church, crappy old 80's toaster (Copeman Hart), great vicar, choir of around 30ish, with kids. A growing church too. Fortunately someone has offered a grant to get the toaster updated. Still not the same as a mighty HWIII.
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However, it would be interesting to learn how often these are used. The divisional cancel thumb pistons at Exeter Cathedral are literally never used (unless possibly by the odd recitalist).
I have played a number of organs which include this piston (Exeter, Coventry and Truro cathedrals, for example) and I wonder if it could perhaps be included in the 'most pointless accessory' list. Certainly the only time I have ever used one, was in Messiaen's Transports de Joie, in order to cancel all GO stops, the better to facilitate a particularly awkward semiquaver alternating chord pattern. To be honest, it was almost as easy to press GO piston one and to push in the 8p flute, or Stopped Diapason.
The other point against such pistons is that they are, in the case of H&H consoles positioned where one would instinctively look to press Great to Pedal reversible, and on 'Willis' consoles where one would expect to find the first divisional piston. In any case, I believe that I am correct in stating that those at Truro are wired-in to the capture system and, as such, are technically adjustable.
I use mine a fair amount, not least because the general cancel is uselessly slow.
I use the choir 0 a lot - I have 1-4 setup for general accmpt, 5 (Corno di Bassetto) & 6 (Orchestral Oboe) for solos, which means that if I want to use other solo stops, it's handy to be able to hit 0, then hand draw what I want, rather than cancel a whole pile of stuff by hand.
Sniff. Only 5 services left for me on this lovely old girl.
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This is interesting, Richard. It is fascinating to note the number of rock (and jazz) musicians who have used good pipe organs as part of the sound palettes of their recorded performances. There was, for example, Keith Jarrett, who recorded an album on which he played the H&H organ of the RFH. Someone a while ago, mentioned a recording which featured the Willis/H&H organ of Lincoln Cathedral. There was also, I believe, a further recording on the RFH organ - was this by Pink Floyd?
Does anyone know of any others?
I have an excellent disc of Keith Jarrett and Michala Petri playing Bach recorder sonatas, KJ on the harpsichord. He's not just a jazz musician.
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Staff Appraisals
in General discussion
Posted
Isn't that so often the case?
We're expected to go into schools and recruit, do funerals in the middle of day, weddings on Fridays, weekday evening services, plus run the choir, plan the music, and do the usual selection of Sunday services.
I would hazard a guess that many churches are still paying £1800 a year, as per Category B rates in about 1999...
I was widely (actually, not widely, 1 person with a loud voice) criticised in a post I had a few years ago for NOT going into the local primary school to recruit. Given that i) I have a day job, because there's no way being an organist in the average parish can provide a living, ii) the primary school in question only went up to 7, I was pretty ****** off.
I know churches don't have much money, and that many of us don't do it for the money, but c'mon, it's time to start at least pretending to pay properly, or realising that the day of the parish organist being a profession have been over for a long time! (Not all posts, obviously, but even, say Romsey Abbey, doesn't pay anywhere near enough to allow you to give up the day job - it would take a LOT of supplementing to get anywhere near acceptable).
My belief is that those with either the right experience and/or qualifications should be looking at salaries based on teachers' payscales - I don't mean pay us £30k per year or whatever, I mean look at the hours we do, work out how that relates to a teaching job, say 1/4 of a job or whatever, then pay accordingly.
Woosh - where are those pigs flying to?