ajt
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Posts posted by ajt
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Nick is right that, in business, slagging off your employer in public is likely to get you the sack, but a business employs staff in order to make profits and therefore cannot be expected to tolerate behaviour that will damage those profits. If you are employed by a business you know that this is how it is and therefore what to expect. But I would not want to hold it up as a good role model for the church.
Call me cynical, but isn't the church *really* all about money? When was the last time you heard about Anglican church that thought it had enough money?
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Milton Abbey. It's on DVD, it's superb and well worth buying.
R
Now *that* is an acoustic to die for. My wife and I went for a walk there with a couple of other singing friends, and popped into the Abbey - we found an Oxford Tudor Anthems lying around and sang through a few. It was like having another 40 voices with us - absolutely marvellous.
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So, pray tell oh well-educated fellows, when does it make sense to have a digital instrument to replace an extant pipe organ? Is there ever a justification? Just curious....
Depends how bad the extant pipe organ is. Even then, you've got to assume that you've got the basis of something salvageable that's able to be turned into a usable musical instrument. There are a few pipe organs I've played where I've wondered if would be possible to do *anything* to make them musical, but I'm sure a competent organ builder with a limited budget could make something.
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I've been out to look at this church Adrian refers to. It is small, and in my view would be served beautifully by a nice redundant large 1m or small 2, just a nice chorus which a small reed on top. Adrian points out that they'd never find anyone to play it. So how the hell has most of the country managed for the last x-hundred years???
These days, you have different species - the competent organist and choirmaster, and the downright reluctant and not very good who don't have a clue how to run a choir, and . I know that's a broad generalisation, but... When you add in that most village churches with a decent choir will still only pay for an "organist" - i.e. someone to direct the choir and play the organ, the situation gets complicated. Then factor in that there are almost certainly FEWER competent organists and choirmasters than there are jobs. We can then pick and choose.
So, if you've got the choice of church with an ok choir and a very small organ, or a church with an ok choir with a more exciting organ (and I don't mean a toaster), which one will you choose? (Assuming all other factors are equal)
Personally, given the choice between a small pipe and a good but larger (and I don't mean stupidly large, I mean say 2 manuals, 16 stops as opposed to 1/2m 8 stops) toaster, then I'd go for the toaster. My repertoire is limited - I have not grown up with small instruments, the ABRSM grade system is not setup for repertoire for small instruments, and I don't have the talent and sheer love of playing that someone like David does to revel in playing on a single 8' stop for a year.
I'm not in favour of ditching real organs for toasters. But, given the choice of replacing a toaster with another one or a pipe organ, then the choice is trickier.
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Yes indeed Paul. Many years ago Lloyds Bank as then was ran a TV ad with Wachet auf as the background music, accompanying horses galloping away in fields and so on. When I played it after Mass (maybe it was Advent 3 which by pure coincidence is also today) I was asked by a child "why did you play the Lloyds Bank advert today?!
Peter
I got asked the same question only yesterday. Followed by someone asking me why I had to make so much noise... The christmas tree decorators elected to decorate the tree whilst I was playing my voluntary, clanging around with ladders and shouting to each other. So we had a sudden shift to the tune on full pedal reeds (32/16/8/16) ...
When will people realise that the voluntary, no matter how crap it is, is, for us organists, part of the service?
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Advent 2006
Not sure if this link will work. It's the way I played St. Botolph at our Advent last week, without too many harsh reeds except in final verse. Hopefully it shows that a full congregation can be supported on a firm foundation of fluework without a reed all the time. A tendency for the third line to be rushed unfortunately. Misses the beauty slightly I think. Some verses chopped for file length. I hope it makes the point about letting the choir lead in the middle verse.
I like the tempo.
However, I think it's interesting that for much of the hymn the congregation (or is it choir?) is flat. Verse 1 is probably the best in this regard - my ears and laptop speakers aren't quite good enough for me to work out the registration differences, but the v1 registration sounds a bit brighter, which, in my experience, is the thing that helps congregations stay in tune.
Lots of 8' tone doesn't help some differentiate between what they're singing and where the tune really is. Same reason why some choirmasters advocate playing along staccato and an octave below when teaching tunes to trebles - they can more readily hear the pitch when it's not in the octave that they're singing.
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I am happy to raise any "usability issues" with the Invision support team but need enough information to enable the Invision technical people to "replicate" the problem. Which version of Safari? Sometimes, upgrading the browser fixes the problem.
Webmaster
Mander Organs
I think he said Mac OS 10.4.6, which means Safari 2.0.4, I believe.
innate - you might want to try using a different browser that relies on WebKit for a bit - Safari uses WebKit to render pages, etc, so by testing a different WebKit based browser (the mozilla browsers use Gecko, not WebKit), then you can work out if it's Safari or WebKit. There have been quite a few patches to WebKit in 10.4.7 and 10.4.8 plus security patches, so there's a possibility that your problem might be fixed by applying those upgrades.
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Sorry to waste your time if this is only affecting me. Since the new Invision version has been in operation I am suffering occasional crashes of my browser. This happens only when I am reading posts on this Mander board. I'm using Safari on a G4 PowerBook running 10.4.6. Is anybody else experiencing anything remotely similar?
Michael
Safari on a G4 running 10.4.8 works fine for me. I normally use Camino though.
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So who is it? Not a name I recognise.
JJK
Thomas Williamson at a guess.
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From what I have seen the majority of the editing on CPDL is quite dreadful. One of the better examples appears to have been copied directly from a copyright edition (there are numerous tell-tale signs). As I understand it making small changes to someone's copyright does not get you off the hook if it can still be proved that that is where you copied it from.
As for the online copies of the complete Bach organ works, this is the original Bachgesellschaft edition which I'm pretty certain is long out of copyright (wasn't it 19th-century?) But I am sure I have seen the organ stuff on the site in question (i.e Bach, Buxtehude, Handel organ concertos, Pachelbel, Froberger) on a commercially sold CD, so if that is where the online files came from I presume there is still a breach of that copyright.
However, I am no legal eagle, so I disclaim all responsibility for any inconvenience or loss caused to anyone taking the above information seriously.
Yes, some of the editing is not perfect. However, it's still a bloody good resource for a lot of Renaissance music that won't cost you anything. I've provided the bulk of the music for 5 years worth of concerts from CPDL... All at no cost, except printing. Yes, there are mistakes/typos, but that's easily rectified.
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Are there not "programmable" GC's? Then one would know what was happening (if one was the programmer of course)!
Indeed there are. With most modern capture systems, along with your chosen piston memory, you can specify how you want the GC setup for that specific channel.
I don't use the GC much, but it can be very very useful - if you spend a bit of timing knowing what comes on when, then you have quite a lot of control.
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What about the 16' Dulzian on the swell? NPOR survey makes no comment on its provenence, but I do not think of a Dulzian as a Willis stop? My understanding of a Dulzian is a slightly "buzzy" sound, but I am open to correction....?
No, a Dulzian is a fairly rich contra-fagotto type stop. I have one on my Willis III.
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I got fed up with all the wires trailing round the organ loft today having nearly tripped on them several times now. I also decided it was time to remove the stinky old carpet.
Time also to strip out the old CCTV system which operated two cameras. This had deteriorated to snow-storm fuzz picture quality even though the lenses of the camera were quite clean. Time for the bin.
As electrical equipment has come down so much in price I see no reason why I should not look to install a colour monitor to replace the old b/w, together with a zoom camera. Again, I suspect relatively inexpensive now to what they used to be.
Can anyone suggest where might be the best place to go for a decent 5.5" colour monitor and a couple of zoom colour cameras?
Thanks
I just went down to B&Q and bought an intruder system - they do wireless colour ones these days... With microphones too, if you want them.
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Make me a channel. Possibly the most fun I have ever had with a congregation was on ajt's organ, doing "Be still for the presence of the Lord". Lots of Rollschwellers, note clusters on the bottom octave of an 8' flute (thunder, you see) etc. Should've heard them go!
It was quite superb - we had a big (noise, not so much in terms of numbers) choir in, and a good 500+ in the congregation. I've never heard Be Still accompanied by full organ before - awesome.
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Fascinating possible moves ahead. Maybe it was a big ask for MA to move from Britain's smallest city to its largest. I can't imagine that Amen Court is an ideal place to bring up a young family especially at the weekends when the city is empty. St Paul's is a souless institution. The Sung Eucharist on Sundays is overblown. Perhaps, MA is a teacher at heart?
I can't imagine that JO will wish to move from the Abbey. How abt Martin Baker who was assistant at St Pauls some years ago? Most WC organists move on to an Anglican post. If Lumsden were to move to St Paul's might Stephen Farr succeed him at Winchester?
I know assistants rarely get the top job at their cathedral but after 30 years it would be good for JSW to succeed Moore at York.
I suggest that we leave Malcolm Archer's motivations for moving out of the public domain (I'm not criticizing parsfan here - just suggesting that this particular aspect of the discussion stops here) - his reasons were personal, and we shouldn't hint or speculate about them in a public forum.
I can't see JSW moving to a number one post - if he were that way inclined, surely he'd have done it before?
One thing's for certain in this new set of shuffles ... I won't be getting a cathedral job
Although, I've just had an invitation to take my chamber choir to do Ash Wednesday at Winchester, as Ash Wednesday falls in half term next year... -
Mr Archer is going to Winchester College to be Director of Chapel Music. I have this from the Head in writing this morning.
Now that IS a surprise. Blimey. We're doing well down here then, with Malcolm Archer going to Winchester and Stephen le Provost at Twyford School.
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Yes, the toaster is still the P.C. in Newquay St. Michaels.
I know from a former vicar at Newquay, and Carbis Bay ( Canon Michael Fisher now retired) that they had a lot of problems when it was first installed. It was not unsual during services, to have the emergency services radios coming through the speakers as the vehicles drove past the church. This I understand is now a thing of the past. I did have the priviledge of playing the old organ before the fire. One of the best organs in the west country.
I also played it a few times back in the late 80's, when I was first starting out on the organ. It was not only a lovely instrument, as I recall, but a rare treat for someone who was more used to 1 or 2m Hele organs around the place - my main practice instrument was a tiny tiny tiny 1m thing in St. Eval church, and occasionally the 2m Hele in St. Columb Major (Ivan Rabey was the organist there at the time).
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Who do you think successors will be? I think Andy Lumsden may very well go to St. Paul's; Adrian Lucas may be resigning from Worcester to apply for the John's job, after all he was an organ scholar there.
I can imagine AndyL being tempted by Paul's, but it might be a bit soon for him - he's not been at Winchester all that long...
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Koopman - Bach Trios
No need for any other CD. If anyone knows of any better recording of the Trios, then I'd be interested to know, but this is the one I happen to have...
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I don't often hand over the Compton organ here to others (I need all the fees I can get), but twice I have received panic 'phonecalls at home about stops that won't go off and both times the fault has been the same as yours.
There was the one occasion when I came in and found someone had been trying the organ (without my knowledge) and clearly didn't understand luminous push stops - one stop was hanging (dangling from its wires) for all the world like an eye-ball detatched from its socket. They'd pulled it out!
I love watching people trying to use the ISG's for the first time...
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On Sunday I had a really frustrating morning - all the manual to pedal couplers were permanently on, as were a couple of great diapasons. No amount of toggling could fix it.
So I e-mailed the tuner, and asked him for an emergency visit. He e-mails back "Have you checked the general crescendo pedal?". What a fool I am - I forgot that the bottom light on the indicator for the GC has been missing for years - I just never touch the thing... Sure enough, I went in tonight, checked that the "faults" were still there. Then I shut the GC... All works perfectly.
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Sometimes adopting that sort of attitude can be counter-productive with the church becoming a club for like-minded people moving in ever-decreasing circles.
Perhaps in the situations where new priests are attempting to clear away organists and choirs, should not organisations such as the RCO and the RSCM step in to support and advocate on behalf of these musicians? I would be more likely to become a member of them if there was that sort of support.
I don't think the points that were made above were about clergy versus organist, but more about the fact that when interviewing clergy, almost every parish says "We want to change and grow", but then when the newly appointed person does want to implement "change and grow", the same people who did the interview then turn nasty and dig their heels in.
Personally, I'm all for churches changing and re-inventing themselves. What we see at the moment in many Anglican churches is that the congregations are getting older and older and smaller and smaller. At some point someone has to take the brave step (like the new Archbishop of York) of saying "You old folk aren't what we're about any more". That's not to say that they aren't valued and should be driven away, but there's no point in continuing to run the church into the ground to keep a bunch of people who are not going to be with us much longer happy. Brutal, but the reality is that if we keep aiming our worship at the older generation, then we will be left with empty buildings. Many places try a middle ground, but that doesn't really please anybody.
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A guess is fair enough. We can't know whether they would or not. It's very like the "Bach would have used a swell box if he'd had one" argument - to which, of course, the best answers are (a) "No he wouldn't" or (b ) "If he'd had one he'd have written a completely different type of music".
Quite. One of those completely pointless and circular arguments.
But there's no question but that pistons are certainly a lot more convenient than hand registration.Exactly - why not use it if you can? There's a reason these things were invented - to make our lives easier.
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Dare I suggest: for the same reason that many organists do - because they know best?! There. That's probably upset everybody.
In my view a wise man - whether of the cloth or the slit-sleeved surplice - treads softly and very slowly with a sensitiveness to what will work and what won't. Very often the deepest damage is done by a new broom sweeping clean. Not that I think even the softest and slowest approach would have kept me on board...
A former vicar boss of mine, when quizzed how he was getting on a year into the new parish, said "Oh, just watching". 2 years on... "Still watching".
Although, I've just had an invitation to take my chamber choir to do Ash Wednesday at Winchester, as Ash Wednesday falls in half term next year...
In my view a wise man - whether of the cloth or the slit-sleeved surplice - treads softly and very slowly with a sensitiveness to what will work and what won't. Very often the deepest damage is done by a new broom sweeping clean.
Be Careful What You Say!
in General discussion
Posted
My point is that the church is a business as much as anything else, so in many ways the same rules apply.