MichaelDavidson
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Posts posted by MichaelDavidson
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I'm afraid I hate it (though not as much as his Franck Pièce Héroïque). Great facility, but I really don't see the point (and I write as someone who generally loves Mahler, Wagner et al on the organ). I'd be more impressed if he could play it beautifully on the piano. Why he feels the need to perform in his underwear is another issue...
For some reason I cannot entirely escape the feeling that Cameron Carpenter's amazing technique is, at least in part, the result of some Faustian pact with the devil which, while it gave Mr Carpenter amazing abilities, left him without the wisdom to know how to use them ...
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Schweitzer playing the fugue from BWV 564.
I have heard a few Schweitzer recordings, but this one was new to me.
I was, of course, expecting the tempo to be slow, but I really wasn't prepared for just *how* slow it would be ...
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'Wrong business? Wrong country?'
Certainly, the church organist business is very different in the USA. By and large, their organists are treated better in every way, both in terms of remuneration and terms of engagement. Also, many full-time church organists have sigificant recital programmes and tours to supplement their church work. An added bonus is working with professional choirs, also properly paid.
Barry Williams
True, but not really relevant to the specific case of Donald Knuth's house organ which was, I believe, largely paid for by the royalties from his seminal (but still unfinished) work "The Art of Computer Programming"
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Is it correct (I mean not politically, but linguistically...) to talk about
someone as a "cow's skin" ("peau de vache") ?
Not in English, no ...
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Next up is an improvisation on Psalm 54. Anyone know the composer?
And another improvisation on 'Holy Holy Holy':
Lastly, this piece makes great use of the organ's chamade ranks. Anyone know the title & composer of the piece?
If you look through the comments on these videos I believe that you will discover that they are all original improvisations.
Apparently the last one is based on "the dutch hyme: 'Eens als de bazuinen klinken'"
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Henry Chadwick, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, in the 1970s and still, I think, alive after a spell as head of house somewhere in Cambridge, was an organist who had learned the organ at school from someone that had heard Mendelssohn play. He asked me about Messiaen in my interview.
That story seems a little far fetched but is, I suppose, just possible.
Mendelssohn died in 1847 and Henry Chadwick was born in 1920.
Assuming that Chadwick's organ teacher was old enough to actually remember hearing Mendelssohn rather than just having being a babe in arms somewhere within earshot I would assume that he must have been at least 5 years old at the time and therefore born in 1842 or earlier - that would put him well into his 80's by the time Chadwick was old enough to reach the pedals, and he would have been at least 90 about the time that Chadwick was 12 years old.
If this story is really true, someone must know who this person was ...
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I suspect everyone will be aware of the latest instrument in Cambridge, although I have not read a discussion thereof on this board: the new khun in Jesus College. It's interesting to see the romantic specification of the new organ. Apparently it has transformed choral services in the building 'The chapel has acquired an acoustic!'
http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=E01245
Actually I hadn't heard of it, but it certainly looks interesting.
Is the Sutton organ still there, and what happened to the old Mander?
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However, the fact remains that Oxbridge organ scholars are unlikely to be able to swap between colleges for various services, simply because they would prefer to play Bach on the Frobenius at Queens, Cambridge (no apostrophe?), as opposed to the Hunter at Hertford, Oxford, for example.
Actually Queens' College, Cambridge does have an apostrophe - just not in the same place as The Queen's College, Oxford (which for some reason also seems to come with a definite article ...)
As for the organs, well, both are very fine in their own way but you would be unlikely to mistake one for the other
(as I am sure you are very well aware) -
Rather than invent yet another specification from scratch, let me point you at a very successful small 3 manual instrument which is actually quite similar to what you are proposing (assuming that you include a Choir organ).
Queens' College Chapel, Cambridge
The Great is essentially the same as your scheme, but with an 8' Viola instead of the Dulciana and an extra rank in the mixture (I agree with Cynic that 2 ranks here is unlikely to be satisfactory)
The Swell is also somewhat similar but with the addition of a 16' Bourdon and the omission of the 16' Contra Fagotto, and the provision of two 4' stops -a Salicet and a Suable Flute - instead of your Gemshorn.
The Choir is 8 8 8 4 2 8 8 with both a Clarinet and an Orchestral Oboe.
The 5 stop pedal organ is 16 16 10 2/3 8 8 and on paper looks a little small but actually works remarkably well.
If I could add only one stop to the Queens' instrument, I think that it would probably be a 16' Swell reed such as the Contra Oboe in your proposal, with a 16' Pedal Trombone coming a very close second.
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I'll probably get brained but I like some opera. My3 favouirites:
Magic Flute
Lulu
Peter Grimes
Thank you (I think) for reminding me of one of my all time least favourite composers,
the deadly dull and vastly over rated Benjamin Britten ...
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But the organ in question is here: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=E01163 which is St Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral (RC)
not St Mary's Cathedral (Episcopal Church of Scotland)
Precisely.
Simon Nieminski moved from St Mary's (Scottish Episcopal) Cathedral to St Mary's (RC) Cathedral in September.
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Jack Bethards from Schoenstein is a bit of a genius in my opinion - despite the unconventional appearance of some of the specs. etc. the instruments are all in the best possible taste and on CD at least sound quite superb.
AJJ
I absolutely agree - I have heard several examples of his work which, on paper, look strange to say the least but which are extremely effective in real life.
The point that I was getting at was that the specification quotes the wind pressures as being in "pounds per square inch" rather than "inches" (of water) which I find rather unlikely given that 1 psi is rather more than 25 inches and this would mean that the instrument had a range of pressure from approximately 50 inches to about 375 inches ....
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This is squeezed rather ingeniously into a 'difficult' shaped chamber in a smallish church. The whole effect however is surprisingly good - not only for 'repertoire' but also for the High Anglican liturgical effects required here.
AJJ
According to the specification the wind pressures range from 2 to 15 pounds per square inch - now that is impressive!!
Perhaps that's why the Vox Humana needs to be enclosed in so many swell boxes ...
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.... and those who come up to the organ/choir loft, who click away while you are playing and who grin in a "friendly" way because they know damn well they are annoying you! (And, incidentally, who are going to make about 10 times as much dosh as you are.)
Peter
Speaking of which, and having seen some of the videos on YouTube, it is very obvious that Daniel Roth must have the patience of a saint ...
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But when Roger plays we have Bach "Great" Preludes or Fantasias and Fugues; on one thrilling occasion the first Movement of Rheinberger 8; on another Karg Elert's Now Thank we all our God.... to name but a few.
No wonder then that I just love a funeral when he's around!
Perhaps one day he will do the Reubke ...
(but seriously you are really lucky having someone available who can come in and play absolutely anything with no advance notice and do it really well)
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Oh, dear ....
... try this instead:
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Just recieved details of the music for a wedding I'm doing in the Minster in a couple of weeks. The recessional is
Widor (Charles Murray) Decata in F
Anyone know where I can get a copy??
I think that may be what this unfortunate gentleman is attempting to play ...
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I wondered that too, since I was aware of the 2002 work. It is entirely possible since the person in question really has no musical sensibilities at all. In Campbell's days at least, Harrisons made a tuning visit every two weeks. But if (big "if") the organ really is out of action so soon, the most likely explanation would be that significant alterations are being made. But if that were the case you'd have thought the work would have been done before now.
Not sure if this is significant, but the service lists available here show organ voluntaries after Sunday evensong up to and including Sunday 22 July, but nothing since then.
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Now this is what you call a house organ. 33 stops, 45 ranks, mechanical action.
http://www.beckerath.com/gfx/Steve-Ansicht.jpg
Ian Crabbe
Even more impressive is Fisk's Opus 91 ...
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We have the Choir of St Mary’s Church, Cambridge (led by Sam Hayes) coming up shortly, their web site is under construction so offers very little information. Does any one know anything about either the choir or DoM?
Sam Hayes was formerly organ scholar at Queens'.
There is a brief bio of him here.
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They are also a bit of a trap to the unwary, because they always fail to press General Cancel before switching-off the instrument - and then simply push the stops in by hand. This has occasionally resulted in some unplanned registrations in pre-service music. These days, I can usually tell if someone else has been playing the instrument and I pull out all the stops and then press General Cancel, before attempting to play anything.
This sounds very strange unless you have some braindead solid state stop action which only responds to changes in the position of the stops while the instrument is turmed on, remembers the last state that it saw while the instrument is turned
off and doesn't bother to rescan the state of the stops when the instrument is turned on again.
If that is *really* the case you should be insisting that whoever installed such a stunningly badly designed system come back immediately and *fix* the damn thing so that it works in a sane manner.
If not then I have a hard time imagining how the instrument could possibly behave in the way that I think you are describing.
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I heard it once in a recital given by Graham Steed back in the late 70's (1979, I think).
The room is indeed quite small and as best I can remember the sound was "unremarkable"
- neither particularly good or bad - I certainly didn't hear anything that appeared to me at
the time to be particularly characteristic of Cavaille-Coll
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I am playing here http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N14777 for a funeral next week. I have played it before, and recall that the Duciana Mixture is so quiet that it can only actually be heard if used with the 8' flute alone. When added to the swell diapasons, either on their own or with the chorus reed one is not aware of it at all.
Are all Dulciana Mixtures like this? if so, what purpose do they serve?
On this particular organ, I am not happy with the swapping of the Great and Swell reeds either.....
If it is anything like the Dulciana Mixture that used to be on the Swell at Holy Trinity, Stirling (which was also originally a Conacher's job) then it will be completely and utterly useless ...
I'm not sure how much of the blame for Holy Trinity, Stirling rests with Conacher's or whether Binns Fitton & Haley and Hill, Norman and Beard who subsequently worked on it are also culpable but this instrument as it existed in the 1970's, when I had the misfortune to play it on a fairly regular basis, was by far the worst and least musical instrument I have ever had the misfortune to encounter ...
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Having had time to look in the books (the builders are in - with vacuum cleaner en chamade!), I learned something new. It is Queen's College, Oxford but Queens' College, Cambridge. I am delighted to note that NPOR has it absolutely correct. You will now be pleased to hear that I have put my pedant's hat away for the weekend.
JC
Actually it is even more complicated than that
The full name of Queens' College, Cambridge is actually:
"The Queen's College of St Margaret and St Bernard, commonly called Queens' College, in the University of Cambridge."
Which, as the college web site explains, contains both spellings, each of which is correct in its particular context ...
Ste Clotilde
in Nuts and bolts
Posted
There is some additional information on the Dargassies web site, but my French isn't quite good enough to decipher it all accurately.
Towards the top of the "News" section you will find a letter from Francois-Henri Houbart in support of the work (and citing Michel Chapuis as also being in favour of it) and further down a copy of Dargassies reply to an (apparently very critical) article written by Guy Bovet.
Under "Chantiers" you will find a link to Relevage de L'orgue de Ste. Clotilde which has the specification of what still appears to be a 3 manual instrument, and from which I deduce that the chamades and the 32' pedal reed are "prepared for", but not much else apart from a note to the effect that since much of the information about the St Clotilde instrument has been "misinterpreted" it has been removed from the web site.