martin_greenwood
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Posts posted by martin_greenwood
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I came home tonight fully intending to watch SOP which I record on my hard disk player on Sunday, only to find that "her indoors" had indavertantly erased last night. After some quiet gnashing of teeth I tried out this new-fangled iPlayer facility via the BBC website.
I have to say I'm really impressed. I was expecting very poor video and sound, particularly given that SOP is a music program. However it was perfectly listenable to peace is restored in our household. The only irritating thing is that the iPlayer recording "expires" after 30 days and becomes unplayable.
Give it a go if you haven't tried it already. Oh yes, and better still, it's free.
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I'm dep'ing for a number of services during lent and would appreciate some advice on appropriate voluntaries.
Am I correct in assuming that it would be appropriate to "tone down" the voluntaries throughout lent? Or is this a progressive from Ash Wednesday onwards, culminating in more sombre and contemplative pieces for Holy Week?
Thanks in advance.
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I recommend plastic carrier bags from any good supermarket - seriously.
Banned for encouraging blatant advertising on behalf of global corporates. Oops, wrong thread.
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I've just got through my second music case in the last 12 months. I've tried two different types of nylon-type briefcases for lugging music and organs shoes around in, but both have collapsed under the strain.
Can anyone here recommend something suitable to fit both music and shoes, preferably with a sholder strap, and which won't cost the earth?
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Fast forward once more. As the majority of organ specifications are now on the NPOR, it surely won't be long before some IT geek comes up with a piece of software that, in the same way that I can get software that translates all my Nokia-format mobile phone numbers if I change brands and get an LG mobile, takes all your sequencer stop combinations for your recent recital at the Royal Albert Hall and translates them into appropriate combinations for you to play the same pieces on another organ of totally different size and spec without you having to go to all the trouble and time of setting up combinations from scratch...
OrganAssist does something similar(ish) to what Contrabombarde is describing. See the "Translate pieces for other organs" link on their website.
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I wonder if anybody has ever got away with a transposition test by merely playing the exercise in the original key. If the examiner doesn't have perfect pitch, and isn't watching over you, there might be a chance of getting away with it!
Reminds me of a story told by a friend who is an AB examiner who was doing some examinng in Hong Kong. She asked a particular cnadiate to play a variety of major and minor scales , to which the candidate responded by playing a G major scale time after time. Upon querying this with the candiate, their fluent English apparent at the start of the exam completely abandoned them in favour of Cantonse.
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And on a similar vein,
Q. What's the difference between a Radox bath and xxxxxx?
(for xxxxxxx substitute appropriate conductor/music director)
A. One bucks up your feet, and the other ...
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Looking at the original response from Roffensis, I don't think there was any intention at all of offending. It was just mild humour, surely!
That's how I read it too. If you above the board in how you file your tax returns, then whether or not the IR choose to investigate is neither here nor there - there won't be anything untoward for them to find.
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I wonder how does it work in practice with considerations such as adding fingerings, articulation? Must you have written these before you scan the original sheet music onto the system? Or can you "write" on the music using the display itself much the way you can scribe on some of these personal organisers?
You could take it even further and have different "channel settings" enabling different players using the same music to write their own annotations and select their particular copy when they use the music stand. Not sure how useful this is but might be helpful in a music school situation.
I could imagine it being useful for a string section in an orchestra if the stands were all linked up, so that the conductor/leader could mark bowings and dynamics on one copy and it would appear as if by magic on all the other player's copies.
However I suspect that such devices will go the way of bread-making machines i.e. used a few times then appear later on eBay or at a car boot sale.
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I guess this adds a new dimension to the colloquialism, "pushing up the daisies".
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May I put in the suggestion - and I hope mr. Mander does agree - to leave out quotes in your replies?
You can always selectively quote a section from a previous post (see above). Just do a Qoute / Reply but then delete anything irrelevant in the quoted text.
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What's small, old, wrinkly and fat, and signs itself "ET"? Why, Elizabeth Taylor, of course.
What's ET short for? 'Cos he's got little legs.
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If I had a Cimbalstern, I could do a concert performance of "Jingle Bells".
In the absence of a Zimbelstern (sp.?), I'm planning on making do with a chorister and hand-held jingle bells by way of intro for Sleigh Ride. A bit naff maybe, but should do nicely for a conclusion to the Christingle service.
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I think of this as the Curse of the Conscientious. It's because we care deeply about doing the best job we can "despite", that we end up in these situations where we feel we have been taken for a ride. Of course, it's not to say that weren't a few people in the congregation/audience who did not appreciate the skill of the organist. It's just that not many of them would make the effort to come and tell you so after the performance.
Over the last year I have become a little more battle-hardened in this respect, and if I sense the potential for such a situation arising I have politely declined to participate due to "prior commitments".
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Yeh, but do they actually listen to it, Vox? Or is it just something they like to have in the background to put them "in the mood" whilst they go around spending hard-earned money on over-priced Christmas presents?
Judging by the blank zombified looks on the majority of their faces, these habitual shoppers are paying no attention to it whatsoever.
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I can recommend a method not to use for warming fingers, namely sitting on your hands. From my recent experience this only yields partial success. True, my fingers no longer felt cold, however this had little to do with their increased temperature and more to do with the fact that they had lost all sense due to lack of circulation. Needless to say the subsequent playing had a certain random element to it.
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What a fascinating morning spent at the workshops. On one hand I wish I'd brought my family along to see it too, but on the other I would never have got away with spending the best part of the morning there.
It was truly illuminating and the craftsmen were all so enthusiatic and willing to share their knowledge and love of their work.
Huge thanks to all involved in hosting this day.
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Awww ... And I had this wonderful image of you struggling onto a ferry with a Makin lashed to your back!
That's exactly how I'd read it too. I was half expecting another posting enquiring if anyone had a white transit van for sale.
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My favourite has to be the beer bottle organ
Though I can imagaine it going sharp farily quickly - hic
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Completely mis-interpreted the subject of the post. Was expecting someone's thoughts on the 20 best organ wall-posters
Not even sure such things exist. -
Looks like there might be a second hand copy available from Roger Molyneux's cuyrrent 2nd hand catalogue. See here
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Yes, Rutter's carols are unashamedly light music, but they are ever so well done. I would give my eye teeth to have his compositional fluency and deftness. As has been pointed out, you really need to hear them in their original form, with orchestra.
I'll second the point about when sung with an orchestra accompanying. Fluffy maybe, but like a top notch pop song, it's masterful for what it is. Often with a populist highly accessible piece of music, you can listen to it once or twice and the novelty wears off. Rutter seems to have a knack of creating immediately likeable compositions but which can wthstand repeated listening.
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A composer of carols called Rutter,
Was for many choirs their bread and butter,
Though some preferred Wilcox,
(Green, orange or blue) 'cos,
S-S-Starlight brings on such a stutter.
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However, what all three performances had in common was that once the performer settled, the recital contained moments of such unbelievable virtuosity that one willingly 'paid the price' of the poor performances to begin with.
For me this is all part of the "danger" of a live performance. Obviously you don't want to pay good money to anxiously await the completion of a piece without too much more going wrong. But on the other hand, if you want a guaranteed safe performance then buy a recording.
Having said that, I am not sure this is entirely acceptable ; if I pay good money to hear a concert performer play, I expect a basic standard of competence across the board - that is what I expect of myself both in my professional life as a lawyer, and in my other life as a performing musician. We all know some concert organists for whom you know that every note will be right as a given. Why should that not be the case with all of them ?Living outside a major city, I have occassionally experienced professional musicians who turn up with a far more laissez faire attitude to their performance then they would dare to exhibit in, say, London. They do themselves no favours pulling such stunts, since it's a small musical world and provincial music festivals avoid such musicians like the plague. The odd glitch during a live performance I can excuse, but a sloppy performance is disrespectful to the paying audience.
Not even sure such things exist.
Guidance For Voluntaries During Lentq
in General discussion
Posted
Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm sure I'l be able to make use of some of them.
What a marvellous resource this forum is!