innate

I think there is reason to put church liturgy in a similar category to Radio 4 and Classical Music. Whilst some children are brought up with them as part of their lifestyle from the cradle and a few (slightly perverse, in the sense of not following the herd) teenagers discover their joys, the majority don't appreciate them until they are in their thirties or later. I seem to remember the BBC getting very worried that the R4 audience would die off but they seem to have seen the error in that way of thinking and stopped their attempts to make it appeal to a younger audience; that's what R1 and R5 are for. Agreed.

Good King Wenceslas has almost instantly memorable words, sadly that doesn't make it great poetry.

I know it's not a cathedral but St. Ignatius Loyola, NYC has a marvellous organ and a full music program of a consistently high standard. Is that exceptional for large well-endowed RC churches in the US?

Much better than in the non-Jewish ones.

Yes. If the only things I miss are a Great Twelfth and a Sesquialtera somewhere they must be doing it right

I only learned of the existence of the greater and lesser SEMITONE in my recent reading about temperaments in the C18 and C19. One was 5/9 of a tone and the other 4/9, apparently; string players were consistently taught this in the old days.

I recall the late Wallace Ross, whilst Organist and Master of the Choristers at Derby Cathedral confiding, with regard to playing the organ for other conductors, "Never play louder than mf in the rehearsal. Then let them have it in the concert!" accompanied by his seraphic smile.

I believe Ronald Binge hailed from Derby and I played his Elizabethan Serenade under his baton in the new Derby Playhouse c. 1975.

Thanks to the kind board member who has already come to my rescue. Michael

I've received an email in connection with a funeral that includes this: from the Redemption songs book ; Hymn 347 I have a friend a precious friend Hymn 9 I must have a saviour I know neither the hymns mentioned, nor the book, and a search on Cyber Hymnal has not helped. I'm away from now until the funeral - can anyone provide me with PDFs of these hymns? Or tell me another better-known book in which they appear? My email is: innate AT me DOT com Thanks in advance for any help, Michael

An organ of a style contemporary with that of the building it's in? That would be awful. It'd be like Queen’s Oxford all over again.

We may not know, we cannot tell What strains He likes to hear. But we believe that Messiaen And Bach are quite sincere!

I wouldn't think much of an edition of O Mensch bewein’ that needs a pageturner.

Well out of my area of expertise, but I was told that the relevant authorities once came down very hard on on of our Cathedrals for dodgy Gift Aid dealings (nothing to do with organists, by the way). On the other hand, were a formerly mean, nay stingy, parish church significantly to increase the salary of their organist who subsequently, and without collusion, freely decided to Gift Aid to the church a sum not dissimilar to his salary increase I think it would be a tough case for the authorities to argue. On the other hand are churches immune from Minimum Wage legislation? I read Barry's book but can't remember if this was mentioned.

I agree in principle. On the occasions where I have played for close friends and relations I have insisted that the incumbent organist gets their standard fee. As for the people that don't want the services of an organist at all, I wonder why they want to get married in a church where organ music is a significant part of their style of worship. If they want a gospel choir, worship group or something like jazz vespers at their wedding then they could find a church where that was on offer. If they want exclusively eg string quartets or a brass band then I would have thought they would be better off having a civil ceremony in a venue of their choice.

Or Lidl?

The rear-view mirror in my Volvo is a work of art. Solid, yet easy to adjust. So much better than in any other car I've driven.

The point about the height needed for bellows before the invention of the (almost silent) electric blower is surely a crucial one in the development of the modern box organ. I think William Sumner observed that organ sound falls better than it rises. One of the main keyboard continuo players of the British original instrument movement of the 1970s and 80s once opined that box organs "make choirs sing flat". So maybe pipe mouths more than a metre above floor-level will be more effective and musical than ones less than 30cms above the floor. But from a practical point of view (pun intended) I'd rather be in the cluster of continuo musicians for a performance of eg a Bach Passion than at the edge of the stage with my back to the conductor and the other performers. There used to be a very compact oldish chamber organ in Christ Church, Oxford (maybe NPOR index number C00944) of a similar height to modern box organs and with a single metal foot pump operated by the player which was musical and functional. Were the single-manual English chamber organs by eg Snetzler and Samuel Green, often to be found in odd corners of cathedrals and college chapels, intended to be used as continuo instruments or were they more for playing solo? And whilst thick low chords on a stopped 8' will rumble a bit, there is sometimes a musical place for that, and there are many other, lighter, brighter, sparer, textures available to the continuo organist. I have been known to use the (open) 4' on its own, down the octave, where there is a strong enough texture on the bass line (eg cello, violone, bassoon). And if I could only have one stop on a house organ I think it would probably be a stopped 8'.

I am not a lawyer, but simply because people are doing something "all the time" doesn't necessarily make it either legal or acceptable. As I understand it, the BBC make streaming and downloads of TV and Radio programs available under strict conditions eg they are only available to IP addresses in the UK, they are only available for a certain number of days. The creators of the music and performances on the recordings have rights that cannot be taken away by unauthorised use.

Other liturgical applications might include "Lip glossolalia" for Messe de la Pentecôte. And "aisle-liner" for crowd-pullers such as the famous Widor and Bach Toccatas.

Do you ever read orchestral scores or chamber music? C clefs very much the opposite of obsolete there. I appreciate that organists are rarely required to read orchestral scores but Sydney Watson always accompanied Stanford in A from the full score. And keyboard continuo players (many organists amongst them) are often confronted with a b.c. part that migrates into Tenor clef.

Did Brahms?

I am sure that there is, and has been, an element of archaism about the use of C Clefs, as with many aspects of "Western" music notation eg C and ¢ time signatures, the use of transposition and non-standard key signatures in writing for clarinets, horns, brass, and percussion. I like the sense of continuity and connection with the past that C clefs represent. I have a facsimile of the original partbooks of Tallis and Byrd’s Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, which use 9 or so different clefs, many in the same part book, and I have huge respect for those church musicians of the 16th century who were sufficiently fluent to take those clefs (and canonic instructions) in their stride. I love coming across C Clefs in organ music, both in the Peters Edition of Bach and in the original edition (as reprinted by Kalmus) of the Brahms opus 122 Chorale Preludes. Brahms, always fond of archaisms such as the natural horn and the passacaglia, also used C clefs in his vocal music eg the motet Warum Ist Das Licht Gegeben Op 74. He was a subscriber to the first critical complete editions of Handel and Bach which he apparently played through on the piano as soon as each volume was delivered; those editions are littered with C clefs. I'm always slightly disappointed that the OUP facsimile edition of John Stanley's organ voluntaries re-notated the sections in Alto clef. Archaicly, Michael

It seems to lack a Choir Organ and Cremona, Vox Humana, and Clarion stops. Was the Bassoon stop similar to, or the same as, the Hautboy?

I played a Boyce Trumpet Voluntary last Sunday evening to the expressed delight of the congregation. I very much liked reading Marsh's comment about not using the Trumpet stop when the music modulates. A true purist!