innate

Which contradicts your earlier claim.

Maybe Rowan Williams, who knows a thing or two about hymns, music, and Welsh, has a different opinion.

You’ve made me think that what the world needs, if it doesn’t already exist, is an organ fantasia on themes from West Side Story. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet could be amazing on the organ. As an aside did I hear the presenter on Radio 3 this morning say that the composer of the Merry Wives of Windsor Overture was Nicolai Otto?

I think the finances of Christ Church are in a much less healthy state than they were 6 or 7 years ago. The Martyn Percy affair has been both expensive in legal fees and settlements but also hugely costly in reputational terms. Alumnae, especially from the US, take a very dim view of the way the Governing Body has handled everything.

I like to hear the organist improvising skilfully and very gradually getting louder so that the Dean’s wife (or husband) has to speak louder and louder to her friend and then the organ stops without warning so the entire congregation hear “with a red wine ragôut …”. But a Howells Psalm Prelude is generally excellent pre-Evensong fare; especially the one dedicated to Dykes-Bower.

As much as ten years ago I was being told of theatre producers making casting decisions based on which contender for a role had more followers on Twitter. I see that Anna Lapwood has 100k subscribers on YouTube. The hugely successful violinists Two Set Violin have over 4 million YouTube subscribers but that success comes at a cost; they have been open about the challenges this has involved for their mental health. I’m not sufficiently au fait with Instagram and TikTok to find the numbers there!

Couldn’t agree more, Damian.

Were there hymns in Series one? If it is customary to omit something the implication is that it’s something that would otherwise be there. Not sure how that changes anything!

It’s a long time ago now but I’m fairy sure that we always sang a psalm as the Gradual at our weekly Holy Communion service and we always sang a Gloria Patri after it. This was at a post-war church on a post-war council estate on the edge of Derby in the years before the introduction of Series 2. We used a small green book for the Order of Holy Communion which had the rubrics in red. We were above half way up the candle; some of the congregation left when the vicar introduced incense but private confession was always available. My father, the organist, had been a chorister at St Michael’s, Tenbury.

Trinity College, Cambridge, appoints Steven Grahl. A significant loss to Christ Church, Oxford, in my opinion. https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/news/trinity-appoints-steven-grahl-director-of-music/

Although it’s an anniversary of someone’s death I think we may now sing joyfully that Byrd’s music is known, performed and loved by millions of people around the world so many centuries after it was written. The introit may also refer to the Feast of St Thomas celebrated on July 3rd.

I think this is an interesting line of inquiry but is, perhaps, a slightly “keyboard-centric” view. The development of counterpoint in church music from the Ars Antiqua, through the Ars Nova and Machaut, to Landini and a world of parallel sixths and thirds with contrary motion at cadences would seem to be very much based on the sound world of singing, where temperament had different parameters.

Something that has always worried me in Litanies is the pattern that starts on the last two bars of this screen grab [from a self-published edition on IMSLP—the piece is now public domain in Europe and Canada]. The registration implies that the Pos. is louder/more present than the Récit but in these two bars that would take away the 3+3+2 rhythm and make it sound (to anybody not looking at the score as thought the Pos. and Ped. are on the beat and it’s a straight 4/4 pattern with the first two Rec. quavers being an upbeat. Can anyone explain what the intention is here?

There are four Singing Scholarships and two Instrumental Scholarships available at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London UK—closing date for application May 30, 2023 at 9am. https://www.sjp.org.uk/about-music-arts-ideas/music-scholars/

I have had Public Liability Insurance through membership of the Musicians’ Union for decades. The last time I looked it was for up to £10million. One of the many benefits of union membership.

Yes, but why not use the big church organ, as I think we know Bach did on occasion.

I just came across this instrument. I wish there were more pictures! But is this the type of instrument that I have read many commentators say is not historically accurate in performance of, for example, Bach cantatas? I know the page says this organ is pitched at “Chorton” so wouldn’t be particularly practical for using with orchestral instruments. Apologies if a similar topic already exists; a search on “box organ” didn’t produce anything relevant. https://silbermann.org/orgel/seerhausen/

If you have a smart phone you should be able to get a very decent scanning app for it that will produce very good quality scans,

£1000 for the use of the Royal Festival Hall for a couple of hours doesn’t seem excessive, in my opinion.

The pianos have been in stations for many years. The organ in London Bridge has only been there a few months. This kind of TV programme would have taken at least two years to get from initial idea through commissioning, funding and contracting, to final filming, editing and scheduling.The TV piano programme was able to maintain national relevance by having different programmes filmed in stations across the UK. AFAIK there is only one organ in a UK station.

I’d be interested in knowing how your plans come to fruition. I’ve played a few cathedral organs where there are quite sophisticated CCTV systems with a number of fixed and moveable cameras. As a very temporary visitor I had to rely on the resident staff turning the system on and I didn’t dare try to adjust anything. Is the ideal to have just one screen for the organist (for neatness) which can be set to a single camera or switched to any combination of cameras in split-screen? 5 separate screens would make me feel like a security guard!

I remember the very early days of digital CCTV involved significant delays although I don’t think it was often more than half a second. But the A/D and D/A convertors are much quicker these days and such systems are now used without difficulty in eg West End and Broadway musicals where precise timing is crucial.

And the Guildford vacancy is advertised on the Church Times site this morning.

What we “all grew up with” is, to a degree, insignificant. That you are sad is a shame. Before the Reformation the Mass was celebrated daily and the Office was essentially monastic and for the devotions of the clergy. The language of worship had been exclusively in Latin (with the occasional phrase of Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew). Cranmer and his fellow reformers substituted a modern-language version of the liturgy and the scriptures with an emphasis on the Office, refashioned into a twice-daily worship with the Psalter being read every month rather than the 7-times-a-day worship with a weekly recitation of the Psalms. The BCP provides that confirmed members of the church should receive communion at least three times a year. Nowadays there is a wide range of theological, liturgical and ecclesiological opinion on the form that public worship should take and it would be surprising if we all thought the same. God in her infinite wisdom has appointed Bishops, Priests and Laity to positions of authority in the Church of England which has resulted in the broad menu of liturgy available throughout the year and on special occasions. But, and I realise I am not practising what I preach, I feel that this forum isn't really the place for airing our personal feelings about matters that are hardly core to our enjoyment of the pipe organ and its world in sacred and secular music.

I love the A major sonata and have accompanied not only violinists but also cellists and, I kid you not, flautists in performances. The Dm Symphony is less successful, imo. Peter Warlock had the right idea, I think. I was once criticised by a guest for playing this on the piano as background music for breakfast in a 5* Cairo hotel: