innate

How do you feel about Bach's transcriptions of Vivaldi orchestral works for the organ, Nick? And, conversely, what about orchestrations of music originally for, say, solo piano, quite often by the original composer? There was a time before the gramophone and the radio when the only way most people got to hear orchestral music was by way of arrangements for organ and piano duet.

After the mentions of Britten and Tippett on another thread, am I alone in finding their organ writing slightly, um, uninformed? In the Britten Missa Brevis I seem to recall a moment where ff is accompanied by the registration indication + 4'.

Organist!

<Fast Show voice> ...nice... Olivier Messiaen. I've run out of inspiration.

Hilary Davan Wetton. Old services note retuned stringy ranks (6,3,6)

Swell to Great - and I claim my £5! Here's another: Organist arranges more in stops with point (5,7)

Mr & Mrs Unoff and their rather quiet daughter Eunice.

I think I went to the opening recital in the mid-70s. I remember David Butterworth muttering something indiscreet about "pipes tied up with shoelaces". My teenage ears liked the bright plenum, but I can't remember much about individual registers. I gather the stoplist was very closely based on the Marcussen in St Mary's Nottingham, which I'd also heard in its opening recital (Gillian Weir, programme included the Schoenberg Variations iirc) but I think Worksop was less bright than Nottingham.

I was surprised how cheap Messiaen organ music was when I was browsing in Foyles a few weeks ago. That's cheap in the sense that it seemed reasonable compared to how inordinately expensive it was 30 years ago. Maybe a much-postponed price rise has coincided with the collapse of the pound against the euro.

Sydney Watson was reputed to accompany Stanford in A from the orchestral score.

Interesting to wonder about the chances of major reform in either music notation or the spelling of English. Both systems developed in haphazard ways and have proved challenging for computers. English spelling continues to be blamed for putting unnecessary difficulties in the way of the learner and music notation only really makes sense with reference to keyboard instruments. Because they are both completely international the chances of reform are slight. Long live Esperanto!

I remember reading about Klavarskribo in the old Percy Scholes Oxford Companion to Music, probably a 1950 edition.

I can blame neither clergy, congregation, nor liturgical reform for the only time I can remember my closing voluntary being interrupted. Christmas Midnight Mass at St Peter ad Vincula, HM Tower of London. I'm halfway through Dieu Parmi Nous with the help of a pageturner ten times the musician I am when a Yeoman Warder comes right up to me and tells me "Stop, it's time to go!" or somesuch. I stopped, feeling angry and aggrieved, but couldn't lash out at anyone. In my current job I'm left to play undisturbed after the service often with a few people listening and watching close by (I'm always happy to see young children taking an interest) whilst clergy and the majority of the congregation are enjoying coffee and biscuits at the other end. I'm reconciled to being interrupted before the service by clergy keen to check details of order, announcements of hymns etc, - much better to sort stuff out then than it all go wrong in the service.

I understood Handel used the organ bit for concertos between the sections of his oratorios. The harpsichord would go out of tune no more with the organ than with the rest of the instruments.

But I presume the organ component of the Claviorganum made for Handel must have been very similar to the modern box organs, with the pipes in a similar position.

I was right with you until "Spring", Paul . I, and JS Bach, have a high opinion of Vivaldi's violin concerti.

Stevie Wonder has written and recorded many marvellous songs - he is a phenomenal musician. Whether any of his songs lend themselves to transcription for the solo church organ is another matter entirely. And many of his songs celebrate life, music, children. Try listening to Songs In The Key Of Life, a double album from c.1980.

From Leipzig to Paris... ?

And they didn't notice straightaway?

Is this the one where the sleuth tries to catch someone out by asking them what they think of Stanford in A flat, or something?

That's a shame. Maybe Lawrence should volunteer to fill the void. I remember hearing some world-class recitals at New College in the mid-1970s; there seemed to be series of 6 or so recitals one term every year, Saturday afternoon before Evensong.

A lovely stoplist. Let us know when it is finished.

The obvious place for a big gothic Blockwerk is a historical reconstruction in Winchester. If the instrument can't be heard 10 miles away the builder doesn't get paid!

James Blades relates in his autobiography how a tam-tam in, I think, the Concert Hall in Broadcasting House caused police to enter the building thinking an explosion was taking place. I think the piece was A Survivor From Warsaw.

The main London-based fixers for film and tv session work generally won't book their top players for in-vision filming - the money isn't good enough and it's incredibly tedious work.