innate

The old organ, under the control of Mark Blatchly, gave a very convincing account of the Poulenc Concerto c.1979.

In the past I tried to bookmark the main Invision page but it always took me back to the Mander Home Page. Just now I tried making a new bookmark and it seems to take me straight to the discussion section. For the record I'm on an always-on broadband connection and two other similar boards seem to remember me even after I've rebooted the computer and the router. Onwards and upwards.

Rather than start a new thread I'm posting my login query here. For at least a year, possibly since the major spam trouble a few years ago, I've had to login every time I go to the Mander site. For the time that the normal link didn't work whilst the board was transferred to new servers recently I was amazed that by pasting the link provided I didn't have to login each time, but now everything is back to normal and I need to login anew every time I go to the site. Is there a link that I can bookmark that takes me straight to the Discussion Board that might save me login hassle? As always, thanks to our hosts for having us!

As always, thanks to Barry for his professional expertise in this area. As much as improvements in organists' rights are to be welcomed is it certain that every organist will welcome the ruling? Is it possible that a mainly freelance self-employed musician might prefer his organist work to be on the same basis as the rest of his work? I know, Barry, you have posted that an organist's travel expenses to his regular place of employment (ie his church) have been ruled to be ineligible for legitimate business expenses under Schedule D but would, for example, similar reasoning hold true for a church minister in a joint benefice of several outlying churches? And therefore were an organist to have jobs at several churches could that situation be construed similarly?

But the orchestral instrument only plays up to F above middle C and the high notes aren't really loud or powerful at all How often is the tuba on an organ utilised in the same way as an orchestral one ie as a bass instrument? Equally strange is the rarity of euphonium stops on organs

My organ teacher showed me where the church key was hidden shortly after I started lessons at 14 about 30 years ago. This would be surprising anywhere nowadays but the church was a major parish church with much valuable plate and unique Elizabethan monuments and tombs in addition to the large organ. I suspect he informed neither the vicar nor the churchwardens.

This thread makes me give thanks for my good fortune. In over two years in my current church position I can't remember a negative comment from a congregant. On the contrary they have appreciated Le Jardin Suspendu and anything French in addition to recognizing some Hanns Eisler! Mind you Messe de la Pentecôte is beyond me technically.

iPlayer will not be compatible with Macs for some (unspecified) time, which is ironic given its name implies an Apple connection cf. iPod, iLife, iWork, iTouch, iPhone etc.

The pedal part of the last section of Mvt 2 of L'Ascension seems pretty hard to me. Did OM record that? I don't know that he would have been "expected" to play Bach; afaik he chiefly improvised during the liturgy.

Again, thanks for all the information and photos, Nigel. Does M. Aubertin not permit you to take photos of the giant sheets of instructions (a la Ikea) for assembly?

If only! Use the right tool for the job The decision to use PowerPoint was made before I arrived and once established it's very hard to change anything. I have a feeling that there was an aspect of "PowerPoint is what our potential congregants are used to - we ought to be giving them lots of whizzy graphics to hold their interest." I am the first person to deride MicroShaft for their bloated design and monopolistic tendencies and I use Apple's Keynote to open any PowerPoint files I'm sent.

I work with one of these every Sunday. I have to proofread the PowerPoint file to check for any errors in the words of the hymns (including spelling mistakes, number of verses, right version of the hymn, right layout (is the refrain printed on each slide) etc.) and whilst playing in the service I have to keep at least half an eye on the screen to check that the operator is on the ball. The proofreading would be equally necessary if we were to print a service sheet each week. No hymnbook is guaranteed to contain all the hymns a particular church will need; even a church that has a custom-made hymnal will find a lacuna a few years down the line. Additional hymnals aren't entirely satisfactory; remember Garrison Keillor's description of an Episcopalian needing to be an octopus in order to hold all the necessary books and papers.

I think the Eb version is charming. A good trumpeter on the right instrument should balance perfectly in Suscepit. I prefer the recorders in Esurientes. And Trumpets with strings in a flat key is unusual. The Christmas interplations are good too, and can't really be done in the D major version. Bach making errors, how did that happen?!?

I'm a bit jealous of musicians with perfect pitch as it would mean I wouldn't have to listen quite so hard to long symphonic movements to follow the harmonic journey; for perfect-pitch-people it must be a case of "Ah, we're in G minor now" - that'd be cool. OTOH I can't imagine that Bach and Mozart (who I believe to have had perfect pitch ) would have been debilitated to any extent. They both grew up in a world of many or no pitch standards so D, for example, had no definitive pitch, but would vary from church to hall to chapel to attic, and, relevantly here, from manual to manual. Question: what's the difference to the hearer between the first movement of the Bach Magnificat in D at A440 and the first movement of the Bach Magnificat in Eb at A415?

No, they would be correct if they put "photocopying this music is illegal". "Photocopying music is illegal" is misleading.

It seems about 40 years ago that I first read a copyright notice that included in its list of prohibitions "stored in a retrieval system"; at the time I must have thought "that's a bit unlikely" but now I would start scanning all my sheet music into the computer like a shot if it weren't illegal. I suppose because the market is so much smaller than that for recorded music the case for some change in the legalities will be slow to be heard; I'd have thought the right to make one "transfer" onto a digital viewing system per purchased copy wouldn't cost the publishers anything in real terms. I agree that much printed music is now public domain although with regard to Verdi, copyright would subsist until the relevant period after the death of the last surviving collaborator, in his case quite possibly the librettist. I find the notice on Kevin Mayhew publications "photocopying music is illegal" annoying and not true.

I have a vague memory that this organ was up high on the North side of the choir in this remarkable church (St Mary, Clumber Park) but I was only about 12 when our church choir paid a visit.

Please don't take organist/organ jokes too personally. Cellists and Double Bassists taking their instruments on public transport frequently get the "I bet you wish you played the flute!" or "How do you get that under your chin?" hardy perennials from wise guys who think they are hilarious new gags. Howard Goodall's programme was called Howard Goodall's Organ Works, after all. (I think.)

In many ways I admire your response, Peter. I'm much more of the performing seal school-of-musician. Give me a fish and I'll play anything you want any way you want it! That being said I would prefer to play Daisy, Daisy on a more appropriate instrument than a fine pipe organ built on classical principles. Does your church have a piano? I chose the (not brilliant) piano at All Saints, Poplar to play the requested Dambusters March for the funeral of a veteran of WWII, over the less suitable organ. Best wishes in whatever you decide to do.

Looks lovely, merci, Pierre. Is there much room for the other musicians in the gallery (for whom I imagine the Kammerton stops are provided)?

I suspect it would take more than tuning the RAH/RFH organs to 443Hz to stop european orchestras touring with toasters. For a start I don't think there is any consensus between Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Paris, Amsterdam, The Hague as to pitch. And when orchestras tour they frequently go to more than one foreign city so they would probably have the toaster with them and force of habit/reluctance to rehearse more than necessary would probably mean using the toaster anyway. Also organ experts would argue that we should leave the pitch of the RFH organ as Downes intended it. Perhaps it's the touring that's the problem. The days of unlimited international touring are surely numbered. Happy New Year!

They have surely improved since I heard them, about 4 years ago, singing the RVW Mass in G minor. "Brave" was the word that sprang to mind then.

There's a setting of The Holly & The Ivy by Lord Lloyd-Webber in his stage musical version of The Woman In White; it's like a dirge and chiefly in 5/4. A bit reminiscent of Britten's setting of the National Anthem.

I'd never done the maths, merely repeated the story; I think Chadwick was at Eton but not until the posited teacher would have been 92. I'm now going to have to check the details of a similar story involving my great-uncle and WG Grace.

Stumbled across this very positive item on the BBC site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/p...m=1&nbram=1 Unusually free from gaffs for a music-related news story.