innate

The usefulness of a read through the Tuner’s Book to the visiting organist has been mentioned on this board before. If you prefer visitors not to write in the Tuner’s Book then keep it out of sight and provide a sheet of useful tips for the visitor, if you think things might need spelling out. In the case of a prepared division or stops how is the visitor supposed to know?

Even with mechanical action a third manual with no stops could be designed as a coupling manual. I've no direct experience of such an arrangement but I can imagine how it could make a neo-classical organ slightly more adaptable for romantic music. As for prepared stops, I'm surprised how often these turn up on new European organs (according to websites!). I'm sure that once it seems the church can get by without the pedal trombone or the Positive sesquialtera it must be hard to generate the impetus to raise the additional funds. Michael

Just to clarify, I have no connection with the HW product. In fact I have never seen or used Hauptwerk; I've been arguing about principle here. It strikes me that the HW project, in computer terms, is in the "emulator" category and the "calcant" provision is completely understandable in those terms in addition to its, possibly subjective, musical worth. And in case you are unaware, the "I've had loads of private emails that support me" claim is not generally respected in cyberspace. Michael

I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. And failing, it would appear. Michael

I was thinking of aspects of performance practice and instrument design eg tracker actions, upperwork, non-ET tuning, ornamentation, articulation - rather than anything brand new. Generally, what comes after is less than it's cracked up to be. Why are you so incensed by a little piece of software? As David suggests, get incensed by something massively offensive like Microsoft Windows or Rupert Murdoch instead. And what is sham about an on-switch, for heaven's sake? Michael

I think that the 70 years counts from Dec 31 of the year in which the creator dies, so technically Widor won't become public domain until 31.12.2007 although I'd be surprised if Hamelle got shirty with you between now and then. On the other hand David Titterington's edition of THE toccata (the one with the misprints) may well be protected until 70 years after his (DT's) demise. Cf. the relatively recent "corrected" edition of Ulysses, which was, it seems certain, brought out specifically to extend copyright income for the estate and the publishers. I am unaware of a hundred-year rule ever being in place in the UK. Can you illuminate me? Michael Sorry to reply to my own post, but to clarify Mr B's point about editions: I think the 25 year copyright is for the typesetting and layout, not the editorial content. But copyright law is extremely complicated and I may well have got this round my neck. Michael

If we continue down the laudable path of attempting to reduce our carbon footprints then it's quite possible that we'll have to wind up our Hauptwerk machines every ten minutes or so, like those clockwork portable radios. Or perhaps each house will have a treadmill. By the way, I really can't see anything wrong with HW recreating the blower switches and wind noises. If you don't like HW's approach don't use their products. And remember, lots of things that we didn't like or couldn't understand a few years ago are now standard. Michael

Further to the "what would we like Santa to bring us?" thread there's a nice film near the bottom of this page that sums up why we all need a lovely little practice organ. http://www.per-o.de/uebungsorgel.html Michael

This is one of the funniest things I have ever read. I'm grateful I didn't have a mouthful of tea at the time. Many thanks. Michael

The cm is not a scientific unit (SI) and should be reserved for domestic use.

What a marvellous idea! Maybe there would need to be some scale of certainty about suggested corrections and also an extra page for printing infelicities eg notes out of vertical alignment (many instances in Bärenreiter), specific bad page turns etc. And what about copies that fall apart after two weeks' use? There are some existing resources eg an article in OR a few years ago listing corrections to Vierne which, copyright permitting, could be incorporated into your website. There would also be a chance to cross-reference different editions of the same work. Sometimes publishers put small errors in deliberately, to catch copyright infringers, as happens with Ordnance Survey maps. I've often wondered if the Sale of Goods Acts (UK) could be used against the shops selling error-ridden music, but perhaps we organists might then be held to account for errors in our performances.

I think the very least we can do, collectively, to develop our understanding of the organ music of previous ages is to make some, however speculative, examples of significant types of organ from the past where none survive. To that end, here in England, we need something from the late Tudor period and something from the Restoration. Other European countries have done much to foster interest in their indigenous organ "schools" in a way that we should emulate. The EEOP is a very laudable step in the right direction, as far as I'm concerned. Michael

I'm sorry you don't consider the discussion appropriate. Every on-line group I've ever been part of, e-lists, Usenet, and boards such as this one, has had threads that digress to a discussion of computer keyboard shortcuts for accents. It's almost inevitable when you consider the means of communication. There's nothing particularly anorakish about organists in this regard. Michael

The "normal" accents, eg ü, Ü, é, è, ç, â, ñ, are all very easy on a Mac; there is something called Keyboard Viewer that helps you find the keys to press. To help the Polish au pair I turned on the Polish keyboard layout and there were the l's with slashes and everything! And, Tony, I'd imagine the keyboard shortcuts would work in a Text Editor too, though I'm no expert. Michael

It would be good if someone could have a word with the over-enthusiastic service leader to explain how things should work. Otherwise she'll carry on alienating musicians until there are none left.

From a couple of practice sessions before FRCO in 1981 I remember that St Augustine's, Queensgate, South Kensington, had something odd in the way of couplers. Now I've looked it up: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N00947 I see it's the Ch to Sw of this thread. I couldn't decide why this was done here, but a lack of Sw to Ch was less than helpful for preparing for the HNB at Kensington Gore

I'd like one of these, as is: http://www.orgues-bancells.com/show?ar_id=26 But if Santa was paying for a custom job: Man I 61 notes C-c'''' Principale 8' Spire Flute 4' Man II 61 notes C-c'''' Bourdon 8' Recorder 2' Pedal 30 notes C-f Quint 5 1/3' II/I II/I 4' I/P I/P 4' II/P Tremulant to whole organ Some interesting and useful "well" temperament, eg Niedhart, Valotti, Kellner Mechanical action, of course. Maybe, and this would involve a lot of soul-searching and research, either an ability to transpose the organ, or low or high pitch. In other words, not just a practice organ, but one that could be used for intimate performances with other instruments, eg baroque flute, oboe, tromba di tirarsi etc. If anyone feels like being my Santa I can provide my bank details... Michael

<pedant mode on> This isn't a blog, it's a Discussion Board. <pedant mode off>

Are you implying that there's something deliberately antagonistic going on, on the part of either congregation, Director of Music, or both? That would add an extra frisson to such a global event.

The editorial work of the NBA is still protected by copyright. Some of the "misprints" in Bärenreiter will be to help establish copyright infringement. Anyone care to do a note-by-note comparison? Michael

Bärenreiter has misprints of its own but the scholarship behind the text is thorough; the motivation of the editors was generally to present Bach's final intention. To be fully informed of how the final text was arrived at you need to read the Critische Bericht (?sp.) that is printed to accompany each volume of music; unfortunately they are quite expensive and, I think, only available in German. Try your nearest university music faculty library. Michael

Thy Rebuke hath broken his heart!

Top four? King’s, John’s, Christ Church, Magdalen are the other fully-choral foundations at Oxbridge, with Trinity and Clare at Cambridge giving them a run for their money. But to answer your question, perhaps Dr Higginbottom is scaling back his involvement with the choir. Christ Church has generally had an Assistant Organist as well as an organ scholar in modern times. Given the mention of some work in New College School, perhaps they saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

I'd play from facsimiles of the original editions or MSS if I could get hold of them - that way I'd feel closer to the composer. Certainly there's something about the way Messiaen or Duruflé looks on the page that informs, if only subconsciously, how we perceive the music, and there's no reason that turn of the 17th Century German "house style" wouldn't do the same for JSB. Although I suppose a blind musician's perception would bypass the written appearance. Michael

Castrol GTX, I think. Very good use of music in a very well-made series of adverts. Michael