innate

That’s going to be our plan too, when services are inside. We hope to be outside for many of the Sundays from now until the end of September though and we will encourage everyone to sing. Social-distancing: I think our plan is to have the North side of the church to be a free-for-all and the South side to remain for those who wish to maintain social-distancing as before with alternate pews roped off.

My favourite Gordon Reynolds quote is the definition for tenor: There are either too many or none at all. When there are none it leaves an aching void; when there are too many it fills the void without removing the ache.

I found this guided tour of the latest instrument from Juget-Sinclair very interesting.

You know that movement in the original orchestral L’Ascension that, for whatever reason, Messiaen decided not to rewrite for organ which meant we got Transports de Joie? Here are those orchestral Trumpet and Cymbal alleluias on the organ in an astonishing performance of his own transcription:

I’ve often used the Cornet V + Trumpet 8' to serve as a “super solo reed” in pieces such as the Tippet canticles, especially on two organs that no longer exist where I was on the staff: the HNB at Exeter College, Oxford and the HNB at the Tower of London.

I used to play orchestral piano and celeste occasionally for the English Chamber Orchestra. I viewed the owner/manager’s attempts to belittle my contribution by claiming I was being paid so much “per note” as demeaning.

The Duruflé Toccata is in B minor and works well on Easter Day. I have never heard of a connection between the Bm P&F and Palm Sunday. The Toccatas/Fantasias and Fugues seem to me to have no religious significance.

Almost 100% certain it wasn't Biggs. I’m wondering if it might have been Christopher Dearnley. I had only just started learning the organ!

I remember a recital in Westminster Cathedral c. 1975. I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember who the recitalist was—someone famous. The first two pieces were by Byrd; played on loud chorus reeds.

That’s a whole recital—well done!

Did anyone else play this today? Apparently musicologists now ascribe this to CPE Bach and the harpsichord. I must say the Peters edition doesn’t make it particularly clear which notes are for the pedals.

“Most men are baritones” is a reason to suppose that Tudor choral pitch was pretty close to A440. I can’t remember now which contemporary writer noted that “the commonest [adult male] voice is Tenor” which would equate to a modern baritone.

At the risk of meandering even further than normal from Pipe Organ-related matters one of the early discoveries of making movies of musicals was that the traditional soprano and tenor roles that carried so well in theatres didn’t work well on screen, particularly when the soprano was in close-up. As a result in the 1936 film of Show Boat all the soprano songs are transposed down by about a third. Many female pop singers sing in the low alto or tenor register and many “worship” songs are similarly pitched. It’s also true to say that most untrained singers don’t fit into the traditionally gendered SATB categories. Tastes and physiologies have changed but life-styles and musical experiences have changes too.

No hint of a gathering note (chord) in those hymns; the pace isn’t RVW slow either.

I can imagine that might be the result of not-so-subtle work-place bullying by a DoM. “I’m not sure you realised, but you managed to end the Second Collect a quarter of a tone sharp this evening.”

I’ve played those variations without shame at the funerals of many older people including my 85-year-old Dad. Even the oldest amongst us are young in comparison to the life of many church buildings and organs, oak trees, mountains and rivers. It’s cool. And the music is wonderful.

Interesting. Deans of prestigious cathedrals normally have high status and a lovely house but I’d say that cathedral organists and DoMs are much more likely to have job satisfaction or at least hugely rewarding moments. I may well not be in kilter with the general thoughts of this community on this but I have a feeling the time for a massive overhaul of the honours system, or its abolition, is overdue. To avoid doubt I’m in awe of Wayne Marshall’s prodigious talent and musicianship.

I have a facsimile of the original edition of CÜIII. It is hard to read, not because of the C clefs and the pedals quite often being on the lh stave, but because the horizontal and vertical spacing is poor and there are more than a handful of misprints. I’m still committed to the idea of playing from original editions though!

I bought Organteq as a sort-of tax-deductible Xmas present for myself. I love the idea of it and even through computer speakers the sounds are hugely better than the organ sounds that come “built-in” with computer software such as Sibelius and LogicPro. I have a MIDI keyboard so can play Organteq with that but I must say I’m finding controlling the stops etc. cumbersome and storing the registrations in a MIDI file or Logic track beyond me so far. I’m not expecting any help from this forum but just wanted to share my frustration!

Ker-ching!

I may be wrong but I understood that some sources that were available to the Bach Gesellschaft and Edition Peters were destroyed or lost during WW2 meaning that more modern urtext editions don’t have access to them. This might explain the discrepancy.

Very helpful, Damian; many thanks.

Can anyone that has a home organ tell me how high the lowest manual is from the floor? Many thanks.

Yes, thank you for mentioning Hauptwerk, SomeChap. There are some very neat self-made set-ups around. I’ve also been looking at OrganTeq from Modartt, which is not sample based but physically modelled to recreate a Cavaillé-Coll type instrument.

Thanks for your thoughts, too, Martin. I’m definitely in the “not waiting” mode now.