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sjf1967

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Everything posted by sjf1967

  1. I knew I'd seen something relevant, and found it in a review I wrote for Choir and Organ a couple of years back. Music by Jewish composers, arranged for viola or cello and organ. I don't have the copy anymore, alas. B Kalinowska and S Kalinowsky (eds.) From Jewish Life (Bärenreiter BA11252, £22.50 )
  2. Not sure there has been any advance on this from Peter Williams - whose answer is that there is no clear answer. He suggests an 'ideal' note, or a French allusion to ravalement pedalboards, or that it was written for harpsichord with the lowest C# tuned down a tone (pedals are not necessary for the central section, which can be managed completely manualiter). And it's not unique - the note appears in copies of BWV 564 and 566. And ultimately in the absence of an autograph, who knows whether Bach wrote it? One copyist puts it up an octave.
  3. This might be worth a look? https://www.laflutedepan.com/partition/2087036/jehan-alain-l-annee-liturgique-israelite-partition-orgue.html Transcribed from this recording
  4. ah, sorry, yes! 729. 608 is a tricky number for sure.
  5. The whole question of what the pedal should play is very much open to individual interpretation - there's no autograph and the only two copies (Preller and Kittel, both quite a bit later than the date of composition suggested by the idiom of the piece) make no stipulation about what they play (although they are needed unless some chords are respaced in places). The earlier, shorter 729a is similarly unspecific (here the chorale is figured, not written out). The NBA has no pedal indication at all, the BG just (con Ped.), on who knows what authority. New Breitkopf suggests pedal for the first two chorale phrases, and then not until b39 to end. The 3-stave notation we're now familiar with is I suspect very much a development of the Novello editions. So a range of solutions is certainly acceptable. One possible system is just to use the pedal where you really need to, where the tune appears in fuller harmonised textures. Registration - possibly plenum, or a smaller chorus, but I've heard it done very beautifully on a single 8 principal.
  6. No, I'm not joking in any shape or form, it's the real scheme - the firm is hardly likely to publish a comedy version on its own website. I'm going to wait until I've heard/played it before deciding what I think. Only 3 years to wait, it'll fly past.
  7. No, it's the real specification. Why wouldn't it be? Have you read the detailed rationale for the design?
  8. crikey, had no idea! I picked mine up second hand for about a fiver...
  9. which reminds me - anything useful in the Helmut Walcha chorale preludes?
  10. Does the cathedral have an endowment separate from the college? I can't see how this is going to work financially, but I'm sure they already thought of that.
  11. I'm glad you liked it! Yes, the Rouault is pretty taxing, but worth the effort in every way - as I think is all JM's organ music (some of which is not at all difficult). As you probably know there's also an extraordinary concerto - A Scotch Bestiary - written for the opening of the Walt Disney Hall organ in 2004. I've done it twice, and I think there are still only three people in the world who've played it....needs a HUGE orchestra which is probably why it only gets very rare outings. There's just one recording, conducted by the composer. We couldn't afford to record it again for the organ works disc....
  12. https://music.apple.com/gb/album/james-macmillan-organ-works/1523920309 Well, it can go a bit faster in a smaller building...maybe that helps? I quite like it. Written for his son's wedding, and based on an Albanian folk tune. The title translates (roughly) as 'Song of the in-laws'.
  13. Anglo American Music Publishers - but I think they no longer exist. PM me...
  14. Also a very good Distler Nun komm Partita....
  15. The Cecilia McDowall Advent Antiphons are very much worth a look, and not hugely difficult (two are down for ARCO in the current syllabus). There's also a set by Nico Muhly but they have some more taxing moments. The Leighton Helmsley piece is harder than it looks, I think.... he also wrote a stand-alone Veni Redemptor Fantasy, but it's pretty difficult. Hakim Sinfonia in honorem John the B is concise and effective, and there's also a three-mvt piece called Canticum based on Advent plainsongs. I'm pretty sure there's a short Reger Wachet Auf CP in one of the collections: Vol 1 of the Karg-Elert Op 65 is Advent and Christmas based. Little partita by Anton Heiller on Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland. The short Dupre CPs might have some useful things, but they tend to be short of course. The OUP hymn prelude series has an Advent volume, I'm pretty sure. And you may still be able to get hold of the Novello Festal Voluntaries Advent/Xmas volume if you're lucky - can't remember what's in it though.
  16. There's a taster of the new Byrd disc here - Byrd 'O quam gloriosum est regnum': II. Secunda pars https://orcd.co/8or9gve
  17. Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it so much - it was a very enjoyable project and the T and B is a wonderful thing. Not really a chamber organ, but there's also a disc of Kenneth Gilbert doing 17th C English on the Dallam; I may still have a copy. I hope so, because it's going for about $250 secondhand on EBay...
  18. With apologies - this might be of interest? https://www.resonusclassics.com/products/the-virtuoso-organist-tudor-and-jacobean-masterworks-stephen-farr : a disc of Byrd on the same label and instrument is released on October 13. Not a recommendation, more a point of information.....
  19. 'Authority' in Alain can be a fluid thing... In the sense that he notated (or is known to have given explicit written permission for) any cuts, in any of the known sources, the answer is no. But there are quite a few things enshrined in the pre-2001 Leduc editions that are based on MCA's recollection of his own playing habits or his verbally expressed preferences, and it's hard to argue with that. Litanies is a bit of a special case, because the piece was put into a final, definitive form by JA for publication.
  20. I don't think there's a version published which has this cut. It's one of the few works that JA prepared for publication, and he provided a very precise MS for the engraver which does not omit the passages in question. It's possible that: a) MCA had her brother's authority to abbreviate, but this was never enshrined in print, b) she had a memory lapse in the recording (unikely), or c) there were problems managing the necessary registration change with no assistant on this instrument (some earlier registration changes aren't observed in the recording, probably for the same reason). If you can track down the 'Critical Notes' Leduc published alongside the 2001-2003 version of the Alain edition, there might be info there; from memory, they don't mention a cut at this point in any of the several MSS of the piece. I've never heard anyone else make a cut here.
  21. And your friend can contact me via the All Saints Margaret St office = office@asms.uk - we may be able to arrange a spin on the (extraordinarily fine, cathedral-sized 4 man) H and H for him, church diary allowing. Best wishes, Stephen Farr
  22. I went from playing 8 services a week, with two voluntaries at each, to playing, at most, once a week on a Sunday evening when I became a DoM. I made very sure to keep playing as much as possible outside the cathedral, solo and ensemble/continuo - for the sake of my musical self-esteem and sanity, and because otherwise I would have wasted 20 years of my life. I sometimes had to 'keep the shop open solo' when circumstances dictated, but I remember David Hill saying that he never felt you could do both things as well as you'd like in the same service, and I think he was right.
  23. The ISM is asking around to see if anyone can identify the location of this photo from its archives, or provide details of any of the performers. Any ideas? - https://www.rsmgb.org/2023/01/03/archive-item-of-the-month-january-2023/?fbclid=IwAR1vQC2WsV9P9gOdeSocPmNlLDpRwoR2tUDrMTQ01j4kV_A4s6yUbVQeMEQ
  24. I think it's overseeing the music at a Coronation which is by convention the crucial thing as far as knighthoods for Abbey organists go. And there's nothing to stop James O'Donnell receiving another honour at a later stage- but I'd be surprised if he's all that bothered, to be honest.
  25. Well... beautiful liturgy, a wonderful building, experienced and committed adult professional singers, no undergraduate flakiness in terms of attendance and reliability, no annual angst when your organ scholar doesn't make their A Level grades, freedom to pursue other activities as and when you like, the absence of college politics.....Oxbridge DoM jobs are not the glamorous things they might appear to be, for all the glossy accoutrements that come with them.
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