sjf1967

Vater Unser from Clavierubung III; or just possibly O Mensch bewein.

Oliver - try this. It might be what you want. http://www.organrecitals.com/westabbey.php

Chris - stick a copy in the post to me at Guildford (you can get the office address off the website) and I'll have try to have a look - but can't promise it would be immediate.

sprondel - you're quite right of course, Nielsen's Danish. Was associating the piece in my mind with Sibelius, which is no excuse - thank you.

Nielsen and Martin will provide you with plenty of those, MM (even though one's Finnish and the other Swiss )...they really are great works. If we we're allowed ten I'd certainly go with Durufle Veni Creator - fantastic stuff. Will go away and have a little think about the other five I'm allowed...the Elgar is wonderful to listen to but I'm not sure I like playing it much. Reubke's a strong contender too.

Dead heat - Martin Passecaille; Nielsen Commotio; Alain Trois Danses; Messiaen Messe de la Pentecote. For my money, anyway....

'Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life' is my favourite. It's a real one...

Tony - very interesting area this. Two observations: Josephus may not be as reliable as we like to think; and not one single historical document outside the Bible records the 'historical fact' of a literal bodily resurrection. It can hardly have been an everyday event after all - but no source mentions it, even by implication. As for the New Testament - Mark, the oldest gospel , doesn't record the resurrection at all... In saying all this I don't intend to question anyone's faith or belief, let me be clear on that - they are just questions!

MM - If the Cook is dedicated to Robert Munns (who was my first organ teacher) - who is the C.E. whose initials appear at the top of the score - 'for C.E.'? There's no mention of Robert that I can see. Not questioning the veracity of your account - just curious! S

If you've not heard the originals before you're in for surprise - some fairly extended passages are quite different from D's transcription - he tidied things up quite a lot.

I guess you use it to store settings for particularly involved and complex accompaniments, so you're not always resetting the pistons...and recitalists can have a bit more memory too. Surprising how fast it fills up with 3 organists and an organ scholar!

There's a piece by a well known French 20th c composer in the companion volume of Modern Organ music Vol 1. Has anyone ever played it? I'd be interested to know what you thought if you had....

At Winchester one of us used to pop out of the loft and go over the mini Sainsbury's on Sunday morning for a bag of doughnuts to eat during the sermon. Very nice they were too, but the keys got a bit sticky.

Not sure if it counts as an anecdote - but when Mahler 8 was done here a little while ago I played the organ part. The basses in the VAST choral society had been told to stand in a very precise configuration on the staging so I had the tiniest of sightlines to the conductor (we don't have a CCTV here) - and of course they all forgot. So I had to do the whole thing (including the arrival of the opening chord) by guesswork - I couldn't see a thing except serried ranks of dinner jackets towering above me, and had to listen to the contrabassoon drawing breath with the first upbeat to know when to start playing. I didn't enjoy it much as a consequence (too worried) but it's a great piece.

There's a similar volume called Expressions - published by FitzSimons - half of the pieces are Hakim and half are Langlais. A bit more involved than the 24 pieces though.

That's certainly the Chant Heroique - glad you've tracked it down again! It's a good piece I think. S

On the subject of likes - Alain. I think he's more intriguing and innovative than Messiaen, much as I love the latter. Who knows where A's rhythmic experiments (viz Trois Danses) might have taken him?

Chant Heroique (9 Pieces)?

You're quite right pncd - I did record them. Still available from all good record shops of course :angry: Evensong - lovely stuff. Do you know the Dubois Marche des Rois Mages? - you stick a pencil or similar on top b with a flute 4 and then off you go. Garbage of the most exalted variety, and all done in the utmost seriousness, which makes it funnier. I play it very couple of years to cheer myself up after Christmas.

The Langlais 5 Meditations sur L'Apocalypse are good stuff I think; and L'Annonciation, from the same set as the much more often played La Nativite, is also very fine. Did he accept too many US commissions, maybe?

I had it on the sworn authority of a former no 3 of SP's at the Abbey that it was Catherine Ennis!

Thanks for the reminder Graham - I'm with you on Mendelssohn too. I find it terribly sanctimonious.

My antipathy stems from being compelled to learn the Dupre Variations in a fortnight when I was an Organ Scholar - no choice. Never got over it!

I'm with you there. Controversial, but one of my great allergies is Dupre - the early Preludes and Fugues are good, Choral and Fugue, Second Symphony and Tombeau de Titelouze - but things like Evocation and the Symphonie Passion (that Nativite movement especially), the Op 36 Ps and Fs and just about all the rest seem to me an utter waste of time. I am probably alone in this...

Vox - UMP are the UK agents for a variety of French publishers. one of whom is Durand - the only way of getting the older ending of the Toccata is finding someone who bought their copy before the revisions were published it's no longer in print. S