pwhodges

My understanding (from what I was told when working there) is that the previously satisfactory isolation of the Concert Hall organ was compromised by rubble that fell into the space between the inner studio block and the outer office block of Broadcasting house when a bomb fell on its roof; and that limited access made removal of the rubble impractical.

When I was a Studio Manager at the BBC, there were a number of new control desks with quadrant or slider faders. The BBC design boffins had decided that they should be off when pushed away, and on when pulled towards the user. They were also mounted on a panel that sloped downwards away from the front. I think the theory was that the "active" knobs were close to the operator, and the dead channels were out of the way; regardless, they were very comfortable to use, and I've never found the now universal convention of pushing away to increase the setting to be as natural. Paul

I am surprised that he allowed that performance of the Fugue in D to be made public, frankly. It sounds (and looks, as you see him peering at the music) like someone who could play it fifteen years ago having a run through without re-familiarising himself with it. I liked the idea of the D major P&F from the 48 on an organ; but found the prelude far too ponderous (16' reed for those running semis?), and the inconsistent application of double-dotting in the fugue irritated me as well (mind you, I once played this at a music festival, and the adjudicator marked me down for "not playing the rhythm as written"!). And all the smudges in this as well... Paul

I just heard today that Christian Wilson is playing Francis Pott's "Christus" in Keble College Chapel, Oxford, tomorrow (Friday 12 Oct) at 7.30pm. Paul

My post was aided by Jura. Paul

Direction is detected using phase below about 700Hz and time difference above (hint, consider what happens when the wavelength is greater than or less than the size of the head); location is generally better for broadband sounds than pure tones. Vertical direction may be heard more precisely by tilting the head, but when not doing that can also be detected less precisely using changes in colouration of the sound caused by reflections off the pinnae (a learned response, obviously) - this effect may also feed into the horizontal location system as well. There are headphone processing systems which attempt to simulate this colouration; but they tend to do poorly because this response is individual, people's pinnae not being identical. Detection of direction in a two-speaker stereo system is not as easy to explain, especially as various fundamentally different microphone techniques may be used to capture the two signals. Paul PS, if you are deaf in one ear, mechanisms involving head movement and pinna colouration can still have some utility, I am led to believe.

A thread on a forum is like a conversation, but on-line. Like a spoken conversation, it can ebb and flow, and be carried in different directions; but unlike speech it carries its original label with it as it goes. Forums vary in how they view this tendency, from allowing it freely, to being very strict about keeping to one subject and deleting messages with break the rule - and whichever approach is taken, there are nearly always people who would like it to be otherwise. Ultimately, one can either tolerate the way a forum works, or leave. I think about this a lot, as I administer a forum that's considerably busier than this (nothing musical) - and I allow thread drift, as it's called, to happen freely; however, when a thread has clearly become different, or contains two distinct conversations, I will step in and split it into two so that the different conversations, each with their own value, can be seen and continue separately without interfering. My intention is to allow any appropriate conversation to flow freely, while avoiding undesirable confusion; however, I believe that I am quite unusual in acting in such an interventionist manner, and I would not assume that the moderators of any particular forum have either the time of the inclination to do the same as I do. Paul

If you disagree with so many comments, do you not feel the need to continue to present your views to help balance them? And bad reviews happen! I am somewhat indifferent to Cameron Carpenter myself. I feel that he pushes his phenomenal technique just that bit too far, so that in the Proms I was noticing avoidable wrong notes and uneven playing as a result. I preferred his own arrangements and improvisations to his more nearly straight performances, because I had no alternatives in mind for them to live up to. And, as usual, I found his speaking genuinely thought-provoking even when it annoyed. Paul

The report said "thirty years ago". Anything more precise would require archive-diving, I guess. Paul

I was pleasantly surprised that my local paper, the Oxford Times, had an item on Carlo Curley's death. There was a reminiscence of his visiting Oxford to play the (then) new Rieger in the cathedral. It is recalled that he had difficulty getting up the spiral stairs to the organ loft; then he is quoted as saying: "I can't get a decent tune out of this goddam box of whistles"; and finally the writer recalls that when CC learnt that it was his birthday, he proceeded to improvise a set of variations on "Happy Birthday", to the annoyance of the starchy cathedral staff. Paul

Too expensive; you didn't account for the cost of the insurance and paying the janitor. Paul

It appears he wrote an account to be published only after his death. Paul

I hope I haven't really caused any offence - I anonymised the pictures by blanking the number plates, and reckoned that anyone who could identify the works would already know about them. I think they are lovely cars, which is why I took the pictures! Paul

Photos from a workshop: Paul

It is easier to be cynical than to develop efficient operating systems. Microsoft's record in maintaining backward compatibility is excellent, as is the period that they support their operating systems (currently ten years or so, against Apple's two years). There is still an official way to run 16-bit Windows 3.1 applications from nearly 20 years ago in 64-bit Windows 7 Pro (using the supported Windows "XP-mode" virtual machine). Paul

I learnt about this just days after I finally bought a copy only a month ago (I use Lilypond mainly, but it's rather tedious for some things). A sad example of modern business practices; though some of the things Apple are doing are as bad for Mac users in businesses. Paul

The cathedral web site says: Doesn't sound like any kind of refurbishment! Paul

The Hyperion case (alluded to above, though it was 2004/5 rather than a couple of years ago) made it clear that purchasing or hiring the copy of an edition was not sufficient to cover the matter of the editor's copyright. It was suggested that in that case some of the blame fell on the performers for not sufficiently checking that the recording company knew about the editor's copyright; however, it was the company and not the performers that were being sued (and lost). In any case, although there was much sympathy for Hyperion, the judgements in the High Court and subsequently in the Court of Appeal were clearly in favour of the editor, Dr Sawkins. What caused difficulties for Hyperion in the aftermath was not the amount claimed by Dr Sawkins (which was modest), but the legal fees running over £1million. Google "Hyperion Sawkins Copyright" for more details. Your comment about sheet music sales was made at the time, but things don't seem to have gone that way. Paul

I have always felt that the vivats are a gross distortion of the piece, and that it must surely have been originally conceived without them (and having performed them once as a chorister, I felt the same then). I cringe when I hear them start. The low-key opening of the 1902 version is curious, and I have to say that the new opening is far superior. Paul

With regard to scrawls in the linked score, note that it was used as a hire score at Novello before being given to the RCM. Paul

Would Willis ever have had a reason to measure it after installation? In which case, is there the possibility of an error in the record from the very start, which has been perpetuated - precisely because it has never been changed - from the very beginning? Paul

Certainly an unequally tempered instrument will not help teach singers to sing in anything like pure tuning. Any temperament even somewhat playable in all keys will have most the thirds and the fifths impure, and the more pure intervals they manage to get in to some keys, the more impure the remaining intervals will become. Even full-on mean-tone temperament only gets its pure thirds by making the fifths worse in the same keys. Paul

The only Conacher I've come across was this one, which I helped to rebuild. I don't remember it very well, but I don't think it was that bad. Although it's not noted on NPOR, I do remember that a lot of the pipework originated from the Schultz and Cavaille-Coll firms (this is noted in the listing under its previous home in Nottingham). Paul

I did once find myself following (fortunately) a very aggressively driven Range Rover with the number FU 2. Paul

Ah yes, yet another convincing explanation of why the completion must be a certain way or a certain number of bars long. I like it, but I like some of the others as well (the explanations, as well as the music, that is). Paul