pwhodges

I have been asked for suggestions for a couple of organ pieces to go into a programme of American carol settings. Garth Edmundson's Von Himmel hoch has already been mentioned (though we don't have a copy to hand), and I don't have sufficient knowledge of the repertoire. Any ideas? Paul

This appears to have started with Cecil Clutton, and been continued by Peter Williams; but Stephen Bicknell points out there there is no hard evidence for their view. The main points seem to be a hint of similarity in nomenclature for high stops (e.g. Two and Twentieth), and a tendency towards longer compasses than elsewhere. Other things suggested by Williams seem so generic (not to mention speculative) as not to indicate any real link. Also, pre-1650 would be more realistic - at the restoration, the builders returning or coming from France and Holland become the obvious influences (think Harris and Smith). Paul

It's like that (but even slower and more pulled out) on their 2002 CD "An Oxford Evensong". I find it quite extraordinary. Paul

Did it need showing up? Paul

Of course; but actual exercise is very much the point with my dog! The first, I think, was in Homerton (Hackney), and the next in Camden, then Brixton. Paul

You will be pleased to know that at the end of the day my car still had four wheels, as it also used to have when I lived in Hackney, or when parking to visit Columbia Road flower market just round the corner from our hosts. I parked immediately behind the factory, free parking less than ten minutes walk from St George's Hall or the Metropolitan Cathedral, each of which I also visited; even better, it was alongside a substantial area of grass that was excellent for exercising the dog I also had with me. Paul

Although no connoisseur of ale, I did enjoy the one I had (which actually appeared to be called Rotunda). And thanks to David for letting us in to poke around and explore the factory - it was a fascinating day, and I enjoyed the company as well. Paul

According to Wikipedia, he sang before the Queen in Westminster Abbey while in the choir of Dartford Technical School. Paul

An important part of the recording process is that there is an independent pair of ears to help with making decisions. And MIDI is not 100% precise either. Paul

There is a difference between the excitement of a live performance, which may involve skating on thin ice, and the relative perfection commonly expected of a recorded performance. There are two reasons for the second - one is that hearing mistakes or mere infelicities repeatedly makes them much more irritating than just once, and the other is that many recordings have a documentary character as well as entertainment, and so need to present the music as accurately as possible. When I was recording CDs of my son Nic's piano playing, we worked differently according to which aspect of the recording was felt to be more important. But in general, he would play a couple of takes of each piece as performances, and then play sections that were not covered in sufficient accuracy (always as substantial size sections) until he was happy. The ratio of full takes to sections would vary, and in one case, we only made complete takes of the (25 min) piece, and in another a single take was all it took to get it on the CD. Every take was listened through completely before proceeding to the next - this gave Nic a chance to rest or recover, and was also necessary because he knew the music far better than I, so I didn't feel able to act as sole producer. Each CD we did was completed in six three hour sessions, most of the first being occupied by balance adjustments. The editing was done in every case by choosing one complete performance as the basis, and then fitting in corrections as required. If the recording phase was done right, it should be possible for a skilled editor (like me!) to make a complete recording that no listener can detect is edited. There is one place on our records which sounds to me (not to most people, I should say!) as if there is a slightly imperfect edit - but I know that in fact there is no edit there: it's just how he played it. The music critic Paul Griffiths used to say, in his university days, that he could always tell an edit because the performance sounded as if it was about to fall apart, and then didn't - but working as I describe above, this should never be possible (and Paul Griffiths had no reservations when reviewing some of Nic's records). In addition, because of the cost of long periods of studio and editing time, there has recently been a strong move towards recordings being taken from live concerts. As a result, listeners are becoming more accustomed to the slight imperfections that are thus preserved, and probably tolerate them because there's nothing actually bad about them; and also because the cheapness of modern recordings to buy means that instead of listening just to one recording, they are likely to alternate round more than one. (Nic's records that I made are all of music that has only been recorded once, so the documentary aspect was relatively important; but I have also contributed tracks to CDs of live performances that I have recorded.) I've made some tracks that way, too, but they were not advertised as live. Paul

Reading Town Hall fails mainly because of pitch change (hobbit-like: there and back again), but makes me think that neglected town hall organs are more likely to have remained untouched (if they survive at all) than those in churches. Blenheim Library was looking good until I found the pitch was changed in 1931. Paul

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N18306 destroyed by bombing three days after completion, and before it had been heard in public. Paul

BTW, you don't need to go to the web archive to find Stephen Bicknell's on-line writings - they were moved to a new permanent website: http://www.stephenbicknell.org/. Paul

For a short lived installation, what about St Peter's College, Oxford? A new organ in 1987 rather than repair the 1875 Willis; but in 1995 they found it expedient to get the Willis working again, and it was fully restored in 2003. The 1987 organ is no longer there. Paul

Why can some people see Stephen Best's wall, and others not? Do we have to friend him? Paul

Corrected link - has pictures. Paul

I once hired Reading Town Hall for an hour in order to play the organ with a friend; it cost me 2/6d (I still have the receipt), but it probably costs more now. I'd give my eye teeth for the opportunity to record it now! Paul

The copy I have of the AGO spec (from Wicks Pipe Organ Company) says "Manuals may slope toward Great or be level", and has an illustration with three sloping manuals. The BDO 1972 spec shows a five manual console with strongly sloping manuals, and says that consoles with three or more manuals have sloping manuals. An image I have labelled "British Organ Console Dimensions - Recommended Standard 1967" shows three level manuals with the note "manuals may be inclined". An image I have of an elegantly hand-drawn 3-manual console layout simply labelled "H N & B" and undated (here) shows a three-decker with sloping manuals with no comment. The image is not precise, but appears to show the Choir flat, the Great very slightly inclined, and the Swell much more inclined. Paul

The only released version so far has only a single console screen, laid out (including couplers) as the illustration I linked before. There will presumably be twin screen layouts in some later release, but we have not been shown them yet, and so can't tell how the couplers will be arranged on them. This is not possible in existing HW sets, except by using the CODM, which has a standardised appearance and somewhat limited facilities. Paul

The Hauptwerk site has the info - here is the full-size console image (the Hauptwerk forums will get an answer to such questions from the makers within a couple of hours, as well). Anyway, the set requires 1280x1024 screen resolution*. I am using a 19" monitor, and it's fine. The console display for part 1 shows all the stop knobs, but with the engraving of those not yet available blanked out, so the requirement should not change for later parts. Additionally, version 4 of Hauptwerk, to be released shortly, will enable some resizing of screens - though I presume there will be some softening of edges, leading to a reduction in clarity. But this could be useful if using a monitor that is not quite big enough (e.g. a wide-screen device with, say, 960 vertical resolution). Paul * The actual image is somewhat smaller than that to allow for the title bar, borders and taskbar on a 1280x1024 monitor.

Spec and photos of cathedral organ. Paul

MM is not anonymous, as he contributed to the 2006 "Introduce Yourself" thread: here. Paul

25 years ago I recorded an Anglican evensong in Oslo (Lutheran) Cathedral, and the organ there covered the Psalms (in Norwegian, to Anglican chant), Howells (Coll reg) and Hadley (My Beloved Spake) very satisfactorily; there was no set-piece exit voluntary, just a gentle improvisation leading out of the final hymn. I don't know what the organ is, though. The DOM of the time (Terje Kvam) was very welcoming. Paul

I was also thinking of Sydney - he used to call the DMus robes his "Strawberries and Cream".

Both the DVDs and the TV broadcasts have been really mixed up about the series numbers (the last series on BBC had different series numbers in the program listings and in the titles, for instance, and the three DVD sets are Series 1, Series 2, and Series 1 again, but with a different publisher). The only way to tell is to look at the content, but I don't get Sky... Paul