pwhodges

Mayhew's "The Essential Organist, for Manuals" (link) has a pretty bare arrangement by Colin Hand which would doubtless serve. Paul

I've wondered why so many people (not all, admittedly) do that, too; it just seems so obvious that the phasing should match the theme. Paul

As a student, when I was a contemporary of Paul at Oxford, I recorded his playing a couple of times, the tapes of which are now in the British Sound Archive at the British Library. I also turned pages for him at a recital or two. Later, one of my nieces studied with him at Exeter University. I remember him as one of the most gentlemanly people I have met, and wish him all happiness in his retirement. Paul

Paul

But using the organ there at all is a cheat! Paul

There's Alkan's Bombardo-Carillon for pedals, four-feet... Paul

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Our problem is now resolved. Paul

Tried that - I'm already using his harmonium (from your previous recommendation)! Thanks anyway. Paul

I need to find a harmonium player, if possible, for a performance of Rossini's Petite Messe in Oxford on Sunday 27th June. Can anyone help or suggest someone? Otherwise we will just have to fall back on someone with no previous harmonium experience. Sorry for the short notice... Paul

Just think of it as a unit chest that all those various mutations are derived from. Paul

The proposal to have some of the pipework able to operate at two pressures to provide baroque and romantic chorus styles from the same pipes seems particularly dubious to me. Paul

And the BBC Radio Theatre (formerly the Concert Hall, Broadcasting House) I think. That organ fell out of use because of the one bomb that fell on BH during the Blitz. The studios in BH were on alternate floors in a central block separated by a gap from the building surrounding it. The rubble that fell into the gap (and could not practicably be removed) reduced the sound insulation properties of this construction, and made the use of the organ impractical when (as usual) other studios were in use. Sad, that. Paul

If you can live without a GUI - that's to say, you are prepared to handle all music files in text form - then Lilypond may be what you want; sort of like TeX for music. Free, an active user community, responsive developers, and a ferocious determination to produce better output than any of the competitors. There are also independent projects that provide GUI (and MIDI) input and editing, but I haven't investigated them. It can also be integrated with TeX for producing music examples within a text document. I've used it, for instance, to produce a percussion part for Misa Criolla that the players asked keep as they preferred it to the publisher's, and to generate transposed organ parts for use in a performance of some Purcell at low pitch. Here are a couple of examples (which were throw-away parts, and so have none of the manual tweaks that could be used to improve the quality to publication standard): Trumpet Tune from King Arthur: source text; pdf Misa Criolla Sanctus: source text; pdf Paul

This matches the government summary that I have just found: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-otherpr...c-performer.htm Paul

Let's address the issue of "performance rights" in this context. What are "performance rights" in regard to a recording? Why do they exist? To the best of my knowledge (IANAL) they are to do not with the recording of a performance itself, but with the use of that recording. The purpose of the rights is to ensure that if the recording is used in such a way that the performer is deprived of a further income on account of not actually repeating the performance, then they are compensated for that. Thus, if the BBC records a performance, there will be an additional fee for a second broadcast of that performance - which is, in effect, in place of the performer being paid to come back to repeat it (I speak from experience of my former wife's contracts when in the BBC Singers). In the case of a wedding, there is no repeat performance that could take place in the absence of the recording. The recording changes nothing; the performers are deprived of nothing. In any case, the music is not the essence of a wedding video - it is part of the backdrop to the ceremony itself. A video of a wedding is not a video of a musical performance - it is a video of a ceremony, and the music is no more than part of the scene in the same way as the church building is. This isn't meant to be dismissive of what's involved in the music, of course, but at the moment I can't really see why an additional fee is called for if the ceremony is videoed. Paul

Not quite. Gray and Davison moved the organ to the west end in 1870, with the new choir case and the side extensions to the main case for the pedal. Father Willis rebuilt the organ in 1884/5, and (later, I think, but I'm relying on memory here) moved the choir case to the back of the organ to act as an echo. Willis II moved it back where it belonged in 1910/11 (my sources vary), but extended it forward to accommodate a larger choir with swell box. Paul

Christ Church's Choir case only faced west for a few years over a century ago; it wasn't moved in the modern rebuild. I suppose it may appear so if you are recalling seeing the organ without it, but that was because it was taken down as unsafe when the old organ was removed in the mid 1970s. Paul

Easter Hymn from Cav, then? Or selections from Parsifal... Paul

I have the Naxos issue of Clare College (cond Timothy Brown, org Stephen Farr, ten James Gilchrist, recorded in Guildford Cathedral) - review. As for the words; well, my father (a theologian) preferred not to listen to Bach's Passions because the words of the arias were too pietistic... Paul

I too greatly enjoyed Desert Fugue. I have also enjoyed the music on The Elusive English Organ CD (rather curiously all played on organs about 50 years too young, from memory) - but haven't watched the DVD yet. Paul

Except, of course, for those pieces one would like to play which require an extended bass compass - such as Wesley's Choral Song. But this one, at least, can be arranged with a light touch. Paul

Many sample sets are recorded at better than CD quality (24-bits, 48kHz or even 96kHz). Of course you need more memory for these - my 8GB memory is distinctly restrictive these days, and if I was building a new computer for Hauptwerk now, I would install 16GB and specify the capacity to upgrade to 32GB. Paul

And indeed, Daniel has also remarked about the usefulness of hearing the balance better than he can at the real console. Paul

Walcha made two recordings of the organ works of Bach (in both cases omitting most of the miscellaneous CPs and the transcriptions); the first in mono, mainly at the Cappel Schnitger, the second in stereo, mainly in Strasbourg (Silberman style). Both are available in boxes at present, the first for around £10, with no notes whatever, the second for around £60* (this includes the Art of Fugue, which was the very first stereo recording that DG ever made, though not the first they released). The performances on the two sets are amazingly consistent, but the sound of the stereo set is generally better, as you'd expect. I quite like them, but they are not my favourite, being a little on the stolid side. Paul * compare the prices of this set on amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr and amazon.de - you'll see why I bought it from the last!

St Paul's, West St, Brighton. The event. Paul