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pwhodges

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Everything posted by pwhodges

  1. My feeling is that temperament is not relevant here. My experience is, of course, learned; yet I do feel the weakness of harmonies with unplanned parallels quite strongly in even casual listening, and even in some instances where I tolerate them for other aspects of the music, I am saddened by their presence. Paul
  2. I recall that transposed continuo parts have survived for some Bach cantatas, so that might not be decisive. Paul
  3. The last four coronations had an order of service with the music of the anthems etc printed in it. A facsimile of that for Elizabeth's is still in print: https://www.rscmshop.com/books/B0333/coronation-of-her-majesty-queen-elizabeth-ii-facsimile-edition Original copies turn up on eBay regularly. Paul
  4. I note that the commentary-free feed still cuts away from the music at times when showing other happenings. Paul
  5. Do we know if there will be a version with the music, as was produced for each of the past four coronations? Paul
  6. The BBC's own page says that the Red Button is providing a described version, described as "accessible coverage for people who are blind or partially sighted on Red Button, hosted by Petroc Trelawny". But actually it seems that the Red Button leads to a choice of possibilities (see quote below), presumably by switching you to iPlayer. BBC2 will have signed commentary for the deaf (alongside the spoken, presumably). "Royal Life Magazine" says that there will be an option on iPlayer to watch live without commentary - it's odd that the BBC haven't mentioned that, though. "Broadband TV News has the following slightly more detailed note: ITV and Sky will broadcast the proceedings without any commercial breaks. Their commentary is often more restrained than the BBC's. Paul
  7. The name of the Abbey's pdf of the vivats has "coronation" mis-spelt! Paul
  8. Francis Jackson playing the Grove organ at Tewkesbury to mark its restoration (which included the completion of the 32' with the longest pipes from Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, inside one of which the key to the organ loft used to be kept). It was a suitably romantic program (including "Grand Dramatic Fantasia" by Neukomn, depicting a summer picnic interrupted by a thunderstorm!). The Mendelssohn 1st Sonata and Franck 3rd Choral were more to my taste, though. I bought a copy of the cassette recording of it which was made available, and still listen to it occasionally. Paul
  9. Or the wrong time - Late Victorian Town Hall concerts were clearly a thing. Paul
  10. The (self-published?) CD on the late Roger Fisher's website is made up from the Wealden Studios recordings and later ones; Wealden Studios themselves vanished sometime later in the 1980s. I hope his family are keeping the sales of his recordings going. Paul
  11. That supplier typically offers both possibilities (and even if there are any additions, the original will be untouched and fully documented so you can restrict yourself to it, as is true with any sample seta for that software). Of course, some additional options are part of the software, and cannot be omitted - but they typically have a separate interface from the sample set's console (an example is that the software allows any manuals to be coupled). Paul
  12. Hmm. Four figures is a bit steep! Times have changed, but when in 1968 I wanted to play the Willis in Reading Town Hall (to show a fellow student, Martin Renshaw), the nice lady in the office said I could simply hire the Hall for an hour when it wasn't otherwise in use, and she charged me 5/- for it! Paul
  13. I know that 32' manual stops are found from time to time, but how many organs are there with two 32' manuals (in this case HW and BW)? Paul
  14. When I was at Christ Church in the '50s (and visiting as a student in the '60s), a finger was used. And Sidney only came down to conduct for a cappella pieces. There was at that time no separate organist or assistant, and the organ scholar only got quite limited outings (though more in the later period). Paul
  15. The window in the left wall certainly cuts out Queen's Hall. Paul
  16. Is it being installed or removed? The state of the building suggests to me the latter, as do the miscellaneous-looking piles of pipes. Paul
  17. pwhodges

    Ebay

    Ooh, the (pre-Prout) Vincent Novello edition of Messiah! I used to have a copy of that... Paul
  18. The last couple of times I've been to Ludlow, the Wetheringsett organ was in the big church there. Paul
  19. One of the characteristics of Queen Elizabeth II was that she kept in touch with changes in the society over which she ruled. In many aspects of this we may never know her personal view of changes such as those in the liturgy, but she clearly accepted that such changes happen. I would even suggest that using the more modern words helped make the service more accessible to those many of her subjects who are not so familiar with the older words. Paul
  20. The question that arose was was whether All Souls College was a war memorial, which would be bigger than Charterhouse chapel. I would say not, but can see how that view might arise. In All Souls' own account of their founding you will find: I don't consider that to make the college itself a memorial. Paul PS, to update my previous answer about an organ, the college did have an organ in early days, but it was lost in the Reformation, and never replaced.
  21. All Souls has no organ. At present University College is using the All Souls chapel during refurbishment work, and they've imported a Peter Collins box organ to cover, which will be taken to Univ when the services return there. Paul
  22. Agreed - but one of those pipes has a sharper bend at the mitre, and the support piece has a bulge visible as a result, so I suspect that one pipe is a bit out of sorts. Paul
  23. When I was a chorister at Christ Church, the lay clerks certainly gave that impression. Paul
  24. It's previous situation wasn't that dignified either... Paul
  25. Reading Minster ("St Mary's, Butts" as we called it, to distinguish it from "St Mary's, Castle Street" about 200 yards away) is where I first played and practiced the organ. Although ignorant of most things about organs at the time, I felt that it compared favourably with the similarly-sized organ in Christ Church, Oxford, which was the only other organ I knew well (not to play, though). It was all working fine back in the 1960s... The rebuild appeal has been going for ever, it seems to me. I have an privately published LP recording which includes one track on the All Saints, High Wycombe Willis. It is Widor's Toccata, played by Alastair Ross, and it's the slowest performance I have ever come across - apparently because he couldn't reliably play it faster on the organ as it then was (in 1977). I don't know why that organ was used, given that the rest of the LP was recorded in Reading Town Hall; perhaps the Willis there (not so very long before its restoration) was in a worse condition at the time. Paul
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