pwhodges

I am interested to get some idea whether this is simply a personal difference, or whether there are important differences in scaling and voicing that determine which view is likely to be taken of a tierce mixture. Paul

In The Cambridge Companion to the Organ, David Yearsley writes (p245): "...the inclusion of thirds in the Mixtures - a common feature in Thuringian organs - allows for plena that render with great clarity the dense polyphony of Bach..." Unfortunately, his chapter provides no references whatever; but I find it interesting that he has a different view on the effect of the tierce sound. Paul

Great piece! but strength does not mean inflexibility. Compare different performances of his second piano concerto, and listen to the "two-part invention" bit in the first movement; the performances that are rigid and mechanical are as bad Bartok playing as they would be Bach. Bartok both edited and transcribed a great deal of 17th and 18th century music. There is a discussion of his manner of performance of it in the preface to a volume of his transcriptions (published by Carl Fischer, ISBN 0-8258-0406-X): Admittedly, without such comments and awareness of his style, his piano transcription of Bach's Sonata 6 looks very heavy indeed! Paul

Indeed not. Listen to the (uniformly bad) recordings of him playing, and you will hear a gentleness and flexibility, whether playing his own works or Mozart, Scarlatti, etc, which is quite unlike the way that some people play his music. Paul

Of course, that was not Bartok's style. Paul

Actually, as I understand it, not until the end of the year of the 70th anniversary of the death. Paul

I don't suppose I'm the only one here whose early interest in the organ was fed and sustained by reading Clutton and Niland (and then, a little later, Williams for the European perspective). And the recording I have of Cecil Clutton's house organ (made by Mander, of course) is still an inspiration - with playing by Hurford and Jackson it would be, naturally. We have to remember that the changes in fashion that have made Dixon and Clutton in turn fall out of favour could also turn against our present view in the future. It is hard to be sure that we have a view that will endure, and of course, like them, we can only do what seems best to us. The opposing ideals of preserving what is (currently) known to be good, and of creating what is new but of unknown staying power, have been at loggerheads for the last century or more - probably for ever - in the field of organs, as in any other field of artistic endeavour. We have to find our own balance between them, while acknowledging that this balance was and will be perceived differently at other times without being in any absolute sense either right or wrong. Our criticism of those of other times should always be tempered with a modicum of humility, even when we currently perceive their actions as disastrous. Paul

And of course, "pwn" is different again, and has happened to this board in the not so distant past... Paul

But to prove the point, you can decode B-format not in real-time, e.g. using VVMic. You'd have to have a seriously slow machine for it not to work in real time, though. I use VVMic with my new surround microphone Paul

There could in theory be differences for compressed files like mp3, but they are not normally considered perceptible; however, wav files should not be processed at all by the player, so if you are truly hearing differences in this case there would appear to be some difference in setup between the players. The other instance that can make a real difference is when the files are more than two channels (i.e. surround files usually); different players may well have different ways of combining the channels for stereo playback. Beyond these comments, this is probably very hard to diagnose remotely, though! Paul

It is merely transferring bits to a device driver, possibly expanding them from a compressed format on the way. This expansion is well defined, and no player should sound detectably different - any problem is elsewhere. The quality of compressed files is determined mainly by the quality of the encoding. MP3s at 192 b/s are virtually always indistinguishable from the original in blind tests, but lower bit rates can introduce detectable artefacts; and occasionally a particular sound can induce a gross error in the encoding with a particular encoder, even at decent bit rates. If you want a player that can handle the maximum number of media formats without needing its codecs topping up, then the free open-source VideoLAN VLC is what you are after. Paul

Well, I've never heard it anything like that slow before! And, of course, it was written for manuals only, and Wesley didn't call it an "Air". Paul

I would just like to point out that age and crustiness do not necessarily go together... And my life is less predictable than ever now I've passed the age of conforming. Paul

I've always had to watch this; but it's certainly got worse with age :-(( Paul

Very sad - and sadly young. Paul

You upload them in My Controls. Then you tell the board manager that they aren't displaying (the board has stored the photo, and puts out a correct image tag, but can't serve the image itself). It's a smaller image that is placed next to your name at each post. For technical details, see above... Or you can choose a built-in cartoon image. Paul

But many long-standing companies whose products are available in the international market are in fact run by one overworked individual down the road. It's really not easy to decide on that basis, but frankly, their quality is often higher than that of the 'majors'... Paul

So how do you define a "real" CD, and why would it make a difference? Before answering, consider that even a pianist of the stature of Pollini had to pay DG to make and release some of his acclaimed recordings (information from my son, who is a professional pianist, and for whom I made several CDs which you can now buy from the companies we persuaded to take them at no cost). Paul

Like Gollum, you can complain that the question is not fair, in that it is not an organ-related reference. The definition of the computer language Algol-68 is written in a meta-language that defines and uses a large number of portmanteau words, of which one is REFETY, meaning "reference to, or empty". The cumulative effect of these words becomes almost poetic at times, as in this sample teken from the first line of a rule defining one type of array reference: REFETY ROWSETY ROWWSETY NONROW SLICE We had thought of naming the cat Rowsety, for the noise it made (hence Schalmei for the other), but Refety seemed a nicer name. Paul

Good names! I once called a raucous Abyssinian cat Schalmei (he had a twin called Refety - anyone who gets that reference deserves respect!) Paul

That link drew me on to these last verse harmonisations: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fwWmazgHfl4 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LfCzoNgKZ30 I somewhat prefer the second... Paul

Snap! Paul

Strictly, the end of the year in which that anniversary occurs - so Widor is still in copyright, for instance, though the 70th anniversary date was in March. Paul

The British Library has given me a different interpretation. In 1968 I made, with some friends, a recording of a student performance with orchestra, choir and soloists; this recording has only ever been used privately. All who were asked were happy with this being done, and no-one else objected. The master tape was in the estate of a deceased friend, and is now in the British Library Sound Archive with the rest of his recordings; I can go and listen to it in the BL any time I like (by appointment). But I can't have a new copy of that tape to replace the one I made at the time, which is now damaged. I can get permission from the conductor and soloists - but this is not considered sufficient. The BL wish me to provide them with written permission from every individual performer in the choir and orchestra. And since there is no listing of the performers with the tape, I would also have to document proof that I knew who they all were (naturally, there are no records). In other words, I (who made the recording) and the conductor (who asked for it to be made) cannot now get a new copy to replace the damaged one we already have, even for private use. Paul

Online translation is a wonderful thing ("der mangler" -> "there lacks", so your guess seems good). But looking at that page, there are two sources, and most of the textual commentary is saying that one or the other is missing an accidental. Probably only half a dozen of the editorial decisions are non-trivial (and in those cases, the alternatives are shown in the text), which in a piece of this size is not a big worry. I have enjoyed listening to this piece since I was a student (which is why I have a score), but it's way beyond my playing ability. Paul