pwhodges

If in the bass, they may assume a short octave. Paul

This tape is alive and well, and is in the British Library Sound Archive, under call number C236/81. Also there are tapes we recorded the same day of Paul Morgan playing works by Murrill, Bach, Wesley, Alain, Howells, Cabezon, Reger and Clarke; these are call numbers C236/83-85. All these tapes are available for listening, by appointment. The tapes are good quality 7 1/2 ips stereo recordings made using a pair of ribbon microphones. The Murrill, Bach and Wesley were also recorded around that time by Abbey for an EP which was, I believe, the only commercial recording of the organ on its own; I guess that my recording may have been a practice run on Paul's part. Paul

He did recitals around there until about 1920. But in 1923 he played a recital in Everton; 1924 in Liverpool; 1925 in Kendal. And his letters of 1923, 1928 and 1931 are all addressed from Kendal. Paul

After a rummage around JSTOR, I can say that he wrote three letters (not articles) to the MT, and MT contains about a hundred notices of recitals he gave between (at least) 1911 and 1931. In 1925 he gave a recital at Kendal parish church. Paul

Also, the high current consumption, which is maintained while the pallet is held open, gives rise to appreciable local heating which could become an issue. Paul

Very disappointing; it's one of the few CDs that I've taken to a charity shop rather than keep. Paul

Chester-Novello, Hansen, Schirmer, Curwen, Music Room, and several others, are all part of Music Sales Group. The web site exists, but is down - you can see some content in Google's cache. Paul

I've always done this. Each group then propels forwards to a main beat instead of tailing off lamely after the beat; gives the whole section more forward momentum. Paul

What else is music, anyway? But composers (and performers) have been experimenting, and people have been walking out of concerts, for centuries. Nothing new there, then. Paul

Just the results of glancing through the books on my shelves: Williams in his monumental survey of European organs up to 1850 comments that by 1820 a compass to f''' was to be expected, but I can't find a compass beyond g''' in the book at all. Plenty of 5-octave instruments in Italy, though (CC-c''' in 1483, FF-f''' in 1842). I hardly dare say that the earliest organ cited by Williams in his New History of the Organ that has a c'''' compass is Hope-Jones at W***r (1896). However, moving on quickly to the Cambridge Companion to the Organ, I find Gray & Davison made a c'''' compass at Leeds Town Hall in 1859. But Bicknell cites the Elliot & Hill organ of York Minster built after the fire of 1829 as having three divisions with a six-octave CC-c'''' compass! Paul

I'll have a look this evening - I might have something. But of course the trouble is that much of the time there were no fixed standards, or people ignored those that there were. Meanwhile, there are quite a lot of dates here and here and here. Paul (later edit - what I found at home has nothing that is not contained in the links already given.)

One of the Hauptwerk sample set producers has put up a quiz in which you are asked to distinguish each of whether a number of recordings is of the real organ or its Hauptwerk sample set. In the second (easier) phase of the quiz, there will be real and Hauptwerk versions of each piece for you to distinguish. There are prizes, in the form of discounts on the sample set concerned (smaller for the easier phase of the quiz). http://www.sonusparadisi.cz/organs/carlo/demos.0.asp Paul

I would say the same of John Adams. My pianist son, who plays it, says that it's not really minimalist, and I suspect that's why it's more interesting. Paul

I have been led to believe that this was the last international agreement before the second world war to which both UK and Germany were signatories. Also that the pitch was intended to be the same as Diapason Normal, but they specified the wrong temperature, thus leading to the difference... (see here) Paul

I didn't realise that; I hadn't been in there before I turned pages for the re-opening recital (Paul Morgan - then organ scholar at Christ Church). Paul

I would guess so that they stand apart from the Hill casework and thereby don't obscure its proportions. Actually, I think they just look tacky. Paul

You can see them here (they're a bit fuzzy - the photo was not taken to show them). Paul

Agreed. It is worth remembering that this age is obsessed with history and preserving the past, possibly because of a crisis of confidence in our ability to match it. However, although the past should not be thrown out indiscriminately, it must also be whittled down to allow in the new things which future generations can then argue about preserving! Paul

This was also popular in my little village when introducing the new hymnal. Not that the incumbent's sermons needed avoiding - they were rather good. Paul

When we took our son who was a budding pianist to visit our first choice of secondary school (on the basis of the piano teacher), the head of music (and ex-army bandmaster) said that as he also played the oboe he would consider him as an oboist first regardless of his wishes. That was really upsetting for both him and us. When we declined to proceed the head and the piano teacher both tried to change our minds - but I reckon we made the right decision, as he is now a well-regarded concert pianist and teaching at Stuttgart Hochschule fur Musik. It's a real shame when supposed educators wear blinkers; but far too common, sadly. Paul

Just put a space in, like this: (B ) Paul

My sympathy... I had it the other way when I played the organ (no choir) in a country church in the early 1980s. They were using A&M Standard (yes, the old blue one); and I introduced With One Voice (I donated copies), because (a) I couldn't have tried a supplement because that would have shouted "new and trendy", and (b ) it was the best single book then available. I had to demonstrate to the PCC that all their favourites were in there, but even then it was only used for HC - they continued to use AMS for evensong (which I didn't play). Last year the AMS books were still in the pews. There's nothing as conservative as a rural community (all of seven miles from Oxford, this one was). Paul

On the links page: http://www.pipesounds.org/ Doesn't run to a spec though... Paul

Oh dear! I ordered from ch_marche24, and am still waiting. I have had instances on Amazon where the text was right and the image was wrong, though - and the price per CD is still not as low as many of the Brilliant boxes... Paul

But hugely improved if one has separate loudspeakers for different divisions or groups of stops, which Haupwerk supports fully. You can select organs sampled with the full acoustic, and listen on headphones, or you can select organs sampled with minimal acoustic, designed to be played back in a real space, such as a church (or at home using a reverberation device). And, yes, you can sample acoustics, though imperfectly, of course - the application of a sampled acoustic will be built in to a later version of Hauptwerk. Several of the organs I play in Hauptwerk are responsive to the velocity signals from my keyboard. Paul