Richard Fairhurst
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Posts posted by Richard Fairhurst
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On 20/08/2009 at 12:14, Philip said:
We have to face the fact that Evensong isn't as popular as it once was, and focus nowadays is very much on the morning Eucharist. But a good Evensong done well (whether Choral or not) still inspires me and I think it would be a shame to drop it completely.
With apologies for reviving a 10-year old thread... I thought it might be interesting to revive this in light of recent news stories.
The BBC ran a TV report on Sunday discussing the increasing popularity of Choral Evensong. Attendance at "midweek services" - which is basically evensong - is apparently up 34% in the ten years since this thread was posted. Certainly in our village (well, officially a tiny town) church, the Choral Evensong which we've started doing every few months has rapidly become the second most popular service after the regular morning communion. And we're by no means the only church locally: you can piece together a very nice weekly calendar with all the nearby benefices that run occasional or monthly evensongs.
So where do we go from here? How do we cement this? Are there any resources for the amateur organist and choir to help them start, develop and grow their evensongs? I'd be interested to know what people think.
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22 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:
It seems he also wrote a Communion Setting in F - I think I've heard of Burton in F! - but I can't find anything else by him.
"...holding the position of music master at St Albans School, for which he composed the hymn tune to 'Alban, high in glory shining'. His 'Warwick School' was used in Public School Hymn Book with 'Onward, Christian soldiers'. His compositions include a Simple Communion Service in F (1959), a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G Minor, and organ works."
(From Humphreys & Evans' Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland.)
The Evening Service is available from Banks: https://www.banksmusicpublications.co.uk/mixed-voices/four-voice-parts/magnificat--nunc-dimittis-97
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On 12/05/2019 at 19:00, Colin Pykett said:
Hugh Banton may know the answers. He has written a detailed, highly readable and very interesting account of the origins of Makin Organs which includes their roots in the rump of Compton - as you may know. It's on the web at:
https://www.organworkshop.co.uk/images/files/Makin_history_1972-1992.pdf
Just a thought. I can't think of a better person.
Thanks for that link. I was intrigued to read the background to the Makin Micro120, which was our previous instrument here in Charlbury - a horrible thing!
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Evensong at Christ Church Oxford yesterday concluded with Cochereau's marvellous Gigue from Suite de Danses, which I hadn't heard before. Here's a random YouTube performance... though it had percussion at ChCh!
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I've been exploring Jean Bouvard's book of 'Noels Traditionnels' - an interesting take on the old tradition of French organ noels with variations, not too challenging but with occasionally unpredictable harmonies. £20ish from here: https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7088440--noels-traditionnels-organ
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Sumsion's 'They That Go Down To The Sea In Ships'? Written for Repton Prep School, and a wonderful bit of word-painting.
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With Martin Cooke's imprecation to post more topics in mind...
We usually have a thread to discuss what voluntaries everyone is playing for Christmas. Any novelties or old warhorses to share?
Personally: I haven't decided on Christmas Eve Carols by Candelight or midnight yet. For Christmas morning I'm planning Marko Hakanpaa's delightfully frothy Adeste Fideles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7tchnZd3D4
And with the 23rd being a Sunday, I was thinking of Adolphus Hailstork's Veni Emmanuel for one last Advent blast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuI2vLoADus
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At Evensong yesterday we sang the wonderful hymn "Come, labour on"; the words are by Jane Borthwick from her book Thoughtful Hours. You might find some suitable texts there, although some are a little twee: https://archive.org/details/hours00bort
(I should point out that the hymn was chosen for Harvest, and not because the Labour Party conference has just started...)
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Heavens - wasn't expecting that.
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A preliminary hymn list for the Revised English Hymnal has just been published:
http://englishhymnal.getfreehosting.co.uk/English_Hymnal/REH_Contents.html
It looks evolutionary rather than revolutionary, with (probably - tunes aren't listed, only first line) three Howells tunes and one Langlais. Eight Communion settings.
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Barenreiter have fairly recently published a really nice three-volume set of easy voluntaries called 'Sonnstags Orgel': https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA9287/ . Some are manuals-only, some have fairly modest pedalling. It's become my default for pre-service noodling, but it has several pieces suitable for exit voluntaries too. The pieces cover a variety of styles right up to the present day, which maintains interest. I bought mine from Blackwells in Oxford so I presume it's readily available.
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The RSCM has just published a volume of the complete organ works of Herbert Sumsion, edited by Daniel Cook, who has also recorded them:
https://www.rscmshop.com/herbert-sumsion-complete-organ-works-n1157.html
I've just got a copy - a lovely volume with lots to get stuck into, not least the four Christmas Carol variations, the Toccata on University and the rambunctious Ceremonial March. Plenty of reflective pieces that would work well for service use too, such as the lovely Saraband and Interlude.
There is slightly less in the book than on the recordings: the latter has four RVW and two Elgar transcriptions by Sumsion which haven't made it into the book. But at £25 for 170 pages it's not bad value for money.
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On 2/8/2018 at 01:29, Vox Humana said:
According to an article by Peter Aston (Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 99, 1972 - 1973):
"Lastly, there are the liturgical works.
These comprise a morning and an evening Service, an English
Gloria 'composed at Mr. Peter Gunning's motion', and a
Gloria and responses for the Communion Service. These
liturgical pieces contain little of interest. All of them show
signs of haste, and it is evident that Jeffreys approached these
purely functional settings with little enthusiasm." -
A "choir edition" would be good too. I suspect the book could be halved in size if only those parts of the organ accompaniment necessary for following along were included. 'The first Nowell', for example, takes up six pages, but the choir only need to know the four-bar organ introduction, that the melody is SA in v4, TB in v5, and that there's a descant for the final refrain. If such a book were £8-£10 rather than the full-score £15, I and I suspect many others would have a better chance of getting funds from the PCC...
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In Blackwells yesterday I stumbled across the brand new Novello Book of Hymns: 50 hymn arrangements for SATB choir and organ, to be sung either as anthems or congregationally, edited by David Hill. I bought a copy and have only had the chance to briefly flick through it so far, but it looks very promising.
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I couldn't find any previous discussion of this on the forum, so: can members suggest any Welsh or Welsh-themed organ music for 1st March? Those that spring to mind already are Mathias and Tomkins, plus Vaughan-Williams's Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes. (Rhosymedre is a little gem, the others less obviously so, but I might try out number three, Hyfrydol.)
And there is of course RVW's 'St David's Day' Toccata, which is in the OUP RVW album.
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As a very belated followup to this topic, would-be purchasers of hymnbooks might be interested to learn that a new version, the Revised English Hymnal, is in preparation. Publication is expected in 2017.
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† 'Aware that my qualifications as an organist were higher than those of anyone else in the country'. p.63; At Cross Purposes; Michael Smith. Self-published (through Amazon); 2014. (In any case, I doubt that he was correct; take just one example: Paul Morgan, MA (Oxon), BMus (Lond.), FRCO(CHM), ADCM, ARCM, LRAM, who was at that time the Sub Organist of Exeter Cathedral.)
I haven't read the book and so may be missing the context, but might the "country" in question be Wales rather than the UK?
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There's a pleasant enough arrangement of 'Sea and Sky', with harmonies for SATB choir, in (again) the RSCM's 'The Word Revealed' book: you can see a page of it in the excerpts at http://www.rscm.com/assets/publications/WordRevealed_sample.pdf .
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Philip Wilby's 'Vox Christi' is terrific, though it only appears to be available in the RSCM's 'The Word Revealed' festival service book.
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There's a handful of shops along Rue de Rome by St Lazare station.
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Not so much "well known" as "ubiquitous" - I think there was a survey a few years back that suggested it was the most popular setting within the CoE. I inherited it at our church and we've moved through a few settings since then.
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I note that Pietro Yon died in 1943, which means his works come out of copyright on 1st January.
Unfortunately this is just a couple of weeks too late to print off this rather enjoyable Advent suite for this season, though our Canadian cousins (who have more relaxed copyright laws) can do so. Shame, the toccata looks fun and eminently playable.
*whistles innocently*
Christmas 2019 - what did everyone play?
in Organ Music
Posted
We've often had a "What are you playing for Christmas?" thread, and don't seem to have started one this year. So let's do it retrospectively - what did you play for Christmas this year?
All fairly cheerful fare here: Cochereau's 'Gigue' from Suite de Danses for the main Christmas Eve Carols by Candelight, which is our busiest service of the year by a long chalk - a congregation of 570 this year in a town of 3000 people. Then Denis Bédard's variations on In Dulci Jubilo for midnight, and Marko Hakanpaa's very cheerful Adeste Fideles again for Christmas morning (as people liked it so much last year).