Richard Fairhurst
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Posts posted by Richard Fairhurst
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I'm sorry, but I genuinely cannot understand why anyone should think that playing the end of the hymn is the most effective way to remind them of what they are supposed to be doing. The average congregation doesn't give a fig as to whether or not there's a smooth transition from the play-over to the first verse; they just want to know what the tune is.
Absolutely true - on the many occasions when you need to tell them what the tune is.
But I don't think there's a single one of our congregation who needs telling how Woodlands goes, for example. If it says 422 on the boards and it's just been announced as 'Tell out my soul', then I'll choose the final two lines as the playover. It sounds so much better, sets the tempo just as well, and doesn't pose any difficulties for the congregation. (Same goes for other old favourites like Blaenwern, Abbot's Leigh, and dare I say it, Sh*ne Jesus Sh*ne...)
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I've got an organ on our 40ft narrowboat (nothing remotely special, just an old Viscount toaster which I use as my practice instrument). Still need to get the inverter rigged up so I can enjoy a quick blast of BWV 565 while going through Harecastle Tunnel...
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Another problem with using these sets in church would be an acoustic one: they all have their original church acoustic built in to the samples - e.g. 7 seconds at Aix, 4-5 seconds at Vollenhove.
That's a fair point, though our acoustics, sadly, aren't that great.
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But note, that organartmedia samples are strictly forbidden to be used in public performances!
That is, I think, a great shame. I understand that he doesn't want to encourage churches to replace pipe organs with electronics, but we'll hopefully be throwing out our old toaster in favour of a significantly better toaster in the next few years - replacing a Morphy Richards with a Dualit, as it were - and it's disappointing that some of the best samples are not available to us.
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Not really an anecdote, but this has just appeared on b3ta.com and made me laugh:
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There's a rather fun arrangement, if I remember rightly, in "Hymns Ancient & Modern: a selection of tunes with Varied Harmonies" from 1912. I picked up a copy in Hay-on-Wye and can never resist hauling out some of the arrangements - does anyone else here have this?
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For the past couple of years, every time I've been into Blackwells Music in Oxford, I've idly looked for a copy of Langlais' Triptyque. It's always been listed as "On order". A few months ago I finally took the plunge and ordered it.
The copy that eventually came had a generic Novello cover, with "Special Order Edition" and the title overprinted on it. I strongly suspect that this was print-on-demand, and that Novellos don't have a stack of Langlais sitting in their warehouse. So yes, it's already happening.
(A quick Google confirms this: "Items that are made up to order are called Special Order items. These could be items that are low on stock or currently out of print. To contact special orders email special.orders@musicsales.co.uk ." http://www.musicsales.com/doc/184/ondex.htm#4 )
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The Standing Committee of the church where I am DoM has just decided to ban all organists from playing alone in the church when the church is unlocked (including me).
I trust they have also banned people from praying alone?
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Most organist contracts are with the PCC - therefore the PCC has the power to hire and fire.
"The organist is the employee of the vicar (Canon B20), though usually paid by the PCC."
(Quote from http://www3.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=31363 , previously discussed here. Coincidentally Canon B20 on organist-vicar relations was quoted in the Times letters page the other week, too.)
Personally I wouldn't object too much, but only because I'm married to one of the churchwardens. I reckon a nice meal would ensure the appraisal went like this: "Richard is clearly trying his best despite the complete inadequacy of the toaster with which we have lumbered him. A new instrument is urgently needed, and, of course, a pay rise to compensate for the current situation."
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Though New English Praise, the recent NEH supplement, I really like. It even has an arrangement that almost makes 'Be still for the presence of the Lord' bearable. (Almost.)NEH I could never see the point of. It really has so little recent hymnody in it. It seems a token hymn book so that EH devotees can show that they've moved on without really having done so. -
Well, exactly.Try offering clergy with ideas like that some REAL modern music, such as Riff, Hip Hop, Rave, Bop. Pop, Heavy Metal etc.If I look across to my CD collection, I find Leftfield, Goldie Lookin Chain, Gogol Bordello, Durutti Column, Afro-Celt Sound System, Underworld, and countless others. (And, to be honest, that's pretty out-of-date for "modern music".) That, of course, nestles next to the Durufle, Messiaen and Vierne. I suspect yer average happy-clappy clergyman's reaction to Underworld would be exactly the same as to Messiaen - blank incomprehension.
Though I still don't know what "Riff" might be.
Richard
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I find many wedding couples come up with the most inappropriate things that they've found on some cheap wedding compilation cd.
At A. N. Other church in our deanery, the bride's mother once phoned to demand that the organist played "Number 5". The organist (fortunately not me) was a little puzzled as to what this might mean - presumably the Toccata from Widor 5? Er, no. Actually they wanted track 5 from the particular Cheap Wedding Compilation CD they happened to have bought. Presumably they didn't quite grasp that there might be more than 15 pieces of organ music in existence.
Strangest one I've ever been asked for was a set of variations on 'If I Were A Butterfly' during the registers.
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Guilty as charged, I'm afraid. After one Saturday night practice session I left Solo-Ch drawn. The following morning the assistant organist played the first voluntary, beginning pianissimo on the choir, but with the Solo Tuba drawn in preparation for the climax. Those who know the Halifax tuba will understand what a shock this came as to her and the congo.
Blimey. It's so loud you can even hear it from the country formerly known as Zaire?
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It strikes me that the HW project, in computer terms, is in the "emulator" category
I suspect that's the heart of this discussion.
You can certainly treat Hauptwerk as an "emulator", and all of these curious little foibles go to make it more authentic.
But it can also be used as a performance instrument, just like any other digital organ. At this point, the simulated imperfections are not necessary and may very well be a distraction. The "noises on" and "noises off" fall into this category: they would seem rather naff on an instrument installed in a church, but could be quite a fun little touch for a home instrument.
(I note that one of the most prominent Hauptwerk sample producers expressly forbids his samples from being used in performance, suggesting that he sees the product purely as an emulator. But other users clearly take a different view.)
As long as the Hauptwerk "sound effects" are there, I'll treat them as something akin to the scrunching-up-paper noise when I empty the wastebasket on my Mac: superfluous and a bit tacky, but if others gain pleasure from it I can't really object, and hey, it's easy to turn them off.
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One of our tenors (who wishes to remain anonymous) wrote this set of alternative words to go with a certain worship song which we had this morning. Enjoy. (In the true spirit of worship songs, you'll have to mangle the lines to get the words to fit.)
I Am A New Creation
1.
I am a new creation,
But I can't hack this syncopation,
Doubtless my efforts will be panned.
No crescendo or dynamics,
Dotted quavers? My heart panics,
In the wrong places my notes land.
And I will get it wrong,
Throughout the whole day long,
And I will moan, of what Dave Bilbrough's done.
His song is getting me madder,
Feel like shoving him off a ladder,
There in the nettles he will land.
2.
It's hard to sing salvation,
Creased with rhythmic constipation,
So no ovation comes to hand.
Can't we scrap this crap cadenza?
I'd rather have influenza,
It really, really should be banned.
And I can't sing it true,
No matter what I do,
But I will try, to bulldoze my way through.
Fourth time, how am I faring?
Straight at me Denise* is glaring
Oh please just bury me in the sand.
Extra chorus to end
And I will waver on,
Although that quaver's gone
And left me high, and dry and out of time..
Does the note stop, or tie over?
Time to leap from the cliffs of Dover,
Not quite the ending I had planned,
Not quite the ending I had planned...
(* - choir leader)
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I think that the 70 years counts from Dec 31 of the year in which the creator dies, so technically Widor won't become public domain until 31.12.2007
Correct.
On the other hand David Titterington's edition of THE toccata (the one with the misprints) may well be protected until 70 years after his (DT's) demise.Also correct!
None of this, of course, stops a chap from selling very cheap CD-ROMs full of scanned Widor (and Dupre, and Franck, and...) on eBay.
Richard
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I think Monsieur means the antipenultimate note.
Antepenultimate. A chap with a classical name such as yourself really should know better.
As for Abbot's Leigh, are our basses the only ones who are completely incapable of singing F# G G A? It always becomes F# G G# A... despite at least five years of my correcting them.
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I had a pretty sharp intake of breath when I first read that, not least because the Church Times letter was signed by a "J.G.M", and my predecessor as organist here (who still lives in the parish) has exactly those initials."If the church organist posts a critical and offensive comment about the family service and the vicar on a blog for organists, what action should a PCC member take in support of the Vicar?!Fortunately a. I'm pretty sure I've never posted along those lines and b. anyway, our vicar (who I like a lot) dislikes the family service as much as I do.
As a serious answer, though, shouldn't the "offended party" talk to the organist first before telling tales out of school?
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Well, yes. If you were wanting to build your own two-manual Hauptwerk console, I'd venture that you could come up with something just as, erm, attractive for a lot less than £2,500.
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If you do have to play it (and I'd agree it's not exactly the pinnacle of the art), the arrangement in Common Praise makes the best of a bad job.- One more step along the world I go. (One chord per line and no modulation is not my idea of a good tune.)
The assistant in Cambridge SPCK once suggested a whole set of alternative words to me. Can't remember them all but "If I were a pubic worm" was a highlight...If I were a butterfly..................'can't remember the rest but I can't stand it!I did once, by request, play a set of variations on this for a friend's wedding. As far as I'm aware, none of the congregation noticed the source material.
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My absolute least favourite is 'O Sing About Christingle', which goes to the tune of the Holly and the Ivy. Words here (PDF). Once you have sung the word Christingle to those three notes for the tenth time, you will be tempted to start sticking the four sticks of Christingle somewhere else entirely.
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But, in my poor little brain, all I can visualize for a Hauptwerk installation is an organ with a computer attached, which to me means that the potential for it going wrong just when poor blind Fred is playing for a big funeral is vastly increased, and that poor blind Fred is unlikely to have a clue how to recover the situation...
Is Hauptwerk really practical in a church situation?
The thing is, though, that's true of any digital organ - their brains are computers too.
As Innate says, the Hauptwerk "electronics" - hard disc, sound card, display etc. etc. - are entirely industry standard. There are 100-plus people, including both of our churchwardens, in our town who could have a good go at fixing the most likely problems, and know who to call if it proves too difficult.
With the Makin we currently have at St Mary's, though, I'm guessing there are only five or so people in the whole of Britain who can fix it. Three of them are in Rochdale and two of them somewhere in Northamptonshire. Even they'll have to spend their time umming and aahing because our organ was one of only seven of its type ever installed, so they don't get to service them too often.
In theory, at least, I know which I'd rather be playing when it all goes pear-shaped!
(But I've just ordered the Hauptwerk evaluation CD for Mac, so will be interested to see how it works in practice...)
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I'd suggest going the whole hog and going for The Source or Songs of Fellowship. This will make the happi-clappies happy bunnies as they're the best foundation for worship songs and The Source is edited by that leading light of worship songs, Graham Kendrick. They also don't have too many traditional hymns in them so your traditional hymn book won't be under that much threat. Later versions of The Source are supplements to earlier versions, with an ever increasing proportion of songs that are completely unsuitable for congregational singing.
My church used to have Songs of God's People (SOGP) that supplemented AMNS (much needed). I think SOGP was a modern supplement to Church Hymnary III - the Scottish equivalent to NEH. I don't know whether Common Ground has replaced SOGP - the editors are the same. I thought Songs of God's People (or Soggy Pea, as we called it) was rather more like no man's land.
We eventually decided to replace it with a supplement we made ourselves and I'd recommend this approach - it worked really well for us. The idea was to create our own hymnbook supplement to AMNS, printed and produced locally and just for our church.
Agreed wholeheartedly with the supplement approach. (I tried to convince the PCC that Common Praise with a home-made supplement would be the best solution for our own church, but they decided to spend the money on a projector instead. Ah well.)
But if you decide not to do that, I would recommend against Songs of Fellowship as a purchase except for the happiest-clappiest of churches. We have Book 1 as one of our two standard books (the other being AMNS) and find we only sing a tiny fraction of what's in there. Yes, there are a few "classics" in there - whether you or I like them or not - but 95% of it hasn't stood the test of time. If you like, the body of songs in there hasn't gone through the "winnowing" that successive A&Ms have.
Since then, there have been two more volumes of Songs of Fellowship, and I see now that they're available in a combined edition containing a whopping 1690 songs. (Only if you can afford steroids for the congregation!) We sing a couple from SF2 - "I the Lord of sea and sky" and the Stuart Townend version of "The Lord's My Shepherd" at number 1030 - but, again, it's a pretty tiny fraction of what's there. Unless you've got unlimited budgets and storage space, SF doesn't make a lot of sense IMHO.
Again, for my money, Common Ground is the best single-volume "ready-made supplement" out there. I half see what you say about "no man's land", but then (even if this is a Scottish book) the Church of England has always excelled at muddling through somewhere in the middle.
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Does anyone recommend the new Mission Praise as a "decent" tome for more modern worship songs (aagh! - our new vicar has happy clappy leanings). This is because we are looking for something to supplement the more respectable AMNS.
Common Ground. Can't recommend it enough. Published by St Andrew's Press, edited by John Bell, written as a "supplement" for the various Scottish churches.
Hymn Playing
in General discussion
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I usually add a 'bump' to this one, too - in the last two beats before they come in, an A then an A in the octave below. It sounds a bit naff, but then, if naffness were a consideration we wouldn't be singing such a song in the first place... and wouldn't that be a shame?
Is that the one that sounds like Take Five by Dave Brubeck?
Very interested (/horrified) at the thought of holding a gathering note for a full three beats. I'll sometimes hover a fraction of a beat longer on the first chord (on those occasions where Christian charity overtakes musical conscience), but three beats? Yikes.