Richard Fairhurst

Reviving an old thread... We had 'Father God I wonder' this morning, which even by the standards of Songs of Fellowship is a dire, dire dirge. Frantically trying to find an alternative tune (not easy for 8875 8888) the only thing I could come up was the theme to the Flintstones. ("Father! God I wonder! How I managed to exist without / The knowledge! Of your parenthood! And your loving care.") Sadly I didn't have the nerve to play it. For another one, I believe we owe to 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue' the suggestion that Jerusalem can be sung to The Birdie Song...

Off-topic, but see here. And in the interests of balance...

All these comments on the chords in Alain's Litanies are enormously cheering. I'm currently trying to learn the piece, and can mostly fumble through until there... at which point I have given up in despair every time until now. I shall practice with renewed vigour tomorrow. (If not accuracy.)

Vaughan Williams' Rhosymedre? (Not that I can play it. )

Yes, of sorts. I'd been planning to play a little Bach prelude I'd just learned. But the sermon was all about lambs, and sheep, with all the usual metaphors. I noticed that the first two bars of the Bach could be quite happily substituted with 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' and it'd work just as well. So I did. The sight of the vicar processing out to that fabulous tune is probably my second favourite musical achievement ever. (The favourite was getting a capacity crowd - 200 or so, including several Catholic priests - to all shout "Arse!" in unison when our disreputable ceilidh band played a barn dance at Fisher House in Cambridge.) As for the congregation, the only other pieces they've given such a favourable reaction are Widor's Toccata or anything by L*f*b*re-W*ly.

Richard Fairhurst. 31 years old; organist at St Mary's, Charlbury, Oxfordshire. Very much a dilettante compared to the rest of the eminent names on this board, but I do enjoy reading and (very occasionally) chipping in. After many years of learning the piano to no great effect at Oakham School, and feeling decidely inferior to the many impressive instrumentalists in my year, I was astonished to go to Cambridge (studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, of all things) and find my musical abilities (such as they are) suddenly greatly valued. From then I began to grow in confidence again, first playing piano accordion in a marvellously disreputable ceilidh band, and now on the organ. Today, my day job is as editor of Waterways World magazine. I currently have an offer lodged for a 40ft narrowboat which will have space for my practice Viscount in the saloon! Our organ at St Mary's is an, erm, interesting 1989 two-manual Makin digital - one of only seven made, mercifully. Its main distinguishing feature is that it has synthesiser-like preset combinations rather than individually selectable stops, which is as frustrating as it sounds. I think the powers that be are coming round to the idea of a better replacement, probably a Hauptwerk installation. We have an enthusiastic choir, too, which happily is led by one of the sopranos so I can concentrate on the organ.

Yes, by Durand (I bought a copy from Blackwell's in Oxford the other week). You might recognise the theme - it's the same one used in the Agnus of the Messe cum jubilo.

It's fairly difficult to get hold of. It was first published in a volume of pieces dedicated to Gallon, published in 1953 or so, but as far as I know hasn't been reissued by itself. My copy came courtesy of an organist who'd recorded it - I e-mailed him asking if he knew where I could get it, and he sent a scan back to me. For this weekend only, then, I've put the scan up on the web here. I'll take it off next week for the avoidance of lawyers! (Incidentally, the annotations on the scan aren't mine... I'd never consider the tierce de Picardie appropriate. ) Richard

And another: the Chant Donné (Hommage à Jean Gallon). One of my absolute favourites. I'm certainly no virtuoso - just an overgrown pianist turned parish organist, and not a particularly great one at that! - but have managed the final variation from the Veni Creator, and the Soissons Carillon, in recent months.

I've just stumbled across some fruity allegations about dear Arty. Try Googling for 'kasparek nobile'. "The guards were there because the church provided them for Nobile for more than a month, after a parishioner saw him leaving a video store that advertises XXX-rated materials and hired detectives to follow him."

Oh, I quite like it - his 'What Wondrous Love is This' is rather good. Though at least 50% of the affection I have for it is that it's weaned our lot off a diet of Rutter, Rutter and more Rutter. If I had to play another one of those blasted arpeggios...

Suggest you try the RSCM's Songs for Life series. We rattled through three of the Geoff Weaver pieces this evening and every one would have been suitable for a wedding. As it is, though, almost all of our weddings this year are Wagner on the way in, "a friend will play the piano" for the signing of the registers, and Mendelssohn on the way out. By the end of August I reckon I'll have settled on some fairly inventive harmonies for the Mendelssohn.

Thing is, assuming it really is a Clavinova (as in, made by Yamaha), a horrible sound from the speakers is pretty much par for the course. I'm no enemy of digital keyboards - my first full-time job was as staff writer on the late lamented Keyboard Review magazine - but the best that can be said about Yamaha digitals is that they sound like Yamaha acoustics. Give me a Roland or a Korg any day.

It may not be to everyone's taste, but I'm a big fan of Common Ground, "a hymnbook for all the churches" - all the Scottish ones, that is. It's a bit world-churchy; edited by John Bell. It's not especially in the CofE congregational tradition as exemplified by A&M/EH etc.... but there's a whole bunch more inspiration in this one modest book than in the three massive volumes of Songs of Fellowship. And if you like folk tunes, it should be right up your street.

Here's the latest Hauptwerk demo (big MP3, about 13Mb), using this sample set. A beautiful sound... though personally I prefer the Cavaille-Coll set here!

Playing 'Lord of all Hopefulness' at every single wedding (to Slane, inevitably) does the same for me. It's so ubiquitous I'm starting to wonder whether it's actually a compulsory part of the Common Worship service. (As for 'She'll be coming round the mountain', I like it! I have a little rule that I'll improvise on Adeste fideles after 15 minutes, with the "other" words implied. But fortunately no-one's yet pushed it that far.)

I'm not a computer engineer by trade (though I am a Mac user, which doesn't exactly make me predisposed towards Windows!) but a magazine journalist. My first full-time job was on a title called Keyboard Review, around 1995. In the ten years since, Keyboard Review has closed down, and so has much of the synthesiser industry it wrote about. This is because pretty much everyone now uses computers (whether Windows or Mac) as "virtual synths" or as samplers. The huge processing power of today's computers mean that custom circuitry just can't be as economic. Exactly the same principles apply to the organ, I think. Given a bit of volunteer time and effort, you could feasibly assemble a fully capable two-manual Hauptwerk organ for £3,000, maybe even £2,000. If you've got parts you can reuse (such as an older MIDI-capable digital organ), it'd be cheaper still. For a PCC struggling to make ends meet, that's a big saving over a custom digital organ. It'll be a couple of years before it really takes hold, but I'm sure the digital organ market will go the same way as the synthesiser market. The churches which really care about their music (and can afford to do so) will still have a real pipe organ; those with more restricted budgets will go for Hauptwerk or equivalent. As for Windows crashing... sure, it does, but so does our church's 1989 Makin digital. And it's a whole load easier to find an engineer who knows about Windows than one who knows about an organ of which only nine were ever made!

I believe the Pershore plans have been temporarily shelved because another church in the benefice has an urgent fundraising requirement (probably a roof, but I'm not sure). I'd be very interested to hear how any church justifies a proprietary digital organ purchase in 2006 against the capabilities of Hauptwerk. That's not to say it's completely impractical, but I'd like to hear the arguments. Richard

The big problem I have with most "worship music" is that it's in a style that means nothing to me. I listen to a lot of pop, rock and electronic music - in the space of half an hour, my iTunes library might typically pick out some Welsh rap by MC Saizmundo, a movement from a Vaughan Williams symphony, some electronica by Ulrich Schnauss, and a choice bit of Vierne. My tastes are fairly catholic (even though I'm CofE ). But the vast majority of worship music seems to be derived from the weedy end of 1960s "folk", back in the days when the word meant "any fool with a guitar" rather than "traditional"... and that's one style of music I really can't abide. (Frankly I'd rather listen to Stockhausen...) Personal preference aside, whenever I ask why we sing so much of the dratted stuff, the reason quoted is always that "it speaks to the younger people". Does it really? The pop charts aren't exactly full of that musical style, and when I walk down the road and hear music blaring out of modded 206s or Saxos, it's certainly not jangly happy-happy acoustic guitar.

I played an improvisation on 'If I were a fluffy-wuffy bear' etc. during the signing of the registers for a friend's wedding once. Special request, and they loved it.

Yes, I'd agree with the CH Trevor recommendation. Leon Boellman's 'Heures Mystiques' are absolutely invaluable. I'm also a big fan of Barenreiter's 'Vox Humana' - at least, the French volume, haven't tried the others - which has a lot of easy stuff and can grow with you as you become more confident.

Yes, I could easily be persuaded by that...