Gary Cole

A belated reply to justadad's original query: Jongen died in in 1953 - which means his music is in copyright until 2023 in the EU. Therefore you can't just buy a copy of a piece of Jongen and make your own arrangement of it - this is a definite infringement of copyright! Without going into the specifics of YouTube (which I'm not an expert) if you then record your own unauthorized arrangement of a copyright work and and make it available to the public without a mechanical licence that is a second copyright infringement! So - there were two definite grounds for infringement here! However, it isn't quite as draconian as might be imagined. If you want to make your own arrangement of a copyright work, you have to send the score of the arrangement to the copyright owner (most often the publisher) and they usually approve it - for a fee, generally in the region of £100. You also have to assign all your rights in the arrangement to the copyright owner of the original work ie you loose any rights you think you might have in your arrangement - they now entirely belong to the copyright owner of the original work. If the arrangement is recorded the mechanical licensing agency concerned (MCPS in UK, Harry Fox in US) will collect the appropriate licence fee and pay the copyright owner of the original work. So this is why you would have to pay a licence fee for recording, for example, your son's arrangement of that Jongen work. Gary Cole

Contrabordun is correct: the work carried out by Manders in 2007 was essentially a cleaning and overhaul. The 5th manual was removed (it got in the way of the music desk) - the 1984 Mander Bombarde division became floating - and a set of 3-octave Whitechapel bells was installed on top of the swell box. The combination action was replaced with solid state including a stepper and USB port. There was a very small amount of tonal rebalancing and I believe three ranks were replaced with new ones. The internal restoration of the hall is breathtaking and well worth going to have a look at if you are ever passing through Birmingham! In addition to removing the upper tier, the plaster work has been wonderfully restored in white and pastel blue, the heavy fabrics of the old hall are gone and the chairs on the floor of the hall are removable. All this has contributed to improving the acoustic and the the organ sounds markedly better for it. Gary Cole

This is a good one...

Not a tuba, but a candidate for the solo reed to end all solo reeds has got to be the west-end State Trumpet at St John the Divine, New York. Affectionately known as 'The Horn of the Apocalypse' this really has to heard to be believed, and heaven help anyone directly in the firing line. Even sitting in the south transept the effect was devastating unlike any other solo reed I've ever heard...

Yup, 'fraid so...try 'Procession of the Bride' - it's no 4 in the overview list and no 3 when you click on 'See all' If you expand your browser window enough it eventually shows 'I was glad'. The BBC DVD is out on Wednesday. Get it - you know you want to! Gary

On BBC ONE HD it was truly glorious. Other than Huw Edwards unfortunately talking over the orchestral introduction to Blest Pair, I think we more-or-less got away scot-free as far as intrusive commentary over the music was concerned from the start of I was glad until someway into Mint Imperial. It was the most thrilling live event I've ever seen and particularly the sound quality was far better than I've ever heard before on one of these events. The sound was beautifully balanced and the music superbly performed - and in surround sound too on HD! Congratulations to all concerned, I say! :angry: Gary Cole

Indeed! Waltershausen is actually the organ I liked least of all the German and Dutch organs I've recorded over the years, and I can't help feeling that Trost was almost the Hope Jones of the early 18th century!

It's Brecon Cathedral – possibly with added reverb! Did you notice the continuity slip-up? When the Doctor and Amy are walking down the nave and we're looking west - no TARDIS. When they're running back and we're looking east there it is, right in the centre of the nave. Gary Cole

Putting aside the question of static shelf life between pressed CDs and CD-Rs, the latter are much more suspectible to unrecoverable errors caused by minor surface damage as the audio data written to CD-Rs is not interleaved (Reed-Solomon error correction) as it is on pressed CDs, so, yes, CD-Rs are not as durable (in active use) as pressed CDs. On the other hand, some 'Golden Ears' have been known to claim that CD-Rs 'sound better' for the very same reason! Gary Cole

I don't think anyone's mentioned the Respighi Suite in G for Organ & Strings (big concertante organ part) Unashamed advertising alert!: New recording (c/w Poulenc and Rheinberger 1) from Peter King (Bath Abbey Klais) with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by François-Xavier Roth (son of Daniel) - played on Graeme Kay's Organ Round-up on Radio 3 CD Review on Saturday. Gary Cole

Install musically-supportive Church Wardens (parents of choristers always helps) Argue for retaining the choral settings on the 1st Sunday on the basis that the current arrangement offers the widest range of worship styles for the local population/parish on a monthly basis. This is easier to argue if the nearest cathedral or other church which offers full settings is more than 20 miles away. In this instance worshippers may come to that choral service from all over the town and may not be just from the local parish.. Look at the musical provison of the choral service and see if new things can be introduced which musically involve the congregation more without compromising the choral basis eg responsorial psalms, Gospel Alleluias, sung Sursum Corde etc if these are not sung already. Gary Cole

Isn't it interesting that if you look at clergy advertisements in the Church Times they say things like "Evangelical Parish' or "Catholic LIturgy - Resolutions A, B & C in place'? How often have you seen 'Vicar wanted - must be equally happy leading HIgh Anglo Catholic Mass and Praise Worship'? You don't - because it just doesn't happen - clergy, being human (generally) are just not equally at home in these extremes of worship styles. Turn then to the advertisments for 'Organists': Traditional and mordern music', 'Must be at home in all styles of worship music' etc etc. I'm not saying that musicians are not capable of this - some are - Paul Leddington Wright is a very good example at a professional level - but many (particularly 'traditional' organists are not), yet it seems churches demand a degree of flexibility in worship styles from their underpaid and part-time musicians that they would never expect from their clergy. Gary Cole

Apologies - my mistake! I think the Postive pipework was removed from the Positive case (during the war maybe?) only to be returned towards the end of the Eule retoration and this is what led me to (erroneously!) conclude that the Postive was all-new. However, at 20 entirely new ranks (including all the mixtures and reeds) this is still a large proportion of the instrument which has had to be conjecturally reconstructed, whereas some other instruments contain considerably more original pipework - a good example being the 1734-7 Treutmann at Grauhof where only 3 of its 42 stops have had to have partial or complete reconstruction. Gary Cole

What many incumbents don't seem to realise is that a 'traditional' choir - especially with children on the top line (and here I'm not discriminating against boys, girls or mixed) can be the best way of getting young people in to the church. For example the local parish church here in Wolverhampton (St Peter's Collegiate Church - city centre location - no residential parish) is a bastion of traditional choral music (with some good bits of 'contemporary' ) in a welcoming middle-of the-road stye of worship and maintains separate boys and girls choirs with a large number of ex-trebles on the back rows. Altogether nearly 80 young people under 20 actually physically contribute to worship through a choral service each week - no alternative, 'trendy' form of worship could hope to get near that. Why is it a success? Well the top lines are only 'children': they know the responsibility lies with them - no bailling out from experiences adults - so their contribution is essential. Secondly, the services are 'fully choral' (Mass settings, with Gloria), fully-choral evensong - so the kids are always stretched - no 2 hour rehearsal on a Friday evening just to sing a few hymns and 'Lead me Lord' on Sunday morning. This is not to denegrate in any way the few remaining places where valiant individuals struggle to keep the last vestages of a choral tradition going on that small basis, but why would kids (any kid?) give up so much time to be in a church choir that doesn't really stretch them, doesn't give their contribution much significance in a service or even begin to make the most of what they are capable of musically? This, I know, is opening a vast can of worms!

...or you could just get a Mac. 'Alt + s' gives you ß, 'Alt + u, u' gives you ü, 'Alt + u, o' gives you ö - and then it gets really good: 'Alt + e, e' gives é, 'Alt + `, e' gives you è. I could go on - all very simple and logical. Shouldn't all computers work like this? Gary Cole

This is most interesting..... the 'official' history is that the weekly recitals were transferred to St Philip's Cathedral when the Town Hall closed. They've certainly been at St Philip's for a good number of years (including the entire period that work has been carried out on the organ). How long were they at St Paul's? (The Town Hall closed in July 1996). Our booklet for Trotter's new Town Hall recording is at the printers as I write - we want it to be accurate, but it could well be too late to change it, but we'll try if we get the correct information...! Please PM if you prefer. Gary Cole Regent Records info@regentrecords.com 01902 424377

Yes, sorry - turned everything to stone, not gold! It was late and a good few years since I saw the film! At the start of 'Love Actually' there's a big wedding sequence which I think uses the Grosvenor Chapel organ.

It was The Midas Touch, with Richard Burton and Lee Remick. Bristol Cathedral was renamed 'Minster Catherdal' (same number of letters) and yes, the organ was used and it was Clifford Harker playing it. There were shots of him playing maniacally while the cathedral fell down around him! Great film! Gary Cole

I learnt to tie notes, except in the melody, but I think it can depend on the circumstances and this opens up the much bigger question of 'what is good hymn accompaniment? I've always felt over-articulated , over-loud and over-bright (too many mixtures) playing can actually discourage congregations from singing when they feel they're being beaten around the head in a one-sided battle, whereas the opposite - rich, full, legato playing (with lots of 16s and 32s and no mixtures ) can actually be more encouraging, particularly if this sounds as if a lot more people are singing - particularly men! Gary Cole Regent Records

Going off slightly at a tangent: A Cathedral organist once said to me in jest ' nowadays, audiences are very discerning - they expect to hear the right music played on the right instrument: German music on German instruments, French music on French instruments, and rubbish on English instruments..." Gary Cole Regent Records UK

Not sure I agree with this, MM. The number of English organs remaining from the eighteenth century in anything like original condition with mostly original pipework is very, very small - possibly only in single figures. For example, there's only one completely original mounted cornet (Blandford) - although I believe there's another one in Gravesend, but that's unplayable at the moment. By 1840 the English organ was very different, and there are probably even fewer (largish) English organs from 1830-1850 that remain in their original condition. I know that when we were looking for organs to do Margaret Philips' Mendelssohn recording we had great difficulty finding anything English from this period that was 'authentic' ie more-or-less exactly as Mendelssohn could have know them and would have recognised tonally, which is why we decided to use German organs from the period - which we know from his own writings he preferred anyway! After the 1850s English organs began to change rapidly and by the beginning of the 20th century most large pre-1850s instruments had been completely changed out of all recoginition, but if anyone knows of any English 3 man organs from 1830-1850 that are still in orginal condition I would love to hear about them...... Gary Cole Regent Records

This may have been mentioned before, here or in another thread, but this project happening in Leiden in Holland is absolutely fascinating! www.cathedralorgan.nl/en/organ.html Eat your hearts out English organ builders! Gary Cole Regent Records UK

As I'm naturally disappointed that it would seem that none of the regular contributors to the board have had the opportunity to hear any of the Volumes in this series (now up to Vol 13), or have no comments to make, I therefore hope the board moderator will allow me to add a few comments and apologise if this infringes board rules.... All have something of interest (being in a way a profile of the resident cathedral organist) but if I could be forgiven for suggesting the following as a starting point: I'm sure that Mr Lucasorg is too modest to suggest his own volume which was no 1 in the series (REGCD159) but this has great historical interest in being a recording of the old organ in all its glory... Vol IV (REGCD163) is also of historic interest, being David Hill's final recording from Winchester (and his first solo organ disc for many years) Vol VI (REGCD174) was the first recording of the new Ely organ. The pyrotechnics of Rupert Jeffcoat in 'Vision of Christ Phoenix' Vol XI Coventry (REGCD199) are pretty awesome and finally Vol XIII (REGCD227) Rochester has the first recording of Exite Fidelis by Paul Ayres and shows that a catherdal organ can give Jools Holland's Hammond a run for his money Gary Cole Regent Records

Haven't you Cathedral organists got anything better to do with your time.....? Although I'm very proud to say that I had the 'battery of Lucases' at my wedding......