Philip

Paul Hale is Dioceasan Organ Advisor and was I believe very involved in the process of choosing to have a hybrid organ, as well as supporting the project (see the blurb on the church website). When our digital in the same neck of the woods was installed he came down to voice that too.

As we'd moved Epiphany back to the Sunday just gone and St Mary's choir are still on holiday, I went to St Peters tonight for their Eucharist for Epiphany. The organ was installed just before Christmas I believe and so is now fully functional. I suppose the question everyone will be asking is - could I tell the digital and the pipes apart? My answer is no - but I daresay others with a more expert ear might be able to. We had F in Darke mass, so the full range from an ethereal opening to the Sanctus to a much fuller sound in the louder bits - and it was full without being over-bearing. Introit (Rising of the Sun) and Anthem (The Three Kings) were both unaccompanied. We were given a pretty good taste of some of the solo colours, particularly in the pre-service improvisation on the hymn tune 'Dundee' and then in the Buxtehude 'Wie schon...' at the end. In the hymns themselves you could clearly tell that the Great was speaking out into the nave to support congregational singing - I would have liked to hear rather more variety in the hymn accompaniments perhaps (I wouldn't say I'm subtle with my registration changes in hymns!). It certainly had plenty of foundation in the pedal - the congregation this evening was about 30-odd but it could easily handle many more I'm sure. The old case facing the nave has been retained, the new case into the choir houses pipes and digital stops I believe. http://www.nottinghamchurches.org/music/th.../stpetersorgan/ has some photos - the lighter case being the new one for the choir. If you want to go and hear the organ, they are now using February as a month for celebration of the instrument, and the four Saturday morning 'Coffee break concerts' at 11am all feature the organ as follows: 5th - Dedication by the Bishop followed by Gala Organ Recital - Paul Hale 12th - Choral Pieces with the Choir of St Peters 19th - Silent Comedy with Improvised Accompaniment by Donald MacKenzie 26th - Handel Organ Concerto Opus 4 No. 4 in F and Poulenc Organ Concerto in g - Peter Siepmann (DOM) & Philip Collin at the console with Sarabande Or the 2nd April (11am again) is Durufle Requiem with the church choir accompanied by John Keys which may be of interest. David Briggs, as mentioned above, will now give his recital on 30th July. Alternatively, the music list http://www.nottinghamchurches.org/assets/P...-2011-01-06.pdf shows the many choral services which offer the opportunity to hear the organ perform its main function of service accompaniment. Unfortunately I can't make the Gala Recital but I will try to go and hear it again soon.

I'm cheap and put up with the adverts! It is excellent though...I particularly enjoy Priory's complete recording of the Evening Canticles (21 CDs) which I think are all on there - some interesting listening including lesser known settings in there.

I made a trip to London's music shops yesterday, and Foyles had a copy of what looked to be the piece under discussion in their sale drawer.

This correspondent headed off to St Marys, Nottingham this evening for a very good Nine Lessons service. Once again we got a good selection of the wide and wonderful Christmas repertoire. I persuaded John Keys to include the Lauridsen 'O magnum mysterium' which for me sums up the wonder of Christmas, although I once again found 'O Holy Night' to be a highlight also, though all of it was very very good.

Yes thank you Stephen. The service looked very well put together. The organ sounds good for what from NPOR looks quite modest.

We also had a good turnout - choir of 39 (joint with the Methodist church) and I'm pretty sure the total crowd topped 200 (compared to 120 on a Sunday morning). Lots of faces I didn't recognise. All the music went pretty well and I thought it was a well-balanced carol service and the whole thing including voluntary was over within 70 minutes (9 readings - not the nine lessons though with a couple of non-biblical ones, 5 choir as outlined above, 6 congregational plus some prayers etc). Altogether, very satisfactory. I know some people (including our vicar) don't particularly like carol services (and I can see why) but I have to confess that I love them, in no small part due to the variety of music but also due to the fact that they bring people together and into our churches who otherwise wouldn't come in. It is always a joy for me to see unfamiliar faces - the key is in offering a ministry of welcome and enticing them to return!

Thanks for the link justadad - have added it to my bookmarks alongside St Johns Cambridge. The only slight problem is that they seem to have taken the music list down. At some point will get round to having a listen though. No problems for us here on the edge of Nottingham - although temperatures are sub-zero we have no snow and barely any ice - roads are all entirely passable (even sideroads) and I've been into town this evening for the Nottingham Harmonic Carol concert/marathon (almost three hours!) without any problems. Have to say we have been very fortunate in not having any rain or snow to freeze - amazing how we are totally clear yet places only 100 miles away can be covered. Looking forward to our carol service anyway, and hoping we get a decent turnout.

Its that time of year - carol services! Kings have just released the order for their own offering on Christmas Eve - http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/files/services/...essons-2010.pdf. It seems to me to be rather imbalanced between what I would consider largely mainstream items towards the start with some newer and less familiar items towards the end. Given the huge repertoire of possible items, I wonder if SC is coming back to the same things rather too often. The commission this year is from a Finnish chap whose name I can't spell. I note we are getting Willcocks' arrangements of 'God rest ye' and 'Hark the herald' but the others are Cleobury. To finish this year the Dupre B major, an excellent mainstay of the repertoire. The order for the TV broadcast 'Carols from Kings' is also available - http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/files/services/...-kings-2010.pdf. It is broadly similar, although additionally including such items as the Leighton, Warlock, Whitacre and Preston which are all well-known and which I do enjoy. A mixture of Willcocks and Cleobury descants again and finishing again with the Dupre. Last year this discussion ran quite nicely, so lets hope it does again. What are contributors playing for their various carol services? We have ours on Sunday evening (lets hope the cold weather doesn't diminish the congregation like it did last year!). Choral items are mostly out of 100 Carols, with Rutter's Star Carol, the Lute-Book Lullaby, Willcocks' more interesting arrangement of 'Ding dong' and the Shepherds' Farewell. Gardner's 'The Holly and the Ivy' completes the set. I think we have struck a good balance between loud and quiet, fast and slow. I've switched voluntaries around this year, so they're getting 'the Widor' after the carol service (in the same key as Hark the herald which I always play in F). BWV729 will follow Midnight Mass (its a bit less taxing for that hour of the morning) with 'that Sortie' on Christmas morning. For the crib service I will probably use (thanks to a contributor on here posting it on another board) Clifton Hughes' variations on Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Available from Banks, it is rather good fun and should hopefully hit the right note. There's a good ramble to get you started - whatever Christmas holds for you in terms of services I hope it is successful and enjoyable!

Doh! You're right, getting my carols confused! All the above comments stand if about the wrong piece.

There's an easy and loud Wilbur Held prelude/postlude on Good King Wencelas in Cramer's 'Church Year' compilation. Its not exciting or very interesting, but low effort. Our church is having only a said service on Boxing Day - after fully sung Midnight Mass & Christmas morning.

Paul Hale at Southwell does something not dissimilar although does it far more subtly and without such an exaggerated stretch out! Whenever discussions about psalm singing come up we always say 'speech rhythm' is vital - this clearly goes against this rule. Done in the manner of this broadcast it does nothing for me - and surely when it is exaggerated like this it just focuses attention on the method of singing rather than on the words and the meaning behind them, which isn't a good thing in the context of Evensong which should (through the music) be channelling our thoughts to greater things. As regards the Goodall, I'm not sure if they sit totally comfortably in a liturgical context - I wonder whether he intended them to be performed liturgically? I thought the Nunc to be the more successful of the two and I rather enjoyed it. His music is certainly popular and goes down well - beyond the ubiquitous Psalm 23 setting his version of 'Love divine' is super and after I found a YouTube of it we purchased it. The choir enjoyed learning it and the congregational reaction was extremely positive.

Quite possibly true. I do enjoy listening to Rutter, so draw your own conclusions!

Did the congregation join in Dave? That sounds like an error on the part of whoever did the service orders - there are only 3 verses at the end of Hear my words - the first in unison, the second to a different tune sung by the semi-chorus and the third with the famous organ accompaniment before the Amens (I assume this is where this accompaniment originally came from?). The verse that is missed out is the one which has the line 'loud organs his glory forth tell in deep tone' (chance for cheesy loud to soft contrast going into the sweet harps on the next line!). I do wonder about the ability of anthems of this length to hold attention, but IMO it is well worth it and 'Hear my words' certainly has some glorious moments. Sounds like an excellent service though - I do enjoy the Bairstow Mag & Nunc (not quite as good as Dyson but not far off!).

I thought the hymn-singing in Sunday's programme for Remembrance was good and definitely among the better efforts from SOP. I have to confess I skipped through the rest of the programme and only watched the hymns. 'Abide with me' in particular I thought was well done, especially the last verse.

In case anyone had plans to attend the opening weekend, see this which has appeared on the church website: It is with great disappointment that the Organ Festival Weekend advertised at St Peter's for 20th and 21st November has had to be postponed. We have been very seriously let down by one of the partners involved in the build, and despite many difficult conversations over the past two weeks, the situation cannot be rectified in time for the planned celebrations. Whereas the pipes and new casework now stand tantalizingly in the chancel balcony and behind the restored North Aisle case, the organ's console still languishes in a factory in Oregon, awaiting a final, but vital, piece of equipment. It is this that has required the dreadfully disappointing decision to postpone the Bishop's dedication and the David Briggs recital. Instead, the new organ will be brought into commission over the next couple of months and we hope, following some words of blessing at a morning service, used during the Advent and Christmas season. The formal dedication will be rescheduled for the New Year, and the February gala series of Coffee Break Concerts will go ahead as planned, starting with the gala recital given by Paul Hale, who has been of tremendous support during this difficult time. David Briggs has agreed to reschedule his recital and 2011 dates are being explored.

From Symphonie No. 1 - rather surprised you don't know it. You'll find plenty of videos of the usual suspects playing it on YouTube and the score on public domain. A rather fun piece - not horrendously difficult at all - some big chords to get the hands round and some fiddly bits when it goes into four flats. Needs a big organ to sound effective I'd say.

Will the Bishop be doing the service? If so, why not use the Widor 'Marche Ponitificale' which is loud and pompous (not that I would limit its use to occasions when a Bishop was a present!).

We use Mayhew's Sunday Psalms and it works pretty well. The chants are repeated a lot, but that's fine by me as after 3-4 years of continuous use I have most of them memorised in my head which means I can concentrate on the words, pointing, registration etc. Some of the responses are a little odd but I'd rather we used this than nothing at all. Unfortunately, we've currently dropped it as an experiment (except for festivals) as opposed to doing a psalm every week - not sure how long this will last.

In the places I'm currently involved with the organists have no influence at all on the fees, which the church sets (assumably approved annually by the PCC). At one the PCC takes about £15 on top of the organist's fee (not sure what for exactly) while at the other there is a separate 'organ' fee payable which goes into the organ fund to contribute towards maintenance, tuning etc.

Could it be Alla marcia? It is a march-like piece, pretty loud, about 3 or 4 minutes long. I have it in 'The Organ Music of John Ireland' published by Novello (http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/07456/details.html). I wasn't aware that he had written anything for organ that wasn't in this volume, and I don't recall any of the other pieces fitting the bill. The 'Elegiac Romance' I have never played but it doesn't look militaristic (if thats a word) - mushy with lots of key changes I think. The Holy Boy is a useful filler around Christmas time, and the Meditation on John Keble's Rogationtide Hymn is quite nice too. The volume isn't a bad investment I'd say - I've got a fair amount of use from it and there are a few biographical details and some registration suggestions at the front. Alla marcia is a good piece though, not particularly taxing - one of my standards that I roll out once or twice a year. Thinking about it, it could work if you wanted a loud ending for a funeral (maybe a touch too pompous?). It would go down well on Remembrance Day too I suspect, although at our big civic service I like to do something bigger as the church really is packed - have done Walton Battle of Britain before, War March of the Priests last year, and this year will be doing the Widor Marche Pontificale which is suitably pompous for the occasion.

This was what I thought too - it is structured in a fairly similar way. The Elegy may not class as brilliant music but it is always a good one to wheel out for funerals, remembrance etc.

Yes, I would go with this. If it is a major event then two voluntaries wouldn't be out of the question. If you do so and do BWV 729 first, I would follow it with something big and French (rather than more Bach) e.g. Vierne 1/Vierne 6 finals / Carillon de Westminster (takes a while to get loud) Widor Toccata Widor 6 final - I don't find this one particularly interesting, although others seem to Guilmant 1 final Mulet Carillon-Sortie - this seems quite popular for Christmas Not French, but the Mushel Toccata might be an alternative. There are probably further suggestions up the thread. If you want just one piece, then a bright Bach P&F would be suitable, or even the ubiquitous BWV 565, or any of the suggestions above.

Would the Rawsthorne volume be 'Music for the Bride'? I was fortunate to pick up a retiring organist's redundant copy and it is a very useful volume, which does not suffer from being ridiculously thick and difficult to open (around 100 pages). It contains many of the transcriptions you'd probably want in decent arrangements (Wagner, Mendelssohn, Clarke, Charpentier, Purcell, several Handel, some JSB and a few odd other bits - doesn't have the Widor but I'd guess you'll already have access to that!), but I think its now out of print. It's the only place I've seen the Rawsthorne 'Prelude on the Londonderry Air' which is one of those very useful pieces which you can use for weddings, funerals or on a Sunday morning. I see Roger Molyneux has a copy (p43 of his current catalogue) although £20 seems quite expensive for a modestly sized volume. Unfortunately, Mayhew's current policy seems to be on producing larger volumes and selling them for a higher price - but this of course neglects the problems with keeping the books open when they get above a certain size. If they would listen to suggestions (which they don't seem to) I'm sure many of us would rather pay £5 extra to have a spiral bound volume which will sit open on the stand and would stand the test of time rather better.

I'm beginning to discover what a useful resource Bedard's music is, having picked up a couple of volumes in London on Saturday. I have also harked back on an old copy of CMQ which was also singing his praises. Does anyone play much of his music? It seems to all be attractive and approachable stuff. I know some have previously mentioned the Toccata on 'Il est ne' - I looked at this on Saturday but decided against it - not sure if its within my grasp right now. I did pick up his Variations on 'In Dulci Jubilo' which can be found on YouTube and are a very attractive little set, and I also decided on his '6 Paraphrases Gregoriennes', which includes an excellent piece on 'Veni Creator' which would make a good Pentecost postlude. Best of all, these sets (all published by Cheldar) are all very reasonably priced - in the £4-£6 range from the pieces I saw in Foyles. He seems to have penned several suites of varying names - I was wondering which of them might stand out as worth buying? If something were to sway me it would be a good final movement.