Phil T
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Posts posted by Phil T
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Ponder upon the amount of public money spent of football and sports generally, at which "we" seem to be particularly poor, generally speaking. London may not have a first-class concert hall, but East London will have a state-of-the-art sports city in the not-too-distant future, which will then be made available to every loser in the land once the Olympic circus leaves town.
It is depressing even to contemplate my next-door neighbour, who gave me the most miserable, almost tearful resume of England's World Cup effort.
"We've got to improve," he blubbed.
"We?" I asked.
"Well, we're not good enough," he whimpered into his sleeve.
"We?" I repeated the question.
This is a man who is so unfit, he couldn't run down the stairs if the house caught fire! They would need a crane just to remove his charred remains!
Meanwhile, we have musicians and choirs (in cathedrals and elsewhere) who get viurtually zilch.
Nuff said! Rant over!
MM
Maybe the “Singing Estate” and the Blackbird Leys Community Choir is the thin end of the wedge? How do you raise the profile of this type of music, how do you bring it to the masses?
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I would absolutely agree with what John Sayer says (that's almost poetic isn't it?)
Perhaps the main reason I go to Holland to recitals (which costs a fair bit of hard earned cash) is to hear MUSIC, which on the consoles they have, seldom enters the stratospheric reaches of virtuosity. Limited as they are by what is actually possible, I find that the musicianship is of a very high order; especially in period music played on period instruments.
As for "Phil T's" reply, I think I may disagree with him. I do actually think that many are among the finest of musicians, but their chosen path is that of church music, which is quite a different undertaking.
I wasn’t knocking cathedral musicians; they are all highly talented people. I was trying (badly it seems) to point out that they achieve fantastic results at the drop of a hat. A friend sang “Carols with Kirri” at Coventry; he said that she spent so much time to achieve the results she got. To my ears, the choir who accompanied her were as good, but they just turned up and sang; minimum time, maximum musicality. All fantastic musicians.
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Cathedral musicians aren’t necessarily the best musicians, but they achieve 97% of the results on less than 3% of the practice. I think the talent is out there, but many people don’t want a career involving the church. If these people don’t want to get involved with the church, then how do you nurture their talent?
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Yes - but Manders left the mechanism in case anyone in future wanted to move it back.
AJJ
Which is very good news.
I personally think the organ at Truro is fantastic. Others on this board have said that from a player’s perspective it is flawed; yet as a non-player I only hear it as the players play it. Every time I’ve heard it the players manage to bring it alive and it’s a joy to listen to.
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A fair point - but personally, I would still choose a pipe organ every time.
Arguably, Truro is also too loud (if not too big) for the building - full organ is more than adequate and even with the cathedral full of methodists singing lustily, the organ clearly dominated - without all of the big reeds or the Tuba.
Wasn't that the tuba that was moved because it was too quiet?
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Your friend doesn't happen to be a fusician called "arty"?
Err....no.
He’s a fine man who I’ve known since joining his then parish choir when I was 12. He taught me (and others) far more than just how to sing hymns and anthems on a Sunday. One of his protégés regularly deps (sings) at St Pauls, Westminster Abbey and St Georges Windsor, so my friend must have got something right.
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No music should ever plod, of course, unless for some special reason that particular effect is required.
There is a fine line between lyrical and plodding, but too fast just kills the music and says “Look at me, I can play fast”.
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Just what is a 'virtuoso' anyway?
Ask Andy Lumsden, if he won't answer, just watch him at work.
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Just what is a 'virtuoso' anyway?
I was listening last night to Colin Walsh's new Lincoln recording of Widor V and VI, and what really made me sit up was just how measured was his performance of the infamous Toccata, coming in at a stately 6 mins 56 secs. I have also heard Colin perform live other works by Franck, Gigout, Widor, Vierne where his tempi have been, compared to most others, also on the slow side.
A friend of mine likes to take the Vierne 1st symphony final as fast as he can, this enables him to run his foot down the pedal board in the last few bars rather playing what’s written, it’s over before you register that it’s not quite correct.
As a non-player (hanging my head in shame) I like a more sedate tempo to allow the music to “breath”.
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One of my favourites, which rarely get mentioned on these pages, is Chichester.
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I listened to the tracks last night. I liked the sound of the Romsey organ but not the Wimborne. I don’t know if the Wimborne recording was closely miked or the acoustic of the building is dead, but it just didn’t sound ALIVE.
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The vergers at Exeter, in contrast, seem excellent. One of them even knows a bit about organs, though he's not a player.
A non-player knowing abit about organs, surely not. -
I prefer to think about the hug and the kiss from the bride
Last summer, on holiday in France, I was asked by the local priest to take a keyboard along to the village church (no organ) and play for a wedding at 5pm, followed by a special mass for a 5oth wedding anniversary at 6, followed by a baptism at 7!
The 5pm bride arrived at 5.45, and the priest proceeded through the service in a leisurely way. The 6pm mass started about 6.40, and when it finished at nearly 8, there was no sign of the baptism party. they showed up around 8.15!! And no, i never got paid for any of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's very good of you, there's no way I'd have done that.
When I got married I told the wife (jokingly) not to be late, as I’d give her ten min then take the choir and organist (all good friends) down the pub. She turned up on time but unfortunately forgot her bouquet, so the service started 20 min late whilst it was fetched. Hmmm
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It needs updating - new photos to go up soon. I'll let ppl know when I've done some work on it.
Liked the pictures
Am looking forward to the rest.
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It's fingers, they have a life of their own, bad fingers.
Any general anthem/music could be sung during the signing of the register. Ones I’ve sung include “Ave Maria” (Byrd, Elgar, Mozart), Psalm 23 (set to Crimond), “Jesu Joy” and “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Tchaikovsky). For my own wedding I had “Set me as a seal” by Walton and “Lord for thy tender mercies sake” by Farrant/Hilton. The Walton is quite tricky but the Farrant/Hilton is relatively easy.
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Yes, you are quite right - because discounting six large organs - St Paul's, Westminster Abbey and Cathedral, Southwark Anglican, RAH, RFH there aren't any really significant organs inside Greater London ...
Ohh, are we going to get into the old north/south divide argument?
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The interesting possibility is, that because carbon-fibre organ pipes would be naturally eletrically conductive, they could each be individually wired from a computer-control interface and include their own electronically activated servo-valves at the toe.
I can’t work out if your taking the **** or not. I’m all for using technology in organ building. F 1 engines no longer use cams, points etc and all for the better. We shouldn’t be afraid of technology, only badly used technology.
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One big crock of sh**e!
I’ve never heard it (either recording or in the flesh) but surely it cant be that bad?
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It certainly gets boring all the religious arguments, clergy rarely listen to us anyway, and this site is about organs, or should be.
R
Well yes, but then the majority of organs discussed on the board are situated in churches and cathedrals?
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Might entice the max power brigade into church.
Not too sure what they’d sound like but it would remove the problem of heavy pipes causing structural problems.
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This is possibly quite true Pierre, but in England, many organs didn't have any Mixtures at all before 1945!!
MM
I didn't know that. Every day is a learning day.
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Do you mean like the "All Polish Youth" movement " Młodzież Wszechpolska?"
They're all good catholic boys who go to Mass on Sunday, who just happen to wear black-hoods and go around beating up homosexuals and disrupting peaceful demonstrations.
Um....No.
I fail to see how any Christian can behave like that. It totally goes against the teachings of Christ. Probably a miss quote but here goes, “You should Love one another as I have loved you”.
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I don't like "Onward Christian soldiers/pilgrims" either.
Now, why do they do that? What's wrong with being Christs soldier? Are we still allowed to be his faithful Servant or is that classist?
A non-player knowing abit about organs, surely not. 
Six-manual Organs
in The Organ
Posted
You have to wonder, just what is the point?