Phil T

They're not all bad. "In God alone" is another which I quite like.

Many a fine anthem was written that way. I’ve always thought that as Christians, we were followers of Christ. The New Testaments are his life and teachings and so they are the basis of Christianity? There are many contradictions between the Old and New Testaments, but it is the teachings of the New that should guide us through life.

I couldn’t have put it any better myself. I wish all churches/priests thought the same way as you, but then we wouldn’t have anything to moan about, would we?

I’m sure a mathematical model of a pipe is possible. In Formula One they model the cars aerodynamics very accurately. How much memory this takes I don’t know. Nyquist is just double the max sampled frequency plus a safety factor. On a cd, they take the max frequency as 20K Hz, double it, and add a bit for safe measure. This gives you 44.1k (or is it 44.2K?).

You hit the nail on the head. At the end of the day it's the bribe and grooms choice. You can only offer them advice and guidance. You know the limitations of the choir and can steer them in the right direction, but ultimately they choose.

Don’t make them sing “Jesu, joy of mans despairing.” We kicked that one to death when I was a boy treble and I still can’t stand it nearly 30 years later.

I think the thing that annoys so much is that those who want to “jazz up” church music turn just once or twice a month. You never see them at Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Ascension Day (to name but a few), yet we are left doing their style of music, which often makes “lite” of these occasions. Good modern music has its place, but why can’t they leave other services alone? As has been mentioned before, we often bend backwards to accommodate them but that seems to rarely be reciprocated.

I agree with what you’re saying, but an awful lot of modern (style of) music is weak to say the least. Good writing can enhance words; it can convey the meaning of the words through understanding and passion. There are some modern hymns that achieve this, and these will be around for a long time. At the other end of the spectrum, a lot of modern hymns are just plain rubbish.

I only caught about 20 min of it as I was driving home. I enjoyed the music but didn’t think it fitted well into the service. It just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t feel that an act of worship had taken place, only that I’d listened to a jazz concert. I must try and listen to it all on the internet (if my 6 month daughter and wife will let me).

I’d forgotten all about this organ. I went to a concert (recital) there in the early nineties just after it was rebuilt. Peter Hurford played, it was mainly Bach as I recall. They placed the console in the middle of the aisle so all could see him as he played.

"The Oxford Blues Service: A complete Jazz setting of Anglican Evensong according to the Book of Common Prayer, composed by Roderick Williams and sung by Schola Cantorum of Oxford, accompanied by a jazz trio and organ." Did anyone listen to this Service and if so, what did you think?

Isn’t the reason for Guildford having a separate Choir (organ) because the building was designed without a proper chamber for an organ? It was placed in the only space large enough to house an instrument. This lead to problems accompanying the choir and so a choir division was placed in the quire to ease the problem.

It’s very much in keeping with the size of the building and the music done. The church never had a good size chamber and there is only so much you can (or should) shoe horn in to a small space. Interestingly, St Mary’s in Ewell have a fine 3 manual Willis (only two or three stops smaller than Truro) that is far too big for the building. It sounds superb but it really is too big.

At my mother in laws church, their electronic has performed for over ten years without missing a note. It stays in tune no matter how hot or cold the church gets. It is far larger in terms of specification than the old organ chamber could ever allow a pipe organ to be. I know it’s a shame to see a pipe organ go from a church, but I can also see the attraction of an electronic.

And yet many Parish churches get rid of pipe organs in favour electronic. They seem to be taken by the fact that once installed, there is little servicing (tuning etc) required so little money outlay for many years.

Nice thought but the potentiometers used for volume control are nearly always sealed units these days. As mentioned by other people on this board, I don’t think destroying the clavinova will cure your problem. The music group will not go away overnight, is there anyway you can work with them rather than against?

From my limited experience of music groups/happy clappy music, I’ve noticed that the people who push it forward are middle-aged women of limited musical ability. This is just an observation and not meant to be sexist or ageist in any way. Unless you’ve got a really strong tie to that particular church, then I’d be inclined to leave them to it and find another church who appreciate what you offer.

Try a thin sliver of tape wrapped around the live or neutral pin (of the plug). If you cut it just right, you can’t see the tape but it stops anything working. Few people every suspect the lead, the fuse may be, but not the lead. I tried it once on a TV in a shared room when I was on nightshift. A room of electricians and not one of them guessed.

try this Don't know if this will work or is even the right thing. Look under Erskine.

I was trying to avoid anything like that. It depends why you want it fused? Some glue carelessly spilt on the keyboard would be a safer alternative. Salt water never properly dries out, the list is endless.

Just answered the "who wrote the words" question by looking properly at the link

Anything more specific than that? Who sang it, who recorded it, who wrote the words etc?

Find out what the meter of the hymn is (no idea how to do it if it’s not printed with it) and find a tune with an identical meter. This is probably little help, but you never know. I don’t find the words overly inspiring, but we don’t all like the same stuff.

I'm not sure what you want to achieve? The fuse in the plug is deigned to protect the machine and it’s user. The fuse should blow (if you short out the power lead) leaving the electronics intact.

It seems a shame that the money spent on the little used electronic wasn’t used to better effect by bringing the pipe organ up to a better (in terms of action, wind supply) standard.