Phil T
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Posts posted by Phil T
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That’s rather unfortunate.
Sadly the must likely time for a failure in a fibre-optic link is at or just after installation. This is normally due to poor hygiene during the manufacture and mating of the fibre cable.
We use dual fibre rings at work in our trainers and simulators and at sea, and have no problems at all.
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I’m not sure if my previous posts quite put across what I meant. If you look at any organ with electric or electro-pneumatic action, then the output from the keyboard is in effect 61 bit parallel data (number of notes on many keyboards). The keys make a switch (various types) so the output is either 0 volts or supply voltage depending if the key is depressed or not.
Parallel data transmission is rarely used these days. It is expensive (due to the number of cores required) and suffers from voltage drop and capacitive effects. Changing parallel data to serial data is easily accomplished. As soon as the data is in that format it can be readily modified (octave/ sub-octave couplers etc) and saved for later transmission.
The medium through which this is transmitted is irrelevant, anything with a large enough bandwidth will suffice. Amongst others, fibre optics and RF would do.
At the organ the data is converted back to parallel, amplified, and used to operate the pallet solenoids.
For the organist at the console there is no difference to how the instrument is played or to its feel, yet as a tool to play music the organ would be greatly enhanced.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is mainly used to control synthesisers, not real instruments.
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The idea was that any layperson with a sense of rhythm would be able to control the flow of the hymn 'live', without needing keyboard skills.
Of course, stepping through the Widor would probably induce vibration white finger.
DWL.
So there's hope for me yet
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One question. These MIDI interfaces can operate stops, but can they also operate swell box shutters?
I don’t know enough about MIDI interfaces but I suspect the answer is no. Any organ with a detached console (with swell shutters and action operated electrically) could be modified so that all console inputs are passed digitally. With that done the ability to “record” every note, stop drawn and ‘box position is easy. So yes, swell box shutters can be operated remotely via a digital interface.
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I can see no reason why the connection between the console and the wind chests cannot be digital via a fibre optic link. I know that to many the introduction of a computer to a pipe organ is akin to selling your soul to the devil, but there could be many benefits. Relevant to this discussion is that anything played at the console could be recorded and played back at a later date. Yes, a real life organist would always be better, but as already mentioned, they are in short supply these days. There are many recordings of fine Cathedral organists from yesteryear, but imagine how much better it would be to hear their actual recital on its original instrument?
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The comment was made in reference to the choir chanting a psalm not a congregation. I’d hate the tradition of psalm singing to completely disappear from our parish churches. Any machine that helps keep the choral tradition alive must be a good thing. Organists are such a rare breed today, if we’re not careful we will loose that tradition.
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Surely those with a “half-decent laptop can recreate the Ring Cycle” can only do so because they have had some form of musical training? It is a sad time we live in when we have to rely on a machine to provide the music for our worship. On a positive note, at least churches are prepared to include music within their services. Lastly, I can’t quite see how a chanted psalm (with its ever changing meter) can be successfully programmed into this machine?
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At the parish level I would say that as long as the organist/choir trainer is capable, then a long tenure is a good thing. It's hard enough to find anyone to fill posts these days, so keep them if you've got them
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I couldn't agree with MM more. We have ended up doing music for the kids yet they hardly turn up for anything other than the "youff" services leaving us singing Happy C**p
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I find myself wondering if "length of tenure" really has any relevance in an age of instant gratification, recorded music and changing fashions.
I cannot speak with any great authority; having largely dropped out of church-music (except purely as an organist) many years ago. Witnessing what happened to church-music, I saw the work of generations eroded; both in education and in the church.
First came the alarm-bells of dwindling numbers, followed by a more "relevant" movement towards people-friendly music. Like a Tsunami, the beach dried out, and what came next was not very constructive, as the wave of "new" music swept in.
The fact that the tsunami swept in and largely overwhelmed everything in its path, but then stopped when it reached the great cathedrals, leaves us to contemplate the very different survival techniques of the beachcomber and the traditional farmer.
In a strangely perverse way, I actually regret that the tsunami wasn't quite powerful enough to overwhelm the cathedrals (though God knows, they got their feet wet at Bradford). Instead, the cathedrals (and a few red-cassock churches) continue to plough the soil of their tradition as if nothing had happened, whilst the rest of us were left to make a meal out of washed up baked-beans, a couple of dead fish and sun-dried sea-weed.
It isn't that the cathedrals are really ivory-towers, it's just that the other towers were all knocked down in the flood.
Meanwhile, the beach churches are actually emptier than they ever were, for the simple reason that a choral-tradition at least ensured a congregation measured in double-figures. In most churches, Evensong died out when the music was swept away.
I could write for days about the urban-myth of "modernity," as well as the whimpering whirlwind of "revival," but frankly, I can't be bothered. If the original claim was that the church was only speaking to the older generations, they were at least alive and often had a knowing-twinkle in their eyes. After all, these were the people who survived a war and near stravation, but still found time to sing their praises.
Back on the beach, above the high-water mark, they're building sand-castles you know, but they forget the corrosive effects of rain and wind.
It seems obvious to me, that without proper foundations there can be no security, and without security, there can be no longevity of tenure.
Meanwhile, the odd Archbishop sends envoys to America, carrying buckets and spades.
I suppose that, in a few years, we will have a new style of music-management in churches, where the cassock and surplice is replaced by someone vaguely resembling Peter Stringfellow.
"Great song kids! Don't call us, we'll call you!"
MM
Length Of Tenure For Organists
in General discussion
Posted
F G Ormond was organist a Truro for 41 years. This was before the console was moved to its present position and required a two min walk up a spiral staircase. Sounds like hard work to me, not to mention getting dizzy.