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DHM

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Posts posted by DHM

    Registration of Bach

    in The Organ

    Posted

    =================================================

    ...I seem to recall a Bach console with vertical stops each side, and a horizontal row of stops above the organist. (Herr Sprondel may be the man who can tell us). Perhaps it wasn't a Bach console at all that I have in mind.

    MM

    The Trost organ at Waltershausen has stops above the music desk as well as to left and right. Not an organ over which JSB presided, but certainly one he is known to have played.

    Psalms

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Depending on where you go, the psalms can be either a necessary but uninspiring part of worship, or an art form, both from stalls and bench. I'd be grateful for tips, but also favourite chants, psalters, pet hates, favourite examples (either recorded or not).

    Many thanks!

    I'm an Oxford Psalter man myself – with modifications. I find it encourages speech rhythm better than the Parish Psalter (I have used both).

    After a few years in mediocre village church choirs with The New Cathedral Psalter and later The Parish Psalter, I have spent most of the last 40 years with the Oxford Psalter as amended by Robert Ashfield, together with the set of chants he compiled for use first at Southwell and then at Rochester, enhanced by his successor, Barry Ferguson - a combination I find almost unbeatable. RJA understood the words, pointed them accordingly, and found chants to match (or wrote one of his own). Very rarely have I found anything that I felt could be improved, or wanted to change.

     

    I very much regret the passing of the "Psalms of the Day" in many places (but always insist on doing them when on tour away from home! :ph34r: ). For me, one of life's all-time great experiences is the 15th Evening - such a fine story that you cannot possibly cut it (though many do) - and I find the thought that I may never do it again in toto incredibly depressing. B)

     

    As for favourite chants…

    Psalm 107: There's a fine set of chants by Robert Ashfield.

    Indeed there is: A sequence of three, that cycle round and round (the end of the third one having such an inevitability that it couldn't possibly go anywhere else except back to No 1), followed by a fourth one in a completely different mood – until you realise it's No 1 down a fifth.

     

    Don't react superficially to the words, but try to dig deeper and understand the psalmist's mind, mood and situation. Consider: "O that I had wings like a dove: for then would I flee away and be at rest." Is this a cosy image of peace? Or is it a cry of desperation?

    ...which clearly demonstrates why VH is such a masterly Psalm-accompanist. I wish I had thought of that when we did those words a couple of weeks ago.

     

    I dislike chants where each section (whether halves or quarters) consists of semibreve | minim minim | semibreve. I can't deny that they make it easier to point certain psalms like 148, which are very cumbersome with normal chants, but somehow they always seem musically perfunctory to me.

    I beg to disagree. Without this device there are too many syllables to too few notes. For this reason I have also invented a truncated version of the (IMHO unnecessarily extended) Lloyd B flat chant often used for Ps 136 ("...for his mercy endureth for e-e-ver").

    Tales From The Organ Bench

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    I've been asked to give a talk about my time as an organist, and have had a pretty lousy suggestion from the organisers of a title for the speech - which I'm intending to replace before the advertisement goes out. I can think of some better titles but, as we have a good number of creative and witty contributors, just thought I'd ask this board for witty and humourous suggestions, should the Muse descend. The talk will be "warts and all" and will be amusing at times - I hope!

     

    Anybody care to suggest some potential titles, please? :o

    "Seated one day at the organ....."

    Ast Peter's Nottingham

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Interesting comment, DHM. Can you say more about why you think it is unsuccessful? I would have thought the volume of the box was comparable to a speaker cabinet, so while it might not realistically match sixteen feet of timber, it should be at least as good as an electronic bass.

    JC

    John,

    It's only used for the lowest 7 notes of a 32' Bourdon. My comment was merely a personal opinion - I don't happen to like the sound it makes. I'll leave others who are better qualified than I to agree or disagree as to whether it works. I work with another system which IMHO would provide a more (aurally) satisfying solution, but I'll refrain from further comment on that, lest I be censured. B)

    DHM.

    Ast Peter's Nottingham

    in The Organ

    Posted

    I have only played one fully hybrid instrument.

    The one in our friend's church in New Hampshire?

     

    When are we going to start building polyphone and cube 32' basses?

    AJS

    We've got one. I'm not convinced that it works.

    Rev.

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Thanks Graham - one other question which as I am not Anglican I am unsure of the answer. Do archdeacons traditionally wear a pectoral cross?

     

    Peter

    A review in The Times following the first episode described the Archdeacon as the Arch*bishop*. The reviewer obviously doesn't know the difference.

    Funeral Voluntaries

    in The Organ

    Posted

    .....I'm not so very far away from my own...

    I sincerely hope not!

     

    To add to the other suggestions, what about the Howells D flat Rhapsody? I have used that for special services around Remembrance-tide, sometimes following on from the Wilfred Owen poem which ends "... let us sleep now."

    Lichfield appointments

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Curious to know what has happened to Philip Scriven. Has he been appointed elsewhere? His organ playing was of the first order but I did hear rumblings some time ago that the lay vicars were not particularly impressed with his choral direction.

    Quote from press release above: "...following the appointment last May of Philip Scriven as Organist-in-Residence at Cranleigh School in Surrey."

    Lichfield appointments

    in General discussion

    Posted

    The following press release was posted to another list earlier today....

     

    "EMBARGOED UNTIL NOON ON SUNDAY 20 JUNE 2010

    Husband and Wife Team to Direct Lichfield Cathedral Music

     

    The Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral has announced that the Cathedral’s new Director of Music is to be a husband-and-wife team: Ben and Cathy Lamb are thought to be the first married couple to take on this role in an English Cathedral; they will begin their jointly-held post in September, following the appointment last May of Philip Scriven as Organist-in-Residence at Cranleigh School in Surrey.

     

    The selection of Ben and Cathy Lamb marks a shift in emphasis in the Director’s position, in that their appointment is primarily not as organists, but as choral trainers and directors. “I know that, despite its historic pedigree, some in the Cathedral world remain unconvinced by the practice of appointing choir trainers and singers to the Number One job,” said the Precentor, Canon Wealands Bell, “but it is clearly the right thing to do here for a variety of very sound reasons, and we are thrilled that Ben and Cathy have accepted this new and exciting challenge.”

     

    Responsibility for the Cathedral Organ will fall to Martyn Rawles who has, in two-and-a-half years in Lichfield, established himself as a consummate player, noted for his impeccable preparation, extensive knowledge of the repertoire and liturgically-informed improvisation. He therefore steps up from being Sub-Organist and Assistant Director of Music to the post of Cathedral Organist.

     

    The Lambs are no strangers to Lichfield. Cathy has been Assistant Organist here since 2007, while Ben has pursued a freelance musical career, directing his own choirs and getting to know the Lichfield set-up by singing as a Lay Vicar for the past two years. Cathy makes a deep impression on anyone she meets, displaying not only an infectious enthusiasm for music and education, but also an enviable ability to achieve great results as a conductor of young singers. She will therefore continue in her role as Director of Music Outreach, a shared venture in which musicians from Lichfield Cathedral and the Cathedral School will continue to work together to raise the profile of music in our region’s primary schools; she will also continue to direct the prestigious Cathedral School Girls’ Choir.

     

    Ben will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the department, and for the work of the boys’ and men’s choir, where his training and experience in the classroom and his acknowledged expertise as a singing teacher will be invaluable.

     

    Ben has not emerged through the well-trodden route of Organ Scholar – Assistant Organist – Director, but has enjoyed a wide, varied and successful career in a variety of contexts all of which admirably prepare him for the Lichfield task. He began under Richard Seal as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral, where he was later Organ Scholar, a position he also held at Truro. His progress as an organist was interrupted by recurring bouts of tenosynovitis, which he overcame, subsequently reading music at Manchester University where his principal study was piano performance. Here he also gained wide experience of conducting a variety of orchestral and vocal ensembles, a broad foundation on which he has built in more recent years.

     

    Ben has had experience of recruiting and retaining singers in a difficult market-place: he built up and ran the choir of boys and men at St Peter’s, Bournemouth, and it was only Cathy’s appointment here which caused him temporarily to withdraw from pursuing a career as a Cathedral Director of Music: it is no surprise to those who have encountered his work that he was beginning to be shortlisted for Number One posts as they arose.

     

    continued …

    His own Sarum Voices choir has a fine reputation; it has toured across the globe, and its work can be enjoyed through the impressive number of CDs which Ben has recorded, some of them achieving top rating in BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library, beating such international choirs as The Sixteen.

     

    Ben is also a distinguished composer, arranger and editor of performing editions, and music-lovers of the diocese and of the wider Church can no doubt look forward to the commissioning of many fine pieces in the coming years.

     

    The Dean of Lichfield, the Very Revd Adrian Dorber, said that he was delighted with the appointment. “With such an array of talent and experience, Ben Lamb was the obvious choice to join the existing strong team of Cathy Lamb and Martyn Rawles. We can now be supremely confident that the standards set by Philip Scriven, Andy Lumsden and other distinguished Lichfield Organists will not only be maintained. Their work will be built on with great success.”

     

    ENDS"

    Vierne's Six Symphonies

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Just in case anyone doesn't have this set of three CDs, Selections.Com are selling it for £7.99.

     

    It's worth buying a separate set just for the car at that price.

    I heard him do these live at St George's Windsor a few years back (perhaps a "dry run" in preparation for this recording?) - Nos 1 & 2 before lunch, 3 & 4 after lunch, break for tea and Evensong (at which he sang as an alto Lay Clerk) and then 5 & 6. And it was free. Quite a day. (Wasn't over-impressed by the Organ Scholar's playing at Evensong, though.)

    Sidney Sussex College

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Why isn't there, say, a Silbermann copy of the Georgenkirke, Rötha... in one of the Oxbridge chapels - Georgenkircke is a small, intimate building with much wood pannelling, not unlike some of the chapels. How about a reconstruction Sauer somewhere?

    Both of these are easily possible today, and at very little cost.

    Wedding/Funeral fees: Who sets them?

    in General discussion

    Posted

    I vaguely recall having read somewhere that fees for wedding/funerals etc were a matter to be agreed between the parties concerned and the organist, rather than by the Incumbent and PCC - but I may have totally misremembered. There is no reference to this question in the otherwise excellent reference book by Messrs Leach & Williams. Can anyone advise?

     

    Thanks in advance.

     

    Douglas.

    Harris - "The Holy Eucharist"

    in General discussion

    Posted

    According to Paul Trepte's notes… the words are by Douglas J L Bean and, perhaps predictably, Harris wrote it for the Windsor choir.
    Thank you, Malcolm. That much, at least, I knew.

     

    …aren't there some words that go, "Him the holy, Him the strong."
    Thank you, Martin. Yes, there are indeed. But at least they make sense. They are obviously the object of "And I love…"

    Harris - "The Holy Eucharist"

    in General discussion

    Posted

    Please forgive the slightly off-topic post, as the piece in question is unaccompanied, and therefore not strictly organ-related.

     

    I'm trying to get my head round the (to me, at least) weird text of this piece which we sang today ("Him holy, in him abide...").

    I must confess that "Him holy" reminds me of "Me Tarzan, you Jane", or the sort of speech attributed to Red Indians (sorry - Native Americans) in our childhood comic strips.

     

    Does anyone have a translation (into compehensible English) of this text?

    Rheinberger - Passacaglia from No. 8

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Hello,

     

    I use the Schott edition. It follows strictly the original edition published in 1883 and only a few misprints were corrected. Preface in German and English. In my opinion the best edition of the work. And it is cheap (8 €).

     

    Cheers

    tiratutti

    Thank you - that's good to know. It's the edition I have. :)

    Pentecost

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Does anybody here use Christopher Walker's Veni Sancte Spiritus? Peter

    Yes. Have used it a couple of times, including once for an Ordination during the Intercessions.

     

    On a more general point: I feel that music from what used to be called the "St Thomas More Centre" school of composers deserves to be far better known and more widely used than it currently is in the Anglican Church. Fairly simple but mostly effective, it provides a useful halfway house between traditional and happy-clappy, with lots of "ad lib" instrumental parts so that a variety of people can participate at their own level, and A5 congregational parts that can be incorporated into the bulletin.

     

    Douglas.

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