DHM

For anyone within easy reach of Rochester next Tuesday, this may be of interest: http://www.rochestercathedral.org/news/doc...ressrelease.pdf

Only one C clef? When some of us were at university 40 years ago our "keyboard tests" lessons in the 1st year included the preparation of one Contrapunctus per week from The Art of Fugue, in open score with three C clefs (soprano, alto and tenor), and score-reading such orchestral things as Lizst's "Les Preludes". And that wasn't Oxbridge. Is there any truth in the (possibly apochryphal) story that many years ago a certain eminent Cambridge DoM said to his Organ Scholar, "We'll do Stanford in G in A flat today"?

It is indeed this one. The quoted post from Orgelforum.de referred to the imminent release of a sample-set of this organ for Hauptwerk - a very welcome addition to the HW stable, from which a large English organ has been sadly lacking up till now. For more info see here: http://www.lavenderaudio.co.uk/oic/

This is an invitation to any list members in the North of England who would like to find out more about Hauptwerk, and try out the new HW consoles from Classic MIDI Works, to visit us on Stand D1d at the Yorkshire Event Centre, Great Yorkshire Showground (just outside Harrogate) on Thursday / Friday / Saturday this week. More info at http://creonline.co.uk/northern08 . Hope to see some of you there. Douglas. www.midi-organs.eu

One often sees references to Ahlborn-Galanti in the States. I *think* I'm right in saying (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) that Ahlborn and Ahlborn-Galanti are not the same firm.

St-Sauveur Cathedral, Aix-en-Provence: north and south side cases, only one side contains pipes.

I'm not aware that any of our current crop of boys was ever in a parish choir before coming to the cathedral, though one or two of the girls might have been. Traditional choirs singing traditional music are becoming more and more of a rarity in our neck of the woods. A certain kind of churchmanship which has little knowledge of, or use for, the kind of music we know and love is in the majority in our diocese and rules the roost at big diocesan services (although - please forgive the blowing of one's own trumpet! - things have improved somewhat since we insisted on working together rather than as "us & them"). But one still despairs sometimes: at a recent meeting to plan music for an ordination, the question arose as to which (congregational) setting of the Gloria to use. "What's the Gloria?" asked one of the music leaders.

Is this David Clegg the same one that ran Makins until retiring a few years ago?

Saw this on another list, and thought it might amuse..... One of the anecdotes about the legendary 'Father' Willis telling an acquaintance how to sell a (pipe) organ goes: "First you find a church willing to pay half. Then you find a donor willing to pay half. Then you find another donor willing to pay half. Then you ensure that the two donors never, ever, meet." Of course, such a thing would never happen, would it??

Must be a modern paraphrase of Psalm 42 with a typo.

Would that be 3 Jan 1981, when there was an incident with Howells Gloucester and a rather portly page-turner.....?

I would respectfully submit that the use of the word "men" in this context was never meant to be gender-specific or exclusive. Unfortunately fewer and fewer people understand that nowadays, and more and more choose to make a big thing of it in the name of "political correctness".

Thanks for the clarification. I stand corrected.

Just one thing to be aware of, to avoid confusion or misunderstanding (and I intend no offence or discourtesy to Wyvern here - I have usually been impressed with the quality of their workmanship): Wyvern's "standard spec" organs are made in Holland by Content, with English samples and a Wyvern badge. Their custom-builds are done using the excellent Phoenix technology (which you would get considerably cheaper by going direct to Phoenix Organs). Their B- and C-Series organs used to be built with Bradford technology. I'm not sure if this is still the case. Douglas.

Slightly (but only very slightly) off-topic - I would heartily recommend the Guild of Church Musicians' Study Guide No C9: "Seriously Silly Hymns" by Anne Kennedy and EH Warrell. It starts by doing a brilliant job of deconstructing "Colours of day", phrase by phrase, line by line, and much more. Worth every penny! And one more to add to Contrabombarde's "How many....?" questions: How many sopranos to change a light bulb? - One. And nine more to stand around crying "Why didn't he pick me?!" (Which reminds me - I've put down Stanford in G for our final Evensong at the end of the month.) Ducking and running for cover..... Douglas.

Sometime last year my choir had to sing at a wedding in the cathedral, booked for 1:00pm, so we rehearsed at 1200. We also had to rehearse again at 2:00pm for Evensong at 3:15. The bride eventually turned up at 1:25, blaming the traffic. Full use was made of the organist's improvisatory skills in the meantime! Whatever the excuse, it left us just half an hour afterwards in which to (1) grab a sandwich and (2) practice Evensong. Fortunately the choir are auditioned sight-readers, but that isn't the point. We should not have been put in that position.

Yes. Rochester and Canterbury sing a joint Evensong every year in alternate venues. Douglas.

Mein Gott, Gustav - wat is denn düt? Plattdütsch??

Congratulations to Scott Farrell (currently DoM at Newcastle Cathedral) on his appointment as DoM at Rochester from August 2008. Roger Sayer will stay as Cathedral Organist after 14 years as DoM. Dan Soper stays as Asst DoM and Director of the Girls Choir. Next year's Organ Scholar is Tamsin Brown, currently Organ Scholar of Carlisle. The Cathedral Special Choir will metamorphose into the new Cathedral Voluntary Choir, and its Director will become an extra part-time member of the Music Department. Next Sunday we will install Neil Thompson (formerly Rector of Limpsfield) as our new Canon Precentor. Douglas. [senior Lay Clerk & Director of the Cathedral Special Choir, Rochester.]

Peter, Suggest you try contacting Roger Sayer at Rochester Cathedral. He and his former Organ Scholar have commissioned arrangements - for organ duet! - of several James Bond themes, with which they are now touring the world. Hope this helps. Douglas.

Paul, If your Hauptwerk set-up is portable, there is an 1874 Debain harmonium available. Check out the "Sample sets" page of www.crumhorn-labs.com and scroll down almost to the bottom. Hope this helps. Douglas.

The AKG K240 Studio Monitor headphones are highly recommended and used by several members of the Hauptwerk community. Frequency range goes down to 15 (fifteen!) Hz. They have been around for decades and are now listed by some suppliers as "discontinued", though they can still be found for under £70.00, e.g. here: http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/fl.../product_id/924 Douglas.

In theory, Yes. HW can be played from anything that has a MIDI-Out connection. The manuals and pedals should certainly work. How much of the rest of it will work with HW depends on the age of your Wyvern and what kind of MIDI messages (if any) are sent by the stops, pistons and swell pedal(s). Drop me a PM if you need more info. Douglas.

Thanks for prompt response. David Wyld has already bagged them.

A colleague of mine (son of Henry Sandon, former Senior Lay Clerk at Worcester) has asked me to post the following. I hope we are not abusing our hosts' hospitality by so doing. Am I correct in thinking that "The Rotunda" was the Willis firm's house magazine? Douglas. "My father has been contacted by the godson of E T Cook (one time Assistant Organist at Worcester under Sir Ivor Atkins and later the first organist of Southwark Cathedral from 1909 to his death in 1953 just before the Coronation).He has four volumes of "The Rotunda" owned by E T Cook. I have no idea if these are interesting or not, although they clearly have some pedigree. I believe the godson merely wishes to find a good home for them, no payment - do you think they would be of interest?"