DHM

Did my ears - or my memory - deceive me? I thought I heard a D instead of the E flat quaver in the 2nd bar of this. Douglas.

An extra fee for such a rehearsal would be the norm in the States (as frequent discussions on other lists have shown). Douglas.

I remember Paul Hale playing that piece on the large Copeman Hart hire organ at Rochester c.20 years ago (while the pipe organ was being rebuilt by our hosts). He just used the Harpsichord stop!

The new Assistant at Ripon will be Edmund Aldhouse, who was Assistant at Rochester until Summer 2006 and has been studying in Paris since then. He is a fine player and choir-trainer, and an outstanding improviser in a variety of styles to match the scheduled music of the day. Ripon have a treat in store. Douglas.

Didin't know about that one, though I once went out with a 6th-former from there. There was also a small (2-manual?) pipe organ in what was then known as the Girls' Technical School (Wombwell Hall) in Gravesend. NPOR doesn't mention this. The school is no more, and I haven't seen or heard of the organ since some of us from the Boys' Grammar School went to "bump up" the girls' school choir for their annual St Matthew Passion performances in the 1960s (and how many state schools do that nowadays?!). Dover Boys' Grammar School has one: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=E01435, and I also heard a rumour of one at Maidstone Boys' Grammar School, though I can't confirm this, and NPOR doesn't have it listed.

To answer the original question: at the Cathedral the fees for weddings and funerals are the same as for any other "extra" service, i.e. £125 each for the duty organist and choir director, doubled if recorded. At the crematorium where I play, it's £34, however much or how little one plays (usually a hymn or two, occasionally also a short prelude and/or postlude).

I stand corrected. Cynic is right, of course - it is St Paul's, Onslow Square, now under the auspices of HTB. Apologies for the confusion.

If anyone has a copy to hand (sorry, I don't at present) of the 1982 Hymnal of the Episcopal Church of the USA, there are several congregatgional settings of the Eucharist at the back end of the book, some modern, some less so (including IIRC Oldroyd's Mass of the Quiet Hour!).

The organ of Holy Trinity, Brompton is being offered on eBay with a starting price of £10.00. See here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=180302545476 NPOR listing here: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N14959

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.