DHM
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Posts posted by DHM
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And me too.
Thanks very much.
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Then there were Mr & Mrs Wall and their son, Stone (remembered from a BBC Radio programme).
And a former (3 choirs) organist, whose first name began with D, but who was (is?) commonly known as "Whattock"!
But to keep this on-topic, I don't think I'd need three. I'd settle for just one - Exeter (drool......)
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Regarding playover* speed and rallentando:
A little rallentando does NOT disturb singing in the RIGHT speed (i. e. that of the playover before braking...)
Why?
Like at conducting, the speed of a piece is controlled by the upbeat, the "Avviso" like some say, the beat before the first sounding beat (am lacking better vocabulary...).
Regarding the organ, this upbeat is represented by the GAP between the end of the last note of the playover and the entrance of the hymn.
I used to teach that a rallentando is sometimes bad taste and at most times a functional risk, as some of you have explained.
But having attended many exams and many more services (and played...), I was very curios, why it DID work, even with rallentando or with DIFFERENT SPEED at the playover.
The "power" of the gap was the explanation.
Many of you will agree, that the gap between end of a verse and start of the next should not last a something, but one correct pulse of the music, be it a 1/4 or a 1/2 note. This may optionally result in an extended measure at the end, having a 5/4 or 6/4 final measure in a 4/4 piece.
Although it is right that a concregation is widely free of musical education, there is much musical instinct. I found many congregations who would establish a better rhythm and speed stability than the organist who led them...
*) I hope I got it right as the introduction to a hymn? Never discussed this issues in English...
Guten Morgen, Herr Kropf,
This thread may also be interesting for you...
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I believe that I am correct in stating that a recent predecessor of the present incumbent was the Rev. Michael Tristram* - son of Geoffrey Tristram,
* This may be the Rev. Canon Michael Tristram who is currently a Canon Pastor at Portsmouth Cathedral.
A quick look at Crockford's confirms that it is the same.
He was a Solicitor briefly before ordination.
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With difficulty, I fear. I think you probably have to know Mr Borrow, or "the right people". My copy came in a roundabout way for a particular performance and I was specifically asked to respect the copyright. One should always respect copyright anyway, but in this instance it could be a particularly delicate issue (perhaps). In any case my copy is an electronic file of nearly 12mb so it doesn't really lend itself to dissemination. Sorry this is a bit of a lame reply.
Just noticed this thread and realised that I had somehow missed VH's original post of last year on this topic. I don't think the publisher of Borrow's recently-discovered complete works would object to my quoting from the editorial note to the Evening Service in G:
"Frank Borrow (1898-1996) was Master of the Music at the Priory Church of St Winifred, Little Worth, from the age of 17 until his death. He was a prolific but rather secretive composer, writing his music on the back of old service sheets using invisible ink. The extent of his composition only became apparent following a fire in the vestry shortly after his death, when the warmth of the flames revealed some of the ink at the top of a pile of papers stacked in a corner. These papers were rescued by the churchwardens and were found to contain a large quantity of fine music. The Great Service, from which this Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis is taken, is dedicated to Noah Vale, his great friend and the landlord of his favourite hostelry. Like much of Borrow’s music, it reveals consummate craftsmanship and a musical language that is subtly allusive."
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Really? Doesn't look that much to me.
Nearer 20 ft? http://www.organartmedia.com/Aix-Intro.html. Still, it does look as if there's a bit of height between the player and the pipes so I could believe he would hear some reverberation.He says "10 metres". I prefer proper measurements.
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To be honest, I'm not sure Aix works anyway. When I tried it, it felt as if I were playing from a detached console halfway down the church. Very mushy. Perhaps I shouldn't judge since I've not played the original pipe organ, but I find it hard to believe that this is what the organist hears at the console.
I would need to check the position from which it was recorded before commenting meaningfully on that. One thing I do know, though (because Helmut Maier often points it out), is that the Recit is about 30+ feet above your head.
However, as VH often says, "Your mileage may vary", and people may agree to differ. When we had this at the Frankfurt Fair in March (albeit it an updated version with mutliple release samples), two well-known (in Germany, at least) recitalists - Hans-Dieter Karras and Hector Olivera - couldn't keep their hands off it, and came back several times a day.
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That is, I think, a great shame. I understand that he doesn't want to encourage churches to replace pipe organs with electronics, but we'll hopefully be throwing out our old toaster in favour of a significantly better toaster in the next few years - replacing a Morphy Richards with a Dualit, as it were - and it's disappointing that some of the best samples are not available to us.
Prof Maier likes to regard his sample-sets as "archive documentations".
He recommends that, ideally, they be used with headphones rather than loudspeakers - though others may beg to differ (I WANT the neighbours to hear how excellent these organs are!
). Another problem with using these sets in church would be an acoustic one: they all have their original church acoustic built in to the samples - e.g. 7 seconds at Aix, 4-5 seconds at Vollenhove. This would not work well when played back in a building that is already reverberant (I know - I've made that mistake and learnt from it ). The Silbermanns MIGHT work, as Reinhardtsgrimma and Rotha are much drier buildings. -
For consoles with touch screen units see:
It is a cooperation of a German organ builder and Prof. Maier of organartmedia. He provides the (probably) best samples for Hauptwerk - I own the Italian Callido organ and considered using it for teaching at the Graz University of music (but I have quit there...) to demonstrate characteristics of Italian organs - of course not regarding the action!
But note, that organartmedia samples are strictly forbidden to be used in public performances!
I agree that Helmut Maier produces some of the very best sample-sets - particularly the Vollenhove Bosch-Schnitger and the Aix Cathedral Ducroquet-Cavaille-Coll, which are two of my favourites. But let us also not forget the very fine work done by Brett Milan (Milan Digital Audio), including the Arp Schnitger organ from Cappel and the 1928 E.M. Skinner from Chicago. Having closely compared the Silbermanns from both producers, I have a slight preference for Milan's. Coming later this summer from Brett: Metz Cathedral Cavaille-Coll.
Harald Rapp's custom-built consoles are also very fine, but NOT cheap - the 3-manual starts at around 40,000 Euros.
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I hope you don't mind a "new topic" for this subject - it seems more specific than my previous one on Electronics. I played a Hauptwerk set-up the other day for the first time. Wow! The sound was quite amazing. It was set up in an old console and was only a start - you had to operate the stops using the mouse and all that but it was sufficient to make me want to know more. The thing is, I can't really work out how you take it further. The Crumhorn website doesn't seem to offer a console that you and I would recognise as such. Hoffrichter offer consoles that look more akin to normal but I can't see how they work with a computer and all of that, and the blog attached to it all suggests that they take an age to appear once they're ordered. Masses of other info is on the www but it's in German and whilt I know the occasional word or two of "Chorale Prelude German" that's my limit! Does anyone have an ABC guide on this - a sort of Dummies guide to how to get yourself a decent Hauptwerk set-up? I want something that can be played as much like a normal instrument as possible but with the Hauptwerk benefits. Where can you go to see and hear more? Happy to enter into private messages if needed but open forum may be of interest to others.
Martin.
Martin,
You might find this helpful: www.hoffrichter-organs.co.uk. The site will be updated later today.
Feel free to call me anytime (numbers on the website) if you need more info.
Best wishes,
Douglas.
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VH once word-painted Ps 37, Vs 37 by NOT playing that verse!
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Has anyone else also heard the strong rumour that Stephen Cleobury is the main contender for the St Paul's job? He would undoubtedly be an excellent choice, but given his age I think I would much prefer life in Cambridge.
We here have certainly heard the rumour.
That rumour also had it that the "official" shortlist included one other organist, currently working at a Royal Peculiar, and two singers/choir directors, one currently at a major cathedral outside the UK and the other being the director of an early music vocal ensemble with (allegedly) no experience of directing boys. At least two of those four were said to be no longer on the list.
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This is an invitation (NOT a sales pitch) to anyone who would like to find out more about Hauptwerk, and to see and hear it in action, to visit Hoffrichter UK on Stand R14 in the Surrey Hall at Sandown Racecourse in Esher, Surrey, later this week. The exhibition is open Tuesday to Friday (15-18 May) from 10am to 5pm (4:30pm Friday). We plan to use HW on a portable 3-manual console at the opening ceremony with the Archbishop of Canterbury on Tuesday morning.
Best wishes,
Douglas.
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It is a shame that The Crucifixion has been so influential in shaping our opinion of Stainer. It doesn't help that it has tended to be lumped with Maunder's Olivet to Calvary.
Slightly off-topic, I confess, but mention of Olivet to Calvary reminds me of another cantata by Maunder which I had the misfortune to encounter as a boy chorister in a country church many decades ago: Penitence, Pardon and Peace. FAR, far, worse even than Olivet to Calvary! Did anyone else share my misfortune?
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Not the one you're looking for, I know, but there is (IMHO) a very fine version in Carols for Choirs 3, which doesn't seem to be very much used - I have certainly never heard any others choirs do it. BTW - it only works with the EH/NEH version of the words, not AMR/AMNS.
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I wonder. Whitlock's organ would have been this one, more or less (you have to unpick the changes made in 1935): http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N14286
I really can't see much point of contact between this and the current Mander job.
I have to agree with VH.
Having sung in the choir there for over 30 years I can safely say I know the organ fairly well.
There is a world of difference between the pre- and post-1989 version, and I doubt very much that Percy would recognize it nowadays.
[For more thoughts on the same instrument, see my post of 16 Jan 2007 on this thread:
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Didn't something like that happen at a cathedral north of London a few years ago?
If I remember the rumour correctly, the advisor (who was in between positions at the time), when asked whom he would recommend for the job, said "me". He got it, and stayed until retirement, I think.
Does this ring bells with anyone else?
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Hugh Banton - chorister and organ student at Wakefield Cathedral, organ/keyboard player with Van der Graaf Generator, now one of the best custom-builders of digital organs in the country.
Francis Monkman - studied organ and Harpsichord at Westminster School, later played with Curved Air and Sky.
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Altos should move from Ab to G
A
Thanks, Adrian.
If I might ask, is this just "custom & practice", or is there evidence?
Douglas.
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On the subject of (possible) misprints in Howells, one thing that has always bothered me is in the Nunc of the St Paul's Service - specifically the first chord of the last bar of page 22, where the altos' A flat is tied over, but the organ moves from A flat to G. Did he really mean that, or is one of those two things wrong?
If anyone has inside info about this, and can shed light on it before Sunday's broadcast, that would be much appreciated.
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Does anyone know the story of this visually interesting organ? ... (but I don't speak French so I may have entirely the wrong end of the stick).
Try clicking the Union Jack symbol. There is an English version.
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I’ve just noticed that evensong is coming from Rochester this week. I always look forward to services/recordings from there, as the quality of singing is usually outstanding. I wonder what part DHM will sing? The BBC web site makes no mention if it will be the boys, girls or both singing?
Thanks to Phil T for his kind words. To answer some of his questions:
I think I'm singing Dec Alto. I believe there will be 12 in the back rows rather than the usual 6, the alto section consisting of 3 gentlemen and one "honorary gentleman" [memories of those articles by Bernard Levin - a dog-hater - in The Times years ago, when canines were refered to as"honorary cats"!].
Three of the Cathedral's four choirs will be singing (though 2 members of the 4th choir will be in as deps), so the top line will consist of the boys, girls and senior girls.
On another, related, topic:
Rumour has it that at a certain cathedral from which Evensong was broadcast earlier this year, the men first saw the canticle setting at the BBC rehearsal on the day (don't know when the boys first saw it). Not that I have any problem with this at all - that's what lay-clerking is all about, after all, isn't it? If you've got a regular team of good men who work well together and know what they're doing, that should be fine.
However, at another cathedral, from which Evensong wil be broadcast later this year, not only will the music have been extensively "dry-run", but there will also be two extra full rehearsals totalling 3½ hours before the day.
Which is the better way to go, and which is the more honest representation of what daily Choral Evensong is all about?
I'm not trying to stir up a hornet's nest, just interested to hear the opinions of others who are involved in the same business.
Nearer 20 ft? 
Needed - One Pedalboard
in Nuts and bolts
Posted
Since this point has been made, I hope I won't be accused of hijacking the thread if I also mention that I would be glad to hear from anyone interested in a 3-manual Viscount Grand Opera (48 speaking stops and 32-note r/c pedal) vintage circa 1990-91.
Douglas.
PS: Webmaster, have you ever considered including a "For sale & wanted" section to the board?