DHM

Probably the best-known of the very few pieces needing a top F# is the Duruflé Veni Creator Variations, one of which has a Pedal 4ft Flute solo. I don't know the compass required for the Thalben-Ball Pedal Variations, but I'm quite sure somebody else will.

I just heard news of the passing of Lucian Nethsingha, Cathedral Organist at Exeter, 1973-1999. RIP.

And what's wrong with Country & Western music? 🤣 [Ducking and running for cover....]

Church musicians (at least on this side of the Pond) are rarely well-paid. My first appointment, as "Pupil Assistant Organist" as a teenager in 1963, paid the princely sum of £15.0.0 per annum - less the cost of organ lessons!

Not any more, it doesn't - not since v.5 arrived almost a year ago. For anyone wishing to find out more, my post of 15th September here might be helpful: https://www.houndscroft.co.uk/organ-forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40&start=10

“Ora labora” is awesome. With the text of “Come, labour on” it’s a real tear-jerker - in the very best sense of the word. Its in New English Praise (as is “Corvedale”), and has a fine descant added by Simon Lindley. For the last few years this has been a firm fixture for our final Evensong of the choir year. (“Servant[s], well done!”)

Rochester's Ordination will be live-streamed on Facebook this Saturday, 26th September. https://www.facebook.com/CofERochester

Were you on that trip too?? I certainly remember being there and hearing (all about) the organ - e.g. how the Lord of the Manor's son had allegedly donated it during his final year at Oxford.

Wakefield is advertising for an Assistant Organist (temporary, one year). The former Assistant is now apparently Acting DoM.

Apologies if I misunderstood something. I'm definitely in favour of moving to a *free* forum hoster if someone is willing to administer and moderate it. My question about contributing to costs applied only to the costs of migration with transfer of current content - not contributing to a paid-for forum.

Thanks, Stephen. I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping that (a) this much-valued Forum might be able to continue, albeit probably under another name, and (b) that all the current content could somehow be migrated. There is so much useful knowledge and interesting comment accumulated over so many years, and it would be a real shame to see all that irretrievably lost. How many members do we have, and how many of us would be willing to contribute a share of the kind of costs that Stephen has suggested?

Do we have any estimate of costs for transferring all the current content to another home (e.g. a free phpBB)?

There are threads on this topic on various social media group pages. Some see it as a necessary and positive step. However another group post includes the text of a letter from a long-standing chorister parent to the Editor of the Church Times, which puts a rather different complexion on it, quoting lamentable mismanagement and appalling failure of communication. [For the record, I have no first-hand knowledge of the situation. I’m merely quoting what I have seen.]

That is correct: JT is no longer there. This was confirmed to me by a former colleague who was JT’s ADoM. But the reason is not known (to either of us).

Thanks - Much appreciated.

As "Churchill" (the insurance dog) would say: OOHHH, YASSSS!! The Chorzempa version was awesome. A shame that neither YouTube page named the organ used, though I'm guessing that Chorzempa must have been playing a C-C. It just sounded right. [As a slightly off-topic aside, I was interested to see that two of the technicians named on Hurford's recording - both acknowledged experts in their field - are customers of mine. It was a very humbling experience a couple of years ago when they asked me for advice about audio gear for their home organs.]

A very interesting and stimulating discussion so far, covering a wide range of opinions on several (more or less) related topics. So, if I might be permitted to digress a little further..... Choral Evensong is alive and well in Mainland Europe - particularly in Germany and Holland. Many board members will probably already be aware of the increasing interest in, and enthusiasm for, English choral music over there. This led to an unusual invitation last year: I was asked to lead an "Evensong Project Week" in a large Cistercian Abbey church in Germany where the monastic community had recently been dissolved. The Titular Organist of the Abbey (an ardent Anglophile) had been taught by his predecessor - an Anglican priest who had once been Assistant Organist at Exeter. What they wanted - and what an ad hoc bunch of experienced English cathedral musicians gave them - was a whole week of unadulterated Anglican Choral Evensong; except for the readings and intercessions every thing was auf Englisch. They loved it, and want it repeated this summer. They were incredibly hospitable - not least at Sunday Mass on our last day, when the Guestmaster (the one remaining monk, now 86) offered us Communion in both kinds. We felt very privileged to be allowed to, as it were, deputise for the now-absent community of monks at their daily Offices (though thankful that it wasn't every 3 hours through the night). An added bonus (which made life so much easier) was that the organ isn't half a mile away on the west end gallery, but in the chancel, behind the south quire stalls. https://klais.de/m.php?sid=94

Others will please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the ADoM at Kings is primarily responsible for Kings Voices (the mixed-voice voluntary choir that sings on Mondays).

Having just downloaded and played through this Prelude, I'm left with the feeling that it must surely be a juvenile work, as well as being quite "un-organistic" in places. I can't believe this is a mature work of a serious composer.

Then your task was much easier than that of a former Oxbridge organ scholar. The story may be apocryphal, but is alleged to be true. I have heard names and locations quoted. DoM to Organ Scholar at pre-Evensong rehearsal: "We'll do Stanford in G in A flat today, please, Mr X." 🤣

That may well be the case. But if it were, one might have expected something to be said quietly on his behalf, so that the rest of us don't make the same complaint every year.

A knighthood for Stephen Cleobury. No sign of anything yet for Francis Jackson...

Is this a reference to the composer of the Liverpool Oratorio?

Francesca Massey, currently Sub-Organist at Durham, to be Director of Music & Organist at Rochester from September 2019.

I know we're not supposed to mention such things here, but since the subject has already been raised above (by VH and RW), it should be noted that the BBC already have a HW instrument at Media City, Salford, for use (inter alia) for the Daily Service, since they stopped using a nearby church for that. And it's movable between studios.