mgp

-G Thanks for this. You prompted me to dig out the little Falcinelli I have on the shelf. Cor Jesu Sacratissimum - (a chaconne) is quite good - though it looks (and sounds) like Dupre. I agree about the miniatures - they often come across as bad Dupre (eg Cinq Chorals) . It's unfortunate that the one piece of her music that British organists are most likely to own is a very dense (texturally and harmonically) choral prelude (unbarred) which requires stretches of tenths and copious substitutions (in the same O&L volume as the Durufle Prelude a l'Introit). Rather better (though still complex) is her Prelude for Sacre-Coeur (on Adoro Te) in O&L 33 - though what its doing in a book entitled 'Neoclassic Organ' is a different question!

Yes. the solo box is in the west chair case.

Me too mgp

A lay clerk told me that they were at the shortlist stage - two cathedral organists and two singers. No names,no pack drill!

Some time ago a local church advertised for a DoM and the person appointed was a personal friend (and regular musical partner) of both the independent advisor and the parish rep. The guy appointed is v good - but the process was very suspect - did the other applicants waste their time (and play a service for free for nothing?). As one of those I share your feeling of being 'used'. I did consider sending in a bill for the service but decided to open a beer instead and add it to the (longish) list of the downsides of choosing to work in the church!

I suggest candidates do whichever of Harm/FB/Improv they are most likely to use 'for real'. FB is 'safe' but needs fluency which is hard to develop if it is done in a vacuum. I prefer improvisation as its eminently learnable (simple structures and patterns) and re-usable for ever more. I gather that more do FB than the other two but to date all my pupils have chosen Harm or Improv and passed first time... On paperwork the pastiche q's are not hard - if you chose a style you play for real it is quite straightforward to learn how recreate something suitable (and hence how to play it). The composition requires a lot more work to do well. 16c v18c (you know what I'm going to say) If you sing, direct or play 16c (or have done it at Univ) this is not rocket science. Otherwise 18c is probably more familiar and hence easier.

Our FW has black for speaking stops, red for couplers and green for piston couplers. can't say i'm over bothered either way.

Me also if Sept and not w/end of 21st/23rd

Try Ralph Downes' book 'Baroque Tricks - adventures with Organ Builders' and Maurice Forsyth-Grant's 'Twenty-One Years of Organ-Building'. Both are published by Postitif Press.

Couldn't agree more (see also lucasorg's comments earlier). Used well (as discussed earlier) it is a great opportunity for the appraisee to work with the appraiser to agree helpful actions on both sides. Surely we'd all cheer any PCC that wants to do things properly (I assume we don't support the historic amateurism of such bodies) - and the music is often one of the largest expenses and therefore something they do need to get to grips with. True professionals are always interested in ways to improve. There's only three reasons to fear the process: 1. The appraiser isn't up to the job - and I think between us we've identified many strategies to deal with this - again it is wise to sort this out at the beginning rather than a response to an unfortunate 'review'. 2. You can't manage yourself well enough to handle such a conversation - in which case bring a friend and ask that the PCC pay for you to learn how to do so. 3. Its a set up. In which case you're stuffed whatever the rationale as earlier stories show (And yes Nigel, I've sacked a church too!). Re-reading the original preamble I don't see evidence that nf's PCC have a hidden agenda - its much more likely that they are just rather inexperienced in the matter and need some (tactful) direction.

There's quite a lot. Try this list as a starting point. It seems pretty accurate though for some reason all the Chenault Duet Library entries are listed as Vol1. Not listed there but in print (as far as I know) are: Langlais Mosaiques Vols 1 & 3 (each contains a Fantasie for two organs); Litaize Pentecote (Tryptyque for 2 Organs) and Reveyron Anapese (all via UMP). There are two works by Alan Gibbs: Hertford Sonata & Doubles - both published by Bardic. I think he has written more. I'm sure the Chenaults will have a number of m/s arrangments.

Musical Uplift Genius

No problem, my post was ambiguous - old age creeping in. I don't see that any employer has the right to spring surprises of this sort - nor to announce failure to meet some newly declared goal/objective/target at the final review (it happens!) - hence the emphasis on writing it down at the start. And then agreeing how it is to be measured and by whom (Could be great fun!!). Seems to me nf might do worse than ask the PCC what benefits they expect to come from this change, how they are to achieved and how they will measure the value of the extra effort and time involved. Then move on to who would be a competent assessor (ie what skills: personal, musical etc must they have for the assessment to be of real value) and, assuming some improvements will be identified, how that is to be fitted in to the allotted hours (grin) (ie what isn't going to be done or are they going to pay more to cover this etc etc.) If he just keeps asking 'how will?' they should crack eventually and say 'we don't know' - gotcha!

Vox, I was suggesting nf used it to scare the PCC/Churchwarden into realising how much work they/he/she were taking on. Yes its a paper trail but it means no-one can spring a nasty surprise at the final review (which certainly used yo happen in my org and which I've seen many a time in small organisations). If nf's PCC won't sign up to doing it properly then he's got them by the short & curlies.

Hmm, this is difficult. I certainly remember being royally p--d off in my youth when a lad I'd spent 4 years on got whisked into the cathedral choir well over age. And some of the recruiting materials and methods are rather OTT. (I know we have serious limits but we're not quite as 'noddy' as is implied - or said!). On the other hand there were parents who really coudn't afford the fees and needed the scholarship and so put their sons into our choir in hope of a later 'promotion'. This also put pressure on the kids. One poor lad was put in for auditions over and over again. He had a nice, but small, voice and so wasn't deemed 'suitable'. By the time his parents gave up he had absolutely no self confidence and hated singing. No solutions I'm afraid; and from the cathedrals' standpoint highly problematical as they too have difficulties in recruiting sufficient singers.

If the Churchwarden is going to appraise your performance in the way my ex-company did it then he/she will have to do the following AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1 Agree a detailed job description with competencies, hours etc etc 2 Agree a training plan (and budget) 3 Agree objectives for the year 4 Agree what support (time of for study etc etc) they will provide in helping you achieve this 5 Agree the dependencies that they have to deliver to make this possible and who is accountable for the delivery. Then every three months or so the pair of you would need to meet and agree on progress - including how they are doing in supporting/developing you and adjust the plan. Then when you meet formally at the end of the year its just a case of noting what you both already know. There's a lot of useful stuff on all this at the Investors in People website. Done properly it can be of great value - but of course we spent a lot of time and money training people in how to assess and in how to be assessed (and weeding out those who couldn't assess fairly). Without this it runs the risk of being a completely unstructured, unfair, rambling retrospective 'whinge' and I'm sure your PCC wouldn't want that!!!!

As (IX) is by far the longest, the most complex, and with the most ingenious substructure (Crudely 4:2:1) I'd guess that it earnt the nickname. There's more analysis in Cunningham if it is of interest. I particularly like the two Chromatic Fantasias (XIV:4 and 5) I think the octave was a little narrower Certainly old french keyboards are.

I've the 3rd edition (2001) ed Alan Brown (Only available in hardback at an eye-watering £75). He has removed the ascriptions to Tallis. His preface refers to the discussion in Oliver Neighbour's 'Consort & Keyboard Music of Byrd' p105n 'The harmonic style suggests a somewhat younger man'. PM me if you would like copies of the relevant bits of either/both. I'm dubious about settings like Jam lucis (45) - it just looks too much like Redford to me. Walker Cunningham, in his thesis on Bull's keyboard music, is doubtful: 'If Bull did write these pieces, ..he was under influence of Tallis's soberer style .. and, to a certain extent, Blitheman......It is easier to imagine Bull taking copies of older liturgical settings with him to the Continent....than to to see why he would have chosen to compose for an extinct rite and in so uncharacteristic a style.' (p180) There a complete version of Salve Regina on p 160 of 3rd edition taken from Processionale, ritibus Romanae.... (Antwerp 1602) again PM for a copy

I understand the St P's organ is used for up to sixty hours a week - if it averages 30/week it would have been used for more hours than most instruments clock up in 100 years. I'm also interested in the humidty changes - how low did it get??

I quite agree - the accompaniments matter far more - though when people discuss broadcasts of Choral Evensong the playing usually only gets mentioned in terms of the voluntary. I certainly spend more time on the choral stuff and have, occasionally, changed a voluntary because there wasn't sufficient preparation time left. There are Piano Accompaniment diplomas (bring your own soloists usually) and there are Post Graduate courses on this eg at the RAM. It would be possible to do an Organ Accompaniment diploma (logistically nearly the same as providing a suitable choir for DipCHD). Of couse one might argue the CertRCO/ARCO should be re-aligned in this direction too (less 2-part transposing, more hymn/chant playing) but that's ground we've been over before.

I agree they're not easy and there are some real distribution challenges (eg bar 12, bar 20 etc) but I don't see them as being in the same league as Widor, Reubke, Demessieux etc for sustained technical and musical challenges. I must say I found no 5 more demanding to learn - probably depends on how fast one makes 'lively' (and how quickly your pedal dept speaks or doesn't in my case!). I'll certainly try and hear Finotti - roughly what metronome mark does he set no 2 at? My score times me at 5' ie about crotchet 104 - rather faster than the three recordings I have (Judd 6' 10"; Bowyer 5' 57"; Innig 5' 14"). Do you play them all? I learnt the lot for a recital last year and have only really kept 2,3 & 5 alive.

When I talked about these with Saxon Aldred (Compton apprentice c 1955) he always referred to the PolpPHONE as a PENTatone - I gather that originally they were made to provide 5 notes each - not sure of the logic of this or when it changed

My ex-employer used to connect all we 'roving' staff via a variety of wierd technical means and we always ended up with secure access to all 'internal' services. On the other hand, there may be an obstacle for licensing reasons. Some licences require lists of named users (obviously unaffordable) but quite a few work on the basis of an upper limit of 'simultaneous users' - which could work. I'll ask a contact in the journals indexing world to see what the usual deal is

If you don't know them try to hear the Trois Danses,Op 6 - very lush orchestrations and a fat Saxophone solo in the second. BTW what does it say that we started with P Glass and have got to M Durufle - a minimalist composer in a different sense (number of works)!

To quote from Ian Bell in JBIOS 23 p 61/2 'The cubes ... are not to be confused with the later polyphones - often described quite wrongly as Compton 32' cubes. The real cube worked on the ocarina principle. A sealed plywood or blockboard box was made...which produced the lowest note required. A sucession of holes , spaced out on the oopposite side [to the mouth] were opened one after the other to raise thepitch a semitone at a time. Each cube would produce five or six notes..32' E was usually the lowest note attempted, needing a cube just over 4' square.' According to the article there were 16' versions colloquially known as 'tea-chest Bourdons' and the cube was abandoned once the polyphone was perfected circa 1932. Theres a photo of a stack of cubes on page 62