Ian Ball

Dear friends Please forgive this piece of blatant self-publicity, but I have recently released a new CD of music on the 18th-century organ of Saint Mary de Lode, Gloucester. Restored by John Budgen in 2004, this is an important part of British organ building heritage and has been superbly captured in this recording by sound engineer (and cathedral organist!) Adrian Lucas. Available HERE Warmest wishes Ian Ball

The nave mics were for the Three Choirs festival only, I suspect. The organ and choirs for the broadcast were mic'd from the Quire. Agree entirely re your comments about the new party horn. A magnificent sound but not overpowering. Particularly beautiful in the tenor register. Best wishes Ian

Not according to Mattheson or Adlung. Ian

Hehe. That's fun, switching between the three Silbermanns (Silbermänner?). To me it demonstrates clearly how potent was Silbermann's influence on twentieth-century organ builders, and still is today, to some extent. These [quint] mixtures ARE designed of polyphony - they are patently not French Plein Jeu sounds made solely for block chords. Given that we are surrounded by neo-classical and post-neo-whatever instruments, crowned with quint mixtures, we should surely feel free to use them in Bach and for extended periods of time, even tho JSB had his own reservations about Silbermann's voicing? We might add the Positive Sesquialtera to the 'organ pleno', but it's never going to add more than a dash of pepper and it will certainly never sound like a Trost! (And how wonderful to see M-CA using heels and - shock horror - the outside of her feet, in the Magnificat prelude in video 4/6) Ian

Elegy - Geoffrey Leeds, closely followed by Elegy, David Bednall

Continuing the transcription thread, here's fun (nice tempo too):

Of course. A German joke is no laughing matter.

Rare and wonderful video of Messiaen at La Trinité available again via YouTube. Split into six clips. Here's the start of his guided tour of the organ.

Daniel Roth's recent recital at Wanamaker's is up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2fHmZhTWtU...feature=related See links to the right for the other works, including improv.

Nah. That never works. The Swell Oboe never comes on early enough. The Pedal 32’ flue won’t be set on anything. Neither will any Open Wood at any pitch. The Great sub unison won’t come on until after the Mixture and that will always be set to come on before the reeds. Great 16, 8, 4 Fonds won't be found anywhere. Neither will you find the immediately useful ‘extremes’ to hand (e.g. Celestes only; Full Great & Pedal). I could go on… Hold a bring'n'buy. Purchase a multi-channel system. Set your in-house stuff somewhere inaccessible and lock it. Then give carte blanche to the visiting organists with precious little time to spare (assuming you’re told they’re coming!). Then arrive early enough on Sunday morning to wind the stool back down, dispose of the bits of torn post-it notes and select channel 666. Or you could do what the RCO used to do and refuse permission for any pistons to be changed… Oh, and never, ever express bewilderment at colours carelessly left behind by visiting organists. You might just find their Celeste/Fagotto combo suits that tricky couple of bars of Wagner, Lemare or Bovet perfectly

Equal temperament was known but abhorred for centuries. Cavaille-Coll's first magnum opus at St Denis was tuned in unequal temperament (and is today). But unequal doesn't mean exclusively meantone; well-tempered doesn't mean equal (tho try telling that to our local organists' association...) This site is worth a browse (wearing a large anorak, obviously): http://www.rollingball.com/TemperamentsFrames.htm It gives examples of no fewer than seven 'Victorian Well' tempered systems. Enjoy

This is a rare and glorious beast. ALL organists must hear van Oortmerssen's Brahms disc on the smaller 1906 Setterquist organ of the Kristine Church, Falun, Sweden. Heart melting and uplifting.

(Visions of Private Walker from Dad's Army, drawing on a Woodbine, asking "Pssst. Wot'you after? Godda laverly silky Salicional here... 'ah'bout a nice Double Open? One careful owner. Out of fashion now of course but still good for a punt...")

New Blancafort organ in Montserrat: several other links on RHS

Just incredible! What technique!! And secure rhythm too (the thing that lets many theatre organists down). This will have me smiling all weekend, even through St John Passion on Sunday...

QUOTE (flûte harmonique @ Dec 29 2009, 05:25 PM) * An other video showing Pierre Cochereau playing the 3rd mvt of Evocation of Dupré in NDP. Sorry for the bad quality due to the old VHS tape. Evocation by Cochereau Hear hear. Superlative. What technique! Quiet neatness + 'lift-it-off-the-page' showmanship.

NPOR out-of-date re Bank St Chapel. It's a fairly complete two manual these days - nothing special - on EP action and in a small room with no acoustic. I recall hearing some good recitals on it as a teenager, but there are more worthy instruments in Bolton, currently rotting.

I couldn't agree more. And I'm one of those too. Ian

For those of you who enjoy toast occasionally: Friday 29 January, Sheffield Cathedral, 1.15 - 2.00 pm Ian Ball (Worcester) on the 2006 Phoenix organ Cochereau/Briggs: Marche des Rois Toccata (from the improvised Suite à la Française sur des themes populaires); Hakim: Aalaiki’ssalaam (Variations on a Lebanese Theme); Howells: Quasi lento, tranquillo (from Organ Sonata No 2); and Duruflé: Prélude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain

Langlais playing St Bavo.

Significantly less than a plumber, plasterer or electrician, I would wager.

Forgive me. I didn't wish to appear unduly pedantic. I am just a little tired of this debate, which is often discussed in over-simplistic terms and has polarised organists and bored audiences for many years. I find the action is only one of a wide range of factors which elicits a particular response from a player. Voicing, acoustic, even temperature and smell can all play a part (just as such factors might affect one's driving when sliding into a classic Jaguar with leather seats and limited power steering); such factors things are interconnected too, such as the interplay between sensation at the fingertips and what one hears through the acoustic, to state the obvious. I grew up in the post-industrial North of England where old romantics vehemently decried 'tracker-backers', whilst the latter dug ever deeper into their entrenched position, extolling mechanical actions at all costs (not to mention the abandonment of wooden pedal stops, swell strings, high pressure reeds etc etc yawn). However, my ears and my experience as a player have taught me that one simply cannot be dogmatic about music and instruments (passionate, yes, but that's different!). I have given some of my 'best' performances on tubular pneumatic and electric actions; some of my worst on uber-sensitive tracker actions AND (before you all jump and say my technique is clearly at fault) vice versa. A good organ, approached by an open-minded and sensitive performer who is willing to learn from the instrument, will yield good performances. As for your example of 'glutinous legato' versus 'crisp articulation', I think that is far more influenced by voicing than action. A chiffy neo-classical organ on direct electric action yields the latter very easily whereas a good mechanical action, controlling nicked pipework voiced to crescendo up through the compass, will give the player power to project well-connected, cantabile lines. At least the pendulum has swung far enough back that it is now no longer a given that the newest concert hall instrument will have mechanical action (or even a second, mechanical console), or that the limitations of a building can now be overcome with the use of a remote action (such as here in Worcester). 25 years ago, such thoughts would have been considered heretical. Best wishes Ian

No. "Better" musicians make for "better" performances

Interesting! Well, laying the bad mistakes aside, I rather like it once the triple invertible counterpoint starts. You can hear the lines sing and connect in a way often missing from many 'modern' performances using détaché touch, sewing machine tempi and quint mixtures. Either way, you simply can't keep Bach's cosmic and determined joy down in this piece! Of course, with that organ in that acoustic, you need some reeds and a stately tempo to make each part clear (see Daniel Roth's liner notes to his St Sulpice Bach disc).

Congratulations, Ben. One of the most beautiful new consoles I've seen in a long time.