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contrabordun

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Posts posted by contrabordun

    After Grade 8..

    in General discussion

    Posted

    many spend a lot more of their time accompanying hymns, psalms, canticles and anthems
    and I, for one, actually enjoy it more than playing voluntaries. Most other musicians do most of their playing in groups - I enjoy the aspect of making music with other people.

    Worcester Cathedral

    in The Organ

    Posted

    Look, I'm sick of this, and I know others are too. Adrian Lucas has answered reasonable and courteous questions with good grace and patience. In his place I would long since have tired of repeating the same things in a forum, which, when all's said and done, represents nobody except its two dozen or so regular participants.

     

    Delvin, if you don't like what's been done - and if you have any evidence for the more upleasant things you have been implying - the proper address for your complaints is the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral, under whose authority the work is done and with whom the responsibility rests.

    What The ....?

    in General discussion

    Posted

    I have a hoodie (but no ASBO)

     

    The mind wanders...

     

    ARCO: A Reasonably Competent Organist

    ASBO: A Stunningly Bad Organist

     

    Do you suppose Ede & Ravenscroft would stock the appropriate hood(ie) for ASBO? Presumably the lining is Burberry?

    Political Correctness, Music, And Conscience

    in General discussion

    Posted

    because the pacifist and egalitarian ideas we fondly hold today would have been considered very odd 100 years ago

    and may well seem positively bizzare in another 100 years or so - so let's just get on and enjoy the music, although...if a composer has been firmly associated with a movement that caused suffering to people still alive or near descendents, maybe we should be just a bit aware of that

    New Oxford Aubertin

    in Nuts and bolts

    Posted

    Interesting argument. Probably strongest in the case of the original builder: I agree that M.Aubertin has the absolute right to build his organs any damn way he likes: he is also responsible for finding customers for them. However, when you're talking about an instrument that has been built, altered to suit different needs and is now being re-altered back to an earlier period: well I'm not so sure that the third builder has such a strong claim to responsibility for setting the working parameters.

     

    Anyway, I think if I were paying - or even playing - I might beg to differ with both the original builder and the rebuilder! Which brings us back to familiar territory: the tension between the liturgical demands the organ has to fulfil, the repertoire that the titulaire might want to be able to play, the desire to preserve - or return to - what has been handed down to us and thereby respect the artistic vision of its creator...and the budget.

    Arthur Willis Transcriptions Of 'the Planets'

    in The Organ

    Posted

    However, my technique in my mid 40s is now much better than it was 20 or even 10 years ago, largely because with maturity I have imposed higher standards on myself and will not let myself get away with simply getting through a piece.

     

    All is not lost !

     

    Good to hear somebody say that - I can cope with the knowledge that there are superstar youngsters out there who weren't even born when I was struggling with the 8 Short, (and good luck to them, and I look forward to hearing them perform in the years ahead), but I do like to console (no pun intended) myself with the thought that each year I play better at the end than I do at the beginning

     

    Paul (aged 37 3/4)

    Be Careful What You Say!

    in General discussion

    Posted

    The big difference - and I'm involved in running a volunteer-staffed organisation also, a theatre in this case - is (IMO) that whereas, when you, as a management, are paying people (and I mean a proper hourly rate, not an honorarium that might cover the travel expenses), then in the last analysis, you have the right to require that they not say, or do, x or y, regardless of whether x or y are beneficial or damaging to the organisation, or even merely inconvenient or embarassing to the management thereof. However, if people are contributing of their time voluntarily, then (again IMO) they are entitled to say or do exactly as they like up to the point where they are damaging the organisation (as opposed to embarassing its management, which is a completely different thing, although there is a temptation for a management to regard the two as one).

    The World's Worst Hymns

    in General discussion

    Posted

    that they know that I will wait

    Yes, this is important - and it works both ways - the celebrant has to know that the organist knows that it's time to wrap it up, and will do so without leaving him/her standing like a lemon for five minutes.

     

    I recently had this problem with a deputising priest and a introit hymn. They were all 'in' and he wanted to end it with the verse we were singing, a fact of which I, eyes glued to the mirror of an en fenetre console in a west gallery, was well aware. But how to let him know that I knew? By the end of the verse he was waving vigorously and making dramatic throat cutting gestures from the chancel...

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