contrabordun

RC Church of Our Lady & St Kenelm, Halesowen Palm Sunday morning: Hosanna to the Son of David - English plainsong setting Responsorial Psalm - Dutson Mass setting - English plainsong Anthem - Hosianna dem Sonne David - Telemann (organ only used for accompanying the hymns during Lent) Maundy Thursday: English plainsong mass setting, + Murray Gloria with organ 'fanfare' [i don't do improvising, so it was actually the last page of Cocker's Tuba Tune!] between the intonation and the Gloria itself. No more organ at all until Saturday night now. Responsorial Psalm - Hodgetts Ubi caritas - plainsong..square notes'n'all Motet - Ave verum - Byrd Pange Lingua Good Friday: Responsorial Psalm - Hodgetts Reproaches - Victoria Christus Factus Est - Cannicciari Easter Vigil (same music @ Easter morning) lots of responsorial psalms Murray Mass setting, with another 'fanfare' after the Gloria intonation, (probably end of Vierne I Final). Stanford - Why Seek Ye H.Smart - Postlude Evening Off to St Paul's Birmingham to play Blessed Be the G&F for Mr Carr (see above). Hopefully this year he won't have to phone Mrs Contrabordun on Easter Monday afternoon to substantiate my account of why I didn't get home until 1.30am...

Well I like it, am usually moved by it and I think most of the really dreadful moments are down to the words rather than the music (eg rhyming "agony sore...more and more", although Stainer must take the rap for the way that "here in abasement" always comes out). Having said that, I only get it a couple of times a decade - I'd tire of doing it annually.

I've seen a reluctance to award the top mark in a few situations, and I think it's just nonsense. All it means is that the exams are, de facto, marked out of 149, not the advertised 150. It doesn't even makes sense in its own terms: an award of 150 does not imply that this Grade 1 recorder player is perfect, but simply that he/she has met the stated criteria for top marks in each of the sections. Given that it seems that the top mark is awardable in each one of the sections individually, what this means is that a candidate's score for one section may depend on how well they'd done in the rest of the exam. Thus a 20/20 Aural performance might only be awarded 18 if that same candidate had happened to ace pieces and the sightreading. How is that logical or useful?

I've often wondered how ecclesiastical Powers That Be manage with all of those other aspects of paying for things, where the supplier gets to name the price. "I'm sorry Mr Plumber, we only pay £25 for a callout" etc

This is very true: I thought it was disgraceful (but sadly not surprising) that the official reaction to the situation involved any kind of "dressing down", however mild!

That's interesting - you'd have thought they'd have supplied something foot-operated for orchestral players to turn the page. I'd be in favour of digital printed music, but I wouldn't want a touchscreen for page turns. I'd want it wired into the console somehow and available on a piston!

Yes, but you could say that about the hymn tune itself

I'll second that recommendation... this sort of thing has got to be worth a few minutes of your time!

No idea mate. Is Colin Sell a member of this board? Maybe he might know.

And Common Praise. It ought to be hymn no 617, but the numbers don't go high enough. A friend, who probably ought to remain nameless, claims to have succumbed on one occasion to the temptation to, er, play an extended organ introduction to this hymn at a very well known London church.

Typical cathedral organ then? (Even if it's technically a parish church).

True, but it's that same law that (let's assume that today there is 30% surplus capacity in the British Organbuilding world) ensures there is not 300% surplus capacity, at which point this advert would be offering national minimum wage (or even, some 'self employed' scam to pay below it).

Does anybody have any experience of using MIDI out/in sockets to record music for later playback through the organ? In my case there is a toaster involved, but I guess many recent pipe organ consoles with electric action will also have MIDI facilities. I'm thinking of two main situations 1 - so I can pre-record the items for a service when I'm on holiday 2 - for accompanied anthems where I really need to be in front of the choir The obvious pitfall is the inflexibility of a pre-recorded accompaniment - is this horrendous, or manageable? What other problems might crop up? What equipment will I need? I've found something on the web with a USB plug at one end and 2 MIDI connectors (presumably in and out?) at the other, so I guess that connects me to a laptop. I assume one can get record/playback software for the laptop? thanks Paul

The triple pedalling looks fearsome on the page, but it's not actually that hard to play, you just need flexible ankles and a decent length of heel. I found other parts of this piece much more challenging to learn, such as some of the manual changes, which I think would be much easier with a French manual layout (GO/Pos/Recit).

Some of us are still more worried about where, not how we put our fingers on the keys

@Organist12345 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbGjBt3X4qk...feature=related It's the youtube comments I liked. Apparently it was tuned in "so-called unequal temperature" An alternative theory suggests that "maybe she didn't tune the organ very good. There is usually a dial on the side". It really is a truly amazing sound.

Looks like Bidder 11 is going to be doing a lot hand-registering practice, if nothing else...

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I once played a piece called Stoccata (also by Vidor). Which I think is actually quite a good title for it.

John Mander is kind enough to provide the forum. If he feels that a contribution may cause him embarrassment in front of his professional colleagues (as he might, if the forum were to become a vehicle for criticism of those colleagues) then that, surely, is enough? But Cynic, don't leave!

Well most of it seems to be coming as a result of Elton John's concert. But since it is public knowledge that the builder is foreign, anybody who contributes does so knowingly and can withhold a donation if they would have preferred a British builder. So by definition, all those contributing to the project do approve of the choice (or, more likely, don't care either way), and if there are enough of them then the instrument will get built. What right has anybody to complain if a few tens of thousands of people decide between them to cough up enough money to build an organ by any firm they like?

Of course it isn't. But that doesn't preclude the possibility that the RAM found a foreign builder more aligned to what they wanted. Anyway, it's their money, their organ. Why should anybody else care what they do with it?

Well, logically, that would also prevent English builders from exporting, there being competent organbuilders in most of the countries of the world where organs are commissioned. I hope you don't drive a French or a German or an American car, or use a Chinese-built PC to browse the Mander forum (itself hosted on servers most likely designed in the US and manufactured in the far east)? IMO, it's up to the customer to decide what he wants and choose the supplier he thinks best able to provide it for the money he's got.

I'm not sure this is strictly correct - the version I heard, from a source I believe would have good access to the facts was that the decision to leave was Hakim's.