contrabordun

I should have thought, judging from one or two threads we've had in the past, that Axe Grinders would find a readier home round these parts

Depends on your denomination: in the RC church the rubric is rather severe - instruments may be used during Lent only to support congregational singing. However, I doubt this is much observed: 10%* of RC musicians couldn't imagine Lent or Passiontide without Bach and turn a blind eye and in so doing probably compensate for the other 90% of churches without organists† and therefore which don't get voluntaries on any of the Sundays between January and December. *The Book of Made Up Statistics ed Contrabordun, p35 †Ibid p38

Not yet, anyway. But it's an interesting epithet and perhaps has potential.

Ever taken a wrong turning and ended up playing Bob the Builder instead?

I missed the recent Manders Open Day, but when the Forum had its little expedition to Marlborough a number of people commented on how like a local OA outing (but without the committee hassle) it felt. I subscribe to ours and go along occasionally, but frankly, this Forum is fun, informative, allows a daily fix and if I'm going organ crawling I'd rather arrange it privately and get a good long stint playing. So maybe, the local OA faces competition from virtual OAs

Our newborn doesn't seem to mind being held in one hand while the other and the feet work on Trio Sonata No.2. This is just as well, as a c-section takes quite a while to heal, and Mrs CB gets tired easily at the moment. It looks therefore very much as though I shall have to make do with one handed organ practice until she has fully recovered from her operation.

I guess Barry might have a word or two of advice (or you could read his book / website), but you might also try this site http://www.church-organist.co.uk/ a website written by a retired Tax Inspector and Organist for organists with tax problems... I was surprised by what David C wrote about an honorarium being irrelevant for tax purposes - how does that work then?

The RCO have revised the CertRCO with the aim of making it more relevant to its target audience. The pieces are the same and the aural test/written papers more or less so, but the keyboard tests have changed from 2 part transposition + 3 part manuals score reading + [harmonise OR improvise OR figured bass] + sightreading to [2 part transposition OR figured bass] + hymn playing + sightreading the hymn playing is the examiners' choice from 10 set hymns in NEH, candidates play a playover, the first, a middle and the last verse and an improvised* 15/30 second continuation. Syllabus is here http://www.rco.org.uk/pdfs/ExamRegulations08-09.pdf#page=8 Notes are here http://www.rco.org.uk/pdfs/RCONewsAutumn2007.pdf We had an...ahem...rather forthright thread running about the RCO towards the end of last year (in the course of which I had a bit of a rant about the old Cert syllabus) so I think I should say in fairness that this one looks far more worthwhile - and more generally, perhaps this is a positive sign that the College is listening to what its customers are saying and is prepared to accommodate them? Wondered what y'all thought, either those of us at kindergarten level who might sit it or those who teach and might have views about whether they would be more, or less, likely to encourage pupils to sit it? *given that the 10 set hymns are known in advance, I guess one would at the very least have prepared a few ideas for each one.

..and a predecessor of pcnd at Wimborne...

fwiw, the Fugue (only) is currently set for ARCO.

reductio ad toasterum in just 10 posts - is this a record?

I spent the autumn of '04 in NY and went to St Thos most Sunday afternoons for Evensong and organ recital. John Scott had been there for about a month before I arrived, and other members of the (large) congregations frequently commented on how things had improved since he took over. I missed the broadcast, but I should imagine that his then probationers, presumably now fairly senior choristors, who have known no other, are pretty special. My only other memory is that the 'requested amount' to be contributed by regular members of the congregation to support all this was eye watering (several hundred dollars) by UK standards - which goes to show - again - that what people value they pay for and what they pay for they get. Off topic, but the other big NY music culture shock was introducing myself to the Director of the New York University Roman Catholic Chaplaincy Choir as a potential volunteer singer and being auditioned. Oxford Uni RCC wasn't like that...

Agree totally. I've never learnt the Toccata (will get around to it one day but I just don't find it that interesting) but I love the Fugue and probably wouldn't play them together anyway. I think the T overpowers the F.

For what it's worth, a vulgar fraction is what mathematicians call fractions written in the 1/2 form (as opposed to decimal fractions). Not sure why it needs to be made explicit, I've never seen a twelfth labelled as 2.67...

Are we restricted to just the one picture?

Would that it were so easy. What is happening is much more insidious: a determined effort by evangelical secularists to deny the central role of Christianity to this country's history. 'Multiculturalism' is merely a Trojan Horse. In fact, 'other faiths' tend to make it very plain, very frequently, that they have no problem whatsoever with Nativity Plays, Carols, Easter etc etc. Every 'Winterval' news story you read concludes with quote from the representative of the local mosque/temple/synagogue stating that quite categorically. (These Grauniad opinion pieces and some of the comments that follow them - illustrate this rather effectively). http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dave_h...d_the_left.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/st...2205924,00.html http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ac_gra...n_teachers.html

Come on Paul, you've got a much better Star Wars anecdote than that, and I'm sure she doesn't read this board. Shame you registered under your own name though ... Google's a dangerous thing!

There's one on the Grande Orgue but not on the Pédalier at the restored Dom Bedos organ at Ste-Croix Bordeaux. http://www.france-orgue.fr/bordeaux/index....zpg=bdx.org.cpn

Excuse my ignorance but I can't help hoping that at least some of the publicity is a bit more forthcoming about time, date and venue

I've been wondering for a while what the effect would be if one were to do this on one of those live projection screens at a recital. Presumably the musically trained would experience some kind of weird effect from watching an ascending scale while hearing a descending one?

I think these help a lot. I was really disappointed that Bham didn't put one up for TT's recital - for sure I wanted to watch the GTB Paganini Variations as much as I wanted to hear them!

I'm not sure I agree. I always thought "Thine be" was to be understood as the subjunctive ("Let it be so") rather than the indicative form ("It is so"). If I'm right, then I think "Yours be" would be correct.

By behaving as though I believe in X, I encourage others to believe in X also, particularly if I take a leading role in an organisation responsible for the propogation of belief X. Such people may feel betrayed if, some time later, they find I was a subscriber to belief Y. Don't I have a responsibility to make that clear at the time? Where is the integrity here?

No, that's very black and white, which wasn't what I meant to imply, though I suppose my argument comes close to that. I was thinking more about the relative priorities that liturgical/theological/muscial considerations might take. True, but you could use that logic to suggest that the clergy need not believe anything either. Or would you draw a line there? Anyway, in many robed choirs, it is common to conclude practice with the Chorister's prayer. How can one, with integrity, teach and encourage children to entreat an entity which one does not oneself believe to exist, that that entity shall help those children to believe in it? Perhaps I'm saying that if a church wishes to appoint a non-believing O&C, then it creates a whole bunch of other problems, which, while not unmanageable, would not exist were the candidate to be a believer.

Yes, but ... it's not just about music, is it? The hymns and anthems you put down on the music list have words to them, and while musicians aren't normally trained in the theology behind those words, they are responsible for putting them into the mouths of their choirs and congregations. These words will form some part (a great deal, in the case of choristers) of their understanding of the Christian faith. One of the strongest criticisms made of Contemporary Christian songs, perhaps more so in the Catholic church where these things seem to matter more, is that many of their texts ignore or even contradict the church's Eucharistic dogmas. Therefore, some formation in theology and liturgy is required on the part of the people responsible for choosing what to use, in order that they avoid, as the church might see it, leading the people into error. Now you may have no patience with such considerations, but surely it's reasonable for the church to want to. The consequence of that is, I suppose, that it doesn't make much difference whether the Master of the Musicke is a believer or not - just as, in the last analysis, the same thing is true of the individual clergyperson. What matters is what they actually say and do, and whether you think that there's any point singing with the lips - and encouraging others, especially children - to sing with their lips if they themselves don't believe with their hearts.