Choir Man
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Posts posted by Choir Man
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I have just discovered that Klais restored the organ of Maria Himmelfahrt in Niederschönenfeld. This has two keyboards on opposite sides of the case playing at different pitches...
The organ is on a west gallery and which was originally divided and had a parish side and a nuns side. The keyboard on the parish side was used for congregational singing and was at a lower pitch. Whilst the keyboard round the back of the case was used for accompanying the nuns who sang form the gallery at higher pitch. To accommodate the challenges of playing different keys in non-equal temperament there were separate pipes for B flat and E flat to each manual, but the other pipes were shared.
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Richard McVeigh recorded this recital in a deserted Arundel cathedral. His YouTube channel 'Beauty In Sound' has much to listen to as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6BO-mjQJas
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The chuch has two instruments. A French CC-style instrument on the west gallery by Gockel. The greatly enlarged Nelson instrumnet is in the south transept. Both organs are playable from the Nelson console
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Saint Fin Barres Cathedral are posting short Wednesday organ recital videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzD7qMSw3UgIH5R38xI8_9Q/videos
An unique instrument with most of it in a pit to the players left - I wonder what it sounds like at the console?
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My church has successfully used zoom for the last 2 weeks and we love that it allows contribution from anyone and we have even had a number of guests with us from around the country. Various choir members have supported the singing in different ways - piano, viola & cello, unaccompanied. We haven't tried organ yet, but I think Colin has nailed it on the head in saying that the zoom platform is optimised for spoken voice. Steady continuous sounds will get treated as background 'noise' and tend to get filtered out, also auto-levelling will play havoc with your crescendos. My advice is to stick to the piano - so long as your congregation have a tune to follow they'll sing along.
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No audience at St John The Divine, but the recital went ahead anyway.
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Some beautiful playing as well as insight into Mendelssohn.
The Göteborg International Organ Academy have quite a selection of videos that will help while away the hours stuck inside.: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvDSFyfwV3d0Tp6r3xaM17w
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Fortunately my church building, which normally is unlocked in daylight hours, will remain open for private prayer (and organ practice). The rector will be livestreaming morning & evening prayer (said of course) from his study as there is no wifi or strong mobile signal in the church. All choir and other group activities have been suspended until Easter.
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I agree with much of what has been said before. As most of our organs are in churches, a lot hinges on the future of the church. Without getting into a debate about the future of the church I would like to focus on a few practical aspects that make it difficult for the development of new organists and new people that appreciate listening to the organ.
Unfortunately the majority of organs are in churches and many churches are now locked making it difficult for anyone other than the regular organist to get in and play. And when they are open, practice opportunities may be limited with excuses such as ‘this is a place of worship’. On top of this, safeguarding issues add further stumbling blocks making it very difficult in some cases for young people to learn and practice in a church environment.
Having said that, I think the organ (and the church) can still have a future, but this is reliant on all parties (church, clergy, organists & worshipers) wanting to make their building and its resources the centre of their community.
My questions to all fellow forumites are as follows: Other than by having lessons (usually not cheap), how easy is it for someone to get practice time on your usual instruments either on a regular or occasional basis? How do we work together with the owners of our instruments to make the organ accessible for learners as well as well as listeners?
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Saturday 18 April 2020 has been designated National Organ Day. The Royal College of Organists is appealing to every building in the UK which houses an organ to open its doors on that day, allowing people to hear and explore the wealth of organs, large and small, to be found here.
Further info at: https://www.rco.org.uk/NationalOrganDay.php
How will forumites be supporting this?
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Not sure if they've done any concertos but the Scott Brothers Duo have arranged a number of pieces for organ and piano.
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One of the latest videos from the Royal Institution. This is from one of their 1989 Christmas Lectures:
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Worcester only has a single 32ft reed. There are two electronic 32ft flues provided from the digital organ in the nave. The intention is to reintroduce the currently silent 32ft pipes in the Hope Jones case when the nave/transept organ is realised.
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What would you do if you got a cipher on middle C?
Lovely sounds from the St Paul's organ rebuilt by our hosts. Of course there wasn't really a cipher, but I do question the wisdom of sticking a pencil into the keyboard to hold down a note. What happens if the end breaks off and you have a small piece of highly conductive graphite rattling around in the electronics?
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Here's a few more I remembered, just to complete my contribution :
St Andrews, Pump St, Worcester : https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N03286
Sheffield City Hall: https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N01130
King Edward VII School, Sheffield: https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N01124
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St Olave, Hart Street, London https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=A00720
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The Organ Media Foundation tour of St Peter's, Ladue, Minnesota which was built by our hosts.
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Of course our hosts have already built a portable concert organ: https://mander-organs.com/the-flavour-conductor/
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Installation of the new master at Trinity Cambridge. Much hat doffing at first but later in the chapel music by Bach, Park, RVW, Gardiner.
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The college have just posted a new video from the installation of the new master. The attached screen capture shows the discrete square buttons and digital display above the 3rd manual.
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I found some more info (but no specification) at: https://www.svatovitskevarhany.com/
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Updating their website doesn't seem to be one of Grenzing's priorities, from what I can tell there's nothing been added since 2013.
Radio Prague International had an article two days ago about the organ being played in Grenzing's workshop:
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Being the first Sunday of the month yesterday, I was expecting an hour of organ music after Choral Evensong on Radio 3. But not so! Choir and Organ has been shuffled off and replaced with a jazz request programme.
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Actually there are two concerts featuring David Briggs tomorrow:
2pm Poulenc Organ Concerto & Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. Recorded on 25th May at the St David's Cathedral Festival https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008p77
7pm The concert mentioned by handsoff, recorded on 26th May from the same festival. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008p7k
York Minster School to close
in General discussion
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Cathedrals are both tourist attractions and places of worship. Personally I don't have a problem with paying to visit a tourist attraction and, as most cathedrals don't have a separate attraction as Hereford does, a general admission charge is appropriate so long as there is no suggestion of charging to enter for worship or private prayer.