Choir Man

Surely the depth of the bottom shelf on which the book stands should also be taken into account. The problem with my home instrument is that this is quite shallow and a hymn book overhangs the front of the shelf, particularly when open near the front or the back. So although the backward slant is fine for keeping most music in place the hymn book still falls off . In my world the bottom of the music desk should be deep enough to hold a hymn book with some other piece of music behind.

It's a lovely little organ with some unique features including regals with wooden resonators and grotesque masks with animated jaws and eys. The organ has its own website which francophones can enjoy https://orguestsavin.wordpress.com/ Pirre-Francois Dub Attenti has posted many fine YouTube videos, he's actually a lawyer and plays organ as a hobby, regularly assisting as a registrant at St Sulpice. There's a video of him playing on Vimeo

Listening to BBC R3's The Choir after Choral Evensong last night, I was interested to hear that the programme has been renamed and is now Choir And Organ. The first Sunday of every month will be dedicated to the organ and its music and I'm looking forward to listening in two weeks time to see what they have in store. It's about time R3 had a programme dedicated to the organ, even if it is only once a month. (Apologies to Nigel Ogden, a late night programme about theatre instruments doesn't count in my book)

One of our local priests has a dog that accompanies hime everywhere, including to services where he sits quietly at the back. Our church also used to have a cat that particularly enjoyed the organ, often sitting on the organ bench next to the organist as well as exploring inside. On one (in)famous occasion she jumped on to the manuals during the final hymn just after full swell had been engaged.

The whole of Gert van Hoef's concert from Victoria Hall, Hanley is now online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvbLO9fnSoU

According to the klais webiste: "the concept of the choir organ is far from the traditional structure of an organ. Rather, the entire pipework should be considered as a sound pool that can be fully managed by the Generale Console. So each sound can be assigned to each of the seven keyboards of the new console. Besides a wide range of warm foundation stops almost all harmonics within the octave will be individually available. Thus sounds can be assembled which are hitherto unheard of."

The situation has mad the Telegraph and has attrached comment by John Rutter. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/14/proms-conductor-row-musicians-church-bans-non-religious-concerts/

Ashley Wagner is no longer organ scholar at St Sepulchres, so I doubt that the website is as up to date as it might have us believe. Ashley left that position last year when he moved to Birmingham where he is studying at Birmingham Conservatoire and is also organ scholar at Birmingham Cathedral. NB the organ came up in a discussion last year. I'm not sure what its current condition is, but if restoration is needed this would now seem unlikely. http://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/4122-most-bizarre-specifications/?p=70955 Sad footnote: I learnt recently that the church where I grew up, spending many years in the choir and falling in love with the organ, got taken over by the happy clappy brigade. The organ is no longer present and is replaced by a projector screen and a baptistry has been dug where the choir stalls once stood.

According to the parish website: "The 12.15pm mass makes use of the beautiful organ - one of the finest instruments in England to create a very special service." D.

I'm a big fan of the BBC iPlayer Radio app which I have on my phone. As well as live streaming you can download programmes and listen to them later when you are off-line. I find this useful for catching up on programmes in the car (with the phone connected to the car's audio system) and am very pleased with the quality of the sound. For example, yesterday I listened to the Easter Day Evensong from Norwich and the the final voluntary was Mulet's Carillon Sortie in which the pedal Bass Trombone was clearly defined with the gravitas that one would expect from this stop and at the other end of the sound spectrum the Cymbelstern was also clearly audible.

Not too serious for Classic FM though. They are broadcasting its as part of their 25th birthday celebrations on Friday, April 7, from 8pm to 10pm. (The concert was recorded on Saturday, February 25.)

More info on the organ from the Elbphilharmonie website: https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/worldwide/the-elbphilharmonie-organ/4

The Grand Opening concert is being streamed live: https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/worldwide

There's a YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAi6yDxXWl0

My evening tomorrow: School carol concert at 5pm, followed at 7pm by carol singing round the village by the church choir, followed at 9pm by further carol singing in the pub by the local ecumenical group. I agree with Contrebombarde's point, that outside of church (and possibly school, depending on your type of school) you rarely hear a traditional carol nowadays about the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. But rather one hears the modern pop themes of sentimentality, snow, sleighbells etc. Unfortunately the Sally Army haven't visited my neck of the woods this year, hearing them playing Christmas Carols is always something that stirs my heart. I also agree with SL that musical literacy and musical repertoire are two different things. Just because someone hasn't played O Little Town Of Bethlehem before doesn't make them musically illiterate. In the same way I have never read Pride And Prejudice but that doesn't make me illiterate.

Whilst in Paris, the titulaires at St Eustache give a tour of their instrument. (with subtitles for the non-francophones) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeswROIeIM

A splendid little chamber organ from the Blenheim Palace estate is up for sale on ebay. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Theodore-Bates-Chamber-Organ-c-1845-6-stops-/162252890341 I'd buy it myself if space and wife permitted, but sadly not. I hope it finds a good home.

Back to the UK, and here is an (almost) hour long demonstration of the Harrison organ in All Saints Tooting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jV9KD0fyU

The re-opening recital and the first evensong with the restored instrument are now available as webcasts on the King's site. http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/listen/webcasts.html

https://www.facebook.com/events/330323727313950/ Internationally-renowned organist Nathan Laube plays the first public recital on the King's College organ since its major restoration. This performance will be audio live-streamed at www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/listen/webcasts.html Programme: Introduction, Passacaglia, and Fugue – Healey Willan (1880-1968) Rhapsody, Op. 17, No. 1 – Herbert Howells (1892-1983) Pastorale pour Orgue Jean Jules Aimable Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954) Phantasia und Fuge, S. 259 – Franz Liszt (1811-1886) - über den Choral “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” - aus dem Oper “Der Prophet” von Meyerbeer

Some fine young organists playing at the recent 'Young Talents' recital at Nancy Cathedral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRxV0X7XNJM Sorry I haven't worked out how to embed videos yet.

Southwark Cathedral have launched a fundraising drive to support the restoration of the TC Lewis organ. http://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/fundraising/organ Interestingly, the video on the fundraising page is by Bompas & Parr who were the collaborators with our hosts on the Flavour Conductor. http://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/4049-flavour-conductor/

Some latest updates from King's: The largest one manual organ in Cambridge: https://youtu.be/LXtvbsEycvo How the organ sounded before tuning and voicing: https://youtu.be/J2buKb-N-sw I was in King's on Saturday and saw the voicing console. I managed to convince my dad for a short period of time that the organ had been replaced by an electronic instrument built in one of the college dorms...

There's a recording of Jupiter from The Planets on YouTube. According to the credits this was played as a duet by Tom Etheridge and Richard Gowers, the organ scholars, after the final evensong before the organ was dismantled. Therefore probably the last ever recording of the instrument as it was at the end of 2015. It will be interesting to compare with the upgraded version later in the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeNgckY1NtI Harrisons are continuing to post further photos of the work on their website.