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LOL - now that brought back memories! I remember, as a young boy, going to bed with my candle. We had no electricity in the house and a coal fire range for cooking. There was no mains sewage and water came from a well. This was in a remote part of the East Riding of Yorkshire. Before that I lived on the island of Eigg - with similar, and in some cases even more primitive, domestic provision! And today I live in a hamlet in S.W. of France - I do have mains water but there is a deep well in the middle of the house!!!

Church Times - 19/02/21 Director of Music - Bangor Cathdral ............................... and there are eight full time posts within the RC Diocese of Leeds a) Four Choral Directors b) Two Keyboard Tutors c) Assistant Director of the Schools Singing Programme d) Assistant Director of the Keyboard Studies Programme The Leeds posts have been advertised for a couple of weeks - closing date is 22/02/21

See in 'Nuts and Bolts' the thread, started by Martin Cooke on the rebuild of Wimborne Minster organ and there are links to pictures on facebook of the dismantling of the organ.

Church Times - 12/02/21 Director of Music - Ripon Cathedral Director of Music | Ripon Cathedral

Thank you SomeChap for resurrecting this thread. One of the advantages of retirement is that my time is my own and I have just spent a wonderful couple of hours looking through this thread. Without wishing to detract from other contributors to the thread it has to be said that the late David Drinkell's encyclopaedic knowledge is staggering - and, and I speak personally, is much missed on this forum.

I'd forgotten about the Dubois 'Marche des Rois Mages'. Henry Fairs played it after High Mass in St. Chad's Cathedral on the Feast of the Epiphany one year. You could almost see the camels!!!! Organ Music - Andrea Berti plays Dubois: Marche des Rois Mages.wmv - YouTube I liked the comment that went with this, not very good, performance: When this piece was first performed at Madeleine Church in Paris by Dubois, the organ builder of the organ of that church, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, was present. When he heard the "star of bethlehem", he did not realize that it was part of the music, then went into the organ case during concert to remove what he thought to be an awkward trouble. After the concert, a mountain of curse fell onto the poor Cavaillé-Coll. Source: CD "La Madeleine et ses Organistes", by Francois-Henri Houbart.

I've seen it done with a pencil - stuck in the back of the key! ............. and isn't there a piece by Tim Souster that involves a small block of wood high up on one of the manuals? And then, of course, there is Ligeti - but that's smething different!

I liked the comment further down the 'twitter' page from Paul Spicer. "I think one of the things I have missed as much as anything over the last eight months is singing hymns. They can be one of the most powerful musical experiences. A great building, empathetic organist, great tune and a congregation throwing their hearts and souls into it." Here, here! I love a 'good hymn' and, living in the South West of France, I never hear one. Every so often I feel the urge to go to the organ and play 'Leoni', or 'Song I', or that simple little Lenten tune 'St. Philip' or one of the most beautiful hymn tunes I know, Gordon Slater's 'Bilsdale'! What a wonderful and enviable tradition.

LOL - I remember, years ago, sitting watching 'Becket' - the Richard Burton/Peter O'Toole version. Mary Berry was staying with us. The monks in the film started to sing some plainsong and Dr. Mary almost jumped out of her chair "That wasn't written until about 1250" (or whatever!), she exclaimed. It was an epic moment!

A common disease amongst church choirs!!

Church Times - today 29/01/21 Director of Music - Wakefield Cathedral "At Wakefield, we believe that the Anglican choral tradition is a distinctive gift, which the cathedral offers first to God and then to the wider community."

We used 'Songs of Praise' at school. E was commonplace - and F not that unusual (St. Gall, Shanghai, Vruechten, Londonderry, immediately come to mind)

I don't have much experience of the US but, from what I have seen , it seems rare for a congregation to join in. I've often seen services/Masses with a Cantor at the front, singing through a microphone, a choir in a back gallery and, in between an almost mute congregation. Having said that I'm sure it isn't like that everywhere and my experiences may very well be coloured by RC liturgies although, before the virus, I regularly watched Washington National Cathedral where the congregation seemed happy to leave it to the choir (on the Chancel steps!). I only listened to two of the hymns 'The strife is o'er' and 'Jesus Christ is risen today' - I didn't think they were unduly high but remember that this was 1929. The tessitura was higher in those days . Even in the 1950's/60's, at school, we sang hymns encompassing a top E or even an F!!!! Interesting video though!

Here is an obituary for Kevin Mayhew. Kevin Mayhew - A Tribute | ICN (indcatholicnews.com) I have to say that I don't, and I suspect there will be a good number of others on here, share, entirely, the same views as the writer of the obituary. 'Peace perfect peace' and 'I watch the sunrise' would belong, in my opinion, to what VW called his 'Chamber of horrors' and I shuddered, when being given the hymns to play the organ for a school Mass, seeing them both appear - along with 'In bread we bring you, Lord', 'Go the Mass is ended' and other such gems!!! I think that he, and some of his other publishers & writers, did irreparable harm to Catholic Church Music in the 1960's and 70's - from which, in some places, it has never really recovered. Conversely, later in his life I thought he made a real contribution to bringing music of quality by composers of today into the hands of church musicians - and all at a reasonable price!!!

I see Lichfield and Blackburn cathedrals are also being used for Covid - 19 immunisations centres.

Really!! How do you know this? Or is it, yet another, case of the superior organist looking down his nose at the general public!! No wonder organists have such a bad reputation!!!!

I couldn't agree more!!!! (continued the next morning!) I remember an article quite some years ago, written by Lionel Dakers. He had been staying with an organist (?) and, during the stay he had perused his host's CD collection. He found it unusual enough to comment about it. Alongside standard repertoire (all the B's & S's!) there were works by Stockhausen, Boulez as well as Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. Americans were represented by John Cage, Morton Feldman and Lou Harrison (the Piano Concerto - in that wonderful performance by Joanna McGregor). Parry and Stanford were there - but they were not the 'church music' but the symphonies of Stanford and the Concerti of Parry! And so on! I realised some way through the article that Lionel was writing about me! I didn't think my CD collection, (Yes, I've still got it and have enlarged it since to include works by Michael Finnissy (including a first performance conducted by me!), Paul Patterson, Judith Weir, Diana Burrell, Steve Martland etc.), was particularly worth writing about but Lionel, who was making the point that organists are so often rather insular in their musical tastes, seemingly disagreed! Friends, colleagues and acquaintances on here have a huge and wide variety of musical tastes and knowledge. I'm grateful for that because it has pointed me in directions that I might have otherwise missed. But I am sorry to say I think those friends, colleagues and acquaintances are, in my view, very much in the minority as far as the general run of the mill organist is concerned. I knew one guy, I was at University with him, who firmly believed that music stopped in 1750!! He was an extreme exception but he got his degree and is practising his craft!!

It certainly did at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool. I don't believe that Philip Duffy was an organist but he was the most superb choir trainer and, in those days the Metropolitan Cathedral choir was quite magnificent with a huge and diverse repertoire. His brother, Terence, the Metropolitan Cathedral organist, was a fine player.

It does seem a little strange. Having said that I remember applying for a Cathedral Director of the Music post some years ago. In truth I really didn't expect to be interviewed. I held major Diplomas but not in organ playing and a first and research degrees. I got to the last three and the interviews were, to say the least, rather strange and, at one point, slightly acrimonious!!!. At the end of the two days they told us that they couldn't make up their minds and needed the weekend to think about it! On the Monday they rang me up and offered me the post which, having had a weekend to think about it, I sent them back to think again and refused their offer. At one point during the two day interview I was told how many applications they had received. It was a huge number. And the quality of the applications and musical standing of some of the potential candidates was, apparently, quite bizarre with all kinds of people making an application who were, simply, not up to the job - in either qualifications or experience! Maybe the 1000 word letter is to weed out the chaff before it gets too far down the line! As an aside, at that interview I was the only one of the three who didn't consider myself to be an organist (in those days I could play to ARCO standard!) - even though I did play the Cathedral organ as part of the interview! It was commented on by one of the interviewing panel and, had I accepted the Monday morning offer, I think I would have been the first Director of Music in a cathedral who was not, principally, an organist.

The Dean of Windsor, David Conner, holds the K.C.V.O. The late Dean of Westminster, John Hall, also holds a K.C.V.O.

Thank you for that - that titbit hadn't reached the depths of the South Charente!

I hope this isn't too oblique but, with a possible change 'at the top' in the offing, (a certain person has just passed his 75th birthday) and the possibility of the new appointment being an ex RNCM scholar it might be more interesting than may first appear!!!

James O'Donnell is a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory (K.C.S.G.) a Knighthood conferred by the Pope. Not a UK Knighthood but a Knighthood all the same! I have no feeling for the UK honours system despite the fact that both of my parents held the C.B.E. My mother's was a Military C.B.E. given for services during WWII. She was a brave woman. My father always maintained that he wasn't sure why they gave him his!!!! It came in the 'Wilson honours list' and he always maintained that, perhaps, it was because he voted Labour!!! I'm absolutely sure that politics does play a part in there somewhere!!!

I think I just typed the date and wiki - yep! January 13th - wiki - and this came up January 13 - Wikipedia Limit it to musicians - sorry - no idea!!!!

The only thing I can think of, and you will excuse me mentioning the dreaded word, is Wikipedia!! Today, for instance, is the birthday of Wolf-Ferrari (1876), Morton Feldman (1926), Kentaro Haneder (1949). The Italian composer Carissimi died in 1674. It is also the feast day of Aelred of Rievaulx (d.1167). Tomorrow you might think about Johnny Cash or even Wyatt Earp!!! Sunday brings the birthday of John Stanley (b.1712), Gossec (1734) and the birth of the German Theologian Neander (1789) (wrong Neander!!!) Also the death of Philip Jones, the Trumpeter (d. 2000. A Stanley Trumpet Tune might go down well!!!