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I've just listened to this: The pattern for the Kyrie - Christe - Kyrie follows as Vox Humana as suggested but the plainsong is, firstly, incorrect and I can see no logical explanation for only repeating the Christe eleison! Unless I'm missing something!

And you have two sung Christe's! If you Look at the 'Liber Usualis' you will see that the final Kyrie is in two distinct parts. It was also customary, at this time, to 'cover' the Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, that preceeds the singing of Kyrie eleison, with music - which then accounts for five organ pieces.

As I said, this is out of my area of expertise and I am sure that our more knowledgeable members will be able to enlighten you further – and correct me if I am wrong! Couperin composes five Kyrie movements - Plain-chant du premier Kyrie, en taille, followed by three couplets and finally Dernier (final) Kyrie Presumably the ‘liturgical performance’ would look something like this: The first organ movement, Plain-chant du premier Kyrie, en taille, played possibly when the Priest was saying the ‘Confiteor’. The schola would then sing the Kyrie eleison to Gregorian chant Cunctipotens genitor Deus (Liber Usualis – Mass IV pg. 25) melody. It would be followed alternately by the Deuxième (2e) Couplet - Fugue sur les jeux d’anches, The sung Christe Eleison, The Troisième (3e) Couplet du Kyrie - Récit de Chromhorne, The first part of the final Kyrie eleison (this being in two parts) The quatrième (4e) Couplet – Dialogue sur la Trompette et le Cromhorne The second part of the final Kyrie eleison The 'Dernier' Kyrie The Gloria has nine movements which presumably follow a similar pattern of plainsong and organ beginning with: The Priest intoning the Gloria to the Cunctipotens genitor Deus (Liber Usualis – Mass IV pg. 26) melody. - Glória in excélsis Deo The schola sing et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis. Laudámus te, Premier Couplet Et in terra pax - Plein Jeu benedícimus te, 2e Couplet« Benedicimus Te - Petitte fugue sur le Chromhorne adorámus te, glorificámus te, 3e Couplet - Glorificamus Te - Duo sur les Tierces grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam, Dómine Deus, Rex cæléstis, 4e Couplet - Domine Deus, Rex cœlestis - Dialogue sur les jeux de Trompettes, Clairon et Tierces du G. C.et le Bourdon avec le Larigot du Positif Deus Pater omnípotens. Dómine Fili unigénite, Iesu Christe, Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris, 5e Couplet - Domine Deus, Agnus Dei - Trio à 2 dessus de Chromhorne et la basse de Tierce qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis; qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram. 6e Couplet - Qui tollis peccata mundi - Tierce en taille Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis. Quóniam tu solus Sanctus, 7e Couplet - Quoniam Tu solus - Dialogue sur la Voix humaine tu solus Dóminus, tu solus Altíssimus, Iesu Christe, 8e Couplet - Tu solus altissimus - Dialogue en Trio, du Cornet et de la Tierce cum Sancto Spíritu: in glória Dei Patris. Amen. Dernier Couplet du Gloria - Amen - Dialogue sur les Grands Jeux The remaining movements – Sanctus-Benedictus and the Agnus Dei follow the same kind kind of pattern of Plainsong - organ with the long Benedictus movement, Benedictus Chromhorne en taille, following the singing of the Plainsong and played whilst the Priest is consecrating Bread and Wine. At the end of the Mass the Priest sings Ite Missa est, receives the response Deo Gratias and the blessing Benedicamus Domino is sung after which the organ plays the final movement - Deo gratias - Petit Plein jeu Well – that’s what I think works – but I might be wrong!!! Hope that helps – or does it just confuse the issue even more!

I found this, written by Darren Warren Steele of the University of Mississippi US – to which I have added considerably! I think it might answer your query, particularly in how to the two Masses of Couperin might be performed. The background of Couperin's organ compositions begins when Couperin’s father, Charles, organist at St. Gervais in Paris, died in 1679. Couperin Jnr. was only ten years old. St. Gervais was an important post in Paris and the church , recognizing the boy’s talent, agreed to appoint a temporary organist (Delalande) until he reached the age of eighteen when he could fully take up the post. Later, in 1693, when he was 25, he was named principal organist and court musician to King Louis XIV at the Palace of Versailles, a position he would retain until his retirement in 1730. Couperin performed his duties between Versailles and St. Gervais until 1723, when his son Nicolas assumed many of the services at St. Gervais but he continued to play the organ at there on a semi-retired basis until his death in 1733. At twenty-one, Couperin obtained from Louis XIV permission to publish and sell his music. His first publication was Pièces d’Orgue (1690), containing his only surviving organ works, the two organ masses. The music is not even printed—only the title page and the royal privilege are engraved, along with blank staves where a professional copyist wrote out the music by hand. An edict handed down by the Archbishop of Paris in 1662, the Cérémonial des églises de Paris, strictly regulated the use of the organ in Parisian churches. As a result, all of the organ masses dating from around Couperin's time up to about 1715, written by the likes of Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers at St. Sulpice and Nicolas Lebegue, titulair of St. Merri, both organistes du Roi, are similar in form. The Mass à l’Usage ordinaire des Paroisses, pour les Festes solemnelles (usually translated as Mass for the Parishes) is the larger of the two Masses and was intended for the principal feasts of the church year and written for a great organ such as was at St. Gervais. In a liturgical performance, in this Mass, the brief organ pieces (versets) alternate with the Gregorian chant Cunctipotens genitor Deus (Liber Usualis – Mass IV pg. 25) sung by a schola cantorum, to build up the Common of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) that are part of every Mass. The choice of form and style in some versets is based on French tradition. For example, the first and last versets of the Kyrie and the first verset of the Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei are plein chant movements composed in an old-fashioned contrapuntal style with the chant melody played in long notes by the pedal. The second verset of the Kyrie is a fugue on the reed stops based on the chant melody. In the remaining versets, the chant is absent altogether. Many of the récits (accompanied solos), duets, trios, and dialogues, are more strongly expressive or flamboyant, and speak a secular musical language. In his first major work, the young Couperin was already learning to incorporate the graceful, ornamented melodic style and dance-like rhythms of the French stage into his instrumental music. An interesting feature of the Gloria is the inconclusive sound at the end of each verset. This is because the original chant is in the fourth mode, ending on E; baroque composers treated this mode as A minor, with cadences on E. One aspect of the mass that was not so closely proscribed by the Archbishop was the offertory, and here Couperin gives free rein to his imagination; it is in three parts and is distinguished by its highly chromatic counterpoint and loose handling of voice exchanges. It is much more than a verset. Inspired by the theatrical overture, and uninterrupted by sung chant, it consists of three distinct sections: a grave and majestic opening, an academic fugue with highly dissonant entries, and a lively gigue. In both the Sanctus and Agnus Dei the opening verset contains a canon (exact melodic imitation) requiring two independent voices to be played simultaneously in the pedals. The loud and lively Dialogue that concludes the Agnus Dei might seem to be a fitting conclusion to the entire work, but French composers often preferred to end with a relatively light and brief movement. The traditional response to the priest’s dismissal of the congregation (“Ite missa est”) is a musical reprise of the Kyrie, but in Couperin’s organ mass it is represented by an expressive and dissonant fugue on the lighter of the two manual divisions. The Mass pour couvents de religieux et religieuses (for convents or Abbey churches) is a good deal simpler. Written for use, as the title suggests, it is not based on plainchant. In those days each convent and monastery maintained its own, non-standard body of chant and so these pieces could be interspersed, as in the Messe des Paroisses,, with any suitable chant in use at a particular church at a particular time. French composers made excellent use of the sounds available on the French classical organ. The French organ had at least three divisions: a majestic grand orgue, a more intimate positif, and a rudimentary pedal, comprising only two or three stops. Some of the pieces in the Messe solennelle are composed for three manual divisions and pedal. The powerful pedal basses in the music of German composers were unknown in France—the pedals were used only to play the chant melodies in the plein chant movements, and to provide a light flute tone in the trios. Many organ pieces included in their titles specific registrations or stop combinations (jeux). Following are brief descriptions of some of these combinations: plein jeu—foundation stops (basic organ tone) plus mixtures—heard in preludes and chant movements. The petit plein jeu uses only the positif division. grand jeu—reeds, prestant and cornet stops—heard in fugues and dialogues. jeu de tierce—a bright combination of stops that reinforce the octave and other high overtones of the fundamental pitch. The same combination of pitches played on narrower-scaled stops is called a cornet; this was a popular solo effect in the treble range. When played in the tenor voice (en taille) against a soft accompaniment, the tierce imitated the viola da gamba. les jeux d’anches—a reed combination, much employed in fugues, including the brilliant trompette on the grand orgue and the sardonic cromorne on the positif. Each of these reeds could also be used as a solo stop. I hope that helps a little! I am sure that there are others, on here, who can, and will, expand further. In truth it's not exactly my field of expertise!

Colin, I couldn't agree more! I remember, quite some time ago now, setting a group of students as essay to write on Anton von Webern's approach to 'Klangfarbenmelodie' technique. On receiving one essay, from a bright young student, I sniffed that I might, just, have read some of it before! Eventually I wrote at the bottom of the essay "I, too, have read Grout!" Nowadays essays arrive, littered with 'unattributable intellectual sloth' (lovely phrase!), mostly gathered from 'Wikipedia' which, I am ashamed to say, I do, very rarely though, reference. Most of the students have never seen a copy of 'Grout' - staple diet when I was an undergraduate - but that is a long time ago! The internet could be an enormous force for good but the trash that is often pedaled as 'good reference' is, so often, shallow, without substance and, in some cases, down right incorrect! As for the future of the organ? I'm afraid I am, slightly, more pessimistic! Soon, I fear, it will become an instrument nearly always studied by ex-public school students at Oxbridge! We are, I suspect, not that far away from that situation now - even the more reputable music colleges have 'thinned down' their organ departments and some barely have any first study student organists! And yet the standard of playing is higher now, I think, than it has ever been!

Yes, I know what you mean! I took a very experienced choir to York and had similar experiences. We found the distance between Dec and Can really difficult to cope with. On top of that I had, foolishly, scheduled Bryan Kelly's Mag and Nunc for Magdalen College Oxford, not the setting in C, together with some Palestrina. The rehearsal was the stuff that nightmares are made of - but they pulled it off in the end!! I learned a lot from that experience! Someone, somewhere else on here, mentioned the acoustic of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool. I conducted in there a lot and, actually, found it remarkably easy - once you got used to it! Sorry to hijack the Tuba thread!

That sounds as if it was an excellent recital, played with style and received well by a hugely enthusiastic audience. It's a shame we don't have more reviews of Recitals on here - although I can see a slight danger there! Thank you for that sprondel! It made for really interesting reading.

Yes I remember him at the RCM. too! We didn't get on and I always regarded him as being a little light weight! We met, years after, in Hull, where he greeted me with "Oh, it's you!!". In the talk that followed he gave a remarkably entertaining account of his life. He was a born communicator and I had got him very wrong.

Francis was 98 on the 3rd of October. Just how much playing he is doing nowadays I'm not too sure but he played for the wedding of a friend of mine not too long ago.

According to your link there is a 'Friends of the organ' who invite 'organistes més importants del país' to give recitals on the instrument. Pablo Casals did have lessons on the organ and his father was the church organist and Casals in now buried in El Vendrell, where he was born, having been originally buried in Puerto Rico and interred in El Vendrell in 1979. There is a pamphlet (dossier) on the organ - but I can't find a copy of it. I am reminded of some of those excellent programmes, years ago, put out by the BBC. There was a wonderful analysis of Pierre Boulez's work 'Le Marteau sans Maitre' and a couple of prgrammes showing du Pre, Barenboim and Pearlman, who else I forget, rehearsing 'The Trout'. Progammes like that seem to have disappeared - or is it that I just hardly ever watch British TV! Yes, it would be wonderful if the BBC, or any UK station for that matter, would consider broadcasting recitals, just like the one that VH experienced in Catalonia, on any instrument - even the organ!! - but we will end up 'BBC bashing', with a certain amount of justification, if we're not careful!!

I didn't know Christopher Tambling well but will remember him and Sara, Edward and Ben in my prayers. Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine Et lux perpetua luceat ei Requiescat in pace.

I didn't hear the programme but, Oh dear! I find myself in disagreement - yet again - but not with Nigel Allcoat! I was also a Magistrate, for some 20 years, I suppose that made me, according to the newspapers reporting this story, "A senior Magistrate". I resigned when I left the UK. My disagreement comes not with what Nigel has done but with the fact that it has been brought here to a forum for discussion about the Organ and its music - not for, what easily could be, political debate!

You have your answer above - an excellent and well-informed response from VH. Try here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-English-Hymnal-Full-Music/dp/0907547516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443630188&sr=8-1&keywords=English+Hymnal or here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-New-English-Hymnal-Full-Music-and-Words-E-Hymn-Bo-Publishing-Mor-NEW-Ha-/391259498246?hash=item5b18e22706 Where in France are you?

Your post has come as a bit of a shock - stuck here in the wilds of the South Charente I miss so much and I didn't know that Arthur Butterworth had died. I knew him well - he gave me some early conducting lessons and complained when I refused to use a stick! As you say he was particularly influenced by Sibelius - his house was called 'Pohjola' and there is a wealth of music, all very accessible, out there by him. Neilsen and Bax also influenced his work. You will find a complete Opus list here: http://www.musicweb-international.com/buttera/works.htm He said that the organ always appealed to him and he would like to have been a Cathedral Organist but that his keyboard technique was worse than Berlioz! He was attracted to the North German Baroque and to Bach's predecessors. The Organ Concerto Op. 33 was first performed by Gillian Weir and I heard the performance on the mighty Willis in Huddersfield Town Hall with Arthur conducting. He was a quiet, kind and precise man - and the third teacher of mine to die within the last year!

I noticed, only today, in the 'Church Times' that Dr. Colin Hand has died - on 6th of August. He was born in 1929 in North Lincolnshire and, after a proposed career in biochemistry, he turned to music, studying organ with Dr Melville Cook and completing a Mus.B. at Trinity College, Dublin. He composed throughout his career and spent fifteen years as a lecturer in further education and another fifteen years as an examiner for Trinity College of Music, London. He spent most of his life in Lincolnshire, living mostly around Boston where he sometimes played the organ at 'The Stump'!! His music comprised choral, orchestral and chamber music, as well as producing a substantial amount of music for teaching purposes including arrangements of pieces for 'pianists turned organists'. Quite a lot of this was published by Mayhew. He was also active as a composer for the recorder. Research on the music of John Taverner, also from Lincolnshire and a singer at The Stump' in 1524, gained him a Ph.D. in the 1970's. John Taverner, his Life and Music was published by Eulenburg in 1978 and he was also a considerable authority on Renaissance music. Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine Et lux perpetua luceat ei Requiescat in pace.

What a strange statement to make! The MC is the 3rd level of award after the Victoria Cross and the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for gallantry in the face of the enemy. From the war in Afghanistan alone, since 2001 and up to 2014 the CGC has been awarded 33 times and the MC 188 times. I don't know how old each of the recipients are but, looking at their ranks, I would guess that most were in their 20's. ............... but you are certainly right about one thing, Willcocks was modest about his own efforts in WWII. .

"Let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore, and in a greater light, that multitude which no man can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom in the Lord Jesus we are one for evermore" Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Obviously I have a lot of memories but I won't share hem here. Suffice to say that David Willcocks was an inspirational Director of Music at Kings, the right choice at the right time, and an inspirational teacher within the University. His arrangements have stood the test of time and his understanding of the human voice and its capabilities, together with his fine craftsmanship have left us a legacy that, hopefully, will stand the test of time and inspire future church musicians. Personally I owe him a debt of gratitude and will pray for his soul.

The Requiem Mass for John Scott was held on Saturday 12th of September at St. Thomas' Church, New York and was sung by the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys Organ Music played by Benjamin Sheen, Acting Organist Romance, from Symphony no.4, - Louis Vierne Meditation - Louis Vierne trans. Duruflé Played by Frederick Teardo, Guest Organist Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland, BWV 599 Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV 731 The Mass Setting: Missa pro Defunctis Plainsong - Liber Usualis (pg.1807) Introit: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine Gradual Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine Offertory: Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae In Paradisum: Plainsong Hymn: Love Divine, all loves excelling - Blaenwern Readings: Wisdom 3:1-5, 9 I Corinthians 15:50-58 Saint John 14:1-6 Psalm: 121 Levavi oculos, Chant - Walford Davies The Lord's Prayer: Robert Stone Motets/Anthems: If ye love me, - Thomas Tallis Libera now, salva nos, - John Sheppard Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est, - Maurice Duruflé Drop, drop, slow tears, - Orlando Gibbons Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, - Antonio Lotti O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, - Johann Sebastian Bach Russian Kontakion for the Departed - Melody from Kiev - arr. W. Parratt

I went to None (it might have been Sext!) there twice (prior to 2014) - I have to say that, on both occasions, it wasn't very inspiring and, both times, was accompanied by the Abbot - playing a guitar! I told a Priest friend and he said that he had had a similar experience! I shall be in the UK and in the area around Toussaint and will try to pay a visit. The church, from the congregation seating seems vast and, if my memory serves me correctly, has a considerable echo. I would imagine a carefully voiced neo-classical instrument would sound very fine in there.

Ses obsèques auront lieu mardi 25 août, à 15 h, à la cathédrale de Rennes. (La Messe des obsèques de Geoffrey Marshall, titulaire des orgues de la Cathédrale de RENNES, sera célébrée mardi 25 août 2015 à 15h00. Tous les musiciens et chanteurs qui souhaitent s'unir par la musique sont invités à se retrouver à la Cathédrale à 13h30 ce même mardi.) Requiem aeternam

Did anyone hear Stephen Farr playing the Jon Leifs 'Organ Concerto' on Friday night? The BBC Symphony Orchestra were, as usual, quite superb and the Albert Hall organ (and Stephen Farr!) coped very well with the difficult score! It was a refreshing change to hear an Organ Concerto that wasn't by Poulenc but, of course, that came earlier!!!

There is a description of the Chapel and the Communion table here: http://austenonly.com/2012/01/22/stoneleigh-abbeys-chapel-and-communion-table/ And a picture of the organ in the gallery here: http://www.courtauldprints.com/image/165895/smith-francis-stoneleigh-abbey-chapel A close up of the organ here: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3734/11815799253_65e4125449_z.jpg but I'm afraid that's all I can find! Nothing on NPOR. Perhaps one of our Coventry or Warwick members can help.

Is this piece part of wider collection? I wouldn't normally recommend it but there is a little bit about Tourilion, the blind organist of Orleans Cathedral, on French 'Wikipedia', including a list of works for organ and works for harmonium together with their publishers. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Victor_Tournaillon Hope that helps.

Sunday August 16th - at 1800! ...... on the website!