SlowOrg

Tuning-slots, usually placed at one diameter of the pipe from its top, are also one of the main characterstics of the 19th century French organ building (Cavaillé-Coll). Here is an excerpt from the Laukhuff catalogue with the relevant terminology:

How about some wonderful technical drawings of Cavillé-Coll organs? French digital library “Gallica” has a couple of those: Dessins de mécanismes d'orgues Plans du grand orgue de Saint-Sulpice Coupes de claviers Orgues de tous modèles (these aren’t exactly technical drawings, but are nonetheless interesting to explore). M

You can listen to Latry's RAH concert here. The music starts at 3:39.

https://www.facebook.com/OrguesCattiaux/

The second piece is "Lei Rei" (Marche de Tourenne) by the French composer Edouard Marcel Victor Rouher (1857–1940). It is a part of his collection of 450 Noëls and the score is available on IMSLP: https://imslp.org/wiki/450_Noëls_(Rouher%2C_Edouard_Marcel_Victor) (either pp. 38–40 in Vol. 1 or pp. 4–6 in the "10 Pièces"). It seems like a lot of fun to play. 😄 M

Dupre’s arrangement of the Sinfonia can be found in Vol. 12 of Dupre’s now rather infamous edition of Bach’s complete organ works: Oeuvres Complètes pour Orgue de J. S. Bach, annotés et doigtées par Marcel Dupré, Volume XII.

When I finally decided to buy myself new copies of OUP’s Wedding Music and Ceremonial Music for Organ – the ones I had were stolen from the organ loft several years ago ? – I also noticed that a new Book of Funeral and Memorial Music for Organ would be released soon. So I ordered this as well and received my copy a couple of weeks ago. The first thing I noticed after unpacking the album was that it was much thinner than both OBWM and OBCM (and that the back of my copy was damaged). The collection contains 28 pieces, arranged alphabetically by composer, with 12 original works and 16 arrangements (OBWM: 30 – 5/25; OBCM: 32 – 14/18). As an organist I understand that there are certain well known works that might appeal to the general public when played on the organ, however, I wonder whether arrangements of lesser-known pieces (or those that do not seem to be all that appropriate for a certain occasion) are really necessary, especially as the repertoire of original organ works has more than enough to offer. Selection of music for an album intended primarily for funeral and memorial services (or any other occasion, for that matter) is, obviously, always influenced by one’s musical knowledge and preferences. There will always be a piece of music that one finds more (or less) suitable, however, at least a couple of choices in this new album seem a bit odd, at least in my opinion. (Bach’s Chorale Prelude on Nun danket alle Gott? Why not Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich, also from the 18 Chorale Preludes?) But I really don’t want to start a discussion about this. As the editor points out “there is much overlap between music used at funerals and weddings” so the OBWM is suggested as a “companion volume”. Why then include the same arrangement of Bach/Gounod’s Ave Maria which can already be found in the OBWM? The inclusion of R. Gower’s arrangement of Elgar’s Nimrod also seems unnecessary since this same arrangement is included in the OBCM. Apart from questions concerning the selection of pieces there are also some other things that need to be mentioned. First there is the issue of manual indications: I = Gt., II = Sw., III = Ch. What the editor suggests has nothing to do with the majority of neither British nor continental organs. Wouldn’t it be much simpler and clear to just use abbreviations instead of numerals? It is also somewhat inconsistent to have manual (and registration) indications for some pieces and none for others. What I find most problematic about this new album is a number of notation errors (or weaknesses, if you will). I wasn’t able to play all of the pieces so far but I’ve already found a couple of errors, some of them more and some less obvious. Let me point out the ones I happened to notice: – Elgar, Nimrod, b. 13, 2nd beat: F instead of G in the soprano; – Fauré, Pavane, bb. 6–8 and bb. 27–30: second voice a third under the soprano missing (although this could also be a deliberate choice of the arranger); – Mendelssohn, O rest in the Lord, b. 16, 3rd beat: natural sign (for F) instead of a sharp (for F♯) in the melody; bb. 15–16: suddenly there are two voices on the 4th beat in the solo melody which should in fact be in the accompaniment; – Stölzel, Bist du bei mir, b. 1: octave parallels between soprano and tenor; – Vierne, Berceuse, b. 15, 2ndbeat: D instead of B in the bass. I wonder if these are the only ones. I wanted to draw attention to this since I hadn’t noticed so many errors in other OUP’s publications that I’ve been using. In spite of my criticism, I find the collection to be quite useful. I will not be playing all of the pieces, at least not for funeral and memorial services, though (obviously, this applies to most other collections of this kind). I would be interested to hear some other impressions. Anyone else who already has this?

The setting of the Mass is by the College’s DoM Neil Cox. One can listen to the service here …

Strangely, although the link appears to be correct, it won’t take you to the specification of the Hill instrument. M

Inaugural Organ Recital, featuring Bernard Foccroulle, Philippe Lefébvre, Olivier Latry and Wayne Marshall, was held yesterday on the new Rieger organ in the Philharmonie de Paris. There is a video of the event available for viewing until August: http://live.philharmoniedeparis.fr/concert/1046894/grandes-orgues-olivier-latry-philippe-lefebvre-bernard.html The whole thing lasted almost 3 hours, but one should take the time to listen to all four performers – it's worth it! M

So, in the Gloria the chants come first, and in the Sanctus they come second. Why? We all know that Wikipedia isn’t necessarily a very trustworthy source of information, however, the article about the French Organ Mass does seem to offer some explanation. It’s all about how the alternatim practice was regulated in the ceremonial that was being used in a particular diocese. M

I guess it’s just a plain Gemshorn … M

... There is a useful abstract of the article here ... Following your link it was possible to download the whole article. Thank you! M Edit: OK, this is strange: after having opened the (mobile) website with the abstract on my smartphone I was able to download the whole article, but doing so on my laptop I’d have to subscribe to get access. Can someone confirm this?

Hello, Are your sure about this? At this very moment I’m listening to the Evensong broadcast from Lichfield Cathedral on the BBC iPlayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tp7r), sitting at home in Slovenia. I can’t think of any reason why this shouldn’t be possible in Germany (?). Anyway, there is still the "underground" option, although it doesn’t have all the broadcasts from 2013: http://wiki.seboldt.net/w/index.php/BBC_Choral_Evensong_Underground_Archive M

No, the article is still available via the Dobson’s website: http://www.dobsonorgan.com/html/instruments/op91_merton/TAOcoverfeature.pdf Here’s also another short post about this organ: http://www.theladyorganist.com/first-performances-on-dobson-op91-at-merton-college-oxford/ M

This is not entirely correct. His 8th Symphony (along with some other pieces of music) is available from IMSLP and, since there is a recording of all Nowowiejski's organ symphonies, I would assume that the rest is also available in print. M

In case it hasn’t been noticed by the members of this forum yet: The new Kuhn organ is currently being installed in the Duke’s Hall of the RAM. The installation can be followed on Live Webcam images and on Pinterest. M

... there’s also some information about the new organ on the parish website ... M

Now the last video with Gary Verkade is also available. Some of you might have noticed that the video showing Harald Vogel’s concert wasn’t online for some time. This was due to the audio and video not being synchronized correctly. It is now available again. M

Hi, Have you already checked these offers? http://www.pipeorgans.eu/en/ http://www.gebrauchtorgeln.de/ http://www.organclearinghouse.net/ As far as the cost of transport, installation and - very likely - revoicing and tuning is concerned, I would simply try to contact an organ builder near you. M

Hi, it has taken a while for the new Woehl organ in Piteå to get finished (although apparently the harmonics division hasn’t been installed yet, from what I hear). Here you can listen to the inauguration concert played by Hans-Ola Ericsson: Part 1 Part 2 There was also an Organ Festival taking place from Oct. 17th to 22nd, featuring some prominent organists: Harald Vogel Jean Guillou Christoph Bossert Gary Verkade (no video yet) I hope you had no plans for the evening - it is going to take you a couple of hours to listen to all of this M

... a quote from the Richards & Fowkes website: 5 October 2012 After many months of detailed voicing our Opus 18 at St George's, Hanover Square, London is at last finished. The organ will be dedicated on Sunday, 14 October and James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey, will play the first concert on 18 October. This has been a complex project for us and we are extremely happy with the results and hope this organ will be part of the London church and music world for generations. I, too, would be grateful for some first impressions from the "locals" ... M

Thanks for the tip. However, I’ve had this really good microphone for quite some time now. I bought it years back together with a MiniDisc recorder (which, by the way, is still fully functional and makes great recordings, albeit one ultimately has to copy them to the computer), and intend to keep using it in the future. So for me, in order to be able to make decent recordings on my smartphone, the only option is to get an adapter. M

Although there are some really useful recording apps available (i. e. Tape Machine, Easy Voice Recorder for Android and iTalk Recorder of iOS), there is still the problem of the internal microphones not being really suitable for recording music. There is, however, the option of connecting an external mic to your smartphone, but in order to do that you need a special adapter (such as these here). I was trying to find something similar at our local tech store, but it seems I’m going to have to order the adapter off the internet. Edit: I just discovered another adapter for connecting external mic and headphones simultaneously to your smartphone. M

Isn’t the term "Double" just another way of saying that it is a stop at 16’? So why not just write Open Diapason 16’? Or is this name exclusively reserved for stops at 8’? If all the pipes of the stop in question are open, I would say that this piece of information in the name is more important than kind of writing twice that it is a 16’ stop. M