Dee Surtees

Matthew Beetschen, formerly of Dunblane Cathedral is now at Dunfermline Abbey. http://dunfermlineabbey.com/wwp/?p=3861

As far as I can tell, this piece appears on the series twice, and I'm pretty sure I know which one you are referring to. I don't have either CD so wasn't able to play on my hi-fi, but listening online the hum was barely audible through headphones. I'm not sure I would have noticed if I wasn't listening for it particularly. There is an excellent one in Edinburgh, Macalister Matheson Music, which is well worth a visit if any of you are in this part of the country. Not a great selection of organ music, but for general classical CDs they are hard to beat, and extremely knowledgeable staff.

The weekly summer series of organ recitals in Dunblane cathedral begin on Saturday at 12:00 with a lecture recital from the organist Kevin Duggan entitled "This Wondrous Machine". Those who know the instrument will agree that this should be a fascinating talk. The following Saturday is a song recital, then back to the organ for the remainder of the series. Each recital is free with a soup lunch available by donation afterwards.

I thought the same. The gong in question is strangly disappointing, but used to good effect by John Kitchen MBE in his recording of the Holy Rude organ.

I have just ordered a copy of Hymns Amazing (from Foyles for £19.99 post free), and judging by the sample material available on the Mayhew website it will quickly take its place next to the organ for ready reference. The books that stay by the organ currently are: the last verses books by Rawsthorne, Oxley, and Knight, both volumes of Hymn Miniatures by Rebecca Groom te Velde, Thalben Ball's 113 Variations, Worship Songs for Organ by Simon Lesley as well as the Mayhew collection Covering the Action. These serve me well whenever I need something with limited preparation time. The Oxford Hymn Settings are excellent, though most require more practice than I have time to give week by week. I did however play Malcolm Archer's Spirit of the Living God from the Pentecost and Trinity volume before the service this morning, as it was one of the hymns today. It is a hugely effective setting of the tune, despite being simple enough to sight-read.

On the organ I mentioned above, you pull the stop out the usual distance for the 2', then pull it out further for the mixture. There is also a mark on the stem of the stop, indicating the halfway point. I've only played it the once, but it seemed to me to be completely intuitive, and didn't give me any problems.

This is the only organ I've played with a half-draw stop: http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=R00538 In this case it adds a lot of versatility to the instrument, which is already a lovely organ to play. In fact I can't think of a better distribution of just 11 stops, for maximum potential.

Thanks for the information. This is good to know. A shame I've already ordered Andriessen's Thema met Variaties from Presto as mentioned in the other thread, but they have a six week lead time so I'm not expecting it to arrive until next month. Ben Saunders' CD is excellent. I bought it a few months ago and have enjoyed listening to it several times since then.

There is a 1997 edition by Summy Birchard which is available second-hand on abebooks: http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=16163227096

Obituary in yesterday's Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12202343/Alastair-Rushworth-organ-builder-obituary.html

Les Rameaux is the third of Langlais's "3 poèmes évangéliques" but it is not nearly as popular as the second of the set, "la nativité". I couldn't find a recording on YouTube, but there are CD recordings by George Baker on the organ of St Sernin, Toulouse (a fine Cavaillé-Coll) and by Naji Hakim on the Georg Stahlhuth organ of Saint-Martin de Dudelange in Luxembourg. You may find them on your music streaming service of choice. The Hakim recording is a lot clearer but both are fine performances.

Thank you for drawing this to my attention. I shall have a look at that. I did look in your OUP 18th century organ music collections but no William Jones in there.

Does anyone know anything about this composer? We're singing St Stephen on Sunday, which is apparently written by him, but I don't know anything else about him. The Wikipedia entry (if it is the same William Jones) doesn't say much about his musical activities.

Is it the Toccata on Men of Harlech in this volume? (No composer listed on the website)

Similar to Thalben-Ball's book, but somewhat easier, are Rebecca Groom te Velde's two books of Hymn Miniatures (OUP). Book 1 includes Cwm Rhondda, Hyfrydol, Leoni, Llanfair, and Book 2 has Ebenezer, Llangloffan, and St Denio I really like these arrangements: they are all very short and mostly very easy. Cwm Rhondda makes an effective playover and others are useful fanfares, quiet interludes or short postludes. All Praise to You, Eternal God by Donald Busarow has an interesting arrangement of Aberystwyth with the tune in canon which is reprinted in The Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church.

Wow. Looks like some organ. And a three hour opening recital too boot. Have bookmarked the link and will listen to it at some point. Colin is right, it would be nice to have a lady organist for the occasion. Although I can't think of any high profile French female organists active today. There must be some, with the rich heritage from the likes of Alain, Demessieux, Duruflé-Chevalier, et al. I once had the privilege of playing the Rieger in St Giles in Edinburgh during an RCO event and I was hugely impressed by the quality of the instrument. This looks a very different beast, but I am sure to the same high standards.

They are hidden on the compilations tab under the original publication title of Pièces d'orgue. Not the easiest place to find them, but there is a certain logic to it. http://imslp.org/wiki/Pièces_d%27orgue_(Couperin,_François) There are several significant editions available there, including the original 17th century publication, and the early 20th century editions by Guilmant and Brunold

Thanks for the clarification. The Hymn Tune Index is a great resource, but doesn't reveal much about what the books it refers to were, or how they were used.

I have traced it to 1725 (via the Hymn Tune Index). See my earlier post above.

I am aware of this edition, but have never come across a copy for sale, and have checked the usual french suppliers. The Kalmus is a reprint of Brunold; I don't know about the Dover, but it probably is as well. Schott seem to reprint Guilmant's edition for Durand. The only other edition I can find was published by Schola Cantorum in the 60s edited by Norbert Dufourcq (I assume he edited the Messe pour les Couvents - I know he was the editor of the Messe pour les Paroisses) I'm usually wary of online editions, but Pierre Gouin is an exception, as he seems to me to not just be a reliable editor, but produce spectacularly well laid out copy, that is a pleasure to play from. I think his edition on IMSLP will be the way to go, at least for the time being.

Vielen Dank! It looks like a nice little organ, but this seems to be the only recording online. I've not come across that style of combination system before, but it seems to be typical of German organs.

This is a very interesting console. The organ is a Seifert, but I can't find much about it online. The Seifert website is undergoing renovation and is currently out of action. It seems, from this article (thanks to Google translate), to have been built in 1973 and restored 2 years ago: https://smmp.de/2014/06/18/die-orgel-im-bergkloster-klingt-wieder-wie-neu/ If that is so, this would have been recorded before the restoration. The stops, in particular, are very odd, and I'm not sure what the little levers above each stop switch do.

This is slightly off topic, but I was wondering if someone could recommend the an edition of the masses. Until now I've only played extracts in anthologies, but would like to acquire a complete edition, and there seem to be several available.

David's story may still be true, as I have come across it correctly attributed to Geoffrey Shaw. Jeremy Dribble, for instance, mentions it in his liner notes to Naxos's CD of Ireland's church music from Lincoln Cathedral

I haven't come across it, except in the original booklet, but looking at which hymnbooks include the tune, I think I can tell what kind of churches sing it. I can understand its popularity in evangelical circles, as it is far better than many of their so called 'hymns'. But it always struck me as a bit too evangelical, not least in its theology, for any wider appeal. It has definitely caught on, though, and is in the new A&M. I find Townend's hymns translate very well to the organ, and I am pleased to see Andrew Wilson's excellent organ arrangement of King of the Ages in A&M. Shame they messed up the melody by including the introduction to the final chorus descant (which isn't included) as though it were part of the melody. One of my favourite hymns. I love all of Ireland's music. We all know many cases of new tunes taking over existing hymns to the virtual exclusion of the original, and this seems to be no exception.The earliest use I can find of it as a hymn comes from An Help to the Singing Psalm-Tunes published by W. Sherwin in 1725 where it is set to the tune of Psalm 148. I think this is the same tune known as Old 136th (attributed to Este's Psalter) in Songs of Praise, but I don't have that book to check. The Anglican Hymn Book of 1862 includes it to Henry Lawes' Psalm 47. These tunes are all earlier than Crossman (Lawes was a contemporary) so it may be that he wrote the words in the same meter as the established Psalm setting for that reason.