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Andrew Butler
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Posts posted by Andrew Butler
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Didn't know Lee Ward had gone? Where to?
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On 29/05/2022 at 08:46, S_L said:
Yes!! unless Dafydd y Garreg Wen knows another way!
If you live in, for instance, Kent, and you buy the Times it costs you whatever per day. I read it most days 'online' and it costs me less than £10 per month - about 30p per day - good value I say!
Oh absolutely - I have an online subscription to the Charente Libre.
I have no desire to read The Times though 🙄
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On 26/05/2022 at 12:57, Dafydd y Garreg Wen said:
But one that is easily circumvented.
By paying?!
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My first church organist's post at age 14 was on this organ in its original location - Oakfield Road Unitarian, Clifton, Bristol. It's on NPOR.
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Paywall sadly
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22 hours ago, DHM said:
Then I must been there (since I worked there at the time), but don’t remember the occasion (though I do of course remember the rebuild).
All I remember is that he opened with BWV 593 and I was staggered at the articulation of the opening chords - I had always felt that I over-articulated them, but realised then that I actually under-articulated!
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Indeed. I recall back in the 80s a visit there with the Bristol Organists Association, which he hosted - demonstrating both Walsall and Birmingham Town Hall organs to us.
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Last time I heard him was at Rochester Cathedral in the late 1980s when he gave the opening recital after the rebuild.
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On 18/02/2022 at 11:52, oscar_rook said:
You might be referring to 1977 Decca Phase Four LP by Leslie Pearson, recorded at All Souls, Langham Place entitled "Organ in close-up." I think the programme was of organ popular pieces - Widor Toccata, Wachet Auf, T&F in d, Litanies etc
Yes - that would be the one. I had the LP
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I recall a R3 broadcast of Choral Evensong back in the mid 1980s when Swell to Great wasn't working very well, and Chris Manners (of Percy Daniel Organ Builders of Clevedon) who had a son in the choir, spent the broadcast inside the organ holding things together - literally!
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It didn't work?
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8 hours ago, ptindall said:
It’s not a good idea to use the NPOR as if it’s a carefully considered work of scholarship. The more complex the organ history, the more difficulties there are going to be.
No fault of the NPOR It is only as good as the information submitted. If people can take the trouble to submit new surveys and corrections it will be as good as it can be.
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10 hours ago, Malcolm Riley said:
Every aspect of the service (meticulously planned by Francis, even down to the metronome speeds for the hymns) was superb. From my position halfway down the nave, the organ to choir balance was perfect. To employ the Tuba mirabilis for just one line of the final hymn was a masterstroke.
Heartfelt thanks to those who contributed their musical talents to such a magnificent send-off.
If this had been on vinyl. I would already have worn out the "Coe Fen" track.
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DS&P also had a branch on College Green
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9 hours ago, S_L said:
In my, considerable, experience, as an English Roman Catholic church musician, this is not unusual - Bishops were the worst - they turned up minutes before the celebration was due to begin and were at their most dangerous when they said they would "sing whatever you want me too!"
As I have said, on a number of occasions before, I could write a book - but no one would believe me!!!
I for one would believe anything!! My first experience playing in an RC church was for a funeral. Beforehand, I asked the visiting Irish priest at what point the hymns would be sung. He replied "To be sure sorr, you joost play dem whenever ye loik!" I later heard that he had gone to the wrong cemetery for the burial.
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Haven't been on here for a while so only just seen this. At my gaff in France (Confolens, Charente) faulty pedal contacts have reduced me to manuals-only (Church say it sounds fine so why bother getting them repaired?!)
Christmas Eve: Preludes: Early German chorale preludes + Daquin "Noel sur les Flutes" Postlude: Renaissance Rondel (Andrew Fletcher) fudged manuals only version
Christmas Day: Preludes: Various French Noels Postlude: Allegro Maestoso (Merkel) Again, fudged manuals only - played by request
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Davis Bevan sadly passed away recently
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3 hours ago, S_L said:
LOL - but they're not over!!!
I see, from your 'facebook' page you have succumbed and have played for the last two weeks and are playing for the next two!! We all miss it, at first but, eventually, something draws us back. I, too, didn't miss it and was glad to be out but now find myself accompanying the plainsong for the offices and Mass on 'Great days' at a Trappist Monastery in the Dordogne.
And it has improved my reading of plainsong and my keyboard harmony, and accompanying of the plainsong, which always used to be reasonably good, is better now than ever before!!! 'Vigiles', with all those plainsong antiphons, at 04h15 in the morning, focusses the mind!!!
After I made that comment on here, I was asked to do a wedding at Confolens and then ended up doing alternate Sundays. I was prepared to take it on permanently but there was a typically French mix-up! I emailed the PP to say I was interested, but he doesn't "do" emails personally - he gets the parish secretary to reply when she's there. In the meantime another English organist turned up and said he'd take it on and the PP assumed he was me!! The compromise is that we are now "Co-Titulaires" which I don't like TBH as there is no possibility of continuity, and it's difficult to plan music as sometimes (as at the moment) I end up doing several weeks because my colleague is away. I'm probably going to quietly withdraw once he's back!
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1 hour ago, Choir Man said:
Does anyone know who is building the replacement?
Apparently the previous organ was free to anyone who could come to collect it: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17418488.remember-magdalen-college-gave-organ-away-free/
This is an old news item about the disposal of the instrument prior to the Mander in 1985.
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I don't understand what this thread is about?
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19 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:
Indeed, to my mind, it's a very generous donation and in addition to Tony's point about the original plans for the pipe organ, this is REPLACING an existing digital instrument. And isn't it getting just a little bit boring to hear reference to 'toasters' at every turn? Digital organs have kept a lot of organists going over the last 18 months and those that are properly and professionally installed (as I am sure most are these days) provide a lot of pleasure for organists, choirs and congregations that can't always afford maintenance or like-for-like replacement of their very expensive pipe organs.
There is now a piece about this on the Church Organ World website that clarifies any points.
Absolutely. Well said.
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Very saddened to learn of the sudden death on Friday, of Martin Schellenberg, DOM at Beaminster Parish Church, formerly at Christchurch Priory and before that, Assistant at Bristol Cathedral. He was 62, and passed away at the Beaminster organ just before the first choir rehearsal after lifting of restrictions.
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I am SO glad my organ playing days are over!! I missed it at first but I could not cope with all these rules and regulations as to how we are "allowed" to worship!
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Sorry. This is all total balderdash. I am honestly glad I am out of the UK church music scene. I now live (and play occasionally) in France, where masked singing has been allowed since churches reopened. AND as for following "guidance" from a load of idiots who couldn't guide water out of a sieve.....!
The Royal Jubilee Service
in General discussion
Posted
Totally off-topic, I have just tried to PM but got the reply "S_L cannot receive messages" and I've mislaid your email address!