Dafydd y Garreg Wen
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Posts posted by Dafydd y Garreg Wen
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22 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:
It really doesn't matter but there are two lots of two albums with the word 'easy' in the title. 'Easy Modern Organ Music' in two volumes, and 'An Easy Album for Organ' which was followed later with 'A Second Easy Album for Organ', which is the one with the Drayton, Rutter, Ridout, Lord etc contributions.
Thank you for the clarification. You’re absolutely right. I must never have looked at the cover very closely, because all these years, having only one of the four, I’ve been thinking that what I had was the second volume of E.M.O.M.!!
I originally bought it because a choir member was fond of Rutter, so I thought she might appreciate the toccata. I then found the other pieces worthwhile.
O.U.P. albums of that era are very confusing - so many similar titles - though they contain some good music
Thank you (and to John F.) for the Ridout recommendations.
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35 minutes ago, Martin Cooke said:
Dafydd, that's actually a different 'easy' volume from OUP
I did say it was the second volume!
I see O.U.P. now sell both first and second combined into a single volume.
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On 16/02/2022 at 10:50, Martin Cooke said:
And thinking of OUP... the article in Organists' Review this month has caused me to dig out all my Modern Organ Music albums from the 60s and 70s but so far, I haven't felt moved to tackle anything new, despite it being an incredibly positive, well-written and encouraging article!
As things stand, I play the Mathias and (most of) the Preston in Volume 1. I don't enjoy the Leighton Paean enough to give it the time it would warrant, which just leaves the Mushel in Volume 2 - (which I had anyway!) - and Volume 3 is beyond my scope and leaves me pretty flat. In the Easy volumes, I don't regularly play anything except the Mathias Chorale, but I have played the Leighton Fanfare in the past and also the Peter Racine Fricker Trio.
Hadn’t realised there was a third volume of Modern Organ Music! Haven’t seen the O.R. article yet but the Mathias, Preston, Leighton and Mushel rather stand out from the crowd - never been tempted by the rest, but perhaps board members have recommendations from among them ….
I only have the second Easy volume. The Lord Interlude seems pretty pointless, but the other four pieces are useful. I’m not usually a fan of Ridout but his perky Scherzo is an exception. The Drayton Pavane reminds me of Vaughan Williams’ Job; pity he hasn’t written much organ music - his website lists three other works (apparently unpublished) among “selected” compositions:
https://www.pauldraytoncomposer.com/selected-works/
The only other Ridout piece that ever caught my attention was Jacob and the Angel - another work that, as far I can see, has never been published (in its solo organ version at least).
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38 minutes ago, Colin Pykett said:
[…] pushing microphones close up to the instruments, singers or studio announcers to produce sounds which are never actually encountered in reality. It's laughable that we are subjected to the audio minutiae of the vocal tracts of DJs between records. You can hear their respiratory and articulatory mechanisms operating in a way that you never would in everyday life - we would seldom think of pushing our ears to within a few centimetres of people's lips, and similarly for musical instruments. It's also the reason why speech seldom sounds natural on recordings or radio broadcasts because propagation distance from source to ear is important in forming perceptions, both for speech and music. Our brains evolved the means to estimate range of a sound as a survival tool, and it's therefore important not to throw the distance cues away if recordings are to sound natural.
Very valid points.
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On 12/01/2022 at 09:52, Martin Cooke said:
What are fellow organists playing by way of tribute? I will admit that I don't play very much FJ, but the two hymn preludes on Ireland's Love unknown and on his own East Acklam, are within my scope but neither is very seasonal just now, though East Acklam was originally written for the words God that madest earth and heaven rather than For the fruits so it could be suitable for Evensong. I am going to go for the Chorale from Toccata, Chorale and Fugue and the Improvisation on a chant by John Goss which has been recently published to mark FJ's 104th birthday.
I’m not playing this Sunday, but shall play the Prelude for a Solemn Occasion when I’m next on duty.
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1 hour ago, Rowland Wateridge said:
Although SS had a reputation for being parsimonious, according to Paul Chappell’s excellent biography, the Wesleys lived in some style.
Perhaps not entirely a contradiction if he lived in some style but his income was limited!
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6 minutes ago, Rowland Wateridge said:
Racking my brain for more cathedral organist knighthoods, I drew a blank, but as examples from the ‘Wabbey’ have been allowed, and, as with Goss, going back as far as the 19th century, there was Sir Frederick Bridge. As VH has pointed out these were probably due to the Royal connection, as also Sir George Elvey at Windsor.
S.S. Wesley (with no royal connections, save for having sung in the Chapel Royal as a boy) was offered the choice of a knighthood or a civil list pension for life. Being somewhat hard-nosed he had no hesitation in choosing the latter, tho’ he didn’t live to enjoy it for long. (Was not his widow, unusually, allowed to keep it as a special favour?)
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5 hours ago, Adnosad said:
totally antediluvian shebang
More totally antediluvian shebangs, please!!
Blwyddyn newydd dda / Happy New Year to all.
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4 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:
Candlemas - I always struggle a bit with this.
The first two pieces in Guilmant’s op.65 Organiste Liturgique are worth an outing, in particular the perky Offertoire. Both are based on the Nunc Dimittis antiphon proper to this feast, “Lumen ad revelationem”:
https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/d/d7/IMSLP03924-GuilmantL'OrganisteLiturgisteLivre1Op65.pdf
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3 hours ago, Adnosad said:
In this flyblown little island
Leaving aside the question of island mentality, I do wonder why people like to describe Great Britain as “little” island. As islands go, it’s on the large side: there are only eight larger islands in earth.
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On 09/12/2021 at 19:51, Christopher Brown said:
If you're going to deconstruct the cost/benefit of organs in this way, why not extend it to the church as a whole...?
Or indeed anything/everything in life?
In the long run, we’re all dead, as Keynes cheerfully pointed out.
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12 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:
I love the ending but have seen it questioned as to why Wesley chose to write this in penitential style instead of rejoicing over the fact that 'sorrow and sighing shall flee away.'
Strikes me that Wesley meant the ending to be gentle and consolatory, rather than penitential. The effect of banishing sorrow and sighing being viewed as peace and calm, rather than (say) rambunctious jollity. Given Wesley’s troubled nature I can imagine that idea appealing to him, though it’s not the obvious way to set the text.
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1 hour ago, Martin Cooke said:
Ha! Dafydd - (and... in passing... I very much enjoyed playing 'your piece' arranged by George Towers as part of my pre-service music on Sunday) -
That really is a super arrangement. Incredibly atmospheric. I don’t know whether George Towers was familiar with the area, but for me it beautifully evokes the mist rising off the sea and drifting across the marshes at Ynyscynhaearn. Shivers down the spine stuff.
1 hour ago, Martin Cooke said:well, I spotted a volume of Micheelsen CPs on eBay and paid quite a price for them! I must re-examine them but, having played through them twice, I can't help feeling none were really as useful or listenable as L den H. But... I keep an open mind and would welcome direction to more of his organ music.
I think I did find a few volumes on sale but balked at the cost. A shame you didn’t find any gems. Still, better to be a one hit wonder than a none hit wonder ….
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23 minutes ago, Martin Cooke said:
chorale preludes on Lobe den Herren. That by Micheelsen comes to mind especially - (a piece I enjoyed as a teenager, but will I enjoy it so much in my mid-60's?! And more importantly, will the congregation?)
In a similar way I revisited this piece a few years ago after many years (it caught my eye in that volume when I was a teenager too). Not sure what the congregation made of it, but I enjoyed it.
On the strength of that I looked into the composer. He produced several volumes of chorale preludes, but I couldn’t track down a copy of any of them. If the pieces are as good as L. den H. (a bit different but not too different to frighten the horses) they would be worth acquiring. Has anyone here played any other Micheelsen?
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2 hours ago, Johannes Riponensis said:
The thing vergers carry is a 'virge'.
Or indeed a “verge”, which seems to be earlier attested (according to the O.E.D.).
Presumably, like much Latinate vocabulary, it came into English via French (“verge”) but renaissance scholars “corrected” the spelling to conform with the Latin original.
Lesser institutions may be less scholarly but they have antiquity on their side ….
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Thank you to all for the information about this refrain.
Adapted to the words “Blessed and praised …” as S_L describes it’s pretty much de rigeur nowadays when Anglicans perform Benediction, but I’ve only ever seen it in manuscript copies with home-grown harmonies, lurking on organ consoles, and never attributed to a composer. Occasionally I’ve wondered where it came from. Now I know! -
The British Library catalogue gives 1982 as year of death.
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1 hour ago, OwenTurner said:
There's an interesting point of west end organs with east end choirs not yet mentioned perhaps. Where in the building are you aiming for proper balance? I've never been sure.A dilemma.
Even worse when most of the organ is at the west end, but some of it (and the console) are in the chancel, as at Enville:
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I know of one organ where the 32’ flue goes down to F and stays there. That is, E and the four notes below simply play the F pipe. Down to F you get a genuine note, after that just an “effect”. Perhaps this was something similar.
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45 minutes ago, Adnosad said:
Even a full ring of bells tends to take on the sound of scaffolding falling off the back of a lorry and rolling down the hill. I have in mind here the huge amount of metal swinging about in the tower of Liverpool Cathedral .
Oooh. Fighting talk!
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23 hours ago, Vox Humana said:
although passing notes between the quarters of psalms should be a capital offence
Eeek!
Wonder which of them was playing at that point.
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You’re most welcome.
Incidentally, if this is a final piece (and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be - the “arrival” idea was just a flight of fancy on Beecham’s part) I often find it’s too short. In that case I just nip back from the end of the penultimate bar to b.16.
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For that timing I think I’d probably play to the end of b.42 then go back to the start, ending in b.16 but incorporating the melody as it is in the final bar (b.89).
That gives a reasonable ABA structure, and includes enough of the two-part oboe stuff to ensure that people won’t feel short-changed.
Basil Ramsay - Publisher of Music
in Organ Music
Posted
Agreed - on both points!