Dafydd y Garreg Wen

Norman Cocker was quite open and unashamed about doing both, but he was a bit of a one-off generally, so perhaps not typical.

The current Church in Wales advice, issued following government permission (largely theoretical) to resume congregational singing, addresses these points: Particular care should be taken to ensure that a full 2-metre distance is maintained between all households at all times. For this reason, we advise against singing in procession at this time. Congregations must remain masked to sing. For those who find this uncomfortable, a number of places now sell face coverings designed for singers, with an internal frame to keep the fabric a few centimetres away from the mouth. https://churchinwales.contentfiles.net/media/documents/Singing_guidance_for_website_22_June_2021.pdf

Or even Australia.

My flabber is well and truly gasted. What an extraordinary specification (2005/2016).

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Almost word for word the reaction when, as a teenager, a friend proudly played after a service the piece he had just learned - Apparition de l'église éternelle. That was in Yorkshire too. Whether it was from a tenor history does not record.

Haven't read the small print yet (apart from the bit that says tenors are dangerous) but the Welsh Government is reported to be relaxing restrictions: “Covid: Church congregations allowed to sing with masks” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57540221

Op. 105 is an excellent collection (especially if you like Gibbons). In terms of musical quality it perhaps has the edge on Op. 101. Like the other volume it alternates soft and loud pieces. Of the latter, nos 2 and 4 are straightforward. No 6 is a much more substantial piece; indeed it feels a little out of place, as there is nothing else on that scale in either of the two volumes. It’s not difficult, but would take more learning than anything else in the two books: well worth putting in the effort, however. The music is long out of copyright and available on line if you want to check it: https://imslp.org/wiki/6_Short_Preludes_and_Postludes%2C_Op.105_(Stanford%2C_Charles_Villiers) (I'm assuming above that you’re looking for louder pieces as out voluntaries, though of course there’s nothing to stop you playing a quiet piece occasionally (or a loud one before the service) by way of a change ….)

Presumably the distinction isn’t between singing at sporting events (allowed) and between congregational singing (forbidden), but between outdoors and indoors. I haven’t checked the English regulations but here in Wales outdoor singing is allowed and we have thus had congregational singing locally at open air services (even in the rain!). Now the weather is better I have wondered about suggesting that congregations that want to sing meet to sing two or three appropriate hymns outside the church before or after the service (rather as the Elizabethan Injunctions envisaged the use of metrical psalms - for those who like historical precedents ….)

Well, that’s the trouble with modern risk management methods. The theory all sounds fine on the training course and in the boardroom, but when it meets reality it starts throwing up all sorts of anomalies (some of which may even turn out to be highly dangerous despite being “approved” by the process).

Not really, though it does sound bizarre if you phrase it that way. Normal risk management deems different levels of risk tolerable depending on circumstances, and that approach applies whether you’re dealing with and epidemic or anything else. In this case a higher level of risk is deemed acceptable when it’s a matter of earning a living (with the caveat that measures must be put in place to “mitigate” that risk). That judgement may or may not be correct, but it’s not illogical.

Bangor Cathedral got like that in the years before it was finally rebuilt by David Wells, Compton spares being hard to come by.

Thank you!

Thank you again. The unison mass sounds as if it would be a useful addition to the repertoire. I’m sure board members would be interested to hear of anything else you unearth when you get a chance to go excavating.

Indeed. May he rest in peace. A great loss. What sticks most in my mind is the meticulous way he would prepare everything he played, even voluntaries for the most humdrum of services where a small congregation might have little or no appreciation of music. Only the very highest standard was good enough.

Thank you. That’s very interesting. As you say, if choral music was his priority that would explain why he didn’t publish any other organ music, but it was the quality of the 7/4 Prelude that made me wonder whether he wrote more, if only as a private thing for his own personal interest. Do any of his choral pieces have a developed organ accompaniment? His (published) requiem in D flat is a capella, isn’t it? (Incidentally, since the Prelude is one of the few pieces written in 7/4 up to that date, Vale would seem to have been quite a forward looking musician.)

It reminds me of a Howells psalm prelude, not least in its structure, starting quiet, gradual crescendo to a climax, then dying away, but the harmonic language is more that of an admirer of Rachmaninov (which Vale certainly was). It’s a bit different, so as Paul Isom says is worth a punt, even if lacking that certain something that would make it a really attractive work. Accomplished writing for the instrument, which makes it odd that nothing else was published. Vale must surely have written other organ music to reach that level of proficiency. I wonder whether there are any unpublished manuscripts.

“Inimitable” is, I think, the technical term for the late Mr Bicknell’s style. I wonder how literally we should take his specification for Walker’s for S. John’s. The point about a smaller instrument is well made, but is that really the absolute maximum? For instance, it’s all very well to denigrate “party horns”, but there’s a fair amount of quite decent repertoire, both solo and choral, which requires a loud reed. It would be odd if such pieces were virtually unperformable at a place like S. John’s.

In British usage I/II/III usually reflects the relatively “importance” (for want of a better word) of the division, rather than the physical layout of the instrument. Thus I=Great, II=Swell, III=Choir, IV=Solo (though I’m sure people will be able to cite examples that don’t fit this ...). So there’s no relationship to the position of the various keyboards, which is (as you imply) normally Choir in the lowest place, Great above it, then Swell, then Solo.

“Disgusting but great fun” - a description that could apply to quite a few organ pieces.

Thank you.

Selected Pieces looks very good value. How many are for organ? There is a two C.D. set Autumn Sequence - The Music of Douglas Steele and his circle issued by Campion Cameo. Reviewed here: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/aug05/Steele_autumn_cameo204041.htm The organ pieces are rather close miked. For my taste could do with a bit more space to let them breathe (not a criticism of the playing).

Yes, that’s right. I remember now. Apologies for muddying the waters. Anton Rubinstein (not Arthur) of course,

Welcome likewise. The niece of a local organist long deceased always mentions your grandfather’s Russian Patrol whenever I see her, so it evidently made an abiding impression on her. It was a piece her uncle enjoyed including in recitals. I think she would like me to play it for her for old time’s sake, but I’ve never come across a score.

If anyone’s interested in the origins of the phrase .... “Mote” is the present tense of the verb of which “must” is the past tense. When “must” began to be used in a present sense it elbowed out the old present “mote”. In Middle English ”so mote it be” is a purely conventional rendering of “Amen”, and that’s no doubt why the Halliwell MS uses it. It didn’t originally have the esoteric significance it has acquired, and indeed it continued to be used as a mere archaism (with no Masonic or other ritual implications) into the nineteenth century.