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OrganistOnTheHill

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Everything posted by OrganistOnTheHill

  1. Thank you very much all for the insightful replies! I have been trying to get an idea on everything really. As in-person visitations have been cancelled, I am trying to be as well unformed as I can be. I look forward to any other additional replies that may come through and I thank you all!
  2. Hello S_L, I am indeed considering the Oxbridge organ scholar route! This is the list I've arrived at after eliminating 3 or so from this year's vacancies. In an ideal world where I possess organ-playing superpowers, I would've applied to (dare I say) King's or Gonville & Caius. However, in reality, I am neither naturally talented at the organ, nor do I have the necessary experience on the organ (I won't be taking a gap year at a cathedral or anything along those lines), so I decided to choose the colleges with a fairly light workload. I am hoping to read History or History & Modern Languages. 🙂
  3. It's good to be back on the forum after such a hiatus! I hope everyone is well. I was wondering what the honourable members of this forum thought about the organs at the following Cambridge colleges? 1. Christ's College 2. Emmanuel College 3. Pembroke College 4. Selwyn College 5. Peterhouse College 6. Corpus Christi College Thank you very much! Regards,
  4. Thank you for the advice! I am practicing quite a lot since the Bach isn’t quite ‘well-going’ compared to my other two pieces. I am playing the first movement of the Bach Trio Sonata No.1 BWV525, Nun danket alle Gott by Karg-Elert and Toccata Primi Toni by Sark. I transpose three hymns every practice session, sight read from C.S.Lang’s ARCO book and practice all exam material. I just have to polish up my left hand-pedal scales, scales in sixth and Bach Trio Sonata!
  5. My exam is in two weeks time! (a frightening thought....) Any advice for transposition, sight-reading, days leading up to exam and the on the actual exam day?
  6. Thats odd? The very accomplished organist at my school, whom I am mistaken for often, according to him applied to all the 'hard' colleges at Oxford and did not get any offers. He is very talented and hard-working with a distinction in grade 8 and working on his ARCO, I believe. Apparently his year was quite a challenging year with many talented?
  7. I apologise for my hiatus. I have been working on my Grade 8 repertoire recently for my upcoming examination.... I promise my 'enthusiastic' and more creative posts will follow up in the coming year of 2019! I wish to fulfil my 'all-around-UK-church organ trips'!
  8. I must definitely make this as a bucket-list of organs to play! Thank you for the excellent contribution!
  9. Dear all, I wish to compose a relatively easy choral piece for the school choir and organ for fun and also a possible submission to the inter-school composition competition. Where could I find sacred texts to base my choral melody on?
  10. Thank you for the excellent advice, Mr Cooke! I shall take that into note.
  11. Recently I have been enjoying going through amazing English organs on the list! I thought that with some pocket money I could save up and go around England playing a variety of organs. I have been stuck to only my school organs and have not had much time exploring England as I wish to. Could anyone recommend some nice places around England reachable by train with a church that would let you play the organ? P.S. Looking for an approachable church with a pipe organ in London that would let you practice. I need to find an organ to practice during school exeat. Would not mind paying a small fee if necessary.
  12. There is the Copland Fanfare for the Common Man, which has been made playable on the organ. There is a fantastic performance of it at St John the Divine in NY using their State Trumpets on the 'west end'. (I cannot recall if it was east or west end).
  13. This is an excellent Fanfare by Craig Penfield, who uploads his compositions by playing it on an old Berlin reed organ but this Fanfare is my favourite!
  14. I do have the old OUP An Album of Praise. I am doing Peeters' work for my examination. Half way through the first page, the repeated section where the right hand plays two chords while a melody is played with the left hand, I was told to use the trumpet stop for the melody. The Tuba stop is very loud and the situation of the stop doesn't really help because it is situated right across the old choir stalls which is on the second floor (more of an elevated platform with the organ/organ console/choir stalls). The tuba stop blares right behind you and towards you from 10 feet away.
  15. Thank you for the excellent lists David and Paul. Certainly heard of some of them. I think we have missed out Mathias' Fanfare! That is an interesting observation of the CH five manual beast! Tuba at both ends is a luxury.
  16. Through the fanfares, I have come to appreciate the works of Whitlock, who shares the same enthusiasn for the tuba stop as myself and Dr Francis Jackson of York Minster. I discovered Fanfare for John Bradley in an old OUP music collecting dust at the loft and went on to discover more of his fantastic works.
  17. During my time at the ole' console, I have grown fond of the trumpet and the tuba stop and developed a taste/preference towards loud and festive pieces on the organ. I know many organ fanfares feature the loud Tuba or Trumpet stop but I am sure that there are many other pieces out there which use the tuba/trumpet stop. Are there any pieces you know that feature the trumpet/tuba stop that I am missing out on? Some tuba/trumpet stop pieces I know: Tuba Tune, C S Lang Archbishop's Fanfare, Dr F. Jackson Tuba Tune, N. Cocker Tuba Magna, J. Madden Festive Trumpet Tune, D. German Trumpet Tunes, D. Johnson Te Deum, Charpentier Trumpet Voluntary, Jeremiah
  18. I think one of the features of being an organist is that you need some kind of small repertoire of short pieces that you should be able to play on demand. Well, maybe not so for the talented organists who have the ultimate ability of being able to improvise any themes/pieces on the spot.... I look forward to my organ career in the future (few months or maybe next year) that I may be needed at a few services at chapel. (That is if my playing improves, hopefully!) A regular morning service starts off with the congregation coming in and being hush-ed down by schoolmasters while the organist plays a prelude (I think its usually improvised?) and a hymn (hymns on the Sunday worship). The relatively quick morning service ends with a postlude usually quite grand and loud. I recall one service, Crown Imperial, was played by my teacher. It was absolutely fantastic! I am looking for some short pieces that are ideal as postludes and preludes!
  19. Gower's Walton album states that the Crown Imperial was from the Murrill edition. I have an old OUP Crown Imperial (the one with the green cover) that I found at the organ loft and compared it to the edition in Gower album but I found some minor differences while playing both editions. Maybe it might be a mistake on my note....
  20. What are some good cuts for Crown Imperial by Walton? Also is the Gower edition different from the Murrill Edition?
  21. Is there a pipe organ in the St Edwards School in Oxford?
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