andrewm

In relation to both this and the post above it regarding a new ADoM at Llandaff, it seems that things are looking more optimistic there with the announcement of a new Chapter Clerk/Chief Executive who describes himself as being "a cathedral musician full and part-time since the age of 8"

This looks like an excellent appointment, a very talented musician and organist.

I did mean to share a recollection when I first saw this news but time ran away with me. Richard Lloyd was my Grade 8 piano examiner so I only met him for the short duration of that exam and from what I remember he was very pleasant and I thought very fair as an examiner. Nothing particularly memorable about this part of the story but more the events leading up to my exam. I was a songman at Beverley Minster at the time and Alan Spedding, who also sadly died just a few years ago) was my choirmaster and also organ teacher. His wife was my piano teacher and dragged me and my minimal practice regime to the point where I was just about ready for the exam. In the run up to the exam she persuaded Alan, who was also an ABRSM examiner, to do a mock exam with her three grade 8 candidates. My Bach Gigue was not quite up to scratch but I could just about get through it at a very steady tempo. In his feedback Alan totally approved of my tempo much to his wife's disgust and the comment was made that only an organist would think that tempo was appropriate. Anyway after my last lesson before the exam I still hadn't quite got the tempo up and the comment was made again that I would only pass that piece if the examiner was another organist....well fate dealt me a kind blow when I walked into the exam room and I realised who my examiner was! I did in fact pass that piece and the whole exam with very positive comments about the tempo of my Bach!!

Can anyone identify who is playing?

Good to see things are on a more stable footing again at Llandaff https://www.llandaffcathedral.org.uk/work-with-us/

Yes definitely St Edmundsbury. If you watch any of William Saunders’ videos from there you can see the console is the same (the clue to me was the stuck on notice below the stops of the right hand jamb.

The advert for the Bangor post doesn’t tell you much and there’s nothing on their website. Is it full/part time, salary, services per week.

There's a fabulous recording from Everingham called Handel to Wesley recorded by Alan Spedding in 2004 http://www.amphion-recordings.com/phicd211.html A search on NPOR lists three organs in the village which must be a record for a village with a population of just 300 (can anyone else find a larger number of organs per head of population.....I know the nearby town of Beverley is supposed to have the highest number of pubs per head, I should know I used to drink in most of them). The Allen organ is in a private RC chapel but there is also the parish church and a private residence called the Coffee House in the village which as far as I can make out is the house of John Scott Whitely.

Master of the Music job at Westminster Cathedral has now been advertised: https://jobs.churchtimes.co.uk/jobs/Master-of-Music-in-London-and-Home-Counties-jn8906

Try a search for "composer anniversaries" and that brings up a good few sources: https://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/ChoralWiki:2021_Anniversaries https://soclassiq.com/en/commemorations/Classical_music_history_%3A_2021_(Commemorations)/yy/2021/ https://www.ricordi.com/en-US/Composers/Anniversaries/Anniversaries-2021.aspx These are the first three results but there are many others. These tend to have just significant anniversaries but it's a good starting place and in the past I've tended to make a note of those composers of choral and organ music and make a conscious effort to include some of their works in my programming for the year.

Another thought, simply because the composers were Scottish based would be pieces by Leighton or Hollins.

Two very straightforward pieces I’ve used before are James MacMillan’s White Note Paraphrase and then I have a guitar arrangement of Maxwell Davies’ Farewell to Stromness which works really well on organ.

I do find the use of the word Minster over-done now even if it does signify some kind of mother church in a particular area. It’s most associated, although not exclusively, with the north east of England and while I can see why Southwell might want to distinguish themselves as a cathedral church from other Minster churches, York Minster for example would never be mistaken for anything else and Lincoln is also referred to as a minster.

The offer to also watch via the QR code has a rather unfortunate spelling in Dutch!

The descant to Coe Fen was out of this world. I particularly enjoyed the introduction to the hymn interrupting the dean’s announcement!