Hebridean

Removed

This is the RAH's own online archive entry https://catalogue.royalalberthall.com/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=DS%2FUK%2F1614 Interesting connection to St Patrick's, Dundalk

removed

At first glance, this database from the Organ Historical Society suggests that there are three 'Father' Willis organs in the US (there are four entries but I think two refer to the same organ). https://pipeorgandatabase.org/organs?builderID=6783 Aside from the organ in St Joseph's, Seattle, the database suggests there is another in Oahu - however, digging into the entry a bit more indicates that the instrument was purchased from Henry Willis & Sons in the ?1950s and is actually by an 'unknown builder'. It also suggests that the Oahu organ is 'playable' but not 'usable', which is possibly a comment that could be applied to a number of other instruments ...

It looks like its new owners are very proud of it, as it forms the header picture to their Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/138074444@N08/albums/

Very cheerful, thank you - especially the first piece, despite its title!

The copyright of the work, according to p3, lies with Dulcet Media. There is an entry for a Dulcet Media Ltd on Companies House, which includes a correspondence address. I am not sure, of course, if it is the same company as the copyright holder. MM discloses his own name in this thread on this forum.

And also Dr Christopher Kent, organist, appointed BEM, for services to music and musicology.

Very nice, thank you for posting - a little insight (or in-sound) into accompanimental history! Slower than today (or rather, slower than I play them!) Interesting to hear the 'swoop' in the verse of Adeste fideles, obviously the swoop has quite a pedigree of its own! I'd hesitate to change dynamic so much in hymns as Mr Dixon did, but perhaps that was much more the norm then!

Lovely, Dr Pykett! Perhaps the macaronic text invites responses from a broad range of influences!

This thread has been quite a challenge recently - I had a certain set of reactions when I first read the proposed specification, and then these feelings were followed by confusion and doubt as questions were raised (and I understand why) about the proposal's authenticity. Now, the veracity of the proposals has been established and members are starting to ask technical questions, on James Atherton's invitation. Quite a journey, to use that cliché. However, it does mean that I can go back to my original reaction and feeling when I read the specification, and considered the rationale which Nicholson's have helpfully provided. That is, I think it is a truly imaginative and forward-thinking design that seems to me to take UK organ building in a very stimulating direction. There is so much from the past - the design of the Chaire organ, the use of the polyphone, the inspiration from Cavaillé-Coll, to take just some obvious examples. But these ideas and practices from the past are being brought together in a new combination, together with modern ideas and skills, in a unique situation and to address specific requirements and challenges. The design shows a willingness to embrace and combine good ideas even if they may not be, or have been, regarded in some quarters as technically 'correct'. I think this is genuinely innovative and, whilst I obviously 'get' the fact that we need to hear what the organ sounds like in a couple of years' time, I think at this stage, the builders, the cathedral musicians and the cathedral's wider community should be applauded for their vision and imagination. Bravo.

Phew, thank you, Rowland. The music from the pipers at both services was amazingly moving, in my humble opinion. The pipes are just perfect instruments for laments.

I don’t know anything about The Crown but I am puzzled no one seems to remember the piper playing significantly above ground level at the funeral of Her Late Majesty in Westminster Abbey. Recording on YouTube. I think he played ‘Sleep, dearie, sleep’. Did I imagine it?

I thought this was really lovely, thank you very much for posting it.

Very good!

I did see about 3 minutes of this service, at exactly the point which Martin describes, namely the hammering (I can't think of a better word) of the organ case by the bishop, with his crozier. Not only did I think this very inappropriate but his injunction, addressed to the organ, which I think was 'Awake!' seemed - if I may say so, bizarre in the extreme. I tuned out!

Yes, I spotted that too. The NPOR seems quite certain where the nave division will go, but perhaps it has turned out to be not quite so straightforward: https://www.npor.org.uk/survey/R01626

I am very grateful to jonadkins for pointing me in the direction of this archive, which I did not previously know. There are some really beautiful performances and I have so much enjoyed delving into the collection. Thank you.

I am probably going to sound very ignorant here but are we not missing a key point? Isn't the reason that the RAH performers for the Remembrance Day festival were using microphones the same reason as Dame Nellie Melba was using one, i.e., because the performance was being broadcast? On radio in the second instance, on TV in the first? I am assuming that S_L's performance was not being broadcast - broadcasts of the Proms, for example, use (orchestral )microphones. I have no idea if this article is correct or not, but it certainly suggests the complexity of recording the Proms in the RAH https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/bbc-proms#:~:text=The Radio Tree%2C comprising a,from a single catenary wire. I may be well out of my depth ...

You are very welcome! I have to say that having used Laudate for many years now, I have never been called upon to play Langlais' hymn tune - but at least it is there!

Jean Langlais' hymn tune Dieu, nous avons vu, to "God, your glory we have seen in your Son" is alive and well in possibly the most popular Catholic hymn book in England, Laudate. It is number 758.

I don't think I have the historical knowledge to answer your question satisfactorily, Peter but I am sure another member of this forum will have the requisite background. A look at Laurence Elvin's Pipes and Actions, reveals a few specifications from Conacher organs of around 1909 including Huddersfield (Anglican) parish church from 1908. None look directly related to yours, as far as I can see - none have a 'Dulcis' on the choir or a Tromba on the Swell, to note two of the slightly unusual features. Elvin does tell us that the fire occurred on 23 July 1910 (a Saturday) and that it destroyed the factory. Your organ is one a quite a few listed by the Imperial War Museum as a war memorial, I noticed - although it looks like the IWM entry is not up to date: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/2834

I suppose the most obvious ones, which perhaps you skipped over as being too obvious, are the many arrangements of the Wedding March from Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

What a fascinating site, Peter, thanks very much for linking it!

One of Jeanne Demessieux's 'chorals ornés' in the collection Twelve Chorale Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes for Organ (Summy-Birchard Music, 1950 and then 1995) is on Rorate caeli. It may not be a final voluntary, but might work well before a service.