John Robinson
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Posts posted by John Robinson
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I have always felt (vaguely) that an instrument which needs kilowatts of power drawn from a sophisticated supply system is somehow an embarrassment in musical terms. Does this partly explain why the organ is sidelined to some degree, and why it is sometimes an object of amusement or even ridicule to other musicians, especially when electric actions go wrong let alone the blower. (Electric actions also need the National Grid remember - they won't run on batteries). Hence jibes such as "whoever heard of a violin/oboe/trumpet played by an electric action?"
Just about every pop group in the country must be held in derision, then!
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Santa gave me a copy of this book the other day, which I have now begun to read. I'm just at the chapter about his army service in the war, and the impression is that not only does he seem to have led a very interesting and productive life but that he is quite a down to earth person with no pretensions of superiority. What a nice chap.
I'd firmly recommend this book.
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Thanks SlovOrg, for putting that link to my blog. And I agree, firstrees, it LOOKS absolutely fabulous. I'm going to get to play it next April, on a RCO Diploma study course. Can't wait!
And hello all, I'm a newbie here and this is my first post. Looking forward to meeting you
Morwenna
I'd just like to say that it's nice to see the occasional lady on here!
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I particularly like the colour scheme and especially the pipe shades upon which more colour becomes visible as you move over to the sides.
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Hornpipe humoresque would be slightly inappropriate here, I suppose!
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"...containing a few hundred pipes dating from 1664 and 1764..."
These, of course, would be irreplaceable. I really hope there is some sort of effective fire-suppression system in place, preferably something harmless like carbon dioxide.
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Regarding the Wells edition, I have not seen it yet. I might watch it tonight. However, apparently at one point an interviewee states that the cathedral staff were very friendly - which I found odd. I found the vergers (on the two occasions that I had to play for visiting choirs) to be the least friendly and helpful I have ever encountered.How unfortunate. Surely, if this is typical of the 'welcome' visiting choirs and organists receive, I can see Wells becoming a musical desert in time.
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Indeed, and Francis Jackson is certainly a legend which I'm sure I shall never see the equal of in my lifetime.
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Yes I remember that on the telly - was it last Christmas?
I do remember my wife jumping and spilling her coffee at that point!
(Edit: Just noticed it was 2007: I'm not very observant, I'm afraid. How time flies!)
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MM wrote :I have been going through hundreds of old slides recently, and converting them to digital images as a way of preserving them.
That is only a temporary step. Some of the old photographic prints have survived for more than a century and remain in good condition, and printed material on good quality paper has a life measured in centuries.
Digital media can be very shortlived, for example recordable CDs may become unreadable within 5 years, and we don't know how long other media will last. There is also the issue of the technology that can access these media. In 1986 the BBC started the Domesday Project, with data collected on BBC micros and transferred to a laser disk. Only 15 years later there were no readers capable of handling the data, and an engineer had almost to reinvent some of the system to make the data accessible. Who has a punched card reader, who can read computer tapes from 20 years ago, who can read 8 inch floppy disks, 5 1/4 floppies, or 3 1/2 floppies. CDs for computer storage already show signs that they will soon be on the way out.
So, to preserve data on digital media it is necessary to recopy them from time to time well within the life expectancy of the media, and to retransfer them from older to newer media when technology changes.
This is perfectly true, of course, but the big advantage of doing so is that, being digital, they can be copied ad infinitum without degradation of quality. Obviously, the safest thing to do would be to keep at least two, and better still several, copies on different media just in case of failure.
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Good to hear that things seem to move on in Canterbury.
Only one question, provocative perhaps: Who needs all those manuals in an organ with electric action, where it should be no problem to assign and re-assign keyboards and divisions by pressing the stepper?
Best,
Friedrich
One-upmanship? A bit like Atlantic City.
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I think the new cases look much nicer than the old ones.
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As far as I'm aware, in those days everybody worked on local time which depended on whereabouts you lived. On that basis, I think he probably died at lots of different times (although only the once, of course)!
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“She was only the Organist’s Daughter,
But our Dietrich couldn’t do as he oughta
And wed her to Handel,
Preventing a scandal:
He’d not go, like a lamb to the slaughter.”
Excellent!
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Pen-and-ink drawing by Martin Cottam (as seen in 'Organists' Review'). Quite brilliant, I think, as are his other works.
http://www.martincottam.co.uk/viewgallery.php?gallery=pen_and_ink&start=2
Yes, I think I see the dilemma. Still, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say.
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Didn't I read somewhere that Buxtehude had problems marrying off his daughter because, shall we say, she wasn't the most attractive one going? Or am I confusing him with someone else?
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You've given the answer yourself!
Your present 'carillon' appears to have lasted for about 34 years.
Spend (presumably) over £10,000 on a new one and it will probably last you another 34 years.
Get a real bell. If you find you have another £10,000 after 34 years, it will still be going strong and you'll be able to buy another bell (if you find somewhere to put it)!
Also, as has been said, a peal of twelve bells coming from nowhere would just sound daft.
(Similar reasons should, of course, discourage the purchase of toasters but it doesn't seem to, I'm afraid.)
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This well know drawing would suggest sensible shoes with a bit of a heel and a shiny brass buckle on top!
Good heavens! Is he really playing with his left HEEL?
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I couldn't agree more with the above sentiments about encouraging anyone interested to 'have a go'.
What I cannot understand is how some organists are so very over-protective of their instruments and then bleat about the lack of interest in the organ amongst young (and not so young) people.
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Another way to record anything that uses one's computer soundcard is Total Recorder, which can be downloaded from...
A one-off fee is payable
Eighteen dollars! That's nearly TWELVE WHOLE ENGLISH POUNDS!
But thanks anyway.
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I've just been listening to this on BBC iPlayer. Excellent. The instrument (and player, of course) sounded wonderful and the hall did not seem as 'dead' as I expected it to be.
In fact, I enjoyed the recital so much that I wondered whether I could possibly record it. As I'm sure you all know, the BBC doesn't like people to record its iPlayer music, and I think this is reflected in the lack of provision of any certain way of getting around it, or at least I wasn't able to find any on the internet.
But then, where there's a will there's a way. I just plugged my minidisc player/recorder into the headphone socket of my laptop and it recorded beautifully. Sometimes the simplest ways are the best!
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The scheme proposed by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll would have been entirely appropriate and aurally stunning. It is a great pity that it was never realised.
Yes, I've seen that scheme. The organ would have been sited at the west end of the nave, which makes me wonder whether (however powerful) the sound might be lost to some extent under the large dome and beyond.
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Probably better not to speculate - one could go on for ever. All of it as likely as a decent organ in St. Peter's, Rome.That made me think. Why have they never installed a large organ there? It surely can't be lack of funds!
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Sad news. I'm sure we all send our commiserations to FJ.
St Michael Zwolle
in General discussion
Posted
Does Holland have anything comparable to our 'National Heritage' system that might apply to such organs of historical interest? I can't imagine that any government with an ounce of common sense would allow any such thing to be lost.