John Robinson
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Posts posted by John Robinson
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The next one just the same, but this time there are two of them to distract the organist!
MM
Not even Daniel Roth's 'singing', and then leaning right in front of him to pull a stop on the left jamb, managed to put him off!
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As someone who worked in BBC Radio in "the old days" (forty years ago!), I won't disagree; but I'm so far out of touch now that I can't comment on the attitudes of current staff - isn't it outsourced these days anyway?
I've even still got my training notes with all the guidance on matching announcements and music, and suchlike.
Paul
I'm not sure about attitude. It may well be ability (or lack of it)!
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I can't comment about this particular broadcast, as I haven't heard it. Neither can I comment about BBC radio in general, as I rarely listen to it.
But if, like me, you watch a fair amount of television, I'm sure you'll agree that producing sound at anything like a standardised level is a lost art. It may be my failing memory, but I'm sure they used to do it better in 'the olden days'!
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I'm glad you succeeded ordering the CD!
Let us know what you think of it, eventually. It's the first one with Klais's new west-end Tubas on it (for the BWV 29 Sinfonia, arranged neither by Guilmant nor by Dupré).
Best,
Friedrich
Well, Friedrich, it's arrived and I think it's fantastic! Not a single duff track on it: they are all well worth listening to.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that you (I presume it is you) have written a large and very informative section on the composer! Thank you!
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Which reminds me of that delightful story told by David Frost, about the Methodist Minister, who summed up his sermon with:-
"....so are we going to be awake to the world with the wise virgins,
or are we going to sleep with the unwise virgins?"
MM
I'd go with the latter!
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The one in post 1, I should say.
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I'm glad you succeeded ordering the CD!
Let us know what you think of it, eventually. It's the first one with Klais's new west-end Tubas on it (for the BWV 29 Sinfonia, arranged neither by Guilmant nor by Dupré).
Best,
Friedrich
I certainly shall.
Actually, I believe the west-end tubas feature briefly in the last track of the CD of Vierne, Widor and Langlais masses, unless I am mistaken.
What I would really like to know is which of these tubas is which. I understand that one is brighter in tone than the other, but I don't know which.
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I have been doing some more searching for this CD and eventually found one copy only (!) on Amazon UK. Although it needs to be imported from a seller in Austria, the cost is £18.28 and the postage is only £1.26, so I have ordered it.
That's cheaper than the price from Klais (26 Eur). Also, I have had a reply from them saying that I may only pay by 'wire transfer' for which, I believe, my bank would charge me a lot.
Good old Amazon!
Thanks for your help everyone.
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Dear John,
this is quite peculiar, since the CD is a very recent one. You may find it here on amazon.de. Please contact me privately in case you do not succeed there.
BTW, smashing CD.
Best,
Friedrich
Thanks Friedrich
I have e-mailed Klais, as I do not understand their terms and conditions (in German), to ask whether they will accept an order with payment by credit card. If they don't, I'll get back to you.
Do you happen to know whether Amazon.de accept credit cards from the UK?
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Thank you all for your help. None of these companies seem to stock what I want:
http://www.klais.de/m.php?art=276
Obviously, I 'googled' the product, but without success.
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Does anyone know how I can get hold of organ CDs issued on this label? I have searched the internet, and can find only a couple of sites (Motette's own, and Klais organs) which sell the CD I am looking for. Unfortunately, I do not think either site (in Germany) will accept credit card payment, and I cannot find any seller in the UK. I believe that at one time Priory Records supplied Motette CDs, but there is no sign of that on their current site.
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I know that St Feorge's Hall, Bradford, once famous for a magnificent music acoustic, was refurbished with heavy curtains and thick-pile carpets, and is now more useful as a pop venue than as a classical music venue.
MM
And, of course, the organ has been allowed to deteriorate to the point of being completely unusable.
I'd like to add that I have sung to a large audience at St George's Hall. OK, OK, it was my school's speech day and I was one tiny part of the school choir. It had a very good reputation (before I joined I must admit) under the direction of the late Keith Rhodes.
That was in the good old days when the organ functioned!
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There have been attempts to built concert halls which can accommodate music of various styles. A recent example is the Birmingham Symphony Hall, which has received rave reviews of its acoustics.
Although I have heard an organ recital there, I do not know it well enough to be able to comment on its success (or otherwise) in providing a suitable environment for all different styles of music. The reverberation chambers, when open, can add internal volume to the building, but I am not sure how much of a 'large cathedral' atmosphere these reproduce for some styles of organ music. Certainly it sounded nothing like St Paul's when I was there!
At the other extreme, I wonder how well chamber music sounds there (with the reverberation chamber doors closed, presumably). I suspect, even with its advanced acoustic technology, it would be just too big. Perhaps someone else with more experience can comment further.
I think the ideal would be to arrange to perform music of different styles in venues most suited to those styles. I doubt that we have yet managed to produce a completely 'one size fits all' concert hall.
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Whether or not one likes Carlo Curley's style, I think most of us would agree that he is what we need more of: a genuine and earnest evangelist of the organ and its music.
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Where was the Fantasia on British Sea Songs, my favourite?
This isn't something to do with Brussels, is it?
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GOTTFRIED is the name that comes to mind.
Yes, so says Simon Johnson on the Priory DVD.
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I don't think it's worth talking about rules.
Any 'rules' that do exist in (British) English are invariably broken somewhere or other in the language!
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Brethren... Our new organ is installed, but has arrived minus one essential: a mirror. I have asked for a price for the said mirror and am STAGGERED to be told that a console top mirror will be £450!!!! Cor blimey!! Think of a number!!! Do they really cost that much???
We only need 100 of them and we could have another new organ and still have change to buy a car and some fish and chips....You could buy a simple CCTV system for less than that, which could be more flexible too.
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I think anything ethereal and slow on the Celestes plus a 32' flue makes good chill out music in my book.
Seriously though, the group 'Art of Noise' did an album called 'The Seduction of Claude Debussy'. It's includes all sorts of pop and classical influences. Some of the tracks have quite a wide appeal. It includes the voice of John Hurt in places and any orchstral backing is played by a real orchestra for the album (and arranged by Anne Dudley).
Thanks for those.
I have already sent her my list, not that I expect any of my suggestions will actually get played!
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My former academic partner used to say that there were certain libraries in the UK (and America) which stocked all printed books, and I have a recollection that the Bodleian and Machester were two of them. If that's so, Manchester is safe it would seem. (Does anyone know the facts about this? I am no library expert).
Further to my rant about the state of libraries, the further thought occured that of all subjects, music is the one least likely to be found on line, other than out of copyright music manuscripts. It means that music is now largely beyond the reach of almost all, unless they are prepared to pay vast sums of money or dig around looking for second-hand copies of things still within copyright.
MM
I understand that the University libraries of both Oxford and Cambridge are ones at which a copy of every newly published book must be deposited (I don't know about sheet music). I think they're called 'legal depositories'.
There may be others, but I hadn't heard of Manchester being one. Perhaps the British Library?
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The behaviour of other musicians 'parachuted in' to perform during the signing of the register has been an eye opener for me, and I expected better. They presumably anticipate rapt attention and silence when they are performing, but they don't always behave likewise when I am playing; they talk quite loudly, get up and walk over to chat with their friend in the opposite stall and I am probably something of a hindrance to their socializing.
The number of times I have heard things like this, that organists are not only not respected nor appreciated (by audiences and other musicians alike), but are often not even apparent to them.
Is this because:
- organ music is just background muzak, like the stuff you hear in supermarkets, and is intended to be talked over?
- the organ is a machine, as well as a musical instrument and, therefore, plays itself?
- the organist is often necessarily invisible to the audience and, therefore, the organ seems to be playing itself?
- the organist is usually a 'one man band' and prefers not to associate with other musicians unless absolutely necessary?
- none of the above?
(Tongue-in-cheek suggestions - at least to a point!)
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Think yourself lucky that it survived that long. In my home town, both the organ section and most of the music library disappeared perhaps three decades ago, thank to the dreaded and utterly artless Bradford MDC. Before that, the Chief Librarian of the former Bradford Council, was a certain Mr MacDonald; the father to the late organist Charles MacDonald. At that time, Bradford Library had a magnificent collection of organ-music, as did most city libraries.
However, we shouldn't feel paranoid, because all the top-class engineering books also disappeared around the same time, and as my brother points out, they educated generations of highly skilled professinal engineers.
It seems to me that dumbing down and creating a "more welcoming; more open-plan space" has served absolutely no purpose whatsoever, and in my home town, a fortune was spent "restoring" the old Carnegie library, to the extent that it is now almost unrecognisable. No one bothers to go in, except school-students who sit at computer desks.
Should we be surprised?
Well yes, actually. Last year, I tried to work out the approximate value of my music-stock and academic books.
It works out at around a staggering £40,000, and I know of organists who have double the quantity of my own collection. I even have lithograph music volumes going back to around 1840.
It seems to me, that the great colllctions are now once more in private hands, save for the universities, and for instance, a former American partner of mine, (a Uni lectirer in English Litt & Languages), has a collection of books going back to the earliest days of print, which I would very conservatively estimate to be worth in excess of £500,000 and possibly an awful lot more.
(The music section alone would be the envy of many universirty libraries).
How interesting it is, that the age of "dumbing down" coincided with "modern socialism," while the once great libraries were either donated or supported by wealthy industrialists who valued education, and who saw to it that knowledge was made available to all.
The trade unions and trade institutions also played a very significant part; my home town once having a "Mechanic's Institute" with its own extensive library of top quality, standard works.
Whilst I recognise the significance of electronic media and communications, I just wonder if knowledge is now rather too superficial and too readily available in a watered-down format under the heading of "General Knowledge and Media Study."
This struck me to-day, when I was talking to a very bright physics undergraduate at Durham University.
When he learned that I studied music and played the organ, he said,"That's a strange instrument to want to learn and play."
Have we become that marginalised, I wonder, and if so, why?
Is it because "knowledge" now operates as a fashion accessory to those who are prisoners or their own minds and hostage to their limited experiences?
I would have thought that a well padded cell is better than bare walls, and even prisoners once had good libraries at their disposal.
MM
“All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use.” A E Housman
I agree that this is a very sad state of affairs.
Many years ago, I used to make regular visits to Bradford Central Library to borrow LPs of organ music, a surprising proportion of which had actually been borrowed and, presumably, listened to by others.
I hesitate to mention this, but I recorded many to tape cassettes. Unfortunately, tape cassettes are probably the worst possible medium for recorded music and mine are hardly worth listening to now.
I haven't been there for a very long time now, but I'm willing to bet that you will not now find a single recording of organ music (I assume it's all CDs now).
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This time I'm not tongue in cheek!
MM asks if we should not make hymns relevant to 21st century youth (sorry, I can't find the original entry to quote it properly). I suppose the answer has to be yes, but it raises in my mind two further questions.
The first is - how? (1)
The second is, should we not rather make our concern the need to make the whole Christian gospel relevant to modern youngsters? This also prompts the question, 'how'? (2)
Regards to all
John
(1) Rap! I'm sure it would be possible to make use of more complex language than that in the trite happy-clappy rubbish we have already heard about, so long as it has rhythm.
(2) Make it into a computer game.
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We only need 100 of them and we could have another new organ and still have change to buy a car and some fish and chips....
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All those people talking. Still, I bet they shut up when the West Tubas came in at the end!