Peter Clark

How usual is it to have a tremulant to each division? I confess I have never seen a tremulant on a pedal organ before. Any others? Peter

I've been holding back on this because I don't want to seem to be blowing my own krummhorn but the 2006 Spath organ in St Peter's Cardiff has been very well received by those who have been to see/play it. Peter

Thanks Vox! My suggestion that The Crucifixion was 90% responsible for misinterpreting that text was probably facetious and almost certainly as probably unjustified. An enjoyable exchange though. Regards Peter

No, childish is OK. Let's face it, grown men who fling their arms and legs around in the feeble hope of sounding vaguely musical and in the slightly greater hope of making a little money can hardly shrink away from the decription with anything like dignity. Peter

Since when did batteries write music? Shouild this not be Widor we're talking about? Peter

I doubt if they could afford it as the cathedral does not attract a large congregation, being as you will know in awholly non-residential area. If they got some kind of large donation or a long-term fund raising scheme going they might be in with a chance. Marx and Spencer were once very keen to acquire the property and would have given St David's enough money to build a new cathedral and get a new organ but it seems that the cathedral is staying put for the time being. St Peter's can stand anything! Peter

I am pretty sure it was Princess Anne; I also think it was played, bizzarely, at the end of Diana's funeral. Peter

I sympathise there, Justadad - I think I mentioned before that I had an order with them which they sent but put insufficient postage on the parcel and so I had not only to pay the difference but also a £1.00 fee to the post office and the parcel was delayed! P

But the Greek in which this text was originally written reads houtos gar which is "so therefore" indicating the son coming into the world as a result of God's love and is not a commentary on the extent of that love which is what most people seem to want it to be. The Vulgate does make these little slip-ups at times (cf nolle me tangere at Jn 20:17and compare the original!). So I am happy with your "in such a manner" but not with your "to such a degree". Peter

It's on R4 listen again, that's how I heard it Sunday afternoon. Beieve me, the cathedral Compton is NOT impressive! I've had to play it many times.... He likes a G&T as well -but I've never heard him swear! Peter

What about the individual counters (traditionally dog, top hat &c)? Organ stops maybe? P

A bit expensive for 2 pages but might make interesting reading for those who have been active in this topic. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4666...%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B Anyway, I got to play it for a Mass yesterday - the Archbishop presiding - and I think it did well to support a completely liturgical programme given that it is essentially a concert instrument. The actual programme was quite modest: Ecce Sacerdos - Elgar Laudate Dominum - Mozart Ave Verum - Elgar Panis Angelicus - Franck The Lord Bless you - Rutter (this last was the least succesful because the deacon announced the dismissal while I was playing the introduction! He didn't read his order of service properly.) Plainsong Kyrie and Sanctus with a modern responsorial Gloria by Peter Jones (used when the Pope came to Britain in 1982), Psalm, Gospel Greeting and hymns. Mind you, the crescendo pedal is dangerous! BTW did anybody hear the broadcast from the other St David's in Cardsiff yesterday? The Arch was at that too. He had a busy Sunday but I saw him sneaking off for a quick fag after Mass - in the pouring rain! Peter

I'd welcome a thread entitled "Did anybody NOT screw up this week?". It would guarantee my total absence from this forum, probably to the delight of 99% of the membership. Peter

Mind you, I once heard that Peter Hurford complained about the speed of some Buxtehude on his own recording! Peter

I don't knwo the Te Deum but dodn't he write a jazzy (rumba or calypso style) Mag and Nunc? Peter

It does seem stange that he wssd capableof writing such fine tunes yet often such weak material as in the topic under discussion. (Remember the famnoure "here in a basement"?! ) Love Divine is another fine tune that springs to mind. I think that The Crucifixion is also probably 90% responsible for the misinterpretation of Jn3:16 since it is probably the most famous setting of that text. (Are there ary others?). I have even heard clergy preach on the "so much" suggestion which is simply not in the original text which means merely "therefore" so a correct translation would be more like "God loved the world therefore he sent his son....." ie as a result of this and not that he loved the world "so much" and so what a good bloke he is which is how, alas, it often comes across. Peter

Despite living in Cardiff for 17 years it was only last night that I got to play the organ in St David's Hall, rehearsing for a Mass on Sunday. Here's the NOPR entry: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N09211 I understand there were problems when it was first opened and that a firm other than the original was brought in to sort things out, the 1990 rebuild being done by "unknown". Why the mystery, I wonder? Anybody know anything? (Not to be confused with St David's Cathedral, Cardiff, which needs a lot of work.... but which can be heard on R4's morning worship this coming Sunday.) P

So I suppose we can now add the Doctor to our list of celebrity organists! P

Maybe but he did leave us what I think are two very fine hymn tunes in the Crucifixion: Cross of Jesus and All for Jesus. Not sure however if these were writtn for the Crucifixion or wherther they were pre-composed and he incorporated them. Is there any information on this (and yes I realise this is really another thread!). Peter

Is this piece still in print - indeed, was it ever? OUP were/are his publishers but I don't recall seeing this in the catalogue. Peter

But who said "have you heard any Stockhausen?" to which the reply was "no, but I've trodden in some"

First, M, I am glad to hear that Robert Munns has recovered. My info was obviously somewhat out of date! I suppose that as far as Matthias is concerned (two tees as I now believe is correct!) the "lack of inspiration" jibe was a litle cruel though he does have a fondness for: consecutive fifths/fourths addeds (normally 6th though often 9ths) frequent changes of time... all of which are splendid in the way he handles them. Failures? The Bercuese doen't inspire too much and I even think that the Variations on a Welsh Hymn Tune is fairly mundane. But yes, the Invocations is splendid - dramatic, spiritual and very arresting in equal measure... when at college I was involved in a production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and I used the opening fanfare passage for the entrance on the royals at the end. Peter

But even the great unwashed as you call them have intellects and if this is sustained and enriched by Stainer's Crucifixion then who are we to argue? No, it's not my cup of tea either but there are those who are moved and, dare I say it, spiritually uplifted by it. Scrawled on a wall at the RAM: Q: What do you think of Stainer's Crucifixion? A: I'm all for it. Peter

MAB's response regarding Robert Munns in MM's thread about rewriting bits of music puts me in mind of William Mathias. MAB said that Robert Munns rewrote a piece that was written by a non-organist and that the composer, Montague, was delighted with the result. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Mathias was not an organist although he did contribute to the modern organ literature quite extensively - Toccata Giocosa and Processional are probably found in many organists' repetoire. So has anyone else heard about Mathias not being a player as such? On a sadder note I also heard that Robert Munns recently suffered a stroke. At one stage there was talk of his coming to Cardiff to give a recital but alas that seems now to to be. He recorded on the organ at St Michael's, Croydon, an organ I played once or twice in my youth and a jolly fine instrument it is too. Regards Peter

Roffensis doesn't need me to defend his position, but I'd like to chip in with a few thoughts as I happen to share his enthusiasm for Glass and the like. To me, the talent and skill of minimalist music and its composers lie in part in the apparently simple but really deceptively difficult task of maintaining for 10, 15 or even 20 minutes (I here refer to Glass's organ works - there are much lengthier examples of the form) a musically coherent argument which maintains interest derived from the simplest of musical cells - maybe just one or two of them in any given piece. I think too that there is a certain politico-philosophical element to the music with its apparent rejection of certain of the compexities seen in the development of western music and its possible call to what the composers (though not necessarily their advocates) might understand to be a simpler or even purer form of music which is in reality as difficult to sustain as the more obviously complex forms of contemporary music. (I don't agree with this thinking, but that will not stop me appreciating minimalist music alongside other styles of composition.) Vox you will have read on this thread that both R and I have received positive "feedback" (dread word!) from our respective congregations having exposed them, to some Glass - and so if we as church musicians (and I am aware that not all on this forum are) can elicit positive comments from people (some of whom said they had never heard of Glass before) then tjhis musit count for something. There is talent and skill evident in every musical form as well as a complete lack of it and if this goes for pop music (compare the Beatles to the Venga Boys for example), Victorian hymnody or even contemporary organ music it is surely true of minimalism. Peter