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Peter Clark

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Posts posted by Peter Clark

  1. Beckenham Crematorium originally had one of those extension organs (from what I can remember) - it was certainly there in around 2000. I went to a funeral there roughly two years ago and it had been scrapped and replaced with a toaster.

     

    My father's funeral took place at Beckenham Crem last October. I remember thinking then that this a a pretty uninspiring machine. (I wasn't playing it, you understand.)

     

    Peter

  2. There is a major continuity error in the latest episode (The Vampires of Venice). Towards the end when the Signora/Fish activates the weather adjustment device, there is heavy rain falling on Venice but when Rory is attacked by Francesco/Fish, Amy destroyes him/it (the fish thing) by reflecting the sun onto him/it by her compact mirror. How is the sun shining there when rest of Venice is clouded over?

     

    Not a few fans, by the way, have complained about the revamped theme tune.

  3. What I wrote, concerning help for someone with a joint problem, is simply something that any sportsman knows about their bodies, whatever it is that they do, that trying to come from a low level of training sudddenly to a high level is very likely to lead to a detremental result - they will have a strain or worse.

     

    Your new thread is rather different; if you are already fully trained and you have a bad performance after a day off then I imagine the possibilities are- most likely you didn't warm up enough, you were tired for some reason, or you were not as well in training as you thought. :rolleyes:

     

    No doubt the last of your suggestions applies to me! :lol:

  4. Did anyone go to the opening concert on Saturday? I went with some friends (this was the first big opening recital I have attended since Simon Preston at Rochester...)and I thought it well worth the long drive. Thomas Trotter's playing was, as ever quite outstanding and though we were tucked in at the back of the south aisle, the sound of the new instrument came over very well and certainly filled the building - nothing seemed to be hidden away, and we felt that there certainly seemed to be enough weight on the pedals, even thought the spec was incomplete!

     

    The Guardian gave it three out of five. The Bach was certainly well-received but the reviewer felt there was an overabundance of transcriptions, though that is certainly TT's normal style. I wasn't there but I was pleased to see he included the Wammes Miroir, a favourite of mine. The last time I heard him was at St John's in Cardiff where, given the location of the console, he was able to introduce each piece he played. Was he able to talk to the audience at Llandaff?

     

    Peter

  5. In the RSI pedalling thread, Douglas Corr wrote:

     

    too much practice all of a sudden - take days off

     

    I just wonder how many professional or semi-professional - or indeed any organist - finds it benefical to take a day or two off now and then? I took a day oiff yesterday and my playing this morning - not in public thankfully - was dreadful. But when I went to the States last year and didn't play for a week on my return my playing was pretty good (for me, that is!).

     

    Peter

     

     

    I suppose it might be a "mood" thing. I heard this morning that a chap who lived downstairs from me a couple of years ago had died. We were never bosom buddies but we had a pint together now and then. We shared no interests, though we swapped birthday cards and Christmas cards with a token present but he was fairly young (about 60 as I recall), not too much older than I.

     

    Peter

  6. In the RSI pedalling thread, Douglas Corr wrote:

     

    too much practice all of a sudden - take days off

     

    I just wonder how many professional or semi-professional - or indeed any organist - finds it benefical to take a day or two off now and then? I took a day oiff yesterday and my playing this morning - not in public thankfully - was dreadful. But when I went to the States last year and didn't play for a week on my return my playing was pretty good (for me, that is!).

     

    Peter

  7. Or you could do what the RCO used to do and refuse permission for any pistons to be changed…

     

     

    I would never refuse a visiting organist - particularly if he or she was giving a recital - permission to change the pistons, but I woull request that they take note of the exisiting settings and either restore them after the recital or leave a note saying precisely what was changed. The strange thing is that in the case I reported above, the first two pistons were left intact and they are setting specific to a particular piece which I would not have thought of as appropriate to what was actually played!

     

    Peter

  8. I also, like Malcolm, use Music Publisher 7 from Braeburn Software. Its author, Bernard Hill, is an organist as well as a software developer. It costs a mere £100, peanuts conmpared to what the big boys charge. Bernard is a thoroughly nice and very helpful man, and will answer email queries within 48 hours, usually sooner.

     

    For choral and intrumental music it can handle part extraction, and for an extra 70 jimmy o'goblins you can get a score reader which allows you to scan in scores which are then converted to MP7 and can be transposed or otherwise edited.

     

    Good luck with whatever you decide!

     

    Peter

  9. I wonder if anyone can shed some light on a peculiar mental glitch that happens when learning certain styles of repertoire - I don't think I am alone in experiencing this. Currently I am a learning a number of new pieces for general repertoire, postludes, concerts etc. Soon I am also playing a concert at a small church in a small town on a two manual organ of 14 stops. For this concert I decided to learn - as it requires user friendly music - a Handel organ concerto. This is the first Handel concerto I have ever learnt. So I have chosen the Concerto in F from Bk 1 of the Bornemanne / Dupre series. Looks straigthforward enough. (An organist friend of mine desribes this sort of thing as 'two finger grade three music'!). I am also learning Viernes Toccata in B flat Minor, from the Pieces de Fantaisie. Guess which one is giving me the most trouble - yes: the Handel. Smudged notes, misjudged leaps, scrappy scale passages, bung pedal notes, and so on. Yet the Vierne is simmering along nicely. The Vierne will be ready as a postlude sooner than the handel will be a 'clean' concert performance . . . but why? Any observations welcome on this frustrating aspect of practice.

     

    I have had similar experienmces but I have two observations - don't assume that the Handel is "easier" than the Vierne. A technically less demanding work needs as much skill as a harder one to bring off convincingly - it as as question of approach which leads me to point 2: if I read you correctly you may have thought yourself into a situation in which you think the Handel will never be ready for a public performance. It might worth it to have a couple a lessons if for nothing else to get a different perspective. If you hold an appointment your church could be asked for payment for this on grounds of professional development. I am considering doing this for a piece I have been learning on my own for about 6 months (Dupre Cortege et Litanie).

     

    Best wishes for both pieces!

     

    Peter

  10. By the way, how did you find the new Ely Place instrument, Peter? Not as large as yours, of course, but in a great building. I haven't been there for 25 years.

     

    Unfortunately I only had about 10 minutes as there was a baprism following the Mass. The dimensions are much the same as the one I play but the stops arelaid out in a strange (to me at least) way. If I remember correctly the great stops are the highest but split either side of the manuals. The sound isd quite severe from the console but it sounded great in the church. Paul Hale did a report on it in a receny issue of OR.

     

    I'll be going down to London again soon when I shall have a midweek visit and hopefully have more time. Watch this space.

     

    P

  11. Although a Roman Catholic, many yeas ago I was (salaried) DoM in an Anglican church in South London and was elected to the PCC. There seemed to be no problems surrounding my nomination and election.

     

    Peter

  12. I was in London at the weekend (and incidentally got to play the new organ in St Etheldreda's Ely Place); there was a concert on Saturday in my own church (St Peter's Cardiff) and wheh I got back and went to play on Tuesday found that my piston settings had been altered. I won't name the organist responsible but his is a well-known name. I know him and I suspect other board members will. Now to me this is a no-no. Or at least he should have taken note of the settings and restored them afterwards. Am I right in this way? I would never dream of doing this in somebody else's church.

     

    Another thing - I found out today that Radio 2 are recording in the church this evening. First I have heard about it and once again I feel it would have been polite had whoever is playing the organ to contact me. I ALWAYS approach the resident organist if I am playing in another church.

     

    Or am I just a Grumpy Old (well, middle-aged) Man?

     

    Peter

     

    ps I have now put a notice on the console forbidding changing the piston settings - in BIG LETTERS!

  13. General crescendo pedals I find are a mixed blessing. The first one I encountered was on the Tambourini (I think) in the chapel of the Venerable English College in Rome. It was enormous fun for this then 19-year-old student to play about with it, and as I was there on holiday from my own college in Spain I didn't have to play for liturgies.

     

    There is one on the organ in St David's Hall in Cardiff. I played it for a Mass a couple of years back and as I had only half an hour on the instrument before the Mass, and had not time to set pistons, I did find it quite useful. It has a lip to the left side so that if you are opening the swell there is little danger of your foot accidentally engaging the general crescendo too.

     

    Somebody - possibly Gordon Reynolds - wrote an hilarious account of a vicar who knew nothing about the organ but thought he did. It seems that the outgoing organist had requested - and got - a "Great to Pedal Pistons combined" and the vicar, interviewing a potential new organist, said how much it had improved the organ's tone - "wonderful to hear those Great Pistons thumping away" or something.

     

    Loved the Halleluia Chorus by the way! Reminds me of that famous account of the opening passage of Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathushtra when it would seem that the organ was tuned - why nobody knows - a semitone above concert pitch, which nobody had bothered to check on before the concert....

     

    Peter

  14. This Scheme, by which listed places of worship are able to reclaim 100% of VAT incurred on repairs, not only to the fabric but also on fixtures such as organs, is due to end on 31st March 2011.

     

    If that happens, churches struggling to raise funds for organ restorations will have to shoulder an extra burden often running into many thousands of pounds.

     

    To save the Scheme, and for the sake of the instruments themselves, please take a moment to sign the on-line petition to No 10 Downing Street at

     

    Petition

     

    Many thanks

     

    JS

     

    John, suggest you post this to Facebook and any other sites where organists &c are likely to be gathered together. Thanks for postingtthis anyway. There are as you will know dedicated organ and organist groups and pages on such sites.

     

    Peter

  15. I need this in an organ arangement for a wedding in 2 weeks time. Does anybody know of a decent one which could be more or less sight-read? (I've pretty much worked it out anyway but would rather not leave it to chance.

     

    Thanks

     

    Peter

  16. They must have missed it by two - marks which cannot be awarded are 99 (and possibly 98), 119, 129 and, I believe, 149 and 150.

     

    Is this a recent innovation? I swear that when I took grade 8 piano - admittedly nearly 40 years ago - I missed merit by one mark.

     

    Peter

  17. I'm reliable told by a ABRSM examiner, that for this exam you are guaranteed to get a distinction sinply by NOT playing Top Cat. It might be catchy, but it loses it's appeal after a few dozen performances!

     

    I hope that is not the case (and indeed it should not be). Mine, who played it, got merit, missing distinction by one mark. :lol:

     

    P

  18. when the Bride is late.

     

    [:

     

    R

     

    Or the groom - that happened once to me and I was getting a trifle worried as I was due to play another wedding in another church later that day where a friend from university was getting married. He ws 3/4 hour late! Fortunately I was able to get the my friend's wedding in time.

     

    But the best of the lot was when the priest was late! Bride and father were waiting at the door of the church while he was, unvested, lighting the candles and checking the books were open at the right page and during all this I was trying to keep the congregation entertained - with decreasing enthusiasm and, I'm sure, equally decreasing success!

     

    Peter

  19. Compton stop-key consoles featured a very useful "double touch" stop-cancelling mechanism, where additional pressure on a stop-tab would cancel all other stops of the same department. I played one like this for a few years, and I can never understand why it didn't catch on, because it made lightning changes of registration possible.

    Compton DRAWSTOP consoles sometimes featured second-touch. An extra pull on a drawstop would cancel all other stops on that division. I have heard it said that the H&H console at Kings had this feature many years ago - and that the console carried a nameplate acknowledging a Walker patent for the mechanism.

    Maybe someone can substantiate that ?

     

    H

     

    The Walker I played in London about 20 years ago had tab stops and a double touch canceller was one of the playing aids, as a tab; I suspect this is a Walker innovation since I had never seen one before. I've never seen it as a drawstop.

     

    Peter

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