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Paul Walton

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Everything posted by Paul Walton

  1. Bristol will be going out to tender soon and, once decisions are made, there will be an announcement as to who is doing the work and when it will start. As you may have seen, we've been very lucky with a major donation. Paul Walton (Assistant Organist, Bristol)
  2. Lots! Various marches, etc, in A Walton Organ Album David Bednall Fanfare-Processional (in The Organists' Charitable Trust Little Organ Book) John Cook Fanfare Healey Willan Chorale Prelude on Gelobt sei Gott (no.4, Six Chorale Preludes) Percy Whitlock Fanfare / Paean Francis Jackson Worcester Processional / Fanfare (op.18) Andrew Carter Trumpet Tune Paul Edwards Turvey Tuba Tune William Mathias Processional / Recessional Stanley Vann A Fancy for Tuba Arthur Wills Praise him in the sound of the trumpet (or tuba, or whatever) - yes that is the full title! Pretty much all British. As to other repertoire, Gigout Grand Choeur Dialogué would be the main one, and there are opportunities in the final page of Mulet Carillon-Sortie and Alain Litanies. Paul Walton
  3. Delighted to see the interest in the appeal. It's very early days - I will post news and updates when there is something to tell, but the scheme of work is unlikely to be fully formed until the tendering process, which will happen once most of the funding has been raised. We have compiled a CD in aid of the appeal from some of my Tuesday lunchtime recital performances and, if anyone would be interested, details are here: http://www.paul-walton.com/#/recordings/4569256178 Contrary to the web-page, if just ordering the appeal CD, please make cheque payable to Bristol Cathedral. All best wishes, Paul Walton (Assistant Organist, Bristol Cathedral)
  4. Saturday January 10, 5pm, Guild Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon Organ recital by Paul Walton (Assistant Organist, Bristol Cathedral / old boy, King Edward VI School next door) Programme in thread about the new chapel organ Paul Walton
  5. The next recital at the Guild Chapel is this Saturday at 5pm given by myself. Pæan on 'Divinum Mysterium', John Cook Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, Dietrich Buxtehude Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ejhr (BWV 662), J.S. Bach Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (BWV 542), J.S. Bach Cantabile, César Franck For the Iron Voice, Philip Wilby Song without Words, David Briggs Marche Pontificale (Symphonie 1), Charles-Marie Widor Paul Walton
  6. There was a specification on the website as part of the appeal stuff, but it seems to have gone. I had a play in August, if memory serves: Great Open Diapason 8' Stopped Diapason 8' Principal 4' (Nason ?) Flute 4' Twelfth 2 2/3' Fifteenth 2' Tierce 1 3/5' Mixture III Trumpet 8' Swell (Claribel ?) Flute 8' Viola / Salicional 8' Celeste 8' Gemshorn 4' Flute 4' Fifteenth 2' Nineteenth 1 1/3' (probably from Mixture) Mixture III Contra Oboe / Contra Fagotto 16' Cornopean 8' Octave / Suboctave / Unison Off Pedal Open Diapason 16' (at the initial planning stage, the bottom octave of haskelled pipes - Nicholson 1990 - was to be the only material retained from the old organ, I don't know if this is actually the case) Bourdon 16' Principal 8' Bass Flute 8' Fifteenth 4' Trombone 16' Contra Oboe / Fagotto 16' (Swell) Cremona 4' I really enjoyed my play on it (the Cremona wasn't there yet) - lots of character and colour, and comfortable to play. There's a recital series being planned for next year, which I'm kicking off on Saturday January 10. I hope Stephen won't mind me saying that the first people on the list are those who had to suffer the old organ the most - I was at the Grammar School next door and played for chapel most days for about four years! Paul
  7. Bristol Cathedral, Tuesday 7 October The scheduled recitalist is ill, so resident organists David Bednall and Paul Walton have put together a programme of largely British music, including Howells, Francis Jackson (in celebration of his 97th birthday last week), Philip Moore and William Walton. The recital will launch Paul's latest CD on the Cathedral organ, In an Old Abbey, featuring rarely recorded British music by Alcock, Harwood, Elgar, Sumsion, Vaughan Williams, John Cook, Douglas Steele and William Walton. The CD will be available for £10 after the recital. Full list of pieces at www.paul-walton.com
  8. Personally, I don't think there are enough unison offs! Examples of its use have already been specified above: 4' pedal reed (Bach, etc) = oboe / clarinet / vox humana plus octave and unison off the 8' flute and 4' string combination specified by Alain (Jannequin Variations / Aria) can often only be obtained with 16' flute, 8' string, octave, unison off a 19th can be obtained from a 12th, etc a softer Swell 8' trumpet can be obtained from a 16' reed (this often works for Franck) Although a combination such as those above can often be obtained through playing at a different octave, there are enough occasions when you want to couple it to a different manual whose stops are at the right pitch to make a Unison Off worth having. Examples of where I've wished for one where there isn't one: at Bristol it would be very useful to couple the Solo 4' flute (which is enclosed, the 8' flute isn't) at 8' pitch into other 8' foundations the 2 stops I would add like a shot to Cirencester PC are Swell and Solo Unison Offs - especially given the pedal divide facility I've played an organ where the best balance of the middle section of Piece Heroique was left hand on 16' reed up an octave against right hand on 4' flute down an octave! Yes, some of the time it is simply to place the hands in a more convenient playing position - why not? What's wrong with convenience? Paul Walton (Assistant, Bristol Cathedral)
  9. Worth checking if it's the full orchestra version or the reduced orchestra version. In the reduced orchestra version, the organ part retains quite a lot of the organ only accompaniment (e.g. the Sanctus sextuplets - but divided between the hands). In the full orchestra version, if memory serves, it's more of a standard orchestral organ part i.e. a few chords and rumbles here and there. I seem to recall the flute solo in the In Paradisum is on the organ in all versions. Paul Walton
  10. Bristol Cathedral, Tuesday 4 December 1:15pm Music for Advent and Christmas Paul Walton plays a programme including Jackson, Bach, Baker, Hollins and Cochereau This recital is the launch of Paul's new CD, Rejoice and be merry! Organ music for Christmas, recorded on Regent Records - Paul's first commercial recording and the first recording for 8 years of the organ of Bristol Cathedral. This will be available from Paul for £10. More details here: http://www.paul-walton.com/#/recordings/4569256178 Paul
  11. Excuse the shameless pluggery . . . . A select few of my descants, etc, are now available here http://www.paul-walton.com/#/hymn-arrangements/4554823242 Paul Walton (Assistant Organist, Bristol Cathedral)
  12. Paul Walton Wednesday September 7, 1:15, Blackburn Cathedral Thursday September 8, 1:15, Ripon Cathedral see http://www.paul-walton.com/#/2011/4554822791 for programmes
  13. http://www.cirencesterorganfestival.co.uk/ Hopefully this is more what you're looking for. Paul
  14. Most likely due to lack of money in the 60s and 70s! Fortunate of course that we've been spared the ravages of that period - we have all our diapasons intact and there are no screaming mixtures and tinkly Positives. The 70s did turn the Pedal Quint 10 2/3 into the utterly pointless Octave Quint 5 1/3 and lose the Dulciana 8' but that's about all we have cause to regret! Paul
  15. The Bristol action is, as you say, inherently difficult, part of the issue being its particular fragility and vulnerability to changes in weather / humidity. This is being particularly exposed at the moment, though not as much as last spring when one of the humidifier motors had to be replaced and, in the meantime, the entire coupling system virtually gave up - to say that so many notes were missing on Sw/Gt that hymns became unrecognisable from their playovers is not an exaggeration! However, even in 'normal' weather conditions, it has to be said that the action has never been 100% reliable - I don't believe that it's design allows it to be. Maintaining it is the equivalent of painting the Forth Bridge - by the time you've gone right through it, something will have started to stray at the other end. In the long term, I don't believe it will survive, as I can't see that the spending of large amounts of money on it can be justified unless it be guaranteed to work properly - one builder said that to us last time we tendered for some (relatively minor) work, and I am told that other builders have expressed similar thoughts on its cousin in Wimbledon. When I say 'work properly', I don't mean 'be able to play French toccatas at crotchet = 450' but that the action/couplers respond to the pressing of the key rather than just playing in their own, variable time(s), as much of an issue with hymns / slow passages for all the strings coupled with Sw octave, etc. It is ironic that the key touch is capable of a high degree of subtlety and control but the response of the action usually negates any such effort! The issue will be what sort of action can be put in its place that provides the necessary reliability and response but maintains the touch and suits the speech of the pipes. I doubt that's a decision that will be made in my time! Paul
  16. For the record and if memory serves: 2007 Nine Lessons, Cochereau Sortie sur Adeste fideles, 2007 Christmas Day Briggs Sortie on In dulci jubilo. 2008 Nine Lessons Cochereau Sortie sur Venez divin Messie, 2008 Christmas Day Guilmant March on a theme of Handel. I'm considering the Saint-Martin Offertoire sur deux Noels for sometime this year - essentially the first movement of Vierne 2 with the thematic material replaced by two carols! Paul
  17. If I'm right in identifying the instruments, at the moment, they'd only need to take over 'D', since most of the instrument from 'B' is there mid-restoration.
  18. The small mixture is Mixture 3rks (was Sesquialtera 4rks before 1907) and the big one Fourniture 3-5rks. The latter is perhaps not pretty at the console but distance lends enchantment! It was put there essentially to help lead big congregations and is certainly valuable for that, plus added brilliance for things like Cochereau. However, the organ is still quite complete without it (as a recent recitalist proved in the Reubke), and in the likes of Stanford, Howells, some Franck, (etc . . . !) I certainly wouldn't use it.
  19. Interesting idea! Musically, I can see the argument. However, to play devil's advocate, once you've ripped out as much as necessary (and believe me, it's a lot!), would it make any difference to the historian what goes in its place?
  20. Good Lord, when was this?? The date needs to be recorded for history!!
  21. As far as I can ascertain, the only pre-Vowles pipework from the 1861 organ was the case pipes (the basses of what is now the Small and Medium Opens), the bass of the Great Stopped Diapason, some of the 2 Principals, part of the Swell Stopped Diapason, and part of the Choir Stopped Diapason and 4' flute. The metal Vowles pipework has a particularly characteristic appearance - if you look inside the organ, it's very clear what's Vowles and what isn't.
  22. It was moved to the North side (second bay) in 1860 and then one bay west in the 1890s. The 1907 rebuild then occupied both bays.
  23. Ah, should have clarified this - the second revoicing was meant to undo the first and return them to how they originally sounded. There is some difference of opinion (from people who knew it through all 3 stages) as to whether it succeeded! Paul
  24. The trombas date from Bairstow's time, and according to FJ 'this was the type of organ Bairstow and most other organists of the period liked' but since they were revoiced from the previous Walker trumpets, so all that happened in 1960 was a reversal. In practice they were rendered 'somewhat impotent' (Geoffrey Coffin) and were again revoiced on higher wind pressure (but still as trumpets) in 1993. To me they are most successful now, and there is less of a case against the revoicing of the trombas than the other organs mentioned e.g. Redcliffe (though - whisper it - even those trombas have been revoiced twice). Paul
  25. Walker's kept the old Vowles chorus intact (save the removal of the tierce from the mixture) and added the Double Open, Large Open and Large Principal. The chorus (up to 3rk mixture) works with or without the 3 additions but they're needed once the 1990 3-5 rk mixture comes on - sometimes the Large 8 could be omitted if the 16' is on. For building up the 8's and 4's, you can do it in virtually any order - the Small Principal can come on before or after the Medium Open, and the Large Principal before or after the Large Open - and it will work. It's perfectly possible to play Bach with all 3 Opens - however, our Large Open is quite different to a Harrison one! Paul
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