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davidh

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Posts posted by davidh

  1. True, but instrumentalists nowadays tend to use electronic tuners in order to obtain equal pitch unter all circumstances. Those do not react to changes in temperature.

     

    Best,

    Friedrich

    O tempora, o mores! Have they no ears? How can you tune a choir to sing at the same pitch as the organ?

  2. Also, as is well known, the pitch of a pipe organ shifts significantly with temperature, so unless the church is consistently heated to the same temperature, tuning, especially with brass & wooding, can become a big problem.

     

    Curious. Pitch changes with temperature, to a very small amount because thermal expansion makes the pipes longer, but to a much larger extent because the speed of sound in air changes. Surely the same factors will affect the tuning of the brass and woodwind instruments to a similar extent. Pianos and electronics (if present, heaven help us) won't move in the same way, and nor will the organ's reeds where the pitch is largely determined by the vibration of the reed, with the air column having a smaller contribution.

  3. I have opened a bigger can of worms than I expected. A lot of fascinating information has come forward, but no one has actually addressed the question that I asked, which was why the tracks on CDs sometimes have the chant first and sometimes second. I'n quoting Bernard Courdurier's recording from Albi, where each line below is one CD track,with the chants marked off by square brackets. (I know that less is known about the Messe des Couvents than the Messe des Paroisses).

     

    Plein Jeu, Premier Couplet du Kyrie [Kyrie]

    Fugue sur la trompette, 2nd Couplet du Kyrie [Christe]

    Recit de chromone [Christe]

    Trio 4th Couplet du Kyrie [Kyrie]

    Dialogue, 5th et denier Couplet du Kyrie

     

    [Gloria] Plein Jeu, Premier Couplet du Gloria

    [Adoramus Te] Duo sur les Tierce

    [Gratias agimus] Basse de Trompette

    [Domine Filii] Chromorne en Taille

    [Qui Tollis] Dialogue sur la Voix Humaine

    [Qui sedes] Trio, les Dessus sur La Tierce et la Basse sur la Trompette

    [Tu solus Dominus] Récit de Tierce

    [Cum Sancto Spiritu] Dialogue sur les Grands Jeux

     

    Offertoire, sur les Grand Jeux

     

    Plein Jeu [sanctus]

    Recit de Cornet [Pleni Sunt]

    Tierce en taille, Élevation

     

    Plein Jeu [Agnus Dei]

    Agnus Dei, Dialogue sur lest Grand Jeux

     

    Deo gratias, Petit Plein Jeu

     

    So, in the Gloria the chants come first, and in the Sanctus they come second. Why?

  4. If we name the chants as “C” and the organ movements following as “O”, then to match the CD tracks to the liturgical pattern I would expect

     

    … | C2O2 | C3O3 | C4O4 | .. that is the chant precedes the relevant movement on the same track.

     

    Instead I find … O2C3 | O3C4 | O4C5 | …

     

    The only logical explanation that I can think of is that some people might like to hear the organ movements only, and can do so by skipping over the chant to the next track. The disadvantage is that if you want to pick a particular chant with its organ continuation you have to find the start point within a track.

  5. I have known the two Couperin Organ Masses for well over half a century, but for much of that time they were a puzzle to me. 21 beautiful movements in each, but how did this ragbag count as AN organ mass? At that time it was the custom for every performer and every recording artist to play only the organ movements.

     

    I later learned that the liturgical setting had originally consisted of plain-chant, but the custom changed so that the first line of the plain-chant was sung and the organist then continued with music based on that chant, often so that a knowledgeable member of the congregation could mentally sing-along with the music.

     

    So, I would expect that each track of a good recording would begin with the plain-chant and then continue with the organ. What I find is that recent recordings begin with organ music, and with a short section of plain-chant at the end of the track. So what is going on?

     

  6. As far as I know, most modern DVD players and televisions cope easily with NTSC disks. The problem may be elsewhere, in the region code.

     

    The idea of that code was to ensure that disks sold in America could not be played in Europe, as the release dates for films were often staggered, and DVDs that were "pre-release" in the UK could damage cinema attendance.

     

    Of course that consideration is totally irrelevant to performances of classical music, but the producers being in the habit of slapping regional codes on everything didn't see that this would actually harm their market.

     

    Region codes are 1 for North America, 2 for Europe, and 0 for DVDs playable everywhere.

  7. It's also offered on the http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/ website at £14.33, but with the warning that they are currently out of stock and it may take several weeks to get. That site has several of his other organ compositions. There are also several organ compositions (but not the Thema).

     

    Both of those sites now stock quite a lot of other Dutch music not previously available (as far as I know) in England, including music by Feike Asma, Willem Twillert and the Zwarts, J and WH.

  8. The Eastbourne Herald announced today: "Four churches in Eastbourne are to merge to form one church leaving three of the empty buildings up for development. Central Methodist Church in Pevensey Road, St Andrew’s United Reformed Church in Cornfield Lane, Greenfield Methodist Church in Green Street and Upperton Road United Reformed Church in Upperton Road will join together and become Emmanuel Church. That church will be on the site of the Upperton Road church, on the junction of Upperton Road with and will involve a complete redevelopment."


    Two of the churches have substantial organs:


    The Central Methodist has a IIIP 36 built by Morgan and Smith, undated.


    St Andrews in Cornfield Lane (Blackwater Road) has a IIIP 52 built by Hunter, Morgan and Smith, J H Males and Hill, Norman and Beard. It is probably a much better instrument than it sounds, as it is badly sited in a church with poor acoustics.


    There is no news about the likely fate of these organs. Ideally the best of them will go to the new church, which I think will be a complete rebuild, and could sound much better there. However, I have no idea whether the substantial amount of money would be available for resiting, and even whether a modern church would think that a real pipe organ is a good thing.


    Does anyone know any more about this?



  9. There is of course the 5 manual toaster at Hammerwood Park, with its 64' and 128' effects and all...............................

    I asked David Pinnegar's son why the organ only had five manuals. He replied, "Dad hasn't had time to fix the sixth manual yet".

  10. Two exceptions were allowed, only because they were standard, zero cost, options, namely a "Melodic Bass" and alternative temperaments, neither of which are ever used.

    How sad. Sad if no early music is ever played, and sad if it is played without the use of appropriate temperaments. While we are not supposed to discuss electronic instruments on this forum, and many people would not wish for anything other than a pipe organ, this option provides one of the rare opportunities to hear the beauty of these temperaments in the UK.

  11. "Coming up at Sotheby's on 20 Nov for anyone with a couple of hundred quid to spare."

     

    Estimate
    100,000150,000

    Couple of hundred thousand? If only there was some consistency in using commas and dots as decimal points and thousands markers. I could afford £150, but not the larger amount.

  12. My favourite part of the organ repertoire is chorale preludes, especially those in the Dutch tradition. It seems to me that many modern CPs are very similar in structure to those of J S Bach - whose preludes were so varied that they don't leave too many possibilities uncharted - and many are not far from JSBs harmonisations.

     

    Do these arise from a continuous tradition, in which case they are probably the only baroque form which has continued, or was there a "dead" period when these were neither written nor improvised, which would make their present popularity a "revival"?

  13. To my surprise, I couldn't find any reference to this when searching the site, so in the hope that I am not duplicating what everyone already knows ...

     

    The Netherlands Bach Society has decided to produce video recordings of ALL of Bach's works. The project started in September 2013 and the first videos were posted from 2nd May 2014. We are promised a new video posted every Friday. So far there are six videos on line, four of them organ works, one on harpsichord, and there is one cantata. The performance, video and sound recording are superb. See http://allofbach.com/en/

     

    I have only two niggles:

     

    Not all of the organ recordings say which instrument is used, although most will recognise the Martinikerk in Groningen, played by Leo van Doeselaar, and the Lutheran Church in The Hague, played by Reitze Smits.

     

    At one a week, I doubt if I will survive to hear the complete oeuvre.

  14. This organ was built to reproduce as closely as possible a certain type of Baroque instrument, and through the research and experimentation necessary for the design and building, to understand the Baroque organ better. Such instruments were entirely adequate - in fact superb - for playing the music of their time, and the virtual impossibility of changing stops while playing is a clear hint that the music was not intended to undergo changes in registration. It must also teach players how to perform the music in an appropriate manner.

     

    If players find it necessary to change stops during a Bach or Buxtehude fugue that surely means that their instrument lacks any registration worth hearing for very long.

     

    Of course, with the aid of registrants, many Baroque instruments can be surprisingly versatile, but there can be a temptation to tweak an instrument to make it more versatile, as was done to the Muller organ in the Bavokerk in Haarlem, which no longer sounds like a Muller.

  15. This list is my suggestion:

     

    Uppon la mi re - Thomas Preston
    "Verbum caro factum est" - Hans Leo Hassler, played by Leo vn Doeselaar on the mean-tone organ in the Pieterskerk Leiden.
    The Emperor's Fanfare - Soler, arranged by E P Biggs
    Prelude and Fugue in F# minor - Buxtehude
    The Cuckoo and the Nightingalr (organ concerto) - Handel
    Prelude and Fugue in D major BWV 532 - J S Bach
    CP 'O mensch bewein dien sunde gross' BWV 622
    Fantasia for Mechanical Organ KV 608 - W.A.Mozart
    Improvisation on Psalm 42 - John Propitius
    Vers l'espérance - Thierry Escaich
    I am sure that the Escaich would frighten many adults, but I suspect that many children are more open minded.
  16. My daughter, aged 4, sat on the floor with me and listened intently to Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, pronouncing it "hilarious".

     

    My son was addicted to organ music at an earlier age, probably having heard his first organ music while still in the womb. At that time we had Rediffusion radio and television with a switch to select channels. When just old enough to stand he learned to turn this on to the channel which played organ music as a pre-programme filler each morning. I think that the rather limited selection of pieces included a good selection of Bach and Buxtehude, and he had the advantage of hearing the same pieces often enough to become familiar with them.

  17. After a stroke nearly three years ago I have recovered with very little loss of function, but one exception is my musical memory "in my fingers". I can still play as well (or strictly speaking, as badly) as ever from sight, and I can play without sheet music if I can visualise it and sightread the image, but in spite of many repeated attempts I cannot otherwise memorise even a few bars. I have heard that when part of the brain are damaged, then sometimes other parts of the brain can take over, and the lost function can be recovered, perhaps using different brain pathways.

     

    Do any others have any experience of anything like this, or any suggestions?

     

    David

  18. Some 60 years ago in the Methodist church which I attended, the organist introduced us to a new tune for Faber's hymn, "Souls of men why will ye scatter like a flock of frightened sheep". I only ever saw it as a handwritten scrap of paper with a rather amateur harmonisation. It became a favourite, in spite of its wide vocal range.

     

    As I remember it, it goes like this:

     

    http://tinyurl.com/nuzvztd

     

    Does anyone know who wrote it and if it has been published?

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