Justadad

I imagine CDs need a raison d’être if they are to work; either they are about specific organs, or specific organists, or specific types of music. In this instance, the unifying theme would be that the musicians are all members of and contributors to this message board. So whilst there might be arguments to be had regarding OurPipe.com (hurry, I checked and the domain is available!) or a site dedicated to historic organs, or British organs, they might be better off in other threads. This is about showcasing the people here. For anything to happen in the real world I suspect someone needs to organise the ideas, and the resources. I’d like to suggest a team of three Paul Hodges (who has recording expertise and hardware) Cynic (who, apart from being a brilliant organist, knows a lot about turning recordings into ‘product’), and David Coram (another brilliant organist and representative of a, err, younger generation) Plus, they all strike me as really good and reasonable people who I trust absolutely (and therefore imagine everyone else would). They would decide who and what got included in the programme and, basically, nurse the thing into life. I asked them about it before posting this and they are all amenable to the idea. So whilst we can continue to discuss the idea freely here, if it gets to the stage where the three sages decide it’s a goer they’ll knock it into shape. (Indeed, Cynic has put things in motion as mentioned above.) Best wishes J (and then Organ Music – to follow Sacred Music – on BBC 4, narrated by Vox)

Whoa! A CD sells for, say, £10 and there is a possibility of recouping the costs involved and not just doing it for the love ... YouTube hosts clips free of charge and makes its money from advertising. A CD is relatively simple to make (once all the recording has been done). A website of the YouTube variety is relatively difficult to create and control (once all the recording has been done). Also, whilst it may be a relatively small website, it's gonna have a lot of throughput if people are going to be downloading .wavs (or even .mp3s) so that makes it relatively expensive on the bandwidth front. So I think you might want to separate-out the two models and think about what you really want. And I doubt you can have both. After all, some people will eschew the CD is they can get download a free audio clip. Best wishes barry Oh, and thinking about it, an OurPipe.com would have to be open access for all and sundry to up their Wachet Aufs and that means it would have to be policed; a) to make sure you (as the publisher) weren't infringing copyright, and b ) to make sure you weren't hosting anything criminal.

Hi Peter No, but I did say "a track" . J

LOL

I have just received notice of this summer's recital programme at Farnborough Abbey, and thought I'd pass them on. It's a real gem of an organ and, if I remember correctly, got several nominations for Best Small Organ in an extensive thread about favourite organs last year. The recitals are free, there's tea a biscuits afterwards, and for all those who have expressed their disappointment in the Why Do We Bother and Cheap Music threads, the audience (when I have been there) sits and listens, and is highly appreciative. Sun 4th May at 3pm Neil Wright (Farnborough Abbey) Mendelssohn, Bach, Franck, Improvisation Sun 1st June at 3pm Florian Pagitsch (Vienna) Mozart, Eberlin, Moondog, Improvisation Sun 6th July at 3pm Martin Stacey (Hampstead) Widor, Linjama, Laurin, Gigout, Stacey Sun 3rd Aug at 3pm Adrian Gunning (Islington) Tournemire, Langlais, Callaerts Sun 7th Sept at 3pm Fausto Caporali (Cremona, Italy) Messiaen, Caporali, Improvisation Sun 5th Oct at 3pm Neil Wright (Farnborough Abbey) Wesley, Messiaen, Hakim, Improvisation Pictures of the organ can be seen at http://www.cavaille-coll.co.uk/gallery.htm Best wishes J

A lot of incredibly talented musicians contribute to this forum and it occurred to me that a compilation album of tracks performed by members would not just be brilliant, but might also be important. If you were invited to contribute a track of your choice to such an album, what would you play, on which organ, and why? Best wishes J

Further to my previous note, I've checked the chronology. Langlais last toured the USA in 1981, so the inclusion of the top Cs came about in Cleveland some four years before the St John's incident. It would seem reasonable to suppose that, after Cleveland, Langlais suggested the top Cs to every choir he encountered performing the Messe Solennelle. In doing this at St John's in 1985 it may well have been interpreted as inspiration of the moment though, in fact, it wasn't. Best wishes J

Graphology ... exactly

Sacred Music may be the only thing worth watching on telly at the moment. I was curious, however, why such an authoritative programme should have recourse to anything quite so speculative as calligraphy. I do hope the remaining episodes avoid tealeaf-readings. J

Over the last couple of years Mme Langlais has been very helpful towards my son and we've exchanged a few e-mails so I wrote to ask her if she knew about the top Cs. She replied ... Yes, of course, I was there when he changed his feelings : it was in USA, and he asked Karel Paukert (Cleveland) who was preparing an audition of the Messe Solennelle, if the sopranos could sing this high C, because, he thought previously, when he composed the Mass, that it was too high for soprani. The day after, at the audition, the Paukert choir sung this note beautifully. Then my husband asked the publisher to add a correction on the score. The problem is that most of the choirs use old scores, then are not informed of this capital change! With my best regards Marie-Louise Langlais J

I'd like to hear this one http://www.organy.art.pl/instrumenty.php?instr_id=225

I only saw the first half (before leaving to collect someone from a performance of Stainer's Crucifixion) but what I saw was wonderful. Three cheers to the BBC for granting this subject such lavish production values. J (On the subject of Sacred Music generally - does anyone else find Sanders' Reproaches a perfect blend of words and music? I was close to tears this (Good Friday) morning. It always does that to me.)

Speaking as someone who couldn't distinguish between an augmented fourth and a half a pint, I am disappointed to find that makes me 'swine'. J

Dear Spottedmetal I hate to undermine one of your pet theories but where I go to church the congregation (and the tourists) sit and listen to the voluntary, whatever is being played, including Bach. So it isn't the music that's to blame for the congregation's behaviour. Best wishes J ps ... It's just a personal point of view but I've heard enough about your toaster. I appreciate I'm representing an unjolly view but that's the value of being willing to do so.

For what it's worth, I like this design. From the photos it seems at home in its environment, and dropping pencils between the pedals will never prove a problem. If it works as a musical instrument I don't see what there is to complain about. The one thing that did seem incongruous was the umbilical cord. I take it WiFi is not an option. Best wishes J

Roger Molyneux has a copy of the Angel Scene for £3.00 http://www.organmusic.org.uk/catalogue.html http://www.organmusic.org.uk/Cat0108.pdf (page 19) Best wishes J

I don't know what that means either, but I suspect it's outside the scope of this forum. J

Dear Gareth Good question, but ... What's the objective? I've asked this question in different ways but I'm still lacking an answer. "What do we do now in this country and in this age and time in order to ...." Please (anyone) fill in the dots. But please don't fill it in with "Save the organ" because I don't know what that means, and know even less how to measure whether any proportion of such a task might have been achieved. Do we want: More organ students? More people attending organ recitals of the sort the sort Paul Derrett, Sean Tucker, David Coram, Nigel Allcoat or Stephen Farr might give? More people attending organ recitals that are accompanied by balloons and other gimmicks? More organs being preserved? More organs being built? More organ CD sales? Higher remuneration and more respect for church organists? More new organ repertoire? More programming of organ music in concerts that are not exclusively organ? Or what? Unless we quantify where we want to get to, and when, we are most unlikely to get there. If we can quantify it and it's unrealistic then we're just whistling in the wind. If we can quantify it and it is realistic then we can think about strategy and tactics. But if we don't know where we want to be, and when, we'll just meander along and end up where we end up. And that would be fine for many, but ... And in case I'm giving the wrong impression, as father of (and occasional assistant for) a 17 year old ARCO who is just about to end one three year appointment as an organ scholar and start another one I am all in favour of serious organists receiving appropriate regard. Best wishes J

Dear MM Please don't misunderstand me. I should be delighted for 500 or 5,000 people to attend the recital you outlined above or any recitals given of good organ music by good organists on good organs (allowing for a wide range of opinions as to the meaning of 'good'). I just wonder about the consequences of accepting that neither 5,000 not 500 people will come to that recital "so let's add balloons". It seems to me you then risk the possibility that people (of whatever age) attracted by balloons come back for more balloons and the music, and the musician, and the instrument become incidental. I hear what Vox says about the organ dying if we don't get the kids interested but wonder when was the great age when kids were interested and thus kept the organ alive? There may well have been one and, if so, you will know about it. (I remain indebted to you for a previous post pointing out that organs were all the rage in the taverns of ancient Rome (a factor which contributes greatly to the vast canon of ancient Roman organ repertoire being played today)). I think your statistical analysis is arguable. Out of 700 attendees, 7 are interested*. 0.7 starts organ lessons. 0.07 gets to grade 5 and 0.007 to grade 8. 0.0007 ever plays a recital and 0,00007 gets ARCO. If you're lucky. I hesitate to do the maths but I think that would mean 100,000 recitals (attended by 70 million people) to produce 1 part-qualified ARCO. That doesn't seem very efficient to me, nor does it add significantly to what is happening already in terms of making new organists. Of course, if you could put on 100,000 recitals for 70 million people that would save the organ (and the balloon industry!) I just think this subject lends itself to a lot of woolly thinking. Spottedmetal has 700 tickets to sell at his venue and it is only natural that he should want to sell them all. Having a passion for pipe organs is laudable. Having a concern for the preservation of the pipe organ as an instrument is admirable. And, maybe, the performance of transcriptions of Ravel's Bolero by an organist in a sequined bodysuit, accompanied by dancing girls in increasingly little, and balloons, is the way to realise it. I just remain to be convinced. I don't think it's about organists as entertainers, either. But it might be about organists as personalities. A while ago someone posted (in the Celebrity Organist thread) a clip of Rick Wakeman playing a pipe organ. Rick Wakeman is (imo) a great keyboardist, and a fantastic raconteur. He is, indeed, a wonderful entertainer. His pipe organ clip was crushingly dull. Perhaps he should have worn a spangly cape (as he did, routinely, in YES) or maybe he understood that it was never going to look right. So how to popularise the organ? I don't know. But I think it would be better to have organists with engaging personalities appearing on Jonathan Ross, or Top Gear, or Have I Got News For You, than in a country house (with or without balloons). But look on the bright side; I bet there are more organists, more organs and more organ music being played and written than there are bassoonists, bassoons and bassoon music. And there's a thought. "Bassoons and Balloons." That has a certain marketability, don't you think? Best wishes J *This, of course, assumes they are interested in the organ. Six of them might just be interested in the balloons that were laid on to get them interested in the first place. And my money says that if one goes on to become an organist they will have been attracted by the programme and not the gimmicks.

Why? Why does the organ badly need the younger generation crowd? Will 700 kids, lured to a recital by balloons and other gimmicks, produce: More and better organists? More and better organ music? More and better organs? More and better organ recitals? J

From Wiki Françoise Renet (Paris May 20 1924 Paris - Versailles March 23, 1995) was an important French organist. She studied with Marcel Dupré (organ), Maurice Duruflé (improvisation), and Nadia Boulanger (harmony). For 40 years she was associated with the great Cavaillé-Coll at Saint-Sulpice (Paris). In 1955 Dupré named her Assistant Organist. Upon his death she became Interim Organist (1971-1973), after which she was named Co-Titular Organist with Jean-Jacques Grunenwald. After Grunenwald's death she again became Interim Organist (1983-1985), until the nomination of Daniel Roth. From 1972 to 1990, Renet taught the organ class at the Marcel Dupré Conservatory in Meudon. Best wishes J

Someone bought it for £750. J

This is the YouTube clip Lemmens and balloons. J

I find it difficult to imagine any version of Stairway, or Comfortably Numb, or Angels sounding anything other than totally lame on an organ. And I can't imagine any kind of satisfactory rendition of Langlais' Fete by Coldplay. It's like sheep in a horse race, pickles with ice cream and trainers with pin-stripe suits. Every time someone mentions holding out hands I get an image of a drowning man. The organ isn't just unpopular with the nightclub generation. It's unpopular with the Beatles generation and the Big Band generation. Even people who go to church get up and make a terrible clatter as they flood out as soon as the voluntary starts in many places of worship (according to posts here). In fact you might do better to ask those who go to church in the first place to stay and listen to the voluntary. Get the incumbent to put a note in the service sheet to the effect that the voluntary is part of the service, to which the congregation is invited to sit and listen. The organ evolved into something accessible to the masses. It's called a synthesizer. Rick Wakeman's Six Wives of Henry VIII was a significant point in the evolution, followed by the appearance of synth bands like Kraftwerk. Synths are affordable, portable, useful in ensembles (aka bands) can sample an oboe rather than mimic one with a tin whistle, and through a decent PA can make your bowels break. And they stay in tune whatever the temperature, time of day, and however many people are present. In exactly the same way, the guitar has been popularised by Les Paul and Leo Fender. The pipe organ is an instrument of liturgical accompaniment, saved from extinction by the Church. To popularise it is to trivialise it and, in so doing, to do it a monstrous disservice. Neither it nor its operators were meant to be stars anymore than the people who read lessons. Can you imagine 700 people drawn to a lesson reading fest by the prospect of 1,000 balloons to pop? LOL J

Dear Graham Thanks. Yes, I'd seen that one and had even tried phoning the distributor who said that he thought their Koch Schwann recordings had gone to Universal but he couldn't be sure. Universal knew nothing about it. Anyway, the problem has been solved. Thanks to everyone for their help. Best wishes J