Barry Jordan

Trost called all his Gedackts "Portun", the only reason being, that Saxons talk funny, would have said "Portun" when they meant "Bordun" and ended up spelling it like that too. The organ builder Rühlmann used the the name a lot; I will try to see if I can find any particular characteristics - the ones I've seen all have arched mouths, but then so do most of his flutes. Cheers B

It's by Kauffmann, 1960, and it's dire. Nothing came out of it, and it never worked. But, in the usual continental way, the heritage people decided that it was a modern "Denkmal" and couldn't go. So the typical Viennese solution (they have a saying there, "Die Lage ist hoffnungslos, aber nicht ernst" - the situation is hopeless, but not serious ) was to build a "Chororgel" with 4 manuals and 50-odd stops, which is used for all purposes, leaving the old organ to go mouldy in its corner. As regards staff, they currently have an "interim Kapellmeister" and the "Dommusikus" Thomas Dolezal, apparently the person who sparked the resignation of Peter Planyavsky, who however also fairly characteristically remrked that the good thing about not working for the catholic church anymore was that he could finally divorce his wife. He is getting on for retirement age anyway. Cheers Barry

Over here too, I'm afraid. However - bad working conditions mean shoddy concerts, to which no-one of any discernment would want to go. Perhaps one of the reasons many series are slowly dying or being killed off, whereas ours is growing slowly but surely. Cheers Barry

I don't suppose that I really belong to the real addressees either, but I have experienced a number of them, including Gillian Weir and Simon Preston, from whom I adopted the rule " at least 1 hour for every 10 minutes of the programme". I regard this as professional. I want 9 hours of practice before a full length recital. I also expect it of those whom I invite to play here, so we pay a decent fee ( not less than 500 Euros) and two nights accomodation; the recitals are Fridays at 8.30 pm, and the cathedral is available for practice Thursday evening from 6.30 until Friday 10 am, without a break if necessary (no curfews here), and again on Friday from 3 pm; no further tours are scheduled from this time, although the cathedral is open until 6. Absolute quiet from 6 till 7.30, and then there might even be time for that green salad. On the downside, we do rather hope that the organist will have a glass of wine with the groundlings in the Cloisters afterwards. It can get late. Cheers Barry

I'd like to recommend the Amadeus edition - accurate and well printed.

Well, I don't suppose the dead ones minded very much. Think of the live ones they slaughtered instead.

We have no heating either here in Magdeburg. Something to do with the shortage of money, I suspect, as it is all over the east. Cologne is something of a one-off in the West; they compensate for it by being very catholic and getting everything over with pretty smartly in the winter. There is something to be said for that. Most cathedrals / large parish churches in our neck of the woods move into somewhere smaller for the winter. The Marienkirche in Lübeck has no heating either, though. I imagine that at the time these places were being rebuilt after the war there didn't seem any real possibility of getting them warm enough for it to make any difference for an affordable amount of money. And protestant churches in Germany aren't used much, so why bother? Different for the catholics. As to the three wise bears, I'm not really sure. They aren't buried there, they just have some relics........we, on the other hand, have half the lower jaw of the whale that swallowed Jonah. The upper one is in Halberstadt. Cheers Barry PS A Windfang is a porch designed to "catch the wind", i.e double-doored. But I like the other interpretation better too.

These are, I imagine, entirely mythical entities. B

Fisk's machines are now being produced by Laukhuff. Ours were delivered the week before last. Barry

We German organists tune our own reeds, you know - every week, if need be. I would imagine that Klais has thought out a way of making them reachable....... On the other hand, Bonn is just down the road; the Klais-man could come over on the tram. No, there is no heating. B

That's Beck's of Bremen..........and it's Pils!

It seems to me that musicians active in the church are the only ones from whom this is routinely demanded - and it is very much routine. I can't wait for "Simon Rattle raps with the BPO". Or Robbie Williams sings Monteverdi..... No-one can do it all, and probably no-one wants to. And rightly so. Barry

Just because people sit down again doesn't mean that they actually listen. Mostly, they talk, and make their disapproval of anything over 2 minutes very vocal. I'd rather they were honest and just scarpered, to be honest. Don't think it's really fair to compare the sermon with the voluntary. They do seem to have different purposes to me - after all, they come to church to have their souls saved, not to listen to the music. On the other hand I don't allow anyone to make speeches when we have concerts, whether choral concerts, organ recitals or whatever, either. Then it's my show. Cheers B

On the one hand, of course......... on the other hand, if we are talking about usefulness, which mostly seems to mean versatility, how useful it is really? If one regards a house organ with d compasses as relatively limiting, what about this? Just being a devil's advocate. I had my house organ tuned in Kellner. I had it changed pretty quickly. Cheers Barry

Most German baroque organs have a d' pedal compass - when it's only c' one notices it pretty quickly. Even today g' pedals are rare - partly because this note is VERY far away on a parallel pedal board. The manual compass on the other hand routinely extended only to c''' - I cannot off-hand think of a Bach work that exceeds this compass, but I may of course be wrong. It has been known. This was the standard compass of Silbermann and Hildebrandt, for example. (48 notes, incidentally, since C# is not provided) If Peter Williams only plays baroque music, as I should imagine is the case, then the compass of his house organ is sufficient....... Ladegast always built to f''', and that remained usual in Germany until after WWII, after which g''' became the norm; now it might be a''', c'''' is still regarded as a slightly excentric wish. Cheers B PS does one really need more notes on the pedals for any Bach except the F major Toccata, where the evidence just might imply that the bars that need these notes are not original?

Hello all, I see Ladach has a three-manual Lewis for sale. Anyone know his comes from? I'd love to have it but don't quite know where to put it. http://www.ladach.de/index.php?id=o_orgeln...all&rv=1&rb=56# Cheers Barry

Well, it is a very long piece..........

I have played the Reubke organ in Kyritz to which Pierre provided a link. It is really rather beautiful and strangely neglected. Perhaps if it still had its original mechanism, instead of rather noisy cone chests, it would be more interesting to recording companies. I think, however, that the answer to the "impossible" crescendi in the Sonata might be quite simple - the Merseburg organ has a hand control for the swell. And though there is not really a lot on the swell of that organ either, it is enough to realise these fairy modest dynamic differences. It was the practice to use four registrants, two on each side, at Merseburg at that time. I have played this instrument since the restoration too. It is not an instrument on which you can simply slide on to the bench and play........ Cheers Barry

That's it. And yes, there was a long discussion about it on Orgue-l. Have a good Sunday. B

If you go to http://www.bodensee-musikversand.de/ and put the word "Merkel" in the search box, you will instantly get a list of 82 articles, including the organ sonatas, most of them in two different editions. The are marked "immediately deliverable", so I assume that they are not out of print at all. No, here they are: http://www.butz-verlag.de/pdfs/orgelwerke.pdf and go to page 27 of the pdf catalogue. 9 Euros each, that's 6 quid and 22p..... I expect a UK dealer could them over from Bonn, otherwise Bodensee give excellent service! Cheers Barry

Didn't we have this one a little while ago? Or was that elsewhere? I know it lead to discussions about schools getting rid of their instruments......

Mine doesn't care if I get grouchy,,,,,,,,in fact he rather likes it, as he can then tell others how impossible it is to work with his organist. I offered to let him choose them, but he didn't want to do it like that, as he wouldn't be able to assert his authority then. B

Oh yes. Very definitely. Although I'm allowed to choose the hymns - at first, then I give them to the boss, who changes them. It's a power thing, you know. But the not-hymns, I don't choose them. Well, I wouldn't would I? Not very good at English any more. Ziss is a pity. ;)B

Are you being difficult? I hope not, I know a professional - oh, never mind. It's the choice of hymns I'm not allowed to comment on. Lest we should think this were becoming a democracy or something.

Here's the organ content - I know this thing because it forms A PART OF THE "LITURGY" OF THE EASTER VIGIL HERE - other people sing "the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea"......... Now this is before the Resurrection Gospel, and since we are liturgically correct here, the organ sounds for the first time AFTER the gospel. So what to do? I get to accompany it on a clapped-out electric piano, that's what. So much for the liturgy of a great cathedral. But as my boss put it, "I would like you to take notice of it, not comment on it." Cheers Barry