Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

handsoff

Members
  • Posts

    777
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://
  • ICQ
    0

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Stratford-upon-Avon
  • Interests
    Playing the organ, listening to organ music both live and recorded, railways, photography, walking, swimming, cooking and eating, driving (1969 Morris Minor amongst others) and keeping my wife in the manner to which she has become accustomed. That means that I took very early retirement and she still works!

Recent Profile Visitors

16,504 profile views

handsoff's Achievements

Advanced Member

Advanced Member (3/3)

0

Reputation

  1. Absolutely astounding. I'm going to hand in my organ keys...
  2. As a lighter afterthought and in an attempt to lift the mood a little, it's a good job a member of a church music band didn't ask for a new guitar to be blessed...
  3. All that may well be the case but the Bishop himself chose to strike the organ with what most seem to regard as unnecessary force.
  4. Utterly disgraceful. It shows contempt for the material, the craftsmen, and the instrument.
  5. I am very sorry to hear this sad news. His wise and considered words were always welcome and kindly expressed.
  6. I'm sorry to disappoint S_L but I no longer have a motorbike. My various Triumph mounts served me well for the commute to church for several years but after starting work I became fed up with having to change clothing for the office every day, getting cold and wet in inclement weather and not having more comfortable and acceptable transport for various young ladies at different times. I still keep a Morris Minor in good condition for dry days and holidays so maintain a link to the days of more basic motoring.
  7. My interest started when I went to Grammar school which was attached to the town's Guild Chapel with its 2M + P Nicholson. The two first forms were asked to buy a Schott recorder which the school would supply at a discount. During the first music lesson (in part of the older school complete with the teacher's border collie Timmy in his basket and swirls of tobacco smoke from his pipe (the teacher's!) it turned out that I was the only one of 30ish 11 years olds who could read music and also played the piano to, if I recall correctly Grade 3 or 4. Q. "Do you want to have a go on the organ?" A. "Yes Sir, please sir." I'd been a fairly reluctant chorister at the village church for a few years so knew what an organ sounded like and that it had stops that made different sounds but not much more than that. We went to the chapel at lunchtime and after a brief rundown of the basics; stop pitch, which stop made what sound etc, I played over a couple of hymns sans pedals about which Mr Smerden made positive comments. He asked if I'd like to take it further and learn more. I did and fortunately my piano teacher was also an organist (ARCO qualified as I later found out) so it was simple to switch disciplines and it was arranged that I could have lessons in the Guild Chapel. I was playing the 1955 version of the organ which, in about 1969, suffered mightily after the chapel tower roof leaked. The whole Great Organ was out of action leaving just the 3 quiet Swell Organ stops and some notes of the pedal Bourdon. This wasn't fixed for years and after I had left the school. How I wish that the current Principal Pipe Organs instrument had been there in my day. I soon picked up some of the requirements and from the following year became one of the two school organists and began to deputise at the village church instead of singing in the choir. I took on my first church at another village some 5 miles away when 16 which helped persuade my mother than I really really really needed a motorbike...
  8. Going to the far limits of the fantasy realm I would clone the C - C in St. Ouen, fix the winding and anything else required , give me the keys, empty the cathedral, lock the doors and let me out tomorrow.
  9. I've just replied Andrew - been in the garden for the past couple of hours! Best wishes
  10. I have recently been sorting out some odds and ends associated with music and the services for which I have played the organ and decided to throw out the many service sheets for weddings and funerals I for some reason had kept. Most were entirely predictable and unremarkable but a few stood out and it is these I shall mention here. I have until recently covered this type of service in three churches but 2 out of 3 oddities come from services at the church with the best of the organs, a 2M + P 9 stop very bright and pleasant Nicholson. The most enjoyable was a wedding of an older couple who were quite knowledgeable about music and involved me in their discussions. They were keen to have a good selection of music before the service and promised me that their guests would be requested to remain quiet as I played and treat it as a concert. The music, the titles of which were printed on the order of service was :- Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring Salut d'Amour Short P & F in G Minor (JSB (probably..)) which they had heard me play in the church and liked Pachelbel Canon Hymnus by Vangelis, a sort of simple hymn tune, very easy, a bit predictable but easy on the ear, as the bride entered. All carefully timed so that the last piece ended about 15 seconds after the bride's arrival which she promised faithfully would be spot on time. It was. During signing the register - Jesu Joy again Postlude - Wedding March. The hymns were Love Divine and Lead Us Heavenly Father I was given double my usual fee and very kindly given credit in the programme order of service. The next one of note was a funeral in the same church which turned out to be rather less musical. The only music required was "The Old Rugged Cross" played twice as the coffin entered, as the hymn and then again until the church emptied. Nothing else. My most eventful in a non-musical sense was in one of the other churches where a couple were married with the costumes having a Peaky Blinders theme. The rector was concerned that she might have to abandon the service as there were fears that the whole bunch of them would be in the village pub until kick-off. In the event it wasn't that bad. Quite... The groom and best man were mostly sober and dressed as Peaky Blinders but did agree to remove their flat caps for the service. Some of the audience were a little the worse for wear but remained reasonably well behaved if a bit noisy and some even removed their headgear. The music before was organist's choice, the hymns some odd words to the tune of Morning has Broken and I Vow to Thee My Country on the basis that they would at least know the tunes. For the register signing it was "Red Right Hand" aka the Peaky Blinders theme in a reduction for piano, and afterwards some noisy rubbish on CD. The bride and groom made the short journey from church to pub in a horse and carriage for the reception. I was later told that true to form there was much drinking culminating in punch-ups to which the police were called. Twice. Anyone else with some good stuff?
  11. Thank you posting that video from Liverpool. It's a wonderful performance of a piece that's not recognised as it should be. The sound of the Willis reeds at the end.... wow! I played it through the fairly decent system in my study causing a complaint from downstairs where my wife was trying to practise relaxation yoga...ooops!
  12. I do hope that the BBC will offer a Red Button facility to avoid any commentary or that another broadcaster will do something similar. Pretty decent set of music...
  13. I have seen in a TV listing that a piano for use by anyone has been placed in a London terminus railway station and which is "secretly" monitored by well-known professional players with the aim of giving the best players an opportunity for on-screen publicity. What a great shame it is that this wasn't done with the organ in London Bridge station with the accompanying chance to further general appreciation of the instrument and give the TV watching public who would rarely hear an organ some idea of the skills involved in playing one.
  14. Ah yes. I should have thought of that. I've taken a crop from the centre of the original RAW image and had a fiddle around in Photoshop and linked it. It gives the name of the ladies who donated it to the church but not of the organ's origin. The dates don't give much of a clue unfortunately. Brass Plate
  15. I was near Tibberton, not from Worcester, yesterday and visited the beautiful church of St Peter ad Vincula to see if there was an organ in the building. There is and a quite unusual one in my view. It's a single manual of short compass, no pedals and with stops at 8', 4' and 2'. There was no-one around so I couldn't play it but shall contact the church and return. The pipes are protected behind wire mesh in the wooden case and this I imagine is an addition made later, perhaps when the organ was taken to the church as it's the sort of instrument that might have been in a house at one time. I took some photographs and links to some of them are below. I didn't have a sufficiently wide angle lens with me to take a full length view in the restricted space and a shadow from the lens was thrown by the on-camera flash. Maker's Plate Stops Keyboard General View
×
×
  • Create New...