handsoff

After a couple of hours practice today, just one (possibly rhetorical) question. Is it acceptable to omit the pedal trill based on D? My pedalboard is so damned noisy I could barely hear the pipes speaking!

Thanks very much Nick. That has made me feel better about my efforts! I remember that the semiquaver pedal bits towards the end gave me the most trouble and no doubt will do so again. It's worse now because I have possibly the rattliest pedal board in the world which is mildly distracting to say the least.

I have just started re-learning this after some 35 years, although judging by my first run through it yesterday the previous work has long gone from my muscle memory! Just out of curiousity, what examination grade would this piece fit into these days? I seem to remember that it was 5ish. Thank you. Edit. I like this idea on YouTube...

Garden shears?

I'm sure that I heard David Gammie play this at Birmingham Town Hall a couple of years ago. An email to the Town Hall/Symphony Hall admin team may produce a contact address. I've always found them very helpful.

This is not a suggestion as it would require an arrangement but I'm sure that there is an organ somewhere (perhaps in a town with a glass blowing connection?) that would suit Malcolm Arnold's "The Padstow Lifeboat".

I was using a Virgin Media vbox. Our Freeview box in the back room has no recorder so I may address that with a Freeview+ in the future. Thank you for the information.

Thank you Wolsey.

From a logistical point of view bearing in mind the high international profile of the occasion, would there have been any tuners or organ builders in position in case of a problem? I haven't watched the service yet as the timing coincided with my daily gym and swim session - it's a shame that one can't record a programme broadcast on the red button so I'll have to put up with the commentary... As far the multiple organists question goes, they started playing at 09.30 and it would have a very long session for one person. My back would have given out long before the service had I been expected to play for that length of time; not that I would ever be allowed near the console in St Paul's. Hell would become endothermic before that were to happen.

This post is concerned only with the music and I should be grateful if it were not taken off-topic for whatever reasons. Thank you. There is a considerable amount or organ music both before and after the service and the BBC will be broadcasting it on the red button sans commentary. https://www.stpauls.co.uk/documents/news%20stories/btoos.pdf

Ah, thank you pcnd. That is a comfort and I had wrongly assumed that this was a new recording being sold by the OHS; I didn't investigate further. My only knowledge of the organ is that learned from the Fugue State Films offering and this made me keen to hear more, especially of Pierre Pincemaille's improvisations.

After watching and listening with awe to Pierre Pincemaille's section from St. Dénis I searched for further recordings. I found only this... http://www.ohscatalog.org/fircdfromstd.html ... which gives a slightly less rosy view of the organ's future. It must be hoped that nothing drastic is done although one can well understand the frustration of having shorter manual and pedal compasses than required for much French repertoire.

Yes, honestly... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rw23y

There certainly are and I imagine that many DOMs read their twitterings with no more than a resigned amusement. On the assumption that there are not 2 Wolseys practicing, your own postings bring a very welcome and knowledgeable balance to that particular forum. I am not registered to post on it but do keep an eye open for the few organ-related posts.

Indeed, and with some interesting new music to boot. I loved the final voluntary; how I wish that I could play such music (and had an instrument on which it would work!).

Not a screwed-up last verse but simply some great playing by Daniel Moult of "Thine Be The Glory" at St Mary, Redcliffe during the broadcast CE which I have just heard on Radio 3. The whole thing is well worth listening to on the i-player - especially as it seemed to draw opprobrium from some of the more fossilised on a R3 forum!

I am fortunate in that I am appreciated by my vicar and congregation and am always thanked for my contribution to the services. I wouldn't want to jeopardise this by overtly messing around. My improvisational skills are limited but anyway, surely part of the skill is hiding a "dodgy" theme, maybe on a birthday, so that no-one quite picks up on it? It's a bit like using a chicken OXO cube in a supposedly vegetarian risotto for that not-especially-liked sister-in-law. The cook knows and that's good enough...

09.00 Eucharist - before the service: Dupré, Résurrection from the Symphonie-Passion and afterwards, Tuba Tune by Cocker. Only kidding. What actually happened was I thought that my music case was in the car (I can't leave music in the church as it gets damp) but it wasn't. I ended up playing a bit of an improv on Salve Festa Dies before and the tune for "See How the Conquering Hero" afterwards. That went down very well and it's not very often that one gets the congregation singing along with the voluntary. Words and all!

Having watched the video clip a couple of times I don't think that the new console looks half bad. The decent quality photography helped me to make an objective judgement and I think that the lighter coloured wood and the contrasting darker bits look quite attractive. The relative lack of depth of the stop jambs looks a little odd but overall the console is quite pleasing to my eyes. I do concur with Nigel in that those fortunate enough to play the instrument surely have what they want and the tonal changes are just another chapter in the evolution of this organ. As Olivier Latry says on "The Genius of Cavaillé-Coll" DVD we are fortunate that there are other largely unaltered large Cliquot/C-C organs still extant and there is room for all.

I think that I may have met her.....

My understanding from Geoffrey Coffin and the "Keeper of the Bells" is that the case is to be retained. Much work in the tower has had to be given permission in the tower to allow for the weight of the new organ and the full length 16' pipes, the current 16' OD being haskelled. I hope to be able to invite a limited number of members to sample the new instrument towards the end of the year in the way Adrian Lucas was kind enough to invite us to the new Quire Organ at Worcester. No promises at this stage but fingers crossed... John Morris; welcome to the forum - is that the JM who used to work just across the road from the chapel? We know each other well if that's the case (and yes, I do owe you a reply to an email from last week!).

Yes , but it's not nearly as much fun! I do sometimes wear headphones when Mrs H is watching something on TV which I don't like but find that I do develop a thick head (not much of a journey, I'll admit) if I set the amp controls too loud and can't be a****d to get up and change it!

Now that my birthday has come and gone I have been able to play the DVDs. The CDs are next... The whole production is superlatively good and cannot be recommened enough to any waverers. My favourite, at the moment, are Pierre Pincemaille's sections; his improvisations and handling of the organ in Saint-Denis are wonderful to behold. I loved his comments at the end of the music section! The pieces on St Sulpice and St Ouen (my favourites instruments overall) have also been watched more than once. I learned a great deal about all the instruments featured, not least that in ND de P, and now have more sympathy with those who have modernised that one since Cavaillé-Coll did his work on it. Mrs Handsoff isn't quite so keen, especially as I have bought a CD switching unit enabling the sound from the DVD player to be fed into my main hi-fi and KEF speakers, and I suspect that it will be more difficult to cajole her into buying me similar presents in the near future. I do see from the leaflet enclosed with the discs that St Ouen is one of the next productions to be released so we'll see. :rolleyes:

... Yikes - please do not, anybody, at all, anywhere, make a CD of it.

This is a perfectly fair system on which my organ, in the photograph on the left, scores 11. Later.... Maybe another score for the organ's suitability for the music expected to be played on it? Mine, which has 2 voluntaries, a communion improv and 4 hymns twice per month, is adequate and would possibly score a 3 out of 5 in that category.