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sbarber49

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Posts posted by sbarber49

  1. On 10/02/2024 at 21:24, pwhodges said:

    The nearest to a true comparison that I can think of would be to record the organ "live" at the same time and using the same microphones as the recording of the sample set, played back on the same system.  This would enable a comparison in which presence and setup of the sampling software was the only variable.

    Paul

    Or a Hauptwerk sample set of an organ compared with the real organ, live,  in the same building - a "battle of the organs". Did they do that in Salisbury when they, I think, had a hauptwerk installed using the Salisbury sample set?

  2. 8 hours ago, Rowland Wateridge said:

     Nor am I aware that he built the organ in ‘St Patrick’s Cathedral’ (which possibly should be a reference to St Patrick’s (RC) Church) in Drogheda).

    Possibly St Patrick's Cathedral in Dundalk or even St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin though that organ was finished after the great man's death.

    I note that the organ is tuned to Valotti temperament.

  3. On 03/01/2024 at 18:08, Martin Cooke said:

    The other thing about this, is that they took O come, all ye faithful in A flat major so that the 32ft reed could go down properly for WORD of the father. 

    It was in G on the Radio service - at least on "catch up" in 'sounds' it is.

  4. 1 hour ago, Martin Cooke said:

    but if the Archbishop can be advanced to the top-most rank of the Royal Victorian Order in one move and the Dean to the one just below that, surely, other people who actually played a key role on the day of the Coronation and in all the rehearsing before hand might be considered for an LVO or CVO. 

    I watched the programme "King Charles lll, the Coronation Year" which spent a very long time going through the tiniest details of the preparation for the Coronation; the Gospel Choir was featured but there was no mention at all the the cathedral musicians or Pappano. Extraordinary. 

  5. I have been looking through this book and there are lots of new hymns and new tunes. The tunes seem pretty good though I've only glanced through them. I wonder how many will catch on.

    However I wonder if the book will mainly be of use to cathedrals and the more rarified churches. In my church we have a diet of fairly traditional hymns (I choose them) but even we sing many that the Revised EH doesn't include. It seems to me to be the complete opposite of Hymns Old and New: it included everything regardless of quality but this new book seems to me to have gone to the opposite extreme. Here are a few hymns it doesn't have which I think are sung by most churches;  would they want to buy a new set of books that excluded them? I realise that I'm probably in a minority of one and that organists here will applaud the insistence on musical standards, and I'm not saying that I personally like many of the following:

    As the deer pants for the water
    Beauty for brokenness
    Brother, sister, let me serve you
    From heaven you came, helpless babe
    Give me joy in my heart
    I, the Lord of sea and sky
    In Christ alone (I know there are theological problems with this)
    Make me a channel of your peace
    Meekness and majesty
    O Lord my God (How great thou art)
    Seek ye first the kingdom
    Shine, Jesus, shine
    When I needed a neighbour
     

  6. 18 hours ago, Philip said:

     

    Call me cynical, but I suspect the fact Amazon guaranteed it would hold the price at the time I ordered (£26.40) and this is now way short of the RRP of £35 may have something to do with the sudden cancellation.

     

    I'm sure that's right, though it hadn't occurred to me. You can't really blame them, I suppose, they can't have expected such a lengthy delay. They haven't been very honest about it, though, and it's not as if they don't make plenty of money out of us all!

  7. On 13/11/2023 at 20:16, Dafydd y Garreg Wen said:

    It may finally be happening:

    https://reh.hymnsam.co.uk/what-is-being-published/

    Revised English Hymnal will be launched on Wednesday 29th November 2023.

    Come Sing Revised English Hymnal will include congregational singing of a selection from the new hymnal followed by a drinks reception.

    Wednesday 29th November 2023, 6pm-9pm.  St James Church, Sussex Gardens, Paddington London W2 3UD

    RSVP  to Michael Addison michael@hymnsam.co.uk by Wednesday 22nd November 2023.

    All are welcome but capacity is restricted to the first 250 respondents.   

    The Full Music edition will be available for sale on the night.

     

    Has anyone got a copy yet? I ordered it, years ago, from Amazon. Last week they told me it was coming before 11 pm on Friday, but now say it's currently unavailable!

  8. I mentioned on a previous topic that if the whistle block is on it will cause distortion with middle to high organ notes. I have it turned off on my "music" setting (and organ one). My audiologist had never heard of this so it's worth my mentioning it again.

    I also have top of the range Phonaks and they are good - if perhaps not really worth the extra money. Mine can be controlled through my phone and I can stream the television directly to them. Also any music or speech on the phone. There is a basic equaliser on programmes. I still can't hear very high notes and I have no idea if what I'm hearing is what people with "normal" hearing experience.

    Stephen

  9. I started playing the organ to copy my older brother (8 years older) who was by then an FRCO. I was lucky to have a very encouraging church organist who, after I stopped singing treble, got me sitting on the organ bench beside him. He would say "you play this one" just before a hymn and, later, liked to instruct me what key to modulate into during last verses. (I cheated and had a go at all the hymns in advance!) He was a very fine musician and organist, though he never practised and voluntaries were sometimes a bit approximate. I am very grateful to him. I played for my first service when he forgot to turn up one Sunday. My father was the vicar so I was able to practise whenever I wanted - a great luxury.

    Sadly I never practised the piano properly and so my organ playing  is not as good as it should be. Nor is my sight-reading up to much. Still, I've played in churches for about 55 years and have played for services in, I think, 38 cathedrals in England and Ireland over the years.

     

  10. 8 hours ago, Dafydd y Garreg Wen said:

    There are some Stanford examples of every verse of a hymn reharmonised in this manner in the early twentieth-century volume Varied Harmonies for Organ Accompaniment (and voices ad libitum) of Certain Tunes in Hymns Ancient And Modern.

    There is the wonderful setting of Stanford's tune 'Engleberg' for "For all the saints" in the old A&M revised. This is the tune now used for "When in our music God is glorified". (Shamefully modern editors removed the first beat - it's definitely part of the tune, not a "door-knocker"! The latest A&M has it right).

    I arranged this for "When in our music" using some of Stanfords varied harmonies for verses 3 - 5 which I think works well. If anyone wants a copy PM me.

    Stephen

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