sbarber49
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Posts posted by sbarber49
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Sibelius is really very good, and I use it all the time; compositions, arrangements and worksheets for use in lessons, very user friendly.
I also use Sibelius: I got a discount as I use it for church but it's still very expensive. There are various levels of Finale (see http://www.finalemusic.com) depending on what you need.
There's a free one which looks very promising: I have downloaded it but haven't had time to get to grips with it. However if I didn't have Sibelius I would try it first.
I also have Braeburn's Music Publisher and it's very good for what it does, but lacks automatic formatting so is really only good for very simple stuff.
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I've just listened, via the BBC i-Player, to parts of the Sunday Morning service from Westminster Cathedral. It's well worth a few minutes, including the last verse of the final hymn, starting at about 47.00. A clue; no descant...
The voluntary was, of course, curtailed. Even as an Archers fan, I would have been happy to have a late start to the omnibus edition to have heard all of it.
P
Agreed, it was superb. (The last verse of "Thine be the Glory" wasn't my favourite bit, although it didn't offend me.) Some wonderful singing and some great alternation between choir and organ. The arrangement of O filii and O filiae was perhaps a bit over the top, but it was Easter Sunday!
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...and one more:
On Saturday night the Beeb had 'Easter from Kings' on, similar idea to the Christmas version. Again lots of nice singing
It's probably my television set that's faulty, then.
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Peeters chorale preludes before and after Evensong (O filii et filiae and Christ ist Erstanden).
Does anyone play Peeters any more?
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I seem to have (re-)established a tradition of a "Come and Sing" performance every Palm Sunday. Many of the same singers sing every year so it usually goes well (over 80 this year).
I think as a musical "Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer" it is very effective and moving. However I wouldn't give a "performance" as a concert work - I don't think it stands up to that.
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Regarding BWV 568, I know the NBA has no problem with it so I suppose the attribution is secure (is it?), but I really cannot think of any work by Bach that sounds more convincingly like the work of J. L. Krebs. Is it just me? (Probably...)
Peter Williams certainly has doubts about the attribution:
"While part-writing, sequences and pedal points could suggest an early work of Bach, the absence of thematic interest does not"
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If you find the definitive solution to performance nerves, bottle it, sell it, and you'll make a fortune. I'll be your first customer!
I'll be second.
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That said, part of the organist's art is to get the best out of whatever instrument they are faced with.
Yes, but..... if you can't articulate, then you can't make music.
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I have an Allen, so am biased towards them, but I think it depends on how much you are going to spend. If we are talking sub £10,000 then I would look at Allen Protege series - don't go for the Chapel series as they use inferior keyboards etc. Otherwise Viscount offer very good value for money. Also beware because the cheapest models of both use non standard size pedalboards etc.
I also have an Allen which I'm very pleased with. I have the cheapest "Chapel Series" one and, if I were replacing it would go for the next model up since mine hasn't got a standard pedalboard - it's fine for me but I wouldn't teach on it, for example. (Not that I would teach here as opposed to a pipe organ unless there was a problem.)
I don't see what the problem with the keyboards is - seems fine to me. It's got a "Fatar" keyboard, which I think other organ companies use.
If you get an Allen, make sure you can adjust the volume if you think you need to. Mine has no volume control (being designed exclusively for a church, presumably). I can adjust it with a computer, and, in any case I use it with a hi-fi (via the headphone socket, which is an optional extra).
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Whether or not one prefers the traditional English "pure" head-tone of boys or the more continental tone is a matter of personal preference and the arguments for both have been rehearsed ad nauseum both by those who do and those who do not know what they are talking about.
Malcolm
No I'm not talking about head tone (though if any singer, of whatever age or sex can't find their head voice for the higher register they don't know how to sing.)
I'm thinking more of the altos, tenors and basses singing louder and louder. I don't want to go back to the days when balance was all and the back rows had to sing in an excessively restrained fashion. But in George Guest's days (since you mention him) the choral scholars certainly sang with passion but they were also capable of great delicacy and the top line was never drowned by self-indulgent altos, tenors and basses ( well - rarely!)
What I heard yesterday was superb, but rather one-dimensional and, to me, lacking balance. Unless you have a lot more boys than men, if the men don't sing quietly some of the time the boys will either over-sing or be drowned in the lower and middle registers.
Where are the boys who sing with the flexibilty, sensitive phrasing and beautiful tone of the choirs of Thalben-Ball, George Guest, Christopher Robinson and Barry Rose (especially at St Alban's), for example? George Malcolm's boys at Westminster Cathedral certainly used a more continental tone than others at the time, but they were capable of great delicacy - for example their recording of Britten's Missa Brevis.
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"It may or may not be "authentic""
(Quote)
It is no more, nor less, authentic, than it would be on the Birmingham
Town hall organ.
Pierre
Pardon?
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I like the Stamm videos at Waltershausen. Is it just me or does he sometimes look a bit tense and uncomfortable on that organ? Before we start going on about historic organ consoles not being comfortable to play or "ergonomic", just watch someone like Jacques van Oortmersson play at the Waalse Kerk or Pieter van Dyke play at Alkmaar - both similarly historic organ consoles - but those two look very comfortable and graceful when they play, without a hint of tension and the resulting playing is very different in its character.
Yes, lovely playing and a very relaxed speed.
What's the thinking behind the little pauses that many organists impose on the music of Bach (e.g. here, after the first quaver of bar 4? I can't imagine a group of instrumentalists doing it.) I find the recordings of Rubsam make me feel a bit queasy. Bring back Walcha! (By the way, has anyone got that really cheap boxed set of Walcha's recordings - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000E6U...;pf_rd_i=468294. Is the sound too bad or is it worth buying?)
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John Birch certainly. At the height of his career he was an outstanding player (and probaby still is). His choir at Chichester achieved an incredible restrained, subtle blend and attention to detail and his boys sang with a lovely pure tone which now seems to have been abandoned there.
Malcolm
When did cathedral/college choirs get so LOUD? I went to hear one of our very top choirs yesterday and the singing was fantastic. Beautiful, sensitively-shaped psalm. The canticles were a big sing and they certainly got it (almost to the point of unpleasantness) - but with almost the same number in the back rows as the front the poor trebles were (to my ears - brought up on the old treble-dominated sound) swamped in the lower register. Even the Tomkins anthem, though beautifully sung - a little blip, apart - was sung, it seemed to me, in a rather inauthentically robust style, especially from the back rows.
That is not a criticism of the superb choir, more a comment on changing tastes and, perhaps, my ageing ears.
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Congregational Praise lists three alternative tunes: Wilmington (Erik Routley), Liverpool (John Roberts) and Horbury (J B Dykes). Please let me have your e-mail address if you would like a scan of the relevant pages.
JC
Cyberhymnal has 7 tunes - Bethany being the top one: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/n/m/nmgtthee.htm
Though you need the free Notewrthy Composer Viewer to see the scores: http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/nwc2/viewer.htm
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Done: Guilmant, Vierne and J.S. Bach
Bach, Franck, Vierne
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Yes, I particularly like your hymn introductions Stephen. I shall certain use the one for 'Thine be the glory' on Easter Day.
Thanks. I've just uploaded another intro (Thornbury) - not for everyday use. (Rather OTT)
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Thanks for this information Martin. I would love to go and see the new organ sometime and am pleased to read it is now installed.
I just tried to find a website for the church - there doesnt seem to be one which I find most suprising for such an important building.
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Turvey Tuba Tune by Paul Edwards? It has a section for a solo on Swell Cornopean or choir trumpet, but you could use the cornet, perhaps. Full organ only for the last few chords, though.
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One of the funniest things I ever heard was Nicholas Kynaston playing the Leipziger Gigue by Mozart....easy to understand why Mozart got thrown out of a church for taking the p*** at the organ.
Although it was a piano piece, wasn't it?
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Sainsbury's are selling hot cross buns, so I've uploaded some Eastery things!
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Looking at this in the full screen view, he is certainly doing the triple pedalling as printed in my copy (the Schott edition). Look carefully at his heels; they are going down on the relevant chords. (And, with a technique like he has, triple pedalling is the least of his problems!)
Yes, I agree, he is. Don't get me wrong, I would play the triple pedals if I could do so (provided the result sounded musical. I do find the last chord especially ugly on an English organ.)
It's just that I am prepared to play the piece without them.
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May your organs never cipher, may your "prepared for" stops miraculously materialise
Great - you mean I might get my harmonics IV!
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The triple pedalling is certainly to be played as written. Your right foot needs to be able to play naturals a third apart (one with the toe, the other with the heel), so you will need shoes with a good instep to avoid playing the natural in between. I used to manage OK with ordinary street shoes, but much depends on the individual pedalboard; if it has a deep touch you may be in trouble. If you have Organmaster shoes you should be fine, or you could get your heels built up by a cobbler (AMT recommends a heel height of at least one and a quarter inches).
I have to admit that I've played this movement for years without triple pedalling. I can't do the the white note thirds and I don't intend to buy a special pair of shoes just to make the slightly unpleasant sounds the triple pedals create. I just play 10ths where there are three notes (I play a fifth in bar 293). The earlier edition of this piece doesn't have all the triple pedals.
Nor do I worry about leaving out the odd note on the manuals in pieces with very big stretches if I can't manage them (I have small hands) provided the music still has the intended effect.
I always play an octave on the last chord of this Guilmant as adding the third just sounds nasty on any organ I've ever played it on. I don't play the low fifths on the last chord of the Mulet Carillon-Sortie on an organ with a pedal 32' reed either.
I wonder if playing these pedal notes is easier or harder on a French pedalboard??
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For me it's the latter, hence my belief in a partnership between descant and tune.
And of course the harmonies. I like the organ part to be subtly altered and to complement the original, not annihilate it!
I hear so many descants and last verse harmonizations that are so out of keeping with the hymn as to be offensively tasteless.
Is good taste a thing of the past? (Grumpy old organist.)
Music Notation Software
in General discussion
Posted
I forgot to put the link to Musescore which is free and looks to me to be well worth trying: http://musescore.org