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sbarber49

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Everything posted by sbarber49

  1. If I wanted to buy mics for my R-09, what would I have to spend to make a worthwhile improvement and what should I buy? Stephen Barber
  2. Try these threads: http://www.mander-organs.com/discussion/in...ic=2063&hl= http://www.mander-organs.com/discussion/in...c=1796&st=0 I am very happy withy my Edirol R-09, but it's probably less good than the Zoom if you want to use external microphones. The built-in microphones on the Edirol are very good, but I find they can be a bit bass-heavy with organ pedals, depending on how carefully I place the machine. Stephen Barber
  3. Good! Most of Stanley Vann's organ music is slow and meditative so this is a bit of a change. It's on Gary Sieling's CD from Chelmsford (http://www.crotchet.co.uk/PRCD827.html) Stephen Barber
  4. I couldn't understand why my pupil couldn't get the rhythm of bar 4 (of Bach's Liebster Jesu) right. Only when I looked closely did I discover that he WAS playing what it said (in NBA)! I have never heard it played like that and all the other copies I have (Novello, BG, Kevin Mayhew Funeral Album, Roger Davis's Tutor, this one http://icking-music-archive.org/scores/bac...ral_BWV731.pdf) have the version I'm used to. Has anyone changed the way they play this bar to the NBA version? I presume it is a correction of a misreading. Are there any other editions that have the NBA reading? It's bar 4, 2nd crotchet beat. NBA has: quaver tied to a demisemiquaver, followed by 4 hemidemisemiquavers and a demisemiquaver. BG, Novello etc. have quaver tied to 2 demisemiquavers followed by 4 hemidemisemiquavers. Stephen Barber
  5. In Playing them in & playing them out ("a huge new collection of processionals and recessionals") there is a toccata-type thing called FĂȘtes by Stanley Vann which is rather good and always goes down well. (I'm promoting it as he dedicated it to me!)
  6. Thank you for that. I know about the French use of the cornet as a chorus stop. I had thought that you were saying (in post 14) that because the stop was voiced as a cornet it could be used as a chorus stop, whereas if it had been voiced as a sesquialtera it couldn't be. On re-reading your post I see that I was inferring something that you hadn't written. I thought that the St Paul's cornet was just a tierce mixture but since I'd forgotten it was called a cornet my memory is obviously not that reliable! Stephen Barber
  7. Please excuse my ignorance! How different is the voicing between these two stops and in what way? I had thought that it would be more likely that a sesquialtera could be used in chorus than a cornet. Stephen Barber
  8. And me, please, as I don't subscribe to the Church Times. Thanks, Stephen Barber
  9. But have the editors the right to alter the metre completely? Especially since they don't even acknowledge that they have done so (in, for example, Common Praise). Eleanor Hull did NOT versify the hymn as printed and it seems to me to be disgraceful to print such a radically different version under her name. Not dumbed down? As you say, a matter of opinion. Stephen Barber
  10. Or here, of course: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/7/76...A_-_BWV_576.pdf Stephen Barber
  11. Have you tried Allen? I've just bought an Allen CF-2a (http://pearsaa1.memset.net/~allenorg/index.php?page=church-organs) which I'm very pleased with. Although the pedalboard is less deep than normal, I found it much more comfortable than the Wyvern Sonata. The quality seems very high. I had divisional pistons and a headphone socket fitted and the Great & Pedal made unenclosed. Anyone who lives near Peterborough (I know: why would anyone?) is welcome to come and try it. It's very basic: one specification (although there's a choice of 2). I have software which allows me to do some voicing (adjust treble/bass) and alter any stop or note for volume. Beautifully made console. It wouldn't fit in the door! They had to take it away and "split" it. If I want to move it again, though, I can split it myself and then put it together again. Stephen Barber P.S. I do play a proper organ on Sunday mornings ( Harrison - 1917).
  12. http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiBNKSBAN2;ttBNKSBAN2.html Of course, it's a very different tune - especially as it begins begins on the 3rd beat of the bar. Had Percy Dearmer kept the opening upbeat his version would make more rhythmic sense to me. (Although still not acceptable for Be thou my vision) Looking on Youtube, it seems to me that the version of Be thou my vision with added syllables is only sung in this country, certainly not in the USA. What about Australia & New Zealand? I couldn't find a decent performance of it on Youtube but this one has a nice flow to it. would you really want to add upbeats and extra syllables to this? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=627zCglxaMA Stephen Barber
  13. Try matching these words and this tune: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/b/b021.html
  14. My last post on the subject! I find that if I read aloud, say, the first verse as originally versified and the version in CP the "modern" version has a dreadfully banal rhythm in comparison. Original, 1919 version: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that thou art; Thou my best thought in the day and the night, Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light. CP version: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, be all else but naught to me, save that thou art; be thou my best thought in the day and the night, both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light. No-one brought up on the real thing, like everyone who grew up in the Church of Ireland, will settle for anything less. The last line is the crux of the whole hymn, in my view, and I almost always used to diminuendo at this point to underline it and because it is so personal: "Still be my vision, O Ruler of all." replaced with: "Still be thou my vision................." Emphasis on the wrong word and the hymn ruined. Yes, the repetition could be said to unify the text, but I think it's already completely unified - can you see any way in which it isn't? Putting "be" in 8 times at the beginnings of lines might seem to be overkill - in any case they've only done it when they couldn't find a suitable "filler" word - so not consistent. (Karl Jenkins' music is very unified but it isn't big on profundity, is it?) As for the version with upbeats being dumbed down - okay, that's a matter of opinion, but, again, if you had had known the original version first, I don't think you'd be happy with the "tum-ti-tum" version, however smooth and flowing. I've already said that the harmonies in HON are dreadful so we don't need to revisit this. It's got nothing to do with the rhythm; I have never used them and never will. Yes, the translation was by Mary Byrne and this was versified by Eleanor Hull. She had nothing to do with the modern version, of course (she died in 1935). I regard the modern version with the banal rhythm as cultural vandalism. Over and out. Stephen Barber
  15. I use a reharmonization I wrote out in 1974. Its ending seems to have been heavily influenced by the Willcocks last verse arrangement of God rest ye merry, Gentlemen and ends with a major chord following some slightly clashing contrary-motion triads. Well, I like it! Stephen Barber
  16. Pardon? I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with. The original form of the adapted melody was WITHOUT the upbeats. This fitted the original version of Be Thou my vision. Do you dispute that (see posts 22 & 41)? As regards your own preferences, you are perfectly entitled to prefer the dumbed-down (in my opinion, of course!) and regularized later version which fits Lord of all hopefulness. In any case you have to use this version if you want to sing those words. However the words of Be Thou my vision are so much better and more profound. (I scarcely feel I have to say that that is a matter of opinion.) The original words of Be Thou my vision were not in the banal rhythm seen in, for example, Common Praise, but in the far better, and more interesting, metre seen in HON. I make a plea for all right-minded and discerning organists (all of you, I'm sure) to eschew the bowdlerized version of the words and go for the real thing. I repeat: if you read through the text of both versions you will see what I mean. Cyril Taylor has made a strong plea that Slane be reserved for Be Thou my vision and not to have its impact weakened through overuse. I have to say that I can live without ever singing, hearing or playing Lord of all hopefulness again. Stephen Barber
  17. Ah. Comfortable. I see. Stephen Barber
  18. 'Fraid not! It was first printed in 1919 for the words of "Be Thou my Vision" in the Irish Church Hymnal - only turned into the jogging waltz later. Though I must admit that I didn't know that "Lord of all Hopefulness" was in Songs of Praise: another wonderful addition to hymnody it produced alongside the theologically profound "Morning has Broken." Where would wedding couples be without these two wonderful hymns? Anyway, do what you like with "Lord of all hopefulness" (I can provide some suggestions to any one who wants) but don't do the rhythmically dumbed-down version of Be Thou my vision (doesn't a poet have any rights?). Sing "Lord of all Power" instead, if you must have the silly upbeats. Anyone who doesn't believe me, try reading through both versions of Be thou my vision as poetry. Stephen Barber
  19. But It's NOT mutilated (unless you are referring to the harmonies). The "dumbed-down" version with extra notes gratuitously added, especially when used for the rhythmically emasculated version of Be Thou my vision, is an excrescence. So three cheers for HON - can't believe I've just written that! Stephen Barber
  20. Gosh! Try it at a dignified pace and not the modern "Songs of Praise razzmatazz" speed. As for the words - the rhythm of the original is FAR better to my ears. It's like comparing BCP Gloria to Common Worship Gloria. Stephen Barber
  21. Certainly have. It's the only good thing about the dreadful book - although the harmonies are not to my taste. Stephen Barber
  22. NO! The "proper" Slane (i.e. the original adaptation of the Irish Ballad) does NOT have the awful, silly upbeats. It was originally used for the wonderful Be thou my vision as translated by Mary Byrne and versified by Eleanor Hull. However it had the upbeats added to fit the words of the ubiquitous Lord of All Hopefulness. Bad enough, you might think. But worse was to come: someone had the bright idea of bastardizing the words of Be thou my vision to fit the newly-bastardized tune. So the word "be"was added at the beginning of no fewer than 8 lines, and various words added in other places. Ugh! Sing Be thou my vision as originally written or not at all! Stephen Barber
  23. I think adding time for the congregation to breathe is different to halving notes in a printed tune (which was what I was complaining about in Abide with me). In any case, my copy of Riemenschneider has pauses in bars 4 and 8 and I have no compunction in adding extra time here. (Although, before someone makes the point: I don't always observe pauses in chorale melodies and I ignore those on the dotted minims. And I am aware that some modern hymn books either leave out all the pauses (AMNS) or only put some in (NEH)). Stephen Barber
  24. I quite agree. I hate it when hymn tunes are changed by local congregations - like Abide with me without the semibreves etc. etc. Do the hymn as written or leave it alone. I think that if the tune of Lord for the Years is smoothed out the first line seems very banal (although I must admit that, I play the lower parts of the "offending" bar of this hymn in crotchets, so some inconsistency there!).
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