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DouglasCorr

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Posts posted by DouglasCorr

  1. I'm curious: those of you who disagree with my work, have you actually read my papers and watched the videos, or is your reaction mainly to other people's remarks about things they didn't like? (Source vs hearsay....) It's all available for free download from http://www.larips.com

     

    When I mentioned (below) your amazing research earlier on the Message Board there were very few replies! I'm not sure why?

     

    May 22 2006, 07:39 PM Post #1

     

    I don’t know if someone has already reported this information here and I missed it, but I have I’ve just come across these astonishing sites:

     

    Larips

     

    Bach tuning

     

    They describe how the embellishment at the head of the title page of Bach’s Clavierubung is actually an explanation of how to tune the keyboard! Much more intriguing than da Vinci code puzzles!! It was in everyone’s face all the time….. There is much else of interest on both sites!

     

    This seems to me such a wonderful breakthrough that it deserves more publicity.

     

    However, harpsichords can be tuned relatively quickly; I wonder how useful it would be for organ tuning – organs are generally out of tune most of the time to some extent – would the effect of the fine adjustments be lost?[/i]

     

    Since Christmas I've been playing the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 - Peter Watchorn CD, whose harpsichord is tuned according to the Bach scheme you have revealed, and what a beautiful refreshing sound it is. I recommend it to all Message Boarders. :rolleyes:

  2. I've seen the word 'toaster' used in these pages. It seems to mean organ - any organ or a specific type/style of organ and why ?

     

    My late toaster really was a toaster! :) I think it was 1960s vintage and it came from St Marks Middleton Square London. Unlike many electronic organs that derived most of their notes from a single oscillator - it had a separate oscillator for each note. From 16 ft to 2ft for a 56 note range, I think it was, resulting in around 80+ vacuum tubes. These all glowed and generated much heat - as good as any toaster! Appropriately I kept it in my kitchen... :o

  3. Sorry, off topic, but can anyone direct me to information about the organ at Trönö. I have failed to find a specification and the Peter Collins site doesn't refer to it at all.

    JC

     

    This is a dangerous and heretical topic on this site :o:(:) but look here :P -link on bottm left

  4. Indeed!

     

    Where else would you find something like this?

     

    Dimanche 15 octobre 2006 (Sunday, 15 October 2006) - 28ème dimanche du Temps ordinaire

     

    10h 30 Messe Solennelle - Organiste : Daniel Roth

    Messe célébrée à la mémoire de Charles S. Barker (1804-1879), facteur d'orgues, inventeur du levier pneumatique et de la traction électrique pour l'orgue.

    Prélude (10h 15) : Prélude et Fugue en mi bémol, C. Saint-Saëns

    Offertoire : Offertoire en la majeur, G. Schmitt

    Communion : Cantabile, C. Franck

    Audition : André Pagenel

    Fantaisie et Fugue en sol mineur, J.S. Bach

    Scherzo en mi majeur, E. Gigout

    3ème Choral, C. Franck

     

    I recently went to hear:

     

    Dimanche 20 Janvier 2008 (Sunday, 20 January 2008) - Deuxième dimanche du Temps Ordinaire, Solennité de Saint-Sulpice

    10h 30 Messe Solennelle - Organiste : Daniel Roth

    Prélude (10h 15) : Marcia (3ème Symphonie), Ch.M.Widor

    Offertoire : Allegro cantabile (5ème Symphonie), Widor

    Communion : Adagio (3ème Symphonie), Widor

    Postlude : Final (6ème Symphonie), Widor

    Audition : Choral (7ème Symphonie), Widor

    Intermezzo (6ème Symphonie)

     

    It would have been worth the trip just for the Choral - but all this in one service! :):rolleyes: Widor on Widor's organ.... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

  5. Or this one where seemingly someone who after consuming an over healthy ammount of Bordeaux took the wrong staircase while attempting visit Daniel Roth after Mass on a Sunday morning. It would have been interesting to see where they ended up after all the spinning around and lurching about - maybe head first down the 32' or marooned amongst Les Grands Jeux!

     

    AJJ

     

    There is an overwhelming case for the construction of a free and instantaneous teleporter to St Sulpice on Sundays :rolleyes: .

  6. Although the music was not quite my thing, I was moved by the obvious sincerity and sheer joy that this congregation and the preacher displayed. (Do his sermons really last up to an hour??!!) Did anyone else have a similar (or indeed not similar) reaction?

     

    I agree - the spontaneous comments from the congregation made this a highly memorable Sunday worship.

  7. I wonder if any other Message Boarders share my disappointment at yesterday afternoon’s event at the Turner Sims Concert Hall?

     

    Billed as 'Vaughan Williams And The English Hymnal' and described as

     

    Ralph Vaughan Williams was the Music Editor of the English Hymnal, a book described in its preface as ‘A collection of the best hymns in the English language’. As a tribute to the composer fifty years after his death join David Owen Norris, choir Cantores Michaelis and a raft of special guests to find out more about the immense musical impact which the book has had. You can also discover how its contents help paint a picture of Vaughan Williams’ life, his friends and interests. The concert includes performances of many of the book’s hymn tunes on an array of instruments including the Turner Sims organ as well as works associated with them including the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis for string orchestra and the Three Preludes

     

    So I expected something of a lecture with musical illustrations. There was much for a learned institution to talk about – what lead to the production of the hymnal- what the musical objectives were - what lead various composers to make their contributions – why the tempi so carefully assigned by VW are now largely ignored…. But instead, apart from a few short anecdotes, the audience was largely invited to sing through a jumbled selection of hymns from the EH. This luckily was a moving experience – the audience seemed to be packed with choral society singers – and the organ sounded magnificent.

     

    There were all the right ingredients- the excellent Cantores Micaelis, the string orchestra – but there was no plan or serious information content. It became a Tabernacle style hymn singing event and a missed opportunity.

  8. My memory immediately popped up and said: "etoffe" = "stuff" = "plain metal".

     

    I'm sure that that is because you remembered that a number of French words beginning with "e (accute) t" turn up with English counterparts beginning with "st"

     

    etoil star

    etude study

    etranger stranger etc

     

    - one of the few things I remember too about French..

  9. It is possible that, even in that unhelpful acoustic, distance helped (I was always sat some way back in the hall).

     

    On several occasions I noticed that Ralph Downes sat just above the middle gangway, on the right (facing the organ) - so I imagine that was the optimal place to sit. :P

  10. Whilst I agree- totally - the Dupre editions of anything bring showers of ridicule from many quarters these days. It is called fashion.

     

    Barry Williams

     

    Are the Bornemann Dupre editions still in print? :mellow:

  11. At the St Albans Organ Festival this year the Fantasia and Fugue in g min was an alternative choice to the D maj P&F for the Finals - I would have thought there was more music in the g min compared to the (boring) sequences in the the D maj....

  12. My son has pointed out a USB roll up keyboard - as a potential present! (needless to say he ignores the real thing....)

     

    Does anyone think these are good for anything for anyone? I've only seen a photo of one - are the black keys raised, or are they just flat - I suppose they need to be flat to roll up???? :rolleyes::o

  13. I was inspired to have a real crack at Ad Nos this year.

    Mark B

     

    I wondered if you had heard Daniel Roth's CD of it (and Liszt's other works) played at St Sulpice - an organ and performance to match the scope of the compositions!!! Motette CD 12021 :rolleyes:

  14. OK so when would you get to do any practice? I suspect the reality is just that - churches can't afford to heat the places up; old buildings, high fixed costs, poor attendances (no money), inefficient heating...

     

    R.

     

    I used to practice in a hospital chapel - pyjama temperature 24/7 :blink:;)

  15. I am never quite sure what English music is trying to say, and yet there are certain works which I like a great deal. I love the big Healey Willan, and yet it is a work which somehow seems to suit very few instruments to the point of complete satisfaction.

     

    MM

     

    I thought Healey Willan was a Canadian organist...? :rolleyes:

  16. I think this is a very sad and depressing topic - best not dwelt on.

     

    In line with (Bomber) Harris's policy, virtually every major German town centre was on the RAF target list. Including Lubeck, Rostock, Hamburg, Nurnberg...

     

    Along with the distruction of historic town centres with their churches and organs there was an massive loss of bomber crews for debatable strategic gain...

  17. :P

     

    I doubt I'll get rich anytime soon....

     

    The point is that I _do_ make something off of this (rather than it costing me to do it). The business model that I've adopted allows me to publish pretty much whatever I want and not risk financial loss. The caveat is that I don't have the advertising budget that a large publishing house has, so it is harder to get customers to my door or ever KNOW that I have music to sell. If larger publishers could be convinced to use a print on demand service in exchange for a smaller return, at least they would be making some money rather than having dusty single last copies that never get sold. I think someone would need to set up the process for them, though, since most publishers have no desire to invest in the equipment and personnel necessary to do this on their own.

     

    As for the rare Polish/E European stuff.... bring it on!

     

    I've been unsuccessfully trying to get copies of all of Feliks Nowowiejski's Organ symphonies, so far I've only managed to track down ONE (Sym.8)

     

    Cheers,

     

    - G

     

    I've come across print on demand in scientific publishing. Artech House have been doing this for a number of years now - they have a very large number of out of print titles that they are prepared to reprint - I think the price was much the same as off the shelf books.

  18. ==============================

    I once began to transcribe Debussy's "Le Mer" for organ, but the cat jumped up and knocked the ink-pot over.

     

    I didn't scrap the project.

     

    Instead, I renamed it "Reggie Dixon's storm at sea."

     

    MM

     

     

    ... La Mer please... ;)

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