Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

Songs Of Praise - The Organ


notanorganist

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 102
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The programme can also be watched online for the seven days following broadcast, go to www.bbc.co.uk/songsofpraise and follow the link.

 

It's very good that one can now 'View Again' as well as 'Listen Again' with BBC's iPlayer.

 

If you want to add it to your computer browser's 'favourites'/'bookmarks' now, the link is here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's very good that one can now 'View Again' as well as 'Listen Again' with BBC's iPlayer.

 

If you want to add it to your computer browser's 'favourites'/'bookmarks' now, the link is here.

iPlayer will not be compatible with Macs for some (unspecified) time, which is ironic given its name implies an Apple connection cf. iPod, iLife, iWork, iTouch, iPhone etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

iPlayer will not be compatible with Macs for some (unspecified) time, which is ironic given its name implies an Apple connection cf. iPod, iLife, iWork, iTouch, iPhone etc.

 

As a Mac user myself, it should be made clear that we can watch 'streamed' programmes - which I've done many times, but cannot download them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I think this programme presented the organ as a worship intrument in a very positive light. It was also good that Malcolm Archer's contribution showed that you can have a bit of fun with it as well. Do I understand that it is soon to be published?

 

(I am afraid I was not fussed on the descant to Coe Fen - perhaps like Michael, mentioned recently, it is another hymn tune which doesn't really need a descant?)

 

 

Peter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Have just heard the programme - some nice bits - Malcolm Archer at the Ballroom was a bit alternative. I played a piece the other week that veered off in a similar way to his Jesu Joy - 'trouble was it didn't head towards the seaside rather some atonal zone due to a complete mental block on my part! Huw Edwards was good. Is Gordon Stewart back over here again?

 

AJJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(I am afraid I was not fussed on the descant to Coe Fen - perhaps like Michael, mentioned recently, it is another hymn tune which doesn't really need a descant?)

Peter

 

Absolutely agree. Coe Fen is one of those tunes that is perfect and doesn't need any descant.... or an organist doing his/her own thing

 

Peter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Absolutely agree. Coe Fen is one of those tunes that is perfect and doesn't need any descant.... or an organist doing his/her own thing

 

Peter

I thought it was OK!

 

Hated the Bach goes to Blackpool though - thought it was trash!

 

The organist who plays at St Sepulchre's (two manual jobbie) needs a hankie and some spit - those keys are positively disgusting! Fancy not cleaning the keys when the telly cameras are there..... <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was most pleasantly surprised. I expected a cheap and thoroughly dumbed down programme, but it wasn't at all like that. The organ came out of it very well. Gordon Stewart was excellent. I did find myself wondering whether non-organists would find it rivetting enough though. I wasn't convinced by Malcolm Archer's non-foot-tapping "seaside" rendition.

 

Agree with the remarks above about Coe Fen.

 

Who were the wonderful choir that sang When in our music God is glorified?

 

The programme is already available on iPlayer for those who missed it (or for any foreign readers who are interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Have just heard the programme - some nice bits - Malcolm Archer at the Ballroom was a bit alternative. I played a piece the other week that veered off in a similar way to his Jesu Joy - 'trouble was it didn't head towards the seaside rather some atonal zone due to a complete mental block on my part! Huw Edwards was good. Is Gordon Stewart back over here again?

 

AJJ

As you say, some nice bits.

 

IMHO the Tower Ballroom offering was a wasted opportunity, in fact, a rather out-of-tune mess.

 

Gordon Stewart is now back at Huddersfield Town Hall. Full details on his website.

 

Alistair

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Splendid programme and a rather lucid approach about the King of Instruments. I was particularly taken with the charming two Manual organ in St Sepulchre without newgate. Only a small specification but whats on it is amazing including the double Diapason 32 in the pedal. I agree the keys could of done with a bit of a polish and buff up they were not at there best. Pity about the Grumpy Old Man sounding off about not wanting Young People having anything to do with the Organ. With regard to the Hymn Coe Fen I have a recording of Winchester Cathedral Choir singing this Hymn and the descant written by David Hill is out of this world. It certainly sends shivers down my spine !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was simply very proud. I know Snogs of Praise is a big turn off for most families (at least in my day you could guarantee music from one's own tradition at least 80% of the time), but in these days when our instrument gets minimal media exposure, I was proud to see it take centre stage. It was also good to hear some of the UK's finest and most infectious communicators reach a slightly wider audience. Having hero-worshipped Gordon Stewart and Malcolm Archer as a youngster (and later taught by/worked with both) it was great to sit and watch them (in the inspiring company of Wood, Parsons and Marsden Thomas) with my own keenly musical children.

 

I agree about the toasters, however - what WAS that noise at the end of Jerusalem?? - and also hate that metallic digital echo the ill-disciplined youth of today's BBC insists on adding to perfectly nice acoustics, but in the words of Victoria Wood, Joe Public won't notice... <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMHO this was an excellent opportunity to showcase the organ to the great unwashed. I agree - Gordon Stewart has the personality and the musicianship and did a superb job. One the negative side, the gentleman playing the electronic simply portrayed himself as a has-been afraid of change as far as hymnody is concerned. Malcolm Archer's contribution "Bach Goes To Blackpool" was IMHO a complete waste of time. Malcolm is a superb musician and personally, I felt that his contribution was wasted! (I once heard Carlo Curley play the Dorian Toccata on the Free Trade Hall WurliTzer and something similar would have been far better). Why not actually show the Tower WurliTzer in its true glory, playing something in best "Blackpool Style" which draws in "the punters" for several hours a day, seven days a week from Easter to November! <_<

 

Neil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll commence with a negative: the Tower Ballroom moment. That was just tacky, and the registration quite wrong. The sad thing is, that the principal resident organuist at Blackpool Tower, Phil Kelsall, would have been a far better choice, because he once did accompany a superb Songs of Praise and kept 2,000 people in perfect time.

 

I thought the Albert Hall sounded impressive, as it always does, and the contribution from David Wood was enjoyable, if a bit obvious to the likes of us.

 

My one real objection was the character of the presentation, because I could think of far better. The perfect character would have been Howard Goodall, who just has that wonderful enthusiasm and comic turn of phrase.

 

Actually, the bit which most impressed me, apart from that wonderful hymn, was the singing and the organ at Wakefield Cathedral, which sounded superb. It was a nice reminder of just how good that (largely) Compton instrument sounds in that building.....and a HUGE 5-manual console which we never saw!

 

Not a bad effort though, but in some ways, a bit of a missed opportunity.

 

MM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am afraid I was not fussed on the descant to Coe Fen - perhaps like Michael, mentioned recently, it is another hymn tune which doesn't really need a descant?

Peter

 

Gilding the lilly, I thought. Mind you, the gild wasn't very attractive in either the descant or the reharmonization.

 

Hated the Bach goes to Blackpool though - thought it was trash!

 

Utterly. I was expecting something good, and was very disappointed. I couldn't see the point in it.

 

IMHO the Tower Ballroom offering was a wasted opportunity, in fact, a rather out-of-tune mess.

 

Yes, unpleasantly so.

 

However, at least the Beeb promoted the organ with a programme which would have informed and pleased Joe Public (I hope!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, a good programme. Anything that publicises the organ has got to be good.

 

BUT...

 

"Lieblich Gedeckt = lovely thoughts". Eh?!!!

 

John

I wondered about this silly statement made by Huw Edwards. After some thought, I think I might know why. Often we come across bad spellings of "Lieblich Gedeckt", including "Lieblich Gedacht". Gedacht is a German word for something imaginary, so it's just possible that a BBC researcher, looking in a German dictionary, came up with "lovely imaginary" and decided to make it "lovely thoughts".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My one real objection was the character of the presentation, because I could think of far better. The perfect character would have been Howard Goodall, who just has that wonderful enthusiasm and comic turn of phrase.

 

I see where you're coming from, but we have to remember that this wasn't just a programme about the organ, it was an edition of Songs of Praise. Huw Edwards is an established presenter of the programme now (although not on too regular a basis) and is a great enthusiast for the instrument. Shipping in Howard Goodall - while supplying all the necessary presentation traits - wouldn't keep continuity with the Songs of Praise 'brand', and branding is all important in television these days. I'm not actually sure that Howard's tounge-in-cheek humour would be appropriate to the programme either, no matter how much the likes of us would have enjoyed it.

 

As a point of interest, can anyone think of any other organ-playing Songs of Praise presenters apart from Huw, and Dudley Savage who fronted around 40 editions of the programme in the 1960s?

 

S

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...