Hadley: I Sing Of A Maiden

[Vox Humana]

I have to accompany this on Saturday. It's an easy enough piece, but I am just wondering how others go about making this piano accompaniment sound effective on the organ in the absence of a sustaining pedal.

 

I'm thinking that, at the change of time to 6/8 I will prolong the bottom note of the LH arpeggios (including the first bar which isn't actually marked to be sustained) and, at bar 22 (i.e. bottom of second page in Carols for Choirs 2) sustain all the notes of the arpeggios onto the first quaver of the second beat. I am less certain about the arpeggios in bars 4 & 6, but think I might sustain those too.

[pcnd5584]

I have to accompany this on Saturday. It's an easy enough piece, but I am just wondering how others go about making this piano accompaniment sound effective on the organ in the absence of a sustaining pedal.

 

I'm thinking that, at the change of time to 6/8 I will prolong the bottom note of the LH arpeggios (including the first bar which isn't actually marked to be sustained) and, at bar 22 (i.e. bottom of second page in Carols for Choirs 2) sustain all the notes of the arpeggios onto the first quaver of the second beat. I am less certain about the arpeggios in bars 4 & 6, but think I might sustain those too.

 

This is probably a redundant question - but I presume that there is no piano available at the venue?

[Vox Humana]

No, I don't think there is.

[pcnd5584]

No, I don't think there is.

 

Thought not....

 

(Vox, it had occurred to me that you would have checked this in any case - I am not really sure why I asked such an obvious question; put it down to spending every day working with children....)

 

And the fact that it is not yet the end of term....

[Vox Humana]

I have to admit I haven't checked, but the church is large and very resonant so, even if it did have a piano I would be disinclined to use it since I dislike the tinny sound pianos make in such an acoustic (though of course the decision would be up to the conductor).

 

(Tinny isn't the best word, but I can't think of the right one at the moment and I'm sure you know what I mean.)

[David Coram]

You have to do all sorts to make it work - I sustain everything on the outside and let the middle do the moving.

 

(Within Bob Chilcott's Salisbury Vespers there is a quite exceptional setting of I sing of a maiden which the boys at Bournemouth are doing. I believe it's going to be published seperately quite soon, but the whole work is worth getting - there are at least four movements worth doing as anthems, and if you're an amazing choir, another three which are VERY worth doing.)

[Vox Humana]

Thank you, David. Yes, it certainly does seem impossible to transfer it successfully to the organ without rearranging it.

 

If there does turn out to be a piano available I might just try it, though I do not recall ever having seen one in the venue in question.

[David Coram]

I rearrange everything; it's so much quicker than learning it. After all, add a 4' and you're playing in octaves - what's a few more notes?

[Peter Godden]

If you have access to a 1961 Argo LP "A Procession with Carols on Advent Sunday", you'll hear how to do this with consummate good taste.

I don't know why so much of this early 1960s recorded material hasn't been reissued. So much musicianship.