Did anyone (else) play...

[Martin Cooke]

... anything from the two new OUP albums - Christmas 2 and Women Composers? I used a couple of items from the former - the Farrington piece, the two Chrétien items and also the Florence Price Adoration... though I didn't need the OUP album for this as it's been on IMSLP for ages.

As an aside, I enjoyed playing Alan Bullard's Christmas Fantasia a couple of times in different places. It works very well without being difficult.

If you're looking for interesting pieces for Candlemas, there's the Charles Wood Nunc Dimittis, but also a lovely new piece by Philip Moore in his Nativitas sequence for Advent & Christmas, published by Encore. It's based on Stanford's G major Nunc, though, of course, a transcription of this for solo organ also works well. Anybody got any other suggestions? I feel this is a day in the church which is crying out for a beautiful, atmospheric new organ piece.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Both Sleigh Ride and Carol of the Bells from the Christmas 2 volume. 

[Martin Cooke]

Hello Richard - in August 2006, in this thread you wrote that the Makin organ at St Mary, Charlbury might be replaced. Did this ever happen and what replaced the Makin?

Gosh - there are some names from the past in that thread - whatever happened to you all??!! 

[Philip]

As mentioned previously I used material from the new Christmas album. I played two carol services on Christmas Eve, and the organ voluntaries at both were:
Before:
James Vivina's Partita on 'In Dulci Jubilo' (from OUP Hymn Settings)
Iain Farrington's Gabriel's Message from new OUP book
Stephen Burtonwood's Prelude on 'Hermitage' (from Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh book 1, published by Church Organ World)
Florence Price's Adoration (ditto new OUP book)
(plus Desseins Eternels at the second of the two services)

After - Bednall Sortie on 'Mendelssohn' from the new OUP book

No idea how many people listen to or even hear the pre-service music, of course! They'd struggle not to hear the Bednall at the end... (just following the dynamics!)

Both were well done and pleasingly well attended.

[Richard Fairhurst]

On 27/12/2023 at 07:32, Martin Cooke said:

Hello Richard - in August 2006, in this thread you wrote that the Makin organ at St Mary, Charlbury might be replaced. Did this ever happen and what replaced the Makin?

It did! We got a Wyvern/Phoenix two-manual to replace it, which continues to do sterling service. The Wyverns were the stand-out instruments from all those we tried and I continue to be very happy with it. At the time Hauptwerk technology was in its infancy and on balance we didn't really think we could go for something untested; things have changed now of course.

[Martin Cooke]

A good choice, Richard, thanks for that. Shortly after that, the school where I worked invested in a large Wyvern/Phoenix with the cabinetry for speakers and console all undertaken by Renatus. I played it again for the first time in 6 years or so at Christmas and it was sounding splendid, though I would have wanted a few little bits of revoicing done now, I think - Tubas not quite right and too shrill a mixture on the choir - (though I loved it at the time, I suppose... unless something has gone awry with it). Some truly lovely sounds on it. One doesn't hear anything of Phoenix these days. 

There's a smallish 2-manual Viscount with some external speakers newly installed in our local church and it sounds really good. I miss the 4ft flute on the Swell that a larger organ might have - (as at church - WIllis III, and here at home - Viscount 3-manual) - but one can go on and on adding stops, and  you can download more or less anything you want from the onboard library, although it's not easy to achieve this during a service because the clicking of buttons is too noisy!

[Andrew Butler]

21 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:

A good choice, Richard, thanks for that. Shortly after that, the school where I worked invested in a large Wyvern/Phoenix with the cabinetry for speakers and console all undertaken by Renatus. I played it again for the first time in 6 years or so at Christmas and it was sounding splendid, though I would have wanted a few little bits of revoicing done now, I think - Tubas not quite right and too shrill a mixture on the choir - (though I loved it at the time, I suppose... unless something has gone awry with it). Some truly lovely sounds on it. One doesn't hear anything of Phoenix these days. 

There's a smallish 2-manual Viscount with some external speakers newly installed in our local church and it sounds really good. I miss the 4ft flute on the Swell that a larger organ might have - (as at church - WIllis III, and here at home - Viscount 3-manual) - but one can go on and on adding stops, and  you can download more or less anything you want from the onboard library, although it's not easy to achieve this during a service because the clicking of buttons is too noisy!

Phhoenix' UK website hasn't been updated since about 2008......

 

[Colin Pykett]

1 hour ago, Andrew Butler said:

Phhoenix' UK website hasn't been updated since about 2008......

There are several Phoenix-related websites, all apparently rather old, which adds to the confusion.   But doesn't this rather confirm the problems of trying to keep an elderly electronic organ going, such as when the firm which made it might no longer exist?  An ailing elderly pipe organ has a better chance of long term survival in that any organ builder can attend to its problems (although those related to hi-tech electronics in its action put pipe organs into the same category as electronic ones when it comes down to questions of rapid obsolescence).

[john carter]

1 hour ago, Colin Pykett said:

There are several Phoenix-related websites, all apparently rather old, which adds to the confusion.   But doesn't this rather confirm the problems of trying to keep an elderly electronic organ going, such as when the firm which made it might no longer exist?  An ailing elderly pipe organ has a better chance of long term survival in that any organ builder can attend to its problems (although those related to hi-tech electronics in its action put pipe organs into the same category as electronic ones when it comes down to questions of rapid obsolescence).

Surely it is no more difficult than trying to keep a 30 year-old car going when spare parts are no longer available?  A replacement is of comparable cost to  a car, rather than the six figure sums that an elderly pipe organ may require to restore it to health.  Owners of electronic instruments could plan for an expected replacement after, say, twenty years or lease the organ in the same way that many people lease cars.  

[Richard Fairhurst]

I think that's spot on. When we were replacing the Makin organ, a few people said "It didn't last very long, did it?". I pointed out that it was a computer at heart and asked how many people were still using their Amstrad word-processor computer from the early 90s. You can guess the answer...