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Today I Played


Davidb

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Guest paul@trinitymusic.karoo.co.uk

27th December

Coppit (an old game manufactured by Spears, I think) Family round the table!

 

28th December

Scrabble (again!) me vs. the brains of the outfit

 

planned for 29th December

More organ-part reclamation - well it's a sort of sport!

Final trip to remove the (now redundant) Rushworth and Dreaper organ from under the Hall stage at Cheltenham Ladies' College. And before you laugh, it's all seriously useful material for my major project! In particular, there are some very fine reed stops.

 

30th December will be

[paying gig] A nice wedding some miles out of town. Handel/Pachelbel/Widor (indeed, all the usual suspects.)

 

A happy holiday to all friends/contacts/sparring-partners!

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Last night I played, "How much can you drink before you get a hangover?". :unsure:

 

Today I am playing, "What do you do with a drunken soldier....". B)

Why do folks insist on holiday weddings? After this one, I will have done THREE in my 8 years here, every one of them nothing short of a royal pain in the ARSE, since I'm already stressed and tired with the responsibilities of the season.

Well at least your bride didn't disappear into thin air, as happened to poor Catherine Tate in the Christmas Dr Who.

PS Anyone know which church was used? Since they film it in Cardiff, it was probably one of the city centre ones.

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Today I am playing, "What do you do with a drunken soldier....". :unsure:

 

Is that the same as "What shall we do with the drunken sailor"? - which I think is best used to celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (considering the chorus).

 

BTW, did you know it's in the Dorian mode?

 

JJK

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Is that the same as "What shall we do with the drunken sailor"? - which I think is best used to celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (considering the chorus).

 

BTW, did you know it's in the Dorian mode?

 

JJK

 

 

Is that the same as "What shall we do with the drunken sailor"? - which I think is best used to celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (considering the chorus).

 

BTW, did you know it's in the Dorian mode?

 

JJK

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Last night I played, "How much can you drink before you get a hangover?". B)

 

Today I am playing, "What do you do with a drunken soldier....". :o

 

Well at least your bride didn't disappear into thin air, as happened to poor Catherine Tate in the Christmas Dr Who.

PS Anyone know which church was used? Since they film it in Cardiff, it was probably one of the city centre ones.

 

 

It was indeed St. John the Baptist right in the centre of Cardiff. The organ is a three manual Willis recently restored by David Wells.

 

http://www.cardiffcentralparish.org/

 

Can't get a link directly to the organ pages but if you click here and follow the first link to St. John's pages you'll see a link to 'Willis Organ'

 

Steve

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"Epiphany Sunday," I thought to myself.

 

Now, what's all that about?

 

We know they couldn't have been kings and they probably didn't arrive from the Orient, but the mysterious "Magi" were an interesting collection of people who combined astronomy with astrology. So I opted for "Wise Men" or the mystical "Magi," but quite how many remains something of a mystery. It may have been three, or it could have been a camel-train full; like a precursor to the 'Orient Express' as they swarmed off their camels in Bethlehem.

 

Then I considered the type of camels......Dromedary or Bactrian....one hump or two?

 

Then I remembered that they could have come from Persia (Iran), or even the Ghobi desert of Southern Mongolia if they were hardy types; immune to saddle-sores.

 

The Lydian Persian empire seemed a suitable musical starting point, and we were headed towards improvisation on things mysterious and oriental, and "We three kings" seemed as good a tune as any, with flattened seconds just to add a touch of the bizzare.

 

Then someone told me that "We three kings" was an American tune, written by a reverend gentleman there in 1857: a certain Rev John Hopkins. Artisitic licence it was then.

 

Off we went to an imaginary and probably spurious orient, but then I started to think of that film, "The camel that wept".......a sort of Mongolian version of Bamby, but with humps.

 

A slight musical diversion into Tuvan throat singing; organ style, before inverting the "We three kings" theme, which sounded strangely like a lydian version of "Humpty dumpty"....rather appropriately. Then a very clever contrapuntal bit where everyone, including myself, got completely lost mid desert, but star of wonder, we got back on track just as the session bell proclaimed the start of mass.

 

Of course, we were still discussing the type of camel used by the "Three wise men" during the bidding prayers, but we decided that there was a religious connection between Bactrian camels and the Bible.

 

Bactrian camels have two large humps, and so too does Jordan!

 

Anyway, it was all very mysterious and very quasi-oriental: camels it was.

 

Knowing that the Russians had swarmed all over Asia, it seemed right to finish off with the Mushel Toccata.

 

MM

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I seem to recall mentioning somewhere on here about having to play Wachet Auf with the tune on the 32' oblitatron due to the church wardens and various others erecting a christmas tree and ladders etc underneath the organ loft during my voluntary.

 

Today I got as far as the quiet section of the Stanford D minor postlude, when I heard loud shouting and clanging behind me. Guess what, they're taking the tree down this time. So I turn around and yell down to them "Could you keep the noise down, please?". No effect, except that they look at me.

 

I was left with no alternative - stop, then start the page again on absolutely full organ. Octaves, suboctaves, Tuba + Oct, 32/16/8 Oblitatrons... Oh, and I threw a hymn book over the top of the organ loft at them.

 

Then it got really drastic. I had to have WORDS with them. An actual conversation. Shocking.

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Exemplary tactics, Adrian - Sidney Campbell would have been proud of you. You possibly missed a trick starting the Stanford again though. I think I would have switched to Messiaen's Apparition de l'église (or improvised something in an equally sustained, snail-like and discordant vein). You can drive the plebs to utter distraction with this piece.

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Exemplary tactics, Adrian - Sidney Campbell would have been proud of you. You possibly missed a trick starting the Stanford again though. I think I would have switched to Messiaen's Apparition de l'église (or improvised something in an equally sustained, snail-like and discordant vein). You can drive the plebs to utter distraction with this piece.

 

Oh, I didn't go ALL the way back, just the beginning of the quiet section, and kept on full organ all the way through to the end.

 

To be fair, I was so ****ed off that much of it sounded like Messiaen, or Stanford on speed.

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The Lydian Persian empire seemed a suitable musical starting point, and we were headed towards improvisation on things mysterious and oriental, and "We three kings" seemed as good a tune as any, with flattened seconds just to add a touch of the bizzare.

 

 

=======================

 

OK OK.....I lied.....it was Phrygian.

 

:wacko:

 

MM

 

 

 

I seem to recall mentioning somewhere on here about having to play Wachet Auf with the tune on the 32' oblitatron due to the church wardens and various others erecting a christmas tree and ladders etc underneath the organ loft during my voluntary.

 

Today I got as far as the quiet section of the Stanford D minor postlude, when I heard loud shouting and clanging behind me. Guess what, they're taking the tree down this time. So I turn around and yell down to them "Could you keep the noise down, please?". No effect, except that they look at me.

 

I was left with no alternative - stop, then start the page again on absolutely full organ. Octaves, suboctaves, Tuba + Oct, 32/16/8 Oblitatrons... Oh, and I threw a hymn book over the top of the organ loft at them.

 

Then it got really drastic. I had to have WORDS with them. An actual conversation. Shocking.

 

 

========================

 

 

In my younger days when I was a bit hot-headed, I was running a pre-Christmas choir practise, and lo and behold, the curate wandered into the school hall with his group of singers, and they began a rival practise.

 

I stopped....gaped in disbelief......coughed loudly to no avail.....then lost it, big style.

 

It went something like this from thereon in:-

 

"What the **** ** **** do you think you're ******* playing at? How ******* dare you? Get out of my ****** choir practise you ******** *********"

 

They were last seen running out of the hall!

 

 

 

 

 

MM

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=======================

 

"What the **** ** **** do you think you're ******* playing at? How ******* dare you? Get out of my ****** choir practise you ******** *********"

 

I like your subtle approach. Shows a great deal of restraint, tact, and diplomacy :wacko:

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I like your subtle approach. Shows a great deal of restraint, tact, and diplomacy :)

 

====================

 

Well at least I didn't overturn tables......or throw hymn books!

 

That was reserved for choristers who stepped out of line. You could get away with that sort of thing when I was young.

 

It was a lot more efficient than having meetings to discuss "issues," or hold a counselling session with concerned parents after their little darlings have been exposed to the word 'virgin.'

 

:wacko:

 

MM

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Andrew Butler

Out of curiosity, I have just looked at Magdalen College Cambridge's website to see what they accompany / play on the Goetze/Gwynne organ.

 

I was astounded to see..

Sun 29th October 2006 at 8:45am - College Eucharist - Trinity XX [top]

Hymns: 271, 472, 466

 

Voluntary: Postlude, Simper

 

B)

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Out of curiosity, I have just looked at Magdalen College Cambridge's website to see what they accompany / play on the Goetze/Gwynne organ.

 

I was astounded to see..

Sun 29th October 2006 at 8:45am - College Eucharist - Trinity XX [top]

Hymns: 271, 472, 466

 

Voluntary: Postlude, Simper

 

:(

 

You are not alone - my flabber is gasted....

 

B)

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I am a Catholic, too, and find that there is an element of licence regarding music at Lent and Advent. When I sang in the choir at St. Marie's Cathedral, Sheffield, the voluntary would be restricted to some modest Bach. I now attend a Benedictine priory where there is a strict observance of earlier directives and no voluntary is played. I rather feel that the Mass is left somewhat flat with the absence of concluding music.

 

 

Barry, which Benedictine priory do you attend? I askmsince I was very involved at one stage with Belmont Abbet where the late and great Alan Rees - a good friend incidentally - was onetime Abbot and also O & C till his untimely death (BTW have you heard the new CD of his music?). Alan wasa quite strict about organ music during the penetential seasons but I belleve he was more relaxed than the priory you are attending. Is it perchance Farnbrough?

 

Best wishes

 

Peter

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