I have had the idea of recording 25 organ pieces as a sort of Advent calendar for my YouTube channel although most of the pieces will not have an Advent theme. Essentially, if I do not have something to work for I am not very good at doing any practice.
As a way of relaxing I was looking back over an old post and a bit of Googling took me to the video below. I enjoy this kind of music.
Organists acquire a great deal of sheet music during their carreers. [This is changing as more music is issued as PDFs and people use iPads to read scores]
When an organist passes on the task of disposing of his or her music falls to the bereaved. Clearly a lot of money has been invested over time and simply to recycle it (i.e. throw it away) is a difficult pill to swallow. There is a website which will buy old music.
In my association, one member has been handed the music from a past member and - gradually - it is being sold. There must come a time when nobody will want the remainder, I feel.
One problem of having church services streamed is that one can go and listen back on YouTube. Yesterday the anthem was "I will sing with the spirit" by Rutter which has an accompaniment with a busy (quaver) right hand part. I could tell that my quavers were slightly 'keen' and I occasionally got a tiny amount ahead of the choir. Not enough to make a nonsense of the music but enough for me to notice.
On the day I had thought that it was the choir which was getting behind. I still think that they were taking too long to breath and not starting the next phrase quickly enough. Also, when I was a young chorister, we were all told - in one anthem, I forget which, - that the organ had quavers and we must be aware of this when the choir had sustained chords or the flow of the quavers woukd be impeded.
It is all to do with listening and rehearsing. Sadly, the choir only has a quick practice before the servcie when there is a lot of chatter.
Over the next few weeks I am filling in at a church where I have not played before but I have tried the organ. I felt I ought to go to choir practice last night as there is a big anthem on Sunday which I will come to in a moment.
I took all the music which has been issued to me and I had already learnt or revised most of it. After a few warm-up hymns we tried the Franck anthem for this coming weekend. After that we went over more of the up-coming anthems including some of those which I am not down to play (as I have to be at another church, so 3 organists are covering the organist's sabbatical).
I had a real blast using my sight-reading skills and was pleased that I am still able to cope with whatever is thrown at me. "The Father's Love" by Simon Lole is really lovely but I had not encountered it before. It starts in E major and suddenly goes to 7 sharps, a few bars later [enharmonically] changing to 4 flats. That kept me on my toes.
I also played "Give us the wings of Faith" and "Be thou my vision" (on the organ which makes it a little harder). To be honest I was in 7th heaven but I could not help remembering the skills passed onto me and encouraged by my organ teachers. I have been extremely lucky to have been taught by them.
When I took up the organ it really mattered if one played the correct notes and it became a matter of pride that I would strive to do so. Consequently, when I won an organ scholarship to a university in the south-west I felt the responsibility of the position. I do not think church music is as highly regarded in some places/parishes as it once was although there are many pockets of excellence around the country and our cathedrals still foster high standards.
In my youth we sang Franck's Psalm 150 at Peterborough and I had wanted to do it at university. The choir laughed and poured scorn on the piece so we never did do it. I have not played or sung it in 50+ years. I do agree it is, perhaps, a little turgid but that was Franck's style: it is good fun.
Choral Evensong from Selwyn College has just come across my Facebook feed so I have been listening to it. Who the hell takes a screaming kid to choral evensong?
The canticles in the above video are by Herbert Howells whose music was really popular when I was a chorister and, I assume, still is. This music speaks powerfully to me although I did not initially like the St. Paul's Service when I was young, although all ex-choristers love the "Coll. Reg". I think the first set I got to know was the B minor which I have not heard for years.
Listening to Howells' music takes me back and I feel both nostalgic and emotional. I was incredibly lucky to be a chorister under one of the finest choir trainers of his time in a period when church music was highly-valued. We worked hard as choristers and we were urged to aim for perfection: this was an attitude instilled in us. Mistakes, yawns, bad intonation and poor dynamics were frowned upon. Bum notes from the organ were as rare as poo from a wooden horse.
I was also lucky enough to sing in the first performance of Howells' "Thee Will I Love" which was written for Peterborough Cathedral and the commemoration (with a Solemn Requiem) of the 1100th anniversary of the Massacre of the monks of Medehamstede and first performed in Peterborough Cathedral on 9 November 1970: I was 12. This is a long anthem with an absolutely brilliant climactic moment just over a minute in at the word "Reigneth". I once conducted it when I was an organ scholar some 8-9 years later.
I would have liked to have been present at an evensong like this one featured on YouTube but the child would have ruined it for me. I can only assume there is something I do not know as to why this child was there. I had to stop listening to the video as I was totally distracted by the extraneous noise: full marks to the professionalism of the musicians. I simply could get get 'into the zone' as it were. Even the dignified recitation of the Creed was spoilt for me.
It has been a day of spoilt worship. Communion this morning was ruined by [a] Show and Tell church [b] a long sermon which merely retold the old testament reading's story of Elijah and the Baal worshippers. No mention of Father's Day.
I think I simply do not enjoy church any more and I need to stop playing for services which annoy me.
With the death of morning prayer (at least in my area) one no longer hears the "Te Deum" sung to music. These days one can get a 'fix' by visiting YouTube where one will find some excellent performances (and other which are less so).
I suppose, as I do not live very near a cathedral, I am not likely to get a chance to hear this sung live. I tried to look at the Peterborough Cathedral music lists but I cannot find them. Neither can I find Coventry cathedral music lists.
Honestly! Musical aural skills in the pews of the C of E are at a low ebb. Passing notes are regularly inserted into melodies which do not have or need them. The most famous case is in "O come, all ye faithful" at"... born the King of An - - gels".
There is another I know of in "At the name of Jesus" when sung to Camberwell: "Every tongue confess him" usually gets a passing note. There are no examples on YouTube but, in a few, you can just imagine someone gagging to put one in.
Typical - you can never find one when you actually want one! I think there is a a slight one HERE.
What struck me on Sunday was that there was a complete absence of the dreaded passing note. Hoorah!
My main memory of the service yesterday (other than a key on the swell which dropped, never to rise again - luckily with no cipher) is the fact that someone in the choir was in a hurry.
For some reason the hymns got faster and faster. Now this started to happen before I realised and I felt a little foolish. It is my job to establish and maintain the tempo and not follow the singers: I've known this since I was at school. I did my best but it wasn't my finest hour. I think this is because it has happened so rarely to me that I wasn't prepared.
It happens that the choir were also speeding up during the spoken parts of the service too which were not as dreadful as they can be in some churches, but still rather ragged.
The communion hymn is sung by the choir with soft organ accompaniment; in unison as far as I could tell. In this, one chap was very loud and he ran out of breath on the long notes. So, when he reached a three beat note he ignored the dot, took a breath and ploughed straight on.
When I was an organ scholar, many years ago, the university choir would visit a cathedral for a week during the summer. The idea of choirs singing the services at a large church or cathedral has grown and is now extremely common. I am bombarded with posts on Facebook about Evensongs.
I used to sing with such a group but it struck me that I was trying to re-live my youth and also playing at 'dressing up'. These days I do not care about wearing my diploma hood and showing the world how clever I think I am.
Looking a the repertoire choices of these advertised evensongs one cannot help thinking that they are just an opportunity for the choir to wallow in the music they like. Nothing wrong with that but it does mean that certain music gets over-used.
Typically a service will have canticle by Wood, Howells, or Dyson, and an anthem such as "O Thou, the Central Orb" by Wood or "Evening Hymn" by Balfour Gardiner.
Just as Classic FM keeps playing the same few tracks, one does need variety now and again. Sadly - as I have blogged before - conductors can go to the other extreme of selecting music which is far too dissonant.
On this blog I bemoan the low standards in church. On this earth we can only catch a glimpse of heaven and I suppose our ideas of heaven will all be different.
I was brought up with the idea that worship should be as perfect as we can make it. For me this involves great music and great singing. This post is about 2 videos which both happen to be from Trinity College Cambridge. I will reserve judgement on the organ which was a poor choice - I feel - for a college which performs English choral music: the organist does a great job.
Video 1 is of Stanford Magnificat in A, sung superbly. Video 2 is of a secular piece - again sung superbly - featuring the brilliant Helen Charlston.
Enjoy these.
I caught the BBC's Choral Evensong today as I was driving home: I seldom listen to it which I know is odd. It was from the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford, recorded in November 2021. I could add a link but it may not stay more than 29 days from today.
The music list was -
Benjamin Nicholas (Director of Music)
Simon Hogan (Organist)
Owen Chan (Organ Scholar)
All the singing was excellent but I do not understand why composers have to subject the congregation to such dissonance. Is it just to show how clever they are?
The RSCM has started a new initiative called Hymnpact. If that link stops working try HERE.
The samples they have put up all include a drumkit. So it seems that one cannot worship God without percussion (I suppose that is Biblical if you look at Psalm 150 but "Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals" doesn't mention drums).
Rhythm and vitality are certainly important in church music but there is a general feeling in circulation that traditional organ playing and 'old' hymns have lost their impact, especially for young people. I see more and more drumkits in churches these days.
The other side of the coin is that the organ can provide the sense of majesty which is so important in worship and this depends upon the skill of the musician and the size of the organ at their disposal. A small worn out instrument is, I admit, not going to have the effect of a large cathedral instrument.
When I came across Beauty in Sound's 2022 Easter Virtual Church, it seemed to me that the last thing required was a drumkit.
I suppose it depends upon the tradition in which one has been brought up
Where does inspiration come from? After a musically hard day yesterday I opened my emails this morning to find that I had won first prize in an organ music composition competition. Over the years I have written what I consider to be several decent pieces (not all for organ) and I remember the process of writing four of them, knowing that the music was going exactly how it needed to go. In two cases I was emotionally moved as I wrote. In some ways I was channelling an unknown force.
There is another often played piece of mine which I really like (blowing my own trumpet, or flute in this case) and, whilst I can picture myself writing it and adjusting the final page, I have no recollection of the creative process. Other pieces have had to be hewn with a great deal of effort, or cobbled together quickly.
At the Evangelical church I attended briefly, spontaneous contributions from the congregation were welcome and expected (not ‘tongues’ or glossolalia, as that phenomena was only allowed if an interpretation could be introduced almost straight away by somebody else). Once or twice I felt sufficiently moved to speak out – something I would not have done in the C of E, nor would it have been welcome or appropriate! To this day I do not know what came over me and I have not had any kind of religious experience (if that is what it was) since: quite the reverse. I am not counting the urge to speak out in a Café Church discussion, only a couple of weeks ago.
There is something to be said for the view that traditional church worship is stifling spirituality and replacing it with chatter, notices and announcements and what a friend of mine calls “Show and Tell Church” (the “What have you to be thankful for this week?” time, when people just say things to fill the awkward silence). Perhaps this is why people are staying away or going to the more ‘experimental’ type of church. They seem to like exuberance. [I would feel most uncomfortable at a Gospel service.]
So there, I guess, is the reason behind my love of Evensong. It is safe, predictable, cosy and nostalgic. One does not have to be creative, inspired or channel any unknown force. Don’t get me wrong: I am not seeking to be any sort of channel, but it does seem to me that – as one local vicar said of a rival church – [people/churches] ... are afraid to allow God in their worship.
I hesitate to thank God for my success – and the inspiration – in the competition because it is too easy to be grateful when things go right and to wonder if God actually exists when things go sour. I am many things but I hope I am not a hypocrite (if that is the correct word). That said, I do find the thoughts behind “Non Nobis Domine” compelling.
