Do I have any friends?

I have one significant person in my life - this person make my life worth living. Other than that I appear to have few friends - it seems.

I suppose it depends on the definition of a friend. I can absolutely confirm that I know several people who have been extremely helpful over the last few years by taking me to hospital (and home again). I also have a musical friend who I can call on: she and her husband would do all they can to help me.

I was touched by the 2 visitors from work who came to see me in hospital, last May, and grateful to the chap who travelled 45 miles to see me. I phone him occasionally and we know we go back a long way and how we are linked.

I have some friends on Facebook although I am not on there to create a long list - I have about 15.

What I mean is that I seldom seem to get any emails, texts phone calls or letters from anyone. Even my eldest daughter only gets in touch once in a blue moon: she is very busy, I get that.

Have I phoned, emailed, texted or written to anybody myself? Well, no. So is this apparent lack of friends just a symptom of the way we live our lives these days? Maybe it is.

My main hobby is bellringing but I only hear from people if they want something. "Can you ring for a wedding?" After 46 years of bellringing you'd think I would have a few friends in the field. I don't seem to. If one rings a lot of peals (not that I want to) one gets requests to join in. At local Branch level there are monthly meetings but nobody ever talk to me for more than a minute.

I think I project a "stay away" message to which I have alluded before. Even this blog has few readers; I never get any comments.


I cannot imagine my funeral will be very well attended.

Poor Church Music

I occasionally ring the bells after weddings at my local church. The ringing chamber is right behind the organ pipes which are at the West end of the church.

It has often been the case that the hymns have been played quite dreadfully although today they were tolerable. However, the exit music - Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" was truly awful and I simply do not know how a person can turn up and play it so badly.

I appreciate that the organist may have been old and trying his or her best but the departing congregation would have been shocked.

David Drinkell R.I.P.

Yesterday was a day of mixed feelings. Earlier I had bought myself a digital organ so I can practice at home so I was upbeat. When I arrived home and turned on my computer it was not long before I saw that David Drinkell has died: then I was downbeat. With social media this news gets around fast but folk are able to send condolences quickly and share their sorrow.

I first met David when I went for Organ Scholarship auditions at Bristol University in 1977: he was in the choir I had to rehearse in a short anthem. They had inserted various wrong notes for candidates to spot. I think he thought this such fun that he almost gave the game away; he was clearly pleased and encouraging when I managed to spot his wrong bass note.

Later, when my sister got married in Peterborough Cathedral in 1978, David came up and improvised before the service whilst I was in the Song School going over the anthem with the choir and Christopher Gower. (At that time the Great manual had a 32' stop which, of course, David explored.)

At university David was known for his improvisation skills as well as his love of Vaughan Williams but he was a really jovial character. His knowledge of organs in the UK was second to none - it was as if he had played them all.

When I toyed with a small desktop music publishing company David produced a few gems for me to add to the catalogue and the photo above used to be on the website along with his biography. Back in 2010 this was what he wrote about himself.

David Drinkell was born in Colchester, Essex, England in 1955 and was organist of local churches from the age of twelve. He studied at the universities of Bristol and Cambridge and is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Associate of the Royal College of Music and one of the forty holders of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Diploma in Church Music.

In 1979 he moved to the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland, where he was Master of the Music at St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, and in 1988 he was appointed Organist & Master of the Choristers at Belfast Cathedral.

David came to Newfoundland in February 2003 as Organist & Choir Director of the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  He has played or conducted throughout the British Isles as well as in Paris, Norway, New York and Ontario. He is the only organist to have played in all 31 cathedrals of the Church of Ireland and, in 1993, was one of eight Essex-born cathedral organists taking part in the Essex Man Organ Gala at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Shortly after arriving in St. John’s he commenced weekly lunchtime organ concerts at the Cathedral, which are now an established feature of the music life of the city. In 2007, he was invited to give concerts in the Cathedral of St-Pierre and to direct the Cathedral Singers of Ontario on a visit to Norwich Cathedral, followed by concerts in Belgium and Holland.

Although we had not been in touch regularly for a few years I knew that he had moved to Canada as he had sent me photos of his house. He was latterly Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral.

A kinder more generous and helpful chap one could not hope to meet. He knew the meaning of fun without being silly or unkind. Heaven is the richer and we are the poorer.

Adagio in E

On my piano, I have been looking at some organ music I used to play when I was an organ scholar many years ago and later organist at Higham Ferrers (when the older [completely] pipe organ was there).

I happened upon Frank Bridge's Three Pieces and although I used to play the Adagio I saw that I had started to learn (but didn't finish) the first piece in the set Andante Moderato. Well, I don't have an organ to work on at present as my reader will know.

I then spent a good 30 minutes looking at the manual parts of the Adagio in E. Later on I found this video of the late John Scott which shows his mastery of the console. I was interested by some of his fingering to allow access to stops and pistons. Brilliant.

Organist Needed?

I have been available to stand in as a holiday organist this summer but have had few responses to adverts and messages on social media.

I played at King's Sutton on 14th July and at Bilton this morning. Organists Online really covers the area inside and around the M25 although there have been others on there. Facebook can yield a few jobs but, on the whole, the Church of England does not seem to want organists very badly - or so it would appear. Jobs are advertised on the Church Times website but I fear the organ is become less popular as an instrument.

I heard recently about a vicar who sacked the choir by email because they were "in the way" so the organist resigned. Young priests there days seem unfamiliar with 'traditional' church music and give way to popular demand.

I am glad that I had my time as a church musician but I reckon it will not be long before pipes give way to guitars and drums.

Political Correctness

In a conversation today I was chatting about a fire in a famous old building, just after the start of the new millennium. I'd better not say where.

Apparently, it is known who started the fire: and why. However, in order not to damage racial harmony the culprit was never brought to justice.

PC gone mad!

Emotional Wreck

I am so exhausted I am a wreck. When I get like this a good cry usually sets me straight and releases pressure. I know a few triggers to bring on the tears. One of them is the ending of the Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - Tracy's Death.

I've never really liked the voice of Louis Armstrong but I now associate it with this song and regard it as the classic performance. I thought I had heard that it was one of the last songs he recorded (which made it more poignant): he was certainly too ill to play his trumpet.

Anyway, the hope that the happy couple had after their wedding was so quickly dashed and - as one gets older - one realises that time is running out.