Mewsician (Musician) in training cat tie from Zazzle.com

Mewsician (Musician) in training cat tie from Zazzle.com

Playing around

Well, I've been to two major gigs in the last month. Portsmouth Cathedral (for services with a visiting choir for a weekend) and St Stephen's, Bournemouth - yes, Whitlock's church. The latter's a first, and my pre-service piece (Chant de Mai, Jongen) ended early enough to change the key from A flat to A via improvisation for the Parsons "Ave Maria" which was the Introit. And Whitlock drifted out through my fingers to include some indirect quotes from his works.

Portsmouth was fine, a blast, I've played services there before and know how much organ to use and so on, so the card from the choir I was accompanying complementing me on not drowning them (since we had no rehearsal time in the cathedral before the Sunday Eucharist, and little other time) was sweet but OTT, in my bumble opinion. Worse than this, much worse were Guildford when I had to set all my pistons whilst rehearsing with the choir for F in Darke Eucharist 30 minutes before it started, and yesterday when the 30' drop behind me with only a knee-high stone parapet started causing my vertigo to kick in big-time. I won't say I had to be scraped off the floor of the loft, but it was probably close.

I did hear tell that someone accepted a position as Assistant Organist at an English Cathedral, only to have to decline it when he had the same vertiginous problems. His subsequent appointment was nice and safe, in a pulpitum-positioned console with curtains and a TV camera. Oh, how I wish!

Logic Problem calendar launched

I've been indulging in logic puzzles!! 12 of them to be exact. Yes folks, the infamous Borborygmus rides again in a calendar filled with devilish logic problems, one for each month of the year. Could be a great idea for the organ loft or just beside the console for those long, ah, moments.
Look for it at http://www.zazzle.com/logic_puzzle_calendar-158489431400619331
or failing that, simply visit http://www.zazzle.com/NZChurchmouse

But be warned: it isn't organ-related - just fun!!

more goodies at my pipe organ Zazzle shop

Busy stocking my Zazzle store with more goodies. All organists and music directors and choristers and church musicians and concert organists who have been very, very good this year should have a look to see if Santa should bring them something from our stock - like a lovely organ calendar for instance?

Encourage the next generation

I have discovered the reason that organists in the UK are ignored - or not taken seriously - by musicians.

I went to a recital given by a dear friend yesterday evening. I will not mince words, it was grossly unprofessional. He is well over 70 and should really have given up such engagements, as he admits: I met him playing a funeral at my local church the day before and he said he was thinking of giving up playing. I would not want to hurt his feelings for a moment, and he is a true servant of the church, but it is incumbent upon all of us to know when to stop, and he is past his play-by date.

I played at the retirement celebration recital of another friend, celebrating his 50 years of service to the one church (should I reach that with a position tomorrow, I would be 100 and well past my play-by date - if I am not already), but he started in his 20s. He can still play hymns rhythmically, he knows a good selection of voluntaries (more than the congregation can remember when he last played that piece, so everyone's happy), but he knows that there is something amiss. He has therefore decided to stop, whilst he is ahead of the game. He still goes in to the church weekdays to play to amuse himself, and to keep his fingers working, but his decision is the right one.

Our host once commented on a cutting I sent her about some US lady organist who had retired after 60 years as an organist: "What on earth was her playing like?"

How many of us keep going because there isn't anyone to take over? And what have we done to ensure that there will be someone? And do we only go on because of personal vanity?

Friend No2 had an organ scholar some time back, who has moved on and still plays, and good for him. What about you - and your church? Do they allow young people to play the organ there? Do they pay money to help them get lessons? If not, why not?

In my area of the RSCM (Sussex), they give small bursaries to young people learning the organ. That's the charity yesterday's recital was in aid of. That's the only reason I can think of for yesterday's recital. I am giving one in four weeks time. I won't play much better, but at least I'll be talking to the audience, telling them how the beast works, what the RSCM does, and WHY. The future isn't orange, it's black unless WE do something to change the colour.

Organ competitions

I have been thinking about organ playing competitions lately. Having attended many over the years, most can be divided into two types: those which hide the players from the adjudicators and those which allow everyone to see them compete. I have often wondered how much seeing an organist play colours our perception of their performance. I know many organ consoles are hidden from view and we can only hear the music apart from when a video system is set up for the audience to observe the players.

In the USA I witnessed a very interesting situation. There were three fine players competing for the final of the National AGO competition. As usual, the players were all screened off from the adjudicators and many in the audience. A certain section of the audience, including me, could see all the players performing. There was an audience prize and it was very interesting to see that all those who could see the performers voted differently from those who couldn't. In fact the person who came first by the judges, was voted third by those who could see him/her.

The person who won had very little console technique and had two assistants helping with page turns and pushing pistons as well as adding and subtracting stops. The player merely played the notes. The person who came third played the entire program from memory and managed all the registration changes himself. Those who couldn't see this had no idea of this side of the performance.

So how much does one's performance improve when one only plays the notes or if visible, how much does one's performance improve in the sight of the audience when one does everything?

Zazzle goodies!

See what I've been making here!


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Many a slip twixt nose and lip

Now, I would be the first to admit that I am not the brightest button in the box, especially first thing in the morning. But I should be able to operate simple machinery. Two days ago I proved that I can't.

My beard gets trimmed every so often, when it starts to irritate, or something. I use a Philips-made, purpose-built machine for this. It has several settings as to length, from designer stubble No 1) to about three-quarters of an inch (No 10). I usually use setting 4. So I switched it on, made sure it was on 4, and took a swathe of hair off my right cheek. It seems a tad short, but, hey, it's on 4, it must be right. It wasn't til I took a substantial chunk of hair off my chin as well that I actually looked at that thing. Somehow, although the dial was showing 4, it hadn't moved up at all. So I did what I could to even it up and took the sides down to the Stubble setting anf tried to make the rest look less like the proverbial argument with a lawn-mower.

After a day at the office I was walking home, getting some pretty odd looks. I got home and actually looked at my beard in daylight in the mirror. The only think that went through my mind was "how come no-one at the office said anything?" They're not usually that polite! It looked rather bizarre. So the only solution was the disposable Bic razor. 

A small irony is that the church at which I am playing in about an hour (9am, Sunday 26th for me right now), its minister shaved his beard off for charity a month ago. I hope they don't think I'm taking the p.

A good Easter

The best thing about all the musical things which I did this Holy Week/Easter (so far - still the Cantores Vagantes weekend in Newport to go) wasn't D'Arcy Trinkwon's Chemin de la Croix (Dupré), not Sunday Eucharist at my local church (105 minutes from start to the final blessing - this is getting a bit long), but accompanying Be still for the presence of the Lord at Evensong in Southsea. Probably my favourite hymn.

Post-scriptum to Panic

What every organist needs to do - turn up and find that you yourself have *ucked up. Sunday went really well, but a few weeks ago I wrote down the list of arias from the programme. I missed one. So not only was there the one I hadn't played, but also one I had played (five years ago) but not looked at again. My fault, no-one else's. Everyone was most happy with what came out, which is what matters. But the one I hadn't played before was in the nicer key, dot/finger-wise. A happy occasion.