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!