State of the Organ

Byartsyhonker July 4, 2012 0 Comments
So, I had a chat with our organ tuner, Tarquin Wiggins, on Friday. He'd visited on Thursday and found the organ so bad that he had to abort tuning. The four leather bellows needing repair are now leaking very badly, with the result that the system is losing pressure very easily. Parishioners at St Andrew's may have noticed the organ cutting out intermittently during the last hymn on Sunday; this...

St Andrew’s Hymnathon

Byartsyhonker June 22, 2012 0 Comments
The historic nearly-100-year-old pipe organ at St Andrew's Leytonstone will soon fall silent unless we can raise £25000 to repair the bellows. We'll be hosting a sponsored hymnathon, singing all of the hymns in the New English Hymnal. Could you come and sing for an hour or two between noon on Friday 12th October and 6pm on Saturday 13th? We'll be singing through the night (though you can arrive...

Anglican Chant from a metrical psalmody tune…

Byartsyhonker June 16, 2012 0 Comments
The choir will be singing the Benedictus at St Andrew's next week, and I've been looking for an appropriate setting. Common Worship has a few metrical settings of the text, one of which is Double Common Metre. This fits to a number of tunes, but perhaps my favourite DCM tune is number 373 in the New English Hymnal -- also known as "Third Mode Melody". This was made famous by Ralph Vaughan...

And another sort of moving on…

Byartsyhonker June 15, 2012 5 Comments
In addition to having moved my blog over to WordPress, I'm in the process of moving house. I really dislike moving house. I find the process of examining everything I own, deciding what I need to keep and what I should give away, sell or discard, extremely uncomfortable. There is the instinct to keep as much as I possibly can, because I may need it some day, scarcity thinking writ large in...

Organ fund: form for cheque donations

Byartsyhonker June 6, 2012 3 Comments
The Organ Fund has had two pipes sponsored now; this means we have another £24970 to raise. Here is the form for cheque donations. It has a Gift Aid form attached, which we'd appreciated you filling out if you are a UK taxpayer. This allows us to claim the tax you pay on your donation at no extra cost to you. If you are not in the UK, you could donate via this post. Your generosity is...

Steeeeeeeeeeam

Byartsyhonker June 4, 2012 1 Comment
In trying to put together bits of organ fundraising yesterday I happened upon our organ technician's website, and found the previous lot of repairs are listed as a case study. As part of this contract, we felt for historic reasons, that it was important to retain the three attached feeders. These still have their iron likages connecting them to the off-set main shaft and the original cogged...

Organ fundraising

Byartsyhonker June 3, 2012 4 Comments
The organ at St Andrew's Leytonstone has been in need of repair for some time. Before I got there, a first stage of repairs was done; the second stage was deferred. Here's a quote from our organ builder's estimate on the second stage: "The four remaining bellows up in the main organ chamber are very awkward to access (being sited on floor level) and require dismantling/removal of the Choir...

Nothing works the frist time.

Byartsyhonker May 24, 2012 1 Comment
I may be up past my bedtime, having harmonised the little tune I wrote earlier. Here's a rough draft harmonised version: Here's a .pdf of the sheet music: While dead in sin 001 And here's the problem: Revd Klages tweeted in haste, and the text he posted, while making sense, was not in fact 8.7.8.6.4.9.5.3.3.11, but rather 8.7.8.6.9.6.3.3.11. Note the missing line and the one with the extra...

One thing leads to another…

Byartsyhonker May 24, 2012 4 Comments
Today has been one of those bitty days when I can't quite settle to anything. A twitter chum of mine had a comedy exchange with a twitter chum of his, which resulted in this: While dead in sin and error’s way, My soul was troubled greatly. My grief o’ertook me night and day, Pain was all I did see. The light of the Gospel grace did shine, My darkened soul arose. Made anew, Baptized, too, By...

Press release on Women in the Episcopate

Byartsyhonker May 21, 2012 4 Comments
Ruthie Gledhill has kindly put the press release at her tumblr. It is, she says, the worst press release since the Reformation.My understanding of it is as follows:Changes made to the draft measure:1) Clarification of the word "delegation" to mean legal permission to act as a bishop rather than sacramental derivation of bishoppyness;2) Inclusion in measure of guidelines stating that pastoral...