St Albans Organ Theatre and various other sundries

Byartsyhonker August 22, 2010 0 Comments
This afternoon, N and I went to the St Albans Organ Theatre, a marvelous museum of various instruments. There were a number of instruments, from tabletop music boxes and cob organs to two impressive theatre organs and four mechanical, "self-playing" organs -- like player pianos but much larger. There were also some player pianos; I don't think I've seen one in action before. Possibly my favourite...

Vacation

Byartsyhonker August 15, 2010 0 Comments
I've been on vacation for most of the past week, staying in a guesthouse in Mark, Somerset and cycling a lot. I'm well aware that I have a shiny new job starting in September, and I didn't want to miss too many days of practice. So I rang up the local vicar to ask if I could use the organ in Mark Church. I'm glad I did; it's a lovely instrument in many ways and I spent a few hours on Wednesday...

Chanting tunes

Byartsyhonker July 16, 2010 0 Comments
Dr Francis Roads has written an article on Joseph Key's chanting tunes. An extract:"The chanting tune was developed as means of enabling local quires to sing prose psalms and canticles. The Anglican psalm chant was the usual manner in which prose psalms were rendered in the cathedral style. But Anglican psalm chanting is an art, which entails the ability of singers to fit phrases of several,...

Play Me – I’m Yours

Byartsyhonker June 24, 2010 0 Comments
Back by popular demand, the City of London Festival brings you Street Pianos. I played one of these at Liverpool St station last summer, for a few minutes. There were many notes that did not work, and it was horribly out of tune; my suggestion is that if you want to get out and play, it's best to do so sooner rather than later, while the instruments are still in a better condition.

The Week, er, Behind

Byartsyhonker June 19, 2010 0 Comments
On Monday I posted about all I have to do this week.Things are some things that didn't get done. I still haven't rescheduled my dental appointment, and there are a few other phonecalls that have piled up, which isn't so good. I fought with the piece for the St Paul's competition but still I don't have a rough draft I'm happy with, so I'm having to consider whether I'll submit anything at all. I...

The Week Ahead

Byartsyhonker June 14, 2010 0 Comments
This week is looking pretty typical in terms of what I need to do, at least musically.I'm teaching tonight and tomorrow night. I've done most of the preparation for that, but need to remember to bring music with me for my students. I'll be leaving home at 2pm each day and spending a lot of time on public transport... I usually use this time to read. Right now the important reading is all to do...

Brigantia Consort hath a website.

Byartsyhonker June 11, 2010 0 Comments
It's very rudimentary, but Brigantia Consort now has a web presence. Yay!Why the rush to get this done? Well, we're busking tomorrow morning at Parliament Hill Farmers' Market, weather permitting, to raise money for Shelter. While we're there we'll also hand out some flyers and maybe even sell tickets for our next concert:BrigantiaConsortWith Merry GleeAn eclectic programme of psalmody,folk music...

Bobby McFerrin

Byartsyhonker May 29, 2010 0 Comments
I've just come back from hearing Bobby McFerrin perform at the Barbican, along with the London Vocal Project.The concert was wonderful. Bobby McFerrin was in fine form, and although the performance was in some ways his usual "bag of tricks" (I had seen several portions of it before on YouTube and so on), that bag of tricks is simply astounding. The improvised numbers were, of course, fantastic....

I will sing praises

Byartsyhonker April 22, 2010 0 Comments
I've been incubating a project. It isn't done yet -- won't be for a while -- but I think it's time to start writing about it.I have developed something of an interest in the psalms. Partly to encourage their use in (Christian) liturgy, and partly to indulge in my passion for learning more about them, I want to run a series of workshops. The idea would be to look at the psalms in what we...

Sweet singing from the choir

Byartsyhonker April 7, 2010 1 Comment
In late summer of 2009, I was talking with the organist at St Andrew's Leytonstone. I mentioned that I wanted to write more church music, but that I realised that many parish churches in England don't have large choirs and so in order to write effectively for existing resources I would probably need to learn more about the organ.One thing led to another, and to another, and soon not only was I...