an organist’s life for me – The Artsy Honker

Advent — Christina Rosetti

Byartsyhonker December 4, 2015 0 Comments

We're well into December and there is so much going on that is very focused on Christmas; yet this is still Advent, a season of preparation. Advent is my SATB setting of Christina Rosetti's poem by the same name: 'Come,' Thou dost say to Angels, To blessed Spirits, 'Come': 'Come,' to the lambs of Thine own flock, Thy little ones, 'Come home.' 'Come,' from the many-mansioned house The gracious...

Those Naughty Organists

Byartsyhonker May 3, 2013 0 Comments

I read with some bemusement an article in the Telegraph. Beware the wrath of the church organist, it warns, and goes on to list various musical infelicities. Slipping unexpected tunes into music is practically obligatory, as far as I'm concerned. Yes, I will play "We're walking in the air" as a recessional voluntary when it is actually snowing (or at least for the first Sunday snowfall of the...

#AcWriMo for a church musician

Byartsyhonker October 25, 2012 6 Comments

I'm not doing a PhD (yet), but over at PhD2Published it's that time of year again. AcWriMo is a sort of motivational gimmick whereby a group of people decide that in November they're going to get a lot of writing done, and then offer one another lots of moral support. My own take on this will be hymn tunes. I love writing them, and really enjoyed the ones I did for the hymnathon videos, but my...

So why does a poor East London church need a pipe organ, anyway?

Byartsyhonker October 8, 2012 4 Comments

At St Andrew's Leytonstone we're hosting a hymnathon this weekend, to raise money for the repair of our pipe organ. Fundraising is going well, but there have been some questions. In this time of austerity, unemployment and recession, what are we doing raising money to pay for the repair of an instrument a century old? Can't we just get an electric organ, and spend the money on more useful things,...

A call for words…

Byartsyhonker July 5, 2012 1 Comment

So, I wrote some words last night, rather too many in fact, about my interpretation of various Church of England stuff. That post has received over three hundred hits, more than all my posts on organ fundraising combined. I joked about this on Twitter, asking if I could make the organ fundraising more controversial... ...and someone remarked I could only do that if I were the wife of the Dean of...

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...

How to introduce new music in churches

Byartsyhonker April 16, 2012 1 Comment

I wrote this as a comment elsewhere, and thought it perhaps worth reproducing:You can get congregations to sing new music, but it takes a bit of work and cooperation from your organist/music director/whoever. 1) If you have one, see if you can get the choir (or music group or what have you) to sing the new tune (possibly to old words!) as a Communion hymn or an anthem a few times.2) In the weeks...

Dances, not dirges

Byartsyhonker June 27, 2011 7 Comments

On Saturday I had the pleasure of conducting the <a href="http://www.lgq.org.uk">London Gallery Quire</a>, not once but twice. We started with a service of Mattins at St John's, Fulham, and then in the evening made our way to St Peter's in the Forest for a concert as part of their Flower Festival.Elsewhere there are conversations going on about music and liturgy, and as usual there is...

Big Hymn Sing 2011

Byartsyhonker June 6, 2011 1 Comment

This Saturday there will be a Big Hymn Sing at 1pm at St Andrew's Leytonstone. The congregation have sponsored about 30 hymns and I will add some more that I think are worth singing, for a total of about 48.The more people turn up the more fun we'll have! We'll sing for about twenty minutes at a time and then have a ten minute break; Café Refresh will be open, and I hope people will feel free to...

Adventures in hymn selection

Byartsyhonker May 1, 2011 3 Comments

In the Common Worship lectionary there are two options for Eastertide. One uses an Old Testament reading, a reading from Acts, and a Gospel reading each week. The other uses an epistle instead of the Old Testament. The point is that Acts is required.Somehow, I thought we were using the Old Testament readings, and chose hymns accordingly. So this morning we had a lovely reading from Acts, then a...