Palette cleanser

Same piece, same year, bigger brass and, well intriguing for different reasons...

Not to be uncharitable, but...

OK, everything before the 'but' is probably untrue.  However, this was referred to me as an example of something so bad it's actually intriguing.  It's a pity the video doesn't include the audience response...

Out and about on Sunday

This week I am playing for the 11.00am High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  The parish is keeping All Saints, plus the commencement of a forty-hour devotion.

Here is what I have planned.

Service Prelude: Fantasia -- Abraham van den Kerckhoven
Offertory: Voluntary -- William Boyce
Communion: Agnus Dei -- Georg Muffatt
Before the procession:Schmucke Dich -- Johannes Brahms
Postlude: Agnus Dei -- Frank Martin

Found in the back of an old harmonium

Out and about on Sunday

This week I'll be playing at St Stephen's.  This is the last week of the current locum, and it's the week after a concert, so time for the musical equivalent of comfort food!

Ecce Agnus Dei from Sinfonia in honore Sancti Ioannis Baptistae -- Naji Hakim
Bells from Three Characteristic Pieces -- Jean Langlais

A fragment from a leaked communique

Members of staff have been instructed on a number of matters touching portfolio business following the recent change of management.  Since we are now open for business, we must ensure that the brand of business being offered in this establishment is politically correct in the right sort of way.  Based on United Nations principles, just in case you have concerns that the language we are compelled to use is in some way irregular or carrying some suggestion of moral bankruptcy.

In all future instances of portfolio business, the following terms are to be observed:

All elected representatives are now to be referred to as loan customers.

For confidentiality and security purposes, members of the central committee will be known by the animals or cartoon characters they most resemble, viz, Shrek, Peppi Le Pew, Canis Gremio, etc.

A special case applies to the operative from Immigration and Citizenship.  Thankyou to those who spent a great amount of time and effort trying to come up with a suitable designation for him over the last few weeks, but we must now revert to the title suggested by the original task group for the previous operative.  All future communications from this department are to refer to the current operative as The Patient.  Accordingly his staff are to be known as The Men in White Coats.

Your continued co-operation in this particular matter is greatly appreciated.

In other matters this week....

Concert programme for Sunday at Richmond Uniting Church

Tomorrow afternoon I will be playing a short recital at Richmond Uniting Church as part of the annual Historic Organs of Richmond Hill.  The recitals raise money and awareness for the Richmond Hill Churches Food Centre, which has seen a very significant increase in client numbers over the last twelve months.

The recitals start at St Stephen's, 360 Church St, Richmond, at 3.00pm.  My contribution to the afternoon will be somewhere around 4.30pm.

Click here for programme details.

Bells and Smells

OK, this one might need a little bit of commentary!

This is a corner of the choir gallery at St Aloysius, North Caulfield.  At one time the organ console stood here.  The box on the left of the photo is the switch for the long-disappeared blower.

The organist would have had his/her back to the left hand side of the photo, and so would have had a view down the church by looking to the left.  This is much easier than the mirrors and periscopes you find elsewhere, and doesn't require mentally inverting the view in order to see things the correct way round.

This would work most of the time.  However, sometimes you can't see what is happening, like those occasions when the thurifer gets a little over-enthusiastic and the incense cloud obscures the sanctuary.  Hence the warning bell in the centre of the picture.  There would have been a button down in the sacristy to allow the organist to receive a signal for the entry of the sanctuary party, or the arrival of a bride, or the nearing completion of a prayer said in the vox mystica.  This would allow the organist to tail off so that the next thing could happen down the front.

Another recital on Sunday afternoon

Out and about on Sunday

It's going to be another busy weekend, as you'll see from other posts here.

On Sunday morning I will be at St Stephen's, Richmond, again.

Here's the music I have planned.

Before the Image of a Saint (Op. 142 (I), No. 8) -- Sigfrid Karg-Elert
Fantasia -- Abraham van den Kerckhoven
Fugue in G Major [BWV 541] -- J.S. Bach

From a window

Out and about on Sunday

This week I'm continuing the locum at St Stephen's, Richmond.  For reasons you'll see elsewhere here, this weekend is going to be very busy indeed.

Here's the organ music I have planned for Sunday.

Lento (Op. 105, No. 3) -- C.V. Stanford
Fugue G-dur [BWV 541] -- J.S. Bach

Out and about on Saturday night

Once a month I play for the Saturday evening Mass at St Mary's, West Melbourne.  This is that week.  The organ music is generally a repeat of whatever I'm playing on the Sunday, so look elsewhere for what repertoire I'll be playing this weekend.

Concert on Sunday afternoon

By their beans shall ye know them

Springtime views

Another choir stall critter

Out and about on Sunday

This week I am starting a four-week stint at St Stephen's, Richmond.  It's a real doozy this time round: a baptism combined with the annual blessing of pets (sequentially combined, that is, not simultaneous!).

Since it's a likely to be a bit of a festive and mildly carnivalesque atmosphere, I'm breaking out the French music for the prelude and postlude.

La Cygne -- Camille Saint-Saëns

Sortie -- Louis J.A. Lefébure-Wély