Monday 28 Jun 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

Last time I went to the annual Organ Gala at the Royal Albert Hall. I was in seat 1, row 1 of the Choir East. Along with seat 1, row 1, Choir West, these are the two seats nearest to the organ console. But the East side is the side which the organist enters from. And we literally couldn’t have been any closer to the organ unless we were actually sitting inside it!

Our seats also gave us a rather good view of the Royal Philamonic Orchestra below us, and I could have actually touched the members of the Royal Philamonic Chorus who were literally in the next row of seats. The orchestra is always there, but this is the first time they’ve had a choir. They sang the Hallelujah Chorus, which was really pretty. They also sang one or two other parts which were very nice.

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Monday 17 May 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

So on Saturday I decided to head out to the village for some organ practise.

I’ve recently become interested in the toccata from Boëmann’s Suite Gothique. I can vaguely play part of it. It’s interesting in that the main melody as such as a pedal part. I had delusions that maybe I could play it… but, um, no. It far exceeds my pedal skills. So I sat and practised BWV 590; it turns out even this is somewhat beyond my pedal ability today. Odd — I’ve done it once before.

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Monday 01 Feb 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

Well, I think I’ve finally cracked BWV 590. (Or possibly one movement from it; looking on YouTube, it seems to contain several parts, only one of which sounds anything like what I have on my sheet music.) Mr The Organist gave me the score and told me to go learn it. I think it was a good choice. It contains some beautiful harmonies. It’s complicated enough to be difficult to learn, but easy enough [and short enough] to be tractable.

This represents one of the very few times in my life when I’ve learned a score without knowing what the result is supposed to sound like first. From my research online, it appears that what I’m playing at least vaguely resembles how it’s supposed to sound.

A week or so ago, I took my first trip of the year to the village church to try it out. I didn’t stay for very long; sitting in an unheated stone building in the middle of January is not my idea of a fun time. I was there maybe 2 hours. The main reason for wanting to go was to play this piece together with the pedal part (which, obviously, I can’t play on my keyboard at home).

Not wishing to over-estimate my skill, I will say I was pleasently surprised to find that my feet manage to find the correct notes with little or no effort provided that the notes are sufficiently near the middle of the pedalboard. The pedal part for this piece is ludicrously easy (but pay attention; it gets harder half way through!) Given that working the pedals is something I’m rubbish at, I can now go away with the delusion that I’m making progress.

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Monday 26 Oct 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

On Sunday, I randomly decided to visit Lincoln Cathedral. It’s about 105 miles each way from where I live, and it took something like 2 hours to drive over there. According to the website (which is rather broken by the way) there’s no parking at the cathedral itself. So once I got to within half a mile, I just put my car in the first car park I saw and decided to walk the rest.

What I didn’t realise is that the cathedral is at the very top of a very steep hill! >_<

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Tuesday 01 Sep 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

On Sunday, I bundled my mum into the car and drove to the city of Ely. Apparently they have a rather large cathedral there. And what do all cathedrals have?

Well, one thing they have is huge doorways, enormous stained glass windows and towering spires. And Ely Cathedral is no exception. It also houses a rather large pipe organ — 83 stops according to NPOR. The organ is pretty impressive to look at as well!

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Wednesday 01 Jul 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

Yesterday night I visited the organ and its master again. While last time I felt we had a rather undirected session, this time it felt like I actually made some progress with peddle playing. Of course, when all you’re trying to do is play the peddles, it all seems quite easy; how easy it will be when I have other things to think about as well remains to be seen.

Hey, it least it wasn’t quite so damned hot inside the church! (But still not as cool as you’d think.) And after that we went to the pub to drink lemonade with friggin’ big chunks of ice in it…

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Tuesday 09 Jun 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

Last night I got to hang out with the Director of Music. He’s a real chatterbox when you start talking about organs. Anyway, I did have a go at trying to pedal the organ. As I suspected, there’s a specific technique to it, and once you follow that technique, it does get quite a bit easier. (I think I might have to go in for some real organ shoes though…)

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Saturday 06 Jun 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

Another weekend, another pipe organ.

First off, I visited the church I have to park outside every week when I go to my dance classes. I’ve been there several times, but it’s always locked. From the various notices, it seems the church is open for general visitation on Saturday mornings. (Indeed, it seems to be an unwritten law that all churches open on Saturdays from 10 till noon for socialising.) So I parked up my car this morning, noting that the car park was far more busy than usual. I got out of my car and headed towards the church. As it happens, I did this at the exact moment that a lady wearing a clerical collar started walking in the exact same direction.

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