Ralph Downes and the Royal Festival Hall organ
I wish I’d met Ralph Downes. His autobographical book Baroque Tricks, subtitled Adventures with the Organ Builders, is difficult to get hold of now* but gives a vivid impression of the man, and his battles with the organ establishment of…
Some forums for organists
If you think that making snarky comments under the protection of a pseudonym came with the internet, you’d be wrong. The public forums for musical discussion were more slow-moving then, but the letters pages of the Musical World and the…
More manuals-only repertoire – from the Royal School of Church Music
The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) has published an excellent listing of organ music for manuals only, for organists who have no pedals or have not yet mastered the pedals. It includes relatively simple music from John Alcock and…
Music copyright from the Music Publishers Association
A mark of a civilised community is the recognition of the concept of copyright, says the Music Publishers Association, and they have published a code of practice explaining when the use of the photocopier is fair, and when it is…
Happy Birthday to You
For those of us asked to play Happy Birthday to You on a regular basis – and vaguely wondering each time about the copyright issues – there’s a comforting lawsuit (that’s a rarity) going through the US courts. See this…
Copyright made simple
Want to know if music is public domain? Here’s a useful guide from the IMSLP Petrucci Library which defines what exactly qualifies as public domain* music in Canada, the US, the EU, and China, Korea, Japan and South Africa. *…
Hummingbird – a fresh take on music notation
It’s hard enough learning a new instrument, but mastering notation at the same time can make music just too much of a struggle for youngsters. Blake West and Mike Sall in Austin Texas have come up with an alternative notation,…
Sight read the pedals
Following my recent moan about sight-reading resources, Mark Ellis of atticbooks drew my attention to Sight-Read the Pedals! by Richard Ellis. Eighty short pieces for organ sight reading: the pedal line starts with just two notes (C and F) and…
The low-down on temperaments from Carey Beebe
Carey Beebe is a globe-trotting harpsichord maker, based in Sydney Australia, and I recommend his website to organists if they really, really want to get to grips with tuning and temperaments. He explains the Pythagorean comma before launching into a…
The Bulletproof Musician
I have Ruth Brons (@things4strings on Twitter) to thank for a link to The Bulletproof Musician, a blog solely about sports psychology for musicians, from Dr Noa Kageyama. He suggests ways to develop courage and confidence, discusses mental practice, slow…
Everything Else An Organist Should Know
The authors of this book, Robert Leach and Barry Williams, cheerfully describe it as a dog’s breakfast of law, accounts, science, theology, regulation and received wisdom. They are being modest – it’s an essential guide to all those aspects of…
Classical composer timelines
Was John Blow a contemporary of Albinoni? Find out with these classical composer timelines from Classical Net which you can download for free as pdfs. They helped me put all those Baroque composers in their rightful place when studying Bach…
websites for organ geeks
For all you organ geeks out there (you know who you are) here’s a starter list of appropriate web links: though perhaps I should say aspiring organ geeks, because true geeks will have found these sites and more already…
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