BOA newsletter volume 8 no1e

New Year 2012

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Birmingham Organists’ Association affiliated to the Incorporated Association of Organists

www.BhamOrgan.org.uk www.iao.org.uk

President: Paul Carr 07966 269860

Secretary: Paul Evans 07980 013368

Treasurer: Alan Taylor 01922 628810

Assistant Secretary & Newsletter Compiler: Nick Fanthom 07917 444077

Forthcoming events

ORGAN CD/DVD EVENING MONDAY 30TH JANUARY, 7.30PM The Old Swan Inn, Netherton, DY2 9PY Click here for details. Share your favourite organ CDs and DVDs and enjoy refreshment at this famous pub and micro-brewery run by organ enthusiast Tim Newey. Admission FREE

GABRIELI 400 MONDAY 5TH MARCH, 7.30PM St Alban the Martyr, Conybere St, Highgate, B12 0YH Click here for details. The Beorma Ensemble, directed by Tom Keogh, perform music by Gabrieli and other works from the Venetian School. Admission FREE

Concert Guide St Philip’s Cathedral: Friday lunchtimes at 1.10pm, including: 27 Jan: Francis Murton 02 Mar: Tim Harper 16 Mar: Greg Abrahams 23 Mar: Andrew Wyatt 30 Mar: Marcus Huxley www.birminghamcathedral.com THSH Town Hall/Symphony Hall: Alternate Mondays at 1.00pm featuring Thomas Trotter and guests Also, Sun 01 Apr at 3pm: Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse playing Saint-Saëns Symphony no.3 (Organ) www.thsh.co.uk Holy Trinity, Wordsley: 3.00pm Sunday Afternoon Organ Music Paul Carr 05 Feb – Boëllmann’s 150th anniversary 04 Mar – Music of JS Bach www.paulcarr.co.uk St Paul, Birmingham: Thursday Live First Thursday of the month at 1.15pm 02 Feb and 01 Mar: Paul Carr 05 Apr: Paul Hayward www.saintpaulbrum.org Emmanuel, Wylde Green: “Olympic” - music from around the world 1st Friday of month, 1.00pm Andrew Fletcher www.andrewfletcher.org.uk

Welcome to the electronic version of our newsletter. Happy New Year!

In this issue:

• Money Matters • Ian Tracey recital • Forthcoming events • Notice of AGM

• Annual Service review • Job Spot • Obituary • Dutch Organ Tour

It’s that time of year when your annual subscription becomes due. Fortunately, for over fifty of you, your subscription has already been collected by Standing Order. Many thanks if that applies to you: it makes life simpler for us all!

There has been no increase in subscriptions for over ten years, so we hope you agree that it continues to represent outstanding value. And, as you will see from examples in this e-newsletter, admission to many BOA events is free for members.

If you have yet to complete a Standing Order and have not already sent your subscription, the Treasurer will be contacting you shortly. Meanwhile, you can download an application form for renewals or new members (including either Standing Order or cheque payments) from our website by clicking this link: www.bhamorgan.org.uk/contactjoin_us.html.

AGM lunch

As usual, a buffet lunch (including wine and fruit juice) will be provided for members attending the AGM on 21st April if you book in advance. A form is attached to the same email used to notify you of this e-newsletter. The total cost, including coffee, lunch, wine and the recital by Martyn Rawles (Lichfield Cathedral) is £12.

Money Matters

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Local recital by Ian Tracey

Saturday 31

March

7.30pm

All Saints

Belwell Lane

Four Oaks

B74 4TR

Peter Spencer Ltd, working with Dr Roy Massey as

consultant, has recently completed a major

refurbishment of the four-manual organ at All Saints,

Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield.

The parish are delighted to have Professor Ian Tracey

(Organist Titulaire at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral), to

give the Opening Recital. Refreshments follow

afterwards, together with the opportunity to chat to

the recitalist.

Further details and advance tickets can be obtained

from the Director of Music at All Saints, Angela Sones

on 0788 578 3758

The Old Swan Inn, formerly “Ma Pardoe’s”

Organ CD/DVD evening: The Old Swan Inn, Netherton Monday 30 January, 7.30pm Organ CD/DVD evening (Please note that the date of this meeting is incorrectly given in Organists’ Review as 31st Jan) Join us for a social evening at this Black Country pub, well-known for its own real ales, good food and (of course) its irrepressible host, Tim Newey. You’re assured of a warm welcome, and as the food is to be provided courtesy of Tim, (he told me he’s made the sandwiches now, whilst the bread’s still fresh - ed), all you have to do is buy your drinks: there’s lots to choose from, even non-alcoholic! Don’t forget to bring some of your favourite CDs or DVDs too.

Admission FREE to BOA members 89 Halesowen Road, Netherton, Dudley, DY2 9PY

(car park at rear, entrance via Northfield Road)

Monday 5 March, 7.30pm

G a b r i e l i 4 0 0

Notice of AGM: Saturday 21 April Wylde Green United Reformed Church, Britwell Road, B73 5SW

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Birmingham Organists’ Association will be held at Wylde Green United Reformed Church on Saturday 21 April 2012 at 11.30am. The business of the meeting is to receive reports and accounts for 2011 and to elect officers and members of Council. Nominations should be sent to the Secretary, Paul Evans, 36 Holmcroft Road, Stafford, ST16 1JF to arrive not later than 7 April 2012. A booking form for lunch is attached to the same email used to notify you of this e-newsletter.

2012 sees the 400th anniversary of the death of Giovanni Gabrieli (left). Come and hear the Beorma Ensemble directed by Tom Keogh (right), this year’s LGF- sponsored Conservatoire student, as it performs compositions by one of the

most influential musicians of his time, plus other works from the Venetian School.

A selection of cheese, wine and other refreshments will be served following the concert, so all-in-all this promises to be an event that you simply cannot afford to miss.

Admission FREE to BOA members St Alban the Martyr, Conybere St, Highgate, B12 0YH

There is plenty of on-street parking available close to the church. The nearest bus routes are: 8A, 8C, 38, 45 & 47.

Gabrieli 400: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate

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While our 2011 annual service took us further from the city centre than the usual venues, it was to a church that has long-standing links with BOA, both through Past President Andrew Fletcher and present Council Member (and current Director of Music at St Thomas’s) Dr Jon Payne. With no fewer than four organists performing (Oliver Parry, Matthew Rose, Paul Carr and the Director of Music), the Choral Eucharist for the Feast of the Presentation of Mary was also an opportunity for a feast of widely different music. Organ voluntaries ranged from Pachelbel & Boyvin to Francis Jackson & Flor Peeters. Starting with Britten’s Hymn to the Virgin as an Introit, the service proceeded using Jonathan Dove’s setting in his Missa Brevis: difficult music for both performers and listeners, but expertly sung by the relatively small choir. The anthem was, appropriately enough on the eve of St Cecilia’s Day, the Hymn for St Cecilia by Herbert Howells. Congregational participation included Sing we of the Blessed Mother to Cyril Taylor’s rousing Abbot’s Leigh. As is traditional on these occasions, the collection was shared between the home church and the IAO’s Benevolent Fund, resulting in a donation to the latter of £57. Refreshments afterwards provided an opportunity for members of BOA to meet and share their latest news. Many thanks to Jon Payne and all at St Thomas’s for making this a memorable evening.

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ST MARY’S LAPWORTH: RECRUITMENT OF NEW ORGANIST/CHOIRMASTER The basic role is to: 1. Play the organ and lead the choir for one service each Sunday

(11am) and a choir practice each Friday (7.30pm) 2. Cover perhaps as many as ten additional services through the

year (eg Midnight mass, Christmas Day, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Ascension, Corpus Christi, Harvest, All Saints, All Souls)

3. Appropriately challenge and develop the choir musically 4. Recruit new and younger choir members 5. Occasionally working with musicians from other churches on

joint services or visits. Salary for this basic role could be around £3000 for a good amateur musician. It could be significantly more for an outstanding candidate working with a more developed role. Fees for weddings and funerals are currently set at £80. The church has a recently renovated, three manual, pipe organ. Four-part choir of up to 20 members. A Child Protection Policy is in place and CRB checks will be required.

For more information please contact the Rector, Revd Patrick Gerard, The Rectory, Church Lane, Lapworth, Solihull,

B94 5NX, tel: 01564 782098, e-mail: patrick@gerard.net Applications, with a brief CV to the Rector before 31st January 2012

JOB SPOT

A Parish Church in south Birmingham is looking for an organist to take over from the present organist who needs to retire due to health reasons. This is a friendly and warm church, with a large, new (digital) organ. Sung Eucharist 10am each Sunday. Holidays (and a Sunday off a month if desired), can be arranged.

Enquiries to the Diocesan Music Adviser Mick Perrier 07967 595881

mick@mperrier.freeserve.co.uk

Annual Service 2011: St Thomas, Stourbridge Alan Taylor

During our cycling trip In 1999, we enjoyed a splendid recital at Alkmaar and a recital on the choir organ at Kampen. Also on this holiday we visited the Appingedam area, east of Groningen. Many churches here were built on mounds, to save them from the flooding of the past centuries. We visited three churches. The organs are maintained as National Monuments, even if the churches themselves are only used infrequently. Incredibly, at the first church, the organ tuner was at work and allowed me to play the Schnitger organ he had just tuned. On our next cycling holiday in 2005, our Dutch friend decided we should see organs in the middle of the country that included visiting/playing organs at Hassselt and Vollenhove.

In 2010, we saw an Organ Tour advertised on the internet. The week was not convenient for us, so we decided to organise our own mini cycling/organ tour. One of the organs on the list was Leens, and after some investigation on the ’net, we found two organ recitals to be given on consecutive evenings in Leens and Usquert: both villages in the very north of Holland, just by the large polders, next stop Scandanavia.

One sunny evening towards the end of May, three English cyclists were outside the village church of Usquert, beginning to disbelieve the internet:

nothing seemed to stir outside this church. We did, however, smell coffee; so, tentatively, I tried the door and we were welcomed with coffee and cakes served in the porch. It was a small, but beautiful, village church with a wonderful organ case situated on the rear gallery – see photo left.

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Death of Mr John Bates Nick Fanthom

It is with regret that we announce the death of John Bates on 15th January 2012. John lived in Tanworth-in-Arden, where he was organist for many years, but had latterly been organist at Packwood. As some Association members will recall, he was for many years a BOA member and repeatedly served on Council. A great wit and raconteur, he was never short of an anecdote or pithy repost and his rendition of the theme from Last of the Summer Wine on the Town Hall organ is something I shall treasure forever! I shall raise a glass to his memory, as I often did with him after BOA meetings.

A tribute by Dr Roy Massey is attached to the email that notified you about this e-newsletter

A Dutch organ tour Eddie Guard

Holland is famous for many things; cheese, canals, windmills, polders, delftware, tulips, tomatoes, etc. But over the last 28 years, Eddie and his wife Kathy have visited the country on several occasions to indulge in cycling… … and visiting organs.

Our first visit to Holland was in 1984, with our three children, aged 4, 5 and 8 on our various bicycles, quite unaware how wonderful the cycling was and how beautiful were the organs. On this holiday , we visited Rotterdam, when I attended part of a four-hour service in the large rebuilt church, and enjoyed the improvisations before the hymns. The latter were then sung - with the congregation sitting down! We were also able to see the large Catholic Church organ at Harlem, and a recital at Katwijk. Our next cycling visit in 1995 included a Sunday service at the Kloosterkerk in Den Haag, a visit to the church & organ at Arnhem, and a delightful hour spent with the organist (and organ dating back to 1719) at Culenborg.

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Het Van Oeckelen-orgel (1852) in de Petruskerk van Usquert

The following day found us in the church at Leens, another small church on a mound. This one was very cold, with no offer of coffee, wine or cheese. But the organ was magnificent, a famous 1713 instrument – see photo below.

There was another (smaller) organ in the nave that was also played during the recital. On the evening we were there, the organist was Jellegert Postma. There are recitals at Leens most weeks throughout the summer.

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Het Van Oeckelen-orgel (1852) in de Petruskerk van Usquert

Orgel in de Petruskerk te Leens, Albertus Anthoni Hinsz (1733/34)

Hoofdwerk Bovenwerk Bourdon 16 Viola de Gamba 8 Prestant 8 Holpijp 8 Holpijp 8 Prestant 4 Octaaf 4 Fluit 4 Fluit 4 Fluit 2 Octaaf 2 Flageolet 1 Cornet 3st. (disc) Vox Humana 8 Mixtuur 3-4st. Trompet 8 (bas/disc.) Pedaal C-c Aangehangen aan Hoofdwerk Koppel bas/discant, Afsluiter Hoofdwerk Afsluiter Bovenwerk

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The Minister sold us recital tickets and, asking where we came from, said he knew Spaghetti Junction quite well! In this little backwater of the country, we were the only English visitors at the recital.

He told us that the recitalist, Wim van Beek, (organist since 1956 at the Martinkerk in Groningen) aged 80, was very nervous about playing the organ and had had to practise hard, as it was too new: being built in 1852 he wasn’t used to such new instruments! The audience, unlike most English organ audiences, was quite young, with about 50 almost filling the church (a building had been on the site for 2000 years, and there were still signs of original wall paintings). The programme was JS Bach, CPE Bach, Handel, Andriessen, and two improvisations on hymn tunes by the organist. At the end there was a standing ovation for Wim van Beek, and then the wine and cheese appeared.

We were told by the Minister that he had been appointed to the church with the job of raising €200,000 to rebuild the organ! A daunting task, he said, but there were many funds and charities available and he had managed to raise the money for the renovation.

The final organ of our Dutch holiday 2010 was a small instrument in the local church at Ijhorst – see photos, right – where our friends had arranged for me to play for an hour. Note that the stop controls are arranged in the traditional Dutch manner – above the player’s head! It was a lovely end to another cycle/organ holiday.

There then followed an incredible coincidence. We were travelling back by train to Den Haag and, at Amersfoort, a young man with his bicycle joined us in the cycle carriage. In the course of the 15-minute journey to Utrecht, where he left the train, he told us his father had been an organ builder and had actually built the small choir organ at Leens, which we had been listening to only a few days before!

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Orgel in de Petruskerk te Leens, Albertus Anthoni Hinsz (1733/34) Hoofdwerk Rugwerk Pedaal Prestant 8 Prestant 4 Prestant 8 Quintadeen 16 Fluit Does 8 Bourdon 16 Roerfluit 8 Holpijp 4 Roerquint 6 Speelfluit 4 Nasard 3 Octaaf 4 Octaaf 4 Octaaf 2 Mixtuur 4-5-6-st Quint 3 Quint 1 1/3 Bazuin 16 Octaaf 2 Sesquialter 2st Trumpet 8 Mixtuur 4-5-6 st Scherp 4 st Cornet 2 Trompet 8 Dulciaan 8 Vox Humana 8 Koppelingen: Hoofdwerk+ Rugwerk Pedaal + Hoofdwerk Tremulant over het gehele orgel

Hervormde Kirk, Ijhorst, Kaat Tijhuis (1988) built in a case by J Proper (1903) Hoofdwerk Bovenwerk Pedaal Prestant 8 Viol de Gamba 8 Bourdon 16 Bourdon 16 Fluit Douce 8 Prestant 8 Hopijp 8 Prestant 4 Trumpet 8 Octav 4 Gedekte Fluit 4 Quint 3 Woud Fluit 2 Hoofdwerk+Bovenwerk Octav 2 Cornet disc 3st Hoofdwerk+Pedaal Mixtur 4-5st Dulcian 8 Bovenwerk+Pedaal Trumpet 8 Tremulant

Hervormde Kirk, Ijhorst, Kaat Tijhuis (1988)