The wandering organist

Sat am : 7am: Fire up puter, reply to emails including one from friend, wondering why friend needs me to take over UK distribution of her books.  Start typing out lyrics for Christmas Carol Service booklet I rashly decided to have for 9 Lessons & carols.  Have a nice, relaxing bath for about 10 minutes. Round to Dad’s to find carer has left note to say his bedside lamp has stopped working under 12 hours after I fitted a new bulb. Try bulb in another lamp, find lamp broken. Make mental note to buy new bulb-holder. Find a third lamp, bulb works fine. Scrabble round in drawer, find 3amp fuse for first lamp, change it, bulb works ok. Decide that a 60W filament bulb is a little too much for Dad’s bedside lamp, find a low energy one and find that it’s a screw fitting – we have no screw-fitting lamps in the house. Dad probably bought it by mistake some years back. Mark that bulb as “please take me” for a carer to take away and leave on kitchen table. Get new hair clipper out

A few weeks back the Churchwardens of St Botolph's, Heene, slightly twisted my arm and I agreed to take over as Organist & Choirmaster from next January, carrying on with the 2nd & 4th Sundays I had already agreed to do, with choir practices before those Sundays. Last night I turned up, having been told that the PCC would be meeting the previous Tuesday to confirm my appointment, and that they would tell the choir. I had also said that a 6-month trial period - for both parties - would be sensible. Bless them, they've only gone and appointed me from 1st October, whilst letting me carry on with the other churches who have already booked me. This flummoxed me a little, and I didn't get off to the best start with the choir practice. Very kind, but perhaps asking me? I am not complaining, just expressing the flummoxisation. Their website is this one: http://stbotolphsheene2015.com/ and beware of imitations. There are at least two other sites which purport to be the

When I started this I was thinking that there would be little snippets to share pretty well weekly. Well, the same ol' keeps on happening. Last Sunday,the only thing of note was a server mentioning that the church's heating wasn't on yet, and he had to wear a thin alb. It was suggested that a pullover underneath it would help, and that it should be white, so as not to show through. I suggested that, like liturgical socks, it could follow the church's year and could be green at present, changing to purple in Advent, and so on. Needless to say, I was wearing a pullover. And yes, it was green. Other than that, I've been ping-ponging between two churches who have booked me pretty solid til Christmass, with occasional excursions to what I think of as my"home" church, St Mary, Kemptown. Developing RSI in my left arm has been a bit of a bummer, I'm turning down work right, left, and centre. Letting Aedan down for a rehearsal involving learning a large-ish

Well, the careco are at it again. Went in today and found that someone had put Dad's cardigan on - half of it inside out. ??? Someone had opened a second carton of milk with the first just opened as well. The lunch carer had wedged the loaf of bread between two shelves in the fridge where where wasn't room - one shelf higher there was room... They haven't a clue what a saucer (for a cup) is. They keep serving him sandwiches or cake on one, despite the fact that there are several tea-plates in the rack beside the saucer. One even served a cup of tea without a saucer. This pales into insignificance against the bureaucratic idiocy of the Hospital's wheelchair service. Last Friday, after considerable effort over a couple of years, I got Dad a regular outing to a day-centre. They, knowing he walks badly, wanted his wheelchair as well, so I had to get two new front tyres fitted. Now, the wheelchair was issued in about 2000 to Mum, and when she died nearly 4 years ago t

The weekend before last I renewed my acquaintanceship with Portsmouth Cathedral's organ (CofE, though I have played the RC one). Nicholson's did a good job in the 90s, and mechanically it seems ok with the daily use that a busy cathedral organ gets. I couldn't work out if the electric assistance coupling was on or off with the switch down or up, but it made a difference to the coupling: Swell to Great pulled down fully on all notes (one or two in the middle octave were a little iffy with the switch in the other direction) so I left well alone. I liked the little extras Portsmouth Cathedral chorister... which were above the console - however, I was less enthusiastic about the other extras which are soon to be added: not that extra stops are in and of themselves bad, just that I don't really see the necessity for a loud trumpet at the west end of the nave, which is not exactly far from the loud trumpet on the main organ.The other thing I didn't like was the c

There really isn't much you can say, other than nowadays the C of E would make them take it down and re-do it straight. The organ pipes, on the other hand, were straight. At least, the bits on display. It's a bit of a cheat, actually, because the side towers' pipes should poke over the top of the case, but Henry Willis (I imagine it was HW 4, his firm put the organ in in 1963) mitred the pipes so they didn't. It was impossible to get a picture of this, but at the top of the pipes they put a 45-degree mitre back into the organ so the pipes were full-length but not poking up. I suspect an architect who didn't ask and didn't believe in talking to organ builders. The photo of the church (Chesterfield PC) and the organ (north transept) were taken this last weekend when I wandered up there (207 miles).That's almost olympic-class wandering. The organ is quite loud by the altar under the crossing, but by virtue of its position, in the nave it's almost subd

Or, if you're modern, evangelical and into change for the sake of it, AGPAH. At least, All Souls' Langham Place were AGPAH.  However, the organist introduced the first hymn with a massive rall at the end of the 2nd line (I couldn't believe my ears on Radio 4), but this pales into insignificance at the appalling music I was given today. 1) A hymn with these metres: 98989887 87878887 98878788 It was a home-grown one and almost fitted Blaenwern. It certainly wouldn't fit many other 8787D tunes. 2) Some United Methodist rot about the children singing hosanna with no mention as to why. And set to Ellacombe, which is itself almost indissolubly wedded to the EASTER hymn, "The Day of Resurrection". The choir member who is trying to be a choirmaster lacks so much experience, and doesn't ask advice.  If there were children witnessing Jesus' return to Jerusalem, they wouldn't have been alone. I wonder if the Roman authorities allowed this procession ra

And - apart from the absence of common sense from the Care Company which "supplies his [Dad's] needs" (!) and an unusual request for cover at a church for which I do not normally play - nothing much has still happened. I am very grateful that disaster hasn't happened, apart from, that is, the care company insisting that a pilot light on Dad's gas fire could cause Carbon Monoxide poisoning the morning after, and thus leaving a fan heater blowing straight at his face. The CFWIDNNP was South Lancing, and the organ is by Peter Collins ( http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N09116   ) and nice to play. Much nicer than just about anything else I play on a normal basis. I can influence the starting transient on any note I choose! I had better not go into detail about the care company, but working for the Government gets even more tedious. Forced to stay there today - and every Monday - til 6:30, because Management says there is a Need for Phone Cover, nothing hap

This is really proving to be a bit more difficult than I had originally intended. There would be funny stories, beautiful pictures to be shared, interesting snippets and so on. But when you are doing the rounds of the same three or four churches each Sunday, these seem to dry up quite quickly. And the amusing stories have to be edited so hard as to be meaningless. So, with apologies to those of you who are only interested in my organic life, I'm going to mention other things. I am heartily sick of Trumpery and the progress of Leaving the EU ("last one out to switch the light off please"), so unless something particularly funny occurs to me, I shall avoid these assiduously. Since I have to be off to Dad's right now, I have given myself a little time to think of something to write. Watch this space, as they say.