The wandering organist

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.

Just to wish people a happy festive period (a tad late, admittedly) and a prosperous 2017. Christmas was frenetic, and I could have booked myself five times for Midnight and Christmas Day. Carol services took up all of Advent except Advent 2. Being a freelance is always feast or famine. I have finalised my letter to any parish which intends to treat me as an employee, and if you wish to see it, please comment here and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. But the one which was obdurate has now managed to persuade their retired choir director to return, presumably because their other deputies also said "no" to the Vicar, whose position it is to follow the Diocesan employee's advice uncritically. Enough. Enjoy 2017 with all the challenges and possibilities it will offer. Philip Christmas 2012 - the begonias moaned when they saw the tree had been decorated.

Have just got back after a day in church, rehearsing and then performing Rossini's Petite Messe Solonelle . Worthing Choral Society with excellent soloists and my friends Marcus Martin and Donovan Brown on the two pianos, myself on the "harmonium". The style is pure Opera Buffa, and the concert (with a 30-minute interval after the Creed) lasted two hours. Many thanks to Emmanuel Church, Worthing  f or their hospitality. (They don't have a website, or I'd give a link here.) Rossini wrote:  "Dear Lord, here it is finished, this poor little mass. Have I just written sacred music, or rather, sacrilegious music? I was born for opera buffa, as you well know. Not much technique, a little bit of heart, that’s all. Blessings to you and grant me Paradise." So it was "cramming for his finals", as one irreverent person called it. "Harmonium". Well, yes, the sounds were right, thanks to Al Stepney's laptop and some downloaded sample...

I have spent two-and-a-half hours putting together a dossier of documents from the internet to find out if I and the Revenue have been wrong these last 21 years that I've been filling out (or in? In, I think.) the self-assessment forms. This, together with the other hours I have spent talking with priests and a diocesan employee, has convinced me that the commandment to describe me (and all other organists in the Diocese of Chichester) as employed by every church we play for, is based on a very one-sided opinion . There has been no change of interpretation by HMRC, no new guidelines. I spoke with the employee, who was unwilling to meet or change his mind without a decision in writing from HMRC, something I don't know how to achieve as HMRC only allows you to phone them, and it costs 12p a minute whilst you spend 3 minutes listening to their exhortations to "do it online" and 40 minutes waiting to speak to a real human. Not a postal address anywhere on their site. ...