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For this month’s hymn we have appropriately selected the Christian Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”. The author is unknown but early manuscripts suggest that the hymn was written in Germany in the 14th century. The hymn is most frequently set to the hymn tune “Easter Hymn” which was composed in the Lyra Davidica…
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Those of you familiar with St John’s Smiths Square or steeped in knowledge of the pipe organs of the British Isles will know that SJSS has a very fine Klais pipe organ and so should not be in need of a hire organ. However, things do not always go to plan and so it was…
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In 2016 we ran an extensive three month competition to introduce more people to the sound of digital church organs. We developed a Quiz that tested the players as to whether they could identify specific clips of music as a pipe organ or a digital organ. In July last year I had the happy job…
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The hymn tune of the month this time is “Passion Chorale” which was originally composed by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612). The most common text associated to this hymn tune is “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” which is a Christian Passion hymn based on a Latin text written during the Middle Ages. Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) originally…
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Early in January 2017 I received a request for help with a Sheffield based programme aimed at engaging with youngsters in the poorer areas of the City by way of establishing youth choirs. This initiative is being led by Chris Bishop, the Youth Ministry Co-ordinator and will be based in up to 4 churches in…
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On Saturday January 7th 2017 the RCO in conjunction with the Organ Club, arranged for a full day visit to the Troxy Cinema in Commercial Road East London to explore the Wurlitzer Organ installed there in 2015. What a day out it proved to be! Unfortunately I did not get there until the lunch break…
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Lucca is a Tuscan city that is a must on any visit to Italy. Close to Pisa it no doubt lives in the shadow of that far better know tourist Mecca. Lucca may not have a leaning tower but in my opinion it has a great deal more to offer the visitor looking to pass…
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This month’s hymn, “Tell Out, My Soul”, is a Christian hymn paraphrasing the Magnificat written by Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926 – ) in 1962. In the early days this hymn was paired to a tune by Michael Baughen but it was later paired and greatly enhanced by the sweeping music of Walter Greatorex’s (1877 – 1949)…
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An Organ Recital by Christopher Cipkin will take place on 18 February 2017 at 4pm in St Peter’s Church, Caversham. This is a great opportunity to hear a recital on the wonderful new Regent Classic organ installed in 2016. You can read more about the installation here. Christopher Cipkin, past organist at Reading Minster, Reading…
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The 2017 series was recorded at the lovely medieval church of St Mary’s Chalgrove. I chose this church partly because it is close to our base in Bicester but also because it is of a fairly typical size of the parish church in which we install our organs and especially as it has some of…
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In the last weeks before Christmas I have been listening to the previews of Hymn of the Month and the Regent Classic Tutorial videos. To speed up the process of review the files are sometimes ‘compressed’ by the various delivery systems in differing ways and I have been conscious for the first time of how…
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An Organ Recital given by Francis Rumsey will take place on Saturday 28th January 2017 at 7pm in aid of the St Mary’s roof restoration fund. Francis Rumsey is the organist at St Mary Witney. As well as an accomplished player Francis is an audio engineer and former professor who will illustrate the programme with interesting information about…
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