Music at St Matthew's

Roy Tankersley MNZM

Roy Tankersley has been awarded a MNZM (Member New Zealand Order of Merit) in the New Year Honours, announced on 31 December 2010.

Well done, Roy. Very well deserved.

Roy has organised many church music activities at community and national level, including direction of the RSCM Winter School.  He is an organ consultant, motivator, workshop presenter, recitalist and choir trainer, as well as running an educational video project. Roy has had an enormous impact wherever he has been. His enthusiasm and passion for church music has inspired generations of New Zealanders.

Roy was for many years Head of Music at Tawa College and later Marsden School, as well as conducting several community choirs.

These days Roy is based as a freelance musician in Palmerston North, where he is Director of Music in the parish of St Marks and St Andrews, directs the Manawatu Youth Choir and Schola Sacra Chor of Wanganui.

Organ damage - Canterbury earthquake

 

Barry Brinson, organist at Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, in Christchurch, writes - 

This photo of the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church was taken the day after the quake. The frontage was further damaged by the big 5.1 aftershock last Tuesday, and is now in a precarious position, being dislodged from the main building, and pillars further weakened.

We are awaiting the engineer's and insurance final assessments, but it seems that the building will have to come down. 

 

At 9 am on Monday, 13 September, we begin the work of removing all the pipework for transport to Timaru, to be stored until such time as the organ can be rebuilt - wherever and whenever that may be.

It is essential to save the pipework, as it is of heritage value.  The console and mechanics can be rebuilt, but the pipes are the 'voice' of the organ and are irreplacable.

I gave a performance on August 28th - a repeat of my Masterton silent movies show.  So the last piece of serious organ music played on the Oxford Terrace organ was the Toccata from Suite Gothique by Boellmann, as the Phantom was chased through the streets of Paris - what a way to go out!! 

Other organs in Christchurch are generally in good order and still intact, but St John's, Latimer Square, is probably doomed, although organ music does not now form a major part of their worship.  

Both Cathedrals are undamaged, but closed temporarily as a safety measure.

I have been involved with the Christchurch Praise Be programme. We made the decision to postpone rehearsals this weekend - and recording next week. This has been rescheduled to early November. Hopefully things will have settled a bit by then.

The rebuilding and repairing of homes and city buildings is going to take a long long time, and I fear the face of Christchurch will be changed for ever.

Further photos of the damage to Oxford Terrace Baptist Church are available here.

Carlo Curley concert: unmissable

Be prepared to be blown away when acclaimed organist and raconteur Carlo Curley joins forces with the Rodgers Trillium organ in St Matthew's, Masterton, on Saturday, 11 September.

One of the world's finest organists, Carlo Curley has made it his mission to take the pipe organ to the masses. In short, his concerts combine fun with fine playing and engaging audience education.

The Evening Post summed it up perfectly:

… the world's most ebullient organist (is) Carlo Curley … he succeeded in exploring the resources of the instrument so that he could combine and juxtapose stops with taste and skill, savouring the individuality of their sounds as if they were fine wines … the energy and thrilling pulse (of his Bach) undid me, quite … The virtuosity of hands and feet was astonishing, but the sweep and grandeur, delicacy and tranquility, pulsating excitement, surprising mixtures of high and low, flutes and deep reeds, were the ingredients of performances of enormous pleasure … I never expect to hear the great Town Hall organ sound like this again, or played with such compelling musicality.

— THE EVENING POST (Wellington, New Zealand)

Carlo Curley Organ Extravaganza

St Matthew's, Church Street, Masterton

Saturday, 11 September 2010, at 7 pm.

Tickets: $20, Students $5.  Door sales.

Movies at St Matthew's

Review: Organ at the Movies
Barry Brinson at St Matthew's, Masterton, 31 July 2010

Barry Brinson's Organ at the Movies concert in St Matthew's, Masterton, was fun, an opportunity to look at some seriously interesting cinematographic history, and a demonstration of some more of the pyrotechnical possibilities of the Rodgers Trillium organ.

While "serious" organists like a Bach fugue and some Franck to start the day - and the concert - and look down their noses at those who cater to a rather broader audience, Barry occupies both ends of the organ repertoire spectrum quite seamlessly. And, if that isn't enough, he is also a fine jazz musician, church musician, and church music composer as well.

The programme started with a medley that segued beautifully between old favourites such as Zip-a-dee-doo-dah and When you wish upon a star and was followed by music by Richard Rodgers.

Then the lights were dimmed and St Matthew's became a cinema of the silent movie era.

The 1929 film, The Phantom of the Opera, showed the cinema organ at its best. Using an adaptation of Charles Gounod's opera Faust as the theme, we were transported to Paris as the music created excellent dramatic tension.  While the film built to its dramatic conclusion, Barry moved to Boellman's Toccata from Suite Gothique, a superb choice.

As well as being a fine performance, accompanying The Phantom was a real marathon - 50 minutes of straight playing without a break.

The film RAF over Blackpool, accompanied by Walford Davies' March of the Royal Air Force, was a stunning marriage of spectacular aerobatic footage teamed perfectly with the music.

We were also treated to Noah and his amazing floating zoo from the Disney film Fantasia, accompanied by music from Elgar and Khatchachurian.

You can tell when an audience is really enjoying themselves. There was none of the usual discreet coughing and programme rustling that accompanies most concerts.  The audience were absolutely entranced. What better endorsement of a fine performance.

Caryl Forrest

Widor mass for two organs and two choirs : Wellington concert

The Sacred Heart Cathedral Choir are joining forces with the Choir of Christchurch Boys High School to perform Charles-Marie Widor's collossal Mass for Two Choirs and Two Organs.

The combined voices, accompanied on the Allen organ of St John's, Ngaio, will duel with the mighty cathedral organ. The concert will also include a selection of items presented by the music groups of Christchurch Boys High School.

The performance will be conducted by Don Whelan, and accompanied by Cathedral organist Michael Stewart and Paul Rosoman.

Widor Mass for Two Choirs and Two Organs

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hill Street, Wellington

Wednesday, 11 August 2010, at 7.30 pm.

Free admission

Fugue à la Gigue BWV 577

Bach's Fugue à la Gigue BWV 577 is a delightful, lighthearted work.  It is played here on the Johann Andreas Silbermann organ, built in 1745, in the Protestant Church, Wasselonne, Alsace.

Gerhard Gnann was born in Germany in 1962.  He studied organ at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, with Ton Koopman and Ewald Kooiman. He has won many international organ competitions including the 1988 Bach Competition in Flanders. In 1994 he was appointed cantor of Freiburg, and in 1997 professor at the University in Mainz.

Ralph Cullen plays Heritage Hymns - Review

Michelle Holloway writes

The church was warm; the Rodgers organ was in place on the chancel steps; the audience was ready: a few introductory words from organist Ralph Cullen preceded the opening hymn, Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him (to the tune Austria) and the afternoon was off to a strong start.

The singing complemented Ralph's playing, both being of the raise-the-roof variety in hymns such as A Mighty Fortress Is Our God , Tell Out My Soul and the final hymn, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.

Ralph's passion for the old and theologically sound hymns shone through as he related short histories and origins to introduce each one. Prolific is a word that falls seriously short when describing some hymn writers; for example, Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 and Fanny Crosby over 8000!

There were quiet, contemplative hymns such as Jesus, The Very Thought Of Thee and How Sweet The Name Of Jesus Sounds and a couple of brackets which Ralph played by himself, partly perhaps to rest the enthusiastic 'choir'.

My personal favourite of all that Ralph played, was the stirring To God Be The Glory, which he interpreted in a stunning way, with thundering bass drums and a magnificent string section added to the powerful organ voices.  Spine-tingling indeed!

Hymns ranged from the twelfth century to the 1980s and included hymns from England, Germany, America, France, Wales and Scotland.

In the end it wasn't a concert, but a gathering of lovers of hymnody, all expressing their Christianity through word and melody.

John Hargraves honoured

 At 21 he was told he was too old to be an organ builder; 45 years later he is a world authority.

Timaru man John Hargraves was today named as a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to organ restoration.

He was studying music in Auckland when he decided to become an organ builder. New Zealand's main organ building company was based in Auckland, and he approached it to see if he could work there.

"I was told at 21 I was too old.

"I looked around and found out there was a vacancy at a company in Feilding so I went there and did my apprenticeship for four years."

The Feilding operation closed down shortly after he finished his apprenticeship so in 1968 he moved to Timaru to work at the South Island Organ Company.

"After I had been there a year I was made a director on the board and I'm still on it now as the chairman. It has been built up from a local concern to an international one with a lot of work coming from Australia.

"I was absolutely blown away with the honour; I can't imagine who put my name down. I will still be working with organs for a long time to come yet."

His citation from the honours list said he was considered a world authority on the restoration of historic pipe organs from the 19th and 20th centuries.He has helped rebuild more than 150 organs, including organs in 12 cathedrals. Notable restorations include the organ in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch, and the 1906 Norman and Beard organ in the Wellington Town Hall.

Auckland Town Hall organ

The newly restored Auckland Town Hall organ has its own website, full of information for both experienced organists and people wanting to learn about how a pipe organ works.

Here's the link:  Auckland Town Hall Organ website

William Dart reviews Official Opening of Auckland Town Hall Organ

The newly-restored Auckland Town Hall organ was officially opened on Saturday, 20 March. William Dart writes:

There was no mistaking a historic occasion when Aucklanders packed the Town Hall to sample its newly restored organ.

He continues:

John Wells launched into Bach's great D minor Toccata and Fugue, the same work that opened the inaugural Town Hall concert a century ago. The organist's immaculate articulation and keen registrations did not disappoint and nor did his virtuoso pedal work.

John Wells was followed by Indra Hughes who

chose subdued registrations to accompany the Brahms Geistliches Lied, ably sung by choristers from Musica Sacra, the Graduate Choir and Viva Voce; after this, conductor John Rosser exhorted singers and organist to soar seemingly to heaven itself, in Parry's Coronation anthem, I was glad.

Pride of place went to John Wells' specially commissioned Organ Symphony.

Read the full review here