IN SEARCH OF MORSE, WALLANDER & TUTANKHAMUN

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IN SEARCH OF MORSE, WALLANDER & TUTANKHAMUN

Carol Dennis

It started as a mystery.  How could we stay in Oxford, England, so that we could tour the city and follow in the footsteps of Chief Inspector Morse (or Lewis and Hathaway)?  Jerry’s conference was taking him to Didcot, England, near Oxford.  

Ten years ago, when we last traveled to Didcot, the accompanying ladies had a bit of trouble being able to spend time in Oxford.  This time we all decided to stay near the center of Oxford and let the gentlemen drive or take the bus to their conference. 

 The next problem we encountered was that the Morse tours were all booked.  Well, with our trusty guide books we managed to visit some of Morse’s haunts 

including his favorite Turf Pub, down a narrow alley, 

plus the Ashmolean Museum, 

the Bodleian Library, the Bridge of Sighs, and Christ Church Cathedral where John and Charles Wesley studied and were ordained.  

Its dining hall is now famous for being featured in the Harry Potter movies. While at the cathedral, an organist came to practice on the new Rieger that is behind the traditional façade.  I learned from a friendly verger that a visiting choir was coming that day for Evensong, but the other ladies were ready to move on to our next adventure, so I was unable to stay and listen for very long.

On Sunday, Jerry and I attended a Solemn Mass (think Latin) with mixed choir and pipe organ at The Oratory, a landmark church in Oxford also known as the Catholic Church of St. Aloysius Gonzaga.  The music listed was the Mass: Queen of the Holy Rosary by Georg Amft, Ave Maria gratia plena by Friedrich Himmel and Salve Regina by Josef Rheinberger.  No organist (who was quite good) or prelude/postlude music was listed.  The church was fairly full, and the Latin responses strong.  There was plenty of incense, three priests in traditional chasubles, and a deacon.  It certainly was a trip down memory lane for us old timers!

One day, my friend and I lunched at the Eagle and Child Pub (frequented by C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein and the other Inklings who called it the Bird and Baby).  Oxford is extremely cosmopolitan with a multitude of languages being spoken. The biggest surprise was the delicious food everywhere we went. 

Another day, we ladies took a double-decker bus to Blenheim Palace, an enormous edifice built to honor the victory in 1704 of the first Duke of Marlboro at the Battle of Blenheim, Germany.  It’s most important claim to fame today is that it is the birthplace of Winston Churchill.  In its great hall stands a four-manual concert organ built in 1891 by Fr. Willis.  It is still used for recitals and special events but is in great need of refurbishing according to the Organ Appeal brochure.

Following the week’s conference, Jerry and I flew to Copenhagen, Denmark.  Our son, John, and his lovely wife, Anna, met us and drove across the Oresund Bridge to Malmoe, Sweden.  Saturday was a pleasantly quiet day with dinner at their home consisting of warm-smoked salmon and several kinds of herring – a splendid Swedish meal topped by a cobbler made from their garden apples by our granddaughter, Julia.  The next day, we drove to Ystad, a charming town on the south-east coast of Sweden made famous by the stories of Detective Kurt Wallander.  

The tourist office was closed (after all, it was Sunday), but we were able to lunch at Fridolfs Konditori, Wallander’s favorite café and pastry shop.  

We strolled the old town, Gamla Staden, and visited St. Maria Church. There are three pipe organs in the church – 

one in the christening chapel, 

one in the side nave for accompanying the congregation 

and one with a splendid facade in the organ loft.  A group of young Salvation Army musicians were rehearsing for that evening’s concert when we stopped by, so there were no organs to be heard.  We then drove to Kivik, another Wallander site, where an apple festival would be held the following week.  

We bought mulled cider at the Cider House and visited its very Swedish café.

On Monday, John took us to the international Tutankhamun exhibit.  

We had seen another King Tut show in D.C. back in the 1970s when John was small and raced through as fast as he could.  Now, he would be bringing a group of his own students, and he was most interested, especially in how to present it to a group of middle-school kids.  How times have changed!  The show was very well presented.  As we strolled through, each section was highlighted as headphones in English described the drama of finding and excavating the tomb. That evening, Anna served a traditional meal of roasted sliced reindeer and potatoes with her delicious berry tart for dessert.

On our last day, we had planned to meet with the students to talk about life in America and let them practice their English.  However, on the weekend there had been a burglary at the school.  Needless to say, that caused upset and confusion for the students as well as extra stress for the teachers.  So instead, Jerry and I visited the Malmoe Museum of Modern Art.  

The show was Surrealism featuring Arcimboldo, (famous for his paintings of faces made from fruits and vegetables), Magritte, Dali and Miro and then contemporary photos and paintings.  

A little shopping was needed after that to regain our equilibrium!  That evening we all dined with Anna’s father, Olle, who regaled us with stories of “the old days.”

The next day Jerry and I returned home from another exciting trip.  At that point, we were more than ready to just tune in our favorite mystery shows from the comfort of our own recliners.

Handbells Plus, November 26, 2012

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On Monday, November 26, 2012, the Potomac Chapter met at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Bethesda, MD for a meeting titled "Handbells Plus". 

The handbells are set out facing the organ console and choir loft.

Members ringing

We were fortunate to have works composed by members Ken Lowenberg and Peter Crisafulli among many others, for all ages and ranges of experience. 

Here John Brooks is conducting a piece for bells and organ. Clarice Jane Snyder is playing and Mary Ann Willow is turning pages

This is a portion of Ken Lowenberg's Chanson.

Following the program there was a reception in the vestibule. 

Here is a note from Emily Koons to the Potomac Board:

Dear Fellow AGO Board Members,

Thank you so much for the excellent workshop on handbells at St. Luke's last night.  Thank you, Clarice, for organizing, presenting, and hosting this event.  I've attended many handbell workshops, but you came up with even more original ideas I'd never heard of before. 

We should write a column about the workshop and include it in the next newsletter.  Those who could not come should see what they missed, and be encouraged to attend future Chapter events.   I'll be glad to help write it.  Would someone like to write about Mary Ann's contribution?

It's such a pleasure to serve with a group of talented musicians and delightful people as you are.

All the best for the joyous Advent and Christmas season, and I look forward to seeing you at the Twelfth Night annual service and dinner in January, with planning already underway.

Best regards,

Emily Koons,

SubDean

Pipe Spectacular XIII, Sunday, October 21, 2012

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On Sunday, October 21, 2012, two events were celebrated at one time; St. John's Episcopal Church, Georgetown, DC dedicated the new Casavant Frères Organ, Opus 3895, and the TriChapter Committee presented Bruce Neswick performing as PipeSpectacular XIII. 

Here is the historic church building. An atrium now connects the original church to the Parish Hall. 

Nave facade of the organ. 

Chancel facade of the organ.

Console moved front and center for the program.

A close-up of the console, kept very low profile to facilitate conducting from the console.

The Trompette en Chamade in the rear gallery.

The large window on the right side of the chancel opposite the organ.

The altar and reredos. 

Bruce had to stop the first work, the Hymn and Organ Variations on "Come, Thous Holy Spirit, Come!" by Gerre Hancock, when we were not singing it properly.  He pointed out that he gets to play between each verse, so we went back and did it over, as the program was being recorded.

Here is the last verse sung by all.

Bruce taking a bow. He removed his coat, as it was getting warm with a full house.

After the intermission the National President of the American Guild of Organists, Eileen Guenther, addressed us. 

Then Bruce told us about the pieces he would play in the second part of the program. 

This is the end of the Toccata from the Suite, Opus 5 by Maurice Duruflé. 

The final work was to be an improvisation on a submitted theme.  The theme was The Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod.  He did a great job with this improvisation. 

It turned out that this was also Bruce's birthday, and at the reception we all sang Happy Birthday and then the blew out the candles on his cake. 

Here is the cake.

I returned to the church to go through the organ with Simon Coture of Casavant.  When I came into the church the first time I was more interested in the organ, but this time I noticed the mosaics in the floor, where you could walk from Bethlehem to Olivet to

Calvary, just like the J.H. Maunder Cantata. 

When I got up front I finally could see that one of the former windows was now a tone chute into the organ chamber. 

M. Coture explained that one of the things the church wanted was a path through the organ chamber to the sacristy, something they never had before.  So Casavant built screen panels for each side of the tunnel through the chamber, so that the sound of the bass Pedal pipes on the right side could pass through and come out the door into the chancel as well as the tone chute and the facade pipes.

View under the Great; the 16' Bourdon pipes are stacked on the floor, as there is no space for them to stand.

The Pedal 16' Trombone pipes stand on the floor, in front of the Swell shades. 

Here is the Pedal treble chest, in front of the Bombarde bass pipes, with the rest of the Bombarde, Subbass and Octave pipes.

The Great chest is right behind the chancel facade. The electric slider motors are on the end of the chest. The  nave facade pipes show how the pipes are cut out above the tuning scroll, so the over-length will not interfere with the tuning of the pipe.

Close-up view of the Great 16' Bourdon pipes; each has a butterfly valve to regulate the amount of wind coming in, which also regulates the volume of the pipe.

Left side of the relays under the Swell, showing a rectifier, volume control dial for the Chimes, and the trundle post of the Swell shade mechanism.

The right side shows the Swell motor that turns the trundle, another rectifier and more switching. The chest above has a Schwimmer regulator that takes the place of a traditional reservoir. 

The Schwimmer on the back chest also has the tremolo mechanism mounted on it, and it is tubed over to the front Schwimmer, so they can share the same tremolo impulse.

Behind the main blower are the bass pipes of the Swell 16' Bassoon, that stand on the floor of the chamber and speak out above at the same level as the rest of the pipework.

Back inside the paneled area stand the Pedal 16' Contrabass pipes 1-12 of open wood construction, and the bass pipes of the Pedal Subbass.

In the back of the console is this clever flap that can fold down to contain the cable when the console is back in the regular position and not out front. 

The cable terminates in a regular 110 volt plug and a CAT 5 plug, protected by a chair.  The mosaic reads "Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me", as this was the former location of the Font that now stands at the front door of the church.