VML wrote:I would find it interesting to know if organists play with the other instruments used at Mass, or if parishes have a clear demarcation between the organ Mass and the instrument Mass.
We (in Buckie) have violins, flute, guitar and drums. The guitar and drums tend to play less along with the organ than the others but sometimes we add them all. Because the organ pipes are a long way from the console and band I tend to use electronic keyboards for more "folksy" hymns and on these occasions guitar and drums always play along. Sometimes it is appropriate to use only the organ with the singers but that depends on the music. I try (not always with success) to discourage too many players from taking the melody line particularly as each violinist is one less chorister! As a rule I prefer the larger band only to play when the congregation are meant to be singing or and "instrumental" is being played. Band are fine for the psalm responses but just organ is better for the verses!
15 minutes after the end of Mass I also play for the Church of Scotland who have a tracker organ right next to the band. When we go instrumental here I tend to stick to the organ and have a piano player as well. This sounds really effective but the speed of a tracker action is essential for this to work.
Rather than start a new topic, this seems a good place to ask....
I need to get hold of a copy of a short organ piece by Gustav Merkel, "Allegro Maestoso" (This is NOT the 1st movement of his Fantasia & Fugue in C, which has the same title)
It was, I believe in Volume 21 of The Village Organist, then Volume 2 of "Church Voluntaries" (Novello) and was later published seperately by Oecumuse. Googling has not helped. Any help appreciated! Many thanks.
Novello still publish a lot of Merkel's material - from archive - but it's generally in collections with titles like "nine fugues", "twelve preludes" etc and Allegro Maestoso sounds like it's probably number seven or whatever in one of these collections, so not easy to find. OUP and Cramer have some shorter pieces by Merkel in their tutor books, is it reasonably well-known? How does it start, in terms of a string of note-names?
