When I saw Presbyter's first attempt at a clue, my mind went to advent but (as I know the solution) I could not see any relevance. Now I have seen his second attempt, I know where he is going with this! I will pm mcb (to put him out of his misery!) - the rest of you will have to wait until you either crack the clue or I post my next 'meerkat' entry!
I did try in Phoenician - which was near enough to the Greek to be guessed and looked up - but the forum would not accept the font All you have to do now mcb is find the appropriate website of organic artefacts (whose rank you have discerned) and go for a birth of a grecian quality/ essence ..... even implying it's been a natural generation (which is how St Paul uses the word)
I did try in Phoenician - which was near enough to the Greek to be guessed and looked up - but the forum would not accept the font All you have to do now mcb is find the appropriate website of organic artefacts (whose rank you have discerned) and go for a birth of a grecian quality/ essence ..... even implying it's been a natural generation (which is how St Paul uses the word)
Go on then MCB, not as if you are doing anything else at the moment!
Yep, we had the great Carlo Curley putting the new Viscount Physis* through its paces a week or two ago. Some impressive things about it, as I said to keitha - the strings sounds are impressive, and voicing in the mutation stop(s) seemed much more restrained and sociable than our rowdier beast. Otherwise I was less impressed - it seemed a bit underpowered and unassuming to me, but I suppose that's because our own organ is a much bigger and more colourful instrument. In any event, the sound was excellent, and utterly convincing.
From Thursday (yesterday now) until Saturday, in place of meerkats we've got cathedral deans, with the music directors joining from tomorrow. Lots of interesting discussions and workshops in prospect, and three sung services of very different kinds. I haven't quite worked out what I'm going to say in my slot tomorrow on cathedral liturgy and what makes it distinctive. I'll sleep on it.
*Do I get a prize, presbyter? I still don't quite understand how the clue leads to the answer, though.
Now that the meerkat is well and truly out of the bag, I will explain all.
We were looking at the possibility of replacing our hopelessly inadequate pipe organ with a digital instrument (see the thread 'Comparing the Meerkat - the digital experience'). Viscount are currently launching the Physis instrument, which operates on brand new technology involving real-time synthesis rather than sampling. They have a 3-manual instrument currently on a UK demo tour (last stop, Salford) and the Managing Director of Viscount contacted me and offered to install it in our church for 10 days (between gigs) so that we could try it over 2 weekends, and so it arrived at St Thomas More, Coventry yesterday. My question for mcb was what did he and his colleagues at Salford make of the instrument, which he has very kindly answered both privately, and on this forum.
I will follow up on the 'meerkat' thread once I have tried the Viscount out with choir and congregation this weekend.
))
