Blind organists,
and the challenges of church music-making
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St Barnabas, Pimlico
Chancel organ case
High altar
South aisle, looking east
The organ
Chancel screen |
The church of St Barnabas Pimlico is located in St Barnabas Street, London SW1. It is between Sloane Square and Victoria underground stations, and is served by bus routes 11, 211 and 239. Bus route 137 passes a short walk away. I would be delighted to get
comment, advice and reflections from other blind organists who have
coped with the challenges of church music making. Several of my blind
organist friends have found ways round the many hurdles by means of prodigious
memory and ingenuity. It would be fascinating and instructive to learn
their methods of approaching the work. Christmastide 2004 I have been Organist at St. Barnabas Pimlico since 1985. Preparing for our annual Carol Service is always enjoyable: it has become a tradition that Ben Costello directs a choir of noble volunteer singers. We have had Christmas Carol Services in mid-December for years, but I have tried to steer the event towards Advent: both more appropriate, and very beautiful, in its expectant mystery. However, there have been complaints from people who missed the chance to sing Christmas carols; so for the 2004 service we compromised. The first half was Advent - with the Palestrina Matin Responsory, Purcell "Rejoice in the Lord alway", and so on, - and after my central solo organ piece, the second half was Christmas - including Matthias's "A babe is born" and a popular carol or two. Some of these accompaniments are very fiddly and tricky to memorise. The following day, we had a big Confirmation/baptism service, which grew
in scale as other churches requested to join in. In addition to those
from St Barnabas being confirmed and baptised, there were others from
St Mary's Bourne Street and St James' Sussex Gardens. The Bishop of London
was assisted by several priests. Learning music by Fauré For this service, Helen Vickery brought a girls' choir from Francis Holland School to sing the Mass setting and motet. The Messe Basse of Fauré was chosen, which set me a new challenge as accompanist. It is not available in England in Braille, so I asked my Dutch friend, Gerco Schaap, if he could buy it for me from the Dutch Braille printing organisation, in whose catalogue the Fauré appears. However, it emerged that they no longer sell Braille music to overseas customers. I then turned to my Danish Braille catalogue, where I also found the Messe basse available for sale. On contacting them it transpired that they too prefer only to lend, not sell Braille music. Time was getting short, so the kind lady in Denmark posted the Fauré to me, saying that we could discuss money later. The two slim Braille pamphlets duly arrived: the estimated cost to buy them is 230 Euros - approx. £150! I started learning the Fauré accompaniments as soon as my Widor Symphony 7 performance was past. It did not take long to memorise them, especially since it is such gorgeous music. Helen Vickery suggested "Tantum ergo" by Fauré as the
motet. This one is not in Braille anywhere. We arranged for Helen to record
the accompaniment on piano for me, describing note values and other details
where necessary. The recording was delivered via Fr Alasdair, and I got
down to learning it quickly. Despite a superb job, there were inevitably
some unclear details, as happens when this sort of project is undertaken
at a distance. I exchanged some complicated e-mail messages with Helen,
asking about such things as the duration of the C natural in the bass
of bar 9, and so on. Oscar Rook lent me some CD's of the Fauré
Tantum ergo and Messe Basse, which proved invaluable for checking what
I had learnt. Enriching our liturgical music with Responsorial Psalms Our wonderful new vicar, Father Alasdair Coles. wanted to introduce Responsorial Psalms into our Sunday 9.30 am liturgy at St Barnabas. Psalm playing was an unknown field to me, and I wondered how I would manage. Father Alasdair decided to try out our first Responsorial Psalm on 13th December at the Confirmation, before incorporating them into our weekly liturgy in 2005. He is always ready to guide me through any tricky situation, thus he sang through the Responsorial Psalm for me, describing how it worked with cantor and congregation. Likewise, he intends to introduce plainsong Eastertide Alleluias before the Gospel, and similarly demonstrated how it works. Braille transcription I approached my friend, Ron Bayfield in Brighton, who has transcribed various musical items into Braille for me over recent years. I explained that the Responsorial Psalms in New English Hymnal are not available in Braille, and that we were soon going to incorporate them into our liturgy. Ron, who had just completed a big transcription for a blind Canadian organist, immediately agreed to Braille both words and music of these Psalms for me. We again had many phone and e-mail discussions about how in Braille to indicate "pointing" (the syllables where the singer changes note). Ron completed the job very speedily, and I proof-read the Braille. He then sent me a second, perfected Braille copy. It has been fascinating to see how these Psalms appear in Braille. Ron is able to utilise a Braille printer, which was bought at vast cost by the Sussex Province of Freemasons, to whom I made a token payment in gratitude. A question of coordination Finding it much harder to memorise words than music, I am working on a method of accompanying Psalm verses with my right hand and pedals, leaving my left hand free to follow the text. This is a technique which I use a great deal in hymn playing: some tunes are more suited than others. For example, "Hereford", to the hymn "O thou who camest from above", can be played entirely by right hand and pedals, since the tenor and soprano lines never diverge by more than an octave. Contrast this with a tune such as "Thornbury" (written by a previous organist of St Barnabas, Basil Harwood), which requires both hands almost throughout. Thus I admit that my observation of punctuation is likely to be far better in the former! Technology helps contact Technology has long been of great assistance to me. The player at St Barnabas sits underneath part of the organ, and is shut away from the body of the church, making it utterly impossible to hear either the singing or speech. Some years ago, my friend Simon Gutteridge installed a pair of microphones in the church, connected by long leads to a tape recorder beside the organ console. With headphones, and the tape deck set in Record mode and the tape transport Paused, this becomes a perfect sound relay system, allowing me to hear how the instrument sounds in the body of the church, as well as giving me close contact with both the priest and congregation. At present, my mikes hang on either side of the pulpit. Thus, when I wear my headphones, my ears are effectively beside the pulpit. (Little do the people sitting in that front pew realise that I can hear their every whisper!) Another problematic area for me at church is how to know when to start
or stop improvising, at various junctures when organ music is required
to "paper over the cracks". With previous priests there has
been little initiative to find a positive solution to this question. However,
with Father Alasdair's constructive approach, and Oscar Rook's practical,
generous help, we have even sorted this one out! Although a human look-out
would be great, there is usually nobody to spare, who would understand
the cues and prompts needed. Oscar obtained signalling unit with a wireless
transmitter remote-control handset. The base station can be set to either
buzz or vibrate quietly. After some stimulating experiments with the vibrator
in various pockets, I concluded that it is best worn on my shirt collar,
on the back of the neck, where its vibrations are unmistakeable (and also
rather therapeutic!) In this way, Fr Alasdair can press his remote control
button, and indicate to me that I should keep playing at the end of the
Offertory hymn, or draw to a close as he is ready to continue with the
Mass. Monthly Evensong and Benediction The next great challenge was playing for Solemn Evensong and Benediction on 6th Feb 2005. Fr Alasdair is vicar jointly of St Barnabas Pimlico and St Mary's Bourne Street. In future, Evensong and Benediction for the two parishes will be held at St Barnabas on the first Sunday of each month at 6 pm. I was very keen to attempt playing for this complex liturgy. There are many plainsong tones and chants to learn and accompany: Responses, Preces, Office Hymn, Psalm, Canticles, Antiphon to Our Lady, Adoremus/Alleluia. There is also much coordinated improvisation. For my first Evensong and Benediction service, a human look-out to assist me was essential. In retrospect, I feel that the Psalm presents the greatest challenge:
my Braille reading speed is barely fast enough. Perhaps there is no substitute
for memorising the words: what do other blind organists do? © David Aprahamian Liddle - February 2005 |
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