Hymns/Songs for 14th March 2021

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Hi

Only one new recording this week - for various reasons time was short for planning for the minister, and I'm off for my diabetic retinopathy check this afternoon - so eye drops mean that I'll not be doing much! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this week's hymns/songs.

First up is the new recording. Several years ago I bought a small, folding reed organ. At that point is was in reasonable playing order, but the bellows split and were leaking badly more recently. I found someone to restore it (cost 10 times what I paid for the instrument originally - there's no financial profit in having Harmoniums restored!) and I thought it would fit well as an instrumental starter for Sunday's Mothering Sunday service, the theme of which is "love".



Incidentally, the instrument in the background is my latest acquisition - a c.1821 Broadwood square piano - yes - 200 years old!

The opening item is a worship song from a few years ago. I have versions in my archive played on piano and on organ, so here they both are - take your pick!





Next up is a Welsh hymn tune



The third hymn talks about God's everlasting love for us - even when we don't deserve it.



The closing song reminds us that ultimately God is control.



For a closing instrumental, I've dug back in my archive to this recording of the hymn "Loved with everlasting love" which we had earlier in the service. Here I'm playing a Mustel Art-Harmonium (the Rolls-Royce of such instruments) Sadly, this isn't mine! It was supplied by my good friend Phil Fluke, who specialises in hiring Harmoniums for concerts & recordings.



Enjoy

Every Blessing

Tony

[Carloss]

Rev Tony, "Good so loved the world" is beautiful and the sound of the Harmonium is very soft and pleasant. "Exalt the Lord your God" nifty on both the piano (great piano) and the organ. "Loved with everlasting love" played at Mustel Art-Harmonium, wow! very beautiful.
Carloss

[Hugh-AR]

Hi Tony,

The Hymn "Exalt the Lord Your God" played on your Eminent organ sounds just like the organ in my Uncle's Church in Langtree, Nr. Torrington, Devon. I think the acoustics of the church gave the organ that wonderful sound as it reverberated round the walls of the church and up into the roof space. Love that sound, and it's a reminder of days gone by.

Now ...

Same organ, but your organ sounds completely different when you play "Loved with Everlasting Love". Gone is the feeling that we are sitting in your church, and instead we have your organ coming through as left channel for notes you are playing to your left, and right channel with notes played to your right (I wear headphones when listening). Is this a 'direct recording' from a left and a right channel?

Much prefer listening to you playing in your church!

Hugh

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Thanks for the comments.

Carloss - the Harmonium is unusual for a folding reed organ in being voiced mildly, presumably because of it's intended use in Sunday Schools accompanying children. Most portable reed organs are voiced loud and bright. The piano is very basic as digital pianos go, but not too bad - but I wish I could access the piano at church for recording (It's too far away and too cold in the building!)

Hugh - I am now taking a recording signal from the headphone output of the organ to get rid of external noise. Maybe the reverb got turned down when I had some revoicing done recently - there's certainly no natural reverb in the room. I agree that a good dose of reverb helps the organ sound.

Every Blessing

Tony

[JohnT]

Hi Tony. Another good selection for Sunday. All quite different. Liked that lively piano. The harmonium was a joy to listen to. Keep safe and well. John

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Thanks John

[Hugh-AR]

Tony,

It wasn't so much the reverb as the fact that notes you were playing to your left were coming from the left side only; and notes you were playing to your right were coming from the right side only. So your notes were 'jumping' from left to right as you were playing. Of course this was exacerbated by my wearing headphones. If I had been listening from speakers then both ears would have picked up sounds from either left or right.

Hugh

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Hi Hugh

The routing of sounds in the Viscount follows a typical pipe organ layout, so sounds coming from different places across the audio field is correct. They shouldn't be hard left & hard right (they definitely aren't on my original video files, and I've not noticed You Tube changing that). I'm probably used to it from playing the real thing. On the recordings I notice it most on the solos on the reed stops - not so much with bigger combinations.

Every Blessing

Tony