Musicians and fireworks

a cartoon by Hoffnung.
from w
Just occasionally I'm asked to play a magnificent pipe organ for a church service at St Andrews, but dare not give it full blast for the small group of elderly men and women as it surely would raise their blood pressure. However this morning on the radio (hymns then organ and choral music every Sunday morning 3MBS) I was woken up with a smile by the very loud playing of the Vidor (Widor?) toccato from his 5th Organ Symphony (though not really a symphony as it was solo.) It was the music that had cheered us up as the recessional after the marriage ceremony of a good friend Jan/John at St Andrews, played by a very competent Geelong organist, not me! So the music was by Charles-Marie Vidor. So I checked out youtube and found lots of versions, even one played by the composer, Vidor, at his church of St Sulpice in Paris, April 1932. He was aged 88 so it was a bit slower and less rumbunctuous than other performances I listened to on youtube etc. I was able to download the sheet music but I think the music is beyond me. My fingers aren't as nimble as they used to be.

Anyway, a couple of years ago I had written a short story about an organist and used a reference to this music (though I called it as by Claude-Marie Frank by mistake). If you are interested, go to June 22 2008 'In a Minor Key' on this blog. It's a cheeky kind of story but it was published in magazine for seniors.