to the organists...

[Mitch]

The voicing of the pipes was bad, it was old wiring with bad transistors and relays, and the contacts under the keys were shot, and there was so much dust in the pipe loft that the valves were probably caked. The "running" joke was that we could probably go up into the loft, run from pipe to pipe and blow in it and still get a better result than using the console.

[Rick Denney]

With regard to the Widor, I must say its prerequisites are, perhaps moreso than many other works, a real balance of player and instrument...

Scenario 1:

Rick (to organist): We'd like the Widor for the recessional. Is that a problem?
Organist: Of course not.
Rick: And the church has an Allen.
Organist: Fine.
Rick: You are welcome to rehearse on the evening before the wedding.
Organist: Okay, to get the program and work through the solo accompaniment.

Result: Hamfisting the Widor, damaged reputation for organist, no referral.

Scenario 2:

Potential Client: Mr. Denney, we'd like you to perform the Vaughan Williams concerto for our engagement. Is that a problem?
Rick: Yes it is. Let me give you the names of some performers who can take care of that for you, or perhaps Come to Jesus in whole notes would be acceptable?

Result: Music well played. Rick thought of highly.

As any wedding photographer can tell you, weddings are dangerous occasions on which to expand your horizons. My experience with music at weddings is that the music selection should only require 60% of the player's ability to have any hope of being played over 90%. It's just the nature of the beast.

Rick "who thinks a man (or an organist) has got to know his limitations" Denney

[Chuck(G)]

Rick, it must've been the bench:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04556.html

[tubatooter1940]

I got snared into playing a wedding for a lady who was a regular at a bar I played at for two years.She had some set-in-stone requirements for her
wedding music and seemed to believe that the wedding music would somehow define her.
She insisted on "Color My World" by Chicago to open the ceremony and I requested a piano player and told her I would sing it and play the flute solo on trumpet.She assured me her cousin from California would be more than adequate on piano.
At rehersal,the piano lady kept missing the C7 chord change.I explained that the song changed chords every two bars except the C7 change which lasts for four bars.I even drew a pair of glasses on her sheet music over the C7 change so she could watch for it.
At the ceremony,she played C7 for two bars and went on to the next chord.When she realized she was off she stopped playing and put her hands in her lap-leaving me to play the last eight bars alone.The bride turned around and glared daggers at her from the altar.

[Shockwave]

I believe if you press the red "Demo" button twice on an electronic church organ it plays the Widor for you. Press it once and you get Bach in D minor.

The coolest organ concert Ive ever attended was a screening of the old silent movie "Phantom of the Opera" for the 100th anniversary of Boston Symphony Hall. The accompanist cranked that old organ up and it put THX to shame!

-Eric