dazric wrote:Quite magnificent and a real treat! Where did you find the score? There's nothing of Sinclair's on IMSLP at the moment.
I was always under the impression that Elgar's 'G.R.S.' was as much about Sinclair's bulldog as the man himself - but hearing that pedal part in the Festal March gives it a whole new dimension.
Thank you dazric for this ”Quite magnificent and a real treat!” You have my deepest thanks. I really tried many different registrations to get the most out of this piece.
Your question ”Where did you find the score?”
it's complicated, but I'll try to simplify, and I have a friend and must emphasize, that I once got permission to use his description ( I think I have mentioned this once before, but the information and my many many pieces are of course drowned among the amount of uploads, and many people don't have time to listen and read as they end up far down the pages).
Many of the scores that my friend shares when uploading music in another forum have been courtesy of Dr. John Henderson, Librarian of the Royal School of Church Music. My friend had the privilege of doing the recordings for his book, "They fly, forgotten, as a dream..." dealing with the lost and forgotten church musicians of the Victorian era, and published by the RSCM.
My friend received an email from John with this score attached. He wrote: "An old friend of mine, once assistant organist at Hereford Cathedral was reading our book and noticed that he we had marked George Robertson's Sinclair's Festal March as being lost/unpublished. It is not in any UK libraries but he has a copy and has scanned it for me…….. "rare scores" - well this truly is!!
Published in 1889 or 1898 ?
It seems that Edward Elgar, a close friend of Sinclair, had great admiration for Sinclair's "skillful organ pedalling". This pedal-playing skill appears to be "mentioned" in the 11th variation in Elgar's famous "Enigma Variations".
The variation, "Allegro di molto: is headed G.R.S." and portrays Sinclair's bulldog, Dan, falling into the River Wye, and in Elgar's words: "paddling upstream to find a landing place; and his rejoicing bark on landing. Sinclair said: 'Set that to music.' I did, here it is." The variation also depicts Sinclair's impetuous character and skillful organ pedalling.’
This can be read by everyone in the other forum as well.(Contrebombarde) where is attached the score and his upload.
Thanks to you dazric for asking and many thansk to my friend.
Best wishes,
Stig
Pianoteqenthusiast, Organteqenthusiast, Harpteqenthusiast, Harpsichordteqenthusiast, experimenter and Graf/Grimalditeqenthusiast
Last edited by Pianoteqenthusiast (07-08-2022 16:15)
