1999

At Glyndebourne Jean Taylor gave us seats for Marriage of Figaro as our silver wedding present . it was heaven! I have only been once more Magic flute standing ticket on the day we won the Olympics for London! 

Book 7 p.1361 Cardinal Hume died. It was impossible to get a seat at the funeral which was televised. Liz went to the vespers and I to the lying in state.A great humble man. P.1362 royal wedding at Windsor. I think this was Prince Edward. P.1364 Dennis had done well in his A levels. June 1999 p.1367 vespers for Cardinal Hume and ordination of Sunith Nonis at Addiscombe. I used Dad's extension of Be still for the presence. P.1368 st John's Upper Norwood still needed £72000 for the restoration of the Lewis organ but did not apply to the lottery! We had a mass remembering Liz's Dad 2 years after he died. In fact I have played Finlandia every year. P.1371. P.1379 we spent a week in Prague for our silver wedding trip. An apartment in the centre and we enjoyed lots of concerts and organ recitals. The Mozart, Dvorak, Smetana and Jewish museums were fascinating. We saw Don Giovanni at the opera house and were moved to a better box! P.1392  mistakes in the transposition of Dad's wedding anthem to be sung again on October 9. P.1394 a memory of me as a baby Dad dancing to Charlie is my darling with me in his arms. P.1396 describes the silver wedding Mass in detail. Michael Fleming played the new organ and Adrian conducted. Rachmaninov, Faur e and Byrd were included. We appear to have no photos! P.1399 Dennis moved into the house in Bow p.1399. P.1415 Chorus on Birmingham, Basingstoke, Cologne, Baden Baden, RFH, Cardiff and Ely on TV all Beethoven 9 and Sir Simon Rattle! I had been on strike! John and Bruce Alexander visited. P.1416 Advent carols at Our Lady's and Revd Val from St Mildred's presided. I am interested to see I was reading The Tablet, Choir and Organ, Laudate, CMQ and Organists review although I abandoned the last. P.1421 the start of a difficult year at Battersea Park when I was accused and cleared of racism. Fortunately I had kept records. In the end Liz insisted I went to the doctor and he gave me a month off. The strain had been too much having to work with somebody who kept going sick with a fever. The Sarum coll e Orthodox Lent retreat was excellent. We were all feasting while the group from Bath orthodox church were fasting. Chime committee doing good work on linking church music organisations dealing with music education.

Wedding music

p.1005 Easter and I sent Dad a copy of the Dubois Toccata. This was my standard postlude at first communion services. p.1006 Sargent conducting Holst in Joburg. p,1011 Bruce is head chorister next month and Louise was to take GCSE exams at Coloma. Music was one of her subjects thanks to Mrs Carroll. p.1014 VE and VJ day celebrations on video. p.1017 we sang in Sheffield and Simon Lole made us very welcome. I was elected to the Council of the Guild of Church Musicians. The secretary John Ewington could be very pompous - he referred to "you Romans". Aunt Gladys died aged 95. p.1925 40th anniversary mass of Fr Denis Paul and I played the Widor Toccata. I was very fond of him - he once walked right across the car park after a long Midnight Mass to thank me - I never forgot that! When he "retired" he lived at Coloma. I played a recital at Upper Norwood during the flower festival p.1008. That Lewis organ is superb! Dad describes some horrendous weddings. I was fortunate that Fr Peter would not allow secular items and Fr Denis told brides 5 minutes ate one hymn goes, 10 minutes late I go! There was a strange one when Mgr Moran married a young couple. The chauffeur and I witnessed the wedding so I realised why I had to play for so long during the signing. Toccata and Fugue in D minor. How sad that the families were not there. One Saturday there were 2 - first one bride in posh white carriage and horses and looked miserable, second simple family affair everyone smiling! I had cassettes which brides would listen to and choose music and I went to the marriage preparation days. One young man asked if he should have Jerusalem at his wedding in Ireland. I replied that it was not a great idea! One bride's mother put her foot down with a groom who wanted Christmas carols as he really was not keen on being married in church at all. In the end we settled for Jerusalem. Soloists could be a nightmare - I once transposed Ave Maria down two tones and the singer still sounded awful!

Fr Denis Paul anointing the sick. He retired aged 70 and I  saw him at David Warner's funeral in 2020