Lloyd Holzgraf - Percy Fletcher - Festival Toccata 

Douglas Herbst Thanks for the insider info! Bought the records when direct-to-disc was new and popular. Always assumed the Gallery organ to be the main/loud/close one here, but since I've never visited the church, it's still unclear to me where the organs are in the building(s), since the pictures I've found so far are close-ups; any (approximate) info on that? I've heard that the organs are being sampled for Hauptwerk now, and the Skinner is already done, while the Gallery/Schlicker organ should be ready later this year - will probably not be able to resist buying the samples if they are good ;)

Klaus Cartesius The large gallery organ was added in 1969 (134 ranks) and also an Italian organ (11 ranks) in the chancel above the side chapel (peace shrine). The skinner chancel organ was enlarged from 58 to 70 ranks. I really enjoyed playing some of the noon-day recitals on Tuesdays and Thursdays when Lloyd was on vacation or ill. The organ stayed the same until a large reed was added in the chancel to honor Lloyd on one of his anniversaries at the church. Then they decided to enlarge the organs from 11,949 pipes to 22,000+. New 5 manual consoles were made. I have only played the organ once since. The new stuff is fun but the skinner lost its character. The skinner in the divided chancel chambers was pushed back (double deep chambers) as it had been before 1969 and lots of new pipes installed in front. Could barely hear the clarinet on the choir with the box open. Most of the chancel organ is now other than skinner. No one thought when the 1969 organs were being planned that the front and back organs could be used together so well. But it was great. We used both at the same time for the hymns and marching processionals for services. The Schlicker consoles were very user friendly. Only drawback was no memory and not enough pistons. 6 generals for the front and 10 for the back. You had a tab that would combine the two however. Sometimes Lloyd would spend 10 minutes resetting all the pistons during the sermon the for the second half of the service.

Nice piece, I also like Fletcher's Fountain Reverie.

There is a novello wedding album that contains this piece. The front cover is pink, I cant remember exactly what its called.

Novello house style. In fairness, it looked archaic even in 1915.

***** It's... kind of hard to tell whats going on... still FUN piece!

It's a Toccata,,,,, as in TOCCATA. They are usually fast and flashy. If you're looking for a funeral dirge, see CORTEGE.

Yes... I too love playing fast... BUt for me... this was just a little to excessive... just an opinion....

when left & right hand are playing alternating chords, you don't need to hear them individually. when played very quickly as he does here, it simply adds more excitement to the sound. he does play the other sections at a slower tempo.

I get it... still...

you can slow it down to .75 speed then