Aristide Cavaille-Coll

For some reason, the name Cavaille-Coll always invoked the Grand Organ at Paris' Saint Sulpice Church. Or that Daniel Roth was the titular organist there, having his name added to the long list of famous organist who have been organist at St. Sulpice; Paris' second largest church out side of Notre Dame .

It's only been the last year that I have researched Aristide Cavaille-Coll, (1811-1899) the builder of that famous organ and the importance of the systems designed by Aristide, an engineer as grand as the organs he built. There were some 600.

He came from a family of French organ builders. His father, Dominique of the French city of Languedoc and his grandfather, Jean-Pierre Cavaille of Barcelona. The family's legacy is traceable to before 1700.

French organs placed importance on color and contrast. The two things that I have always liked about French organs. In the states, I choose a Casavant Frères,  a prominent Canadian company in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, which has been building fine pipe organs since 1879. The sound is as close to a Cavaille-Coll as it gets.

Aristide invented many of the systems that took the old-world tracker action organs and allowed them to do things that had never been able for organist to accomplish because of pneumatic wind pressures that made pipes speak instantly when the keys were pressed. In the old tracker actions, you pressed the keys and waited for the sound to catch up. Needless to say, the delay between key press and sound was not only hard work manually, but mentally as the timing generally had  you pressing keys to play when the keys released were just producing sound. In other words, you were playing ahead of the sound that you were hearing. Add the echo factor in a great cathedral and you became an expert in delay management. Pneumatic motors and wind chest redesigns brought the organ into a more constant ratio of key press to sound hearing.

I laugh at the Lay Family Organ at the Meyerson Symphony Center here in Dallas. First, the organ is a muddy sounding Fisk and second, it appears to be a tracker yet it has all the modern features of pneumatic. The Meyerson would have been better served and the Lay Family's grateful donation, as well, had the organ been of French design with," a whole blossoming of wonderful colors ,a rich pallet of the most diverse shades, harmonic flutes, gambas, bassoons, English horns, trumpets, celestes, flute stops and reed stops of a quality and variety  unknown before," wrote Charles-Marie Widor about his Symphonie V, written especially for the Cavaille-Coll at Saint Sulpice.

The thing about Casavants in Dallas is this: They are generally found in large Methodist and Large Presbyterian Churches! I understand that characteristic very, very well. With the exception of SMU who in a weird way has many Fisk instalations that sound like a little Meyerson. Ironically, two blocks from the Meyerson in a Methodist church you will find a Casavant. If only Aristide were alive today and living in Dallas!

Homemade English Muffins

Since I was a kid, I have always liked the smell of yeast and dough whisking around in the kitchen, My grandmother made some of the best rolls,
ever. I've only had one in all those years that had that same taste as my grandmother's rolls. So when I got to wondering in the pantry this afternoon and I came across my guarded stash of yeast packets, I knew that baking was going to be the task of the afternoon, I just didn't know what I wanted to make.

When I got down the ole cookbook and started thumbing through the yeast bread pages I came across
something I had always wondered about but never thought to investigate further. That was: English Muffins. Within seconds the yeast was out of the packet and dissolving in my little yeast cup. Flour was going into the big mixing bowl and salt and cornmeal and warm milk and three tablespoons of vegetable oil were going in on top of the flour. Then, looking at the yeast cup, it was time to add the yeast. When the dough was molded into  a ball, it went back into the bowl and was covered with a towel. In an hour, it had doubled  itself and was ready to be pushed out into a quarter of an inch thickness on the  sheet and cut with a three inch cutter. Never mind the cut tuna can rings and that distraction. Cover a cookie sheet with cornmeal and flatten out the dough. Cut and leave on the cookie sheet.

Here is the most amazing thing. Take a cast iron griddle and lightly film with oil. Cook the cut-outs 10 minutes on one side and then 5 minutes on the other. Cool on a cooling rack. I couldn't wait more than a half hour before I took my bread knife, sliced one in half and popped it in the toaster. When it came out, I loaded it with butter and when it was all over, I had done that four times! I'll never buy another tray of English Muffins ever again.

Home made English Muffins

Big Game Sunday Here and There

The weather in Dallas is not the best today. It makes for a good Sunday to stay in and enjoy the big game with a bowl of  home-made chili, too, with low and grey clouds hanging ever lower as the day went on.
The sidewalks are wet and drive is wet from the storm system that has dropped about an inch and one-half over the southern portion of Oklahoma and northern Arkansas. The temps are right at 34 *F.

An old friend sent me a picture of her snow. She has about one and a half inches on the ground. She lives in the boot hills of the Ozarks in northeastern Arkansas' Randolph County. I don't think that we will see that here in Dallas, but sometimes, mother nature has other plans; counting on it is not in my cards anyway. She's north and east by about 500 miles.

Credit photo: Jean Carter-White

 

A Strange Sign is Finally Gonna Be Removed

This is both a follow-up and a new post all rolled into one. Since yesterday, I have been trying to decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Some of you may remember that in the Archive, there is a post about a strange park sign that was a one-of-a-kind made for the Valley View Trail that runs at the end of the White Rock Trail going north three-quarters of a mile to Hillcrest Park. It read: "Beware of Wild Animals".

In summary of that post, I had called the Director of Parks and Recreation  asking about the reasoning behind such a sign. He had explained that when 121 was being made into the Sam Rayburn Tollway, it had actually cut off a fairly large habitat for bobcats and some had gone north in search of better habitat and some had come south for the same reason. The problem being is that coming south put them right in the mix of Plano and North Dallas. Sure enough. About that same time, people in Plano started sending in pictures of bobcats in their yard. Some even had pictures of several bobcats in their yard.

The nature trail in reference here was a dirty path that ran on the west side of Hillcrest Avenue along side the woods that run by the golf course farther west going toward Preston Road. It was also along the path that the bobcats were using to  migrate further south into North Dallas. Because of that, the sign was put up by the Dallas Recreation and Parks Department; with good reasoning.

Yesterday, I got the word that the contractor will be removing that sign as they expand the White Rock Creek Trail Northern Extension project over that nature trail path. It is scheduled to be complete by July according  to one of the contractors that I spoke with. He also, when queried, stated that he had seen bobcats in the area but they should move on after the work is complete since they are rather solitude in their natural habitat. Runners and bikers will keep them on edge enough to cause their migration to continue, but a displaced bobcat in the city won't be happy until its in deeper woods. Hello, Trinity River Bottoms!

Here are some images of the area as of yesterday.

Capital Improvement Info Board

Let the trail continue north This is the new path that will be concrete and ties in at the 7 mile marker of the White Rock Creek Trail presently.

Looking under Hillcrest Avenue, the original trail is to the right of the orange barriers.

 

A Second Star Walk of Fame

Did you know that there is another Star Walk of Fame? There is and it's in downtown Garland.
Oh, it's not as glitzy as the one in Hollywood, but it is a Star Walk of Fame none-the-less. When Sid Grauman opened his Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 18 May 1927, it was the most spectacular in history for a theatre. Ironically, Garland's walk is just outside the Plaza Theatre.

Out side the Bisby Plaza Theatre

Theatre donated in 1991

Billboard list the names of the Council and others when the project was created.

It's A Bit Confusing Since the Pope's Unexpected Seagull Arriving

 This past week, Pope Francis released a couple of doves from the Vatican's balcony only to have a seagull attack one of the doves, which escaped and flew away as intended. Some were upset by the turn of events, but if you have been around seagulls, they can be aggressive because they are what I call, little scrappers!

While all-white Dover make for beautiful and peaceful settings at weddings, funerals and many other symbolic events, I actually like the seagull. No, not because of the "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" work, but because they are beautiful birds in their own right. In fact, when you look at their feathers on their tails and wings, it isn't hard to see the beautiful feathers depicted in pictures of Angel Wings. In fact, they look exactly like the Angel Wings that I have seen in paintings.

Maybe, just maybe, Angels gave the seagull their beautiful features. Take a look.

Angel wings ?

Tail feathers and wing feathers

Just a bunch of big while pelicans riding thermals

Never the Same Thing

The main thing that I like about White Rock Lake is that there is something always different going on or happening. There are several venues, but when collectively lumped together on a trip around the lake, it always will generate something different.

Over the past few years, there has been a car pulled from the lake; a fire truck and a few drownings, which are never something you want to see or hear about but it happens none-the-less. A steamboat has been seen and heard on the lake.

A coyote, many red-tail hawks, a pair of American Bald Eagles, a few more snakes than are necessary, egrets, blue herons, pelicans, seagulls, woodpeckers, ducks, geese, monk parrots, make up some of the wildlife that can been seen,

Traditional outdoor weddings are frequent on both sides of the lake. This past summer there was a Celtic wedding complete with wood-framed alter, straw wreaths and hemlock sprigs. A British Car show with rows of Rolls-Royce, MG ,Triumphs, Austin Martins to name a few. Meetings, Rowing Club lessons, also make the list of events.

Today, however, classical violin music was coming from the Winfrey Point House. What made it somewhat unusual, was that it was a memorial service for  one of the Lake residents. Fitting? You bet. There would not be a better place to hold a memorial service and why not?  These are only a few reasons why this lake is the crown jewel of the Dallas Parks and Recreation Department and a great section of the city to enjoy. Over the last couple of years, the growth and use of this lake has continued to increase. So when you are there, pick up after yourself and leave the lake a better place than what you found.

Today, I also saw my first bike rider riding his bike while both hands were on his phone as he was texting.  I hope this doesn't start a trend. Think about it. Texting while driving is bad but texting while bike ridging must be worse.

Just a couple of simple images for today.

One of two of my favorite Sycamores that have massive trunks



One of many seagulls seen today

 27/01/14 correcting construction