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Hello All

 

Thought you might be interested in this video of the construction of new organ at St Michael and All Angels Bedford Park. The organ will arrive from La Manufacture d'Orgues St Martin in April.

 

http://www.canalalph...un-metier-rare/

 

( In fact, I thought you'd be interested in some photos, but my IT skills don't seem to be up to the job)

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Hello All

 

Thought you might be interested in this video of the construction of new organ at St Michael and All Angels Bedford Park. The organ will arrive from La Manufacture d'Orgues St Martin in April.

 

http://www.canalalph...un-metier-rare/

 

( In fact, I thought you'd be interested in some photos, but my IT skills don't seem to be up to the job)

 

Thank you for posting this, Jon - and welcome to the forum.

 

It looks to be a fine instrument. I too would be interested in further details, please - when they become available.

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Grand Orgue

 

Bourdon 16

Montre 8

Bourdon 8

Prestant 4

Flute a fuseaux 4

Doublette 2

Plein Jeu V

 

Recit expressif

 

Flute harmonique 8

Viole de gambe 8

Voix celestes 8

Flute octaviante 4

Nasard 2 2/3

Octavin 2

Tierce 1 3/5

Hautbois 8

 

Resonance expressif

 

Grand flute 8

Flute 4

Cornet V

Basson 16

Trompette 8

Clairon 4

 

Pedale

 

Contrebasse 16

Soubasse 16

Flute 8

Bombarde 16

 

And of course an etoile sonore!

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Hi

 

Important note - the church referred to in this thread is St Michael & All Angels, Bedford Park. There is another St Michael's elsewhere in Chiswick, where the organ had substantial work done on it in 2009.

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony.

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... there’s also some information about the new organ on the parish website ...

 

M

Goodness! Follow this link and then follow the subsequent link to the Petersham organ. Excuse my being controversial but what an ungainly instrument this looks to be! It may be just the photo, but it appears to dominate the space in a extraordinarily disproportionate way. It looks, from the photos provided at any rate, like a perfect example of an instance where a lovely two manual digital instrument would have been just the ticket! Light the blue touch paper and...

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Martin, the generous part of me would like to suggest that the photos don't do full justice to an organ in a transept position and you would be well advised to see the instrument in person before making such a negative judgement. The other part of me would say that your comments are out of place on a forum provided by a builder of pipe organs and that you could be well-described as trolling. To everyone else: don't feed the trolls.

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  • 6 months later...

Organ is sounding and looking splendid. The first airing will be on 26th September when it will be blessed by the Bishop of London.

 

The music will be:

 

Tavener - God is with us

Langlais - Messe Solennelle (Sanctus and Benedictus)

Vierne - Carillon de Westminster

 

and works by Bach, Couperin and Vaughan Williams.

 

There will be a reception afterwards. Everyone on this forum is most warmly invited.

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A question or two about the Flute Harmonique (and yes, of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating):

 

Wouldn't it be more useful (appropriate for more repertoire) to have it on the Resonance rather than as the only 8' flute on the Recit? Is there much precedent for it as the basis of the cornet composé?

 

And I wonder what kind of flute the Grand Flute on the Resonance is? A big open flute, I suppose. Are the 3 8' flutes designed to balance each other or build from the quietest, on the Grand Orgue, to the loudest (on the Recit?)?

 

Easy to ask questions, I know.

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Yes, the harmonic flute as the basis of the recit takes a bit of getting used to, although the box is pretty effective.

 

I believe that the flutes on the recits of 19th century french organs were sometimes harmonic, although they might be called traversiere. Having the 8, 4 and 2 as harmonic flutes, the biggest flutes on the organ, gives the department a big presence, which you mightn't expect from its modest size. I must say, to my ears, they've done an excellent job with the cornet decomposee (the pipes of the Nasard and Tierce are not harmonic, but are flared at the top) and it works very well throughout the compass. I know St Martin have done similar schemes for the recit on a few instruments (Girton is the same as ours but without the Tierce).

 

The Grand flute on the Resonance is also harmonic, but higher in the compass than the recit flute and is of a different character. The recit flute is powerful, with an almost stringy edge, the resonance is gentle, probably the quietest thing on the organ when the box is closed. There is some build up from Bourdon to harmonic flute, and they can be coupled to create different balances of solo and accompaniment, but they are also of different character, and their position within the instrument is noticeable as well. I think the gentler flute works well on the resonance, it adds a little support to the reeds, particularly in the treble, but doesn't muddy the tone and blends nicely.

 

The number of flutes was a concern, but now I've played them, I'm not sure I'd change any of them! You're always welcome to come and have a play and tell me what you think.

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Wow! It looks fabulous! And full of interest. I sometimes feel, when looking at recent British schemes, that they are a little bit 'safe'. It's nice to have the potential to be scarlet as well as subtle. I thought the Petersham job looked to be packed with potential and fun, and this is along the same lines. Maybe the old adage about two well-stocked manuals being better than three small ones is not true after all - I'd often wondered....

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Wow! It looks fabulous! And full of interest. I sometimes feel, when looking at recent British schemes, that they are a little bit 'safe'. It's nice to have the potential to be scarlet as well as subtle. I thought the Petersham job looked to be packed with potential and fun, and this is along the same lines. Maybe the old adage about two well-stocked manuals being better than three small ones is not true after all - I'd often wondered....

Agreeing with all above I also came to the conclusion that for example if I had to play my usual Sunday repertoire on this then normal habits could prevail. I must admit that (perhaps out of laziness) I tend to use the local 2/3 manual village jobs around here as large 1 manuals with things coupled as necessary. Here the spectrum for variety looks superb - Peter Hurford once said that one should use one's ears when registering - as opposed to pulling out so called correct combinations of sounds and expecting them to work. The newish Mander organ at St Giles Cripplegate works wonderfully using this idea and I suspect the new Mansion House organ does similar. OK they look like fairly conventional 2 manual jobs but the stop distribution is very cunningly laid out. I've not played the latter but the former can do much more than one might initially think from looking at the spec. - and the action is lovely!

 

A

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A question or two about the Flute Harmonique (and yes, of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating):

 

Wouldn't it be more useful (appropriate for more repertoire) to have it on the Resonance rather than as the only 8' flute on the Recit? Is there much precedent for it as the basis of the cornet composé?

 

And I wonder what kind of flute the Grand Flute on the Resonance is? A big open flute, I suppose. Are the 3 8' flutes designed to balance each other or build from the quietest, on the Grand Orgue, to the loudest (on the Recit?)?

 

Easy to ask questions, I know.

 

Although a Flûte Harmonique should pair well with the Viole de Gambe and Voix Céleste - perhaps rather better than a Cor de Nuit or a Flûte à Cheminée might.

 

As you imply, only by hearing the instrument once it is completed (and settled-in) will it be possible to make a fair judgement of its various tonal characteristics.

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Grand Orgue

 

Bourdon 16

Montre 8

Bourdon 8

Prestant 4

Flute a fuseaux 4

Doublette 2

Plein Jeu V

 

Recit expressif

 

Flute harmonique 8

Viole de gambe 8

Voix celestes 8

Flute octaviante 4

Nasard 2 2/3

Octavin 2

Tierce 1 3/5

Hautbois 8

 

Resonance expressif

 

Grand flute 8

Flute 4

Cornet V

Basson 16

Trompette 8

Clairon 4

 

Pedale

 

Contrebasse 16

Soubasse 16

Flute 8

Bombarde 16

 

And of course an etoile sonore!

 

Thank you, Jon. I apologise for the tardy reply - I have only just seen this post.

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Wow! It looks fabulous! And full of interest. I sometimes feel, when looking at recent British schemes, that they are a little bit 'safe'. It's nice to have the potential to be scarlet as well as subtle. I thought the Petersham job looked to be packed with potential and fun, and this is along the same lines. Maybe the old adage about two well-stocked manuals being better than three small ones is not true after all - I'd often wondered....

 

Indeed, David. It is good to see a slightly different stop-list and overall design in a new instrument. It iwll be interesting to hear it at some point.

 

Jon - are there (or likely to be) any sound files available, please?

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Jonathan: your instrument looks gorgeous and, if it sounds half as beautiful, should give centuries of pleasure to those fortunate enough to play and hear it. You are very, very lucky.

 

Organists always seem to wish for something different. I’m sure some would have preferred a Cromorne on the GO, so that ‘authentically Classical’ French trios could be performed.

 

And a question: since the two ‘expressif’ divisions, when combined, act as a sort of Full Swell, are the two swell pedals able to be locked, to facilitate a balanced de/crescendo ?

 

I’m sure many, too, would wish to know (in good time) what some of the unfamiliar (at least, to eyes used to feasting on British consoles) array of buttons and pistons do.

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Yes, a cromorne would have seemed a very sensible thing. As I understood it, because the G.O is at the front in the main case, and because, for good speech, the reeds should be at the front of the wind chest, it was going to be difficult to have a cromorne there and keep it in tune. I may have misremembered that, but I think there was a reason...

 

Anyway, although the spec suggests that the organ is designed to do lots of french baroque stuff with a fairly authentic accent, it was never the aim to go too far down that path. This is first and foremost an instrument for ordinary parish use rather than a didactic instrument, hence there's more foundation tone (both in numbers and types of stops) and no second principals chorus in comparison to Girton which is physically a slightly smaller instrument.

 

The swell pedals don't lock together, but they are light enough and close enough together that they can be moved at the same time by one foot.

 

We specified the design of the piston system. We hoped that the console could be as uncluttered as possible, to encourage us to use it as a purely mechanical instrument whenever possible - the stop action is mechanical with additional electric solenoids. In all of their instruments with pistons systems, St Martin provide a single row of general pistons (1-8), flush with the moulding below the lowest keyboard. With the small LCD screen below the music desk it's all very discrete. There are many levels so they can be used as a sequence, with forward and backward buttons. Each organist can have their own set of generals, so there's P (PIN) button, A (Access) to get to any position within the sequence and S (set). The generals and forward buttons are duplicated by toe levers and there are reversible toe levers to all of the couplers. It is less complicated than it sounds!

 

I'm sure there'll be some sound clips in due course, but do drop me a line if you would like to come and have a play.

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