David Coram

This surely must be to do with the sales-driven nature of the digital organ market. Most pipe organ builders I know can see several (in some cases, ten) years ahead and know what work they will be doing. A web presence is a useful way of showing your work, but nobody’s going to be filling their shopping cart or booking a home demonstration as they would with a digital provider.

(With reference to the moving console:) It would first have to fly over a solid screen and a high altar, then down I think three sets of steps with more ecclesiastical furniture in the way. Your friends are obviously more talented than I. Unfortunately funds didn't even stretch to replacing the chest magnets, which have had their day; for some years there has been make do and mend and borrowing magnet caps from elsewhere (particularly the trebles of the strings) in order to keep more important stuff playing. Everything from the key contacts, pistons and stop solenoids up to the magnets has been replaced, and the console has had a Rolls Royce job done on it and shines like new. At least the magnets are relatively cheap and can be done a rank at a time in phases. In short, ignore the comment on the Youtube vid which says the organ is going to be scrapped; it's not.

The console is such a mammoth solid construction, and there are so many steps, that there really isn't any possibility of making it mobile. It's bizarre that the console is so solid because most of the rest of the instrument is made of hardboard and Tabopan. Yes, the Harmonics is all derived from the one rank, with the exception I think of the largest unison. That's the way it was, and usually is I understand - a massively wide scaled stopped flute of Tibia-like quality with no harmonic development of its own. As for 'sleeping on the job' I can't claim to be as dedicated as Thurlow, but I did take my excellent VW van with me (www.winniebus.co.uk)

Most of the Mixtures aren't derived on that instrument - there are 2 independent ranks on each manual division, and as already observed the Pedal Harmonics has its own rank. We were slightly naughty, and added some extra ranks to the Harmonics. According to the old ladder switches, it contained only quints and a Tierce. Because the new system is software based, we were able to add a Septieme and None to it as well, and my goodness it thunders with the best of them now. The trumpeter is the nearest person to the congro, and is right beneath the organ pipes and very much closer to the choir than may at first be supposed. The biggest problem with holding things together in there is the ridiculous position of the console - right up against the East wall underneath the window, behind a screen. It's an unimaginably difficult position from which to lead the congregation. During the rebuilding they were using an Allen located just in front of the front row of seats, and it made things very much easier.

Yes, I've no idea what the last verse of O Come was meant to sound like. Astonished they didn't have someone conducting in the nave. It's a weeny organ, that. The display pipes facing West are double over-length - it's the 8' Stopped Flute rank which appears only in the Pedal Harmonics. The expression boxes face north. Immediately behind the grille high up behind Decani is the Tuba, Diaphone and Polyphone. Bizarre budget layout. I can't believe how good it sounds despite all that.

Ooh! Where's that? This time last year, I was re-wiring the organ and putting the restored console back in... assuming it's the RC Compton.

Oh, boo - I didn't get to see it!

As this topic seemed to generate quite a few "watchers" I thought it might be worth pointing out that it ends about an hour from now at just after 2310.

Haven't I always said it?! Excellent machine, sadly neglected.

Quite a few have 3 phase blowers and lighting.

Hope this breaches no rules. If anyone wants a fairly new unit, there's a good one listed for sale here.

Recommend you get hold of Edward Goater who has a presence on the internet. Also known to Gloucester audiences as a former lay clerk before going solo.

Opus 71, "The Forsaken Brownie"???? After everything he's just said about Britten?

Isn't it an amazing site. I've had a very enjoyable half-hour.

I completely agree, especially over War Requiem. I find the Wilfred Owen settings lightweight in the extreme considering the overwhelming pain of those poems. And I just don't understand the popularity of 'the' Jubilate. It's exceptionally awkward and fussily written. Rejoice in the Lamb I do have a lot of time for - I find it strangely moving, and couldn't begin to tell you why. It has mostly to do with the choral writing in the Hallelujah though - and the chord which is reached under the word 'poetry' in the tenor solo, where Robert Tear does a massive pause (not in the score) on the high F#. Other under-rated works are the Festival Te Deum with the repeated E major chords and the brimstone middle section, which does make terrific use of the instrument. And the New Year Carol is just glorious. And there's no better National Anthem arrangement, you've got to admit...