nachthorn

Thanks for your useful suggestions and interesting info. I hadn't found the published score (now ordered) or the YouTube recording - I'll drop Clare a line and see if they have any plans to record.

Slightly obscure request... can anyone point me towards a recording or score of William Denis Browne's Mag and Nunc in A? Fans of English song might be familiar with Browne's (IMHO exquisite) contributions to the genre, but I can't find anything on his only liturgical contribution. Many thanks in advance.

Thanks for the replies. I think spray starch is probably the key to future success! OC/RAC - are buttons as practical as velcro, or do the younger kids need theirs doing for them? David: two choirs of fifteen, plus a few spares in the various sizes (ruffs, not choristers!).

Silly topic - apologies in advance. I'm about to buy about forty new ruffs to replace a load of tattered relics of yesteryear. There is a noticeable spread in cost between the three UK suppliers I've found who do something suitable (Vanpoulles, Croft Design and Watts - for our purposes, Wippells and J&M Sewing don't). Does anyone have recent knowledge of buying ruffs from any of these, or other, suppliers, and can anyone shed light on why the most expensive is 50% more than the cheapest for what appears to be exactly the same thing? PMs are fine if we need to avoid discussing said suppliers in public! All info gratefully received.

"Christianly"?

Something that happens too often for comfort, too. When I was in Birmingham, I was assistant in a parish church near the university. The highly qualified and experienced director of music left after seven years in-post, and the vicar replaced him (without advertising the vacancy) with a person recommended by the diocesan music advisor who was neither qualified or experienced. The choir went from Sweelinck's Hodie Christus natus est to singing ditties by Margaret Rizza almost overnight, and rather inevitably imploded within a few months. Very sad, but not an isolated case.

Took me a moment... a shame that the instrument may have spoiled, though - I found it to be a proper eye-opener. Vox may still remember having to drag me away...

There's a merry-go-round in Plymouth city centre with a player organ that sounds just like this recording.

I was very fortunate to play it after the dedication service a few weeks ago. Sadly the reeds and mixtures hadn't been finished and weren't available, but I found it very pleasant to play and listen to, although rather exacting in terms of accuracy - it was very easy to smudge notes. It's certainly not built to accompany Victorian choral repertoire, but will be a superb teaching and learning instrument as Ian envisaged. I think Odiham really have earned the instrument by virtue of their tireless fund-raising, and the whole project has demonstrated the high regard in which Ian Ledsham was (and still is) held - he was a superb musician and inspired so many others to pursue and enjoy music too. Needless to say, I knew Ian well too - I was his last organ scholar at Birmingham and worked very closely with him until his tragic death. He would have liked the instrument! The spec is: [Pedal] Bourdon 16' Principal 8' Bass Flute 8' Trombone 16' [Great] Open Diapason 8' Stop Diapason 8' Principal 4' Flute 4' Twelfth 2 2/3' Fifteenth 2' Sesquialtra III Mixture II Cornet V Trumpet 8' [swell] Open Diapason 8' Stop Diapason 8' Dulciana 8' Principal 4' Fifteenth 2' Cornet II Hautboy 8' Trumpet 8' Usual couplers, balanced swell pedal, combination pedals, mild well-tempered tuning.

This is quite alarming, not because I know much about St. Philip's, but because it's just one more of many church buildings that have bitten the dust in Plymouth in the last decade - more, I suspect, than were lost in 1939-45. Off the top of my head, this includes St. Mark in Ford, St. Aidan in Ernesettle, St. Chad in Whitleigh, St. Boniface in St. Budeaux, St. Thomas in Keyham, St. Paul in Efford, and both St. Barnabas and St. Michael in Stoke. Each parish may have its reasons for (in most cases) selling part of the land and building a multi-function parish hall/lounge church on the remainder - in some cases, structural problems; in others simply a lack of funds and bums on pews - and I don't think any of them were renowned for their music. However, each of these churches had a pipe organ of some sort, and few of their replacements have, or ever will. This trend is looking decidedly bleak.

Likewise. There seems to be a great deal of bitterness in the writing, and far too many exclamation marks for comfort - I get the impression that the author isn't exactly an unbiased observer.

Fair enough! The Auckland instrument sounds excellent, btw.

I would have thought that DW would know as much about this as anyone, but for the sake of discussion, there is at least one other 'take' on the story, for instance this from the Organ Recitals website (http://www.organrecitals.com/stpauls.php): "The Tuba organ's new stop, the Trompette Militaire, was to become, arguably, the instrument's most famous voice. It was donated by Henry Willis III who, essentially, sought to give the impression that it was of his own making. In fact, he acquired the stop from the American firm of Anton Gottfried, having been previously introduced to it by Emerson Richards, the designer of the mammoth organ in the Atlantic City Convention Hall... Willis said that, when the pipes arrived, he threw away the tone-producing components (i.e. shallot, tongue, etc.) and replaced them with his own but, actually, he did no such thing. The fact of the matter is that he made no changes whatsoever to the stop, although he did have the Gottfried stamp on the block of the bottom C pipe scratched out!" The author of the article doesn't cite any sources that I can see.

It looks like an excellent instrument on paper. Forgiving the odd Spitz Flute though, it does seem odd that the Great, Choir and Pedal are English (at least in name) and the Swell looks entirely French. Trumpet and Trompette stops in the same instrument? You can't drop a French-school Récit into an otherwise-English instrument and expect it to work musically, so why give that impression? That said, of course, I doubt it would make any difference to players who will follow their ears in any case, and it's not going to make any difference to the sound which I hope will be as musical and engaging as the design suggests.

My copy arrived this morning, and I'm bowled over by the sheer musicianship. A better person than I can probably do a good review (and at a better time than 1am!) but I'd recommend this CD to anyone.