Any Views?

[peter ellis]

Every time I appear on this board it seems I'm harping on about Australia in one way or another. Apologies but I live here and I love it.

 

The 1892 Hill of 26 stops and 3 manuals in Christ Church, St Laurence, Railway Square, Sydney is small but perfectly formed.

[contrabordun]

Whereas a pipe organ, despite any intermittent wind problems, will tomorrow and for many more tomorrows still be a pipe organ, long after the toaster has blown a gasket

Yes, but so what? I mean, this is a statement of fact, and I don't think that anybody much would dispute it. But what are we to infer from it? What does this statement tell us to do?

 

There are reasons to buy a pipe organ and reasons to buy a digital organ. Chiefly, the constraints of space and budget cost together with the purpose for which you are buying the instrument.

 

Should I replace my 3 manual digital affair from my suburban living room on the grounds that if I do, the occupants of the house in 100 years time will have something nice to play?

 

My so-called toaster has given me what most instrumental musicians would take for granted: unlimited and instant access to practice facilities. You'd have to be insane to set out to learn the organ if you depend for your practice on the local church.

 

I don't think anybody here disputes that pipes sound better and that making music come out of good pipes, controlled from a good mechanical action is that slice of heaven on earth that is the just reward for surviving the purgatory of left-hand-and-pedal exercises. (And a big personal thank you to Musing Muso, who answered my cri de coeur of the other week and gave me 4 hours last week on just such an instrument; one that's gone right to the top of my all time favourites).

 

But to return (after a bit of a ramble) to my actual point: stating the obvious about life expectancies doesn't by itself tell us anything about what to buy in any particular situation.

[Vox Humana]

You'd have to be insane to set out to learn the organ if you depend for your practice on the local church.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pardon me, but I was under the impression that most organists over the last 1,000 years have had to do precisely that. Might explain a lot though...

[JJK]

I suggest you consider changing organ builder, JJK!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

for sure - that one is now out of business!

[contrabordun]

Pardon me, but I was under the impression that most organists over the last 1,000 years have had to do precisely that.

V. true. But I'm sure we could fill a whole new thread with 'An unfunny thing happened on the way out of the church at 10.30pm', and unlike JSB, we're discouraged from wearing swords around town.