IanCrabbe

I too have found Bristol Cathedral organ unrewarding to play at the console, its action rather noisy and the instrument difficult to balance because of the position of the console. I agree that the Pedal Bourdon is extremely loud if the little door to the right of the console is open. It would benefit from a detached console. possibly on the south side of the quire, (a la Salisbury or Winchester) where the player would undoubtedly get a better impression of what s/he is doing. The situation could perhaps have been remedied in 1951 when the instrument had a major overhaul but I believe that the late great Clifford Harker insisted that the tubular pneumatic action was renovated and preserved at the time. Is this instrument still the only Cathedral Organ in the country still to have this action? All this said, it does make a glorious sound and the effect, coupled with a magnificent acoustic, in the nave is magnificent. Ian Crabbe

Can you give specific examples?

At the end of the day, the church will have to award the contract to the company who offers the best value for money.

Assuming that Fisk's Opus 91 is mechanical action and exceeds 45 ranks then I guess I must concede defeat! These darned Americans! Ian Crabbe

You're dead right. I don't know the precise cost, but the American owner also had a Maybach parked in his drive. Ian Crabbe

Now this is what you call a house organ. 33 stops, 45 ranks, mechanical action. http://www.beckerath.com/gfx/Steve-Ansicht.jpg Ian Crabbe

My situation is little complicated and we rarely have weddings at my establishment anyway. However, last April, there was a wedding where the couple brought their own organist. It irked me that they never approached me first but what happened on the actual day was utterly amazing. Visiting organists have 4 divisional channels and 20 channels for General pistons. This gives them 160 general combinations - more than enough for most recitals and certainly enough for a wedding. This particular visiting organist didn't read the instruction sheet explaining the piston arrangements which is prominently placed on the console and immediately started altering my divisional piston settings. At the end, he left a note saying sorry but he hadn't read the instructions first. The visiting organist is an eminent organist who has I believe made many recordings, given many recitals and has a position at an important London church. Altering piston settings without permission is just an appalling breach of etiquette. Or am I just overreacting?

I guess I've got to concede defeat here as you clearly saved a fair amount of money with the Rogers Scarborough. I was just conscious of the need for quite a bit of amplification which I had been warned would be expensive. Perhaps you might like to PM me with the name of the company who asked £12.5k. I'm interested in the half a mill you mention on the pipe organ. Where is it, and what did you have done? Or is this a thread which I have missed.

That's very true of course. For the record, the toaster I hired was three years old, 50 drawstops, 3 manuals, 3 kw of amplification and 24 loudspeakers, sufficient to fill a 900 seater building.

I am just trying to get my head around these figures. I needed to hire one for 12 months and the figure quoted by one of the big firms was £4,100 inc vat and delivery. We would have been hard pressed to have saved ten grand by buying one.

I have used both Allen and Makin recently. Makin provided an excellent 3M instrument for twelve months whilst work was being carried out on our pipe organ. We have hired from Allen several times, once for a concert in Salisbury Cathedral (Te Deum, Berlioz) where they provided Carlo Curley's 4M touring organ. We couldn't use the FW because of pitch problems and also the concert was at the West End. They positioned a battery of loudspeakers underneath the spire. I must confess that playing those opening chords of the Berlioz from a console at the West End was quite exhilarating. Oh, and they also provided another 2M instrument for use at the West End. The cost was about £700 for one evening, but that was in 2003. Ian Crabbe

I find it amazing that no one has yet mentioned 'A Babe Is Born', which I think is an extremely fine piece. Ian Crabbe I find it amazing that no one has yet mentioned 'A Babe Is Born', which I think is an extremely fine piece. It is not easy to write good music which is accessible to a wide range of choirs and this carol definitely hits the spot for me. Ian Crabbe

As I am currently wading, and I think wading is the right verb, through the EdExcel paperwork generated for GCSE, AS and A2 Music courses, you have struck a chord here. They could save us a huge amount of effort by putting the forms online, but have they done it? This year, they didn't sent any blank coursework proforma as it is clearly cheaper for them if we download the forms from their website and reproduce it at our expense. But here's the best one. Their jiffy bags in which they send their CD exam material are now apparently tagged. This, they say, is so that they can trace the whereabouts of these CDs just in case we take one home with us. Ian Crabbe

I would only say that most repertoire which needs transposition will be 16th century repertoire, and this is usually in keys which are not too unfriendly - four flats being possibly the unfriendliest. I don't recall seeing Tomkins' Second Service published in G sharp minor. Ian Crabbe

Yes, but in practice, organists are usually required to transpose hymns and psalm chants, and I haven't seen too many of these in more than three or four sharps or flats. Ian Crabbe

Although I am no expert on pitch, I have always assumed that pitch at the time of S S Wesley was lower than today. I don't know by how much, but probably by as much as a tone lower. Therefore, he may have written Hereford in F major, but it was actually heard in what we would regard as E flat major. This is a much more comfortable key to perform this hymn. However, as I say, I am no expert. But I believe that in Handel's time, A was tuned to about 420Hz, 20Hz lower than today. Ian Crabbe

You know, PCND is remarkably quiet at the moment. Is he on holiday? Ian Crabbe

Having been brought up in Swindon - well, someone has to be - we had an Archdeacon whose surname was Bowles. When he retired, he became a Canon of Bristol Cathedral. He may well be the Canon Bowles towhich you refer. Ian Crabbe

With most Cathedrals now sporting a girls' choir as well as the traditional boys, I have often felt quite sorry for the Organist of the church nearest the Cathedral who must constantly lose his or her best choristers to the Cathedral. I presume that Cathedrals have done this in the name of equality, but the effect on neighbouring churches must be quite severe. Ian Crabbe

I have always found the General Cancel awfully useful, you know. Sorry not to contribute anything useful to this thread. Ian Crabbe

Thank you for all your kind comments about the visit yesterday to Marlborough College. Tim and I greatly enjoyed ourselves during the afternoon, and it was a real pleasure for both of us to hear other people putting the instrument through its paces. It was lovely to be able to walk around the Chapel as our guests performed and hear different colours. As was to be expected, there was some healthy debate about some aspects of the organ, but generally the tone seemed to be of approval of what Beckerath have achieved which was much to our relief. Having heard some very fine performances during the afternoon, and it would not be fair to single out individuals, I feel inspired to go and do some practice! If any of you happen to be planning to visit Marlborough in the future and want to have a look, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Ian Crabbe

At a wedding which I was asked to play for, the bride was Chinese. The groom wanted "Slow Boat to China" played at some point. I refused. Ian Crabbe

I videoed this programme and have still got the copy. If you can't get a DVD, let me know. Ian Crabbe

A very good question. The action is tracker to this stop and it is definitely on a slider chest. It is alongside the Contra Bombarde and Bombarde, but these were clearly not affected. Ian Crabbe

I think we said 2.00 pm. Ian Crabbe