Tony Newnham

Hi I played a 1967 example regularly for a week of meetings for the Hastings Bible Convention for a few years. It was(is?) in Wellington Square Baptist Churh in the town. http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=E00165 has the details. It was a 4 rank job, with just the Open Diapason rank (8 & 4 ft) enenclosed. No casework, rather a "functional display" of the Open, with a swell box behind. It too had 2nd-touch cancelling - but very poorly executed. That was on the stop keys, but the 2nd touch springs were very weak, and it was all too easy to cancel the entire Great when trying to add the Mixture or the Swell to Great coupler (yes - even the coupler stop keys had dt canceliing!) Tonally it was adequate, but nothing really exciting. Console about half-way down one of the side galleries, with the pipework on the rear gallery (in such a position that inquisitive fingures could reach the smaller Diapason pipes!). I don;t know if it's still there - it was working well enough when I last played it around 1990. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I too wonder about the long-term reliability aspect - plus the ever present issue of radio frequency interference as the ether gets ever more crowded with radio signals for wi-fi, radio microphones, 2-way radios and so on - a very long list! I did play an organ with wireless transmission a couple of years ago - detached console in the chancel & pipes at the West end. If we hadn't been told I wouldn't haveknown from playing that there wasn't a cable between the two. Every Blessing Tony

Hi It's been done - there was an article in the Electronic Organ Constructors' Society magazine a little while back. IIRC the writer used 3-D printing to replicate stop tabs. I've also seen references to the use of the technique in Model Railway magazines. Every Blessing Tony

Hi In answer to Colin's query, early pedal stops on English organs tended to be open wood pipes - sometimes at unison pitch & sometimes at 16ft. I'm not sure when the provision of an Open 16 as the first pedal stop changed to the Victorian era ubiquitous Bourdon. Scope for some research there maybe. Every Blessing Tony

Karg-Elart "Nun Danket Alle Gott". Every Blessing Tony

Thanks David It was the Hill that was there when I played for their carol service. From my point of view as an Evangelical, much as I'd prefer to celebrate Advent properly, the opportunity to present the gospel message to those who probably don;t go to church except in the run-up to Christmas is more important than church traditions. The secularisation of Christmas means that for most people, it's over by Boxing Day, sadly. Looks like the church we're attending in our retirement is a little like that - only one carol (Joy to the World) on Sunday - and we've already sung that on Christmas morning. They will get some Epiphany stuff on Jan 4th though - the minister is on holiday, and I'm taking the service & preaching (first time since I retired atthe end of March). Every Blessing Tony

Happy Christmas (yes, it is still Christmas until 5th Jan) from me. @Dav id - I've only played for one Carol Service actually during the Christmas season - Hadstock PC in Essex on the Sunday following Christmas. Dn;t know if they still do that - it was over 10 years ago.

Hi The only electronics in pipe organs will be the relay system in those with solid state electric action - a tracker organ has zero electronics (and the only electrics will be the blower starter wiring, etc.) Current digital organs utilise a computer of some sort for tone generation as well as the relay, and will be somewhat more complex than the real thing. As to tuning, in the day, some theatre organs were installed in thermostatically controlled heated chambers to maintain the pitch - otherwise they are just as susceptible to temperature changes as any pipe organ. being totally enclosed, heating the chambers works well - it's more of an issue with unenclosed pipework! The main factor in pitch is temperature, reedwork generally being less affected by changes than the flues. However, in general, the fluework will move in pitch as a body with temp. variations, staying in tune within itself. I know of an organ with cone-tuned fluework that never needed the metal pipes tuned from year to year. I leave those with more exxperience to comment on the problems caused by humidity variations. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Whilst I agree that a pipe organ would have been a far better option in the Sheldonian, the Bradford system was probably the best option at the time, as it uses real-time synthesis and is capable of fine detail in the voicing (given a good voicer!). The technology allows a variety of organ styles, which can be selected to suit the repertoire - so why not take advantage of the facility? The bottom line is though that this, and other digital organs of similar vintage are highlighting the life span issue that is typical of electronic equipment, where 15 -20 years is good. Investment in a pipe organ - preferably tracker - should last for 100 years before any major work is needed (assuming a quality instrument by an experienced builder). Every Blessing Tony

Hi Part of the melody is set to a hymn in one of the more recent Scottish hymnbooks. It was written for the Bible Society a few years back - and someone there kindly sent me a scan of the relevant page. We used it a few times. Every Blessing Tony

Hi SoP lost the focus on local churches a long time ago, as Colin says. One of the choirs my son sings with was "recruited" as part of the faux congregation for broadcasts from Southwark Cathedral a while back (they have also provided the music for a Sunday Half Hour on Radio 2). I saw the lst part of yesterday's broadcast - it didn't seem much different, music wise, to many what I call "bitza" shows made up of music contributions lifted from previous broadcasts (I'd seen all the segments in previous programmes - and I'm by no means a regular viewer of SoP) - the only change seems to be the loss of any focus on a specific locality. Not sure that I liked the more global focus in the interviews, etc. - Wonder what the regular audience will make of it. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I watch it sometimes. The description:- "From Sunday it will drop its traditional format of an Anglican service recorded in a cathedral, parish, or other church." hasn't really described the programme for a very long time - if ever! A lot of recent programmes have been in the"magazine format" and have used recording of hymns & songs from previous SoP broadcasts anyway - programmes on the cheap (i.e. the expensive bit requiring a full OB unit replaced with repeats of earlier material). IMHO SoP lost its way decades ago. Not sure how much real difference this "change" will really make - except probably even less shows majoring on traditional hymns, and less coherence within the programme. We sshall see. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I wondered what the delay was. I've got the author's book on the Shultz firm - interesting reading. The B&F book was first advertised quite a while back in "The Organ". I'll have to see about subscribing. Thanks for the "heads up" on this one David. Every Blessing Tony

Organ Recital St Michael the Archangel Retford 12:30 pm Thursday October 30th Rev Tony Newnham Music by:- J.S. Bach Samuel Wesley Charles Wesley Thomas Thorley Junior Geoffrey Burgon Ivan Furlanis Charles Jones The church is in Rectory Road, Retford, DN22 7AY.. Willis Organ.

Hi Talk to your friendly local piano tuner (or dealer). Special piano castors are available (or at least, they used to be). We changed a set on an upright back in the late 1970's enabling the piano to be moved single-handed from hall (hard wooden floor) into the church (carpet) with no great difficulty. In your situation, it might be worth getting the carpet fitters back to sort out the edging strip that's distorting. Don't be tempted to go to a hardware store - ordinary casters to take the weight will be too large & raise the pedals too far from the ground. Every Blessing Tony

Hi The recording of the talk Colin mentions is available to EOCS members. I remastered the original recording a few months ago. Every Blessing Tony

Hi That's a new one on me. I think I came across a Swell to Peddals combination coupler on one or two NPOR entries, but always alongside a Great to Pedal Combinations Every Blessing Tony

Hi The organs in both Lancaster RC Cathedral (recently rebuilt by Willis) and Lancaster Priory (Harrison plus Willis played from one console) are both well worth a visit. Every Blessing Tony

Hi My piano & organ teacher carried a portable metronome - a device like a tape measure, but with calibrations for musical tempi and acting as a pendulum. It's really not that difficult to obtain the relevant tempo from such a device. Not sure where she got it from - or if such things are still available (this would have been laye 1950's/early '60's). Every Blessing Tony

Hi That depends on the Tuba Colin! (And probably the building acoustics as well). It used to be in my repertoire - I had the music for years, and eventually learned it for a recital. It went well - but the printed programme had "Tuber Tune"! Every Blessing Tony

That's the one Malcolm. It was a couple of years ago when he became organ scholar - not previously having been in the Cathedral Choir AFAIK. Even quite early on he was taking a turn in the regular recital series, as well as service playing etc. Every Blessing Tony

Malcolm - you're generalisation about youngsters & organists' associations is far from applying to all! The Bradford Association goes out of its way to encourage youngsters - free introductory lessons, an annual junior members recital - and certainly when I was President, I made sure any who joined us for our annual trip not only got to play, but that they got to play early on at each venue. A few years ago we had a couple of youngsters get interested - within a year,both had passed grade 5 with Distinction - one went on to become the youngest cathedral organ scholar in the UK. Most of our other Juniors are still playing the organ. It needs a bit of work, but it can be done. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I've done something similar a couple of times. I used readings from the Bible plus some meditations interspersed with organ music (& one hymn). I can let you have a script if you message me with your e-mail address. Every Blessing Tony

the former 2 manual mobile console in Liverpool Anglican cathedral is stored in the blower room - I've got a picture somewhere. Every Blessing Tony

Hi We're running Windows 8.0 on 2 machines & 8.1 on one - no great problems (so far!) Every Blessing Tony