Tony Newnham

Hi According to the new book on Wurlitzers published by the American Theatre Organ Society, some early organs of that make had a device that doubled as a swell position indicator and allowed hand operation of the swell shades - soon discontinued. Another option can be found on the Gray & Davison organ (1881) in St. Philip & St. James, Rock, Northumberland (NPOR N04159) where there is a device that acts as a backrest on the organ stool, but is also connected to the swell shutters. I've seen a picture somewhere, but can't trace it at present. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I quite agree - to communicate efectively, the congregation's attention needs to be "regained" every few minutes. I trust my sermons are NOT boring (and they rarely last for more than 20 minutes - often much less, depends on what I have to say!) Every Blessing Tony

Hi And to add to the list (added to NPOR today) the following new or heavily rebuilt organs:- Fromond's Chantry, Winchester College (Harrison) E01094 St. Columba, Blackhall, Edinburgh (Edmonstone) E01095 St. John, Barham, Kent (F.H. Browne) E01096 Every Blessing Tony

Hi I would rank a good, genuine Harmonium at 3 or 4 - and a good worship group also rather higher (depending on the musical style!). by good Harmonium I mean the real, pressure instrument e.g. Alexandre, or (even better) Mustel. Every Blessing Tony

Thanks Lee The prices of complete units are rather too expensive, but the controller with one of the pedal boards that I already have might be possible. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Althoguh I've heard of the Rogers pipe + electronics organs, I've not heard one in the flesh - the closest is a couple of hybrid organs near here. The most recent is at Addingham Parish Church - a rebuild of a typical English country-church organ with digital additions using the Bradford system. The end result is reasonable - but on careful listening, the digital ranks can be identified - at least when played in isolation. Also, despite the automatic temperature sensors, the tuning wasn't spot-on until manually adjusted. The other local instrument is Bradford cathedral, which has an older Bradford System Nave department - about 15 years old, and currently unplayable - I suspect that it's life-expired, which to me seem to be the major problem with mixing technologies. Regarding the practice console, take a look at the articlew "Recreating Lost Organs" on http://www.pykett.org.uk/ (it's under the "publications" tab.) I'm hoping to put something similar together to use with Haupwerke and Mitizer, for home use. The problem I have at present is finding an affordable MIDI encoder for a pedalboard. I'd be interested to know who manufactures the full-size ones that you mention (off lst if you prefer) - I've only found a 13-note MIDI pedalboard so far. Every Blessing Tony

Hi It's not an option on NPOR - the number of manuals field will only accept a couple of characters! It's deciding what to do about these anomolies that makes NPOR editting such fun! Another scenario would be an organ with 3 manual divisions controlled by 2 keyboards (e.g. Acton Baptist Church or St. Luke's, Bristol Road, Birmingham). I've not looked to see how these appear on NPOR, but are both organs that I've played regularly in the past. Every Blessing Tony

[The NPOR describes it as IV/37 - though the Solo, whilst the keyboard is in place, is only prepared for, so I wonder if III/37 might not be a more accurate description. The keys cannot be depressed. It certainly was a wonderful organ when I last played it some years ago! What it is like today I have no idea. John Foss www.organsandorganistsonline.com <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi This sort of thing is a problem - I didn't enter the survey, so I'm didn't see the original documention, but if the 4th manual is present on the console, thenI would have described is as IV - the rest of the survey quickly reveals that the solo dept is prepared for. It's the same principle as recording what stop labels actually say, and adding a note if, as sometimes happens, a stop is changed but the label isn't. Every Blessing Tony NPOR Editor

Hi Mainly seen on electronics! I vaguely remember entering a survey or two on NPOR that had this or something similar. Then there's the 3 man Bishop that has the pedal keys duplicated with a short compass manual. "Pedals to Great" or similar is also sometimes engraved on the stop knob of what is actually a normal great-to-pedal coupler! Every Blessing Tony

Hi NPOR E00285 (http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=E00285) Every Blessing Tony

Hi for obvious reasons I now use the same system as NPOR, where the lowest note of both manuals and pedals (assuming normal modern compass) is C. If you think about it, there is no pitch difference between manual and pedal keys - the low C on the pedals, when coupled, takes down the low C of the manual. The former difference I think arises from the assumption that you always play the pedals with a 16ft stop drawn. Having been used to the "old" system, it took me a while to get used to the current practice when I started working on NPOR - these days I don't even think about it. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Free reeds in reed organs almost always have the tongue riveted to the reed frame. I would have thought that soldering would stiffen the tongue too much. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Yes - it would, if it's reliable! Organ Building (the IBO annual journal) has a summary, but the latest one is far from complete in its listings (I've just finished NPOR updates from the info. in Organ Building 2005 - apart from one organ that I've had to e-mail the builder about, and have not yet received a reply (not an unknown state of affairs!) I've also had to check various web-sites - all very time consuming. It seems to me that the main interest in the journal is the detailed technical/design articles on various new organs and rebuilds/restorations, which are very interesting. "The Organ" runs a regular "new installations" column, but that's even further from being comprehensive than "Organ Building". Maybe the IBO could be persuaded to publish the answers to its annual survey of organ building activity on its web site? That would be better than nothing, but still would not include the work of firms who are not IBO members (Peter Collins for one!). NPOR does include surveys of new organs, etc. as we get the information, but you need to know that a new organ has been built to look for the survey, so that doesn't help in this context. Like many things, it would be nice - but is it really practical to produce such a listing? Every Blessing Tony

Hi There are numerous UK organs that only have an Open Wood pedal stop - mainly older instruments, before the all-pervading Bourdon rose to popularity. I've also come across a chamber organ with a fractional-length Sourdon 16 as the sole pedal stop ( see NPOR E00937) - surprisingly effective! Every Blessing Tony

Hi It's working well here! (Ask my congregation) Every Blessing Tony

Hi I agree with you - but I would add that churches using "popular" style music often attract people who would not go to a traditional church service, and vice versa. For many of us, there's also a middle ground of "blended worship" - which, at its best, is a combining of elements from many different worship streams. The bottom line is that to be valid, worship must be "in Spirit and in Truth", and if that's the case, the pattern, type of music, etc. is irrelevant. I also find that the attitude of the congregation to incomers has a very significant effect on church growth. If someone comes in, and is ignored - or worse, is pressured to conform, then that church has major problems! Every Blessing Tony

Hi There's far more to contemprary Christian music than your rater simplistic and outdated comments - and the song about wiggly worms has been around for over 30 years to my knoweldge, so it's hardly "contemporary" any more, and certainly not modern! Eevry Blessing Tony

Hi The mission of the church (not just the Anglican church) since the day of Pentecost has been to make God relevant to the society of the day. That does NOT mean trying the bring Him down to our level and that is NOT what the church is doing, whatever you may perceive. The church's primary mission is to preach the good news of salvation, and since society is constantly changing, then tha way that we do that must also change. Sorry if you don't like it - but that's how it is. Why do you think that less that 10% of the UK population are in church on an average Sunday? From my studies of church history, I find that a major factor was that the church tried to continue in the same old way, ignoring the issues - and the social changes - brought about by the 2 world wars. The church has always changed. Do you seriously think it would still exist if we conducted services in Aramaic and used Ancient near-Eastern music? And forget about organs - the Hydraulus was used to accompany the glaitorial games when Christians were thrown to the lions - so it's certanily not a "holy" instrument in any sense. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I thoroughly agree! I've met Graham Kendrick, and several other composers of contemporay worship music, and I have a respect for them. The genre that they work in is foreign to many "traditional" organists - but it's music and words that speak to many Christians - and aid their worship in a way that, for them traditional church music fails to do. CCM has been around long enough now that much of the dross is falling by the wayside - in the same way that traditional hymns of the past did when they either ceased to be relevant, or were naff to start with - and there's plenty of room for both - and for other musics in the worship of Almighty God. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Just a small point - the survey date is 2001 - Mander's may well have been maintaining the organ then, but they may not at present - I don't know. NPOR surveys need to be read with care - especially the survey date! There are some on the system that quote the maintainer as Hill, Norman & Beard or Rushworth & Dreaper, and both firms are no longer in business. We had stopped displaying the "maintainer" field on the web because of this very problem - I don't know why it's reappeared. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Another to add to the list of organs with Flute celestes is Bradford Cathedral - there's a flute celeste on the (chancel) swell - the only undulant (no string celeste at all, except on the, currently non-functional, digital Nave division at the back of the building!). Could this be down to HNB's influence? Every Blessing Tony

Hi Quite a marathon - but I once played for 7 services in one day - never again! (Admittedly 3 of them were short eucharists with only 1 hymn each). On a slightly different tack, for Christian Aid week this year I did a sponsored organ crawl, and played 9 different organs in one afternoon (mainly just 1 piece on each). Every Blessing Tony

Hi I don't know how significant it is, but the Guildford organ was NOT built by R&D - it was a substantial rebuild of a Nicholson of Bradford, rebuilt by Harrisons as a 4 manual, that was originally in the Rosse Street Baptist Church, Shipley, Yorkshire. R&D rebuilt and extended it in the cathedral. (See NPOR and/or the current booklet from the Cathedral bookshop). Every Blessing Tony

Hi Maybe the BBC should go for a new concert organ - but I suspect the politics in that organisation mean that they wouldn't countenance spending licencfee money on such a project - and would they have the will to use it? The BBC have 2 Compton concert organs - in studios at Maida Vale & Broadcasting House - I can't remember the last time I heard either on the air; and the lack of regular organ broadcasts on Radio 3 - and the notable absence of a significant contribution from the RAH organ in this year's proms sums up the prevailing attitude. Every Blessing - and Christmas Greetings Tony