Tony Newnham

Hi With regard to the diminuendo on the last chord, the organist I mentioned was brought up as a Baptist, and was by a significant number of years the longest-standing member of my congregation, so it's obviously not just a Primitive Methodist "things".

Hi The organist in my last church did that at the end of most hymns. I've no idea where it came from, and it sounded extremely odd on a 5 stop unenclosed chamber organ! I guess like legato touch it was the suggested norm at some time in the past. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Many decades ago, whilst learning to play the organ, I was taught that, in hymn accompaniment where there were repeated notes in one or more parts to tie the inner parts and possibly the bass, but not the soprano line. Not sure I'd want to be rigid about it these days, but it might provide a starting point. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I do hope MM can get his book published - I much prefer real books to reading things off screen - however I do realise the problems. A good few years ago, a friend of mine wrote a book on a rather obscure topic (The development of the rose engine - the machine used for decorative pattern engraving on watch cases & the like). Although the books sold at a fair price (for the time) I guess it cost him. (I got a free copy both as a friend & because I'd made a small contribution to the contents.) At least MM shouldn't have the disaster I had - I'd researched the history of the church I was minister at for an essay in an Open Theological College course, and thought I'd print a few copies, until I discovered from a local historian just in time that the one book I'd found about the history of the village was grossly inaccurate! I still haven't got round to revising it. However it's released, I look forward to reading MM's Compton book - and I really must re-visit Colin's website! Every Blessing Tony

Hi I did some research on pedals on early English organs as a small part of a talk I gave to the Bradford Organists' Association back in 2009. I append my notes below, but in essence there MAY have been an example of pedal pull downs ass early as 1635 (Jesus College, Cambridge). Earliest confirmed independent pedal pipes was 1793 - added by Avery to the organ in Westminster Abbey. On another point, I'm not sure I fully agree about the lack of tonal variety - it's surprising just what can be done with limited resources. No time for more now - I'm preaching & leading the service this morning (as well as playing) and need to get ready! Every Blessing Tony From my notes for a talk/demonstration on Early English Organs:- Development of pedals – separate keyboard for pedal stops (pix) – compass of pedals – (pix. – inc. Toe pedals from “Organbuilding 8 & Gt. Chishill) (Also same benefice – Elmdon St Nick, Flight c.1867) Pull Downs may have existed at Jesus college, Cambridge in 1635 – no independent pedal pipes. 1720-21 pedals at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. CC compass St Mary, Redcliff (1726) –CC compass Samuel Wesley is quoted as saying “pedals might be of service to those who could not use their fingers” (1840) By early 1800’s most larger organs had at least pull-downs, and most had a set of independent pedal pipes. (Some chamber organs had 16ft stop in bottom octave for use by hand or feet). Earliest confirmed pedal pipes 1793, Westminster Abbey – added by Avery 1793. Thistlethwaite lists some 43 organs that possibly had pedal pipes dating from 1773 (Green’s organ for Walsall Parish Church – details uncertain) to 1820. 16ft pipes unpopular with builders while GG compass was the norm – cost & size. Pedals initially provided a “third hand” for pedal points and complex textures.

Hi My home digital has a range of temperaments - but I'm never sure what's the most appropriate for a particular piece. I'm currently working on a C.P.E. Bach Sonata, and there's one particular passage that sounds very strange in ET (And no - it's not due to wrong notes!). It's an interesting area to study - if I ever have time & inclination. Every Blessing Tony

Hi There are Hammond Organs adverts in "The Organ" magazine from many years ago mentioning the Canterbury Cathedral installation. If I have time & feel up to going upstairs I'll try and look them out and see what date they were published. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Having in the past played the Rye Wurlitzer a number of times for the school carol concert, I can vouch for the fact that theatre organs - with suitable registration (and you do need sometimes to think outside the box) can work effectively for "serious" repertoire. I've even heard the (in)famous Widor Toccata played on the Rye Wurlitzer by Nigel Spooner F.R.C.O. I enjoy playing theatre organ when I get the chance, which isn't very often. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Reading the previous few comments, firstly, was it Jack Davies' firm that developed a hybrid part pipe part electronic back in the day? Secondly, there was an electronic organ firm called "Livingstone-Burge". I've come across a handful of their instruments back in the day, but I'm not sure where they fit into the general history of such instruments. Every Blessing Tony

Hi The Early Music Shop in Saltaire stocks (or at least used to stock) modern reproductions of the Serpent. Also, of course, there are a handful of organs that have stops called Serpent - the one I've played is Blackburn Cathedral. Every Blessing Tony

Hi The introduction of robed chancel based choirs (and hence organs close to the chancel) in English Parish Churches was in the main a result of the Oxford Movement in the 1800's, prior to that, the West Gallery was the common place for musicians (West Gallery Bands), choirs, and in the churches that had such things, organs. The organ history of many churches includes the removal of the organ from the West Gallery to a chancel chamber or one of the transepts. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Interesting to read Ian's comments about the introduction of organs in Victorian churches. There were other significant influences, notably the Oxford Movement which encouraged a return to medieval ways of doing things in church (as interpreted by themselves!), aided by the Cambridge Camden Society on the architectural side. Part of the move to introduce organs was to bring music more under control of the incumbent - contemporary reports indicate that things got rather rowdy at times. An organ meant that the Incumbent only had to deal with one player (often his wife or the local school master). Harmoniums and other reed organs were common, and 2 manual & pedal organs were (and are) far from universal. At one time I played regularly for weddings & funerals in a rural benefice in Essex, of the 5 churches I got to, only 1 had a 2 manual organ, and that only had a TC swell, there were 3 single manual & pedal jobs - one a GG compass complete with a 13 note GG pedalboard, and the other was a single manual no pedal electronic. Another church in the group had a reed organ, but I never got to play there. The study of the how the English church changed in the Victorian era is fascinating (I chose to study this period of church history as part of my theological training). The 2 volumes of "The Victorian Church" by Owen Chadwick deals in some depth with this period and its complexities. On the organ history front, I have the 2 books mentioned above on my shelves, along with some individual histories of organ builders and so on, but given the sheer number of builders operating in that period of very rapid church growth, no one volume can hope to cover the whole ground. The Victorian era not only saw existing church buildings wanting organs because it was fashionable to sack the West Gallery band and get an organ, there was also a very significant amount of new church building, both within the Church of England, especially in the ever-growing industrial cities, and also thousands of free churches of various denominations, many of which wanted an organ of some sort. The era saw an organ-building boom! Every Blessing Tony

Hi Thanks for the comment John, I have seen some of Keith Emerson's performances. I also like Rick Wakeman - another classically trained musician. A few years back he recorded a CD on the Lincoln Cathedral Organ, and has used pipe organ on a number of his recordings over the years. At one time he toured with a 2 rank extension organ built IIRC by our hosts here. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I guess all organ builders had good and bad instruments - and don't forget ideas of what makes a good organ have changed over the years! I've not come across more than a few Conachers and they've all been OK, and indeed, one of my favourite small organs is the Conacher in Steeple Bumpstead Congregational Church in Essex, see NPOR http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N13335 Every Blessing Tony

Talking of playing more than one organ of more than one type, how about this. I guess the "theatre organ" is a digital though:- Every Blessing Tony

Hi My current main headphones are Sennheiser HD 289 Pro. I've had them a couple of years now. Good, balanced sound and reasonable isolation from external noises. I have a few other sets of 'phones about the place by Sennheiser & Audi-Technica. Every Blessing Tony

Thanks MM I would agree that the Canterbury Compton was probably pipes. Interesting to know that they tried the remote organ idea more than once. Every Blessing Tony

Hammond mentioned Canterbury Cathedral in some of their adverts in the post-war years, when they were advertising regularly in "The Organ". Not sure about the 1960's era - I'd have to dig out my back issues and check, and that's not going to happen at present. Bear in mind that, IIRC, the early 1960's was prior to the building of the Nave organ, so perhaps the presence of an electronic in the Nave isn't such as surprise, especially if the then organist had one available!

Hi MM I'd not heard of that in relation to Canterbury Cathedral, but Elvin mentions a similar arrangement at Salford Cathedral in "Pipes and Actions", quoting an item from Musical Opinion in 1938. Perhaps you could let us know the source of this information. Every Blessing Tony

The Book "The Classical Organ in Britain 1955-1974 (which is vol 1 of 3 covering up to 1990) might be a good place to start. It's written by Rowntree & Brennan, published by Positive Press. The entries are in size order, so you'd need to skim through the whole book to find the earliest (unless there's anything in the introduction) - I've not got time to do that at present. Also, they are very strict in what's included - non-tracker pedal actions are excluded for example (but not electric stop action). Grant, Deagan & Bradbeer were probably the first firm to go almost down the neo-baroque route, but even there, their early organs were electric action, and often included extension (perhaps inevitable with ex-Compton men in key positions!) "Twenty-One Years of Organ Building" Forsythe-Grant contains a listing. On another note, I've recently got hold of photo-copies of Compton-Makin brochures from the early 1970's if they're any use.

Hi I thought the light console was dreamt up by Fred Bentham of Strand Electrics (at the time probably the major UK manufacturer of stage lighting equipment) and he went to Compton for the technical skills to make it happen. Certainly that's what it says in his book on stage lighting that I often borrowed from our local library back in the day. In a modified, less flamboyant layout, the light console continnued in production for a while.

Hi A slightly unusual request. Some time ago I wrote (or to be accurate, improvised a lot) os short pieces to introduce a series of sermons on the 7 Churches of Revelation. As part of the introduction to no.1 I used bell sounds (from a keyboard) for something that sounded vaguely like change ringing on 7 bells. I'm re-visiting the sermons, so thought I'd take the opportunity to revisit my short compositions, so, does anyone have any pointers to a suitable short change-ringing pattern for 7 bells that ends in rounds? For what it's worth, the original rrecording I did is on Soundcloud at - and you'll soon hear why it needs re-working! (The other pieces are also on Soundcloud. Thanks in anticipation Every Blessing Tony

There are a few short cuts for producing accented characters, especially in MS Word. I find the easiest solution is a Windows accessory called "Character Map", which seems to be available on all PC's. That allows you to copy & paste all manner of special characters, and will show aa code for many. Every Blessing Tony

Hi Received the following e-mail yesterday:- " A Fond Farewell from Allegro Music! After just over 34 years in business, Allegro Music is closing its music retail doors to the general public on Friday 8th February 2019 We will be continuing our production of archive reprints on behalf of Oxford University Press, ABRSM and Schott & Co Ltd, but we will no longer supply in-print sheet music from any publisher. Our organ stock has moved to: ChurchOrganWorld Sovereign House 30 Manchester Road Shaw OL2 7DE Tel: 01706 888 100 Email: music@churchorganworld.co.uk www.churchorganworld.co.uk" The end of an era! Every Blessing Tony

Hi Last night's carol service - at which I ended up leading & preaching as well as playing - is the last "big" service for me this year. We're not having anything at church on Christmas Eve, and just a simple service C\christmas Morning. Last night was a little fraught due to various illnesses leading to late changes in readers (& preacher!). Musically it went fairly well with our normal mix of traditional carols plus a handful of "worship" songs. Wishing forum members a happy & blessed Christmas. Tony