Tony Newnham

Thanks to Fiffaro (David) for his encouragement. Sadly, the hospital in Coventry has a very poor wi-fi system, and an even more unreliable mobile signal. I did try & keep up with various things in the first few weeks, but gave up just before my surgery was due - and I was feeling rather ill. I'm eventually catching up - still some lingering discomfort from the surgery & I'm still getting rather tired - the surgeon told me that recovery would be a long process, and it seems he was right! Every Blessing Tony

Hi I too remember the Organ Gallery R3 series - I think I may still have some that I recorded off-air on cassette. Every Blessing Tony

Hi The only thing I've decided on definitely is Guillmant's Introduction and Variations on a Polish Carol to end the 2 carol services (in different churches) that I'm playing for. My recent illness means that I'm rather rusty and trying to get playing techniques sorted out. I've no service on Christmas Eve this year, and Christmas Day tends to be a short, informal affair, which should be easy enough to find suitable music for. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I agree the forum has been rather slow of late (except when I look this morning!). I'm one of the moderators of another organ forum, and that's been even slower than here - I guess a lot of organists are busy with Christmas service preparations, etc. At least I have an excuse for not posting much recently - I've rather ill, ended up in hospital for 11 weeks, including major surgery - the surgeon said it would take a long time to recover from, and he wasn't joking! I've only got 2 carol services (one in another church that doesn't have a regular organist) and Christmas Day to worry about this year. As to the retention of hand blowing, I was grateful for that feature when we had a power cut during a wedding that I was playing for. I've also played a couple of organs that only have hand blowing - there's a quick demo of one of them (mobile phone recording) on my You Tube channel - . The organ dates from 1851 and is probably the earliest example of John Laycock's work (before the Laycock & Bannister firm was established). The organ has been in Cowling Hill Baptist since 1873, being originally built for Glusburn Baptist. Every Blessing Tony

Hi So far I've only got 4 or 5 of the Priory DVD's. I find them very interesting and intend to buy some more in the future. The section on the Norwich Cathedral DVD where David Dunnett demonstrates how he plays one of the pieces is a masterclass in organ control. Every Blessing Tony

Hi A couple of points re. Colin Pykett's post above. 1) NPOR searches are best if you enter the minimum amount of information. I found the relevant survey very quickly just now by simply entering "King's College" in the search box, and then selecting the relevant entry from the half a dozen or so King's Colleges in the database. As to the county, NPOR locations are based on counties as they were a good few years ago - and updating would be a mammoth job!. Most if not all of London North of the Thames was in Middlesex at one time - areas South of the Thames appear under Kent - but since there's no need normally to specify a county in the search, it really makes little difference. 2) I had a similar problem to that described by Colin when recording a Wurlitzer theatre organ. I traced the problem to running mic. cables parallel and close to the main action cable between console & organ chamber ( and that was using quality balanced microphones). Rerouting the mic cables solved the problem.

Hi I wonder if Mustel - the Harmonium builder who also invented the Celeste - h ad trademarked the term or something similar. Or possibly Wurlitzer didn't want any confusion between pipe Celeste stops & Celesta? Just musing - no proof of either idea! Every Blessing Tony

Hi BOA has a couple of references to St John, Old Colwyn, (but from a secondary source). According to that it was built by Conacher in 1903 & rebuilt be them in c.1913. The NPOR ref is N11752, but it is a 1955 survey. Hopefully, when I'm eventually well enough to get there, Quentin will find time to show me his churches & their organs. Every Blessing Tony

Hi As church organists/musicians, we are there to support the work of the church, and not simply to promote our personal likes/dislikes musically (although inevitably, likes do tend to come to the top). As Zimbelstern says, we need to remember Psalm 150, which mentions all classes of musical instruments - and you could perhaps argue all musical styles.

Enjoy your retirement John.

Hi I suppose having been brought up in a free church that had a worship band of sorts in the 1950's does colour my thinking, but bssically, anything that helps people connect with & worship God is fine (As long as the theology is OK,, but that's a whole different can of worms). I've rregularly played organ in worship bands, as well ass piano/keyboards since I first played in church over 50 years ago. In my experience, finding pipe organs that are in tune with modern instrumental pitch can be difficult, but organ plus works as long as the organist doesn't try to dominate, or to do it all. Every Blessing Tony

The Southfields stop list is derived from the builder's advert in "The Organ", and may well indicate what was planned rather than the final stop nomenclature of what was installed - a not uncommon problem. The only SR I've played regularly is in Burnham on-Crouch Baptist in Essex. See E00328 A mere 11 stops but surprisingly versatile - and the metal flues NEVER drifted out of tune, being cone-tuned pipework. Every Blessing Tony

Thanks John - I'll pass the info on. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I've been asked about insurance values for a historic 4m 35 stop pipe organ. Any ideas? Every Blessing Tony

Hi Just a note - I see that someone above has mentioned Franck's "L'Organiste". These were actually written for Harmonium, and he often calls on the divided keyboard & registrations at different pitches. If you're going to play them (and many do work well on a pipe organ), you need to (1) ensure that the edition you use has they registration codes (Numbers in circles above each stave, etc.) - I've seen editions without this essential feature on the web!. Also (2) that you take on board the relevant pitches of the Harmonium stops. One example is where he alternates short passages between rank 3 (sounding an octave higher than written) on one stave, and rank 2 (16ft rank) on the other. The effect is passages that are around the same pitch, but different in tonality - not passages 3 octaves apart! Hope all goes well as your organ playing develops. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I think I read a quote from Dom Bedos suggesting using a tremulant to hide out of tune reeds! If that's correct, then it's a relatively early device. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I've come across a good few Conacher organs over the years, and haven't found a really bad one (aside from maintenance issues); and one of the most surprisingly versatile small organs of the era that I've played a few times is this one http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N13335 Just a handful of stops across 2 manuals - the only thing I'd prefer is a Cornopean instead of the Oboe on the Swell. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I first learned & played this from the Novello edition. These days I use the Barenreiter urtext publication that I purchased a fe years back because my Novello volume (dating from the late '60's) was falling to pieces! I'm probably a bit of Philistine with the ornaments - I just play what feels right to me! Health problems and no tradition of proper voluntaries in the church I play at has meant I've got rather out of practice, but I've set myself to play through the Bach Passiontide Chorale Preludes from the Orgelbuchlein one each Sunday (except Family Services) during Lent. Not sure if I'll manage it - and the organ is not the most suitable, being a Yamaha HS8 (spinet style with a 20 note pedalboard) controlling a basic computer simulator). The first one (O Lamm Gottes Unschulfig) yesterday went quite well - pedal part played down an octave with 4ft Pedal stop plus a 4ft coupled through from the "Swell". O Mensch will probably make an appearance for the communion service the Sunday after next. It's probably the one Passiontide chorale that I know best - certainly the one I've played most! Trying to do this at least meaans that I have to practice rather more than I have been of late! Every Blessing Tony

It loos pretty good in the situation - but why did the DOA want a full size mock-up, which no doubt has cost the church a fair sum. What's wrong with computer-generated images for the purpose? Just wondering. Hope you're keeping well Peter.

True Colin As I think it was Dom Bedos who pointed out that the tremulant could be used to disguise out of gtune reeds. Every Blessing Tony

As Colin points out, the pitch difference between an ET quint & one tuned true is very small, hance Quints, Twelfths etc. on extension organs work reasonably well. Tierce ranks are a problem - some Theatre organs have a Tierce and it's really only usable as a solo stop IMHO. One solution that I have come across - although I don't know if Compton did it this way - is to derive the Tierce from a beating rank that doubles as a Celeste. Again, it needs a compromise, as the optimum tuning for a celeste isn't the same as a true Tierce, but again, it can work acceptably well. The small Compton in South Harrow Baptist Church (NPOR E01335) dating from 1947 had, among other things, a Celeste/Tierce rank added by Keith Bance in 1997. Every Blessing Tony

Hi As David said, Electrophonic Organs (the post-war firm) did advertise in "The Organ" for a short while. As Colin said, they didn't seem to last very long. I came across a 2m example of their work in Shipley Baptist Church. It was non-working, not least because the rather large speaker array had been disconnected! It went to Canon Quentintin Bellamy, but I don;t think he was able to keep it for long, and where it went after that I don't know. I've heard of another example in a house in Worthing, but aside from a mention on a web site that is no longer available, I don't know any more and never got to see it. A short-lived episode in the world of electronic organs. Shipley Baptist, like many Baptist & other free churches in the Bradford area, had demolished their large church building, which had contained a 4m pipe organ no less - it went to form the basis of the organ in Guildford Cathedral - a better fate than a Harrison, a Conacher & a Laycock & Bannister from other churches that I know about which, as far as I know, were all scrapped. Every Blessing Tony

Hi NPOR Survey is 1957 - as stated on the screen. Taken from thee Organ Club Journal. Any updates welcome, as always. We will get to them in time! Every Blessing Tony

Hi It's certainly a fine sounding organ, but I was glad I wasn't playing it for a special event back in the 1970's. I was there to accompany a choir from another church on piano (a decent grand IIRC). Anyway, back to the organ, the reason I was glad I wasn't at the console was the Pedal Posaune cyphered during the closing hymn - and wasn't silenced until the organist had switched off the blower & allowed the reservoir to empty - so it continued drom=ning at quite a substantial volume throughout the closing prayers etc.! As to organs in hotels, NPOR E00216 shows a Wood Wordsworth house organ that was moved from it's previous home in East Sussex (where I played it a couple of times) when they sold up and moved up North. Last I heard it had been removed. Every Blessing Tony

Hi I think Colin may well be right in his suggestion that the 16ft is intended - at least in part -to counterbalance the shrillness of high pitched mixtures. The same thinking, it seems to me, applies in reed organs, where a manual 16ft is an early addition to the stop list to balance the significant harmonic development of free reeds. Every Blessing Tony