Barry Oakley
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Posts posted by Barry Oakley
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With regard to Holy Trinity, Hull. it would be interesting to learn of the present condition of the organ. A few weeks ago, I found a link to the website of the church, where there was a further link to a video of the present organist playing a piece. However, after listening to the vicar's rather 'upbeat' introduction - and learning the title of the piece to be played - I simply could not force myself to listen to it. Perhaps one day this organ will be restored; unfortunately, at the present time, it does not seem that this is likely to happen in the near future.
I cannot give you an up-to-date report as I no longer live in the area, but I know when Paul Derrett and his wife, Serena, were appointed as joint directors of music several years ago, Paul was, dare I say, very excited about the instrument and did quite a good deal of work to bring a number of stops back on speech. But given that it's had no major work done on it since Compton rebuilt and enlarged it in 1938, it's not a one-man task. Upon the Compton demise the organ was under the care (essentially tuning) of R&D until their demise and more latterly has been given periodic tunings by Principal Pipe Organs. I am led to believe that in perhaps the last 30 years some useful sums have been forthcoming from local sources specifically for work on the organ, but this was deemed by the then vicar to be more usefully applied to other projects.
I don't know what part of the country you reside in, PCND, but I daresay a call to Serena Derrett (Her number is shown on the Holy Trinity website), would perhaps enable you hands-on access to the console were you ever to visit Hull or East Yorkshire.
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Choral Evensong once a month with SATB 'scratch' choir (I sing - 'usually have introit, psalm, Mag & Nunc, responses and anthem) at my local 'town' PC. We have Parish Communion only at the (village) church where I play regularly but at one of the other ( again, village) churches where I deputise they do Choral Mattins complete with trimmings except anthem. When I started there I had to re-learn fast how to 'do' anglican psalms again!
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Please tell me what "Parish Communion" is. When I was an Anglican it was either Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, High Mass or Low Mass. Surely the Communion or Eucharist service is not only for people from a parish but for anyone who steps across the threshold. Amongst the other titles that have crept in is "Family Service." Surely all services are for families! And like MM, I lament the passing of Matins (as well as Evensong),with Venite, Te Deum, Benedicite and psalms and the imaginative accompaniments that a good organist could bring if the first three were also to psalm settings.
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I think it's time Nigel Allcoat's post was heeded and the general cancel pressed.
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Your observations about the prosperity Hull, MM, are probably correct. There was a time, like elsewhere, when the city had a great many public benefactors who could be counted upon to reach for their wallets for noteworthy causes. That may have been the case in 1938 when Compton completed this wonderful instrument; I suspect so. Unfortunately, the city's industrial scene has experienced much demise. After the last war it could list umpteen large successful businesses. Now, from my present-day limited knowledge, there are only two left - Reckitt's (Reckitt-Benkaiser) and Smith & Nephew. And gone, too, is Hull's once famous fishing fleet and associated industry.
As for tradition, when I was first a chorister at Holy Trinity in the late 40's, it had a tradition that was the equal to many of the best cathedrals. It was led by the late Norman Strafford, a wonderful organist and charismatic choir master and architect of the 1938 Holy Trinity and 1951 City Hall organs. The churchmanship was decidedly low, (still is) although attracting large congregations to BCP choral matins and choral evensong, many attending because of the legendary musical standards. These standards were perpetuated under the direction of the late Peter Goodman, certainly until he took up the post of City Organist and when there were regular organ recitals at the church. The presence of the restored and rebuilt organ in the City Hall did not impact on good attendances at the church's recitals.
Encouraging attempts to revive the church's choral tradition are achieving some success under the direction of Serena Derrett, wife of a one-time well-known contributor to this forum.
The present condition of the organ is not in a good state. Wind leakage is immediately noticeable from numerous sources and many of the stops have not spoken for a long time, a progressive state of affairs. Compton's legendary transmission system is now in dire need of replacement. The console, too, looks to be in a sad, tired state, giving the impression that it was perhaps once played by a motor mechanic who had yet to learn about Swarfega. There comes a time when patching is no longer effective and I suggest that time arrived several years ago.
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Reading that Bradford Cathedral is to launch an appeal for £250,000 for organ restoration, I am often perplexed as to how the plights of some insignificant instruments easily find public favour and the capital is found at the drop of a hat. Others, though, in spite of the enormous historical significance attached to them, struggle to apparently capture the imagination and generosity of those controlling the purse strings.
We learned some time ago that Canterbury is seeking vast sums to achieve equally vast changes to its organs of which nothing has been heard since. And only just recently we have learned that Exeter needs to raise around £1million for extensive work on its organ. An incredible amount of money for what is an average-size cathedral organ. My guess is that in this instance the “drop of a hat” metaphor may well be appropriate and, hey presto, the money is forthcoming.
At the risk of being labelled a repetitive bore, my mind turns again to the plight of the untouched 75-year-old 4-manual Compton organ in Holy Trinity Church, Hull, England’s largest parish church. If Exeter is going to cost £1million I dare not guess what the larger Holy Trinity Compton will require. But perhaps I should be reminded that Yorkshire shrewdness will prevail and ultimately a builder other than the UK’s reputedly most expensive will be favoured. However, the ultimate question will remain. From where is the money to be found to restore (not tinker with) a historically important organ?
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The writing is going nicely....currently at about p.38 (12,000 words approx) and in time, up to about 1925 and the early years in London, which is where it starts to get challenging, not to say interesting.
My next port of call are the very clever mechanical devices which Compton developed or invented, rather than the electrical expertise, which will have to wait a little longer, when I hope to know the difference between negative and positive. (Positive red, yes?)
Joking apart, I don't want to miss anything out, and I would appreciate a bit of advice and perhaps an answer to one or two questions.
First the questions:-
1) Did Compton have just three standard (Roosevelt) unit chest designs, as I am led to understand, for which only the top-boards differed?
2) Were the unit chests all independently winded, using small regulators?
3) Did all the unit chests have ventils, and were they always switchable at the console?
4) Did Compton ever use Haskelled basses?
Now for the bits I know something about:-
1) Bi-phionc basses (both pneumatic (early) and electro-pneumatic)
2) The Compton "cube"
3) The iris valves for pipe regulation
4) The wind-trunking modular construction
5) The "off-centre" valves to reduce the percussive effect of wind at the pipe foot
6) The diaphones
No's 1 - 6 I am all right with, but have I missed anything important off the list?
Best,
MM
Nice to know the writing is coming along well, MM. I'm curious to know if you solved the question about the origin of Compton pipework; was it made in-house or acquired from elsewhere? Of course, Ian Bell may be able to answer that question.
Was interested to read David Drinkell's piece on the Albert Hall, Sheffield, and to learn that Andrews of Bradford had supplied a new console and action for the Cavaille Coll. I guess that console may well have been designed by the late Frank Mitchell, my last face-to-face Compton contact who joined the company from Andrews and who designed many Compton consoles.
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Except that it looks as if this photograph was taken from a standing position - and perhaps by someone who was quite tall. If one is seated on the bench, I am willing to bet that the view is not anything like as helpful. In any case, I do not see how it can be so: there are five claviers, then the row of couplers, then a strip of wood. I am fairly sure that it would not be possible to achieve the view above, from a seated position.
Having seen the above view, I cannot imagine what they were thinking - this console is incredibly ugly. Look at the ridiculously wide stop jambs with the multiple rows of stops - and the wasted space above several of the outer rows. Clearly the stepped part is integral to the 'design' - the music desk (such as it is) is in place. The whole thing looks like part of a spaceship control panel from a budget 1960's film set.
Compared to the previous somewhat more dignified console, this just looks absurd. Why, oh why, did Latry, Lefébvre and Leguay think that it was necessary to replace the previous console with this monstrosity? In any case, with the advent of flat-screen TVs, I can see no need to attempt to make this console so squat.
If this is what they consider to be a good, elegant and ergonomic console design, I shudder to think what they may do to the instrument tonally, during its rebuilding next year. I still regard the re-casting of the G.O. and Positif compound stops as progressive mixtures* in 1992 as a mistake, on this instrument. The removal of both Récit chorus mixtures was also unnecessary. If one does not like them, do not draw them.
If this were a car, it would be a Citroën 2CV.
* Cavaillé-Coll only used such stops for around ten years or so; after this, he reverted to repeating - or breaking - mixtures.
The photographer has tried to achieve everything and in so doing has created a dog's dinner. Undoubtedly a very wide-angle lens has been used from a too close position and not surprisingly caused a great deal of distortion of the subject. I suspect it's not half as ugly, but I also suspect the photographer had little room to move back from the console and thus considerably minimise distortion.
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MM - You are bound to get some digressions along the way in the pursuit of your objective. The reference to brewer John Joule is of interest as they once made a tasty glass of nectar in their brewery in the small town, Stone, near to where I live. Not that I have ever sought information relating to Joule's prowess as an organist in the town at any of the local churches, but It's interesting to me that when the Joule's business was initially sold out it was bought by the Harding family from Liverpool. The Harding's were no strangers to the world of good music and I believe there is still in this part of Staffordshire a charity of that name that supports local musical concerts. I was once a guest of the late Michael Harding at his Stone residence where he possessed a magnificent rosewood Steinway concert grand. He was a wonderful pianist and I believe he was a useful organist.
Pipework from the Jardine organ from the former St Peter's Church, Manchester, is also something I have come across. I'm not sure if your researches have pointed you in the direction of St Katherine's, Lincoln, an Anglican breakaway church run by an Ian Gray who acquired the organ upon its demise. When I last spoke to Ian Gray almost 20 years ago it was his intention to have the organ rebuilt in St Katherine's.
I realise this information is probably yet more digression from your project and I trust you will forgive me.
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MM - In case you have not discovered this web page, there is reference to Samuel Pilling and John Compton. It is littered with typing errors. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/frederick-w-thornsby/dictionary-of-organs-and-organists-roh/page-63-dictionary-of-organs-and-organists-roh.shtml
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Well, I'm up to page 10 now, and surprising things still emerge as I read and re-read information to hand.
I learned yesterday that Compton, by then working on his own accord for the first time, used a bi-phonic pedal Diapason as early as 1906!
It does tend to confirm the fact that he was, in his own rights, a highly inventive organ-builder, before the other major innovators joined the Compton team.
I am no nearer to making a connection between Mr S W Pilling of Welton Hall, and the Mr Pilling of Makin Organs, and it's rapidly becoming as futile a quest as looking for evidence linking Compton and Sir Bernard Lovell when they were involved, rather vaguely, in "developing RADAR". It amazes me that a prominent and very wealthy Liberal of the late 19th century can be so elusive, when the name Pilling is in itself quite rare. Then to discover that the "Mr" Pilling who bought Compton's electronic interests is equally elusive; his name almost non-existent on company records as a director of anything. He isn't mentioned in the Carnforth histories and on-line material, (he lived his latter days in an old hall in Carnforth), yet we know that there was a Bibby connection and that he was a very wealthy industrialist. It is so frustrating when people operate beneath the obvious radar, yet you know they existed and were very significant. Grrrrr!
The wonderful thing about computers is the way it is possile to back-track and make corrections as new evidence emerges, as well as make indicators to specfiic points of reference, so I am moving on to other things, and if, to quote Mr Micawber, "something turns up", I can slot it in later.
Best,
MM
I discovered an interesting link (National Archives) about a Mr Samuel Pilling and his wife Leila, (and no more than what I write) that when they lived at Welton Hall there was a visit by the IAO in 1929. Of course, there is nothing, other than the name, to possibly link Samuel Pilling with the Mr Pilling of Makin Organs, but this is surely more than a coincidence I suggest. I have not discovered if there was a house organ at Welton Hall, but it would not surprise me if there was one, given the IAO visit.
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I would endorse what MM says about the Hull City Hall reeds, positive that he is referring to the 8ft Tuba and its wonderful sister stop, the Orchestral Trumpet. They are magnificently bold and musical. I'm not sure, though, of their pedigree because the original 1911 organ by Forster & Andrews (F&A) also listed these two stops on the Solo division. Being at the top of the organ the Solo division may have sustained some of the bomb damage during WWII. Although I have tuned both stops for the late Peter Goodman I did not have reason or thought to question their pedigree. But I rather fancy the present Tuba and Orchestral Trumpet could well be by F&A and would probably not be by HN&B who did not acquire F&A until much later. It is well documented that the 1911 F&A organ lacked power, something that Compton's rectified in their 1950/51 rebuild, much of the present reed voicing being done by Frank Hancock, Compton's principal reed voicer. I add the proviso that I could be wrong.
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They probably fled when people heard the organs the family had made.
Best,
MM
Maybe, but the NPOR website contains a mighty impressive list of organs attributable to Peter Conacher and he seems to have built a great many for Ulster. I assume that half the stops on the rather brash instrument in Hanley's Victoria Hall are those of the original Conacher organ.
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Bernard Edmunds wrote, 'Conacher Sheffield, upon whom be maledictions'. I think that sums them up. I don't think think they were ever up to much, although I seem to remember an ad in MO for a clever-looking little extension organ in a college somewhere which might have been quite nice in a Mander Denham-ish sort of way if it worked out. I don't know if they had any connection with the Huddersfield Conachers - it's not a particularly unusual surname so it might just be coincidence.
"Not a particularly unusual surname" you say, David. I've just done a search via the BT online directory for major cities in Yorkshire and it only comes up with one personal name (ironically a P Conacher) in Leeds. And surprisingly there's nobody listed by that name in Huddersfield or Birmingham.
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I'm wondering where Conacher Sheffield (not the city) fits into this discussion. They appear to hail from Birmingham and I have no idea if Peter Conacher was the Conacher part of the company. In these parts, Staffordshire, they were responsible for additions to the Sam Green organ, originally at Bangor Cathedral, at the wonderful Anglo-Catholic church at Hoar Cross. By all accounts their work there was something of a dogs dinner, enlarging the instrument by installing too much additional, highly space hungry pipework with pneumatic action on a mechanical action organ. I understand the organ is presently being restored by Bishops to something like its original specification.
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The research continues on John Compton and his company, and stumbling across something interesting sparked another possible avenue of enquiry. I wasn't aware that Jimmy Taylor, (who ran things after the death of John Compton), was quite an accomplished organist, and served as Honorary Assistant at St Bride's, Fleet Street, until his death, duirng the time that Gordon Reynolds was there. Equally of interest to me was the fact that he also gave an opening concert in Birmingham, on a new theatre organ. So how good an organist was he? Was he a dual talent....playing both light and classical music?
Aniother question springs to mind....the comparative costs of Compton extension organs compared to straight instruments. I was surprised to learn that one theatre organ built and installed in 1935 cost £6,000, which was quite a lot of money in those days. A whole house would probably cost between £500 and £1,000, depending on location in those days, which makes £6,000 sound something like £1,000,000 to-day.....surely not!!!!!
Best,
MM
I remember hearing Jimmy Taylor play both types of instrument during the 1950/51 period when Compton's were rebuilding, enlarging and restoring the Hull City Hall organ and boy, he could play! Before the City Hall organ was being finally readied for the opening recital I heard him play some Whitlock (I think from the Plymouth Suite) and then he went on to exploit the instrument in cinema style, using the many percussion traps the instrument has. And at the city's then Astoria Cinema where there was a notable Compton theatre organ and which had developed a transmission hiccup, he took me along to hold keys and then put it through his paces, playing typical pop tunes of the era. Like Compton, I would say Jimmy Taylor was equally talented.
Jimmy Taylor's association with Gordon Reynolds may well have also blossomed in Hull where the latter I believe was earlier tutored by Norman Strafford on the Holy Trinity Compton.
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In reply to "Mixture of Aberdeen"
My knowledge and enjoyment of the Holy Trinity, Hull, Compton goes back to 1949 when it was in a pristine state, having only been completed some 11 years earlier and when, as a boy, I sometimes watched Jimmy Taylor do a spot of tuning. I also saw Hull's City Hall organ undergoing restoration and rebuilding only 12 months later. But Nigel Hart? I suspect he is from a more recent generation.
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Although I may appear to be a "new boy" I have been reading for years these pages.
A relatively new computer has not helped one bit as all previous details of this project have been lost.
However, I am making an appeal, as for years I maintained a wonderful Compton (3 man/Pedal) in Aberdeen, St Nicholas Church.
Due to a re-development plan and the need to excavate for historical reasons the entire internal church floor, I was invited to remove the console which was downstairs, many hundreds of feet from the organ proper in the gallery.
This was duly done but ten years later many things have changed.
There now seems little chance that the organ will ever be restored, but having never been cleaned or altered since installation, this would be a tragic loss.
The reeds are extremely fine, being 2 complete families of oboes and trumpets.
However the 3 manual dark oak console complete with stool, pedalboard,and ivory key covers is still in my store The stops are the illuminated type, but quite a few bulbs are " blown".
At present I am looking for advice as to a possible Compton museum.
Are there any interested parties who may be able to help ??
Over the years I have submitted a number of posts to this forum, enthusiastically praising the work of the great John Compton. I would rather that Compton's work be put back into service rather than sit silently in a museum. As a boy chorister and along with my fellow choristers we were fortunate to be accompanied by the largest church organ built by Compton, the magnificent four-manual at Holy Trinity Church, Hull. It's not been touched since it was built in 1938 and is in dire need of restoration that's likely to cost an enormous amount of money in these cash-strapped times.
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I'm told that the organ chamber that housed the Mander pipe organ is now empty. Curious to know if anyone knows what has happened to it?
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Apart from the sheer loudness of just about everything C-C played, (I had no idea there were so many very loud reeds on the Albert Hall organ), I don't actually recall a single note of the second broadcast.
I found myself chuckling, because having heard C-C how "grotesque" and "unbeautiful" Bach's organ works were, I just wondered how the hell he could consider his own syncratic P & F anything other than the same. Clever perhaps, but by far the most over-inflated piece of non-music I've ever heard. With Virgil Fox, it was possible renter into the spirit of glitz, showmanship and high camp,and with Carlo Curley,one could be amused and thrilled; sometimes moved by things of great beauty and expressiveness. Xaver Varnues brings real musicinship to the expressionist style,while his crossover music is always perfgectly judged and executed..
When it comes to music-making,I just regard C-C as delusional.
Best,
MM
I emphatically concur with what you have said in it's entirety. I think it's clear case of the BBC being conned!
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I have just Googled its news section to see if any obituaries have appeared relating to the death of Carlo Curley, perhaps the world's most famous concert organist. Only Wikipeadia has updated its entry and I can't find a single obituary. Meanwhile, RIP Sid Waddell
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I'm somewhat out of touch these days with cost of organ refurbishments. Am I being impertinent to ask what the financial cost of the work at Ripon will work out at?
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A Benedictine monk is correctly addressed as "Brother Joe Bloggs OSB". So confusion at the monastery when an envelope arrived, marked "Private and Confidential" and addressed to "Brother OSB"!
As the majority of Benedictine monks are also ordained priests they are correctly addressed as, Rev'd DOM (name) OSB. In the case of an unordained Benedictine monk they are addressed as DOM (name) OSB. These are correct in terms of written communication. In terms of verbal addreses it is, respectively, Father and Brother. Just to clarify.
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I understand that the last two organs (both in the same building) built by the "Old Firm" of Peter Conacher, Huddersfield, were completed in the mid 1960's and were for the Tapton Masonic Hall, Sheffield.
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And does anyone know where the talented James Norrey is going? I see that the cash-strapped cathedral at Llandaff is advertising for an assistant organist, the post that James Norrey presently holds.
Birthday Celebration
in General discussion
Posted
Paul Derrett ("Cynic") is celebrating his 60th birthday by way of a recital on the nave organ at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, this coming May Bank holiday - Monday, 6th May at 3.30pm. Admission is free and Sothwell's bank holiday recitals are usually well attended.