Barry Oakley
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Posts posted by Barry Oakley
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The last service, Vespers, that came from Notre-Dame last evening.
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30 minutes ago, Contrabombarde said:
£400,000 in today's money for a brand new 44 rank extension organ sounds implausible (and the Compton at Wolverhampton sounds like it had perhaps 53 ranks). What might a ball-park figure be for a new 53 rank extension organ in a concert hall if I was looking to commission one (not that I am - just curious on the pricing! Most new concert hall organs are probably "straight" and have mechanical action which I would expect pushes up the cost considerably).
Fifty-three ranks at today's prices I reckon would cost, at best, just under £1million.
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12 minutes ago, Contrabombarde said:
Spotted this press release recently quoted in an international IT journal and thought it would be of wider interest.
"Faced with the relative lack of organ builders in the Far East, years of experience of robotic assembly lines and the growing capability of artificial intelligence, one enterprising start-up has just launched a new service that allows customers to have their dream organ designed and built entirely by robots. The acoustical properties of the building are assessed by recordings of ambience and echo, then artificial intelligence is used to calculate the optimal size of instrument and pipe scaling. Ex-car assembly line retired robots cut the sheet metal and roll it into pipes, and a specialist "robot voicer" takes each pipe and voices it to match one of a dozen or so styles of master voicer, options including Father Willis, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, Gottfried Silbermann, Edvard Schulze, Schnitger and Snetzler. Computer-controlled machining meanwhile assures aviation-standard tolerances in the manufacture of keyboards, action, soundboards and winding. It's estimated that the total build time from signing contract to final installation and sign-off for a typical three manual church organ can be as little as four weeks, and the carbon footprint is reckoned to be half that of a conventional pipe organ."
Sounds incredible - I need to find a link.
April 1st?????????????????????????????????
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"It's a curious thing, but the original Forster & Andrews organ at Hull City Hall, would never have come about without an act of parliament, because there were those who regarded the organ as being far too large for the hall, and raised objections. I'm glad to say that they were overruled."
And some organ builders, Willis amongst them, said the original concept (1911), was too large for the space and declined to submit a proposal. How wrong they were.
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It points to civic authorities needing to have someone, at least, in the permanent role of custodian. For some time I believe Wolverhampton had been without its organist. I’m sure that had there still been a knowledgeable custodian in place, the Wolverhampton Compton would have remained in existence.
Although he was paid a pittance by Hull City Council, the late Peter Goodman strove endlessly to keep the City Hall’s wonderful Forster & Andrews/John Compton organ in good order. The only time he was overruled was when the city fathers insisted that the remote Compton console was placed in a new fixed position under the facade to make way for pop concerts.
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I'm most grateful, Philip. I wonder what you got for £75?
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Apologies for the digression, but has anyone on this forum any idea of what the cost would have been for an 1898 Casson "Positive." ?
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Bairstow was equally minded to express his disappointment after the Willis organ in Sheffield City Hall failed to come up to expectations after the completion of the hall.
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On 23/10/2018 at 15:55, David Drinkell said:
I don't get to know as much as I did about the British scene, having lived in Canada for the last fifteen years, but here are some thoughts (which I should be glad to have corrected or amplified).
Things have changed a lot over the last twenty years or so. I remember it being said when I was a teenager, "In twenty years time, there'll be no HN&B, no Rushworth and no Willis". Well, HN&B and Rushworths have ceased trading, but Willis has undergone a rebirth under the direction of David Wyld. Walkers, on the other hand, after producing some stunning work when Bob Pennells was in charge, had a tragedy when his son Mark succumbed to cancer at an early age and now seem to work on a smaller scale. On the other hand, newer and smaller firms such as David Wells and Kenneth Tickell have produced some world-class work and Nicholsons have joined the big league, having always been excellent, but on a smaller scale.
I think the best thing is to play as many instruments as you can, because there are a lot of fine organs around which may not be by the most famous builders. To name but a very few:
Cedric Arnold, Williamson & Hyatt: Little Walsingham PC, Norfolk; St. Botolph, Colchester, Essex
Holmes & Swift: Kings Lynn Minster, Norfolk
Roger Yates: Kilkhampton PC, Cornwall (also a remarkable 3 manual, 7 stop Father Willis ex-chamber organ in the Methodist Church); Bozeat PC, Northants; St. John, Taunton, Devon (rebuild of a Father Willis)
Percy Daniel: Christ Church, Swindon, Wiltshire, Westbury-on-Trym PC, Henbury PC and Redland URC, Bristol (big, fun 4 manual)
Sometimes, smaller organs by big builders are well worth the trouble of seeking out:
Arthur Harrison: St. Alkmund, Shrewsbury (built for the RSCM and on long loan here); Christ Church, Keighley, Yorkshire (Wow!); All Saints, Maidenhead, Berks (the organist is my oldest friend if you want an intro).
Norman & Beard: Colchester Town Hall
Peter Collins: Holy Angels, Cranford, Middlesex
Or off the beaten track:
Binns: Old Independent Church, Haverhill, Suffolk; St. Mary, Shrewsbury
Rushworth & Dreaper: Holy Rude, Stirling; Reid Memorial, Edinburgh; Christ's Hospital, Horsham (they also have an historic 3 manual Hill and a Father Willis "Model" Organ); Malvern Priory
Compton: Downside Abbey
Father Willis: St. Bees Priory, Cumbria (worth the journey!)
Hill: All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London; St. John, Hove (not my cup of tea, this one, although generally thought to be very fine indeed - I prefer the Father Willis at St. Peter's, Brighton, or the ambience of the mongrel at St. Bartholomew: the church is essential viewing for OTT Anglo-Catholicism!)
A crawl round the City of London would yield a lot of interest.
Mander: St. Giles, Cripplegate, St. Vedast, Foster Lane, St. Michael Paternoster Royal (a 1 manual in 18th century style with GGG compass), St. James Garlickhythe (restoration of an organ with very varied ancestry), St. Paul's!
Kenneth Tickell: St. Mary-le-Bow
Compton: St. Bride, Fleet Street, St. Olave, Hart Street (a very nice smaller job), and, outside the City, St. Luke's, Chelsea and St. Mary Magdalen, Paddington
Willis III: St. Dunstan in the West
Hill: St. Mary Woolnoth, St. Mary at Hill (excellent restoration by our hosts following a fire)
Bates: St. Martin, Ludgate (a notable early restoration by our hosts)
Harrison: All Hallows by the Tower
van Leeuwen: Dutch Church, Austin Friars
David Wells: St. Katharine Cree (reinstatement of Father Willis, previously much-altered, in gorgeous Father Smith case)
Spurden Rutt: St. Magnus the Martyr (the only Rutt that I like! Very varied ancestry, but a fine Romantic organ in an impressive Jordan case)
Bishop & Son: St. Margaret Lothbury (excellent example of John Budgen's Old English style - Framlingham PC, Suffolk, is another: a definite must-see/play)
Norman & Beard: St. Mary Aldermary
and so on.......
To experience a wide variety of instruments and styles and, more important, the way they work and should be played, join the Organ Club. I joined when I was 13 and learned such a lot.
Forster & Andrews/John Compton - Hull Minster.
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A wonderful organ that my late friend, George Sixsmith, looked after. The pedal Violone is the best example I know of the stop.
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When reading this topic I wish had been so minded to ask all the questions raised with the late Frank Mitchell, John Compton's console designer who I knew when he lived in Worksop.
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This organ was apparently last restored less than 20 years ago by the Lichfield firm of Hawkins, organ builders. Asbestos is now being cited for its scrapping and so are the people who worked on it now in a state of terminal decline due to asbestosis? I think a certain amount of salt needs to be applied to statements and excuses coming from the local council.
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Along with my late friend and former Hull City Organist and Master of Choristers at what is now Hull Minster, Peter Goodman, I lunched about 20 years ago with Noel Rawsthorne and his wife outside the pub in the Cheshire village of Great Budworth. Much humour erupted at the dining table prior to Peter Goodman giving a recital in the parish church on a newly built digital organ by another friend, the late George Sixsmith. May Noel RIP.
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I’m one of those who whilst I like most of Widor’s output, have become averse to his famous Toccata. Unfortunately it has been flogged to death and become a hackneyed classic. Yesterday I attended the Requiem mass of a dear friend, a former Benedictine nun, in the Pugin chapel of Oulton Abbey near the town of Stone. Its modest two-manual organ has not an array of reeds (thankfully) to do the said Widor Toccata any form of justice. Instead, the most talented young George Gillow played a selection of Trio Preludes based on Sarum chant hymn melodies by Josef Henriksen and R V-W’s “Rhosymedre” at the start and finished the occasion with Howells’ “Master Tallis Testament.” Today, George heads back to Toulouse to enjoy the delights of the cathedral’s Cavaille-Coll where he is doing a further stint as an organ scholar.
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A wonderful occasion indeed. I shall have to listen to the Judith Weir piece again before I come to decision.
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17 hours ago, David Drinkell said:
I don't get to know as much as I did about the British scene, having lived in Canada for the last fifteen years, but here are some thoughts (which I should be glad to have corrected or amplified).
Things have changed a lot over the last twenty years or so. I remember it being said when I was a teenager, "In twenty years time, there'll be no HN&B, no Rushworth and no Willis". Well, HN&B and Rushworths have ceased trading, but Willis has undergone a rebirth under the direction of David Wyld. Walkers, on the other hand, after producing some stunning work when Bob Pennells was in charge, had a tragedy when his son Mark succumbed to cancer at an early age and now seem to work on a smaller scale. On the other hand, newer and smaller firms such as David Wells and Kenneth Tickell have produced some world-class work and Nicholsons have joined the big league, having always been excellent, but on a smaller scale.
I think the best thing is to play as many instruments as you can, because there are a lot of fine organs around which may not be by the most famous builders. To name but a very few:
Cedric Arnold, Williamson & Hyatt: Little Walsingham PC, Norfolk; St. Botolph, Colchester, Essex
Holmes & Swift: Kings Lynn Minster, Norfolk
Roger Yates: Kilkhampton PC, Cornwall (also a remarkable 3 manual, 7 stop Father Willis ex-chamber organ in the Methodist Church); Bozeat PC, Northants; St. John, Taunton, Devon (rebuild of a Father Willis)
Percy Daniel: Christ Church, Swindon, Wiltshire, Westbury-on-Trym PC, Henbury PC and Redland URC, Bristol (big, fun 4 manual)
Sometimes, smaller organs by big builders are well worth the trouble of seeking out:
Arthur Harrison: St. Alkmund, Shrewsbury (built for the RSCM and on long loan here); Christ Church, Keighley, Yorkshire (Wow!); All Saints, Maidenhead, Berks (the organist is my oldest friend if you want an intro).
Norman & Beard: Colchester Town Hall
Peter Collins: Holy Angels, Cranford, Middlesex
Or off the beaten track:
Binns: Old Independent Church, Haverhill, Suffolk; St. Mary, Shrewsbury
Rushworth & Dreaper: Holy Rude, Stirling; Reid Memorial, Edinburgh; Christ's Hospital, Horsham (they also have an historic 3 manual Hill and a Father Willis "Model" Organ); Malvern Priory
Compton: Downside Abbey
Father Willis: St. Bees Priory, Cumbria (worth the journey!)
Hill: All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London; St. John, Hove (not my cup of tea, this one, although generally thought to be very fine indeed - I prefer the Father Willis at St. Peter's, Brighton, or the ambience of the mongrel at St. Bartholomew: the church is essential viewing for OTT Anglo-Catholicism!)
A crawl round the City of London would yield a lot of interest.
Mander: St. Giles, Cripplegate, St. Vedast, Foster Lane, St. Michael Paternoster Royal (a 1 manual in 18th century style with GGG compass), St. James Garlickhythe (restoration of an organ with very varied ancestry), St. Paul's!
Kenneth Tickell: St. Mary-le-Bow
Compton: St. Bride, Fleet Street, St. Olave, Hart Street (a very nice smaller job), and, outside the City, St. Luke's, Chelsea and St. Mary Magdalen, Paddington
Willis III: St. Dunstan in the West
Hill: St. Mary Woolnoth, St. Mary at Hill (excellent restoration by our hosts following a fire)
Bates: St. Martin, Ludgate (a notable early restoration by our hosts)
Harrison: All Hallows by the Tower
van Leeuwen: Dutch Church, Austin Friars
David Wells: St. Katharine Cree (reinstatement of Father Willis, previously much-altered, in gorgeous Father Smith case)
Spurden Rutt: St. Magnus the Martyr (the only Rutt that I like! Very varied ancestry, but a fine Romantic organ in an impressive Jordan case)
Bishop & Son: St. Margaret Lothbury (excellent example of John Budgen's Old English style - Framlingham PC, Suffolk, is another: a definite must-see/play)
Norman & Beard: St. Mary Aldermary
and so on.......
To experience a wide variety of instruments and styles and, more important, the way they work and should be played, join the Organ Club. I joined when I was 13 and learned such a lot.
And so on...........
You also forget the work of Compton in transforming the organs of Hull Minster (formerly known as Holy Trinity) and of Hull City Hall, both now in the care of former Walker-trained organ builder, Andrew Carter. The Hull Minster organ is slowly being restored and when completed, its new acoustically sympathetic environment will place it high on the list of must play organs. Compton was a genius who did not just build instruments for the cinema.
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I don't think anyone has so far mention
ed the Cook "Fanfare"
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The museum idea for the Compton console at Hull Minster is worthy of consideration. A previous organist had the idea of siting it in the quire where many more services are held these days and a new mobile console for use as a liturgical and recital instrument in the nave.
I only ever knew one Compton drawstop console, Bridlington Priory and when a three-manual following the firm’s rebuild just after the war.
Whether I shall be around to hear a restored organ at Hull Minster is something I dream of being fulfilled. I was fortunate to hear it within 10 years of the 1939 rebuild and its typical Compton singing qualities still resound in my mind.
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14 hours ago, David Drinkell said:
A fine picture - thank you! I hope that, when the time comes, there will be a straightforward restoration, including the Compton console with its luminous stop-heads. This organ was always reckoned to be one of Compton's finest rebuilds and it deserves careful treatment. It's amazing how durable Compton's work could be. His actions could still be working well after more than fifty years. I believe Downside is running on a lot of original components after 87 years (Roger Taylor deserves much credit for looking after it).
Here's the console at Hull, battered but still going:
The most important aspect of the eventual Hull Minster restoration is the retention of the original voicing, especially the work of Billy Jones who masterfully voiced the wonderful reeds.
During the past few years much has happened to the internal fabric of the Minster. Gone are the heavy fixed central pews and a new stone floor has been laid, transforming the acoustics to a wonderful level. The nave choir stalls have been modified and transposed to a new position.
It’s easy to be sentimental about the console with its 1930’s patented illuminated Compton stop heads. But the Minster’s reordered nave and the much improved acoustics present an opportunity for a new mobile drawstop console and the organ to be more suitable for recitals.
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The beautiful north case of the 1938 Forster & Andrews/John Compton organ in Hull Minster. The 4-manual, 104 speaking stop organ is now in urgent need of a thorough restoration, having not undergone any extensive work in 80 years and for which the Minster authorities is now actively seeking funds.
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This wonderful carving that will adorn the case of the new £11Million Dobson organ in St Thomas Church, New York.
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Thomas Ospital is scheduled to give recital in a fortnight's time (18th August) on the organ of the Victoria Hall, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, commencing at 12 noon.
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To be honest, I had forgotten about Basil Ramsey as it was so long ago that I last had contact, but I am sorry to learn of his death. At the time he was managing editor of Choir & Organ in its early years and my dealings with him were essentially journalistic. Always a man with a receptive ear he commissioned and published a number of my articles.
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15 hours ago, Denis O'Connor said:
Some years ago I objected to a comical mis-translation by the( then) presenter of The Early Music show.The objection was in the form of a littlle limerick. Shortly afterwards the presenter moved to Classic FM.
On Sunday I heard an announcer state that the Albert Hall organ had 4,996 stops.
It could well be that my poor hearing was at fault. Did any other member hear the recital broadcast on Sunday last? If the 'howler' was as stated,could any member of the Forum submit a suitable limerick for general consumption? I don't wish harm to the announcer but I was cross because he referred to the organ as a Father Willis. It was once.
I, too, heard that the organ now had 4,996 stops.
Notre Dame
in General discussion
Posted
Some words from Olivier Latry:
Dear all,
In these tragic times for the Cathedral, you have been extremely numerous to send me words of support, more moving than the others res, either by e-mail, SMS, FaceBook, Instagram or by calling.
I will never thank you for that. I would have liked to be able to respond personally to each of you, but given the urgency of the situation, it is unfortunately not possible for me, at least for the moment. I hope you will not hold me against it.
Our Lady, who had resisted revolutions and wars, went up in smoke in a few moments. 855 years missing in four hours ... Like you, I feel an enormous sadness, anger contained, a total dejection. The images that are given to us to see are atrocious. How not to believe in a bad dream? Reality catches us unfortunately hard.
Despite all the damage to the Cathedral, the organ miraculously escaped the flames, and also the water supposed to extinguish them. It is very dusty, but can continue to move us as soon as its case has regained its magnificence. When? No one knows it today. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it. Is it said in the Gospel of St. John. It will surely take more time in Notre-Dame, but I have confidence and hope.
With all my friendly thoughts.
Olivier Latry