pcnd5584

Hmmmm.... I disagree (as usual....) - in my view, this instrument has lost its soul. The GO reeds are neither one thing nor the other (the attack is also bad on these two stops), the Pedal reeds are not particularly good - the 32p reed is a waste of space - in the nave it sounds like an edgy flue. The Cor Anglais is virtually inaudible (I doubt that Arthur H left it like that). Then there is the GO OD I - which I never used, even with a full church. It forms no real part of the chorus. The console (I know, it does not count as voicing) is execrable - it looks cheap, plastic and very nasty. After the elegance of the H&H attached console, it just looks dreadful. Yes, I know the budget was not large at the time and that a detached console was specified to alleviate problems of balance but I still think (as does a colleague who had many lessons on the old H&H) that this organ has been largely spoiled. It does have some nice sounds for accompanying the choral services (most of which, I suspect R&D did not touch), but I found it distinctly limited for recital and voluntary work - particularly when heard from the nave. I was also slightly amazed to read in the current issue of C&O, the R&D rebuild of the Whiteley/Wm. Hill at Chester Cathedral described as 'sympathetic'. Whilst I realise that they were probably doing what they were asked to do by the then incumbent organist, I am not convinced that this organ has not also been spoiled. The Solo Organ is rather untypical, as (now) are the GO and Swell choruses. The console is, I think, spoiled by the absurd number of pistons (unless they have been rationalised recently).This poor organ also had to do without a decent GO flue double for decades after the rebuild - this is absurd, since it probably had a perfectly good specimen before (I did not hear it in its previous incarnation).

OK - I will settle for a Trompet 8 then! As far as repertoire is concerned, I am assuming a staple diet of hymns and anthems (the latter of no more than moderate difficulty) and voluntaries, probably in line with the sort of thing that the RSCM (when they are not being charismatic) suggests - and perhaps the type of pieces which have appeared in compilations produced (or at least endorsed) by the St. Giles' Organ School/AM-T. Absolutely no Caleb Simper (too crap), Oliphant Chuckerbutty (too obscure) - or Britten (assumed to be too difficult for this type of situation).

Herewith a further scheme: PEDAL Sub Bass 16 Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal GO Open Diapason 8 Rohr Flöte 8 Octave 4 Fifteenth 2 Swell to Great SWELL Viola 8 Wald Flute 8 Gemshorn 4 Mixture (15-22-26) III Trumpet 8 Ten stops is quite small - it is quite hard to design something that will be practical. There will inevitably be compromises. Some might prefer to lose the GO Fifteenth and have a Vox Angelica on the Swell, for example. Or, to substitute the Pedal Sub Bass with a Violone. However, with the above scheme, there is at least some attempt to provide two contrasting choruses - to the detriment of the Pedal Organ. Is it permissible to add pedal extensions, even if they take the total number of stops (as opposed to ranks) over the prescribed number? However versatile and satisfying the Twyford scheme is (mentioned on original post) I would prefer to have two contrasting 8p flues on the Swell Organ - otherwise I might become very bored as an accompanist!

So just how ugly was she, in the first place? Are we talking: (1) yak's backside (2) Rear end of No. 7 bus, or (3) Ethel Merman?

Now, how about a nice Phoneuma, or a Tibia Clausa?

Oh my God. I looked this one up - the specification is fairly un-remarkable but the four-line description below the stop-list is horrifying - blu-tac? - hacksaws? I will not ask you to reveal the identity of the organ builder.... I note that this information is not provided on the NPOR entry.

Sounds fun! I also discovered a rather good Céleste effect on the organ of Romsey Abbey - Swell Open Diapason and Tremulant (quite the best I have heard) coupled to Choir Gamba, swell-box open about one quarter. GO Double Open Diapason coupled to Pedals, played in fifths (above the fundamental); playing in C, D, E-flat, E (etc.) is extremely effective and results in a quite beautiful sound in the sensitive acoustics of the Abbey. Mind you, this organ is so good, almost any combination sounds wonderful. God, I wish we had a freaking echo....

No - I do not like the idea of a GO without an 8p Open Diapason either - but I was trying to keep to the specified size of ten stops. I also do not like a GO without some kind of 2p stop - even if it were a wide-scaled flute. Regarding the Swell reed, with open shallots, it would be more likely to have less body and fundamental tone. It depends, too, on the thickness of the reed tongue and which way the brass was rolled. My intention was that it fulfilled a similar role to the Swell Contra Oboe on the organ formerly in the chapel of Addington Palace. I did not include a sub octave coupler, since I assumed that the action was to be mechanical. Even on an organ this size, this would be likely to lead to a heavy touch, unless one went to the trouble of having smaller pallets to the lower eighteen notes or so. This, however, would raise other problems! Whilst the double reed could be substituted by a Trumpet, I think that even on small organs it is important to have a sub-unison rank - a reed is less likely to be thick and cloying than a Bourdon. At any rate, I would find it far more useful than a Krummhorn as the only manual reed - but, each to his own! As to muddiness, I disagree - although much would depend on voicing. Only the Swell double reed could thicken the texture, but with careful scaling and voicing this potential problem could be avoided. If anything, the inclusion of an Open Diapason on the GO could lead to problems of thick or cloying tone - possibly the safest is one modelled on an eighteenth century English stop. Or possibly a Walker No. 2 from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century.

I like this more than the first! I would be tempted to change the Krummhorn for a Hautboy, though. SInce it will have full-length resonators, it is likely to be more stable in tuning. In addition, although it will still make a good solo reed, it will be far more use in accompaniment than a Krummhorn - these have to be very good to be of any use in chords!

On my own church instrument I use all the foundation stops (except the Swell Vox Angelica) most of the time for playing mf and above. The combination of a building which has an acoustic ambience which makes the RFH sound warm and fluffy and a buried east-of-transept-dog-kennel position means that so-called Baroque registrations of one stop of each pitch for the choruses sound absurdly thin and top-heavy. I am extremely fussy about registrations on any organ which I play and frequently get pupils to play musical excerpts using my prescribed registrations whilst I go and listen in several key parts of the building. Whilst this is not quite the same as having a building full of people, it nevertheless gives a good indication of the effect in various parts of the church. Again, it is a case of individual instruments, buildings and organists. A previously-mentioned point regarding a Hohl Flute and a Diapason is interesting. The Hohl Flute, regardless of which builder (or pipe-maker) produced the rank, seems to be a notoriously bad mixer. Just about every example I have encountered sounds thick, oily and unpleasant (with the possible exceptions of one or two by Wm. Hill). There used to be a particularly nasty specimen at a church where I was previously the Assistant Organist. However, following an excellent rebuild (for a very reasonable sum) by Lance Foy, this Hohl Flute went on to perform the valuable service of keeping him and his family warm over the Christmas period.

Whilst I do agree that the situation regarding broadcast organ music in the UK is pathetic, I rather doubt that the BBC would take any notice, regardless of who it was that protested. Gone are the days of Music for the Iron Voice and similar programmes formerly aired on Radio Three. One absurd counter-argument I heard them come up with was that "Well, we don't have oboe recitals broadcast regularly, either". The fact that one can daily hear oboes being played in orchestras or that neither Bach or Mozart ever referred to the oboe as the King of Instruments may possibly have escaped their notice. By all means lobby, but I fear that the Beeb became selectively deaf years ago.

And what, pray, would I want with a Grosse Neuvième, or whatever it was?! Even the Septième 2 2/7 on the Solo Orgue of N.-D. de Paris was known to make odd noises - c.f. Cochereau's recorded improvised Variations sur un Noël [Nouvelet] - there is a brief pont before the adagio (which is really rather beautiful) in which I am certain that this rank was used in combination. It really has to be heard to be believed....

I won't breathe a word to Lance, Paul! That is, unless he has a new sideline in Honiton, producing antimacassars.

Weird - it looks like Jean Gillou had a hand in the design - and just look at those pressures for the Tuba stops - Arthur Harrison would be proud!

Sorry - I have only just read your reply. Surely the specific manual assignations of the Cornet and the Cromorne are immaterial - as long as they are on different claviers! I like tinsel, by the way!

Sorry, Paul, I do not have a copy - but I do remember seeing it at the time of the original transmission! Incidentally, I am desperate to locate some second-hand Walker drawstop heads of 1960s vintage. I need a Gamba 8 (or Viola da Gamba 8, or similar) and a Harmonic Flute 4 (or even, but less likely, a Flûte Harmonique 4), please. In style, they should approximate to St. Michael's, Chester Square, York Minster, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, etc. If you (or anyone else) can help, please PM me. Thank you.

You really ought to purchase a CD with Wolfgang Rubsam playing - there is a particular one which I have in mind. I have no idea what the playing is like, but it is worth the money for the cover picture alone. I belive that he is wearing a DJ and sporting an enormous handlebar moustache. His hair and the moustache are dyed in an alternating piebald effect of white-blond and black.... He has, in short, the appearance of a gay circus-ringmaster who has recently taken to using controlled substances.. Hmmmmmmmmm.

I agree with several of these points, although I would question points 3 and 4. Balance between the divisions is, of course, a good idea but, assuming the organ is in a small to moderate-sized church, I am not sure that playing trio sonati convincingly is necessarily a pre-requisite! Point 4 - a well-developed chorus is also a good idea - but I am unsure about the reference to Bach chorales! Certainly, a good strong lead for hymns might be useful, though - unless, of course, we are talking about a Lutheran church.... I would also add that it should be a reasonably interesting instrument on which to play repertiore up to moderate difficulty. However, I think that Palestrina has made a very important point - too many schemes are conceived in a vaccuum, with apparently little thought given to the specific function of the instrument. With this in mind, I suggest the following scheme: PEDAL Violone (W; haskelled bass) mf 16 Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal GO Stopped Diapason 8 Octave 4 Flageolet (wide scale, tapered) 2 Swell to Great SWELL Wald Flute 8 Viola (mild string) 8 Viola Céleste (AA) 8 (for service playing, of far greater use than a Cornet, for example) Gemshorn (conical) 4 Mixture (15-19-22: C1) III (12-15-19: F#31) (8-12-15: A46) Bassoon 16 (Open shallots) Whilst such an instrument would not play trio sonati particularly well, it would be quite practical for service-playing and the performance of a fair amount of standard parish repertoire.

I have also heard him demonstrate similar tricks on certain instruments - including a small but effective two-clavier H&H in a Comper church. On my own instrument, I have often used the idea of a tonic ninth chord (Geoffrey insists on calling it a dominant ninth) played on a Gedeckt with a fairly loud chord on GO to mixture with 16p flue, full swell coupled (minus the mixture) and all the pedal 16p and 8p fonds, with both 16p reeds. The Swell sub octave can also help to fill-out the chord. However, the true full-length 32p Contra Violone at Exeter Cathedral is naturally better than any subterfuge - however cleverly-contrived. It is, in my opinion, the best 32p flue I have ever heard - one or two notes at the bottom are slightly-less distinct. Other than this, it is a beautiful, regular soft purr, ideal for use with the strings but also adding majesty to much louder combinations - which are then underpinned by the superb new H&H 32p reed. This Contra Violone speaks on something like 1 1/2" w.g., I believe. However, I think that it is greatly superior to the 32p open wood rank at Truro. Low A, for example, booms horribly - as do some of the other notes in the 32p octave; whilst some lower notes are well-nigh inaudible. On my own instrument, a variety of soft 32p effects are available, often by playing the most unlikely notes together. On another instrument (Kilkhampton Church, North Cornwall) is the most successful stopped/quinted rank I have ever heard. To GGGG it is a downwards extension of the Subbass, composed of fairly wide-scaled pipes. Below this it is quinted on itself - but in fourths below the fundamental. Contrary to a colleague's assertion that this will result in a clearly-audible second-inversion effect, the result is excellent. (I was unable to ascertain that he had physically heard the instrument in the building - only there is it possible accurately to judge the sound.) I had a similar situation when entertaining an organists' association at my own church and had a gentle disagreement with one of their number - himself an excellent player. He, too, was sceptical of using unconventional intervals to form 32p effects, until I suggested that he tried an A major chord (for example) on swell strings with sub and octave couplers and the pedal Bourdon played with low A and the C# below. The result was, and was acknowleged to be, a very effective 32p. I would be interested to hear of other tricks known to users of this board.

I also have a contender - a 'temporary' organ installed in a local church due to the dismantling of the large three-clavier instrument, which was suffering from dry rot. It was provided by a gentleman whose training was not in organ building, but in the field of civil engineering, I believe. Nevertheless, he has had an organ building business for many years. The organ was clothed in some old vestry panelling and situated in the south nave aisle. There was a stop-key console - I think that it had two claviers. There were, as far as I can remember, no thumb pistons, but there may have been a few pedal pistons. There was no swell-box. Most of it was extension. The tuning was largely suspect and the sound was execrable. I was booked for a 'St. Cecilia Service' a few years ago and had given the final voluntary as the Final from Vierne's Sixth Symphony - before anyone had told me on what I would be playing. As far as I knew, the old pipe organ was still in situ and playable. By the time that I got to the church and discovered the truth, it was too late to do anything, since the porgrammes had been printed. I just had to make the best of it. It sounded dreadful - and as if it had been tuned to some previously-unknown temperament. Needless to say, I declined to repeat the experiment the following year.

Some good and interesting points, here!

There is always the U.S. - they pay well. However, colleagues and acquaintances who are working (or have worked) there say that the money alone does not really compensate for the often sub-standard music and musical taste which has to be endured. Obviously, I am not referring to places such as Washington National cathedral, Buffalo Cathedral, the Church of the Advent (Boston), St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue or St. John the Divine (NYC). Nevertheless, organists working in the average large American towm church will probably have to suffer handbell choirs and generally uninteresting music. True, one may have the custody of a four-clavier Aeolian-Skinner, or a G. Donald Harrison, eighty thousand dollars' remuneration (including Healthcare up to eighty percent). This alone would not be enough for me, if the music was not good - in every sense of the word.

There is an extremely beautiful Quintatön on the GO of my own church instrument. It possesses an un-forced, singing quality with (naturally) a prominent fifth harmonic. It also makes a surprisingly good sub-unison foundation. It is, furthermore, an interesting occasional alternative to the Pedal Bourdon.

Sorry - I thought that the RSCM was currently engaged in becoming an anachronism.... Certainly they should be thoroughly ashamed at some of the things I have seen them advertising of late. As far as all things Danish are concerned, I am afraid I am really only interested in Danish Pastries. Money is not everything - form what I hear of Danish church music, I think I would not enjoy being an organist there. I would miss the repertoire I get to accompany at my own church. Neither have I any desire to be custodian over a shiny new Frobenius - give me a vintage C-C, an H&H or a mid-period Hill any day. Rather than knocking the current church music scene in the UK yet again, how about finding some good points? For example, we have some of the best church choirs in the world. We also have an astounding range of instruments - many of them superb - and in a mixture of styles. Then there are the expressions on the faces of our choristers when they have just sung an excellent Advent Candlelight Service, or the Good Friday Liturgy (including Crucifixus - Lotti and The Litany - Tallis), or the Sequence for Epiphany (including Hail, Gladdening Light - Wood and Bring us, O Lord - Harris). Or just the gentle scrape of toes clenching in ecstasy as Full Swell comes shining through the diapasons in the fugue from Reger's* Fantasy on Wachet Auf. Forget Watership Down (Thumper gets it at the end) - there are surely more than three Reasons to be Cheerful, this Christmas.... *Max - not Janet.

Are you sure? As I understand it, there is but one pipe for the 64p reed, which plays on all 12 of the lowest pedal keys. The upper part of the compass uses the bass of the 32p reed. This information was gleaned from the sleeve notes of an older recording. To be honest, at this pitch, I doubt whether any of us would actually know whether it was quinted, electronic or real....