pcnd5584

Well, that would often seem to be the case. Surely, one thing to keep in mind is, as far as is possible, to try to make music with the resources at one's disposal; but, where this is not possible, to augment the pipe organ with complementary ranks within a reasonable budget. In addition, to try to enhance the instrument whilst avoiding the trap of over-inflated and inappropriate schemes and cramped sites. Oh, and - no toasters. That being said, there are still situations where it is possible sensitively to enlarge a pipe organ with some modest additions which not only enhance the tonal scheme but make it more interesting to play. I am not necessarily thinking about 32' ranks, but stops which will be of real practical value (perhaps a small trumpet instead of an oboe on the Swell, or a fifteenth instead of a dulciana). See my post re-Marnhull above. Anyone else know of such well-conceived (and executed) rebuilds?

Yes, but they blend because they are all of a similar tonality. The G.O., Swell and Pedal reeds are all similar (but excellent) in tone. The Solo Tromba is not so fat or smooth that it stands apart. If you ever get the chance to go and hear it, do. Recordings really are not the same. My instrument sounds like a vintage H&H on recordings. (Not that there is anything wrong with it, except that it is not a vintage Harrison!)

Oh yes - I used it (the tutti) on at least one occasion - God, it was, well, sexy.... The G.O. reeds are true trumpets. By that I mean not fat trombi, or thin buzzy reeds, just really good trumpets, with some body but also with some brightness. It is a really lovely organ. I do agree that the action lets it down, though. It was not particularly responsive. The repetition was also slow. But what a sound! (Can't see why it was considered necessary to lose one of the tutti pistons, though. It is not exactly over-supplied with registration aids.)

The pipes are slightly visible. Actually I suspect that most people do not even notice them. As for ruining the case - I personally cannot agree. Whilst they do stick up a little, they do not interfere with the proportions of the case. As far as I know it was raised in 1891. Somewhere or other I have a photograph of the case prior to this. In fact it looks rather dumpy. Anyway, Exeter desperately needed the 32' reed. I am convinced that it is one case where musical needs had to take priority over visual considerations. I can think of much uglier cathedral organs (e.g. St. Patrick's, Dublin). For that matter, Hereford displays its 32' reed on the wall of a choir aisle. These pipes are not particularly beautiful in this situation, either!

Well, I played it in its un-restored state. Nothing above 4' pitch, Weird tonalities; Tibias (not like Willis ones!) Phoneumas (some sort of string, I think). Not much use for repertoire or service accompaniment, really. I' m not that keen on 'neo-baroque' either, but most probably sound more musical than a H-J! I presume you have never heard one?!

Well, I suppose so, but I'm still not totally convinced - were the manual compasses adequate? When I played at St. Nicholas' Church, Amsterdam, despite being an excellent French-sounding instrument, the upper limit of the manuals meant that the only 'big' Widor Sortie I could play to fit was the Finale from the Second Symphonie. Everything else ran out of notes. I have also played Langlais' Messe Solennelle on a French organ with no registration aids (mechanical or human). It just aboult worked, but it kept me really busy and, since I only had about an hour's practice-time, it cost my boss dearly in the bar afterwards.

I would agree - up to a point. Just as long as it is not an original Hope-Jones.... There used to be one at Pilton, in North Devon, but it has now been altered.

Hmm, OK. But I still object to the fact that I can prepare some Bach or Vierne and play it (hopefully reasonably successfully) after the service and there may be one brave soul listening at the end, yet, when I did play L-W, there were sores (scores??) of people at the console clamouring for more. However sincere L-W may have been, I still cannot rate his music as anything other than inconsequential and insubstantial - sorry!

Yes, I understand that this is the case at Blackburn. I still feel that it is missing the point. There may well be some tuning problems (which can, I expect, be overcome with adjustable tuning to electronic ranks). For me, it boils down to the fact that it feels like 'cheating'. Where do you stop? Oh, a couple of 32' pedal ranks. Perhaps a tuba? Or a chamade-style effect? I must confess that I have never heard a 32' electronic 'reed' which sounded realistic throughout the compass - the upper parts seemed unpleasant. No, I know that one does not often use a genuine 32' reed alone in the upper reaces of the pedal board, but they are often extended from a 16' parent rank. However good the Rodgers was at Gloucester (while the H, N&B/Downes was having a re-build) it just gave me a headache after about 30 minutes. Strangely, the electronic did not resonate or spark the superb Gloucester acoustic in the same way that the pipe organ does. Perhaps that is the point - electronics do not 'move the air'. So the sound will inevitably sound less 'alive'. I still prefer a stopped 16' if a full-length 32' is cost-prohibitive, or too bulky.

Indeed! In fact, on the old console at Kilkhampton Parish Church (retained on the west front of the case) the stop knob for the 32' Subbass actually has the date '1892' engraved on it. I did play the Willis in the Methodist Church once, for a concert. It is indeed a good small instrument, with sone fine sounds. Quite the smallest three-manual I have ever played, though. Ron Watts was indeed quite a good organist. Unofrtunately, he also considered himself an ecclesiastical artist of sorts, as a glance at the monuments around the inside of the church will show. Apparently one day, whilst in a fervour of inspiration he went into the church armed with pots of 'Dulux' in various hues and set about applying colour to the formerly monochrome tablets. Now, there are cherubs with bright pink faces, vivid greens and reds, to say nothing of blues. Fortunately, he exercised somewhat better taste with regard to the organ, and was the (sole?) driving force behind the re-building of the instrument. The pedal mixture (labelled 'Rauschquint') is indeed of two ranks (12, 15). I believe that it is derived from other ranks. Certainly, having been inside the organ on numerous occasions, there is no pipework which appears to belong to this mixture. Lance Foy, who currently looks after the organ tells me that the wiring for the Pedal derivations is something of a nightmare. I got the distinct impression that he hoped it never malfunctioned....

I think so, and I shudder to say this, but.... I am certain if you played (God forbid) some Lefebure-Wely, you would have about sixty people fawning around the organ console, with glazed expressions and sticky piles of drool all over the polished parquet floor.... And, no, I am proud to say that I do not possess any L-W in my stock of organ music. Actually, one practical thing that can be done is to install a chamade rank and play the volly on the tutti - that way, they would, at the very least, have to re-locate the tea-urn....

Thanks, Pierre. I think they will find the journey worthwhile. But, arguably (and for different reasons), it has the same problems of restricted repertoire that one encounters at St. Bavo, Haarlem. I know it plays Baroque and modern music well, and it cannot reasonably be expected to play the entire repertoire without compromise. But - no Franck, no Widor, no Vierne, no Reger? No thanks! (Apart from problems of compass, one would need at least two registrants, a personal fitness trainer and a large bottle of Vodka in order to accomplish such a feat.) (I know, the words 'can' and 'worms' come to mind....)

Yes - did they not also alter the 1970s mixtures on the Swell and G.O.? Apparently they did not blend. However, since I have not played it for several years, I cannot remember. I do remember thinking that it was a fantastic instrument, thought - endless variety in beautiful quiet sounds.

Oh my God.... Someone actually built this??

Yes - I have played it. The restoration has, in my view, been undertaken extremely well. The new stops include a 32' octave to the Pedal Ophicleide and an extension of the G.O. Gross Geigen, making it playable at 8' pitch. The 'Harmonics' is very bright - it does not break back for ages, but the brightness is somewhat unsociable, being fearfully edgy. The Trombi ranks have, I think, been restored, not re-voiced. Trust me, here - you would not want to play Couperin or de Grigny on them.... They are probably OK for Elgar, but still very loud and opaque in tone, having practically no harmonic development. Personally, I think that the Harmonics does not help to bind the reeds to the rest of the chorus - they are just too 'dead'. However, I am certain that it was correct to retain the 1921 H&H specification and voicing in toto - it is the only surviving largely un-altered Arthur Harrison that I can think of. Don't think I would want to play Bach on it, though. Having said this, I do not imagine that it has any problems leading the singing in a full church - even if they sang like Methodists....

Presumably about as well as kippers and custard.... I suppose that they equate roughly to Trombi as perceived by Arthur Harrison, chorus Trumpets by 'Father' Willis (or possibly Walker, or Posaunes by William Hill & Son) and then C-C Bombardes and Trompettes. I cannot immediately think of a British instrument which has all three types, but knowing examples of the above quite well, I do not imagine that one would ever wish to mix them on one organ. There would be little point, really, since they would be unlikely to blend. I do know of a few instruments which have attempted to mix two of the types - with, in my view, somewhat limited success. I would always prefer some homogeneity to the tonal design of an organ. The result is usually more 'honest' than that of some so-called eclectic instruments. To be frank, I can see little of musical value in existing H&H Trombi; their opaque, un-blending tone tends to stand away from the flue-work. In any case, they are usually so powerful (often on 10" - 12" w.g.) that they obliterate the rest of the G.O., where they are normally found. Examples extant are Ripon Cathedral (although I think they have been tamed, here, since they sound more musical and appear to have more harmonic development than of yore), Crediton Parish Church, Devon (this still has its Harmonics IV on the Great, complete with flat twenty-first) and King's, Cambridge. Here again, though, they are not typical, due to the fact that the G.O. Trombi were enclosed in the Solo box at the 1934 re-build by H&H. Some good examples of musical G.O. chorus reeds are (I know that was not quite your original question): Exeter (H&H), Bristol (Walker), Gloucester(Willis/H,N&B/Downes), Coventry (H&H), Winchester (Willis/H&H) and Salisbury (Willis). The latter is, I think, a better example than say, Truro, where the G.O. reeds are perhaps a little too loud for the building. I have also not included examples where the G.O. reed chorus does not include the sub-unison, such as Chichester or Worcester, good as these reeds are. However, my own personal favourites are examples such as the C-C at S. Etienne, Caen (G.O.) and Notre-Dame and S. Sulpice, Paris.

In reply to Michael Cox - I agree with regard to the digital stops, but I presume that you have never heard the Roger Yates re-build (1950s) of the organ in Kilkhampton Parish Church, North Cornwall. It has quite the best stopped Subbass 32' I have ever heard. Down to low G it is a continuation of the Subbass 16', belolw this, it is quinted on itself, but a fourth below the fundamental. Even the low notes are very effective. Kilkhampton church is not particularly large. It consists of a nave with north and south aisles, with a rood screen separating the easternmost bays. Having played this organ many times, I would not part with the 32' octave. It is an excellent example of how effective a stopped 16' can be. The church has almost no resonance and the stop is not either on the front or the back of the organ, but placed in the middle. With stops such as this, there is no need to resort to toasters (sorry, electronic organs - or parts of them...) But additionally, with stops like this, I cannot se any reason why a parish church should not install one, if it seems appropriate! Incidentally, the Pedal Organ at KIlkhampton also has a real French Bombarde - this is most exciting in the church. It is probably fair to state that the organ is partly so good due to the excellent voicing and workmanship of Roger Yates. Whilst one does not wish to encourage some of the excesses which have been perpetrated by organists with delusions of grandeur, it is also refreshing to see schemes such as Kilkhampton, which are just a little bit different, but work extremely well in the buildings for which they were designed. There is also a village in the wilds of Dorset - Marnhull. This has an organ re-built by a chap called Tim Trenchard. He has done a super job. He added a Trombone/Trumpet rank on electric action, with the Trombone on the pedals and the Trumpet available on both manuals. At first sight (and from the console) it appears as if the new rank is vastly out of scale with the rest of the organ. But in practice, it has made a really dull organ very exciting. In the nave, the new stops do not swamp the rest of the organ, and can be used on a normal Sunday, without inducing apoplexy in those of a more advanced age...

No - Percy Whitlock's organ was that at The Pavilion, Bournemouth. He also had a church post at St. Stephen's, Bournemoth (which has a wonderful Hill organ) until some time during 1935.

At the risk of making inaccurate and uninformed judgements, I would agree with the above comments concerning the addition of digital or 'sampled' stops to pipe organs. 'Inaccurate and uninformed', because I have not yet heard either of the Southwell organs in their natural environments. However, my own experiences with electronics (including recent examples) do not encourage me to believe that the results will be successful. Insofar as the question of space is concerned, there was previously a certain amount of pipework situated in the (south?) triforium. Presumably that space is still available. How about putting a 32' rank there? If, as was formerly the case at Gloucester, the sensitive acoustics of the building gave the impression of a unified sound-source, then personally, I would feel far less guilty about siting such a stop away from the main instrument, than I would if I were to add digital ranks. Personally, I would rather not have any digital ranks on any instrument which I played regularly. My own church instrument, despite having quite a large pedal organ, does not possess any 32' ranks and, whilst it does lack gravitas, I would rather fake 32' effects, than add plastic ones. Actually, it does quite a nice job of faking both loud and soft 32' effects, in various keys - often with quite bizarre combinations of notes. No respect for the laws of physics, here!

I am glad to hear that the Bristol Cathedral organ has not suffered any tonal alterations. I too had the privilege of playing it for RSCM courses, and found it to be a wonderful instrument. Quite different to the usual Harrison or Willis sounds flying around the vaults; (not that I dislike H&H or Willis organs - rather, I am able to appreciate many types of instrument, as long as they are what I regard as good and musical. Bristol certainly fits into both categories). I think that Bristol is the only cathedral organ where it is possible to 'watch' the pedal reed progess from bay to bay as the echo decays! In addition, there are some cathedral organs that really do not seem to need 32' reeds; Bristol is one; Truro is another. I gather that DB was offered one by Manders (in the sense of fitting it into the restoration - not gratis!) but refused. On the other hand, the glorious H&H at Exeter, which I know well, has benefited greatly from the addition of a superbly-voiced Contra Trombone. Most of the other alterations to the Exeter specification also make sense, save for the loss of the Choir 1' Twenty Second, with which I would not have parted. I regard it as being more generally useful than a Larigot (for example, in combination with the 8' Gedeckt and the Nazard) and as a better pinnacle to the Choir chorus, which now culminates in a quint, rather than a unison. If it was really desirable to have added a Larigot (I know that it is the old Twenty Second re-stacked, with five new bass pipes), then I would have happiy parted with the Lieblich Bourdon, which borrows the 12 lowest notes from the Pedal Bourdon and is probably little-used. However, in most other respects, the Exeter organ is superb.

Downes was certainly a good organ designer, although arguably, even he did not get everything right. I believe he mis-calculated at the RFH with the chorus reeds. All the examples he cites in his book were situated in large French churches with stone vaults and a warm acoustic. Wilst I accept that the acoustic properties at the RFH were somewhat conjectural until the hall was actually finished (at which point some of the natural resonance had to be recovered by various means) Downes himself did have some idea that it was going to be pretty dead. The reeds as finished always sounded hungry, as it were. At Gloucester, in that superb acoustic, naturally no such problem arose. Incidentally, it is not quite fair to complain about the Gloucester organ once more overflowing its case. Downes' scheme as executed in 1971 left the Pedal Flute 16' and the Sub Bass 16' in the screen (the Sub Bass being hung upside down, presumably the better to project into the building). As Mark Blatchly says in his excellent post, the new additions to the Pedal Organ at Gloucester have 'given the organ some trousers' - it did rather lack gravitas. Anyway, the player can always choose not to use the new stops. The same could be said of the recent trend of adding electronic 32' and 16' pedal stops (Blackburn and Southwell, for example). Downes himself did not hesitate to throw out pipes and other material if he felt there was a strong cause. Take Paisley Abbey - whilst he did not actually replace the C-C case pipes, he had then re-cast, with altered feet lengths, but retaining the same grade of metal and scaling. That in itself is arguably a stronger case of vandalism than the new additions at Gloucester, where the Downes material has been retained (with two exceptions) exactly as he left it. Phew!

Oh yes - but thanks, though! (You have got the DVD, I assume?) There are also a few obscure ones, not sold by Solstice - I can let you have details, if you wish. In addition, there is a good improvisation CD by the late Yves Devernay (one of the four original Titulaires who succeeded Cochereau in 1985). He sounds more like Cochereau than anyone else (apart from David Briggs!), yet with his own musical language. Worth getting, if you have not already got it.

Yes, I know, but I still miss the sound! I would be surprised if C-C was influenced by 'Father' Willis, though. I am aware that they were acquainted, but I have yet to meet a big C-C that sounds like say, Truro or Oxford Town Hall. I know that Willis adapted his Flutes Harmoniques from the C-C examples, but to my ears, the Willis reeds at Truro are worlds apart from any by C-C. (Though closer than H&H Trombi....!) Certainly, those at Truro arguably give us the best idea of Willis reeds as he voiced them, although, even here, the GO 8' Tromba was toned down sometime in the latter half of the twentieth century, it apparently having a tendency to harshness!

Yes, I like the sound of the organ from the 1970s, too! I am less sure about the present transmission; I think that the technology was in advance of the practical ability to apply it, and consequently, there were several teething problems. I remember David Briggs telling me that he was playing the recital to mark the tenth anniversary of Cochereau's death (the twenty-first anniversary is tonight/tomorrow morning, incidentally) and the organ died in a complex loud section of a piece. Apparently the digital key scanning system, or the computer itself (by Synaptel) overloaded! On reflection, a good electro-pneumatic transmission may have been safer. That being said, I think that the organ is pretty well-behaved, these days. I must confess that I cannot now see the point of re-instating the old console - apart from the fact that quite a few stops would have to be omitted (from the Pedale Orgue, in particular), because there is simply no room on the terraces, I doubt if pistons could be fitted in the key-slips, due to action and height restrictions. They would, in any case, look distinctly odd. I further suspect that even if pistons could be fitted, it would be hard to locate them during a piece, due to the greater overhang of the old keyboards. Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford had a similar problem when the Rieger was first installed; although I think that different piston-heads have since been fitted. Certainly, they cause me but few problems when I play there. I presume you have some of the Cochereau improvisation CDs - or do you have him only playing repertoire? I expexct you are aware of the Solstice site, administered by Francois and Yvette Carbou, but if not, I can easily provide the address for it online.

On a further point, which Anthony Poole makes: the work undertaken by Ch. Mutin at N-D, in 1903, was as follows: on the Recit, the former Bourdon 8p was replaced by a large-scale Diapason 8p and a clarinette with a four-rank Fourniture (composition at CC being 15, 22, 26, 29*). In addition, the Flutes (8p and 4p) were transferred from the anches (jeux de combinaisons) chest to the flue chest. Vierne also wished to add a three-rank Cymbale, but this was precluded, due, I think, to financial reasons. * The mixture composition and breaks were supplied by M. Alexandre Guilmant, who also stipulated the voicing of these pipes. Incidentally, to talk of the old N-D console being 'brutally ripped out' is not entirely fair. The organ at N-D suffered a rather less kind fate than that of its larger brother at S. Sulpice. For a time, during the Great War, the organ and the tribune at Notre-Dame were open to the elements, since the glass had been removed from the great west window, for safe-keeping. By the time Pierre Cochereau inherited the instrument from Leonce de Saint-Martin, the console (and largely the organ itself) was in a very sorry state. Whilst it probably could have been restored, an instrument of this size is not easy to control with the type of console C-C originally supplied. I understand that even Daniel Roth has two Registrants present when he plays at S. Sulpice, in order to assist with stop-changes. This is all very well, but it is not exactly convenient or practical. In any case, from August 1983, the combination system at Notre-Dame had been disconnected, due to serious malfunction, so Cochereau and later, his four successors, had to rely on assistants here, too. It did of course mean that, when they were improvising, the assistants had to possess some psychic ability, in order correctly to prepare the next registration.... Food for thought.