ick1508

Recently bought an academic licence (for my son) which comes with 4 years' support. Hm. Some irony there. Great stuff though. Want to arrange something for brass band? Complete ensemble score all laid out for you. What could possibly go wrong? (Chariots of Fire, if you must know, as a hymn tune)

Missed that one myself. As did the boss. Our process is similar to pcnd's. We get the lessons (on which the sermons will be based) well in advance, usually a block of 4-5 months, and pick hymns which are relevant to the text and the season, with some sense of 'shape'. Usually a welcoming, gathering, wake-up to start, something gentler in the middle especially near the intercessions, and a big finish. Which hasn't stopped me scheduling 'for those in peril on the sea' for the deputy to play while we're on a sailing holiday. Alas, we don't have a big enough choir to lead Anglican chant sensibly, and it puzzles most of the congregation, so we have a long list of 'hymns based on psalms' to fill that slot. Bet your clergy are never late. We're the second in the benefice on a Sunday morning....

Thalben-Ball and 'Nimrod' - then a light 'Rule, Britannia!' before the start - His Nibs decided to arrive at his stall in the middle of a verse instead of timing it for the end of a chorus! 'Holy, holy, Holy' - as it's Trinity 'Christ is surely coming' (to 'Land of Hope and Glory') 'Christ is the world's Redeemer' - (to Holst 'Jupiter' aka 'Thaxted') - also nicely trinitarian 'Lord, may we see' (to 'Jerusalem') - refers to two out of the three Crown Imperial to finish, avoiding the finicky bit in A flat so they get the big version of the trio in C near the end before they've all hit the coffee in the church room. Went down well.

I broke the swell box linkage yesterday morning, with a swift kick 'cos I'd forgotten to open it before the pedal solo... did this player also have a senior moment, or did he figure that the organ would be in shot at just that moment?? (before you ask, glue and G-clamps this evening!)

'This Joyful Eastertide' (arr Wood) and Karg-Elert to exit. Well-known stuff but matched with five great Easter hymns, it kept the pace going and 'twas as festive as Christmas. Needed to keep something in reserve for two 4-hour theatre rehearsals Easter Monday (inter alia Queen, Skarbeck, Ll-Webber, Tchaikovsky and Take That!)

The panel for the registration assistant at the side of the console is an excellent idea! Obviously duplicate sequencer controls, maybe general pistons as well? Is this unique? Ian

Re King's with Boris: I'm with MM this time. 'Once in Royal',,, incredible. I'd got bored before the fourth verse. Moving on a bit... 'Up good christen folk' is quite lively, and 'Sing Lullaby' is as good as anyone could hope for. The whole service lasts less than 45 minutes... now 90!! Looking at the clothing, I suspect it was very very cold. Not good for virtuoso playing, to say the least. Maybe the organist had a paraffin heater to keep his fingers warm?

Just listened to the Sunday repeat on FM... I've pushed a few faders in my time, but couldn't hear anything that was absolutely beyond the pale. Although, perhaps, the version broadcast today is a recording shipped down from Lincoln, and 'twas handled differently on replay. Wednesday's live broadcast signal would have passed through many hands in Lincoln, Broadcasting House and onward down the transmisison chain, and gain-riding could have occurred anywhere.

um, t's bwoken? {edit}: oh, working now! At last, an orgelradio.nl for the UK!

The West Gallery Music Association may be of interest in this research. wgma.org.uk. I found it a few days ago, I can't remember why.

The main line railway 3rd rail 750Vdc supply (south of London) is apparently derived from 3-phase using 6 diodes... Even without smoothing, the rectifier output never falls to zero; you get 6 peaks every cycle instead of 2. As demonstrated here, near the bottom of the page Some 3-phase blower motors are very old, very compact for the power rating, and very efficient!

Our Vicar's stall has a built-in holder for a glass of water; one is provided for every service. There was the time when he knocked it over... just before confession, IIRC....

Staffordshire's library website has a section which allows you to search for a book and order it from a range of places, including the British Library and Trinity, Dublin. I tried to get hold of the Edmundson via this route (but unofficial channels worked better, thanks!). They are very particular about getting them returned on time, but the system does work, including music. And it's free! I assume other library services do something similar? Have a look!

Lyttelton, m'boy, Lyttelton. Actually, I believe the lady is no slouch on a keyboard, and with in-ear monitors etc, this does look genuine!

Indeed. So much so that on more than one occasion, after the scheduled music has run out, I have been known to engage celestes and an ecclesiastical wallpaper version of 'Hold it, flash, bang, wallop......' has emerged, largo I had two in one service a fortnight ago! One was for a blues/jazz version in 9/8 of 'Amazing grace' requested by the bride... alas on Clavinova, but it worked! Absolutely.

MM's historical perspective of technology is undoubtedly correct. The role of the organ in bringing orchestral music cheaply to 'the masses' was undoubtedly replaced by broadcast and recorded music, and then live PA. The role of the organist has changed with it, to an audience who appreciate the organ for its own sake. I am reminded of the JB Priestley play 'When we are married' where the flash young character, (Gerald Forbes?) is an organist. A rock star of the day, no doubt. (However, I suspect that MM underestimates the amount of rehearsal time needed for the band to fill the stadium live. Not to mention that the sound crew can get it horribly wrong, and leave you dimly aware that athough you are, to all intents and purposes, playing a dummy keyboard to yourself, you can hear the sound bouncing off the back wall a fifth of a second later, and the audience can hear your fumbling much better than you can. And as a sometime mixer man myself, I may have dropped a muso in it once or twice. 'At the touch of a button' forgets the effort of unloading the truck and rigging!) You quite often find that sound men are organists, and vice versa. (sorry, often male). There's a similarity in building up layers of sound, and working with timbres, and so on. And both jobs involve making decisions live, in front of many people, and taking the risk that it won't work. Fortunately, the worst that can happen is usually mega-embarrassment. Talking of which, I remember seeing 'Sky' start their set in usual dramatic fashion (arrangement of BWV565), only to have to stop and restart at Kevin Peek's entry because his guitar was horribly out of tune.... and Murray Perahia stop a slow movement at Snape Maltings and wait for a rain shower to pass over, because it was drowning out the piano...

I commented on Nathan at Truro on this Board last summer, and the comments were divided in a similar way. We retain good memories of a great night 9 months later - but as usual this weekend, too busy to go! Good to know that the instrument's in good shape too. Ian CK

Of course. Ian CK (CEng MIET). Not to mention John CK (ret'd)

OK, I'm sorry, I give in, I shouldn't have mentioned cars, Board members can clearly distinguish configurable/repetitive manufacturing (cars) from one-off engineering projects (pipe organs). Not the best analogy. Good job about the tin hat... But... if the benchmark was 11-18k/stop several years ago, GBP15k/stop from UK builders now, and GBP8-9k/stop in Slovenia, there must be some downward cost pressure (in real terms taking account of general inflation). Yes indeed, I was making the point that people subcontract for quality and for specialist items, although the specialist component maker will often have the investment in plant partly or fully depreciated, and should have developed a level of efficiency, therefore can offer keen prices. Aphorism alert: Projects should be effective. Repetitive line-of-business should be efficient. As an aside, I noticed in articles about the RAH organ that Manders made various different soundboards to a 'common rod' (? IIRC) - presumably a standardised drilling pattern - to simplify manufacturing.

There is a thread already about this somewhere. This thread some time ago mentioned 11-18k per stop. But (at the risk of offending our excellent hosts) I wonder whether the Eastern European newcomers have had any effect on this - there was a recent one on the south coast? Also, some organ builders are designers and subcontract the manufacture of components - if they have no metal shop, for example, they would subcontract the metal pipework (**). If these are now available at lower cost from our EU colleagues, it might be possible to obtain an organ from a 'British' builder less expensively than before. Of course, there are also organ supply houses in England and Germany using CAD/CAM technology to establish economies of efficiency while maintaining quality. Any thoughts, anyone? Obviously, the major houses like Mander, Harrison and Willis like to present themselves as having the capability to build all the major components in house. I can't think of another engineering enterprise that still does this. Even car builders get specialists to build major components like gearboxes, seats, wiring looms... (** IIRC, Schulze and sometimes Willis used Violette to make metal pipework in Victorian times, must check Bicknell.) I'll get my tin hat...

In Jenny Setchell's book there is a report of organ practice clearing the cathedral of terrorists.... surely a full recital would easily deal with just a protest march?

Ouch! Is not the door itself simply upside down? Or maybe the pipes are a moulded panel which was inverted when re-attached to the door during repairs... Very odd, though. Needs a big room. Would hold lots of music.

Gedact-pommer - flute stop used to store apples Gemshorn - made by Ratners Flute Triangulaire - made by M. C. Escher Flute Traversiere - flute en chamade and, contrariwise Diapoison - an alloy of arsenic, antimony and old lead

Off topic, but (locally here at any rate) Lichfield has had a fair sprinkling in the last few years... quite encouraging. On topic, there's also a Snetzler in a masonic hall in Edinburgh, IIRC from a recent 'Choir and Organ'

Indeed. Our new(ish) heating system is designed to maintain at least 7 degrees C 24 hours a day, and lifts the temperature to 17C when programmed to do so on a 7-day timer. Our tuner was very busy all through spring and summer 2010, repairing damage done during last winter (Jan-Feb 2010). We did not escape completely, because the humidity was so low.