Malcolm Farr

Thanks for that - looks Very Interesting (at least on paper) even before the III manual arrives. Unfortunatey, my French isn't particularly good these days - alright, it never was - but am I right in thinking the prepared III "pectoral" manual would be a brustwerk of sorts? Rgds MJF

Well that's good to hear, for a start. Where I live these days (Perth, WA) is, I expect, a very long way from any Aubertin instrument. So, for the moment at least, Aubertin can only be a "mere name" for me; but I expect that will change ... Rgds MJF

When my daughter came home earlier this year from student exchange at Vertus, near Épernay in the Champagne district, she mentioned that the church has a pipe organ - something along the lines of, "It's got a pipe organ there, the sort of thing you might like, dad." (Her tastes fall more towards bands like Panic at the Disco and Fall Out Boy - heaven forfend!) I've found out that it's an Aubertin, and am wondering if anyone here has played or at least heard it. We should be going through Vertus early next year, and I'm wondering if the organ is worth a visit. Rgds MJF

Healey Willan accompanies the recessional hymn (Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones / Lasst Uns Erfreuen, taken at a very stately pace) at St Mary Mag, Toronto and improvises the postlude ... at the age of 86! Rgds MJF

I've played various instruments in the past which have the Great reed(s) separately drawable - is that a real word? - on the Choir, but never one which has a Great Reeds on Choir transfer. I assume that this operates such that, when drawn, the Great reeds (even though they are bunched with the other Great stops) sound only on the Choir and not on the Great. Is this correct? Yours in ignorance MJF

Many (most?) composers and performers take it for granted that music can in some ways transcend the "merely" aural. Messiaen, for example, heard colour in music, even going to the extent in the score of the brass/percussion piece Couleurs de la Cité Céleste of indicating the colours then being played. He described his Catalogue d'Oiseaux as representing not only the various birdsongs, but also the colours of the birds' plumage. But places so specific as particular hills or churches? Hmmm ... Rgds MJF

Hi all For various reasons, I haven't been "on board" for a while, and I therefore apologise if these have already been posted somewhere in the preceding 22 pages. Interesting transcriptions of organ music for another medium: Widor's ubiquitous Toccata (Only the first 4:30 of 7:18; remainder apparently blank) Toccata from the Suite Gothique Rgds MJF

Which reminds me that quite some years ago I played a service for the dedication of a new Catholic church. Thinking myself very clever, I played Willan's prelude on Urbs Hierusalem Beata as the recessional, as what I considered a liturgically appropriate piece - only to be told something to the effect, "Didn't you happen to note that it was written as a prelude, rather than a postlude? In any case, it's the worst dirge Willan ever wrote!" (Which I don't think it is - but there I had it, I'd been well and truly put in my place. Rgds MJF

Thanks very much for sharing this, Nigel - truly appreciated. Rgds MJF

I'd assumed immediately that you were referring specifically to the well known B and g P&Fs, and not to the others, which (at least compared to all the recorded and recital outings the B and g get) appear not to be so well known - a great pity, too. Any way, my once proud tail is now between my legs ... As to appropriate repertoire, well I must admit that I used to hold more "worthy" views on this, but now ... Where I am these days (Perth, WA), there seem to be so few who can recognise anything liturgically appropriate, unless it be an improvisation very clearly based on a hymn that was sung only a few minutes before. (I'm not sounding a little jaded here, am I?) Perhaps more appropriate to another thread, but the "Christmas voluntary" I'll be playing this year is Bach's G P&F bwv541. Where were we? Ah, the Cortège & Litanie. Well, how about the 15 "Vêpres du Commun"? Or the Sept Pièces? There's some good stuff in there - a reasonable introduction to Dupré, I would have thought. (But never the Carillon, please. How could he write such dreary hash?) Rgds MJF

While the A flat P&F still requires a fairly solid technique, it's not nearly so daunting as the earlier B and g pieces. Imho it's well worth the effort. Rgds MJF

In another thread, Nigel Allcoat mentioned that his church was St. Augustine's, Kilburn. This rang a dust-laden bell in a rather musty corner of my mind and, sure enough, on checking NPOR, I was pleased to discover that I was correct (for once!) in recalling that the instrument there is an old Harrison with numerous registers prepared for, including the entire Solo division. It is also the recipient of a Historic Organ Certificate, grade II. Not having been in England for quite some years, I must confess my ignorance of the way in which Historic Organ Certificates work there. In particular, what is the position regarding Certificates and future work? A hypothetical question: if some wealthy philanthropist were to march into St. Augustine's and say, "I have pots of money, and can think of nothing better to do with it than funding all your prepared-for stops!", could the work be carried out under the terms of the grant of the Certificate? Rgds MJF

I had previously understood that these stops were (what I would call) Octave Clarions at 2' pitch until C25 or so, thereafter changing to Doublettes. Thanks for this correction. Rgds MJF

This is my experience too - and causes me to wonder, when the result is satisfactory to the ear, why so often there seems to be a reluctance to include manual Clarions in schemes. Rgds MJF

Which leads to the next question, I suppose ... All builders must know at the outset the sound they are trying to achieve, so one might imagine a customer, with this in mind, saying, "I want to have a stop on our new instrument in building X which sounds the same as stop Y does in building Z" - which conceivably may entail rather different scaling, pressure, etc to suit building X's acoustic. (Not a question, I admit, that I've ever actually asked, or previously thought of asking, any builder!) Practical to any degree? Totally impractical? Or do we just look, as I've heard it said before, to particular stops for "inspiration"? Tgds MJF

From what you and Cynic have said, St Mary's sounds far more alive than a number of supposedly "active" churches that spring to mind in my little corner of the world. Now I haven't spent a huge amount of time in the UK, and therefore know nothing at all of the rules of Redundant Churches Fund (and a lot else, besides), but I was reading a little the other day of royal and non-royal peculiars, and it sounds rather like a number of the good folk of Shrewsbury might be very happy to have St Mary's as their own little peculiar, beyond diocesan intervention. Rgds MJF

I've never come across anything like it on any other CC instrument. Was this trompette harmonique à forte pression indeed unique in his output? Rgds MJF

I haven't come across the expression '"living" church' before in the context of an otherwise redundant building, but assume that it comprehends something along the lines of community / council upkeep for historical purposes. Is this correct? You mention that the instrument is in 'pretty good condition considering its history' (being made redundant in the '80s), so I would naturally have thought that there wouldn't be sufficient funds to keep it in really good shape. However, the information on NPOR refers to proposed alterations on which there was no apparent progress as at October 1993, which (since it post-dates the building's redundancy) nevertheless implies an ongoing interest in the instrument such that one might even imagine funds one day becoming available. Now, I could very well have misread or misinterpreted something, so I'd appreciate you putting my confusion out of its misery! Rgds MJF

BTW, the name adopted by the merged organisation is "Orgelbaugesellschaft Reichenstein mbH" - a bit of a handfull. Rgds MJF

Thanks for the information, Hector. Innate, I've now found the merged organisation's website at www.organisten.de - it is said to be still "under construction", and certainly doesn't seem to contain the information that the old Oberlinger site did. Rgds MJF

I understand that Oberlinger Bros. and Hammer & Furtwängler have entered some sort of business relationship. Does anyone know if it's a full merger, or a loose association, or what? Which is senior in the relationship? Rgds MJF

Lemmens' Fanfare always goes down well with the punters. However, although I wouldn't say it's not well known, it doesn't seem to get much of an airing these days. Rgds MJF

If we were allowed cases outside the UK, then Sydney Town Hall would have to be right up there. Otherwise Beverley Minster for my money. Rgds MJF

Hi All Been away for a while; hope all is well in Discussion Land. For what it's worth, I wonder if the above means only that RVW, seemingly unfamilar (?) with the great instruments of the Baroque, was nevertheless aware of the rather exaggerated neo-Baroque organ then coming into vogue, and had all his fingers crossed, hoping that this wasn't actually the sort of instrument on which Bach had to play. For our part, we can look back with hindsight at such organs and acknowledge that, while they certainly tried, they really missed the mark. He didn't have the benefit of hindsight, but thought the neo-Baroque instrument to be unsatisfactory. A great deal of this may come down to being schooled in Romantic traditions both of what an organ "should be" and of performance generally (and there is in what he says, I think, a clear sense of the self-satisfaction that each generation carries, that what it does is "right"). But perhaps some of it may be an unspoken recognition that the neo-Baroque instrument was in some respects almost a caricature (of that of the Baroque). (And, as I say this, I realise that it is just as easily open to argue that the high Romantic instruments whose "noble diapasons" and "soft mixtures" he extolled were no less exaggerated.) By the way, who was it who said something to the effect that he preferred nothing better than Bach as played by Harold Darke at St. Michael's Cornhill? Rgds MJF

Peter Clark opened the "O Mensch, bewein" thread by referencing Patrick's comment in the "Why do we bother" thread regarding Bach pushing boundaries to the limits, without stepping over the edge. This in turn reminded me of Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr BWV 715, a setting in which the hallowed cantor surely came fairly close to breaking out of the envelope. I've only played it, and heard it played, on equal-tempered instruments, but suspect that it could have sounded positively terrifying on organs with old tunings. Your thoughts? Rgds, MJF