Malcolm Farr
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Posts posted by Malcolm Farr
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I did hear a story once of the 64' reed at the Sydney Town Hall sounding when nobody was at the console. However, I suspect it was most likely a train rumbling through the underground station, just beneath. Much as I love the STH, I'd have to say there's probably not much difference in volume or pitch ...
Rgds,
MJF
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I have a liking for compiling lists, and over the weekend, at a loose end, I put together a list of the King's College Cambridge Organ Scholars over the past 30-40 years. With a few exceptiops, where your response may well be to ask: "Where are they now?", it really does read as a veritable Who's Who of the organ world in the UK, and is a remarkable testament to the consistent quality of organists that Stephen Cleobury and before him Philip Ledger and David Willcocks have produced out of the King's conveyor belt.
...
Benjamin Bayl
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Did Benjamin Bayl return to Sydney after his time at King's College, or remain in England (where there are undoubtedly more opportunities in this area)?
Rgds,
MJF
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Your second paragraph is the key to this
'....only on a pressure of 3"'
I think it was one of the Hill family who wrote (and I'm paraphrasing)
'on a pressure of about 3" a pipe simply voices itself'.
3" or just above it is a superb compromise pressure - strong enough for good rich chorus reeds and not too much to make Diapasons and Flutes sing with a still- interesting tone. Not suprisingly most Hills were on about 3" as were the early Norman and Beards and the vintage Walkers. Much above this and you have to start arching the upper lip to remove unwanted overtones or (of course) cover the upper lip with leather!
The quest for lighter and faster actions got builders into raising their available pressures and this tempted them to experiment with higher pressures for solo stops generally. I don't have a problem with this at all - solo stops, after all, don't have to blend so much as contrast. However, few builders have ever able to produce genuinely musical choruses on 4" plus IMHO - huge buildings excepted, of course.
In my view, the least satisfactory of the Harmonic Flutes on the STH is the 4' on the Great. It's on the same pressure as the reeds - 5" or so - and I find it just doesn't have any blend; nor is it as good a solo voice as those in the Solo (or the enclosed 4' Harmonic Flute in the Swell).
Rgds,
MJF
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I think this one is pretty easy. Harmonic Flute tone can be made seriously powerful while avoiding coarseness of tone. For a flute to be really good (in the romantic sense) under expression, it has to be really quite strong when the box is open. Rule of thumb, deduct 10% for the effect of the box, even when open. Therefore, for a flute solo to sing out over a pretty dense accompaniment, the ideal stop sometimes needs to be virtually as strong as the voicer can make it. A fiercely blown stopped pipe veers towards the Tibia for dullness or the Quintadena. An open wood or metal flute heavily blown (and therefore radically cut up) loses much of its charm. By contrast, Harmonic Flutes just get stronger and purer (or overblow to the next harmonic, of course).
The continuing quest for pure flute tone leads to the Zauberflote (even more over-length) and to the Doppleflute that you mention.
This does not change my opinion that one of the nicest aspects of a well-voiced Harmonic Flute is the pretty-well exact imitation of a genuine flautist - the initial speech and continuing overtones. The subtleties of these (I maintain) are partially lost when the stop in question is enclosed.
I think that Harmonic Flutes (or rather the use of them) has further to go. The most interesting developments I have heard recently have come from Detlef Kleuker and the compound stops he has made to the designs of Jean Guillou. Purity of tone leads to superb blend - superb blend in mutations can make for really seductive colours. Take that plus the ability to make them very loud.....
An interesting comment ...
The Solo flues at the Hill firm's magnum opus at the Sydney Town Hall have always been unenclosed, but I don't think that the flutes (in particular) suffer at all. It's actually hard to pick between them for the most beautiful voices - Flauto Traverso, Doppelflöte and Stopped Diapason (all wood) of 8', Harmonic Flute (metal) and Flauto Traverso (wood) of 4', and Harmonic Piccolo (metal) of 2'. (If forced to pick, I suppose I'd go for the Doppelflöte, Stopped Diapason and 4' Flauto Traverso.)
Although they're only on a wind pressure of 3" (I think), they "sing" - I can't think of a better word for it - strongly without sounding at all forced - and I think they're perfect for the job without being under expression.
Rgds,
MJF
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What is the current situation of the Harrison at the City Hall in Newcastle-upon-Tyne? Some years ago, I heard that it had been at least partly brought back into working order (for some sort of a "private function", I understood), but I've heard nothing since.
Rgds,
MJF
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Hi All
I recently noticed a stoplist that includes a "Portunal". However, I've never seen one or (to my knowledge) heard one. What is it?
(And why can't it go by a more common name, which even a duffer like me can understand? Unless of course it's something entirely uncommon ...)
Rgds,
MJF
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Incidentally, I take the beginning of Bonnet's Etude de Concert in exactly the opposite way - slightly detaching the first two notes (after the opening rest), and then accelerating into the triplets. (I suspect that this will be rather frowned upon. Oh well ...)
Rgds,
MJF
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There seems to be a dramatic moment at bar 62, perhaps suggesting some sort of slowing down (perhaps Adagio?), because at bar 64, there is the start of a virtuosic cadenza, with lots of figuration and running about.
I'd have to experiment a bit with the pedal solo at the end, but my instinct would be to slow down progressively during the course of it, or else the ending would sound far too abrupt. Perhaps to the point of extreme Adagio, which would then make an Adagio at bar 62 the more valid?
Funny that I've never played or heard this work before, but thanks to Stephen for mentioning it. I shall have to learn it!
MM
I agree generally about slowing down, although my preference is for a once-and-for-all change with the pedal entry rather than a progressive rallentando, and then maintain it through to the end.
By the way, I'm not Stephen (sjf), but a mere mortal currently residing half way round the world. Be nice to be as fine a musician as he is, though ...
Rgds,
MJF
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'Spotted this today - another Downes scheme rebuilt/restored with a few extras added. Interesting (see elsewhere) to see the Swell Cimbel going back albeit with a Mixture as well. I think it looks as if it is going to be good - especially the augmented Great reeds and the C de B available at 8' on the Choir. It is a really splendid organ as it stands but this will add flexibility and grandeur - also the much needed 32' reed. In the past every stop has had to pay its way in the vast nave so the Nave organ will help too.
I've known this organ since I was a child (home diocesan cathedral etc. - visiting choir once a year latterly being allowed to play before/after the service) have heard it in action at the Organ Festival, in services and backing up a full house at the Easter youth pigrimage and it never ceases to amaze - it also plays like a dream!
http://www.harrison-organs.co.uk/stalbanspec.html
AJJ
The new couplers provided seem interesting - Choir to Great and Great on Choir are being added in addition to the standards (including the Choir Unison Off). I've no experience with an organ having these couplers, and have only heard St Albans live once, and I'm wondering how they'll be used.
Rgds,
MJF
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I've just been giving BWV 575 a dash again, and thought I'd ask others how they articulate the opening. I've always felt that I should phrase the subject so as to imply the rest, but have never been satisfied with anything I've tried. Or is it best simply to let it be ambiguous?
Rgds,
MJF
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Thank you! I had no idea about the true identity of the 32p reed at Orléans Cathedral. Cavaillé-Coll did occasionally resort to such subterfuge in order to provide a sub-unison pedal flue stop. S. Sernin is a case in point; older specifications give the first Pedal stop as 'Principalbasse 32'. However, after the most recent restoration, it is listed as 'Grosse Quinte 10 2/3p'. This is certainly more informative.
Cavaillé-Coll certainly seems to have thought that quint reeds had their place. In addition to the Orléans example, his unexecuted 1875 proposal for St Peter's Basilica in Rome included a Quinte-bombarde 10 2/3' in the Pédale and a Quinte-trompette 5 1/3' in the Grand-Choeur. His scheme was quite complete, with 124 stops over 6 manual divisions plus Pédale, and both divisions included sub-unison reeds (Contre-bombarde 32' and Tuba magna 16' respectively). So I think it is fair to surmise that, in this instance, their inclusion was to emphasis the gravitas inherent in the proposed chorus structures.
Regards,
MJF
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So she was fit, then?
(I do like to keep abreast of developments in the organ world.)
Fit for what, my dear pcnd?
Now, we're not going to steam all ahead full into the sea of misunderstandings of which I warned ... are we?
Rgds,
MJF
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All of which reminds me, I saw an organ CD the other day - pretty rare at the edge of this desert, I must say - and almost bought it regardless of whether the young lady in question can play. A certain Iveta Apkalna. I dare not ask "is she any good" for fear of the misunderstandings my question might cause ...
Rgds,
MJF
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To hell with the music - this year's contest had some of the shortest skirts and best legs for years!
Well, I did say "and some of the other acts" - you can take that whichever way you wish, although I dare say there was as much for the eye as there was for the ear!
Rgds,
MJF
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Well, certainly, I am not remotely interested in playing a cinema organ; but - narrow taste?
Not me!
Anything from plainchant to Metallica (excluding brass/silver bands, Country & Western, Rap, serial music, minimalist and anything by Sorabji; most other things are in).
In any case, as I believe Brian Childs has said, it would be a dull world if we all liked the same things....
How did you cope wth the "bat out of Helsinki" - Lordi - and some of the other acts on Eurovision the other night?
Rgds
MJF
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Can anyone please help me with the score for the Episode by Copland, written about 1940 odd. I need to find the publisher, also a source. I cannot spot it online anywhere, and it would sound lovely on my organ, particularly for a wedding .
Any help gratefully recieved.
Thanks!
Richard.
John Henderson's "A Directory of Composers for Organ" - a book that I have found very useful indeed - gives the publisher as "BEL", ie Belwin-Mills of PO Box 4340, 15800 N.W. 48th Avenue, Miami, Florida 33014, USA.
Rgds,
MJF
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... As far as I am aware, R&D did not undertake any alterations you suggest during their 1980's refurbishment of the organ. The original 32ft Contra Bombarde was part of the 1911 Forster & Andrews (F&A) creation ...
Well, now I'm truly perplexed. My surmise tried to make sense of comments in the thread above, and at the same time fit with my father's diaries for 1952-3. About the Pedal reed, he wrote "old bombarde was trombone, new extends solo". Maybe he got it wrong, or I've misinterpreted him.
I've just been looking at NPOR, seeing if it provides the answer, but unfortunately I'm not sure that it does. First, the 1911 Forster & Andrews organ F&A 1911 gives the Pedal reeds as Contra-Bombarde 32', Trombone 16' and Trumpet 8'. It appears from this record as if the Contra-Bombarde is independent, while the Trumpet is extended from the Trombone. So maybe my father's diary is wrong on that score, as it seems to indicate that the Contra-Bombarde was an extension of the Trombone. Or perhaps this was an unwarranted assumption on my part.
Second, the record for the 1950 Compton organ Compton 1950 doesn't show extensions or derivations, but does show both a Bombarde 16' and a Trombone 16' in the Pedal. At the same time, there is now a Bombarde 8' in the Solo. It was my understanding that the Pedal Bombarde was an extension from the Solo stop, but maybe that isn't correct. The Pedal also includes a Contra-Bombarde 32', which I had expected from my father's notes to be a further downward extension from the Solo reed, but perhaps it's the original Contra-Bombarde, possibly given a bit more oomph by Comptons?
Third, the record for the 1985-1991 Rushworth & Dreaper organ Rushworth 1985-91 shows the 32' reed under the name Contra-Trombone. It is not indicated as being extended from another stop. And at 16', we still have the Bombarde and the Trombone, although - ah-ha! - the Bombarde is noted as "Solo".
So is the Contra-Trombone merely the old stop re-named, perhaps because it is part of the (original) Pedal reed chorus with the Trombone, and also so as to distinguish it from the real Bombarde, to which it is unrelated?
All this to ascertain the provenance of one stop ...
Rgds,
MJF
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Paul, you are absolutely correct. The 32ft Contra Trombone is a reed and not a diaphone. I speak from a position of having been in the chamber on numerous occasions.
My recollection is that the current 32' reed at Hull City Hall is indeed just that - a true reed.
While I don't have a truly intimate knowledge of this organ, such as Barry and others in this thread, I wonder if the solution to this question is something along the following lines: When in 1950 Comptons substituted a Contra-Bombarde 32', extended from the Solo rank, for the original 1911 Forster & Andrews Contra-Trombone, the bottom octave or so was diaphonic. I don't think this would have been entirely unusual for Comptons (see also the preceding post). The diaphonic Contra-Bombarde was then removed during the Rushworth & Dreaper work of 1985-91, when the true reed Contra-Trombone was re-constituted.
Rgds,
MJF
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And just to complicate matters further ...
Cavaillé-Coll's masterpiece at Saint-Ouen has an Unda Maris in the Positif, and both a Voix Céleste and a Voix Éolienne on the Récit Expressif. The former Récit stop is a "standard" Cavaillé-Coll Voix Céleste stop, while the Voix Éolienne is flute-toned, to undulate with the Cor de Nuit. (By the way, I don't remember coming across a "Voix Éolienne" anywhere else.)
As to the Unda Maris on the Positif, I can't now recall whether it is flute- or string-toned. Is anyone able to clarify?
Rgds,
MJF
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Sydney Town Hall has been mentioned above, and certainly rates as one of my favourites.
Another, much more recent Sydney organ is on my "most ordinary" list. It is the new Letourneau organ (1999) in the transept of St Mary's Cathedral. An image of the organ can be seen at St Mary's Cathedral organ.
It's interesting that the case was designed by a gentleman from the New South Wales Department of Public Works, and I wonder if such Department involvement may have been part of the price to pay for funding.
Rgds,
MJF
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I was just wonder if anyone out there in Discussion Board Land uses an abbreviated combination as I do ...
I have a Swell combination setting of just three stops - Double Trumpet, Clarion and Mixture III - that I use most particularly for coupling through to the Great. Of course, every instrument is different, but I wonder if others find something like this minimalist full Swell combination best for coupling?
Rgds,
MJF
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I don't recall hearing that the musical tradition at St Sulpice suffered from Widor and Dupré between them occupying the organ bench for a century ...
Perhaps it's inappropriate to equate the situation in France with that in England, but I suspect not. Ultimately, I think that it must be a "horses for courses" approach. If the church or institution is happy with the continued standard and doesn't feel the need for a move, and the organist / director of music is of the same mind, then change for its own sake would surely be a risky step.
Rgds,
MJF
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In his book on the Sydney Town Hall organ, Robert Ampt wrote that musically convincing performances will sound sufficiently authentic. I think that there's a lot of good sense in this.
Now, there's no point in trying to play Franck on a neo-baroque instrument. But French romantics can come across well on English-tradition instruments. To me, it's not a matter of attempting the impossible - to make them sound like they were built by Cavaillé-Coll - but using the available resources sympathetically. Then once the music is under way, let the performance carry the listener rather than worrying whether the registrations are sufficiently exact.
Rgds,
MJF
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Thanks for your comments, pcnd.
While I was aware that the early recordings would have been subject to the constraints imposed by 78s, I must confess that I hadn't really given any thought to the time factors involved being relevant to the "creative process". In retrospect, I suppose they were.
As I think you suggest, Vierne seems deliberately to have "dumbed down" considerably from his normal level (at least with respect to the standard of his written works). It's quite a pity, then, that recording equipment and techniques were at the primitive level they were then; and a pity, too, that there was no François Carbou who was so dedicated to the recording of Cochereau's service (and other) improvisations.
Interesting, too, are your comments about Duruflé's playing. I don't have any of his recordings, but had heard that he was good, but not absolutely front rank as a technician.
For a number of reasons, I can't wait to get this set ...
Rgds
MJF
Haunted Organs?
in The Organ
Posted
Perhaps if I had qualified my comment with, "heard from within the hall, not 10 or so metres down below in the tube", the comparison would have been somewhat clearer. In that context, they produce a similar vague, low and, dare I say it, not particularly musical rumble. I think the mp3 rather proves it ...
Despite that little misgiving (and the fact that the very early transferred Trumpet was returned from the Choir to the Swell when it was restored, reducing flexibility), I love the STH more than any other instrument. Its choruses, both flue and reed, have a grandeur and cohesion beyond compare. Saint Sulpice comes close.
Sorry folks, I've gone rather off-track there. Now, where were we with those ghost stories?
Rgds,
MJF