AJJ

'Have just checked NPOR references - Martin Renshaw who builds organs in France wrote the article about former Lichfield Cathedral organs in BIOS Journal 26 (including much on Armitage) - he will know a great deal. Martin.Renshaw@wanadoo.fr and http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/bios/renshaw.m-bio AJJ

Try this link - it may help. AJJ http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=A00285

Simon Preston playing the D minor Bach/Vivaldi Concerto from Lubeck just now on R3 - amazing sound!! Does anyone know the CD etc.? AJJ

A diversion perhaps but this is what Schoenstein has done with 12 voices/14 ranks - non mechanical action though: GREAT Bourdon 16 (Treble Claribel) Open Diapason 8 Claribel Flute 8 (Bass Bourdon) Aeoline 8 (Enc) Vox Angelica 8 (Enc) Principal 4 Lieblich Gedeckt 4 (Sw) Fifteenth 2 Mixture 2 III (Sw) Contra Oboe 16 (Sw) Trumpet 8 (Enc) Great 4 Sw to Gt 16, 8, 4 SWELL Open Diapason 16 (Bass Sw OD) Open Diapason 8 Stopped Diapason 8 Aeoline 8 (Gt) Vox Angelica 8 (Gt) Lieblich gedeckt 4 Nazard 2-2/3 (From Lieblich) Mixture 2 III Contra Oboe 16 (From 8') Trumpet 8 (Gt) Oboe 8 Sw to Sw 16, 8, 4 Tremulant PEDAL Resultant 32 Open Diapason 16 (Sw) Bourdon 16 (Gt) Open Diapason 8 (Sw) Stopped Diapason 8 (Sw) Aeoline 8 (Gt) Fifteenth 4 (Gt OD) Flute 4 (Gt Claribel) Contra Oboe 16 (Sw) Trumpet 8 (Gt) Oboe 4 (Sw) G to P 8, Sw to P 8 Quite cunning (note straight Diapasons on Gt, restrained duplexing of strings, unextended Trumpet etc.), larger than the ones we should be dealing with here but by all accounts it works in its context. AJJ

This has now gone - replaced by an electronic. AJJ

I've seen something similar before but with a 4' Gemshorn on the Swell, a Swell Suboctave intead of Octave and perhaps more unusual a Great Octave -'can't remember where though! AJJ

Stephen Cooke - DOM at Westbury PC is an acomplished organist and respected organbuilder. His work at Westbury has been noted here before and is well worth a visit. And as far as I know John Budgen still plays for at least one parish down this way. AJJ

And what is the temporary 3 man console mentioned on Harrison's website going to be connected to - the digital or bits of the main beast? AJJ

Thanks for this - I have just ordered the Whitehead CD from Chandos records AJJ

This is interesting even without the novelty element - I remember somewhere an article by William McVicar about the scales of pipework at his instrument in Dulwich (Tickell - 3m but with much input from McVicar on scaling etc.) being designed to exploit these sort of effects resulting from the harmonies in the music being performed. So LH and P quints etc. gave a fullness to the sound - absent 32s etc. In the same way some of the small 2m Willis 1s sound much larger than they actually are and I suppose also some of the C-C choir organs. The article could have been in 'The Organbuilder' - this relationship between acoustics, scale of pipework and the actual music itself was fascinating. Nothing to do with electronics where this line of discussion should be - sorry! AJJ

The NPOR suggests the pipework comes form 'a number of sources' including an organ from Stirling - could this possibly be the reason for some of these anomalies? AJJ

The treble part of the 16' Swell Bourdon at Bath Abbey was apparently voiced to be used as as a Quintaton in the recent Klais work. With no such stop evident in the stoplist it had to be explained by Peter King the DOM where the characteristic sound was coming from! AJJ

I think it is in Japan - see photo on p18 of 'The Organbuider' Vol 19, 1999. AJJ

The Gemshorn is original I think - the Cimbel Mixture replaced something else (maybe a Vox Humana?) - there is an article way back in 'The Organ' which will tell more. The Dulzian and Trompette came in 1956. I remember the general ensemble as being hard and somewhat 'steely' in sound - something I've heard before with Willis III AJJ

The Great 8' flute is a replacement (for an original Claribel I think) - it used to have an amazing chiff quite unlike anything else on the organ. Those swell pedals I used to hate! AJJ

Whatever one thinks of the TS Collins I think it should be kept in mind that Prof. Peter Evans who was largely responsible for its presence was, to a vast number of students an inspirational figure. His reasons for getting the organ were to provide the University with the best they could aquire then. As an FRCO (and also a fine player!) he knew his stuff and was always quietly proud of what he achieved in having the organ installed and in what students then made of it. As has been noted above - some of us then found it a revelation. Looking at it now one can have other views but it is important to look at it's place not only as it is now but how it was then. AJJ

'Used to sing and play there too - the present incumbent is an ex Southampton Music graduate as well. AJJ

One had to be sensible setting up registrations - I don't remember that there was too much wind starvation but in the days before the Turner Sims the other alternative was St Michael's Basset so one made the best! Sitting at the console things were in a better perspective than down the nave though the 32' Tuba was more like a road drill than anything artistic. It worked well for practice, was fun to play on and with selective (even unorthodox) stop choices a surprisingly large ammount of the repertoire could at least sound reasonable. AJJ

It was Piet Kee and you are possibly right - I was there and vaguely remember something needing sorting. It was never a great instrument but for 'us students' it was miles better than we were used to. AJJ

An versatile and impressive instrument for its time - I had lessons on it from Jeremy Blandford the DOM in the late 70s and fairly unlimited rehearsal time too. (Jeremy once played all the Bach Trio Sonatas in a recital apparently and the effect was much better than one might expect from the organ's vintage and disposition etc.) There were worries even then about money, amalgamating parishes, churches closing etc. AJJ

Also - if you want something else different from the Cochereau/Briggs style of improvisation try Gerre Hancock on his JAV CD from Washington National Cathedral (see another recent thread on this site relating to that instrument). His improvised symphony is stunning and just about uses everything the organ there has to offer - and all in the best possible taste too! AJJ

I was an undergraduate at Southampton when the Collins went in and I don't remember it having too many problems then. Peter Hurford came to perform along with Margaret Philips, Piet Kee etc. and under the regime then it was much used as a solo recital instrument and with orchestral and choral groups. It was a good instrument to learn on - reasonable tracker jobs were rarer then - certainly as one who had been used to electropneumatics up till then it did my technique some good and allowed access to sounds not possible at the local parish church. AJJ

Ask for the CD of the Aberdeen organ for Christmas! - on Cantoris Records - Nigel Allcoat and Roger Williams playing - some improvisation too - you'll enjoy it!! http://www.cantoris.co.uk/ AJJ PS The version of the website I got from this does not seem to have the Aberdeen CD on it but contact them and it can be obtained!

''The style is beginning to look a little like Choir & Organ and the content somewhat diluted as well.'' (John Sayer) I don't mind C & O - it does what it aims to do well - as for OR, I'll give it some time but I agree about the Paul Hale style - he certainly knows to do things well what with his musicianship, a valuable depth of organ 'know how' and a sense of enthusiasm for the subject that all of us can identify with. I just hope the seemingly competent and well meaning new 'powers that be' focus on what works, what people seem to want and on not going where other journals already go. Above all not losing the impetus of the previously well constructed journal. AJJ PS The translation from the German of the Dresden article in the 1st 'new edition' was grim - some of the material in 'The Organ' has a similar or sometimes worse feel to it. A while ago a well known female French organist was actually referred to as being male for the duration of a review and chunks of text regularly go I know not where making nonsense of articles.

The John Riley series from Organists' Review a few years back is also very accessible and user friendly - he also produced a book + CD at about the same time which goes into rather more detail. I am not sure whether this is still available though. AJJ