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David Drinkell

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Everything posted by David Drinkell

  1. This one was also built for the Great Exhibition - Gray & Davison's 'Chancel Organ" with case by J.D. Seddon, now at Stowlangtoft, Suffolk (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=H00031). The colours are a bit anaemic in this picture (reminds me of over-cooked greens Anglais!) and the actual effect is much richer.
  2. I wondered if you might be thinking of Monty Python - Notlob!
  3. A good appointment! Best of luck to Daniel. A hard act to follow, but I think he will do well.
  4. St. Peter, Bolton http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=E01477
  5. What a lovely picture of Old Radnor - it's a quite magical case. I was in the church once to ring the bells. I didn't get a chance to play the organ, but just standing in front of it was an experience. New Radnor (which I did play) has a nice little old Walker behind a decent case that was made for a different instrument. Incidentally, Lady Jeans's version of the history of the Old Radnor case The Organ Vol.70, No. 277) has been widely questioned - it is suggested that she had a pre-conceived idea about what was what. I would go along with those who maintain that it really is a very old case.
  6. Famous for the majesty of its principal chorus, which inspired many including Thomas Lewis and Arthur Harrison, but what intrigued me when I was there about twenty years ago (before the most recent restoration and re-ordering) was the variety and stunning beauty of the soft registers, both individually and in combination..
  7. Herbert Byard, whose last months as a lecturer at Bristol University coincided with my first months as a student, recalled running from school on the 15th Evening to hear Sir Herbert Brewer smite the enemies of the Lord in the hinder parts in Psalm 78. He found out later that this was achieved with a quick double jab on the Ophicleide reversible. Was the 32' reed at Christ Church ever put in? I thought it was prepared-for.
  8. Again referring to Simon Knott's invaluable East Anglian churches websites, the Suffolk site entry for Lound has pictures of the Harrison organ (restored by Richard Bower) in its Comper case, as well as Comper's other furnishings: http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/lound.htm The Norfolk site has pictures of Comper's work, including the organ case, at Mundford: http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/mundford/mundford.htm and Stephen Dykes-Bower's Westminster Abbey look-alike (cunningly fashioned and painted to look more elaborate than it is) at Great Yarmouth, although Simon is a bit sniffy about the case and, indeed, Dykes Bower (but he redeemed himself in the write-up of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral on the Suffolk site): http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/gynicholas/gynicholas.htm And here's the Comper case at All Saints, Carshalton, Surrey, where the Willis organ has recently been restored and enhanced by its original builders:
  9. Moot Hall, Town Hall, Colchester, Essex - Case by John Belcher, who designed the building. The organ is an outstanding example of Norman & Beard's work (1901), with only 28 speaking stops but all on the grand scale and sounding more than twice as big as it is. Harrisons' restored it to its original state (returning the Choir Organ to Viole d'Orchestre, Lieblich Gedackt, Dulciana, Concert Flute 4, Orchestral Clarinet) in 2015, Dr. Bill McVicker, who advised on the restoration, described it as a "little giant".
  10. Great Saling, Essex - Yet another Sutton-influenced Miller organ. Very nice gothic case and quite startlingly commanding chorus.
  11. Little Bardfield, Essex - Renatus Harris case from Jesus College via All Saints, Cambridge. Front pipes by Harris. Interior was thought to be by Gray, but recent restoration by Peter Wood notes that soundboards are by Miller, so maybe the pipes are, too. Again, undoubted Sutton influence, both in acquiring the organ and its archaic specification (black naturals, long compass, mounted Cornet, etc).
  12. Great Bardfield, Essex - Organ by Miller (not Holdich, as Clutton & Niland suggested). Case by someone from the Sutton school (Sir John Sutton owned property in the Bardfields).
  13. Radwinter Church, Essex. Main restoration of the church was by Eden Nesfield and he designed a pipe-rack sort of case, as well as specifying what stops were to be in the organ. I think this case was by Temple Moore, who completed the work on the church after Nesfield's death. The organ is by Miller of Cambridge, originally 2 manuals but now 3. The sum total of stops on Great and Choir suggest that the original Great sound-board was adapted to carry two departments. Like a lot of Miller's work, it's a fine instrument, restored some years back by Millers' successor, Bill Johnson.
  14. The case at St. Andrew-the-Less, Cambridge, has much similarity with that at Vijvekapelle, Belgium, where the church was designed by Bethune and Sutton had a lot of influence with the organ. The top cornice and little spirettes are almost identical (especially the rather prominent cap to the central tower). The Cambridge case has suffered somewhat over the years by repainting of the doors and lower coving - these might have had more elaborate decoration originally. The organ as it stands is by Miller of Cambridge and post-dates the case. I have previously hazarded a guess that the original might have been by George Dawson, who did other work for Sutton, but might not have been very satisfactory. The original Twelfth was replaced with a Dulciana some time ago at the request of the organist at the time. Framlingham was a very notable restoration for its time, by John Budgen of Bishop & Son, who collected bits of case and pipework from various places (I think the Cornet was found in the Rectory attic) and reassembled it all on a new west gallery. A little further up on this thread: South Pickenham, as most will know, came from the church at West Tofts, which is now in the Stanford Battle Training Area and inaccessible except on very rare occasions. There, it had its own little tribune over the chancel, which is much bigger than the nave and was added by Pugin for the Revd. Augustus Sutton. There are pictures of the church as it now is, including the empty tribune and the stair-way leading to it, on Simon Knott's excellent Norfolk Churches website (http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/westtofts/westtofts.htm). When the organ came to Pickenham, it stood on the floor, but it now has a west gallery and looks marvellous. It sounds wonderful, too - "Gothic grandeur" is an apt description, I think by the Revd. Hilary Davidson, who is the expert on the Suttons and things connected with them. It had its vicissitudes when a local cowboy (no names, no pack drill!) who dabbled in organs "restored" it, which included painting over the decorations. Fortunately, what he did was later put right and the original painting restored, so it is now an instrument which should be a must to visit if anyone is in the area (http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/southpickenham/southpickenham.htm). I don't know of another organ quite like it. Staunton Harold - There is a case which greatly resembles this, but larger, at Hilborough Church, Norfolk (http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/hilborough/hilborough.htm). The organ is by Bevington, 1857, moved from the west gallery by Norman & Beard in 1896. I was sure that the case was older, but Holmes & Swift, who maintain it and did a fine restoration about ten years ago, assure me that it is contemporary with the organ. Another instrument worth a detour to visit(http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N06363).
  15. Dublin - I've heard about this one, but I never got to see it when I lived in Ireland. Thanks for the picture. This is one of at least two organs which were fabled to have been salvaged (or pinched) from a wrecked Spanish galleon. All nonsense, of course, the case being (to quote one organ-builder) "un-Spanish to a Sino-Russian degree". Under the decoration, it does have an early English look to it. I didn't know that there is now a playable organ in it. Clumber - Blimey! That looks impressive!
  16. Uncanny! I've been thinking about posting on this very aspect of the Carillon de Westminster for the past couple of weeks. The best I can think of is to hop the thumb around, as suggested above, but it's not a very satisfactory (or safe!) way of doing things. I tried holding the A on the Pedal, but it doesn't really come off at Fredericton Cathedral.
  17. Rutt received quite a lot of coverage, off and on, in "The Organ". William Lloyd Webber was a fan and wrote at least two articles. One, I think, concerned Denham Church, Bucks, (which has since been replaced) and another featured organs in East London, notably the new Becontree Estate. I'm trying to locate the relevant copies, as well as the first of two by Bryan Hughes (I have the second one in front of me!). In an article in "Musical Opinion", E.M. Pinkney described the qualities of the Rutt at St. Cyprian, Clarence Gate, (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N17044) as "ripe", which I think was perceptive. Personally, I have rarely found a Rutt organ that I liked. St. Peter's, Colchester (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=H00583) is a shocker, yet if Compton had done it with the same resources it would probably have been pretty good. As a young teenager, I used to practice on the little Rutt at Wivenhoe Congregational Church, Essex (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N08676). It was very well made, with a decent case (which migrated with it from an earlier building elsewhere in the town), but tonally it was an extreme example of a few soft stops plus a big diapason. Rutt came from Purleigh, near Maldon in Essex, and St. Mary's, Maldon, has a nice two-manual with Rutt's name on it, but the best bits (and case) are from its original incarnation by Holdich. Rutt added the Swell. The best Rutt I have encountered is St. Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N17699), a very fine Romantic instrument which deserves to be better known. However, a lot of it is recycled from previous rebuilds and is therefore perhaps not typical. Tunbridge Wells Baptist (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N17873) was pretty good, but was rebuilt by HN&B in 1974, shortly after I played it. Like AJJ, I played St. Martin-in-the-Fields towards the end of its life. It was a clever scheme, with its divided mixtures and illuminated stop-keys, but it was awfully ponderous and I doubt whether it was ever any better, even when it was in good condition. There's no doubt that Rutt built a lot of organs and was well thought-of by many. It's entirely possible that my view was jaundiced early on by my experience of St. Peter's, Colchester, (I first played it in my early teens and subsequently quite a few times, but it still sticks in my mind as one of the most gormless contraptions I've ever handled). "Fanfare for an Organ Builder" contains some piercing remarks by Noel Mander.
  18. I find that the tangents introduced are sometimes as interesting as the original thread. For example, Hull Minster is on my bucket list and it's interesting to learn about it. There are a number of others in the same area, including Doncaster, Beverley, Grimsby and Howden, the latter two partly because research (not by me) shows that my family name comes from those parts. Drinkells are first recorded in York in the 15th century, and then can be traced moving east, including Howden, before winding up in Grimsby. It's not an unusual name in those parts, but unknown elsewhere. Anyone called Drinkell (or variants thereon) will be of Grimsby descent, in my case through my grandfather. The footballer, Kevin Drinkell, who was flavour-of-the-month with the choristers when I went to Belfast Cathedral in 1988, started with Grimsby Town and his grandfather and mine were brothers. It's probably an Anglo-Saxon name. The toast, "Wes heil!" is responded to with the words "Drinc heil!" - at least, that's one explanation and I rather like it. The above proves my credentials as one of the chief offenders in veering off-topic. Regarding York, I understand that there were criticisms after the 1960 Walker rebuild that it didn't cut the mustard down the nave as effectively as it had before. The same thing was said about Walkers' first rebuild in 1903, giving rise to Bairstow's comment, 'This organ is a woman. I'm going to turn it into a man.' I'm not so sure that the post-1960 criticisms were justified (and my impressions of the instrument, both in the Quire and in the nave, have always been very favourable) , but when I spent a week there in the early nineties, I think that there was a small nave division tucked into the west side of the case. The 1993 work helped to pull together various characteristics of the organ from both sides of the screen (for example, adding an east-speaking solo reed), revised the Great reeds (some of which had not felt really happy after a big drop in pressure in 1960) and rebalanced the mixtures. Such work has not been uncommon with organs rebuilt in the sixties and seventies - one thinks of the cathedrals of Ely, Down and St. Patrick's, Dublin, among others. It is now nearly seventy years since the 1960 rebuild - more than elapsed between 1903 and 1960 and not forgetting Harrisons' major revoicings and enlargements in 1916 and 1931. By any calculation, the organ must by now need some fairly major overhauling. The 1960 rebuild was, generally, a success and subsequent modifications have respected it. I presume that the imminent work will do the same and that the character of the organ will be maintained and further enhanced. I hope that Francis will still be around to hear and approve!
  19. I can't help noticing that the modern service books often refer to "forebears". I wonder if, in some future instrument, you might provide not one bear but four.
  20. If you have diplomas in sight, practice the keyboard tests diligently, taking a lot of time over them. If you can't play them accurately before you go into the exam, you won't play them well enough to pass when you're in there. In any case, competence at this sort of thing will stand you in good stead in so many ways for the rest of your life. Learning pieces, start at the end and learn the last few bars, starting at a speed slow enough to be able to play the notes. Speed it up gradually and add a few more bars, and so on until you get to the beginning. A lot of people can play the first page or so of a piece, but get progressively more rocky thereafter. On top of that, there's nothing worse than starting a piece and knowing that you're going to have trouble later on. Playing towards something that you know is a great help to confidence. As Vox says, you should be confident when it comes to scales. I had a pupil once who was learning the Bach/Prince Johann Ernst Concerto in G BWV 592. She was a mature and experienced pianist and a piano teacher, and was conscientious at the organ, but she had no end of trouble with the G major scales. One should never take these things for granted! Take pains over registration. Don't use more stops than you need, and listen to them. Maybe, for example, a 4' flute is more suitable for a specific need than the 8'. I get very depressed at the number of organists, especially in North America (where the General Crescendo Pedal is a major curse), who register with their eyes rather than their ears.
  21. That's right - Sidney Campbell! It was a great help.
  22. The pieces set at ARCO are often less complicated than those for Grade 8. For example, Vaughan Williams' "Rhosymedre" was set at Grade 7 and ARCO. ARCM performance pieces can be more complex than ARCO, but the demands at ARCO are for very high accuracy indeed. As an introduction to diploma playing, it's no bad idea to try ARCM or LTCL. It gets you into the feel of things and both are respectable qualifications. I don't think you have paperwork for ARCM performance these days (even in the 70s, it was easy stuff). If you can harmonise a chorale and do a stylish 16th century counterpoint, the paperwork shouldn't be too intimidating. I did O and A Level with the Cambridge Board, which in those days was quite hot on these subjects, so diploma work wasn't so scary. Thinking about the organ tests, Lang did indeed produce books, but there were a couple of pink-covered publications by Hinrichsen (I think) which contained severe but rewarding sets and were a great help. I can't remember offhand who wrote them (I lent mine to a pupil way back in my Belfast days. He still has them, although not the FRCO, but is stunningly good anyway - a much better player than I shall ever be!), but someone on this forum is bound to know. Noel Rawsthorne apparently composed the tests around the time I was trotting up and down the stairs at Kensington Gore.
  23. I played Hindemith's Sonata No. 1 at a lunch-time concert a couple of weeks ago and, in introducing it, compared the composer's precise and characterful style with a Mercedes-Benz car. I doubt whether Mercedes will come up with any money when I need it, though.....
  24. They hadn't invented CRCO when I was attempting such things, but basically, you need to get hold of past papers and past or specimen tests and practice and practice and practice! Things, again, are different today as they mark the keyboard tests separately (it was generally believed that if you goofed on the tests they knocked marks off the pieces so that you failed), but there really isn't room for error and you need to be very competent at what is required. In my experience, too, the RCO diplomas require a higher degree of accuracy in the set pieces than, for example, ARCM, where a good overall performance would get you through, even with a few minor slips. In my day (My God! April 1974), you did ARCM on a perfectly dreadful organ in Room 90 at the top of one of the towers at the RCM and we all reckoned that if you could make a half-decent noise on the beast you would get through. I had a bit of luck, though. One of the pieces was the Alcock Introduction & Passacaglia - not the most fashionable of works in those days. When I had finished, one of the examiners (an old gentleman) said, "And how do you like that piece, my boy?" I said I liked it very much. Coming out, I asked the invigilator who the old gentleman was. "Dr. Harold Darke," she said. I later noticed that the Alcock is dedicated to Harold Darke, so that's probably why I passed. I had also better confess that I believe I got through ARCO because I was the first in after lunch and the examiners seemed in high good humour all the way through (I was sitting there, wading through "Ach bleib' bei uns" and "Master Tallis's Testament" with much chuckling from the far end of the hall, and thinking, 'Come on, chaps, it's not that bad!') I think I managed FRCO because I chose some of the more unusual pieces from the syllabus ("Dies sind der heilgen zehn Gebot", Psalm Prelude Set 2, No.3 and the first movement of the Harwood Sonata) which were perhaps a nice change from some of the war-horses available. I have since found that Ralph Vaughan Williams also played the Harwood when he sat FRCO some 90 years before. I picked up a lot of tips about what was required from a lesson with Allan Wicks, who was tremendously helpful. I must have been lucky with CHM because I can't recall any special circumstances, although the examiners for the playing part were two of the nicest gentlemen - John Sanders and Stanley Vann. The RCO organ was, in that acoustic, a somewhat unforgiving thing to drive, although I've always thought it was a fine scheme for its size, apart from the 2' Flute on the Great, which needed to be avoided like the plague (such things were quite popular, but none of us could work out why). I wonder what it sounds like in its new home in Australia - it has probably been there now for longer than it was in Kensington Gore. I was glad that I didn't have to do FRCO at Marylebone Parish Church. I felt it was unfair for candidates to have to handle a non-British console on short acquaintance and, for candidates from some parts of the British Isles (Northern Ireland, for example), the opportunity to practice on a large modern tracker action simply did not exist, so they were at a disadvantage anyway. The above ramblings aside, you really must be good at the tests in order to pass. Apart from official past papers, C.S. Lang published several volumes of practice tests.
  25. Rear-engined, too, I should imagine - Ruckpositif??
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