David Drinkell

I don't know about this fellow, but in looking I discovered www.e-partitions.fr, which is nicely laid out and has lots of interesting stuff, organ and choral.

I had heard that they were going to manage without a substitute, but I can't remember if the information was from a reliable source!

Davies of Northampton produced a number of instruments with the same stops on both manuals. Probably a result of the firm having been associated with Aeolian residence organs in their early days. I noticed a bottle of Japanese whisky behind the bar at the Brown Trout Hotel, Watten, Caithness the other week when we were on our way to the Orkney ferry. Apparently, it's pretty good. Rather like several New World countries producing wine that's better than the equivalent French product, I suppose. Highland Park is the stuff! And their manager used to sing in St. Magnus Cathedral Choir....

Regarding Emmanuel, Innate pinpoints what might be seen as the principal omission from the scheme - a 16' reed in the Swell. Furthermore, the classic Victorian provision of Cornopean and Oboe, without Clarion, is unusual these days. However, it's not a large building and the exigencies of the space and case must have suggested what was done. In practice, it seems to work perfectly well and gravitas is not lacking. An example, as I mentioned earlier, of Ken providing the right stuff, even if it's not quite what one might expect. Checking the Kenneth Jones website just now, I was struck by the specification of the organ at Carlow Cathedral in Ireland. I didn't know about this one - when I lived in Ireland there was a nondescript box of whistles skulking in the south transept. I never played it or found out much about it, but it started off as a three-manual Bevington, maybe somewhat like the one at Kilkenny. The Jones organ has a fine neo-English Classical case, presumably in a gallery, and the specification looks very Victorian, more specifically Hill-ish (including a Choir organ of 8.8.8.4.2.Clarinet, Orchestral Oboe), including the same provision of Swell reeds as at Emmanuel. Here, however, there are octave and sub couplers in the Swell (as well as a Lieblich Bourdon and five 8' flues, including two flutes). There are also three 32' stops - Major Bass, Sub Bass and Contra Trombone! Was it Stephen Bicknell or Ian Bell who wrote that the gravitas of a Full Swell does not necessarily depend on a 16' reed? Sam Clutton observed that, on light pressure as in a typical Victorian organ, a bourdon and appropriate voicing of the reed basses could achieve an effect which was just as appropriate.

When a fixed-pitch instrument is involved - organ, oboe, harmonica, etc - the other instruments have to tune to it. Electronic tuners are no use in such cases.

Stephen cites Kenneth Jones's organ at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. I agree - this is a very fine instrument indeed and very well suited to the surroundings in which it stands. Kenneth, I think, had a knack for sizing up the requirements of individual jobs and providing (most times) something which was just right, but yet imaginative, in contrast to the rather predictable specs that keep appearing. Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin was similarly effective (although the brust positive was a bit over the top and I believe has since been altered). It had a warmth which was a welcome change in those days and managed all the majesty of an Anglican cathedral organ as well as a comprehensive classical one, and all within a reasonably small number of stops. I never liked his damn great stop knobs though....

Wiki says that the cathedral recently reopened after a 4 1/2 years restoration. A difference between English cathedrals and many continental ones is that English cathedrals are used rather a lot for services, whereas one could go to some major cathedrals in France, for example, and see "Messe 1000" each day and nothing else.. Without the daily round, it would be easier to close a building completely.

I read somewhere (Bicknell The History of the English Organ, I think) that Keeton wanted Hope-Jones to build the new organ at Peterborough, but the donor specified Hill.

I wonder if they meant as in E-Type Jag or on a scale of A-E! With regard to acoustics, Harrisons' could be wizards at getting a fine sound in dead acoustics. Leeds Parish Church is pretty dead, and All Saints, Margaret Street isn't exactly Notre Dame. I remember, when I took Belfast Cathedral Choir to York, finding the acoustics in the Quire depressingly difficult - and our building was the same width and height as York with an equally wide gap between Can and Dec.

Leicester Cathedral organ has not had the best reports over the years - "a less than distinguished example of a famous marque", etc - but when I gave a recital on it a few years before the latest restoration, I rather liked it. It had play-back in those days, so I was even able to walk around the church and listen to it, and I thought it sounded pretty damn good. The Cathedral is an odd-shaped building of no great length, so it's just about possible to do traditional Anglican cathedral services with the choir in the gallery with organ. Therer's a two-ranks extension chamber organ by Pels which normally lives behind the choir stalls further east. I think the original idea at Chelmsford was to have the choir at the back with the organ, but the plan was changed - hence the east end organ, which is substantial enough to accompany choral evensong, etc, without difficulty. One thinks also of All Saints, Northhampton, where the nice little modern Walker east end organ was replaced by a second-hand and larger instrument with more variety to do the job for which it was required.

The last time I played at York was in the early nineties (although I've heard it a few times since, including a memorable recital which Francis gave for the Cathedral Organists' Association),and before the PPO work, but my memory of the Tuba Mirabilis was that it was very big (of course) but also bright. It didn't have that sort of fist-in-a-boxing-glove effect of the Tuba Magna at Liverpool. My most enduring memory of it was how enormous it sounded in the nave, having only experienced the instrument from the screen console before then.

I think it was MM who referred to the Hull 16' Tuba barking away like a Cavaille-Coll Bombarde on speed. I thought that was a brilliant description!

Francis decided to stop recitalling a few years ago. He felt that he would rather do his garden than practice intensively. I believe he still plays the harmonium at East Acklam Church every Sunday.

Yes, that looks like the horizontal tuba which at one time fired west over the edge of the screen. I can't remember if it was taken inside the case when Walkers' rebuilt the organ in 1903 or on some previous occasion. The present Tuba Mirabilis is horizontal within the case, a position which has led to some notes being brighter than others, due I think to the tuning scrolls being disturbed, as can be heard on Francis Jackson's famous recording of the Cocker Tuba Tune. Incidentally, Francis recently celebrated his 98th birthday and a picture on Facebook shows him looking very well. I'm sure we all wish him good health as he steams towards his century and beyond.

The problem with A&M New Standard was that they cut a whole lot of hymns from A&M Revised in order to include the two Hymns for Today supplements. The latter were included without cuts or changes - thus a number of worthwhile traditional hymns were omitted from the parent book and a number of newer items which had either not proved to be popular or which had run their course were retained. I think Common Praise is excellent in every way.

A sad loss, particularly of one so young. His music was of real merit and approachable by all. May he rest in peace, and may our thoughts be with his family.

Thank-you - CPDL makes all clear. I will alter our OUP copies accordingly. Caustun's Short is a favourite with the choir here, but was new to me, and it comes over well, despite the oddities. I go back to my stall thinking, "Damn, that was fun!" after the Magnificat and the Dean always breaks out into a broad grin (always a good sign - we're very lucky in our Dean). I'm mulling over the Communion Service with a view to making a performing edition for us. Working from the CPDL version, there are some obvious mistakes, either of grammar or engraving, which I think can be corrected, and I shall have to do something about the non-existent Benedictus and Agnus. I have a copy of the Royle Shore edition, which adapted other parts of the service for these movements (and a Kyrie), but I'm not sure that I want to rely too much on it. Since part of the service consists of contrafacts of secular pieces (I didn't know that), one could have a field day cooking up movements from various sources. A Kyrie adapted from "Now is the month of Maying" is going through my head, but maybe that's taking it a bit far....

That's interesting - I must pop down the road and look it up! Are you sure it's not just Caustun being eccentric or careless? His music is by no means free of grammatical errors which must be put down either to him or Day, his engraver. There are, as they say over here, some real doozies in the Communion Service!

I think there may have been more than one "World of Kings", but my memory could be playing tricks as to the title. The LP in question belonged to my school, and even if it had been mine, I gave away all my LPs when I moved here - something had to go! I remember the Zadok recording and, later, the Allegri, and I had a boxed set of Vaughan Williams' choral music which introduced me to the Mass in G minor (for which I'm eternally grateful - singing or directing it makes me feel as if I was walking on air!). When Willcocks inherited King's choir, it was already famous. There was King's, there was Stanley Vann's Peterborough and George Guest was making St. John's what it came to be. Other cathedral choirs were at best good and sometimes pretty poor. Comparing Willcocks with the Ord recordings, one is struck by the crystal clarity of the expression, the pacing of the music and the subtlety of the organ accompaniments, to mention but a few aspects. Ord was an inspiration in his day, but Willcocks brought something more to the whole experience. Today, the Willcocks sound may seem a trifle dated and the diction a bit precious, but it still deserves its place at the absolute apex of perfection. Later directors moulded the choir to their own ideas - some of Philip Ledger's recordings are as fine as they could be and I believe that, under Stephen Cleobury , the music is as good as it ever was - and there is now a freedom about the sound which is different to what was there before. But not the smallest part of Willcocks' legacy is the stunningly high standard of music in other foundations, great and small, which owes much to his inspiration.

I wonder how many people of my generation were fired by the compilation recording "The World of Kings". I was riveted, in particular, by Psalm 84 (to that wonderful Parry chant) and by Vaughan Williams' "Let all the world in every corner sing", and I would play those tracks over and over again. A little later (it must have been c.1971), I went to Addington Palace for a day singing carols, mostly from from the newly-published Carols for Choirs 2, with David Willcocks in charge. I learned such a lot that day and still use some of the tricks I remember from then. It was the first time I had encountered anything by John Rutter, too ("Jesus Child" - still my favourite of the Rutter carols in that style). The ease that he instilled in amateur singers was one of his finest skills - a gift that not all great choral conductors possess. The standard that he set at King's was the inspiration for the present thriving cathedral choral tradition. A great man and one of the greatest church musicians of al ltime. RIP There's a very good and sensitive obituary in the Daily Telegraph online.

The Willis was written up in "The Organ" by Bonavia Hunt, who was very impressed with it. If it was anything like the slightly smaller HWIII in Stowmarket URC, Suffolk (also a fine acoustic), it would have sounded very fine indeed.

Maurice Grant used a composite called Tabopan for his soundboards to avoid problems associated with the contraction and expansion of timber. They were very well made, cased in hardboard, and were not cheap. MF-G was a fine designer and a stickler for quality workmanship. I've never heard that his soundboards were unsatisfactory. The only instruments of his of which I had much experience were the two 'Model' jobs at Queen's University, Belfast and the Convent at Lurgan (identical in construction, but different in sound because - I was told - the former was finished by Hendrik ten Bruggencate and the latter by Chris Gordon-Wells). I think these had soundboards imported from a German supplier so probably don't count here, but I never knew either organ to give trouble.

The price of Gauloises has gone up since Cochereau's day, though.....

Yes -the Guilmant is a lovely movement. Trust me to have thought of a vulgar alternative first..... The whole Sonata is a fine piece, especially the first movement with its Grand Old Duke of York pedal solo.

"They are an enclosed order of nuns" Doesn't the Wanamaker Organ in America have a similar division, installed specifically for the performance of Lefebure-Wely's Andante in F? On lesser instruments, resort must be made to Vox Humana, strings and Tremulant.