David Drinkell

Somewhat odd, now I come to think about it, that the Exeter organ should have been changed so soon before the incumbent organist retired. Wouldn't it have been better to have let the new man get a couple of years' experience with it before altering it?

It looks like I'm out-voted regarding derivations of quiet bourdons to the Pedal. I will surrender to the extent of maintaining that there are some organs where such derivations appear pointless to me! Borrowing an open double from the Great, on the other hand, I find rather useful. It means the Open Wood needn't be too loud and adds a bit of point to the Pedal line where an independent metal open might be too much. The 16' Great Geigen at Belfast Cathedral is a particularly good one and also very handy in its incarnation as the Pedal Violone. Clarions can be a nuisance to keep in tune, but I don't think that on that account we should shun them. I think initial design and regulation is of vital importance and environment equally so - dust is a mortal enemy of small reed pipes (hooding is a good idea!). Like pcnd, I find mine very useful. It's on the Great (the Swell has Double Trumpet, Cornopean, Oboe and Vox, but it also has an octave coupler and a 73 note soundboard) and I often use it before drawing the 8' reed (called "Tromba" but in fact more like a trompette). I even use it with Great to Fifteenth (sometimes with the Great octave coupler) and certainly with Great to Mixture. I regard it as "the Clarion", rather than as "the Great Clarion". I sometimes use it with the Great sub, so it becomes an 8' reed of less wallop than the Tromba. One needs to live with a full set of couplers to appreciate the scope they give to registration - some Willis III organs come close, but I think that many North American organs were designed with the octave couplers considered as part of the ensemble, rather than as special effects. Like pcnd, I appreciate the role of the Clarion in delivering the smack required in French music, and also the trick which many of us must have picked up in choral accompaniment of drawing the Swell 16' and 4' reeds without the 8'. Norman Cocker gave a recipe for French sorties which involved drawing 16' and upperwork, omitting any 8' stops except for a final climax, but making free use of octave couplers. pcnd is our resident expert on Exeter Cathedral organ. I don't know it very well, but a few impressions stand out in my mind. One is that, in general, it sings at you in an effortless way, lacking the intimidation which some other organs can give. It seems like a first-rate accompanimental instrument. But over 40 years ago (!) when I was about 15, I was travelling down to Bude and was supposed to transfer from train to bus in Exeter (it was a Bank Holiday, the bus wasn't running and I had to hitch - my only experience of hitch-hiking, which I found interesting but put the wind up my mother quite considerably). I went into the cathedral and the choir was rehearsing an office hymn to one of those triple-time French tunes (like Deus tuorum militum, St. Venantius or Lucis Creator) and there was a lot of organ and much Tuba. I suppose it was Paul Morgan playing, and it was very good - there was certainly no impression that the organ was lacking in decibels to do the job. It made a profound impression that is still with me. Subsequently, I came to appreciate the details of the scheme, in particular that the revised upperwork seemed to top things just right. I'd be sorry if it had been tamed too much.

Roger Yates assembled a 14 manual (I think) console in his works as a joke against the enormous leviathans arising in America.

John Norman's "The Organs of Britain" also gave the RAH organ 5 manuals before the Harrison rebuild.

That ties in with recent discussion on another thread about swell boxes within swell boxes.

I think you could make that "many years ago". It was a four manual when I played it in 1976 (NPOR says 1963 for when Conacher removed the top manual and slightly redistributed the contents. It was presented by Henry Harris (the Bacon King) of Castle House, Calne, which also had a five manual Conacher. The latter is misrepresented in NPOR, which only gives it four manuals (there is a picture of the console in "The Organ") and states that the Solo Organ was prepared only (the same article refers specifically to blowing pipes of the Stentor by mouth).

Twelfths - I'm in broad agreement that a Twelfth is not much use in a well-balanced Great, but there are exceptions. One is the Kenneth Jones at Compton, Surrey (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=D02907), where the Great has Nazard and Tierce but no Mixture. I was asked, in a totally unofficial capacity, about this scheme before it was built and reckoned that Mixture and Sesquialtera was a better bet, but Kenneth was not to be moved and he was right. In this fairly small church, Great to Fifteenth with Nazard is exactly right and sounds as if there is a mixture present. The diapasons are broad and warm and the instrument is altogether a gem. As is always the case, employment of the highest talent yields the best results. A similar scheme at Rochford, Essex, (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=H00616) is a much more workaday job and, while decent enough, fails to thrill. I experienced a Gallic twist on the same theme at Notre Dame de Boulogne sur Seine on the outskirts of Paris, by Gutschenritter (1968): Grand: Montre, Bourdon, Prestant, Nasard, Doublette, Tierce, Recit/Grand 16/8/4 Recit: Flute, Gambe, Celeste, Flute 4, Fourniture IV, Trompette, Basson-Hautbois, Clairon, Recit 16/Muet/4 Pedale: Soubasse, Bourdon 8, Principal 4, Basson (enclosed) 16, Grand/P, Recit/P 8,4 It stands in the south corner of the west gallery, from whence the effect in the church is thrilling, but at the console almost devastating. The sound is painted in bold colours, the combinational potential is extraordinary and the effect is of a very much larger instrument. A final, and unusual example of an effective Twelfth is in Philip Prosser's rebuild of the Compton Miniatura at Comber, Co. Down (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=D08245). This was a good organ to start with - these little jobs usually were - but the parish had the money and the inclination to expand its potential. The 1956 action was, by 2000, beginning to get a little tired. My advice was to add another rank and, released from the constraints of the original Compton action (a simplified system which only allowed a certain number of registers) to broaden the scope of the existing two ranks, especially on the upper manual. I was glad the job went to Philip Prosser who, apart from being a fine all-round organ builder, is also a top voicer. As carried out, it largely followed what I had envisaged (it doesn't take rocket science to work out what to do with three ranks), but Philip (at no extra cost) decided to add an independent Twelfth to tenor C, borrowing the bass from the new Gemshorn, and to use it also to supply the quint rank in a three-rank mixture. The result is tremendously successful. If you look at the scheme on NPOR, you will notice a peculiarity in that there are three 2' stops on the Swell! The reason for this is that we thought that it would be most useful to have the Diapason and Gemshorn available at that pitch but the Piccolo was part of the original scheme and we didn't think it was right to discard it. One reason for the success of this organ is that the Gemshorn is reasonably substantial (as it would have been if Compton had provided a Miniatura III rather than a Miniatura II) and is therefore able to provide effective upperwork - in contrast to the many (oh! so many!) small extension organs where the third rank is a Salicional and nearly useless in its upper derivations. Great Tierces - Those who read Sam Clutton's articles will know that he was subject to various enthusiasms at different times in his life. In one of his essays - I think it was on St. Michael's, Tenbury - he waxed long and eloquently about the virtues of a "diapason tierce" as being much more valuable than the 5 1/3 Quint which was provided. At Tenbury, the Great 4' Flute later fell victim to a second Principal and, later still, a 4' Flute was returned, this time ousting the Quint, but the Tierce never materialised on the Great (in which, incidentally, the mixtures don't contain tierces). At St. Magnus Cathedral, a Seventeenth of principal tone appeared on the Great at the 1971 rebuild. Since the mutations introduced on the 'Positif' at the same time were not particularly full-bodied, the best cornet effect was on the Great, but overall I didn't much care for the Seventeenth and felt that some players spoiled their registration by using it too much. It did not, in my opinion, sound felicitous as a top to the chorus before the Mixture came on, neither did it sound good with the mixture except in certain specialist registrations. So - in most circumstances a Sesquialtera is more use than a Twelfth and a Seventeenth is rarely as useful as it might promise, but there are, as always, exceptions to the hypothesis!

I can't think of a current example, although there may be the odd Vox lurking in its own enclosure within the main box, but there's nothing new under the sun and Samuel Green built at least one instrument which was totally enclosed, with the Swell separately enclosed within the main chamber (St. George's Chapel, Windsor). One can get some degree of extra crescendo from the Swell at St. Mary Redcliffe, which has west and south facing shutters, separately controlled, but this was done for the purpose of directing the sound into either the nave or the quire. A big, enclosed solo reed can provide a "Super Full Swell". Harry Gabb used to use the Solo Posaunes at St. Paul's in this way, and I imagine that the addition of mixture-work to that department in one of the later Willis reshuffles was intended with that in mind. The effect was lost when the aforesaid reeds went up into the Dome and lost their box. In North America, it's quite usual to enclose the Tuba(s), with no ill effect that I can discern. I can use mine for things like the final surge at the end of pieces by Howells (e.g. Psalm Prelude, Set 2, No.3), etc.

Contra Bombarde - There is some precedent for the only 16' reed being under expression. The amazing little Harrison which was built for the RSCM was one. Admittedly, it and the Rieger at Clifton Cathedral are so different as to live on different planets, but I think the same thinking might apply, i.e. that a 16' reed gives quite a lot of what one needs for a full swell effect. Such thinking does work at Clifton - it's by no means a Romantic sound, but the ambience is there. I think so, anyway, but others might disagree. Incidentally, is it just me, or has the Rieger lost some of its sting since it first went in? I first played it in 1975 and then several times over the next three years, but then not again until the late 1990s. I thought it sounded less aggressive than of yore. I could be wrong, or it could be revoicing, cleaning, effects of age (on the pipes as well as myself), and so on. A fine instrument, in any case. Here's another such (in an instrument to which I have referred in more than one recent post!). This produces a surprisingly effective Full Swell, in addition to many other uses: Spitz Flute 8, Principal 4, Stopped Flute 4, Gemshorn 2, Larigot 1 1/3, Sharp Mixture 22.26.29, Krummhorn 16. Tremulant. And here, as a complete and rather unusual scheme, Wells-Kennedy's rebuild of a Conacher at Ballylesson Parish Church, Drumbo, County Down: Gt: Open Diapason 8, Stopped Diapason 8, Principal 4, Block Flute 2, Mixture 19.22.26 Sw: Rohr Flute 8, Salicional 8, Gemshorn 4, Fifteenth 2, Contra Oboe 16 Ped: Bourdon 16 A proper Great chorus with a 16' reed that can be coupled to the Pedal (it's loud enough). And Walker (also rebuild of a Conacher) at Ballywalter PC, designed by Lord Dunleath, who sang in the choir and was a lay-reader here: Gt: Open Diapason 8, Stopped Diapason 8, Principal 4, Fifteenth 2, Mixture 19.22 Sw: Gedeckt 8, Gemshorn 4, Block Flute 2, Sesquialtera 12.17, Mixture 22.26.29, Contra Fagotto 16. Tremulant. Ped: Grand Bourdon 16, Bourdon 16 (half-blow) As rebuilt, there was a Dulciana 8 on the Swell, but it soon gave way to the Sesquialtera. Lord Dunleath maintained that the Dulciana was not missed and that, not only was there now a useful solo stop, but the Sesquialtera could be thrown into the chorus like an 8' reed. This organ, together with a congenial atmosphere (and the Book of Common Prayer - the Church of Ireland in my time hadn't pinched the name for a Bumper Book of Alternative Services as they have since), was sufficient to entice good organists to this rather remote little town on the Ards Peninsula and to maintain a decent choir. (The Presbyterian Church down the road had a minister that enlarged the organ there with some help from the organ-builder Philip Prosser. The Swell had a stop labelled "Bra Flute 8". I can't remember why, or how it sounded). Tony - Thanks for the elucidation re St. George's, Brandon Hill. I did message the NPOR about it some time ago but they may not have got round to dealing with that message yet. The organ was written up in "The Organ" with the specification as given in NPOR, in the fifties, I think.

Thinking on from the above, some of the most useless stops must be those which aren't up to doing the job for which they are intended. I can think of at least two independent 4' Pedal reeds (the Krummhorn at Bristol University and the Schalmei at Belfast Cathedral) which are too quiet to be accompanied by anything suitable on the manuals. The 4' Horn at St. Magnus Cathedral is similarly disappointing, being an extension of the Swell 16' Waldhorn. In general, Swell Fagottos (Fagotti?) borrowed to make the Pedal reeds are pretty useless, being too quiet to have any effect. An exception is the aforementioned Christ Church, Swindon. Percy Daniel often used a unit Swell reed, calling the 16' Fagotto and the 8' Cornopean or Horn (St. George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol was another example - I don't know why NPOR queries this organ as it certainly existed with the given stop-list until the church closed), and these could be decent Pedal reeds. So, a Fagotto which is in effect a Double Trumpet is worth borrowing to the Pedal, but one which is more of a Contra Oboe (or a Waldhorn)isn't. I rarely find that borrowing the Swell Bourdon to give a quiet bass is worth the trouble. I suppose it gives another stop on the console at small cost and therefore looks impressive. About the only exception I can think of is here (St. John's Cathedral, Newfoundland), where the Swell 16' is not only useful in its own right but fills out the Pedal Bourdon to a small but perceptible degree (incidentally, it's spelled "Lieblick Gedeckt" on both draw-stops!). There's not much use in the 4' extension of the pedal Bourdon, although the 8' is often handy in giving body to the 16'. I can think of several rebuilds where the expense and trouble of providing an extra octave of pipes and their soundboard has not been worth it. One still has to couple nearly all the time and the 4' is rarely loud enough to use as a solo. There is, however, a lot of fun to be had with Pedal upperwork and I feel that a lot of modern organs are missing a trick. A straight scheme of 16.16.8.8.4.16 is all very well and laudable, but St. Botolph's, Colchester is much more versatile: Open Bass 16A, Sub Bass 16B, Principal 8A, Bass Flute 8B, Fifteenth 4A, Chimney Flute 2B, Mixture (19.22) IIA with separate quints, Bass Trumpet 16C, Trumpet 8C, Clarion 4C. (Variants on the same are at Southwold, Walsingham and Sawbridgeworth). G. Donald Harrison reckoned he could fit a proper, straight Pedal Organ in the space of an old, extended one, but he was talking in terms of scrapping a lot of mightily-scaled basses. I'd love to try the Compenius organ at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark, with its pedal fluework up to 1' pitch, including mutations. A shame, also, that we so seldom these days get a 4' Pedal reed, even by extension. It's not always handy (or even possible) to couple. The new Harrison at St. Edmundsbury Cathedral has pedal reeds 32.16.16.16. No 8' and no 4' - it seems a little odd in such an otherwise faultless job.

I thought I detected the nomenclature of Henry Willis IV here and, flicking back through the organ's various manifestations, I was right. Some of his Junior Development Plan organs had a Pedal consisting of 16.8.4.2 taken from the manual Gedeckt (the manual might typically be something like Gedeckt, Salicional, Gemshorn, Flageolet), and other organs (such as St. Magnus Cathedral) had the 2' extension of the Bourdon, too. To be honest, the 2' Pedal Piccolo at St. Magnus wasn't much use. If it had been an extension of the open metal unit, it would have completed a handy chorus (if the wind had been steady). Christ Church, Swindon (Percy Daniel 1970 - one of their best jobs of the period, I thought, and the organist, Gordon Crabbe, was a great guy) had such an arrangement and the Pedal chorus was excellent. In some ways, a 2' can be more use than a mixture down there. At St. Botolph, Colchester (Cedric Arnold, Williamson and Hyatt 1966 - one of several outstanding instruments they produced around this time - another was Walsingham), the Sub Bass unit got quite perky in the treble, and supplied the Great 8' Chimney Flute (now also a 16' Double Diapason) as well as being available on the Pedal at 16.8.2 (but not 4). The 2', topping the 4' open metal Fifteenth, was quite effective, and the combination of 4 open and 2 flute was useful for a 4' cantus firmus in chorale preludes. Walsingham has a similar arrangement, except that the 2' comes from the Great 4' Conical Flute.

I have a 16' Dulciana in the Choir Organ. I occasionally couple it at sub octave pitch to a string registration (incidentally, such was the extravagance in 1927 that the 16' enclosed Dulciana in the Choir box is less than six feet behind the 16' unenclosed Dulciana in the case!). Martin mentioned earlier that some Clarions are useless because they go out of tune so easily. As a long-time Organist of Remote Cathedrals, I know it to be a Law of Organ Tuning that certain pipes will slip as soon as the tuner sets foot on the plane. One gets adept at tapping recalcitrant notes back to the true path. Here is a warning, though: DO NOT TUNE ORGAN PIPES WITH A CELL PHONE IN YOUR BREAST POCKET! I forgot about this the other day and was lucky to escape with one slightly dented Vox, easily put right. It could just as easily have landed on the four-rank mixture...

Yes, it's daft to have the Vox elsewhere than in the Swell, where it can be matched with the flutes, used as an extra string, used in the chorus and used to rough up the Oboe. I've just remembered what must really be the most useless stop ever provided. Years ago, Arthur Lord (whom older forumites may remember ran a toaster emporium in the UK for many years) contributed two articles to "The Organ" about pipe organs he had built. One was a minimum sized two-rank, two manual extension job, but the second was a very large residence organ, largely extended and combining concert and theatre schemes in one. In the process of wiring up the console, a flute was accidentally connected the wrong way round, so that the top note on the keys played the bottom note of the rank, and so on. It was left that way as an amusement. Apparently, not one player was able to play a few bars without mistakes. Then again, though, there were such things as "Fuchsschwanz" or "Noli me tangere" on certain old German organs where, if the stop was drawn, it came out of the jamb completely and had a fox's tail attached to it. Very easy to pull out, but very difficult to put back. I suppose it passed the time during long sermons.

Subs are more dangerous than supers. Casson said that, while super couplers expanded the harmonic structure, subs played no such role and muddied the texture. This is certainly true if they are used without discretion. The church up the road from mine in Colchester had a fairly undistinguished Binns, Fitton and Hayley, with, as usual with Binns, a full set of octave couplers operated by draw-stops above the top manual. By the end of the opening voluntary, from a leather-bound volume entitled "1000 Melodious Voluntaries" (or some such) by Caleb Simper, all the couplers would be on, and they would remain on throughout the service. Registration without using the ears. However! Cavaille-Coll often provided a sub on the Great and this is worth bearing in mind when registering French toccatas which so often spend large periods of time in the upper octaves. A sub is valuable to get a double in a tone which is not otherwise available, but one needs to be careful to cancel anything which isn't essential to the exercise, e.g. a 16' reed effect in French music is spoiled if the 8' flue work is also on. Manual 32' - one wouldn't use such stops too much, but with a very broad tonal spectrum, a manual 32' can add a valuable extra dimension. The Violone at Liverpool is possibly more effective than the bourdons elsewhere, but the expense is only justified if it is also part of the arsenal on the Pedal. I used to like the effect, pre-Harrison rebuild at Peterborough, where there used to be a 32' bourdon, 16' diapason, flute and dulciana and 8' Phonon, three opens, geigen, two flutes, stopped diapason and dulciana. Naughty, but nice, very occasionally, perhaps when there was no one else around.... I wonder how many manual 32' stops there are in the UK. There are probably a few on organs which are not particularly well-known (like the Walker at Melton Mowbray PC). I think a 32' reed in a really big Swell might be useful, but I don't know of any British examples. Any use of octave couplers, needs to take account of limits of compass. Upwards, a 61 note range allows quite a lot of freedom, but the North American custom of providing extra top notes to accommodate the octave coupler is even better. (I am quite sure that a lot of schemes over here, especially with regard to the Swell, are drawn up assuming the octave coupler as part of the ensemble and not as a 'special'). With subs, one can lose the bottom of the music, but there are generally ways round this for those who take the trouble to explore.

I used to think that, but I now value a Dulciana to warm up the 8' flute occasionally and, of course, a really good one is a treasure in itself. Not wild about Great Gambas - I'd rather have a Geigen. Dulciana and 4' Flute is quite often nice for occasional use. Dulciana with octave and sub couplers is likewise handy sometimes, but unlike we colonials, you lot probably don't have octave couplers on the Great....

Apart from the obvious solo uses, the amount of which would depend on repertoire and preference, there's a lot of combinational potential in a French Horn. It can be almost like a tibia in the way it blends other stops together. St. John the Divine, New York has an absolutely wonderful example. In a big organ, there are likely to be stops which hardly get used, whereas in a smaller instrument they could get more of an airing. I hardly ever use the Great 4' Flute here, and when I do use it, it's more often than not as a solo and possibly not at that pitch. On a smaller instrument, I would use it more. One sometimes encounters the most surprising things on very small organs, wondering (as BBE used to say) 'Why this thusness?'. Harkstead,in Suffolk, has (or had) a one-manual Bryceson consisting of Open, Viola, Dulciana, Stopped Bass, Principal and Pedal Bourdon. The Viola is a fierce, scratchy sort of thing. In effect, the only combination of stops which works is Open and Principal. If there was a Stopped Diapason instead of the Viola, the whole picture would be different. (I have an idea that such a swap has been made, but I haven't been back there to look). I thought at first that the Viola had been a substitution made after organ was built, but I subsequently learned of similar Bryceson elsewhere (I can't remember where). Then there was another example in East Anglia of a village organ consisting of Open Diapason 8 and Flute 4. The Flute was useless because it made no impression on the Open. In recent years, a Dulciana has been substituted, which at least allows the organ to make two different sounds. Sutton-in-the-Isle, Cambridgeshire, has a magnificent church which used to have a 1912 two-manual by Miller of Cambridge. They went in for a certain amount of Hope-Jonesery at that time and the Great upperwork consisted of a Flute 4' and an Harmonic Flute 4'. I could never work that one out! That apart, it was rather an impressive sounding job in its own way. I think it was killed off by a failed pneumatic action and supplanted by a toaster. It had one of Miller's dark green painted cases with stencilled decoration, including a positive trellis of west-facing open woods. BBE called it 'an exceedingly ugly excresence' but I liked it.

Harry Bramma spoke up for the Harrison Harmonics and had a new one made for All Saints, Margaret Street, where it had been displaced by a quint mixture many years before. He also recorded that he found the example at Worcester to be a useful alternative to the quint mixture and not just as a bridge to the reeds. Nevertheless, it's surely true to say that when Harmonics were in vogue, the mixtures normally came on only after at least some of the reeds were out. I liked the Harmonics at Redcliffe, and even used it as a solo cornet on occasion, but I remember a particularly nasty (IMHO) example at St. Mark's, Portadown in Northern Ireland. This was a Rushworth rebuild of a Walker. I once remarked to Rushworth's tuner that it was unusual. 'Yes', he said, 'and it's a b***** to tune!'

I think that's right - the right scaling is vital. Narrow tierces are generally not a success, unless they're made that way for a particular reason. Nigel Church (I think) pointed out that, not only is the scale of the mutations important but also that of the supporting ranks. This is why the addition of mutations to older foundations doesn't always work (although a fairly bold nazard and tierce added to Father Willis flutes can sound perfect - St. Patrick's RC Church, Dundalk, for example).

I found the 5 1/3 Quint at Cork Cathedral to be quite effective, ditto Downside. As regards the 3 1/5 tierce, it can have a beautiful effect in an old French organ (Le Petit Andely comes to mind), but in other instruments practice does not often equate to theory. The Ulster Hall acquired a 3 1/5 Tenth on the Great when our hosts rebuilt it in consultation with Lord Dunleath, but in more recent years it was replaced with a 4' flute. Oddly enough, though, last Saturday I was in Cambridge and went into St. Clement's Church (I had never found it open before). The organ is a one manual Bryceson which had its upperwork replaced by soothing syrup somewhere along the line but later, when the organ builder Bill Johnson played there, some transpositions and replacements were made so that today it has a chorus at 8.4.2 plus a register labelled "Aeoline 4" which in fact plays at 3 1/5 and is the only off-unison stop. Surprisingly, it sounded quite good in chorus, adding a pleasant sort of growl to things. Tonally, I guess it was nearest to a dulciana, so it wouldn't be the same as a fluty French example.

The west end organ is the England, put together and installed by Cedric Arnold. The larger organ in the transept is by Lincoln. Until the recent restoration, it looked almost derelict, but was still playing.

I do have to re-iterate, pace pcnd, that I never found the Redcliffe Harrison to be intractable during a close acquaintance with it as a student, although it can certainly be very hefty indeed. There is no doubt that its placement makes it different from other large organs, but I found that, once one had discovered the parameters in which one had to work, it fitted the building like a glove and was gloriously suitable for accompanimental and recital work. The one caveat to this was that, as was so often the case in those days, the new or revised mixtures were not best matched. There had been some improvement when I played it again about twenty years ago (when I was bowled over, having forgotten quite how fine it was), and I gather that things are better still after the recent complete restoration. There has always been a belief that all Arthur Harrison organs were much of a muchness. However, I think that, although he found a formula which worked, there is far more character about individual instruments than is sometimes realised. There is a unique subtlety about King's, for example, and a rather different character at Westminster Abbey, although the latter is (or was) not especially aggressive. Margaret Street is also very subtle, but different again (a very big organ in a small church, where the liturgy demands subtlety, in contrast to the situation round the corner at All Souls, Langham Place, where Harrisons' had to beef up the Henry Willis III rebuild!). Although it was never regarded among the best of the breed, I rather liked Leicester Cathedral. I wonder how the little ex-RSCM job sounds in its new home in Shrewsbury.

I certainly did have a good time, and thanks to Phoneuma for facilitating my visit. I thought it was the best small Harrison I'd ever encountered, which is saying a great deal.

I believe that the "Guide to Irish Dancing, Volume 2: Use of the Arms" was dropped in the river during the Battle of the Bopyne and never recovered.

Thaxted and Saffron Walden were both considered for cathedral status, but Chelmsford was chosen because it is the county town, is more central and had better railway links. Colchester was also considered, as it is bigger than Chelmsford and much more historic, but it is on the north-eastern border of the county and is probably unique among sizeable English towns in that it has no large, central parish church, such as exists at St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, St Mary or St. James, Bury St. Edmunds, St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, etc.

Radwinter! Yes, a wonderful Anglo-Catholic interior and a fine Miller(Cambridge)organ. I did quite a lot of research into the Miller firm years ago when I lived in Orkney. I would plan out visits to Miller organs during vacations. Oddly enough, when I moved to Belfast, which is less than half an hour away from Millers' stamping grounds by cheap flights, I never seemed to have the time to do so much. I copied all my material to Jose Hopkins, who compiled a thesis on the firm. Radwinter Church was completely restored by Eden Nesfield at the expense of the then Rector. Nesfield even drew up the specification of the organ - a two-manual. However, more work was done later, and I think this included making the organ into a three-manual and adding the gorgeous Bodleian cases (Nesfield designed pipe-racks). The architect at this stage was Temple Moore, and I'm inclined to believe that he designed the organ cases. In any case, it's a very nice smallish three-manual, well able to hold its own against the products of more famous brands of the time. Unfortunately, the acoustics are not good. I gave a few recitals on it over the years, including one on a devilishly hot summer's day when I had to tune all the reeds....