David Drinkell

Voicing is everything, of course, but that's another reason why I feel that an organ this size should have at least two mixtures in the Swell.

Cork - I think Hele added the Solo Organ and a large open to the Great. The local builder, Megahy, had previously moved it into the famous pit which it inhabits. I always liked it - it was one of the relatively few Hills which I admired (I am somewhat of a Philistine that way). The recent rebuild, with west end division et al, seems rather extravagant to me. It's not a particularly big church, although it has a great air of space and majesty. Still, at least it means they are still supportive of the music there. More power to the elbow of Malcolm Wisener, the organist.

Who was it who compared the effect of forgetting where one had left the Tromba as asking for an egg and being given a scorpion?

I hope they replace Norman Cocker's Tuba, which I believe was removed some years ago (there's another "Orchestral Tuba") and was in store at Durham. Although I also believe that Cocker's Tuba Tune was composed for a different instrument - the Hill at St. Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork.

OK - the computer finally had to be sent to the equivalent of the Great Compton in the Sky. It had served me well for over ten years. RIP. Now - the new computer has Windows 7 (local Geekery says Windows 8 is rubbish and people seem to agree with them). I have Sibelius 5. It has problems with Windows 7 and freezes in an early stage of start-up. I tried the recommended fix to make Sibelius 5 open in Windows 7, which involves removing a file and replacing it. Sibelius wouldn't let me remove the file. I tried ordering an upgrade from Avid (was going to sooner or later anyway). Avid says my details on my account don't match those on the order. They do. Tried this four times. Fed up! Going down the road to play Bach for an hour, with much adding of Full Swell towards the end of fugues.... Any suggestions?

http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N17210 It was a horrid machine. I think the idea was to give students the experience of a large organ - it had a nice Walker console with plenty of stops - but nothing really added up. Students who were at the RCM in the 50s used to say that the organ in this room was awful, and I think this was the same instrument, extended in all directions and possibly incorporating bits of another, similar job. The thing was, if you could make a decent account of anything on it, you could probably do it anywhere! I believe Ralph Downes used to tell his students that. Re Schalmeis: I rather like them. I'm partial to throaty gargles when it comes to certain solo stops. The biggest problem is often that 4' pedal reeds are too soft to be of any use. The Krummhorn at Bristol University, the Schalmei at Belfast Cathedral and the Horn at Kirkwall Cathedral (an extension of the Swell Waldhorn and therefore pretty pointless in its capacity on the Pedal) all lacked the presence to be heard over even a modest accompaniment on the manuals. Such stops should be balanced against the registers which will accompany them.

It's handy to have a variety of high-pitched stops to play about with on the Pedal, giving one the freedom from having to couple down, or at least the option. Cedric Arnold, Williamson and Hyatt of Thaxted produced some really fine organs in the late sixties and early seventies, of which Little Walsingham Parish Church, Norfolk is quite well-known (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N06436) St. Botolph's, Colchester, was roughly contemporary and the pedal organs were very similar. The recipe was based on three units - open metal, bourdon and reed, with separate quint pipes in the mixture - and some units were available on the manuals also. The St. Botolph's pedal organ reads like this: Open Bass 16, Sub Bass 16, Principal 8, Bass Flute 8, Fifteenth 4, Chimney Flute 2, Mixture 19.22, Bass Trumpet 16, Trumpet 8, Clarion 4 It really was useful to have that 2' flute. It added point to melodic lines and could top off a modest chorus when the mixture would have been a little too much. It was certainly more use than a 4' flute. The whole scheme may look odd to modern eyes, and was quite startling at the time, but it is amazingly effective (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N00613). There isn't much it won't do. I had my lessons on it for several years when I was at school, so I got to know it very well. It made a great job of the Alcock Introduction and Passacaglia (especially compared with that dreadful old thing that used to be in Room 90 at the RCM and used for ARCM examinations!) and had no trouble with most other things from Howells to Hindemith. I've always liked the idea of making the most of pedal pipes since then....

Yes, I think we've been frightened off cymbales in recent years, maybe because a lot of them (and other mixtures) from the previous generation tended to be unsociable, but they don't need to be so and the effect is more in the voicing than the pitch. As far as the Swell is concerned, I think it's good that the chorus tops out a little above that on the Great so that it has a brighter character in dialogue and adds something when coupled. A single tierce mixture of grave composition seems odd on an instrument of this size, although perhaps it doesn't break very early - or the use of the octave coupler is envisaged.

I wonder how long it is since a British builder last made a Cornet des Violes? Colston Hall, Bristol? Most impressive, although I would have liked to see a second mixture in the Swell....

Not original, I'm afraid. I think I saw it in a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel.

I was thinking more along the lines of North or South of a line drawn between the Severn and the Wash. I always felt this was a good dividing line between The North and The South and was rather pleased to discover that it's not far off marking the borders of the Danelaw in pre-Conquest times. (Roughly the same geographical division separates those who, shall we say, call a street thief a 'mooger' and those who call him a "mugger"). Actually, having lived in Orkney, I tend to think of anywhere below the Pentland Firth as "Sooth"....

St. John's is a sea-port and the Cathedral is downtown. At certain times, the neighbouring streets are patrolled by ladies of negotiable affections. The other night, one of our church ladies opened the doors and saw a young girl standing by a car outside. 'If you're here for the organ concert, you can come in by this door.' 'No, thanks,' said the girl, 'It's not the sort of organ I'm interested in!', and hopped in the car, which drove off rather briskly. I suppose she doesn't approve of electric-actioned Romantic instruments....

I'd love to get a set of the Missa cum jubilo! I found the first page of the Seiber Missa Brevis on a music seller's web-page. It looks like the kind of thing which would be very useful to us here. Thank-you very much. Can anyone send me the rest of it so I can check it out prior to ordering a set? I spend a lot of time sifting through CPDL on Choral Wiki (and Petrucci/IMSLP) and I've found a lot of useful material. I often re-edit items, particularly if they're not set on Sibelius. Some scores produced with other programs are much less easy to read. The problem with a lot of Palestrina masses is that the final Agnus Dei divides parts where we can least afford to split.....

You've got me all nosey now. Roughly what part of the country are we talking about??

Yes, that's the ex-Canterbury Cathedral Crypt Hoxne, although the case (for want of a better word) is a later addition. NPOR refers to a later installation of a toaster in this church, although the Hoxne might still be there.

I have a friend living in Hoxne (pronounced "Hox'n"), Suffolk, who is interested in acquiring an example of our hosts' Hoxne Organ as a second organ in the fine medieval church there. Forumites may know that the Hoxne was a small extension organ, of which a number were built in the fifties and sixties. It was very compact, with no casework, and could be moved easily. Some of Britten's church operas used such an instrument. There was another model, the 'Denham', which had a simple, Dutch-style case, and there is one of these not far off at Buxhall. Although I knew the rather larger (2m and pedal) Hoxne-type organ which used to be in St. Anne and St. Agnes, Gresham Street, City of London (a remarkably effective little instrument), the only basic Hoxne I have ever seen was in the crypt at Canterbury Cathedral, and that was over forty years ago. It went to a church in Caterham, where it has since been either supplemented or supplanted by a toaster. Any news or leads would be much appreciated.

Thanks to all for such a lot of interesting stuff. In the end, we sang Willan's 'Rise up, my love, my fair one' as a motet at Easter, A. Gabrieli's 'Hodie completi sunt' at Whit and will be doing Lassus' 'Missa Octavi Toni' for the first time in a couple of weeks. So far this year, we've also sung for the first time (for the Cathedral, and probably for Newfoundland), Byrd's Three Voice Mass, Tallis's 'Sancte Deus', Bairstow's 'Jesu, the very thought' and Rutter's 'As the Bridegroom to his chosen'. Guess which one the congregation liked best! Incidentally, next week at Evensong, we're singing the Athanasian Creed to a couple of short (double eight-note) Anglican Chants (by Sydney Nicholson and myself). I heard it chanted on a BBC broadcast from St.David's Cathedral some time ago and thought it was effective, but better suited to eight rather than ten-note chant. We tried it last year and it worked. I wouldn't want to do it every week, though....

Cirencester and St. David's presumably had 30 note pedal compass prior to the most recent rebuilds and it was not thought worth expanding them. Over Parish Church, Cambridgeshire, has a 32 note pedalboard under a manual compass of 54 notes - an old organ (Holdich?/Miller) with a replacement pedalboard.

Is my memory playing tricks, or wasn't it the case that the Trumpet and Clarion had been the old Trombas and hadn't been happy on the lower pressure?

In Belfast, one tended to rate a tuner's skill on whether he/she could make a good job of the St. Anne's Cimbel. We were lucky in having Philip Prosser (who voiced Gloucester for Downes), and his son Steve, although there was usually a bit of banter about who was going to do it. 'Get up there and do the Cimbel.' 'Come on! I did it last time!' David McElderry of Wells Kennedy was also good, and so was Rachel Adams, who trained with WK and later spent some time with our hosts before returning to Northern Ireland. Apparently, before Philip took over the maintenance, the tuning was done by Charlie Smethurst. During the Troubles, a lot of firms were reluctant to work in Northern Ireland (not just organ builders - one of the first results of the Good Friday Agreement was the advent of Sainsbury's, Tesco and McDonalds'), but Charlie liked the place, to the extent that he retired to Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast. Charlie was really a console man (trained by Harrisons'). He tuned mixtures in equal temperament and, at St. Anne's, was found to have pushed in the mouths of the smaller pipes so they didn't have to be tuned at all. This diversion apart, we know that the function of a cymbel is not just to add extra top but to clarify the bass and tenor. Indeed, because of its many breaks, such a stop may not be any higher than the other mixtures by the time it gets to the treble range. I don't know how well the St. Paul's Cymbel performed this function, but maybe the present arrangement works better. After all, Donald Harrison provided a 'Klein Fourniture' which duplicated ranks in other mixtures and no one seems to have regarded it as a waste of space.

I suppose it depends to some extent on the composition of the Mixture in relation to that of the Fourniture. There has been, over the past twenty or so years, a reaction against high-pitched mixtures and in a typical English parish church it is probably best to avoid really high stuff. But in a large building, particularly when the pipes are some distance from the listeners, I think there's a need for a high mixture to top the chorus. The Cimbel at Belfast Cathedral (Harrison c.1968) clinches the presence of the organ in the building and the Swell Mixture has much the same effect in that department. I'm not sure that a Sesquialtera would be much use in the Dome at St. Paul's, apart from as a colour stop. One would be unlikely to perform Cornet Voluntaries on it. George Thalben-Ball managed a superb rendering of a Stanley Voluntary on the West End end reeds accompanied from the chancel. Not everyone could bring this off, but GTB was GTB.

I wish I knew! It's a brash, thin-toned trumpet, the latter quality probably determining why it wasn't called 'Trombone'.

I can confirm the provenance of the Down Cathedral Pedal Trumpet 16', at least insofar as it is general knowledge in Nothern Ireland. It is an assertive rank, although more of a snorter in the loft than in the church. When I did the Great Irish Cathedral Organ Marathon in the early nineties (an organ recital in each of the 31 Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland in the course of a week), I had a couple of friends riding shotgun (going ahead to prepare a place for us). One of them, Sean, was leaning against the Trumpet enclosure when I started the last piece (Scotson Clarke's 'Marche aux Flambeaux' - one sometimes yields to the temptation to be vulgar) and got the shock of his life. 'Wow!', he said, 'Bullfrogs from Hell!!'. Down is certainly a superb instrument and perfectly suited to the building. If someone said it was the finest organ in Ireland, I wouldn't argue with them.

I lived in Ireland, where Conacher was the most prolific builder, for fourteen years, so I know a good number of their organs. They were in business for a long time, and under different ownerships, so their work varies in style and quality, although the workmanship was generally excellent. Among old Conachers, the three-manual at Kildare Cathedral was almost Schulzian (although not so much so as the slightly smaller Brindley at Kilmore Cathedral, Co. Cavan). The average turn-of-the-century two-manual could be a nice as those produced by more celebrated builders, e.g. Clogher Cathedral, Co. Tyrone. Later on, especially under Leonard Bartram's management, they produced quite sophisticated electric actioned jobs, often with horse-shoe stop-keys. I was particularly fond of that in Oldpark Presbyterian Church, Belfast, now, alas, gone (although I think the local Pipe Organ Preservation Co may have acquired it for installation elsewhere), and Great Victoria Street Presbyterian was another which is no longer there. Cregagh Presbyterian is a shocker, but possibly due to terrible positioning behind a false wall (Wells-Kennedy always said it was a good enough instrument when you were inside it; Simon Preston is reported to have said it was the worst organ he ever played, but that may have been because he left his organ shoes by the console while he went for a pre-concert meal and the verger threw them out). Belmont Presbyterian was quite remarkable for the early sixties, and had the first Positif division in Ireland - a good one, too, up to Cymbal - slightly let down a gormless Bourdon and tierce mixture on the Great. Pcnd and I disagree about Calne.... I don't know so many Heles. They always seemed to be well-built and well-voiced, although the smaller ones were inclined to be dull (they had a thing called "Principal Flute 4'" which they used on some small Greats). As a student, I sometimes played on the three-manual Hele at Stoke Bishop Parish Church, Bristol, which was a fine old job, quite up to the standard of a good Walker or Norman & Beard. It's still there, but was slightly pepped up by Percy Daniel just after I last played it.

What are we all doing about Star Wars Day this year? May the Fourth be with you!