David Drinkell

Sounds like an interesting curio if one happened to be playing a Hele organ. I don't think we've got any here in Newfoundland - non-Casavants consist mostly of Bevingtons, Forster & Andrewses, Cassons, a solitary N&B and an Estey.

I note that, although NPOR says the organ has been out of action for several years because of blower problems, the Hamptworth Lodge website (in the section offering it as a wedding venue) refers to the " magnificent organ – the twin of that in Salisbury Cathedral". http://www.hamptworthestate.co.uk/wedding/venue-salisbury-wiltshire

I see from the RCO bulletin that the EU is introducing regulations to make airlines allow musicians to carry their instruments in the cabin with them. I suppose that, for most of us, this will make little difference as our instruments tend to be fixtures, but I bet Carlo - may he rest in hilarity - would have been overjoyed.

The Canterbury recording is perhaps not one of the better ones as regards giving a true picture of the sound. Maybe others will not agree, though! I reckoned Allan Wicks made the old organ sound like the new one - if you see what I mean....

Some foundations - St. John's College, Cambridge and Norwich Cathedral, for example, sing the evening psalms one month and the morning psalms the next, thus getting through the whole psalter in two months of Evensongs. I've thought about applying this to Sunday Evensongs here, but I haven't discussed it with the Dean or really thought it through yet. Matins is said every Sunday at 7:30am anyway, so at least the psalms are recited, even though it's a small congregation.

One expects the basses to stand in better tune, while the slightest thing can cause a reed treble to go off pitch, simply because the reed and the resonator are smaller and therefore a small variation will affect them more. Why the Oboe should be different is strange. Maybe it's the narrower scale, the fact that it's probably capped, or something to do with the different reed/resonator relationship. The Billy Jones reeds at Belfast Cathedral were superb in their stability. It was very rare indeed for anything to go badly out, and if it did it was probably something major like a dead fly or a weight dropping off.

i don't think that it's necessarily that the people don't want Choral Evensong - or any other Evensong - but that the clergy are so wedded to the Parish Communion idea that everything else is less than secondary. This is unfortunate. The Eucharist is, by its nature, something for the established congregation. It involves a fair amount of doing things. There are many people around who have spiritual needs but can be frightened off by so much "doing", especially the mateyness of many modern Eucharists. Evensong allows one to absorb the Faith without having to stand up and be counted - or, worse still, shake hands with anyone or watch while everyone else hugs each other. Most of the English Cathedrals do very well at Evensong. It's a pity that more parishes don't recognise that the Eucharist isn't the be all and end all, and that Evensong can be a valuable form of outreach to the uncommitted and a valuable teaching ministry to those that are already in.

Maybe not quite of the times. In 1974 I went in for an organ scholarship at Cambridge. The playing part was in St. Catherine's College Chapel (still the N&B/Compton in those days). The chapel was full of university people, all wearing suits and gowns - except for John Rutter who had a bright orange sweater.

A point which I think needs to be emphasised is that, at this period, mutations could be regarded as constituents of a mixture. You could use them selectively as synthetics or for baroque music (if you were that way inclined), but collectively they were seen as constituting the chorus mixture. That is certainly the way the Willis 2 2/3, 2, 1 3/5 was regarded, sometimes appearing as the three constituent stops rather than altogether on one slide, and I think the same view was taken by Walkers' and Rutt. Few at the time realised the importance of breaks, so drawing the mutations together was seen as providing a mixture. Similarly, Compton's mixtures often went all the way up without breaking and sometimes, especially in the Swell appeared as separate mutations (quints and unisons). http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N07503 (St. Osmund, Parkstone) Clarion Doublette mentions the standard Swell Cornet 8.12.15.17. My organ has one of these and it does indeed perform all the functions he mentions, especially if the octave coupler is regarded (as I believe it must be in these instruments) as an integral part of the tonal scheme. I would like a normal chorus mixture as well, but I can't think of anything I could sacrifice in order to find room for it, despite having two diapasons and two flutes at 8' pitch in the Swell in addition to a pair of strings and a Vox!

E.M. Pinkney, organist at St. Cyprian's, described his instrument's character (in Musical Opinion) as "particularly ripe", a phrase which i have treasured ever since. I am given to understand that the same phrase would be apt to describe the churchmanship too.

Not too uncommon - the idea was that the mutations could be used to synthesise and colour, but together they would constitute a mixture. This was certainly the way Willis III looked at it, and was acclaimed by such people as Sam Clutton who wrote that the Willis Cornet was a wondrous thing which could do almost anything except make the tea. Apart from Willis and Walker, the practice is also seen in some organs by Spurden Rutt, such as St. Cyprian's, Clarence Gate (http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N17044), an interesting looking beast which I would like to play sometime as I think it might improve my general opinion of Rutt organs. Walkers' built a similar instrument at Humberstone Parish Church, Leicestershire, at the west end in a nice case, which has been well spoken-of. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N04579

You mean Big Chief Thunderfoot's War-Dance?

Thanks all! I ran SpyBot after getting all the updates and now it's fine again, Deo gratias! The goat is relieved too. The computer is ten years old, but generally does what it's supposed to. I suppose its the equivalent of my 1927 Casavant - ok 99% of the time....

I can't get Sibelius to open on my computer! It's an old machine but I've never had any trouble before. Any ideas? Thanks!

One couldn't 'play' a hymn tune on bells hung in the English fashion with ropes and wheels, and as Choir_Man points out, in English change-ringing a bell can only sound once in each line (Fabian Stedman was way ahead of Arnold Schonberg in this!). MGP mentions the tune 'Belfry Praise'. Here, the opening of the first line is the descending scale -'rounds' - and that of the third line the odd numbers followed by the even - 1,3,5,7,2,4,6,8, known as 'queens'. Furthermore, these figures appear in the bass in the fifth and seventh lines. It's a good tune and a good hymn, and was certainly much enjoyed in the days when I used to ring. In the Rivoli Veronese area of Italy, there are a number of towers with bells hung on full wheels. Here, they do ring tunes, holding the bell on the balance until it is needed again. It sounds terribly difficult! English ringers have visited and rung changes on these bells. When 'letting the bells down' so that they are resting with mouths downwards rather than held mouths up by their wooden stays (which should always be done after ringing if there's any chance of non-ringers getting into the belfry), the final act is to 'miss and catch', which means that the bells are allowed to swing silently once, then the rope is caught sharply and they speak for the last time. A neat catch is something to be striven for. It's traditional to 'miss and catch in rounds', or 'miss and catch in queens', or even 'miss and catch in tittums' (1,5,2,6,3,7,4,8), but if you only have five bells, you can 'miss and catch in Pop goes the Weasel' (1,4,2,3,5). That's the nearest I can think of to playing tunes! Of course, if you have a chiming apparatus (usually the variety known as Ellacombe), you can play tunes on it, but with a normal diatonic ring you tend to be stymied by the absence of sharps, so a tune which modulates will be impossible. 'Hyfrydol' goes nicely, and 'Eudoxia' was inspired by the five bells at West Mersea in Essex.

A friend of mine was giving a recital in Holy Trinity, Wall Street, New York, pre-9/11, and didn't realise he was connected up to the tower carillon until informed of the fact, somewhat forcefully, by the Verger.

A small, high-pitched bell is easier to cope with than a larger one with a more assertive pitch. It may be easy to instal some sort of sound-proofing so that the intrusion of bell-noise into the chapel is minimised. In my youth, I found the best way to reconcile bells and organ was to learn to ring. Some of the best outings I've had have been ringing ones! That's not what your problem is about, however.... We have one bell here - it sounds a flat F sharp and is impossible to compete with!

Pre-1975 rebuild, St. Paul's, Clifton, Bristol was a fair-sized three-manual, was handy enough to play, and was areguably a better and more memorable instrument than what replaced it. Headstone is about the same size (NPOR is missing a Horn or Cornopean in the Swell at Clifton) and is presumably in good shape.

When I was a student, there was a general line that transcription was ok up to about the time of Bach, because techniques and textures did not vary too much according to instrument or ensemble. After that, as orchestras became bigger and orchestration more elaborate, straight transcription became more complicated and organs changed to accommodate new tastes. As is well-known, organ transcriptions were often the only way for many people to hear orchestral works. Many organists' repertoires contained more transcriptions than original works, particularly in Britain, where there was little original composition of any worth. In France, where the organ developed in an 'orchestral' way, one can see little difference between many original organ works and contemporary transcriptions. There is, for example, an interesting collection - I have seen several copies over the years - of transcriptions of early 20th century pieces made by Leonce de St. Martin. It includes a "Blues" and an "Habanera". One generation tends to rebel against the previous one. It didn't take me long to stop feeling guilty about liking either romantic organs or the repertoire they were built to play. I think that we are much more open-minded these days about what constitutes a fine instrument and what one should or shouldn't play on it. Also, we try to bear 'authentic' sounds in mind, whereas up until the nineteenth century, anything old was considered old hat and at one point in the twentieth century anything outside a certain period was considered bad taste. The best theatre organists were wizards at playing transcriptions. Remember Quentin McClean's Rhapsody in Blue? And some years ago I heard Nigel Ogden give a stunning performance of Khatchaturian's Sabre Danceon the ex-Tonic Cinema compton at Bangor Academy, Co. Down. Of my forays into making transcriptions, most were renaissance dances, which don't need much transcribing. I also did the Henry Wood Fantasia on British Sea Songs, which relies more on appropriate melody stops than anything else. Someone wrote many years ago that the RVW Tallis Fantasia would make a good organ piece, and I finally got round to finishing it in 2010, the centenary of its first performance. It has the advantage, organ-wise, that there is a lot of very sustained writing, which of course the organ does very well. I've also played the Fantasia on Greensleeves from the piano score, bearing the orchestral sound in mind. I wonder why no one ever transcribed the whole piece (I think Sumsion did the truncated version in OUP's VW album). I rather fancy trying the passacaglia from the Fifth Symphony, but I haven't got a full score.....

Not the first time Windsor has appointed an Organist previously at the Temple!

Dash it! They all look the same to me!

BWV 565?

I made a transcription of Henry Woods' 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs' some years ago. I can send you a copy if you're interested.

One disadvantage with Novello is that the present issues are reduced photographically from the originals and occasionally are a bit cramped. If memory serves me, the Prelude of the A major is tricky to read in parts. The old copies, which were larger, were better in this respect. Generally, though, I like Novello. Interesting point about the C minor - I must try it. I play the Great C minor prelude with notes inegale. Kenneth Mobbs at Bristol University recommended that it should be so (and played it that way at my graduation in 1978). I didn't leanr the piece until years later (possibly after I came to Newfoundland), but Kenny knew his stuff when it came to Baroque interpretation and I remembered his words.

The Fantasia from the Great G minor isn't that difficult, and the Fantasia in C minor (the one without the fugue in Novello Book 3) is straightforward and worthwhile. Speaking of Novello - I was brought up on it and I have it all bound in hard covers so I'm not likely to change, but I've heard various top organists, including the late David Sanger, say that it's not wildly inaccurate and easier to read than others. I believe someone made a list of possible adjustments - it would be nice if it were to be made available.