David Drinkell

I pulled out the Britten Prelude and Fugue on a Theme by Vittoria yet again a few days ago. I've played it once or twice, but I've never really felt that it came off. Is it just me, or do others feel the same way? Are there any points which might be helpful? It's odd, because in general I find Britten's organ accompaniments to be well fitted to the instrument - Rejoice in the Lamb, Jubilate in C, etc. I'm also mindful of the fact that Britten was a genius and could sometimes find possibilities in an instrument that players had hitherto failed to realise. How about other (presumed) non-organist composers? Hindemith seemed to be able to catch the idiom for every instrument. Tippett's Prelude for the Monteverdi Vespers takes a bit of thought, but can sound effective. I think Rubbra's Meditation has the potential to sound good, but the manual changes seem more complicated than they ought. There's a piece by Copland, the name of which escapes me. I've never been able to make much sense of that either. I'm assuming that Benjamin Britten wasn't an organist, but his mother used to play the organ at Kirkley, Lowestoft, and he went to Gresham's School, which has an organ (a different one now - the one from BB's time went to a URC in Cheam), so maybe he had more than a little hands-on experience.

The Caird Hall is a typical Harrison, the only feature which immediately suggests Hollins being the Horn on the Swell, a stop to which he was known to be partial. Perhaps some of the other unusual features - three manuals rather than four, enclosed Great reeds, third manual called 'Orchestral' - might be due to Hollins, but each can be found on various other Harrisons. It was not unusual for consultants to rubber-stamp builders' specifications, as any other consultant might for specialist work. Westminster Chapel was originally a Father Willis - the case has a family resemblance to the Ally Pally and others. Rushworth's had two goes at it, initially prompted by a desire to get more power to cope with the very large congregations which attended the church. It was written up with approval by Gilbert Benham in 'The Organ' and I believe it has always been well thought-off.

The Der Aa-kerk Foundation is looking for forty organists resident in Groningen for the book “The Der Aa-kerk pulls out all the stops”. That's FORTY ORGANISTS folks! I'd be hard pushed to find a couple of dozen decent organists in a twenty mile radius! MM You should be so lucky! One could probably count up the number of competent organists in this province on the fingers of one's hands and have a few left over! I have never had the privilege of hearing the Netherlands organs in the flesh - the nearest I've got was playing in a recital at a moment's notice in Bruges Cathedral, where the organ looks stupendous but tonally is not anything special - but a few years ago I was given a boxed set of CDs and gained much inspiration, not only from the sounds (those grand choruses! those wonderful colour reeds!) but from the repertoire. I now play all of Bruhns and Bohm - of the latter I had only previously played the C major Praeludium in the Peters edition, but after hearing one of the chorale partitas on CD, I bought the complete works and now I can revel in the whole lot.

The old boys always used to say, "Rushworth's could really do it when they wanted to", and at their best I think they were as good as anyone. Holy Rude, Stirling is glorious. It has been a little tweaked, which is unfortunate, but the oiginal voicing is intact. I think Christ's Hospital Chapel is almost as good, but perhaps not everyone would agree. St. James, Antrim Road, Belfast, has a slightly smaller Rushworth than Reid Memorial (http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D01416), installed in 1954 after the church was blitzed. It was said that Rushworth's had made a particular effort with it as a means of securing more orders in the province. Whether or not this was so, it is an outstanding example of its type. Philip Prosser, the organ builder, who maintained it, reckoned it to be the best parish organ in Belfast, and I think he was right. The church was closed a few years ago, but I believe the organ is safe, at least for the forseeable future. Long ago, there was a disgruntled letter from Henry Willis III in 'The Organ' claiming that certain innovations in Rushworth organs were due to them poaching members of his staff. Rushworth's rebutted this in the next issue, but I think that between the wars they may, quite legitimately, have taken on skilled men from other firms in order to improve their product and break into the big league. Since they did not have London overheads, they were well placed to offer competitive rates if their product was up to scratch. I'm sure the many school jobs which they secured were a result of this. Christ's Hospital certainly was, as Stephen Bicknell pointed out in his book. Their job at Haileybury was very fine, too. I visited it on the same day as All Saints, Hertford and St. Alban's Cathedral and, even after all the years, I can still remember how impressed I was by it and Jack Hindmarsh's playing of it. Jeremy Cull's transcription of McCunn's 'The Land of the Mountain and the Flood', as featured on the Reid Memorial recording, is well worth playing.

Absolutely! It is an inspirational register and reflects great credit on all who were associated with it.

You are right that the BCP took a terrible bashing, and there are still a lot of (by now) middle-aged clergy out there who think that the new services are the only way to go, but musicians (especially composers) generally did not take to them and congregations didn't grasp what was happening until the deed was done. I offer a few observations: At Belfast Cathedral, it was noticeable that congregations on the third Sunday morning of each month (which was BCP) were larger than on other Sundays. The service was shorter, too, despite having more music in it. Here at St. John's Cathedral, the BCP is used at all principal services and congregations are growing. The 9:15 Sung Eucharist using the modern service is the least well-attended of the five on Sundays. I also look after the music at the local faculty of theology - Queen's College. Quite a few students love, or even prefer, the BCP. Some of them had never encountered it before they came to Queen's and have found that it fills a gap in their spiritual experience. One or two altars have been pushed back against the wall in the last few years! For myself, after years trying to make the modern services work, and to find music to adorn them, coming here was like coming home.

Ah, but Cranmer's English as used in the Book of Common Prayer was not the vernacular of the day, but a deliberately (slightly) archaic version. This had the effect of lending majesty to the prose and making it feel special. It also meant that, over the centuries, the language did not age, but retained its slightly elevated character. I believe most strongly that it is as perfect for use in worship as it ever was. Elsewhere on this thread, it is rightly pointed out that 'Good King Wenceslas' is not great poetry. But it is a great hymn - perhaps partly for this reason. Great poetry does not always make great hymns. The editors of 'Songs of Praise' and 'The Cambridge Hymnal' tried very hard to include more 'proper' poetry, but in general it just didn't come off. on the other hand, the Scottish metrical psalms are sheer doggerel, but no one can deny the imposing effect they have.

I guess the ultimate in early seventeenth century Hope-Jonesery is the Compenius organ at Frederiksborg.

I think that the particular breadth and depth which the organ adds to things like this may be lost in transmission. It might be quite different in the building. And you might, even over the air-waves, notice a differnce if the organ wasn't playing.

As a devotee of Radio 4 while driving, I used to dread the Shipping Forecast and "Sailing by", but I think it was a case of familiarity breeding contempt. I think that it's basically rather a good piece of its type, and handy as a run-in to a bulletin which is vital listening for many people. Now that I don't live in the UK, I really miss good radio, good television, good national papers and decent cross-words. On the other hand, the weather forecast is a lot more meaningful. We had a full-blown hurricane (Igor) last year, which is unusual for us in Newfoundland - they usually vear out to sea or go the other way to clobber Nova Scotia - and yesterday we all battened down the hatches because Hurricane Maria was headed our way (nothing much happened). In the winter, we're used to amounts of snow which would close down civilization in the UK, but it helps to know what's coming!

I should imagine that Clarinet tone is the easiest to synthesize from flue pipes. Electrones used to be reasonable at flute and clarinet sounds, but less convincing when the harmonic content got more complex. An organ with a string stop called Cor Anglais is pretty sure to be a Bevington. They used such nomenclature as a amatter of routine. Weigle of Stuttgart made a range of 'Seraphon' stops, which I believe included labial reeds. Weingarten had a handful of them at one time. The new Ruffati at Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden includes a labial Clarinet, with pipes from an earlier instrument.

Like a lot of successful small organs, it's basically a one manual scheme spread over two for the sake of flexibility. In such instruments, it's not unsual to have the mixture on a different manual from the rest of the chorus. Sam Clutton thought it was OK, and so did Father Smith. I got over the neo-classical phase when I was a student in the mid-seventies. I think most of my generation did. Therefore, I am not thinking in terms of neo-classical fluty gemshorns, but a slightly broad-toned conical principal - just enough to make it different from the 4'. I hate those awful 2' flutes which one finds so often (the example at the RCO was a classic, and needed to be avoided like the plague). Similarly, the sort of thing I had in mind for the Swell might as easily be called Viola Pomposa or something equally fanciful. You can base a chorus on it, it will thicken up the foundation when coupled, it will make a passable flue double, and if the tremulant is right it will serve where a celeste is appropriate. When it comes to nomenclature, it's a matter of choice and British organs have been picking and mixing since the mid-nineteenth century (maybe before - remember Renatus Harris's 'Cart'). 'Plein Jeu' at least gives one a better idea of what to expect than 'Mixture', although putting the composition on the stop-face would make it clear anyway. Ralph Downes may not have avoided an 8' principal on the manuals (although he did at the Queen Elizabeth Hall), but Donald Harrison was quite capable of doing so, even in three-manual instruments (and surely not just for the sake of reducing Ernest Skinner to an apoplectic frenzy). One doesn't necessarily expect to include an 8' principal in one's fonds on a Cavaille-Coll, either. I wouldn't have any problem playing a Mendelssohn Sonata, Vierne's Berceuse, Whitlock's Folk Song, Mathias's Processional, Master Tallis's Testament, Litanies or the Bach Passacaglia on it. I could lead a congregation perfectly well, and turn it inside out in the psalms much more successfully than a lot of other jobs that come to mind. Yes, it would naturally need electric action. I think that the added flexibility of this far out-weighs any perceived benefits of tracker, so long as it's of highest quality and not used as an excuse to compromise good layout. Maybe you're right and an extension organ would be a better use of resources, but I'm not so sure.

Good point, but it's not unheard of to have an 8' Principal on the Pedal and a 4' on the Great. Then again, there was the GD&B at St. George's, Letchworth, where Bernard Edmonds, the Diocesan Adviser, insisted on an 8' diapason on the Great and the builders extended the Pedal Principal up and actually called it 'Pedal Diapason' on the stop-key. I think that's been changed since. One could always draw the 4' with the Sub, and could even arrange it so that the bottom octave played under such circumstances. There are examples of an 8' Swell reed with an extra octave of pipes for the Sub. Otherwise, one could simply have a stop for the 8' - and this would bring us into the realms of an extension organ, which would open up a whole lot of other possibilities. Arguably, keeping things straight is a cleaner option. I find a full provision of octave couplers to be vastly useful, not just because I play a North American organ - I picked up the preference when I was in charge of the Willis at St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall.

Great: Stopped Diapason 8A, Principal 4B, Gemshorn 2C, Octave, Sub, Unison Off, Swell to Great 16.8.4 Swell Spitzflote 8, Nason Flute 4, Plein Jeu 15.19.22, Tremulant, Octave, Sub, Unison Off Pedal: Bourdon 16A, Principal 8B, Gemshorn 4C Great to Pedal, Swell to Pedal 8.4 61 note compass, 73 note soundboards Damn! that makes 9! Next stop: a Trumpet at 8' on the Swell and 16' on the Pedal.

Kilkhampton was an eye-opener for me when I spent a short holiday there in the early seventies. A very classy instrument indeed. Another memorable Yeats was Bozeat, Northamptonshire. A triumph of economy, the Great borrowed two stop from the Swell, like one of Willis III's model jobs, but the tonal scheme was incredibly advanced for 1939. Good case, too. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=D03362 St. John, Bishop's Hull, Taunton is yet another exceptional instrument. I suppose one should deprecate the alteration of a Father Willis, but this one is such a glorious job that it must be judged an exception to the rule. (There's another 3m Father Willis in Taunton, anyway!).

My God! What is the world coming to????? Anyone want a copy of my organ transcription?

There have been a few, but last week when I was on holiday in the UK, I encountered a beautiful Stop'd Diapason on the new Peter Bumstead organ (based on an instrument of about 1840 from a Methodist church in Draycott, Somerset) at Brundish Church, Suffolk. Apart from the aforesaid SD, it's a very nice little job altogether, with a simple but effective case based on the Sutton one at Great Bardfield. It's just appeared on NPOR: http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=K00988

That's the one! I was quite captivated with it at the time and a lot of the pieces have been in my core repertoire ever since (especially the Scheidt!). Speaking of Rogg, his recording of the Hindemith Sonatas was an inspiration to me around the same time. I still think they're among the finest pieces of organ music of the twentieth century.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis My all-time favourite piece of music. The Barbirolli recording is my favourite, although any Boult recording of RVW is definitive. I've always wondered why there wasn't an organ transcription of it - so I made my own a couple of years ago. Praetorius Christmas Mass Gabrieli Consort. Marvellously cheerful stuff, beautifully produced. Fun-sounding organ (Roskilde) too. The King of Instruments LP which probably inspired all organists of my generation. Everyone remembers Francis Jackson's Cocker - James Thomas mentioned it in the opening remarks to his recital at Ely a couple of Sundays ago. Similarly, a compilation - was it called Organs of Europe or something like that? - which featured Bach and Buxtehude on North German instruments, Scheidt at Frederiksborg, Clerambault at Souvigny, Purcell at Adlington, Handel on a claviorganum, Wesley (?) at Rotherhithe and Spanish fireworks (Braga?). A bit vague, here, because I got rid of all my LPs when I moved here - something had to go..... The Psalms of David - Willcocks and King's, the first volume. But also The World of Psalms, which is mostly George Guest and St. John's, with one track of Willcocks and one of Westminster Abbey (McKie) to fill up the space on a CD. Something with David Munrow.

Thank-you. I don't think anyone could argue with that. Presumably Willis would not have had the facilities to make a brass trumpet, so he would naturally have ordered it in. From then on, the treatment it received would have resulted in a 'Willis' stop and nothing else. Willis's own review in 'The Rotunda' could, I think, be interpreted as a claim that he had invented something new. At the very least, as finished and installed, it was certainly a first in the UK. In the same way, although Willis praised the efficient electric actions he found in the USA, he did not hint at the extent to which his new electric consoles were indebted to Skinner. Or, indeed, that 'The Rotunda' had a US equivalent in Skinner's 'Stop, Open and Reed'. But this is all legitimate marketing and doesn't detract from Willis's achievement. I'm a great Willis III fan! I hope the Auckland job is going well and that the result meets, and exceeds, your expectations.

My understanding is that Willis III ordered the rank from Midmer Losh, who were busy and subcontracted it out to Wurlitzer, who supplied a standard brass trumpet as found in their theatre organs. I wouldn't, on that account, criticize because it's a wonderful stop. Also, I remember Dennis Thurlow demonstrating a wide range of tone colours which could be got from a single Wurlitzer reed pipe and therefore I wouldn't minimise Willis's artistry in producing what he did from the material he had.

Was it the Dome tubas or the Chancel ones which were recently replaced by our hosts? I seem to remember that the Trompette Militaire (Wurlitzer!) beats them hands down.

Having slid off on a tangent on YouTube, I see that Kent Tritle has been appointed Director of Music and Organist of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, following Bruce Neswick's move to the Jacobs School of Music, University of Indiana. Kent was previously at St. Ignatius Loyola, NYC, in charge of our hosts' fabulous organ there, so he's going from one of the best organs in New York to the other.

I absolutely agree! Although it's not enormous by New York standards (about 120 speaking stops after the recent restoration) or in comparison to the size of the building, the sheer artistry of every register is outstanding. I could take the Solo strings to bed with me..... I played it in 2001. I'm told that it's now better than ever, following an internal redistribution after the fire, which has in effect completed what Donald Harrison was unable to do because of shortage of funds.

I was at a recital by James Thomas at Ely Cathedral last Sunday (just got back from UK today). He finished with the Cocker and the Tuba was a several times louder than I was expecting.