David Drinkell

I also make sure that the resident organist gets the fee if I play elsewhere. When I was at Belfast Cathedral, it was not uncommon to get requests for choristers to sing at weddings. In such cases, I would clear this with the clergyman concerned, arrange for the choristers to be transported, get them off school if necessary, play for them (not necessarily for the rest of the service) and get them home. They got five pounds each for this, but I didn't charge anything. In one case, where the groom had been a chorister at Ripon, I got a couple of bottles of decent wine. I try to be flexible on music, but the bottom line is that this is the Anglican Cathedral, a Victorian masterpiece of Gilbert Scott's, the service is from the Book of Common Prayer (or, less often, the Book of Alternative Services), and any music has to be appropriate to the setting and the liturgy. Therefore, any keyboard accompaniments will be done on the organ and singers are expected to project naturally without the use of a microphone. The latter occasionally causes consternation with Mr Caruso-style RC cantors, but I believe it to be the only way to order things in our particular circumstances. As an Anglican church, we regard ouselves as open to all, but that does not mean the building and liturgical tradition can be treated as a stage set.

I am not prepared to let someone else have the fee from the job which it is my prerogative and my duty to do. Occasional fees are part of the package and help to make up a salary which is by no means extravagant. In a case where other musicians are involved, my permission as director of music has first to be gained. The Dean could over-ride my opinion, but there has never been a case where this was an issue. I will want to know who the musicians are, what instruments are involved and what they will be playing. I will be at the Cathedral early for the service, as I would be for any other service, and will be on hand to help and encourage in any way. I will, if necessary, meet with the musicians beforehand and facilitate any rehearsal they may wish to have in the cathedral. (I am entitled to ask for an extra fee for this, or for attending the wedding rehearsal, but I have never done so). Although I don't think it makes any difference to the principle, this is part of my living. I will get the wedding schedule for the year and mark off those dates when a wedding is due to take place. If there is a request for someone else to provide the music, it does not alter the fact that I have ear-marked the time, and possibly turned down other engagements. I will be there anyway, in case anything unforeseen happens. I have no qualms about accepting the basic bench fee in such circumstances.

The agreement here is that I have the right to provide music when it is required for a service. If a request is put in for someone else - or something else - to provide the music, I am still entitled to the standard fee. We don't allow the playing of recorded music, and although we might make an exception in special cases, such an exception would not be made without my agreement, and it would not prejudice my entitlement to the fee. I think the above is pretty much standard practice. I, too, make my living as an organist, but I don't think that should make a difference to the general principle.

I found Clifton more congenial as an accompanying medium than might appear from its style and stop-list. Certainly a model of its kind, and in a building which I think is one of the few true masterpieces of its period. I'm sure it's lost some of its edge (the organ, that is) over the years. I haven't been in Dunblane Cathedral since the Flentrop went in. Everyone seems full of praise for its quality and sound, but everyone also seems to have some sort of caveat about it, mostly relating to the problems imposed by its position and the need to retain the Lorimer case. So, those who have played it, how far up the scale does it come? A little-known Scottish job is Dornoch Cathedral - a two manual rebuild by Nicholson. Small - like its building - but very fine indeed (although not much to look at).

My friend Theo Saunders played a Bach Trio-Sonata in his (successful) audition at Armagh Cathedral. The panel remarked on this and Theo pointed out that he thought they wanted to know if he was a skilled organist. They always used to say if you could play the trio-sonatas, you could play anything....

Hope-Jones had a three rank celeste at Worcester, with a half-on position for the stop-tablet for when the third rank wasn't needed. They're not all that uncommon in North America, although none can approach the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia which has a complete String organ of some ninety stops including multiple celestes. The late Ted Holt of Cambridge worked in his retirement for the organ builder Norman Hall & Sons, and with their help rebuilt the organ at the United Reformed Church, Cherry Hinton. Ted had a methodical mind and liked gadgets. The Cherry Hinton organ has a device which causes the Celeste to flip off if left on as part of an 'unsuitable' combination for more than fifteen seconds. (Ted's brother Charles used to write letters to 'Musical Opinion'. Their father David started collecting organ specifications and the result was the Holt Collection now at BIOS. One of them, I can't remember which, picked up some manuscript music on Cambridge market which turned out to be two unpublished sets of evening canticles by Stanford. 'The Queen's Service', since published by Stainer & Bell, was one of them. Ted's son Edmund was Music Adviser to Orkney Islands Council, and therefore my boss when I was teaching there. It's a small world).

I hadn't heard that, and I should imagine that it varies between builders. The Vox Angelica on the Swell ay Belfast Cathedral was definitely sharp. I don't think the name signifies much, although I suppose one would think of a Vox Angelica as fairly mild - salicional rather than viole - whereas Voix Celeste could mean anything.

I thought it was on the slow side - now you've got me worried.....

I would appreciate opinions about tuning celeste stops. I prefer them sharp. Do most builders tune them this way? (When the Walker at St. Leonard-at-the-Hythe, Colchester was restored by ex-Walker man Ken Canter, he tuned the celeste flat because he said that Walkers' did it that way. I didn't like it and persuaded him to tune it sharp, as it had been before - a particularly nice one, I always thought). It seems to me that one should tune celestes according to the beat with their companion stops, rather than in octaves, otherwise the trebles will beat too fast. Am I right? Would a more stringy stop, say a Viole d'Orchestre, benefit from a slightly quicker beat, or vice versa? I feel that about 3 beats per second is about right for an ordinary Vox Angelica type of stop. My organ here has a sharp Voix Celeste (down to G8) in the Swell and a flat Viole Celeste (full compass, including extras for the octave coupler) in the Solo. I wonder if it would be worth sharpening the Solo celeste. In 1971, I went with John Budgen to hold notes while he tuned the newly-rebuilt organ at Burnham-on-Crouch Church, Essex, in preparation for the opening recital by Gordon Phillips the same evening. When we got there, the parish organist asked John to tune the celeste flat. After getting half-way, it became apparent that the pipes wouldn't take it. A few words were said, and the stop retuned sharp. After the concert, the organist remarked how much better the celeste sounded now it was flat....

Oddly enough, I just came across a mention of Sacred Heart, Tunstall, in a back number (1970) of Musical Opinion while I was looking for something else. Reeves and Merner had just rebuilt it. I don't think it's on NPOR. It seems to me, especially from experience in Ireland and here in Newfoundland, that if a Roman Catholic church has a priest who likes organs, that church gets an organ. Its subsequent fate then depends on whether succeeding priests also appreciate organs. In retrospect, the post VAT2 fashion for small, tracker-action, non-British instruments has not worked out as rosily as its protagonists promised. Some of them are pretty nasty and haven't lasted well. Good luck with your Rushworth and congratulations on your perseverance in seeking out and acquiring it. At their best I think they were as good as any and you will hopefully have a fine instrument which is an asset to the church and its worship.

Neither would I as a rule, or any of the other preludes and fugues, etc. But circumstances can dictate practice. For example, if I felt that the 9:15 service needed the Passacaglia to finish it off, but I had to be downstairs to rehearse the choir for the 11:00 service, I might leave off the fugue. Again, I quite often play the Passacaglia after funerals. The church would normally have emptied before I got to the fugue. I might carry on for my own satisfaction, or AMDG, but I wouldn't feel guilty about stopping at the end of the Passacaglia. Similarly, I sometimes play the St. Anne Fugue after funerals, although in other circumstances I wouldn't trot it out without the Prelude.

A.M Henderson edited 'The Student's Bach' - or something like that. It was a really excellent introduction, although very dated as to registration, even when I first encountered it. Regarding the Great G minor - I might just possibly end on a major chord if not playing the Fugue, but more likely not. I would probably end the Passacaglia on a major chord if not playing the fugue.

One extension organ that Willis worked on was St. Matthias, Richmond, which was originally built by Lewis, with pneumatic action(!), to the design of Kenneth Glencairn Burns with twenty-two ranks in four swell boxes, giving fifty-three speaking stops. Willis electrified it with a new console and prepared for straight Principal, Nazard and Fifteenth on the Great. It was later enlarged (by Walker?). The case, by Bloomfield (who was once choirmaster at the church), was similar to that at Southwark Cathedral and a further peculiarity was that the manual compass went up to e65. Burns designed a smaller instrument for a church in Yorkshire (was it Elland?).

I still find that article to be a model of its kind - and I still covet that beautiful little Dutch organ in one of the illustrations.

Yes, that's the one! Musical Opinion said Sydenham, so I looked there on NPOR. I see the Shepherd brothers have replaced the Nazat 1 1/3 with a 2' - makes sense in the build-up.

"Musical Opinion" in March 1961 included the specification of an organ built by Kingsgate Davidson for the German Evangelical Church, Sydenham. It doesn't appear to be on NPOR, so here is the stop-list: Hauptwerk: Prinzipal 8A, Rohrflote 8, Oktave 4, Nazat 1 1/3, Mixtur 12.15.22, Krummhorn 8B Pos/Haupt Positif: Gedacktflote 8, Gemshorn 4, Blockflote 2 Solo Kornet 12.7, Scharf 26.29, Tremulant Pedal: Sub Bass 16C, Prinzipal 8A, Flotenbass 8C, Flotenquint 5 1/3C, Flotenoktave 4C, Krummhorn 16B, Krummhorn 8B, Haupt/Ped, Pos/Ped Compass: 61/30 This is remarkable for the date, predating such early neo-classical jobs as the Walcker at Coloma College (N08853) or anything along those lines by Degens & Rippin (but not the Brompton Oratory, or the Swedish and Danish Seamen's Missions). It would be interesting to know whether the voicing matched the stop-list, or whether it was just a slightly eccentric English organ with German names. And is it still in existence? I find Kingsgate Davidson interesting because they sometimes produced some unusual schemes, and my experience is that their workmanship was of good quality.

I've always put the tendency for boys' voices to change earlier down to increasingly better general health since the end of World War II. I think also that in some cases there's a preference for a different type of treble tone, which doesn't last as long, or doesn't have the scope for a sort of Indian Summer falsetto. And there's peer pressure. I would still regard it as unusual if a boy lost his treble voice before his fifteenth year. Repertoire is better these days - you don't see run-of-the-mill stuff like Arnold in A or Nares in G around very much - and the standard of performance is higher. Some of the music sung today is more demanding than the repertoire of thirty or fifty years ago, but not all of it. Fifty years ago, many foundations were singing daily Matins as well as Evensong, and it was rare for less than the full choir to sing at any service. Overall, I don't think demands are any heavier. I do think that some singers have a prissy attitude instilled in them - after all, singing is a natural activity and all it needs is reasonable care and attention. So I'm still of the opinion that there's no excuse for carrying a water bottle into a service which at most will last for an hour and a half. Neither would I look with favour on someone who habitually swigged out of a bottle during rehearsal.

I cut down the Great and close the Swell box after the voices enter in 'I was glad'. The tuba blasts at the beginning of the Gloria in Murrill in E never fail to please. The ends of both Coll Reg morning canticles provide an excuse for a good honk. The opening of Stanford in A is a bugger, although maybe the hemiolae in Rubbra in A flat are worse. I cut my thumb badly minutes before an Evensong at Worcester Cathedral which included Stanford in A, with the result that the console looked like an abattoire by the end of the Mag.

I suppose the first answer that comes to mind is that choirs managed fine without bottled water in the stalls for most of the first couple of millennia, it's just that a bottle of water seems to be indispensable to some people in any situation. I guess my principal objection is that it looks terrible, especially if there's been some effort to make the choir look like a body of voices rather than a bunch of inidividuals.

In about 1977, I saw in the Willis works at Petersfield an instrument which I think had started off as part of the Willis IV Junior Development Plan. As it stood then, the pipes were planted on a soundboard that curved around in a spiral. I think it may have been known to some as the Christmas Tree Organ. Again, I'm relying on memory here, but I think that on one manual it had Klein Gedackt 8 and Gemshorn 4, but the other manual was mostly extension of the gedackt rank. There may have been a Salicional in there somewhere, too. It had a stop-key console such as one might see on any number of jobs, rather than the characteristic Willis type. Not 'done on the cheap' - it was a decent piece of work - just not the usual Willis luxury production. Also sprach Zarathustra: 'My name is Henry Willis, but it is also Peter Conacher.' If a job was done with extension and without some of the 'Willis' features such as toggle touch, it would have a Conacher plate on it. I don't know if many such went through the shops - possibly it was a one-off - but that was how Henry IV explained it. I saw recently a specification of a Willis with a Posaune as the Great reed and a coupler 'Posaune in Octaves'. I reckon it's pushing it to say that's not extension. The pre-War St. Mary, Southampton Willis had a coupler 'Great Reeds Sub Octave'. Then there's that odd arrangement at Hereford Cathedral where some Solo ranks are available at either 8' or 16'. However, I have never seen blatant manual extension on a Willis. Didn't Laurence Elvin perpetrate a bloomer in his last book in claiming that St. Jude's, Thornton Heath had an extended reed chorus? (Now there was one fine organ!). Can you give us more details about the organ you mention at Burnley?

Air Canada.

When I moved to Newfoundland, I took a case-load of music with me. The rest followed six months later with furniture and wife, the former in a container, which took the route Belfast/Rotterdam,New York, Halifax/St. John's and took six weeks.

Weren't you at St. Pat's, Dublin at one time, Stephen? I always found that fairly scary, but at least it was spacious. How do they compare for you? I'm hoping to try Bury when I go home on holiday at the end of August. It makes me feel old, because I was at the opening of the Nicholson and shortly after Colin Goulden and I were asked by Fred Oxley to do the demo to the Organ Club.

You're right. Living in Newfoundland for the last eight and a half years has fuddled my senses regarding the conventions of writing dates on different sides of the Atlantic. Also, September 9th is my sister's birthday and therefore deeply embedded in my subconscious.

Just an idle query. Can anyone tell me about Kingsgate Davidson? I believe that the firm started out as the Kingsgate Musical Instrument Company, or some such. Did Davidson buy in, or take over? When did they cease trading, and did someone take them over? They seem to have produced some imaginative schemes, including revamping Brompton Oratory for Ralph Downes. Their ex-residence organ, which ended up in Holy Trinity, Brompton, was more interesting than the ex-Audley Street Rushworth which replaced it. And I think I remember seeing a ad in a sixties copy of Musical Opinion for a very advanced neo-Classical specification - all in German. Maybe the execution didn't come up to the ambitions, although the examples I've played have generally seemed well done. Thanks in advance.