David Drinkell
-
Posts
1,355 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by David Drinkell
-
-
Indeed correct. St Alkmunds Shrewsbury has had a series of organs, in the 1960s a three manual Gray and Davison from 1823 somehow went AWOL, to be replaced with a transplanted Kirkland of 1881 two manual. Then in 2006 the RSCM Harrison arrived. It looks very pretty in its white and gold case, though I never did understand the rationale for having a Swell comprising 8, 4, 2 2/3, 2, 16 reed. I'm sure someone far more knowledgeable than I could fully justify such an unusual specification, and I look forward to hearing the logic behind it!
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=R01719
It's a remarkable specification when one considers that in those days small organs consisted, in effect, of the bits of large ones used to accompany a choir plus a big diapason. The clever thing about the RSCM Harrison is that it has a large organ effect, but mostly under expression, and the really quiet stuff on the Great where it can be contrasted with the Swell but also 'swelled' if the gedeckt is coupled to it. Note the Great to Swell coupler, too. A very clever instrument indeed. The only drawback is not being able to use the 16' reed on the Pedal and the full flue chorus on the manual at the same time.
Ballylesson Parish Church, Drumbo, Co. Down, has a Wells-Kennedy recasting of a Conacher along similar lines (NPOR D01451) which possibly makes more sense in modern terms and has tracker action.
-
I should imagine that there's a good case for any Arthur Harrison organ to be considered historically important.
I don't know how St. Oswald's, Durham sounded after the last rebuild before the fire, but when I played it in 1974, it had already acquired a 4' Octave Flute on the Pedal and a Larigot in place of the Voix Celeste, both of which seemed rather inappropriate. But, like all of its ilk, it had that elusive quality - "class".
Helmsley is a fine job and very much deserving of its certificate.
St. Sepulchre, Holborn Viaduct certainly deserves its certificate, and not only for being probably the smallest organ ever with a 32' Double Open Wood. Its effect is way beyond what its contents would suggest, a bit like the little RSCM Harrison (which I think has gone to a church in Shrewsbury?).
I suppose one would need to be more picky with other builders, but there's a one manual Bevington about an hour's drive from St. John's (Brigus United Church) which goes from Double Diapason up to Fifteenth, Mixture and prepared-for Cornopean. If it were in the UK, it would certainly deserve a certificate. (It's been out of use for years, with a Hammond in front of it and a keyboard in front of that, but there's nothing wrong with it that an afternoon's work wouldn't put right).
-
If it's really Regency, the price is derisory and someone will be getting a bargain. It looks like a nice piece - or even a barrel organ with the insides taken out. Again if it's genuine, maybe the pipes were taken out during restoration work and put in upside down.
-
I have recently purchased "Organ Dreams", a selection of music played on the Arthur Harrison organ in Temple Church.
This is the first of his instruments I have heard and I am hungry for more.
Any recommendations ?
Regards to all,
Chauncey
Arthur Harrison considered his finest instruments to be St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol and King's College, Cambridge. King's has been recorded on various formats, including DVD. Redcliffe has just been thoroughly restored and there must surely be a recording due any time.
I'm not sure how much the Temple organ has been altered from AH's original conception - it's certainly in a different building (it was built for the ball-room at Glentanar Castle in Scotland, where George Thalben-Ball first encountered it), and the mixtures had been recast some years ago.
-
I've just read through this thread quickly, so apologies if I'm repeating something which has already been mentioned. Compton's rebuilt an organ originally by Lincoln (1811) in St Pancras Church in West Bagborough, Somerset. The organ boasts a magnificent case on the west gallery and is completely enclosed. Compton added a second division, making the organ into a 2 manual, leaving the original Lincoln as an Echo division. The tracker action is light and a pleasure to play - albeit without much depth of touch. The whole is a simply beautiful instrument.
What a clever scheme! One is reminded of Harrisons' enlargement of the Sutton organ at Jesus College, Cambridge. Interesting to see Compton building a tracker action - or so I infer - did they do it anywhere else?
-
As was once said, 'Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease.'
-
I took a detour via St. Bees on the way South from Orkney once (can't remember the year, but it would have been before 1988, when I moved to Belfast). I went to Sunday Evensong and had a go on the organ afterwards. It is a three-manual, with the lowest manual designated 'Solo' rather than 'Choir'.
There were at that time four stops prepared-for at the console: Great Geigen 8, Swell Lieblich Gedeckt 8, Swell Double Bassoon 16, Solo Sharp Mixture 26.29. I believe that the intention was to move the Vox Humana to the Solo and place the Sharp Mixture in the Swell. (Hypothetically, the Sharp Mixture would be more useful on the Solo, as it could have the Swell coupled to it if desired, and the Vox would still be in the Swell box for colouring.) As Willis left the organ, the prepared for stop on the Solo was an Orchestral Oboe and the Swell 16 a Lieblich Bourdon. I have no idea when the stop-knobs were changed, or whose idea it was.
Harrisons' slightly enlarged the scale of the Great upperwork in 1905, when they added the Cornet 17.19.22 and borrowed the Great Double onto the Pedal. At the same time, W.C. Jones added harmonic trebles to the Great reeds, regulated the Solo reeds and revoiced the Pedal Ophicleide on 15", it having originally been on the Great reed pressure of 7". Willis had apparently been dissatisfied with the output of this stop and had tried to let it out as much as possible.
On 1931, Harrisons' extended the wood Open Bass down to GGGG with new pipes and in 1949 they added twelve pipes to extend the Ophicelide to 32'.
It is a glorious instrument, still (to my ears) a Father Willis but tastefully enhanced by Harrisons. Its effect is all the more remarkable when one remembers that it has only 36 speaking stops. As is well known, Colonel George Dixon lived in St. Bees and the organ was like a child to him. By 1905, Father Willis was dead and the strife within the family over his finacial affairs was apparently one factor in Dixon transferring his patronage to Harrisons'.
-
Could this have been based on the Kilkhampton organ?
I like that - it could be fun.
There has been the occasional mention of Brindley elsewhere. Kilmore Cathedral, Co. Cavan, has a remarkable 1860 job by him. The building itself dates from the nineteenth century, replacing an earlier structure which is now used as a hall. I imagine the organ was roughly contemporary with the new church.
Great: Double Diapason (st.), Open Diapason, Rohr Flute, Gamba (gr. to Open), Principal, Twelfth & Fifteenth II, Mixture IV, Trumpet
Swell: Violin Diapason, Gedact, Octave, Mixture II, Cornopean, Oboe
Choir: Lieblich Gedact, Dulciana, Gemshorn, Flute, Clarinet (tenor F)
Pedal: Bourdon, Bass Flute
Swell to Great
Great to Pedal
3 comps to Great
2 comps to Swell
Compass: 56/30
Swell stops terminate at tenor C, below which the keys are coupled to the Choir
As far as I know, the only alterations are a balanced swell pedal (on the right) and a radiating concave pedalboard, both dating from 1861.
The organ is in the north transept, facing west. The case is a massive, fortress-like structure with three flats of equal-length wooden dummies(6-9-6) over the console and two facing south, all under a castellated pediment. The console doors swing open on massive brass hinges. Inside, all pipes are planted chromatically.
Tonally, the roar of the Great chorus is almost frightening - very Schulzian. The other departments are not as lively, but they do a lot more than murmur discreetly.
There are a number of interesting jobs in Ireland, dating from the time when the Church of Ireland had money, or rich patronage, and left unaltered because that patronage faded away. The 1896 Conacher at Kildare Cathedral is another example - rather larger than Kilmore but not unlike it in many ways. Both would have made excellent examples for David Wickens' article on Schulzian influence in the current BIOS Journal.
-
Really...
So there's you, St. Thomas's Toronto, St. James Cathedral... where else?
It's at last getting a bit warmer here in Toronto - where staring to thaw. But I bet you guys are still cold.
Montreal Cathedral is the other one.
Winter was late coming in Newfoundland, but it's here now.....
-
I must admit, I think I'm very lucky indeed. I have a fine building (one of Gilbert Scott's best), an organ which I like (and seems to like me), a choir which never complains whatever I throw at them (and parties often), an appreciative congregation and a Dean who thinks the music is wonderful and says so often. Also, we use the Book of Common Prayer at all principal services and are one of only four choirs in Canada singing two choral services every Sunday.
It makes up for all the snow-shovelling we have to do around this time of year.....
-
I wondered, on seeing AJJ's post, if it was Kilkhampton! I know Roger Yates's rebuild at the Parish Church and it is indeed a superb piece of work.
Another Yates which comes to mind is Bozeat Parish Church, Northamptonshire, a quite amazing production for 1939:
Great: Open Diapason, Gedackt (Ch), Salicional (Ch), Octave, Mixture 15.19.22
Choir (enclosed): Gedackt, Salicional, Flote 4, Superoctave, Sesquialtera 12.17
Pedal: SubBass, Flotenbass 8, Nachthorn 4
Choir Tremulant
C/G 16.8
G/P, C/P
The organ is elevated at the west end of the north aisle in a good case to a design suggested by Andrew Freeman and played from a stop-key console in the chancel.
Willis III used similar methods of duplication in his 'Model' organs (a fairly late one, slightly bigger than basic, is at Stowmarket United Reformed Church, Suffolk, NPOR H00685, and also deserves a mention here), but Bozeat is tonally much more advanced than anything Willis was doing at the time, or perhaps ever.
-
Btw... I'm not trying to criticise the Casavant consoles (as they are very well built indeed) or the AGO standard, but I do find them a little miniature. I think you are right about organists in North America prefering a lower bench. The size will certainly be appreciated the organ pupil you mentioned! Have you seen a picture of the Metropolitan United Church Console in Toronto? Must be the post petite 5 manual console I've ever seen http://www.flickr.com/photos/sr667/2518781...in/photostream/ . In comparison, the 4 man Walker console down the road at the cathedral seems like a giant.
The Metropolitan console is indeed very compact for what it controls (I think it had 115 speaking stops when I played it in 1998, but they've added a west end section since then). However, the couplers are by rocking tablet over the top manual, which cuts down the height considerably. At the Anglican Cathedral across the road, the couplers are all by drawstop (lots of them, including Pedal Octave and Unison Off) and the drawstops are all in vertical columns of two, following British convention, while Casavants' group them North American style in threes and fours.
Incidentally, the Metropolitan console had its picture in one of the national papers (can't remember which one) recently as part of an article bemoaning the lack of young organists and predicting the death of traditional church music as we know it. I had at least four copies passed on to me and perused one during the sermon one Sunday morning (Choral Eucharist, Book of Common Prayer) feeling just a little smug.
-
The four manual Binns organ at St. Mary's, Shrewsbury was mentioned elsewhere. I think it's an instrument that deserves to be better known. What other instruments would we consider are unsung heros?
I'd kick off with the 1901 Norman & Beard in Colchester Town Hall (my home town). It's a very imposing building in the baroque style by John Belcher and the organ is at one end of the Moot Hall in a good case designed by the architect. It is relatively small - three manuals and 29 speaking stops (two pedal reeds prepared) - but it sounds much bigger. Consider this for a 1901 Great Organ:
Double Open Diapason, Grand Open Diapason, Claribel Harmonic Flute, Octave, Hohl Flute, Fifteenth Mixture (15.19.22.26), Posaune, Clarion
There are Sub Octave Reeds couplers on Great and Swell (plus Swell Octave and Choir Sub)
No duplication, no fancy stuff, just a big, straightforward chorus. Interestingly, it was ordered during the short period that T.C. Lewis was working for N&B. This may explain the big,bold choruses.
Apart from positivising of the Choir Organ and replacing of the Swell Harmonic Gemshorn 2' with a Fifteenth in the seventies, it is virtually unaltered and still has its original pneumatic action. Unfortunately, it has deteriorated in recent years to a state where a complete restoration is essential. There is a 'Friends of the Moot Hall Organ' group which is actively pursuing Lottery Funding and other funds, and I was invited by its instigator go along last time I was home. I was lucky - nearly everything was working. I hadn't heard it for over thirty years and I was blown away by how fine it was.
Dr. William McVicker is consultant for the restoration, so things are in safe hands.
-
It's interesting hearing from someone else who's made the move from the UK to North America. Having played quite a few Casavants now, and having seen a few other consoles which are similar by other builders there are some significant differences in dimensions I think... Does anyone know what is different between AGO standard (almost universally adopted in North America) and RCO standard?
Generally I find the Casavant consoles a little on the small size... for me the AGO standard bench always gets wound to the very top to make my long legs comfortable. This means I'm always towering way above the rest of the rather squat consoles (though it's great for seeing whats going on around you!) Sometimes I have found I can't see the couplers properly because of my height as the tabs disappear under the music desk... and also the lack of those little lever things on the music desk to hold your music open is annoying.
I do wonder if the AGO standard should be revised as people are generally a bit larger now than they used to be. Two consoles which fit my height perfectly were the new Reiger organ at St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh. It really is a man sized console (sorry ladies) and I seem to remember the Kelvingrove Lewis from c. 1911 or something was big. Having said that, my first organ teacher was a lady, who must have been less than 5 feet tall, and the swell was always a big stretch for her. So I suppose one size must fit all.
I think it was John Norman who mentioned, in 'The Organ Today', that players in North America (and Canada in particular) favoured a slightly lower stool and thus a firmer seat. I'm just under six feet tall, but I find the Casavant console generally very comfortable. However, I've just learned the Bonnet Variations de Concert, and I found that I was having to support myself on my hands (like a gymnast on parallel bars!) in order to negotiate some of the double pedalling in the cadenza. Sorry if that makes the mind boggle.
I had a pupil who was less than five feet tall but managed the episodes in the St. Anne prelude on the Solo Organ (sounds weird, but it works on this organ) without difficulty.
-
If it can be installed in Sheffield Cathedral in such a way that it retains its integrity, I don't see why the Parr Hall instrument shouldn't make a very distinguished cathedral organ. After all, features of a Cavaille-Coll include the delicious variety of permutations of the fonds and the ability to crescendo through the whole organ, which should be perfect for psalms and many anthems and canticle settings. It might take a little while for the players to get used to the Cavaille system of stop control, but surely any respectable organist would consider that worthwhile.
I remember the Trinity College, Cambridge, Harrison just before it was taken out. It was certainly a very fine instrument, maybe lacking quite the magic of Kings in the soft registers, but still with a very large and varied palette. But apart from musical considerations, it may have been thought that the extended case was too much of a good thing, and the 32' woods lined up in the ante-chapel were not exactly beautiful. I must confess that I've only heard the Metzler playing small-scale Bach, and reckoned that the Harrison could have made similar noises with cunning registration, but in recordings it certainly sounds as if more recent organ scholars have discovered how to get all the Romantic sounds they require out of it.
Although the St Ignatius, New York, organ looks very French on paper, I thought that in the flesh it sounded less so. British with a fair dollop of French colour, perhaps. It could almost have had the stop names in Father Willis English. Above all, an exceedingly fine and cohesive instrument, and the case and the build quality are superlative. If only all new English organs had the same wow factor!
-
Oh, jelly bags. Yuck! I don't like the wind they give - a brittle, teeth chattering sort of bouncy, rather than a fluid one. That's my least favourite feature of the Oxford Metzler.
The Belfast Cathedral Harrison has jelly-bags for the Positive Organ. They seemed perfectly satisfactory except when one blew out and the entire C# side went out of tune....
I'm sure there's some awful ones around, though.
-
It was always accepted wisdom in Britain that drawstops were easier to handle when arranged vertically in twos, but since coming over here (Newfoundland) I've found that threes or even fours are just as easy to handle, as well as being in a shorter vertical plane and therefore easier to see en masse.
A console often reflects the instrument it controls. There's something comfortingly substantial about a Father Willis console, for example. Similarly, a Binns like St. Mary's, Shrewsbury (one of the great unknown organs of England, I reckon) presents in its console a certain magisterial splendour which complements the sound the organ makes. You don't sit behind the wheel of a vintage Bentley and expect it to respond like an Aston Martin.
Philistine that I am, I'm not wildly enthusiastic about old Hills (with a few major exceptions) and the somewhat dull consoles seemed to go with the rest of the feel.
Little old Victorian one-manuals are easier to handle if the stops are in a line above the keys (e.g. Bevingtons) rather than on side jambs (e.g. Walkers).
Another awkwardness that has just sprung to mind is that the standard position for intermanual reversibles on North American organs seems to be to the right of the department thumb pistons: a singularly inept placing, out of reach of either thumb. The pedal reversibles are to the left of the departmentals, which is the best place for them. Possibly, the reason that the intermanual pistons are not also to the left is that organs here have separate Pedal pistons (rather than Gret & Pedal combs coupled) and they tend to be to the left of the Great pistons so there wouldn't be room for intermanual ones on that side.
Terraced horizontal jambs may be ok on a Cavaille-Coll, but they seem to me very awkward on any other instrument.
-
There's also the Kuhnau Biblical Sonatas - maybe you could work one of those in.
-
I must say... That's quite a challenge and one that I'd probably not wish to take on personly (I prefer to play recital repertoire that I'm comfortable with rather than requests generally...) If you accept the challenge I'm sure you'll get a great deal of respect for it, and do let us know because I would be very interested.
I imagine, anything with a title, rather than a name ie, hymn preludes, choral preludes, and pieces which are relflections on biblical events ie La Nativite by Messian and Langlais would reflect Biblical content... but the 'King James' bit makes it harder and particularly steers it towards British music for this reason...
I'm amazed at the minds some people possess when it comes to this sort of thing so I shall watch with interest!
A friend of mine at university once wrote a piece on the text 'My brother Esau is an hairy man, but I am a smooth man'....
Seriously, apart from the Howells Psalm Preludes, there's some nice psalm-based pieces by Whitlock.
-
Is anyone aware whether or not visitors are welcomed at the console, likewise at the Parish Church with its equally large instrument? We are going to be in Bury St.Edmunds on holiday in August, and both organs would be a highlight!
CP
I believe the organ is finished, and the new cases are installed. From the website, they look spectacular.
James Thomas, the Director of Music, is a very nice fellow. I'm sure he would be hospitable unless there was something on that made it impossible. I don't know who is at St. Mary's just down the street these days, but it used to be easy enough to get access to the organ by prior arrangement. Incidentally, Comper designed cases for this one, but they were never built.
-
The refurbished & revoiced swell reeds I`m sure transform the instrument - on some old CDs I have they sound pretty nasal and rather in the background. Not sure about a tuba though... as much as I love English Tubas... I`m just not sure it would fit into the tonal scheme, with everything else being bright. The chamade trumpet definitely does need to be made to speak more broadly, smoothly and promptly - it is none of those things at present. I have to say I don`t really like Casavant Tubas... having played one just today only dating from 2008, they just don`t sound as refined as English ones. Except the battery of them at St. Paul`s Bloor Street which are magnificent, but those were voiced in England I believe...
Interestingly, it is really not very good at all to hear at the console and a lot of the visiting recitalists make mistakes with the balance because you just have no idea from where you`re playing, and the blend of the great and pedal divisions in the chancel is strange and misleading too. Tuning is a nightmare too because of the instrument being in three different places!
I was thinking maybe a Hill or early Willis-style Tuba.....
I know what you mean about Casavant Tubas. The one here (St. John's Anglican Cathedral, Newfoundland) is beaten hands down by the Great reeds, although it honks nicely as a tuba should. But it's in the Solo box and fires towards the harbour instead of the congregation. Still, it's handy as a back-up Full Swell (like Harry Gabb used to do with the enclosed tubas at St. Paul's Cathedral), or with the box closed if one needs a French Horn (Whitlock!). I wouldn't want to lose it, but a big unenclosed brother would be nice. A few blocks away, Cochrane Street United Church has what is supposed to be one of the finest late-50s Casavants. The Tuba is magnificent. The previous organ was a Harrison (steam heating killed the soundboards, I believe) but everyone swears that nothing of it was used in the new instrument. However, I took David Wells, the Liverpool organ-builder, to hear it a while ago. He was sure it was a Harrison Tuba, and he ought to know. One day, I will get inside it and see for myself!
-
It has been overhauled but as far as I know the voicing was left alone - I know wht you mean though - I recently revisited an instrument after a couple of decades an it sounded nothing like I remember it to have sounded. I think it's our age!
A
I guess so - sigh! On the same visit, though, I also played Redcliffe again, which I knew very well indeed as a student, and I was absolutely floored by how fine it was. I knew it was one of Arthur's best, but I had forgotten just how good it was. And at the time, I was in charge of another Harrison of similar size at Belfast Cathedral. I'm told it's even better now.
So it must be the hand of time.
-
Jack Higgins's 'The Eagle has landed' has a Bach-playing German paratrooper in it (he gets shot in mid-Orgelbuchlein, if I remember rightly, both in the book and in the film). A good read, although why the author made the blunder of claiming that a medieval church in north Norfolk had missed out on the Reformation, I can't imagine. There are some spikey shacks up there that would make most RC churches look like Gospel Halls, but they're all Anglican, after a fashion.
I, too, loved 'A Swarm in May' and recently acquired my own copy on Ebay. Unfortunately, all the units of measurement have been converted into metric, which jars slightly. I think it must be in 'Chroster's Cake' that there's a drawing of the organ loft - definitely Canterbury, but only three manuals, which was one less than it had in those days!
I wonder who was the inspiration for Dr. Sunderland, the organist?
-
I doubt whether this adds anything to what you already know but:
'Richard Keys Biggs (1886-1962) held positions at several important Roman Catholic churches, most notably the Blessed Sacrament, Hollywood, California, and was highly regarded as a teacher, composer and recitalist. His Toccata (Deo Gratias) is dedicated to fellow American organist David Craighead.'
The above piece is a good bet if you're looking for an easy toccata - somewhere in the difficulty range of Herbert Chapell's 'Songs of Praise'.
I didn't know he was related to E. Power Biggs - I'll put that in the notes next time I trot out the toccata.
Faure Requiem
in General discussion
Posted
As others have said, the Rutter is the easiest to play. It's not difficult to adapt the four-stave bits by holding big chords and playing the harp parts on a different manual.
In the 'In Paradisum', I find it easiest to play the lowest part on 8' pedal, adding 16' later on when the texture warms up.
Be warned, the Roger-Ducasse edition (I think) has the semiquavers in 'In Paradisum' laid out differently and this can be terminally off-putting if someone else is using a different edition. I don't think there would be problems if some had Rutter and some Novello.