Brian Childs

Would not a device to switch all electric power to the pulpit handrail at an appropriate point be more effective/satisfying or would that be reserved for clergy who are really disliked by organists ?

Well, FJ did say it produced a remarkable effect on the WEST side of the screen and you would expect , as your experience seems to confirm, that such a stop would be far more directional than a conventionally disposed pipe. I bet it would set the rafters ringing if transported to one of those fairly modestly sized American churches that delight in having an organ twice the size that is actually needed , but in York the sound has to travel quite some way before hitting anything to reflect it back. The Bombarde was, according to John Scott Whiteley's notes to his Priory recording intended to provide a contrasting effect on the East side. He demonstrated it in his performance of the Guillou Toccata I believe but I am not leaving the warmth of the fire to go up to the record store (aka Study) to retrieve the CD and check this on a day like today. I am too busy fighting with the cat for possession of the chair by the fireside!!

-Well possibly but I would be quite interested to learn how the photographic effect was obtained assuming it was obtained at the stage of recording the image rather than as a result of using photoshop or some other image editing program. The console appears to me -and perhaps I need to upgrade my spectacles - to have conventional drawstops, but perhaps they look conventional but operate in a similar fashion to the Compton luminous touch type console which once graced Hull City Hall and is still to be found at Downside. Simply drawing conventional drawstops in that D H pattern would not lead to the effect seen in the photograph without the intervention of additional lighting but I am at a loss to explain how you could light to produce that effect. Perhaps it is just simply photoshop and the "eye dropper" ? Anyone actually know how it could have been done.

At about 88 years of age it is hardly surprising his technique was not that of a young man. Did he not say himself that he was "nearer to God than the organ loft" or have I imagined that ? Still better than Mr Nobile I think and without the advantages of modern digital editing ! Brian Childs

Well, I do not know about recent but we have Blackburn (Imperial Trumpet), St John's College, Cambridge (Trumpeta Real), Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (Orchestral Trumpet), and the new Bombarde at York (where the Tuba Mirabilis is also, of course, horizontal though I hardly think one would describe the timbre as very trumpet like, impressive though it is). According to some specifications attached to CDs that I have the new Orchestral Trumpet at Ripon is horizontal though what you see from the transept does not look very like a horizontal reed. Then there is the main organ at the west end of Lancing College Chapel, and the Royal Trumpets in St Paul's perhaps ought not to be overlooked on this site. BAC

There was a cassette dating from 1987 (Priory PRC 227) of English Organ Music shared between Cartmel Priory and the Great Hall of the University of Lancaster played by Ian Hare, whom I had previously encountered at Beverley Minster when both of us were much younger. Last July he played at my daughter's graduation ceremony, at least for part of the time, but he must have been feeling the pressure of a week of such ceremonies for he was off the bench and packing up when the last of the academic procession were still leaving the hall, so the spectators all shuffled out in silence !!

For a different perspective on this organ look at the photo to be found at this location . http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? BAC

I thought this deserved some further investigation , since the surroundings in which the console was photographed did not seem to indicate a building that needed that large an instrument, but apparently it only has 456 stops! (Well stop knobs to be strictly truthful) Anyway here are a few stats to make some of you very jealous!!! "Designed and built by Allen Harrah, a West Virginia native, the symphonic organ at Forrest Burdette is a six manual and pedal organ with 456 draw knobs positioned along the console's walls. With more than 2,600 pipes and more than 20,000 digital pipe notes, the pipes must be "tuned" a couple of times a year because the room temperature directly affects the tone of the pipes. "You have to have a consistent temperature. They are delicate in that respect," Gatewood said. And with 10,400 watts of audio power and 148 speaker systems, the organ music swells and rolls in a huge volume of sound that envelops the auditorium much like a movie theater."

I am glad to hear it but you did not need to feel guilty. I doubt anyone here is criticising Arty for his playing per se or even having it recorded or videoed, since these could both help him analyse what he is doing and how to do it better. It is not how he played but ratherwhat he wrote (or allowed to be written) about himself and published to the world generally that provoked my comments and , I believe, those of everybody else here as well. As far as I am aware you have neither published the recording of your playing nor advanced claims to having written a new page in the history of cultural development through your unique contribution not only to music but to art and literature as well. Being born in a stable does not make you a horse and you do not need to be able to lay an egg in order to tell a bad one.

It is indeed possible he might draw such a conclusion but the future of civilisation is indeed bleak if we cannot make the distinction between "elitist snobbery" on the one hand and the application of discriminating judgement to assess the relative position in the scale of artistic worth of something which has been put into the public domain accompanied by explicit claims as to its merits and artistic worth.I do not accept that I am snob because I consider Jane Austen a better novelist than Barbara Cartland or Michael Angelo's David a rather better example of the sculptor's art than the plasticene model made by next door's four year old. On the contrary I consider I am making the use of the brain which I have been given for the purpose for which it was intended, ie thinking and making distinctions which can be defended on the basis of rational criteria. Moreover Andrew Lucas and several others have drawn attention to the fact that there are signs which indicate ability - if you listen to only the first ten seconds or so of the Vierne there would not appear to be all that much wrong with it. In the bad old days people suffered disadvantage because others based judgements on quite irrelevant considerations such as colour, gender, or social class. It has been a most unfortunate consequence of the process of dealing with that injustice, that the message that making distinctions on the basis of irrelevant considerations is impermissible has been transmuted into "making distinctions on any basis is impermissible and/or elitist." Bentham would have called this nonsense on stilts ! If there are no degrees of attainment then anything is as good and as worthy as anything else. That the world does not actually work or think like this is capable of proof by a quite simple experiment. I invite everyone here next Valentine's day (or at the next available opportunity such as a birthday or anniversary) to arrange to take their significant other for a slap up meal at the greasiest and most sordid local cafe they can find, on the basis that it is snobbish and elitist to draw a distinction between the food to be had there and that at the local restarant with two Micheline Stars. I rather doubt that the extent of agreement with this proposition will be very significant. In fact , I rather suspect that many hereon would consider it likely to be seriously prejudicial to their future happiness and peace of mind to even make the attempt!

Same thing happened to me when I tried to look at it, possible further evidence of the bounty of the Almighty. Brian

Have you tried the Holst ? Or the Fantasy in Dmi which reminds me of something I think I know but I cannot be quite sure. It's like looking at something through frosted glass - you get a sense of outline and form but no clear image. Out of interest I looked up his CDs to see what they cost . According to his order form they are $30 apiece, when Fred Hohman at Zarex only charges $15 for a Pro Organo CD ! I have a fairly extensive CD collection and I LOVE tonal percussion stops but for quite unaccountable reasons I experience no feeling that my collection will not be complete until I have added at least one CD by "Arty" to it ! No doubt it betrays a certain narrowness of vision on my part and an unwillingness to embace new trends in music making... Ah well

Surely the words "to avoid having to" have been left out of the penultimate sentence ?

But this recording is a treasure - surely it is the only one in existence, in which a giant panda is dressed up in a 'man-suit'....and is then recorded giving a rending [sic] of Repertoire you thought you Knew. I think I will now have a nice vodka.... I think you are being most unfair to pandas

But what happened next ? Whom did he breathe on ? You, the teacher, the school nurse and with what subsequent result ? What impact did this have on your decision to become an organist, if any ? Would you say this was a life changing moment, for example, because it put you off/ irrevocably addicted you to all things French thereafter ?

I have never heard this said before and certainly I have no recollection of any review making any such a point, although I do recall exception being taken to over use of the swell pedal. To the best of my recollection Rennert's biography of GTB does not mention it but he would n't, would he ? If you do not like All Souls' then presumably Arnold Richardson at the RFH is a non starter. What about Dearnley at St Paul's , John Scott at Southwark Cathedral , Jennifer Bate at the RAH or Simon Preston at the Abbey (either version)? Brian Childs

I would too, and since the principal function of many organs is for accompanimental purposes both that which (ie the music) and those whom (ie the singers) they accompany would seem sufficiently connected to this forum to be discussed here. I do not see why the moderators would object unless the discussion gets too heated. Brian Childs

Meanwhile you could beg or borrow a copy of Organ X-plosion Volume 1 in which Kevin Bowyer puts it through its paces, not least with the celebrated Toccata La Vallee verte, sur le theme "Pat le Facteur". Perhaps another possible wedding postlude ?

The last point is fascinating since a review of the original recording (EMI for Vol 19, the final volume, in the Great Cathedral Organ Series and now re-released on Amphion so you can get both and compare if rich enough) by a lady called Isla Tait made exactly the same criticism. It would suggest that RF has maintained a remarkably consistent approach to at least some aspects of his interpretation of this work. Elsewhere somebody raised the issue of favourite interpretations of celebrated works. I'm not sure I have a favourite interpretation of the Reubke, but amongst the several I do have is one by GTB on the organ of All Souls' , Langham Place (Vista). I wonder if anyone else here has an opinion on that one. Brian Childs

Yes , and so is the Tuba Concerto so I assume it must be the same man. I cannot account for why I wrote "John" unless either I was thinking of a celebrated British Actor from a previous generation or I had transposed the christian name of one of the other composers on the CD who is indeed John. Disc is still worth getting though. I am reliably informed that the new term to describe such aberations is "intellectual overload" though it might also be simple tiredness caused by staying up past my bedtime .

Why this hostility to sheep ? They are generally remarkably inoffensive creatures and a good deal brighter than we give them credit for ( I was going to say than the average University student these days but that would be a slight exaggeration). However, why not liven up your Bach with references to other tunes with an ovine connection eg, Baa baa black sheep, Mary had a little lamb, The main theme from "Babe" or one of the various French Noels referring to shepherds. Just a thought.