Brian Childs
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Posts posted by Brian Childs
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II think that we need to stop expending time discussing the merits of Messr Curley and Olivera and get back to discussing serious organists, such as Stephen and Paul, who play serious music and not transcriptions of the Blue Danube and Beethoven 5.
It is quite simply fallacious to imply that serious organists do not play transcriptions. It is not true now and certainly was not true in the past. As to the here and now, Dame Gillian Weir, Simon Preston , Thomas Trotter, Nicolas Kynaston, David Briggs, Kevin Bowyer and John Scott Whitely have all recorded transcriptions, in some cases whole programmes of them, many still available or only recently released. So incidentally has Lionel Rogg whom most people would regard as a serious organist. In the past Thalben-Ball, G.D. Cunningham and Edwin Lemare also did just to mention names most here will know, and Lemare played to audiences which most people performing today would die for, especially if they were on a share of the ticket receipts ! And Marcel Dupre used to regularly feature a transcription he had made himself as the prelude to the Xmas Midnight Mass at St Sulpice.
Then there are the theatre organists like Reginald Foort and George Blackmore , both sufficiently serious to be holders of the FRCO diploma, and as MM has pointed out more than once Quentin Maclean' s training by Straube may fairly be taken as evidence that he has claims to be considered a serious organist too.
Lastly, most practising organists, including most on this board, quite regularly play transcriptions, often at Weddings when Wagner's Bridal March, Handel's Air from the Water Music and/or "Largo" and Mendelsssohn's Wedding March are called for, as they still often are. And what about "Nimrod" or Chopin's Funeral March ? Quite recently a member of this forum was enquiring about availability of a Brandenburg Concerto in transcription.
Serious organists do not play transcriptions ? They certainly do in this world.
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Hmmm....I am not sure how you would classify Hector Olivera but as a serious organist?
I think I have a complaint about CC it is that he does not seem to have developed as a musician. He is playing the same repertoire today as he did 25 years ago. He may entertain his audiences but does he challenge them?
While I agree that CC does not seem to programme a huge repertoire . I wonder why it is considered that it is his responsibility to challenge his audience, unless playing to one composed entirely of masochists. A good many people do not want to be challlenged but entertained, reassured and comforted. They are perfectly entitled to want that and if that is what they pay for that is what they should get. It is the customer who is always right according to the saying: not the salesman !
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To follow the Carlo Curley cul-de-sac, he's clearly a fine player etc.
However, my own feeling is that the organ's serious problem is NOT a lack of 'popular' appeal.
I assume by this that you are not suggesting that the pitifully small attendances for organ recitals in many areas (whoever is playing) are indicative of the popularity of the organ but that lack of popularity is not the fundamental problem or the one requiring to be addressed first.
Rather, it's a perceived lack of profound/high-quality/worthwhile (insert adjectives as appropriate) repertoire.
Perceived by whom ? The non-attending audience or serious composers ? If the latter, is the problem not similar to that of the chicken and the egg ? Perhaps serious composers might be more interested in writing for the organ if it were more popular and their music thus got more exposure and earned them more in royalty payments as a consequence. If the former , where do they get their knowledge from concerning the shortcomings of the repertoire ? After all since they do not attend it cannot be from personal experience .
Audiences turn out in large numbers to hear difficult and complex art-music: Mahler, Bruckner, Nielsen and the like attract large and varied audiences. Historically-informed performances/festivals of early music are also extremely well-attended.
While this may well be true of where you live, I do not think it applies uniformly across the entire country. Moreover, as with those who love traction engines, many who like this type of music - I personally would not cross the road to hear a Bruckner symphony, though I quite like Mahler - tend to travel to where it is being performed. Thus, if you stick to large centres of population -London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool - you can generate "a large and varied audience" even though it represents a tiny fraction of one percent of the population living in the area. I think it fairly unlikely that Mahler 8 is frequently performed in Inverness for example.
The organ's problem is in being taken seriously by intelligent, musically-cultivated people.
I presume you mean ENOUGH "intelligent, musically cultivated people" NOW LIVING. After all J.S.Bach took it seriously, as did Elgar, Howells, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner among composers(even if they did not write much for it in some cases), while presumably Dame Gillian Weir, Simon Preston, Thomas Trotter, Lionel Rogg, Daniel Roth, Olivier Latry etc, etc take it seriously and I doubt you think that those named are either lacking in intelligence or musical sophistication.
And this, I fear, is due to experiences of noisy third-rate music poorly played. The effect of this is serious: musical decision-makers, in the media and in concert-planning continue to ignore the instrument.
It is surely an interesting question why experience of "noisy, third rate music poorly played" should so affect these arbiters of taste that they not only wish to spare the public from that but also from first rate music (eg J.S. Bach) expertly played (pick your own favourite performer). They surely would not do that if there was a huge demand , vociferously expressed, so perhaps popularity is a significant problem for the organ after all, though not of course the only one Having said all that, I love the 'town hall tradition', the Edwardian organ etc. But I think it has quite enough champions already.
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Good morning Alsa,
I never thanked you for your measured and informed reply to me. Possibly I am a little wiser now.
Meanwhile if you live in London I urge you, most strongly, to go along to St Paul's Cathedral next Sunday, August 20th at 5pm, and you will hear him there. You will come away full of awe and wonderment.
I heard him again last night at Worcester, on the finest organ in that city, St Martins, LOndon Road; it was thrilling beyond compare.
He will also be playing at Exeter Cathedral next Wednesday.
M.S.
Regrettably Belfast to London is a little far to go, especially given the present state of the airports but I wish I could. I have been an admirer of Thomas Heywood ever since I acquired a copy of his first release on the organ of Melbourne Town Hall prior to its restoration and the CD of his re-opening recital was truly outstanding, not least the transcription of the Beethoven 5th. I just wish he could record more in Australia but presumably economic reasons lie behind the fact that his most recent CDs have all been recorded on US organs by the indefatigable Fred Hohman.
It is difficult to believe that in a world where it is possible to get instant communication from the most remote places that news of Heywood's talents have not percolated through to London. It appears to me more a case of the receiver being switched off than the transmitter not working. But that would not be all that unusual for London where there occasionally appears to be a reluctance to accept the fact that it is no longer the centre of the world as it was in the nineteenth century so that it no longer has the right to expect everyone else must beat a path to its door to spare it the inconvenience of taking action to find out what is going on in the rest of the world.
BAC
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Golly gee!!! What has Carlo been up to lately to deserve his name so taken in vain on this forum....???
I am also quite happy to admit to being a great fan of CC and an owner of most of the CDs and even LPs he has produced over the years. At least he appears to have grasped a fundamental truth that seems to have eluded a number of other concert organists, ie that if you are in the entertainment industry - and music, even art music is intended to amuse and divert and not as a substitute for religious observance - then you need to be entertaining. And he is. He is also the ONLY organist whose concerts I have attended (and I have heard most of the famous names active over the last 40 years) who has come even close to filling the venue where he is playing. (The only player who might have achieved the same,at least on his home turf, was Reg Dixon at the Tower Ballroom but I never heard him play, and have never even heard the Tower organ live.)That fact at least suggests that audiences who are required to vote with their money rather than simply their mouths (or fingers on this forum) are not unhappy with his approach.
Years ago I read in a journal to which I then subscribed a review of a recital CC had given in London. I cannot recall precise details at this distance in time but the writer (of whom I had never heard then, and whose name is still unknown to me) expressed the opinion that CC's performance of a Bach work (I think the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue (BWV564)) demonstrated that it was "beyond the intellectual grasp of the player" (or words to the same effect). Freedom of speech means that the writer is entitled to express his opinion, but it confers the same privilege on me. I thought he was a pompous little prat and I never renewed my subscription to the Journal since I know my place and it is not in the company of such elevated beings.
BAC
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Mmmmm!
Somehow, I can quite believe this, as indeed I can the same thing about the organ of Hull City Hall; another enormously powerful instrument.
Hi MM,
Many thanks for all the useful information about the SGH organ. Although I do have a copy of the Dearnley LP it is away somewhere safe and hardly accessible.
As regards the Hull City Hall organ the last time I heard it live was under the hands of Peter Goodman when the luminous touch Compton console was still in situ which could of course be moved to the front of the stage and invariably was for solo recitals. I do not recall it being unduly problematic then to form an impression of the volume level being generated, so I wondered if you consider that the new fixed console has been the cause of, or at least a major contribution to the problem ?
Brian Childs
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I can never recall which is the best known Hindemith, and the music is at church.
However, assuming that everyone knows the work to which I refer, I have always adored it; the last really memorable performance I heard being in Holland, naturally.
My experience has been that most people find the Third Sonata the most immediately accessible and appealing
I For those who enjoy at least some modern or contemporary organ-music, I have always liked the Peter Racine Fricker, "Pastorale" which I have never, ever heard in recital. I think Fricker was another who trotted off to America.
This was quite popular in the 1960s as I recall and was recorded several times; David Lepine at Coventry, Francis Jackson at York, and Melville Cook at Hereford (another Michael Smythe recording). More recently Kevin Bowyer has recorded it (but what has he not apart from the Ad Nos and the Elgar Sonatas?) as has Roger Judd at the Laurenskerk, Rotterdam. Could not find one at St Bavo's...sorry .
MM
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As I sit writing this, I have just been listening to the late Dr Caleb Jarvis putting the SGH organ through its' paces with a Purcell Fanfare which fairly rattles the inner-ear, the Alain "Le Jardin Suspendu" which soothes the inner ear and the Toccata from the Suite in E minor, Op.14, by Paul de Maleingreau.
Of all the recordings I have ever heard, THIS is the one which best captures the awesome sound of this instrument live in the hall, and isn't it odd, how the name of the recording engineer, Michael Smythe turns up again and again, in the best recordings?
Those tierce chorus mixtures have to be heard to be believed......they are so strong....a real musical connection with 1855 and an older tradition of English organ-building. As for the way the Tuba Mirabilis totally dominates the full flue choruses combined, and with just single notes, that is an experience second-to-none. I recall being utterly shocked by that Tuba as a boy of 15.
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To anyone who can find a copy of the old Caleb Jarvis Recording (RCA VICS 1664) I would say, don't hesitate to get it.
MM
I am fortunate to own this already:indeed it still retains the original price sticker - 99p. I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that there were plans afoot to reissue this on CD together with additional material recorded by Dr Jarvis but for the life of me I cannot remember where or when I came across this. Perhaps I imagined it or possibly Amphion are now moving in to the era of the LP. Does anyone else know anything ?
To change the subject, is it not the case that the Tuba Mirabilis, Solo Diapason and Grand Chorus were all added to St George's Hall organ by Willis III in 1930-31 as a reflection of/ complement to developments taking place at the Cathedral at that time? But if that is so, then what happened to the original solo reeds whose "scorching brilliance" was supposedly altered then ? I had always understood there were four (8,8,4,4) though I do not know why I think this and the NPOR (or at least the version I have been able to access) gives the specification as of 1994 after remedial work to the action but no links to the instrument as it was when W.T. Best or Dr Peace played it. Presumably three of those ranks would form the basis of the existing 16,8,4 Tuba chorus but it is difficult to believe that a stop of reputedly exceptional brilliance was revoiced to provide the French Horn that is the fourth HP reed on the enclosed Solo. Quite apart from the issue of just how easy it would be on a technical level to move in effect from one end of the spectrum to the other - an issue I am not competent to judge but on which others on this forum can provide an informed opinion - it is difficult to see the point of so radical a change. HWIII was not unfamiliar with, nor averse to installing, brilliant solo reeds - the Trompette Militaire at St Paul's dates from this time, and that in Sheffield City Hall must be roughly contemporary, so it is not as if the policy was for the ultimate in closed tone. As far as I am aware Willis have never produced chorus reeds or tubas with the degree of smoothness to be expected of a Harrison Tromba chorus. Certainly the Trombas on the Solo at Liverpool Cathedral sound to me nothing like stops bearing this name that would have emerged from the Harrison stable. Can anybody shed any light on this, please?
BAC
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... or Hindemith for that matter?
Does that involve treating all 3 sonatas as a single work ? If not, which one is the hit...?
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I gather a Prelude and Fugue by Debussy was discovered a few years back - it's listed in the lastest edition of Henderson. Don't know anything about it, but it's hardly a typical Debussian form - I'm expecting to learn that it was a student exercise as is so often the case with posthumously published organ pieces by the greatest composers (Dvorak's preludes, for example). I think Schubert's two organ fugues fall into the same category. If you haven't come across these, you've not missed anything.
Thanks for the information: clearly I need to get myself a more up to date, and perhaps bigger, musical dictionary. I suppose that puts Debussy and Schubert in the same category as Beethoven and Dvorak rather than where I had them and I suspect the research obsession currently driving Higher education will lead to more cupboards being turned inside out and the discovery of further examples of long (and sometimes better) forgotten work. Nevertheless, I think the categories hold water even if I put certain individuals in the wrong box.
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One names springs to mind right after Reubke and Boellmann
...a certain Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Does that make Chopin, Delius, Debussy, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schubert etc, etc NO HIT WONDERS (unless transcriptions are allowed ? As far as I am aware none of these wrote anything intended for performance on the organ. I have certainly never come across an original organ work by any of those named, though I have certainly encountered their music in organ performance on a number of occasions. And what about the likes of Bruckner, Beethoven, and Dvorak whose original organ compositions pale into insignificance in comparison with the works for which they are well known ? And did Mozart actually write any organ music intended for performance by a human being as opposed to a clockwork machine ?
Perhaps we need to refine the rules a bit in order to provide for the cases of (1)internationally celebrated composers who wrote nothing at all for the organ :(2) internationally celebrated composers whose organ works are insignificant and rarely performed
; and (3) internationally celebrated composers whose contribution to the organ literature is well known but was not originally conceived for the organ, such as Mozart and possibly Schumann , depending on the view taken of his real attitude to the pedal piano for which some of them were ostensibly intended. I would argue that RVW belongs in a fourth category : "composers with an international reputation who have produced one reasonably well known piece of organ music" - that certainly fits RVW and also Nielsen, Britten and Michael Tippet.
BAC
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Are n't you old enough to remember the Latin Mass ? Or to have done 5 years of it at school ?
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The Dubois Toccata might be in there too. I'm not sure how much anyone plays anything else of his.
Fiat Lux is heard from time to time and turns up in recital CDs on occasion. (Relatively recently on a composite CD issued by Priory of the the organ team at Durham, on a reissue of David Patrick at Buckfast Abbey, and on a CD of Martin Setchell playing on Christchurch Town Hall - NZ that is. I know that the piece has been recorded also by Geoffrey Tristram and Simon Lindley, and I think by Gordon Stewart. I am sure there are others but cannot call them to mind at the moment).Marche des Roi Mages used to be quite popular - perhaps time for a revival ?
BAC
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https://www.baerenreiter.com/cgi-bin/baer_V...=indexframe.htm
Select "Boëllmann" in the composer/author search box and on the next page click the "i" icons for details. Haven't seen these myself, so have no idea what they're like.
The Second Suite is, in my opinion, well worth getting to know, particularly the Final March which I first came across in the Ryemuse recording of Huskisson Stubbington at Tewkesbury Abbey about 40 years ago. I quite like the Ronde Francaise too.
BAC
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I've heard his Valse mignonne a few times recently.
And "Homage to Handel" is a great opportunity to display a big organ. Conscious of normally being too long-winded, on this occasion I may have been too cryptic. I certainly do not think the Sonata Eroica is the only worthwhile piece by Jongen nor that Nun Danket is necessarily Karg-Elert's best work or the only one likely to be familiar to members of this forum but it must certainly be the leading candidate for the position of the most well known : in terms of recordings over the years - I think I could probably name at least 20 - I am unable to think of another that comes even remotely close. In the end, I did not actually suggest Karg_Elert, only admitted to considering it. After all, if having one work that outstrips all others in popularity by a considerable margin is a sufficient criterion for inclusion then both J.S.Bach and C.M Widor would figure in the list!
BAC
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Could Healey Willan be said to be a one hit wonder? I wonder, given that he's been given the Naxos treatment with an entire album of organ works.
Jeremy Filsell has made a CD on the Guild label of the Reubke Piano Sonata and Organ Sonata on the 94th Psalm, the latter recorded on the Klais at St John's, Smith Square, London.
Not sure about Jongen just being famous for the Sonata Eroica. There is the lovely Chant de Mai which he wrote whilst in the UK and John Scott Whiteley haas managed to fill 2 CDs of his organ music for Priory Records.
In respect of Jongen I suppose it depends just how you rate the Chant de Mai/Minuet Scherzo in comparison with the Sonata Eroica in terms of popularity . I considered suggesting Karg-Elert, after all Nun Danket must surely be so much better known - certainly far more often recorded - than his next best known piece ? Any views on what that would be, incidentally ?
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In truth, our own concert hall instruments haven't been much more successful (St David's Hall for example). Right now, it seems to me that the steady march of often very large Walker and Mander instruments (among others) across the globe - and the near universal acclaim with which they are being received - is enough for other nations to start questioning how level their own playing fields are (how many organs have we got from the USA??? Hexham, and...?), and if that happened any time soon it would be VERY serious indeed for the future of our firms.
I think I basically agree with most of this , though we do have quite a lot of Wurlitzer Theatre Organs from the USA !! But then perhaps only myself, Frank Fowler, and a few others would think of including them!
Personally I doubt whether there has been a successful concert organ created in this country since the Colston Hall in Bristol, not counting restorations/relocations of already existing instruments. There are at least two reasons which account for this: (1) the cost of a brand new concert organ is such that very few venues have included them (the Waterfront Hall in Belfast for instance has a location for an organ designed into the structure but no instrument) : such installations as have taken place have been in the nature of rehousing arrangements (eg the ex-Odeon, Manchester Wurlitzer to Stockport Town Hall via the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. (2) A concert hall instrument intended for solo use needs in my view to be slanted towards the romantic end of the spectrum and until relatively recently
no one who wished to achieve or retain academic musical credibility would have dared to design such an instrument outside the privacy of their own home. Now that the anti-romantic pendulum has reached the limit of its swing and indeed made some considerable progress in the reverse direction it would indeed be possible to contemplate a design which included voices, such as an adequate amount of string tone and commanding solo reeds, that are not required for the performance of Bach or Hindemith even ! Of course, the small matter of money, often not even available to preserve existing instruments of merit such as Newcastle Town Hall, means that the prospects of any sizeable concert instrument (70+ stops) being commissioned for this country in the near future would appear to start at slim and not to move in a positive direction.
Brian Childs
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The most obvious one-hit-wonder must be the Willan "Introuction, Passacaglia & Fugue"
Incidentally, didn't Reubke write a Piano Concerto or somesuch, which is reputed to be very fine?
Of course, if one wished to be really cruel, one could argue that Vivaldi wrote many one-hit-numbers.
MM
Reubke actually wrote a Piano Sonata in B flat minor(!!) which has been recorded several times in conjunction with the organ sonata on a single CD. Usually the pianist and organist are not the same but Guillou (I think) actually played both. I know that the Mollterz label have been planning the issue of another version , with Catherine Ennis at St Giles' Cathedral Edinburgh for the Organ Sonata and Hamish Milne for the Piano Sonata, possibly due later this year, but it has been promissed for quite some time.
As for one hit wonders, Jeremiah Clarke has to be a contender, and if the criterion for inclusion is one piece far better known than the remainder of the person's output then Boellman (Suite Gothique), Jongen (Sonata Eroica) and Garth Edmundson (Von Himmel Hoch) would seem to fit the bill.
BAC
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Hi
Apart from the removal of the Nave section, Bradford Cathedral is still in use, and it's its 1970's guise. The "budget" rebuild shows at the console, where some couplers refer to "choir" and others to "positive" - actually the same department! I gather that the Nave section was removed to suit the ideas of the clergy at the time, and a Bradford-system department put in its place, the only survivor being the "Purcell Trumpet" which now is at the top of the chancel case firing South.
It actually sounds much better than it deserves to - and is unlikely to be rebuilt again soon because the Diocese of Bradford has severe financial problems.
Every Blessing
Tony
I am glad to learn it is in better health than I Had been led to believe, especially in view of the fact that there is no money to replace it. I assume that part of the problem is the size of the active congregation, given the ethnic composition of the local community coupled with the decline in attendance by those who are nominally Christian, meaning that there are very few people amongst whom the load can be shared.
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Money, I suppose, is the obstacle to a new instrument. I suppose you need £1m to commission a new 60-70 stop instrument these days. It did make me wonder where the line is between rebuilding and a new instrument.
Is there any significance in the fact that this instrument dates from the same era as that in Sheffield Cathedral (long out of use and the subject of a separate thread on this Board a few months ago), whilst Bradford must have been rebuilt round about the same time ? None of them seems to have proved particularly long-lived. Curiously all of these instruments reside in recent foundation Parish Church Cathedrals, buildings that enjoyed a long life as a parish church before being elevated to Cathedral status ? Is it possible that enhanced status was not accompanied by a proportionate enhancement in income ? If that were to have been the case, it could certainly provide a possible explanation for why the organs of some of our cathedrals seem to have deteriorated remarkably more quickly than others (re)built at approximately the same time such as Coventry or St Paul,s.
Brian Childs
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For Brian - greetings!
With so many `one man' firms setting up after the collapse of the large companies no matter how good and honest their intentions are there is the danger that a lack of experience and knowledge in a particular instance can casue problems. There are a few suspect people about but most small units today are honest and decent when working within their limitations.
These days this is when a qualified consultant (one who has a sound organ building foundation - not a teachers training certificate) is available their knowledge can be invaluable. So often though a PCC will discover "a friend of the Treasurers who knows all about organs - as he has an organ (an American Reed "sucker" and playing the pedals means pumping it with his feet) in his house" and they will listen to him sooner than a reputable organ builder or pay for a consultant.
There is of course the other problem with the constant use of the seemingly favourite church anthem "Where can we get it done more cheaply?". Unfortunately this form of shortsightedness has virtually no cure - not even after a total disaster.
In my young days, an organbuilding firm was regarded as one who built their own consoles. Then came the organ supply houses so that the main organbuilding skill then seemed to be the ability to use a power screwdriver.
Here endeth my lesson (for the moment anyway).
FF
Dear Frank,
Thanks for this, which I found most enlightening. Your suggestion that much of the problem is caused by the absence of knowledgeable colleagues to ask seems plausible to me- it at least suggests that in a number of cases cock up rather than conspiracy or malign intent is the likeliest explanation.
BAC
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I found having our organ consultant (and I would always have a consultant who's got a professional background in organ building) was absolutely invaluable - and very helpful in situations like these. He didn't affect the cost of the work dramatically - we actually thought he was enormously good value for money and added a huge amount to the project.
I am quite sure this is true and that a competent consultant is invariably worth his/her fee BUT how is the typical cash-strapped parish to ensure that it selects a consultant of this type and is not saddled with an incompetent rogue ? After all it can hardly be the position that organ consultancy is the only profession without black sheep, can it? And if they exist, how is the parish supposed to recognise them when the whole tenor of the discussion here seems to have proceeded on the assumption that parishes are not very well equipped to protect themselves from rogue builders ?
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Evening all
Got to play Norwich for a week in a couple of week's time - choir tour. I'm told the organ can be a bit of a pig unless treated carefully, but unfortunately I don't have much time to get to know it - going straight in with Elgar Spirit on the first night.
Anyone know this instrument well enough to pass on any tips about it - balance, when/if to use the "loud" great section, etc?
All offers appreciated
D
Personally I only know this organ from recordings but Paul Derrett has recorded on it so it might be worth sending him a personal message off site.
BAC
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I don't remember this time at all. Judging by the scandalous state of the organs in many parish churches, I don't think these haylcon days have existed since before the 1st world war... There are exceptions - and some very good people out there but how does the church tell unless they've got someone competent themselves?
It is a real problem that churches very rarely get good advice on organs and are having to tighten their purse strings so much.
Well I do not ante date The Great War, merely the Korean, and that not by much , but I would certainly stand by my statement as regards my own part of the country (Essex) in respect of craftsmen generally - it is entirely possible that organ builders formed an exception to what was otherwise the rule since my contact with them during my formative years was necessarily not extensive, though why this should have been so is puzzling. Perhaps the economics of organ building have been precarious for that much longer, resulting in longer experience of/practice at corner cutting and doing unnecessary work.
Be that as it may, the real challenge is to try to do something about the problem by thinking of a way to make the sort of advice you argue is necessary as widely available as possible at an affordable cost. Any ideas how that might be done ?
BAC
; and (3) internationally celebrated composers whose contribution to the organ literature is well known but was not originally conceived for the organ, such as Mozart and possibly Schumann , depending on the view taken of his real attitude to the pedal piano for which some of them were ostensibly intended.
St. George's Hall, Liverpool
in General discussion
Posted
I suspect a simple misprint at some stage. Either "pope" or "poet" would make more immediate sense to an ordinary hearer, unless the reference is to the habit of having the organ as the instrument of choice in films of Gothic horror stories.