Nick Bennett

I was going to say that your facts were correct but your application of them to the art of making music on the organ was misplaced. But I have just noticed the arithmetical error in your second paragraph. In my view, an organ needs 8Gb of RAM in the same sense that a fish needs a bicycle. There are any number of things you could add very cheaply to an organ. The fact you can doesn't mean you should.

If some is good, more must be better. The "penis size" school of organ specification.

Quite amazing. Just listen to all that purple! It reminds me of a summer's evening in Stuttgart about ten years ago. I had gone into the city centre for a few beers, and on the way back I heard what sounded like organ music drifting down the street. Following my ears, I found a largish crowd gathered and at its centre a young woman playing BWV 565 on one of those things - and playing it extremely well.

My only experience is of being there with the IAO Congress two years ago. Admittedly, the audience was augmented by 350 or so British organists; but, even had we not been there, the cathedral would have been full. With us there it was full and standing. One of the staff told us the place seats 3,000. It's obviously quite common for all the seats to be taken, because people were arriving with folding garden chairs. Imagine trying to get into St Paul's or the Abbey so equipped! I would say that if you want a decent seat, get there no later then 7.15. Later than that and you will be at the back of the nave or stuck in a transept with no idea where the sound is coming from. Expect to be seated shoulder to shoulder. Take something to read - and perhaps a cushion.

This is something I just can't cope with at all. The spontaneous comments thing just seems ... well, wierd. I guess this style of worship would tend to appeal to the more extrovert personality types, whilst stiff upper lip services might have more appeal to the introverts among us. Aren't we lucky to have the choice?

I always think there should be a very pronounced rallentando in the closing bars - like a steam train drawing slowly to a standstill in the platform after journey across a continent.

Being anti-Bach would only count as Luddism if you thought no decent music had been written since the death of Josquin. Mind you, you'd be a bit limited as to repertoire for the organ in the case. Not liking Bach but liking something that came after him is a much graver sin, I am afraid.

You could not invent Francis - nobody would believe you! I shall be extremely grateful to be able to swing my legs over the stool at 90, let alone play the instrument thereafter. His affability is amazing, too. I found myself next to him leaning on the rail overlooking Paris on the terrace at Sacre Coeur during the IAO Congress a few years ago. I said "Hello" and although he didn't know me from Adam, he said "Oh, hello, what are you doing these days" as if I were an old friend. I left his company with a list of people to whom to give his best wishes. Whenever I have seen him at Evensong in the Minster (not recently, admittedly) he always seems to end up holding court afterwards under the tower. He gave a superb recital in Rochdale Town Hall about this time last year (or was it the year before?). His introductions to the pieces were wonderful, especially in those pieces where he had some connexion with the composer. Of the Bairstow sonata he said "I remember it took me three weeks to learn it". He played some rather light piece of which he said, with a chuckle, "Bairstow would turn in his grave!" I get the impression that York is not one of those places where the organ is jealously protected from those who might wish to play it. Perhaps that reflects Francis's personality, too.

If you work five days a week and get six week's holiday, it amounts to 30 days. If you work one half day a week, and get six week's holiday, it amounts to three days. But that is perfectly fair, because to get a complete week off work, you only need to take half a day's leave of absence. You surely wouldn't expect to get 30 full days holiday when ones annual commitment to the job is only 52 half days?

Then one person per voice really is the ideal!

My cloud 9 experiences: Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden (de Swart / van Hagerbeer) Grote Kerk, Maassluis (Garrels) Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Cambridge (Abbott & Smith / Nicholson) St Joseph, Ingrow, Keighley (Laycock and Bannister)

What state is this instrument in at the moment? In spite of having been rebuilt in the late 80's (I think) it was pretty poor when the IAO congress was over there in 2002. The organist wasn't prepared to play any pieces on it because faults were developing at an alarming rate. Instead he did a 45 minute improvisation, so that he could work around anything that went off or ciphered.

Perhaps it was about this sort of performance that Doctor Johnson remarked, "Difficult sir? I wish it were impossible!"

But the "tubas" at the west end of Cologne Cathedral are nothing like an English Tuba. They have more in common with the horizontal trumpet at St John's College, Cambridge, or even the west-end trumpets at St Paul's. They have transparency and lots of brightness - not something you will find in (for instance) a Harrison Tuba.

Wow! What a brilliant project!! I take it this is Philip Moore's parting shot before he retires. Can I get to York and back eight evenings in a row? It's worth a try.

I think it's being spread rather more thinly than that at King's - probably over all three terms. See King's College Music List. I shall probably be going to hear a fair bit of the Messiaen at King's, even though it's a 300 mile round trip - if for no other reason than to exercise the privilege of sitting in the sub-stalls at evensong.

Yep, it's hard work keeping an evening in a pub going if there's only one person willing to go to the bar.

In my view the key feature that makes an association thrive is that it has members who are prepared to put a lot into running it. Anything else is secondary. Of course, an association with a large membership is more likely to have such members, and will thus tend to thrive. Being in an organists' association is rather like going to the pub with your friends. Unless at least some of you are prepared to get up and go to the bar, none of you will get much out of it. Who would be to blame? All of you!

Conversation with an organist with perfect pitch whilst driving to the pub after locking up the church: Organist: You know when you set the alarm? Me: Err, yes ... Organist: And when you've put the code in it beeps in A flat? Me: OK, I'll take your word for it. Organist: Well, what does is mean if it goes "da-da da-da da-da" in E flat and G flat? Absolutely true - except possibly for the actual notes.

You mean when you order a copy you'll be told it has gone up to £16.50?

Full Term at Cambridge commences Tues 21 April, which means, I think, that chapel services will commence on Thu 23rd. You will probably find most cathedral choirs on holiday at the beginning of April, being in the aftermath of a very early Easter. The Cathedral choirs tend to take a couple of weeks break after Easter Sunday: perhaps you ought to give a couple of cathedrals a call (or send an email) to find out exactly when their choirs will be back. Most of them have web sites. If you are here for a month don't forget to come up north where everything is less frantic than London, with some superb scenery and wonderful churches - York, Selby, Beverley, Ripon and Durham for starters. Tip: get hold of a copy of "England's Thousand Best Churches" by Simon Jenkins (Penguin Press).

You mean this staircase, Paul? ISTR you can just get your heels on the treads on the way down. Superb instrument though, and a fabulous case. Did they stop drilling when you where there? They didn't when I was . Here's a picture of the organ from the church floor. Note the size of the organist in the right hand corner. He's six foot two and standing on a podium! He's called Rein Donkersloot and he's a pupil of Ben van Oosten at the Rotterdam Conservatoire. We were impressed by both his playing and his modesty. There's another Dutch organ tour next April, if anyone's interested. Last year's was excellent. Get in touch if you want more details. My worst height experience was on a KWVR staff outing to the Forth Bridge about 25 years ago. We walked to the middle on the deck at rail level. Then our guide opened a trap door. Through the opening we could see the sea some 150ft below. We descended an iron ladder and stepped off it onto a plank about 8" wide, with a piece of wire rope to hold on to at one side, and nothing but a 130ft drop to the water at the other - and every time a train went across the bridge (which was pretty often) the whole thing bounced up and down by about four inches.

What are they actually called in the trade? I bet there is a name for them: the most obscure widget in every industry has a name. I bet it's not "prong thingy".

You were correct in every respect except the name, Paul. I find St Thomas's a fascinating institution. Very high quality singing, an organ (and an acoustic) to die for, almost more English than any English church, and bells and smells to boot. Were I to find myself unaccountably in New York this is the one place I would be seeking out. Am I not right in thinking I have seen pictures of a choir of about 40 men and boys processing in during Noble's time there?

Perhaps I ought to have another trip to Durham to see the workshop records from 1929 and establish which ranks were retained from the A&S. There is nothing in the correspondence from Harrison's to give any clue. If you have read Nicholas Thistlethwaite's article in the BIOS Journal you may have noticed that (most of) the former Small Open Diapason from the Great at Halifax became the 8ft Open Diapason on the Swell at King's College Chapel in 1934 (is it still there, I wonder). There were still four Snetzler 8ft opens at Halifax after the 1878 rebuild by A&S, but some Snetzler pipework was replaced in 1896 and perhaps also in 1910, again by A&S. We still have two complete Snetzler 8ft opens, so I would imagine the rank that found its way to Kings would be Abbot & Smith. Abbot & Smith cancelled their maintenance contract at Halifax PC when they discovered that Harrison's were to rebuild the instrument (only Harrison's had been invited to tender). Bishop Frodsham made them attend to do some repairs during the notice period, whereupon they pronounced the instrument beyond repair! Harrison's got saddled with keeping it going for the last year or so of its life.