Nick Bennett

Thanks for the information, chaps. Obviously a Glockenspiel mixture is rare but not unheard of. Arthur Harrison's original specification for the instrument they built in Halifax PC in 1929 includes the Glockenspiel from the previous instrument. Even the organist could only describe it as "not particularly useful but quaint" so it got dropped in favour of a 4ft flute on the pedal. Perhaps we would find more use for what sounds to be a sort of Sesquialtera these days than they did in the 1920's. In fact, the removal of the Glockenspiel and addition of the 4ft on the pedal are the only differences between the original specification and what actually got built. Thus the oft-repeated story that the organist designed the organ in consultation with Arthur Harrison seems to be quite wrong. The organist wrote several letters to Harrison about the specification, but he none of his suggestions found their way into the instrument.

The Abbot and Smith instrument at Halifax Parish Church included on the Solo a stop called Glockenspiel. Every glossary of organ stops I have ever seen says that this stop is a percussion affair. This specimen, however, was a three rank mixture. I was hoping to use the NPOR to search for other instances of a mixture called Glockenspiel, but the facility to search by stop name no longer seems to be available. Have any board members ever heard of a Glockenspiel that was a mixture stop?

I don't see why it need be a more complex console than, say, St Pauls, which is controlling organs in three parts of the building. And, given the sort of people who are going to play it, why would it be a problem anyway?

I think Barry's pessimism about the reputation of British organbuilding is not entirely justified. Our native builders are getting the majority of the work in the UK. How many of our cathedrals have an organ constructed or rebuilt by a non-UK builder? They can be counted on the fingers of one watch, can't they? It's just that we don't take much notice when a UK firm lands a major British instrument, whether new or a rebuild - e.g. Exeter, Peterborough, Bridlington, St Albans, OLEM and Magdalen College (Cambridge), St Davids, etc. By contrast, if Klais were to be appointed to rebuild (say) Liverpool Cathedral, everybody would know about it. The traffic is not all one way, either. Harrison's list 16 organs built for overseas customers in the last 20 years, and they are about to start work at Stockholm City Hall. Mander's have several overseas instruments under their belt, including seven in Japan. Henry Willis & Co have just signed for an organ in Florence. Goetz and Gwynn list 4 overseas instruments among the 11 new instruments featured on their web site. Talk of the demise of the reputation of British organbuilders is rather premature. It is also likely to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. We should be talking up the UK organbuilding industry, not talking it down.

I'm not surprised his parishioners hate him if he speaks to them the same way he used to post on SoF before being kicked. Michelin raspberries would be more appropriate in his case, I think. What an utter pratt!

Why not borrow it from your local library? If they aren't completely inept they should be able to get it for you on an inter-library loan. My local library service (Bradford) charges 60p for this service, and has never failed to come up with the goods. By the way, giving them the ISBN number of the publication you want seems to speed up the process no end, and ensures you get the correct publication - i.e. the facsimile rather than a typeset edition. You might well be able to ascertain the ISBN from the internet.

And, of course, the autograph is fairly readily available, because it has been published by Barenreiter and seems still to be in print. It's a fascinating document. He clearly wrote the headings before composing a note of music. Some of the chorales don't quite fit on the page he had allocated for them, so their last few bars are written in the margins in tablature.

Sounds like you need to get your adjusted so that it is some use. Is anyone else a big fan of tremulants operated by a foot pedal? I like them because you can put the tremulant on for a single note to "float" it, then knock it off again very quickly - pedal part permitting, of course.

i went to an organ recital followed by the pub. I think I probably got the better deal.

Won't they all end up in the Tower if they haven't?

Apparently this 44 stop organ is only costing £170,000. I think the order must have been placed circa 1974.

It will be interesting to see how many people turn up to the recital at Halifax PC on Saturday (9 September). The programme is: Bach Passacaglia Franck B Minor Chorale Durufle Suite op. 5 Now, there's a recital programme that takes no prisoners! It's the sort of programme that would tempt me into a 200 mile round trip to attend.

Is any of Reinken's music in print?

David Briggs can certainly get away with speaking because of his wonderful, gentle sense of humour. At the reopening recital at Blackburn Cathedral, at which he had programmed the Toccata only from BWV 540, he recounted how he had performed the entire work from memory (!) on this organ at the age of 14, having arrived by train with his parents. He had, however, got lost in the fugue, and ended up missing out a large chunk of it. And that, he said, is why you are only getting the toccata tonight. Were any of you in Cologne for the IAO Congress? We went to the weekly recital in the cathedral. It started at 8 and we were advised to arrive by 7 to be sure of a seat, and it was as well that we heeded the warning. To say that the cathedral was full would be an understatement. Not only was every seat taken, but many people had arrived with folding garden chairs to sit in the aisles - whether because the cathedral is always packed out or because the pews are uncomfortable I am not sure. At least a hundred failed to find seats and stood through the recital. There were three major works - Liszt's BACH, Durufle's Prelude et Fugue sur le nom d'Alain, and a set of variations by Reger that lasted a good 30 minutes, during which I admit I lost the will to live. And at the end - prolonged, wild applause and two (or was it three?) encores. Someone asked the cathedral staff how many people the cathedral holds, and were told three thousand. By comparison we do, indeed, live in Das Land ohne Musik. They don't seem to need gimicks there to get bums on seats.

Gosh, I did stir it up, didn't I? All I was saying that you can't please all the people all the time, and that whether or not you like hearing the performer talking is purely a matter of taste. Thus, for every audience member you will please by chatting to them, there will be another who would prefer you to get on with playing the pieces. The precise proportions will depend on the venue: a talk probably goes down better at a church that has only the occasional recital, and where the regular congregation forms the audience, than it does at a cathedral, where the audience tends to be quite knowledgeable. Yes, there are some performers whose introductions are as interesting as their playing - I remember hearing Yehudi Menuhin, for instance, at a pre-concert talk speaking about meeting Bartok, which was gobsmacking. But the rest shouldn't feel they have to speak for the sake of it if they don't have much to say, are going to deliver it in a monotone, or don't know when to shut up. I never again want to go to a recital at which the recitalist introduces each of the TEN pieces on the programme for 3-4 minutes, saying things that were patently incorrect (e.g. that X gave the first performance of this piece by Y, when in fact X died when Y was only eight). Yes, this was a real event, which, having started at 7.30, reached the interval at 9.00 and eventually finished, much to the relief of the exhausted audience, at 10.15. The other difficulty is whether the performer can make himself heard when he speaks. Too often, the audience doesn't catch a word of what was said. Have re-read my post several times, I still can't find the slightest suggestion about showing off or the performer's ego. I didn't have that in mind at all. In fact, I imagine some recitalists would find having a camera at the console quite uncomfortable. On the thread about registrants, Richard McVeigh (I think) mentioned that he prefers to be alone at the console; I wonder if he feels the same about the presence of a video camera? If it came down to a straight choice between talking about the pieces and watching them being played on a screen, I much prefer the latter. I suspect everybody can get something out if it on a number of levels, and it can be an aid to concentration. Anybody who doesn't like it can always sit where they can't see the screen, look elsewhere, or close their eyes. What would be ideal, of course, would be two screens, one showing the performer, the other showing the score .

Don't assume that this will meet universal approval! Personally, I dislike people talking to the audience at concerts or recitals of any description - and I know I am by no means alone in this. The reason I go to recitals is to hear the organ literature performed - not to to learn about the recitalist or admire his/her physiognomy. Programme notes are the proper way of giving the audience background about unfamiliar works. A very brief introduction at the start of the recital or perhaps after the first piece I can cope with. Much more than that is a distraction from the music. I do agree, however, about advertising in advance the works to be performed. I have had the experience on the one hand of driving 70 miles to a recital only to find it comprised works I wouldn't bother crossing the road to hear, and on the other hand, of hearing reports of recitals I would definitely have gone to had I known what works were going to be performed. What about screening what's going on at the console? I am in two minds about this practice. It can capture my attention to the extent that I don't listen to the music properly. But it can also appeal to the anorak in me by allowing me to work out a lot more about the instrument than I could just be listening.

Bodensee Music Versand Allegro are pretty good, as are Bodensee Musik Versand, who I have used occasionally. You might also concider trying your local library. Mine (an outpost of the Bradford library system) has been excellent at finding obscure works published overseas. But you do have to be patient - it can take months.

This rather ties into the other thread, "Where have all the women gone". Organs, real ale, trains, trams, steam engines and canals are all, on the whole, blokey interests. In the case of organs, it's slightly odd, because I suspect as many women as men actually play. But women don't seem to become obsessed with the instrument like we blokes do.

Whilst I was chairman of the KWVR, I ran into Roger Fisher, who was travelling as a passenger. I introduced myself, and we had a little chat. It turned out that he, too, is something of a steam railway enthusiast. He mentioned that he had once been on one of the Llangollen Railway's "Footplate Experience" events, where they let you drive the engine under supervision. His memorable comment on that subject was, "The surge of power as you opened the regulator was wonderful - it was just like opening the swell box at St Mary Redcliffe!" Railways also seem to go with dog-collars. One of the most famous British railway photographers, Eric Treacy, was vicar of Halifax and Bishop of Wakefield. He was also the first president of the KWVR. I never met him, as I had only just got involved when he died - on the platform at Appleby railway station. As for the strange types that railways attract, I could tell you a tale or two, but I won't - apart from this one. A few years ago, Jenny Agutter (of Railway Children fame) came back to the Railway. There was a biggish crowd and a couple of coppers to ensure order. In the crowd was one of our stranger volunteers, known to us as "Lurch". This poor man is a good few bars short of a voluntary, and not unknown to the police, largely because of his habit of putting bricks through shop windows. Anyway, they stopped him and asked what was in his shoulder bag, to which he replied, "Nowt." They made him open it, revealing a half brick. "What's that doing in there?" they enquired. "Oh, that," he said, "Ah must 'a forgotten to tek it out." It's not all driving the train and parading about in uniforms: sometimes it's more like care in the community.

Don't you think the organ is a male thing? Men outnumber women in the audience at most of the organ recitals I go to. For orchestral music it's invariably the other way round. When I went to Die Walkure at Covent Garden last year, the lady sitting next to me (who was one of the regulars, and a Friend) commented that for the Ring, audiences are about 50-50, but for other opera, women significantly outnumber the men. What is is about organ music and Wagner's Ring? Sorry about the double entendres. I am reminded of a line from Round the Horne spoken by Kenneth Williams: "Second meaning? Them?? Most of 'em won't get the first meaning!" Thank goodness Leathered Lips isn't around any more.

Just turning music is difficult enough, especially for works you don't know. Doing major stop changes without rehearsal is more nerve-wracking than giving the recital. Nobody ever asks you to draw a quiet flute or the voix celestes - no, the stop changes you are needed for involve the loudest stops on the instrument! The worst scenario is as follows. You turn up for a recital as a member of the audience and are collared to turn pages five minutes before the recital is due to start. You are introduced to the recitalist, who opens a piece you have never heard before somewhere in the middle - you can't tell how far into the piece it is. The page, needless to say, is black with note-heads and accidentals. There are no bar numbers in the score. "I'd like you to get the Great Trombas here" he says, pointing at the middle of a page. He then turns forward several pages (you can't see how many) and says "and I want you to get the Ophicleide before this F". There is no rest before the F, just a phrase break. Inevitably, this piece is the last one in the programme, so you have the best part of an hour to forget what he asked you to do. Was it the Ophicleide first, then the Trombas?

Had a few piano lessons when I was a kid, then blundered through my teens without any lessons, becoming fascinated by the organ from the age of about fifteen. I played the organ a little at Cambridge (I read mathematics at Churchill College 1973-76), and spent a lot of time reading about the organ and listening to it. I didn't play much after leaving university, but spent most of my spare time playing trains on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, becoming a director, the secretary and eventually the chairman of the organisation. In 1999 I went to the St Albans festival and was talked into starting to play again. Through the railway, I fortuitously made the acquaintance of Philip Tordoff, MA (Cantab) FRCO at about the same time, and have been taking lessons from him ever since at Halifax Parish Church. I don't consider myself much of a player, as I haven't got the technique to tackle the major works of the repertoire. I really only play for my own amusement, plus the odd flower festival, and one nerve-wracking recital at HPC. My musical tastes are pretty wide, covering the 15th to the 20th centuries, but I am somewhat lukewarm these days about the period from (say) 1730 to 1860. I pay the mortgage by writing software.

My experience is that this instrument is much more successful in the choir than it is in the nave. Firstly, of course, the choir organ is in the choir, not the nave. If the audience were in the nave, the choir organ would be virtually useless. But more importantly, the organ's sound becomes very distant once the listener is west of the tower. It is completely incapable of giving a lead to a large congregation, notwithstanding the tuba mirabilis. It seems to me the only solution is to put some pipework in the nave. Perhaps a set of Klais tubas, as at the west end of Cologne Cathedral would do the job

Also the 1839 organ by Charles Allen at St Mary and St Everilda, Everingham, Yorkshire. Compass is GG to C. It has a 16' open wood. I assume this means the bottom pipe is 21 1/3 feet. It's a wonderful church, too, though rather dilapidated, alas, and totally unheated. Alan Spedding gave a recital on it in November 2004 with the temperature barely above freezing point, and the audience beginning to succumb to hypothermia.

When I was looking for somewhere near work to practice at lunchtimes, I came across this instrument in All Saints, Broughton, near Skipton. It was built by Thomas Casson and has a 49 note compass starting at F. However, the keyboard has more than 49 keys, and can be moved sideways to make a different key stand over the bottom note. I suppose it is intended purely as a hymn machine. It has a very nice tone - the diapasons are quite vibrant. But there's not much you can play on it.