MusingMuso
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Posts posted by MusingMuso
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The only Conacher I've come across was this one, which I helped to rebuild. I don't remember it very well, but I don't think it was that bad. Although it's not noted on NPOR, I do remember that a lot of the pipework originated from the Schultz and Cavaille-Coll firms (this is noted in the listing under its previous home in Nottingham).
Paul
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How fascinating!
The only organ I knew which incoporated pipework from both Schulze and Cavaille-Coll, was the Forster & Andrews instrument at All Souls, Hayley Hill, Halifax.
I'm not sure that the Halifax instrument was an unqaulified success, but it was good enough.
It would be interestng to know how people regard the ex-Nottingham instrument in Norfolk.
MM
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Please forgive a note of clarification on this one. Ian's present role at Liverpool is that of 'Organist Titulaire' (as in the case of the French models), NOT 'Organist Emeritus' as stated; which title is still occupied by Noel Rawsthorne, who is very much alive and kicking! The difference, of course, being that Ian still works there (at about 40% of the stat services and most of the non-stats and recitals) andis paid for such; whereas the latter is an honorific title, given (as in the case of the clergy) for excellent service over a long period, and which he may be given... eventually... ; this latter post is not remunerable, neither is the holder expected to be actively involved; quite a different role to Ian's and that of David at Norwich and Colin at Lincoln.....
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Thanks for putting that matter right by correcting me. I didn't know that we had any titulaires in the UK, but we've had a few titled ones in the past; which of course the French never have because they're all peasants.
I recall Ian demonstrating the organ at Liverpool from the nave console, and as he reached a crescendo, two Scouser lads walked past me as one said to the other, "That's one 'ell of a mixin' desk."
I can imagine it now; the cathedral notice board announcing, "Organ bassline with DC Tracey."
MM
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I probably haven't played that many Conacher organs, but by and large, I tend to think that they are tonally dreadful.
One of the most "celebrated" instruments is that in Saltaire URC, which has now been messed around with to a considerable extent. However, even in its original format, this was a war-horse of an organ, with few saving graces; yet like all Conachers, built like the proverbial battleship and soldiering on, when it could really have done everyone a favour by collpasing in a heap.
I recall accompanying a choir on another of their instruments....awful reeds, scratchy strings, dull Diapasons, characterless soft stops and Mixtures which did nothing but declare war on the very idea of a chorus.
Going back to the Saltair instrument, I recall a recital there, when an organist, (possibly THE organist), declared it "a magnificent instrument.,"
At that moment, a cathedral organist leaned towards me and whispered, "Is he bloody tone-deaf, or what?"
I can't help but think that the most useful addition to every Conacher organ I've ever played would be a box of matches, but as pure machines.....wonderful!
MM
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That's right - David Dunnett decided he would rather do the organ playing, so they appointed a separate choir director. I think the same thing happened with Ian Tracey at Liverpool.
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Horse & cart, or is it cart & horse?
I think you' find that Ian Tracey was appointed as organist, to replace Noel Rawsthorne, in the days when Ronald Whoane (Sp?) was the Choral Director.
When Ronald retired, the position of Organist & Master of the choristers was created, which meant that Ian presided over the whole .
Since then, Ian has relinquished that responsibility in order to concentrate on other things, but still maintains the position of Organist Emeritus.
MM
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One of the doctors from the Kilmeny surgery by any chance?
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I think these medical people have a dark sense of humour, and the Kilmeny Surgery is just a few hundred yards from the church at which I play.
I always used to smile when I passed the head office of the Blood Transfusion Service. I think it was in Bushey near Watford and may still be. Anyway, the address that I knew was on Dagger Lane.
Funeral Directors are just as bad, and a long delay in the start of a recent cremation service was enlivened by the funeral director asking, (in hushed tones), if I had any pound coins in my pocket.
MM
I did once find myself following (fortunately) a very aggressively driven Range Rover with the number FU 2.
Paul
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My absolute favourite, on the back of an American Hummer, was a plate, (not a number plate), which read:-
If this vehicle is being badly driven Call 0800-1234- Eat ****
On the back of my old rally car, I had three large letters turned upside down, which under certain circdumstances, read:- PTO.
Perhaps we should make suggestions for suitable plates to be placed on or near organ consoles.
MM
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Ever wondered who's got the regristration ORG4N on their car?
It was advertised in yesterday's Telegraph, back page of the Motoring section. One of the companies that specialise in personal registrations was running a 'musical' theme, and this number will set you back a mere £34,995
However, V1OLA will set you back even more, £39,995
Anyone interested?
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No!
The only personal plate I ever liked was the one on the doctor's car, which read S1KLY.
MM
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I blame the rise (and hopefully the fall) of facebook which has encouraged us to only write "one liners". Twitter of course is worse so I'm told. Many of the people on here seem to also have facebook acounts where they can accept a telephone directory number of friends which they can't keep in contact with and rarely reply to their posts. There is an interesting article in the Saturday Telegraph today about facebook and how 8 out of 10 British profiles are false in some way and that 2/3 had written a status as a call for attention! None of that applies here.
Of course it could be that given some of the problems ex members on this valued site had, those left don't now wish to be controversial, although there is certainly a level of collective responsibility which has been exercised in the past by members.
I have recently had a salutory lesson in that something I had written in good faith quoting from a new book in order to show its scope and some of its content has been questioned. The author apparently has confused facts. I did not spot/know this so it has made me a bit reluctant to contribute to such an educated discussion board.
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Oh dear! You shouldn't worry about making mistakes or supplying misinformation when it the fault of someone else. We may be educated, but we're all very simple souls really.
I dread anyone asking me "Which Bach wrote that?"
I invraiably reply "I think it was the Hungarian one."
That gives them something to think about, and allows me to make my escape.
As for one liners, I heard a brilliant one recently.
"Why should I attend parenting classes? Snakes don't attend parenting classes, and the world's crawling with them!"
MM
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Health Warning. MM is right to question this. I have learnt that the author of the book may well have mis-interpreted facts, possibly taken from the NPOR. When I was at school I thought that anything written a book must be true. Life has taught me nothing!
PJW
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I must say that the warning bells rang the moment I read of this, but for the life of me, I can't recall where I read the "facts," assuming that they were true.
Something deep in my grey-matter tells me that the research might have been done by the late Mr Hanson, the then organist of St Mary's (RC), Bradford, (now closed).
Because of this, I wouldn't even know where to start looking for the correct information, but I live in hope that someone may know the answer as to whether Booth (Wakefield), Booth (Leeds) and Booth (Otley) were variously related, unrelated or just in-bred.
We do know that Booth the pipemakers were a separate entity, and we also know that the most outstanding craftsman from Otley, was the furniture-maker Chippendale.
MM
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Thanks to our kind host for speaking at the Yorkshire Organ Day, held at Halifax Parish Church. Unofrtunately, a prior engagement meant that I couldn't be there to hear it, but it was good to meet John very briefly, just as he was about to rush off to catch his train back to London.
Although I could only attend Chris Brown's excellent recital at the culmination of the event, I gather that about 80 people attended the day, and as Alan Thurlow pointed out, "Outreach is essential if we are to keep the organ alive."
Full marks to those who went to the trouble of organising the event, and of course, similar events in London, the Midlands & Scotland etc.
I gather that next year, the evnt should move to Leeds: something of a mecca for organ-lovers, and one which I will definitely attend.
MM
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I've often toyed with the idea of secretly tuning a small church organ to a mild unequal temperament, just out of devilment, to see if the organist/congregation notice any difference. Naughty...but there it is.
Is there anyone out there to whom this has happened - knowingly or unknowingly ?
I'd also be interested in comments from singers and choir directors with experience of regularly using an unequally tempered instrument for accompaniment.
H
Perhaps I should try this, but with an added twist!
I have a little Brustwerk, with only 244 pipes and a computer tuning programme with all sorts of tempers or lack of them..
I wouldn't want to get the ladders out and tune the Hauptwerk....too many Mixtures, too high and too little time....BUT....what about equal for the Hauptwerk, and mean, (as mean as mean can be), for the Brustwerk?
None of that pseudo-sensualist, Werkmeister nonsense.
On the fly, I could test the reaction of the congregation to each.
If I don't use the coupler it would be fine.
The final voluntary would have to be a French 'Grande Jeux' which, if I use the coupler, would sound highly authentic; knowing how the French used to look after their organs.
MM
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What is the opinion here of a limited use of extension of pipework in a rebuild where space or siting options might be at a premium or funds not vast. I have in mind a couple of situations where this has worked well at the hands of a good builder with an broad minded consultant at the helm leaving the churches in question with versatile smallish instruments fit for today's purpose. Certainly of more use than - for instance - a Victorian 1 manual entombed in a chancel vestry. As far as I can gather the cost was about the same as an up-market electronic. Would it be considered going over to the 'dark side' to be thinking along these lines?
A
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Lets' think about this logically for a moment.
There are a number of organs, including quite a few Arthur Harrison instruments, where the Swell organ includes a full chorus to 2ft with a good chorus Mixture, but where the Great organ and Pedal organ lack upperwork, in spite of massively powerful wood basses.
When I play Bach or other baroque repertoire on organs such as this, I often use the Swell organ as an "extention" department; coupling the full chorus with Mixture to both Great and Pedal, and even using the octave coupler where this is available.
What am I actually doing?
If we think about the logic of this,and the often successful musical result in creating a full "pleno" effect, it is not far removed from what John Compton did: deriving compatible upperwork from pipework other than the main chorus. If there is a good 16ft double, that can actually be coupled down to act as the pedal foundation; especially if there are some transferable manual reeds which can be isolated to the Choir organ and then coupled down to the Pedal organ.
Again, I am using the extension or derivation principle to good effect, and should anyone doubt this, they are more than welcome to go along to Halifax PC for the Halifax Organists' Association Member's Recital in June, where I shall be doing just this: not a single pedal stop being drawn.
I know of many re-built Binns instruments, where the Pedal ranks have been extended upwards to very good effect, and for the best examples of extension, we only have to visit a good Compton instrument to hear the effects created by a tonal genius.
Naturally, what must always be avoided are those extensions involving adjacent octaves, which produces not just missing notes, but a certain tonal imbalance; for good reason.
Usually, the 4ft Octave or Principal is usually a couple of notes smaller in scale to an 8ft Diapason; the Twelfth 2.2/3 and Fifteenth 2ft smaller scale still. Even in genuine baroque organs, that tonal pyramid is achieved either in the same way, or with some very careful voicing.
So a 4ft Octave may be derived from a differently scaled Diapason, the Twelfth from a Gamba or Gemshorn, the 15th from a second Diapason heard higher up the scale (and therefore smaller) and the upperwork derived from as many ranks as one wishes, from Diapason to Salicionald and Dulcianas for example.
What you could never have is successful extension organ based on something like Schulze straight-line scaling, yet one of the two best Comnpton organs I know are re-builds firstly of a Charles Brindley instrument, and secondly, that of a Lewis instrument; both with tonal connections to Schulze.
For the proof of the pudding (etc).....go to Downside Abbey or listen to this clip:-
Extension doesn't come better than this!
MM
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Is it just me, or have our posts got a little bit dull lately? I'm so tired of seeing that "Leather or Talc" (or whatever it is) coming up on the discussion home screen every time I look. I think we all need to try a bit harder for a while to bring up a few new topics.
For example - I'd love to hear more about recitals and new organs that people have heard, new discoveries in terms of music, comments or articles in things like Choir and Organ, etc. Have we all just got too busy? Do let's try a bit harder!
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I couldn't agree more Martin, because things seem to have gone seriously downhill for whatever reason.
Perhaps it's something to do with "critical mass" and the fact that people who used to post no longer seem to do. However, there is also a seasonal factor in the form of school exams and holidays, which always sees a dramatic reduction in posts due to the pressures of teaching work, (for those who teach) and the fact that people elope for a while.
Still, I can never recall a time when nothing is posted for perhaps a week at a time, and questions remain unanswered.
As for interesting organs, there is a gentleman in the Halifax Organists' Association who is getting rid of a harmonium, but not any old harmonium. It is a FIVE manual harmonium dating from around 1880.....I'll have to check the details. I didn't know they ever made harmoniums larger than 3 manuals!
As for being busy, I am! I'm trying to get a new RC rite Mass setting finished.....what an awful rite it is to set to music. You know it's bad when the rhythms have to jump around like a flea just to accomodate the words, and that is a special challenge when it is a congregational setting. Then there's the central heating, and the decorating, and the ABS on the car, and the practice for a forthcoming recital in addition to normal work......busy is the word we're looking for, I think.
MM.
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Does anyone have a copy and if so where is it published please? - I would like to get hold of a copy, please let me know if you can help.
Thanks
Wojtek
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I think this is the link you need:-
http://www.canticanova.com/planning/year-a/pln18a_m.htm
I hope this provides what you require.
MM
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Isn't it just?
Perhaps his father introduced him to some non-French repertoire.
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Dick Sanderman is a very fine organist of course, but more importantly, the French repertoire doesn't come across too well on many Netherlands instruments; with a few notable exceptions.
The music of Reger is often heard there as a consequence, but you still need to catch a plane to hear it unless you like to swim marathons or own a yacht.
MM.
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That's one very fine sounding organ.
At last, an organ scholar who doesn't play all French repertoire; for which, I presume, we must thank the Netherlands.
MM
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I have never heard CC in action and I agree that the RAH organ should have a better airing than it gets. BBC Radio 3 will be the broadcast channel and I believe that all 3 are to be broadcast. May be wrong with that though.
Dave
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After my initial outburst, I should redress the balance a little. Cameron Carpenter probably has the finest organ-technique the world has ever seen. (You don't have to take my word for that, because Paul Jacobs at the Julliard School said much the same thing), As a consequence, he is able to do things with the instrument which might hitherto have been considered impossible, and this I suspect, is where the problem lies, because he has chosen the path of total virtuosity as a way of blowing people away by outright technique and showmanship above all else.
Hearing Cameron Carpenter is not like hearing Rachmaninov or Prokofiev. They had virtuosity in abundance, but at a depeer level, they were fabulous musicians and mediums of artistic expression. Prokofiev was quite a horrible person; so arrogant as to refuse to speak to his fellow students, whom he considered to be beneath him....which they were.
Cameron Carpenter, even more so thgan Virgil Fox before him, draws attention to his technique, and therefore to himself rather than the music.
OK.....as a showman he is brilliant, as a technician he is on a different planet to the rest of us, and as a musical circus-act, something to behold.
However, rightly or wrongly, I believe that we are there to interpret and act as an intermediary between an audience or congregation and what the composer intended. We must also do that with respect, with feeling and with a clear idea of what the composer was trying to say.
Impressive though CC may be, I just feel that he lacks musicianship and any sense of musical feeling, whereas another great virtuoso/showman, the Argentinian-born organist Hector Olivera, (only a notch or two down in the technical stakes from CC), is first and foremost a musician; everything else being subservient to that.
I just wouldn't want to hear an organist constantly drawing attention to himself and his fabulous virtuosity, because the first victim of all this is the music.
MM
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It's depressing to have to say this, but I just think the BBC needs new management top to bottom. If ever an organisation went from the best journalistic and programme-making excellence to what it is now, the BBC epitomises almost everything that is wrong with society.
Even the morning news is now a no-go area for me, because it has been reduced to a silly game of banter between two mediocre presenters.
I have no real gripe against Cameron Carpenter; though I doubt that I would travel to hear him unless he was doing something creative and new, which in this instance he will not be doing..
Let's be clear, because CC is certainly no Bach scholar or performer; even assuming that he gets all the notes in the right place and in the right order, which he surely will.
It's a classic case of the "beeb" chasing ratings, as if their future depended upon it. As such, the whole thing has become a cheap marketing exercise, where everything has to be light entertainment, sensationalistic or amusing. I am sure that whatever CC does, it will fall into all these categories, and if he can make a living doing it, good luck to him. However, what is likely to be heard will be completely at odds with the spirit of the "Proms."
If the BBC programmers cannot understand that the lowering of integrity of almost anything, amounts to "death by a thousand cuts," then they understand nothing. It is precisely why large organisations fail, by living on past reputations while cutting corners, reducing costs and quality and appealing to popular sentiment and misguided brand loyalty.
I would much sooner hear a talented young Hungarian organist demonstrating how to play organ-music properly, and then slaying the audience with a brilliant improvisation, and if we must have some degree of light-entertainment, let it be Hector Olivera.
Would any other branch of music put up with this sort of musical prostitution?
MM
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Well, if the EU thingy ever does come into effect it wil do wonders for the lead trade - just think of all those miles of lead tubes that will need to be used to convert electric action organs to tubular pneumatic (with gas, water of hand blowing of course) which would circumvent the ban!
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Herein lies a joke, because it would be perfectly legal to replace an EP organ with an historic fair-organ powered by a smoke-belching, non-taxable, unregulated pollution traction engine, but one would have to worry about those decorative carbon-filament light-bulbs, which would probably contravene the regulations for electrical appartus. As for the lead-based paint used for the elaborate decoration and semi-naked figurines of such instruments......keep smiling.
MM
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Spare us, Good Lord, from a re-run of all this nonsense. I really don't fancy writing to my MP all over again.
The problem, I suspect, isn't really with Brussels. Last time round it was largely down to one cretinous jobsworth in the DTI in Whitehall who refused to budge from the supposed line set by Brussels. (Other governments seemed happy enough to ignore such directives). What needed now is to identify that same person (or his/her successor) and make sure he/she uses a bit of common sense.
JS
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I think John, with all respect, the problem was more to do with the London EU office rather than the DTI. I received a quite synpathetic reply from the Minister for trade and industry at the time.
However, we have good fortune on our side, because just as the EU were considering the legislation as it applied to "organs," (presumably thinking that all NEW organs were electronic), the same body was busily funding the building of at least two new organs; one being in the music school at Posnan, Poland, and the other being the new organ at Magdeburg Cathedral, Germany, presided at by our good friend and board-member, Barry Jordan.
As the EU couldn't really prosecute itself and remain credible, I don't think there's much to worry about. It is the classic legal "double-bind"...he who prosecutes would first have to prosecute himself.
MM
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Though I can't help wonder if CRB checks are a solution in search of a problem. At one church I attended, the age of the congregation increased the closer one came to the altar. The children and families all sat at the back where they could make a sharp exit if required, and the (elderly) choir were obviously at the front. The choir were the least likely of anyone in the church to actually come into contact with children, yet CRB checks were required for choir members. One couldn't help wonder if someone somewhere had got the idea that CRB checks were more to protect the choir against children than the converse.
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This England to-day.
I wouldn't worry, because Jesus himself wouldn't be appointed anywhere as a clergyman, on the basis that he was a bit "strange," single, talked to prostitutes and taxmen, didn't toe the religious and political divide and clearly didn't have a university degree.
We've come along way!
MM
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I never heard Heinz Wunderlich live in concert, yet somehow, I recognise the passing of a stupendous talent. It says something about the power of his performances, that even back in the mid 1960's, when a number of Reger performances were aired on Radio 3 played by the maestro himself, they had the power to thrill and move a 15 year old; to the extent that the music of Reger became a lifelong interest. I seem to recall that the broadcasts came from the Nuremburg organ-festival, which also introduced me to the sounds of the great Steinmeyer instruments. As John Sayer rightly points out, this is possibly the end of a direct link to Straube and Reger, and there can be no doubt but that "Heinzy" Wunderlich played this music with absolute authority, and passed it on to his many friends and pupils. As all good and great things must eventually come to an end, I am only able to feel a certain joy that Heinz Wunderlich lived so long, and continued playing brilliantly almost to the end. That, for me, has been a wonderful privilege, and I'm sure his many recordings will continue to inspire for a very long time. May he rest in peace.
The following article, from "The Diapason," gives a thorough account of his achievements, as well as an extensive list of his compositions.
http://www.thediapason.com/Heinz-Wunderlich-at-90-article10175
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Just another update on the status of Christchurch and its organs and churches. News that the Anglican cathedral in the square is to be brought down to between 2-3 metres (in essence a demolition) although it is not known whether the organ will be able to be retrieved. Perhaps something similar with the Catholic Cathedral, where demolition has halted after the top level has been removed, and the Halmshaw organ is still inside.
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The loss of a fine old building is always sad; especially when it means so much to so many. However, when I think of Coventry here in the UK, I can also see a great opportunity.
Tragically, big earthquakes and tsunamis (such as in Japan), leave behind an almost unimagnable amount of destruction, which doesn't take a few months or a few years to put right. In all probability, the work will occupy a whole generation of people, but at the same time, it will strengthen the fabric of society and give people hope.
As always, my thoughts are with you all.
MM
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Various theatre organs were plundered for parts rather than being re-built, and perhaps one of the best uses of an old theatre rank is the Tuba at Leeds Cathedral, which came from the former Davis Theatre, Croydon, built by John Compton, and which found its way to Leeds when the N & B instrument was re-built by H,N & B.
It's a good Tuba.
MM
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Whilst searching for somewhere else on NPOR I noticed that HMP Wormword Scrubs chapel has a Compton organ. See http://www.npor.org....ec_index=N17521
I suppose that if one has to go to prison then this might provide a tiny bit of consolation... I wonder if it's much used or even still there given that the survey date is 1962?
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I note that this is a rebuild of the ABC cinema-organ from Ealing.
It's a pity they removed all the traps and effects. I could just imagine a quick burst of "Jailhouse Rock" as the final voluntary.
However, the thing which most fascinates me is the stop marked 'Acoustic Contra Tuba 32ft,' which is also marked as being derived from the Tuba rank.
I just wonder if it isn't actually the same as the Harmonics 32ft, but wired to draw the 16ft Tuba and the compound pitches as one register. I don't think Compton, (or whoever re-built the instrument), would stoop to simply quinting the 16ft reed, which would not be a good effect at all, surely?
Thanks for drawing attention to this.
MM
A remarkable link to an Organist's 'Hobby'
in General discussion
Posted
It is a beautiful website, and one which I have visited many times.
Although the creator of the site died some time ago, I am pleased that it remains on view as his personal statement of faith and as a tribute to his passion for pipe-organs.
For anyone who puzzles over the disease known as ALS, it is better known as Motor Neuron Disease in Britain.
MM