MusingMuso

================================ He He....that says it all, doesn't it? It's doubly funny to think of Wanamaker foresaking a Willis rank, whilst the Willis company were happy to install a Wurlitzer one at St.Paul's Cathedral. MM

======================= Oh please! It was a complete mish-mash of international ideas, from Schulze through to the worsts aspects of orchestral excess. It bankrupt the company that built it, and they didn't have much of a pedigree to start with. It is nothing more than a collection of organs scattered around a very large auditorium, all controlled from a vast, electro-mechanical telephone exchange and a ridiculous console which must be a nightmare. I have heard recordings and I don't really want to hear any more. I have talked to people who knew the organ, and I've talked to people who know the organ now. Yes, it has worth, like any vast musical-engineering project, but it still reminds of that film, where hundreds of children pound away at pianos scattered around a vast room. I'm just surprised that Howard Hughes didn't have a hand in its' construction! What is the MUSICAL point other than to make a lot of noise in a lot of different places at the same time? Much the same could be said of the Lord & Taylor (Wanamaker) organ, which I have heard in the flesh. At least that one works and is now in good voice, but again, it is more noise than music. Neither of these organs are in the same class as the huge Skinner at Wolseley Hall, Yale, and that probably goes for West Point also. The Yale Skinner is a masterpiece of the genre, and whilst it may now be unfashionable, it has a certain musical integrity which is sadly lacking in the monsters mentioned above. Unless it is a theatre style instrument, the organ should not be regarded as a musical synthesiser! MM

========================== So did (has) Hull City Hall! So why not send THAT idea to Atlantic City? Just imagine, a "Gravissima Subterra Ultra 128ft" The economy version would be to attach a diaphonic valve to the city sewers, but I expect it would sound much the same as the rest of the instrument. MM

========================== And wouldn't it be wonderful if the BBC would allow CD versions of John Betjamin's "Britain's Cathedrals and their Music?" I suppose someone will tell me that they ARE available! Then a "must hear" from the same archives would have to include Geraint Jones on historic European organs (which are available through the US based OHS catalogue, I understand) as well as a fascinating BBC broadcast of re-created Beethoven "organ works" comprising of Trios. I would love to know something about the origin of that Radio 3 broadcast, which was played by Wilhelm Kumbacher (Cumbacher, Culmbacher?). I cannot recall whether there were works completed by the performer, or some other, but were I think Beethoven study-works in the style of Bach. Stunning music! MM

====================== Nick, you have just confirmed my point......... The same 64ft effect could be produced digitally with absolutely nothing lost, but I suspect they would need more than 2" speakers!! Perhaps a folded horn? But then, wouldn't that be a sort of tuneable Diapahone? Who needs to know? Who cares? Send the idea to Worcester!! MM

============================= Indeed microphones do not hear as we do, and this is the basis for mutliple microphone placements, because our brains process what we hear very substantially, to the extent that we can focus on a single spoken voice in a crowded room. Psychology explains this as "cognitive hearing." We are unable to perform this miracle when listening to a recording, because we react to the natural acoustic of the live event, and effectively cancel it out and relegate the "mush" to background noise. Human hearing is nothing short of miraculous, and should anyone doubt it, get someone to stand behind one and make clicking noises whilst you wear a blindfold and then point towards the source of sound. It is possible to pinpoint the direction of sounds very precisely; possibly a legacy of our hunter-gatherer days. However, it is even more complex, because low-frequency sounds do not fare so well, yet in the mid-frequencies, we are especially alert to directional sound.....which brings me back to acoustics and mid-range absorbency in modern concert-halls. The recording of Jane Parker-Smith at Blackburn, playing Tournemire, Dupre, Durufle, Langlais (etc) as Nick Bennett pointed out, is a perfect example of all that is right and wrong with single-point microphone techniques in a big acoustic. The ambient sound is generous and loyal to the effect in the building, but the clarity has disappeared. I wouldn't put this down to the qualities of the superlative Neumann Microphone (an SM2 stereo job) or the excellence of the analog Revox A-77 used, but rather, the nature of the acoustic interface we experience live, as described above. With multiple microphones, a superb ear such as Brian Culverhouse and his team (Couzans?) had, they could probably get a more "natural" sound than any single-point set-up could ever achieve. I believe that Mr Wylde of Henry Willis & Sons was also enthusiastic about single point recording techniques, which he used on his own record-label some years ago. He certainly used a Calrec single-point stereo microphone! MM

============================= A 64ft stop is a musical nonsense of course! Our hearing quickly fizzles out below 32ft CCCC, so we simply cannot hear the fundamental of a 64ft rank at more or less anything below the 32ft pitch. We only hear the harmonics, and if EVER there was a case for a digital addition, this would be IT! Interestingly, low frequency, sub-sonic sound generation has been investigated as a possible weapon on the battlefield, so if they EVER get Atlantic City up and running again, don't be surprised if people vomit at the re-opening. I am vomitting already, just thinking about the sheer bad-taste of that particular instrument, but I suppose it IS unique and worth restoring. MM

=========================== On the subject of recordings, it's good to see the name of Brian Culverhouse mentioned. He takes responsibility of some of the finest recordings ever made, and not just in the limited organ-world. Did anyone ever do it better? MM

========================== Thanks! What happened to Jane Parker-Smith and Blackburn? MM

============================ Why not a Double Double LeeBlick Gedact 64ft? That way, no one would hear it, and no one would ever make one again! MM

======================= Steven has got a few things right here, I think. Westminster Cathedral, so far as I am aware, was a Lewis conception and not a Willis one. The Great does indeed have a large Quint Mixture, but the Swell organ has a 17,19,22 Mixture....more usually a Willis composition, but in this case, possibly with more than a hint of Lewis. The take over of Lewis by Willis was aggressive in the extreme, once the Lewis company failed financially. I don't think Willis III had the slightest respect for anything Lewis did, but history demonstrates that Lewis was an organ-builder and Willis III was not! Willis more or less eradicated all traces of the Lewis company in the most ruthless way, and took on board some of the outstanding contracts, including one, I believe, destined for Stockport in Cheshire. The Lewis company had been propped up for years by the Courage Brewing organisation, and the Courage household had a very large within, which Dupre knew well as a guest of the family. Courage paid, I believe, for the organ of Westminster Cathedral. Oddly enough, I have a spooky connection with the Lewis/Southwark Cathedral affair, because I used to live right alongside the old Courage brewhouse on the Southbank of the Thames and worked in senior management at Courage Breweries. I later discovered that the Southwark Cathedral organ, by Lewis, had been stored in the warehouses around Horsleydown Square, where Courage had their old stables for the dray carthorses. I lived in one of the old converted warehouses where the organ had been stored prior to installation!! MM

========================== I was glad it wasn't Parry. I had no idea what he did for a living. MM

=================== Don't forget the orgies! Why else did they invent velvet curtains around consoles? MM

========================= I'd rather listen to "The Scissors Sisters" or Dolly Parton frankly. I fail to see what relevance repetitive worship songs have, when every other word is "Jesus" or the theology stoops to the anthropomorphism of "wiggly worms." If people want to wave their arms about, let them play cricket or catch buses, I say. MM

============================ Things are certainly changing in Europe, but I don't think we can generalise too much about the whole of it, due to the fact that the systems have been very different from East to West. I don't know how the set-up works frankly, but if anyone does, it would make interesting reading. I once helped organise an organ-festival and it took 9 months of hard work; that could be a problem for many people. Come, come Jeremy....you need to get on a train! Have you never heard of Hull/Beverley, Manchester,Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham? All the ones you mention are poor-relations by way of comparison to those listed above. The best organs/venues are North of Watford Gap! MM

======================= I did once improvise on "I found mummy kissing Santa Claus"....let's not go there! My anarchic streak knew no bounds when I played for a shared Anglican/Methodist church.....usually drinking songs. MM

========================== I could probably live with this, but there are certain excesses which serve little musical purpose. Why an Ophicleide AND a Trombone on the Pedal? Give me one of those big, storming Hill Trombones anyday. Even Fr.Willis Ophicleides were woolly-monsters of no great musical merit. Swell....well, Cornopeans have a place in certain theatre organs, but they don't blend very well with anything. Better with a straightforward English Trumpet. Choir...I have yet to find a musical use for Dulcianas of any type, save for accompanying the Swell Oboe or giving the note for the responses. Far better to have a different 8ft flute such as a Spitzflute, with a dedicated Spitzflute Celeste. Great....If you're going to have 3 open metal stops, than a far better selection would be Open Diapason, Gemshorn and Gamba as at Liverpool Metropolitan. That way, the 16ft could be a Contra Gamba, so favoured by Willis and Harrison. The Solo is a wasteful travesty, with far too many string stops and flutes. As for a 16ft Cor Anglais, what use are they? Arthur Harrison organs abound with them, and they didn't serve a useful purpose then. As for a French Horn, weren't these a Skinner idea? Again, more a theatre organ register than a serious one for classical music. What is it about Tuba Magnas? Most are just overblown, unblending party-horns. Fr.Willis had the right idea....big trumpets in effect, which everyone ruined at later re-builds as at St.George's Hall, Liverpool. Why not big Trumpets like H,N & B installed; courtesy of the Rundle voicing dynasty? The only thing missing is a 16 rk Eclat....I'd love to know what one sounds like!! MM

====================== Please don't misquote me! I "think" I stated that 20,000 musical compositions had been composed in the Czech lands; amongst which was SOME good music. I went on to state that, among the good music were to be found some fine organ compositions. At least they can claim Petr Eben as their own! I suspect that in the Czech Republic, they still have an education system which values the arts, and funding which allows it. The standard of singing from the children's choirs, boy's choirs such as Boni Pueri and Boni Fantast, the Brno Uni Choir (etc etc) is outstanding, and even under the commi regime, music was a very respected career and pastime. Concerning repertoire, who says that Bach and French Romantic music are the mainstay? I've probably heard more English music in Holland than in England, and more French music in England than anywhere else. In Germany, Holland and elsewhere, French music does not enjoy such prominence, and if the truth be known, Reger is the romantic choice in the Germanic countries. Only in Hungary is French music played with some authority, because they have a tradition of building French-style instruments, thanks to the Josef Angster legacy and his work with Cavaille-Coll. Jeremy needs to get out and travel to Europe, where he is more likely to hear Schroeder or Hindemith than Vierne or Bairstow. I just came up with an interesting thought.....Holland, during the summer, has more organ concerts per hectacre than anywhere else in the world....possibly between 5 and 10 per day....you can recital hop, as I have done. Their main musical diet is Bach and Reger, but I've heard some very obscure music there. I think Holland is the only place I've heard all of Hindemith's organ output. The grass isn't greener....they just look after it better. MM

Utterly off-topic, but I make no apology. Just go to the following and scroll down to "Journey to the centre of the Earth", download the music, sit back and gasp at the virtuosity. http://www.gramercymusic.com/conc.htm Then go back to your consoles and practise for a year or two!! MM