Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

MusingMuso

Members
  • Posts

    4,821
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by MusingMuso

  1. ============================= Since writing the above, I've found the source of the full article, which makes for fascinating reading. http://www.ltot.org.uk/slpdh.pdf Best, MM
  2. ================================ The following gives brief details- http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/celebs/engineers4.html Somewhere, there is a research paper which gives the full details, of which I have a file, but I'm not sure about the link to it. Best, MM
  3. ========================= Dr.Graham, how wonderful to hear further from you. As you will perceive from recent and not so recent posts, information has been coming in thick and fast, but there remain mysteries and distinct blind spots which, although not absolutely pivotal to the story, would be good to include for the sake of readability. Thank you for your suggestion of contacting David Clegg, whom I didn't realise was still active. That could be a valuable source of information re: the latter years and John Makin Pilling's involvement. For reasons already explained, the name of S W Pilling is a great problem. There are times when even circumstantial evidence is so compelling, it just has to amount to something. To-day, I discovered a slightly vague but reliable reference to a Corn Mill in Mirfield, which was owned by S W Pilling, which is additional to a company in Manchester by the title of S W Pilling & Co., of which I can discover absolutely nothing thus far. However, if we consider the fact that Bibby plc, were very much into foodstuffs and grain, as well as other things such as paper production, we have even furher circumstantial evidence to link Messrs Pilling & Pilling and the J Bibby group. If it turns out that there is no connection whatsoever, I would be very surprised indeed. S W Pilling was certainly ex-Bolton, moved to Mirfield and ended up in Welton Hall, nr.Brough, and he must have been a very good organist, for not only did he play at the local parish church, he gave many recitals on new and re-built organs. As I stated previously, I find it absolutely incredible that John Makin Pilling is not mentioned anywhere, other than his association with Compton-Makin and his directorship of the same as well as that of the Bradford Computing Organ Co. It looks as if he may have been born in Haslingden, (where there is a huge Willis 3 instrument in quite a modest parish church), and that makes him a local boy in the Rawtenstall/Bury/Accrington area. Bury was famous for paper making, but try as I may, I just cannot link anything together in spite of searching through trade directories, company information and even various on-line registers. The only thing I have discovered for certain, is that he ended his days in a large farmhouse near Carnforth, Lancs., not a million miles away from Lancaster and the Priory. Even the Pilling Trust does not mention much about the man behind the organisation. Another curious thing I discovered, is the fact that Compton briefly had a representative on the Isle of Man. Additionally, a Compton man emigrated to Australia, and built very similar instruments to those of Compton for quite some time. There is a curious Compton family connection with Australia, because it appears that John Compton (Snr) had originated in Nottinghamshire, then went to Australia where he lived with his second wife. She died quite young, and Compton (Snr) returned to Nottinghamshire and the family shop in Newton Burgoland. It was then that he met and married Mary Heywood; John H Compton the offspring of that rather late union. I suspect, but cannot know for certain, that John Compton (Snr) followed the gold-rush to Australia, which turned out badly for many; the housing and over-crowding quite appalling, with disease quite rife. If you look back through the posts on the Discussion Board, I think you will appreciate that a LOT has been achieved on the technical front, as well as certain fascinating details about those connected with Compton. The RADAR work remains a mystery as yet, but the military sources may yield things of interest. So overall, I'm very pleased that progress is going well, with the occasional cul-de-sac, which can be quite frustrating and time-consuming. Your observations about the Ideal Home Exhibition add to the sum of knowledge, and I suspect that accountancy had crept into the Compton equation after the death of Jimmy Taylor. I further suspect that they had little chance of competing with the likes of Lowrey, Hammond and Wurlitzer; even the latter falling by the wayside after an incredible 350 or so years of trading, covering the German baroque period and the era of Bach, right through to the Tonawanda organ-factory in America. I suspect that few could compete with the Yamaha brand when it started to appear; further market pressures coming from Technics (Japan) and Wersi in Germany. The home organ trade was massive across the world, but Compton just didn't have the necessary financial clout, I suspect. I am now on page 10 of writing, which may seem a little slow, but actually, setting the foundation of the late romantic/orchestral organ, explaining the reason for that, and referring to a large number of other sources, has made this initial section quite a slow plod. Once that is out of the way, progress should speed up as we get to the more technical aspects and the actual art of organ-building. If you would like to have a stab at the Pilling family tree, I would be very grateful. Finally, as a Rolls-Royce man, did you know that Royce made electrical things in Manchester for Robert Hope-Jones? Best, MM (Colin)
  4. -------------------------------------- I want to invite the team of "Most Haunted" to visit a suitable church, just to hear Yvett Fielding scream when I secretly hide inside an organ in the dark, and operate a suitably creaky swell box before closing the shutters with a bang. It would have to include a contribution from Derek Accora becoming posessed. "Why do I think of the name Henry? He's got a funny hat on and a beard! He's telling me to lay the bearings....What? How? I don't understand." Best, MM
  5. ============================= I think Leslie died back in 1967 or so. I'm not sure of the exact date, but he was tragically knocked down by a bus in Bradford and never recovered consciousness. In a world of often strange co-incidences, Leslie used to tell a fascinating story of an unlikely encounter in Coventry when he lived there and worked for GEC. The statistics of chance are stretched to breaking point with this, but Leslie was a member of the committee which sat to discuss proposals for the new organ at Coventry Cathedal, after great objections were lodged about the possibility of yet another Arthur Harrison style instrument being installed in a British cathedral. The committee wanted something new, modern and musically more dynamic; the results of which we are aware. Leslie was waiting for a bus to take him into the centre of Coventry, when a nice car pulled up and the nearside window opened. The gentleman inside simply asked, "Could you possibly tell me how to get to the cathedral?" With characteristic style, Leslie opened the car door, got in and replied, "Certainly Mr Harrison, I think we're going to the same meeting!" Cuthbert Harrison was totally bemused by this and could scarcely believe his good fortune; picking the one person on the outskirts of Coventry who knew who he was, what he was and where he was going. History does not record whether he gave him a lift home afterwards. Meanwhile, on the Compton front, I wonder if Tony knows whether the BIOS archives in Birmingham hold back copies of "The Organ" and also copies of the "Musical Opinion", because this would be the perfect place to locate everything under one roof, if that be the case. However, for the moment, that particular avenue can wait, because it is unlikely to yield much more than opinion and anecdote; the more immediate challenge being in the field of the many technical innovations, as well as discovering, as far as possible, the background to people like Leslie Bourn and certain other members of the Compton staff. We trudge slowly onwards! Best, MM
  6. ===================== Thanks for that Tony. There's a whole list of things I need to try and get copies of....articles in The Musical Opinion and The Organ featuring very strongly in it. If anyone has that particular copy which refers to the Italian sojourn, I wonder if this was where Stephen Bicknell got his information about the tonal experiments Compton carried out, going back to his earliest days...probably pre-1900. There's also another interesting article, and I wonder if anyone knows if the Organ Club has an accesible archive. There was, apparently, an article in the Organ Club Journal about war-time organ-builders, and the contribution they made to the war effort. I don't know whether Tony knows this, but there was a member of the Bradford Association by the name of Leslie Wilkinson, long deceased, who had a complete set of The Organ from the first one right through to perhaps 1965. I used to pour through all them as a lad, but I expect they got thrown out after his death. Best, MM
  7. ======================== I stumbled across the Harvey Grace comment quite by accident, when I was looking into the era of the orchestral organs of Hope-Jones and those who followed him, as part of the Compton research. Have you ever come across what Berlioz had to say about organs, and especially about organ choruses and mixtures, where he claimed that Mixtures were ridiculous "triads" which caused harmonic congestion? It makes perfect sense of what Hope Jones said about the perfect 8ft sound, (the orchestra) and the silliness of having Picollos at octave and super-octave, doubling up everything at the higher pitches. It makes for fascinating reading, and to discover that Dr Harvey Grace, as a respected organist and commentator, was saying many of the same things about "expression" as Berlioz, Robert Hope-Jones and some of his more enthusiastic followers, demonstrates how ill-informed some of the establishment were. It also ties in with my interest in turn of the century, romantic Bach playing derived from the Berlin school, which had such an impact on American organists, which I like to tag as "expressionist" organ-playing. The fact that it has German origins and not American ones, is quite fascinating, yet only a generation before that in England, certain people were on the right path....Kendrick Pyne, W T Best and, of course, Dolmetch. Guilmant in Paris was another great scholar of early music at about the same time. By some curious sequence of events, it was America which first consolidated early-music scholarship, and the English contributions came from E Power Biggs and our old friend Ralph Downes; others including the Yorkshire-born organ-builder, G Donald-Harrison. Best, MM
  8. ============================ Now this does really solve a mystery for me, because there are two versions in circulation, and both it would seem are corect and connected, which I didn't realise. The first version goes that he was arrested while on the Isle of Capri; the suggestion being that he was there for health reason. (He was getting on a bit by this time) The second version has him laguishing in the foothills of the Appenines on the mainland, in a village called Santa Maria something or other, (I have the details somewhere). Now what I do know, is that Compton's trip to Italy co-incided with German troops suddenly moving into northern Italy, which I think was at the invitation of Mussolini. It would therefore appear that he was arrested on the Isle of Capri, and then sent to the mainland, where he didn't restrict his activities to mending the village church organ. In fact, he spent a lot of time experimenting with way-out harmonics with a view to an all flue department which sounded as if it had reeds. (I have yet to find the source, but the late Stephen Bicknell briefly mentioned that he had been experimenting with the harmonic series as a young-man, prior to the end of the 19th century. In another reference to an unknown source, Stephen Bicknell also suggested that there was at the Compton workshop, an en-harmonic organ with all sorts of strange pitches, and in fact, one or two of the patents refer to this). These experiments really go to the core of what the Compton story is all about, and which makes it quite unique. His approach was not just that of the trained craftsman, but the eternal scientific experimenter in all matters to do with tonal synthesis, which of course, is linked to the additive synewave synthesis of the electrostatic organs pioneered by Leslie Bourn. Now my speculation about Marconi may be wide of the mark, because I was harbouring the thought that he may have chosen to go to the village of St Maria on the mainland, but this is now less likely if not out of the question. The intruiging thing is, that Marconi, on his return to Italy, lived quite close by, and of course, Marconi had been all things telegraph, radio and telephone when he set up shop in England, and that became the very familiar brand of GEC eventually. Having gone to Italy, Marconi supported the fascist government of Mussolini. If nothing else, it shows what a complicated thing research can be, because a hunch or just the germ of an idea can send one on something of a wild goose-chase, or may reveal something totally unexpected. There is just no way of knowing at the start. I haven't had time to digest Maclom Riley's kind contribution from the Percy Whitlock diaries, except to quickly scan through them. One thing fairly leapt off the page however, concerning the combination organ at Church House, Westminster, and the suggestion that the pipes could add what the electrostatic tonal synthesis couldn't....that has interesting and important connotations on the electronic side of things. The other things are wonderful anecdotes, and perhaps also a glimpse of things not readily known, some of which could never be included in a book. Having met, (when I was very young), the late Dr Reginald Dixon, and spent a week giggling at his wit and humour,(he was then about 90), I should imagine that Percy Whitlock enjoyed quite lively company, to say the least. He was the one who described Dr Dixon as being, "like the naughty boy at a party." Having spent most of the last four weeks digging around and chasing after snippets of information, I really delighted and grateful for many of the responses I have received, because this has to be the least documented story ever, or at least one which is incredibly scattered. It's very good when people contribute pointers to very specific bits of information or articles long forgotten about. Best MM
  9. =================== Thank God for American scholarship. Best, MM
  10. ======================= Now there is a moral to this, in that one should never believe anything written by anyone associated with Romsey Abbey. In point of fact, I had slightly paraphrased and modernised a letter written by Dr Harvey Grace in 1918 to the Musical Times, (of which he was editor), expounding the virtues of programme music for organ. I agree that it says nothing constructive. Indeed, it says much that is quite destructive, and yet, within the context of the period, something with which many people would have agreed and even applauded. We may have no means of knowing how Bach played the organ or whether he did this or that, but the interesting thing is that Mendelssohn introduced to England the concept of antiquariaism and even the study of early music, and it was upon this that the first wave of serious English organ academia was founded. It's interesting to go back to the performing editions of W T Best, who clearly knew what he was doing. There are sources somewhere, (I lost them), which suggest that in Manchester, Kendrick Pyne was advocating "toes only" for Bach. The comment by Harvey Grace demonstrates, I think, how fashion and musical evolution can affect the way we perceive and execute things. That stated, it is fascinating how the music of Bach somehow survives the ordeal, which suggests that playing Bach's works with musical sincerity is more important than playing them in some contrived or conjectural manner. Best, MM
  11. ====================== I think you should have written:- Yes he is, but what is unusual about that? However, I've noticed that he has posted less frequently of late. Best, MM
  12. ============================ I often wonder what Bach might have achieved in the nature of true musical expression, if only he hadn't been constrained by fugues and tight contrapuntal textures. The fugal form and the contrapuntal textures may permit certain means of expression, but they are less favourable to others. They hinder freedom of expression, even though Bach used the most difficult contrapuntal techniques. I wonder if Bach wasn't really a clandenstine cultivator of programme music, but one restrained by the rules of the day. Should we bring Ton Koopman in one this? Best, MM
  13. Thanks to Barry and "Vox" for your efforts. I've managed to find all the stuff mentioned, and other things as well. The house (hall?) organ at Welton started off as a two (?) manual Halmshaw instrument in Bolton (it may have been 3...I have the details somewhere), was then moved to Mirfield just a few miles away from Dewsbury, from where the Halmshaw family originated, and was then moved again to Welton Hall by Brindley & Foster, only to be enlarged to a full four manuals. Somewhere, and I cannot recall where, I've seen a black & white plate of it. I was quietly hoping someone would just come up with, "Oh yes...it was his father" or something along those lines, but like everything to do with Compton, it's difficult. The co-incidences are just too strong, but I do know that the Mr S W Pilling of Welton Hall, was a prominent Liberal who supported the MP Marmadukefox, and I think he was the son-in law to the said gentleman; his wife of course the daughter. I know only, so far, that Mr S W Pilling had business interests in Mirfield, and one of them happened to be a printing company opertaing under a double barrel name. He was also a friend of W T Best, and they are recorded as sharing a carriage at an important Bolton funeral. What's very interesting, is the fact that this particular Mr Pilling was obviously very influential. He was one of the founders of Liberalism in Mirfield, and his name is recorded for posterity in the Liberal Club archives....possibly on a stone outside. His name is also attached to a number of care homes for the elderly to this day, and so I get the impression that he was not only very, very wealthy, (which he must have been to buy Welton Hall and a four manual organ), but actually quite a good guy with many acts of philanthropy to his name. Working backwards from Mirfield, it is almost inconceivable that there isn't a connection with the Mr Pilling of Makin Organs, because as I've already stated, the name Pilling is quite rare and really quite specific to quite a small area. Obviously, they fan out as they breed, just as rats and mice do, but the core remains quite localised, and the locality seems to be in the Bolton, Bury and Accrington areas, which are so very close to Rochdale and Oldham. Incredibly, the name John Robert Makin Pilling doesn't appear on any company records I've thus far looked at, and although it may be an oversight on the part of gazeteers and compilers, the only reference to him as a company director is to do with the Makin Organs adventure and the purchase of the Bradford Computing Organ company; the directorships of which he resigned in 1995, not long before his demise from cancer in 1996. However, I know for certain that Makin organs, or to be more accurate, Compton-Makin, were listed as a subsidiary of Bibby plc., and Mr Pilling was definitely associated with Bibby. My hunch is that Bibby plc., (as was), bought out the Pilling paper mill(s), whatever that was called and wherever it may have been. The Dunn & Bradstreet register may yield further information, but I'm not optimistic. I saw the Compton-Makin name in it once, but I don't think they were many details because it was such a tiny part of the group. My fear is, that both the Pillings in question may just have been very wealthy by inheritance, and were only majority shareholders rather than company directors. If that is so, it makes the chase very difficult, and the best clues often lie outside the world of business information in such situations. There is an investment company which uses a Pilling House in Manchester, but......that could be anything and everything. I saw the name Pilling mentioned in a historic railways document, so if we've got into that territory, the quest is probably doomed!! We'll probably discover that the first mentioned Mr Pilling printed the Bradshaw's Guide or at least made the paper. The whole Compton thing is rather like a man arriving with a number of crates full of mosaic pieces, who then drops them by accident, doesn't leave his calling card and vanishes without trace; leaving the floor-fitters scratching their heads. Best, MM
  14. ========================== I am more readily bemused than amused. When it comes to attempts at humour, I tend to prefer PDQ Bach. Best, MM
  15. ========================== I am not rising to the bait.....Koopman is your man! On the other hand, I think Bach would have been able to struggle through the RCO written work, and assuming that he could play his own works, he would probably have gained the FRCO eventually. God knows what he would make of Liszt or Reger taking his name in vain. Best, MM
  16. ========================= Music is rather like sport. You need to be practising every day to be on top. I can absolutely sympathise with 'Vox' because much as I would like to play each and every day and re-learn some of the monsters of the past, earning a living takes precedence, and that particular decision was made decades ago. I think that retaining an interest and doing as much as time permits is quite a healthy mental occupation, whether or not we present music in the public domain. I know that when I was in London, work really consumed every moment of my time, and that is a horrible situation to be in when you have church duties of which to attend. Apart from dabbling on the home electronic for an hour or two every week, I probably gave up playing for the better part of 10 years, but not entirely. The great thing is, that when you find more time or opportunity, re-learning everything is child's play, and within only a matter of weeks, most of the old skills come flooding back, so nothing is truly lost other than the pleasure of doing something well. As for 2013, I think it has to be at least one of the big Reger works, having resurrected the Reubke a few years back, but whether I will have the time or not....well....there's always 2014. Best, MM
  17. ======================= I don't think Bach had letters behind his name....drawing a veil over B.A.C.H. of course. Best, MM
  18. Well, I'm up to page 10 now, and surprising things still emerge as I read and re-read information to hand. I learned yesterday that Compton, by then working on his own accord for the first time, used a bi-phonic pedal Diapason as early as 1906! It does tend to confirm the fact that he was, in his own rights, a highly inventive organ-builder, before the other major innovators joined the Compton team. I am no nearer to making a connection between Mr S W Pilling of Welton Hall, and the Mr Pilling of Makin Organs, and it's rapidly becoming as futile a quest as looking for evidence linking Compton and Sir Bernard Lovell when they were involved, rather vaguely, in "developing RADAR". It amazes me that a prominent and very wealthy Liberal of the late 19th century can be so elusive, when the name Pilling is in itself quite rare. Then to discover that the "Mr" Pilling who bought Compton's electronic interests is equally elusive; his name almost non-existent on company records as a director of anything. He isn't mentioned in the Carnforth histories and on-line material, (he lived his latter days in an old hall in Carnforth), yet we know that there was a Bibby connection and that he was a very wealthy industrialist. It is so frustrating when people operate beneath the obvious radar, yet you know they existed and were very significant. Grrrrr! The wonderful thing about computers is the way it is possile to back-track and make corrections as new evidence emerges, as well as make indicators to specfiic points of reference, so I am moving on to other things, and if, to quote Mr Micawber, "something turns up", I can slot it in later. Best, MM
  19. Thank you one and all, and my best wishes to everyone for a happy new year. As I write, we're not quite there yet, but those down-under are probably now nursing headaches. Anyone would think the earth spins around! Best, MM
  20. ============================ Peter, thank you very much for your kind offers, which I am very happy about.....we will discuss these in due course, I feel sure. As I've made a start on writing about JC, I have had to bring together the known facts, (not a terrible lot), about his early days. What strikes me are the early influences on his organ-building career. Halmshaw....a Yorkshire builder who moved to Birmingham. They built good, solid organs typical of the day, one of the best being examples being the restored organ of the RC Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand...a fairly substantial 3-manual. Tragically, both the cathedral and the organ were severely damged in the earthquake during February, 2011. The cathedral is a write-off, but I'm not sure about the organ, which seemed to survive rather better than the building. Of all the companies JC could have gone to, he next went to Brindley's, and again, came into contact with important things. Foster was a very talented engineer who went down the path of standardised components to some degree, cleverly using factory production methods to meet demand. Foster was also innovative, and those pneumatic systems were quite extraordinary, if a little over-complex. Foster's big sin of omission was not moving with the times and discovering what electricity was all about. Another important aspect of Brindley's work, is the fact that they NEVER abandoned the idea of classical choruswork and even employed German voicers. The additional influence was obviously Robert Hope-Jones and the use of telephone technology; the first working telephone co-inciding with the birth year of JC, 1876 . I'm fairy sure that JC just put these influences together, but then formulated his own style and ways of doing things quite brilliantly. Something which I stumbled across by a process of research and pure logic,is a possible connection betweem Halmshaw's, Brindley & Foster, Compton and John Makin Pilling. I've been trying to confirm what I suspect may be the case. Halmshaw built an organ for a house in "Bolton-le Moor" which was the old name for Bolton. The name of the client was one Mr Sebastian Wilkinson Pilling, who it seems, was a founder member of what is now the Incorporated Association of Organists. He moved to Mirfield,(between Dewsbury and Huddersfield), and Halmshaw's (probably then still in Dewsbury) moved the house organ to Mirfield. Mr S W Pilling's name is still associated with Mirfield history, and buildings are named after him. Clearly becoming an immensely wealthy individual, his last home was Welton Hall, Brough, in North Humberside, into which Brindley & Foster moved and enlarged the house organ into a 4-manual concert instrument. I have yet to check the dates, but could the young John Compton have had a hand in this? (I suspect that he may have left B & F prior to this). However the big question is whether Mr S W Pilling was related to John Robert Makin Pilling, who was very much associated with the paper-making industry in and around Bolton, Bury and Manchester, whence Mr S W Pilling originated. There are just so many co-incidences here, but it has already consumed too much time, and my hope is that someone may just know the answer for whatever reason. It would however, be intruiging if the Pilling name is associated with Compton and his employers before Compton set up on his own, and associated again, many decades later, when the company finally ceased trading and John Pilling started making electronic organs in the corner of a paper-mill! Best, MM
  21. ========================== Christmas Eve is te ONLY time that I start with something 'fff'...always the Bach Sinfonia, which is followed by carols and a few quiter organ pieces. This year I was particularly pleased to get two spontaneous recations. The first came from a young lad about 11 years of age, sitting a few pews back from the organ console. As the last notes of the Sinfonia rattled around in our splendid acoustic, he looked at his mother with a stunned gape, then at me, and said in a rich Yorkshire accent, "Bloomin' eck!" That old Bach can have that sort of impact on a young lad was very gratifying. The second, rather more considered comment, came from a middle-aged couple who aproached the console after mass had ended and I was puttng away the copy of the Widor. "We were in Norwich Cahedral last Sunday, and we just want you to know that your playing was every bit as good as what we heard there." Although you know isn't and wasn't, it's one of those moments when the only response is, "How kind....thank you." I'm not sure whether I prefer the reaction of the stunned or the deluded, but it's nice when there's ANY positive reaction to organ music. Best, MM
  22. ==================================== This is a wonderful offer Peter, because this really is like no other "story". It's really a technical toure de force and one where it soooo easy to overlook certain things. There may well be a case of co-authoring this, since the subject covers so many aspects of organ-building and electronic-organ manufacture, all under the same roof. Some of it reads like a "Boy's Own" story, and I wouldn't be in the least surprised to learn that John Compton was visiting Marconi when he got arrested in Italy.....Marconi lived in the area! I chuckle when I think how stupid they were to let him come back to England, since the factory was engaged in top-secret radar work. Best, MM
  23. ======================= Why stop at a chord when we could have a whole piece? Now let me see.... We could have an 'Allegro. Prelude, Aria and Jazz Finale with a Cadenza, all based on themes from the Firebird in a Minor key, played with suitable Accord entirely on the GT manual; dedicated to the late GTB and followed by cries of, "Bravo!" (Austin Allegro, Honda Prelude, Honda Aria, Honda Jazz, Ford Kia Finale, Kia Cadenza,Pontiac Firebird, Morris Minor, Honda Accord. GT-anything, Ferrari GTB and Fiat Bravo). It must almost be Christmas if I have time to write rubbish like this! Best, MM
  24. ========================== Indeed, a senior moment on my part...and it was very late when I wrote what I wrote. However, I'd also forgotten what I didn't know in the first place, which was the actual nature of those original registers. Those two big reeds, (as they are now), were actually voiced on 12" wg pressure back in 1902, and whilst this may produce a good trumpet, it is unlikely to produce much more than a good Tromba at best. The other evidence is to some extent conjectural, because I've never heard really good reeds by Forster & Andrews. Their Clarinets were poor, their swell reeds thin and underpowered and their Great Trumpets or Posaunes quite ordinary. For evidence of what the Forster & Andrews probably sounded like, I can go back to the four-manual instrument they built in "Schulze" style at All Soul's, Hailey Hill, Halifax. I remember this organ, and somewhere, there is a (poor quality) recording of it, (possibly on the Halifax Organist's Association website), with the late Skackleton Pollard playing. Good as the instrument was, it was never all that exciting and it certainly never shouted, even when all the reeds were drawn. I think on the basis of the two observations above, what we hear at Hull City Hall are Compton reeds (now on 25" wg), but the question remains as to who actually voiced them or perhaps even re-made or made them anew. There's something about that Orchestral Trumpet which has the same devil and splash which was once heard at Bradford Cathedral, (now somewhat tamed and spoiled in the process). The fact that Compton were very busy at this time and would have dragged most of the Hull organ back to the factory in London, tells me that they would have had other organ-builders involved, and as we know that H, N & B probably supplied reeds to Compton, I'd still suggest that this was probably the source, even though I have no concrete evidence one way or the other. Best, MM
  25. ======================== Thank you for that snippet of information, which is now duly filed in the parts bin! I suspect that Compton's were so incredibly busy, ( even in the depression years), outsourcing was one way of increasing prductivity and coping with orders; especially from cinemas. I don't suppose I will ever be in the position of stating who supplied what and to whom, but thus far, there is evidence of Compton association and collaboration with J W Walker, H N & B, Spurden-Rutt and now Booth. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that list doesn't grow. Best, MM.
×
×
  • Create New...