Paul Morley

I believe that quite a few piano concerti have been transcribed for two pianos I would have thought that for anything up to and including Brahms, an organist with enough skill to play the piano transcription of the orchestral parts would be able to rearrange it effectively on the organ - much as they might do so when accompanying a romantic choral piece from the vocal score. The following is quite interesting

St George Stockpot received a 32' reed in an extensive rebuild by Rushworth during the early 80s

Presumably there are ranks on the latter that can be played in New Jersey and heard in Devon.

The following may be of interest: http://orgue.free.fr/of662.html A very different tonal concept from an early 20C Harrison, of course.

This link explains http://www.gewalcker.de/gewalcker.de/opusdiabolo.htm

...so a performance entirely faithful to the composer's intentions....!

Superb performance and instrument, I agree. For the record, which are your best and second best?

Fair enough. How about on my list substituting a Wagner transcription (preferably by a 19C German organist) for the Reger? Also, if one wished to make my list less Franco-German, a transcription of an Elgar P&S or one of Walton's coronation marches could replace the Mozart.

Am I being a tad cynical, or is the Ebay lot possibly a case of someone trying to cash in on an urban myth? If they don't sell, might we see them repackaged as having come from an organ played by Handel?

True. Nevertheless, the music provision in this school is first-rate.

A few weeks ago, my son's class teacher asked the children if they knew any French words or phrases. My son (aged 7) volunteered 'Jeux de combinasion'.

You might be surprised at what children will listen to, enjoy and understand, so long as they are not told that it's 'hard'. For a long time I used the noisiest bits of 'The Rite of Spring' as a basis for a Yr 7 (age 11) composition project. Comments after first hearing included, 'That's really scary. I like it'. 'Was that from "Jaws"?' 'That can't be right. Cavemen didn't have violins.'

How about these: Buxtehude - Praeludum in G minor Bach - Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor Bach - CP 'O mensch bewein dien sunde gross' Mozart - Fantasia in F minor Mendelssohn - Sonata VI Franck - Chorale No 3 Reger - Phantasie & Fugue on 'BACH' Messiaen - L'Asenscion Ligeti - Volumina Swayne - Rif Raff Bonus tracks...BWV 565 & Widor V

Are you telling us that an organ recital audience has included at least one person who should not really have been allowed out on their own?

Here is a link to a picture http://www.kcoa.co.uk/Mereworth_002.jpg

....the motley collection of human blowers who used to lounge for centuries outside churches of all sizes, waiting for an organist to turn up. As late as the 1920s they were to be seen outside Notre Dame in Paris...At least that enormous instrument would not have been at the mercy of power outages in those days. No, just the unions...

My quick study for the week is something similar. I've beeN asked to play 'Der welcher wandleit diese Strausse' from 'The Magic Flute' at a funeral on Friday. Playing the chorale on 4' pedal and the vocal score piano reduction on the manual is (for me at ant rate) somewhat less difficult than trying to play the walking bass on the pedals (it goes up to G in any case).

One could argue that this ingeniously designed organ consists of 4 x 0.75 divisions.

Surely for an authentic Bach performance, the conductor should merely stand in front of the musicians looking rather cross, and periodically throw objects (pencils, erasers, scores, shoes, wigs etc) in the direction of any hapless individual who particularly displeases him.

I'd hazard a guess that we've all had this on one occasion or other. I always ask for a discreet note to be placed in the order of service. I believe that RVW complained that, at the Coronation Service, a number of somewhat pig-headed nobles attempted to observe pauses at the end of each line.

Changed my mind. I agree with Malcolm below.

Well... I have a video of my son (then aged 3) doing something similar. However, it should be noted that: 1) The building was closed to the (paying??) public at the time. 2) Now he has reached the venerable age of 5 and has graduated to 'Chester's easiest piano course', he is capable of producing rather more musical sounds. There was a time when this instrument was so closely guarded that even organ scholars from other Oxford colleges had difficulty getting to play it. If somebody wanted to see what a musician from the Indian tradition might do with a western pipe organ, then why on earth didn't they secure the services of one!

At weddings around these parts, if one of their number reads a lesson, it's a safe bet that a significant proportion of the congregation audience will 'whoop, cheer, applaud and go generally ape' at its conclusion.

I've always thought that Gt-Ch is more useful than Ch-Gt where there is a big reed on the Ch. IIRC, 'illuminated' Compton consoles are usually equipped with Gt-Ch couplers. This instrument: http://www.npor.org....ec_index=A00301 (an interesting and IMHO rather successful attempt to create a Blackburn Cathedral tribute out of a town hall Binns) has both Pos-Gt and Gt-Pos, and also a two-way switch marked 'Bombarde 16/32', enabling the player to choose which of these two stops is controlled by the Pedal Reed reversible. Chester Cathedral has a Gt-Ch coupler (fitted c. 2000 and activated by piston with warning light, rather than by drawstop). This device has a number of useful applications - particularly as one could argue that this instrument is not really a four manual organ, but rather a very large III+P and a 13 stop I+P sharing a single console. Manchester Cathedral Organ has a provision of manual-on-manual couplers and 73 note soundboards that might be considered generous on a mature symphonic instrument in the USA.

Words or music?