Paul Morley

I'd venture that anyone who's ever been a crematorium organist finds even the playing marathon that is Christmas a walk a the park!!

Regarding Christ Church, Wharton, The builder in question is thankfully no longer practising. I supplied the NPOR update, only the edited highlights made it onto the website. I belive that the instrument is now all but abandoned, a clavinova being used for Sunday services - a considerable improvement, no doubt! Cheers, Paul.

Hi, I'm sure that all of us can think of a paricularly disgusting organ that we would like to nominate as 'worst ever'. However, I'd hazard a guess that what all of these nominees have in common is that they have either been radically rebuilt, or else were constructed from the remains of an older insrument. I would be very surprised if any organ in its original condition, no matter how weedy, boring, sluggish of action, badly balanced etc, could ever make a worse sound than a truly incompetently executed rebuild. For what it's worth, my nomination in this category is Christ Church, Wharton, Cheshire (NPOR D08196). Christmas greetings to all, Paul.

Thanks for the clarification, Pierre. I find it quite interesting to consider that double pedalboards belong to the era of Mendelssohn rather than that of Reger. Regards, Paul.

Do any double pedalboards still exist in Gemany/Austria, or have they all been reformed out of existence?

I'm not sure that it is necessarily getting more difficult to practice. I think that there have probably always been churches where the attitude of the incument/PCC beggars belief. Twenty five or so years ago I remember reading an adverisment for an organist's post (note organist, not assistant, occasonal funeral-filler-in or suchlike) in which he chuch authorites proudly procalimed that... 'possible use of the organ for private practice will be considered' Why did or do we bother?

It could be argued that the RCO is not so much elitist as snobbish - witness the college's continuing refusal to acknowledge the holding of any diplomas other than its own in members' yearbook entries.

Sounds intriguing, Barry. I'll have to get myself over to hear for myself.

Hi, Some thoughts on John Compton's work, from one with no specialist knowldge or expertise whatsoever... I remember attending a recital in the early 80's at St George's, Stockport, shortly after the organ had been shorn of most of it's Comptom additions and returned more or less to its late 19C specification (give or take a few mutations and pedal stops). I perused the the programme notes and nodded sagely as they waxed eloquent about how the mistakes of the past had been rectifed, the organ had been retored to its former glory, it used to be far too loud anyway, etc. Then the (first rate) recitalist began his programme. There was, it must be said, clarity and cohesion to the sound, and there were some lovely registrations to be heard. However, full organ sounded as if it was being borne on the wind from the centre of Manchester. One might say that something had been lost in the pusuit of artisitc purity. I was interestd by the comments made on the effctiveness of JC's extended mixtures. The only monster Compton I've ever played myself is the west end organ at Derby Cathedral. I ended up playing a Bruhns praeludum after the service, mainly because the verger had warned me that ther Director of Music was in the congregation and that he got annoyed with visiting organists who over-did the tubas. The Gt plenum turned out to be a wonderful, sparkly sound that was superbly fit for task.