Paul Morley

Similar sentiments from one who spent 21 years in state eduaction...

I've heard it said (by someone who knew what he was talking about) the the swell pedals on ACC's earlier consoles were designed and placed to be used largely if not exclusively by the registrant, and that the player would have to be on the tall side (at lest by mid 19C standards) to operate it with comfort.

My first organ teacher used the Widor/Schweitzer Bach edition. It might be interesting to know if this edition is still published in France.

1) I don't know about the first example, but I would have thought that one could reasonably consider Bruhns' Praeludium in g minor (written in the 1690s) to be a prelude and fugue. 2) My chronology/history/scholarship may be way out here, but it occurs to e that JSB abandoned the the writing of sectional praeludiae and began writing two movement works following his appointment to Weimar in 1708.

Both Jane Parker-Smith and Nicolas Kynaston have recorded the BWV 565 with the echoes played in this manner. I acquired both recordings during my teens, was struck immediately with the musicality and logic doing things this way, and resolved to do the same when I reached the stage when I could play the piece myself. Some time later, when I did get round to learning BWV 565, I discussed the matter with my teacher. His response was something along the lines of 'Oh yes, I see what you mean. It's obvious when you think about it. I wonder why no-one's done it before.'

A predecessor of mine at Nantwich lost his wedding ring under the pedalboard and did not rediscover it for about ten years.

Deleted - rendered irrelevant by Philip's subsequent post.

Two possibilities come to mind when considering a possible rationale behind Taylor's unorthodox consoles:- 1. They were a marketing strategy to make the instruments appear 'cutting edge' in mechanical terms. 2. They were an attempt to ensure that maintenance and refurbishment contracts remained with the company, as other builders might be wary of working with non-standard components. Thoughts, anyone?

Several (at least 15) years ago I went on a day course run by the RSCM in Manchester. Course tutors inluded Gordon Stewart and a couple of others (whose names now escape me) of similar musical stature. The 20 or so of us were divided into 3 groups - ABRSM grade VII +, intermediate and beginners/reluctants. The ABRSM grade VII + group were taken to St Philip's, Salford for sensitive, helpful but robust criticism of our playing of Bach chorale preludes. The intermediates were taken on an organ-crawl round the city. The reluctants were let loose on the cathedral organ for the day.

Will, I agree entirely that it is absolutely vital to encourage reluctant players. I would suggest that it's not reluctant players (often, as has already been noted, faithful, committed, enthusiastic people who love what they do but lack training and experience) who damage the organ's reputation in the eyes of the general public, so much as those who are rather less skilled than they themselves realise, but are often anything but reluctant.

In my last post, I have to admit to having been fairly laid back about friends or relatives playing for weddings, reasoning that, even if some unorthodox sounds were to issue from the organ, those present would know that the offending player was a guest, not a member of the home team. I do remember after one such occasion however, opening the organ on the Sunday morning to find small pieces of card with letter names blu-tacked to some of the pedals and post-its with the words 'top', 'middle' and 'bottom' attached to the department labels The family had informed me that their friend was 'ARCO standard'. If that really was the case, then maybe I should re-take I did tend to be more keen ask questions about the guest organists sometimes brought in to play for the annual services of local groups. We had a lot of these – every possible size and type of organisation from the LEA (they forgot to book the cathedral one year) to the local Civil War re-enactment society. Dodgy playing at one of these occasions could have reflected badly (if unfairly) on myself or one of my colleagues.

Slightly off topic, but the the first two lines of 'Divine Mysteries' can be used as a counter-melody over the first two lines of the refrain of 'The servant King'. For my money, 'The Muppet Show' theme is a vast improvement on 'Hatherop Castle'.

A happy and peaceful Christmas to all, and many thanks to our generous hosts. Paul.

A former colleague of mine used to say of his countrymen, 'The Welsh are not born - they are hewn out of the solid rock.' Clearly, solid rock isn't what it used to be.

See 'console' section below. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N09343 I can confirm that this is accurate, as I updated the survey in 2004.

It would be interesting to know how common this practice was.

What would be annoying would be if DH was paid more than JSW for his contribution...

Wasn't the arty stuff on these DVDs courtesy of Damien Hirst?

It should be borne in mind that one can encounter late 19C/early 20C organs in which the mechanism is so arranged that drawing the undulant also draws the string and cancelling the string also cancels the undulant. This was standard practice on the organs of Alexander Young (where the stops themselves move) and can be found on the organs of Conacher (where the linkage is made at the sliders and there is no visible indication at the console). Clearly, if the linkage is at the sliders rather than at the console, then the ranks must be placed side by side.

Is this not the case at ND de P?

Wonderful. Many thanks, Nigel.

Wonderful playing..I would have thought that the organ console is more like c.1915 than c.1875. Also, was the piece being played the Ives Variations on 'America'.(1891)?

Peter, Superoctave couplers - Early 19C, I think. There's a paragraph in Sumner which quotes from an organ builder's description of the device. I'm afraid that I can't be more specific, as all my books are in boxes pending a house move. P

Best one I've ever seen, Widor Toccata and Fugue (J S Bach)

I agree, R. A lamentable stare of affairs. However, the 'guitar mob' can't be blamed for the dereliction of the St Dunstan's Willis. Anglo-Catholic neglect is just as ruinous as Charismatic neglect!