headcase
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Posts posted by headcase
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Messiaen - I would suggest a difficult one with both Dame Gillian and Jennifer Bate but for me it has to be Olivier Latry at Notre Dame.
Louis Thiry on Calliope, recorded in Geneva (?) c1972. The wind gives out spectacularly at the end of Dieu Parmi Nous ! Metzler organ, I think.
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Duruflé Organ Works - Olivier Latry (St Etienne du Mont), Todd Wilson (St Thomas Aquinas, Dallas, Texas) John Scott (St Paul's)
Jongen - Sonata Eroica, David Sanger (Bath Abbey)
Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre, Nicolas Kynaston (Altenburg Dom)
Bach/Vivaldi - Concerto in D minor, Daniel Chorzempa (Arlesheim)
Reubke - Sonata Psalm 94, Simon Preston (Westminster Abbey), Roger Fisher (Chester Cathedral)
Langlais - Te Deum, David Lepine (Coventry Cathedral)
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The tuner who first taught me, always used cotton wool to 'wad-off' mixture ranks. This always seemed a slow and clumsy method, especially if the pipes are planted really close together.
Some years later, I was shown a much simpler method - using small paper cones. Easy to make - just roll a sheet of paper into a small cone, tape it up. A few of these in differing sizes can be left in the job. Easy to drop in and remove without disturbing anything else.
Cheaper than a meter !
H
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...but even Bach recognised the value of all the keys sounding more or less in tune, and wrote music that way, as per the 48 P & F's.
IMM
Is that to imply that Bach wrote the 48 for an instrument tuned in ET ??
H
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Hi
In my (admittedly limited) experience, cone-tuned pipes stay in tune for years on end - and if they do shift, it's usually dirt - a quick clean round the mouth and pitch is restored. However, I would want to know the organ builder's thinking in adding a cone-tuned rank to a chorus of slide-tuned pipes.
Every Blessing
Tony
I can think of plenty of slide-tuned flue work that stands in tune from year to year, because the soundboards, wind-system and environment are all just about perfect.
If your 2ft is being added to a job with 'robbing' in the soundboard grid, pressure drops from the wind system, a slider that never settles in the same position twice in succession, an upperboard that walks off on its own, then slide tuning might be better employed and will allow a tuner to make adjustments when needed without fear over time of doing damage to the pipework.
H
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Kidderminster Town Hall. A venerable old Hill job, with some astonishingly beautiful stops, including a Cone Gamba on the Great that I could happily have played on all day. I haven't seen it since about 1983. Anyone know how it fares these days ?
H
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The factory also made, so far as I know, every single component which went into an organ, with the exception of blowers. That makes Compton almost unique in the modern age. (MM)
Not entirely true. I used to have a tenor/retired organist in my church choir who worked, as a young man, for a joinery firm in Acton, R J Cattle. He told me that Cattle's made many of the console carcasses for Compton. I did a bit of research and found that the firm did indeed exist and in very close proximity to Compton's works, information which I passed on to Ivor Buckingham.
Does anyone know if the loss of the Selby Abbey Compton organ in the fire of 1906 was attributed to the organ itself or purely coincidental ? The organ was only installed for 22 days.
H
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Although Stan used a 4' Principal (middle octave) to lay the scale in the normal way on a church organ, whenever we tuned a Wurlitzer he always laid the scale on the Viole rank at 8' pitch, from tenor A to Middle A. I never asked him why, but always assumed that this was the way Wurlitzer's wanted it done. Can any Wurlitzer specialist advise? Perhaps Ed Millington Stout (from San Francisco) can confirm or deny this?
Geoffrey Morgan (Christchurch)
A colleague of mine commented that Stan may well have used the Viole as his tuning reference because it would have been the softest voice on which to lay the bearings accurately. Laying a scale on heavy-pressure diapasons, in enclosed chambers would be pretty uncomfortable on the ears. Not so sure why he worked between A - a. Piano tuners were generally taught to work F- f, checking 3rds and 6ths as well, a discipline that some tuners are not aware of but perhaps ought to be.
I believe that Stan was widely regarded as a very capable player. I have heard it said that the incumbent of the Dome Brighton was somewhat peeved by his post-tune checkover !
H
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If anyone would like a pdf of Garth Edmundson's Von Himmel Hoch and/or Eudoxia, please PM me, leaving an email address. I transcribed them in capella years ago.
Von Himmel Hoch is the 'other' one - much easier apart from some fairly frantic pedalling but makes a very satisfying and ebullient closing voluntary. Eudoxia is a piquant moto perpetuo, sparkly man 8 & 2ft with the tune in the pedals @ 4ft pitch.
Both well worth the effort of learning - Grade VI-VII I would guess.
H
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St George's, Beckenham. IV manual with a very healthy Tuba. Nigel Groome of the RSCM is DOM and very friendly. Church is 1 min walk from Beckenham BR and Croydon tramlink. Not over generous acoustic but BBC do use it for the occasional broadcast.
H
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I have a collection of LP's that I may have to part with. Mostly organ but some orchestral/choral/vocal/chamber music as well.
Is there anyone on the forum interested in the collection ( I can email a catalogue ) or does anyone know of someone who buys/sells specialist organ LP's ? I have about 120 in all.
PM me if interested, please and include an email address if you want details of the collection.
H
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Thanks to those who responded to my request.
I now have the information required.
H
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I urgently need a copy of the RSCM table of recommended rates of pay for organists/choir directors.
If anyone has a copy, preferably in emailable form, could you please PM me ?
Thank you.
H
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I too use Capella. I have always found it simple to use, very flexible and not expensive.
Also, almost the entire works (not just organ)of J S Bach are available in Capella format at
http://www.tobis-notenarchiv.de/bach
H
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Making idle chit-chat with the vicar of a rather deprived suburban parish, I casually enquired if the organ got much use, for weddings and so on.
He mulled that one over for a moment and replied, "We don't get many actual weddings...we do get a lot of preparations..."
Oh dear. 8-)
H
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Compton stop-key consoles featured a very useful "double touch" stop-cancelling mechanism, where additional pressure on a stop-tab would cancel all other stops of the same department. I played one like this for a few years, and I can never understand why it didn't catch on, because it made lightning changes of registration possible.
Compton DRAWSTOP consoles sometimes featured second-touch. An extra pull on a drawstop would cancel all other stops on that division. I have heard it said that the H&H console at Kings had this feature many years ago - and that the console carried a nameplate acknowledging a Walker patent for the mechanism.
Maybe someone can substantiate that ?
H
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Would be interested to know of any 1/4HP blowers for sale, in good order.
CFM requirement for organ intended is in the region of 275.
P.M.
I saw one on Ebay yesterday, in Staplecross, Sussex, for £50 or thereabouts. 1/4 hp Discus blower with cabinet.
I'll look again and maybe post the link.
H
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Each of us will have individual artists for whom we would willingly turn out (even for a 'mystery' programme) because we believe in their skill, their powers of interpretation and are more or less guaranteed a memorable experience.
Personally, I would not turn out to hear Cameron Carpenter play anything, having watched a variety of his Youtube clips. This kind of superficial performance holds no enduring pleasure for me. Once one has witnessed it once, that's it !
I find the same problem with certain instruments - the RFH being one - once heard, there's no allure that would draw me back to hear it again and again. I will confess to to not having heard it yet in its rebuilt guise. I may be tempted when it's completed.
H
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NPOR lists a three manual at St Patrick Soho Square, with a grade two Historic Organ certificate - or did I mis-read something?
If the entry IS correct, this looks like a sad loss. A II/P 1793 John Gray - became III/P 1882 Hill.
H
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Does anyone know anything about this lady :
She is currently in the UK, recording an arrangement/transcription of Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet.
The Mendelssohn in the clip seems cleanly performed, though to me not the most thrilling choice of work to transcribe.
H
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A colleague of mine tells me that this III/P organ...
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=P00479
...is redundant. I have no vested interest in this, except that my friend tells me the job is in good general condition, has a tin front, and is constructed in an almost modular fashion, which would lend itself to alteration for a new situation.
If anyone is interested, please PM me and I will pass on contact details.
H
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Many thanks for that.
My diminutive colleague was sent there as a tuner's lad. He arrived at the barracks and had to ask a guardsmen directions to the chapel - which he misinterpreted, setting off in the wrong direction. Partway across the quadrangle he was halted by the bellowing officer 'Oi, you. Short**se!'
H
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A colleague of mine was fondly remembering the little Hill organ in Chelsea Barracks. The NPOR says it was removed by Cousans in 2007, for export.
Does anyone know where it went ?
H
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Thanks for posting the photos, Nigel. It looks magnificent.
H
Descriptions
in The Organ
Posted
Osmond's of Taunton described their 'Priory' instruments as having 'devotional tone'.
Anything but...IMHO