David Coram

Ian Partridge singing Peter Warlock - either The Curlew, or a good selection of songs, or both Wilfred Brown singing Finzi's Dies Natalis Most of Brian Wilson's output from Pet Sounds onwards A sprinkling of Lonnie Donegan (I know, but I can't resist the stuff) Hurford's recording of the Six Trio Sonatas (I know, but they're compelling without any of the quirks of Koopman) The complete Goon Shows (and you can download the whole lot for about 10 quid from a site called something like Radio Sunday) The complete Hancock's Half Hours (likewise) Then that leaves me torn between Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen... actually, I'll have them both, and leave the Bach behind.

Well, I thought that, but the wedgies drop very fast indeed. Trunks are ample sized rectangles, all very trad and solidly made. No schwimmers or concussions. Roller valves all working as well as can be expected and opening everything up about as far as it can go without crashing into the Swell action. The effect varies considerably depending how long the instrument has been switched on - and, possibly to some extent, the prevailing temperature - which has led us to suspect a seriously under-performing blower rather than the more obvious solution you suggest. According to people who've known the instrument for many years, it was all fine when the instrument was new.

Who's making what these days? I need to replace an inadequate Laukhuff unit 1 1/4HP which seems unable to drive a classical instrument of fewer than 20 stops through two generous wedge bellows. Even individual stops sag. I've looked into Meidinger but they appear not to be making their own gear anymore. We've had a BOB unit recently and not been very satisfied with it - bulky, extremely noisy. We have 3-phase. Where's the place to go?

Again, interesting to hear different views. I feel that we have learned a very great deal about vocal health in the past 10 years, let alone 25, and both adults and children are pushed a very great deal harder than they were, but usually for shorter 'careers' - the days of boys going on until they're 15 whether their voices have held up or not are long gone. There may be some validity in the belief that standards generally have improved across the parts. (For an example, you only have to look at the choral writing of people like Heathcote Statham to realise that he couldn't rely on his altos to have a decent sound above middle G, so he used to miss them out when everyone else was in unison.) Routine repertoire by Kelly, Tippett, Britten, Chilcott et al is, frankly, harder to sing well than Walmisley in B minor. More cathedrals employ singing specialists like Hilary Jones and Jenevora Williams to get more out of the people they've got. A lay clerk is less likely to be the bloke who runs the post office and more likely to be someone straight out of the RCM. Recordings and broadcasts bring yet more pressure. Lives generally are busier, there is more pollution, churches are more frequently heated and dry in the winter, people generally drink less and spend much more time indoors. I think it's time to accept that discreet hydration is a necessity, but that's just me.

I'm rather intrigued about this, and wonder what other choir types think about it. Personally I take the view that just as cars need oil, voices need water - especially untrained or partially trained voices, frequently self-confessed amateurs, sometimes children, especially early in the morning, and very especially having had little or nothing in the way of a constructive warm-up. I'd rather see water in the stalls than hear strained voices straining further.

What made you stop?

Indeed it does. But, it's in a university, and it has most things that most C18th English organs would have, including quasi-trigger swell. And neither is there anything in Oxford (unless Keble is finished and in yet) on which a typical English organist will feel comfortable accompanying a typical English choral evensong without even having to think twice about registration. I'd love to know how to describe a Bassoon but the ones I have met have been distinctly throatier than the Hautboy, which (where they have appeared in the same instrument) have been a good deal less fruity than a Victorian example might be. The one at Jesus might be described as 'unapologetic'.

Jesus College, Oxford

What? Not an organ?

There's a set of reeds on there too. I'm quite tempted to buy two of the rubbish ones for 30 quid each and amalgamate into a II/P. I could even make a detached console electric action version if anybody really wants one! And I can guarantee that all the reeds will be en chamade within the case.

Presumably you get a quicker attack on suction, rather like the difference between exhaust and charge pneumatic?

That's the sort of thing. So, if cleaned up second-hand II/P examples with new springs were available for sub-£2000, you'd be recommending them as practice instruments?

No, I don't much care for the sound either, PCND - but in terms of making music I much prefer it to just about any electronic. We happen to have a II/P Rushworth job which we are storing for a customer but have installed as a temporary organ in a couple of places where the main instrument is out for cleaning and overhaul. I had never before heard one in a generous acoustic and it was more than competent to occupy the shoes of the generous 3m Bryceson and Ellis it supplanted, at least temporarily. In terms of volume, most are choked right back with various flaps and sound-absorbing cloth panels and so on to make them domestically palatable. With such encumbrances removed, the noise can be fearsome at close quarters.

Taking for granted for one moment that we generally agree on a pipe organ being the best option, and that live music which causes actual vibrations in the air is superior for accompanimental purposes to recorded music (whether from a CD or an electronic organ)... ... why is it that harmoniums and American organs are not regarded as the automatic second choice, being (as they indisputably are) at least the equal of the electronic in terms of maintenance, cheapness, compactness and longevity?

... any chance of some snippets?

Fortunately, you're not the judge of that. What an incredible statement!

If Hill had found a Mixture with a Tierce throughout, odds are he'd have left it that way. I take it you don't know whether or not there's a vacant row on the rackboard?

Oh, well if it was moved, then I would spend every penny moving it back! Especially if George Street provided his customary outhouse in a distant ditch for the organ to go.

I'd go with the Great Double if there really is space on the soundboard - but how likely is it that the space could have been vacated by the Cremona alluded to? I would also re-complete the Gt Mixture as 12.15.17 (I presume the two ranks NPOR gives in the treble is as a result of one being removed, as seems to have been fashionable). The Stopped Bass should probably be called just that, but knowing Wadsworth anything would be possible. With F compass and non-overhanging keyboards it would be a reasonable guess that the action just needs some time setting up *properly*, something which virtually nobody seems able to do. It would seem unusual for the action to have been replaced, especially without the opportunity being taken to provide extra notes to G, which can quite often be fitted onto a soundboard. In restoration terms I would make a more appropriate pedalboard. The Trumpet voicing can be sorted. The Flute compass ought probably to stay as it is, since it's likely that the racking space for a bottom octave has already been allocated to the Lieblich Gedact. The chorus is as complete as the maker intended it to be, so I would certainly not be adding anything else. Wadsworth made fine quality organs.

I presume you mean John Budgen, formerly of Suffolk? A very great deal of the Bath Abbey voicing was left untouched. An organ builder friend of mine who also lives and works in Wiltshire voiced a lot of the new stuff in 1974 as the culmination of his apprenticeship - in particular, the former Gemshorn 8 and Blockflute 4 of the Great, and what there was of the Positive. Marlborough College is quite a mixed bag. The beautifully made bits are beautifully made, but there are a few little irritations like a phenomenally slow Solo Clarinet (it's a free reed and simply hopeless) and a fairly soft Tuba. I personally dislike the very brassy voicing of the Swell reeds, and the Great diapason chorus - if asked to name that stop, you'd say Harmonic Flutes. The large Mixture on the Great is among the finest I have heard anywhere and makes the whole of the rest of the chorus work superbly well.

And me. The orgue de choeur with the choir and the Grande Orgue at the west end is not a new idea. Congregations sing much better with a sound coming from behind them, so it's ideal for everyone.

Fair dos. I thought it had only been done over in about 1994 but perhaps that was only a superficial job.

From the 'before' pictures it looks like it has another 30 years in it yet!

Indeed. And it sounded much, much better in the building, but worse at the console, before it was tamed by... not John Coulson, the other one from Bristol who almost rhymes and whose name completely escapes me. For me, it's (well, it was) such a musical organ that I was quite content to play just about anything on it, certainly up to and including Mendelssohn.

Perhaps the tune to "Jesus jesus" and "Hallelujah" is one and the same?