David Coram

One of the most useful things about my schooling was the insistence of the D of M that I should learn the viola. Far better a strange clef than all those silly ledger lines.

Ventils don't control the musical agenda. But Franck and Widor and Vierne, amongst many others, wrote their music specifically to exploit the registration aids available, and that makes it unlike quite any other nation's music. In Franck, you almost always have the Oboe out, and when you add something it's quite often reeds and Mixtures together. No Rollschwellers or general pistons here, and had there been then Franck's 3 Chorales could not possibly have been as they now are - it's all about the ventils. The side point about Willis and CC compass (and I love GG too, Tony) was to suggest that others at that time tended to approach things in a more conservationist fashion. Hill or G&D confronted with an old England or Smith or Jordan might well have made a case for preserving some of the material or character of what was there already. (Walker did just that, at Bristol in 1907 when the city was not far off its wealthiest.) Willis led the way in chucking it all out and starting again. How often do you come across a Willis I rebuild? (This isn't meant to be derogatory - if you've got the orders, fulfil 'em - that's the way Ken Tickell does it, and it's only very rarely he branches out into rebuilding.)

I think you have only to think of the very different means of controlling organs (ventils, for instance) to realise that this could not have been the case. If it hadn't been for Willis, we'd still quite likely have cathedrals full of GG-compass instruments on the crossing...

This works exceptionally well.

hmm... if you cast your mind back over organ history, you will realise that the famous names who have been amongst the most radical (some might say disrespectful) in their treatment of the tonal work of others have been - Henry Willis I and III, Arthur Harrison, John Compton... any more for this list? And getting at the slider seals - yes, pipes then rackboard then upperboard and the slider will just lift away, assuming the stop action just slots through a hole (it might be clamped). Don't do upperboard screws back up too tight (assess as you undo, but by your description of the stop action they're too tight already), wind the screws back in the holes to find the thread before doing back in, use the same screw in the same hole. Get shot of all the dirt and let airborne dust settle before you go down to the depths. A day's work in total, aside from the time to get hold of the slider seals and let the glue dry (don't use PVA!). If that (getting hold of the seals) is going to take a couple of weeks or more, mark up a bit of hardboard, drill holes and put it back together to give yourself a permanent 16'. Whether you do or don't, vac out the chest again at the time of reassembly to shift any grot off the pallet before it has the chance to be compressed in and cause problems. An organ builder who charges about £300-£350 for a day's tuning would probably do the job for that.

Darndest thing - mine too - Romsey Abbey shop - or myself - or animalsongs.co.uk if you want to hear it played with a piano! What a small world. On a serious note, it would be interesting to set up an experiment like this in the way that Collins/Padgham/Parker did with temperaments a few years back - same pieces, same organist, different tunings, audience mixed of those who knew about organs and those who didn't. (Needless to say, equal temperament did quite badly - because, objectively speaking, it's a foul tuning.) Happily, there is a lot more discussion on Romantic temperaments, particularly in relation to pianos, in the last year or so. There has been a recent Liszt recording in an old temperament (though they chose rather a curious one) in which a particular moment in one of the pieces (which usually sounds vile) suddenly makes total sense as if heard for the first time. A fascinating field which far too many still turn their nose up at.

More simples still is to have a look down the hole with a torch - and the one next to it - while someone works the stop. The leak at the fully on position certainly suggests a slider seal has got crushed sideways - it happens. You can get paper sprung ones from KA but we prefer to make our own. If it's happened once, and you've got to dismantle the whole thing to replace one, you may as well replace the whole lot. More by PM.

There is also the possibility of something between the pallet and the block, maybe a dislodged slider seal. Less likely than a split, but possible nonetheless.

I knew you'd say that, and let me be right there in order to point out that carbon fibre is desperately expensive, as you say, but also somewhat brittle and fragile. I wouldn't use it for anything with a mechanical job to do because of its propensity to just let go and shear or shatter when encountering any kind of lateral force, of the sort which frequently happens when a tuner misplaces an elbow on the way in or out of the case. Wood forgives, is cheap, and has plenty enough strength for me!

I don't suppose it matters, since a great majority of household names are now brand names retained in commemoration of their founder rather than the name of the current proprietor. It would be a strange situation if Marks & Spencer or Ford were compelled to change their name every time there was a change of management. If someone buys the firm and all the intellectual property, records etc relating to that firm, then they have every right to be unquestioningly recognised as the head of that firm and all its brand identity. Do you know the last Henry very well?

Really? Where's it available from?

A length of 2" mahogany will be a darned sight more stable and much less noisy than anything which has been come along since. Eliminate unwanted movement and eliminate (ok, minimise) friction and make it out all of wood with phosphor bronze ends and leather buttons, and you will have a solution which never goes wrong. Cue MM to sell the benefits of carbon fibre trackers...

Can anyone point me towards diagrams/line drawings of different sorts of organ pipe? (Or would Mr Mander's drawing office like to make me a set?!) Preferably copyright free. For use in a CD booklet.

Thank goodness for that. I do this on the manuals on both occasions (loud and soft). Apart from not wanting to wait for 16' stops to speak, I find that the time it takes to move the hand down the keyboard makes for exactly the right amount of playfulness. I tried to persuade one of my organ scholars (who is now a Dr of Music) of this but he wouldn't have it.

Heaven forfend. It would be really nice if there were a CD available, perhaps called The Organ of Wimborne Minster, as an example of a 1960s Walker.

For large services I occasionally run a bog standard Maplin microphone into the main PA system. Our big Harrison is very remote from the nave (one regular contributor here has described it as having its own postcode) but overwhelming in the choir - the exact opposite of your situation. All you need is a little bit of sound there - loss of frequencies etc doesn't really matter. It's rather like using the nave organ at somewhere like Sherborne - all you need is the Stopped Diapason to provide enough 3D for the congregation to have confidence. Why not recover a little redundant 1 manual and put it on a platform? Something with 4 or 5 stops needn't be very space consuming.

My main delight was to hear that the CD of a Walker with the indifferent performance wasn't mine!* (* = The Organ of Romsey Abbey, VIF Records 2007, available from Blackwells in Oxford, many cathedral bookstalls and www.davidcoram.co.uk)

Apologies to those who think this self-promotion is too much to take. I am aware that Paul D and others refrain from anything of the kind. If I cause offence or have crossed the line, please say so and I will delete. However - next week, I go back to Romsey Abbey with David Owen Norris, piano, and Richard Briers (of Good Life, Monarch of the Glen etc) to record Peter and the Wolf (organ), Babar the Elephant (Poulenc, played by Norris on the new Mason and Hamlin piano at the Turner Sims), and finally Carnival of the Animals arranged for piano and organ duet. As you can imagine, this is quite a hefty one to finance, and hence I have managed to suppress my reticence sufficiently to see if anyone might like to join the lengthy queue to pre-order one at this location - Animal Songs Thanks for reading and I really hope not to have broken any rules. D

OK, respected maker, turn of the (19-20) century, building without central heating other than a few under-pew heaters, maintained at steady temp in Winter.

Can't make my mind up. Left hand - they are a historic abomination and an excuse for poorly-engineered soundboards. Right hand - they work. Which wins?

Yes.

Interesting that you mention Paul Fritts. Through the good offices of DHM, I had the opportunity to play the following: University of Puget Sound St Mark's Cathedral, Seattle - small organ (as well as the big one next door) PLU Ascension The first of these was ostensibly the oldest in style but still did everything. The second of these was by far the cleverest - I can't imagine a better instrument for the space. His work on the big Flentrop in the cathedral is spectacular. The last two represent the sort of things Peter Collins and others have tried to do, but Fritts gets the nail on the head in a way nobody else has - user friendly, varied, terrific. In each case, I had some free time to mess about and choose concert repertoire, and did not feel the least bit limited by any of them. I then had to accompany an English choral evensong on minimal rehearsal on each, and again found absolutely no limitations, though DHM will probably say that there was too much adaptation of the notes in order to be able to get around the colours of the instrument. Spirit of the Lord on a Cavialle-Coll? Can't imagine anything better. Reed ventils to each manual are exactly what you need for the big bit in the middle. The rest is easy to hand register so long as your violas, French horns and harps are on different manuals.

You certainly have a way with words.

Which statement in particular? There have been several.

Ah, but "living art MUST embrace the contemporary,and anything less is mere pretention at best, and third rate at worst." MM said so. Turning a Hill into a Hope-Jones is just the sort of thing you get lumbered with from time to time when you discard the "mere pretension" of acknowledging what is behind you when seeking to move forward. I expect they all thought it would summon forth a very great deal of Musical Flexibility. Anyway, "there are enough Hill organs around" - aren't there?