bombarde32

I remember playing an organ in East Sussex which had the following rather strange specification, which, admittedly, on paper looks absolutely ghastly. In the reverberant church it sounded fantastic. The Viol on the Swell would do duty as a small reed in volume and tonality. Without the octave and suboctave couplers, this organ would have been a lot less effective. I remember it sounding far bigger than it ever had any right to do! GREAT ORGAN Open Diapason 8 (BIG) Clarabella 8 Dulciana 8 Octave Coupler S-Gt SWELL ORGAN Leiblich Gedackt 8 Viol d'Orchestre 8 Concert Flute 4 Sub Octave Octave PEDAL ORGAN Leiblich Bourdon 16 G-P S-P

David - I have a 3 manual 58 stop Wyvern Digital organ (1 year old) which I hire out. It has an ecletic spec. which was recently used by Romsey Choral Society for the Bernstein Chichester Psalms and the O'Regan Dorchester Canticles. It was also used by the Swindon Choral Society for the Widor Messe for two organs and choirs (op.36) It has an extensive audio array with 2200W RMS and 13 speaker cabinets. i can arrange transport with no problem, and the organ is fully insured whilst out of my sight!! BTW I am in Southampton email me if it is any good to you! organhire@aol.com

I had heard the she was better on the one-eyed piccolo

Truly inspired, I agree!

More like MOTHER Kelly, of doorstep fame!

There was the time, about three years ago when I was engaged to play at a funeral at a church bordering one of the local council tower blocks. Kick off was due at 11:00am. By 11:05 there was no sign of the family, who were coming under their own steam. A funeral bearer was duly dispached to the tower block address to ascertain the familys' wearabouts. The next thing that happened was a large fire engine speeding, with blues and twos past the church and turning off in the direction of the tower block. We all stood and looked at each other, Wallace and Gromit style. Eventually the funeral bearer returned and informed us that the family had 'got stuck in the bastard lift, mate'. Apparently, the lift was suitable for a maximum of six occupants, and, indeed there were six occupants within, but one of the six (the mother) was 34 stone; the poor lift had decided that enough was enough and ceased operation for the day, getting stuck on the fourteenth floor. Eventually the fire brigade got them out and the funeral service got cracking, an hour and a half late! I couldn't ask for any more money............

.......and many is the pipe organ which has dropped out in the middle of a wedding when the blower contatactor won't stay in. Osmonds are the worst for this, with organs which have their blowers in little 'shed' on the outside of the church a close second! I would say that running outside in the pouring rain (as I have had to do on more than one occasion) is just as awkward - and embarrassing-

This organ makes one of the most exiting sounds I've ever heard.

Fantastic - not many of us would admit to that one Quality, real quality!

Which system? If you are talking about the Phoenix system then you can have as many notes as you like on the manuals play at once - it just depends upon how many stops are put on each tone-card. The new tone cards are twice as large (in memory terms) as the old ones, so it's is extremely unlikely that you would ever find this. However, if the organ is badly designed from the off, then you could exhaust the available memory on the card, and get missing notes. I'm not aware that this has ever happened before, but you may have found the first...... Anyone could find this on any organ (including pipe) when you have to play (as I do today) the organ part for the Karl Jenkins 'the Armed Man' where it calls for the organist to lay both forearms upon the manuals and both feet sideways on the pedalboard, with the organ flat out. Oh dear.......

I agree with you about the keyboards, although like virtually all builders, the keyboard are sourced from Fatar of Italy. Whilst the cheapest keyboards are really horrid, the wooden ones are sublime to play. Although they are horrendously expensive in comparison.

Yes they are, although the range of organs to which you refer are NOT the phoenix generation system although they are still very good! You may specify exactly what you want. Some customers prefer them with the clarinet on the choir and a clarion or a festival trumpet on the Great. The pastorale 220 was an adaptation of an existing Dutch organ, which initally was rather unsatisfactory. It has now been completely re-voiced using British samples, although the stop names are the same, the two instruments are completely different. There will be a Pastoral 226 coming out shortly with a different specification which is going to be along these lines. Pedal Organ (6 Speaking Stops) Sub Bass 16 Octave 8 Bass Flute 8 Choral Bass 4 Mixture (19.22.26.29) IV Bassoon 16 Mono Bass - Great Organ (10 Speaking Stops) Open Diapason 8 Hohl Flute 8 Dulciana 8 Octave 4 Harmonic Flute 4 Twelfth 2-2/3 Fifteenth 2 Cornet (12.15.17) III Mixture (19.22.26.29) IV Trumpet 8 Tremulant - Swell Organ (10 Speaking Stops) Bourdon 16 Stopped Diapason 8 Gamba 8 Voix Célestes (II rks) 8 Flute 4 Nazard 2-2/3 Piccolo 2 Sesquialtera (17.19.22) III Contra Oboe 16 Cornopean 8 Tremulant - Couplers Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Great and Pedal Pistons Combined This will be a lovely instrument where a church has absolutely nowhere to install an external speaker system. There is one in Southampton - it is truly awful (in my opinion) with a cheap and very nasty console. UGH!

It is entirely possible!

You may like it, you may hate it, but no-one can deny that it has spurned a lot of small boys into the world of church music, whether they care to admit it, or not!

Each stop (which will contain a maximum of 61 samples - or 32 for the pedal) is stored on a tone-card. Each tone-card is capable of holding 64MB of samples. Most of the current organs contain at least 10 tone cards, thus equating to 640MB of samples available. The generation is unique to each note of each stop, which is why only ten stops are available on each card. It is possible to get more samples upon a pedal card as you very rarely play more than six notes at once!!!!

Wyvern and Phonenix use the same technology, although the samples are different. The phoenix system is totally different to ALL the other manufacturers which are just sampled instruments, despite various manufacturers' claims. Without getting too technical, the Phoenix system has a different 'clock speed' for every note. All other electronic organs are synchronised to a single clock in the computer which is why when stops are added together, on these instruements, they do not seem to add like pipes. It really doesn't matter how much sampling 'power' you have, if the inital generating system is all synchronised to the one 'clock'. Each note on each stop in a Phoenix system organ is genererated in completely free space, with a completely independent computer, not synchronised or dependant upon any other note or stop. Even on a moderately sized three manual, you will find over 640MB of generating power. This, together with a PROPERLY designed audio system of several hundred watts (often thousands) is what makes the difference!

Did I screw up? Well, I suppose you could call it that. Playing for funeral today I accidentally knocked hymn book off bench onto pedalboard. Carried on playing hymn (well you just can't stop, can you?!) but pedal notes in middle all to cock! It's not easy pedalling a hymn-book! BAH!

I was very sorry to hear of the death of Bill. I first met him as a fresh-faced young teenager when he came to Southampton Guildhall. He was one of the VERY FEW organists which REALLY knew their way around it. His performance of the Littolf was a legend! May he rest in peace.

I've just had the flyer through for this. Programme as follows: Bach: Sinfonia fr. Cantata 29 (trans. M Dupré) Widor: March of the Night Watchman Berlioz: Hangarian March (Trans. Büsser) Alkan: Prière Franck: Choral No. 3 in A Minor Guilmant: Final fr. Sonata No. 1 Dupré: Choral on 'In dulci jubilo'. Rachmaninov: Prelude (not sure which one - prob. the ubiquitous c# Minor) Trans. Vierne Vierne: Final fr. Symphonie No. 3 Latry: "Improvisation". Looks interesting - what do you think?