ajsphead

So many to choose from depending on your choice of flavours. How about Malmesbury Abbey, St Mary Bridgnorth, St Nicholas Kings Lynn, St Mary Little Walsingham, St George Letchworth, University of Sussex meeting house, Farnborough Abbey, St Nicholas Gosforth or for 2 manuals +1 St Mary Beaminster.

The Downes/HNB had 1 flue sound board at the upper level behind the West case, 1 behind the East case with the reeds in the middle.

Couple of thoughts re the pedal 32 flues. I did wonder if one would be a "polyphone" and the other a "cube" so remaining independent. Also, I always wondered if a firm would be insightful enough to develop the polyphone into a 2 note unit to go all the way to CCCC overcoming the limitations related to scaling. Scaling the existing Trompette Harmonique into a Pedal Bombarde ? Only thing I would wish for is the crowning V+ rank Cymbale which Comptons did so expertly from a variety of ranks none of which you would have thought were great candidates in their own right.

Yes, a change of stated intent, and if this is what the builders and the cathedral were working towards then it's very understandable. There's nothing new here but the melding of different philosophies is certainly new for the UK and well done to all concerned for breaking the mould of the traditional British cathedral organ, much like Downes did in '71. It's extremely enlightened and given the overall brief, very logical. my only query would be where the position of nave division will be.

Had it been played on a harmonium where would we be then? Surely the point of the thread was the piece of music (as per the title) not the medium upon which it was conveyed.

Thank you Colin. Perhaps I was not as precise as I could have been. If I tune an interval at A440 from C to G for argument's sake in temperament "T", the rate of beat will be N. Agreed, if I then tune C to G at A415 in the same temperament, the rate of beat will remain N. However when I listen to the interval C to G perceived at A440 but tuned at A415, ie C#/G#, the rate of beat and hence the aural perception of that interval will be different. My point being that our ears have become so accustomed to hearing sounds at or about A440 that our perception of "out of tuneness" will be very different to that of Wesley's.

I wonder if it is important at this stage to add a second line of debate, hitherto touched on but not stated explicitly. It's impossible to discuss temperament without discussing pitch, the two are, obviously intertwined. Was Wesley's F# the same as our F# now. He could easily have been hearing the F# minor Larghetto in what to us might be anywhere from F minor to G minor. Without pitch as a reference point, it's really hard to discuss temperament with any certainty.

It's good that this issue is generating debate, the issues are both musically and historically complex and clearly motivational. Is all art worth saving because it is art? What is an organ conceptually and where does the balance of prevailing argument lie? My own sense is that the school is served by intelligent professionals who have, I would suspect, debated these very same issues before agreeing to spend large sums of money with some knowledge of the words that may utter forth from people on the subject. They have their reasons and a right to express them in the manner they have chosen to do. My only concern is that the instrument should have remained whole and been transplanted as an entity which it clearly is.

Duck Son & Pinker Bristol was in the arcade in the Broadmead shopping area of the city.

And so much better at Guildford now than they were originally.

By looking at it.

Well, personal opinion I know but it's never done very much for me. I do think it has been the recipient of more than it's fair share of circumstances conspiring against it, but it's a well made modern organ.

So: 3 new keyboards, new pedalboard, new solid state transmission, new capture system with thumb and toe pistons, about 30-35 new stop solenoids +/- slider solenoids +/- new chest magnets and all new wiring for £60K. None of this should be affected by heating systems except warping the keyboards/pedalboard if in direct line of fire from blown hot air. However CB is correct, without precise detail and an inspection it's impossible to tell. I would suggest that you call an independent organ adviser to inspect and report.

You say it was converted from t/pn (I assume) to e/pn. If so how much of it was converted? At £60K I wonder. New e/pn note actions and solid state transmissions just shouldn't go wrong in this timescale if installed correctly.