Contrabombarde

Agree the pointlessness of multiple pistons on small organs - and equally the bewilderment of once being given the keys to a >100 stop 5 manual organ with a grand total of 8, non-adjustable pistons to the entire organ. I was also asked to give a recital on a large three manual with multiple piston memory levels but allowed no practice time beforehand. I picked my repertoire chronologically starting with baroque, and between each of my earlier pieces had to cycle through the memory levels and pistons on each manual until I found one that was roughly increasing volume from 1-8 on each manual. I used that for the later pieces with a reasonable certainty that the pistons were doing something vaguely predictable. In both cases KISS rocks!

Thank goodness someone on the manufacturing side is asking the question! Whilst every organ is different meaning a "one sze fits all" approach won't work, a bit of consistency would be nice. And perhaps a detailed "instruction manual" next to the tuning book for poor visiting organists to read through during the sermon before the service. Personally I dislike discovering that when I push single division pistons it can bring out couplers - I prefer independent control of Swell to Great or Swell Octave for instance - but others might well disagree. Otherwise I risk ending up with for instance Full Swell and Swell Octave being coupled through to Great without Swell Octave to Great being drawn and then Swell (as it has the octave couplers) ends up being louder than Greater. I do like the Tremulant for a particular manual to be available on that manual's divisionals. My favourite "always on" coupler is Great to Pedal combinations coupled, and here there are plenty of variations. One organ I know, when that is activated, brings on great and pedal stops when pedal pistons are pressed, but only great pistons when great pistons are pressed, leaving me wondering why the pedal stops aren't changing. Another fairly large organ I gave a recital on recently appeared not to have a Gt-Ped combs coupler which gave me a registration headache. At the end of the recital the church's organist pointed out a latchable piston under one of the manuals marked something unlikely such as "G", that when pressed in was indeed the much needed Gt-Ped com coupler. And I was playing a piece with wide dynamic range in a certain cathedral recently and at one point hit General Cancel so I could hand register the next section which was very quiet. That section went into full organ, so I hit Great 8 expecting full great and full pedals to come on. Uh-oh, General Cancel had cancelled Gt-Ped combs coupler leaving the pedals to accompany full Great on a bourdon. And try as I might I could not spot where the Gt-Ped com coupler was located (turned out I think to be amidst the Choir stops). My two cents' worth - as I use a variety of Hauptwerk and j-organ virtual organ sample sets at home I am able to switch between quite different organs at the click of a mouse and it certainly takes some getting used to even remembering which side the divisional stops are on for each organ, let alone how different organs implement their combination mechanisms. Indeed if Colin can cope with editing j-organ instruments (open source freeware with lots of freely downloadable organs of various sizes and complexity) it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn to do that and then you can play with it and experiment with all manner of different options to see which ones work best for you.

And with it comes the busiest time of the year for many church musicians. What special services and celebrations are people planning this year? Anything new or novel? At my own church, St Christopher's Springfield in Birmingham we have brought together I believe for the first time, a children's orchestra and adult choir from members of the congregation. We are hosting a Service of Nine Lessons and Carols this coming Sunday at 6pm, following the traditional King's format and readings. There will be a selection of old and brand new carols, some unaccompanied, some accompanied by organ and yet others orchestrated. The service begins with Kreb's "Wachet auf" on organ with cornet solo and ends with some Verdi, recognising the tercentenary and bicentenary respectively of these two composers' births this year. Christmas blessings, Contrabombarde

And you thought Microsoft built dumb cars? You should try the equivalent Apple motoring product: http://members.tripod.com/shadab_shaikh/carsa.html Apologies to any die-hard Microsoft fans, or Apple fans - I hope we can all occasionally poke fun at ourselves harmlessly enough. Being a PC person myself I fail to understand the subtleties of some of the Apple jokes however, which is probably the point....

Two pieces of overlooked news: congratulations to Duncan Boutwood who began in September as Organist and Master of Music, succeeding Tom Edwards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrewsbury_Abbey#Organists_.26_Masters_of_the_Music Meanwhile congratulations to Tom Edwards who has made the move to New South Wales: http://www.stjohnsdeewhy.org.au/people/clergy-staff/

I presume the congregational hymn will be "Eternal Father, strong to save" to "Melita"? Cracking words and fine tune. Plus see this recent thread for more ideas: http://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/3650-nautical-organ-pieces/

I was just mentally humming through how I might do this and accidentally went from C major to A flat major a sixth higher instead of E flat! Last verse key changes do have to be managed with care, especially if there's a risk of the harmonic progression accidentally taking you to something so much higher than the original!

Actually I wasn't just relying on Youtube or Wikipedia when I repeated the error that Wengen and Christmas carol are the same tune - lots of websites mix them up or get them the wrong way round. But yes, two different tunes were written by Walford Davies. For completion I have looked up all the tunes I can find that O little town has been set to, though I suspect there may be more. Christmas carol (WD) - less common than Forest Green but rather beautiful (for some reason we always sung this tune at my old school carol service): http://www.cantatedomino.org/cd/musicfiles/O%20little%20town%20-%20%20Walford%20Davies.pdf Wengen (also WD) - the lesser-known of the two I suspect: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Wengen-1_Walford-Davies.jpg http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Wengen-2_Walford_Davies.jpg Forest Green (Vaughan Williams) - what most people in Britain will know: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/PDF/O_Little_Town_F-Green_24.pdf Nativity (Minke) http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/O_Little_Town-Minke-700.jpg Bethlehem (Barnby) http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/PDF/O_Little_Town-Barnby.pdf (Booth) http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Hutchins/O_Little_Town_322.gif Ephratah (Burnap) http://www.hymntime.com/tch/pdf/e/p/h/Ephratah.pdf (Cunstance) http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/PDF/O_Little_Town_298.pdf (Dunstan) Cornish origin http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/PDF/O_Little_Town-Cornish.pdf (Pettman) http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Pettman_Westminster/Pettman_26-O_Little_Town_Of_Bethlehem.jpg (Ackley) http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Meredith_Tullar/SS_Hymns_1/O_Little_Town_249.jpg St Louis (Redner) - most common version sung in USA http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Coffin-Kingdom-1910/hymnsofthekingdo00unknuoft_Page_082.jpg (Willis) - more commonly sung with the words "It came upon the midnight clear" in the USA http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/PDF/O_Little_Carol_Willis.pdf For a contemporary feel how about Carl Rutti's version: http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/media/files/soundclip/7238_02.wma And finally I just had to include Cliff Richards singing Chris Eaton's version: Goodness me, fifteen different tunes for the one hymn! Does anyone know any more? Is that a record for the biggest number of hymntunes for the same words?

Not to be confused with "St Louis" which is by far the most familiar tune used in the USA: "Wengen" and "Christmas Carol" are apparently the same tune, but not often heard: And finally Ralph Vaughan Williams' familiar "Ferest Green" version:

We don't use the organ at every service at my current church, and when we do it's normally just for the opening and/or closing hymn. This morning the final hymn was "How great Thou art". I took the last verse up a semitone and was somewhat surprised by the number of people coming up to me afterwards commenting on what a cracking job the organ did to it. Whether that's because of or in spite of the key change I didn't enquire, but then I don't often do keychanges. The modern worship song "My Jesus my saviour" (which I should add I play on keyboard not organ) rather lends itself to a minor third uplift halfway through the final chorus - in other words from the home key of Bb major to Db major. The chord at the end of the fourth line is F major second inversion -> F major root -> tonic first inversion, which lends itself to being changed to F major second inversion -> (F major root -> Ab major dominant seventh) modulating into the new key of D flat first inversion. Just make sure you practice with the other singers first if you ever try that trick! I can't remember the hymn but I once did accidently go down a fourth when I meant to go up a semitone. The result was certainly interesting if unrepeatable.

Off topic perhaps, but given the dissent on the effectiveness of creating an "acoustic" 32' effect using a wooden stopped 16' pitch (ie only 8 foot long pipes) and a metal 8 foot helper, or a 10 2/3 pitch quint, or 5 1/3 pitch quint etc, what are the opinions about the most effective 32 foot flue effect in a building that either doesn't have the height or finances for a new full-length open 32 foot? Just as one can fit a quarter-length 32 reed into a case barely 8 foot high (but likely be disappointed with the result) one could quint a stopped 16 foot pitch and a stopped 10 2/3 foot pitch with a roofline only just over 8 foot high. Extending the roof to 16 foot allows for a 16 foot long stopped bourdon 32' but lacking the even harmonics. Is that necessarily worse musically than an acoustic, quinted 32 effect using an open 16 foot long, 16 foot pitch, fundamental? How about Haskelling open pipes, 32 foot pitch but 16 foot long? Or a Compton style polyphone, which if I understand correctly is like the musical instrument flute is a single tube with several holes that are stopped or opened depending on the pitch (though only allowing one note to be played at once? Or (at the risk of being thrown off the forum) a digital 32' and a proper indusatrial strength subwoofer?

Can't it be all of those..... ?

Very true - once you take out the stable, the animals, the Three Kings, the winter snow and Santa, what are you left with? Answer - plenty enough for Bible historians to study and debate. For instance why does Matthew mention the massacre of the innocents and the flight into Egypt, and Luke describes the presentation in the Temple at 40 days? Could it be that Jesus was born in the spring of 4BC, the wise men came immediately after Jesus' birth and were forced to take a route from Bethlehem that avoided passing Jerusalem, the holy family then fled into Egypt and remained there for a couple of weeks before hearing that Herod died (around the time of the lunar eclipse in March of 4BC according to Josephus) at which point they returned and presented him in the Temple at 40 days? Or was Jesus born around 6BC, being taken to Nazareth after the presentation in the Temple and before the wise men arrived (had they come before the presentation, Mary would have had gold and been able to afford more than a dove to sacrifice in thanksgiving of the delivery of her firstborn male), and after the wise men left Jerusalem they went not to Bethlehem but to Nazareth (the Bible is silent on where they actually found Jesus and Mary, other than that they seemed to miss seeing Joseph. Perhaps being a carpenter he was out at work at the time - there was plenty of work to be done, since the nearby town of Sepphoris had been destroyed in violence following Herod the Great's death in 4BC). In either event, the Church's calendar is totally wrong in its chronology in placing Innocents' Day (December 27, 28 or 29 depending on denomination) ahead of Epiphany (January 6) and Presentation/Candlemass (2 February).

It completely passed me by that last week marked the Tercentenary of Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780) - well actually probably it would have been the week before, as we know he was baptized on 12 October but I don't think anyone knows the precise date of birth. His name in German means "crayfish", just as Bach means "brook", and as JSB's favourite pupil he earned the great Master's compliment that "he is the only crayfish in my brook". As well as being responsible for maintaining many of Bach's precious scores, Krebs was by all accounts a brilliant organist in his own right and as a composer he developed Bach's rococo style to extreme lengths (sometimes literally - a weakness of some of his preludes and fugures is that they don't seem to know when to stop!) Impoverished in his lifetime and neglected for many years afterwards as harking back to the old-fashioned musical style of Bach rather than embrassing the emergenging classical style, his music is perhaps a bit more widely recognised now and there are a couple of cycles of his complete organ works. I play four of the "big" preludes and fugues and they are amongst my favourite pieces of the entire organ repertoire. I have struggled to find much on the internet to celebrate his tercentary (at a recital I gave yesterday I included his monumental Prelude and Fugue in F minor that is styled after the Bach B minor and lasts around a quarter of an hour). Last week's Pipedreams has a two hour tribute to Krebs at http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/listings/2013/1340/ then there is a selection of organ and chamber music at http://mldd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/johann-ludwig-krebs-300-years.html and an interview with Rebecca Pechefsky who recorded his harpsichord works for the tercentary at http://www.fanfaremag.com/content/view/51965/ It sounds like there might have been a big birthday party at Altenburg Castle where the lucky Krebs was organist on the famous Trost. Has anyone come across any other tributes to Krebs, and is anyone planning anything further to mark this tercentary month and year?

This thread has been a bit quiet recently, but I came thought I should contribute after having come across another rather unusual string to John Compton's colourful (literally) bow recently in the form of some extremely bizarre-looking consoles: This (above) was built in 1940 for the S'Carlos Opera House, Lisbon. Then there is the "organ" at Drury Lane Theatre, which was built in 1950 and was in use until 1975: and In fact these aren't electronic organs at all. They are actually theatre stage lighting desks, invented by a certain Fred Bentham who had the genius idea that an organ console was the ideal way for an operator to control upwards of 200 theatre stage lights, and he took Compton theatre organ consoles and components and hooked them up to control stage lights. Every aspect of the organ console was utilised, right down to expression pedals and adjustable pistons to control different combinations of lights. (Un?)surprisingly the idea didn't really take off, and only 17 were ever built. Further details can be found at websites of theatre lighting enthusiasts: http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/control/ ... nsole.html http://www.magmouse.co.uk/research/light-console/ and http://www.geocities.ws/rolsonline/lightconsole.htm

Having not been back to Shrewsbury for several months I can only add that on my most recent visit suggested fundraising was actively happening in anticipation of a major restoration once funds permitted, and I spotted that a new blower had recently been fitted.

In general it seems organ shoes have thin soles and often a shiny smooth bottom surface. But you will probably want to try playing in several different types of shoes if you have a variety of pairs - for instance if the leather uppers are too thin you might find yourself stubbing your toes (and I know concert organists who play in trainers) and some prefer rubber soles precisely so they aren't slithering all over the pedals. If you have a pair of slippers they might be worth trying. And a few organists swear by socks, myself included (usually - if does depend a bit on the height of the bench above the pedals) though if you are starting off you might find socks too "easy". I've commented before that it's as easy to move toe-toe between non-accidentals instead of toe-heel. Whatever you decide, the key things I suggest to bear in mind are (i) it really doesn't really matter what you use to play, so long as you play the right notes. JSBach was once asked a similar question and suggested the nose would be perfectly adequate so long as you play the right notes with it; (ii) it's important to really focus on good pedal technique when starting off on the organ as it's what makes the organ so different from say the piano that you will be familiar with; (iii) once you've looked at the pedals for the first time there's little point ever looking at them again. Just like the manuals they have seven white notes and five black notes per octave. Getting to the right note is just a matter of spacial awareness and feeling for them.

This forum is rightly about preserving interest in pipe organs, and many here frown on discussing digital organs. Where I think they do have value is in private study - especially now that it is so easy to self build a virtual organ as a modular construct, starting with a couple of Casio keyboards, a pedalboard and a laptop and gradually migrating upwards to something more sophisticated. Such a creature has almost no place in a church, requiring its maker to keep a close eye on it for maintenance and keeping everything working. However, by encouraging the recreation of the finest Cavaille-Coll, Silbermann and many others' sounds to be heard in the living room could we stimulate a new generation to take up learning the organ? The biggest obstacle to me and I'm sure many others when I was at school was getting access to an organ to practice on - with luck I'd have maybe an hour or two between lessons in a cold dank church practising a fairly rubbish organ. In contrast my sons have access to a four manual console in the living room any time of day or night - learning and practising has never been easier. Moving back to the place of the organ in church therefore, if we can make it easier for people to practice at home, using samples from the best instruments around the world, will that lead to more appreciation of organs and organ music in churches too? Plenty of churches have reduced or abandoned using their organs, not because there is anything inherently wrong with the organ, but because it's a comparatively difficult instrument to sound "right" when you can strum a few chords on an amplified guitar with a drum backing and get a much more coherent sound and they don't have anyone in the congregation who can play the pipe organ well enough to justify using it.

When I wasn't quite such a tiny tot, I think maybe about 9 or 10, I took upon myself to learn Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor off by heart (at least, the bits I could play, my feet wouldn't reach the pedals so I had to use my left hand for some of the pedal passages). During a visit to Chester Cathedral I somehow got talking with the organ scholar, who after a good look round to check noone was listening, said "Why don't you come up to the console and I'll let you play a few notes?" The next ten minutes or so were undoubtedly the most exciting in my life thus far. I have no idea who that organ scholar was but if he ever tunes in to read this post I hope he will be glad to know that not long afterwards I took up more serious organ playing and have continued playing to this day. On more recent occasions when I've been on the organ bench and visiting children have been wandering around the church I have been keen to encourage them to try pressing a few notes, even if they don't play the piano, to see what the organ can do, and I keep in reserve a few themes from Harry Potter and similar films just to show that the organ isn't only for dull boring hymns.

I think that what you mean are visihble, marked "1", "2" etc on the right hand jamb in this photo:

Thanks very much - I trawled through those links but the only piece I found listed (which I already have a pdf score of thanks to imslp) was Święty Boże. Short of a visit to Poland in search of music libraries it doesn't look like there's much prospect of finding this music in or out of print elsewhere unfortunately. But the Święty Boże is well worth learning.

I've recently come across a few Youtube recordings of Polish composers including Konstanty Gorski (most famous work apparently Fantasie in F minor) and Mieczyslaw Surzynski (most well known for Improwizacje on Święty Boże). "Most well known" is relative given the comparative obscurity of these composers and others of their period (late 19th and early 20th century) and the only score I've found online is for Święty Boże, which is a relatively easy but very beautiful and impressive-sounding set of variations on the Polish theme "Holy God". Has anyone else come across music from the Polish romantic organ school, and particularly, can anyone help me find scores for any other pieces by these or similar composers? Contrabombarde

Thanks for a fascinating link to the Kuhn website - this does look like an intriguing design if they can pull it off. It might seem a bit of a risk having an unconventional tonal design in an organ that has very restricted opportunities for practice (is the middle manual a Brustwerk or a Bombarde?), but then history gives us plenty of unconventional instruments, the Girton St-Martin instrument in Cambridge strikes me as one. And to address an earlier question in this lengthy thread - according to Kuhn British organbuilders were included when considering who to commission the work from. Re-reading the post by DHM some time ago I think his subtle "dig" might have been missed by some, though intentionally or otherwise I don't know. It's certainly possible for not very much money to visit the fine organs of continental Europe, though it does involve a certain amount of travel time and ensuring the organ can be heard, even better, played, when you get there. My appreciation for Cavaille-Caen, Schnitger, Marcussen and others has advanced since I built my own home practice organ that allows me to switch, in under a minute, from playing a Cavaillé-Coll to a Marcussen via a Father Willis. It would be a travesty for a professional concert room like that at the RAM to consider installing a digital organ, but personal experience of having moved from owning a conventional "toaster" electronic that I replaced with a self-built virtual organ is that the latter has helped expand my repertoire enormously. I have a much better understanding of how period music sounds and should be played on the instruments, pitch and temperaments for which it was composed, and this would only otherwise be possible through a lot of travelling and hope that I'd be given an organ key at the other end. It would be interesting to hear whether any of our more learned teachers on this forum have used such systems for teaching or practice.

Nothging new under the sun I'm afraid: II Samuel 6 5David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals....16As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. Much as some despise the instrument, there is Biblical prececendence for exuberant use of the tambourine - and a slapped wrist from an embarressed wife at the end of the day. To have tazered someone the poor congregation must have been desperate though! Contrabombarde

Just spotted in Aberdare near Newport: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/mogs2007/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2654 Lots of different bits from different organ builders, with the intriguing message to watch this space for more to be added in the coming days due to retirement forcing clearance of stock. There might be some interesting finds for some here (I have no connection to the sale so am only promoting for interest's sake). I wonder who is retiring?