Contrabombarde

I've come across several pieces recently, thanks in part to the large number of recordings on Youtube and 24/7 Organlive internet organ radio streaming, that I thought to myself, that's a beautiful discovery, why had I never heard it before? An additional criterion should be that the music is out of copyright, so I can legally search imspl and other sources for the score and learn it immediately. They are all fairly short and not particularly difficult to learn. Another incentive for me to try these new works is the completion of my Hauptwerk home organ since I can experience how they sound on instruments for which they were originally written, though that's another story! Here's a few to start off with, can others help populate the list with gems? Bohm Chorale prelude 12.2 Vater unser in Himmelreich Brahms Choralvorspiel und Fuge O Traurigkeit, o Herzerleid Lefèbure-Wely Meditaciones religiosas op 122 no 7, Andante (Choeur de Voix humaines) - exquisite, come back LW, all is forgiven after your Sortie! Lemare Rêverie (OK, maybe not the greatest, but the first organ piece I can recall that's written in 5:4 time) Parry Chorale Fantasia "O God our help in Ages Past" (any idea where to get the score?) Zipoli All Elevazione I and II - magical, apparently the inspiration for Moricone's theme tune for "Gabriel's oboe" in the film "The Mission"

One that everyone breathes a sigh of relief when it's removed and replaced by an electronic organ, upon which the congregation begins to actually appreciate organ music again?

Many thanks David, indeed my problem was solved doing just that. I thought my Android phone worked fine until Jelly bean came along, why do they have to cokplicate things? But NPOR works like a charm on the (Android) version of Firefox.

I hope I'm treading on noone's toes by asking, but I hugely value the NPOR, not least for the ability to look up details of any organ spontaneously. But for some reason I can't do that when I most need to - namely when I'm out and about, visiting a new church perhaps - because the site doesn't seem to load properly on my Android (latest version jellybean) smartphone. I can get to http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/xnpor_search_keyword.shtml but it just comes up with a blank page other than the header National Pipe Organ Register. There's no search box in which to enter the building or address. Would anyone more technically minded than me be able to offer an explanation?

Thanks for that suggestion, always nice to find a new French toccata I hadn't heard of before. And as they are out of copyright, they are freely downloadable too: http://petrucci.mus.auth.gr/imglnks/usimg/3/3b/IMSLP15707-Bari___3_pieces_pour_orgue.pdf A twentieth century French organ music score for free, how rare is that?

I must admit I'm rather discouraged by the lack of suggestions of any twentieth century Grade VIII-level French repertoire so far.....do you have to be at least diploma level to attempt to learn it? Bach would never have been able to get his fingers around it in that case!

That story reminds me of the Englishman who was sent to Algeria during WWII and, there evidently being not much else to do there, decided to repair the organ in the cathedral. Thus began the illustrious career of a certain Noel Mander!

How exciting. So it's not really a Conacher, though he may have enlarged it; it's originally an 1851 William Hill exhibit from the Great Exhibition no less. Good on the astute Conacher employee who diverted it out of a skip!

Interesting photo - having seen the "old" console in the flesh I'm tempted to say I like the appearance of the latest one better, but if visibility of the High Altar was a design requirement surely a terraced amphitheatre Cavaille-Coll style console would have reduced the height of the console several inches further. There again, unless you're going to play with binoculars strapped to your head I'd have thought CCTV was all but mandatory up there. The question that intrigues me most though is, how the heck did they get that thing up the stairs?

When I said it had increaed the file size by 30%, I meant the unzipped but somehow encrypted originals, once converted (slightly naughtily, some would doubtless say) into unencrypted MP3s ended up around 30% bigger than the M4A format into which they were recorded and downloaded. Obviously the unzipped folders were bigger than the unzipped originals (though not by much - zipping already compressed files won't reduce their size much but allows multiple files to be downloaded in a single folder) . I've not come across M4A before - can someone enlighten me about this particular file format and how it compares with say MP3 or WMA?

One of mine is to take the time to learn more organ music now that I have finished building my home (four manual Hauptwerk) organ complete with a broad representation of organ genres from across the centuries. What should be in my list of "must learn" pieces - especially things that would make good voluntaries or occasional recital works, and pitched at my level (somewhere around organ grade VIII, before anyone suggests tackling Ad nos or the 94th Psalm!). For starters, I'm a bit lacking in 20th century French repertoire (any votes for Dupre or Duruffle?) and German and British organ music of the late 19th or early 20th century. What are other people's aspirations for learning new music this next year?

I downloaded the thirteen zip files, much as I love Bach I wasn't going to sit and download every single one of his works individually. When I reinstalled Windows I had copied all my music onto a portable disk (as you do) and back again to the hard drive, only to find none of the Kibbie files would play so I had to download them all over again. I subsequently used one of those free programs to convert them into mp3 format from whatever they originally came in, and that seems to have unencrypted them (they show as black and will play from a memory stick), though it's also increased the file size by around 30%! Strange; I can understand why artists would want to copy-protect their performance (though there are p[robably as many hackers with solutions to copy protection as there are artists trying to copy-protect themselves), but I don't recall seeing anything about copy protection on the website. Not that I had any intention of flogging them off, but when downloading files, I do like to know that if I have to reformat a hard drive, all my files will continue to work as before.

And annoying they are encrypted (they show up as green text in Windwos Explorer). Meaning apparently, that having spent hours downloading them recently, I have to download them all over again. My only sin was to backup my music onto portable disk whilst I reinstalled Windows for technical reasons over CHristmas. When I copied them back to my PC they refuse to play.

Well, Christmas has just began everyone! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

To be honest I find it depends on the instrument I'm playing. With a console in which the pedals are (a) relatively close to the bottom manual) and (b ) have a soft action then it's a no-brainer, I play in socks. For unfamiliar organs I often play in socks, partly out of respect to other organists (in case there's anything dodgy on the soles of my shoes!) but mainly because playing consistently in socks means I always know how a pedalboard is likely to feel - every pair of shoes feels different in contrast. THe biggest problem this time of year is my feet get cold! For my home organ I'm actually finding it easiest to play in slippers.

Out of interest, this 25 stop three manual Rushworth and Dreaper from 1932 cost £16,000 when new. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N02431

According to the Aberdeen church website they are still hoping to restore the COmpton: http://www.kirk-of-st-nicholas.org.uk/worship/organ.asp As for the oil industry, they can't be said to completely neglect organs - St John's Chapel has a one-manual organ dating from the early nineteenth centruy whose restoration was funded by oil.

And nice to know there was nothing wrong with the 30 year old Nigel Church organ, other than that it was in the wrong part of the building, had a modern case that didn't suit the Cathedral and was generally too small. So it too has found a new home in a more modern Catholic church in London, where apparently it will also sit on the west balcony or what looks like quite a rebererant building in its own right. I have never yet been anything other than totally impressed by TIckell's organs having now had the pleasure of playing several. (Though to be fair to our hosts and other companies, I would just as generously say the same about new contracts given to any of our top firms and if I ever had to be responsible for choosing a British firm for a new organ these days and all quotes came back with similar prices I'd be totally stuffed!)

Does anyone record using their smartphone? Seem to be virtually ubiquitous these days and wide choice of recording apps regardless of platform ie Android, iPhone etc.

Presumably one of four things. (i) At 8 foot pitch on a manual, an open metal pipe, constant diameter, the sort of pipe that normally sits on the front of an organ case. (ii) At 8 or 16 foot pitch on a manual, a stopped square wooden pipe, maybe called Double stopped diapason rather than Bourdon. (iii) At 16 foot pitch on the pedals, an open square wooden pipe. (iv) At 16 foot pitch on the pedals, an open metal pipe like (i). Sometimes it can be one thing on one manual and another on a different division. Confusingly the Hill at Shrewsbury Abbey for instance has a Double Open Diapason 16 on the Great, and both an Open Diapason 16 and a Violone 16 on the pedals. But the Pedal Violone uses the same pipes (the front case pipes) as the Great Double Open, whilst the Pedal Open Diapason is actually a large scale open wood rank from which the Pedal Octave 8 is extended. Does that make the rank a rank of string pipes or diapasons?

The previous organ at the Franscisan monastery at Gorton was this: http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=R02147 so the Parr Hall organ would be not dissimilar in size though I expect the building would be far loftier and resonant than its current home. But realistically would it be more appreciated in a secular venue or in a church? I expect the latter would be more likely to use it more frequently...

Such as the new Willis that went off to Auckland a few months ago you mean? And very elegant the rounded keys were too I might add.

I suppose that when I was younger I felt a degree of disdain for Carlo Curley - too showmanistic, missed too many right notes, promoted electronic organs so how could any serious organ critic take him seriously. The many plaudits he received following his untimely death remind me that my first impressions were misplaced. And I was struck by a profound musicianship that I wasn't expecting, not to mention being surprised and impressed that he performed entirely without music (why is that usual for pianists but not organists?) the first time I heard him in a live recital. Another organist I hold in deep admiration is Gillian Weir, whose elaborate and visually stunning dresses could hardly fail to draw attention to herself. Yet once she had wowed the audience by walking across the stage to the console, from then on she let the organ do all the talking. When I first heard of Mr Carpenter I was as awed as anyone at his Chopin transcription. My problem with him is firstly less his technique and more that he draws attention to himself in a way that stops with himself whereas the two greats listed above use their presence to steer people to the organ. And secondly it is his implicit criticism of pipe organs as lacking the versatility he thinks they need. There are plenty of YouTube clips of jazz organ and theatre organists with prodigious technique pressing buttons and keys all over the console, but if you feel even a Wurlitzer has insufficient bells and whistles for you, the logical instrument for you has to be a sequencer, where you can create electronic patterns of notes way more complex than any performers' fingers could ever play in real time. In which case, you have lost the need for having a performer at all since the sequencer plays whatever has been programmed into it some time previously!

Nothink of the sort guv, it's called the Big Society! On a serious note, as our civic concert halls's organs are generally underused and perhaps often underappreciated, how about if organ enthusiasts offered to put on regular "Big SOciety" concerts. You know, council provides the hall, organ enthusiasts tune the organ, provide the organist (volunteering of course) and the audience (free admission of course). Big society and all that. Hmmm, thought that might not be a goer.

From his website http://www.carlo.com/ "Carlo Curley passed away at 5.00 pm UK time, 11th Aug 2012. A huge loss for us all, and for the organ community!" A quite remarkable man, gifted, generous, sincere and humble in equal measure and such an untimely death - he was just 59.