Contrabombarde

My mother left the same church twice to the Toccata from Widor's Fifth Sympathy - once for her wedding, the second time for her funeral. Contrabombarde

I seem to recall that Princess Diana went out to the great Bach C minor.

Rods and backs spring to mind by the description. What's so "interesting" about the action? When, historically, do you think organ builders used such complicated pneumatic mechanics not out of choice but because the technology to simply things hugely with electropneumatic actions wasn't yet mature? Would they have used such a complex action had they built it a mere twenty years later? Could you have started again from scratch but with a completely differently designed pneumatic action? After all, the patents of Binns, Norman & Beard and the other pioneers of complex, successful and longlasting pneumatic actions have long since expired. Under what circumstances if ever would a seasoned builder ever consider building a large organ today brand new with a pneumatic action following the best of the historically proven designs, as opposed to mechanical or EP? Nice to hear of more organs coming my way (though sadly I'm a few thousand miles from Lagos!) I hope they have a team of enthusiasts willing to learn and play, like here in Kenya or Uganda. Just make sure you pick a hotel with powerful airconditioning when you stay in Lagos! How does the climate (and the ubiquitous termites!) affect your choice of materials for somewhere tropical? Contrabombarde

Totally depends on the tone though for someone with a deep faith and strong connection to the church something rousing might well work - I was once asked for a "rousing and noisy piece of Bach", which translated to the St Ann fugue. Contrabombarde

Important announcement for owners of digital virtual pipe organs! I know that in the normal run of things it's against forum rules to promote digital organs, but I hope the moderators will forgive me this one occasion for promoting: http://www.samplelogic.com/vuvuzela.html The VUVUZELA SAMPLE! Apparently you load it into your j-organ or Hauptwerk-enabled computer, and off you go - your very own, digitally-sampled, vuvuzela stop! A once-in-a-lifetime chance to usurp your very own digital tuba mirabilis! Clearly some people have far too much time on their hands

So may I take it that the final score in the Willis:Makin match was 4:1 to the Willis???

On a related but unrelated matter concerning left hand cheats, my organ teacher once pointed out that the rapid chord sequence on the penultimate page of Alain's Litanies that the right hand invariably screws up actually fits far more neatly under the left hand - the problem with that is that you are forced to cross hands, unless you play it on an organ with an octave and unison off couplers.

Reminds me of the regular chess matches that UBM(?) used to do, pitching their finest again the world's reigning grandmaster. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief each year - until the year that the computer beat the grandmaster and everyone said it's the end of the world, a machine has beaten a human (as if a human ever stood a chance in a race to pull a train against a steam engine for instance). How are these competitions judged? Will Leeds stop running them if (perish the thought) the day comes when electronic technology advances to the point where the pipe organ is mistaken for the electronic substitute and vice versa? Please don't tell me that's already happened somewhere?

If you're referring to playing the fiendishly difficult but awesomely fantastic F minor for musical clock using four hands and feet - - that's cheating!!!!!

Holy cow!!! Seldom heard, don't you mean never? Could we persuade the Royal College to give him an honorary FRCO? Though to be honest with such exceptional talent it wouldn't surprise me, if you blindfolded the examiners and the guy turned up, that they wouldn't even notice he wasn't playing the organ and they'd give him the prize regardless. That has to be the performance of the year! I wonder what other instruments famous organ works have been transcribed to? Oh, I forgot, our friend Jonny Sebbie Bach and the famous toccata that he didn't write ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rS7A_32SZM I'm tempted to think it sounds better on a violin than..... ...a glass harp (set of 37 chromatic wineglasses)!!!! Seriously!

I once came across a piano duet of the William Tell overture which a friend and I transcribed "on the fly" for an organ recital. Not too difficult (when played by four hands and four feet) and very effective, unfortunately I can't remember the original source but you might want to consider looking at piano duets too. Contrabombarde

Really? I thought new organs were rather expensive. If that's not the case, I'll happily take a few for my house! Contrabombarde

I sincerely hope so. Whilst I'm sure that in any financial climate an organbuilder would prefer to be awarded a contract for a brand new organ rather than one for rehousing a redundant instrument of similar size, the fact remains that there are plenty of fine but silent organs. Only yesterday I see that a Grade 2* 3-manual Taylor failed to meet its asking price on Ebay. Someone remarked a while back that the average Oxbridge college seems to replace their organ every twenty years or so. Would that a few might consider installing a second historic instrument, whether or not in their chapel, if they have so much money going spare (sigh).... Contrabombarde

How refreshing to have a modern hymn that is genuinely appreciated by both laypeople and professional musicians and nice that it has proved sufficiently music-worthy for someone to write what sounds like a quality piece of organ music around it. I wish it success. Contrabombarde

Here in Africa we don't have television or radio and I don't follow football. C'mon folks, don't keep me in suspense any longer! Contrabombarde

I once heard Ralph Downes play the RFH organ in his late eighties and came away with exactly the same thought

Sorry everyone, but could someone please let me into the secret? What exactly IS a Vuvuzela? I couldn't find it in the online dictionary of organ stops.

Amazingly they were apparently put in during the 1970s and replaced an original Open Diapason and Clarinet: http://www.organmatters.co.uk/index.php/topic,109.0.html Even more amazing the old pipes were apparently kept in the church so you could indeed throw out the imposters and restore the originals. Contrabombarde

I just found this advertised on Ebay, with two days to go. I don't know the instrument myself, but it has a BIOS Grade II Historical Organ Certificate, and being a Taylor it's probably pretty bulletproof and well deserving of its certificate. It would be a crying shame to see this land up on a skip. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-Manual-Fine-Church...242856611192284 National Pipe Organ Register entry: http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=D00288

According to the Guardian, a certain member of the Royal Artillery by the name of Noel Mander, serving in Algiers during World War II, found time to successfully repair the organ there and was rewarded with a bottle of finest Cognac for his endeavours. Thirty years later he was rewarded with an MBE for working similar miracles with the organ of St Paul's Cathedral London

I don't think you are that far away from Sion, where on the top of a hill in the chapel of an ancient castle is the world's oldest working organ, built around 1390 and still going strong today! However, unless you are one of the top one organists in the world, there is sezo chance that you'll be allowed anywhere near the console, let alone given a chance to play. Further afield I can only comment on Lausane, which houses two five manual mechanical action organs at St Francis and the Fisk at the Cathedral whose organist is very accomodating about letting visiting organists have a go. But if you manage to stagger up to the top of the hill to visit the Cathedral do take earplugs - it must be one of the loudest organs ever built! You can filter for Swiss organs at http://www.die-orgelseite.de/orgelliste_e.php - the list is pretty impressive sounding. Contrabombarde

What happened to the old HNB organ then in Llandaff, and what was so "wrong" about it that justified a completely new instrument? Whilst I am sure that any organ builder would jump at the chance to build a brand new 76 stop 4 manual cathedral organ (and I have every confidence that Nicholsons will excel at this - though I am sure that several other prominent British firms would come up with equally magnificent instruments if given the contract) - was there nothing worth saving in the earlier instrument? or am i treading on "Bath Abbey" territory here? Pedigree doesn't sound great. Originally built in the 1930s, modified late 1950s when the neobaroque revival was in early and perhaps excessive swing. But then, I recently played a transplanted 1930s HNB that I would never have thought on paper would be as thrilling a sound as it was once installed in a new building. I'm referring to the instrument in All Saints Northampton - buried away and less than ideally audible, but superb for choir accompaniment and with some really beauitiful sounds. Interesting that it replaces what was recently a brand new mechanical Walker - fifteen years ago when the Walker was new I'm sure people would have said "no contest" between that or a 1930s electropneumatic HNB. How times change! And how difficult to decide what is genuinely worth preserving sometimes!

I believe the problem with Compton's little illuminated buttons was that bulbs had a tendency to blow, meaning you were never quite sure whether the Solo Tuba was on or off. I don't know if it's possible to fit the buttons with LEDs but that would solve the problem of them blowing. Certain electronic organs like Johannus use illuminated stop knobs that have a momentary push/pull actualisation in their higher-end models and I am surprised that this idea hasn't caught on more in pipe organs too - you have the asthetics of a drawstop console at a fraction of the price (and electrical current wiring demands) of solenoid activated moving drawstops - though they are still a lot more expensive than instruments with illuminated stoptabs. Contrabombarde

Interesting references to Hull City Hall and that no self-respecting organ restored would dream of eliminating the Compton additions and return it to F&A original design. Maybe only a decade ago some people I know would have been falling over themselves to have it de-Comptonified. It had a conservative restoration in I think the 1980s by Rushworth and Dreaper which from what I could gather resulted in Compton's illuminated push button stops were replaced by conventional drawstops. Comparing photos of the console before and after, personally I prefer the looks of the revised console. But in changing the console, were R&D responding to a perceived need for something more conventional, or were they just cultural vandals? How will that change be judged in history? Either way, it remains something of an undiscovered jewel and is thrilling to play. Contrabombarde

I think the correct answer is, get a multi-channel memory. I'm forever surprised by the weird things that people (including the great and the good) have set to come out on their organs. And when I'm lucky enough to be handed the keys to a Leviathan I'm always glad when I'm told "just use channel 23 however you like"... I suspect however, that most visiting organists, in the context of limited time to prepare before playing, would be only too glad to have a level of memory set for where each piston brings out a little more than the one before. Nice and easy, you can't really go wrong. So I would add to the original poster: if you are fortunate enough to have a multichannel memory on your instrument, it would be courteous to set a channel aside with entirely logical settings just for newcomers, even if you never have cause to use it yourself :-)