Contrabombarde

This is really interesting - an example of how something that in many respects is an advance in technology (digital over analogue) can come back to bite the unwary. It's a recognised problem in concert halls around the world, so much so that many professional settings and TV broadcasters (Broadway theaters, Sydney Opera House etc al) have analogue video cameras of the conductor feeding to analogue CRT monitors. And a shed full of old CRT tellys round the back as a space for when the monitors break down (I don't even know if anyone still makes new CRTs). Samsung and probably other companies do still make analogue CCTVs for this reason. You can get professional broadcast standard monitors for a price (a few thousands of pounds) which boast typically less than 1 frame per second latency - but at 25 frames per second that still amounts to admitting up to 40ms latency! This is a real problem for avid computer gamers too as they need the picture on the screen to update as soon as they move their joystick. Gamer forums are full of discussions about which monitors have the lowest latency. Interestingly it can sometimes be the cheaper ones (since they have less advanced video processing to articificially "improve" the quality of the image being received from the camera). Some monitors have a "gamer" mode that disables the processing. (Conversely some upmarket audiovisual amplifiers have a built in adjustable sound delay so that you can slow your sound down to synchronise with the delay caused by your expensive TV's built in video processing that slows the picture down - an expensive solution to an expensive problem!) Some gamers advocate connecting a source directly via HDMI as digital out (in your case from a camera with HDMI out) to digital in should mean no additional processing of analogue to digital images (especially if the onboard processer is disabled). Others say use VGA or component out for certain monitors since if they can detect an HDMI signal and assume you want it to have additional processing! If you use off the shelf monitors there are additional considerations. There are two common types of LCD monitor, TN and IPS. TN is cheaper and has a faster response time (which is quite different from latency - it's how long an image persists for on the screen after the source has changed). So TN screens are better for gaming - fast movement can appear blurred. However, they have quite poor viewing angles other than viewed from head-on. If you are sitting at an organ bench and moving your head around, the colours of the screen will shift depending on which angle you are looking at it from. That's not the case with an IPS screen - but it might be slightly more blurry when the conductor is waving their arms around. Ideally you would want an IPS screen with minimal latency and minimal response time - but they come at a hefty price. OLED screens are a third type but are also in the very high price bracket. Frankly your cheapest "best bet" is perhaps to look for secondhand ex-broadcast equipment on Ebay. Failing that if you have the time to try out or seek out off the shelf combinations of camera, cable and monitor that work for you great, or pay for an expensive pro-grade set up. Make sure if you go for professional shopping advice that you explain why you need as close to zero lag/latency as possible. And if the shop assistant doesn't know what lag is, or confuses it with response time, go to another shop.

Several photos of the rather splendid old Doncaster five manual console in its new home can be found here: http://www.paulderrett.co.uk/my_house_organ.html

I always thought this was a particularly lovely example: http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N03578 (1912, St John's Keswick) though it's a small two manual rebuild of a much larger three manual Gern (!) built just 20 years earlier. Here is a slightly larger instrument, very effective and deserves to be far better known. It's Grade 2* listed (3 manual 32 stops, King's Heath Methodist Church, Birmingham) http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=K00805 Across the road from the King's Heath organ is a smaller 3 manual Binns in the Baptist Church, though I haven't seen or heard it. On paper it looks very similar to the Gern that Harrisons worked on in Keswick.

Given Ruffati's track record I wouldn't be surprised if when the specification comes out there will be a 64 foot stop. At least one. Come to think of it, provided there's an open 32 flue they could have a resultant 64 foot for the cost of an extra drawstop. Now, how many manuals did the OP say it was gonig to have? Any more than four and we need to discuss music desks. Don't you just love the way we meander in and out of topic?

That implies you need music when playing that thing. Generally music is for musical instruments. (Dives for cover....)

Indeed, though almost no organs with 64 foot stops don't have compound 64s ie harmonic bass, 32 and 21/1/3 quinted. Is Sydney's trombone 64 foot long or half (or less) length? Is the Atlantic City diaphone is 64 foot long?

Thanks for the link. They have certainly had their fair share of monsters, several five manuals and a six manual. Though I noticed that in each of their five manual builds, some or indeed many of the stops were still "prepared for" making me wonder what chance these organs ever have of being completely finished? 100 stops in Buckfast sounds a lot, but how long for them all to be installed and working? As an aside, can anyone tell me if their five manual in San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall is breaking any records by having TWO 64 foot stops?

I gather that the grand hall at Battersea Arts Centre (formerly the Town Hall) sadly burnt down yesterday. It housed a fairly untouched Hope-Jones, which I thought was in the proces of being restored. Can anyone shed light on the fate of this historic instrument?

Hmmm, after moving house I had to reconfigure my home practice organ (a hybrid of Hauptwerk and j-organ) and one of the samples is now doing just that. I vaguely recall how to program the swell pedal to reverse the reverse direction of opening having accidently done it once before in error but try as I might I just haven't been able to repeat it yet! Rule number 1 for locating your swell pedal: please ensure there is a minimum distance between its undersurface and the top of the accidental under it (often pedal middle D sharp). Otherwise there will be a persistent cypher whenever you close the box if your shoes are any longer than the length of the swell pedal. Played a few organs with that problem in my time, highly annoying. Yes indeed, Shrewsbury Abbey has an enclosed Swell and an enclosed Choir but the pedals are on the far right of the pedalboard, which leads to contortions at times. Here's a piccy: http://npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/XMLFunctions.cgi?Fn=GetPicture&Rec_index=N01933&Number=2

Indeed, no expense spared on the organ builders. In most factories you're lucky to find a tea trolley these days. In Liverpool there's a Rolls Royce in the corner!

I don't know if it represents a "standard" but Peterson organ supplies in the US publish detailed technical images of their swell pedal's movement range, showing a movement from 41 degrees to the vertical when shut, to 63 degrees to the vertical when open: http://www.petersonemp.com/products/pdf/EXPRESSION.PDF

Even the earliest recorded specification (1822), a three manual Booth of 1822, had no 16 foots on Great or Choir but there was a 16 foot flue on the Choir. However, the Great had a Quint 5/1/3!

Last year I suggested to my (evangelical, low) church that we should do something original for Christmas so the Sunday evening before Christmas my wife and I arranged a service of nine lessons and carols. It was a complete culture shock for many people - we formed a "come and sing" choir and got some of the young people who played instruments to form a miniture orchestra (string quartet plus a couple of flutes and trumpets). It was a huge amount of effort, not least because I arranged all the music myself and had to spend time with most of the musicians and singers teaching them harmony line by line - but was actually a huge success which we repeated - successfully - again this year. But the thing that surprised me the most was just how little the children knew of Christmas carols; even the common ones (the ones we think are comon - Hark the herald, It came upon etc) had to be taught them line by line. But then, when I was younger all the shops would be playing carols non-stop from mid-November onwards. Nowadays it's a rare shop that plays carols, everything is about Santa, Rudolph and mistletoe. In which case why should we expect our younger generations to recognise the sound and tunes of Christmas carols?

Thanks to Colin for pointing to such a stimulating and fascinating article. Solid state electronics in smaller organs may be limited if present at all, but as soon as you get into adjustable combination mechanisms, let alone larger organs with MIDI connections to the pipework one is asking for potential trouble. I am left wondering if the best option for large organs would be an attached console with Barker action and adjustable mechanical combinations - the four manual Binns in Shrewbury with pneumatic adjustable combinations was working almost fine when I last played it despite being 100 years old and having almost no maintainance done on it! Many moons ago I went on a local organists' association visit to two organs. Quite apart from beig a miserable day weather-wise, the first organ had only recently been rebuilt with electropneumatic action. After playing a few notes the first person to play was greeted with silence - a fuse had gone somewhere in the console silencing the organ. So we traipsed across to the other church on the agenda. Miserably, it had an old tracker organ not in the best of condition and starting the blower we were greeted with a cipher. I crawled inside the case, spotted the offending tracker had become dislodged, reattached it and we spent the rest of the afternoon happily playing away. I guess there is a cautionary tale there somewhere.

It is somewhat disappointing (though good news for pipe organ manufacturers) that electronic organs are so short lived (after yet another blown fuse silenced the 20 year old digital electronic at my church recently the customer services person told me, "well you can't expect these to go on forever, sooner or later parts won't be available any more so why not get a new one." I can't imagine such a response from any pipe organ builder, yet a large pipe organ will have way more sophisticated circuitry than the average toaster. Anyway. What options are there for keeping organs in good tune and maintenance in buildings that have extremes of temperature? I wonder if cinema/theater organs were susceptible to climatic changes as much as church organs. And I seem to recall reading recently about a new organ somewhere that, even when switched off, had the blower very gently blow continuous air around the organ to ensure good air circulation. Short of enclosing the entire organ in a heated swell box, how can organs be kept in decent tune and mechanical wellbeing in buildings with inclement climates?

The only way I can manage the triple pedalling in the Guilmant is by playing in socks rather than shoes.

Some very sound advice in Colin's article there, to which I would add two things. Firstly that before I built my home organ I sat on, played and measured as many four manual organs as possible. I quickly found that for me a minimum height of just over 30 inches was "right" and a height of 29 1/2 (which is often quoted as the standard height for pedals to lowest manual) was not only very uncomfortable as it left me scrunched up, but also it was mercifully surprisingly rare. All the more surprising as I have rather short legs. On the other hand, apart from the pedal distances and the expression pedal location, I think there is another measurement which you didn't mention Colin but which is vital if you are building your own organ. I went to the expense of having ten toe pistons for each foot, only to find I couldn't reach the furthermost piston either side of the swell pedals!

The only Casson I'm familiar with that has a Mixture is that in Namirembe Cathedral, Kampala, Uganda. It is a modest two manual with one mixture, a 15-19 to 12-15 composition and was restored a few years ago by Peter Wells. I have no idea whether it's original or a subsequent addition. But I always thought the organ was an unexpected treasure when I was living out there, whether because I wasn't expecting to find a pipe organ at all, or whether because the cathedral's souring brickwork create a magnificent acoustic that would make a dog of an organ sing, I couldn't say. I was just glad to be able to practice on it from time to time and must admit I rather liked it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namirembe_Cathedral#The_organ

I would imagine you would need an army of people to help play the organ - a registrant either side of the organist and a troupe of blowers at the rear of the instrument!

Thank you for informing people about that organ which I for one had never heard of. A vintage four-manual Norman and Beard, it looks absolutely splendid with its finely polished wood case and handsome console, and furthermore appears to be blessed with a very active local organ-loving community who are committed to keeping it singing in fine condition. Their website, http://ahorp.org/ is hugely informative and demonstrates how much love and civic pride has been lavished on the instrument, with an active restoration and concert program. Players are even welcome to have a free play every lunchtime! What more could you want?

Intriguingly, two different composers have produced orchestrations of this glorious (am I allowed to revel here?) piece - John Morrison was apparently unaware of Gordon Jacob's version. I've only heard the Jacob version but it is quite magnificent. Given all the crashes, drumrolls and glockenspiels that it invites, and knowing Elgar wrote it for an organ about to be replaced by a Hope-Jonesasurus, I'm surprised noone has recorded the organ version (as far as I can see) on a Wurlitzer ;-)

Would not improvements in performers' technique that allows them to play faster go hand in hand with technical improvements in organ design? Having played a few exceeding "clattery" Dutch organs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with awkward pedalboards I felt the organs pretty much forced me to play no faster than a certain tempo. Fast forward a couple of centuries to electropneumatic action and concave radiating pedals and fast French toccatas become feasible. I wonder what JSB would make of an instrument such as Liverpool Anglican Cathedral were he to be transported into the 21st century? I expect initial disbelief that the organ in the south case could begin to be controlled by a console in the north case, with an impossibly heavy touch - followed by disbelief that the touch is similar to a small portative organ!

I have previously shared on this Forum the occasion that I ran out of wedding music after 40 minutes and had to turn to the funeral section of my "wedding and funeral" organ voluntary book. I share that cautionary tale with all couples I play for now. No one has ever been that late since.

Goodness, that is a stunningly generous gift! Indeed, it's double the figure that the Cathedral originally had said a new organ could cost in a newsletter a few years ago. What will happen to the existing Harrison - is there much in it that is worth saving? How much of it still works? I heard it many times growing up but never played it, and always had the impression that it was a somewhat untamed monster compared to its more refined peers in Coventry Cathedral and the RFH. With such a generous donation, Manchester will have no excuse not to gain a world-class organ - and I have no doubt that any of our country's finest organ builders could deliver such an instrument.

My two-year old loves to play my house organ and on occasion has very excitedly shown my one year old the different sounds that come from high and low notes from different keyboards. But at home I have Hauptwerk, controlled from a touchscreen. The first time he sat at a "real" cathedral pipe organ with drawstops he was mightily confused by them, as he thought you had to touch them to activate them and couldn't understand why Daddy kept pulling them out and so he kept pushing them back in again! Oh dear. As for repertoire, I'd include a snippet of Messiaen too, but I'd probably go for Dieu Parmi Nous (probably just the last section) with its pulsating rhythm - to me it's more accessible. I'd also want to fit in a transcription of a familiar orchestral piece e.g. Midsummer Night's Dream or Aida march, to show how the organ can substitute for an orchestra.