gazman

Matthew Camidge and William Hill at York Minster ride again, with shades of Bridgewater Hall too....

Perhaps they'd like you to use it to renew your subscription! A double whammy?

Hear, hear. Barry seemed quite insistent that he wouldn't return, but I have wondered whether a concerted effort might encourage him to change his mind. His legal advice and expertise were certainly very valuable indeed. What do we think, folks?

How does having a fourth manual add much - or even anything - to the panache of a performance?

Thanks, Paul. However, I think we've already vomitted over that clip!

The dumbing down and also the secularization of society, no doubt. But what can be done to improve matters?

Do you think that we could persuade FJ to take up football (even at his great age) or to start singing pop music, or to present an inane and tacky programme on the television? He would certainly further this cause if he did....

Or what about the size of foot? Surely a larger foot will hang lower. I wish I'd paid more attention to trigonometry at school.....

I suppose that, in a relaxed pose with our feet dangling with nothing on which to rest them (say sitting on a wall, for example), the most comfortable position would be to have toes rather lower than heels. Lifting toes in order to place our heels lower than the toes (or even level with them) takes quite a bit of effort, so I can see the advantage in a larger heel. But how much heel is to be desired? How should we calculate this accurately? Does one's shoe size make a difference?

Yes, agreed. If I'm in the mood to witness sheer virtuosity, then I might well go onto YouTube to watch Cameron Carpenter. He is a totally brilliant technician. If I want musicianship which will really "move" me, then I'll go elsewhere. But don't knock him too much! Many of us totally rubbish him, but I wonder how much that is to do with envy of a pretty formidable technique.

Am I correct in thinking that I read somewhere that the late, brilliant, Jeanne Demessieux used a pair of organ shoes with an enormous heel?

As we start using Common Praise this coming weekend, we've got a lot of AMRs (in good condition) to get rid of. Does anybody want them? Otherwise they're just going to be thrown away.

Allegro Music stock Organmaster shoes (a bit more of a heel, methinks, than those pictured) for £45 + p&p for mens shoes, £40 for ladies (not that we seem to have many ladies on this forum - alas!). When I was studying with a very well-regarded concert organist a number of years ago, he used to constantly make negative comments about the fact that I played in whatever shoes I was wearing at the time and had developed some pretty foul techniques to get around the lack of heel, or excessive welt, etc of whatever pair I was using at the time. After I completed my studies with him I came across a pedal passage which I just couldn't manage with guaranteed 100 per cent accuracy in most shoes. That persuaded me to purchase my first pair of dance shoes, which made things soooo much easier. I remember that he came to a subsequent recital of mine and commented afterwards that he'd spent a year going on at me about getting a decent pair of shoes for pedalling, and that he was rather miffed that I'd waited until after I'd finished my studies with him before following his advice! The downside is that, nowadays, unless I'm wearing my dance shoes, or the Organmaster shoes (my preferred choice), my ability to play the pedals accurately is very limited indeed.

I used dance shoes for years. Rather similar to the ones pictured in the above link, but with a larger - tapering - heel. Apart from the fact that the heel tapered, they were excellent. I am presently using Organmaster shoes and find those excellent too, although not as flexible as the dance shoes are.

That makes two of us!

Oh, God, sometimes there's just not enough vomit to go around......

Yes, agreed! Mind you, the organist was quite tasty, wasn't she?!

Thank you!

Useful when the reeds are out of tune though!

And the brick swell box, perhaps?

After! And, if referring to me, not THAT vehement! Yes, of course, I shall. Was it only one.....?

The only reasonable explanation of which I could think (apart from the organ builder's ignorance) is that it is an 8' extension of a Contra Fagotto 16' and the builder is trying to be honest by declaring extensions. Even so, it would be better to have the stop name given as "Fagotto (ext) 8'" or something similar.

No - it's not you, David! You are quite correct in your understanding of the use of the term contra. Basically, Contra means the stop is sounding an octave lower than you would normally expect it.

Whim or ignorance? It would be a Fagotto at 8'. (Or, perhaps more likely, a plain Oboe!)