gazman

There are merits and demerits either way, methinks. A ratchet allows you to lock the pedal in a position different to open or shut but on those organs I've played with ratchets in the trigger swell, they're even more easy to accidentally release without locking in properly, with the resultant bang as the shutters fly shut.

Sorry, Vox, didn't mean to repeat what you had said!

Yes, but a balanced Swell pedal lets you leave the shutters exactly where you want them, not just where any ratchets might be placed by the organ builder.

But that's only if you can get your foot in to move that blessed ratchet in time! And, as you observe, prevent that loud BANG which shakes the whole organ if your foot slips.....

I can't really see any musical argument for keeping a trigger swell pedal whatsoever. Arguing for them seems to me just to be the worst sort of purism. Balanced swell pedals win hands down!

Thanks! I'm still none the wiser, so am going to have to consult google, methinks!

EEOP? Sorry, my brain's not working this morning! Could you remind me what EEOP stands for, please? Only if combined with petrol. Ah, good old John Hele!

Thanks Richard.

Oh no! Next we'll have a choice of electric blower or hand blowing and electric lighting or candles on the console!

Why? Apart from the possibility that it might enhance sforzando effects (arguable!), it just makes life more difficult for the performer, and the instrument less flexible. Retaining a trigger swell just seems like following dogma to me.

Mind you, I had this problem a while back when I accompanied a quartet who were a guest choir singing Evensong at a Cathedral with a rather more "Romantic" instrument.

Yes, agreed. Although there is a discernable quality about them when they're not enclosed......

Well, let's hope! Or is there something you're not telling us.....?!

Reading about its condition, I suspect it will end up scrapped. What a pity.

A Freudian slip?

PM sent. Thanks.

Thanks, Colin. That sounds like a very good idea! If nothing which is already in print turns out to be suitable, I think this could easily - well, relatively! - be the answer.

It looks that way! We talked about that, but it really wouldn't be viable in this particular church building. My other church uses a Mayhew book as a supplement (New Hymns and Worship Songs, supplementing AMNS) and many of the arrangements in NHWS are ghastly, and I tend to rearrange most of them as I go. Aren't there any takers here who are willing to suggest a useful supplement for Common Praise?

Back to topic.....! Any suggestions then, please, folks?

Indeed, although published by RCA. I had wondered about quoting this one in my earlier post, but thought it might be a bit unkind. However, I'll now stick my head above the parapet! These were the complete Mendelssohn organ works on two LPs. I bought Volume I and, needless to say, didn't purchase Volume II. Inaccurate, splashy, unrhythmical, and with little musical sense, I thought.

Interesting thought which, of course, only time will tell. But in this era of widely-available commercial recordings, I think the world of Classical music is opening up to diverse tastes and there is, potentially, room for all-comers.

The worst commercial organ record I ever heard was given to me a few years ago. I quickly passed it on to a friend for his amusement, with the instruction not to even think of returning it to me! Unfortunately, the details I recall are rather sketchy. But it was a recording made, I think, in the '60s or '70s of a Vicar's wife playing a village organ. The playing was AWFUL. Wrong notes abounded, as did massive hesitations and misreadings. How it was ever commercially released, I shall never know.

Absolutely perfectly summed up in a nutshell MM. Hear, hear!

I can think of some fine orchestral musicians of my acquaintance who think similar things about most organists....

Yup, that's what I thought!