gazman

I think that, with PCND around, we ought to establish a Save Our Dulcianas society. Or SOD for short...

But hopefully not the pedants' nit picking!

An organ with quite noisy trackers Drove its organist really quite crackers. It rattled away Every time he would play Especially when he went like the clappers!

The mind boggles! What sort of things go on in your place?!

Yes, absolutely. I have two churches on a Sunday morning. The second is a village which can only be approached through long narrow country roads, and is a good fifteen minutes' drive at best. The fact that this village also has a couple of caravan parks on the outskirts and that, in the summer, there are often delays as caravans meet whilst coming in opposite directions, I seldom arrive before 11a.m., often later. It's incredibly frustrating watching motorists who probably tow their caravans once per year repeatedly reversing in the wrong direction, turning their steering wheels in the same (wrong) direction again and expecting not to hit the hedge for the umpteenth time. Last year we had a horsebox and a caravan jam together. Having waited in a queue for about fifteen minutes, I eventually managed to turn the car around having done something like a 27-point turn in order to approach the village from another lane. As I squeezed through the large queue I came across not only the vicar, but the associate priest, and the bishop who was visiting us that morning, all stuck in the queue. I think we started the service something like half an hour late! Back to the point. I always ask visiting preachers at my first church to keep their sermon within 10 minutes, and remind them that I have another job to get to. Some of them are very good, and some are awful. I think a lot of them are used to preaching to small congregations and, when faced with a congregation much larger than they're used to, view it as an opportunity to show off to a large captive audience. Last year, one of them, after preaching the world's most boring and incoherent sermon for 25 minutes said "I'd better stop in a few minutes or the organist will say that I've gone on too long". I was about to reply when one of the congregation beat me to it and loudly said "You have!". Bless them!

I can imagine what most wives would say about the suggestion of installing a pipe organ in the house!

Personally, I dig out Bach chorale preludes and play those during Lent. Most of the congregation won't take any notice, but you'll enjoy yourself playing them!

Yes, quite right Vox!

Yeh, but it still feels to me that perhaps it's not entirely in the best of taste to give another firm so much publicity on a forum funded by a competitor.

Yes, I agree with what you say, David, but I think the point being made is that, basically, an organ builder competitor is getting a lot of free publicity on a board which is paid for by our generous hosts, no matter the quality and interest in the new instrument.

I seem to recall one of my pupils learning it about twelve or thirteen years ago for something like a Grade four or five....

Don't schools expect a wide range of extra-curricular activities from their music teachers nowadays....

I hadn't considered this before, but you may have a point.

We're a critical bunch, aren't we, folks?! The BBC has actually dedicated a programme to promoting the organ to Joe Public, and made it informative and (I think) enjoyable to the layman, and here we are grumbling about it. Perhaps the BBC could be persuaded to launch a new programme called "Grumpy Old Organists"!

Thanks, Vox. I was trying to remember where I had come across that before. I can think of one or two singers I've made music with recently who could do with heeding that advice!

I wondered about this silly statement made by Huw Edwards. After some thought, I think I might know why. Often we come across bad spellings of "Lieblich Gedeckt", including "Lieblich Gedacht". Gedacht is a German word for something imaginary, so it's just possible that a BBC researcher, looking in a German dictionary, came up with "lovely imaginary" and decided to make it "lovely thoughts".

Do you think they should be stopped (or perhaps covered) instead?!

Gilding the lilly, I thought. Mind you, the gild wasn't very attractive in either the descant or the reharmonization. Utterly. I was expecting something good, and was very disappointed. I couldn't see the point in it. Yes, unpleasantly so. However, at least the Beeb promoted the organ with a programme which would have informed and pleased Joe Public (I hope!).

How sweet!

Despite the criticisms, I think they deserve our thanks for promoting the King of Instruments. It wasn't, after all, a programme designed for organists, but a programme to showcase the organ to the general public. I think that it served that purpose admirably.

Yes, but I think an open double more desirable on the Great, all other things being equal. I wonder how Vox would have his pedal organ built. Presumably he would have all the stops on which the tremulant operates on one soundboard, and the others on another soundboard, or on individual chests.

Thanks, Nigel. It's looking good!

I hadn't thought about that. Could be interesting! I'd rather a double open on the Great any day, if there's a stopped double on the Swell. Great bourdon = Great boredom!

A tremulant on the pedal organ, Vox?! I guess that could come in really useful..... And why a stopped double on the Great, when an open double would add more sonority. You already have a stopped double on the Swell - where such things are much more useful!