gazman

Yes, it's certainly a crowd-pleaser and one, I find, requested by my 'punters' as much as THE Widor and BWV 565 (sorry, Vox! ). And, I must confess, I can enjoy it on the odd occasion when I choose to 'let my hair down'. Does not even the most picky gourmet occasionally have the desire for a MacDonalds or a bacon butty with cheap white bread and lashings of tomato sauce? *drools*

My, my! I don't think that most of your points are directly applicable to this case. Mander Organs provide this fascinating forum at their own expense. Whilst it's very interesting to read threads about new organs, at the end of the day you have to remember that Manders is a commercial concern who have already generously allowed considerable 'publicity' for other organ builders and their work (the threads about the other Aubertin and Worcester Cathedral spring instantly to mind). Whilst these threads have been most interesting to read, I must confess to having felt a pang of guilt when contributing to them as we are, by doing so, promoting the work of competitors. The moderators have the ability to delete posts and entire threads. They obviously have decided, in this case, to request that this thread isn't further promoted by the OP. They certainly haven't 'publicly' humiliated the OP nor - as far as I'm aware - deleted him! They have also allowed the links given by the OP, when quoted by others, to remain in situ, so we can still view the photographs. Whilst no doubt this would have been an interesting thread, and I'm sorry to see it pass, in answer to your final question, and for the reasons I've given, yes, I think that Manders are being fair and reasonable and I understand their reasoning.

I'm told that the console from St. John's, Torquay, remains in storage in the basement of Torquay Museum, complete with its Latin stopknobs. A friend of mine, who played there for a few months in the 1950s before the Latin stopknobs were removed, said it looked quite confusing at first inspection because the pitch was also given in Roman numerals.

You oughta be!

And the one which said 'It's not out of tune, but tuned in a so called unequal temperature'. The temperature sounds like it fluctuated every few minutes whilst it was being tuned! As Vox observed, why play 'Nun Danket' on an organ tuned to an unequal temperament?

Intriguing!

I seem to remember hearing him give a series of concerts on the radio (in place of 'The Organist Entertains'?) a few years ago. I recall one of his comments before launching into his next piece: "So-and-so was known as a virtuoso organist, but I bet he couldn't play as fast as me". That said it all about his playing, as far as I was concerned.

The team seemed very keen on it when I played there last. It would certainly be far better than the awful electrone in place at present.

That sounds good. On the odd occasion when I've been asked to stand aside for another organist to play, I've not received the video fee, having been told that the incumbent thought it unreasonable. Over the last couple of years or so I've had one wedding where they asked the church's 'music group' (basically a keyboard which plays MIDI files as nobody in the music group has any keyboard skill), a trumpeter and a couple of singers) to provide the music instead, and another where they decided not to use the organ after they were told that I would charge a retainer fee and got their 'organist' friend to play the piano instead (I hear he mangled the music, so goodness only knows what he'd have done on the organ). In both these cases I didn't get paid a fee because the incumbent said that the organ wasn't being used. Do fellow board members think that a retainer should be paid when the organ isn't used at a wedding, and do they think that it's reasonable to be paid a video fee if the wedding is videoed, even if one isn't playing oneself? I'd be interested in hearing others' views.

I must confess to preferring the term 'concert'. I think the words 'organ' and 'recital' in one sentence can summon up the picture of a dusty old organist playing obscure, atonal music in the punters' minds.

LOL! I was thinking the same....

Until the recent interregnum our incumbent would say a prayer 5 minutes before the service was due to begin and would then announce "As is our custom, we shall now remain silent before the service starts and prepare ourselves for worship". I would then play the first voluntary - timed carefully - and the service would begin after the voluntary finished. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened since the interregnum, and I've had to get used to doing battle with chatter again. It was even worse yesterday when, halfway through the opening voluntary, the churchwarden decided to announce over the sound system that the Bishop has advised people not to shake hands at the Peace, nor to practise intinction for the same reason.

I appreciate where you're coming from, John, but, in this case, most of the electronic ranks are replacements for ranks which used to be in the instrument until it was 'classicalised' and pipes removed. Although space could probably be found again for pipes with some rearrangement of the organ loft, the problem of finance is a significant one.

I don't like the idea of limiting the compass of solo stops merely on grounds of cost, even if they're not frequently used throughout their entire compass. Pity that you disposed of your copy of the Cocker.... Not only is it a good crowd pleaser, but I've a feeling that Cocker may have required coupling the Tuba down to the pedals on the last page, and thus required it to go all the way down to bottom D!

Yes, indeed, and sometimes Cornets only go down as far as Middle C. But this is due to the sound of the mutation ranks ceasing to blend at lower pitches.

Why limit their compass, though, if the pipes of Solo stops are going to be going on the soundboards along with the other full compass ranks?

Yup, and very tiresome.

AJJ has beaten me to it! You're welcome! He's written lots of gorgeous, inventive and worthwhile music. I hope you enjoy it, and I warmly commend his music to other organists on the forum.

Spoil-sport!

Oh how I *hate* coming across posts like this! Don't you just wish you'd arrived a few minutes earlier before the poster deleted what was probably a strongly-held, controversial and interesting point of view?!

Whilst I'd never suggest that they could replace a decent pipe organ, they have their uses for home use. Perhaps you've just never heard a decent one through a decent pair of headphones?

Because they're not all nasty - especially not for practising at home!

Tango on Psalm 103 - Fredrik Sixten. A lovely little gem!

Hear, hear!

Thank you too, Will. Obtaining quotations has now begun in earnest.