gazman

Thanks PCND, my ignorance is now lessened.

Sounds like chamades at dawn!

What a wonderful turn of phrase! I remember as an undergraduate being asked by a composition student if I would give the first performance of an organ piece which he was considering writing. I agreed, and two weeks later received the most impossible score which was black as one's hat, and which would have required something like twenty-seven fingers and five feet to perform! It would even have defeated Kevin Bowyer (not that he has twenty-seven fingers and five feet; well, he didn't the last time I met him!) And he wasn't willing to change ANYTHING! Of course, it didn't get performed, but I wonder what it might have sounded like as he seemed to have some good ideas... Incidentally, in my ignorance, can anyone tell me how you get the double ss symbol in the middle of the term "Grosse Fuge"? And umlauts too? Thanks!

Was this a stop-tab?

Ah, yes. GTB's 113 Variations on Hymn Tunes for Organ, published by Novello, with a picture of the good Doctor on the cover. I've not played any of these for a number of years, and will take another look. I wonder what Dykes would have made of Dominus regit me though!

I simply couldn't resist it!

Gosh, that's a blast from the past! Must dig it out again.... But would you confess to playing the recapitulation upon a Tuba stop or, heaven forfend, PCND's chamade?

I guess you're referring to Buckfast Abbey. But how much of that is due to that place's glorious acoustic? A tin whistle would sound wonderful in there! I understand that a lot of the pipework is very run-of-the-mill second-hand stuff, which should never sound as good as it does, and wouldn't in a less reverbrant building.

Good point!

Yeh, but it's often much harder to play something more slowly than racing through it, for some strange reason!

I wouldn't go as far as to say hopeless, Vox, but would agree that it's not totally ideal especially in its lack of a sufficiently robust secondary chorus and the lack of wide-scale mutations, despite the appearance of the specification on paper. It just depends on how far you want to take the idea of "authenticity" and what concessions you're willing to make. And, of course, some Baroque music would come off better on it than other Baroque music. Totally agree about Howells, though!

But how much would you enjoy playing Baroque AND Howells at Exeter? I think the motivation behind the original builder's idea at Truro was to make the most beautiful organ possible. I'm not entirely sure about the motivation behind the Downes remodelling of Gloucester; I don't think beauty was necessarily at the leading edge of the motivation behind that instrument's restyling.

Now tell us what you REALLY think of the instrument!

I think I can guess which of the two instruments most of us prefer though!

Who, me?

Well, it eluded me entirely!

I guess it was the Philip Dore. An old LP (1971) of mine states that he was organ scholar of Queen's College, Cambridge, city organist at Portsmouth, organist of Mullingar Cathedral, Lecturer in Music at University College, Dublin. He was also on the music staff at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, and Brighton College, and later at Ampleforth College. He looks a bit ancient on the photo of him on the LP sleeve, and his playing seems to be rather influenced by advancing years.

Would you really want to use a 32' reed for extended periods though?

When I took on my present appointment some ten years ago, there had been a "tradition" of getting out the vacuum cleaner immediately at the end of the Sunday morning service, and using it to clean the chancel carpet which lies right behind the organ console. Of course, as far as they were concerned, the service had finished as soon as the final hymn was over i.e. the cleaning took place during the organ voluntary. Now what comment this made on my predecessor's choice of music (nor, indeed, his performance of the same!) I don't know, but it was a tradition I ended rather rapidly with a few choice words!

Thanks for pointing out this potentially useful site.

Gordon Reynolds lives on....!

Right-ho! Thanks.

Is any of it worth purchasing and learning though, please?