gazman

And, for what it's worth (even less than the New Shorter OxDic!), so do I....!

Yes, I quite agree. My Edirol 09 is a fantastic piece of equipment and records superbly. My only criticism is the silly flap at the bottom which has to be released to get at the SD card, batteries and USB connection. The flap is a poor design, and has already broken on mine, although that in no way interferes with the use of the unit.

Yes, back in the 1860s/70s, W. Rockstro - the organist of All Saints', Babbacombe - was the local "organ consultant". He designed the specs of several of Torquay's organs. They were all much the same pattern, that of being rather sketchy four-manuals with Latin stop names. Apart from one instrument which is still a sketchy four-decker, all the others have now been reduced to three. The Latin stop names have gone from them all. St. John's retained its Latin stopnames longer than the others, right up until the rebuild by Walkers in 1957, not in 1948 as suggested by Frank. I know this as a local organist who was one of the two organists at the church for several months in 1954-5 still remembers the old four manual console with the Latin stop names on which he used to play. I believe that the old console is/was kept downstairs in the cellar in Torquay's museum. Regarding Keraulophon, I've always said it as in "all", but have no authority for that! And, with Cornets, I describe them with a "t" if we're talking about English organ music, and with "ay" if discussing anything "continental" - for what it's worth!

Does it? It seems all Greek to me...

Thanks for the recommendation, Vox! 4a.m!! Have you ever tried going to bed? I recommend it!

Interesting though this is, would any new information about the meaning of the title really change the way any of us play it?

I thought it was reasonably good, actually! I've certainly had similar thoughts, and have once known my mobile' phone to bleep to let me know I'd received a text when I forgot to turn it off (this after the incumbent's instruction to the congregation at a wedding to ensure mobile 'phones were switched off).... *hangs head in shame*

ONLY 5 manuals? Ah, a tiddler then!

Mostly agreed. The average visitor would probably not notice it but anybody who looks around the Cathedral with rather more of a discerning eye would. I only know this as, when it was installed, it was a non-organist friend who asked me what was now "sticking up by the organ". I couldn't answer, until I'd visited to see for myself.

Not at all! Nicely hidden away 'round the corner in the transept, and a source of interest to tourists who often ask whether or not they work! Oh, unless you mean the new 32' reed....!

C'mon, you're surely familiar with Gordon Reynolds's "Snug Eucharist, Choral Matings and Evensnog" aren't you?!

One wonders were space and (evidently) money no problem whether it would have been better to have added the new ranks to the existing scheme, rather than to replace those originally there, in order to give a wider tonal palette, should the existing ranks be presently viewed as "unsuitable" for whatever reason.

Interesting! But surely it's still the old play on "You are Peter"/"You are the rock"? (and I don't mean the former American wrestler!!)

I think it's basically "should be played with Romantic registration such as Voix Celeste, etc. The solo voice can sometimes best be used with the octave coupler". Hope this helps.

We still don't know exactly how Bach registered those organs still extant, though, do we? At best, we can only offer conjecture..... And organists of each "era" think they *know* what is right for Bach, and dismiss earlier ideas as being less well-informed. But, without factual registrations listed by Bach on organs which are extant, we're still guessing, however informed we think that guesswork to be.

What data would this be, please, Pierre? As I think Vox has already stated, very little is known about Bach's registrational "practices". We can only make assumptions....

Wasn't that what Sydney Campbell used to say, or am I thinking of the wrong person? Of course, he was quite right.....!

Were he a bishop, would he have to be mitred to fit the available space?

But isn't the sound of the Full Swell there something splendid to behold?! I wonder what it is which makes some full swells have "it", and others not?

Thanks for those details. PM sent. G

Ok, then, this begs the question. Why are organists - often very well-qualified, with skills above those expected of most fellow musicians (how many other instrumentalists are required to transpose, score read, sight read in public, rearrange at sight music written for other instruments (or just badly written music), train choirs, work with clergy etc?) - generally expected to work for so little? Whilst I'm sure Vox has his tongue somewhat in his cheek, he has a very valid point. Dealing with an organ console uses skills which I can't think are often needed in other lines of work, and not even in airline pilots nowadays. How many others have to develop the skill to use hands and feet in the way organists do?

Do these links help, Peter? http://www.shropshirestar.com/2008/07/11/f...hropshire-2/14/ http://www.sundaymercury.net/entertainment...66331-21105972/ (see no 2 under Birmingham) G [EDIT: Mark's just beaten me to it!]

Perhaps an accountant who also plays the organ could combine the two in order to make it a lucrative position!

I'm going to be very, very unfashionable now and say that I'm rather sorry that Huskisson Stubington's scheme never came to fruition. Whilst not a repertoire-based scheme, it would have been a rather marvelous instrument, I suspect. In Stubington's time, to my understanding, the Milton was a bit of a mix-and-match and rather small as the main instrument, the Apse was rather more substantial than it is now (why the reduction in registers?), and the Grove needed renovation (as it did again only a short while after its 1980s renovation). Whilst the Milton has now been made a larger, coherent whole, the Apse has been shorn of much of its pipework, and the Grove (which I found to be a splendid instrument despite its limitations) has languished in the shadow of the Milton.