ajt

I have a 16' Dulzian on the Swell - I'll try to dig out some pictures of it. Essentially it sounds like a mellower Contra Fagotto or such like. I love it for creating a "full swell" effect at half the volume - the swell reeds are Dulzian 16, Oboe 8, Waldhorn 16, Trumpet 8, Clarion 4. The latter three totally dominate the flue work - there's very little point in having the 8 4 2 chorus drawn. However, with the Dulzian + Oboe + 8 4 2 (no Mixture), you get a lovely rich sound, perfect for choral accompaniment.

I have a Choir Dulciana, and never use it for anything on the Choir. However, it's borrowed on the pedal, and it's actually the most useful 16' pedal stop on the instrument, largely because it actually speaks, unlike a few of the others!

I played my old organ tonight, which is a toaster. First time I've played it in 3 months, since I took over a proper organ. I hadn't, until tonight, realised just how unrewarding that toaster is, particularly with the complete lack of acoustic in that church. I was playing through wedding music for a couple, and everything just sounded, well, wrong. Clashy, and jangly, and lacking in depth. Glad to hear that the digital organ works out for you.

My tuner tunes mostly at the tops. I was sceptical about this at first, but, after he's been in, the organ sounds marvellous, so I'm a convert. If only the church was properly heated, then I think the organ would stay that way! This weekend the vicar found that the heating hadn't been working, so decided to leave it on continuously from Saturday pm... I was left with not a single usable reed on Sunday morning.

No, it's not from CCP It's a very kind loan of a rank that might have been destined for his house organ.

No problem at all! Even my parents get my name wrong, and I'm an only child! I'm obviously just not memorable

Adrian Actually, if you listen carefully to his Wayneship's CD, then there is evidence of sag at the endings of some of the Liszt movements. He also had problems registering around the lack of wind; I know this from people who were "assisting" at the recording, including the tuners. Yup, we've got a few side joints gone, particularly on the swell chests. Also the swell concussions are poor. Thank you. Thanks again - I'm still trying to find out what was actually in there originally. It looks like it was a Claribel flute from physical evidence, but a lot of the paperwork I have from '56 suggests that it was always a Gedeckt... I've currently got 1.5 octaves of Claribel flute in there, on loan from Geoffrey Morgan, and it does make a lovely noise!

Oh, how I wish that were the case. My organ, built in 1956, is hideously under winded. I don't know if it's because the blower isn't big enough/knackered or if there are just too many leaks. On a 70-odd stop organ, I use just 13 stops for full organ... The reeds are so huge that there's no audible difference with or without the chorus. Even that sags badly. Those stops are: Sw - Clarion, Trumpet, Waldhorn Gt - Clarion, Tromba, Contra Tromba, OD 1 Ped - 32' Sub bass, 16' Violone, Contra Tromba 16 (ex-Gt), Contra Tuba 32 (ex Ch, enclosed), Double Tuba 16 (ex Ch, enclosed) I would like to add a bit more of the Great chorus, but given that the above is unsustainable...

I've heard Wachet Auf with the tune played on a 32' reed before - that was pretty, err, "interesting".

I haven't got right through the dvd yet, but I believe he was head of the Nice Conservatoire and organist at Notre Dame. Being able to *appear* rich, and actually being massively in debt doesn't seem to be that rare a feat... Perhaps his improvisation skills weren't restricted to the organ console?

Nope, I'm with you on this. To be honest, I'm not particularly fond of much of that period in French organ music - I'm sure that others on here are now sucking their teeth in scorn at me On a related note, I've recently been watching a DVD about Cochereau's life, which is very good, but the most interesting thing for me is the opening, which shows a number of newspaper headlines and TV bulletins about PC's death. To my mind, here in the UK, the only way an organist would get on the TV news would be to do with charges of paedophilia. I appreciate that there's 20+ years between PC's death and the present day, but I don't recall ever seeing TV reports of famous organists dying. Is the culture that different in France with regards to the organ, or was PC just *so* famous?

Yes, they're still going, and David Wyld is still in charge. I believe they're in the process of completing restorations in Port Sunlight and Lee-on-Solent ...

That wouldn't be the same gentleman who recorded said same piece (542?) on my instrument for the BBC? The same chap who manages to play that Fugue well over a minute faster than my other 2 recordings? (4:52 as opposed to 6:07 !)

I always prefer Behold the bridegroom cometh....

Sarah Baldock - Winchester, Rosemary Field - ex-Portsmouth, are 2 I can think of off the top of my head...

Looks to me like they are illuminated drawstops, which I've seen on quite a few organs, usually toasters. I'm 99% certain that that is the case and that it's not Photoshopped.

Goodall Psalm 23. I had a run of 5 weddings in a row - every bloody Saturday in August - same ****ing piece. Even the toaster objected - the pedals at one of the middle services decided that transposition was in order. But only of the pedals, and random intervals, anywhere up to a 4th. Quite disconcerting, because you start off thinking you just misplaced your feet. Then you start watching your feet, and it's just downhill from there...

Yes. It's not exactly got the same touch as a modern digital toaster, has it? And 3 manuals with quite different touches, too!

Cunning! Thank you.

I wish this board had threading - we were talking about Sumsion in G Nunc, I thought.

Yes, I've had a similar experience with a young choir - they particularly latch on to the idea of "Have a banana" ...

I can't believe the attitude of some people towards organ music. Even my parents, for example, just think it's a load of noise. And I've never played them any Messiaen! It's amazing how memory plays tricks - it's only 6 months since I played that Hill I was talking about... Turns out it's tubular pneumatic, not tracker! N01946

Hmmm, I played for a friend's wedding last year, on a beautiful 3-manual mechanical Hill. On the morning of the wedding, I got a text message from the bride saying that they now didn't want a CD to go out to, they wanted the ubiquitous Widor ... I managed to scavenge 10 minutes on the organ before the service to practice, at which the vicar marches up, and says "How lovely to hear the organ instead of a CD. But, don't you think it's too loud?" me: "No, I don't think so, it's supposed to be loud." Vicar: "Well, the congregation won't be able to talk over you". At which point I broke his nose. Well, ok, maybe not physically, but the mental image was there. Which only made me, of course, draw even more stops (I'd been keeping the great reeds in reserve for the ending) for the whole thing. Bollocks to the congregation TALKING over the organ!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing.

Precisely my point - the passing down of this knowledge relies on being assistant, or at least, having access to, someone who already knows what they are doing. Someone who, at one point, was assistant to someone else who knew what they were doing, etc. Then you go on to impart that knowledge to your assistant(s)... It's a great tradition, and works wonderfully well for cathedrals. But, for those of us outside, barring a few larger, cathedral style parish churches, it's down to reading books and having singing lessons. The RSCM is, of course, the organisation to which we look to provide this kind of training outside of the cathedrals. So, what can we realistically expect them to provide? What is a practical way to train would-be choirmasters, outside of the assistant organist cathedral tradition?