ajt

Nothing I can find for that, I'm afraid!

I have no opinion. I don't read organ specs from anyone. Until I can find 2 organs built by 2 different companies to the same spec that sound the same, I don't find anything much meaningful in them. I appreciate I'm in the minority here, but my view is that there's so much variation between the tonal qualities and blend of, for example, 2 different builders' open diapasons, that a spec is just a list of names to me. Hence, I say - each to their own! If this kind of thing floats your boat, then good on you. It's just not for me, and far be it from me to ask anyone to stop doing it if someone derives pleasure or interest from it.

You'd be most welcome. My e-mail address should be in my Mander profile, drop me a line, and we can sort it out! Where are you based?

No problem at all - glad to apply my day job skills to my preffered job, if you see what I mean! There's a very helpful pop-up box - if you use the "Normal Mode" posting method, then, under the box on the left with all the smilies in, there is a "BB Code Help" link. This explains everything you can do with the bulletin board, including such delights as left, right, center justified, etc.

I think I might have found the cure for that - see the layout of organ specifications thread. http://web16713.vs.netbenefit.co.uk/discus...p?showtopic=347

Right, it's not perfect, but it might suit some. You can insert a codebox in your text, which creates a scrolling text box within the post, so the overall post length looks short, but those that want to read the specs can go delve in. The codebox is inserted by doing some text but putting the word CODEBOX in lower case. Another feature of the codebox is that the formatting should come out exactly as written, so you could, if you were masochistic enough, use columns. Here's an example, taken from one of SteveC's specs from another post... GREAT DOUBLEGEIGEN16 OPENDIAPASON8 STOPPEDDIAPASON8 HARMONICCLARIBEL8 VIOLADAGAMBA8 SYLVESTRINA8 NAZARD5-1/3 PRINCIPAL4 HARMONICFLUTE4 FLUTECOUVERTE4 TIERCE3-1/5 TWELFTH2-2/3 FIFTEENTH2 FLAGEOLETHARMONIQUE2 SEVENTEENTH1-3/5 NINETEENTH1-1/3 TWENTY-FIRST1-1/7 TWENTY-SECOND1 CHORUSMIXTURE-V DOBLETRUMPET16 TRUMPET8 OCTAVETRUMPET4 SWELLTOGREAT CHOIRTOGREAT SWELL BOURDON16 OPENDIAPASON8 CHIMNEYFLUTE8 TRAVERSEFLUTE8 VIOLA8 VIOLACELESTE8 AEOLINE8 VOXANGELICA8 PRINCIPAL4 HARMONICSTOPPEDFLUTE4 NAZARD2-2/3 NIGHTHORN2 TIERCE1-3/5 FURNITURE-V CONTRAFAGOTTO16 HARMONICTRUMPET8 HAUTBOY8 VOXHUMANA8 HARMONICCLARION4 TREMOLANT CHOIR QUINTADENA16 VIOLINDIAPASON8 LIEBLICHGEDECKT8 MELODIA8 VIOLONCELLO8 GEMSHORN8 DULCIANA8 PRINCIPAL4 LIEBLICHFLUTE4 FIFTEENTH2 FLAUTINO2 LARIGOT1-1/3 FIFE1 SESQUIALTERA-II CIMBEL-III CRUMHORN16 TROMPETTE8 CLARINET8 CREMONA4 TREMOLANT SWELLTOCHOIR TRUMPETENCHAMADE8

This is a test of using the code tags: This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box This should be a very long list in a scroll box

And not too taxing for a first week out! Shame I had to to let the organ rest between the big chords at the end - leaky wind, and had no 8' tromba or gt mixture, (actually the tromba's not a huge loss), but, still nicer than playing it on a Wyvern!

Stanford D minor Postlude in the end... JSB's a challenge in there - sounds great at the console, but sounds a mess down the church.

Nope, Willis III. See the thread on St. Mary's, Southampton, in "General Discussion", or http://www.laudachoir.org/organ for more depressing details. Basically, the only work that's been done on it since 1956 (bar a change of a Vox Humana for a Cimbel Mixture and a Clarabella for a Gedeckt by Willis III in about 1958), is the rebuild of the great and choir after a roof leak, but that was not a restoration, just a take it out, dry it and put it back, I believe. The stop action I hope to get repaired ASAP, but the church has NO funds. None at all, and the general attitude is get the money elsewhere or mothball it. Any suggestions for fundraising greatly appreciated! Thanks for the best wishes, though! I'm still trying to decide what to play in the morning!

And it's pretty nice to play a good one... I'd be a lot happier being custodian of a tracker than an electro-pneumatic (my last church but one was a Mander 3-manual tracker instrument - rebuild of a Gray & Davidson that had been turned EP in 1907 - JPM and his team did a great job turning it back into mechanical; bit heavy when coupled, but very nice). My new organ (I haven't even started at the church yet - I start this Sunday!) has just lost the Great Tromba, Mixture and half the Contra Tromba due to pneumatics (burst leather in the stop machine) - much less likely to happen when you have just a few rods and slides to bring a stop on. Nice to start my spell there with only 1.5 great reeds! (To be fair, I don't need them, the rest of the thing is so stupidly huge that it'll be a blessed relief for the congregation to have a few reeds missing)

I'm sure you're right - I know very little about it. But, surely anyone that designs an instrument that can't be maintained because it's so damn big needs their head examined? My only concept of the size of the hall is from photos, where it does look huge - does the organ *need* to be that large? A serious question, I just have no idea what kind of scale this building is.

I keep meaning to try out N17099, which has been moved to St. Winfrid's, Testwood, on the edge of Southampton - it's supposed to be rather nice.

That was kind of my thinking too, but I'm not particularly knowledgable about nuts and bolts... This is a Willis III we're talking about, and the tops are all there, I believe, but like I say, I don't know much...

I've just had a discussion with our organ maintainer about me tuning the reeds, which I'm quite happy to do. But... he suggests that all the reeds (bar a couple) should be tuned at the tops, as was the Willis practice, apparently - as he's ex-Willis, he's the one to know if they did that or not! Does anyone know why this practice might have come about, and what are the relative merits of tops vs spring tuning?

Personally I don't see the point in revising St. Peter's organ. As others have said, the Catholic musical tradition is much changed since Vatican II, and, particularly in Italy, the organ is really only used to accompany the congregation, who tend to sing everything very slowly, in a random time signature and to their own tune, so the only real purpose for the organ is to give a starting note and to indicate that they ought to be singing now. At least, that was my experience of about 10 years ago when I lived over there. I went to a few services in St. Peter's, and to be honest, my overall impression was that music was an irrelevance. The funniest/saddest thing I saw though, was people SMOKING in the "queue" for communion. Not that the word queuing has much relevance to what actually happens. Does anyone know anything about the organ in the abbey at Montecassino? I played it once, but can't for the life of me remember who it was by... re: Steve's comments - no criticism levelled at anyone here - it reminds me of the old Usenet "law": 1. If more than one English person is in a discussion, it will degenerate into Monty Python jokes 2. If more than one American is in a discussion, it will end up on gun control 3. If there are both English and Americans, it will end up discussing who saved who's butt in the war.

Great to hear from someone who knows something about the history of this instrument! What was your impression of it when you were playing it regularly? I'm particularly interested in the wind side of things - I've heard claims that the blower was never large enough to support full organ, but I find that hard to believe. These days it's still a lovely comfortable console (I would hope that apart from wear and tear, it's no different from what it would have been in 1959), but remarkably unreliable, largely because of electrics, but increasingly because of wind too. (The swell chests are splitting, someone's punched holes in the pedal leatherwork to stop ciphers, and the concussions are all split, plus the blower is knackered, and the the trunking from it has crumbled) I've just come back from a practice session, where the OD2, Tromba 8', Gt Mixture and Gemshorn were all "missing" (wind problems at the stop machine end), the Sw. Clarion comes on about 5 seconds after being drawn, the low pressure Sw stops have a D# and middle A missing, etc, etc. And then there's the electrics... Sw->Ch is permanently on on a couple of notes (very very very annoying!), Sw Oct -> Gt comes on randomly, and none of the pistons are adjustable any more (which is annoying for me as the new incumbent, because I don't particularly like having mixtures on early in the piston range, if you see what I mean) ... If you'd like to come and renew your acquaintance, you'd be absolutely welcome any time! Where are you based?

Actually, I have... Friends of mine got married in April - they requested (at the last minute, as always) a medley of "unsuitable hymns" for the signing of the register. So we had EH 3, Through the night of doubt and sorrow, Fight the good Fight, etc.

I've had Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) and Smoke gets in your eyes at Cremations before now. I've also had (several times), Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which is normally fine, except one family requested that I sing it too. Singing the Life's a piece of shit line wasn't entirely comfortable for either me or the vicar! I also once had a *videoed* cremation. I couldn't for the life of me understand why. Very odd.

The one in Portswood? Console down the front, pipework stuffed somewhere up above amidst the brickwork?

Right in the middle of the two, tempo wise. Sort of sit back and let it flow over you. Get it!

Actually, the whole set (they're not all out yet) are very very good. I have Vols 1, 8 & 14, 24. I can't find fault with any of them. Simply beautiful. The other one I recommend is the Andreas Scholl recording (Harmonia Mundi, I think) of the Bach Cantatas for Solo Alto.

Bach Cantatas, Volume 24, I believe. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...7157310-3724442

I have it on CD - bloomin' marvellous - assuming you mean the Gardiner recording?

Ah, the magic words... Rushworth & Dreaper. I don't think I've ever played an organ by them that I didn't despise. Not really really bad organs, just soulless, pointless things. Is anyone able to contradict me and point me at a good example of their work?