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MichaelDavidson

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Posts posted by MichaelDavidson

  1. This excerpt from John Eliot Gardiner's "Bach Cantata Pilgrimage" shows him visiting the Thomaskirche and discussing the new organ with Ullrich Bohme.

     

    Unfortunately for those of us who are linguistically challenged it turns out that Sir John speaks what sounds (to me, at least) like very fluent German ...

  2. I noticed in the recording of Richard Hills that the "second touch" facility is in use. Does anyone know if second touch features in any classical organ?

     

    The 1879 Willis in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh acquired 'second touch' in 1897 thanks to Hope Jones.

     

    See E01407 for details.

     

    Not sure how long it lasted - NPOR doesn't list any work between a 1901 "cleaning" by Norman & Beard and the 1929 Arthur Harrison rebuild, but I seem to remember having been told that the Hope Jones action didn't last that long ...

  3. Dupre playing the F major toccata at St Sulpice in 1961

     

    and

     

    I just listened to this for the first time and, to be honest, I don't quite know what to make of it. It is just so different from what I am used to.

  4. The Swell Box should always be left open when switching the organ off to avoid tuning problems as John has indicated.

     

    One some instruments even this isn't possible. I can think of at least one electro-pneumatic instrument which had horizontal swell shutters that were not balanced and which closed whenever the instrument was turned off. If you left the swell pedals in the "open" position when turning the instrument off all that happened was that you were rewarded with an almighty crashing sound as all three swell boxes slammed shut ...

  5. whilst restoring my first "Bach" Lp, (that I bought for my dad, but he never recieved it :( ) to CD, I was looking for a picture of the organ, but got side tracked, as you do, and came over

    Peter

     

    Played at a speed that would leave even Ton Koopman out of breath, but without any of Koopman's flair ...

  6. Just so. This was pretty standard on H&H instruments in the early part of the C20th - an unintended (am I sure?) consequence was that the player had access to a 4' reed on the pedal via the Reeds on Ch/Ch-Ped route.

     

    On some instruments another "unintended consequence" of having the great reeds available on the choir is the opportunity (an opportunity which, I hasten to add, I would never take ...) to use the choir octave and sub-octave couplers with the great reeds and then couple the result back to the great ...

     

    (OK, I admit it - I did do it - once - just once ...)

  7. I think that home organs in pipe form may have evolved from the 8+8 Flutes, and now have much different timbres. The thought of try to practice Dupre's B major P + F on two flutes would put me off.

     

    There was an article in Choir and Organ a few years ago in which John Kitchen mentioned having learned one of the big Dupre works (can't remember with certainty which one, but I *think* it may have been the Symphonie Passion) on just such an instrument.

  8. The crescendo at the start of each passage is tastefully done but not something I can ever remember ever hearing other than in this recording.

     

    Virgil Fox apparently also found it necessary to do this in at least one of his recordings of the piece.

  9. Sorry to spoil your evening Paul - but I found it here - unless the details are wrong the organ is a 1908 Hinners with Wicks additions. The Hinners pipework should sound quite splendid - I'm not aware of what Wicks did but the OHS usually picke their instruments quite well.

     

    It is indeed hard to imagine what Wicks could have done to a 1908 Hinners that would have improved it.

     

    On hearing that Wicks has been anywhere near an instrument one tends to expect the worst - conversion to their "direct electric" action and the addition of numerous chimes, bells, whistles and electronic voices all controlled from a five manual console with more stop knobs and pistons than the original instrument had pipes. Plus, of course, a deafening "heraldic trumpet" en chamade for the bigger jobs ...

  10. The only other recording of Final I have is Arthur Wills' GCOS recording from Ely, but as I sold the turntable a few years ago, I can't play it!

     

    While it must be almost 25 years since I last heard it, my memory of the Arthur Wills recording is that it was taken at speed that was somewhere between "stately" and "ponderous".

     

    I also seem to recall a recording by Michael Austin from Birmingham Town Hall which was taken at a somewhat faster pace.

  11. A sharp contrast can be found by looking at the organ of Teffont Evias. The village is located around 1 or 2 miles east (ie. towards Salisbury) of Chilmark. The NPOR says that this is an "Upton model" by "Scudamore". That sounds highly unlikely if you consider that, under an hour's drive from Teffont Evias, is a village called Upton Scudamore which is just the other side of the town of Warminster. As if to suggest that the NPOR's facts are mistaken a plaque attached to the case reads "Henry Willis, London".

     

    Actually this sounds exactly right.

     

    The "Scudamore" organs originated with the Rev. John Baron, vicar of Upton Scudamore, who came up with a design for a small inexpensive instrument to be installed in his church. This led to requests from incumbents of other small churches and Baron designed a series of small 2, 3 and 4 stop instruments which were initially build by Nelson Hall.

     

    Around 1858 Henry Willis commercialised the idea and started building small instruments based on Baron's designs.

     

    Laurence Elvin's book, "Forster and Andrews, Their Barrel, Chamber and Small Church Organs", contains a copy of Willis's prospectus for the "Scudamore Organs", which came in two basic models - the "Upton" and the "Douglas" and had a variety of specifications ranging from the most basic:

     

    Open Diapason, metal from Gamut G to f3 in alt. Stopped Diapason, wood, from CC to FF#

     

    to the most elaborate:

     

    Open Diapason 8

    Stopped Diapason or Dulciana 8

    Principal 4

    Fifteenth 2

     

    According to Willis's prospectus (which, I think, dates from 1862) approximately 200 of these instruments had been built since 1858 although I suppose that it is possible that those numbers were inflated.

  12. Lest anyone feel I am exaggerating the dangers of fashion, may I remind you that for a brief while not very long ago, it was strongly suggested by no less a person than the Director of Music that what Kings Chapel, Cambridge really needed was a smaller instrument on tracker action.

     

    I may be mistaken, but I thought that the context in which I originally heard this was a discussion of Stephen Cleobury's sense of humour and that he had made these remarks as a joke to see if anyone would actually take it seriously (which, apparently, some people did ...)

  13. Not quite!

     

    Salisbury Cathedral 404

    Norwich Cathedral 315

    St Walburge, Preston 309

    St Michael, Coventry 295

    St James, Louth 295

    St Mary, Redcliffe 292

    St Wulfram, Grantham 288

    St Elphin, Warrington 281

    Lichfield Cathedral 252

    Truro Cathedral 250

    Holy Trinity, Coventry 237

     

    DT

     

    I believe that the central spire of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh is 270 ...

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