MikeK

I understand the Makin was donated.

Anyone know what is happening here? The church has been 'adopted' by HT Brompton & my spy tells me there are organ pipes stored in the south aisle. Let's hope that the long awaited rebuild of this Willis 111 is underway. I have a soft spot for this organ, having had lessons here from D Cecil Williams, which culminated in me taking up music professionally in the late 1960s

This house has been on the market for some time & was the subject of earlier web discussion.

You could always contribute something yourself!

Goodness me! Someone needs to lighten up & get out more! I suggest most sensible people will know exactly what is meant by 'twangy bangy music. '

I would be interested to know how you managed to record the King's Service if you don't have a licence?

To misquote Oscar Wilde; 'To lose one organist is unfortunate, to lose 3 is unforgivable'!

See https://www.churchofengland.org/media/20084 for the latest info, regarding 'exercising' the organ.

An interesting topic, but am I alone in thinking it is posted on the wrong forum. or is it being suggested that when playing Bach the organ should be tuned in a similar way to that suggested by David? The piano in the church where I play can be tuned in about an hour, whereas the organ takes almost 2 days!

This topic was covered in a topic started on 5 Feb. 2017. Since then I have been using a pair of Resound Linx 2. 961 aids. They were not cheap but are a vast improvement on the nhs ones I was originally prescribed. As has already been mentioned, what is suitable for speech is unlikely be suitable for music, particularly the organ. It is possible to adjust the settings to suit via an iphone & then save both these & the location, this is about as good as it gets! They are not perfect but at least the organ no longer sounds like a badly out-of-tune fairground one!

I seem to remember seeing a demonstration of an app that enabled the organ to be tuned single handed. It also allowed the player to check balances etc. away from the console by controlling the playback facility. With Facetime I wonder if I could work from home?!

David Lang was indeed the Organist of St Mary the Boltons. I was assistant organist there in the 1960's whilst studying at one of the London music colleges. The organ was a revelation to me as I had not experienced another instrument like it up to then. it took no prisoners & demanded very clean articulation, every mistake & fudge was obvious, just what an organ student needed! The detached console was placed immediately in front of the expressive box with it's glass shutters & the choir sat to the right of the console, so everything was 'immediate.' I understood from David that this organ was the last to be built by Compton & Johnie Degens. The schamei stop was certainly there in my time, & I would have thought the substitution of an oboe would not have been in keeping with the rest of the tonal scheme. MikeK

I agree! We also use Fothergills & have found them very thorough & reliable.

I always find it difficult to understand why incumbents do not choose there own hymns, preferring to leave it to someone else to do this. Hymns should be chosen to comment on or expand the theme set by the readings, sermon etc. Without this continuity they become merely 'gap fillers' & often irrelevant to the rest of the service imho. I would like to think that there is some discussion between interested parties when hymns are chosen, but in my experience this rarely happens. Perhaps playing in one of our 'dissenters' churches has spoilt me! Am I out of touch with what happens in the 2 mainstream establishments?

A dulciana on the G O of a 2 manual is useful as an accompaniment to a swell oboe or other suitable solo stop. On the instrument I am responsible for I have had the C O dulciana tuned sharp to beat against the violin diapason. It also works well coupled up to the S O & used with the viol d' orchestra. Other combinations are available!