innate

I think it's spelt Ouseley. Pronounced as the other guy said: ooz-ly, with the stress on the oo.

Henry Chadwick, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, in the 1970s and still, I think, alive after a spell as head of house somewhere in Cambridge, was an organist who had learned the organ at school from someone that had heard Mendelssohn play. He asked me about Messiaen in my interview. We can't thank Nigel enough for his kindness in posting news, photos and videos for our delectation. St John's College is more than fortunate to have such an instrument.

It's not just you. I have a fast computer and an alleged 8Meg broadband connection but the film stops and stutters too often for me to bother with YouTube. It might be my wireless connection to the router that's holding things up but I doubt it.

I would imagine that amongst the reasons for not including organ are: the age at which most start learning the organ is higher than for other classical instruments, so there's less chance of an amazing 12 or 13 year old getting through to the final rounds; there are logistical problems in arranging to use suitable organs for local, regional and final rounds including the provision of adequate practice time; the repertoire for the final "concerto" round, pace the continuing thread on this subject, does not include many appropriately challenging pieces (admittedly this last reason would also apply to other intruments that are included in the competition eg guitar). That's just off the top of my head but should provide some relief for your bafflement. Regarding organ scholars, I think the age-limit would preclude most organ scholars.

I'm sure your analysis is right, Barry. As to why, as a parent (though never a fan of pop music) I'd suggest the same motivation as that which makes me want my children to love the books I read as a child. When will the Sex Pistols/Ramones/Clash generation start inflicting punk Christian songs on the young?

I bought the RC version, Hymns Old & New - Liturgical (which I think was the original incarnation), and have found it a useful one-stop resource for much standard middle-of-the-road stuff that other books don't have. The arrangements are, indeed, more piano-based, but frequently I prefer them to those in more Evangelical books. I wouldn't recommend HON for the use of choral establishments, but for somewhere where there isn't a choir I wouldn't have a fundamental objection. There is at least one shocking misprint in Common Praise. There aren't really enough hymns in this book for it to be comprehensive. Like NEH, many of the keys are too high for congregational use, particularly at an early service. The more I use other hymn books, including NEH, the more I realise how brilliant the original EH was. The full stop after the verse number of the final verse is useful, and other typographic aspects (including the rather obscure original first lines in eg Syriac) betray an attention to detail that modern editors can only dream of attaining.

I'm extremely upset that I can't attend due to pressure of work. Whoever invented pantomimes?

Good call, contrabordun. This has been nagging away at the back of my mind and "yours be" is fine. There are, and I know this isn't the right place to dicuss them, interesting points about how languages change and how theology can be expressed in the new language. There's something quite important in the Agnus Dei that got lost in the revisions of the last 40 years, I think, but I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable to explain it. On "The Tudors" on TV last night I heard someone say "she and me are to get married". Is that what people said then? Or now?

I think Walton was only 17 or so when he wrote his Litany, even more of a miniature masterpiece than either the early Rutter hits or Darke's In The Bleak Midwinter in my humble opinion.

In my naivety I'd always imagined that SOP was designed for the house- or hospital-bound. A "service" to those unable to get to a place of worship, in a similar way to, but perhaps more vital than, R3's Choral Evensong being a service for those unable to get to a cathedral. TV is the pre-eminent medium for many people. I would be happy for SOP to be more of a service and less of a smug hymn-fest. And I would be happy, in these pluralist days, for it occasionally to offer Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, etc. services and for the Christian programmes to be, dare I say it, more Christian. On the other hand, perhaps such services might be (already are?) catered for by the denominations themselves via the internet or digital radio, in which case the BBC, I suppose, has every right to put out mindless "Christian" pap along with most of the rest of its "entertainment". Sorry to sound so negative, it's been a long day.

Not necessarily what you're looking for but... My favourite Private Eye cartoon, in the Xmas issue. A traditional robed choir in a chancel festooned with holly etc. singing lustily from sheet music. One chorister says to another "I can’t believe it's not Rutter".

Whilst I can see that including extensions and borrowings in the total number of stops is standard practice certainly here in the UK there is much to recommend giving the number of ranks as well. This seems to be more common in the US where perhaps unit organs are more prevalent. I occasionaly play a three rank organ with about 25 speaking stops (it would be invidious to name the maker) at a church in Hackney; to call this a 25-stop organ might be literally true but is far from giving an accurate picture. There is a trend in small mechanical-action organs, again particularly in the US, of many stops being available on either manual, but not at the same time (except through the manual coupler) or where there is no independent pedal but all or most of the great is duplexed to the pedal. Again, I would consider just giving the number of speaking stops including the duplexes as misleading. The Ely spec that started this is typical of many early C20 large instruments in that the majority of the pedal stops appear elsewhere in the instrument, a design feature that certainly maximises the use of the largest and most expensive pipes but involves a certain amount of leger de main.

A precentor announced the Apostle's Creed at Evensong in an English cathedral about 30 years ago: I believe in God. A nearby lay clerk answered: no you don't. One of the advantages of Judaism, as I understand it, is that congregants are under no obligation to declare their faith. I suppose it is anathema to many, if not most, orthodox Christians that "going through the motions" has any spitirual worth, indeed there is something in the 39 Articles about those who "visibly bite" the communion bread with their teeth but eat not the divine food or something. But I can imagine how there can be a spiritual growth through observance without straighforward belief, indeed many young choristers, starting out at an age when belief can hardly be fully-formed, become mature Christians in the end. I applaud Patrick's acknowledgement of "the Anglican genius" to refuse to look into people's souls.

Open Diapason is sometimes a bit of a squash, as are Keraulophon, Clarabella, Ophicleide, Double Open Diapason, Grand Fourniture, and I'm sure many others. Perhaps we should stick to stops with short names although an organ that contained only Sext, Terz, Flyt, Oboe, Bass, Horn and Tuba might be a challenge.

The point is the essentially ephemeral nature of most "popular" music. That which endures is probably of better worth than that which withers. Sacred Songs And Solos was the late Victorian equivalent of Mission Praise. There'll be another one along in a minute and it will be, in general, equally trite and another passing phase. "I think" said the vicar "A read service quicker Than viols out of doors In these frosts and hoars That old-fashioned way Requires a fine day And it seems to me It had better not be" (from The Choirmaster's Burial, Thomas Hardy - apologies for any errors) Many changes come from the clergy and music staff rather than the laity and are driven by a sense of "what the people need is..." - I'm not making a value judgement here; the principle works in any cultural direction. I agree, change is vital. But how effective are the changes in this direction? Do they result in long term spiritual growth? There is research that shows that North American young people, both church-going and not, would prefer church music that sounded like church music rather than something that is trying to sound like pop music of a few decades ago.

Bad taste? A case could be made for the 16' Bourdon pedal department on the typical late C19/most-of-the C20 small British organ as being the robed-choir equivalent of the Praise Band. At least the 16' flute on the Swell demanded some discretion in its use. The pedal version was drawn in 1884 and is still out!

Exactly! What is the unison pitch of the Hauptwerk? Am I right in thinking many French classical organs had no 16' flue stop on the pedal? There might well be some mileage in allowing the fundamental pitch of a division to be the pitch of its lowest diapason rank but that system could hardly apply in the same way to both classical German organs and C18 English ones. I hinted before this discussion got going at the potential for generating more heat than light but I'm quite enjoying some of the energy

How long ago was Sacred Song & Solos published? Almost unmitigated rubbish from a musical point of view and immensely popular. Great music will endure in the end. "Change and decay in all around I see." "Everything changes, everything stays the same."

Or "which assumes a 16' sub-unison". There are Bach chorales which require 16' pitch on the bass line too; that doesn't necessarily mean that the bass line's notional pitch is an octave lower than written, just that it requires, in addition to the standard pitch, an supplementary lower one.

So what is the fundamental pitch of the cello/bass line in the orchestra? The reason the 16' salicional can be used on its own is that it has a half-decent octave partial. As I said earlier stopped pipes do not have that partial; the first overtone is the 12th, so I'd be surprised if you could use the Bourdon or the G.O. Quintatön alone in polyphonic music. As an aside, Mark Blatchly used on occasion to accompany entire services at Christ Church using no 16' stops.

But how often would you use only 16' tone on the pedals? One comes across 8' only indications relatively frequently in Romantic organ music, both solo pieces and choral accompaniments, but the number of times I've seen 16' only can be counted on the fingers of one finger. There is a direct historical line from organs with no pedals, through organs with pedal pull-downs (particularly in the Low Countries), through organs with only 8' tone on the pedal to organs with 16' tone. By far the most numerous organs in England only contain one pedal stop, and that at 16' pitch, but it will always be coupled to the manuals (except for some special effect) in order to provide 8' pitch to blend with the harmony of the manuals. Remember that a 16' stopped flute provides no 8' partial.

I like the analogy with the orchestra, in which, usually, the double basses double the cellos an octave lower. Thus one can normally assume the presence of 16' pitch but also not the absence of 8' pitch; for the harmony and counterpoint to work the 8' pitch is more crucial than the 16'. The 16' gives depth and grandeur etc. but is, harmonically speaking, an effect. Additionally, when pedals were first added to organs in England I think I am right in suggesting that the first pedal stop, even if called Great Bass (or something), was often pitched at 8'. This area is confused due to the long compass of English organs and I'm no expert in this area. Your point about pedals being used for alto or treble cantus firmus melodies is also relevant. To be honest, I'm only aware of one previous argument on the subject but it was long and, in the manner of such cyberarguments, generated more heat than light. Another point against the 16' unison cause is that the couplers couple at (8') unison to the pedal. You're right, I shouldn't have said very common; sometimes seen would be more accurate!

Is the unison of the Pedal always 16'? This has been argued both ways with some force. I would say the jury is still out. Do you mean a Pedal mixture being described as, say, 5-8-10-12 instead of 12-15-17-19? I suppose if the lowest pitch is given in feet as well, eg 2 2/3', which is very common, that would avoid the confusion. Although unless an organ had more than one chorus pedal mixture I would assume it worked with the pedal principal chorus providing an independent pedal that balanced with that of the great whatever its composition.

I suppose we should have asked what your intended uses are. Tuner's Books are full of little scrawled staves with a clef and one or two semibreves indicating the problem notes. For the pedals top, bottom, or middle, followed by the note name, will be precise enough for most cases; for the manuals maybe bottom, tenor, middle, treble, and top. I have a very vague recollection that organ builders only use sharps and not flats (or the other way round) but I'm sure the tuner can translate!

This page: http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory1.htm has some useful information. Scroll about 2/5 of the way down the page and start reading at the Helmholtz notation section.