pwhodges

I don't know his music, but I have his recording of Kodaly's Organeidia, another performance of part of which you posted a link to. It's quite good, but is constrained by being done on a neo-baroque organ. Paul

While I agree*, that's not the why. It's ignored because it is a lack-lustre instrument in all it does; the fact that it is sounding out of a case full of Father Willis pipes is just an added frustration. Paul * with your comparative assessment of the alternative, of course, but not with any thought that it is necessary to use it in that building!

"What I say three times is true" (Lewis Carroll)! Paul

It's on their Facebook wall. Paul

I gather that these three (SIOC foreman Neil Stocker, organbuilder's mate Scott Lucy and Christchurch helper Paul Dunlop) have sadly not survived. Paul

More like an attempt at tonal synthesis that spectacularly didn't work, perhaps... It really was unusable for anything you might think of trying to use it for. Paul

No, they were original, and as I recollect not far off Dulciana tonality. The ranks of the cornet had a row of draw stops that matched the main ones, but were about half the size. And they didn't fit with anything, not even each other, really. Paul

The Oxford organ I most disliked as a student was this one at Pusey House. I suppose it would be interesting if it had survived as a relic (and Pierre could visit it!), but I couldn't find anything it did that was useful. Paul

To do limited things only, and not in kitchens or bathrooms, under the recent legislation. Paul

In this organ it's the flutes, as recorded in NPOR, and a lot of pipework was from C-C as well. This organ was rescued by Martin Renshaw when the chapel was closed and demolished in 1965, and I helped reinstall it here. Paul

It's a very nice little instrument (I am listening to my recent recording of it right now), but "one of the best in Oxford" is perhaps elevating it little high, I would have thought. Paul

When I wanted a replacement for the damaged tweeter in one of my ex-BBC LS5/9 monitor speakers, the part being long unobtainable, I was able to buy a replacement voice-coil and dome assembly for it from Allen. I guess they hold good stocks of such things! Paul

And today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Paul

I would just mention the comparatively short availability of many electronic components which suggests that the repairable life of a purpose-built electronic organ could be quite short. Even though systems based on a general purpose computer might be repairable or upgradable by replacing the computer by a new current model at some time in the future, there is still no guarantee that the software will remain available for ever, or that existing versions will remain compatible with whatever operating system a distantly future computer might run. Paul

Ton Koopman, I think. The notes say it's from the Teldec box set. Paul

Yes, there is, and I have it installed. Also a couple of peals of bells in the usual parish church sense. There's also a steam calliope, for added variety. Paul

Of course, he's probably not the best person to ask anyway, as it's reckoned they were written by someone else. Paul

These same figures are in John Budgen's notes for the program of the reopening recital after he restored it in 1981. Paul

There's a recent recording of another piece here. Paul

I'm up to record and master a disk, if it's wanted. Paul

As well having two pianos lashed together lengthwise, it's also got two side by side - though we don't get to see much detail. At 54" in the video, you can see how two keyboards have been shoved together, top C to bottom F, so that there are three white keys in sequence between two groups of three back keys. To my mind this thing should not be in any record book, because it is not "a piano". Paul

Hey, I wasn't condemning it! I like a decent fairground organ. But if you feared such a remark, that means you also saw the possibility. Anyway, I'd say there's more evidence there to support a hypothesis of Italian influence on fairground organs than there is elsewhere for Italian influence on early English organs; doesn't mean it's true, of course. Paul

Did the first of those just wander in from a local fairground? Paul

Thanks for all the suggestions! I've passed them on, and will be told what's been chosen in due course. We are performing Yon's Gesu Bambino chorally, but the last piece mentioned might be an appropriate thing to match with it. Thanks, Paul