pwhodges

But Hauptwerk is not trying to simulate a pipe organ; its aim is to reproduce specific existing organs, and to do that fully, it does need these sounds. Of course, you may not want such a reproduction of a pipe organ; but some people do. Using them, say, in a church, is another matter - the original was possibly tailored to its location (though considering the number of organs that get moved, perhaps this isn't as absolute as it might seem at first thought). Paul

I don't know this set (yet), but I find that Amazon can offer the original Collins publication of it as a boxed set, remaindered for about £6 - see here (and ignore the wrong cover image). Paul

That's an edition of the piece as written, lots of notes below bottom C, both in the manuals and in the pedals that are used in the fugue ("and Fugue" is not part of the original title, incidentally). I use the Hinrichsen "Tallis to Wesley" edition, which is also of the original form, with my own notation of pedal usage for C organs. The download file is grossly inaccurate, as well as ugly. Just look at the bass clef in bar 14, which contains the two minims missing from bar 16! There are slurs and ties missing, and notes translated enharmonically into the wrong key (e.g. A#s instead of Bbs in bars 26ff). The word "edition" is too kind for this - someone's simply playing with a cheap score-writing package. Do yourself a favour and buy a proper copy. Paul

Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools A quick shortcut for acute accents only is "Alt Gr" + the letter. Paul

Their Nimbus recordings were done at Dorchester, and latterly Merton; but a lot of their recent recordings with other companies (from the time that Nimbus were in difficulties) have in fact been in the cathedral, as were the ones for ASV under Francis Grier. I believe (from conversation with their engineer) that Nimbus don't use the cathedral mainly because there is no suitable place for their monitoring, which being (ambisonic) surround needs a bigger space than they could otherwise get away with. Paul

Actually, I worked as a BBC studio manager only a couple of years before that broadcast, and so I can tell you that it was common BBC practice to have a pair of microphones much more distantly placed which could be mixed in with the main mics to add acoustic. This was done in the RFH, for instance. In Ch Ch I would guess they put a pair of mics somewhere in the North transept for this purpose. The scaffolding wasn't left up once the choir case was removed; it would have been seriously in the way. Probably. But how would I know? - it was the norm for me as a choirboy Paul

I suspect the rather larger last straw was: Paul

There was also a period around 1900 (I don't have the dates to hand) when Willis's for who knows what reason moved the choir case (which was the present one) to the West face (i.e. the back) of the organ facing the west doors!! I've not seen any photos from that time, though, so I expect pcnd has seen the one you mention (as I have). It's perhaps also worth noting that until the organ was rebuilt, the choir stalls were a bay nearer the crossing. Paul

My brother-in-law is a clergyman, and still does. It's not a fulsome acoustic, but it's not quite as dead as people always seem to think. It's clean, and nice to record in. Here you can see Sydney and the choir posed in the east-end stalls in c. 1957. I am the boy closest to the camera. Paul

It was (is? I've no idea if it's still there) called the Crotch organ, and I was told that he built it. It was occasionally used for a continuo-type accompaniment when (in those days) we sang evensong unaccompanied at the East end on Fridays. Paul (Incidentally, to someone with connections to both, CCC means Corpus Christi College, and Christ Church is ChCh) There was. When, as organ boy, I was first asked by Sydney to pull out the Ophicleide during a voluntary, I selected the wrong knob in my ignorance Paul

As a long-standing computer professional, I am and have been involved in all sorts of mailing lists and boards. This is one of the most polite and gentlemanly of them all. Sadly, though, this kind of communication is not yet sufficiently entrenched in our culture that we can all reliably avoid either giving or taking offence when it is not intended (particularly as there is no visual or aural feedback to moderate our remarks or reactions); I suspect simple mis-interpretation (on one side or the other) has been behind most of the cases cited. Paul

I remember it fondly from my formative years as a chorister, and later as a student - but never had an opportunity to play it. I'm sad I missed the broadcast, as the only recording I know using the old organ is Simon Preston's Ch Ch recording of Dvorak's Mass in D (available coupled obscurely with Kertesz's Dvorak Requiem). I wonder sometimes if somewhere there may still be a copy of the tape of hymn accompaniments that some friends and I recorded Paul Morgan (then organ scholar) playing for a missionary to use in his church in Africa. To a chorister, it did all that was required for services, and did it very well. To my opinionated but ignorant student ears, it sounded more Harrison than Willis (as one might expect, really). It was, shall I say, mellow - the Great having a foggy OD-1 and a modest 3-rank mixture - but I dare say that Bach could have been played a bit more idiomatically than Sydney Watson chose to do. The enclosed Tuba was particularly good (if you like that sort of thing - which I do in its place, which this definitely was), and was effective as the intended voice for the last section of Walton's The Twelve, and also in the Dvorak mentioned above. Although in 1968, when I last visited the organ loft, it was all functional, Sydney told me that it was mechanically in a bad way and requiring a lot of attention. But he did not wish to have it rebuilt, preferring to leave that to his successor, who in those days could be assumed to have a very different view of what it should be like. The sideways-extended main case was ill-proportioned; and when the organ was removed, the choir case was found to be unsafe, and so was taken down for safety. There were no known Smith pipes (except a vague rumour that the remains of one stop was in the Choir); Phelps's star was rising high after Hexham, and the rest we know. The only written history of the organ that I know is a rather whimsical one in Rieger's promotional leaflet for their replacement. Paul

Agreed absolutely! Paul

I remember playing the Binns in Reading University (details here) when young. I recall it being very solidly built, but the style wasn't really what I liked in those days, so I probably enjoyed it less than it deserved. Paul

Click on the post number to the right of the top banner to get the link to it displayed. Paul

I can't talk and play; my wife says I can't talk and think at the same time either. I remember Sydney Watson holding extended conversations during the voluntary. Paul

Best I can do is that the pilot episode theme was Ron Grainer, and the series music was partly Ron Grainer and partly Stanley Myers (the division now being lost). 11 of the 33 episodes survive, and so watching the DVD of them might reveal more. Paul

Although their web site still mentions that £99 offer, it also says it ends on 30 Nov 06, and clicking "buy" puts £250 on your basket. Paul

Or Oxford, even... A fabulous organ, but very focused. I prefer the Rieger at Christ Church, and the Metzler in the University Church, or in small doses the sheer row that can be heard at Exeter College (though it's not so convenient for accompaniment). The Willis in the Town Hall is pretty good, too (I regret the loss of the FHW/H&H that preceded the Rieger in the cathedral, though it was good rather than outstanding). Merton College is weedy. Don't know the Cambridge organs. Paul

http://www.morayrossandcaithness.co.uk/art...ticle_102.shtml Paul

That's the Bishop rebuild that only lasted ten years. The previous Willis spec was: http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N09841 Paul

I like Reading Town Hall - one of my very favourite instruments. It's in my home town, and I played it as a student in 1968 (I wanted to try it, with a friend, and found that the easiest way was to hire the Town Hall for an hour one Tuesday morning; I still have the receipt - it cost me 2/6d ). I rather think that just as we would do best to keep a range of instruments, we should also be prepared to try a range of kinds of restoration, so I approve of the way that Reading Town Hall has been done. While we're on Reading, does anyone else here know the big FHW/HWIII in St Mary's, Butts (now called the Minster Church)? It suffers from being squashed into a chamber (well, the vestry, really). I haven't heard it for ages; perhaps my fond memories of it are pure sentiment. Apart from the weedy HWIII mutations on the Choir (the Gt flutes and tierce Mixture make a somewhat better Cornet), the spec is rather similar to the FHW/H&H instrument removed from Christ Church. Paul

I'm not even sure about that! We have so many styles to enjoy, and maybe preserve, because they got built in the first place - in many cases by vandalising old organs, or simply replacing them. The men who made those organs had the confidence to create something of their time, which we now respect. In a time when churches are closing, and there is less and less interest in serious music, where are the new organs and styles to be created, if not by continuing the destruction? Or are we to say that we have so little confidence in our new builders that it is preferable to preserve old organs instead? What will future generations think of us then? Paul

Exactly. See here. Paul

There's an account here of the use of Hauptwerk to extend an existing pipe organ. It's written by the man that did the work, and is agent for some of the equipment used. But it looks interesting; I like the simple idea of putting the swell speakers inside the existing swell box. Paul