Frank Fowler

It depends if you have a properly designed and scaled pedal organ - often they seem to be a collection of overscaled pipes. FF

All comes to a horrible end when a new band of cleaning ladies take over the church cleaning and decide to polish the pedalboard to a magnificent high gloss without even asking. FF

We are in an interregnum situation and I am sure, after listening to some of the recent sermons, I have concluded that the inner reaches of some of the visiting preacher's minds must be pretty remote places. FF

Way back in 1967 The Incorporated Society of Organ Builders published reccomended standard dimensions for organ consoles (I still have them) which included a radiating and concave pedalboard. These were generally adopted by many of the then major organ building companies and were often called the RCO standards as the Hill Norman & Beard console of the then RCO organ was built to these dimensions. As we travelled abroad and played some of the ancient Continental organs, `enlightenment' came upon us with the need for straight pedalboards and peculiar mechanical actions requiring peculiar measurements etc. I seem to remember the RCO then became politically correct by stating that there were no longer any recognised RCO standard measurements and it was a general `free for all' (my words not theirs). FF

Possibly - it all depends on the scaling and voicing. The quint can under some circumstances help create a useful 16' "Pedal Violone" tone. Bourdon 16', Metal 8' (if you have one or if not couple one down for experimental purposes) and Quint. Not guaranteed but worth playing around with to see what happens. Please report back. FF

To me, as an organ lover (well mostly!), it the most amusing and informative Site that I know. I love it - it proves not all organists are miserable stuffy old gits! Look at the number of hits it gets! FF

How much time is devoted to the study of church music in British theological colleges? I seems to recall hearing that it was something completely derisory like half a day in a three-year course? At any rate it is clearly not regarded as important and until there is a fundamental change in culture we organists stand little change of halting its overall, long-term, downhill slide.But the real problem liesa not with the churches, but with society. That fundamental change in culture needs to be nutured from the very start - in our schools and playgroups. How you go about achieving that I don't pretend to know. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are so right! Many years ago, when I lived in Wales, I approached the Llampeter Parson Factory and suggested that I might give a one period lecture on 'Maintenance and Care of the Pipe Organs that will be in your charge' to their students. I was told that it was felt the subject was not important enough to sacrifice a lecture for it. FF !!!

[ This is a subject close to my heart. Our current instrument is on its last legs, but unfortunately has never ranked above second rate, so grants are unlikely. We're looking at a new instrument (or maybe rebuilt secondhand - but this is difficult due to limited headroom). I doubt we'll get away with less than £250k - and I'm of the opinion that a rich benefactor is the only way forward. Anyone know any? JJK You need a thriving church seating over a thousand with superb heating and airconditioning, virtually full for morning, afternoon and evening services, a charismatic clergy leader with a surporting team of 2 clergy, many lay helpers, a robed choir of 56, a full and part time musical director, church functions every evening to keep the congregation together and a policy of church members donating 10% of their income to their church. This it not a dream - it happens in the U.S.A - I saw it in a Houston church. There is money to spemd on music and the organ - you might even get an `en chamade' as well. Please show me something similar over here. FF

They were more 'organs in cinemas' that the `Mighty Wurlitzer' type of thing. FF

Jeremy, If my history memory is correct, the Wimborne chamade reed was paid for by money raised by the Ladies Flower Guild. On Saturday afternoons their representitives on duty arranged the week-end flower displays in the Minster. It so happened that the organist used to practice on a Saturday afternoons and to show his gratitude to the ladies he always played a couple of pieces featuring said reed. I rather think the expression "Rue the day" was not unknown to the flower ladies at this time. FF

Organ pipe metal, as most of us know, is not pure lead therefore the price normally offered by a scrap metal dealer for organ pipes, which are classed as `scrap' lead, is vastly lower than the prices normally offered for pure lead as quoted on the boards outside a scrap metal dealer's yard, as recovering pure lead from a tin and antimony alloy is costly. Unfortunately lead theives do not realise this until the damage has been done, and are not paid what they are expecting, but to them any money is better than nothing. Tightening church security these days is both prudent and essential. Good thinking Anthony! FF

I always thought the Ampleforth reed has resonaters of high percentage tin that looked like silver - I have doubts if they are infact solid silver. Incidently Walkers used Boosey and Hawkes Brass Trombone Tubes for some of their brass display "en chamade" reeds. i.e. Wimborne Minster and Liverpool R C Cathedral. I had a recording of the Wimborne reed on a L P record. I also had a pet dog who was very used to organ records. When I played the the "en chamade" track it got up and walked out of the room, glancing over its shoulder at the loudspeaker as it did so! FF

How does the Continent deal with their disabled musician problems - like getting to the console of Chartres Cathedral in a wheel chair? - or does common sense apply. FF

As a point of interest, on some of the earlier `Christie' cinema organs there was a `Strings II rks' unit. This was in fact a double rank of fairly mild string pipes but was intended for one rank to be tuned slightly sharp and the other slightly flat to the main string unit. If properly tuned one got a wonderful `mushy' sound. FF

When I was an apprentice I was taught to lay a scale in the time honoured manner as were piano tuners. As electronics developed we had the basic `squeek box' that made life a little easier for almost anyone to attempt to lay a scale and tune. These days with modern computers you can have any sacle you wish, - but: Tuning an organ is not just simply setting a scale on a 4' principal and tuning octaves up and down, it is knowing how to deal with shading, robbing, sympathetic `pulling' from pipes too close together and generally moulding the tuning, with the realisation that two unison pipes tuned together can appear to have no beat but still not be perfectly in tune, so that the organ sounds well. Fortunately there are still a few tuners around who have these skills. FF

Here goes, I used to tune the organ (full day visits) of St James the Greater, Leicester - a very fine organ in a very resonant building. At 10 a.m., while hard at work the Vicar came in and announced that at 11 there was a funeral and please accept his apologies for forgetting to tell me earlier. It was a bit of a rush to get the organ back into a playing situation in 30 minutes and there were still some outstanding faults that had to wait until later, including the fact that the Swell Tremulant knocked if drawn. A very doddery old `guest' organist turned up to play and I told him under no circumstance must he use the Swell Tremulant. He did not during his playing, but during the prayers he pulled out the stop out of curiosity. It gave four knocks that echoed round the church and he then pushed it back in. He obviously wanted to make sure that it was faulty and after a little pause, when he had considered the matter, pulled it out for another three knocks. He pushed it back in and did not try it again. Regretably he was totally oblivious to the consternation he was causing among the family, to say nothing of the undertaker. Fortunately the then Vicar, The Rev Lawrence Jackson, who some you you might have known, realised where the knocks were coming from and did not panic but many of the congregation were decidedly disturbed. FF

One of the great hazards for an organ tuner was that when reed pipe basses were stayed on metal pins the pins never semed long enough to be able to raise the bass `tubes' of the pipes high enough to be able to get the boot out with out said tube coming off its pin immediately it was lifted just clear of its boot socket. This meant to put the tube back you had to line the tube up on two reference points at the same time, i.e. the pin at the top and the and socket at the bottom. On bottom 8' C of the inside rank of three Swell reeds, life could be difficult. It was not much better if the pipes were tied up with tape, as opposed to pinning, as with advancing years the tapes would become brittle and snap which meant renewing with new tape - if you could reach it! FF

I remember Ena Baga, at the age of 84 play for a 2.3/4 hour silent film show at the National Film Theatre - mind you she did need a gin & tonic after it. I also note that people who don't appreciate cinema organs usually can't play them or have very narrow musical tastes. Just because someone can't stand garlic it is not necessary to condem all cooking that uses it. FF

If you come up to my part of North Hampshire, watch out for `Mummy', late as usual, going too fast to pick up her little darling from school in her `Safari' Range Rover. Isn't amazing how easily (and interestingly) we are able deviate from the original subject - but then, a car does have pistons. FF

You are quite right Colin - a fine tracker organ should not be tampered with but if you have electric action why not take advantage of what is available. I knew one organist who took great delight in playing the Soler (two organ) Sonatas, one part recorded on one manual and played back, the other part played live on the second manual. This was a bit of a kamakasi situation as there are some four bar rests in the music in some places and being able to keep strict tempo and the ability to count is necessary. Do tell us about your impending arrival. Best wishes, Frank

When modern electronic transmissions were developed with a simple two wire main cable, it became possible to fit a recording/playback system that enabled a performance to be recorded and played back. If the instrument had electric swell box control it would work these dynamics as well. Of course the instrument must have electric action and when first introduced the concept was immediately condemed by the then `tracker' school as a terrible invention that might encourage organist to waver from the `must be mechanical action regime' and did much to ridicule it. The advantages are obvious. You can listen to what you are playing - invaluable to recitalists, teachers and students. If you were making a record or doing a broadcast you could ensure that your best performance was recorded and stored so that when the recording engineers arrived, wastage time was kept to a minimum and when a fire engine or police car went past and ruined a `take' it was a simple task to re-record the intended performance. There was the feeling that this device would put organists out of work and as anyone who has experienced trying to get a congregation to keep with `recorded hymns' knows it is easier said than done. Unfortunately some organists seem to have a Luddite streak in their makeup but some have vision, even to the extent these days of putting in dual actions in instruments when necessary. A very eminent organist condemed the system as it was not a `live' performace that was eventually heard - but seemed to miss the point that it was when recorded - but then we didn't have proper pedalboards and pedal organs until the mid 1800's. FF