Frank Fowler

I have been following this site with interest. It started out dealing with Hill Norman & Beard's problems and seems to have turned into a Henry Willis site dealing with recording matters along the way. All very interesting but way off the original theme and confusion for anyone new seeking information as detailed by the discussion heading. Frank Fowler

THE TIME LAG Once upon a time a detached console was often placed away from the pipes so that the organist could hear what he or she was doing. Provide the console was less than 30’ away there was not enough acoustic delay to cause any great worry – over 30’ and you began to notice it. (This excludes action delays!) It was said that with a mechanical action things were perfect. On a small instrument this is usually so but the moment you get onto a large mechanical instrument (such as the lofty continental ones) the old acoustic time lag starts to rear its head. If you are playing one division that is sky high against the division behind your back then the laws of Physics ensure that you will not hear the two together. I have asked several well know recitalists how they get over this problem. The most honest said “With difficulty, I try not to choose music that will not necessitate registrations to be set up this way”. Another told me that he tries to couple the far away division to a very soft nearby stop and listens to that. (I believe this is normal practice for using a West End battery of reeds). The most interesting was “In these circumstances I always play from the music that I hear in my head and allow it to control my fingers – I never listen to what I am playing”. I can appreciate the logic behind this last line of thought. I remember years ago hearing Flor Peters playing at the Albert Hall. He played a trio – one hand using the pipes immediately above his head and the other using the Swell section that was way over towards the old Royal College of Organists building. All went well for about a minute and then suddenly he listened to what he was playing at the console. The rest of the piece was a fascinating example of a great musician trying to get himself out of trouble. If you come up against `time lag’ problems, how do you solve them? Frank Fowler

Your congregation must love you! Best wishes, FF

And so ay all of us (who possibly know what we are talking about). Frank Fowler

If you have a good experienced tuner, leave it to him! Having been in the pipe organs business for 48 years I now play a good digital electronic thingy with a good speaker set up. This is fine for the needs of our village church (the congregation have cloth ears anyway) but such a relief to know the reeds will be in tune come what may. Likewise the Widor Toccata does not sound agressively continental with a sudden temperature change. I never thought 15 years ago I would be able to write such comments - put it down to old age and senility and advancements in digital sound reproduction. FF

Thanks, FF

Last year I bought the computer programme `Sibelius' and for a considerable time I was tied to the house. For fun and to gain fluency in using the programme, I decided to have a go at orchestrating some of the better known Lefebure-Wely (sorry I haven't discovered how to get the accents on yet) organ pieces and through the magic of `Sibelius' I was able to hear what I had done. The result was as I had always though - a second Offenbach or music for a Moulin Rouge revue. It can be very enjoyable, particularly to non-organ lovers, when listened to in this format. Frank Fowler

You are quite right Tony, how many organists only accept their position as access to an instrument? However they are not as bad a bellringers. Ours (and most others from what I hear), ring before a service, leave by the tower door and go straight to the pub (24 hour opening has a bit to answer for) - we never see them at a service. Fortunately there are many organists who are committed Christians. Best wishes, Frank

Organ tuning is, and should be regarded as a highly skilled art. Unfortunately in the old days, tuners were regard as the bottom end of the craft by the factory staff and occasionally they were. One of the most important things in tuning is to have enough visits and time to allow proper attention to be given to the instrument - and a tuner takes a pride in what he (or she ) does. Mostly reeds should be tuned from the springs (there are always the exceptions) and then it is an easy matter to quickly listen to the stop after tuning and re-regulate the odd pipe if necessary. This way a tuner can keep the stop in first class regulation. Correct church temperature is essential when tuning as continually seriously sharpening or flattening a reed does not help its tuning stability. Hacking it flat in winter because it was too expensive to put the heat on and bashing it sharp on a hot summers day is not being kind to reeds. It is often the case that a little village church with one Oboe, tuned once a year (usually around June) often has a reed that stands well in tune, as often does the pipework. If you knew what the `norm' pitch was and could keep the reed at that, it was a reasonably easy matter to scale the middle octave and tune octaves up and down from there. These days with variable pitch electronic tuners it is a very easy matter to allow for temperature varience and there should be no justification for reed cruelty. If due to unusual church temperature that reeds are out of pitch with the fluework either don't use them or do a very realistic continental rendering of the Widor Toccata. Frank Fowler

I fully agree - how about leading the way? Frank Fowler

It is the old old story. If you are prepared to pay for quality you usually get it. Frank

An area of tuning disaster is the tuning of a piano and organ to the same pitch. To try to tune an organ to a piano is a major undertaking involving altering the pitch. This is a monumental and potentially dangerous task. If sharpening, it might mean cutting some of the pipes, if lowering it might mean stoppers coming right out of the wooden pipes that become too short. If the flue pipes are cone tuned - impossible!!!! The reeds stops can go out of regulation and can change their tone and often need re-voicing to accommodate a serious pitch change . Don’t even think about it! Over the last 150 years the `standard’ pitch has changed considerably, so that the pitch of an organ usually depends when the organ was built. From the piano tuner’s point of view, altering the pitch of a piano is also a major task, but nothing compared to the moving of the pitch of an organ. Temperature also plays a very important part. While the two instruments can be together at say 50F, if the heating is turned up and the church temperature goes up to 70F for a concert, the organ goes sharp and the piano flat – ouch! This usually results in a letter of complaint to the organ tuner on the lines of: “The evening was completely spoilt because the organ went so badly out of tune with the piano. We know it was the fault of the organ because the piano was tuned on the day before the concert and must have been in tune.” There is something to be said for a high class electronic piano (and education of the clients) with a variable pitch control. I shudder to think what would happen even then if the organ is tuned to one of the way out tuning temperaments. Any sufferers out there? Frank Fowler

Europe, on many occasions, seems to have adopted a very successful tactic of ignoring Directives. Here we seem to have to follow them to the letter or end up in court. As an example, a market trader nicked for still using lbs and oz's as weight measures - who really cares? When one sees the stringent health requirements (not a bad thing I agree) enforced in this country and then see what happens in Europe.............!!!! Frank Fowler

Many years ago, when organist of a village church in Leicestershire we went through an interregnum period and apart from Communion services we seemed to have a procession of long winded Lay Preachers. This resulted in the Lady of the Manor putting a notice on the pulpit book desk, "IF YOU CAN'T SAVE THE SOULS OF OUR CONGREGATION IN SEVEN MINUTES - GIVE UP". it worked too! Some years later, having moved to London, when in the district I looked into the church - the notice was still there, I hope it still is. Frank Fowler

I once did a lot of research on the `ideal’ stool height above middle `D’ and found that the distance between the ankle and the knee joint was remarkably similar in most people. The height differential factor being caused by the length of the bone between the knee and hip. Because an organist is tall he or she immediately feels the need to lower an adjustable stool but this is not always necessarily so. At St Stephen Walbrook, with a weekly recital and an adjustable stool, which was set at 21”, a visiting organist, strange to the console, would sit down and start playing only to find it perfectly comfortable and completely forget of having any thoughts of re-adjusting it. There was the very occasional organist who felt that it was necessary to alter the height, but these were so few and far between that I felt we had almost established an ideal height. The height between the top of the organ stool and keyboards can vary immensely which can indeed cause problems and on occasions make one feel very uncomfortable inducing a change in stool height which might well be unnecessary. The organ in Washington Cathedral (U.S.A.) has the pedalboard and adjustable stool on a lift that effectively deals with this situation. Comments and experiences would be welcome. Frank Fowler

For goodness sake sign the petition and/or get us out of Europe. Frank Fowler