Frank Fowler

Many years ago, I used to tune the organ in Kidwelly Parish Church in South Wales. The verger, a Mr Davies, a most kindly man towards organ tuners, was very proud of his daughter, Hazel who was a very fine organist. Hazel went on to marry David Gedge and whilst I have met David and Hazel on a couple of occasions, it was only fleetingly and I doubt if they would even remember me - I am proud to have known Hazel's father. I wish David a very speedy return to health and my best wishes to them both. FF

The most important first job of any tuning visit was to clean the keys. Water or meths would normally do but if the console was cleaned up your tuning automatically seemed to be at least 25% better to the organist even if you had not had a chance to start the tuning before he came in and insisted on trying the organ. I am sure Peter DeVile, being a highly skilled tuner knows the importance of this. FF

If you want to hear any organ properly you must hear it `in the flesh'. A CD can only give you an impression - and can sometimes be enhanced. FF

Having done a great deal of experimenting with extension, a great lot depends on the pipework and voicer. If you have a metal cnnister flute, tuned at the ears for the 8 & 4, and a conical Gemshorn for the 4 & 2 and the right voicer, the result can be spectacular and musical. FF

I know a very accomplished lady organist who is only 5'2". FF

The classic examples are priests forgetting to switch off the mike when taking confessions. FF

The control of swell shutters being touched upon in another thread gives enough scope to start a subject debate in its own right. To start with, 1. What is the ideal shutter design. 2. Is it better to have the whole shutter front moving in unison. 3. Does independent (i.e. one at a time) shutter control give a better crescendo. 4. On a large shutter front how does one control inertia particularly with mechanical linkage to the Swell Pedal. 5. What are the problems with one swell box and two independently controlled sets of shutters. 6. Etc. FF

There was always (and still is a bit) the `straight' organists who would not lower themselves to play light music. They might be fine at playing 'wot is writ' but put a piano copy in front of them and get them to re-arrange it orchestrally on sight to produce a decent performance floors them. Thus the remark that `I would not lower myself to play music like', that usually means, 'I can't, or I don't want to (which is fair enough) and I'm not giving you any credit for the fact you can'. This attitude was rife among organists in my youth and around the 1950's anyone one connected with cinema organs had a very dubious reputation. There is also the fact, as suggested, that the skills needed for wiring, electric and pneumatic actions died the death with the advent of the exclusive popularity of mechanical action instruments. I can think of at least three companies who at one time proudly announced that in future they would build nothing but mechanical action organs. I noted that when work became scarce they changed their tune. FF

There's no control over the final closure on this either, but the physics can ensure a snappy shut off of the note. FF

Some of the Norman and Beard exhaust pneumatics have been pretty good. FF

Try sitting in the bath with water in it and see how slowly you can control the pulling out of the plug. Both water and air can be classed as fluids. FF

You would possibly find that any major organ would take on the task - if the right money was available!! Those who would not really wish to be associated with a Cinema organ could save their reputation by classing it as "A Historic Restoration". It's just a question of finding a lot of money. FF

I am always interested when someone claims to have "Perfect Pitch" - which one I wonder. Even today some of the great Symphony Orchestras have their own pet pitch. FF

Oh, Ha! Ha!. I was the original enterprising young organist. The small one octave keyboard mounted on the pillar keyboard included the on and off switch for the amplifier which took a while to warm up. This meant two excersions from the console, including the ringing of the elevation bell. I therefore put on two Compton stop key units. One working an on and off relay for the amplifier and the other set up as a `spring tab' to control the Elevation Bell which meant I could stay put on the organ stool. It was never possible to play more than the one note from the console stopkey tab, certainly not from the keyboards when I left Cardiff - maybe there was another enterprising young organists who extended the scheme. FF

Free reeds were produced by the Aeolian Company in their house organs. They provided an instrument for R.Barratt Esq; at Kingsthorpe, Northampton that eventually was transferred to Christ Church, Northampton. I used to tune it at one time and seem to remember that there was a free reed Clarinet stop on in. This had a single free reed (rather like a mouth organ reed) mounted at the bottom of a cylindrical resonator of about the same scale you would expect to find on a normal Clarinet. The actual reed tongue was never touched, the tuning being done by altering the length of the resonator, which had a sliding top of about 1/3 the resonator length. The tone could be classed as `delicate'. FF

I was told about one church in Somerset that had employed a man to hand blow the organ for years. He became elderly and at the same time the church decided to have an electric blower. The pittance that the church paid the hand blower did buy him a couple of pints each week so the PCC in gratitude for all the years of service `employed' him to switch on the main switch for the electric organ blower on each week for the same fee. It could only happen in Britain. FF

Just a little history. When I lived in Bristol I knew the church as St James in the Horsefair. It had a largish three manual pneumatic instrument under the care of, and last rebuilt by W.G.Vowles in their better days. The organist was Ernest Mizen, an organist of considerable local repution who frequently broadcast on the West of England Home service in the days when broadcast organ recitals were a regular featuer together with such instruments as those in Bath Abbey, Truro Cathedral, All Saints, Southbourne, Bournemouth and a Hele instrument in Newton Abbott, played by W.Gordon Brewer. FF

I copy the following from the St. George's website "The 1980s saw considerable physical and tonal reorganisation, and the addition of much second-hand pipework from St Mark's Cheatham Hill, Manchester , Erdington parish church, Christ Church, Oxford and Birmingham Town Hall, among other sources. This was done by the then organist, David Bruce-Payne, with the assistance of some knowledgeable students. In 1996-8 the electrical switch gear was replaced by a solid-state system, new manual keyboards were fitted, and a 32' Contra Trombone was added, by David Gallichan" The organ is in a mess, £200,000 to restore an organ rebuilt in 1975! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Where were the Diocesan Organ Advisors allowing the all this work to happen? FF

Stephen, If your lottery number comes up try starting at around £200,000 for the Christie. I never did see this job and I fear that I never will. I can still dream though. FF

Come on everyone - Andrew L -W has been highly successful. Be British! lets all get together and try knock him down!!!! FF

You may well find that unless the contract stipulates the work shall be done by `listed' organ builders who the work is contracted to matters little. It is the Company with whom the work is placed is the one required to deliver to the expected standards. In the days of the `big boys' you usually knew where you were. FF