Nigel Allcoat

Just goes to show the importance of Leeds. N

Dear Tony, Just the 'A' although as there was so little rehearsal time to explore, it might be possible that Eb plays the B of course. Rarely are these two black keys needed at the bottom, as you know, especially the C#. For those readers that have yet to experience these instruments, C# is not a Tonic note as in the strong unequal temperament (as Merton College is following its restoration by G & G - but not stated in the Organ Register survey alas nor the 'short octave' either - else I would have chosen different repertoire to play), it would be impossibly sour. Neither would it be used in a 1st Inversion of A Major. Players coming across old instruments on the continent will frequently find bottom notes missing on the pedal board as they were never used in those times. It would be nice to know who has found the first time in a pedal line that a bottom C# is needed in the pedals! (Something to keep us all occupied as the rain lashes down these days and the lawns cannot be mowed.) Best wishes, N

I don't think 18 ranks of mixtures on the Pedal Organ was ever fashionable in the UK! As long as we constantly have a Great/Swell to Pedal coupler mentality, independent designs for the Pedal division will never happen. It is the necessary stop(s) that is required for accompaniment so that graduation of sound (up and down) is made more seamless. This is our tradition and one that is borne perhaps from the days of long compass I often think - something that our continental brethren have never really experienced. There is nothing more satisfying to play that repertoire and let your little finger on the left hand play an A or a G below. Even the charming little chamber organ in Merton College the other Saturday made me smile as the bottom C# played an A below in the 16ft register! Suddenly a small instrument has gravitas and a really strong and resonant Perfect Cadence in D. Best wishes, N PS Where the builder has tried to constract a 'proper' Pedal division, the couplers still get used and thus the Bass line becomes far too pronounced. Surprising how habits rarely die like this in literature.

A wonderful young musician and this organ was built for him by his Parish in Alsace. In fact there are two Aubertins in this place (one East and this at the West), and it was one of the deciding factors when the St John's College entourage visited to purchase from this builder when they heard them both in concert. It also prompted them to have twin organs too and Francis and his assistant from Saessolsheim gave a memorable concert last term in Oxford to demonstrate them together and singly. Francis, with Bernard, actually installed my house organ last September. The off-shoot is that I never get out very much! Best wishes, N P.S. The older and larger brother of the Saessolsheim organ (both played from behind) are remarkably similar in appearance and is in the grand church of SAINT-LOUIS, VICHY. It is a remarkable instrument, not least because it was the very first Aubertin I played when it was in the workshop in 1990 and I stayed up all night playing it.

Yes.

The necessity of such a stop is part of the design of the instrument and the chorus above it using 32ft as the fundamental for the harmonic structure. Stopped ranks (like a Bourdon 16ft) which often is the fundamental of the French Plein jeu can seem like musical silt as it can growl away and have no binding power to the ranks above it. Those Bourdons that are stopped in the first octave and then become gentle Montres at Tenor C (or even G) are perfect for being a proper basis for the chorus. When you see them as part of the Romantic design, I doubt that they are scaled to be the foundation with the mixtures designed for the same and proper octave. The simplicity of each keyboard being a complete entity and also a part of the whole ( i.e. coupled) is where such stops would come into their own. To just pick out organs with 32ft manual stops and not say where it figures (or not!) in the complete scheme, is only telling a fraction of the story and gives little of the true identity surely of its presence in the overall scheme. As stated - it's not to be 'tacked on' perhaps because it will look good on paper and hardly anyone else has got one! All the best, N

My first teacher Dr George Gray (an Articled Organist of Sir Edward Bairstow at York Minster and later, himself a Cathedral organist), always had the Tuba coupled to Pedal for the final entry of the "St Anne". He also was perhaps was one of the last Cathedral organists not to conduct the choir unless for unaccompanied music - sometimes on Radio 3 Choral Evensong (Psalms were considered some of the very finest in the land). The distance from organ to choir was some 80ft or more. The 'waterfall effect' of rolling from the uppermost note on the keyboard to the pedal one was part also of the Edwardian tradition - not a musical affectation, but a necessary one - as it demonstrated to the choir when to stop singing when they finished together - Stanford in C, for example. Best wishes, Nigel

Many thanks for your reassurance that electronic sounds are not being joined to the new organ and being used at the same time as it is being played. I was certain that what I heard was all wrong as you have just bought a new complete organ! But not having met a stop Midi to Pedal, I imagine it allows you to connect to a computer to store registrations as well as play your Nave organ remotely? Thanks. Best wishes, Nigel

I have since learned after posting the above that electronically simulated sounds are now attached to the Tickell console and are in use. I am desperately sorry that I might have alarmed readers to a fact that is now so obviously true. N

I heard in passing whilst talking to a UK organ builder this morning that there are some electronic stops being added to the new organ. Please, please refute this to stop such extraordinary rumours. Many thanks, Adrian. Best wishes, Nigel

All too true. I was quite taken aback by my first hearing of The Clarinet Quintet when I was at St Martin-in-the-Fields. When just ready to announce the young RCM artists to the audience in walked Mr Howells into the vestry to wish them all success. A touching moment as he was (I heard from him afterwards) equally touched by the students wanting to perform his music. It was a most humble moment. Over the years I have more and more come to remember this little scene as one who sometimes composes and hears the notes come alive by others. It's quite a shock to know that they ever want to. N

You must never miss anything! But I think asking such an open question of everyone is a courageous move. Considering how volatile these pages can get over console accessories, wind pressures and even specifications, not to mention one builder as opposed to another, your posting should have the attachment, 'light the blue touch paper and stand well back' - for we are talking music here. To me Howells is a glorious embodiment of the 20th Century English musical heritage that flowered in English Cathedral organ lofts and choir stalls. He was a gentle/man who distilled many facets of his Art into some magical musical canvasses. His organ compositions to me ooze texture and kaleidoscopic nuances which need oodles of musicianship and playing prowess to fully convince the listener and do justice to his idiosyncratic style. You must make up your own mind after study, not rely on the likes or dislikes of others. If you feel you have the necessary qualities to interpret, then do so. I am still unable to fully appreciate most of his organ output I fear after 1940 like some other people. I am still trying. I am not musically mature enough nor experienced, nor do I play instruments suited to his style. But teaching it is a different matter of course. His harmonic language is as quintessentially English as the smell of log fires wafting through a Cotswold village on a late Autumn afternoon. This language needs instruments situated in fine acoustics as so much of the music demands space. The music is all-embracing which means that often a better performance (for me) is gained from a non-directional instrument. Many of these instruments have now gone or have been made less solid (the Large Open - sometimes leathered - makes way for a Mixture V. King's College or the like?). I have often said to students that they must not play the organ music like an organ piece, but in their mind conduct it as if it is another vocal work. It needs breath and breadth and a savvy sense of vocal line - as found of course in all his works in that genre. And then comes the orchestration, which alas to me falls constantly in the category of multifarious moments of piston pushing. One habit in particular makes me despair for the musical line is the way that players often add a piston on the Swell which is heralded (sic) by a quick diminuendo and often an unnecessary stretching of the rubato. This is over-egging the music and is what I find rather nauseating and off-putting in some way. It's hard to put a finger on it but it is the feeling that comes across that the music should be seamless (tonally) and almost without pulse/articulation that engenders a soporific attitude which I don't think the music deserves. To me this is music to start with that deserves to be read - not at the console, but at the table. This is where the understanding of the musical architecture needs to be contemplated. Arriving in the organ loft is never the first port of call. The piano is perhaps the next stage where one plays chords and understands the harmonic layering that eventually produce the climaxes. For me these are moments of total and necessary preparation. I have a suspicion that a number of folk just take the music to the organ and read/splash through it until it gels. But does it? I think that it might be easy to put practicing the sound before the music. Hands up those organists who have studied the other works of Howells - of course the vocal ones, but the chamber music too? Who has understood the different period's of his life and the catastrophic calamities that influence a number of the works? Because Howells might be seen to be a contemporary composer, not so much has been written about him yet - but time is getting on. Two piano concertos 1914 & 1925 London's Queens Hall (Proms?) I think, need further study too. Don't listen to recordings either before working on things yourself. I would say that if you can't understand the score on your lap and need to rely on a CD before attempting to perform, then it won't get off the ground. This is where I feel Howells' bad press has mostly come from. If you want to hear something orchestral that may inspire, try Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy and also play his piano works too before attempting Howells on the organ. And in conclusion, much of the trouble lies in when to perform Howells' organ music. I don't honestly think much of it is recital material. It is to me so fundamentally based upon the English liturgy and seems more inclined to be 20th Century Voluntary material. The titles also suggest this - although Rhapsodies are seemingly to be Fantasias in my mind. I don't think he was ever thinking of recitals much of the time. (This strange phenomenon of The Organ Recital that is found in the church organ world - pace Buxtehude - is an oddity in the world of music-making. It straddles The Church and the Concert Hall with some dire consequences.) Sorry - but this might seem pontificating. It ain't I assure you. They are little wrinkles and observations picked up over the decades which I share on a Monday morn. Best wishes, Nigel

I played this last evening within a concert at Merton College, Oxford. A nice, fulsome (part-wise - 8?) setting of the alternate verses with the 8th Tone. Was transposed up a semitone into Bb - so to speak. It states David Bevan b. 1951 in the programme. Best wishes, N

Quoted from an organ builder as I haven't got any time at the moment: The four manuals of this organ represent different divisions - the Great Organ, the Positiv Organ, the Swell Organ and the Pedal Organ. In addition to this, the 4th Manual (top keyboard) represents a unique division in this organ. It is called the Grand Choir Resonance. It is an idea that comes from the French School of organ building. The Grand Choir Resonance Division Manual plays the most of the entire Pedal Division on the 4th Manual. A pedal board has 32 notes and a stop only requires pipes for these 32 notes. However, with the Grand Choir Resonance Division, each of those pedal stops is extended with the proper number of pipes to play the full 61 notes of the manual. This opens up many unique registration colors and is most valuable in service playing, especially offering a lot of alternate colors for accompanying hymns. It also gives a fabulous richness to the organ in playing French Toccatas and other large literature where the pitch line is high on the keyboard. I prefer this department to be the lowest of all the keyboards in actual fact. A noted builder of this remarkable kind of building is Jean-Esprit Isnard. More recent organs with such divisions just called Grand-Choeur that you can hear just over 2 hours from London: Saint-Eustache 19 stops Notre-Dame 14 stops Saint-Séverin (Résonance) 12 stops Saint-Sulpice 13 stops Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Perpetual-Secours (Résonance) 8 stops Best wishes, N

What solo stops need to be full compass on a Solo organ? Just wondering. There is a matter of cost, really. The French were seemingly being sensible in only having what was necessary. Also it took up far less room. At Tenor C on an open 8ft, remember, you have only a 4ft pipe. Think how much smaller an expression box could be too to accommodate such ranks! Less cost again. It could go towards better casework or another rank or two. I have spent a little time trying to remember when I actually wanted a full compass of a stop on a Solo organ. I can't except for 10 years ago at Coventry Cathedral for a recording - and that was rather special. Like the old French organs - English organs are still basically two manuals (Great & Swell) with others for solos (Solo) or effects, or a gentle array of colour for more subtle accompaniment (Choir). French was Grand-orgue and Positive (Full compass) and coupleable, Récit for solos (Middle C) Echo (Ten. C). One thing that I would go with though, is a Resonance division. Why so few (if any in the UK)? This is wicked under the right hands/feet and far more use than an old fashioned Edwardian solo if I had to make a choice. Best wishes, N

As already stated, there could be a temptation to send a Solo sound like this to the pedals (to reinforce sic the Pedal line of the music). But if it was called Fanfare Trumpet (and still is I think), then I think that (like its namesake) it only plays music in reality, from the Treble Clef. The Solo keyboard of the French Solo organ (Récit) from the Baroque times normally only start at Middle C (with Cornet V and a Reed - often the most brilliant Trompette). It is unable to be coupled to any other keyboard. I have often wondered how many octaves are actually necessary on Solo stops - certainly even on an English Romantic instrument. Tenor C for most is still often a few notes too many I would argue. What about the top octave? Does that get used very much or at all? It would be good to ask those players with large instruments to write down when and where these upper and lower octaves get used in a month. I don't know a piece using a Tuba that requires the top octave. (How extreme does Cocker go - up and down -, or Whitlock and Willan? My copies went years ago on Ebay so nothing to hand!) Best wishes, Nigel

In my book that's musical camouflage and the improviser's way of making a work impossible to reproduce correctly - just like adding certain anti- counterfeiting features to a £50 note I imagine. But seriously, what you allude to is surely the lurching of the stylus phantasticus into the more contemporary age and therefore is a singular feature that only works under the fingers and feet of that particular exponent. Fine, as a higher-level of dictation if you have the time, but I still maintain that it is not necessary as it is mostly a 'filling out' of the texture. This is an example I think of 'grey area' between composition and improvisation. ( But I suggest that Chopin's mercurial right hand passages show exactly his technique and musical DNA. I think he struggled more to capture on paper his arabesques than most things as they are flights of the finest moments of improvisation we have from an improviser/composer and he has to go from piano to paper to get exactly what he is simply letting flow from the ends of his fingers over the Erard.) One thing that I don't think has been written here concerning the differences between improvisation and composition is the fact that an improviser will go beyond the normal bounds of technique and on to a far higher level that can only be achieved through total immersion in the performance and 'at one' with instrument and inspiration. To reproduce such music is really hard, (perhaps well-nigh impossible), and from one who has attempted in youth to write down such 'scores floating in the ether', it is in retrospect far more rewarding to hone it so that at least the music is more accessible to a greater number of people and also to yourself. You still have to learn it! I found it a far better piece too as in improvisation a vast percentage of notes can easily be discarded and the texture and positioning of chords made more powerful. A maxim for me could be in relatively fast movements:s 'the louder the piece, the less notes you need'. On the organ you have added ranks in differing pitches that compensate. I revel in musical clarity and not muddy waters. I like to sometimes think what the birds thought of Messiaen creating Oiseaux exotiques and and the 7 vols of Catalogue d'oiseaux and whether it was all entirely correct in their estimation. I think we must hear the originals (as Ian suggests) to get it right! This is dictation (and dedication) at the highest level. I bow down to such ornithological brilliance and the fact that Messiaen actually knew he was hearing a Rufous-tailed rock thrush - or not. (Vol 6 I think). Perhaps we are dealing with the problem of transcribing every note in the wrong spirit. Perhaps it is the harmonic framework that should be distilled to paper and the continuo-like modern figurations left to the individual to perform. Those idiosyncratic moments are his, and his (Cochereau's) alone. I like to hear individuality in others which is their personality - not musical Rory Bremners - brilliant as they may be as pastiche. I fear that it has all been said far finer by the original person. Grand to use as models in private and behind closed doors. It is such musical fun though - don't get me wrong. I thought the Maître had 'come down' when I once went into a great French church in the twilight and moved around only in the flickering incense mist of votive candle light following Vespers. Michel Gaillard (not a public figure, I might add in the musical world - but should), is in my estimation the greatest exponent of the Cochereau style alive (whom I have heard in any form, as yet). It was he who crept down from the tribune after he had played only for the Angels. But it also in someways, was his style too - an assimilation of style that has been brought about through listening - not the page. Michel does not read music but plays many of the pieces to which a number here allude. He is attracted by sound to play - perhaps the long-lost reason why we also became musicians who quite unbeknown to us gradually and latterly got so caught-up with The Page. (I don't teach a young pianist beginner to read music for about 6 lessons or more). It is surprising how much more fast they progress without the page because I think it is rather a let-down to only play with a few fingers on the same number of keys when what they really want (and thought they would be doing!) is to Make Music. (With any language, surely the most important thing about it is the communication first. Then to learn the grammar when fluent(ish). If 'twere the other way round we wouldn't get very far would we?) On those instruments where the player needs to make the sound, in my opinion a blistering technique is nothing if the sound is meagre and under-nourished. On a tangent - and as a little story about assimilation of style - I had once a piano student who at college came to me for lessons. The first time he came he put a volume of the Beethoven Sonatas on the piano music desk. I asked which one he was going to play and he said the Pathétique. But he didn't start. "What's the matter? Do play!" said I. "But you haven't said which version you want" said he, "do you want Ashkenazy, Bishop or Richter?" This guy could not even sight-read Gd I piano standard, but he could play Chopin and Beethoven without seeing (or understanding) clefs or the dots. But I must say of almost all the pianists I have taught, the sound he produced was extraordinary. His ability to make the most of any piano was humbling. The Guildhall once filmed me teaching this person. It is still one the 'moments' in my teaching life. Hearing is greatly undervalued I say. Best wishes, Nigel

As I said - there is always debate, which is healthy and necessary. Everyone has different methods of learning and everyone is affected by what they hear in totally dis-similar ways quite often. Also people glean something of 'this' or 'that' from what they hear. Ian enjoys the slower movements which others would not prefer as they perhaps like or are attracted by reedy, clattery things that proceed as like a glorious TGV. Some detest Cochereau, others adore and some are betwixt the two. Again, it is all so individual and one can champion such idols like sporting teams. Music is not a contest between players. So I hope that my comments are taken as being my Friday afternoon thoughts. They could change on Monday when I hear something else! I am as fickle in my musical likes and dislikes, just as like the English weather; hot and steamy one day and icy the next. When you get to my age, you are allowed a little indulgence and a few mad paragraphs that are rather self-centered at the end of the week. Best wishes, N

This makes my day to read and quite encouraging to know. We have remarkable indigenous styles to assimilate and consider in the UK which for some reason get overlooked by many - not intentionally, I think, but overlooked non-the-less. Having been a player in my teens under Tippett (the conductor for a change), I have found much structure and texture in his works that needs careful inspection. Tippett/Corelli and the Double Concerto (slow movt especially) are glorious works and as a pianist with him I fondly remember the Handel Variations too. Child of our Time is remarkable. Peter Grimes and Death in Venice offer much too of course from Britten, not forgetting the War Requiem. Most distinct harmonic language. The organ for me is basically a 'linear' instrument par excellence and to not involve voices in improvisations seems such a shame. Granted a dose of yack-a-tack can add excitement for a moment when the music demands, but contrapuntal texture really shows up the 'men from the boys' in my experience. The modern, but early impressionistic French style beloved by many, is entirely suited to the instruments of the Symphonic School. It rather encourages what we hear now from burgeoning improvisers because of the ff vivo excitement - much of course coming from how the player reacts to the instrument. I would go as far as saying that the very earliest recordings of improvisers playing the organ were just that - without a thought to the showman side of it all. Rather, perhaps, a moment of historical scientific pioneering that totally intrigued them. For the first time they would hear themselves and the organ. What fun! Many early things were liturgically based and offered I am sure in the same ecclesiastical way as any on a Sunday. My own recordings (except those at Lichfield Cathedral) of improvisations were done at the conclusion of a repertoire recording session just before the microphones came down. Under those circumstances the improvisatory muse has been restricted by the compositions. The spontaneous recorded works were almost all created to use the instrument and stops in a totally different way so that I could enjoy the new adventurous timbres and textures unsuited to the 17th and 18th Centuries. To come across on one great organ the opportunity of playing a remarkable Fonds d'orgue after three sessions of recording Lutheran counterpoint in Lorraine was a moment of intense pleasure that was utterly transcendental and even now I still cannot hear the track without a lump in the throat or a tear in the eye. These moments are so private and in reality shouldn't be shared. But market forces prevail ..... and of course, the rest of world needs to hear what extraordinary beauty is actually inspiring the player. A privé moment indeed. Debatable too. Therefore, as an improviser of sorts, I personally really can't see the point of transcribing recordings unless the performer had an ear for them to be done when playing. Who knows? As a form of devotion to a teacher or colleague - perhaps, yes; but only just. I almost can come to terms with that. But we have the recordings which to me are far more important to have. That is the end result surely. Let's listen and learn how to communicate music and performance. That to me is what they are doing supremely well - sometimes erring more towards 'performance' than the other. So did Beethown and Chopin! So why not? I think to eradicate some lesser musical moments in transcription (which no doubt get carried by instrument and acoustic on a recording), I imagine there is the temptation to judicially change. In the cold light of day ...... How many people have bought transcriptions (certainly of M. Cochereau) and only played them without hearing a recording? If you hear a recording while learning a transcribed work, aren't you just aping the original player and trying to fit the dots to what you hear? One must trust our own instincts to perform a work to maintain identity. No cloning! If music is written (from any source or way), I think it is then for us to interpret it how we would like to project it - not a pastiche creation of the original, even if it was firstly recorded by them. So why not perform what everyone has done, I say? I have still to get my head around all this though, as you can read! When I play I honestly think that nobody can capture neither the musical spirit of the occasion nor the instantaneous 'combustion' of the moment - all of which hinges on the instrument and place and thus, a musical 'atomic' fusion with the improviser. It's all so personal and the laying bare of the inner soul is quite painful to share with anyone - even a microphone, let alone a pen and paper. All this from Tippett and Britten! Sorry. Best wishes, N

I would nominate a couple; The Royal Hospital School, Holbrook (West End organ) and in London, All Hallows, Gospel Oak. When hearing the former in a Howells Psalm Prelude, I actually ducked between the pews as the crescendo grew. On a good day and in the right hands, I believe the Hill in Gospel Oak can change the London weather pattern. Both most interesting buildings though. Best wishes, N

I play this a week on Saturday in a concert in Merton College, Oxford but have only the continuo part. I wait with great expectation to hear the rest. N

Try Anagrams. Far harder and far more fun.

They almost fagott to go.

Ali Quo and his friend who is a bore, Don.

I was being hugely charitable when saying its position was bad for it (because of the direct sun-light, I was told last September). When I first knew it, I thought it a Lamentable organ and to the utter despair of the Organ Scholar also used the Willis whenever possible. How splendid now to see the glorious memorial returned to sight, just as you say. Also good to have heard the restored Willis - albeit still in a rather tucked-away position. Best wishes, Nigel