peter ellis

Apologies if this channel had been posted before - it is currently the organ channel presented in my feed by the mysterious algorithm. This player is all about the unknown composers - my jury is out as to whether some of them should remain unknown but Hugo Kaun seems worthy of further exploration.

Thanks for this and congratulations on your 1000.

Found a couple of American organists having a field day with Nicaea.........

I've got as far as the CofE church heritage record - indicates the West Vale organ was an 1882 instrument (makes sense) by Peter Conacher (Huddersfield, over the hill, also makes sense). The organ in the Baptist church opposite was a Conacher, albeit replated by Rushworths after the factory fire. So anyone know where Conacher's factory records ended up? Was that not the firm which ended up in the hands of John Sinclair Willis?

This again!

The church has the size to accomodate the sound of 32’ pipes but not the physical space for multiple ranks. So - why not digital.

St. James', King Street in the heart of Sydney is installing a new instrument. It has been quite the project for the parish, particularly as the factory burned down during the construction phase. Organ Project Gallery – St. James – King Street (sjks.org.au) I'm no longer attached to the parish so it would be wrong of me to speak for the project. Have a look at the gallery and visit the FB page. Many of us can't wait to see it, hear it and play it.

Welcome Jaco - you may enjoy going back over many years of topics here. Sometimes you end up reigniting a topic that has been dormant for a decade or more.

I watched some of the livestreams from Ripon Cathedral. Ronny Krippner appears to be working wonders with the musical standards there.

He was a wonderful musician - incredible sense of rubato whilst maintaining a phrase.

I don't do that much playing anymore - I tend to leave it to the real organists, but I got to do double duty at the cathedral today. Opportunity to play harpsichord for Bach and organ in a service was too good to pass up. Also the hymns were belters - Helmsley gets me every time. The Catholic cathedral and the two main Anglican city churches in Sydney all have great musical traditions and livestream regularly as well. Who else is having fun on Advent Sunday?

There are fascinating instruments here and some wonderful buildings. Plenty of dross as well.

https://www.npor.org.uk/survey/R00852 This was “my” organ from 1987-1994. Conacher had the contract to build it but R&D did the job because of a fire at the Huddersfield factory. I don’t know enough about either firm but does this specification look more like a Conacher or R&D spec? It wasn’t the biggest sound in the world but I recall it was quite a rich sound in a terrible acoustic. It’s all gone now.

Continuing the recent tradition of resurrecting long abandoned threads, can report it is a lovely instrument, and probably deserves to be better known. I’ve never played it, which seems a terrible oversight on my part. anyone interested in Australia’s organ heritage could easily waste a few days on https://ohta.org.au/organs-of-australia/

I’ve just spent an amazed 10 minutes reflecting on my life events that have taken place in the seventeen years between these posts. Also I think there has to be a prize for understatement - “a bit late, but…….” 😂

Hi Contrabombarde - I think you inadvertently posted the link to the Kings Heath baptist spec - here is the Methodist NPOR | G00576 I posted on X the other day that I lived in Birmingham for 4 years and never went inside St. Paul's in the Jewellery Quarter. I now realise that even though I was organist at All Saints, Kings Heath for 3 years I never stepped inside the Methodist or Baptist churches. Put it down to the wasteful arrogance of youth.

Yes - yes it is - take a bow and thanks

Thanks - Shazam opened up a whole new world of possibilities - just not the right one. And I think it's one of those pieces that will work well for occasional impact - but I wouldn't have it on repeat in the car.

Organ voluntary at the end - clip should start in the right place. It wasn't in the Order of Service or on the music list and I emailed Canterbury to no response.

Interestingly here in Sydney there are good organist/DoM posts going unfilled. Very few candidates. Organ/choral churches are in the minority in the Anglican Diocese and the Catholic and Nonconformist churches are the usual mixed bag of liturgical traditions. There is no longer a conveyor belt of churches producing the keyboard players who may wish to try the instrument. That being said there are still some very strong musical foundations here, and the organ society and the RSCM put the work in.

Extraordinary organist - He was a young organist at Methodist chapels in Yorkshire, I often wonder what he was like at getting a non-conformist chapel roaring away.

Kenneth Leighton did voluntaries on Veni Emmanuel and Helmsley - both in the same book from memory. Helmsley is a crowd pleaser - I've never played Veni Emmanuel without getting complaints.

Cameron Carpenter can fill Sydney Opera House for an organ recital - I'd be flat out filling my garage. I imagine the same brickbats hurled at him were used to batter Virgil Fox. He could fill a hall as well. Anna Lapwood is doing wonders for the public perception of the pipe organ - brilliant at engaging with children and younger people - also a great choral conductor. Misogyny and jealousy are a terrible combination.

It is a stunning building, as I think I mentioned much grander than the mother church in Greetland. It was the kind old organist Elsie Lumb who took me in there with my parents the Friday before the church closed. My dad also took me to the final service. Come to think of it this must make me the penultimate player on that organ. I do also remember that Elsie Lumb recorded the service on cassette - she played it for my parents some time later. She would now be dead and I can’t imagine the tape survived. And now I get to thinking. Back in the days of work experience for school students I did two weeks organ building work with Michael Fletcher. We went to an Anglican Church in Bradford to pull out an organ (to be replaced by an electric) and it was in pretty good condition. I played the last notes on it (Widor from memory) before it was dismantled. I think I may be a death wish for organs. I’m going to work out what church that was for sure.

Grew up Baptist and learned the violin. The church organist used to let me sit up at the organ during services but at the time I was learning electronic home organ and not pipe. He died when I was 11 and from that point onwards I became the church organist. Got some lessons and it replaced the violin as my first love. Turned Anglican before I went to University - dropped violin entirely after my first year of BMus - majored on conducting instead and have maintained pipe organ as my main instrument as a player. No longer have the time for an organists post but enjoy depping where needed.