Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

John Furse

Members
  • Posts

    338
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by John Furse

  1. What a beautiful console (Llanrhaeadr). And an 'interesting' bench, too. Is its height adjustable ?
  2. Lucian would have been so proud. This is a fantastic appointment. There is no finer choir trainer in the 'cathedral'/college world; John's has just got better and better. It begs the question what will happen to the mooted change of instrument at St John's.
  3. The full spec. is given here: Organ | St Columba Gaelic (highlandcathedral.org.uk) Various videos are available on a certain 'Tube', revealing a sympathetic acoustic.
  4. Yes, Rowland. But, if you scroll down in the previous survey (NPORView D06117), you will see the ranks listed as "not connected". To me, this would indicate they were still in situ. The next survey, which you quote, has no information indicating their removal.
  5. Ah, thanks, Peter. When were they removed, then ? Nothing about this on NPOR. I suppose I should really possess a booklet.
  6. Do you mean the pipes are no longer there ? I seem to recall being told (by someone who should've known) that they were still 'aloft'. Mind you, this was a long time ago - but not 60 years !
  7. Will the Echo division (I'm told it's 'magical') remain unconnected, therefore ? See: NPORView D06117 for what is presumably still up in the Triforium.
  8. Happily, indeed – and thank you, oscar_rook. To which recording I have just most happily listened. I’d forgotten how well it transferred. Looked for this CD in the wrong place. It was in the correct place ! Whilst on holiday in Kent, I was introduced to this work by Mr Wicks, after Evensong at the Cathedral. He was most gracious to this young lad who’d approached him out of the blue and gave me a quick ‘sound tour’ of the instrument from the console. My poor father, who neither liked the sound of organs, nor modern high-art music, waited below.
  9. Have you not come across The Seven Last Words ? It was recorded on an LP by Allan Wicks at Canterbury (there is a good 1998 one on CD by Kevin Bowyer) and I regard it as one of the most important British organ works of the 20th century.
  10. Why can people not take along their own cushioning - especially in these Covid days ? This would mean the empty pews would not absorb anything like as much reverberation. Carpets ? Why are they needed, anyway ? A church is not a lounge.
  11. I wouldn't forget charity shops, either. I have stopped browsing in them since Covid, but recall seeing some surprising scores, books of music and what has been described above in a couple locally. Tangentially, I picked up for 50p each two King's CD transfers from the 1950s (conducted by Boris Ord) on an outside market stall.
  12. Thank you, Niccolo, for finding these. And “slightly out of tune” is a very good description of what this kind of thing sounds like. That H-Pi brings back painful memories of a first-year undergrad aural torture machine. I would have thought some of what is in that Kassel video are exactly what will be heard in Helsinki. Especially since it’s the same builder. Some of these effects would certainly spice up Howell’s Coll Reg ! I’m sad to say that I fear my compositional style is too conservative to utilise any of these.
  13. That/they remain/s to be seen/heard ! Possibly, we've already seen some of them. It would be a more than interesting visual and audile effect to have these 'twisted pipes' sounding a microtonal melodic line, or even harmonies, against a more conventional background. John Cage was an exponent of such - but there are many other noted composers who use them. Alternatively, think 'Indian' raga on the organ.
  14. Unlikely as it may seem, these pipes might, indeed, be able to sound. There is no acoustical reason why they shouldn't - albeit somewhat 'oddly'. There are 'microtonal pipes' in the spec, which would chime (if that's the word) with a similar departure from organ norms. The associated composition competition piqued my curiosity, too.
  15. One million seems, in fact is, a huge sum. However, how much would it cost to build a similar instrument from scratch ? As we all know, the advantage of an organ is that it can, within reason, be almost eternally renewed. How long do most of us keep our cars, washing machines, etc. ? In some ways, therefore, £1M is a reasonable amount for what will be done. This work is highly-skilled and labour-intensive in the extreme. When complete, this organ will (should) provide excellent service for another half-century, and more. This equates to £20,000 p.a. The highest paid player at Coventry City F.C. is paid this every fortnight ! He is 22. Let us hope that this football club will play its part, not just on the field, but in this iconic building, by contributing to the rebuild.
  16. I may be dense, but all I could see was a bit of an ad for Van Cleef & Arpels. I'd be astonished to learn they'd branched into organ building. (A 'jewel-like sound' ? !) Which organ does this refer to, and which builder, please ? At sea, off the Norfolk coast.
  17. Dame Shirley was born in Tiger Bay, some 25 miles (40km) W by N of Bristol.
  18. Little seems to be in the public domain about Greenhill's life 'down under', or elsewhere. An FRCO and blind. Can anyone supplement this sparse info ?
  19. Nigel: search by builder on NPOR, using 'Clevedon Organs'. I had 8 hits.
  20. Since this is a transliteration from the Arabic فتوىٰ, I'm sure either would be acceptable. I have seen 'fatwaa', too.
  21. That's an awful lot of umlauts ! When I read "more than 600 hollow steel pipes welded together", I thought it inconceivable that noises would not be created, given the right circumstances - i.e. wind. Lo and behold: Sibelius Monument singing in the wind - YouTube Probably best not to perform this as a voluntary !
  22. If you zoom up the image, you can see smaller pipes behind. It's this: NPORView C00379
×
×
  • Create New...