Simon Walker

Loving your humour MM !! :-)

What is everyone's objection to square thumb pistons all about? At least they tend not to do the turning upside down trick, and nor do they unscrew themselves and pop out whilst you're playing - the latter has happened to me during a service before now! I love the Norman and Beard sugar cube type, and with rounded corners they're also comfortable to use. I agree that sharp edges aren't nice. Much worse are the black square pistons with white engravings at Chester... the white numbers get filled with dirt and you can't see them anymore. When there's 14 divisionals to each manual you really need to know with certainty which is which. (yes 14 indeed... labelled 1 - 11 and ABC...)

[quote name='David Drinkell' date='Jun 25 2011, 10:33 AM' post='59557' I have heard the one at St. James Cathedral, Toronto referred to as 'that kazoo at the west end', which is a little unfair because it's a reasonable example of its type, but a little incongruous on an instrument that really needs a Tuba in the main organ. The person making fun has a good point - the Trompeta Real at St. James isn't very good actually. The speech is exceptionally late and uneven. It's not at all good when you ask it to do anything quickly - eg Cook Fanfare. The organist there really would like to improve it someday. I think the best example (clear and full bodied in tone) in Toronto is the one at Yorkminster Part Baptist Church (yes folks - that really is the name...) but since you can't see it many people don't realise its there! BTW... I'm not at all a fan of Casavant Tubas... the British built much better...

What do people think about 'modernising' the words to a hymn. I hate it - surely we all know and love the traditional words as they are? Here are some examples from the Canadian Anglican Hymn book 'Common Praise'. How about these: 'Your hand oh God has guided' and 'Your's be the glory' And how about this one: 'God, my hope on you is founded, you my faith and trust renew, through all change and chance you guide me, only good and only true. God unknown, you alone, call my heart to be your own' Shocking! How to totally butcher a 17th Century text. If you don't want to sing old fashioned words - why not do something contemporary instead. It seems a crime to me that the original words were altered so heavily in this hymn, particularly the second line which is a dogs breakfast as far as eloquent use of the language is concerned. On top of that - the book isn't consistent with old language retained in other places. I do hope that this will be updated someday, and the original text resurrected.

No has said St Mary's Episcopal Edinburgh - but yet Truro gets a mention. Surely Edinburgh can boast having one of the most magnificent Neo-Gothic church buildings in Britain.

yeah right... Durham is the finest.

Yes indeed I shall have to be very careful, otherwise I may get into lots of bother. Nice to know I'm not the only one who has these opinions though...

Tut tut tut... so that's why no-ones been raving about it. I thought rebuilds were supposed to solve problems?

Thanks so much for responding. The problem you describe (slow on and/or slow off) is exactly what it is in the case I described. Malpas has a huge old medieval church which I doubt ever gets very warm though I haven't been there in the winter - those buildings are nearly impossible to heat. The Lewis organ is lovely, though the building could easily have taken a sizable 3 manual - the 18stop 2 man is just a bit under-powered. It's still wonderful though. When I played at the Kelvingrove I seem to remember the action feeling quite reasonable... I wonder what others think? The Norman and Beard pneumatic action at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh is liked by almost all of the sympathetic players who've used it. Thomas Heywood from Melbourne was raving about it when he visited in 2006. However - like most halls it can get overheated... and I believe the organ doesn't like that one bit!

Yeah - that's a funny one. It was actually an after thought I believe. The pipes are located horizontally across the back of the gallery, and it's a second hand open wood with stoppers in, and is the only stop on electric action. Last time I was there not a single note in the bottom octave worked properly - it's a complete waste of space and sadly doesn't live up to its amusing name. I believe the organist is trying to get somebody to make it work better, but I wonder whether it should be dis-guarded all together - there are plenty of other things on that organ which could do with attention, eg the mechanical action has been problematic for a long time.

Quote the Peter Collins website. Malpas Parish Church... restoration of the organ. `The original pneumatic action has been retained and re-set up to give the best performance possible within the constraints of its design.`http://petercollinsltd.com/restoration/malpass.html What is the general concensus on the responsiveness of a well maintained Lewis pneumatic action? This sounds like a bit of an excuse to me for the fact that is isn`t really performing up to scratch. I find it hard to believe that a Lewis action could be anything other than excellent if set up properly. What do the other techies out there think? (BTW I`ve played this organ in public twice since the rebuild and the action is letting it down... but the rest of the instrument is pure gold.)

Post deleted.

Sadly not - I'm many many miles away. It does seem odd that a major rebuild has escaped having much of a google presence. But it must be good if he's performing there. Is anyone else able to shed a light on this?

PS... If you're interested in seeing the episode of Midsomer which interested me here's a link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhwbzllRTNc...feature=related you see the organ in part 4 starting from around 2:30 featuring the Bach E minor 'wedge' fugue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B819LF8lnhM...feature=related Sorry for spelling Dorchester wrongly in the topic title... how annoying.

I was watching an episode of Midsomer Murders - One from October last year with a musical theme titled 'Masterclass' It mainly focuses on piano students, but the Dorchester Abbey features prominantly, and indeed it's organ does too. Whether the organ music heard is indeed the instrument on film I don't know, but I suspect it is. Anyhow - it just interested me, and on doing a bit of research I found some photos of the same building on flickr where the organ was not present! Intrigued by this I found out that in fact the organ in it's present form is very recent - having been rebuilt by Peter Collins Ltd. There is a little information on the church website, but no spec, nor anything particularly technical. http://www.dorchester-abbey.org.uk/services3.htm . NPOR hasn't been updated and similarly it is not acknowledged at all on the Peter Collins Website, despite the fact it must have been completed a while ago now, and most of their other jobs, including restorations are included. http://petercollinsltd.com/index.html Does anyone know anymore? It does look like an interesting one.

Not quite organ related - but a description which I'm sure will raise a smile no less... One of my University lecturers (a highly acclaimed organist also) publicly described the French 17th Century harpsichord he was playing in recital as like 'lying in a bed of red velvet' !!! We've never let him forget that one....

Not quite true... I don't think... whilst no-one would want to model a performance on the basis of a CD recording, I get many ideas from recordings, registrations (think F. Jacksons recording of the Willan you mention) articulation and projection ideas from many different Bach recordings, and tempos of course. I often get a real feel for how a piece should go from listening to a recording - and it pays to do your research before performing a piece for the first time. However, even if I love someone else's recording - my performances are always going to sound different - it's inevitable. Just because I dress in the same clothes, I'm never going to look the same as the next person - just not possible. I think your definitive list will spark a good discussion. Here's another by virtue of her knowing the composer. Messiaen - Jenifer Bate

That`s interesting. I heard a recording from Jesus College Cambridge accompanied by the old 1970`s Mander organ. The results were actually quite acceptable, but the more contemporary repertoire - mostly Britten, Leighton etc I think helped. That old instrument must have seemed rather uncompromising by current organist preferences. Does anyone know what became of the Mander organ after its replacement? NPOR says it was offered for sale but gives no further information.

Thanks Ian B for providing some information - that made for interesting reading. To be honest... some of these Victorian "Well temperaments" are so close to equal, I'm inclined to think that few would notice the difference... The website Ian kindly directed us to says that the maths for equal temperament wasn't fully worked out until 1911, so therefore it makes sense that anything before that is not quite equal. These Victorian temperaments (eg Moore, Broadwood) are in a different world completely (ie much more close to equal and acceptable in every key) from the modified meantone ones, and even early 'Well' temperaments that we all think of when we think about 'unequal' temperament. I think Portheads original post would have given me less surprise if he had explained the developing history a little further...

Your surprise at no-one yet replying to this is probably because most of us are not at all familiar with the differences in Victorian temperaments - indeed this post leaves me perplexed! I was under the impression that by the latter years of the 19th Century equal temperament had become standard - but here my thoughts are contradicted. I did hear that the organ at St Georges Hall Liverpool was originally built with a temperament which seemed old fashioned, no doubt by the insistence of S S Wesley. I thought equal temperament in pipe organs was becoming standard at around this time. Look at what the contributors (sometimes wise and sometimes not...) of wikipedia have to say: "The progress of Equal Temperament from mid-18th century on is described with detail in quite a few modern scholarly publications: it was already the temperament of choice during the Classical era (second half of the 18th century), and it became standard during the Early Romantic era (first decade of the 19th century), except for organs that switched to it more gradually, completing only in the second decade of the 19th century. (In England, some cathedral organists and choirmasters held out against it even after that date; Samuel Sebastian Wesley, for instance, opposed it all along. He died in 1876." I don't have the knowledge to contradict AJS's post, but I would like to see some clear evidence behind these opinions. The comments on tuning and tone are very valid of course, and I would advise anyone to think carefully before altering the pitch of an organ - ie is it really necessary for you needs? In some cases it is - Chester Cathedral was apparently more than a semi tone sharp until its pitch was altered in 1970. Rumour has it that Roger Fishers predecessors were all expert transposers!

After my recent bashing of neo - classical positive divisions and all things 60's and 70's in general... I would like to ask a practical and sensible question. So here goes for anyone here has been an organist at Magdalen Oxford or Christ Church oxford, or anywhere else without something approaching a romantic swell division with chorus reeds. How do you get Stanford in C and Balfour Gardiner Evening Hymn to sound sensible? I notice a fair amount of that kind of repertoire on the music list of CC Oxford. Any ideas? I'm thinking more about achieving a suitable blending sound rather than the problem of organ management without pistons - though that's a valid concern too! Personally I've never had this issue to deal with - every organ I've regularly played has done justice to the English repertoire, but I realise there are many out there who have a more complicated task!

I would suggest that many recent (ie 90's onwards) instruments will be equipped with an excellent and bold secondary chorus on the positive. A good example will have a principal at 4' and 2', but sometimes even an 8' principal on a large enough instrument. This chorus should balance the Great but be lighter and brighter in character. Increasingly more than one 8' is included eg a gamba. Have a look at the spec of St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh - and better still hear it! It's an excellent Ruck positive division. A while ago I did a recital at St. Mary's Warwick (an instrument that many don't like, but I rather enjoyed myself none the less - not least because of the amount of beer members of the choir bought me the night before!) The positive on the west organ only has a principal at 2' pitch. Otherwise it has lots of pretty flutes and a screaming mixture. Frankly the result is just the toy box you were describing. The chorus is a complete jangle which the organist there gave me good advice to not include in a plenum. I found solid choruses elsewhere on the instrument (there's an east end organ playable at the same console too...). Similarly the quacking reeds on the positive weren't exactly useful in chorus - only as solo or 'toy' stops. This really is an example of how not to do it - and in the 31 years since Nicholson's built that instrument much progress has been made. (On a positive note (haha ... get it...) I did enjoy the other divisions of the organ, and if used carefully it can make a splendid sound.) Similarly the organ I play currently, which was 'cheered up' in the 70`s has a choir spec where the chorus goes 8,4 flutes 2`spitz principal 1 1/3 larigot and cymbel III. It is similarly a toy box, because there is no way in which the gentle, early 20th Century flutes can support a very thin and high mixture, or even the spitty 2' for that matter. It shouldn't be like this - thats just a neo classical trend. Modern day thinking should always result in a cohesive chorus even when the lowest principal is at 4' or even 2' pitch. Even the cromourne should also fit comfortably into the aesthetic of everything else - some built years ago sound totally alien, and these days a rounder, bolder sound is more commonly preferred. Some times I can't help thinking that the 60's and 70's was one of the most damaging periods for organ building. Some of the so called positive divisions from that period replacing choir divisions are a good example of why I think that. As much as there are some excellent new builds from that period much of the rebuilding carried out was awful - poorly thought through, too radical and often on the cheap. Look at the Bute hall organ in Glasgow University for example. Yet the Victorian original (in that case a TC lewis instrument) was so often built to such a high quality. Similarly I wonder what Carlisle Cathedral organ would be like if Walkers had left it well alone in the 60's.

I think it's important that the audience has some information about what is going to be presented to them - either by having an introduction (preferably brief) or some program notes. I think to have neither is not good. Similarly to have the programme notes read to you and embellished upon is not good either! I think it depends on the kind of audience your expecting and the content of the recital. John Kitchen in Edinburgh is brilliant at introducing recitals in the Usher Hall where he is City Organist. He only plays for 40 mins, but speaks between pieces and entertains the audience really well. Similarly in his University series detailed programme notes are provided and the concerts don't tend to be introduced. I personally find praying before a church recital, which is a common practice in some denominations, a bit prone to making me extra nervous before starting - it's just the uncomfortable silence from which you have to begin that I don't like. Plus I'm always worried I'll knock a key during the prayer. Somehow it always feels much different to service planning for me! How about dealing with faults during a recital? Should you draw attention to it to the audience and gain a laugh (or indeed make a point about lousy maintenance if that's the case...) or should you deal with it as though nothing had happened) Almost every organist around will have this happen once in a while. Recently I did a recital where I got a cypher on the swell 16'tpt during a piece. Luckily I quickly found the cyphering stop and pushed it in. Problem was I needed that stop for the next piece, so between pieces I selected the stop - the cypher presented itself again - and mid concert I had to have a quick fiddle to try and release it! Once released I turned to the audience and made a small comment which caused a ripple of laughter, but on the other hand probably embarrassed my other half and the organist of the church!

Can anyone here comment on what is to become of the old RAM organ? Is it to be moved, dismantled, sold, possibly restored as necessary? Is the old instrument satisfactory from a tonal point of view? Being a free standing instrument it is surely more likely to find a new home than a chamber built instrument. Just wondered if anyone can fill us in - the Aubertin instrument does have an interesting spec.

Indeed AJS you are right - few orchestral composers have exploited the tuba as a solo instrument. However, (a bit like the under appreciated Aurther Harrison Large opens) isn't this something of a missed opportunity? Listening to the movement 'Bydlo' from Ravels transcription of Pictures from an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) the Tuba is used as the solo throughout. It has a very solemn effect, and is my favorite part of the work for this unusual feature!