Colin Pykett
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Posts posted by Colin Pykett
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In my youth I once visited a well endowed, large instrument with an organists' association one Saturday afternoon. We were asked by a verger not to use the great reeds as they had been specially tuned for a recital that evening - presumably he was conveying a message from the organist. All of us complied. However, while one of our number was loudly enjoying himself at the console, the said verger came hurrying up and reminded us of the taboo stops. The player replied that he wasn't using them, and indeed they were not drawn. The verger was astonished.
But then, he was a Cambridge organ scholar so he knew full well how to get the best out of the material available. He was also reading physics, and at that time I was still uncertain whether to pursue a career in science or music or both. He persuaded me not to attempt to combine them, as he was doing. So I didn't. I wish I could remember who he was and where his career took him afterwards.
CEP
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I'm sure your BBC engineer friend would be the best bet, but cassette tapes of that age are often unplayable owing to a phenomenon called 'binder ooze' (among other names, some less polite than others). This means that what is, in effect, the 'glue' which binds the oxide particles to the tape itself eventually seeps through the oxide layer. It reduces the frictional grip between the capstan and pinch roller and thus makes the tape impossible to play. It can also wreck your cassette player in extreme circumstances.
A short term fix is sometimes possible by applying gentle heat, such as by placing the cassette in an airing cupboard or on top of a boiler, but I attach it to a domestic radiator using Blu-Tak for a day or so. Admittedly this is less convenient during the summer months, but it does seem to work. The last time I tried it, on the tape which accompanied Charles Padgham's book on organ temperaments ('The Well-Tempered Organ'), it was entirely successful. Others have apparently used an oven on the lowest temperature setting for an hour or two, but this sounds dodgy to me.
I suggest you transfer the contents of the tape to some other medium straight away if it plays properly, such as a CD using your computer. The heat treatment is only a short term fix as its effects seem to recede after a few days.
Best of luck
CEP
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VA (Tim) mentioned Rock. There's always St Enodoc's church near there, surrounded by the golf course and immortalised by John Betjeman who now rests in the churchyard:
" ... A Village Voluntary fills the air
And ceases suddenly as it began,
Save for one oboe faintly humming on ..."(from "Sunday Afternoon Service in St Enodoc's Church, Cornwall").
Unfortunately this almost certainly referred to a reed organ as elsewhere in the same poem he said "The Lord's name by harmonium be praised". This was in the 1930s/40s, and I don't know whether they now have a pipe organ. If they do, I can't imagine it could be other than a very small one given the tiny church.
But interesting and evocative all the same.
CEP
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This sort of issue is where a local organists' association might be able to help. Of recent days there have been strongly polarised views expressed about them on this forum, so why not put the Cornwall one to the test by asking them your question? Contact details from Organists' Review are:
Gabrielle Lewis 01822 833728 (gabriellelewis [at] waitrose [dot] com)
www.cornwallorganists.org.uk
CEP
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Over-use of the loud stuff can be tiresome
organ crawls almost always consist of the same people playing the same (generally loud) pieces (generally quite badly).I also find the loud stuff to be more acceptable in inverse proportion to its duration. Unfortunately it isn't always the incompetent who indulge in it, nor during organ crawls. Not too long ago I was at the Salisbury console as assistant to a professional teacher and player (judged by the quality and quantity of his post-nominals - you will know him) who was practising all his pieces using the final registrations he intended to use. His repeated slips, stops and reruns, time after time after time, became so embarrassing that I was almost at the point of deserting him. I was at a loss to understand why he did not use a single quiet flute, given that his problems were purely those of excessive speed and fingering. And the final performance wasn't much better either, for all that.
It helps if there's not a whole lot of other folk in the church
Unfortunately there were - it was a sunny Saturday afternoon in high summer and the cathedral was pretty full of visitors. This was one reason for my embarrassment.
CEP
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I have never met David Drinkell, something which I am coming to regret because in the few months I've been a member of this forum I don't think I've ever come across anyone who has such an encyclopaedic personal knowledge of organs. And he invariably posts in such a readable and pleasant manner, regardless of whether he agrees with one or not. And a connoisseur of whiskies to boot. What a pity we've lost him to the colonies ...
Above, he said:
... the HN&B organs at Hambledon and Waterlooville - identical on paper but so different in effect ...
That is very true, and confirmed by John Norman himself who I think worked personally on both instruments. He said of the Waterlooville one "It was requested that this organ should be 'just like Hambledon', seven miles up the road. The stop-list is the same but the church acoustics, west gallery position and shallow layout makes this the more successful organ" ('The Organs of Britain', John Norman, David & Charles, 1984. ISBN 0 7153 8313 2. A highly recommended book if you don't have it).
But don't all rush to Hambledon just yet - the village is permanently closed to traffic while the disastrous flooding problems of last winter are being sorted out. However the delightful Bat and Ball pub on the top of the hill above is still accessible, opposite the cricket ground at Broadhalfpenny Down which is known worldwide as The Cradle of Cricket. Which brings me back to colonials again - it's always full of Aussies. There can't, of course, be any connection, can there?
Reverting to organs, you could try the Waterlooville one, though you've just missed their annual and excellent summer music festival held in June.
CEP
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Although not wanting to trigger a repetition of the weird polemic which followed my support for OAs yesterday, I can confirm the remarks just posted (# 42 and 43). My experiences have been almost identical to the letter.
As to the rich variety of organs, I once went on a crawl (oh dear, that c-word again) in Berkshire which took in a number of small to medium sized instruments in village churches and ended at St George's chapel, Windsor. Such outings are typical. The exposure to a wide range of pipe instruments is all the more important today in view of the number of organ teachers who teach solely on an electronic organ in their home. Some of these do not even have proper physical stop controls, relying instead on touch screens. And some also have those ghastly plastic moulded keyboards as well ...
As to "you play the notes and I'll do the rest", exactly that, complete down to the same sentence, once accompanied my rendition of a movement from Elgar's Sonata in G at Salisbury cathedral during which the organist drew the stops! At the end he murmured "very good". What a thrill for it would be for a youngster to get that sort of experience and encouragement today.
It's difficult to identify another route whereby youngsters, and anyone else for that matter whether they be amateur or professional, are enabled to sample the delights of the organ world at such minimal cost. And all they have to do is turn up and get on the coach - all the logistics will have been taken care of.
And as to the following delicate question:
One question: how do child protection issues impact on OAs taking teenage pupils on organ field trips?
Firstly I would thank the questioner for having the courage to raise it in the current somewhat febrile climate. Secondly I speak as a parent and grandparent. Thirdly, I don't know the legalistic or 'correct' answer, but surely the issue would go away if a parent or relative accompanied them, would it not? And fourthly, is it any different in kind to what happens at a choir practice these days, a situation in which the problem has been solved as far as I am aware?
CEP
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I agree with the value which can be got from local OAs. Having been a member of countless ones during my peregrinations through life, I have always found them to be useful and interesting at a number of levels. It is also heartening to find so many professional musicians, often including local cathedral organists, who give of their time to support and encourage us lesser mortals. Often they will take a turn as President. And at the very least, it's good fun! What can be better than a sunny day out visiting organs in the company of like-minded folk?
CEP
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When one bride still hadn't arrived c. 45 minutes after the due time, I simply ran out of things to play and also of ideas for further simple improvisations - like at least one of the posters above. Anyway, I was just tired by that time. The congregation was also getting anxious and very noisy so it didn't matter whether I was playing or not. So, with the rector I went to the west door and found that she had probably been there for some considerable time - in a long limo which had got stuck while trying to negotiate a sharp turn off the road into the drive and hemmed in by two stone pillars. The driver was probably incompetent otherwise he would have known he couldn't have made it. Unfortunately the pillars made it impossible to open the doors so the poor girl was trapped inside.
Eventually it was sorted but only after a lot of shouting and attempts at (mis)direction by assorted guests - "left hand down a bit" and all that nonsense.
Can I also introduce the subject of wedding howlers when (musically) things go badly and embarrassingly wrong? I always dislike having to play at a strange church for a wedding, not so much because of the organ but because of local custom and practice regarding the logistical minutiae of the service. So I always arrive very early to buttonhole the officiant for the purpose of ensuring I shall know exactly when the bride arrives at the door and therefore when to launch into Here Comes or whatever.
When playing at the request of a friend once I went through this ritual and was happy - the incumbent said "Oh, it's all right my boy, I just present myself at the back of the church and wave my arms - you will see me in your mirror". So he duly appeared in the field of view waving his arms maniacally. But when the strains of Wagner appeared he ran up the aisle shouting "No, not yet you fool, she's not here".
Afterwards, when I asked him, tersely no doubt, why things had gone wrong, he said "I was trying to shove them all towards the front of the church. I don't like congregations hogging the back pews".
CEP
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- neither do I like it on draw-stop solenoids -
("it" in the above quote being toggle action).
Following on from his earlier post (for which many thanks), Kenneth Tickell or one of his colleagues in the craft is far better placed than I to comment on this remark, though I have sometimes found drawstop units which do not have a toggle action can 'bounce' if the pistons are prodded too quickly. This can result in the knob ending up in an intermediate position in which the stop can be either on or off, depending whether the switch contact had operated or not, or even ending up where it originally came from!
I used to find this happened from time to time on c. 1930s Willis III consoles for instance, and it can also occur on one which I built myself many years ago using older type Kimber Allen solenoids which did not have a toggle action. I used these because, like pcnd, I quite like non-toggled ones. Of course, nowadays the solenoids will usually be driven using electronic circuitry which always delivers a current impulse of the same duration regardless of how long or short the initial switch closure at the piston might be.
So the 'bounce' problem I've just outlined probably doesn't matter much nowadays.
CEP
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The four manual console of the Hope-Jones organ formerly in St Paul's, Burton upon Trent, is well preserved and currently in the care of the Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust in Manchester. While still in the church about twenty years ago as part of the then-dismantled organ, it was well described by Relf Clark as "even now, a striking composition, and one can well imagine the stir it created nearly one hundred years ago, with its stop-keys, novel stop-names and light touch" (Organists' Review, March 1991, page 36). Just so, and it's worth a visit just to 'play' on it to confirm his impressions for yourself. (There were almost certainly some modifications made to the original during its long lifetime, but they seem to have been relatively minor). Thus one gets to understand how Hope-Jones largely set the standards for the 'feel' and general playing experience of fully electric action detached consoles which have remained pretty much unchanged ever since, at least those using stop keys (well, actually tilting tablets in this case to be precise). The workmanship in this console, both externally and internally, is superb.
The LTOT also have another four manual H-J console, that from St Modwen's which was also at Burton (to be rigorous, this organ was actually built by Norman and Beard but mainly to H-J's electrical and tonal design and with the use of his patented components, though the workmanship is not quite to the same standard in some respects). It has a different stop action, using stop keys rather than the tilting tablets of the St Paul's one, this difference reflecting the continuous and rapid evolution which H-J's motorised combination actions underwent. Again, it's intriguing to be able to 'play' it, and for this we should thank the LTOT for their sterling work and regard for organ history. Their unique Hope-Jones museum is well worth a visit for those with the inclination, as there are also many other H-J artefacts there such as pipework, chests and other action components.
Then there remains the four manual instrument at Battersea Arts Centre (formerly the Town Hall) which as far as I know is now partly playable. Like St Modwen's this was a Hope-Jones/Norman and Beard creation, and it also has stop keys though these are operated with yet another version of H-J's electropneumatic combination mechanism. Currently I believe a full restoration is still planned, though waiting for enough funds to materialise.
CEP
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Thank you for these perspectives.
You also said "there are plenty of people who have a lot more expertise in these matters than I do, but, unfortunately, they don't post on these forums".
I agree it is unfortunate. For better or worse, and whether we like it or not, social media (into which I lump forums such as this one) are the most important and most direct way of engaging with generations younger than I. There has recently been some discussion as to how to ensure the future of the organ, which of course must mean that youngsters must connect with it. In turn this means that those who are the movers and shakers and who would command the most respect perhaps ought to make themselves more visible in these media. I can understand their reticence because I do not find much of it to my liking either in terms of it being a comfortable communications channel, but that's simply a generational thing.
I applaud the way the IAO is trying to address the matter, particularly in their journal 'Organists' Review'. And we ought to note that not all of the movers and shakers at the top of the organ tree are completely absent from the social media scene, but currently they still seem to represent a small minority.
There are many among the membership of this forum alone whose contributions would, I am sure, be widely appreciated if they were minded to inflate their post tally beyond zero! At the same time there is at least a chance they would be helping to ensure a more robust future for the instrument around which they have entwined their lives.
CEP
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I think John Birch enjoyed it - he liked a good electronic!
That's interesting, if only because there weren't many 'good' electronics around then, even if one allows the possibility that any electronic can be 'good' even today. All others until c.1990 were analogue because of the tight and vigorously-defended patent situation, with the exception of the Bradford/Musicom computing organ which used a different system and thus could sidestep the patents, and that didn't appear until the early 80s or so. In my opinion virtually all of the analogue ones were utterly dreadful, with a very small number of exceptions. The larger analogue instruments by Copeman Hart were usually worth a trip to try though some were better than others - again, only my opinion though. I cannot speak for the Rodgers at the RAH as I was not able to hear it in the flesh.
CEP
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I am personally quite convinced that, if we had any recordings of JSB playing, most organists today would find his playing boring.
I am quite prepared to believe that you might, but could you possibly go on to explain why? Would it be anything to do with key actions, stop actions, coupler actions, the need for human blowers, excessive reverberation in larger buildings or perhaps yet other issues unconnected with the mechanics?
I remain interested in your view.
CEP
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Very refreshing to find somebody who really knows what they are talking about!
CEP
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Not too long ago a former Chichester organist (no names because it would be impolite to broadcast a private conversation) told me that the old (1970s) Allen digital organ was still there in the triforium, playable and used for real. Apologies for mentioning the d-word here, but as GTB played and recorded it maybe I can be forgiven. I got the distinct impression it had somewhat endeared itself to them and they were hesitant to chuck it out when the nave pipe organ was finally brought back into use. But admittedly it's far removed from organ pipes and so rather off-topic.
CEP
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Hi Colin
This sounds an interesting article: I don't have access to the issue you mention and wonder if you or some other kind person could give us further information from Paul's editorial? Mixture composition is an area I am increasingly interested in but know little about.
John
I can't think of a way to do this which would be legal - copyright and all that. Maybe contact the IAO and seek their permission? In similar instances I have found them to be positive and helpful. Paul himself may also need to be asked.
CEP
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As Nicholsons did for Paul Hale at Southwell - he goes into the reasons for this somewhere or other in print -
A
Indeed he did. Paul Hale wrote quite the best and most succinct account of how to design mixtures I have ever come across in his editorial in the May 1996 edition of Organists' Review (which was during his tenure as editor). The reason I could turn this reference up so quickly is a reflection of how good I thought it was and how often I have referred to it.
CEP
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Much application software does not update well, one reason being the enormous cost for the manufacturers of doing it properly when a new version of Windows or whatever comes out. Consequently software suppliers sometimes do a pretty poor job, but you only find out the hard way when it's too late and you have parted with your cash. Trying to load something which worked on XP, say, onto Windows 7 will often not work, and as for Windows 8 ...
10 years is indeed a reasonable innings for a computer but they can easily go on even longer than that. It can be worthwhile keeping an old machine in good running order so that you can continue to run your legacy software, even if it might not be the latest version. In this way you can run two (desktop) machines in parallel - a new one and an old one - and switch between them with a KVM switch in which you just press a button to transfer the monitor/keyboard/mouse between one and the other instantly.
I have an old (2004) XP machine which I use in this way (in fact I maintain three for various purposes!), together with a recent Windows 7 one. Both are internet-connected and networked using an ethernet hub (actually nothing but an old wireless router). Some of my software, both commercial and that which I wrote myself, goes back to the Windows 98 and DOS era and I would not be without it. Although I'm fairly IT-aware I've decided that this is the best solution - for me at any rate. It's a way to combat the worst effects of obsolescence. These older machines can be bought very cheaply, you fit them with brand new HDDs and then you load XP (or whatever) onto them. Incidentally, I've found from recent practical experience that Microsoft appear to be far more relaxed about how many machines you load your copy of XP onto - they seem to activate each copy without any issues today whereas that would not have been the case while XP was still in support prior to April this year.
Good luck though whichever way you go.
CEP
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Over a lifetime I've rather gone off the BBC, especially as they tax us on pain of imprisonment for the dubious benefit of the utter drivel which is most of their output today.
I'd have been more impressed with their Top Ten if they demonstrated that music and a reasonable level of culture more generally permeates the organisation as a whole. It clearly does not, because they roll out only about three 'tunes' as background to all their TV programmes: Zadok the Priest for anything remotely 'regal', Also sprach Zarathustra for 'space', and Land of Hope & Glory for 'patriotism'.
It's a good indicator of the dismal level of musical literacy among the ranks of their producers.
But why do they think they can then preach on musical taste to the upcoming generation, and why should we (and they) accept it?
CEP
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Oh dear, mea culpa. I really took the thread away good and proper from Auckland Cathedral with #16, didn't I. Maybe this is why another worthy forum doesn't allow discussions about stop lists at all! Ah well, one might as well be hung for a sheep ...
So how about this then. Once upon a time two organs were built about 60 years apart, both being substantial two manual instruments with between 8 and 11 stops on each division, but with very different pedal organs. The earlier was by Arp Schnitger (St John's Hamburg 1680) with the following pedal disposition:
Untersatz 16
Octava 8
Octava 4
Nachthorn 2
Rauschpfeife II
Mixtur IV-VI
Posaune 16
Trompet 8
Cornet 2
No pedal couplersThe other was by Gottfried Silbermann (Fraureuth, 1742) which had the following pedal stops:
Subbass 16
Posaune 16
Oktave 8
HW - PedWere they simply an earlier reflection of the two schools of thought which emerge in the discussion above - namely, a complete pedal division which needs no help from the manual divisions and so needs no couplers, or merely a big boom plus little boom with a manual coupler?
Or was something more subtle at work here?
(And, of course, which would JSB have preferred?)
CEP
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Posts #14 and #15 are interesting in that they lead into the wider question of how to design an adequate yet economical pedal organ, although it is going rather off-topic. This is a problem which I have dallied with for many years. At home one of my electronic organs has ten speaking stops on the pedals (forgive me mentioning the e-word on this forum, but electronics does enable one to experiment more easily than with pipes), and I have fiddled with the stop list from time to time. This is a fairly well endowed three manual instrument with 11 - 12 stops on each manual division, so stops not on the pedals can usually be obtained by coupling from a manual when necessary. With this in mind, I have concluded that flutes above 8 foot and diapasons above 4 foot are not used (at least by me) most of the time, and nor did they do much when they were there previously. Nor was an 8 foot reed particularly useful, but 16 and 4 foot ones are far more so and I would go so far as to say they are necessary. So the current stop list is:
Contra Bass 32 (quiet flue)
Major Bass 16 (louder flue - something between an Open Wood and an Open Metal)
Violone 16
Sub Bass 16
Octave 8
Bass Flute 8
Fifteenth 4
Mixture IV
Trombone 16
Schalmei 4
I have also experimented with the Mixture composition but have reached no other conclusion than this, also, might be somewhat superfluous much of the time when so many other pitches can be obtained by coupling.
So this is my current 'economical' 10 stop pedal organ for a medium sized three decker.
CEP
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Maybe the best approach is just to try various numbers. Paul Morley obviously has done (see #4), and as he apparently teaches children his opinions carry some weight. I have only more limited experiences as a parent and grandparent to go on, but my daughter went on to love Vierne's 'Berceuse' at the age of about 12 after I told her he had dedicated it to his own daughter. My son when in his late teens was bowled over by Poulenc's organ concerto and pronounced it "wicked". Both are now much older and not particularly interested in 'classical' music, but I would lay money on it they would remember those pieces from their youth.
As for my grandson, nearly 2, he loves playing the organ here at home and can now even switch it on at the mains. He now knows how to manipulate the stops and pistons to change tone colours and knows not to turn the latter round and thus break them. He thoughfully explores the sonorities across the keyboard and particularly likes the bottom note! However he can also hear the top note on the Tierce, which I can no longer do, and is clearly fascinated by the range of frequencies which make up human musical experience. Therefore perhaps it will not be too long before he begins to express preferences for particular pieces.
CEP
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Aren't we in danger of confusing the issue? This thread started by bemoaning the current state of what might be called 'organ-awareness' among the general population, but now it seems to have broadened to include all 'classical' music as though the two are the same. But they are not, as some posts above confirm - the Proms sells out rapidly every year, whereas organ concerts rarely do.
Nor is it a new problem, at least in my experience. I was at a selective grammar school in the 1950s and 60s when the art of educating youngsters as then practised was very different. Yet I cannot recall much difference between the low level of musical awareness both within that school and the population at large as it was then compared to that today. Looking at some of my school reports reminds me of (non-music) teachers who loftily dismissed my interest in the subject, and particularly the organ, as "ploughing a lonely furrow" or "he dances to a different drum". How's that for encouraging a child then?! The same applies to the generally low level of literacy in other areas such as science, the subject in which I later went on to earn a living. The level was just as low then as it is today for those outside the ranks of its practitioners. In both subjects one only has to look at Wikipedia to fully appreciate the true awfulness of the situation on a global scale. But none of this explains why people do not go to organ recitals in Britain, unless I have missed something.
So the question as posed by John Robinson (#6) remains unanswered - why is the organ in Britain relegated to such a small dark cultural corner, whereas it is not in some other countries?
CEP
PS For what it is worth, my love of 'classical' music began well before I went to school at the age of five because there was a large collection of mainly classical 78 rpm records in the house, which I was allowed to play to myself. To this day I know not whence they came, because neither of my parents was particularly musical. We also had a piano, and I still retain perfect pitch for just one or two notes such as tenor C - a strange phenomenon. Then I came across articles on the organ in 'The New Musical Educator' on our bookshelves, and gobbled these up as well. But all this must have been innate in my head for some reason. In my case it obviously has nothing to do with the ethos of the times nor with formal education. So maybe one has to be born with a liking for the organ, and maybe there are more such people beyond our shores than within them?
Who did you study with...re-visited
in General discussion
Posted
Earlier, someone said "I think that I should almost prefer to be stuck in a lift with a dead horse".
I'm now beginning to wonder with which party my sympathies lie. And I can now begin to understand why the horse decided that falling on his sword was the preferable option.
(Sorry, couldn't resist ... )
CEP