Phoneuma
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Posts posted by Phoneuma
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I'll second that! Very elegantly put and thoughtful.
If only those in positions of power had as much honesty and humility. Grayling was, without doubt, one of the most dangerous and damaging Ministers of Justice we've had the misfortune to suffer.
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Good to see that Arthur is getting some recognition now, neglected by the establishment for far too long.
Having lived in the same town for 20 years he was a very good friend and certainly knew his stuff. The Partita is a rather arid sort of piece, inspired more by Hindemith. It had been recorded at some point by Adrian Self at Catrtmel Priory. The Sonata is a rather weightier piece and I persuaded Arthur to send Kevin Bowyer a copy shortly before AB died, Kevin was preparing the Organ Concerto for a performance in Poland.
His manuscript handwriting was immaculately done, a real work of calligraphic art.
He was indeed a very kindly man even though we had completely opposite musical tastes! There are some very interesting articles he wrote on Musicweb International under a series called 'Arthur Butterworth Writes' . He had a good sense of mischief at times and was a mine of really interesting tales about many musicians.
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May I put in a plug for the Heritage Open Days on behalf of All Souls Blackman Lane in Leeds which is to be held on September 10th for three days. I have posted before praising this fabulous Abbott and Smith organ and visitors would be welcome to try it out. Quite apart from the building itself which is stuffed to the rafters with some remarkable artefacts.
More info can be found here, follow through the links to area and Leeds from the LH menu.
http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/laa/Leeds
Although I'm not the organist there Keith Senior, the incumbent organist would be most welcoming and is a veritable mine of information about all things ecclesiastical.
Regards, Simon Gregory
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May I put in a plug for the Heritage Open Days on behalf of All Souls Blackman Lane in Leeds which is to be held on September 10th for three days. I have posted before praising this fabulous Abbott and Smith organ and visitors would be welcome to try it out. Quite apart from the building itself which is stuffed to the rafters with some remarkable artefacts.
More info can be found here, follow through the links to area and Leeds from the LH menu.
http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/laa/Leeds
Although I'm not the organist there Keith Senior, the incumbent organist would be most welcoming and is a veritable mine of information about all things ecclesiastical.
Regards, Simon Gregory
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Would this be at All Saints in Mickleover by any chance, it looks like it in which case I played it last year for a funeral, I was very impressed with it indeed, a powerful instrument indeed!
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Well spotted there Mr Pykett, and here's me thinking I needed to get out more whilst amiably ambling through eBay curios....
Good to see some decent photos of the old thing which was exceedingly easy to play and find your way around and it was a real looker.
I imagine the seller knew what he was doing (and I do know who it is by the way!).
It would indeed feel more at home in it's original place, it would make an ideal slave console.
Top marks for the eagle eye, it looks to be in pretty good condition.
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'and something stirs within my grey matter about pipes being removed (stolen?) by an organ builder, and susbesquently replaced by new pipes. (Does anyone recall anything about this?)'
The 'missing mixture' is referred to on NPOR and I have been able to check this out. The pipes were 'removed' (for which read almost certainly stolen) by the incumbent of the time, one Revd. Sanders, and it is presumed he sold them for scrap metal. Many other valuable items were ransacked from the church during this unfortunate period, including some very important plate items and sanctuary valuables, decorated with precious stones by all accounts, which were never recovered and were originally presented to the church in memory of its founder and benefactor Revd. Hook who was responsible for having the church built and was a very important influence in Leeds. There were a number of references made to this sordid saga in several issues of Private Eye which had a regular column on the place for some time before the maniac incumbent was eventually sacked by the dithering authorities. It was reported at the time that he later became a scrap metal dealer (no joke!). Charges of sexual misconduct were also made and it took an unfortunate suicide by a curate at the church to finally provoke action. These incidents are, I'm told, the tip of the iceberg and it reads like a catalogue of despair, it's hair-raising stuff.
John T Jackson was responsible for replacing the stolen IV rank mixture which is now what you hear, perhaps a little louder than the original but it does complete the Great organ chorus rather well. No organ builder was ever suspected of removing the pipes at any time, they were all completely innocent and it might well be that this myth has arisen as a result of the machinations of the obviously manipulative clergy of the time, and I don't imply that many clergy were involved, just the two mavericks who seemed to be at the root of it, and an indecisive senior member.
Simply for the record and to tidy up this loose end!
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MM - I'll do some homework about the 'missing mixture', it's back now by the way and is a crowning glory of the Great Organ. I'm sure it also had something to do with a very dark phase during the 1970s when the church was almost ransacked by a progressive vicar. His modernising culminated in a curate throwing himself off a multi-storey car park which eventually caught the attention of the bishop and heads then rolled. It must have been pretty sordid as it made Private Eye at the time. I'm almost certain that the pipes weren't stolen by the builder but were flogged off by the progressive priest, but i'll get the real story soon - watch this space!
You might be interested to know that the spotlight has now moved to St Aidan's Roundhay where the large Binns there has suffered recently. The bellows weights were stolen and replaced by house bricks, there is a very clear picture of these on the church's own website. The organ is not in good condition apparently.
Ermysted's - I should know that as I've just retired from there having taught music for the past 20 years! John Brown is held in much reverence by many old boys of the school and is remembered fondly.
And thanks to DD - me too and I think it's the best H and H I've ever played and I've led a very sheltered life!
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Greetings - has anyone played this organ recently? I'm being asked to play for a family wedding there next July and I've had a quick gander at NPOR where it looks to be something pretty decent. However, we all know the paper specs. don't fully convey the actual sound and current playing condition so any helpful hints would be appreciated. It looks like it is a National Trust property licensed for marriage ceremonies.
It's here on NPOR
http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=D03648
Thanks for any useful info.
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'We may think of Harrison & Harrison as builders of largely pneumatic-action instruments prior to 1920 or thereabouts, yet in 1906, they had built a highly successful electro-pneumatic action organ at Skipton Parish Church, just up the road from me. '
Forgive me MM for also overlooking this one, having just returned from playing at today's Eucharist there I can only concur with your praise, although I might say that it is at Christ Church, Skipton, the parish church (Holy Trinity) having something of a less-inspiring but useful instrument buried in part of a vestry.
I have the good fortune to play this H & H regularly and it is a remarkable survival of which the church is immensley proud. I do wish it had a 4' flute somewhere but that's all one can criticise it for. The church was re-ordered a few years back and the new wooden flooring together with the removal of the utilitarian pews did wonders for the sound which has a much greater spaciousness and ring (and it packed a fair wallop even before that). It looks nicer too. Much of its impact has always been its west end position although the console has been in a few different positions over the years. Apparently there were two tenders when an new organ was first mooted in 1900 or so, the other was from Willis although we have never been able to find anything more about it, it would be very interesting to have seen what they had in mind. I've always found it most odd that Elvin gives it no more than a paragraph in his book, completely overlooking its importance the use of electro-pneumatics.
I hope David Drinkell doesn't mind me saying that he had a rather good time with it last year en route to somewhere further north. Up here in the 't'north' we do seem to be particularly well-blessed with many edwardian instruments of outstanding quality.
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'We musn't, I think, overlook Abbott & Smith, who achieved a tonal quality normally the preserve of the top builders.'
Absolutely spot-on with this. I've had the good fortune to try out their 'show' organ recently at All Souls Blackman Lane in Leeds and it's fantastic! A feast of wonderfully-voiced and varied flutes and a Dulciana which is quite ethereal. The chorus reeds are all superb and it's still in very good condition indeed, despite its ancient tubular pneumatics. They have a very considerate and enthusiastic organist called Keith Senior who is also a big supporter of the church and its worship, very high anglican approaching St Peter's Rome! It's well worth a visit and I can't sing its praises enough, marvellous instrument clad in stupendously carved cases, it's a cracker!
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Delving a bit deeper it seems very difficult to find anything out at all. Any links on the BBC site tend to be 'broken' , maybe as a result of their hopeless 'digital archive' project which fizzled out into incompetence. I had a good hour or so exploring last night and met plenty of dead ends. The one in the photos is in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House but the Beeb's own website is pretty unhelpful at best, round and round in circles sort of thing. There's a fair bit about the Electrone from Maida Vale but that's not what we are after.
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This might be a good starting point, some excellent quality photos as well. Aah - those luminous consoles......
http://bbcradio3.tumblr.com/post/53110871314/john-compton-organ-maker-built-and-installed-the
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Tiratutti - that's brilliant, some great ideas there, especially with the Lemare music, Daquin sprang to mind later last night and the Nauss piece is perfect.
SL - it does help as I could include the chorale prelude on Whilst shepherd's watched', nice one and 'Bananas' s is a corker in that volume. It got me all nostalgic and there is just one existing episode of Face The Music on youtube, the good old days when you were required to do some of the guessing. After all these years I even managed a few opus numbers.
Some chap - that's from that DVD set, which I have somewhere, i'll dig that out.
That's probably plenty to be going on with but many thanks one and all for filling that gaping hole in so imaginatively.
It should be quite a trill for the audience now.....
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That's a very helpful start - I meant to also mention that cuckoos could also include something masquerading as something else, in fact I've just thought of that Joseph Cooper album with hidden melodies, that sort of thing would go down well,I'd like the audience to do some work as well!
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Greetings, does anyone have any suggestions for any organ music which contains references to birds or bird song. Before you all rush to the Messiaen cupboard I'd need stuff that would be approachable for the audience and I don't have time to faff about unravelling his music anymore. It's for a talk / recital I'm doing for the local twinning association and our twin town is in Bavaria. The title is Clocks, Chorales and Cuckoos. I've got the clocks and chorales covered, too much in some ways, and I have one piece which is based on a German folk song called 'Alle Voegel sind schoen da' , full of twitterings and trills.
All suggestions gratefully welcomed.
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Following on from a number of very informative and interesting emails from a forum member it seems that there are a number of very versatile and smallish Arthur Harrison instruments of real worth and note which are not more widely known.
This organ, in Skipton, is a real survivor and would serve as an excellent example to get the ball rolling. It’s technically 19 real stops as the usual borrowings for the pedal are there, including the downward extension for the 16’ pedal reed. The Solo was prepared for only.
I’ll leave it to those who have played it to sing its praises, suffice it to say that I have the joy of unlimited access without too many duties (that sounds like a good deal I hear you say). Robert Marsh is the organist there and he has built-up a very good bank holiday series of recitals each year. I might as well plug the forthcoming Easter Monday one at 11.00 am for good measure for any of you who might be up in the t’north. ( I fill in when he has other engagements or examining tours).
http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N05080
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Further to that, does anyone know what ever happened to the Doncaster console? I've a vague idea that it was specially built to Magnus Black's requirements so he could see over the top to the choir, it worked perfectly and the 'wurlitzer sweep' was a good wheeze. Paul's Tewksbury console does look a bit tatty but I'm sure he'll get that looking trim and proper, I imagine that the 'tusks' are getting as rare as the ivory these days. There does seem to be a fair number of 'tusk' consoles left but very few bigguns..
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Paul Derrett has the five manual console, pictured on his website, and he eventually intends to hook it up with his house organ, there is some info about moving it which sounded fun!
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Now then(!) - in an attempt to steer it back on track here, rather obtusely but at least with the words 'Buckfast' and 'Abbey' in mind, I will now own up to having tried a few sips of the Coatbridge Table Wine (aka' commotion lotion') this very day, nay morning , I stumbled over a half-bottle in my daughter's room (stumbled before I found it since you ask). Amidst the plaintive pleas of 'oh, it's a birthday present' I did manage a crafty swig and I have to say it was quite nice stuff. I kind of felt as though it was pasting me with one hand and then waking me up with the other due to its enormous caffeine content. I would imagine that it is a very lucrative earner - she's gone and hidden it since then. Grrr
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One of the losses here is yet another of Walker’s larger ‘elephant tusk’ consoles, they are getting fewer and fewer and that is a shame. Apart from their individual design I’ve always found them really comfortable and easy to use, an ergonomic triumph. Doncaster was a very fine example, built low-profile and with few pistons compared to modern consoles. That wasn’t a problem as it was so easy to flick registers on and off, almost faster than a piston, once one had worked out the double-touch function. Like the Compton ‘lighthouses’ they represented some real innovation and they looked rather impressive too.
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' I understand that Buckfast Tonic Wine sells well - but that well?' It certainly seems to have a very ardent fan club. A quick peek on a well-known south american online seller is quite illuminating.
I confess to not hearing the organ in the flesh, only from LPs, but David M Patricks recordings were very much in vogue at the time and that's certainly meant as a compliment.
Now, where's ma bottle of Buckie.... (is anyone honest enough to own up to having drunk any of this stuff by the way ?).
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Problem solved via another forum member for the time being. However, I have sent a request to Ben Mooiman and I shall report back when I have some further news. It does seem to have thrown up a problem that needs to be looked at - this is also not the only piece which exists in this sort of limbo.
Many hands do make light work and I'm grateful there are so many knowledgeable and helpful folks on this forum, thanks one and all.
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That is helpful as I don't have a youtube account and probably couldn't trace the originator. I'll follow that up - grateful thanks.
Nigel Allcoat
in General discussion
Posted
My apologies for expressing an opinion, and here's me thinking that forums existed for an exchange of information, debate or mutual discussion. With that I bid farewell for the second time in two years, no wonder that there have been so few posts of late.