Rowland Wateridge

Solo flues and orchestral reeds all 4 inches according to NPOR. Do I detect a certain lèse-majesté in some of these comments about the Salisbury masterpiece? In an entirely different context, I recently received a robust “Keep your hands off our Dean!” from Salisbury after tentatively suggesting that he might be a good person to be the next Bishop of Winchester! I’m sure they are equally protective of their Father Willis - possibly more so!

Fully accepted, and I recall reading in Charles Callahan’s book of the correspondence between HW III and G Donald Harrison of Aeolian-Skinner that Willis ordered some ranks of pipes from them and specified that they were not to bear any Aeolian-Skinner identification. As I recall, they were to be flue pipes to Willis’ scales. However, I’m sceptical that Wurlitzer ranks found their way into Salisbury Cathedral in 1934 under the watchful eye of Sir Walter Alcock. Also bear in mind that this was a very major rebuild for which Willis must have carefully planned. I believe Father Willis considered Salisbury to be his finest cathedral organ. I doubt that his grandson HW III would have taken such liberties in such an important instrument. I’m willing to be proved wrong, but will be astonished if I am.

The short answer is ‘no’, but I would have thought it unlikely that Sir Walter Alcock would have permitted it if he had known. The HW III trompette militaire at St Paul’s Cathedral has often been incorrectly attributed to Wurlitzer - some of these things can just be careless talk. I think it is understandable that the trompette militaire as a very special stop with spun-brass resonators was ‘bought in’ (from the USA, as it happens), but surely it would have well been within the firm’s capability to make the Salisbury strings in house. As a slight aside, Stephen Bicknell claimed that HW III’s Cor de Bassett (his personal gift to Joseph Bonnet) in the organ of St Eustache, Paris is the best stop in that organ!

There has been a measure of apology and retraction from some of those comments. As you say, probably not a matter for this site, but there is a full discussion, including a number of posts by one of the Campaign proponents, on the ‘Thinking Anglicans’ website.

Sir Walter must have been a practical man. He had a steam railway layout in the garden of his house in the Close at Salisbury, the same house occupied by Richard Seal when I last visited it, and, as far as I know, still by his successors. From the front door there must be one of the most sensational views in England.

Final word today - I don’t want to bore everyone. There is protection in the C of E under the faculty jurisdiction. I have known of instances where it has been blatantly ignored, but recent reports on the Law & Religion UK website quote several cases of Diocesan Chancellors coming down like a ton of bricks with stiff penalties for transgressors. A C of E incumbent selling organ pipes without a faculty would be in very serious trouble.

Gosh, so many different topics on this thread. I’m pretty sure we have already discussed the subject of 32’ metal pipes collapsing under their own weight, and as well as the RAH, if my memory serves, they included St George’s Hall, Liverpool and Birmingham Town Hall, the latter, I think, commented on by John Mander. I believe all of these have some internal support for the pipes. The William Hill ones at Birmingham (the earliest for England?), as well as the point made above about the pipe material, have unusually tubby feet. I have just thought of another outstanding example: the 32’ Contra Violone now at floor level in Exeter Cathedral. Not sure of its date - someone will know - and whether it pre-dates Birmingham TH.

Pre-Covid I was regularly attending recitals with good audiences: notably at Birmingham Town Hall, Leeds Town Hall, Hull City Hall, Chester Cathedral, not all at once, of course. I went to a special one last week in Hereford Cathedral with an audience of 100. It’s a case of “seek and ye will find”, but of course it does involve effort and travel unless you happen to live in a place with the good fortune of having regular recitals on your door step, like Oxford, Hereford, Chester and York, as just random examples. There are plenty of others as well. I take your point entirely about ignorant and unmusical people looking on the organ as an unwanted burden, and for an excuse to get rid of it. Sadly, I have experienced this in several places.

I think one cannot overlook the work of HW III on several of his grandfather's organs, the most notable exception being the RAH itself which transferred loyalties to H&H at an early date. Now I don’t wish to offend any Salisbury aficionados, as I am one of them, but it is simply a myth that the Father Willis has survived unchanged. It may very well be true that Sir Walter Alcock prevented changes by insisting that pipework stayed in the Cathedral during the great 1934 rebuild (I’m sure there must have been a voicing machine on site!), but HW III’s alterations are fully documented on NPOR N10312: 10 new stops added and some re-arrangement of others resulting in a total increase of 14 stops. I recall that under Christopher Dearnley the organ temporarily came under the care of Mander. I am unaware which firm did the work mentioned on NPOR in 1969. Since then H&H have looked after the instrument sympathetically. After all of that, I’m sure that the integrity of the instrument has been kept, and it is deservedly famous. Somewhere I possess a photograph of the original Father Willis 1876 console at Salisbury, incorporated into the case on the north side in the same position as then at Winchester and St Paul’s. If I ever find it, I will try to publish it here (although I have yet to master the size restriction for photographs). It was recognisably a ‘modern’ four-manual, but with thumb pistons (brass and larger than the modern style, three to each manual), larger stop knobs, these and the manual keys all in ivory, of course, and one unusual feature: a battery of ‘speaking tubes’ (I forget whether two or three of them) for the organist to communicate with others down below - possibly the precentor or senior lay vicars? - so I imagine there were corresponding ones in the choir stalls.

I haven’t heard any criticism of Willis II. Aren’t St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin and the original scheme for Liverpool Cathedral due to him? The Liverpool Lady Chapel was certainly. I believe his son HW III left his own indelible stamp on some of his grandfather’s masterpieces. Henry 4 (he deliberately chose to abandon the Roman numeral) was certainly a controversial figure although, I understand, an outstanding voicer. There’s no shortage of recitals or recitalists. Already, post-Covid, organrecitals.com have listed performances at 135 separate venues by no less than 312 different organists!

The Rieger was a generous gift. As mentioned earlier, some of the Willis was salvaged, but I only knew about the McEwan Hall. Some of the bottom pipes of the pedal 32’ open wood from the Willis were retained in the Rieger, becoming part of an ‘Untersatz’, but essentially the Rieger was an entirely new organ.

I used to possess, alas no longer, a 45 record of Paul Morgan playing (as I recall) S S Wesley’s Larghetto in F sharp minor on the old Father Willis/ H&H organ. This was on the Abbey label. It must have dated from the mid-1960s when Paul Morgan was Organ Scholar at Christ Church. The acoustic seemed totally ‘dead’ in that recording.

This isn’t an anti-Rieger observation (like VH, I will be discreet!), but I could nominate the Willis III (formerly Ingram) organ in St Giles’ Cathedral. Edinburgh. I first heard it played by Herrick Bunney (from the remote and elevated detached console on the opposite side of the Cathedral) and thought it sounded splendid - very typically Willis and specifically Willis III. It was on a later visit that Mrs Bunney told me they had wonderful news; they were to have a new organ by Rieger! The Willis was scrapped, although I believe John Kitchen rescued several ranks from it, including the Tuba Magna, for the McEwan Hall, Edinburgh. Quite independently, on a later occasion in conversation with a lady organist who spoke enthusiastically about the Willis, I have never forgotten her expression of utter dismay when I related its fate.

Slightly peripheral to the general topic of the RAH organ, but relevant to its original builder and, after all, the case and front pipes (even if partially repaired) are wholly the work of ‘Father’ Willis, at the memorial recital for Angus Smart this week in Hereford Cathedral Peter Dyke mentioned that 2021 is the bicentenary of the great man’s birth. I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen any reference to this. Surely a subject for celebratory recitals.

Much confusion here, it would seem. Surely the console with NEH in ‘The Times’ article is the Quire console at York Minster (relying on the expertise of others above) whereas the console illustrated in the NCT Annual Report article is clearly the RAH with its signature oval mirror and adjacent case decoration. I have often wondered whether the mirror is an original survivor from the Father Willis era. Possibly old photographs pre-H&H might tell us.

Organ Recital by Peter Dyke at Hereford Cathedral in memory of Angus Smart Tuesday 3rd August at 1.15 pm Further details from the Cathedral website: https://www.herefordcathedral.org/news/organ-recital-tuesday-3-august

Organ Recital by Peter Dyke at Hereford Cathedral in memory of Angus Smart Tuesday 3rd August at 1.15 pm A reminder for those who can come to Hereford that the recital in memory of Angus is tomorrow. Contact details as in the original announcement above. I understand that the Cathedral asks people attending to wear masks.

John Furse has beaten me to it in comparing it with what we know about the 10th-century Winchester organ, which has been described as one enormous mixture stop. Careful inspection of the pipes - see the video at 2.09-2.11 - shows them grouped by their different lengths, suggesting that there are eleven ‘ranks’ of flue pipes, and no signs of slotting or other apparent tuning at the tops of the pipes. It is suggested that they are probably French. I guess that what we know as French mouths were developed much later, but in other respects one of the pipes shown to us in this video, apart from being much narrower in scale, is little different in construction and appearance from one which I possess from an English chamber organ of about 200 years ago. Interesting! The above written before reading Jeremy Montagu’s article. He wasn’t allowed to remove pipes, but it is clear that neither my guesswork nor his professional analysis is the whole story.

Norman Cocker, as already mentioned, but using his own name in a cinema at Altrincham if my memory serves. Rather more surprising, and the source is our own Musing Muso, Osborne Peasegood, sub-organist of Westminster Abbey played at a cinema in Acton. If any further corroboration needed, MM will have to supply it. A not wholly unrelated anecdote. I once met Douglas Reeve on an association visit to the dual-purpose Christie/ HN&B organ at The Dome, Brighton. Before demonstrating a non-stop one hour programme played from memory, he regaled us with various reminiscences. As a teenage cinema organist he had gone to Canterbury Cathedral and rather timorously asked to see the organ. On meeting the organist Dr C C Palmer he ventured that he was also an organist. Dr Palmer enquired where, and when a cinema organ was mentioned the Doctor expostulated “the prostitution of art”! In spite of that put-down Douglas Reeve told the story with great humour.

Firstly, I haven’t heard any of this recording, but interested to learn, Martin, what you thought of the Winchester organ. You confided on an earlier thread that you hardly knew it. Claudia Grinnell came to us from Salisbury Cathedral, in itself, the most impressive of credentials. She is clearly on the list of very talented lady organists. The Winchester organ is also on the list for overhaul and doubtless some up-dating by H&H, but I haven’t heard any further details. I understood it was to be mostly keeping the status quo and only reinstating the FW vox humana - one hopes with one of similar type.

Organ Recital by Peter Dyke at Hereford Cathedral in memory of Angus Smart Tuesday 3rd August at 1.15 pm As announced last year, the recital in memory of Angus had to be postponed due to national lockdown. Peter Dyke will play a specially chosen programme to include some of Angus’ favourite music on the Father Willis organ which he so much admired. Admission is free, but advance booking is recommended. Contact details as below: office@herefordcathedral.org Tel: 01432 374200 Events Officer: 01432 374251

I can’t answer your question, which is for DariusB anyway, but when I first saw the new specification there seemed to be several echoes (pun not intended, although appropriate) in tribute to the original Gray and Davison organ of 1859 (NPOR N02795) with ‘Front Great’ and ‘Back Great’ both with complete choruses, and the Echo division added six years later. One could equally ask how did William Spark use the ‘Back’ and ‘Front’ Greats. Presumably for contrast - alternatively? - rather than together?

Organ Recital by Peter Dyke at Hereford Cathedral in memory of Angus Smart Tuesday 3rd August at 1.15 pm As announced last year, the recital in memory of Angus had to be postponed due to national lockdown. Peter Dyke will play a specially chosen programme to include some of Angus’ favourite music on the Father Willis organ which he so much admired. Admission is free, but advance booking is recommended. Contact details as below: office@herefordcathedral.org Tel: 01432 374200 Events Officer: 01432 374251

Interestingly, I have heard that same observation made about ‘Romantic’ (or organs deemed to be Romantic), especially ones by Father Willis and the other leading 19th century builders. I was in a group visiting Exeter Cathedral and particularly remember Lucian Nethsingha being highly critical of his predecessor’s changes and additions. A Father Willis organ should be left alone, he said, and didn’t need any ‘improvement’. He was equally dismissive of solid state electronics in transmissions and registration aids, saying they had proved unreliable! This might have been 30 years ago. The setter board was alongside the console with a three-position switch (on, off and neutral) for every stop and piston combination. Your comments about Buckfast and Windsor are interesting. The only recordings of Windsor I possess were by Sidney Campbell, and the organ sounded decidedly French in the mostly French repertoire on that disc, including a particularly fine Franck 1er Choral. Of all ‘modern’ organs I think Coventry takes some beating. The changes haven’t been that drastic, have they? I guess that Ralph Downes’ organ at the Oratory is considered sacrosanct.

Most of the old Positive is still there, in the new (or, rather, resurrected) Choir, with some of the stops under a slightly new guise plus new ones in appropriate style, and addition of the Cremona which is becoming a standard in restorations of Choir divisions. Some fascinating technology and surely the first organ to incorporate iPad page turners and stepper advancers in such profusion - 10 or is it 12, including the pedal? Pedal-divide now standard, of course, and I note a new percussion, chimes, on the also-resurrected Echo-Choir division. It looks an absolutely magnificent specification - congratulations to Nicholson’s and all at Leeds.