Rowland Wateridge

No need to be sorry, S_L. That comment wasn’t meant to admonish! It was an enjoyable diversion - self-indulgent on my part. All of the present lady DoMs, including assistants, are very talented players.

Far, far too many in total (not discussing gender!) in both categories S_L! In my lifetime there were eighteen High Court Judges assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division (then King’s Bench - the real meat of the law) and except in places like Manchester and Liverpool, County Court judges around the country dealing with small civil claims doubled-up as chairmen of Quarter Sessions, taking the less serious criminal cases. Abolition of the latter, and creation of Circuit Judges led to the astonishing increase in numbers … And the High Court has kept it up as well. Agreed there are lots of reasons, as diverse as divorce and invention of the photocopier. The latter was responsible for greatly extending trials with avalanches of documents - which they managed without when there were only 18 QBD judges! Now the internet in all its ramifications is playing its part. Now we ought to return to discussing matters musical and organic!

When writing the above I forgot to mention that they are to restore the small but enormously important Cavaillé-Coll/ Mutin organ at St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough. For those who don’t know Farnborough Abbey, the organ sits directly behind the high altar above the Imperial Mausoleum in the crypt below containing the tombs of Napoleon III, the Empress Eugénie and their son Prince Louis. Improvisations in the French style, both as interludes in the liturgy and voluntaries, are very much a feature of the playing by their distinguished organist, Neil Wright.

Not sure what kind of company records you might expect to find after 100 years or how they might assist your project, but although there’s very little about the company on NPOR, they were quite prolific and numerous instruments survive. There are literally several pages of entries on Google devoted to A Hunter & Son. I have no doubt that the person you need to talk to is Robert Bowles who is restoring his own Hunter organ, and he wrote on here only a matter of days ago on the Nuts and Bolts thread thread ‘Redundant ivory stop knobs. …. ‘ etc. I see that he has also given a presentation about Hunter to the Southwark Organists’ Society, so he is clearly an expert in this field.

Well, I realise that I concentrated solely on H&H, and Martin has redressed the balance with far more information about others and the distinguished work they are doing. I’m not in the pay of H&H (!) but their work at Canterbury and York has been outstanding for all to see and hear. The Willis website (and in particular their organ in New Zealand) speaks of craftsmanship of the highest order. Among other things, we owe to David Wells that the organ in St George’s Hall, Liverpool - surely one of the very finest anywhere - is playable (albeit with an occasional hiccup) and sounding magnificent.

H&H rebuilt Wells in 1909/ 1910 and have done much work there since. They are clearly the chosen builder this time. As far as I know H&H have never worked on Norwich which was, understandably, in the care of HN&B who built it in 1938/ 1942, again with later work by them since, but I understood that H&H were in line to undertake a major restoration there. Winchester has been solely under H&H care since 1938. I’m not certain of this, and subject to correction, but assume that since Brexit UK builders are no longer subject to EU procurement legislation.

There was no Willis 32’ at all - flue or reed - at Wells! The Double Open Diapason 32’ was added by H&H and the bottom octave is acoustic (NPOR N06892). Like ajsphead I have to rely on my recollection that the triforium at Wells has a very shallow depth, making it a no-go area for installing pipes. (I learned recently that a distinguished organ consultant had reached exactly the same conclusion about a similar idea at Winchester.) In fact, just looking at photographs has reminded me that architectural writers refer to it as a “blind” triforium at Wells - the arches are filled with solid stone! A further problem: there isn’t a lot of room above the central west door - it would have to be a relatively low case not to obscure the windows above. There’s plenty of width, but the Cathedral Architect (or Surveyor of the Fabric) might not view the idea with such warmth as organists! It will be interesting to see what actually happens. Wells is a very beautiful cathedral, but we need to bear in mind scale: the height of its nave vault is about 75% of that at Salisbury.

New 32’ case? Maybe I have misunderstood. I thought the existing case at Wells was rather fine for a modern effort, particularly the double east front in the quire. Would that be for a revised west-facing case? But the 32’ is a puzzle. From memory the height of the vault at Wells is 65 feet, or thereabouts, and the architectural proportions have to be respected. Nothing as yet on the H&H website, nor about Norwich and Winchester which were understood to be waiting in the wings.

John, from deepest Southern England I fully share your admiration for the Minster organ which I first heard played by Francis Jackson almost 70 years ago! That memory has remained ever since. I was able to be at York for the final Evensong and recital with the organ encased in scaffolding before being taken down for the rebuild. As well as sounding magnificent, the restored case and pipe decoration are also to be treasured - indeed, showing a photograph of it to a friend in USA his response was “what a magnificent case”. I remember at the wedding of the Duke of Kent and Miss Katharine Worsley (when FJ played them out to Widor V Toccata - did that create the fashion?) the ITV television camera took in a general view of the west-facing case, and the commentator gratuitously remarked that it was “not very attractive” - how wrong he was, but sadly quite typical of ignorant comment about organs. On my recent retirement, I was presented with two pipes. On proudly showing the larger one, 4’ and gilt, to someone they asked “what is it?”!

Agreed that information on this subject is both complex and difficult to track down, but section 8 of the Ivory Act 2018, as amended, actually says this: 8 Pre-1975 musical instruments (1) An item that has ivory in it is exempt from the prohibition if— (a)the item is a pre-1975 musical instrument, (b)the volume of ivory in the instrument is less than 20% of the total volume of the material of which the instrument is made, and (c)the instrument is registered under section 10. (2) In this section “musical instrument”— (a)does not include anything that, although capable of being played as a musical instrument, was not made primarily for that purpose; (b)includes a bow, plectrum or other thing made for playing a musical instrument. Accordingly an organ, as such, containing ivory keys and stop knobs, piston heads etc., as an entity can be exempt. I would not care to speculate about individual components detached from the original instrument. Feelings run high on this subject; Frank Fowler used to get abuse at HN&B years ago. But the sting in the tail is section 10 - an extraordinarily convoluted procedure for registration of the item before any lawful dealing in it. Sorry, this probably is not much help, but useful to know that there are exemptions if the hurdles can be overcome, and accordingly relevant when buying or selling an organ rather than parts. I seemed to overlook your primary question! The Act prohibits ‘dealing’ in ivory. ‘Dealing’ is defined and it does not extend to gifts, so that may provide the answer after all.

There are a few awards to local musicians otherwise unknown to me, but I did pick up that Julian Lloyd-Webber has been awarded OBE (‘Cellist, for services to music’) and Noel Tredinnick ‘Medallist of the Order of the British Empire’. I see Paul Hodges just got in first with Julian Lloyd-Webber. I guess S_L should be pleased about that! (These are, indeed, from the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. I think comments above have extended the thread to include these.)

Probably fair comment, but people can sometimes be excused for misunderstanding HMG’s failure to explain differences between what is mandatory or advisory (it doesn’t use either of those terms). A solicitor friend of mine has been grappling with these issues since the original 2020 Coronavirus legislation and the mountain of subsequent statutory instruments, finding inconsistencies in the separate ‘guidance’ documents.

I’m afraid that’s not wholly correct. In my view the government is culpable in not making ‘guidance’ crystal clear where it must be complied with as legislation. Here is the rather feeble preamble to the latest guidance: “This guidance is of a general nature and should be treated as a guide. In the event of any conflict between any applicable legislation (including the health and safety legislation) and this guidance, the applicable legislation shall prevail.” In the light of that, it is positively misleading for HMG to offer the explanations of ‘must’ and ‘should’ and fail to identify clearly what is mandatory. In my post above yours I linked The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021 dated 29th March. These are the relevant exact words from Schedule 3: “1.—(1) No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 3 area which— (a) consists of more than six people, and (b) takes place indoors.” The complexities about professional singers involve further delving in later legislation: The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps and Other Provisions) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, effective from 17th May. (Note ‘Amendment’.) They are far from clear and not easy reading, involving cross-referencing with earlier legislation without re-stating it in comprehensible form. But this is how much of our legislation is framed. Those of us who have been shielding for most of the last 12 months have received emails and letters from HMG (eight pages were usual) with similarly vexing ‘advice’ in conjunction with ‘guidance’.

That would be a good everyday distinction between ‘compulsory’ and ‘desirable but optional’. Unfortunately, and it has exercised better legal minds than mine, some of HMG’s guidance as published in ‘user friendly’ form hasn’t accurately reflected actual legislation, the ‘Rule of 6’ being a case in point. I’m not talking about the amateur/ professional singers divide, on which I’m ignorant, but the ‘predecessors’ were most definitely not optional! The Coronavirus legislation introduced the confusing fact that some guidance was mandatory (there’s even an explanatory note in the legislation to that effect) while other guidance remained only guidance! Not at all helpful to the man in the street. I doubt that anyone will want to explore all of the murky details, but here is just one example from the vast raft of Coronavirus legislation which deals with the ‘Rule of 6’ in Schedule 3 “Participation in gatherings” and may be worth a glance to get some idea how these things are done: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/364/contents/made

Coventry Cathedral recitals 2021 Coventry Cathedral resumes its live weekly lunchtime recitals from Monday 17th May. In present circumstances pre-booking is requested. it looks a stupendous series of fine programmes on (dare I suggest) England’s finest post WW II cathedral organ, introduced here by Rachel Mahon: https://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/wpsite/blog/2021/05/01/monday-lunchtime-organ-recitals-from-may-to-october-at-12-30-pm/

I defer to you expert players - and this discussion has become entirely hypothetical anyway! - but in Stephen Bicknell’s scheme could a ‘party horn’ effect be achieved with the Great trumpet plus cornet? He doesn’t specify whether the latter is to be a five ranks mounted cornet; I have heard that combination do the trick. But would his Swell be sufficient to accompany it? He does concede that tracker action was limiting in this particular situation, and thus no option of a transfer of Great reeds on Choir.

Well, Trinity College next door only has one more speaking stop than Stephen Bicknell’s original Walker design for St John’s, and it likewise has no “party horns” and no 32’s. How do they manage? Probably Stephen Bicknell had in mind a different tonal structure, presumably a traditional English one, although we do not know that.

Truro Cathedral, larger than both St Peter’s and St John’s, is clearly the inspiration: the hints on the St John’s page which VH linked above (post number 2) could not be more obvious, and Andrew Nethsingha is the common denominator. This, if it happens, is still a little way ahead anyway, and doubtless St John’s will employ the best builder to ensure success both tonally and whatever is decided about the case. At St Peter’s the console is en fenëtre, and it’s difficult to see, although not impossible, that this would be repeated at Cambridge. Stephen Bicknell was largely the person responsible at Mander’s for the present organ, and clearly was seriously unhappy with the result! This lengthy article from an American University website also deals with his views about St Martin-in-the-Fields and others (and over-sized organs generally!), but read on until about three-quarters of the way down to see what he says about St John’s. https://list.uiowa.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0505C&L=PIPORG-L&P=R2843&1=PIPORG-L&9=A&I=-3&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

Helmut Walcha seems to be the only known case. André Marchal and Alfred Hollins both played Bach, but there is no suggestion that either committed to memory and performed the entire works. Obviously any information about others (whether sighted or blind) who have completed the marathon would be very welcome.

It’s confirmed in his obituary in ‘The American Organist’, 1980. He did it a long time ago, spread over four months starting in October 1929, on a new Casavant Frères organ at the University of Redlands, California in 20 twice-weekly recitals. This was a first for the USA, but Dupré had done it twice in Paris in 1920 and 1921. There may be others yet to be discovered.

I wondered whether Willis might figure! Hereford would be excellent, but somewhat larger than what it is replacing!

Peter Allison has beaten me to it. I was going to say Paul Jacobs and Helmut Walcha, both of whom I have heard play Bach ‘live’ - but not the complete works! Paul Jacobs played at Symphony Hall, Birmingham; Helmut Walcha, long ago in the 1960s/ 70s at the RFH. I heard Helmut Walcha twice, and on both occasions he played the Toccata and Fugue in F, BWV 540. He was led to the console by his wife who, I think, assisted with registration (the RFH organ probably had a single memory in those days) and there was a score on the music desk which puzzled me at the time, but was doubtless for his wife’s use. Performing the same work twice in a single season at the RFH was strictly not allowed by Ralph Downes, who kept a tight rein on all programmes and repertoire irrespective of however distinguished visiting performers were. I think there must have been a gap of one or two years between the performances I heard. His playing of BWV 540 was absolutely riveting on both occasions.

Thank you for those details, but sbarber49’s challenge was to identify any other organs by Father Willis currently in Cambridge. Emmanuel seemed the only candidate, and I relied upon H&H, no less, for providing authoritative confirmation. Now we are told that Emmanuel, or its building, has gone with the hope that the FW organ will be preserved by Pembroke College. If so, when the organ from St Peter’s Brighton has been transplanted to St John’s, that will mean two Cambridge colleges possessing a FW. But, as you say, the firm of Willis seems to have done very little work in Cambridge where other builders, including local ones into modern times, have predominated. It’s not difficult to guess the identity of the new organ arriving at St Columba’s. Maybe in due course DHM will reveal which instrument(s) whose sounds it reproduces!

Only one, apparently. Emmanuel United Reformed Church, 1880 restored to original state with the addition of a pedal trombone in 1992 by Harrison & Harrison. https://www.harrisonorgans.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CAMBRIDGE-URC-2020.pdf

I’m certain that this has already been discussed on the Forum. Very interesting that the St John’s College page which VH linked has an illustration of the College Chapel on which the FW organ of Truro Cathedral is superimposed! Doubtless a reflection of Andrew Nethsingha’s affection for that wonderful instrument, but not the one being acquired, of course! As an afterthought, this is also an oblique reference to the fact that the FW organ at St Peter’s Brighton has a very similar specification to Truro’s, but visually they are very different. Truro surely has one of the most impressive ‘caseless’ pipe displays of any organ.