Rowland Wateridge

I have just looked at the pipework analysis. Am I being dense, or is this seemingly huge organ really a vast extension organ with just 1,645 pipes (plus percussions)? MM to the rescue, please.

I also wondered that. I haven't read everything on the Klais website. I didn't find a specification. Perhaps I missed something. It also looks as though there could be a stepper at each end of the pedal 'well' - no toe pistons as such.

At the recitals I go to, our most accomplished players, on the largest organs with all the available up to date gadgetry, still do some hand-registration. Pulling or pushing a single stop can make a dramatic change. So, whilst this looks like the ultimate 21st century organ technology in console design, I think that the assistance of registrants is already contemplated; note the circular stool provided at each end of the organist's 'bench'. MM might see in this a reversion to the great and historic Dutch organs! Post script: There's another interesting photograph of the console on Google with two revealing features. The left hand screen is partially obscured by a reflection of a lattice window. Possibly not a problem, I suppose, once everything has been set up. In this photograph, the music desk has been lowered to cover the top sixth manual - as used to happen to the fifth manual at Birmingham Town Hall until Thomas Trotter had it removed.

My personal experience of Stephen Cleobury (apart from broadcasts and visits to King's College) was when I was a member of the Board of Management of the IAO Benevolent Fund and Stephen Cleobury was (is) its chairman. As well as being a most efficient and business-like chairman, what struck me was his genuine interest, concern and compassion for some of our less well-off organist colleagues, whether from illness or having fallen on hard times, and the courtesy noted by John Robinson with which he invariably chaired the meetings. Not the subject here, but tribute is also due to the late Anthony Cooke (note, John, a Yorkshireman!) who was the incredibly hard-working secretary. I'm sure that the Knighthood is well-earned, and has nothing to do with geography.

What a pity he (and several others) no longer contribute here. The debates were always stimulating and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the European organ - both instrument and repertoire - added enormously. Has Facebook taken over that kind of discussion?

There’s a date on the photograph of the Zeppelin raid damage: “June 6 15”, which I took to mean 1915. I’m not local, but I’m sure that date could be checked. The organ curator John Pemberton has photographs of the bomb damage to Hull City Hall in WW II which he showed at the IAO ‘Organfest’ a couple of years ago. Last year he gave a most impressive illustrated talk about the organ to a visiting group of non-organists - it was quite the best of its kind that I have experienced.

At St George’s Hall today Ian Tracey announced that there is to be a recital in aid of Notre Dame to be given by David Briggs at Liverpool Cathedral on Saturday 29th June at 7.30 pm. The programme includes David Briggs’ own transcriptions of Pierre Cochereau’s improvisations. See organrecitals.com for the full programme.

Not a mixture, just a single Keates stop encountered by chance today after seeing the announcement of a recital by that remarkable organist David Price (originally from Stockport and now a priest in Thailand). The venue is the chapel of Faversham Almshouses in Kent, a handsome building with an apsidal stone chapel. It contains a restored Father Willis organ of 1869 - one of those 10-stops marvels - but the swell was only prepared-for (NPOR D03020). Now added by Martin Renshaw in 2002, MM will be pleased to see that it has three stops by Wordsworth of Leeds and a trumpet 8’ by Keates of Sheffield. The 1892 Wordsworth stops came from an organ at Chawton in Hampshire, the home of Jane Austen.

Kingsgate Davidson must have been more significant than some earlier posts here suggest. NPOR lists 155 organs widely spread around the country.

The distinguished Australian organist June Nixon has composed extensively - see her website for the full list.

As mentioned earlier, there is a similarly long performance time, 6 minutes 59 seconds, by Pierre Cochereau at Notre Dame and, available on YouTube, Colin Walsh at Lincoln Cathedral 7 minutes 2 seconds. Doubtless in both cases the acoustic is a factor, but this is persuasive evidence from these players that the Toccata should not be taken at the breakneck speeds now popular with some players. On another thread someone wondered how Norman Cocker played “The” Tuba Tune, and suggested that it was probably differently from the rather jaunty tempo usually encountered. Sadly, as far as I can see, no recording by Cocker exists, but I recently heard a very impressive performance by Darius Battiwalla at Leeds Town Hall, with slower tempo and phrasing which gave the piece a majestic dignity I had never experienced before. It made me think of this discussion about Widor’s tempo. I wonder whether anyone can recall Cocker’s playing, or can report what others who actually heard it have said about it.

Two somewhat contrasting French women composers come to mind. Dupré’s pupil Rolande Falcinelli composed prolifically for the organ as well as other instruments and for voices. Wikipedia lists 27 works for organ, some of them having several (or many) movements and 14 works for organ and other instruments or voice. Cécile Chaminade was another prolific composer, although her organ music is probably little performed nowadays, if at all, outside France (S_L can doubtless enlighten us whether it is played there). Works for organ include Prélude for Organ Op 78, Meditation for Solo Instrument and organ and the substantial La Nef Sacrée Op 171 - 9 movements for organ or harmonium, the last available from Boosey & Hawkes. I can’t lay hands on the Meditation’s opus number. I believe Thomas Trotter plays organ transcriptions from Six Feuillets Op 98.

Briefly reporting this, today’s Independent stated “The Archbishop of Paris Saint-Eustache Michel Aupetit led the service”!

I have just learned the sad news that Ronald Woan died this morning. He was Director of Music at Liverpool Cathedral from 1948 until his retirement in 1982. As a boy he had been a chorister at the Cathedral under Harry Goss-Custard, and will be remembered by many for the long partnership with Noel Rawsthorne as Organist who died in January this year, thus surviving him only by a little more than two months. In fact, his long tenure included working with Goss-Custard, Noel Rawsthorne and Ian Tracey.

At St George’s Hall Liverpool today I was told that Ian Tracey had spoken to Olivier Latry who confirmed that the Grand Organ had survived.

All is revealed on a little further delving into the host website, including this CV of the author: “The Rev’d Dr Jules Gomes (BA, BD, MTh, PhD) is a journalist and academic. He wrote the weekly ‘Rebel Priest’ column for ‘The Conservative Woman’ and is now a columnist for ‘Republic Standard’. Jules earned his doctorate from the University of Cambridge and taught at the United Theological College, London School of Theology, and Liverpool Hope University. He enjoys philosophy, literature, art, classical and jazz music, target shooting, and motorcycling. He lives with his wife and cat on the Isle of Man.” Liverpool Hope University would have doubtless provided opportunities to get to know the nearby ‘Gravissima’ (Liverpool Cathedral: Resultant Bass 64’), Tuba Magna and Trompette Militaire.

No, it’s a very obvious spoof. Compare the quoted names of the lady Bishops with their real ones - “Rachel Weaktree, Bishop of Glucoseter” and “Viva Ann Foul, Bishop of Bristle”! There are also some decidedly odd ideas about pipe speaking lengths and pitch! But this kind of thing isn’t really that new. Esther Rantzen was getting laughs with double entendres about the organ on her TV show decades ago.

I have always believed the extraordinary 1832/1859 ten Principals at York Minster to have been authentic, but that they were later considered a failed experiment. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was, indeed, a turning point. The Father Willis organ of 70 speaking stops has been variously described as ‘wasteful’ and having ‘unnecessary duplication’ (no certainty about the precise words or sources, but I think W L Sumner and, possibly, Stephen Bicknell). I will leave to others, more expert than I, to judge the explanation given by Father Willis in 1851: ”The stops in the Great organ require no comment, further than to explain that whenever two stops of the same name occur, as 3 and 4; 6 and 7; 10 and 11; they are voiced to different qualities of tone”. (The stops referred to are two of, in each case, Open Diapason 8’, Principal 4’ and Fifteenth 2’.) Nothing earth-shattering about this now, although, less usually, all of the same stops were also duplicated in his 22-stops Swell, the second Principal and Fifteenth both being specifically labelled “(soft quality)”.

As a small boy (I regret to say it must have been almost 70 years ago!) staying with an aunt in Brighton, I was taken to two church services, one in St Peter’s, the other in the Dome. I can still remember both occasions, but the more vivid memory was of the Dome. Obviously at that age I couldn’t form a musical judgement except that it sounded so much more vital and exciting than what I was used to hearing at Sunday school in my home church. Many years later I had the privilege of visiting the Dome as a guest of the Crawley and Horsham Organists’ Association when Douglas Reeve demonstrated the ‘classical’ capabilities of the Christie/ Hill N&B organ - I remember a very convincing ‘Great to Mixtures’. He then played a programme on theatre registrations - a popular medley, entirely from memory, for one hour. There was very little, if any, use of tremulant, and I don’t think they figured very much in his distinctive style of playing.

I regret to advise that I have heard this morning of the death of Marilyn Mason during the early hours of yesterday (US time). She was 93 and, with Wilma Jensen, of their era the undoubted doyenne of American lady organists. She joined the University of Michigan in 1947 later becoming Professor and Head of Organ there. She had studied with Maurice Duruflé and Nadia Boulanger in France. She held numerous degrees and honours and commissioned more than 75 new works for organ. In earlier years she was a prodigious recitalist, performing more than 30 times per year, including the première by an American woman organist at Westminster Abbey. She founded the UM Annual Organ Conference in 1960 which continues to this day. The University commissioned a classical organ by Charles B Fisk based on the organs of Gottfried Silberman in an ornate Silberman case which is named in her honour “The Marilyn Mason Organ”. On retirement in 2014, she held the record at 67 years of being the University of Michigan’s longest serving Faculty Member. She probably first became well-known in the UK from a photograph in W L Sumner’s book “The Organ” of her as a young woman playing her house organ in Ann Arbor. Her chief legacy will be her teaching of the many hundreds of students who passed through her classes, many of them on to their own distinguished careers.

At Tewkesbury “The Milton” and “The Grove” organs come to mind - those names, I have to admit, not as beautiful as “Anna Magdalena”. Of course many organs have nic-names - not the same thing: “Bertha” has been mentioned several times on other threads, and that name is shared by the famous (or notorious, depending on your view) 32’ pedal reed in Winchester Cathedral. There are instances of organs being named after a donor. The “Stoller Organ” at Manchester Cathedral (Kenneth Tickell’s last one) is a recent example in this country. I expect there are others. This is very much more common in the US where organs quite frequently bear the name of a donor, or are dedicated to someone’s memory, or in honour of a living person. The only one which I know is in the last category, the (neo-)Baroque “Marilyn Mason Organ”, in a most gorgeous ‘Silbermann’ case, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The huge Skinner organ there in the Hill Auditorium is the “Frieze Memorial Organ”, but I haven’t researched the name’s origin. Happily, Marilyn Mason is still with us, although now retired and living in Florida.

Some organs in France have ‘listed’ status as historic monuments, but I think these tend to be 18th century or earlier survivors, often with a very splendid case. S_L will doubtless know more about this, but I suspect an equivalent of the Wolverhampton Compton would not qualify. As you say, doubtless it would have been a different story in the Netherlands.

Sadly, this is a fait accompli on the part of the Council, and there is nothing further to be done. The Council can’t be “sacked” and won’t be “prosecuted”. There is another Compton possibly at risk, but I have to stress possibly as we simply don’t know what plans the BBC might have for the future of the Compton at the London Maida Vale studios when they move out. Perhaps they do have plans but are keeping the details to themselves at this stage.

I have an English-born American friend who keeps me posted about the US organ scene, and all the details arrived the other day for this year’s OHS Convention in Dallas. When I was in Elmira NY, I visited the museum there which had a substantial exhibit about Robert Hope-Jones (not your cup of tea, I suspect). An even more famous Elmira resident, probably, was Mark Twain who invested in the Hope-Jones company. I never had the privilege of entering the vestry at St Peter’s Cornhill and, sorry to say, it could be all of 60 years ago that I went there for a lunchtime recital by a Mr Rogers whom I had met at St Katherine Cree, but regrettably never saw or heard again subsequently. Well, if the world stopped in 1750, I’m not sure that this would be to your taste, but certainly the finest US import to these shores in recent times is the Dobson organ for Merton College, Oxford, 2012. The sound is glorious, and it has a most beautiful case - see NPOR E01981. Another which, on reflection, might be more to your taste is the Richards, Fowkes & Co in St George’s, Hanover Square, also 2012 - see NPOR E02004. In fact, some will probably opt for this as the finest recent import from the US.

That website has pictures of the Serpent being played at Amiens and also includes sound samples: three of the Serpent, scales with an enormous range, and one of the Ophicleide (a more familiar name for organists). On the Ophicleide the tune is recognisably “Come into the garden, Maud”! Go to “Miscellaneous” and the link “Hear a Serpent”.