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MusoMusing

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  1. The evidence for the existence of the organ came from a Compton employee who knew all about it. There was specific mention of 11 ranks of pipes housed outside the cathedral, and the further information that it was not there very long. It is therefore primary source information. All very intriguing! MM
  2. I have found what I was looking for re: the end of Compton's. I have been sitting on it for a long time without realising it. The final days are covered in "Pipes and actions" by Lawrence Elvin. There is mention both, of the old Colonel and Hirel Ltd., and it seems that they were one and the same. There is no mention of a company by the name of Epta, and even if one turns up, it is unlikely to have any relevance. After more than ten years grubbing around, this seems to conclude all the digging and searching, so apart from creating an index and getting the layout absolutely right (plus lots of other little things) it looks as if the final phase has begun. MM
  3. A few weeks back, mention was made of a Compton instrument at Canterbury Cathedral, which I said I would investigate. There was some speculation as to whether or not it was an early electronic organ. However, it seems that far from being electronic, the organ had eleven ranks of pipes and was situated in a remote area outside the cathedral, with the sound relayed into the nave of the cathedral. At the same time, there was a Hammond Organ installed in the cathedral. Presumably, the outdoor organ must have been playable from the main console, but I can't be sure of that. It's strange that no mention is ever made of the instrument, or the fact that it set a precedent for the entombed organ at Salford Cathedral a short while later. MM
  4. Thank you Colin, but this doesn't help much I'm afraid. In fact, I was looking at the Makin history only yesterday, searching for clues. I should have mentioned the name of Frank Fowler, who I think was the Managing Director of Compton for a short while, before moving off the H, N & B Ltd. Even the Makin history doesn't mention the fact that the company went into administration in 1966, by which time they had sold off the pipe organ division. The problem of course is, that no records of the company were left, and trawling through companies house information and other things such as the Kelly's Register, only gets as far as the 1966 administration arrangements. The list of directors during the administration doesn't throw up a single, recognisable name other than Leslie Bourn, who remained with Compton's right to the end. There is, for example, no mention of Eric and J J Broad; the latter the Financial Director after the death of Jimmy Taylor. They managed to wrestle back the shares previously held by John Compton, who had left them to Jimmy Taylor, and which in turn went to Jimmy Taylor's widow. Mr Broad (not sure whether it was senior or junior) managed to convince Mrs Taylor that the shares were fairly worthless, but she would receive a pension for the rest of her life. This turned out to be just three months! In addition, they took Jimmy Taylor's car, which although registered at the Compton premises, was actually Jimmy Taylor's property! It seems to get very murky at this point; leading to the company going into administration. Hirel then bought the company out, and made electronic organs (among other things), but it soon fell on bad times and was insolvent by 1970. I just don't know what happened with Hirel Electronic Developments, or whether the old Colonel became the new owner, which I think was under the company name of EPTA. The only thing that I know about Colonel Peavey-Johns, is that he had a B Sc degree and an AMIEE diploms, and owned a Rolls-Royce. He had served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; rising to Colonel at some point. It seems a pity to have to gloss over the details, which hint at quite a bit of skullduggery and sordid conduct; not to mention a competition for a folding caravan; the outcome of which was known even while they were selling tickets at the Ideal Homes Exhibition. At the moment, fudging the issue becomes increasingly attractive, but if anyone knows............ MM
  5. I'm not sure anyone can help with this, but it's worth a shot, as I'm almost at the end of the Compton tome.....about 220 pages. I'm not sure if I have notes about the end of the Compton firm, or whether it was contained elsewhere, but I'm struggling to discover what happened after the company went into receivership in 1966. It's interesting that the only piece of documented evidence I have found, includes the names of the oficial receiver and four other directors of the Compton firm; none of who I recognise other than Leslie Bourn, the electronics expert. My understanding is, that the firm was bought by a company calling itself Hirel Electronic Developments Ltd, shortly after the winding up of "The John Compton Organ Co,Ltd". Hirel only took on board the electronic side of the business; the pipe-organs section having been sold off the Rushworth & Dreaper in 1964. The partial hole in my knowledge is what happened after this, because another company name was suggested to me, by the name of EPTA. There was also mention of an elderly ex-army Colonel, by the name of Col Peavey-Johns. The simple facts I need are the date that Hirel sold out to (presumably) EPTA. (Nothing to do with the Italian based refrigeration company) of that name. It would be nice to be precise, but it's not so critical that it can't be fudged into a general statement. I have tried all sorts of company gazettes and company history, but EPTA has drawn a blkank.
  6. How interesting! I didn't know that Violette had been moved to Sheffield, but often wondered if that wasn't the case. Brindley was quite the entrepreneur, and I find it remarkable that by the age of 21 or so, he had established his own business. Apparently, he never went to Germany and the Schulze company, yet Schulze was obviously impressed by his abilities, and asked him to get involved with the Doncaster behemoth and even help with the voicing of the instrument.
  7. No offence at all John! It's what accompanies the track played, which is definitely St Bart's, Armley. I think the church in the photograph is close to the infirmary, and they do a lot for the homeless etc. I have no idea why the photo is used for the Armley track. MM
  8. There have been changes to the scholarship in recent years, and some (but certainly not all) of the facts presented by R J KNott, in his history of the Brindley & Foster firm have been disproved. I think that Carl Schulze WAS a relative of Edmund Schulze, but I do not have all my notes at my fingertips at the moment. Carl Otto, I believe, was the voicer who became head-voicer at Bridnley's, and later left to join Keates. I'll check this out when I find a gap in my writings about John Compton, yet another Brindley employee for a short while. People often underestimate Brindley's involvement with Schulze, because he did some of the voicing at Doncaster. Not only that, he bought out the company known as 'Violette', and therefore supplied all the pipes used by Schulze after the Doncaster Parish Church instrument. I wonder if Keates didn't also buy pipes from Violette? John Compton had a lot to say about mutations and Mixture compositions, as did the organ enthusiast Boustead, who had a huge 5-manual instrument in his very large, detached house on Winbledon Common. As for Tierce ranks in Mixtures, it was typically found in the organs of Father Willis (and later), and of course,, the William Hill firm used tierce ranks as a matter of course. I would argue that Tierce Mixtures were part of the English style, and only became unfashionable when Schulze restricted his Mixtures to quints and unisons only. It's easy to hear why, when you listen to this from the famous Schulze organ at Armley Parish Church:-
  9. I know nothing about Keates scaling or mixture compositions as such, but dependent on when the Keates organ was built, it may well have been the voicing work of Herr Otto, who had arrived in the UK as a Schulze employee when they were involved with the great Schulze instrument at Doncaster. Otto was one of the Schulze employees who elected to remain in the UK, and become employees of Charles Brindley. Otto became head-voicer at Brindley & Foster, before leaving to take up a similar position with Keates. The implication may well be, that in searching for clues as to suitable Mixture scales and compositions, one could probably do worse than look at organs from Brindley & Foster, and especially from the 1870's, when Brindley was under the spell of Schulze. The problem is, I know of no Brindley organs with Tierce mixtures! I am delighted that at least one redundant organ has been saved from the scrap heap, and especialy from an organ-builder of considerable merit. MM
  10. The organ is probably unique among musical instruments, for not only does it produce musical sounds, it is an infinitely varied and fascinating box of tricks. Even small instruments amount to a substantial "machine". As both a player and a bit of a historian (Compton especially), I can recognise and appreciate the richness of both approaches. Perhaps it's no surprising that many organ buffs are also steam-train enthusiasts, and not all of them are drivers! Quite a number of organ-builders are not great organists, and some don't play at all, but that doesn't prevent them from making really fine instruments. MM
  11. It can't be too difficult to play a few octave, surely? MM - running away in terror!
  12. I have a reording of Joyce Jones playing the uge instrument at West Point military academy , New Jersey, which includes a wonderfully well wrought improvisation on the Japanese song "Ako tombo" (The red dragonfly?) It combines delicious impressionistic French style harmony with typical Japanese scales etc. (Lots of fourths, if I recall correctly.....I shall have to listen to it again) I'm not sure, but I believe it may have been written down and published, and if so, it is an absolute delight. For those who keep fit by playing the organ, there are some monstrously difficult pieces by the l;ate, great Jeanne Demessieux; one of the truly great virtuoso organists/composers, who died tragically young from cancer. She left a large corpus of works, which included many genres, but do we ever hear any of it? It seems to me, that organists are stuck in a bit of a rut, and seldom venture out beyond the normal accepted mainstream repertoire. MM
  13. I watched an interview with a respected academic on medieval buildings, and I was surprised to learn that the wooden roof arrangement, with stone-vaulting beneath, was both insulation AND a fire barrier, due to previous timber roofs catching fire. I didn't catch the name of the academic, but he made the wonderful point, that it took 800 and more years to test the system, and it worked perfectly! I was quite stunned by that analyisis. MM
  14. It wasn't a still photograph as such, but part of a video. The organ-case was clearly visible and complete. On a technical level, what seems to have happened is that fire has swept along the cathedral at upper-roof level rather than ceiling-level....in other words, the wooden roof supports rather than the stone vaulting of the cathedral structure beneath. The stone vaulting seems to have acted as a barrier, which explains how firefighters were able to rush inside and rescue so many artifacts. On a bigger scale, it is York Minster replayed, where most of the wooden roof beams ended up on the deck. Not good, but not so bad as it could have been. In fact, thinking about it, the stone vaulting probably deflected much of the roof as it fell. They don't build 'em like that anymore! MM
  15. Well, I'm delighted to be able to say "I told you so"....not in triumph, but with a sense of relief. I saw a picci, which showed the organ case intact. Even in these days of Brexit, there is something on which we may all agree. The organ will need tuning! (Not that this was ever a major obstacle to organ music in France) My next guess? A team of people from York, hot footing it to Paris to inspect the glass. York is probably the world epicenter of medieval glass restoration. MM
  16. The stained glass would probably survive the heat, but it will be scattered all over the place. It's the lead joints which give way first. They performed miracles at York with the rose window of the transept, which looks as good as it ever did. MM
  17. I hang on to slight optimism concening the organ. Looking at photographs, the organ is situated on a gallery between the the two west towers, but more importantly, the towers form the "roof" section above the organ, and appear to be stone vaults rather than wooden roofing structures. That's important re: any possibility of the organ surviving. If the nave furnishing have survived, then that suggests that the fire was less intense towards the west end of the cathedral. We can but live in hope. MM
  18. I always think that the ultimate showpiece is the (original version) Durufle Toccata.....a French toccata par excellence.IMHO, by far the best recording was made by Jane Parker Smith at Blackburn Cathedral many moons ago (early 1970's?) However, not all show-stoppers are loud and frightening. Some are quite delicate and infinitely frightening at the same time. I was all of 15 when I first heard Virgil Fox play the 'Giga' by Marco Enrico Bosse; which is a transcription of one of his own orchestral pieces, transcribed by the composer. It is difficult.....to say the least.....and requires ultimate control. Fox did a wonderful job of playing it very quickly (which I think is right) and he was lifting those fingers as fast as he was putting them down. It is wickedly tricky to play, and in something like 55 years, I have never heard a single performance of it at a recital. Everyone seems to shy away from it. Checking through YouTube, the original Virgil Fox recording can be heard, but the recording quality is not good. What IS very good, is the computer rendered version, which is clearly based on Virgil Fox, but with far better sound quality, so perhaps this is the best one to hear first. Here it is.....fasten your seat-belts!
  19. Spoof or not, the organ will survive. It has a great repertoire, a vast history and many examples beyond the confines of churches and cathedrals. MM
  20. The funny story concerns a trip on a Boston Tube Train, when I overheard a very animated (loud) conversation, coming from people with a rather peculiar dress code. What I heard, was, "Marylin Mason is just the greatest". I was sitting next to one of their number, and being in the middle of the appreciation society, I couldn't help but agree with the comment; suggesting that she was a brilliant performer. With a cold gothic stare, came the reply, "Marylin Manson is a guy!" I know the story got back to her, and caused some amusement, so I was delighted to have brought a smile to her face.
  21. It's far too early to speculate, but fire does tend to go upwards. As with the great Selby Abbey fire, the roof frame caught fire and collapsed, and much of the fire below appears to be from burning roof timbers on the floor of the cathedral. The fire at York Minster started quite near the organ and the roof of the transept collapsed, but the organ survived with some smoke, steam and water damage. Hopefully, the organ may well survive the ordeal at Notre Dame, but it will not be heard for a very long time, even if the damage is minimal. A very sad day indeed. MM
  22. A sad day indeed. A very fine organist and a remarkable teacher. She will be missed and remembered; especially by her many pupils in America. This is not the moment to tell the story of getting her name mixed up with another, but I will add it later, because she was known to have had a great sense of humour.
  23. Further information from the Organ Historical Society, America: The church is St Paul's, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The Pedal 32‘ Polyphone was a novel idea that warranted a special article in The Diapason for this single pipe:. . . An unusual feature of the organ is a pedal stop, the polyphone, 32 ft., which is one pipe able to play the pitches of the 32-ft. octave. This stop was made by the Compton Organ Company of London, England. The Compton Company also provided complete working details of two pedal cornets, one of 16-ft. pitch and the other of 32-ft. pitch.It was surely a cost-saving measure to include the 1-pipe 32‘ extension, as a 1950 quote for a 12-pipe bass rank for a 32‘ Bourdon from American Organ Supply would have run $1,490.00. The one pipe from Compton apparently ran about $1,200, including shipping. Blodgett visited the John Compton Organ Company, Ltd., of London twice to discuss the polyphone and cornet. Mr. Holtkamp apparently also made the journey
  24. This IS rather fascinating! I've never come across it before. IF the date is correct (1961) then the Chase Road, North Acton premises were still in existence and still functioning; though concentrating more and more on electronic organs, while winding down pipe-organ production. However, the custom made "specials" used (so far as I know) the same combination action as the pipe-organs, so providing one would not have been a problem. (They were also used in the Strand Lighting consoles; some of which were exported as far away as Venezuela) For the record, Rushworth & Dreaper didn't acquire the pipe-organ side of the business until 1964. On the wider front, Compton DID export things; most notably a cinema organ for Cairo in Egypt, which was the second organ to be sent there; the first "lost at sea". Other exports inluded a 32ft Polyphone to America, which Walter Holtkamp came over the water to see. I think it still exists, but there was talk of a rebuild going on not long ago. I'm not sure if the organ also incorporated a 32ft Harmonics.....I'll try and check. MM
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