PaulH

It's an intriguing specification and the document linked from N&Co's website is very informative as to the thinking behind its concept. Organ builders throughout history have had to contend with interesting space challenges - especially when there's no room for a complete independent pedal division - but some sound very impressive when properly voiced despite almost insurmountable problems. I'll be interested to see how modern thinking applied to a polyphone-style multiple pitch pipe works out - polyphones are extremely effective given a good acoustic. I'm really not qualified to comment on the details of the specification - I'm firmly in the "keen listener only" category. I do think though that N&Co should be commended for putting forward something a bit different, and I'll certainly look forward to hearing it when complete. Hopefully in the meantime James Atherton could continue his fascinating series of Youtube videos as this organ progresses through the workshop.

Some time ago I managed to get hold of a copy of Elvin's book on Forster & Andrews, the well-known Hull organ builders. It's long out of print so hopefully no problem with reproducing a couple of pictures with this question. I was really interested to see that in the three pictures attached - the then Holy Trinity Hull, and both King's Hall and Queen's Hall, all featured cases with rather startling fan-style displays of reed pipes. I don't believe I've ever seen this sort of thing before, and certainly haven't seen any in real life. HT's organ was of course "Compton'd" so looks nothing like this now; King's Hall organ found its way to Norwood, London but according to NPOR without its elaborate case, and Queen's Hall organ now lies unused behind some grilles in the Jubilee Church in Hull. So these three no longer exist in that state... are there any others elsewhere? Did anyone other than F&A go in for this sort of thing? And regarding Holy Trinity (Hull Minster), it would be fascinating to know if any of the painted reeds still exist in the organ's innards... removing all that paint would have been quite a chore!

I too am a long-time "lurker" and don't contribute much, perhaps because I'm self-consciously amongst a bunch of rather lovely professionals who know an awful lot more than I do! I'm not an organist (although I did study it many, many years ago under Desmond Swinburne), and growing up as a chorister (I can probably still recite the BCP services from heart!) knocked all semblence of religion out of me. Yet the organ has always been inexplicably "part" of me - perhaps because I work in digital technology I'm still entranced by the sheer ingenuity which organ builders of past times employed to make wind and wood do the most incredible things. My piano teacher when much younger was Raymond Sunderland, through whom I got to know Denis Thurlow and as a young teen I spent a lot of happy hours inside organs around Bridlington being shown the intricacies of tuning, regulating and voicing. And (to misquote Alan Plater) I do enjoy the odd Toccata. I do hope the forum can survive - there's not many like it. And it is very thought provoking at times! I guess it's down to us all though to make it survive. I've an idea for a thread, so I'll dig out the necessary photos and post in a couple of days.

This is such a shock. I first "met" Lucien via the Electrokinetica website (a virtual online electrical museum) and corresponded for a while on Compton electric action as well as Strand resistive dimmer stage lighting systems and Comptometer mechanical calculators. He was active on pretty much any forum to do with organs, electrics and generally interesting electromechanical stuff particularly from the early 20th century. A true gentleman and a fount of knowledge on subjects where few experts still exist. His passion for organs was clear to see and he will be greatly missed by the community. Condolences to his family and all who knew him.