John Robinson

Does Holland have anything comparable to our 'National Heritage' system that might apply to such organs of historical interest? I can't imagine that any government with an ounce of common sense would allow any such thing to be lost.

Just about every pop group in the country must be held in derision, then!

Santa gave me a copy of this book the other day, which I have now begun to read. I'm just at the chapter about his army service in the war, and the impression is that not only does he seem to have led a very interesting and productive life but that he is quite a down to earth person with no pretensions of superiority. What a nice chap. I'd firmly recommend this book.

I'd just like to say that it's nice to see the occasional lady on here!

I particularly like the colour scheme and especially the pipe shades upon which more colour becomes visible as you move over to the sides.

Hornpipe humoresque would be slightly inappropriate here, I suppose!

"...containing a few hundred pipes dating from 1664 and 1764..." These, of course, would be irreplaceable. I really hope there is some sort of effective fire-suppression system in place, preferably something harmless like carbon dioxide.

How unfortunate. Surely, if this is typical of the 'welcome' visiting choirs and organists receive, I can see Wells becoming a musical desert in time.

Indeed, and Francis Jackson is certainly a legend which I'm sure I shall never see the equal of in my lifetime.

Yes I remember that on the telly - was it last Christmas? I do remember my wife jumping and spilling her coffee at that point! (Edit: Just noticed it was 2007: I'm not very observant, I'm afraid. How time flies!)

This is perfectly true, of course, but the big advantage of doing so is that, being digital, they can be copied ad infinitum without degradation of quality. Obviously, the safest thing to do would be to keep at least two, and better still several, copies on different media just in case of failure.

One-upmanship? A bit like Atlantic City.

I think the new cases look much nicer than the old ones.

As far as I'm aware, in those days everybody worked on local time which depended on whereabouts you lived. On that basis, I think he probably died at lots of different times (although only the once, of course)!

Excellent!

Yes, I think I see the dilemma. Still, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say.

Didn't I read somewhere that Buxtehude had problems marrying off his daughter because, shall we say, she wasn't the most attractive one going? Or am I confusing him with someone else?

You've given the answer yourself! Your present 'carillon' appears to have lasted for about 34 years. Spend (presumably) over £10,000 on a new one and it will probably last you another 34 years. Get a real bell. If you find you have another £10,000 after 34 years, it will still be going strong and you'll be able to buy another bell (if you find somewhere to put it)! Also, as has been said, a peal of twelve bells coming from nowhere would just sound daft. (Similar reasons should, of course, discourage the purchase of toasters but it doesn't seem to, I'm afraid.)

Good heavens! Is he really playing with his left HEEL?

I couldn't agree more with the above sentiments about encouraging anyone interested to 'have a go'. What I cannot understand is how some organists are so very over-protective of their instruments and then bleat about the lack of interest in the organ amongst young (and not so young) people.

Eighteen dollars! That's nearly TWELVE WHOLE ENGLISH POUNDS! But thanks anyway.

I've just been listening to this on BBC iPlayer. Excellent. The instrument (and player, of course) sounded wonderful and the hall did not seem as 'dead' as I expected it to be. In fact, I enjoyed the recital so much that I wondered whether I could possibly record it. As I'm sure you all know, the BBC doesn't like people to record its iPlayer music, and I think this is reflected in the lack of provision of any certain way of getting around it, or at least I wasn't able to find any on the internet. But then, where there's a will there's a way. I just plugged my minidisc player/recorder into the headphone socket of my laptop and it recorded beautifully. Sometimes the simplest ways are the best!

Yes, I've seen that scheme. The organ would have been sited at the west end of the nave, which makes me wonder whether (however powerful) the sound might be lost to some extent under the large dome and beyond.

That made me think. Why have they never installed a large organ there? It surely can't be lack of funds!

Sad news. I'm sure we all send our commiserations to FJ.