John Robinson
-
Posts
1,060 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by John Robinson
-
-
If you have a chance, go hear it.
I'd love to.
One day fairly soon, I hope.
John
-
Perhaps it could be restored. I know of a chap in Saltaire who is into that sort of thing.
I remember seeing a makers plaque on the instrument, but cannot remember who this was.
Perhaps it is of some historical value.
John
-
I hope I may be excused for resurrecting this thread in the hope that Richard may notice it.
This is something of particular interest to me.
John
-
Neil, would I tell you what the name "Washington" signifies, in french,
if pronouced after the french manner, you would understand at once
why I prefer by far to stick to the original names !
Pierre
Go on, what does the word 'Washington' mean, when pronounced in French? I'm intrigued.
John
-
Well I'm sorry to take the opposing view, but as far as I'm concerned if a Gemshorn appears in an otherwise English organ specification it is effectively a word which although of foreign origin has now been incorporated into the english language and may therefore have an adopted english pronunciation - in this case 'Jemshorn'. If we were to go around attempting to give all words of non-english origin their original pronuciation our conversation would turn into something out of 'Allo allo'. If we're prepared to call the capital of Austria "Vienna" this is a minor indescretion by comparison.
We shall have to agree to differ here, then. Whenever I hear someone say 'Jemshorn', it conjures up a mental image of a diamond-studded organ pipe.
Personally, I can manage German and French names quite well (without sounding like the policeman from 'Allo Allo'), and Spanish and Italian to an extent.
On the other hand, when faced with a Polish specification I am obliged to give up completely! Try these (from Oliwa):
Flet poprzeczny 4'
Regal skrzypcowy 4' (how anyone can pronounce a ten-letter word containing but one vowel is beyond me!)
John
-
The auto-correction features can be switched off.
Yes, but I didn't know that at the time. Once written, I don't think it is possible to change the title under 'Edit', only the content.
John
-
A minor point, perhaps, but I am renowned for being pedantic.
I'd just like everyone to know that I typed 'III' in the title of the thread, not 'Iii'.
One of these annoying automatic correction things like those which abound in MS Word. I know what I want to say and I don't need a jumped-up box of wires to tell me!!!
John
-
Just watched, on BBC2 this evening, an episode from Series III. The organ was Amorbach Abbey.
Earlier this year Richard McVeigh informed us that Series III was still in the editing stage, but obviously this has now been completed. I would like to buy the DVD when it becomes available, but Googling it produced no joy.
Has anyone heard anything about availability of Series III yet?
John
-
I agree with all of yours, Vox Humana.
I remember whilst introducing my class to the organ at the local church (sadly I cannot find time for this any more, as it is not in my official curriculum) the vicar, who had come in to supervise - I don't think I was fully trusted - pronounced it as 'Jemshorn'. I felt certain he was wrong but, of course, I was too polite to say anything. Thanks for confirming my belief.
Another one, by the organist of a large church near to my home, was Larigot pronounced 'Larizho' - the 'zh' being the French 'j' sound. Again, I was sure it should be a hard 'g' (and silent 't', of course) but, as a non-player, I deferred to his superior knowledge. Much later I asked a native French student, who was on foreign exchange at my school, and she confirmed my correct pronunciation.
Personally, I feel that foreign names of organ stops should be pronounced as they would be in the language of origin, or as near as possible - I agree that umlauts are difficult for some.
John
-
This is a bit theoretical....
Some organs do actually permit to do nearly
whatever -example: Gottfried Silbermann's-
but then you need to voice all stops with no
overdone character, and with nearly the same strenght !
Pierre
As I said, many of these combinations will not be practical.
Nevertheless, over a thousand possible sounds (even if some are rather unconventional!) from only ten stops is, in my opinion, quite amazing.
John
-
I've spent time working out the number of available combinations (including solo stops) available on my own, never realised, small stoplists - once you start diving the stops treble and bass the maths can get quite complicated.
I once went to the trouble of working out a formula for the number of possible combinations of organ stops, and still use this as part of a mathematical investigation at school:
(2 to the power 'n') - 1, where 'n' is the number of stops. (Sorry, I can't do superscript here!).
Of course, many combinations will not be practical, but it certainly gives one an idea of the unbelievable number of combinations possible on even a moderately-sized instrument (1023 on a ten-stop organ, for example, and this excludes bass/treble divided stops).
Try it out (on a calculator) and see what I mean!
John
-
I am not certain of this, but I think that your estimate of the height of the body of the case (i.e., excluding the pinnacles) may be several feet short of the actual measurement.
York Minster is a vast building and it is easy to mis-judge scale by means of visual comparison. (Another example is Liverpool Anglical Cathedral, where the two west-facing fronts have 32p basses, but which look somewhat shorter.)
Remember too that the York organ is large - the G.O. alone having twenty-four stops, with thirty-eight ranks. The case is almost certainly larger that it appears - otherwise, taking the proportionate measurements of the width and depth into consideration, it would not be able to contain as much of the instrument as it does.
I have just scanned through an article concerning the organ of York Minster, in a back-issue of Organists' Review, for 1993. Whilst it does not give details of the layout, there is a fairly good colour close-up photograph of the east side of the case. I should judge it to be closer to around twenty-two feet in height.
However, it will be interesting to hear from Richard McVeigh, regarding details of the layout adn, in particular, the location of the G.O. Double Open Diapason.
You are quite right about the scale and how one can be misled. Certainly, when looking at pictures of the Liverpool organ, the 32' pipes look positively tiny in that vast space; when seeing them 'in the flesh', however, things are brought back into perspective!
I was basing my estimate of York not only on the assumption that the pipes in the towers (admittedly non-speaking) were of 16' speaking (or non-speaking!) length, but also after close scrutiny of several photographs and basing my estimates on known dimensions (such as the height of the screen being 24', etc.). On the same basis, I would estimate the case to be about 20' wide and 16' deep; this seems large enough to accommodate the Great and Swell (and, of course, the Choir is in the sticky-out bit to the east).
Incidentally, should it turn out that the bottom pipes are stopped/mitred/Haskelled, I would feel it a shame that these non-speaking display pipes are not utilised as sound producers. Surely this would be possible, even if they had to be replaced or re-made. I wonder whether they once were speaking pipes, perhaps when the case was first made c.1829.
I, too, shall be most interested to learn the truth when Richard returns.
John
-
It could be possible that the basses of the diapason are placed at the same level as the Pedal 16' basses.
Considering that there is already a 16-ft Gedackt on the Great I wouldn't think that the diapason basses would be stopped.
But then again I could be wrong, since being on the other side of the world I have never actually seen the organ, but this could be possible.
Josh
Thanks for your reply, Josh.
The Pedal 16' Diapason is in the south aisle, so it's unlikely that the Great 16' Diapason is there as well. However, there are other Pedal open 16' pipes within the screen and it is quite possible that it is in there with them - electric action would permit that, of course. I still have my doubts, however, as I would have thought that they would want to keep the pipes alongside the other Great stops.
Still a mystery then, at least for the time being!
John
-
My computer does that to me occasionally, usually after I've been Googling for something that's led me back here.
Click the "options" arrow at the right-hand end of the dark blue bar near the top of the page and then select the "standard" display mode from the drop-down menu. That should cure it.
Many thanks, Vox. That did it. And after all my messing about in 'My Controls' - how simple!
I can't think how it came to be changed in the first place: the wonders of electrickery, no doubt!
John
-
Is it just my computer, or is the layout of posts different now?
Yesterday I was able to view individual posts in a thread in order of posting. Today, within each thread, all the posts seem to be listed in a sort of tree diagram.
Is this an 'improvement'?
Personally, I preferred the old system. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it!'
John
-
A question for Richard McVeigh.
I have been thinking, which I do occasionally(!), and have come up with a question with regard to an interest of mine - namely, how does one efficiently accommodate the contents of an organ.
At York Minster, the Great Organ includes a 16' Open Diapason. Bearing in mind that the display pipes in the main case are non-speaking, and the height of the case (less the towers) must be about 13' by my reckoning, where are the bottom pipes of this stop? Presumably, they are on, or adjacent to the Great chests, yet they do not protrude above the top of the case.
Is this a stopped bass, or mitred, or even Haskelled?
I address my question to Richard as, presumably, he is familiar with this organ. However, if anyone else has the answer I should be very grateful for your help.
John
-
I can't think what that would be actually, I can visualise where you were sitting and there shouldn't be anything like that there. I'll go in later and have a look. If its still there I'll hand it into the Minster Police, after I have had a good nosey at it!
I didn't make it in last night - the girlfriend's parents came up so we enjoyed a nice night out. Was a shame to miss the opening recital though. How did the organ sound? Last week I spent an entire evening going through every stop and every note then writing in the organ tuner's book any problems; I covered three whole pages!! I don't know if Geoffry has been in yet though. There is also a problem with some(!) of our bellows, they leak air therefore the wind pressure is not tip top which does lead to a rather anticlimax when using some of the louder stops, the effect sounds rather French as the whole pitch of the organ suddenly drops.
No, I thought I couldn't see you, going by your photographs on this forum. Your presence would have augmented the audience to 101! I always feel a little embarrassed when foreign organists perform in this country, as they must be accustomed to having larger audiences back home.
How strange! You will most certainly find it where I described, unless someone has nicked it in the meantime. It does look as if it has been there since the stalls were re-made. If the Minster police arrest it, could I have it - finders keepers! No, really, if it made an appearance in my house it would provide serious grounds for divorce.
The organ sounded fine, as far as I could tell. As the last couple of pieces were French, this probably enhanced the appropriateness of the sound!
John
-
Sorry you can't make FJ's recital, its a landmark year for him this year as he turns 90 in October. If you can make it to mine then great, if not - you won't miss out on much I'm sure. Might see you tonight then!
I'm sure you are being over-modest, Richard.
We enjoyed tonight's recital, and I'm grateful for your bringing it to my attention.
Just as a matter of interest, we sat in the row in front of the canons' stalls on the decani side, behind the Crown Prince of Burma (!) and the recitalist's wife. Once ensconced, we could not help but notice a small box immeditately in front of us and, being of a naturally inquisitive nature, I found it to be unlocked and proceeded to open it. Within, I found a two octave keyboard and soon realised that this was a small harmonium of sorts. I was tempted to join in the recital, but decided not to on two counts: (i) it looked as if it was about to fall apart, and (ii) I can't play!
Did you know about this? Presumably its function would have been to provide a pitch note for unaccompanied choral services.
John
-
Thank you Richard.
I have just talked 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' into going to tomorrow's recital.
I would really like to see 'The Grand Old Man' (FJ), but we are going on holiday to Ireland the next day.
I'll also try to talk her into coming to see your good self as well, but that may be pushing it a bit!
John
-
If he was reading one of the other forums his name would not appear at the foot of this one.
Ah, I see.
I shall immediately change my icon to purple.
Purple = embarrassed!
John
-
Isn't it just to indicate who's currently logged in? Sorry this is a less interesting solution.
Well, no. I am red because I am currently logged in (obviously!). However, Pierre is red and he is not logged in, according to the list at the bottom of the page. Pierre should be GREY! (Nothing personal, Pierre).
That has got me thinking. The idea of having different colours could indicate all sorts of things (determined by choice of buttons at log-in?): red = angry, green = happy, blue = sad, yellow = jaundiced, grey = tired (I think I would be grey most of the time), etc. Others would then know how best to respond to authors' comments. Hey, the more I think about it, the more this idea is growing on me.
John
-
That's to put the blackest possible interpretation upon it.
Two good reason they might visit:
1. they like what you write, or at the very least find it sufficiently challenging to want to know more
2. you have the beginnings of a fan base!
I suppose there remains the possibility that they (like me) have too little important to do to fill their day.
I spend a large amount of time following links and using the internet as a lazy person's library. Comedy on the internet is just fabulous and (provided you corroborate information and don't just believe the first site) information is tantalisingly plentiful on almost everything (organs included).
I confess that I have been 'visiting', although for the most innocent of reasons: I have been trying to work out why the little icon in front of members' names on posts is sometimes in colour and at other times grey. I still haven't worked it out. Perhaps some members are regarded as more colourful than others? I'm sure it's something quite simple and that I'm just being a bit thick.
John
-
I'm afraid they've dropped even bigger blunders in the past! Priory once released a disc called something like "The Music of Durham Cathedral", complete with a lovely, full page picture inside of the organ....... of Hereford Cathedral!
My wife is trying to get me a copy of the Liverpool DVD as a 'surprise' birthday present. Unfortunately, word has reached my ears that, although she e-mailed the order when the DVD was first advertised in OR, she has not yet received any acknowledgement. That must be a couple of weeks or more.
How do I tell her to ring Priory and nag them into dealing with it without revealing that I know about it?
John
-
Apologies for my ignorance - I have not visited the Abbey, and am only aware of the organs through Ton Koopman's (IMO excellent) Bach recordings. In addition, perhaps now is not the time to admit that when I first glanced at the word "Dreifaltigkeit" in relation to the organ there, I thought, did'nt I, that it meant that it had three manuals!
Anyway, those glass cases sound intriguing...
Yes. At the base of each of the four pillars at the crossing is a glass case. In each is found a preserved skeleton, presumably of some dignitary, resplendent in their sunday best outfits. If I remember correctly, they are in various different poses. Could be quite atmospheric alone at night.
By the way, without looking up the specification I think the Trinity organ is 4 man., the Holy Ghost organ is 2 man. and the Marien organ at the west end 4 or 5 man.
John
Elgar The Apostles - Royal Albert Hall - Bbc Proms
in General discussion
Posted
The unenclosed Choir used to be at a lower level behind the console, speaking through the grilles at the front. Is this still the case?
John