undamaris

I imagine Gordon Reynold's advice about laying in a stock of glycerin to keep the hoar frost off the trebles would be rather redundant advice across the pond...

I may have missed a post whilst reading my way through all of this so please forgive me if I repeat anything! I can remember having to leave notes in the tuner's books to ask for piston registrations to be changed on quite a few organs! One organ I used to play was a Victorian war horse that had electro-pneumatic action with four pistons to the Swell and Great, four combination pedals to both the Swell and Pedal, and three pistons to a Choir organ with only five stops, all of which were 8, except for a 4,flute!

Thank you very much Madorganist! That's the one I was looking for! I must admit my impatience took over when hunting through Youtube. I must remeber that what I'm looking for isn't necessarily the opeing bars of any work - lesson learned! I agree David, this is a much more inspiring piece of music for Songs of Praise - it has dignity I think, and definitely works as a wedding egress. I've often favoured Soler's 'Emperor's Fanfare' for weddings but that's pretty much dictated by the organ in the venue!

I'm hoping any members could possibly help me. For some reason the other day, I was discussing Songs of Praise with a friend of mine, and we both remember the original opening music from the late 70's/early 80's. I was just becomming almost obsessed with the organ and this really caught my attention. It was solo organ, and was toccata like with a melody solo'd on a tuba in chords. My mother rang the BBC to find out the composer and was told it was by Simon Preston. I've searched high and low but not found it in any of his compositions! It's not by Herbert Chappell or Robert Prizeman either so that eliminates a couple more people as far as I'm aware! I would be very grateful if anyone could throw some light on this as I'm slowly sinking into a haze of gin trying to find the answer before my friend does! The state of my liver depends on all of your help!

I was browsing through Harrison & Harrison's website today when I came across images of a 32' reed being made and its windchests for Cheltenham College Chapel. Does anyone have any further information on this as there was nothing on the H&H site giving anything else.

Now I've got visions of the scene from "Airplane" where the woman playing the guitar knocks the drip out of the arm of the very sick girl!

The 1884 Alfred Monk organ in St Stephen's Church, Cheltenham has rounded sharps. Norman & Neard tinkered with it in 1910 & 1912, then Nicholsons had a go in 1965, but I don't think the console was altered in any shape or form and I believe it's still retains the original keyboards

I quite like a mixture of organists - how about a temperament of organ builders?

There's the wedding scene at the end of the remake of A Miracle on 34th Street as well! It may be the Wedding march but it makes quite a marvelous noise! LOL

Dear Lord - the organ in sanity and madness strikes again! Let's not forget Mr P Collins provided a 32' Rumble on the organ of Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh!

Let's not forget the Echo Organ of Tewkesbury Abbey which lives on in the organs current form as the Apse division!

What a little gem! Strawberry Hill gothick at its best! So nice to see something coming from over the pond that isn't all bells and whistles - not that the organs from the States are in any way less musical or tasteful I hasten to add

I used to sing in the choir at Christ Church before it got all too happy clappy, and remember the organ very well. The Rohr Quintade on the Great was an odd stop, and the only 8' that was usable really was an 8' Principal. The Harmonic Flutes on the Solo I believe were from the original Hill organ, and the Swell was seriously lacking in many ways - no Oboe, and the strings put on the Solo instead. You were stuffed if you wanted to get Romantic and use the Celeste against the Clarinet as they were both on the Solo! The whole thing wasn't helped by being buried in the "North" transept with the rear half of the gallery cut away in a vain attempt to allow the organ to speak. The choir used to process from the Baptistry at the west end of the church, where you could hardly hear a thing - even the Tuba Mirabilis was muted down to a Cornopean in its effect! It would be wonderful if funds would allow the organ to be "de-baroqued" as it were and returned to it's original position in the west gallery so it can speak down the length of the church once more - this would also improve the whole appearance of the west end by filling the aching void that was painted a pale blue as I remember, and screaming to have an organ back in its place!

Not a printed howler, but I remember the choir I was a member of were doing Parry's "I Was Glad" as the anthem one Sunday,MANY years ago, before which the Vicar announced the choir would also be singing the "Viva Vagina"

I heard talk of Lancaster Priory acquiring the organ of St Walburg's in Preston, and to be erected in the West Gallery should the funds ever materialise, but that looks ever more unlikely in the present economic climate. Very sad on two fronts in that an organ by Hill should be left to decay whilst another beautiful church elsewhere should remain without a pipe organ. The existing Makin organ in Lancaster Priory is showing it's age faster than any pipe organ would ever do, and should never have replaced the Harrison & Harrison organ that was sold off to make way for it. As for organs left to moulder in churches whilst the happy clappy brigade bring themselves nearer to God with some of the most unholy of musical instruments, I have read in some music periodicals that a backlash has begun in the Catholic church. People are lamenting the removal of their organs as the waning in fashion for guitar and drums based "praise" has started in earnest, as the thought it would attract younger people back to church has failed miserably. They are now fund raising in earnest to have the organ back in its rightful place as the instrument to lead worship. The C of E as usual drags its feet in these matters, but it won't be long before we see the trend happening here I don't doubt!

Crying babies for me aren't a problem - it's the mewling spawn that so called 'enlightened' parents think should be allowed to wander up and down the aisles, crying, chatting, screaming or playing with toys, with no regard whatsoever to the sensitivities of other parishioners who want to listen to the music . If they can't respect the msic how can they understand what God's saying?

Wouldn't surprise me about that as even the recession's affecting the USA, but I've not seen anything on their website to the contrary! Similarly, there's nothing on the Casavant Frere website to suggest they're not in a position to fulfill their contract for the West End Organ! I'm uber curious as to what the final plan for the organ is - we're not even getting a taste of what the final specification will be! Dear Lord - it's the middle of summer yet I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas! LOL

Lordy! I remember this organ from my time in the choir there. A very strange set up indeed having a choir of cathedral ability in an evangelical church veering towards the "happy clappy" by the time I left. I always remember as a choir we processed to the stalls from the baptistry at the back of the church, where the organ was all but inaudible - the tuba was just about the only thing you could hear and full organ was incredibly muted! No wonder when you consider they crammed the instrument into the north transept with half the gallery cut away at the back. I can only imagine what it must have sounded like when it was in the west gallery and spoke down the nave! I seem to remember the harmonic flutes on the Solo being from the original Hill and still there. I also remember some very odd voices that appeared to have been added in the name of 'baroque-ising' the instrument (when they stripped it of anything 'romantic' and relegated it to the Solo, namely the clarinet and strings/celeste), the Rohr Quintade of which immediately comes to mind, which was so coarse and 'breathy' that it defied description! The 12th harmonic was so pronounced that you really only needed to add the tierce and the 4ft and you virtually had a cornet separet. The only times I've heard such pronounced twelfths is from the 16ft bourdon's resulting from the hands of some rather artless voicers. There are some plus points though! The Posaune on the Great I seem to remember being very clear and quite free in tone - which was a lovely foil to the Tuba Mirabilis, and the 32 Sub Bourdon, which had an incredible presence considering how it was in the area of the organ where the flower ladies though nothing of using it as a notice board, and even using the mouths of the pipes as extra shelving! Amazing how some of those pipes spoke when they were full of Pledge and dusters, but then this is the fate of many an organ I fear.......

I remember listening to him play on numerous occaisions - a consumate master. The choir I sang with used to deputise at Hereford, and what a joy it was to sing there with him in control - I have to say he was head and shoulders above most people when it came to pointing psalms - just had THE knack!

I feel I have to take issue with this! Due to the poor status organists and organs are now being given in the present "happy clappy" way of worship, it's a very sorry state of affairs for an ex-organist now priest to have a go at the people who supply the backing for worship every Sunday. These people are there doing what they love every Sunday, without any financial gain, unlike the clergy, who unlike the rest of us don't have to pay council tax! All well and good complaining about choir members not paying attention to the sermons, but perhaps if the preacher was an interesting one then there would be less "fiddling" in the stalls, cantoris or decani, never mind the empty nave in front that the churches are complaining about these days. Church musicians are never accorded the status they're due half the time anyway - just look at the majority of church websites - very rarely is there mention of the organ, and if they even mention the organist or choir master, then they appear after the flower arrangers if at all! (Many apologies to all flower arrangers! You do a valuable job!)

I remember playing the (now) defunct organ in Holy Trinity, Coventry way back in the 80's, and it had an Unda Maris on the Solo Organ, and that was a flute celeste - makes a change from some of the the more usual "stringent" celestes we hear by more modern builders these days

I've always had a fondness for the Milton organ in Tewkesbury Abbey, looking quite delicious now on its new raised gallery! There's also an exquisite little gem of a Georgian case in the now redundant church of Saint John the Baptist in Lancaster - which reminds me - let's not forget the newly restored Waring & Gillow case in the Ashton Hall in Lancaster!

I feel I have to agree! There IS a place for our wonderful tubas - CS Lang and Mr Cocker would be rolling in their graves at all of this! Can anyone seriously imagine "I was Glad" opened by a chamade reed with all the presence of a high pressure kazoo? It just wouldn't work! Just the same as a Willis Corno di Bassetto would no more pass for a cromorne or krummhorn in early French or German music. Each stop has its place according to the era and tastes that the music composed for it allows - and even calls for. Mr Hollins specified an Orchestral Trumpet for his (in)famous minuette after all, which also makes purists cringe. I have to admit that over the years some of our tubas have hardly been musical, but wouldn't you if you hadn't recieved a bit of regulation after a couple of decades? I can cite the incredible Tuba Mirabilis at York for one - I have recordings of it where almost each note is of different tone and power. These seem to be what "purists" decry these stops for at times, but they also seem to be the same people who glory in the dissonance of historically "un touched" reeds of some Iberian organs solely because of their age never mind their musical ability. Hill developed the most wonderful high pressure reeds we have so much to be thankful for, that characteristic "yell" those reeds have! Willis built on this, giving us a sound more akin to something from a furnace - they almost crackle! As for Lewis - just listen to Southwark Cathedral - as far as I know even Willis didn't tamper too much with this leaving us another reed to be proud of! I'm an Englishman and I love my tubas! They have a place in our wonderful musical heritage - I'm also a musician who loves chamade reeds and all their fire and power when they are voiced and used properly and sensitively - but above all, I admire the organist who recognises the value of these stops and uses them with the discretion and with due defference to the music in which such reeds are called for.

Great job orchestral music transcribes over to the organ better than the other way round!

I suggest that as not all victims of the Holocaust were Jews!