Colin Harvey

Just had a look at the 2nd spec - 1864 Walker organ, tonally unaltered. I'd have thought this was a quite a gem and no way could be described as a "horrid little organ" as described in Alastair's note. I must be honest, I don't know this instrument but the 1858 Walker in South Stoneham, Southampton is a beautiful little instrument and there are plenty more Walker organs I can wax lyrical about all day.... But 1860s Walkers probably weren't that fashionable 30 years ago...

No, you've got it right 1st time. I quite liked the idea of the spec of this organ - it is a refreshing change from the typical church organ - but the implementation left a lot to be desired. To be honest, I never found the 4' pedal reed that helpful in a church service and would have given a lot for some well voiced foundation stops. Neither the spec or voicing helped towards playing romantic music and it wasn't really suitable for anything written after 1850, or, for that matter, accompanying a congregation (probably something to do in the spec of a lack of a decent chorus based on an 8' principal - a 4' and 2' based chorus on each manual was pretty useless in practice). But it was nice to have something completly different and quite experiemental in rather dull grey Southampton. In fact, looking at the spec, with its curious mixture of French, German and English (viz. 8' Salicional) nomenclature and heavily detacted E-P action, bit difficult to say what it was really intended to do...

Was the the church of the immaculate contraception on Portswood Road? when I was there, they heated it 24/7 during the winter. Lovely and cosy in early Feb. I think I've nominiated that organ as one of the worst I've ever played and during my time there suggested they might like to replace it and found them a lovely 3 manual Hill, which I thought would be quite nice for them in the west gallery. But they wanted to spend less than the bare minimum to keep that ghastly thing staggering on and - incredulously - wanted to keep the organist downstairs at the front, too. So, as far as I'm concerned, they deserve that pile of sh... pipes? ... in the west gallery.

I've just worked this out!! This is extremely bad and you will think me an extreme geek for working this out... It was originally a normal straight, flat 32 pedalboard from CC to g - if you look at the groupings of the keys beyond the fronts, you'll see there's the normal collection of 5-7-5-7-5-3 keys, with spaces between the naturals between the groupings of accidentals.... ...but the notes have been re-arranged to cover a different compass - AA to e, by the looks of things, simply by re-arranging the keys in the pedalboard frame! I really hope that most mainstream Frech organbuilding is better than this - this is ever so slightly more crude than my old church organ I got rid of built by Richard Boston...

oh right. Does an organ need a 16' swell reed and a 32' pedal reed to have some real guts? I had no idea... a horizontal solo trumpet never does it, of course. And of course, if you have a 16' bourdon then you simply must quint it and create a 32' Harmonic bass!!! Why do some people just not bother!?! I must have my organ altered immediately to have these features! I can't remember the 32 flue at Adrian's church. I remember the pile-driver 32' quite vividly and rather liked it. I hope it's in better health now. Fine organ, though.

Florence Foster-Perkins syndrome definately strikes in Mit Mir...

Is that Peartree? Yes - I like that stop!

Well, I had a similar experience - not 72 stops but still a glorious 30 stop 3 manual Walker in a superb acoustic, a stone's throw from my house which I could walk into and play any time, day or night. And yes, I know how lucky I was, even if it was frigging cold at 10pm on a february evening. I have an electronic organ - a 2 manual Viscount and I find it simply invaluable, both for practising and recreation. It's great to have a simulation of an organ that can do anything and I wouldn't be without it. But I can't quite understand one of my friends who has just bought a massive 4 decker drawstop toaster for around 20 grand to replace his old (still digital but worn out) 2 manual Wyvern. Yes, it does everything about three times over but I know I would have spent the money differently, especially when I learnt he does 75% of his practice on the swell 8' flute... it just seemed like a tasteless waste of money to me, more to do with stroking an ego and letting it live in cloud cuckoo land than in the land of the living.

I saw the following letter to the editor in The Times this morning (10 Apr): (Acknowledging the Times's rights on this) I trust that the legal exemption mentioned is not the tempory measure the IBO see as a rather unattractive impermanent measure but I hope that the IBO and DTI are working together well to clarify the issue.

Blimey. Difficult question. I love the e minor prelude and fugue BWV 548 - that's probably no.1 for me right now - but i also love 540, 542, 543, 546, 547, 552, 537, 538, 568... Much as I like 564 (T, A & F), I don't think it's the greatest he wrote. I must be honest, I find Orgelbuchlein austere - there's a lot about death in those chorale preludes. In small does, it's wonderful but I can't listen to it from beginning to end. I do love Clavierubung III right now. Just fabulous, especially Wir Glauben, Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, Jesu christus unser heiland, the duetti (strange but wonderful gems) and, of course, the prelude and fugue. BTW, I've just found the Bach Gessellschaft for CU III on the internet at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/sco...42/cov2001.html. If you don't already ahve the Dover Facsimile, here you go...

yes. Whether it is knight upright or a steinway grand - so little between them...

Indeed, yes, on all counts. One question people have with me is how the Government intends to enforce this rule and who would take action against organbuilders for installing pipe organs.

Hi Chris, NFortin's advice is very good - I'd stick to dynamics and which bits to solo out (bear in mind solos are played on a separate manual by another hand so watch how the texture is spread out) and some general indications of tone - find a friendly organist who can demostrate the different tones. The other thing is to indicate when pedals are to be used. Pedals normally sound an octave below the notated note, at 16' pitch. usually the thing to do is to indicate when they are to be used - with a bigger sound - and when they are not to be used, usually in relation to changes of volume and texture.

I guess there would also want to be an exemption for lead in conveyancing and pneumatic tubing as well as organ pipes. But I get the impression that organbuilders don't have a problem with lead-free electrical components in their organs in future. I spoke to a friend who runs an electrical company. He doesn't like the new solder they have to use to comply with the new legislation but it's clearly not the showstopper that it is to the organbuilding industry.

Not very much, I suspect!! The action can be quientened by overhauling it - noise is no argument to get rid of it. Old consoles are worth keeping - especially if the oran is near original condition - I would be loathe to throw it out just because the organist wants more buttons. The only stop list changes are as you suggest - re-instate the swell bourdon, exchange an undulant for the larigot. I would also think about returning the oboe to 8' pitch if you've now got a swell flue double. Without knowing the provenance or period of the organ and what it's like mechanically or tonally, difficult to comment further... the spec looks basically fine, it could be a lovely organ or it could be a monster. I'd also ask the questions: does it do everything it's supposed to or does it struggle accompanying the congregation or choir? Is it a viable organ mechanically? If it's good provenance or simply capable, there's no reason to do more than the bare minimum to keep it running. It might just be that the incumbent organist just wants to have a bigger, better organ. In which case, I'd arrange a visit for him to his dream organ, give him the telephone number if he wants to return, let him get it out of his system and he'll then be much happier with the church organ at his disposal. There's potential here to spend a lot of money and create an expensive and nasty monster. I would advise caution and moderation.

You should do a degree in theology - and I mean that in the most positive light.

I believe the site has been created by Doug Levey, of the IBO, and that this is an IBO led initiative. I notice that hand blown, entirely mechanical action organs are exempt. So perhaps we'll have to go to completely mechnical, hand-blown organs in the future. Our organ is to be installed later this year - probably over 1st July. While it is mechanical key and stop action, the simple fact it has an electric blower means it will be illegal to install it. This has been a 4 year project for me, we've spent 2 years raising the £250,000 for it, it's involved massive commitment from the local community, all for this issue to appear 4 months before installation. Had we known, I'd have asked for feeder bellows to be added to the double rise reservoir... it did come up in passing but we didn't consider it too seriously.

Hi Brian, Thanks for your note. The best I can find is the following document to implement the directive: http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/...tionpartiii.pdf All the published documentation can be found from here: http://www.pipes4organs.org/directiveDocs.html It appears to be in a consultation stage at present.

I was thinking about a letter to The Times myself. This could potentially be a big problem for our church, as our organ (by H&H) is likely to be installed in June/July/August this year. It would be a good story of EU against the real world: Local community raises £0.25M just to have the project outlawed at the very last minute by new EU regulations, etc. There's a nice human element to it, too. Papers like The Mail would love it, too. Thankfully, we've got just the right sort of people who could write an excellent letter in the parish and who could also have good media contacts.

I've just been informed by my organbuilder that new EU Directives, which come into force on 1st July 2006, could ban the construction and installation of pipe organs. More information can be found at www.pipes4organs.org Please would you all contact your MPs and join the protest movement.

I'll write an answer for you this evening- rather busy today! If you want to talk further about fundraising, etc, I could email you...

The money thing is always a bit chicken and egg. I think 1 is a very dangerous question because you could end up limiting yourself to a tiny budget which may not be that useful (or very useful, depending - I've seen some truely mad proposals that thankfully never made it due to lack of money). I think the best approach is to decide what the options are and then decide on the best philosophy to take to the project. As a case in point, my organ project started out with an initial ballpark of about £30,000 to fix the soundboards and sort out the pedal organ. We looked at the options, got better professional advice and let the church decide what they wanted to do (after some excellent communication and presentation of the options). The project eventually evolved into providing a new organ (heavily influenced by a historical style), roof repairs over the chancel and organ and the budget is now over £300,000.

I don't agree. People won't understand what the tierce is there for and I don't think a tierce by itself, unsuported with no nazard or quint but with 8,4,2 principals is a particularly nice solo sound. In that case, it's a problem with placement and grafting some upperwork on top of some light flutes is not going to solve it. It's just going to sound anorexic, like so many 1970s choirs organs that suffered this type of baroquisation. I've played organs with the type of chorus you suggest, voiced by eminent people in the 50s and 70s and it simply didn't work but I've played very similar choir organs to the one I propose and they are much more satisfactory and useful. It won't balence against full Great but it's never going to in any case. I agree with VH and PCND that you want the oboe to blend with the foundations on its own manual and I'd far rather have a 8 oboe over a 16' pedal reed, however much I like pedal reeds... PCND: Early english stopped diapasons are generally voiced quick and dull and tend to cough when put on EP action. So it's usually necessary to do a bit of re-setting of speech, with deeper nicks, possibly altering the extremely delicately judged flues (which are cut out of the cap). It's a very delicate operation and far better to keep them on mechanical action if at all possible. But I'm glad yours works and sounds nice (it has probably has been altered, though), although I wouldn't sanction it on old pipes if at all possible. I'd get a new "Stopped diapason" or one that was originally on pnematic or ep action.

the diapasons would need revoicing for EP action - and if it's a proper early stopped diapason, a very bad thing to do - you could too easily rob it of all its character. or periods..... I think this is a good scheme. I agree with PCND on his 2 points - Great Tierce really should have a 2 2/3 first. I would have a 12th. I think what you're suggesting is just a bit too offbeat. Have the Swell reed at 8' pitch. You can do the full swell thing with octave couplers off this easily - it would work well for that and it's so much more useful to have it fit in with the 8' swell foundations - you just don't have that option with 16' reeds unless you have a taste for thick mud... You would have to put the Great mixture on the 4' flute slide - I don't know whether it would fit. You might also have a problem with a full compass 12th on the dulciana slide. I would be less inclined to develop the choir organ too much vertically. I would probably change it to Choir (unenclosed) Lieblich Gedackt 8 Keraulophon 8 Suabe Flute 4 Piccolo 2 (on old Dulciana slide) Clarinet 8 (TC) So only one alteration. This gives - to me - a better balence between upperwork and more 8' options for romantic music and fits better with the bias of the instrument. Just thinking about it, you might have space on the grid of the swell soundboard to put a mixture (starting at 2' pitch, probably) on in the place of the proposed 2'. Just an idea.

Umm, there's really far too little information here to give it any valid thought. Does the organ do the job it's supposed to? Is it mechanically in a good, sustainable state of repair? Is it an effective musical instrument? Without more history and background of its provenance it's really not possible to give any advice. The swell organ strikes me as tiny for a 3 manual instrument, though.