P DeVile

David Briggs is coming to St Mary's Saffron Walden this Friday to do a silent-screen improvisation to The 1925 Phantom of the Opera. http://www.stmaryssaffronwalden.org/2016/10/phantom-of-the-opera/ All are welcome! Peter

David Hill will be giving an organ recital in St Mary's Saffron Walden on 16th July at 19:30. It is to include music by Bach, Liszt, Howells and Dupre. Tickets are £10 (£5 under 18). Thanks Peter

David Dunnett is giving a recital in St Mary's Parish Church, Saffron Walden on Saturday 17th October starting at 20:00. All are welcome.

Re The Saffron Walden Chamade, I softened the rank from about Tenor C up about 20 years ago, not particularly due to being over-loud but because it improved the tone somewhat. A Tuba was never considered by Hill Norman and beard in the early 1970s - it wouldn't have worked with the tonal scheme. The 16ft half-length extension on the pedal is a truly revolting sound and is used very infrequently! Also we would love to have a proper 32ft Reed but despite being the largest church in Essex there is no room to house it! For those who can get to Saffron Walden we have evening organ recitals on 21st June (Jeremy Allen), 19th July (Oli King), 23rd August (Oliver Waterer) and 17th October (David Dunnett) all at 8.00 pm. We have also booked David Hill for 23rd July 2016 and David Briggs 14th October 2016. Peter

A CD recording was made in 1996 by OxRecs http://www.oxrecs.com/camb3.htm with 6 tracks from St John's and 4 from Kings. It is available on itunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-organs-of-cambridge-vol.-3/id464536897

I heard today of the passing of Frank Fowler after a short illness. Peter

[First part edited by moderator] David Wyld has breathed new life into a virtually dead firm. They are doing well, building British organs. That is important. P

Absolutely. It upset me greatly to give up on it. The big problem was always that one or two people in the Town Hall got enthusiastic about restoring the organ, then after a year or so moved on so nothing ever happened. Meanwhile the heating got to it more and more (The Moot Hall is on the second floor). Peter

I have just had the new recording of the organ at the Royal Albert Hall delivered and it is absolutely wonderful. Thomas Trotter is at his finest, playing proper Town Hall stuff: http://www.regent-records.co.uk/product_details_215.htm The organ sounds spot on, thanks to Michael Broadway's excellent talents Peter

Definitely contact an organ builder to move it. He should have insurance to move it and saves you the stress! Peter

Very kind, I'm sure Tony..... except that I always tuned in July or August!!!! P

This is something that I bore everyone stiff about, but they take no notice.......In the last two days I have had 2 records broken for coldest tunings yet. Yesterday I tuned an organ when the church was 2.5c and today I tuned one that was at 1.8c. Thank the lord that there were no reeds! Total waste of time urging the clery or anyone who'll listen to put some heating on, because they just laugh. P

I used to hold keys occasionally for Stan when I was a trainee with HNB. A very clever tuner, who was able to make even the most dire instrument sound musical. When I knew him, he lived in a flat in Putney and used to earn a few extra bob in the evenings playing his electronic organ in the pubs. He retired to an old folks place in Witley. I expect the incumbent at the Dome - Douglas Reeve was peeved, because Stan was such a good light organist. Douglas was very 'protective' of his style and the sound and really didn't like anyone else playing the Dome organ. Stan probably filled in every so often for Bill Mears, who looked after the Organ at the Dome. I also used to hold keys occasionally there for Bill, who use to set the scale on the Solo Clarinet! P

This instrument was briefly mentioned in a thread 4 years ago: http://www.mander-organs.com/discussion/in...dover&st=20 It was originally a Norman and Beard with fairly heavy Hope-Jones leanings! P

Jean-Baptiste Dupont is playing at St Lawrence Jewry tomorrow (1st June) at 13.00. If he is anything like he was here at Saffron Walden on Saturday you are in for a treat! Peter

Dear All, I would like to draw your attention to an organ recital that is taking place on Saturday 29th May at 7.30 in St. Mary's Parish Church, Saffron Walden. It is to be given by the winner of last year's St. Alban's International Organ Festival - Jean-Baptiste Dupont. His programme will include: Franz Liszt Fantasia and Fugue on B.A.C.H. Robert Schumann Studien für den Pedalflügel Max Reger Wachet Auf Admission on the door is £6 and Students are free. There is also a big screen. Peter

I am sorry that you think that anyone that works for him/herself is a bodge artist who cuts corners. A good many organ builders who are self-employed are doing so because they have been trained by the larger firms, but simply cannot afford to live on the wages these firms offer. I worked for a large organ building company for 21 years and then went self-employed - not through choice, simply that the firm ceased trading. In an increasingly diminishing trade none of us can afford to do bodge-jobs, because it affects not only our livelihood, but the organs that we work on - i.e. they get to a stage that they are not restorable and thus are scrapped in favour of electronic piles of junk or, if you are very wealthy, foreign piles of junk. I look after 180 organs - 40 for another company. They are all very important to me as instruments and get looked after as such. One instrument that I care for was built 2 years ago by a foreign firm and is very good. A British organ building company built exactly the same sized instrument recently for half the cost and is much much better. Also, what 'important contracts' are you meaning? I call Worcester Cathedral's new organ an important contract by Ken Tickell and St Peter's, St Albans by Manders a stunning musical instrument. Who are they suppose to go to then? Marsian organ-builders? Peter De Vile

It was introduced from the beginning up to Bethlehem Peter

Yesterday's Times article did say the purchase of a new organ..... see here: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle6845461.ece Peter

There is the ex- Gaumont East Finchley Compton, which was in The Plough Great Munden and now in store fairly near to me. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=H00678 Peter

This week's online service from St. John's Cambridge has the Shostakovitch Passacaglia as the concluding voluntary. http://www.sjcchoir.co.uk/default.php?page...&webcast=51 Peter

Saffron Walden Parish Church. Saturday 18th July 7.30 John Pryer. Peter

The old Bath Abbey organ had the Swell organ amplified, because it was behind the arch - the great being in front. The acoustic of the chamber was such that the swell was just behind the great, so a microphone and amp to headphones was installed so that the organist could hear the organ properly. I look after a wonderful Willis organ in Mildenhall Parish Church, which is buried in the south side of the chancel. It is a vast church and the only way for it to get out is to have microphones hanging over the great and swell so it can actually be heard. Peter

Thanks Vox, I didn't realise Peter

I discovered this by chance. Spotify is an online 'jukebox' which has a huge amount of music which you can listen to. I typed in 'organ' and was amazed at the amount of material there. It is flash based, so is protected from being downloaded illegally. http://www.spotify.com/en/ Opt for the free one and you will have to put up with one or two ads. Peter