Philip J Wells

This stopped 8 is usually a Gedackt which is OK for Bach, but how often does a small organ have a Stopped Diapason which is what is needed for the authentic performance of Handel? PJW

More details are now available: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/bramall/learning-spaces/organ.aspx PJW

There have been certain times during my life as a listener when I have longed for the correct tonal resources for a particular peice of music, and this includes an unequal temperament. A Cathedral organ is all about compromise; do you tailor the sounds etc to cope with the accompanyment of a small portion of choral music from a small time period or do you aim for something able to cover a wider time period. The organist did their very best but I could not bear to listen to the re-broadcast of this and had to turn it off when the concluding voluntary was begining. PJW

I do hope that the limed oak organ case will be retained. It is unfortunate that the recent book on Stephen Dykes Bower fails to specifically mention this little known gem in its List of Works, only noting: 1954-83 Guild Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire; Extensive restoration, refurnishing and redecoration. PJW

My memory may be quite wrong but do I remember the name in connection with the GDB organ at New College Oxford in the late 1960's early 1970's at perhaps the same time as Paul Trepte, Andrew Teague and Paul Hale were there? PJW

There is a black and white 28 minute documentary produced by the John Compton Organ Company exploring the manufacture of the Compton Theatre Organ filmed at the Chase Road works in the 1930's. I think it might have been intended for show at an exhibition of some sort. It has been converted to DVD and I picked up a copy on ebay a while ago. There is no reason to assume anything else went on elsewhere and it shows: the Carrillon tower of the factory, the engineering shop, winding coils, engraving stop keys, bakelite moulding, casting pipe metal, making pipes (looked like a string pipe), voicing reeds, the console area, soundboard area, leathering a single rise regulator, electrone discs being engraved and tested.etc. There are lots of people and it looks cramped which is not to say they did not buy stuff in but they look equiped to do everything in house (but blower manufacture was not mentioned). PJW

MM, I can only quote selected bits from Ian Bell's article as follows. He has 'a leaflet of 1929 showing a stack of seven differing cubes, which incidentally are not to be confused with later polyphones - often described quite wrongly as Compton 32' cubes'. ... The real cube worked on the ocarina principle. A sealed plywood or block-board box was made, with a small mouth on one side, which produced the lowest note required. A succession of holes, spaced out along the opposite side of the cube, were opened one after the other to raise the pitch a semitone at a time. Each cube would produce 5 or 6 notes, though the later ones were pressed into producing 8. ... Cubes would not work properly in Swell boxes. ... The 16' cubes were overtaken in the 1920's by biphonic Bourdon, in which each pipe produces 2 notes, thereby extracting a complete octave from 6 pipes. ... The polyphone works on the principle of a conventional large-scale stoppered pipe speaking BBB, which becomes deeper in pitch as a succession of additional sealed chambers on its face are opened, adding to its internal capacity.' ... Hope that helps a bit more. PJW

Apparently Reginald Walker brought the details of the Haskelled bass back from the USA when the patent ran out around 1930 and shared them with Compton. Ian Bell believes that some of the very first are at Downside Abbey. Compton also used Kegellade ventil soundboards (Ian Bell). Cube basses did not last for long once Clifford Hawtin had perfected the 32' polyphone (Ian Bell). NB BIOS Journal 23, p52-75; Ian Bell's article 'A survey of the work of John Compton (1874-1957). PJW

I know this was mentioned but I can't remember if this page from the internet for the Midgley-Walker pipeless organ has been posted before. http://www.georgesix...brids/page5.htm PJW

I was interested to see that from their website: 'Jardine’s were the first British organ builders to design and build an organ specifically for the cinema to accompany silent films'. PJW

And can we have the embossed pipes back please? AG Hill provides six example illustrations in his 1891 book on what they (all or some?) looked like. Sir George Gilbert Scott writing in 1879 said that 'It is however vexatious that, in renewing the pipes of the choir-organ which were decayed, they have not reproduced the embossed patterns. I fear now they will never do it.' I expected that Willis might have got rid of them in his 1891 rebuilt and enlarged organ but given the date it seems that Speechley may have been responsible for this in 1877 and this is suggested in Betty Matthews little book from the early 1960's(?).

According to BB Edmonds, Brindley and Foster patented a system of duplexing and extension which they called 'metechotic' and their detractors 'metechaotic' but does not give a date. JR Knott in his B&F book quotes Patent11586 from 1889 and I think this is where Edmonds got his information. PJW

I note the following contact given in the NPOR 'Notes for Contributors': For comments about software and internet presentation only contact: Dr. M.D. Sayers ( e-Mail: mds11@cam.ac.uk) PJW

That is interesting Tony as the NPOR announcement (below) makes no mention of the temporary nature of the move. "The NPOR returns to Cambridge (January 2013) BIOS are very grateful to the RCM for hosting the NPOR service since December 2008. It had been hoped that BIOS and the RCM would develop the NPOR jointly and that it would play a part in the learning resources of the RCM but this has not happened. The NPOR service will therefore return to Emmanuel College Cambridge in January 2013." PJW

Just one point......was your reference to "Midley Walker" a typo, or was this the actual name? Sorry; a typo since corrected. PJW

The Elvin Compton chapter relates: Elvin had letters he had preserved from Compton. I wonder if he deposited them in an archive? About 1914 AH Midgley made the acquaintance of John Compton. Musical Opinion sept 1938 has an article by Midgley's son on his father's work. Bruce Buchanan then archivist at JW Walker lent Elvin material on Midgley's experiments. Whether they were in his own or Walker ownership he does not say. Compton and Midgley parted in 1937. Musical Times March (1937) has an advert for Midgley-Walker Pipeless organ. Musical Opinion sept 1939 has an advert for Midgley Electronic Instruments Ltd. PJW

Ancestry may be available for free as part of the membership of your local library. There is info on Midgley in the Elvin section on Compton in his book 'Pipes and Actions'. Ian Bell gives the year of Compton's birth in his BIOS article and Elvin gives the place in his Compton info (but, I agree,primary sources are the best of course). PJW

The BIOS guide to grants, although written for historic organs, may also contain information which may be relevant: http://www.bios.org.uk/cgi-bin/downloads/biosgran.pdf PJW

Just to add to the debate: http://www.standard.co.uk/arts/music/model-musician-organist-cameron-carpenter-is-shaking-things-up-8083996.html PJW

John Sayer on this forum is the most likely to provide an answer to this one, and no doubt will in due course. However, in the meantime I could be wrong but Ripon had a costly electronic with a good console and the stop list etc I think was exactly the same as the H&H pipe organ console. When the electronic got past its sell by date I think the Nave console was refurbished by H&H and connected up to the main organ, so that would account for their name on it. I wait to be corrected!

I was actually thinking about one UK organ spec which has been copied complete with still pictures (and also has added music clips from elsewhere) from the UK National Pipe Organ Register.

A useful site it might be, but a shame the owners of copyright are not identified (unless I missed it)!

Health Warning. MM is right to question this. I have learnt that the author of the book may well have mis-interpreted facts, possibly taken from the NPOR. When I was at school I thought that anything written a book must be true. Life has taught me nothing! PJW

I blame the rise (and hopefully the fall) of facebook which has encouraged us to only write "one liners". Twitter of course is worse so I'm told. Many of the people on here seem to also have facebook acounts where they can accept a telephone directory number of friends which they can't keep in contact with and rarely reply to their posts. There is an interesting article in the Saturday Telegraph today about facebook and how 8 out of 10 British profiles are false in some way and that 2/3 had written a status as a call for attention! None of that applies here. Of course it could be that given some of the problems ex members on this valued site had, those left don't now wish to be controversial, although there is certainly a level of collective responsibility which has been exercised in the past by members. I have recently had a salutory lesson in that something I had written in good faith quoting from a new book in order to show its scope and some of its content has been questioned. The author apparently has confused facts. I did not spot/know this so it has made me a bit reluctant to contribute to such an educated discussion board.

Two West Tofts/ South Pickenham questions: 1. Is there a CD/ DVD recording of this instrument? (A Google search failed to find one but perhaps I used the wrong search terms or it features as part of a composite recording). 2. Freeman (on page 24 of his "English Organ Cases" book of 1921) notes that the centre pipe in the upper portion of the case is embossed but the only pictures I have seen are not sufficiently detailed to show this feature. Can anyone confirm this please and/or direct me to a suitable picture? Thanks PJW