JohnR

Sam Cam recorded on a SamCam.

I think anything ethereal and slow on the Celestes plus a 32' flue makes good chill out music in my book. Seriously though, the group 'Art of Noise' did an album called 'The Seduction of Claude Debussy'. It's includes all sorts of pop and classical influences. Some of the tracks have quite a wide appeal. It includes the voice of John Hurt in places and any orchstral backing is played by a real orchestra for the album (and arranged by Anne Dudley).

There have been cases where an organ has been 'thrown out' and then been lovingly restored in another church nearby. Members of the organs original home have heard the restored instrument and wondered what on earth they have done. John R

Jean Martin lives only 4 miles from where I was bought up although I didn't realise till I moved to another part of the country! I once went to a church concert of hers. She was clearly a good player on the Yamaha instrument but played a few pieces on the church organ which would have given one a different opinion if the whole concert had been on that. Widor's 5th Symphony Toccata wasn't really played according to the score and it had a section missing - almost turning into a different piece for a few moments. John R

Sorry, I tried to post a link to another site but couldn't get it to work. I don't know how to close the thread. John R

I quite agree. I know of two places where Nigel Ogden at one and Carlo Curley at the other were booked for opening recitals almost as soon as dismantlng work had started on the respective organs. The same builder carried out both projects but has now, quite understandably, made a point of asking churches to refrain from arranging concerts so soon into the project. John R

The Cakewalk series of music software is very good value for money at £45 for the version I have. It tends to be orientated at the pop market and includes all sorts of things you wont need which can be more of a distraction. However, it's still good for score work and also has good midi facilities so copes with our pipe organ well if needed. John R

Ah someone else who also liked that! I nearly thought it was only me who was captured by it as no one else I know even remembered it. Some lovely harmony and gentle discordant effects I thought - very ethereal. I don't know any of his organ music but may do soon! John R

The technology is already in place to allow commentary and background music to be removed by the viewer especially as most programmes are now made with multi-channel digital soundtracks. It's just a matter of the broadcasters allowing the viewers to be able to use the technology so that a 'colour' button can control sound options on programmes. I thought the commentary wasn't too bad this time. In fact there were a few occassions when I was expecting some and they kept quiet!

There'd be some mileage in just rebuilding it as the original two manual (without the later non-matching third manual division) either there or in a new home. I'm seriously considering making a bid especially as it's an A&S. Issac Abbott was certainly a good voicer and he also had a young James Binns working with him from 1873-1880. Regarding electronic installations I'm getting rather worried about the number of installations of the same model by a certain American manufacturer in churches near me. The usual format seems to be to plonk the speakers on the pipe organ swell box, leave the cabling draped anywhere inside the organ (including on the great pipework) and not bothering to fasten the cable anywhere between the two instruments. I wonder if the loose cable is an attempt to make them classify as non-installations so the DAC isn't contacted? John R

A Kindle would be useful for the Hymn 'Oh Thou Who Camest From Above'. I'm thinking of the line 'Kindle a flame of sacred love....' Anyway I'm really writng this post because I remember a TV programme in the late 70s called 'It's Patanetly Obvious' in hich various gadgets were shown on the programme and a team of clever people (pre celebrity TV) had to try and work out what they were for. They once had a device for turning over pages on a music desk. It had various levers, springs and catches and one had to blow onto a flap to turn the next page. It could cope with several pages. John

It depends on the number of stops on the instrument needing it and what extra facilities you may wish to have. There are four or so manufacturers in the UK. I shouldn't advertise here but please pm me if you'd like advice and/or a price. John

Or perhaps they're a gemshorn or spitzflute with very long feet.

When I see the stop 'Basset Horn' on a certain Compton organ I always think of a Basset Hound. Echo Gamba has me thinking of Gammon which I don't particularly like. John

I used to play a hammond organ in a church. As with the pipe organs I play it was rather older than me. It had a special starting arrangement for the tone generator motor. On one occassion I managed to accidently have it running at half speed so everything sounded extremly dull and I didn't know why until later. Obviously it was an octave down in pitch. John

The organ at St. James Icklingham in Suffolk (builder - Bedwell I think) is awful to play and quite unrewarding soundwise. The manual to pedalboard distance is far too great and the pedalboard is too far back. This makes it quite uncomfortable to play regardless of one's height and if or not the blocks for the stall are in place. John

..the interesting thing being that either their version of 'Theme One' or the original BBC one, or both, have a real pipe organ at the beginning before the other instruments come in. John

St. Mary's church in Mildenhall in Suffolk had an already too small Willis organ (considering the huge size of the church) moved from it's nave position and crammed into one of the North chancel arches. A wall was added many years ago between the vestry area and the North aisle so all the sound from the organ has to reach the nave via the front route. I note with interest that the Great soundboard has the C and C# sides swapped over which obviously happened when the instrument was moved. It was probably done to allow the soundboard to overhang the console by having the chest pull downs torwards the back of the organ. John R

In a school situation I think the verstility of the organ is something worth emphasising. We had a second hand pipe organ at the High school I attended. While it was great to play organ music and religious music on it, many other things also got played to great effect such as suprisingly effective renditions of tracks by various pop and rock bands! It was a school after all, not a place of worship. The organ was installed in the school as a self help project (before I atteneded the school) and although the quality of most of the work wasn't professional it was that bad either, and at least the organ had found a home and got heard by many who had never heard a pipe organ before. All I can advise is that you ideally need someone on board who knows their was around a pipe organ even if they're not going to be doing much of the physical work. The rest of the team need to be enthusiastic and be able and willing to learn. No one needs to be good at everything as long as the required skills are present somewhere in the team. Issues such as pipes off speech and regulation could be dealt with professionally at a later stage. A fairly comprehensive (please excuse pun re schools) plan also needs to be drawn up. I hope this helps. John R

Lifting the new Mission Phrase will be the choir's weightlifting exercise. John R

Thanks Michael. I've emailed John K. Regards, John

Thank you David. I didn't know about Nicola and her work and paper so was very interested to hear about that. I'll contact John Kitchen as you suggest. Do you know which department he is in? Regards, John R

If there is a problem with the control system then recording from the MIDI interface may not record the symptom. This is because the problem could be occuring somewhere after the MIDI interface point in the chain of equipment. For example most MIDI interfacing takes place where the key and stop data are still separate, but the problem could be in or after the coupling processing. John R

Well that's a bit grating (GREATing, get it?). Ahem. J

I often wonder each year who is actually plaing on the Proms Last Night. The BBC never ever seem to mention who is playing, which is annoying. I realise it's probably not that technically difficult as the orchestra do all the fast fine detail, even I could do it (gulp), but all the same.... John R