nfortin

And I think you'll also find that its the only medieval cathedral nave not built until 1868.

Yes, I meant to say that in my earlier post, I'm sure it was Tony Cawston and was remedial maintenance work rather than a full blown restoration or rebuild. I too find the action poor at the cathedral, we've discussed this before on these discussion boards, its just about impossible to get all of the divisions to speak together, but tonally it remains a gem albeit not the most versatile or eclectic of instruments.

I'm a little bemused by the modern trend to specify a flageolet as the only 2' stop on a swell organ. I always assume a flageolet to be a flute rather than a principal, and given the absence of a 4' flute it seems a strange choice in preference to either a fifteenth or possibly a gemshorn. Whats the thinking here?

I too much prefer the cathedral. Its far more comfortable and easy to play apart from anything else. Managing the two swell pedals at SMR takes a bit of getting used to, and the console layout, particularly with regard to the spacing of the expression pedals and the toe pistons, is distinctly odd. SMR is also somewhat overpowering at the console.

Yes, I think thats part of my objection to the things really, even if it does seem that I'm in a minority. It strikes me as a somewhat lazy method of registration.

I think, in all fairness, that I've consistently agreed that a good pipe organ is always preferable to its digital counterpart (but a bad one may not be). I just don't think the value of a GC pedal can sensibly be disucssed by comparing it to a digital organ. I'm happy to accept that, clearly, some people find GCs useful. Personally I still dislike the things and would urge all organ builders to ensure that there should always be a switch at the console to disable the thing if you don't want to run the risk of engaging it accidentally.

Sorry David, but I'm not sure what the issue of GCs has to do with toasters. I've played "The Spirit of The Lord" many times, indeed I've accompanied complete "organ only" performances of Apostles, Gerontius, Kingdom, King Olaf and indeed most of the Elgar choral works, and conceive no possible reason for wishing to use a general crescendo. Surely by their very nature you lose all control of which stop are being drawn - and this I would never wish to do.

It is easy to pontificate on what should have been done but believe me often when a contract depends on the whims and fancies of organists who play for a hobby, not a living and amateur organ advisors well paid in some other profession (at least now we have some professionals available) using their hobby as a egotistical power base life, could be very difficult keeping the workforce busy. This is a bit rich. I was DOM at St. Michael's, Bishops Stortford for around 2 years c1984. The organ was (and presumably still is) a pleasant though unexciting 3m last restored by Walkers in the 1940's. At the time that I knew it it the electro-pneumatic action was very unreliable and hence a further overhaul was urgently required. I believed that the organ deserved attention from the top builders of the day. Its regular tuning and maintenance was performed by Bishops, who were invited to quote, as were HNB and H&H. Bishops quoted free of charge (indeed I believe John Budgen took me out for lunch), HNB required an up-front payment of (from memory) £100 for Frank Fowler to come out, H&H required agreement in principal for £150 for Mark Venning. These fees were agreed and the HNB fee was paid in advance. In the event Frank Fowler did not grace us with his presence, the local tuning rep turned out. We received no refund or explanation for this. He was in the church for about an hour and a half having no previous or immediate familiarity with the instrument. By contrast Mark Venning arrived and spent all day in church, in fact the vicar had to give him a key to let himself out after normal locking up time as he hadn't finished. I don't believe we ever received a bill for Mark Venning's visit even though H&H did not receive the contract. One of the problems with the organ was that both swell and great speak into the chancel and are of limited effect in the nave. I felt that there was an opportunity to develop the choir, which in part spoke west into the south aisle, but stressed to each of the three builders that I was a provincial organist, not an organ designer, and that it was up to them to advise and offer recommendations. In the case of both H&H and Bishops this worked well. Our experience of HNB however was far less satisfactory. We had great difficulty getting a report out of them at all, and then the local rep kept ringing me up and asking "now what was it you said you want". No matter how many times I replied "No, you're the organ builder, we want your recommendations and advice" this message simply was not welcome, effectively their response was always "just tell me what you want the report to say".

Does anyone genuinely believe there is any musical use or value in a general crescendo pedal. Surely the best thing is to send them all to the scrap heap (or to where Oscar Wilde believed bad americans go when they die) where they belong.

You're quite correct, I meant "Dog's dinner" or whatever, the other expression being as you rightly suggest a positive affirmation which was not what I had in mind. I would agree that the specification seems largely germanic, but the original description, and I quote:- "As a school we want our pupils to be able to hear North German principal choruses, French classical Cornets and Cromornes, the French symphonic swell, the warmth, sonorities and scale of the great British tradition" still strikes me as somewhat confused. I know I'm hopelessly old-fashioned, perhaps thats why I can't see the place for a "Principal Celestes" on a great organ and regard this as step in the direction of american taste and surely not typical of English, German or French style.

Am I alone in thinking that this looks like a real dog's b*****ks, an over indulgent specification in shear number of stops and a hopeless mish-mash of style, in fact all of the things that those of us who have commission toasters are accused of elsewhere. Are you sure our late lamented american correspondent was not the consultant on this job?

That reminds me of the delightful "God of concrete and of steel" which I'd (happily) quite forgotten. As I recall one line ends in ("and of atom bomb"). Not a personal favourite.

The use of oblique references to Worcester started as a response to certain other contributers suggesting that Worcester shouldn't be mentioned any more. In itself I think this is harmless humour. A number of us, myself certainly included, very much regretted the decision to scrap the old organ and questioned the reasons for doing so. I think we've all moved on now, as its clearly a lost cause, and wish the extraordinary project to replace one organ with three every success. I'm sure everyone involved in the project, including Mr Lucas, will have expected a degree of controversy and must have been prepared for this. If any of my comments on the earlier Worcester thread can be interpretted as personal attacks then I apologise unreservedly for this. I know that Adrian Lucas's work at Worcester is highly regarded by those who work with him and am very glad to hear that the reports of his departure have turned out to be incorrect.

My inside contact at Worcester Cathedral, one of only a handful of people to have had a piston channel reserved for their use on the old organ, had heard nothing of this when I saw him last night. Re. precedents, although not exactly similar, DB didn't hang around long at Gloucester having had the organ tarted up to his requirements.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten "Hail gladdening light" as set to excitingly by Stainer.

It was fairly easy to deduce your name from the list of Romsey recitalists, then a Google search on your name plus 'UK organist' listed your website.

Actually I rather like that one. Top of my miss parade are probably:- - One more step along the world I go. (One chord per line and no modulation is not my idea of a good tune.) - Make me a channel of thy peace. (I have this old-fashioned idea that the number of syllables should fit the number of notes available.)

Ah, pcnd, at last you've satisfied my curiosity and let the cat out of the bag regarding your identity. As a result I've just been perusing your excellent web site. Super photos!

I believe that the remarkable church at Great Whitley, Worcestershire, claims to have an interior in which Handel played the organ. However it wasn't the same organ and the interior was not even part of the same building at the time. Anyone who has played the present Nicholson organ in this church will know that:- a. its a very interesting machine b. its an absolute pig to play

I was asked to play "March of the women" by Dame Ethel Smythe last Sunday, but had to decline on the grounds that I don't know the piece and don't have a copy. Have I missed out on something? So I stuck with Guilmant March on a Theme by Handel (Lift up your hears) which is my standard fare for Christ the King.

My recollection, quite possibly wrong, is that it was the organ at nearby Berkley that suffered in this way

I'm sorry but this is patronising clap-trap. I can't think of a single decent, custom made digital organ - and in the course of my recent research I've tried a few - that matches this description. 6 or 7 countries represented in the stop list - come on, you're having a joke. Of course, some of the standard offerings from our atlantic allies have stop lists that are not to european tastes, but it is just not fair to consider the Copeman-Harts, Wyverns and Phoenixes of this world in the same bracket. Its also grossly unfair to suggest that all organists forced through circumstances down the digital path are obsessed with gimimics. For the new custom toaster in my own church the statement of requirement specifically excluded features that would not be present on pipe instruments. At the risk of offending Frank Fowler, whose contibutions on this board I very much value, I would suggest that if electronic cleverness was valued above tonal quality HNB would still be in business.

On my recent visit to Lichfield accesss to the organ loft was via a stone-built staircase within the north wall adjacent to the north transept. It stikes me now that this is somewhat unusual. Except for examples of stone-built pulpitum staircases (eg. Exeter) , what other examples are there of organ loft access built into the masonary of british catherdrals?

Sorry if this is abuse of the message board, but could you please get your clock in sync with the real world? Its quite disturbing (to a simple mind like mine) to see posts listed as "yesterday" that are in fact today, and also to see one's own posts listed in the future.

What a wonderful description. I don't know the St. Albans instrument so I can't comment on the accuracy of your judgement, but it would seem, to me, to be a highly evocative description of the abomination in my own local cathedral (Gloucester).