DouglasCorr

...... and don't forget the Pablo Lights! -essential if your concentration should wonder........

I remember a Ravel's Bolero where there most clearly appeared to be two snare drummers - one on the platform and a phantom drummer somewhere in the roof!! It was dreadful really....

You fellows aren't talking about real toasters! Around 1975 I bought an unwanted electronic organ from St Marks Middleton Square London. This had an oscillator for every note and covered a range of seven octaves - it had over 90 valves! A peep in the inside looked like a furnace! When it was on in my kitchen (!) it beat any toaster and heated the room up to a tropical temperature. PS I only used one of the two speakers which were the size of wheely bins

I recently sold a large upright piano using eBay. To my dismay the buyers said they would move it themselves. It hadn't occurred to me that anyone would be so foolish. I asked them if they realised how heavy it was - no they hadn't - it's over 200 kilo I told them and they asked how heavy was that!! I explained it was the weight of 10 full suitcases - and that they should have a lorry with a tail lift and a heavy duty trolley..... Anyway I made them sign an agreement that removal was at their own risk and they were responsible for any damage.. If you sell an instrument on eBay I recommend specifying a bit more than "Buyer collects"

Although it was twenty years ago myself and a friend went around looking at small electronic organs. We found the chief problem was that although many of them sounded very realistic - they were simulating the type of English parish chuch sound that neither of us would want to play on. The only company that produced an organ suitable for organ music was Johannus Johannus organs. My friend duly bought one - and it still works fine after 20 years pounding (give or take a few maintenance visits to clean contacts) - so I would start there. PS I think that the Compton Makin organs are now manufactured by Johannus to Compton Makin specifications.

Must be like golf clubs - which music needs a wedge ...?

It's actually laid out (for convenience) as a pedal line in the Dupre Edition - one wouldn't want to argue that that's not a sensible plan.

I’ve had the Delvalleé L'Orgue Mystique complete set since Christmas 05, but haven’t got to the end yet – I too listen most of the time in the car – and I bought low noise tyres to help! I find that – apart from the Sorties- it has an amazing calming effect.

You would like it even more now. The restored organ has a completed Plein-jeu IV , whose pipes were previously missing. The former gold front pipes have been toned down with dignified brown and green foliage designs. Lots of pictures and specification here Farnborough Abbey PS To Justadad Barry Quote Hi Douglas Thanks for the notice. Lawrence, his mum and I went. Lovely venue, wonderful organ, great recital. All in all, a beautiful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Best wishes barry It was a superb afternoon and with an improvisation. I hope you also managed to visit the Abbey Shop – packed with plainsong manuals and CDs, not to mention Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Authorised Version… ) available off the shelf!!!

Thanks - my mistake

Maybe I have a bad memory - when I went to the Jennifer Bate recital at Godalming - after the organ had been restored about 18 mths ago - I seem to remember that an electronic 32 pedal reed had been included - and the Vox Humana was announced as to be installed shortly - I thought that this too would be electronic. I used to practice there between 1973 and 1980 so I should have been paying more than a casual interest.

Along with the equipment Mutin would have got the patterns and craftsmen, which would go a long way to carry on with the Cavaille Coll style of instrument. But the organ at Farnborough Abbey was delivered in 1906 - and was not new - I think this was mentioned in an old posting. (I knew someone would say it is a Mutin not Cavaille Coll!) Anway it certainly sounds like a Cavaille Coll, and is more effective than instruments three times the size - you should go to the next recital!

This would be the great advantage then of an electronic one - and I understand that in combination organs it is possible to fix the electronic voices to stay in tune with the pipework. In fact I think someone else previously said that obviously a considerable saving on tuning fees would be obtained if all the reeds were electronic.

I think it is an electronic one however.

Thanks - I was unlucky not to hear it.

It's not a delusion of grandure, it's sales. It happens everywhere and not worth getting upset about. From rubbish soap powders that claim to do everything. To people's CVs - academic and technical CVs are full of lists of publications where a large number are just trivial variations of the same subject. To company capabilites - when I know the technical background I can see that you need to divide the stated capabilites by two or three. The only thing to be upset about are the occasions when inexperienced evaluators are duped by the descriptions and select an inferior offering above something better, but not packaged so well.

The St Albans site says that the finalists for the improvisation contest were David Franke and Jean-Baptiste Dupont who according to the souvenir programme were 26 and 27 respectively so they may not have got in the requisite 15 years. In the programme it provides a two page audience guide on factors that are important in the interpretation competition. Perhaps it would be a good idea to provide something similar for the improvisation contest - so that it could be better appreciated. I think it was highly commendable and brave progamming that about 70 % of the music in the 2005 series of 6 recitals at Farnborough Abbey was improvised on plainsong chants sung by the Abbey monks. And this is a good point to mention that the magnificent Cavaille Coll organ at the Abbey can be heard this Sunday at 3:00 pm Farnborough Abbey in a concert of romantic French music - although there is no improvisation. Saint Sulpice in Hampshire.....

Wow .. I'll run my anti virus right away....

Thanks for that - interesting specification - but probably too loud for the player with the mixture and upper work. Similar comments have been made on the Message Board before - that you really don't want anything higher than 2 ft for a house organ. Even though Lady Jeans study was enormous - for the player the pipes are right in front of you. At home my 2 ft has only tiny holes in the pipe feet for the air - and it's loud enough. It's still a puzzel why I never heard it played on about the 8 occassions when I was there. That's why I wondered if any one heard it played.

Thanks - I was just curious! PS I'm sure MM will explain to me the etymology of avatar

How do you get the photos to work? And what is an Avatar and how does that work??

Thanks for that - I've just found a picture of the organ Organ is at thumbnail 4 It looks more exciting than I remembered - specification anyone?

Lady Susi Jeans had a small neo baroque organ in her study at Cleveland Lodge, Boxhill, that was installed in the 1930s. As a school boy I cheekily invited myself to see it on the pretext that it was only about 14 miles walk from our school's summer camp... She most kindly allowed my visit and showed me the organ (but didn't play it) and said I could play on the larger organ that belonged to Sir James in her concert room. Twenty or so years later I went to several of the Boxhill Festival meetings/concerts held at Cleveland Lodge - where her colleagues, students, and musicologist friends made interesting presentations and recitals. But the small organ was never played. I wondered if anyone ever head it and what it sounded like? Why wasn't it used? What has happened to it now? I understand that the RSCM is no longer at Cleveland Lodge, and the house is to be or is being converted for residential use.

Another year on and I'm not really happy - I now realise the fundamental problem is that the toes are too rounded making playing adjacent notes on the sharps difficult (as you can't slide back or forward as on the naturals). So I'm going to have to go through all this business again... A secondary issue - for older people! - its not just the shoes- I think one looses strength and flexibility - and need to regularly revisit pedal scales and exercises (e.g. ARS ORGANI II & III) or maybe I shouldn't have ever stopped doing them - I don't know if others have this problem (or care to mention it!)?

He was obviously groping for a connection between tidal and lunar phases.