Michael Cox

I cannot agree over the 1970s alterations to the Ely Cathedral organ. If one reads pre- World War II issues of The Organ one can easily guage the high esteem this instrument had amongst prominent organ writers and historians. After raving about it for decades Cecil Clutton along with Arthur Wills took steps to obliterate its unique symphonic character. What was so continental about it after the rebuild? When I heard it in 1987 at the IAO Congress it just sounded loud and brash- that's not romantic french!! Supressing such unique Arthur Harrison colours such as the Horn Quint will not be judged kindly with time. Wills had an undulant rank created by retuning a existing 8'- what's 'continental' about that. Pierre- there are numerous recordings of authentic historic and historical English instruments of many periods. Jennifer Bate has a series of such recordings out at the moment, John Kitchen has recorded Victorian repertoire of late and if you want an Edwardian thrill try Hyperions recording by the wonderful Christopher Herrick on our own stupendous 1906 Norman & Beard concert organ of Wellington Town Hall. Christopher has recorded a great deal of English music of all periods. It will be an very interesting exercise to see what the reported Goll organ destined for the RCO gives to English organ styles.

Thanks for that! No you are not weird, just practical. I see from the playing tips in Church Music Quarterly (Anne Marsden Thomas) that the heal/toe approach dies hard. That's fine. Most builders diverge somewhat in their dimensions. I had a lesson from Catherine Ennis at Marleybone shortly after the new organ was insalled in 1987. I loved it then but would like to return to assess it now. We have an excellent Rieger here in NZ at Christchurch Town Hall and a new two manual in another Christchurch church. Both are very good indeed.

I'm always amused when I read of the hankerings for the old Gloucester Cathedral organ. Supporters of the former instrument have been vocal on this topic for over 25 years. Perhaps its a reflection on the 'happier' times in English Church music when players of the likes of Sumsion ruled the loft. To me Gloucester is an important reform instrument in 20th century English organbuilding. On a different note surely if a better solution can be initiated for the Willis organ at St David's Cathedral in Wales then a better solution can ensure for Canterbury. Likewise I was so pleased to read in an IBO journal of the vandalistic indiscretions perpetrated at Ely Cathedral in the 70's having been reversed. In my opinion time will not judge Cecil Clutton's practical organ building consultancy that advisedly. Some other instruments which we might look at bringing back to 'how things should be' would be Lemare's Walker organ at St Margaret's Westminster, the Willis at Carlisle Cathedral, the Lewis at Ripon Cathedral and sundry parish church situations. One of NZ's most disastrous 'reform' cathedral organ rebuils is such a electronic, not to mention tonal, embarrasement after a mere 24 years that major recitals have become too risky. It seems that chamade trumpets, 2' based Positive divisions, German principals alongside older English Diapasons, pile driving 32 Bombardes etc. have used their useby date most dramatically. Amen to that!

I agree totally with you Mark. The pyschological feeling/condition of playing any musical instrument is very important. I always feel that playing a preserved Victorian or Edwardian instrument that is unmolested allows one a unique experience into a past sound world or culture and therefore a deeper understanding of the literature. I think this is one of the central issues why many are trying to re-discover the "Bach organ' concept and while there is such strong interest currently in the little known instruments of Eastern Germany. Also, the historical archetype is the dominant force in world organ building. Take the instruments of Paul Fritts in Seattle, Washington State. He is always working in a North-German aesthetic as the principle goal but is not afraid to occasionally allow a more modern element or two in. I get this feeling when I have listened to the Grosvenor Chapel organ in London. I think Bill Drake is a marvellous creator of antiquity yet still allowing his instruments to be creative and versatile for several other repertoires within the principal stylistic limitation. I believe stylistic limitation is a key issue to success in any pipe organ. Peter Williams captured it all so abley when he coined the phrase 'the future of the organ lies in the past'. One element of this is preserving the best (and sometimes even the mediocre) of the past for the future.

I must say that I am impressed by the quality of discussion that my initial comments have created. I would take task with nfortin however, that the needs of parish church music take precedence over preservation issues. As a parish church musician in one of the last parish choral establishments in this country I'll happily swap my detached console, 35 stop knobs, numerous pistons & couplers, 45% degree stop jams, balanced electric action swell pedal etc. any day for a pristine Victorian console of archaic style if I could have the musical integrity and sounds that go with it!! In Australia it is salient to watch several bright young stars with technique to burn get around kick swell pedals and pistonless consoles and make seamless and fine music. And they seem to play the right repertoire to match the instrument. Young student organists there seem to seek posts which offer such instruments. I well remember John Stiller (now deceased), the Research Officer to the Organ Historical Trust of Australia prepare a performance of Liszt's BACH Prelude and Fugue on a fine 1888 William Hill & Son Organ in Wellington that once resided in the Kentish Town Congregational Church, London. When wanting a registration change for a passage he merely depressed the next Swell composition pedal; out came Open Diapason 8, Stopped Diapason 8 and Principal 4. "Perfect", he exclaimed and played the next section. As he was German trained, doesn't that tell us something. Alot of blame can be laid at the feet of the RSCM/Anglican Organist mentality that claims service playing must be a highly coloured and orchestrated artform. For my money a parish organist that crys poverty on not having technology to serve him or her in accompanying Darke in F or a unison eucharist setting by Martin How (let alone Psalms) once a week shouldn't be the musician there in the first place. As for organ advisors, I am aware that in Germany at least they are required to have specific training. Imagine Harold Vogel as an English consultant! Perhaps the good people of York whether as musicians, organ advisors, or builders could explain the rationale behind their actions. That would make for an interesting forum.

Well stated John and I am quite aware that Manders have led the way. Does not the IBO enforce restoration guidelines that accredited members must adhere to? Are there guidelines as to altering playing technology? Such a course of action would not be tolerated in Australia though to be frank the guidelines of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia went out the window when Schantz did their transmogification of the Hill, Norman & Beard concert organ of Melbourne Town Hall. New Zealand more or less meticously restored our Dunedin Town Hall version! I understand Manders has been shortlisted along with Klais and Harrisons for proposals for the severely organ reformed 1911 Norman & Beard concert organ of Auckland Town Hall. I await further news with great interest.

Thank you Mark That was one of the points I wished to be noted. If the highly expertise like Roth and Herrick can do it with period instruments that can be controlled in a 'period' fashion then we could train an entire new generation in this way. This would challenge what I consider to be some current narrow thinking.

I wonder what discussion board participants feel about the state of organ preservation in the United Kingdom at the present time? I have recently received the August 2004 issue of Organists Review and several items concern me. While we read of a redundant Willis III organ receiving new life and love at Sutton Coldfield and the wonderful 1861 Walker organ in Tansor near Oundle (an instrument I have personally happily experienced) receiving an historic restoration by Bower and Company, I note other instruments receiving far lesser sympathetic treatment. Take an advert of Principal Pipe Organs of York for instance. At St Olave's Church in York they have succeeded in adding high upperwork quite of out 1907 period character to the J.W. Walker organ as well as Choir mutations and an unenclosed diapason chorus. The justification it seems is to "develop and expand the instruments tonal choruses" and blend in "additional colours to match the musical needs". Whose musical needs one may ask- the organists, the Vestry, the church community? Such statements speak of a dated reform philosophy that seeks to justify stylistic difference upon an integral entity. Was this not an organ that several years ago Nicholas Kynaston justified as having a mechanical overhaul without tonal change? The other situation of concern was an advertisement for a project for Ashton Town Hall in Lancashire. Here it is deemed fitting to suggest elaborate digital control systems upon a 1909 4 manual Norman & Beard Concert Organ. Can someone please advocate an audacious return to period registrational control with exhaust-pnuematic playing technology, brass thumb pistons and pedal toe levers? An excellent role model (1906 Norman & Beard 4 man & ped. exhaust pnuematic) can be found here in New Zealand at Wellington Town Hall where our own South Island Organ Company undertook an historical restoration in 1986. Despite some suggestions to the contrary the original 5 thumb pistons to Great, Swell & Choir and toe lever registration system were left intact. Seasoned and highly professional concert organists such as Carlo Curley, Hayko Siemens, Christopher Herrick and Robert Costin have recorded or played there (plus many, many others) and have never uttered a word of complaint about the lack of registrational control, and this is a 57 stop 4 manual organ. Have we gone too far in the disease of consoleitis, playing systems and over registration? Do we really care about preserving or even recreating a number of period instruments and teaching future generations the way of playing them for which they were built?

H-J was no genuine organ-builder, rather an outsider who carried new ideas. I don't think I quite agree with this statement- he was trained as an electrical engineer and a telephone technician but he was also an active organist who saw the application of current technology to a centuries old craft. The electronic organ systems we so gladly rave about today in mechanical action organ installations can be linked to him. Let's go back to Hill. -Quint mixtures? Really? Absolutely. Look at the spec of Sydney Town Hall. All the Great Mixtures are quints. AG Hill had a huge knowledge of continental styles and like others before him was firmly influenced by organs in Amsterdam and Haarlem with their rich flue choruses. His swell mixtures often had a tierce rank in the tenor octave but this was a hangover of the 18th Century English organ. Hill's contemporaries stuck to Quint mixtures too. Henry Willis CHANGED that fashion. The firm of Hill remained conservative. I believe there is not a great diiference to the application of the Fonds/anches concept of the English and French late romantic organ. A Full Swell works best against static (unenclosed) 16-8-4 Great Diapasons. Even with my own organ here in Auckland the 1977 neo-Baroque reeds work well with the older romantic Great registers in this way as long as the box is not fully opened. This kind of registrational practice is very common in high Victorian/Edwardian repertoire. And it was how people were taught to register throughtout the 1920s & 30's. Reeds such as a Swell Oboe came on early in piston schemes. Look at how often French composers ask for Hautbois with Recit fonds. Back to Hill, I found this page that shows how fast the ideas evolve today. It's about a 1913 Hill in Melbourne, disfigured in 1960, but with a quite happy end in 1996. Refreshing! Yes- I know this work. We do similiar things in NZ like this too. The builder was Peter Jewkes- a very good chap who has a substantial awareness of such aesthetics. He is now working on some wonderful projects with our own South Island Organ Company of Timaru. There's an excellent article on this organ in a Sydney Organ Journal of around 2000. Send me a fax number through my email and I'll send it to you.

I appreciate your thinking Pierre. If you and other readers want to find out more about Robert Hope-Jones and the instruments still extant by him in England (not to mention his considerable influence elsewhere) then consult the writings of Dr Christopher Kent, past articles in the English Organists' Review and a publication of his work by a chap called Fox which is available through the Organ Historical Society of America. There is plenty of opportunity to preserve Hope-Jones and Hope-Jones influenced organs elsewhere than a few ranks at Worcester. Stephen Bicknell makes some fine points in his wonderful book on English organ history as well. It amuses me how people rant on about the Harrison & Harrison pipework but forget about the William Hill & Son material which is still extant- which I would of thought was more historically valuable. As Christopher Kent has pointed out it was the Hill organs (Transept & Choir) for which the Elgar Sonata was composed. The specifications are in Hopkins and Rimbault and we would rejoice at such schemes today with Posuane reeds, abundant quint mixtures, liquid flutes etc. Many English commentators are so obsessed with the 'full swell sound' that they forget that any reasonable builder can create this using the acoustical reflection of stone walls and cathedral ambience. By the way the instruments of Eustache Ingram utilise Hope-Jones ideals. It was Ingram's sacking for his untoward personal activities that caused a hasty migration to America. Hope-Jones also had a real influenced on Norman & Beard for a period and their Diaphonic Diapasons and massive Opens on Great divisions around 1905-1914 are partly due to him. We must applaud Robert Hope-Jones in the same regard as we hold the creator of the Titanic, in a period of history where extreme technical achievement outstripped previous aesthetical beauty.

Of one thing I am certain. The Willis/Wesley pedalboard has not been one of English organ building's most enduring gifts to organ performance. Observe a continental pedal board in a romantic German organ by Sauer. Flat and straight. Now play romantic repertoire on it and you will see how effortessly one can play the pedal parts of Reger, Rheinberger, Karg Elert etc with complete comfort. Apply that also to the English Victorians and the Edwardian repertoire. Historical performance practice on the appropriate instruments will tell you most about playing the pedals and inform you alot better than the tutors of Trevor or CH Phillips. Am I the only one to apply continental pedalling techniques to English romantic music because this 'turning of the feet' is so physically uncomfortable for a bigger proportioned person? It was salient to see an very tall Danish organist try to adjust to a concave and radiating pedalboard here in New Zealand. He moved the seat back almost to the rear extremity of the pedalboard! Remember-North German/Thuringian pedal boards differed too. Explore the instruments, explore the repertoire and apply a common sense and comfortable technique. Your pedalling will improve and you'll stop feeling guilty of not observing all those heal/toe and angled ankle signs!!

I would suggest that the Hope-Jonesophiles will be massing over this. But isn't the new organ scheme just a logical progression of the ongoing organ history of this and so many other Cathedrals. We of the early twenty-first century seem to forget our organ history all too readily and claim that only the instruments of our own time should be preserved or jealously guarded. It is acceptable that if an organ in its total is not satisfactory for its current task no matter how good some components are then it should be given up for the greater good. The opportunity for Worcester Cathedral to take a lead and install two new purpose built English instruments is to be applauded. Finally I think some commentators are a little blinkered in there understanding of what really makes a 'Howells organ' if there ever were such a thing. Even an AG Hill instrument such as that at Sydney Town Hall is not right for him! Best wishes from a Kiwi down under.