Export To Ireland From Bristol

[AJJ]

'Came across this semi accidentally - does anyone know any more? It all looks interesting and the whole musical set up very commendable. The NPOR stoplist only has 2 manuals but the pictures have 3??

 

AJJ

[Tony Newnham]

'Came across this semi accidentally - does anyone know any more? It all looks interesting and the whole musical set up very commendable. The NPOR stoplist only has 2 manuals but the pictures have 3??

 

AJJ

 

Hi

 

A mystery indeed. My guess is that the stop list pre-dates the Vowles enlargement (the source is the Charles Drane notebooks whiwh don't have dates (and it's always possible that he missed out the choir) - or maybe the choir dept was "prepared for" or removed at some time. The 1995 date stems from the deleted duplicate survey, which was almost certainly a "mini-survey" with no great detail (I don't have time to chase it back in the archives).

 

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be enough info on the web site to resolve the issue.

 

Can I suggest that you e-mail the NPOR office and this will get added to the list and updated as far as possible when it reaches the top of the pile - at the very least we need to flag up the fqact that the organ has moved and at least note the discrepancy in number of manuals.

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

[AJJ]

Hi

 

A mystery indeed. My guess is that the stop list pre-dates the Vowles enlargement (the source is the Charles Drane notebooks whiwh don't have dates (and it's always possible that he missed out the choir) - or maybe the choir dept was "prepared for" or removed at some time. The 1995 date stems from the deleted duplicate survey, which was almost certainly a "mini-survey" with no great detail (I don't have time to chase it back in the archives).

 

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be enough info on the web site to resolve the issue.

 

Can I suggest that you e-mail the NPOR office and this will get added to the list and updated as far as possible when it reaches the top of the pile - at the very least we need to flag up the fqact that the organ has moved and at least note the discrepancy in number of manuals.

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

 

Thanks Tony - 'will do.

 

AJJ

[Guest Psalm 78 v.67]

In all my years in Bristol i never saw or played this one - does Vox Humana know anything?

[Vox Humana]

In all my years in Bristol i never saw or played this one - does Vox Humana know anything?

Not a lot. I only played it once - briefly. In those far-off days when the diocese kicked us all out of our city centre church they attempted to find us another church that would adopt us and allow us to sing choral Evensongs. St Michael-on-the-Mount was one of those suggested, so a few of the choir and I duly toddled over to assess the organ, acoustics, etc. Apart from the fact that we agreed this did not offer us anything like the environment we were used to, I'm afraid I can't really remember much about it. All I vaguely remember is an organ that was not bad, but not sufficiently "cathedral-like" compared with the HNB I was used to - thus not an ideal instrument for accompanying a choir. I was probably being quite fussy though and I suspect that many organists would be perfectly happy with it. I don't recall the Choir being a dumb manual. If it had been I would probably have remembered. I count 32 stops knobs in the console photo and there are more obscured - this would be a very large number if only two manuals were operative.

[Guest Psalm 78 v.67]

Not a lot. I only played it once - briefly. In those far-off days when the diocese kicked us all out of our city centre church they attempted to find us another church that would adopt us and allow us to sing choral Evensongs. St Michael-on-the-Mount was one of those suggested, so a few of the choir and I duly toddled over to assess the organ, acoustics, etc. Apart from the fact that we agreed this did not offer us anything like the environment we were used to, I'm afraid I can't really remember much about it. All I vaguely remember is an organ that was not bad, but not sufficiently "cathedral-like" compared with the HNB I was used to - thus not an ideal instrument for accompanying a choir. I was probably being quite fussy though and I suspect that many organists would be perfectly happy with it. I don't recall the Choir being a dumb manual. If it had been I would probably have remembered. I count 32 stops knobs in the console photo and there are more obscured - this would be a very large number if only two manuals were operative.

 

Do you know who the organist was then? Strange how I never knew anything about the church, despite being deputy at a church within a (long, uphill) stone's throw. At a later stage, the redoubtable Ron Apperley was there, he that enthusiast for all things musical in Bristol.

 

At a slight tangent, but continuing up St Michael's Hill, does anyone know if the Willis at Cotham parish Church (Highbury Chapel) is still going? Last I heard they were thinking of replacing it with a toaster....

[Vox Humana]

Sorry, No idea who the organist was. He probably didn't do much, if anything, on Sunday evenings since the churches floated to us were ones that could accommodate a choral Evensong without seriously disrupting the status quo. This was certainly the case at Cotham parish church where we eventually ended up. Not sure the organ there had much Willis left in it by the time Rushworth's and Daniels had finished with it? Nice organ though. When I knew it (c.1980) it had not long been rebuilt. Shame to think it might have been turned to toast.