Marvellous New Case At Wimborne Minster

[AJJ]

Absolutely. I took OR for several decades, since a teenager myself, and was always fascinated by the variety of information in each issue, organ specifications fascinate me, as did much more, and to be fair the approach taken by the previous editors never seemed in the least bit amateur, just well informed and informative. In fact, I looked forward to it so much, as I knew I would have three good months of reading and re-reading the material, and then delving into past issues as the years go by. I took a few issues after the change, and still see it courtesy of a friend, and I am very disappointed. It really does no longer provide what I need, so I did not renew my subscription. And I won't until it returns to the better times of the past. I have to disagree with Paul, when he says it has dropped 20% (I know it has been very good to you over the years!), but I feel it has dropped to 20% of its original quality. I'm sure the current editors are doing a very professional job, but they have failed to connect with me, and that means I have no desire to read their magazine.

 

Jonathan

 

I have written this here before but I really, really do think that a certain choirmastering column in OR has run its course. The writer may have had an illustrious career but from a personal POV I find it all quite condescending!

 

AJJ

[pcnd5584]

I can only agree with the views expressed above. I have declined to renew both this subscription (to Organists' Review) and that for Choir & Organ. Whilst intending no slight to our American members here, I find the content of the latter to be far to U.S.-oriented. I would not suggest that organists here should be insular in outlook, but there is (in the current issue, for example) a great deal of space devoted to what I would term a standard large American organ. This is not something that interests me in the same proportion as the space allotted.

 

Of course one should be cognisant of developments in organ design (and music in general) in other countries, but (and obviously, I can only speak personally), I have no interest in very large schemes, with divisions scattered all over a building, controlled from a console which appears to be crammed with stops and pistons.

 

This is, I realise, a personal view - and a generalisation. There are many beautiful and interesting instruments in America. However, there have been a few fairly high-profile instruments in the U.K. which have received work in the last ten years and which have apparently not merited the attention of the editing panel of Choir & Organ.

[Vox Humana]

I have no interest in very large schemes, with divisions scattered all over a building, controlled from a console which appears to be crammed with stops and pistons.

The day I see an orchestral wind section blowing their instruments from the other end of the building through miles of tubing I might begin to regard such organs as musical instruments. Fewer gimmicks and more music, please.

[pcnd5584]

The day I see an orchestral wind section blowing their instruments from the other end of the building through miles of tubing I might begin to regard such organs as musical instruments. Fewer gimmicks and more music, please.

 

Well, quite.

 

There are, in addition, many instruments (in a variety of sizes) in our parish churches which would make interesting articles; and not just new organs, either.

 

Regarding the original point of this thread, I suppose that my e-mail which had attached the photographs of the Minster organ (which were requested by the editor of Organists' Review), must have gone astray. If this is the case, it does seem strange that I was not contacted again to see why, apparently, I had not sent them.

[Guest Barry Williams]

Well, quite.

 

There are, in addition, many instruments (in a variety of sizes) in our parish churches which would make interesting articles; and not just new organs, either.

 

Regarding the original point of this thread, I suppose that my e-mail which had attached the photographs of the Minster organ (which were requested by the editor of Organists' Review), must have gone astray. If this is the case, it does seem strange that I was not contacted again to see why, apparently, I had not sent them.

 

 

I get the impression that most of the glossy organ magazines are only interested in new tracker organs or instruments with 'historic spin'. Ordinary organs that are rebuilt to solve ordinary problems seem to attract little attention these days.

 

Barry Williams

[Jonathan Lane]

I get the impression that most of the glossy organ magazines are only interested in new tracker organs or instruments with 'historic spin'. Ordinary organs that are rebuilt to solve ordinary problems seem to attract little attention these days.

 

Barry Williams

 

I have to agree, and actually, it is often much more interesting to see how a less significant instrument is enabled to serve the church for longer, without being completely replaced by a new continentally voiced suspended tracker organ!

 

Jonathan

[Guest Barry Williams]

Thank you. I have an interesting account. A parish had to use its organ chamber because it was the only space available for a room. They wished to keep their pipe organ, so electrification and extension were the only option. (A box organ would not have met their needs.) It is a successful church organ. However, which magazine would take such an article in the present climate? In my view this project required more skill and judgement than building a new 'classically' voiced suspended action organ and is worthy of being written up, as it would have been forty years ago in The Organ or Musical Opinion.

 

Barry Williams

[Vox Humana]

Thank you. I have an interesting account. A parish had to use its organ chamber because it was the only space available for a room. They wished to keep their pipe organ, so electrification and extension were the only option. (A box organ would not have met their needs.) It is a successful church organ. However, which magazine would take such an article in the present climate? In my view this project required more skill and judgement than building a new 'classically' voiced suspended action organ and is worthy of being written up, as it would have been forty years ago in The Organ or Musical Opinion.

 

Barry Williams

You could well have a point there, Barry. A case has been cited recently on another thread where an almost identical solution was tried with unequivocably dire results. A toaster would have been preferable to the unmusical heap for which several thousand pounds were invoiced. I wouldn't mind betting that the latter scenario is met with much more frequently than your sucessful one. The trouble with such schemes is that they are so dependent on the builder. For all we know the organ I am thinking of might have an identical specification to yours. Yet one is good and the other is dire. Difficult to convey the difference in an article!

 

But of course there is no reason at all why a new tracker instrument should not be capable of solving ordinary problems and the intimacy of a good modern tracker action surely has to be better than any form of remote control.

[Vox Humana]

For all we know the organ I am thinking of might have an identical specification to yours. Yet one is good and the other is dire. Difficult to convey the difference in an article!

That was ineptly put. I should go to bed earlier. What I meant was that any article would have to concentrate on why the good organ is good, but that the fact that it has been electrified and extended could at best be only an incidental reason since an outwardly identical organ could just as easily be dire. But I agree it would be hard to interest a magazine in an organ like this, however good it is. This was not always the case. The old Organists' Review might have found room and I can remember the time when the Musical Times was happy to feature good multum in parvo organs.