Bristol Cathedral

[Contrabombarde]

On 27/02/2022 at 12:32, S_L said:

Your use of 'we' tells us that you have some input into the restoration at Bristol. Surely, I would have though that, seeing as a builder has been appointed and a date for the work to commence has been given, that a contract will have been signed which will encompass the restoration of the present action or starting afresh!  Is this not the case?

Absolutely not; I have never had any connection. I wondered out loud about the merits of restoring pneumatics, against a backdrop of surprise a full action restoration should be needed again only 30 years after the last one.

[Contrabombarde]

On 27/02/2022 at 14:25, MikeK said:

I seem to remember being told that when  the organ was worked on in 1990, a condition attached to a grant given by English Heritage(?) stipulated that the action was restored & not altered. I wonder if any such conditions have been attached to the proposed works?

There were a few minor tonal changes which must have been possible without changes to soundboards in that case. Do we know when the stop action was changed from TN to EP?

[Paul Walton]

20 minutes ago, Contrabombarde said:

There were a few minor tonal changes which must have been possible without changes to soundboards in that case. Do we know when the stop action was changed from TN to EP?

As part of the 1990 work. The Gt Fourniture was added on a clamp onto the higher pressure soundboard. The Ch Piccolo was fitted onto the existing soundboard. The new pedal stops (Trumpet 8, Fifteenth 4, top octave of Cello 8) are on new chests.

Paul

[S_L]

13 hours ago, Contrabombarde said:

Absolutely not; I have never had any connection. 

 

Apologies! It was your use of the word 'we' that made me think that!

 "or are we better off not trying to restore ageing pneumatics but starting afresh"

My mistake!

[DaveHarries]

Quick update on this. I was in Bristol Cathedral yesterday (Sunday 11th) and the electronic substitute was in use because an air reservoir failure (albeit fortunately not in mid-service) on Saturday 10th. I understand that H&H are to have a look at it during the coming week but was told on Sunday that there is hope of a temporary repair to get the pipe organ functioning again.

When the choristers for the service on Sunday 11th were practicing in the cathedral one of the reeds on the electronic was played and the sound seemed to cause some amusement among the choir.

Dave

[stewartt]

A superb instrument, without doubt. I did a visiting choir weekend there about ten years ago. I loved the organ but it kept going wrong - restoring a very temperamental pneumatic action design was surely not a sensible idea. I hope we'd know better nowadays.

[Martin Cooke]

I had the pleasure of hearing the Bristol organ this week - gosh, what HUGE 16fts on the pedal! Earlier in this thread there was a link to the proposed new scheme for the organ - we all discussed Quints and Clarion Mixtures etc. The link no longer works and I just wondered if anyone could revitalise it or, in some other way, bring it back to an available state, as it were. I guess I might be looking you, Dave, but glad of anyone's help. I see that the latest lunch hour recital poster announced that the organ will be off to Durham later this year. I am sure the result will be splendid - certainly a bit nearer for me than York, Canterbury or Norwich!