Plea for basic help!

[Nic DAVIDSON PORTER]

Please, could any kind soul tell me if Mr. Elvin included "Nelson of Durham" in his Harrison & Harrison book? It may seem an odd Q., but as about half of his "North Country Organ Builders" seems devoted to Cousans of... Lincoln, I ask the question, all the same! 

If Nelson was off his radar, I shan't bother local library or university about that particular book... 

Happy Easter to all! 

[DQB123]

I have my copy of The Harrison Story open and there is a mention of a "Nelson" on page 243 (second edition revised and enlarged).  It says, "We know so little of the Rochdale era, but in the early 1870s the names of Nelson, Mitchell, Pinder, Robinson and Summerscales appear on the wages list; those of Pinder and Summerscales certainly worked at Rochdale and possibly Nelson too."  And that seems to be it for Nelson (if in fact it is the same person).

[Nic DAVIDSON PORTER]

Thanks very much for that... I feared as much! It was kind of you to check the index. According to NPOR, Nelson of Durham seems to have been quite prolific; it seems v likely he WAS an ex-Harrison staffer. I think I read that somewhere else... 

[Contrabombarde]

There's a gorgeous 2+P Nelson at St Helen's Bishop Auckland. Coffins completely restored it with mechanical action and prepared for tierce mixture 15 years ago. Lovely thing, I played it a few weeks ago.

[John Furse]

9 hours ago, Contrabombarde said:

There's a gorgeous 2+P Nelson at St Helen's Bishop Auckland. 

On NPOR as West Auckland: NPOR | E01563.

A curiously low roof.

[Colin Pykett]

@Nic DAVIDSON PORTER

There's an interesting snippet or two in the following link, which you might have come across yourself:

https://allsoulsorgan.com/2015/02/17/more-research/

The comment on the same page from Ms Garnsworthy might be helpful as well.

NPOR has some basic info if you do an organ builder search for Nelson.  As you said yourself, searching for addresses turns up a lot of hits, though I haven't combed through them all by any means.  I might take this opportunity to say, though, that the recent revamp of NPOR has made it much easier and slicker to search, and the presentation of results is second to none.  Unless one wishes to contribute, for a free resource it's pretty impressive.  Personally I think it deserves to be behind a paywall, though I understand BIOS is constrained by its charitable status from doing anything which might inhibit 'outreach'.

The family firm seems to have been one of the many smaller organ builders from that general era (mid-19th to mid-20th centuries) who were prolific in their region, and about whom there might be a lot of information in the possession of diverse people, yet it doesn't seem to have been gathered together and made accessible in one place.  It's frustrating when one comes across this sort of situation.  So this post is not very helpful I'm afraid. 

[Nic DAVIDSON PORTER]

Thank you VERY much to CB, JF, and Dr. P for the additional info! I have  the enthusiasm, but alas! not the musical-practical knowledge to investigate further and write a "handbook" on the matter. Having looked through NPOR, I have a huge (pot-belly?!) gut feeling that this firm merits some SERIOUS research. I am a dreamer, but hopefully, one day... 

An aside to Dr. P... A year or three back, you very kindly transmitted a piece or two by Harvey Grace to me (I was hoping to do a "complete" recording...) ; if anyone is interested, Damin Spritzer has devoted an entire CD to Dr. Grace, on the Lewis organ of Albion Church. I hope she does more! 

[Colin Pykett]

18 hours ago, Nic DAVIDSON PORTER said:

 A year or three back, you very kindly transmitted a piece or two by Harvey Grace to me (I was hoping to do a "complete" recording...) ; if anyone is interested, Damin Spritzer has devoted an entire CD to Dr. Grace, on the Lewis organ of Albion Church. I hope she does more! 

Yes, I remember that correspondence - it was his 'Minuet and Musette'.  One of those pieces that look deceptively simple at first glance but require a fair bit more practice in reality than one might think (at least, for mortals of my finite abilities).  Thank you for the info about Damin Spritzer's CD which I was unaware of.  Amazon are currently doing an mp3 version for a few £ which will be a nice way to spend some of my gift card balance (they don't seem to offer the CD itself at present).  However I don't think it includes the piece just mentioned.

Having made the purchase and done a quick appraisal of the tracks, I thought the 'Reverie on the hymn tune "University"' was quite beautiful.  If I had to describe it succinctly I'd say it was almost Thalben-Ball-esque.  But there's a lot more on the disc which would no doubt be equally attractive in a church setting, such as the 'In-Voluntary' and several candidates for postludes, such as 'Epilogue'.  But as I hinted above, while much of it sounds straightforward and direct to the listener, I wouldn't be surprised if it's rather a challenge to bring off successfully.  Damin Spritzer's technique is well up to it though, and the Albion organ is an inspired match to the music and its era.  Some of the pieces are on IMSLP.