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Because that was written in 1969.

Better than before 1950?

 

Pierre

 

Lawrence Phelps - you mean the organ builder who threw away this:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N04089

 

in order to build this:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N04090

 

Hmmm.... having never heard the previous instrument, I cannot make an informed judgement. However, I cannot help but wonder whether he did the right thing....

 

But Sean, think of the enjoyment your playing brings. All that lovely Christmas music, all those happy people.

 

Mmmm....

 

:)

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Lawrence Phelps - you mean the organ builder who threw away this:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N04089

 

in order to build this:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N04090

 

Hmmm.... having never heard the previous instrument, I cannot make an informed judgement. However, I cannot help but wonder whether he did the right thing....

 

The history of organ building is littered with people who junked old instruments for their own. Hope-Jones (at Worcester) largely junked what was there (before) for his own pipe work. Is it a good or bad thing? That largely depends on your point of view? Some loved the Hope-Jones, others hated it.

 

:)

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Lawrence Phelps - you mean the organ builder who threw away this:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N04089

 

in order to build this:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N04090

 

Hmmm.... having never heard the previous instrument, I cannot make an informed judgement. However, I cannot help but wonder whether he did the right thing....

Mmmm....

 

:)

 

Well, there are a lot of those about. Still. And in any case that's what he was paid to do, wasn't it?

 

And the Phelps organ sounds very sixties, but it's not an ugly organ by any means - I don't think. Stands up well against your average Hradetzky or whatever. But it doesn't sound like an HNB, that is certain.

 

It's like tearing down a mud hut to build a glass one, and then wondering whether mud wasn't better after all. But if you got the mud back again, you might miss the light.

 

Cheers

B

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The history of organ building is littered with people who junked old instruments for their own. Hope-Jones (at Worcester) largely junked what was there (before) for his own pipe work. Is it a good or bad thing? That largely depends on your point of view? Some loved the Hope-Jones, others hated it.

 

:)

 

indeed - Father Willis, Wm Hill, Arthur Harrison, T C Lewis - all must have smashed up some decent instruments in order to provide their own, and yet they're now revered. I suppose it was less prevalant in an era where building new churches and town halls was commonplace.

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indeed - Father Willis, Wm Hill, Arthur Harrison, T C Lewis - all must have smashed up some decent instruments in order to provide their own, and yet they're now revered. I suppose it was less prevalant in an era where building new churches and town halls was commonplace.

 

Where it’s nice is when an old instrument ends up largely unaltered in a new location. St James the Great in Barrow is one such example, the organ there was formally at the Chapel Royal of the same name. To me, at least, this is better than the wholesale destruction of a perfectly good instrument. But then, Life goes on.

 

:)

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Guest Roffensis
Met Henry Willis 4 once.

He was a nice bloke.

I'll get my coat.

 

I have also met Wiilis 4 a number of times. I personally found him to have a caustic wit, very dry humour. I got on with him very well indeed. He was conservative with such organs as Canterbury, St.Georges Hall, and St. Pauls Cathedral. I honestly still believe that he was our finest reed voicer.

 

I would also add that we owe to him the organs at both St Pauls, and St. Georges Hall, which he literally brought back from the dead. The same applies to Alexandra Palace, nor would he have tinkered with Liverpool Cathedral. I am certain he would not have altered Canterbury and that if he had been given the contract for that job in the late 70s he was would have restored it with a capital R. We'd have still had the old solo, choir, and the wonderful Willis console. We would also have had the correct wind pressures which have been tinkered with at various places. What a shame things happen the way they sometimes do. He knew perfection when he heard it. In 1969 he restored Canterbury to the 1949 spec, and he restored SGH to the 1931. For both, I take my hat off to him.

 

R

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