The Organ Magazine

[pcnd5584]

Hi

Can I commend the latest issue of the magazine to members of the Board, it covers the new Drake organ in the OBE Chapel at St Pauls and also the Mander rebuild of Sacred Heart Wimbledon amongst other interesting articles. The magazine has developed well under its new Editorship, long may this continue.

Barrie

It is indeed interesting - although the standard of proof-reading appears to have slipped somewhat. In addition to various other errors, Carol Williams' article in particular could have done with careful revision. There were at least two places where the writing was so clumsy (including possible omitted words) that the intended meaning was immured in obfuscation; in addition, there was an obviously incorrect word ('exuberant', in context should surely read 'exorbitant').

It is a pity that such easily remedied mistakes were allowed to mar what is otherwise a worthwhile journal.

However, for its centenary, I for one would welcome all four editions being produced in the original format - including monochrome plates only.

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

I certainly wouldn't want the original format back - it would make shelving them difficult amidst the past several years that have been A4 - and anyway, the original covers were easily damaged!

Every Blessing

Tony

[pcnd5584]

Hi

I certainly wouldn't want the original format back - it would make shelving them difficult amidst the past several years that have been A4 - and anyway, the original covers were easily damaged!

Every Blessing

Tony

As I wrote, Tony - just four editions for the centenary year - not 'back' as in permanently.

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Even so, they'd look odd on the shelves!  It's bad enough having a mix of bound volumes and separate issues, as I have.

Every Blessing

Tony

[pcnd5584]

Hi

Even so, they'd look odd on the shelves!  It's bad enough having a mix of bound volumes and separate issues, as I have.

Every Blessing

Tony

Well, possibly - but I also have a mixture of bound volumes and many single editions. Given that they are a similar size, this aspect has never bothered me.

However, I do have a fondness for the old format, with its (generally) clear monochrome plates - particularly if they were of organ consoles and taken by Gilbert Benham.

[AnOrganCornucopia]

I wonder who the greatest ever photographer of organs was/is?

My nomination would be the late C.R.A. "Tony" Davies, whom Harrisons used for all their publicity photographs (in the UK at least). His photographs of the new St David's Cathedral organ (and also of the Schulze at Armley, especially its fabulous console) are nothing short of masterly. To achieve such utter clarity and focus at all points of a very three-dimensional subject and produce an image of such warmth is surely the mark of a true master. I wish I could have had photography lessons with him.

[paultindall]

I don't think galleries are necessarily a killer acoustically.  Other things like carpets, upholstery, soft stone and wood roofs are more likely to have this effect.  Two galleried churches which come to mind as having excellent acoustics are St. Botolph's, Colchester and the Cathedrale de Saint-Pierre (an island just off the coast of Newfoundland - a French colony, it has 6,000 inhabitants, one church - a cathedral - no supermarkets or fast-food joints but five patisseries).  Both have plaster barrel vaults, which are good for sound, and the St-Pierre organ (a Casavant rebuilt of a Mutin with 14ss) is in the west gallery.  Some of the City of London churches have pretty good acoustics, if they're not so rich as to have been over-cushioned.  In the case of CCS, I would guess that the size of the place would negate any adverse effect from the galleries and, if Hawksmoor intended them, they should be there (I don't know if he did - I read once that Wren didn't intend galleries in St. Bride's, which was one reason why they weren't replaced after the Blitz).


quote author=AnOrganCornucopia link=topic=1260.msg5730#msg5730 date=1330653232]

I was aware that the interior had been finished some time ago, having followed its progress with keen interest. However, I have been in a number of churches with such side-galleries, which have without exception had the most unimaginably abysmal acoustics: I have not been in CCS but, on my experience so far, felt I had little reason to hope that they would fail to wreck the acoustic. Unless they are used regularly, given the opportunity I'd do what the Victorians quite rightly did and tear them down again. Every church I've known that's had them has wanted rid of them because they're an expensive Health & Safety nightmare...



Well, I'm with David here. I've seen many churches whose acoustics have been ruined by carpet, and some which have been rendered unexpectedly dead by soft brick or complex wooden roofs. Not to mention acoustic tile, in North America.

I have yet to see one where old galleries appear to make things worse, though perhaps somewhere really small, with a large number of galleries, might fit the bill. Whitby, for instance, or that church in the New Forest.

But we can surely all think of galleried churches with brilliant acoustics: Thomaskirche, Leipzig? That big church in Wolfenbuttel? St George's, Hanover Square? St James, Piccadilly? St Mary's, Wanstead? Any number of little churches in Westfalia and Thuringia and  Holland (Meppel), full of wood? St Leonard, Shoreditch? - where the side galleries have happily been put back recently.