Now, THIS is a house organ...

[KB7DQH]

What follows is a link to the homepage of an instrument installed in a private residence, which at one time was installed in a public high school in New Jersey...

Constructed by Midmer-Losh, Merrick, Long Island NY...

Designed by Senator Emmerson Richards...

Need I say more?

Oh yeah... The link...
http://midmerlosh.com/index.htm

Eric
KB7DQH

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Interesting - but very much a theatre-style organ, regardless of how they try to say otherwise.  The use of unit chests and extended/duplexed ranks - and to an extent, tracker action, means that the true classical organ repertoire is compromised to some degree.  Given the designer and the builder, I would guess that the tonal design is influenced heavily by Audsley, so what we have is a large romantic organ with distinct TPO leanings (and the choice of Jellani Eddington to record it indicates the same).

Nothing wrong with the organ per se - but I do wish people wouldn't try to pretend that ANY organ is equally suited to playing the whole of the repertoire, transcriptions, etc.  This organ is good at what it does, but no way can it have all the sounds needed to play the whole repertoire in a historically-correct way (nor can it be tuned to the various temperaments needed practically).

Every Blessing

Tony

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

Well this instrument
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izbv7WVmufA
is . . . err. . . a "classical" instrument but its design was so controversial that the owner had to buy up the organ building firm in order to get the job done.

Shame it's now just an empty case and console.

Best wishes

David P

[NonPlayingAnorak]

Hi!

Well this instrument
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izbv7WVmufA
is . . . err. . . a "classical" instrument but its design was so controversial that the owner had to buy up the organ building firm in order to get the job done.

Shame it's now just an empty case and console.

Best wishes

David P

I think quite a bit of it was put into the Brighton Dome organ, itself a horror - they should never have built it, but preserved the wonderful Willis it replaced in 1930-something  >:(

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Whilst I agree that the Dome Willis looked to be a good instrument - and there's a mystery over its fate - it seems to just disappear when the HNB/Christie hybrid was put it, I wouldn't be so harsh about the HNB job.  Certainly, in the right hands it was (& is) an effective instrument.  The onlt big issue I would have is the mixing of classical & theatre organ stops within each department. I would have thought that a dual console arrangement like the Southampton Guildhall Compton would have been a better choice - or at least having the more TPO stops in a separate block on each manual, but then, I've never played it (but have heard it several times in the late 1950's/1960's). 

It's an organ designed and built to do a particular job, and does it pretty well.  I doubt that the Willis would have coped adequately with the lighter repertoire that it's called on to play.  Maybe another option would have been to restore the Willis and put in a seperate "entertainment" organ - but it's too late now.

Every Blessing

Tony

[barniclecompton]

Having listened to the cd of the midmer losh time and time again, it has to be one of the best organs ive heard. Its stunning. It, in a way, gives an idea of the quality we can expect from the Midmer losh in the Convention Hall.
The Rachmaninov stuff on it is just amazing, very very well done.

[NonPlayingAnorak]

Hi

Whilst I agree that the Dome Willis looked to be a good instrument - and there's a mystery over its fate - it seems to just disappear when the HNB/Christie hybrid was put it, I wouldn't be so harsh about the HNB job.  Certainly, in the right hands it was (& is) an effective instrument.  The onlt big issue I would have is the mixing of classical & theatre organ stops within each department. I would have thought that a dual console arrangement like the Southampton Guildhall Compton would have been a better choice - or at least having the more TPO stops in a separate block on each manual, but then, I've never played it (but have heard it several times in the late 1950's/1960's). 

It's an organ designed and built to do a particular job, and does it pretty well.  I doubt that the Willis would have coped adequately with the lighter repertoire that it's called on to play.  Maybe another option would have been to restore the Willis and put in a seperate "entertainment" organ - but it's too late now.

Every Blessing

Tony

The Willis was broken up and dispersed, with a few local organs being enlarged using its pipework AFAIK.