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Messages - Fr. Otto

#1
... yes, wonderful are the ways of 'CofE': I was reckoned to be 'time-expired' so put out to grass - and someone three years older - who'd never run a Parish - put in! But, older and inexperienced though he was, he held good 'liberal' views about everything; I understand he's now got the message that it's not going well, and is looking to move...
F.
p.s. The vendor of the Organ in question, has now added some information: it is in NPOR (Thrapston) and seems to be by Claypole. He also now gives the dimensions in those new-fangle measurements I can't fathom, and worries whether what must be one side of the Pedal pipes can be removed from the wall, the corresponding ones being attached to the back of the case.
#2
...This number: 182895433321... should lead to the above. I've contacted the vendor, trying to persuade him to give a bit more detail (I think picture 1 has the/a maker's name visible but not readable just below the console lamp; the front pipes look like pretty good spotted metal; where exactly it is might help anyone interested) but, I suppose he's got other things to do. Couldn't find it in NPOR, so at a loss but stops appear to be:
Swell:  Horn 8', Gemshorn 4', Lieblich Gedacht 8', and Viole de Gamba 8'
Great: Flauto Traverso 8', Dulciana 8', Rohrflote 8', Open Diapason (those spotted metal pipes) 8'
Pedal: Bourdon 16'
Couplers: Sw. to Gt., Sw. to Ped., and Gt. to Ped..
If I were still in my North Devon Cure, I'd probably be off there with a Luton-top, and one or two chaps, to dismantle it and bring it down!
FJRO
p.s. ...all that 8-foot work, and just the one 4-foot, would bring on a seizure today - no squeaky stuff at all!
#3
Yet, on the Theatre/Cinema Organ sites, it's claimed that there is a stirring of interest among younsters who've never seen or heard of such things before and are intrigued by it all - even down to the popular music of the pre-War era: perhaps this could be a way of luring them back! ...Might work better than by trying to bring the popular music of today (usually = what was popular in the Vicar/Minister's day!) into Church.
#4
... as Dudley Savage was born in Gulval (now virtually part of Penzance) and had Organ lessons with Mr. Behenna on the 3 Manual organ built by Crabb of Exeter (specification by S.S. Wesley) for St. Mary's, but slightly altered by Hele - and destroyed in an arson attack a few years back, couldn't somewhere in West Penwith be found for it? Compton's also produced a scheme for the St. Mary's Crabb/Hele - but the War intervened (and Donald Behenna was so vexed at losing his star pupil to ABC Cinemas, he would have been very reluctant to let them meddle with 'the finest Organ in the County, apart from the Cathedral'. I think Dudley Savage made his debut on the 3-rank (?) Compton in the ABC/Ritz in Queen St., Penzance.
FJRO
#5
Organ Builders / Re: Problems of mold in organ pipes
August 15, 2015, 08:05:56 PM
Have they not tried regular use of Incense? Perhaps they should!
#6
Organs on eBay or for urgent sale / Re: House organ
December 17, 2014, 07:38:24 PM
Apologies for not getting back to you sooner. I've measured up, and I don't think we could house her for you, except for lengthwise W. of the Font, and with the Console somewhere else.
There was I thinking 'Multicore' was just a brand of solder. Good wishes for your move: we've had a good many, and I'm sure each one has aged me.
FJRO
#7
But it's HIDEOUS! At least Willis - like Scott who did the splendid Angel-roof (& the Case?) made everything look Gothick, and therefore and thereby fitting in with the lineaments of the building, whereas Grant/Regens/Rippins/Bradbeer (rather like the Reynolds windows) shout 'This is new, modern, in accordance with the latest canons of Taste...': the 'Hermeneutic of Rupture', rather than the 'Hermeneutic of Continuity'. Plastic Swell-shutters, forsooth!
f#
#8
Organs on eBay or for urgent sale / Re: House organ
December 14, 2014, 03:22:59 PM
The Church here is not damp (we've been spending thousands on the West Wall, and now the Tower, to stop the ingress of water): could we, possibly, save you storage costs (I'll check available space before Evensong tonight) and let the flock have a taste of what an Organ can do (they might even end up coming to you on bended knee - 'Please can we keep this Organ? How much? Is that all?').
The Church is quite small, and, presumably, it might be possible to adjust the voicing...
I can't think why, when they b******d up the little machine here, they didn't give it Double Touch.
N. Devon's not all that far from W. Somerset.
f#
#9
Could a small group of us come down from N. Devon in the next few days, and have a 'look/listen'?
FJRO
#10
Most helpful, thank you. Did he really work for/was apprenticed to Henry W.? An organ-builder I've spoken to was a bit sniffy about some of Allen's smaller organs. A couple of us are going up to Somerset tomorrow (all being well) to have a/nother look/listen and measure, but I suspect it'll merely confirm what I already guess, that it's too big for the small Church of which I'm P-in-C. Surely there's someone in this Country, even in 'the West Country', who could give decent home to an Organ with "a very pleasing sound and a fine musical voice", with a sensible set of flues, two reeds on each of the the two Manuals, plus the opportunity for a further one on the Pedals!
f#
#11
I've had a look, and a play, of this instrument in the next-door County, hoping it might do for us, but fear it's physically too big at 7' 8"w x 12' 6" d x 12' 2" h, to be accommodated without drastic re-disposing. I think it's been sadly neglected for years, but could/should be a splendid machine.
Does anyone here know more about Robt. Allen of Bristol? A 'jstor' reference, has him claiming in an ad. to have worked with 'Willis of London' - perhaps mere sales-talk, but Cornopean, Oboe (Sw.) and Corno di Bassetto, Trumpet (Gt.) sounds quite Willisy, and there's a spare Pedal slide I'm guessing might have been 'Trombone/Ophicleide (prepared for)'.
It would seem a shame for this decent instrument to have to go abroad.
f
#12
... the old organ was good enough for the Chaplain to have to take Dr. Lumsden aside, and suggest he prime visiting Recitalists, who were all too wont in the SCR afterwards, to tell all the Dons what a privilege it was to play such a fine instrument, &c., ...before too many Fellows started wondering why it was necessary to replace it!
#13
... if only... if only I had more time here; if only St. Helen's had the money...; if only it were possible just to transport the Organ here, and it would just fit in without obscuring windows or necessitate removal of pews and mediaeval bench-ends (perfectly allowable, if for 're-ordering', not if for 'turning the clock back')! However did H&H manage to fit all that into so small a cuboid? A 'Corno di Bassetto' too! I lamented the destruction of New College's Willis, admittedly already spoiled by R&D, and even more Wells's Willis under the unstoppable 'We must have an ersatz N.German Baroque instrument at any price movement'. Away with all Rauschquints, Racketts, and 7-fach Mixturs! Give me at least 3 Diapasons on the Great (one leathered), a Trombone or an Ophicleide on the Pedals, and a lovely whispery Salicional+V.C., a Cornopean and a delicately acid Oboe... if only!
#14
Dear 'Janner',
I know I'm only a native, not a Cornishman, but in West Penwith at least, a 'Janner' was a Cornishman, often qualified by that splendid Cornish attribute 'proper': is it possible that you are a 'proper janner'?
And, yes, your link did work, and has had me chasing up W.G. Vowles, and sundry Organs in Bristol, including St. Mary Redcliffe - and wondering whether the Appledore Vowles might just possibly have had a spare slide or two for the odd Reed ('prepared for').
The Organ I was 'brought up on' was by Crabb of Exeter, to S.S.W.'s specification, and practically bankrupted him (Peter Crabb, that is: no doubt SSW still had his fee for the 'referral'). The Crabb Organ had Hele's plate on it, and had just been cleaned &c. by Lance Foy (himself an ex-Hele boy) when the whole lot went up in smoke (as did another Organ, with which I had an association - the Nicholson/Yates at St. Michael's, Newquay - and the lovely Comper rood-screen went too, as well as the oak linen-fold panelling round the walls...). Is it something about me, I have wondered?
FJRO
#15
Many thanks! Why didn't I sign up to this Forum ages ago, instead of just 'lurking'?
I'll follow this up.
FJRO
#16
Dear Janner,
I was in touch with them and apparently, they were, in effect, just warning potential buyers that the cost of removal would be in the region of £1400, apart from which, there would be no cost. I understand it was 'snapped up' and is going to a Church (of course, 'could be a dissenting Conventicle') somewhere.
FJRO
#17
Dear Diapason,
Thank you indeed for your helpful suggestion, but the machine we have is a 1M+P, reduced on the instructions of the then Organ Adviser, from 2M+P! It has 3 ranks, extended down to make a Bourdon, and up as far as a Sifflote. In its way, it's quite reasonable, but, of course, the only way to 'solo' anything is an octave higher ('Wachet Auf' sounds pretty ridiculous thus, as may be imagined) and I, alas, have not the necessary skills to 'cook' things suitably. Then too, I'm due for the chop next May, and any successor might be a devotee of bongo drums and kazoos...
FJRO
#18
Here's the 'question' I've just sent the e-Vendor:
...more of a statement than a question, but I think you might well have been encouraged to partake in an action of great cultural vandalism. The Church that has unthinkingly decided to break up an Organ, and sell its metal for 'scrap' has a terrible case to answer. What have they done with the (mahogany) soundboards on which these pipes were 'planted'? Burned them? Every piece of this once-organ will have been made by a dedicated Craftsman, using skills learned from centuries of practice. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. Why could they not let a Church such as mine which longs to have a better Organ, have the chance of making far better use of it than as mere 'scrap'?
Do, please, pass on to them my furious concern.
FJRO
#19
... 'reubin2001': still can't find the Item No.!
F#
#20
Just seen this: apparently a Church (could be a Dissenting Conventicle, of course) has literally, it seems, let a scrap merchant deal with the Organ it can't afford to repair. The pictures include some of what are plainly bellows-weights, with a plain 'W': Willis?
Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the usual Item No. to link it for you - the Seller is reubin xxxx (?), and the item had a good nine days to go when I looked about 20 minutes ago, i.e. c. 21:00 on the Eve of All Hallows.