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Messages - David Drinkell

#41
I tried enlarging the console picture, but I still can't make out the Great stop-list.  It starts with Swell to Great couplers 16, 8 and 4, then, I think, Open Diapason, but the treble end names are too fuzzed for me to make out.  Can anyone decipher them?
#42
Interesting, because it has the type of stop-tablets designed by Eaglefield Hull and called by him "Chromo-digit Board".  I don't think there are many about.  Huddersfield Church, where Hull was organist, had a four manual so equipped but it has been rebuilt with three manuals and draw-stops.  Enniskillen Cathedral had a three manual, but the chromo-digit board was replaced at the last rebuild.  Seymour Street Methodist Church, Lisburn, Co. Antrim had one built in 1920 which, as far as I know, is still there.

Someone with better resolution on their computer may be able to decipher the stop-list from the photograph. The Swell looks to be Violin Diapason, Rohr Flute, Salicional, Voix Celeste, Gemshorn, Piccolo, Horn, Oboe (very Conacherish), with Tremulant, Octave and Sub.  The Pedal has Bourdon and Bass Flute, plus one other, possibly an Open or a Harmonic Bass, and the Great Open, Claribel(?) Flute, Dulciana, Principal and four more, plus Swell to Great couplers at 16.8.4.  That's the best I can do, but others may find it clearer.  It looks like a smart job.

Painted pipes inside the organ (in one picture) may just possibly suggest that it came from elsewhere, but one can't be sure.
#43
If you zoom in on the pictures, the stop-list can be read as:

Great: Open Diapason, Principal
Swell: Stopped Diapason, Gamba
Pedal: Bourdon
Swell to Great
Great to Pedal

The length of the case pipes suggest that the Open may have a stopped bass, and the absence of a Swell to Pedal coupler (and the size of the box) that it may stop at tenor C and borrow the Great bass, but I'm into realms of conjecture here.

A nice little instrument for someone and probably a satisfying practice organ.

I've sent this spec to NPOR.
#44
There used to be one in the Lady Chapel of All Saints, Hereford, too.  St. David's Cathedral in Wales had a two manual of similar appearance but, I think, rather more sophisticated means of control.

The simple thing about the Gilks system was that it had the pipes on a simple slider chest (each rank controlled by a draw-stop), with electric key action so that they could be played at different pitches (each pitch controlled by a stop-key).  The disadvantage was that a rank would sound at all selected pitches and you couldn't mix ranks (e.g. Gedeckt 8, Principal 4 or Gedeckt 8, Flute 4 Fifteenth 2 would be impossible).
#45
Miscellaneous & Suggestions / Re: What is this?
March 01, 2016, 04:59:07 PM
Yay! neat!  Reminds me of the late Gilbert Benham (who wrote articles in "The Organ" before I was born).  He had stop-labels on various items of furniture, etc, in his house in north London.  The toilet flush was Contra Bombarde 32'.

I have a nameplate from a not-so-reputable Irish organ builder on mine....
#46
Miscellaneous & Suggestions / Re: What is this?
February 28, 2016, 05:57:20 PM
"String Gamba" is another funny one, which conjures up various visions.  John Budgen (ex-Bishop & Son) referred to a Gamba which he said was a string stop only insofar as it was "cross-stitched to the back of the swell box".
#47
Miscellaneous & Suggestions / Re: What is this?
February 26, 2016, 08:01:36 PM
It's not that uncommon, although sometimes split into two words - tone a cross between an Oboe and a Cornopean.  "Oboe Horn" is occasionally found also.

I find "Fagottone" amusing for some reason....
#48
Organs wanted / Re: Compton Pedal Diaphone
February 11, 2016, 02:43:51 PM
There are probably various bits of ex-theatre organs available still.  I like diaphones - prompt, clear-speaking and effective.
#50
Daniel Roth at St-Sulpice is a very nice man and very approachable.  As to instruments, there are many historic ones around Normandy and Brittany.  The Clicquot at Houdan will haunt your dreams.
#51
Believers' Corner / Re: Psalm 46
December 29, 2015, 05:39:16 AM
It says to me you should  stick to Coverdale or King James ;D
#52
It's interesting that the two types of church which seem consistently to be showing growth are the "happy-clappy" ones and the cathedrals.  In the former, practices may well bear out what you say and even highly intellectual types may seem to leave their brains outside.  In the latter, the message is deeper, the mystery more profound and the casual worshipper can partake without being singled out.  The Dean of York remarked recently that many seekers find themselves comfortable in a cathedral although their courage might fail them in many parish churches. 
#53
An experienced adviser who knows how to fill in the Lottery application is a huge asset.  Bill McVicker did a marvellous job at Colchester, with the form and every other aspect of the project.

Even after 14 years, another rewiring might be needed, depending on who did the last one.  Not all work is up to Compton's standard (some of their jobs are still going well after fifty or sixty years, a rather better record than some much-lauded tracker organs of more recent times!).
#54
Here's another example.  Colchester Town Hall has an exceptional 1902 Norman & Beard three manual organ.  It was restored last year by Harrisons' with the aid of a Lottery grant.  As part of the work, the alterations made to the Choir Organ (and one to the Swell) in about 1973 were reversed, restoring the original specification.

The additions might not sway the Lottery too much, but I think the missing Melotone might.  I don't think the dual character of the organ would count against it - rather the opposite as it makes it a rarity (along with Southampton Guildhall and Bournemouth Pavilion by Compton and the Dome, Brighton by HN&B).
#55
I don't know the instrument personally, but all the comments I've heard about it suggest that it's a very good Compton.  It sounds well worthy on the recording, and the Tuba comes over as particularly fine. 

Other YouTube recordings show it to be outstanding in theatre mode too.  Possibly, the thing that put off the Lottery people is that it isn't in its original condition.  There have been additions, and it originally had a Melotone unit which was removed at an early stage.  These changes may well have improved the instrument while being in keeping with its original style, but the Lottery folk can be queasy about alterations.

I hope they manage to keep it!
#56
Organ Builders / Re: Willis History
December 12, 2015, 05:22:06 PM
Dr. Ingram!  Reading the Stony Stratford organ history jogged my memory.  There were a lot of Ingrams in organ-building.  One was at Hereford and entered a brief partnership with Hope-Jones, the last organ of this alliance being the one I play every day here in St. John's (HJ absconded to the States while it was under construction and stopped off in Newfoundland to try to persuade the Vestry to renege on the contract and buy an organ from Austin, with whom he would now be working).  I think the father Ingram took over Holdich's business.  The other was in Edinburgh and did a lot of work - competent but rarely inspired.  In Kirkwall, the Cathedral had a 1925 Willis III with all mod cons (not as many as later Willis jobs - he hadn't assimilated all the American influences at the time and was still evolving the house style.  It was said to be the last Willis with slider soundboards), while the nearby Patterson Kirk (later called the East Church) had an Ingram of similar vintage which could have been built 25 years earlier.

Willis took over the Scottish business, I think.  Henry 4 told me that Pa Ingram deliberately set up his sons in business with each as far away from the other as he could contrive.

Amersham is a fine organ, one of a number of excellent jobs from that period, another being Stowmarket URC in Suffolk, which has a fine acoustic and sounds magnificent, despite being quite small.
#57
Marche-Sortie by Dubois is worth trying.  Jolly, just vulgar enough and not difficult.  IMSLP.
#58
Organ Builders / Re: Willis History
December 11, 2015, 04:50:22 PM
The story about Stony Stratford is that it was put in by Starmer Shaw, a small firm owned by a medical doctor - I can't remember if he had antecedents in the trade or not - who wanted the job mainly to put one over on Rushworth's, who were expecting to get it and against whom he for some reason nursed an amount of animosity.  I played it a long while ago and it seemed that a good job had been done of transplanting a fine Willis I/III organ.  There were indeed a number of registers prepared at the console.
#59
Organ concerts / Re: St Michael, Retford
December 03, 2015, 06:31:22 AM
I ordered the Shearing.  A nice set of pieces, simple and with some gentle quirks.  Worth playing.  Thanks, Tony, for bringing them to our attention.
#60
Alec Rowley's Prelude on Picardy  is nicely crafted.  The sort of thing an able extemporiser might produce, but simple and effective.  Worth a look (IMSLP)