Hi!
There are organs around which are being spared radical change by reason of the impecunious climate.
Who thinks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4sA5_KZes is a bad organ?
Best wishes
David P
Where is that, and what?
Just got done reading a book... Without knowing the details for which you make your statement...
I am making an assumption here that someone is considering the modification or removal of an instrument purely on "taste" considerations but currently lacks the funds to do so ??? ??? ???
Based on that assumption I wish to quote from "All the Stops -- The Glorious Pipe Organ and its American Masters"...
Quote"I do not believe that our opinions should keep us from appreciating the great qualities of those instruments we do not prefer," John Bishop, head of the Organ Clearing House, wrote in 2002.
QuoteDirk A. Flentrop himself had told Margaret Mueller, the organist of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the 1960's that the 1929 E. M. Skinner there would not be improved by adding a baroque-style mixture to its romantic textures. "You must leave it just as it is," Flentrop told her. "It is a perfect example of an American organ of the 1920's: an entity in itself."
Guess I'll just have to watch the videos...
Eric
KB7DQH
Quote from: KB7DQH on November 17, 2010, 02:50:40 AM
Guess I'll just have to watch the videos...
:-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrczqDOiFw4 is the continuation
Best wishes
David P
Having viewed the Passacaglia (but not the fugue as of yet :o I rest my case ;D
Saw that you uploaded a performance of the Faure' Requiem...........
You really are trying to drag me kicking and screaming back to my misspent youth ::) ;D ;)
Did lots of homework whilst listening to my parents and their friend rehearse that one :-[
later performed accompanied by the Bremerton Symphony 8) 8) 8)
Eric
KB7DQH
Hi
Poverty has often been for the retention of what are now regarded as historic instruments. Earlier in the year I was able to spend an hour or so playing the organ in Chichester Cathedral - basically a Hill Cathedral organ that was saved from major "improvements" by the fact that money was spent dealing with the results of a tower collapse. A small amount of work was done (mainly pneumatic action) but the organ was taken out of use around 1970 or a bit earlier (a friend of mine played it in the '60's and was distinctly unimpressed) - an Allen served until a few years ago when Mander's did a magnificent restoration/rebuild. It's a fascinating organ - very different from the Willis' and Harrisons' who rebuilt and altered out of all recognition many organs of the same period.
Every Blessing
Tony
"A few years" is, I seem to remember, over twenty years ago.
The Hill at Chichester is a lovely organ - but it's hopelessly underpowered for that building, it's so mild-mannered. Even going absolutely full-pelt, it struggles to fill the building (and my experiences are based on hearing it in a largely empty building - what it must be like on a busy Sunday with the building packed I shudder to think). That organ really ought to be in a medium-sized parish church, with a big Willis or a later Hill or somesuch in the Cathedral.
Quote from: NonPlayingAnorak on November 18, 2010, 03:43:47 AM
The Hill at Chichester is a lovely organ - but it's hopelessly underpowered for that building, it's so mild-mannered. Even going absolutely full-pelt, it struggles to fill the building (and my experiences are based on hearing it in a largely empty building -
Hi!
Yes - that was actually my impression of All Saints Hove - which is why I commented that Hauptwerk "reproductions" of instruments are bound to be a bit of romantic nonsense as they are bound to be set up by their creators as they want them to be, and not as the instruments actually are . . . :-)
Best wishes
David P
Indeed: but the fact remains that Hauptwerk instruments, romantic nonsense or not, are WAY better than the usual suspects, Allen, Makin et al.
Quote from: NonPlayingAnorak on November 18, 2010, 03:43:47 AM
"A few years" is, I seem to remember, over twenty years ago.
The Hill at Chichester is a lovely organ - but it's hopelessly underpowered for that building, it's so mild-mannered. Even going absolutely full-pelt, it struggles to fill the building (and my experiences are based on hearing it in a largely empty building - what it must be like on a busy Sunday with the building packed I shudder to think). That organ really ought to be in a medium-sized parish church, with a big Willis or a later Hill or somesuch in the Cathedral.
Hi
I think you're missing the point of an English Cathedral Organ - it's there primarily to accompany the choir, not to lead a large congregation. At Chichester, the Nave division of the organ (playable from the main console, or its own 1m/p console) is there for that job - although really, where there's a choir, they should be leading the singing, not the organ! (The Allen was also retained at the West End, but I don't know how much it's used.)
Every Blessing
Tony
At the same time, the nave organ is inadequate in size, and that full organ with choir is still inadequate to lead a big congregation. There's a reason why Southwell's nave organ is a big secondhand 3m Binns...
Hi
Having also played the Binns at Southwell I think that it's larger than is strictly necessary for congregational singing - but I gather that it's used to accompany the choir for Nave services, leaving the main organ on the screen for its designed purpose. That's not so much of an issue at Chichester, as the main organ is freestanding in the North Transept. I also guess that Southwell had rather more cash than Chichester!
Every Blessing
Tony
I'd have thought it even more of an issue at Chichester. Southwell's screen organ speaks up and down the church's axis. The Chichester organ projects very little (physically) from the north transept, and projects its mild sound mostly across the church. I'm told that, with the Cathedral full, it can be difficult to hear it from down at the west end.
Or maybe not... Could have filed this link in a number of places but thought this thread was as good as any ;D Could have stuck in a new subject in the Atheist's Corner... Or under the "Philllistines" thread...
So HERE 8) it is...http://www.anatheist.net/2010/11/follow-the-money/ (http://www.anatheist.net/2010/11/follow-the-money/)
This individual has likely done a better job of documenting the new and restored pipe instruments
in the news of late as I have here :o :-[ ::) ;D\
Eric
KB7DQH