Lately I have been tripping and falling over all kinds of fascinating stuff surrounding this controversial individual ;) and this article certainly adds a bit of fuel to that fire...
Much in the manner in 1966, the year I was born... David Sarnoff predicted the technology revolution which makes this forum possible... Could Robert Hope-Jones have done likewise
the technology required to produce pipeless organs ??? ??? ???
http://www.colinpykett.org.uk/hj_pipelessorgan.htm (http://www.colinpykett.org.uk/hj_pipelessorgan.htm)
;)
Eric
KB7DQH
Hi
From the books & articles on H-J that I've read, I would think that he could see the possibilities, even if he didn't have access to the relevant technology at the time - after all, the first recorded use of electricity to produce sound was in the 1890's and the first commercial application came around 1930 by Compton's (who actually beat Hammond both with patents and the first commercial product! (In Compton's case the product initially was an add-on to their theatre organs, rather than a complete electronic instrument))
every Blessing
Tony
The following is, I suggest, required reading for the continuation of this debate:
http://www.pykett.org.uk/hope-jones_at_the_college_of_organists.htm (http://www.pykett.org.uk/hope-jones_at_the_college_of_organists.htm)
There can, I think, be little doubt that Robert Hope-Jones was a most extraordinary visionary, however imperfect a person he may have been (aren't we all!) and however flawed the tonal ethos of his instruments may be considered.
One fascinating aside to Robert Hope-Jones' colourful life was that he is said to have worked for a time in the Signalling and Telegraphy department of the Great Northern Railway. Not only would this have put him at the forefront of developments in communication, but the chap at the desk next to his also made his own mark on the world. His name? Henry Royce. In turn, Royce's right-hand-man Claude Johnson heard Dupré improvise during Vespers at Notre Dame - the result was the wonderful Vepres de la Vierge, and a long-standing friendship, not to mention sponsorship of Dupré's UK tours!