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From:
Stephen Bicknell <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Stephen Bicknell <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 17 May 2005 11:01:04 +0100
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Dear list

I am still reeling from being told that the repertoire requires an
organ of 100 stops (or was it ranks - who cares?) minimum. I can't help
feeling that if the organist concerned ever finds himself speaking to a
potential donor about the million dollars required to build the thing,
he will be gracious and sensible enough not to peddle the spurious
argument about performance and repertoire which merely invites
laughter, and instead appeal directly to his would-be patron's vanity
and offer to clean his shoes. Of course I realise too that if a million
dollars might buy 100 stops from Goodwood & Voicewell, then it will
almost certainly buy 200 stops from Schmertz Inc. of Sandusky Ohio and,
it goes without saying, 400 stops from Boggletree & Loudhailer (but no
pipes). Big deal.

In the meantime the rest of us will continue the good fight.

I know an organ that plays the bulk of the literature effectively.
Moreover, appealing directly to organists here for a moment, it is
incredibly loud. Sorry, INCREDIBLY LOUD. Oh? You did have it turned up?
Sorry for shouting. Amazingly enough it is also a very beautiful
instrument. I am back with one of my favourites, of course, the 1885
Michell & Thynne from the Inventions Exhibition of that year, standing
since 1887 in the North Transept of Tewkesbury Abbey.

Pedal
Harmonic Bass 32
Great bass (wood) 16
Dolce (open wood, pp) 16
Great flute (open wood) 8
Bombarde (high pressure) 16

Great
Violone 16
Great open diapason 8
Small open diapason 8
Claribel (wood) 8
Octave 4
Flute octaviante 4
Quint mixture (3+2) II
Great mixture IV
Trombone (hp) 16
Trumpet (hp) 8

Swell
Open diapason 8
Flauto traverso 8
Viole de gambe 8
Voix celeste 8
Geigen 4
Mixture III
Contra Posaune (hp) 16
Horn (hp) 8
Oboe 8

Choir (unenclosed, ruckpositive position)
Spitzflote 8
Viole sourdine 8
Gedackt 8
Gemshorn 4
Zauberflote 4
Flautino 2
Clarionet 8

Solo (only vox enclosed)
Harmonic flute 8
Violoncello 8
Voix humaine 8
Tuba (hp) 8

Couplers (playing through) S-G, So-G, S-C, C16'-G, So4', Ch4', Sw4',
GP, SP, CP, SoP
Tracker, Barker and Tubular actions. Slider chests throughout,
including pedal.

That's all folks. The organ remains underused and underappreciated.
It's the second organ in the building and it is very difficult indeed
to play - the console layout is devious and the player is buried next
to low C# of the pedal Bombarde and just has a rough time (accident of
history). The listener, on the other hand, bathes in so much glory it
would for a moment be difficult even to imagine a larger organ. The
1885 organ is far louder and more impressive - and IMNSHO more
beautiful - than the recent four-manual half-tracker half-electric
Kenneth Jones organ on the other side of the building which has twice
the number of stops.

The twin to this organ is the Cole & Woodberry at Germantown PA,
planned and voiced by Michell, but if you have heard the Germantown
organ you should know that it is much softer than Tewkesbury. Having
been inside both organs, I get the strong impression that Casavant
softened the choruses and reeds at Germantown when they replaced the
slider chests with Pitman chests - the pipework almost certainly yelped
as a result of the change and had to be revoiced.

Yes, of course you can play pieces which appear to demand specific
stops on an organ which hasn't got them, even up to and including
things as peculiar as Alain's Deuxieme Fantaisie or Messiaen's Banquet
Celeste which appear to demand cranky mutations is particular places.
If you can't see how its done, then you need to admit that you have
things yet to learn.

(On the Tewkesbury organ I would play Alain's 5 1/3 passage on the
Violone 16 + Harmonic Flute 4', and ignore the quint thing. It is a
colouring quint, like in Satie's fourth nocturne, not a harmonic
necessity; the Messiaen goes just fine with no mutations at all, you
use the Gt Sw and Solo for the manual parts and the Choir Organ for the
Pedal part, starting with the 2' and then adding and subtracting lower
pitched ranks. It's still the same piece and still just as effective.)

Stephen Bicknell

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