Consider joining, and casting your pearls of wisdom here. You will be in
good excellent company, and are most welcome.

Dear Lists and Friends:

It's not a Mailing List, it's not a Newsgroup, it's not a bird, it's not a
plane, it's a Discussion Board, and a particularly interesting one. I also
think it a bit unusual on an Organbuilder's site, if not even unique. Does
anyone know of another discussion board of its kind? I mean, I hope they're
out there somewhere, because it is a great idea, but it's not quite what you
may think. There is no commercial value in this for Mander Organs - there
are NO "commercials!" It's a place where true Organ enthusiasts can meet and
discuss topics of interest to them, all relating to the instrument we all
love, and I would like to invite you to join it. Its emphasis is, naturally,
on things English, which I think you would find of particular interest. Aren't
we all closet Anglophiles?

Like all public fora - guest books, for example - this board has been
plagued by the ever resourceful spammers. You can't believe how clever and
persistent they are. One recurring pattern is: "Hi. This is a great site. I've
learned an enormous amount from it. May I now ask you to check out our site
at  [log in to unmask] ?" The site almost got choked by this
stuff - those of you with websites with guestbooks know well all about
this - and so a decision was made to require a simple registration, free, of
course. More about that later.

In the free-for-all days (before registration), a great number of topics got
explored, and I am pleased to say that none of that discussion has been
tossed out. It is there, but, as you will understand, is "read only!" I went
through it again over the last couple of days, and noted some of the topics
dealt with: Console Proportions, A Spanish Organ Broadcast, the 1997 Klais
at Bath Abbey, Bordeaux-DomBedos at Quoirin, Ampleforth Abbey, All Saints -
Hove, Pipe Speech Instability, Changing the Pitch of an Organ, Broadcast
Organ Music - or Lack of It, Removing Paint from Pipes, The Royal Festival
Hall, Wind Pressures, Dom Bedos Tremulants, the Sauer Organ in Berlin
Cathedral, AND  just about every aspect of the newly rebuilt Organ in the
Royal Albert Hall, which is, of course, of great national interest in the
U.K.

None of this was ever thought to, in any way, take the place of the
venerable list, PipOrg-L, which has nurtured me in so many ways since I
joined it too many years ago. This goes equally for the newer Pipechat. They
both continue to provide that nourishment. The Mander Discussion Board is
different, having, for one thing, an English perspective. The majority of
writers are English, but there are others from parts of Europe, Australia,
and the U. S. A.  I must say also that some are surprised that one of the
occasional participants is John Mander himself, who had much to do handling
comments about the Albert Hall Organ, which the company had just rebuilt.
Toward the end of the big Atlanta project (Peachtree Road UMC), I recall one
of the crew saying: "Well, now I must get home and make 46 new chests for
the Albert Hall!" That tells of the enormity of that project.

Well now, the new discussion board, for which you must register, has shown
many signs of life. I am intrigued by a discussion of the old Birmingham
Town Hall, which has just (HALLELUIA!) had several acres of carpet removed.
http://www.mander-organs.com/html/birmingham_town_hall.html  That will take
you right to a picture and specification of this weighty and meaty bit of
Victorian lovely excess. You don't have to register to READ the new
discussion, but you must register to POST, and it is easy and
non-threatening. No credit card required!! It's really just name and e-mail
address.

The following letter, from Karl-Bernhardin Kropf, Organist of the largest
surviving Two-Manual Schnitger Organ, at the beautiful gem of a church in
Neuenfeld, appeared recently on the new Discussion Board. I am quoting only
the last bit, an example of the importance of this Board. You will remember
discussions of the danger in which this Organ was placed, as the Airbus
factory required additional runway space. Here is the Good News - the
Triumph or Art and History over Industry  - just this once!

"There was heavy struggling on both sides, but on Tuesday, 10 August, the
last . . . of several court decisions ruled a stop for any further expansion
work! So this means that the church and the Organ seem to be SAVED! The
named research on how the church could be harmed by A380 planes passing the
building was surely co-initiated by the huge number of Organ friends from
four continents, who contributed to the INZENZO campaign. Many, many thanks
to all of you (about 500 Organists and experts) who have written letters,
mails, etc . . . ! You are welcome to visit www.schnitgerorgel.de for more
details. Thanks and greetings! Karl-Bernhardin Kropf."

And Malcolm says, please also visit www.mander-organs.com and right on the
opening page, you will see a little circle, on which you can click to reach
the new, unspammed Discussion Board, with directions for going back to the
old postings as well.

Thanks - Malcolm Wechsler, www.mander-organs.com

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Note:  opinions  expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity at Albany.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  GET LSVCMMDS.TXT  or see  the  web
page at http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/lsvcmmds.html .
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