May / June 2013Number 36

Derby & District Organists' AssociationRegistered Charity No. 510567

Newsletter

Think of Dorset and you probablythink of a county of outstandingnatural beauty and a wonderfulcoastline of limestone coves andcliffs. Tourist literature describesthe western part as the JurassicCoast, and at its centre lies the“Pearl of Dorset”, Lyme Regis,nestling around the mouth of theRiver Lym. In recent years thetown has acquired a cultural pearlwhose fame has been steadilyspreading throughout the organworld. The Parish Church of StMichael is the proud host to awonderful three-manualmechanical action organ built bythe Slovenian firm of Anton Skrabl.Ideally situated in a westerngallery, not only is it a feast to the

eyes, its 41 speaking stops offer apalette of tonal colours which isexciting for both listener andplayer.

My encounter with the instrumentwas at the Winter Course forOrganists in mid-February of thisyear, not the most popular time ofyear for a seaside visit, but a warmchurch and an even warmerwelcome by the organising teamsecured the 'wish you were here'feeling. This was the third suchwinter course held since thededication of the new organ inJanuary 2010 and the theme onthis occasion was the Organ Musicof the British Isles. For aninstrument from a continentalbuilder, an exclusively British

Concerts & RecitalsSaturday 22nd June, 7.30pmSt Andrew’s Church, Swanwick.

– organ and brassband concert with David Redfern and theBlidworth Welfare Band. Tickets £6including refreshments available at thedoor or in advance by calling 01773605291 or 541458

Saturday 22nd June 7.30pmDerby Cathedral. Monteverdi Vespers.Derwent Singers and Sitwell Singers.Tickets £18, £16 & £12.

Albert Hall, NottinghamSundays at 2.45pm Free admission

5th May David Butterworth23rd June John Keys

Derby Cathedral Summer RecitalSeries Wednesdays at 7.45pm

July 3 Peter Gould / Tom Corfield / Christopher Johns / Sachin Gunga / Ben BloorJuly 10 David PipeJuly 17 Andrew KirkJuly 24 John KitchenJuly 31 Ben BloorAugust 7 Gough DuoAugust 14 Tom CorfieldAugust 21 Peter Gould

Photo: The Skrabl organ at St Michael’s ParishChurch, Lyme Regis

DDOA Events 201320th MayDavid Cowan: ‘Improvisation’Derby Cathedral. 7.30pm

10th JuneAnnual dinner at Willersley Castle

9th JulyFamily Recital at Christ Church, Belper:Follow-up to CATO visits.

14th SeptemberAnnual full day outing to Oxford,including Keble College.

12th OctoberDaytime visit to Ashbourne, including StOswald’s PC

13th NovemberChairman’s Event and AGM

A Skrabl on the Jurassic Coast - Laurence Rogers

context-setting presentation onPost-Restoration London which hedescribed as awash with brilliantorgan improvisers. Such was thedemand for organists then thatJohn Stanley, probably the mostfamous improviser of the period,was persuaded to publish sets ofvoluntaries that were playable bylower grade musicians who lackedthe skill of improvisation. We arefortunate inheritors of thispublishing initiative!

Tim Hone presented a fascinatingsurvey of landmark British organsfrom 1841 to 1954 together withrecorded examples. The datesspan was chosen with care; 1841being the date of the first organbuilt by Aristide Cavaillé-Collwhose career set new designstandards not only in France, butin Britain also; 1954 saw theinauguration of the Royal FestivalHall organ which signalled a radicalturning point in British organdesign. The course included a visitto a well-preserved early Victorian

agenda was perhaps the ultimatetest of its credentials, a test whichit passed with flying colours.

The three-day course included acelebrity recital by the lead tutor,Philip Scriven, Organist inResidence at Cranleigh School andformerly Director of Music atLichfield Cathedral, who presenteda programme spanning fivecenturies of English composersfrom Byrd to Farrington. This wasa most inspiring event and acomplete antidote to the sadly alltoo common esoteric programmesin churches and cathedrals that aregauranteed to repel music loversfrom organ recitals. Not only didPhilip demonstrate the richheritage of English organcomposers, he showed that theSkrabl was an amazingly versatileinstrument completely assimilatedto the repertoire. Needless to say,Philip's playing was immaculate,which could have been dauntingfor participants in the master-classes, but not so; his affablemanner readily put people at easeand brought out the best in theirplaying.

Philp Scriven led a winning teamof tutors which included RobertFielding, David Bruce Payne andTim Hone. Each were excellentcommunicators with great gifts ofempathy with participants. Wewere a mixed bunch of amateursand semi-professionals, but we feltthat all our contributions werevalued and useful learningexperiences. The programme ofsessions was nicely variedconsisting sometimes of wholegroup lectures-demonstrations andat other times small study groupshuddling round an organ console.Local musician Richard Godfreyopened the programme with a

organ in the nearby village ofTatworth. Here Tim explained therevolutionary influence ofMendelssohn on organ compositionand design in Britain in the early19th Century. Still out and about,the whole group also visited FordeAbbey to hear the 18th centurychamber organ in the medievalchapel. Here, tutors performedmusic by Tallis, Byrd and Purcell.

One of the favourite sessions forme was the talk by AndrewNicholson, Chairman of theorganising team. His topic wasTemperaments and Tuningsystems. Andrew did not attemptto blind us with science, butinstead explained the historicalcontext of the different systemsand demonstrated them aurallywith musical extracts played on akeyboard connected to theHauptwerk digital software system.The howling of the ‘wolf’ and thepurity of the major thirds were wellevident in the meantone examples.

The course was rounded off witha recital by participants, takingturns on the Skrabl organ. Thismade a satisfying conclusion to ourthree-day celebration of Britishorgan music with contributionsfrom all periods of the repertoire.Plans are afoot for another WinterCourse in 2014. Although thetheme has yet to be announced, Iam sure it will be a rewardingexperience for participants both forthe professional advice and theconvivial atmosphere, so I stronglycommend DDOA members to lookout for notices of the event.Information about events, theorgan and a sample audiorecording may be found athttp://www.lymeregisorganschool.org/skrabl-organ.html

Laurence Rogers2

Philip Scriven plays Purcell at Forde Abbey

Tim Hone explains Victorian innovations at Tatworth Robert Fielding on the big screen at Lyme Regis

http://www.lymeregisorganschool.org/skrabl-organ.htmlhttp://www.lymeregisorganschool.org/skrabl-organ.html

acoustics on the sound of the organwas equally devastating, but I amnot aware of such famous quotesabout this. Now in 2013 WilliamMcVicker demonstrated to us howmuch the recent changes to thestructure and fabric of the hall haveimproved the reverberation time.He did this first with a wolf-whistleand then with full organ chordsfrom the Paean by Langlais. (Sincethe rebuilding is still incomplete,‘full’ organ is really only ‘two thirds’organ.) Both demonstrationsshowed that the acoustics havecome a long way since 1954. Amini recital then followed given byArtistic Director Tom Bell and twoyoung students, playing pieces thathad been premiered at the RFH inyears past; Prelude, Toccata andChaconne by Brian Brockless, Paeanby Kenneth Leighton and OrganSymphony (extracts) by MalcolmWilliamson.

compare the tone of each, theformer being ‘smooth androunded’ and the latter havingmore ‘chiff’ and a generally‘brighter’ sound. Readers canhear the difference for themselvesin this video clip which I haveposted on YouTube:http://youtu.be/qVp5hLApJQs

The day concluded with a recitalby Kevin Bowyer, but before that,during the tea break there was abizarre scene of organists crawlingall over the stage and around theconsole eager to take close-upphotographs and inspect stopknobs in the time-honouredmanner. As for the recital, thiswas memorable only for itspaucity of tunes. The ‘classic’pieces were two Hindemithsonatas, the others by Pallescoand Farrington. It was a shamethat the programme squanderedthe talents of such a fine player onsuch a wonderful instrument. Thiswas a disappointing end to abrilliant day, but it won’t preventme from signing up again nextyear: 1st March 2014 at StGeorge’s, Hannover Square on thenew American instrument byRichards, Fowkes and Co.

Laurence Rogers

For some of us this annual eventhas become a ‘must’ in the organdiary. In recent years the qualityof topical interest and presentationhas gone from strength tostrength, and the numbers ofpeople attending has reflected thistrend. This year the focus was onthe organ in the Royal Festival Hall,a landmark instrument in the UKwhich has never been far awayfrom controversy since itsinauguration in 1954. Thebrainchild of Ralph Downes, it wasthe product of meticulous scientificresearch into design techniques, anapproach which fitteduncomfortably into the organbuilding culture of its time.

The venue of the Royal FestivalHall has itself been at the centre ofcontroversy during the whole of itslifetime. As an architectural icon,expressing much needed optimismafter the Second World War, it stillsucceeds to thrill, nearly sixtyyears on with its decor, vistas andspaciousness. However, theconcert hall has long beenbedevilled by the reputation of itsappalling acoustics. Of course, foran organ, acoustics are paramount,and I for one was anxious todiscover what improvements havebeen achieved since the recentlycompleted refurbishment of thehall.

All the answers came in the firstexcellent presentation by WilliamMcVicker, the Organ Curator, inwhich he traced the history of theconstruction of the building and itsacoustic tribulations. After WWII,the availability of materialsspecified by the architect LeslieMartin was severely limited and,contrary to plans, manysubstitutions were made, often tothe detriment of the acoustics.Such was the absorption of soundenergy by the walls and ceiling thatthe sound of famous orchestraswas reduced to that of a secondrate school orchestra, and SirSimon Rattle is famously quoted assaying “Playing in the RFH saps thewill to live!”. The effect of the

The London Organ Day 2013 at the Royal Festival Hall

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After lunch, Andrew Scott, HeadVoicer of the builder, Harrisons,gave a demonstration of pipevoicing which illustrated one of therevolutionary aspects of Downes’scheme for the organ. Downesspecified ‘open tip’ voicing, whichbasically involved making a largerhole in the foot of the pipe, but theconsequent adjustments to thelanguid and mouth required muchgreater precision than thetraditional method. In the space of40 minutes Andrew voiced two rawpipes, one by the traditional narrowtip method, and the other by the‘open tip’ method, and we could

Mark Venning, William McVicker and Ian Belldiscuss the RFH organ and its impact.

Tea-time - Time for a close inspectionThe ruler of Ralph Downes, specifying the minimum diameters for pipe footholes

Andrew Scott demonstrates ‘open tip’ voicing.

http://youtu.be/qVp5hLApJQs

St Francis, Mackworth

Members may recall reading in ourObituary to Peter Haslam last yearthat, at the time of his unexpecteddeath, he was promoting (andfunding) a scheme to replace theinadequate and ailing 1912 Norman& Beard organ at St Francis.Fortunately his family agreed tocontinue to support the project,which has now been completed.

The ‘new’ organ has a somewhatchequered history, which has stillnot been completely unravelled.Available evidence indicates that itis by Nicholson & Lord (Walsall),and that it started in 1884 as a one-manual, though enlarged to itspresent format at an early date. Itwas moved in 1971 from DarlastonGreen Methodist Church (nearWalsall) to Monyash MethodistChurch, from where it wastransferred to storage at St Francis’in 2011.

Great: Open Diapason 8, Clarabella8, Principal 4, Stopped Flute 4,Flageolet 2, Mixture III

Swell: Viol d’Amour 8, Gedact 8,Geigen Principal 4, Fifteenth 2,Hautboy 8

Pedal: Bourdon 16

The old organ has found anunexpected new home – in amuseum in Norway!

Ed Stow

Letters to the EditorThe article on Christmas carols

published in the March Newsletterhas prompted a few comments tome personally, but sadly only onesubstantive letter which I am gladto publish here. Should I take thegeneral silence of members tosignify assent or disgust of thesentiments expressed in thearticle? It is not too late to sendyour letter for the next issue. Ourcorrespondent here is pessimisticabout public debate of the topic.Let’s prove him wrong!

Editor

Members’ NewsDerby Diocesan OrganPilgrimage 2013/2014

During the next two years I amattempting to do something in theDiocese of Derby that to myknowledge has never been donebefore. I intend to play everychurch pipe organ in all of theAnglican churches in Derbyshire.Partly it is to raise awareness ofthe pipe organ and its potential andalso to raise money for localprojects of the Rural Dean’schoosing, sharing the collectionfrom the end of each concert 50/50along with Derby Cathedral’s musicprogramme.

My aim is to take each Deanery ata time, starting this year in theChesterfield Archdeaconry thenconcentrating on the South of theDiocese in 2014. During May Ishall visit the Bakewell Deanery.Details of my itinerary will beannounced athttp://www.derbycathedral.org

At each venue I play a shortconcert consisting of two or threepieces lasting about 15 minutes,the first will always be some musicby Bach, other pieces will bechosen according to what willsound best on that particularorgan. It is hoped to get maximumpublicity in the locality with congre-gations, local musicians andschools invited to be present and Iam presently looking for sponsor-ship to cover my travel costs bypublic transport.

I hope that you will support thisinnovative scheme and help me topromote good music makingthrough Derbyshire during the nexttwo years.

Canon Peter Gould

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The Editor,NewsletterDerbyshire Organists’ Association

Sir,

Hopefully you have had a generous response to the article about Christmas musicby Iachimo. In my view he merits having his name on a plaque in Derby Cathedralin gratitude for his attempt to shake us up. Not since I read on the Mandermessage board, years ago, the sentence: ”Here we are stuck with Hymns Old andNew which in my view contains 183 ‘songs’ that should never have seen the lightof day” have I come upon such a perceptive attack such as he offered; it was abreath of air. The three major organ journals of this country have more or lessdropped their Letters to the Editor columns; and the RSCM magazine plays safeand is never controversial. It seems that church musicians have stopped arguing. Ithought I was alone in thinking ill of what I call ‘the weak Weather Forecast carol’that is so unworthy of Darke’s tune; (and I have never understood the line ‘Witch adoor’). Truly Justin Welby hath need of someone like your contributor for we are ‘afen of stagnant water’. There is much for him to do: shortening the Psalter by athird could be a start. Beaumont and Kendrick et al can now be dismissed as failedexperiments; and what we need is someone with understanding to tackle the textsof the vast body of hymnody, some, though not all, of which is our proud heritage.Why has no one taken notice of a BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship survey carried outas far back as 2004 aimed to identify the most disliked hymns (a 1000 members ofthe public contributed). Interestingly, they condemned one good, one tolerable andone deserving tune. But what emerged from the exercise was the obvious dislike ofrefrains and irrelevant, untrue texts. Truly a revision is needed. But will that happen?No. Ancient and Modern is just about to be re-launched. Will there be changes?Undoubtedly a few but probably not enough. I overheard a comment uttered by theson of Timothy Dudley-Smith recently who said: “There are about 300 of his father’shymns still unpublished”, yet in six months’ time congregations will sing suchnonsense as ‘hither page and stand by me, if thou know’st it, telling’. One wishesyour contributor well in his campaign but as a senior BBC man once remindedproducers: “Don’t ever underestimate the low level of public taste”.

Rauschpfeife

http://www.derbycathedral.org/organ_pilgrimage.asp

After a short bus ride into the citycentre we arrived at St Peter'swhere we were welcomed by PeterSiepmann. He began by explainingthe chequered history of less thansatisfactory rebuilds of the organduring the 20th Century, eachattempting to improve the egressof sound into the nave. Despite itsbeautiful Georgian case, by thebeginning of this century, the innerworkings of the two hundred yearold instrument had deterioratedbelow the point of reliability.Coupled with the cramped organchamber and remote acoustic, theprospect of an expensive rebuildwith no greater promise of successover previous rebuilds, a radical

5

solution was considered andimplemented; much of thepipework would be discarded and ahybrid instrument constructedcombining the use of pipeworkwith digitally sampled sound. Thenew three-manual instrument wasformally dedicated in February2011. It has two facades; theGeorgian case facing the northaisle and a second case facing thechoir in the chancel.

Peter demonstrated many of thesubtle sounds by playing several ofthe 'Sei gegrüsset' variations byBach. The effect was entirelycaptivating as we admiredbeautiful flute tones, gentle soloreeds, piquant mutations as wellas the plenum chorus. Certainly,the egress of sound into the navewas very successful, being full-bodied yet bright and capable ofsubtle soft sounds. The Choirorgan also appeared to fulfiladequately the demands ofaccompanying the choir; releasedfrom the need to project soundinto the nave, its dynamic scalewas well proportioned to thechancel space.

The detached console wasconveniently located in the naveand our party gathered around,eager to discover secrets about theblend of the two technologies.Peter gave us a grand tour of thepalette of sounds without declaringwhich technology produced eachsound. To conclude he played agame of sound detective with us,spotting pipe ranks as opposed todigital ranks. I think our successrate was only about 60% whichwent a good way to support theclaim that the instrument shouldbe considered as a coherent whole.

Recent EventsVisit to organs in Nottingham

This February afternoon visit wasrather poorly attended, which wasa great shame in view of thegenerous provision of refreshmentsat Lenton Methodist Churchfollowed by a superbdemonstration of the organ at StPeter’s by Peter Siepmann, theDirector of Music. The Lentonorgan, originally by Lloyd has beenmuch altered. The detachedconsole seemed to have a non-standard feel about it, and mostmembers agreed that it was noteasy to get the best out of theinstrument.

A tour of the organ chamberfollowed and here some of thesecrets unravelled. To begin, eachdivision of the organ had dedicatedspeakers, aimed in the samedirection as the pipework. In thecase of the Great and Choir, a pairof speakers flanked the pipe ranks.In the case of the Swell, thespeakers pointed into the centre ofthe chamber. Needless to say thespeakers for the Pedal divisionwere enormous and there was nodoubting their ability to underpinthe other divisions with ample 16foot, and even 32 foot tone.Overall, the acoustic layout of thechamber made a majorcontribution to the successfulblend and propagation of soundinto the building.

The design of this organ wasfascinating and possibly signals apathway for instruments in thefuture, not only as a response toconstrained budgets, but as aneffective solution to the age-oldproblem of remote and crampedorgan chambers. We are verygrateful to Peter for his skilfuldemonstrations and spirited andfull answers to our barrage ofquestions.

Our thanks go to our welcominghosts at both churches and toJames Muckle for making thearrangements.

Laurence Rogers

St Peter’s: Interior view of the Great organbehind the Georgian facade and showing the

pipe ranks flanked by loudspeakers.

St Peter’s: Interior view of the Choir organ

Lenton Methodist Church

St Peter’s: North aisle case c.1770

Peter Siepmann explains the blending of digitaland pipe technologies.

www.derbyorganists.co.uk

Items of news or articles for the May/June edition of the should reach the Editor by Monday 17th June,either via e-mail: DDOAnews@gmail.com or by post: Dr Laurence Rogers, 24 St.David’s Crescent, Coalville,Leicestershire LE67 4SS. The Secretary, Stephen Johns, may be reached via mail@derbyorganists.co.ukPlease visit the DDOA Website www.derbyorganists.co.uk for information about Association activities, past editionsof the newsletter, photo gallery and many special features of local interest.

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Forthcoming DDOA MeetingsDAVID COWEN on Improvisation,

Derby Cathedral Monday 20th May 7.30pm

David is an Improviser of international reputationand we really are lucky to have him, plus the chanceto visit the Cathedral – thanks to Peter Gould’s goodoffices.

He has some excellent suggestions for starting toimprovise which are not at all daunting and are easilyaccessible whatever your standard of competence. Hemakes the point that many people find the art difficultbecause they try to start on a very demanding level –playing in ‘hymn tune style’ with a very fast rate ofchord change and in four-part harmony. The resultcan sometimes lack shape and direction and easilybecomes a musical equivalent of a ‘politician’s waffle’!

He lays stress on clarity and simplicity and uses scalesand modes as a starting points as well as moretraditional harmony. My recent session with him was amixture of teaching and discussion and it was verystimulating. Needless to say he can do the FrenchToccata stuff with the best of them (he has studied inFrance with top teachers) and he will happily sharesome of the tricks of the trade. I asked him how hecame to develop such expertise. His reply was typicallymodest and rather surprising - ‘it was because Iabsolutely was no good at it – so I went and boughtsome books and just got on with it’ Now that is goodnews for us all. So please do come along. Play if youwish, but there is no compulsion. I have had ‘offers ofhelp’ on the night from several members already.

Stephen Johns

Annual Dinner 10th June 2013

Willersley Castle Hotel, Cromford

7.00 for 7.30pm

Guest of Honour: Dr Alan Thurlow President ofthe Incorporated Association of Organists.

Booking your place:

A three course meal will be served. Price perperson: £19.50 excluding wine. Details of themenu are shown on the booking slip accompanyingthis newsletter. Please indicate your choices on thebooking slip and return it with a cheque (payableto the Derby and District Organists’ Association) tothe Secretary, Mr Stephen Johns, 24 OaklandsAvenue, Littleover, Derby DE23 7QG (01332764792)

AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BUT NO LATER THANTUESDAY 24TH MAY

Service with a Smile

On Monday 15th April about twentymembers converged on SaintWystan's church Repton to hear MrPeter Williams deliver a wellthought out paper entitled "Servicewith a smile". He drew on his wideexperience as a musician in bothcathedral and parish churches,culminating in various teachingappointments, finally at ReptonSchool.

His paper was broadly basedon the musical needs of a SundayEucharist, and Peter opened theevening with a suitable introductoryvoluntary "Schmucke dich,O liebe

seele" BVW654. Beautifully played,the piece was determinedlyinterrupted by Denis, masqueradingas a member of the Clergy wishingto get a quick word with the "congo"before the service proper, to theamusement of all concerned!

Most of the service playingchallenges which we all face werecovered in a light hearted and wellinformed style. Special attentionwas given to hymn play-overs, andthe importance of strict time-keeping in hymns even to the extentof the number of beats betweenverses. Both Anglican chant andresponsorial psalm accompaniments

were covered, and members wereencouraged to sing along in theexamples. Improvisatory "fill ins"between verses or at the end ofhymns was demonstrated, as wellas embellished "last verses".

The evening concluded with aspirited performance ofClerambault's Caprice sur legrands jeux, music which soundsquite authentic on the Reptonorgan.

We are very grateful to Peter forhis thoughtful yet entertainingpresentation.

Terry Bennett

mailto:DDOAnews@gmail.commailto:DDOAnews@gmail.commailto:mail@derbyorganists.co.ukwww.derbyorganists.co.uk