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Who said this?
'Wood pipes, trackers etc. to be varnished. The front of pine, plain Gothic design, stained & varnished. To be packed in metal lined cases, very carefully, and marked so that they may be put together by comparatively inexperienced persons. In the order they have to be put together. Send with the organ a set of tuning instruments and extra trackers, buttons &c, & any requisite tool not likely to be procurable in South Africa.'
Odd bits
At Litton Cheney near Dorchester, 22nd October 1897, Gray & Davison altered the organ to equal temperament. Surely the last example?
The organ (designed by Cunningham) at King Edward's School, Birmingham, was being re-erected in new buildings and a new set of Swell chorus reeds was needed. Said Mr. Lambert of Nicholsons, 'There is nothing wrong with the old ones, except perhaps the zinc goes up a bit far. I wonder whether the original builder would like them?' The offer came back of £100. Lambert said he couldn't resist replying 'I should have thought they were worth more, but you should know!'
'Let it be remembered that the parson has to compose his two Sunday sermons before he can deliver them, while the organist does not have to compose the Sunday music, but only to play it. There is, however, one thing in common between them. Neither organist nor parson can know the effect he is producing unless he is told.'
From the bran-tub come some reminiscences by J.R. Knott of organs which he had known or played on as a youth:
St. Olave, Tooley Street, had the noted Gauntlett-Lincoln-Hill organ which had been neglected and suffered piecemeal destruction during the period 1914-1926. The parish was united with that of St. John, Horsleydown, and ultimately, after completion of the removal elsewhere of the remains in the burial ground, and some legal delays, the church was demolished and Hay's Wharf took over the site. The then organist of St. Mary Rotherhithe persuaded his church authorities to purchase the remains of the organ for inclusion in a massive rebuild at St. Mary's, and JRK was one of the volunteers who helped to transport some 15 tons of organ to the organ-builders - he does not say which, but I am sure it was Monk & Gunther. Knott says that practically all the metal pipework had already been taken by metal thieves, and there was very little wooden pipework above middle C on the Great chest.
Fortunately the crazy scheme for St. Mary's, which Knott accurately categorises 'fantasy', never took place and the material remained with M&C. A similar fate threatened St. James, Bermondsey, where some botching was commenced with the idea of incorporating the organ from the blitzed Astoria Cinema in Old Kent Road and using the Compton action. Fortunately this scheme, by a volunteer whom Knott declines to name, with no organ-building qualification or experience, fell through before too much damage had been done. After a period in the doldrums the church and organ entered on a new life and, as members of BIOS will have experienced, the organ on a period of restoration and appreciation.
St. John, Horsleydown, had a 1770 Crang & Hancock which, by Knott's time, was being allowed to fall into decay following the gift of a Lewis & Co. organ by the Courage family, whose brewery was in the parish. The Lewis had a Rotasphere blower (BIOSR vol.18 no.1, p.22; vol.18, no.2 p.20), very efficient until the bicycle tyre became worn. The church and both organs were destroyed in WWII, but by that time all the metal pipes had been stolen. The Courage family were also donors of Lewis & Co. organs to St. Olave's Grammar School and, of course, Southwark Cathedral.
I have received a letter commenting on the article on Taylor of Leicester in BIOSJ 18. The writer, Bernard Green, joined the Choir at St. John the Divine as a boy just before the war, under J.H.Taylor, staying until leaving Leicester some ten years later, during which time he learned to play the organ. Occasionally he was sent to Nelson Street with notes from J.H. to Stephen(ii). 'On arrival I would be shown into a room to await Mr. Stephen. This room had music everywhere: all over shelves around the room and all over the floor. The brothers always seemed to have music around them, both printed and manuscript. The console at St. John's was quite deeply set in the organ. On the right, in line with the organ bench, there was a door leading into the organ, of a size such that one could slide comfortably straight off the bench. This John Henry did during every sermon, settling in his 'den' next to pedal reed ranks, which contained a desk and chair and there he would read the Sunday paper, or write music until the homily had ended. In his latter days, he sometimes fell asleep and had to be 'winkled' out. He did more than any other person to instil in me a lifelong love of music and of the organ.
I, like you, have heard the derogatory remarks about Taylor organs which certainly were current in Leicester in the 1940s. I have always maintained that I was privileged (and spoilt) to have had a Taylor organ to "cut my organ teeth" on. One does not come across instruments of this constructional and tonal quality often; and surely, they must typify all that was best in early twentieth century organ building.'
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