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BIOS DAY CONFERENCE AT READING UNIVERSITY MUSIC DEPARTMENT 2lst February 1998 CHRISTOPHER GRAY Some thirty delegates assembled for this conference on current research, organised by Dr. Christopher Kent. Despite this disappointing attendance the day proved to be most worthwhile. The conference began with a paper from Dominic Gwym, entitled 'The development of flue-pipe voicing in Georgian England', an analysis of the timbres of the eighteenth-century English organ. Attention was paid to the scaling, voicing, and composition of the Principal chorus, these features being compared with continental examples. Mouth width ratios, mouth height ratios, and toehole/flue area ratios were discussed. Mixture composition was examined, and continental examples by ThomasDallam were compared with those of Snetzler, Griffin, Byfield, and Green. David Frostick followed with a paper 'English Reeds in the first half of the Nineteenth Century'. He commenced with the state of reeds at the beginning of that period and, despite the paucity of original material, was able to provide original examples and photographs. Differences of open, closed, beaked, and flat shallots were discussed together with scaling, curving, and tuning springs. The technical aspects of reed voicing were dealt with concerning the amount and position of curve or 'set' on atongue, whether thinning or loading was used, and the importance of the thickness of brass relative to the position in the scale of a note. The examples given were backed up by photographs and drawings of the work of Hill, Hart, Lincoln, Renn and Bishop. Following the excellent buffet lunch, Joan Jeffery gave a lecture on the 'Organs in Canterbury Cathedral during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'. It has been assumed that the first organ used after the Commonwealth was built by Lancelot Pease in 1662; however, new research based on workmen's receipts in the cathedral records proves there was a predecessor. On 29 September 1660, carpenter Richard Pysing made a bill for 'a frame for the organes'; it is unclear to what instrument this relates. A letter dated 28 January 1661 from Thomas Harison, 'to my loving friend Mr.Francis Plomer Organist of Canterbury Cathedral' urged Plomer to come to London at once. Harison had been working at Windsor, and expected to move to Salisbury or Winchester in eight to ten days time, but he could set up the Canterbury work at once as he had plenty of stops in readiness. This evidence is of considerable importance, for Harison was in fact none other than Robert Dallam's son-in-law Thomas Harris, indicating his return from exile in Brittany. A carpenter's bill for July 1661 shows a man working five days 'about ye orgin loft'. On 28 September Francis Plomer's petty expenses included 'for helping the Organ in to the loth 1s.'. On 4 October, Joseph Body, Organ Maker, put in a bill for £100 'For the Quire organ' with a further £8 'for setting up the Organ in the Quire'. In June1662, however William Hathaway received 'forty shillings for worke done by me ... in tackinge doune & packing up of an organ intended (by ye Deane of Canterbury & Dr.Pirce) for Canterbury Cathedrall, thought (sic) by them' . On 17 July 1662, the Dean and Chapter entered into a contract with Lancelot Pease to build a double organ. Following his renovation of the organ in 1684, Bernard Smith was paid a retainer for tuning and maintenance of £5 per annum. Shrider made repairs in l704 and in 1713 Johan Knoppell replaced the Trumpet and Principal for £120, later adding a Cremona.The well-known 1752 agreement with Richard Bridge refers to a 'new' organ; however an earlier document proposes 'repair' and alteration of two ranks. The specification here is listed as a two-manual whereas the later Bridge paper refers to a three-manual instrument. Around 1784 John Lincoln (in default of Byfield) agreed to move the organ, but the contract was transferred to Samuel Green, who rebuilt the organ retaining some of the new work of Lincoln, an old Trumpet of Byfield's and the existing Swell organ. The Choir was entirely new, however it is not clear how much of the old Great was retained. The organ was set up temporarily in Westminster Abbey for the 1784 Handel Commemoration. Assembly at Canterbury was completed on 8 December 1785. A full account of workmen employed and material used exists; Green was paid £290,and Lincoln £120, for the work.
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