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Who said this? 1. We shall never get the right kind of material in our choir until every member of it, asked whether if he were not in the choir stalls he would be in the body of the church, can honestly answer 'yes' .... They are members of the congregation, sitting in a special place for convenience' sake, and doing a bit of church work. 2. People don't come to concerts to be educated. 3. I don't like something I ought to or because it has been created by some particular individual. I like it; I like it to please myself. The Diary of Samuel Newton, Alderman of Cambridge, 1662-1717 (Cambridge Antiquarian Society) yields the following extracts: '1679 -80, l2th Febr. Thirsday was the first day Mr. Loosemore began to teach my son John to sing to and play upon the base Vial!. I am to give him 20s. per quarter and hee to come 3 times every weeke, viz. at 9 of the Clock in the morning on Mundayes, Wednesdayes and Fridayes.' (Subsequent entries show that Mr. Loosemore's fees were raised to 30s. per quarter). 'St. Symon and St. Jude, Thirsday, Agreed then at the Rose with Mr. Thamar Organmaker in the presence of Mr. George Loosemore Organist for an Organ of 3 stopps viz. A dyapazon, a Flute and a Fifteenth to be delivered to me and sett upp at my house tomorrow, For which I agreed with him to pay him Eleaven poundes, of which I then gave him in parts one shilling.' The Loosemores of Cambridge were Henry and George. Henry was chorister and afterwards a lay-clerk at one of the Cambridge colleges. He took his MusB in 1640 and was organist of King's College until his death in 1670. He was also resident organist to Baron North's family at Kirtling. George was his son and served under his father at King's. In l660 he became organist at Trinity College, retaining his post until his death in 1682. In 1665 he took his MusD. As with his father, his compositions included church music. He was to follow his father at Kirtling; from 1660 - in conjunction with John Jenkins - for six years and, like his father, his compositions included church music. (JBIOS 5(1981 ), p.24). Further to the note about the gun on Robert Spurden Rutt's desk when the union representative was there (BIOSR XX, No.2, p.30), W. Summers of Summers & Bames of York, who trained with Hele and then worked with Rutt, indicates that the gun was always there. He tells us that Rutt's office on the first floor looked right over the great building-room. Rutt would often look out of his window and, if he saw anyone idling he would fire his gun as a warning! (The Organ LXII, p.1 19). Porritt advertised in the Musical Times July 1868; 'Seven years finisher and tuner with Forster & Andrews' so his Queensland plaque (BIOSR XVIII No.3 p.21) is, to say the least, misleading. There was, as I indicated, much dissatisfaction about the judging at the 1862 Exhibition. The Musical Standard of l September had a report with certain outspoken comments. From this, we gather that Forster & Andrews did not receive any medal, but shared with Hedgeland only an honourable mention'. The Musical Standard took a dim view of this, as did numerous other correspondents. The Hedgeland organ, with pneumatic action and a detached reversed console, had an ornate case incorporating a carved figure, a 'medieval painting' and diapered pipes judged by The Musical Standard to 'strike harmoniously on the eye' better than others in the exhibition. 'This is in good taste, but would be suitable only where a high standard of ecclesiology is considered indispen$able.' It went to the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Cross, St. Helens, Merseyside, where it still is, though altered. When Hedgeland (BIOSR XX, No.1 p.27) built an organ for Cranleigh School, he must have formed a favourable opinion of the establishment for, in 1877, he entered his sons there; John George, aged 15, and Frederick, aged 10. After overhaul in 1896 the organ went to Longdon, near Tewkesbury. That was in 1926. I saw it there in 1941 before it finally expired from dry-rot and woodworm in the l950s. Concerning the Argents (BIOSR XV, No.2 p.14, Vl, No.3 p.24, VI, No.40 p.10) Paul Tindall recorded (BIOSR XXl, No.4 p.11 ) that Humphrey Senior was in Cambridge by1783, when he did repairs at St. Mary, Huntingdon. Administration was granted on his estate in 1795, and the Will of Humphrey Junior was proved in 1840 - information relayed by Paul from the Index of the Probate Records of the Court of the Archdeacon of Ely 1513-1847. The article on Snetzler (BIOSR XI, No.4 p.11) mentions that the earlier parish records of Huntingdon All Saints have been lost. This remains so. However, one Robert Carruthers had recorded some of them in his History of Huntingdon from the Earliest to the Present Times, published in 1824. Information on pp. 266-268 included a (1775) list of 'Subscriptions for Erecting the Organ', headed by the Earl of Sandwich with £50. 'The subscriptions amounted to £204 7s. 3d. and the expenditure to £206 l7s.3d.' St. Mary's Church appears on p.274: 'At the west end is a large gallery, which contains the organ, built by Jones and Snetzler, and considered of superior workmanship. Both the gallery and organ were erected in 1773, at the expense of John, Earl of Sandwich'. This explains the lack of any information in the church records. Sperling deals with both organs (Vol.11 p.135) but, as so often, gets his dates wrong. The statement by Clutton and Niland was a distortion of the information given to them that the names were recorded, not that they were signed in the organs. We were considering water organs (BIOSR XX, No.3 p.23; XXII, No.1 p.21) including that at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli. Information kindly supplied by W. & A. Boggis and Ronald Watson points to 'probably the first working example of a water organ using an aeolian chamber, to be built since 1750' which will shortly be returning to Messrs. Boggis' workshop at Diss. 'The system I used was the same as that at the Villa d'Este. Water cascading down a tube sucked in air creating a continuous flow of bubbles suspended in water. These then separated out in the so-called aeolian chamber.The barrel of the organ which was turned by a water-wheel, was pinned with a sixteenth-century Italian street melody and played on one rank of flute pipes.' The Reverend W. Jones, MA, 'Jones of Nayland', was descended from Colonel Jones, one of the regicides of 1649. He was the author of A Treatise on the Art of Musick, in which the Elements of Harmony and Air are practical considered and illustrated by 150 Examples in Notes .... the Whole intended as a Course of Lectures preparatory to the Practice of Thorough bass and Musical Composition. (Colchester, 1784; Sudbury1827). In 1879 appeared Ten Church Pieces for the Organ with four Anthems in Score...including the tune St. Stephen. These he dedicated to Lady Rushout who had given generous help in the provision of a good organ for Nayland Church. She also gave the opening recital on 29 July 1789, on which occasion Jones preached on the 'Nature and Excellence of Music' to the text 'Sing to the harp with a Song of Thanksgiving' (Psalm XCVIII v.6). Information is sought on two topics; first, an undated letter from Mrs. R. Clifton-Browne sent to me at Caxton during the late sixties: 'It is strange to me that, while the three (Sutton) brothers (John, Augustus, Frederick) worked so much together to restore churches to their former beauty, Frederick and no doubt my grandfather (Augustus) took out of Brant Broughton Church a Father Smith organ with black keyboard and white semitones and sold it to America - they replaced it with a replica. This information was given to me by Mrs. Stokes, the Vicarage, Nettleham, Lincs, whose father (Mr. J. Waiter) was organist for 50 years (Mrs. Stokes is over 80 years old) at Brant Broughton. Yours very sincerely, (Mrs.) Robin Clifton-Browne.' Information is sought about Rupert Kettle and Partners, which firm was functioning in Northamptonshire about forty years ago, and on George Organs Ltd. in the Cannockarea, probably modern. Answers to Who said this? 1. Harvey Grace, The Complete Organist.2. Ewald Kooiman.3. John Ruskin.
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