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BERNARD EDMONDS___________________________________
Who said this? 1. Bach never composed the great G minor. It came straight down from God. All Bach did was to put it on paper for Him. 2. You must always remember that you hear what you think your hearers hear what you do. 3. On emerging from a performance of one of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos - If that is true, everything must be all right. 4. The modern world has divided itself into conservatives and progressives. The function of progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. * * * The string of rather tatty second-hand bookshops in Birmingham's Bristol Street was a magnet to a schoolboy with an interest in railways, and there for a few pence I acquired a rare booklet which turned out to have an organ bonus. The organ in the Town Hall, it says,'is capable of the finest and most delicate touches of the octave flute, and the most terrific blast of the trumpet. When the whole of the keys are pressed down at once, an awful clap of thunder is produced ... The roar of the organ, to a person placed in the midst of it, when thunder is being imitated is such as to make him imagine that the whole building is being blown to pieces by an explosion. The builder of this noble instrument is Mr Hill, of London, who only received £3,000 for his skill and execution. Mr Hollins, the organist, is one of the finest performers in Europe; and from his intimate knowledge of the instrument, plays it to the very best advantage, producing effects which no one but himself is capable of.' (Osborne's Guide to the Grand Junction Railway 1838) Music, where art thou? * * * Samuel Green made his Will 6 June 1780, making his wife sole executrix and referring to 'our dear children', but neglecting to have the document witnessed! (Harris 500) So after his death in 1796, on 1 October an Affidavit had to be made as to his handwriting in order that the Will might be Proved. This was done by Thomas Prickett of the Parish of Barking in the County of Essex, and Mary Stewart of the City of Oxford, widow. (Sewell, Surrogate). The illegible address on the Will I assumed was Queens Row. * * * In his article about Westminster Abbey organ (JBIOS 23 (1999), 78) David Knight records that when Harrisons took over the care of it Hill, Norman & Beard wrote hoping that friendly relations would not be affected. When the actual rebuild took place this was shown by an invitation from Arthur Harrison to John Christie to see what was being done. With Christie went E.S. Teulon - who had tuned the organ for many years - and Herbert Norman, who wrote: 'Arthur Harrison was an artist organ-builder, but also a showman. He greeted us and invited us to the console, where a member of his staff asked him to try over a new stop he had just fitted. He ran his hands over the keys and to my surprise, without comparing it to any other rank, loudly ordered it back to Durham as unsuitable in scale. Christie whispered to Teulon, 'What do you think of that?' Teulon whispered back, 'WE get it right first time.' * * * More about Dr Morse. He was churchwarden of Barnet for ten years in all, between 1731 and 1750. 'He deals' says a letter received from Barnet 'in detail with the fire engine and the bells, the bread and wine, polecats, weasels and hedgehogs, and repairing the roof of the church; but he makes no mentions of organs, organists, or even music.' Our last glimpse of him is in the London Daily Advertiser, 25 October 1752. Here we read that he was riding in his chair at Barnet near the windmill when he was 'seized with an apoplectic fit ... and being carried home expired in a short time to the very great Concern of many Families in that Neighbourhood, with whom he was in much Esteem'. He was buried in Hadley Wood, and the inscription on his gravestone has been preserved by F.T. Cansick in Curious and Interesting Epitaphs of Distinguished and Noted Characters in the Churches and Churchyards of Hornsey, Tottenham, Edmonton, Enfield, Friern Barnet and Hadley Highstope. 'Here lieth the Body of SARAH, wife of IUSTn MORSE of Chipin Barnet, Surgeon who departed this life the 18th of March, 1751 aged 72. Also the Body of Mr IUSTn MORSE who died October ye 20th 1752 in the 62nd year of his age.' He filed Patent 527 of 1731 for an organ blown by weights, 'the musick being prickt on both sides of leaves of half-inch wainscot' and is 'made after a new method to play louder and softer by a division on the soundboard' and 'may be made for a much lower price than all others heretofore.' A whetted appetite is foiled by the fact that he neglected to provide either specification or drawings! * * * A query about the Apollonicon. A full account of this organ and its history will be found in Barrel Organs (Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume, (Allen & Unwin, 1978), 110-137). It was built by Flight & Robson, and in a useful Appendix A 493-503 is a full description of the sale when the partners split up. There is a great deal more of interest in the book. * * * Where can one see William Pole's 'Organs of the Great Exhibition?' I can't say. I tried myself some years ago through the Library Exchange system, and finally was informed that the only copy they could find was in the British Library, and therefore not available on loan. There is some interesting organ matter in it, apart from the actual Exhibition; and unless BIOS can be persuaded to organise publication of the relevant bits, you know where we have to go! * * * The organ (Christ's College, Cambridge) fell into disrepair after 1765. Organs would not be thought necessary by those whose ideas of worship were so shallow and formal as those recorded there in the life of Darwin. 'The Dean used to read alternate verses of the Psalms, without making even a pretence of waiting for the congregation to take their share; and where the lesson was a lengthy one he would rise and go on with the canticles after the scholar had read fifteen or twenty verses.' At that time (about 1830) the endowment for the Choir was 'perverted to other uses.' The Parish Choir for 1848 adds that it was desired to revive the choral services, but the authorities had taken no steps, and all that was done was the storing away of the old pipework, at the suggestion apparently of Sir John Sutton. Answers to 'Who said this?' 1 and 2. G.D. Cunningham. 3. Bishop Charles Gore (c.1905). 4. G.K. Chesterton. (Organ consultants please note). |