The National Pipe Organ Register (NPOR)

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Welcome to the NPOR at the Royal College of Music

© The British Institute of Organ Studies2012 (BIOS)

March 2013 BOA index updated

A new version of the BOA index prepared by Chris Kearl has been installed.

The NPOR returns to Cambridge (January 2013)

BIOS are very grateful to the RCM for hosting the NPOR service since December 2008. It had been hoped that BIOS and the RCM would develop the NPOR jointly and that it would play a part in the learning resources of the RCM but this has not happened. The NPOR service will therefore return to Emmanuel College Cambridge in January 2013.

NPOR Editors meeting August 2012

A meeting for new and old editors plus the Managers and Mark Venning representing the Council was held in August. Two new editors were introduced to the intricacies of the editing system and a useful discussion about future development was held. See the photograph.

New Manager for the NPOR appointed from July 2012

Frances Pond is retiring as Manager of the NPOR at the end of June 2012 and will be succeeded by Andrew Macintosh whose "day job" is with the RCO. We are very grateful to Frances for the seamless transition of the Managership in 2005 and for the successful progress of the NPOR and the editing team since. We are grateful also to the Birmingham City University for Housing the Manager and her files. Andrew will start his stint from a position of strength and we wish him continuing success. A lunch was held by BIOS in Birmingham to thank Frances and to introduce the editing team to Andrew. The photograph shows from left to right Andrew McCrea (RCO), Paul Houghton (Manager 1992-2005), David Greening (Editor), Alan Thurlow (Chairman of BIOS), Mike Sayers (former Director of the NPOR), Frances Pond(Manager 1995-2012), Andrew Macintosh (Manager designate), Richard Hird (Editor), Graham Jones (Editor) and the Rev Tony Newnham (Editor). John Norman (former BIOS Chairman) was selflessly endangering life and limb standing on a table taking the picture.

Dec 2010 Philip Rogers

We are sad to report that BIOS member and prolific NPOR Editor Philip Rogers died suddenly from a heart attack a few days before Christmas at his home in Bedfordshire. Philip is the one on the right of the photograph taken at a lunch for editors in 2005 at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Before joining BIOS as a full member a few years ago he had already been working as an NPOR editor for some years before that and was a leading light in the drive for greater accuracy of the NPOR working closely in conjunction with the British Organ Archive. He was the R prefix on the 2,000+ new surveys which he had created for the NPOR since 2001. In addition to his editing work and the development of pre-existing surveys, Phil was responsible for the difficult and exacting maintenance of the "History" feature in the NPOR which tracks the movement of organs between buildings.

He was also partly responsible for securing for BIOS the important 19th cent. collection of Specification note-books once belonging to the late Willson Bradly Gatward, organist of Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Hitchin.

Phil was a gentle, quiet and caring man with hidden depths and a good friend who will be sadly missed. Our sympathy goes to his family and friends.

2009 Anniversaries celebrated in HOSA music

Click to see details of composer anniversaries celebrated in HOSA music.

The NPOR moves to The Royal College of Music (December 2008)

The NPOR server has moved to The Royal College of Music after spending all its life so far in Cambridge. Management of the content of the database is, however, unchanged and additions or corrections should continue to be notified to the NPOR Manager at Birmingham City University.

The public internet address for the NPOR is www.npor.org.uk.

HOSA tribute to Noel Mander

Recordings of music played on the organ of Adlington Hall in Cheshire have been added to the HOSA project in memory of Noel Mander who restored the organ in 1959.

HOSA CD

A CD of some of the music recorded as part of the HOSA project is now available. Read the details.

New Features

New version of BOA Index

A new version of the index to the documents in the British Organ Archive (BOA Index) prepared by Chris Kearl was installed on 25th November 2008

HOSA Soundfiles

Now that higher broadband speeds are generally available, the resolution and hence audio fidelity of the sound files has been increased. In order that the files should start to play without a significant delay on lower speed broadband connections, the playing method has been changed to stream the files using Adobe FlashPlayer. The previous method is still available for those who do not wish to install FlashPlayer. A photograph of the organ is displayed whilst the file is playing.

HOSA Scores

Images of scores are available for some of the musical items. They are identified in the mini descriptions by a "score-like" icon. A list is available as a menu item under the HOSA tab. (4th April 2008).

Maps

The location of organs can now be displayed on Google maps (4th April 2008).

Conversion of database

From the evening of the 7th December 2007, the NPOR database has been running on Microsoft SQLServer Express. It was converted from Oracle on which it had been running since it was started in 1992.

Format of department list

The format of the properties of departments has been changed to make it easier to read.

Change of Font

Having tried Times, Georgia and Arial and listened to comments, I have settled on Arial for its clean appearance but I have used Times for the roman numerals which were hard to read without serifs.

New menus

In response to a number of criticisms,the "hover" menus have been changed to "pulldowns".

The NPOR builder search has been enhanced to include constraints on work done between two given years.

Sir John Smith CH CBE

It is with regret that we record the death on 28th February 2007 of Sir John Smith who, through the Manifold Trust, was one of the earliest supporters of the NPOR. We extend our condolences to Lady Smith.

Bugs which have been fixed recently

There is a bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE6) connected with absolute positioning which makes it impossible to select text from a window in the NPOR. A workaround has now been implemented which causes the select to work properly.

Notes for contributors

New notes are available to help those who would like to contribute information or corrections to the NPOR. Please read them before submitting contacting us.

David Tempest Atkinson (31st August 1935 - 18th August 2005)

It is with very considerable sadness that we record the death of David Atkinson who was our most prolific and capable editor. David was organist and choirmaster of the parish church of St Mary, Hitchin until his stroke five years ago and even afterwards he amazed us all by giving public recitals using an assistant to play the right hand. His enthusiasm and committment are greatly missed. All those who knew him will wish to extend our sympathy to his wife Jean and to their family.

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