The UK's leading Digital Church Organ specialist
Viscount have long had two strong dealers, Soundtec Classical Organs and Key Player, north of the border. Both are family businesses. On the East Coast just outside Edinburgh Key Player (previously Edinburgh Organ Studio) continues to be run by Kerr MacIntosh. Once on the Golden Mile they are now outside the city centre in Leith Walk and…
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This month we present the hymn “Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise”, by the great hymn writer Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788). This hymn is usually sung to the Welsh tune LLANFAIR, attributed to Robert Williams (1782 – 1821), even though some historians have certain doubts about his authorship. This hymn was written for…
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My very first job was as an articled accountant in London working a stones throw from Borough Market in a brand new tower block by London Bridge station. That block has since been demolished and on that site now sits the Shard. Who would have though a tower block would become redundant in just 40…
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When I came into the office a while back I was greeted with a sight of a Welsh National Opera vehicle parked outside which I assure you is not a frequent sight. On entering the building I found a repair in progress on their travelling Viscount Organ that had recently blown an amplifier driving external…
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For this month’s hymn we have appropriately selected the Christian Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”. The author is unknown but early manuscripts suggest that the hymn was written in Germany in the 14th century. The hymn is most frequently set to the hymn tune “Easter Hymn” which was composed in the Lyra Davidica…
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Those of you familiar with St John’s Smiths Square or steeped in knowledge of the pipe organs of the British Isles will know that SJSS has a very fine Klais pipe organ and so should not be in need of a hire organ. However, things do not always go to plan and so it was…
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In 2016 we ran an extensive three month competition to introduce more people to the sound of digital church organs. We developed a Quiz that tested the players as to whether they could identify specific clips of music as a pipe organ or a digital organ. In July last year I had the happy job…
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The hymn tune of the month this time is “Passion Chorale” which was originally composed by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612). The most common text associated to this hymn tune is “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” which is a Christian Passion hymn based on a Latin text written during the Middle Ages. Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) originally…
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Early in January 2017 I received a request for help with a Sheffield based programme aimed at engaging with youngsters in the poorer areas of the City by way of establishing youth choirs. This initiative is being led by Chris Bishop, the Youth Ministry Co-ordinator and will be based in up to 4 churches in…
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On Saturday January 7th 2017 the RCO in conjunction with the Organ Club, arranged for a full day visit to the Troxy Cinema in Commercial Road East London to explore the Wurlitzer Organ installed there in 2015. What a day out it proved to be! Unfortunately I did not get there until the lunch break…
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Lucca is a Tuscan city that is a must on any visit to Italy. Close to Pisa it no doubt lives in the shadow of that far better know tourist Mecca. Lucca may not have a leaning tower but in my opinion it has a great deal more to offer the visitor looking to pass…
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This month’s hymn, “Tell Out, My Soul”, is a Christian hymn paraphrasing the Magnificat written by Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926 – ) in 1962. In the early days this hymn was paired to a tune by Michael Baughen but it was later paired and greatly enhanced by the sweeping music of Walter Greatorex’s (1877 – 1949)…
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An Organ Recital by Christopher Cipkin will take place on 18 February 2017 at 4pm in St Peter’s Church, Caversham. This is a great opportunity to hear a recital on the wonderful new Regent Classic organ installed in 2016. You can read more about the installation here. Christopher Cipkin, past organist at Reading Minster, Reading…
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The 2017 series was recorded at the lovely medieval church of St Mary’s Chalgrove. I chose this church partly because it is close to our base in Bicester but also because it is of a fairly typical size of the parish church in which we install our organs and especially as it has some of…
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In the last weeks before Christmas I have been listening to the previews of Hymn of the Month and the Regent Classic Tutorial videos. To speed up the process of review the files are sometimes ‘compressed’ by the various delivery systems in differing ways and I have been conscious for the first time of how…
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An Organ Recital given by Francis Rumsey will take place on Saturday 28th January 2017 at 7pm in aid of the St Mary’s roof restoration fund. Francis Rumsey is the organist at St Mary Witney. As well as an accomplished player Francis is an audio engineer and former professor who will illustrate the programme with interesting information about…
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The first tune of this year’s Hymn of the Month series is the famous hymn “We Three Kings”. It is also commonly known as “We Three Kings of Orient Are” or “The Quest of the Magi”, and is a Christmas carol written by John Henry Hopkins Jr. (1820 – 1891). Hopkins wrote the words and…
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With our organ audio management recently extended to be able to spread the stops over 28 independent audio channels plus bass we have extraordinary flexibility to manage sound delivery in your church or concert hall and so we have invested in developing speaker cabinets acoustically tuned to optimise the sound for individual stop families. As…
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As ever, we do enjoy a challenge and generally it comes in the direction of SOS organ hires. We received a call from James Thomas the Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. He was up against it and at very short notice needed to hire an organ for an event in the choir school which…
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This post is part of a series where I share some of my world travels, which my love for organs has taken me. I help friends, associates and fellow organ lovers with projects that mean I get to see new and old organs in gorgeous settings and really experiment with this instrument. Those of you…
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Trying to compile a list of the greatest composers of organ music, is a little like putting ones head in the lion’s mouth. Given the influence of personal taste, period, and style, perhaps the question is almost a silly one to pose? Even so, I think there will be universally agreed ‘giants’ of the instrument…
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Since the instrument was first invented, the organ has fascinated players and audiences for its construction and size and its musical tone. I doubt there is any other musical instrument that has evolved so greatly, incorporating new technologies as they become available, and where sheer size has been a driving ambition of many builders. Years…
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Our final tune in this year’s series is befittingly the old English traditional Christmas carol “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”. The composer is unknown but there are records of it being sung within the Christian Church since the 15th century. The hymn was first put into print in 1760 but made available to a wider…
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Towards the end of September we were making another DVD in Selby Abbey and staying near York so it was too good an opportunity to pass by visiting some of the very fine churches in the city. Also never having played York Minster it seemed an ideal time to see if we could have some…
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