The UK's leading Digital Church Organ specialist
I write this on a slightly sad day having returned from playing for the funeral of my local church organist. She had reached the age of 80 and had played at St Mary’s Helmdon for almost 40 years. So another vacancy on the bench has opened up with precious few candidates willing or otherwise to…
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In October this year I found myself for the first time visiting St Mary’s Melton Mowbray. My only knowledge of this church was as a venue where Carlo Curley often played organ battles with his touring organ set up in the nave. Carlo lived nearby and so was a regular visitor. An Organ just in…
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If like me you are rather addicted to the organ and its music you will have gone to considerable lengths to enjoy your hobby, passion or profession. And in some cases for us and our customers it is all three. Not disturbing the neighbours There are a small group of us who perhaps go beyond…
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Decembers hymn is the much-loved Christmas carol “ O Come, O Come, Emmanuel ”. The words were originally written in Latin text and combined from various antiphons by an unknown author, possibly in the 12th Century. The Latin text was translated into English by John Mason Neale in 1851. It is believed that the melody…
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D’Arcy Trinkwon is a well-known concert organist with recital work all over the world. For a long time he has also had a Viscount 3 manual organ at home for practice. In 2014 he very kindly agreed to make a DVD on our instrument at Selby Abbey. This would help publicise the fund raising programme…
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I can hardly believe 5 years has passed since we produced our last demonstration DVD! Since then we have introduced 2 new organ ranges. New Chorum and Sonus range Chorum with a more detailed sample library has replaced the Cadet range of instruments. Specifically for home practice, the Sonus range with a greatly enlarged internal…
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Early on the morning of the 20th of October I landed in Belfast City Airport and hired a car for the 2 hour drive over to Derry to join the group assembled there for the first of what is very much hoped will be an ongoing annual event focussed on engaging young people with the…
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For the month of November we have selected the hymn “O God our help in ages past”, written by Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748) and accompanied by the tune “St. Anne”. This tune is written by the English composer and Organist, William Croft (1677 – 1727). The hymn is often sung as part of Armistice…
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This year we have seen a considerable increase in the number of churches facing a serious decision regarding the future of their pipe organs. A number of these involve what were, when new very good instruments indeed. Passage of time and perhaps the lack of regular maintenance have now brought some to a sorry state…
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OrganFest started 3 years ago so the Hull gathering was the 4th in the series having previously been at Birmingham and Edinburgh. This was my first attendance at organ fest or indeed Hull and both were worth the trip. Despite its rather lacklustre reputation Hull has a lot to offer. There has been substantial regeneration…
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Some years ago, we asked our audience if they could tell if recordings were made on a digital organ or a pipe organ. We thought it would be fun to run the challenge again, so we have done that in the quiz you will see below. TAKE THE TEST NOW The last time, some people…
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It has been over a year since I was last required for a recording by my friend and great musician Joseph Nolan. Over a number of years I have been privileged to help him with his Widor recordings at Saint Sulpice, Saint Sernin and Saint Ouen to name but a few. That series is now…
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Two spectacular events at St Mary’s Church in Wingham, Canterbury on the 17th and 18th of November 2017. Firstly an Organ Concert with Daniel Moult and then a chance for you to get hands on with the King of Instruments yourself at the Open Day. Two events that surely can’t be missed! Organ Spectacular Concert…
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Wikepedia lists just fewer than 100 ‘musicians’ that have reached or passed the age of 100 and for the most part, the names on the list are unknown to me. As yet Francis Jackson is not amongst them. I suppose if I knew how I should have added him. The names that did strike a…
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On occasion, we have a need to divide an organ console into two sections to allow it to be placed into the customers chosen room. While the pedal boards detach as a matter of routine there are times when doors are too narrow or stairs turn through 90 degrees and the console will just not…
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Hymn of the Month for October is “Jerusalem the Golden” which is a Christian hymn by John Mason Neale (1818-1866). The text is a translation of a section of Bernard of Cluny’s (12th century) Latin verse satire De Contemptu Mundi. The hymn is accompanied by the tune Ewing by the Scottish born composer Alexander Ewing…
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The Cadet product range, our very successful home practice organs have remained substantially unchanged for the last 6 years. They are ‘sampled sound’ instruments with a library of voices from which customers can build their own style of organ if they so wish or just rely on the factory set designs available as starter points….
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Organ Outreach Project gets our support The organ is a magnificent instrument to challenge both the technical and creative skills of any musician. Perhaps only the most gifted of students will master it but it will captivate and engage with all levels of skill. It is difficult not to be concerned for the future of…
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Recently we supplied a hire instrument to St John’s Berkswell to cover the renovation of their Willis pipe organ and the discovery of this small Warwickshire church was a revelation in more ways than one. I will write up in detail information on the hire later including a lot of images of the very fine…
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The Hymn of the Month this time is “Let us with a gladsome mind” which is a text written in 1623 by John Milton (1608-1674), the famous poet and author of Paradise Lost. This is set to the hymn tune Monkland, by John Antes (1740-1811), a Moravian minister and composer. Monkland’s melodic contour is a…
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Join this Organ Recital and Presentation in the fabulous Christ Church Welshpool on Sunday 24th September 2017. James Parsons welcomes you to an afternoon of Organ Music to raise awareness of the 200 year old pipe organ and to launch the organ restoration appeal. Christ Church in Welshpool Christ Church Welshpool is the prominent Victorian…
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In recent months, we have seen growing sales of the Viscount Cantorum VI keyboard. This has coincided with many posts on social media made by owners explaining just how useful and good this little instrument is. It struck me that the time was well overdue for us to make an ‘official’ presentation to help a…
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Viscount recently provided a digital organ for hire to the Hull Minster while the building is undergoing a major programme of renovation. I am afraid to admit that until we were recently approached by Minster Organist Mark Keith I was not aware of the splendid church that must be the crown jewel of the City’s heritage….
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We are delighted to have been invited to support this new calendar event in Londonderry on October 19th to the 21st 2017 run by the RCO with the objective of engaging young musicians with the joys of the organ. The Guildhall Organ Festival is centred around the recently restored magnificent Hill, Norman & Beard pipe organ…
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