Hi everyone!

After spending an hour holding keys and being slightly deafened while the Tuba was being tuned today at Christchurch Cathedral (NZ), this made me ask the question which Tuba in any organ members of this forum would think would be loudest.

This Tuba Mirabilis is the loudest in New Zealand, being voiced on 19 inch wind and I have to say it sounds absolutely fantastic, and to top it off there is even a Fanfare Trumpet sticking 'en chamade' out of the transept case! This aside though I suspect compared to some Tubas I have heard of from the UK, it may only come in on the list about 30th.

So here's a start:
0. Atlantic City Convention Hall - Grand Ophicleide 16/8' 100" (I'm a bit hesitant to add this one as I do not know if it can be classed as a Tuba or just a loud noise)
1. Liverpool Cathedral - Tuba Magna 8' 50"
..
..
30. Christchurch Cathedral, NZ - Tuba Mirabilis 8' 19"

Josh

PS. I should also add just to annoy someone, there's even a Dulciana complete with Vox Angelica which can only just be heard from the console with box open...

I can't say if it is (was?) the loudest Tuba, but that at Rochester Cathedral used to be situated just behind the Organist's head - and I believe it was horizontal. One note, in particular, used to resonate around the head of the unfortunate tuner's boy (if I recall, middle D) and seemed to take an age to tune!

I must point out, though, that high wind pressure used for any stop does not necessarily make it loud in the building - depends upon location, building size, voicing style and so on.

Regards to all

John.

What about the ex-Gloucester Cathedral one at All Saints Margaret St? I guess it's probably not on an expecially high pressure, but it's always seemed startlingly loud in the building...
JJK

I'm not sure why you put Liverpool's Tuba Magna in at number one. Some would say that the Tuba Mirabilis at York Minster is louder (John Scott Whitely implies so on Priory's DVD). I have heard both, but would hesitate to commit myself. For one thing, it is impossible to hear both, in situ, at the same time. Another important consideration is the matter of location - where you are sitting; I should imagine that this would have quite a bearing on perceived loudness. I suppose the only objective way of ascertaining some sort of hierarchy would be to visit each venue with a 'sound meter' (decibel meter?) and ensure you are the same distance directly in front of the offending article!

Regarding the Liverpool Tuba Magna, incidentally, didn't Ian Tracey say that the new(-ish) Trompette Militaire was now the loudest stop on the organ? I don't know whether you would extend your survey to such a free-toned stop... which raises another question: when does a tuba become a trumpet? Surely, there is a spectrum of sounds from the one to the other.

That could go on the list, due to the church being so small.

What about the Tubas at St.Michael Cornhill and St.Peter Eaton Square, Belgravia.

I rejoice that someone has been brave enough to post anything at all in the Nuts and Bolts section of this Forum. I check this section regularly, usually to find with disappointment that nothing has come up, yet again.

I've not been in Eaton Square since the fire, but I agree that the Cornhill Tuba is big. Strangely, it is not the loudest stop on that organ! Due to a major spherical-objects-in-the-air when Rushworth and Dreaper 'Rushworthed and Dreapered' it in the 70's and (even after two attempts) proved incapable of putting the reeds back exactly the way that they had been done before, the current loudest stop is the Swell Clarion. Players may not believe me, but the audience would! The only factor which I look forward to when my Nemesis restore this organ shortly is that the great Keith Bance will almost certainly be asked to sort out the high pressure reeds and bring them back within the bounds of good taste, albeit leaving substantial thrill.

In my experience, the loudest reed stop in the UK is without question the new Trompette Militaire at Liverpool; this is so loud that (I gather) it had to be moved after original installation by Mr.Wells. As to where the UK's loudest Tuba is, I can confidently state (without either hearing every Tuba in the country, sans frivolity or boasting) that I've got it. Demonstrations can be given if required. It is so loud that I dare not use it except as a rather shallow thrill for visitors.

Now let's be more musical and less pointlessly Nerd-like-proto-bus-timetable-addicted! Where's the most beautiful Stopped Diapason in the country? I would nominate the Samuel Renn Great Stopped Diapason at St.Phillip's Salford, closely followed by the Great 8' Flute on the 1756 Snetzler at Hillington, Norfolk. Anyone else want to join me in this deliberate diversion from the official topic?

....And what about the gentlest Dulciana ?

Pierre

So what church are you at, with that dazzling tuba, if you don't mind me asking.

In his residence, I suspect - so yes, it would be loud.

Eaton Square : the old Walker/Lewis had a fine Tuba, enclosed in the Solo box. Thoughtfully, the Solo soundboard had a rank of Principal pipes on the soundboard (not appearing as a console drawstop) which could be used as a tuning reference. 'Twas loud in the box but unremarkable without.

H

The Fanfare Trumpet and Tuba at St.Bride's Fleet Street are also hair-raising.

Ah..my nomination there would the Choir Dulciana at St.Margaret's Kings Lynn, coincidentally the first Dulciana to appear in the UK; it was made by Snetzler.

The Choir is not enclosed and when we recorded a tiny item upon this stop for my Benchmarks series, it was effectively inaudible to me as I played, due to wind noise. The microphones picked up something, however, and every now and again www.organlive365 in the USA play the track in the middle of the night. I'm quite sure that some of their listeners think the radio has gone off the air when this piece in on. It makes a nice change from Notre Dame noises (or worse still, imitation Notre Dame noises) anyway.

Of course there are Dulcianas that can be made even softer, but this is because they are under expression and most of the secret is to have a good swell enclosure.

Not quite a dulciana maybe (haven't seen the pipes), but back in the early 70s when I encountered the Choir 8' Dolce on the Binns at Queens' Cambridge, I was quite entranced. Especially with the octave coupler. Maybe I had a sheltered childhood.

Is there an entry for Tubas in the Guiness Book of World Records?
According to Stephen D Smith in his Atlantic City book the GBWR has an entry for the world's loudest organ stop.
"The Grand Ophicleide rank speaks on 100 inches of wind and, is the world's loudest organ stop, having "a pure trumpet note of ear splitting volume, more than six times the volume of the loudest locomotive whistles".[indent][/indent]

PJW

Ditto the Choir 8' Dolce on the 1901 Binns at The Old Independent Church, Haverhill (Suffolk). Virtually inaudible with the box shut.

'Played there last year - no wind noise any more since the last rebuild - the Dulcianas still sound magical though.

A

I think the nicest stop on any pipe organ in the Brighton area is the 8' Wald Flute on the Great of the 1901/1906 Walker organ in St Bartholomew's Brighton. To my ears Walker Wald Flutes of that vintage always have a beautiful tone and, mercifully, the St Bartholomew's one was left untouched when some very ill-conceived changes were made to the organ in the late 1970s by Wood Brown. However, the Vox Humana on the Choir department of that organ was aptly described once by a former organist (George Austin) as sounding like a constipated goat.

Why are so many organists obsessed with Tubas?

Malcolm

"It makes a nice change from Notre Dame noises (or worse still, imitation Notre Dame noises) anyway."
(Quote)

Indeed!

"Why are so many organists obsessed with Tubas?"
(Quote)

Though widely more preferable than any (modern) chamade, the Tuba
impresses whenever one forgets it can be used, on a time basis, about
100 times less often than a Dulciana.
So the Dulciana may appear from about 12 stops in an organ, the Tuba
from about 50; an there are little organs -like the Snetzler Cynic mentionned-
which actual value overtakes many 50 stops- plus instruments.
First things first...

Pierre

What a shame! I was finding the 'loudest tuba' thread quite interesting.

Isn't it bad manners to hijack a thread?

My fault entirely. It's middle age.

Expressing an interest in something loud, just because it is loud ought to be a sentiment fairly far removed from the spirit of this Forum. I mean, how many other instruments would be celebrated because they were loud, or large for that matter? If someone said 'Come and hear our piano, it's got the most strings of any piano in Hertfordshire' you'd know there was something wrong with them, wouldn't you?

Does one ever say 'Come and hear this world-famous violinist, he plays the loudest of any soloist on the stage today' ?

There's something rather worrying about how (almost always) the organs that get a fuss made about them are the largest, the loudest, in the largest buildings etc. etc. I find that one can make so much real music on a single stop and how rarely one gets to hear this in recitals or on CDs! Maybe it's only me, but I find that loud noises per se thrill less and less, maybe because one hears them so often. I heard the Notre Dame, Paris organ demonstrated (superbly) in a quiet cathedral this spring and was completely happy with the sound which sounded like the grandest possible full organ but then the later stuff came on after which it was just a bl**dy row (IMHO) but some of us moan that it used to be better when it was louder in Cochereau's day!! I shudder to think what good all that noise was for.

Even 'The fastest fingers in the world' is a fairly dubious claim to fame in the world of Music - that accolade used to be given to George Malcolm, I think - a fabulous musician, of course.

We need to keep the ideal of Music and the beauty of sound as a target, mere power puts us in the same league as Rock Groups and Late Night Dance Clubs. I accept that noise genuinely thrills, that is why teenagers like to have their equipment turned up so high - a loud, fast beat stimulates the heart...

Anyway, if you want the subject returning to loud noises, we raised the question a while back as to which the loudest organ in the UK actually was, supposing anyone was fool enough to draw everything and just blast. My suggestion then was the West End organ at St.Mary's Warwick. Charm and subtlety were unknown concepts to the guys that built that - those who are desperate to get a thrill from mere noise, try Warwick!

Well I can't say that I'm completely obsessed with them, but the Tuba at Christchurch being the first I've been able to play really caught my attention and it sounds great from the nave of the church.

Have to find some Tuba tunes to really try it out for next week though.

Josh

The loudest Tuba that I can remember having encountered is the significantly-revoiced Tuba Mirabilis at Girard College, Philadelphia, PA, which can be heard in the first chord of the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBoChtXOpAo...feature=related

Aside from that, the large Tuba, sometimes known as "Big Louie" behind the reredos at St. Paul's, Akron, Ohio, is perhaps even more deafeningly loud.

- Nate

I was about to say that I am sure there must be several tubas in America which would appear between '0' and '1' on the OP's list.

...my tuba goes to 11

As you may know, Girard College chapel is shaped rather like a stylized slice of pie. The entire chapel organ is located in a ceiling chamber, and speaks out through a tone opening of roughly the same shape as the building. The organ is spaciously huddled around all sides of the opening and so everything gets an equal opportunity to speak down into the chapel proper. The echo has it's own separate chamber "cube" about 40-50 feet away from the giant main organ "cube" - both made of cast blocks covered with Keene's cement on the inside.

Originally, the Tuba Mirabilis at Girard was located on its own windchest parallel to the upper-range chest of the Pedal Bombarde right next to the tone opening. In addition to being revoiced to scream bloody murder, all sorts of hooks, loops, and braces were soldered to the rank, which in turn attached each pipe to the chest and attendant racking with springs and turn-buckles - so it could then be suspended upside-down over the tone opening. In an act of merciful compromise, the rank was later positioned horizontal at the opposite end of the opening from its original position; skimming perilously over the said opening. In addition to the unenclosed stop, there is also a 16-8-4 chorus of enclosed Solo tubas that were also significantly revoiced. At some point, the tuning scrolls of these Tubas were removed in favor of spring-loaded slides on the resonators. These slides have a tendency to fall down to the bottom of the pipe when disturbed, which I always felt looked like they had their pants down around their ankles. Highly appropriate.

Best,

Nathan

There's a pretty devastating solo reed on the Compton organ of the Guildhall, Southampton. I'm not sure that it's a tuba - could be an Orchestral Trumpet or something; It's devasatingly loud (and I like loud!) and quite spectacular.

I think that this organ deserves to be much better known - it's a terrific instrument!

Q

I suspect you are simply musical!

R

I am not sure it was louder in Cochereau's time - particularly since there are now two extra (and very powerful) chamade registers. In addition, the instrument is now properly (or perhaps 'fully') winded, since the 1990-92 restoration. In any case, in that vast building (and given the fact that the balcony was considerably increased in depth during the restoration of the building in the nineteenth century, thus acting as a reflector to the sound), the volume down at pavement level is somewhat attenuated. This is why Cochereau added the chamades. *

Since one now has to rely on good quality recordings to assess the sound of the instrument prior to 1990, I find it to have been a thrilling, very percussive and surprisingly clear sound. Only during Cochereau's trademark fast-repeated chords played on the tutti does it become difficult to sort out the actual notes - not necessarily something peculiar to this instrument, or even French instruments in general.

A few months ago, I was staying with a friend who played me a disc of some organ music from Norwich Cathedral. After two or three minutes, I could bear it no longer and had to ask him to change the disc. I found the sound to be oppressive, incredibly opaque and, at times, rather unclear.

Give me Nôtre-Dame any day.



* Cavaillé-Coll added the two chamade registers at S. Sernin for a similar reason - and also to help obscure the fact that the divisions did not couple simultaneously via the Barker machine. The 'new' chamades spoke both promptly and very powerfully, largely obscuring this defect.

[quote name='Cynic' date='Jul 10 2009, 11:14 PM' post='47112']

some of us moan that it used to be better when it was louder in Cochereau's day!! I shudder to think what good all that noise was for.





reply


Perhaps to get all the congregation out quickly after Mass!

I think NDdP is actually more balanced now. I also think it lost something, a certain fizz?

A bit like Blackburn.

R

Well, the tutti is now certainly dominated by the big reeds. And, although I do not think that it is any quieter, there is something missing from the sound now - call it 'fizz', if you will.

I am interested to read that you feel the same way about Blackburn. I only remember this instrument after it was rebuilt by Walker; I have yet to hear it in its present incarnation.

[quote name='pcnd5584' date='Jul 14 2009, 11:36 AM' post='47175']

A few months ago, I was staying with a friend who played me a disc of some organ music from Norwich Cathedral. After two or three minutes, I could bear it no longer and had to ask him to change the disc. I found the sound to be oppressive, incredibly opaque and, at times, rather unclear.

A good case, and some nice individual registers. Otherwise not a thing of beauty.

AJS

'Funny thing - I also heard the ND organ - building empty - in February and thought it sounded fare better than on any of the recordings. I also felt that 'volume-wise' it came over far better without the tourists everywhere and that sitting at the head of the nave with everything firing at the hands of M. Lefebvre it was actually quite civilized.

A

There is, to my ears, a definite difference at Blackburn. It sounds fatter. I find the organ also has lost it's attack, it almost "spat" at you and was incredibly exciting. It sounds more polite now, and, I think, certainly less exciting. The addition of electronic pedal notes I always truly abhor anywhere, and really if ever there was a case not to add weight, then here it was. This organ made it's name on the unique sound it had, a very vertical sound, ringing with brilliance and not a little brassy.

Someone else please give an opinion. Is it just me?

Now I fear the only truly representative organ we have left at Cathedral level of Walkers 60s era may well be the Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool, and long may it reign in it's present incarnation.

A gem. Incidently, Paul Derrett has made a couple of recording there well worth seeking out, one of Richard Francis' music, the other of six Liverpool organs, with a a stunning Toccata at the end which will raise a few hairs on the neck!! Great stuff!! The organ sounds brilliant under his hands. What an exciting sound!!

R

[quote name='Roffensis' date='Jul 14 2009, 06:43 PM' post='47188']
There is, to my ears, a definite difference at Blackburn. It sounds fatter. I find the organ also has lost it's attack, it almost "spat" at you and was incredibly exciting. It sounds more polite now, and, I think, certainly less exciting. The addition of electronic pedal notes I always truly abhor anywhere, and really if ever there was a case not to add weight, then here it was. This organ made it's name on the unique sound it had, a very vertical sound, ringing with brilliance and not a little brassy.

Someone else please give an opinion. Is it just me?
[quote]

I am inclined to agree; I knew this organ quite well in my youth, I was present at the dedication service and JB let me practice there during my student days.
I have been to quite a few recitals since the rebuild of 2002.

Firstly, the pedal reeds: the 16/32 Posaune rank is not particularly fierce, and whilst it made its presence felt in the original tutti, with the extra 16/32 tone provided by the electronic basses and mutations it doesn't really cut through now. This I feel is the crux of the problem.

Having heard the organ a number of times since the rebuild including the re-opening recital, and purchasing the David Briggs CD of French music, I am of the opinion that the digital basses have been reduced in out-put recently. I haven't been aware of the excessive 'roll' which I perceived at the opening recitals and on the CD.

The new Solo organ is a fine addition and the other minor transfers make sense.
It's still one of my favourite UK organs though!

DT

Unfortunately, only a close examination of the flues, tips and wind pressures will answer this. I would be surprised, and rather saddened if anything had been done. This instrument did go with real crack of the whip, quite offensive to some, but a period work of art nonetheless. In synergy with the artistic ideals of the time, including the architecture of the Cathedral extension, it works so well.

Keeping to topic, I always loved the Imperial Trumpet - a big loud taxi horn - lots of fun.

AJS

I wonder how many would be delighted as much as I would to see the electronic basses removed. It didn't need fattening up. Such a move was totally contrary to the original scheme and tonal concept. One hopes the verticality of the sound could return. I agree the solo is a prudent addition, but despite all this, I still maintian that the drive and vigour it had has largely gone. I simply feel this should be fully addressed. I find it incredible if it was actually altered, it suited the building like a glove and really was such a unique and thrilling sound. Today it just doesn't thrill.

R

An apt description! Through the late 70s and early 80s I used to record BBC choral evensong onto cassette - I still have boxes of them in loft! I remember one evensong in particular from Blackburn with Finzi God is gone up.......the Imperial Trumpet probably caused shockwaves in the BBC OB van parked outside! It was also used to good effect in the closing hymn - Rejoice, the Lord is King.

I too like this stop, it's very different from the Orchestral Trumpet at the Met. which preceeded it (straight resonators as opposed to spun brass, and it doesn't take your head off)

John Bertalot's inspiration for this stop was the State Trumpet at St. John the Divine NYC.
During the mid 60's JB did a tour of the USA and on returning produced a music/slide show which I experenced 2 or 3 times at various venues around the Blackburn diocese.
I remember St. John's featured heavily and JB was full of enthusiasm for the organ and the trumpet.

On a general note about the Blackburn organ, it is devastating in the transepts, you have to get down the nave a bit but also sit fairly centrally to hear a good balance between the 2 sides.

DT

I would certainly agree with this. I have never liked the idea of mixing pipes and electronics, even for bass registers.

I am rather pleased that Cynic broke ranks and tried to turn the discussion to the most beautiful stop you know, because he was only saying out loud what I was privately thinking. Isn't it a bit adolescent to compare stops on the basis of 'mine is bigger than yours' ? As musicians, shouldn't we have outgrown this ? Shouldn't we be more concerned with beauty than with force ?

I like to think it is a sign of such maturity as I have achieved as a musician that quite often now when playing a concert on a big organ, I deliberately avoid the tuba. Loudness for its own sake is wearying, and so many tubas are not particularly pleasant or interesting to listen to. Unless I am playing a trumpet or tuba tune, whcih is the sort of music I tend not to feature in my programmes, I can see no reason to use the thing. Fiery solo reeds are a diffent matter, and can be genuinely 'orchestrated' in the music for a real musical purpose.

[The one exception I would make from instruments discussed so far is Eaton Square, which I heard recently in concert, accompanying a choir I was singing with. The tutti is very loud indeed, but without any trace of shrillness or harshness. It is genuinely thrilling and musical - the loudness has its own artistic purpose].

By contrast, a beautiful single flute or principal can be endlessly musical. I cannot nominate the most beautiful in the country because I have not played that many organs, but some stops that I have played that never fail to enchant me are the Cor de Nuit on the choir at Coventry, the stopped diapason on the swell at St Mary's Brighton and the Cor de Nuit Celestes at Westminster Cathedral. Also mentioned in dispatches are the flutes / principals on the Rieger at Oxford and at Marylebone. You find that you select these stops at the beginning of a piece, and then just want to carry on for the rest of the piece without change - the real test, in my view, of a musical stop.

Sorry if this spoils the fun !

m

here's another: Great Stopped Diap 8 on St Patrick's, Powerscourt (Enniskerry), Co Wicklow, about 16 miles south of Dublin. Those unaltered Conachers (there are a few of them around there) are lovely.

Percussive it really is/was....
pc, what do you think was first? The inspiration by the new chamades? Or has Cocherau always been the guy to use hammering "raddaddaddatt" motives, and did he install what he needed to express himself.....?
I have much respect for him, as I would never dare to play in such a way. But someone has to. A pity that so many players tried to copy, but on much lower level, and then those sounds really get penetrating, as do so many of reed and chamade stops commissioned by such guys....

If you mean the H&H at Coventry Cathedral, it is actually an 8ft. Harmonic Flute - but I agree, it is extraordinarily beautiful. In fact, I think that it is my favourite stop on this rather lovely instrument.

One of my most often played CDs is the complete Durufle from there (David M Patrick on ASV) - each time I listen I hear more amazing sounds - it fits the music like a glove too a fact that I discovered on hearing S. Etienne du M. in Paris for the first time earlier this year.

A

[quote name='MAB' date='Jul 17 2009, 11:10 AM' post='47232']
I am rather pleased that Cynic broke ranks and tried to turn the discussion to the most beautiful stop you know, because he was only saying out loud what I was privately thinking. Isn't it a bit adolescent to compare stops on the basis of 'mine is bigger than yours' ? As musicians, shouldn't we have outgrown this ? Shouldn't we be more concerned with beauty than with force ?


I certainly see what you're getting at, and quite agree about the beauty of single stops, but actually music's about lots of things - beauty is only one of them. (Any kind of film music/opera which tried to convey only beauty would be very tedious...)

In another thread, someone mentioned a quote of Gordon Reynolds (?), reminding the organist not to forget that (s)he was once the small child down in the stalls whose toes clenched as full swell came shining through the great diapasons. (Apologies if I've mangled this!) A player who completely eschews all vulgarity, and performs only the most elevated pieces with immaculate taste won't attract the young or the Radio 2 audience (no condescension intended!) to the organ in the first place.

I think some of the hostility aimed at the Traditional Edwardian Tuba comes from a lack of understanding of its intended uses, and of the Edwardian style of playing. Francis Jackson somewhere mentions Bairstow's use of the tuba to solo the tenor line, in the style of orchestral trombones. FJ does this with great aplomb towards the end of the Stanford Postlude in D - and I've never heard this done by modern players. An important part of the tuba's role was also to augment the pedal line, rather than to swamp the manual choruses.

Yes! Absolutely! I find considering beauty in single stops is a bit superficial in organs. One needs to look at the whole picture to see how the sounds fit in and that helps to sort a musical instrument from a box of whistles that make some pretty sounds. It's all very well talking about the beauty of the charmingly named Double Gedacht 32' on the Norwich Cathedral organ but if it doesn't fit in with the chorus, is it really that relevant? And we need to think in terms of the choruses of the organ and the swell effects as much as a pretty little lieblich gedacht (!) or harmonic flute. A beautiful organ depends on so many things...

Well, this is interesting! I know a few places where I'd like my left hand to go on to the tuba in the Stanford postlude and I've heard it done with great aplomb. I also agree with the idea of coupling the tuba to the pedals to give them further definition - especially if they're carrying a big tune against something else in the manuals, like a French Toccata. And need we forget a lot of early music where the pedal carries the cantus firmus on a large Trompet at unison pitch...

I can remember the old Novello edition of the Bach Toccata in F major called for the tuba to be coupled to the pedals in the part where the pedals play notes in octaves against the manual chords. I never (particularly wanted to) do this but I can see the point in it. Again, this is an Edwardian edition and I think it gives an insight into how the tuba might have been used by contemporary Edwardian organists.

I wonder, is it no coincidence that a friend of mine, who plays a large 1950s Willis III on the South Coast, remarked to me that he thought the tuba was more of a pedal reed extended upwards than a true solo stop and he tended to use the Gt reeds to choir transfer to augment the tuba when he used it in a solo?

Recordings made prior to the installation of the chamade ranks show that Cochereau had been using this technique for some time. They also show that, even by then, the richness of his harmonic language and his extensive knowledge of form were already well developed. The chamades were, I think, installed solely to provide adequate sound in the immense Nave when a really powerful tutti was required.

My first teacher Dr George Gray (an Articled Organist of Sir Edward Bairstow at York Minster and later, himself a Cathedral organist), always had the Tuba coupled to Pedal for the final entry of the "St Anne". He also was perhaps was one of the last Cathedral organists not to conduct the choir unless for unaccompanied music - sometimes on Radio 3 Choral Evensong (Psalms were considered some of the very finest in the land). The distance from organ to choir was some 80ft or more. The 'waterfall effect' of rolling from the uppermost note on the keyboard to the pedal one was part also of the Edwardian tradition - not a musical affectation, but a necessary one - as it demonstrated to the choir when to stop singing when they finished together - Stanford in C, for example.
Best wishes,
Nigel

Funny that - I used to learn on a large 1950s Willis III on the S. Coast with a Tuba that was extended downwards to the Pedals ending up as a road drill!!

A

Yes, I think this is the very same. Was it a certain Dr. Williams, FRCO, who was organist there in those days? He's a bit before my time though. I don't know very much about him - happy to learn more though!

Would I be right that this 32' road drill is also housed in the Choir Swell box, on 15'' WP? It's still there, with its infinite graduation swell pedals.

I remember this organ was reviewed by Cecil/Sam Clutton in The Organ, circa 1950s.