June 2003
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Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,
I would be very grateful if anybody could give me some information as to what happened the very fine organ (right) in St George’s Church, Temple St, after the church closed. Has it been cared for, or just left to rot?

Margaret Scarlett.
(Can any reader help? Information will be passed on to Ms Scarlett)

Dear Editor,
The cancallation of the organists’ party was a disappointment. Extrapolating from my own case I must assume that it was greatly regretted by the 20-odd hopefuls (Note that hyphen. It is important!) who were willing, ready and able, that the 2003 party had to be abandoned because of seeming lack of interest. Parties 2002 and 2001 went with a bang with I believe about 50 in each case. Organists as a species generally are gregarious to a fault, and pull out all the stops given the opportunity to dine and talk. Your speakers and music-makers have been great. Only one thing I might suggest. Is it not so that in preparation for the first such party a survey was done to test the interest beforehand? Could we afford to do this again for 2004 (or later 2003)? The social contact is worth a rescue effort. So speaks a relatively isolated rural “musician”!

John Godden, St John’s, Laragh

Dear Editor
I was glad to see a bit of positive feedback to my "naughty" article, but on the whole I thought there was a bit too much of ME in the issue! Still, perhaps other organists will be encouraged to join in now. I think it is a nice idea to have articles written by organists describing their instruments, and I am sure you will be encouraging others to join in this trend. There must be a large number of organs in the region, many sadly falling out of use, and it would be nice to see them "recorded".

I noticed on TV the other night the reconsecration of Harold's Cross C of I as an Eastern Orthodox Church, and one could see the organ in the background. I feel sure it was a good instrument, but as I understand the Orthodox only use unaccompanied music, I suppose it will now fall into decay. Pity. Many of the older Dublin organs were built by Telford who had their factory on Charlemont St and I used to notice it when we went to town on the bus. I remember my mother telling me that an organ was a frightfully expensive instrument to buy — at least a thousand pounds! Telford are long gone of course (before 1939 I think), but they must have played a considerable role in the C of I of old. Certainly they built the original organ at St Columba's, powered by water coming down the mountain stream.
Adrian Somerfield, St Thomas’ Mount Merrion

Dear Editor
Just a quick note to share the good news that we recently saved this lovely little Telford & Telford (Dublin) from likely scrapping. It dates from about 1860 and is in St Mary's Church, Navan, Co. Meath. It sounds sooooo sweet, and has received no alterations whatsoever. It was rebuilt from the ground up, and needed only one new drawstop to replace a shattered one, and a blower.

Stephen Adams, Organ Builder.

HYMN BOOKS, 1993-2003

The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland has issued a paper, written by the hymnologist Alan Luff, surveying new hymn books published during the past ten years. The paper suggests that what used to be called the ‘hymn explosion’ has now become a ‘flowing river’. A slight pause in the second half of the 1990s was reflected by increased activity around the turn of the millennium. Alan Luff points to a significant trend in the writing of worship songs. There now seems to be ‘a tendency to produce better crafted and more thoughtful texts’ and certainly the introduction to the The Source (1998) questions the extent to which the plethora of ‘subjective experience’ songs being written and the placing of existential experience and individual ful-fillment at the centre of things, has really influenced our worship. This trend appears to be confirmed by the following quote from a song writer in Kingsway’s Worship Together magazine:

Every so often, I really enjoy writing hymn-songs — pieces with a more stately feel, easy to sing, but lyrically working within a tight metre and rhyming scheme. For me the structure seems to add gravitas to the meaning. I also like the idea that a ‘historical’ feel makes a song accessible to a wider range of churches.

Comments such as these seem to suggest that the world of worship song is looking beyond the stylistic (and theological?) ghetto of their own making. And certainly it has become increasingly obvious that editors are convinced that any new hymn book now needs to include a selection of the worship songs that the tradition in which the editors work might once have totally rejected.

Alan Luf’f’’s paper ends with a list of all the new hymn books published during the decade. Commenting on Common Praise (2000), the paper points to a rebalancing of older material. Compared with 1950,

J.M. Neale has been cut from 56 to 30, Charles Wesley is up from 30 to 39 and Isaac Watts’ contribution is up from 17 to 28. Heber is down from 11 to 5, Baker from 16 to 11 and Ellerton from 15 to 5. The editors of Common Worship ‘have introduced some older hymns of doubtful quality that their predecessors might have eschewed, on the grounds that the worshipping public demand them’. This fascinating obser-vation points to the influence of what might be called ‘pew power’ and applies equally to Church Hymnal 2000. The above are just a few flavours from this informative paper, A Hymn Book Survey 1993-2003, available from The Hymn Society, The Vicarage, 7 Paganel Road, Minehead, Somerset, TA24 5ET.

Christ Church Cathedral

The last edition of SOUNDBOARD went to print just too late to mention the resignation of Mark Duley as Director of Music. Mark brought the Cathedral’s musical tradition to new heights, and we are sorry to see him go.

We note the recent appointment of Judy Martin, as Director of Music. Judy is currently Director of Chapel Music at Worcester College, Oxford, and Director of Music at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Oxford. She takes up her post in September and we wish her every success.

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