Southampton Compton

Unofficial Twitter for the @O2GuildhallS 1937 Compton concert/theatre organ. Follow for news of events, concerts and renovation work.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@SuffolkOrganist Quite! Can you imagine a Father Willis without the brassy jangle of those tierces?! Actually, it's been done (Lincoln), and the result is a disappointment.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@pborocathedral When are you going to complete the stunted south tower? Would make such a difference... if Bury St Eds can finish their crossing tower!

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@JoTayl0r0 My mother (who isn't on Twitter) got her Ph.D a few years ago; since then it's been an uphill battle to get her employer (a second-rate public school) to recognise her as Dr (maiden name) - she got most of her qualifications before marrying my dad - rather than Mrs (married name)

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@marsden_john @jayforeman @stephenkamos Mine bang them together and against the skirting boards if they think it's time I refilled 'em, they knock triangular chunks out of 'em, and I've had a few heavy proper cat bowls succumb to annular cracks for the same reason.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@SuffolkOrganist I remember having this argument with Sean Tucker (organist of Wimborne Minster), who despises tierce mixtures and reserves especial hatred for the 'Harmonics' septième type - his stance was if the reeds need that help, they're too opaque to be of any musical use anyway...

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@marsden_john @jayforeman @stephenkamos I used to use those cheese bowls for my cats too, but they had a habit of breaking them by banging them hard against the skirting boards, so took to collecting (a larger size of) glass ramekins...

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@jayforeman I use them for feeding my cats... they seem to stand up to being banged against skirting boards better than purpose-made ceramic cat bowls.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@PastPostcard What organ? Can find no records online.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@SuffolkOrganist I take it you'll be leaving Holbrook then?

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@NickPoole1 @LibraryofBham Hopefully it will eventually go the same way as its equally monstrous predecessor and be replaced by a replica of the wonderful old Victorian library, so shamefully demolished...

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@SuffolkOrganist Those flat-21st mixtures (most often found in Arthur Harrison organs) are often unfashionable, and many have been altered into Scharffs, Cymbels and suchlike (usually to musically disastrous effect, a conspicuous exception being Girard College, Philadelphia), but I like them...

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@BargateQuarter @brasierfreeth @GCWRetail @telloncapital More bland modernist junk that we'll be pulling down another 40 years hence, hopefully to replace it with something more appropriate to this historically sensitive setting.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@CISutherland @GlosCathedral @annalapwood I would LOVE to get some female organists on at Southampton. As far as I am aware, no woman has EVER played our big Compton, and Peter Hammond (the concert promoter) only ever books male recitalists.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@RoyalVictoriaCP @HLFSouthEast @heritagelottery @hantsconnect @BethanKnights13 @HCC_Architects @Hants_Property The demolition of the hospital was both tragedy and travesty... I would love to see it rebuilt, restoring the chapel to its proper architectural context. Bet you could get a property developer on-board if it was developed as posh apartments or a hotel.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@SuffolkOrganist I take it you have MIDI record/playback? Also, what are the compositions of the mixtures at Holbrook, and have they (as NPOR implies) been altered since 1933? They sound VERY sparkly, and I'm pretty sure there's a Septième in the Great one. It's a superb-sounding organ anyway!

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@johnorganist @SalisburyCath Pretty sure that organ-case didn't exist at Hereford back then though!

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@johnorganist I seem to recall reading in Carlo Curley's autobiography that the great Sir George Thalben-Ball almost exclusively hand-registered his psalm-playing, even though he had (even then) a plethora of pistons available to him.

[Andrew Nethsingha @ANethsingha]

Huge congratulations to Simon Keenlyside on receiving a knighthood. Wonderful! @SJCChoir @stjohnscam

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@JamiePaisley Peter Warlock WAS a dangerous bastard! Hard-living, hard-drinking, manic depressive... yet the writer of a small body of exquisite music.

[Southampton Compton @SotonCompton]

@jonathanclinch @MusicMagazine My favourite composers' anecdote:
Walford Davies: "I wrote my Solemn Melody on my knees!".
Vaughan Williams: "...and I wrote my Fourth Symphony sat on my arse!"