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Forster & Andrews 1867

Forster and Andrews were a Hull based company operating from 1843 to 1956 who produced some very fine toned and well built instruments. The company developed their house style based on many of the ideas introduced by Edmund Schulze of Paulinzelle, Germany. Indeed, the company worked very closely Schulze on several of his instruments in the UK and Schulze usually recommended Forster & Andrews when he was unable to take on a specific job himself. They started out their organ building lives apprenticed to J C Bishop in London before setting up in Yorkshire. Their Magnum Opus was the superb organ in Hull City Hall; a large four manual concert organ of exceptional tone. The firm was taken over by Christie (of H.N.B. and Christie's cinema organs) in 1924.

Both Forster and Andrews started their organ building careers as indentured apprentices to Bishop's of London and in later years, Philip Selfe took over the running of the company - he had been foreman at Bishop's

Unlike most of the other regional organ builders working during the latter half of the 19th. century, many Forster and Andrews instruments possessed well developed manual choruses often up to four or five rank mixtures. whilst their Choir organ specifications followed the general designs of the times their Great and Swell organs often included 8' and 4' reeds with a 16' reed on the Swell. However, in common with other late Victorian organ builders, their pedal organs were typically limited in all but their largest instruments. However, their proposed design for Holy Trinity, Hull (not realised) included a 5 1/3' Quint plus a 6 2/5 Tierce in the Pedal department and several other instruments included 2' stops in this division which shows that their ideas were well ahead of their time even if fashions dictated that such "avant garde" stops were not to become a reality.

The quality of their work and materials used was exceptional and tonally, their instruments were on a par with the leading organ builders in England. Being situated in the major port of Hull, they were able to obtain a ready supply of the highest quality timber and other materials from around the world.

Altogether they built just under 1400 instruments including many for foreign climes including Australia and South America

GREAT ORGAN

Open Diapason I 8'

Open Diapason II 8'

Clarabella 8'

Stopped Diapason 8'

Principal 4'

Harmonic Flute 4'

Twelfth 2 2/3'

Fifteenth 2'

Mixture IV Rks (19:22:26:29)

Trumpet 8'

SWELL ORGAN

Double Diapason 16'

Open Diapason 8'

Lieblich Gedeckt 8'

Viola da Gamba 8'

Vox Celeste 8'

Principal 4'

Octave 2'

Mixture V Rks (15:19:22:26:29)

Contra Fagotto 16'

Oboe 8'

Cornopean 8'

PEDAL ORGAN

Open Diapason 16'

Bourdon 16'

Violoncello 8'

Bass Flute 8'

Trombone 16'

In addition to the standard intermanual and pedal couplers we have provide Octave and Sub-octave couplers to the Swell as well as A Pedal Bass and a Swell to Great melody coupler. The organ is presented in two perspectives: Close and Medium Distant. The volume levels of each perspective can be adjusted via the volume sliders.

Screenshots

Below are screenshots of the console showing the single screen console as well as the two vertical jambs.

The graphics and some additional features were developed by Olivia Nagioff.

Larger images can be downloaded from the Cloud by pressing the buttons adjacent to the thumbnails.

Button

Single Screen Console

Button
Button

LH Jamb RH Jamb

Demos

The first demo of the William Mathias Processional has been kindly provided by "Mirch"

William Mathias: Processional

£80.00

Sample Sets

We have been involved with church organs for nearly five decades. Initially working with conventional pipe organs, we moved into the world of pipeless instruments during their rapid technological expansion in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

With over 30 years experience in creating sample sets for organs for other digital organ manufacturers and since 2003, for the Hauptwerk software platform, we are one of the longest established sample set producers.

In addition to our "off the shelf" sample sets of existing or composite instruments, we are also able to create custom instruments to suit individual requirements.

We have a library archive of many hundreds of stops to choose from sampled from instruments throughout the UK and elsewhere.

DISCOVERIES

This page has come into being as a result of some of my observations regarding YouTube in another earlier posting.

How often do we come across things which "open our eyes and ears" by accident or perhaps because someone has recommended something that we were previously unaware of. For me personally, during my lifetime, I have been introduced to many pieces of music etc. in passing which I would never have discovered if someone hadn't told me.

Therefore, the purpose of this page is to introduce visitors to all sorts of things that they might otherwise not have discovered. For the most part these "discoveries" are to do with music or performances of music but there may be some that are unrelated to music or organs in any way and are included because they are just interesting.

Of course, many who read my website pages will already be totally aware of some of the composers, pieces or performances that I intend to suggest but some will have a far wider knowledge of a particular composer or their pieces than I could ever hope to have. In other cases, my suggestions may be completely new. Some may have a note(s) attached, others not. Obviously, my leanings are towards the classical side and also towards the organ but I can be quite eclectic in my musical likes and dislikes so there will be other genres.

It is quite likely that as a result of this page, readers may suggest their own discoveries to me (via email), and some of these will be totally new to me. These may therefore warrant inclusion here.

One other aspect of this is that having been introduced to a composer or a performer, this may very well lead to the discovery of more of the works of a particular composer or performer by readers / listeners.

I will start the ball rolling with the following.............................

Jacob Collier: World O World:

I first discovered the remarkable Jacob Collier a year or so ago and was very impressed with his work. I can't say that I like everything he does but there are some things that he has done that are quite mind blowing. His 'a capella' multi-track singing certainly warranted the several Grammy awards that he has achieved but lately he has penned some highly original songs which are very pleasant. However, it is his World O World that is stunning in its emotional impact especially at the end. What an incredible choir and what an incredible sound.

Jacob Collier - World O World (Official Score Video)

Poulenc: Concerto for two pianos:

I have known this particular piece for many years along with his Concert Champetre, Aubade, Piano concerto (single) Organ Concerto and Les Biches to name just a few of his works. Obviously, I like Poulenc a lot however, this performance by the Jussen Brothers stands out particularly. The Jussen brothers are quite a phenomenon in themselves and it is worth listening to their other YouTube presentations. The whole concerto is very fine but I have chosen the second movement as being particularly excellent as an introduction.

Lucas & Arthur Jussen – Poulenc Concerto For Two Pianos | Second Movement (2017)

Just purely for fun, check out their Strauss Die Fledermaus encore as well.........

Rachmaninov: Piano concertos

The Rach. concertos are so very well known to almost everyone. Which one is anybody's favourite probably vies between No 2 and No. 3 with possibly No. 3 coming out on top. No 1 and No 4 tend to be performed rather less. There are of course that many performances and most of them are fairly excellent so it is difficult to single out individual performances.

I always liked the Earle Wild performances but thanks to YouTube, I have recently discovered several others. Sticking with Rach 3, I suppose the one that really comes out on top for me is the Alexander Gavrylyuk Proms performance conducted by Thomas Dausgaard. I find the Daniil Trifonov performance quite mesmerising because he is so completely manic and I quite like the Alexandеr Malofeev performance but it doesn't quite reach the emotional heights of the other two. However, what completely blows my mind is the SOLO performance (piano and orchestral transcription) by Christopher Falzone (very tragically no more) who has YouTube performances of both no 2 and No 3. There are a few others by other arrangers mostly Far Eastern performers but the Falzone performances take some beating.

Rachmaninoff-Falzone Concerto op. 30/3 (transcribed and performed by Christopher)

Nikolai Medtner: The 3 Piano Concertos

Rachmaninov and Tchaikowski are certainly the best known Russian composers of piano concertos and many people won't have heard of Medtner but there is more written about him in Groves than Rachmaninov. Rachmaninov is certainly very difficult to play but many consider that Medtner is even more difficult.

Undoubtedly, the second concerto is perhaps the most attractive but the launch of the first concerto is bold to say the least with its melodramatic theme. All three concertos are very fine but they weren't heard until relatively recently and it was only thanks to the Maharajah of Mysore that recordings of his works came to be heard in the first place.

There are several YouTube performances of many of Medtner's works now and his output was quite large. I prefer the (Chandos) recordings by Geoffrey Tozer given the choice. You can hear Medtner's own performance as well although it dates from 1947 and understandably lacks the clarity of later performances. As an introduction, I suggest No 2 which can be found at:

Nikolai Medtner : Concerto No. 2 in C minor for piano and orchestra Op. 50 (1926-27)

How shall I sing that Majesty

It was only fairly recently that I discovered this hymn written by Ken Naylor and it has certainly become one of my favourites and it seems I am not alone in this. It is also known as Coe Fen

However, in my search on YouTube I was accidentally led to something completely different which I find is quite magical.

Also titled How shall I sing that Majesty, it is an entirely different piece by Robert Prizeman and sung by a very beautiful sounding boy's choir called Libera (who I had never come across before either). There are several performances available but I rather like the one from the Washington Basilica which is very atmospheric.

Libera in America: How shall I sing

Hedwig's Theme transcribed for organ

I have long been a fan of John Williams who has composed so much memorable music for film and I certainly enjoyed watching the Harry Potter films. I came across this absolutely phenomenal organ transcription whilst searching for something else completely. This transcription is amazing and the filming is pretty creative too. I had not come across Esther Assuied before, but I certainly look forward to hearing a lot more from her.

Harry Potter - Hedwig's Theme on Pipe Organ - Esther Assuied

Hardware

We can supply everything that might be required for a pipeless organ installation from the basic console, amplification and speakers to the computers, software and audio interfaces needed.

The various components are sourced from a number of specialist established manufacturers and supply houses most of whom we have been involved with for many years.

In addition, we have a number of contacts who specialise in obtaining and converting former consoles for use with the Hauptwerk platform.

Contact Information

For further information, please email us at

E-mail:

charlesbraund@gmail.com

info@silveroctopus.co.uk

N.B. Some sample sets may not work with basic older versions of Hauptwerk or the entry level version of the new Hauptwerk V and above because these editions do not include some of the features that are necessary for our libraries to work fully on the Hauptwerk platform.