David Bridgman-Sutton's regular column called "Musings & Amusings" appeared on the nzorgan.com website from 2002 until 2013.  His articles covered an astonishing array of subjects - mainly but not entirely - centered on the pipe organ, dealt with great humour, playfulness, and wide-ranging knowledge. David has loved organs and organ music for over 50 years. He has been fortunate in having jobs ~ and an understanding wife ~ that have allowed him to visit many instruments and to talk to organists, organ-builders and fellow enthusiasts in many countries. Since we consider these to be an invaluable anecdotal contribution to the world of the pipe organ, we are gradually recreating these pages to ensure they are not lost. Enjoy the visit, or if you have been before, savour again the eternal appeal of stories well told.  

​Articles ~ Musings & Amusings

~ Index ~

2013 ~ 2011 ~ 2010 ~ 2009 ~ 2008 ~ 2007 ~ 2006 ~ 2005 ~ 2004 ~ 2003 ~ 2002 

 

2002

 

• ​Alfred Hollins ~ A Blind Musician Looks Back
• Serendipity with Snetzler ~ Part I
• Serendipity with Snetzler ~ Part II
• Organ Voices
• Organ blowers 1
• Organ blowers 2
• Organ Blowers 3
• Organ Cases 1 
• Organ Cases 2 
• Organ Cases 3

 

2003

• Organ Cases 4 (Jan 11)
• Architects and organbuilders (Feb 16)
• Plain vanilla or chocolate? (March 21)
• Canterbury Cousins (April 21)
• Blenheim Palace (May 21)
• Ornament - applied and misapplied (July 1)
• Hats off to Arms! (August 2)
• Invisible Organs (August 24)
• Organ Anthology  Part I (October 5)
• Anthology Part II (November 2) Train enthusiasts take note!
• Ghosts (December 5)

 

2004

• Spanish Fly (January 4)
• The WOOFYT (January 9)
• Mine's Bigger Than Yours (February 11)
• Flames, frets and fiddles (March 2)
• Tonal sonority through abriltolos (April 1)
• Telegram from America (Special on the death of Alistair Cooke) (April 5)
• Booth's puffs (May 1)
• Barker Lever (June 1) (Postscript added August 2010)
• . . . But bettering Barker! (July 1)
• Hymns - listen up! (August 1)
• Tale of Two Organs (September 5)
• Two Organs - continued. (October 3)
• Guitarists Do It Better (November 10)
• Music for the Feast of Christmas (December 7)
• Angelicals (December 14)

 

2005

• Making it up  - The art of Parisian organists (February 11, 2005)
• Records & Reminiscences - great recordings by Parisian organists (March 4)
• The Case is Altered (April 1)
• Fashion notes (May 13)
• Two Town Halls (June 13)
• SPECIAL TRIBUTE: Edward Heath
• The organ that time forgot - the organ of the Trocadéro in Paris (July 17)
• Tin Whistles (August 28)
• Secrets of the Opera (September)
• Singing in the Train (October 11)
• Buttoning Up (November 12)

 

2006

• Automobile Blues (February 1, 2006)
• Pipes and Packing Cases (March 7)
• Harry Remembers - from Music Hall to Cinema (May 2) 
• Harry Remembers 2 -more about the good years from Harry's memories (June 1) 
• Bismark and the Pipe Organ - what war MIGHT have brought. (July 4)
• Harry Remembers 3 - what colour would you like your organ, sir? (August 3)
• Playing Aids 1 - Help or hindrance? We'll find out. Playing Aids 1(September 2)
• SPECIAL: Malcolm Arnold - a personal tribute (September 20)
• Playing Aids 2: Dirty Work at the Crossroads (October 3) 
• Connections: intriguing coincidences (November 3)
• Christmas Recipes: Althea has been looking through her recipe books (December 1)

 

2007

• The Birthday Present: a teenage boy's unusual request (Jan 1) 
• Harry Remembers 4 - was this the beginning of the end? (February 5)
• Playing Aids 3 - Thinking out of the box (March 6)
• Wonder of Gascony - a 'novel' use for an organ (April 3)
• Gilding the Lily - but why? (May 1) 
• A Most Eloquent Music (June 2)
• Seeing Double (July 1) ... in Liverpool Cathedral
• Seeing Double 2 (August 2) What Walford Davies got up to in Windsor
• Humble Relations (September 1) The American branch
• Humble Relations 2 (October 2) The French branch
• Tops, Noils, Shoddy and Mungo (November 1) - Going all woolly in Bradford
• Tops, Noils and Handel's Messiah (December 1) It's music hall time!

 

2008

• Summer Puddings: A glorious collection of yummy and easy puddings from Althea (Feb 6) (To come)
• Neandertal hymn writer: from hymn tunes to climate change (March 3)
• Byway - Brindley and Foster organs revisited (April 5)

• Byway 2 - Brindley and Foster organs - their demise  (May 4)

 

• Flying High - When air travel was fun (June 1)
• Dorothea, Queen of Denmark - and an organ with a difference. (August 26)
• Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb - more useful recipes (September 14) (To come)
• Smogger - the world of tramps (October 5) (To come)
• Time's Ever-Rolling Stream - the changing facades of organs.  (November 7)

• Fastest Fleece in the West - (Dec 6) A Bradford connection (To come)

 

2009

• Giving them Names - (Jan 21) Stops of incomplete compass
• Dudley Savage (Feb) - a tribute
• Three organ cases (March 1) Which appeal?
• Henery's finest hour (April 14) A character from the past
• Sneezes from the Organ Loft (May/June) What is it about organ consoles?
• Two 20th-century organists - Philip Marshall (July) Such fertility of imagination!
• Philip Marshall Part II - A penchant for Palindromes
• Two 20th-century organists - Mme Duruflé (September)
• More sneezes from the organ loft - (November)  
• Country Church Curiosity - (December) A gem in Yorkshire 

 

2010

• The Italian Face of Salzburg (April) A Visit to St Rupert's
• Ladies at the Console (May) - Women cinema organists remembered
• Gothic Cases (August) - looking at Sion, Wissell and Kiedrich organs
• Gothick Cases - Gothic-style in Lincoln, York, Poitiers, Stroud. (September)
• Orders and Decorations Will Be Worn - (November)
• Organs in Fiction (Dec) Some holiday reading and viewing
• Christmas Recipes: Treats which appealed to musicians over the centuries

 

2011

​

• Oddments and oddities: Strange things seen high above (July)
• Memorials and Monuments (May) A musician's view
• A Cunning Player (April) - meet King David
• Facing the Music (Jan) Heads above the crowds - faces which adorn organs
• Celestial Bands: Case carvings (Sept)
• Look up! Ceilings alert! (Oct)
• Rise, Fall, and Revival? Durham University College (Dec)

2012 - Postponed during post-earthquake uncertainties

 

2013

• Archibald McIndoe: Pioneering plastic surgeon from Dunedin. (May, 2013)
• Brigadier Wagthorpe: A Modern Parable (Dec, 2013)

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