Rev. Noel Bonavia-Hunt
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Stagsden VicarageBedford, England8th April 1952 Dear Mr. Kolbinson,
Your kind, friendly letter came as a very pleasant surprise. As you say, I get a lot of letters from organ enthusiasts and welcome them. I can see you are tremendously keen and possess some practical knowledge of the subject, which knowledge is exceedingly rare among the fraternity outside the professional building industry. In my own case I have had to do work that an organ builder either would not or could not do to my satisfaction or at the price I could afford to pay. So I just had to find out how things were done. Many treatises on organ building have been written by authors equipped with secondhand information. I do not think that even G.A. Audsley ever did any voicing - in fact he told me so - nor any constructional work. J.W. Hinton and Elliston were both practical men. |
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StagsdenBedfordEngland
June 12 1952
My dear Mr. Kolbinson,
How very kind of you to donate me a year's supply of issues of T.A.O. I am amazed by your generous act and cannot adequately express my feelings of grateful appreciation. I hope to see articles from your pen. I did some time ago send an article in to the Editor but have not been able to ascertain whether he accepted it or not. Probably not! I feel inclined to push in another on the subject of reed voicing, if acceptable; but I naturally don't want to waste time and postage on something never to appear in print. I imagine that electric actions are reasonably reliable in the States, but over here they are not, if my own personal experience is of any moment. They are all right if serviced weekly but you cannot leave them for months on end like tubular pneumatics, and in country districts servicing is a real problem. I refer more particularly to key action and couplers. I have a set of electric reversible pistons which so far give no trouble at all. I expect Reisner's action is very reliable. Again, thanking you a thousand times for your splendid gift.
Very sincerely,
Noel Bonavia Hunt
PS I am having a visit here from Mr. Whiting of Los Angeles: he will try my organ. |
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Stagsden VicarageBedfordJune 28th 1952
Dear Mr. Kolbinson,
Your very welcome letter reached me today, and very much have I enjoyed reading it. I think the best way to answer your queries is seriative.
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Earlsmead
Benenden
Cranbrook
KentOctober 1st, 1957
Dear Mr. Kolbinson,
I was delighted to receive your long and interesting letter. As you will see, I have settled in this lovely part of England, having purchased a beautiful bungalow and garden. I only came here last September 18th! After leaving Stagsden in 1955 I built a bungalow 2 miles away, but sold it last month and migrated here. I'd done a fair amount of organ voicing in Bedfordshire, but fear that is now at an end, though I expect to act as a "consultant" to two Dioceses. Your two Casavants are certainly big jobs, and doubtless typical specifications. I do not know how you will enliven the choruses unless you can add or substitute NEW pipework of the requisite type scaling and voicing. This of course costs money, but otherwise is quite easy to do. If the Great can have a new set of 4 ft Principal pipes from middle C up, Scale 1 in. at 1 ft pipe with 2/7 mouth-voiced up until sounding like "sleigh bells"! Ditto the 2 ft and mixture, 19, 22, (no 17th). The Choir 4 ft 1/4 of 2 ft flutes can be replaced by Salicet 4 ft and Salicetina 2 ft of small scale and with 1/4 mouths (Say 1 ft pipe = 3/4"). This would be a good start-off anyway.
I still remember your very kind gift of the T.A.O., which the new Editor, Ray Berry, now sends me gratis in return for my contributions.
With my most cordial regards
Yours as ever,
Noel Bonavia-Hunt |
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