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Tracks:

Hands Across The Sea - John Phillip Sousa
Beautiful Galatea Overture - Franz von Suppe
Meditation from Thais - Jules Massenet
Ethel Merman Memories - Styne/Porter/Berlin
When Your Lover Has Gone - E.A. Swan
Phantom Brigade March - Thomas Myddleton
It Had To Be You - Jones/Kahn
Walt Medley: Emperor, Tales from Vienna Woods, Morning Papers - Johann Strauss Jr.
Sweet Georgia Brown - Pinkard/Bernie
Memories of the ballroom : Honey, and - Simon/Gillespie/Whiting – If I Had You - Shapiro/Campbell/Connelly
Trumpet Tune - Gordon Young
The Lost Chord - Sir Arthur Sullivan
Ebb Tide - Sigman/Maxwell
Overture: Raymond -Ambrose Thomas
While We’re Young - Wilder/Palitz
Finlandia - Jean Sibelius
I’ll See You Again - Noel Coward

THE ORGAN
This organ was built in 1933 by the John Compton Organ Company. The builder designated it as Opus 212 and it was originally located in the Plaza Worthing, in Southern England, complete with illuminated surround, now discarded. The instrument was purchased and moved to Western Australia in 1971. It was installed in its present location in the John Leckie Music Centre in 1988 and is owned by the Theatre Organ Society of Western Australia. The organ is comprised of 3 manuals of 61 notes, with a 32 note pedalboard. The pipes are contained in two chambers at the rear of the building. There are 12 ranks of pipes as well as four percussive voices and drums, cymbals and other sound effects. There are no electronic voices and the instrument retains its original relays and combination action.

THE MUSIC
When Don was very young he heard a band organ, also called a fairground organ. It fascinated him, and two of the pieces that machine played are on this recording: Phantom Brigade March and Beautiful Galathea (Overture). Galathea is a rarity; perhaps only one other organist has ever recorded this piece. Meditation from Thais was Don’s very first recording, at 14, on the piano. Don was always a fan of Ethel Merman and the Merman selection begins with the first few pages taken note for note from the Overture to Gypsy. Then You’re Just in Love from Call Me Madam demonstrates Don’s unusual ability to play two tunes at once. When Your Lover Has Gone is described in Theatre Organ Magazine as “a ravishingly beautiful torch song” and our artist milks all the emotion he can get out of this one. For a Compton this organ certainly has superb tibias. The Strauss music is a medley featured on one of Don’s concert tours some years ago and is a fairly traditional arrangement. Sweet Georgia Brown,however, is played in British style, with sly quotes from Georgy Girl and Georgia on my Mind. Honey/If I had You is a medley of slow foxtrot tunes and is typical of ballroom music in the forties and fifties. The Trumpet Tune is by U.S. composer Gordon Young, who died quite recently. He wrote a great deal of quite accessible liturgical music. The Lost Chord is by Sir Arthur Sullivan, better known for the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Ebb Tide came from the movie Sweet Bird of Youth and all saloon bar organists used to play it in the fifties, compete with wind effects. The Overture to Raymond, (or The Queen’s Secret) is a piece Don first heard at the Odeon, Leeds in Northern England in the early sixties, played by Doreen Chadwick and he thought it was a great piece then and still does so. It makes great silent movie music. While We’re Young is a piece Don first heard sung by Judy Garland and he immediately fell in love with the tune. Finlandia has been played and recorded by many organists but Don has to say that it still stirs him and he is sure the theme will tug on the heartstrings of all who hear it. The Noel Coward song is the piece Don played as an encore when he played in Perth in 1999 and he sincerely hopes that they will indeed see him again in Australia.

THE RECORDING
The room into which the organ speaks is relatively small. In order to obtain some room sound and presence it was necessary to try several locations for the microphone placement. Mike position near the console resulted in the best room sound but also in console noise. The sound of the combination action is occasionally audible, as is the sound of feet on pedals and one noisy key on the accompaniment.Other extraneous noise that you may hear is caused by the presence of people both outside and inside the room. Recording began at 7am because, this being a sports pavilion, games take place on Sundays outside. It was expected that nothing would be happening till 11 or so. Wrong! They began playing soccer shortly after 7am. So the artist had to contend with referees’ whistles, cheering shouts of encouragement and so on. You won’t believe the number of times it was necessary to do re-takes on quiet numbers so that we had enough material to splice together that was free from extraneous noise. And then there were the visitors. This is a public building and people came up to the windows and peered in, hands cupping their eyes so that they could see (and of course signet rings clicking on the glass). Others came in and out of the refreshment room which adjoined the hall itself and floor-boards creaked and so on. Some even tiptoed into the room during the session. It wasn’t noticeable at the time but even the presence of one body in a place where there wasn’t one before alters the sound slightly in such a live room. There are lots of slight clicks caused by movement, etc. The organist says he can even hear one person breathing on Meditation. We hope that none of this is audible to you, the listener.