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Waltham Abbey

Started by AnOrganCornucopia, March 08, 2012, 10:21:05 AM

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AnOrganCornucopia

Waltham Abbey is getting rid of its pipe organ. I've never heard so much as a recording of it so have no idea what it's like but it doesn't look bad. I wonder if David Drinkell knows it?

http://www.walthamabbeychurch.co.uk/Music/organ.htm gives a history + spec. Thankfully, the Abbey has committed itself to replacing this organ with another pipe organ. Frankly, I think their chances of finding a suitably large organ come under the heading of "slim to none", so I can see them being forced to buy a new organ - unless Newcastle City Hall decide to sell!

Waltham Abbey

Greetings from Waltham Abbey. We prefer the term "replacing" rather than the pejorative connotations of "getting rid"! Anyone who would like to pay a visit to meet us is welcome to find out what the organ is like rather than merely working from a stop-list.
Essentially it is a much altered Walker organ of various vintages. It is now suffering from runnings in the sound-boards, sticking sliders and other mechanical problems. No doubt all of these could be fixed, at a price, but the sad fact is that this organ has little of its original integrity left. One option that has been explored is to work again on the existing instrument. Whilst the mechanical failings could be remedied, this is quite a high risk project from the point of view of producing an artistic instrument, worthy of such a historic building. Our view is that is a better use of a comparable amount of money to replace the organ with one of real musical value and cohesion.
Finding a replacement organ has not been a straightforward process. Indeed, if we were in the market for something the size of Newcastle City Hall we would have had a choice of instruments. Similarly, there are any number of smaller organs worthy of a good home. Thankfully we believe that we have found a fine redundant instrument of moderate proportions, to fit a moderately sized building and are currently in the process of receiving tenders for the work. We hope to be able to make an announcement giving further details of our intentions within this calendar year. Perhaps we will post this under Organs Preserved.
Kindest regards,

pcnd5584

Quote from: Waltham Abbey on June 07, 2012, 11:04:14 AM
Greetings from Waltham Abbey. We prefer the term "replacing" rather than the pejorative connotations of "getting rid"! Anyone who would like to pay a visit to meet us is welcome to find out what the organ is like rather than merely working from a stop-list.
Essentially it is a much altered Walker organ of various vintages. It is now suffering from runnings in the sound-boards, sticking sliders and other mechanical problems. No doubt all of these could be fixed, at a price, but the sad fact is that this organ has little of its original integrity left. One option that has been explored is to work again on the existing instrument. Whilst the mechanical failings could be remedied, this is quite a high risk project from the point of view of producing an artistic instrument, worthy of such a historic building. Our view is that is a better use of a comparable amount of money to replace the organ with one of real musical value and cohesion.
Finding a replacement organ has not been a straightforward process. Indeed, if we were in the market for something the size of Newcastle City Hall we would have had a choice of instruments. Similarly, there are any number of smaller organs worthy of a good home. Thankfully we believe that we have found a fine redundant instrument of moderate proportions, to fit a moderately sized building and are currently in the process of receiving tenders for the work. We hope to be able to make an announcement giving further details of our intentions within this calendar year. Perhaps we will post this under Organs Preserved.
Kindest regards,

Thank you for this encouraging information.

Welcome to the board. I wish you well with your search for a suitable instrument.
Pierre Cochereau rocked, man

David Drinkell

Yes, I know the Waltham organ, although it's a long time since I made its acquaintance.  I was interviewed for the post of Organist there in about 1981.  At that time, they were going through a period when the clergy were 'influenced by the charismatic movement', which did not sit well with those who favoured a choir of men and boys, with two choral services on Sundays and Evensong (mens' voices) on Wednesdays.  The successful applicant came from a church which was more sympathetic to the changes than I was.  It continued to attract choirmasters of calibre, and one of my ex-Belfast layclerks sang there for a while and said they did good music.

The church is a magnificent lofty Norman nave, with lots of fascinating features. Everything east of the nave went after the Reformation and the east end is an impressive design by Burges.  At the last rebuild, the organ was put on the west wall, with the console behind the choir stalls.  While this was excellent for sound, and avoided a big lump of organ somewhere else in a distinguished building, it wasn't ideal for accompanying an east end choir (although not nearly as bad as some).  It was generally a fine beast in traditional Walker cathedral style, but maybe not quite as impressive or as much fun as one might expect  (it needed a Tuba, and the Great mixture only had two ranks, which was not quite enough).  The 'case' was just gold-painted pipes - quite dignified and not obtrusive, but not really worthy of the building.  So I can well believe that the Abbey folk have decided that replacement, perhaps with a top quality reconditioned instrument, is the best course to take.  I certainly wish them well.

Contrabombarde

THis link is rather old now but shows considerable progress made:

http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Essex/Waltham-Abbey/EN9/Charity/Charities/118617-Heritage-Organ-Appeal

Frankly with that apology of a case and unimaginative specification on the Abbey website, I would imagine most organists would be only too pleased to "get rid of" such a mongrel if a genuinely fine redundant organ of appropriate scale for the building came along. Very best of luck with your appeal, and I hope you can make some additional money out of selling the existing organ for wanted ranks/scrap metal/Hauptwerk consoles/decorative pipe features in front of Hauptwerk speakers etc etc.