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,
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,