An American pipe organ in London

[KB7DQH]

http://www.nooga.com/21929_locally-crafted-pipe-organ-to-be-installed-in-london-church/

St. George's Hanover Square Church in London, England has just completed the most significant renovation in the church's nearly 300 year history. A new organ built in Chattanooga is a part of the massive restoration effort and will be reconstructed on site beginning in January 2012 by Chattanooga's own Richards Fowkes and Company.

Over the past 21 years Richards Fowkes and Company have built 17 pipe organs for churches and universities in the United States. With the completion of Opus 18, their most recent creation, they will become the first American organ builders to sell "the king of instruments" to a London church.

"No London church has ever purchased an organ from an American company. Never in history," said organ builder and company co-owner Ralph Richards.

But its not just any church. It is St. George's Hanover Square.

St. George's, built in 1725, was where King George I attended mass.

It was also composer George Frideric Handel's neighborhood church where he regularly attended mass for 35 years from 1723 until his death in 1759.

Teddy Roosevelt married Edith Carow inside the historic church in 1886 which began ties to the United States that Richards believes may have eventually made the church elders more comfortable looking across the pond when they needed a new organ.

The international search for a new organ builder began four years ago with the help of an English adviser. Ralph Richards and Bruce Fowkes had already gained a solid reputation as master builders of historically-informed organs constructed by hand using old-world methods. They made the short list when the English adviser hired an American adviser with long-standing ties to the Chattanooga-based craftsmen.
Photos of 11 of the 18 pipe organs built by hand at Richards Fowkes and Company in Chattanooga are posted on the wall as you walk into the modest shop. The company not only builts the instrument but also designs and hand carves the ornate cases where the organ is housed. Opus 18 will be the first organ they have not designed a case. Learn more about each of the company's organs. Staff photo.

But relationships alone did not speak louder than two of the Richards Fowkes-built organs the consultants decided to visit while researching potential vendors in the United States and Canada.

The selection committee came to see the pipe organs built for the historic Christ Church in New Brunswick, N.J., as well as the organ built for Duke University's Divinity School Chapel.

One of the company's most elaborately designed organs, the Christ Church instrument was their 12th organ and was installed in late August 2001.

"Christ Church is a significant church. Not only does it have the original bell tower, but it was also the third place where the Declaration of Independence was read, and was where a gathering of Anglican priests came in the 1780s to form the American episcopal church," Richards said.

The committee decided the Chattanooga organ builders had something they weren't finding anywhere else among contemporary pipe organ builders in North America.

"They found a slightly more historical flavor to our organs. They wanted something 'interesting' and not generic," Richards said.

Their winning approach is part of the company's commitment to inspire people to sing, to play, and to listen, but also to support the long term stewardship in churches, Richards said.

Old-world techniques used for every part
The mechanical action trackers, each hand-planed from raw timber, run horizontally and vertically to provide the motion after a key is struck to deliver wind to the soaring pipes above. Staff photo.

Richards and Fowkes' team of master pipe organ builders, cabinet makers, pipe builders, and wood carvers took approximately 30,000 man hours to build nearly every part and piece of the mechanical-action organ from scratch in their shop. 

Up to 12,000 individual parts were made by hand by less than 10 craftsman, most of whom have been working for the company for nearly 20 years. Nearly every construction method used is an old-world technique.

The organ contains 2,851 hand-built metal and wooden pipes, and 174 hand-carved keys made from the shinbones of cows. All of the wood used to encase the swell boxes, make the mechanical trackers, and house the guts of the organ are made from raw milled lumber.

Custom alloys for pipes are made in the shop from tin and lead, which are cast into sheets on a stone table, then planed, soldered and rolled by hand.

Deconstructing, delivering and rebuilding Opus 18

Now that the 10-ton instrument has been built, every part and piece will be dismantled and packed up to be shipped by boat to London in late November.

Richards said it will take about 2 weeks to deconstruct the organ and carefully crate it. It will then spend ten days in transport across the ocean. The container will be delivered to St. George's Hanover Square in London and await the Chattanooga team's arrival on January 3.

From that point, Richards expects his team to be working at the church for up to 6 months putting it all back together and completing the  sometimes very slow task of "voicing," or tuning, the nearly 3,000 pipes one by one.

The new organ will then be custom fit into the historic and ornate original exterior case from the 1700s, the only part not made in Chattanooga. Front pipes most viewable to the congregation will be gold-leafed.

The affluent London church has had their organ rebuilt eight times since 1725.

Comments ???

Eric
KB7DQH

[AnOrganCornucopia]

Pity it's such a neoclassical instrument - an organ built in Chattanooga ought to have a Wurlitzer-style train effect labelled 'Choo Choo'  ;D

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