Organ matters - Organs matter!

This organ is is now up on the IBO redundant organs site - #388

There are a couple of photos.

David

Dear Barrie,

I'm afraid that I haven't quite got the hang of using this forum yet and I can't work out how to attach photos. Any ideas?

David

The magnificent 1932 Walker (IIP 26ss) organ in the Great Hall of Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth 1 sixth form college in Leicester is under imminent threat of destruction. Work will begin on 24 June to convert the Great Hall into a library, classrooms and study areas at which point the organ will have to be removed.

Despite being an imposing and largely unaltered building from 1932 the Great Hall is not listed and the organ itself has no statutory protection. Despite several professional organbuilders having seen the organ over the past few months, apparently no-one thought to advise the school to list the organ on the IBO redundant organs site. I became aware of the situation only a week ago when I was contacted by the Leicester Diocesan DOA, Simon Headley. Simon has no jurisdiction over the organ but is one of several cathedral organists who practised on the organ when they were students at the College. I also included the organ in my little 2010 book Historic Organs of Leicestershire, as I regard it as one of the best examples of an organ in a school in the state sector.

Details of the organ can be found on NPOR here (http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D07877)

The organ is in exceptionally good condition having been maintained by Walkers until quite recently. It has the original 1932 electric action with its attendant cotton-covered wiring which would need replacing, naturally. The oak case front is imposing and visually raises this organ above the usual dreary rows of zinc drainpipes that one so often finds in organs of this era. The organ was donated to the college by Sir Jonathon North, chair of the College Corporation and Leicester Education Committee.
All the stops are full compass with the only extension/borrowing being the swell fagotto/oboe being used on the pedal, great contrasalicional being used on the pedal and pedal open wood 16 also providing the octave 8.

Although the organ has not been tuned for about four years, a quick tune of the swell reeds revealed a magnificent sound that filled the fine acoustic of the Great Hall.

The college is keen to find a home for the organ as a going concern and it would be the greatest tragedy if the organ were to be dismantled only for parts or that it went into storage for an indeterminate time.

I do have photos and some sound files. If someone can tell me how to load these I will be happy to do so.

David Shuker
At the Sign of the Pipe
Birling, Kent

Quote from: KB7DQH on March 09, 2011, 04:45:42 AM
on an organ that not only did Handel at one time in his life he actually played, but one in which he had actually suggested the specification of the instrument...

Unfortunately there is no evidence that Handel ever played the organ itself. However, the letter that Handel wrote to Charles Jennens on 30 September 1749 which contains the suggested specification is of course the source of the original specification.

Quote from: KB7DQH on March 09, 2011, 04:45:42 AM
That such an organ did in fact actually exist, and that it was unaltered except for "routine maintenance and tuning"

However, the organ was moved in the 1770s after Jennens' death and had a small Swell division added (possibly by Snetzler).

The siting for the organ as it survives today is absolutely splendid. The church in which it stands is situated in the grounds of a large estate and bears witness to Handel's suggestion that it should not include a reed as "they are continually wanting to be tuned, which in the country is very inconvenient"

Whilst the raising of the pitch in the 1950s is to be regretted, the sound of the organ is still magnificent.

David S.

Quote from: revtonynewnham on July 25, 2011, 04:06:30 PM
One wonders how Anglican chant was managed, with the varying length of the reciting note in each verse.

With apologies for picking up this thread a bit late in the day (I have only just registered for this forum.....).

In view of the many aspects of ingenuity displayed in the manufacture of barrel organs one wonders why no-one ever thought to devise a clutch-like mechanism to temporariliy stop the barrel rotating and thus leave the chord playing for just as long as required to fit in the required number of syllables. On larger barrel organs which were foot-blown the barrel could simply be stopped on any desired chord. Whichever way this might have been done (and I can't recall seeing any mention of  the first option in the barrel organ literature) it would require that the "barrel organist" be prepared to accompany the chant in a musical fashion. This latter aspect may have been the real issue given the anecdotes about such people (if that is not too unkind a comment). There is a latterday version of this story which I will explore in a forthcoming BIOS Reporter editorial......

Best wishes,

David Shuker