Mickleham Parish Church: original character tracker instrument for electrocution

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

I'm starting to hear rumours about a delightful Surrey church with an organ of character and size commensurate with its building having the instrument electrocuted and extended.

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N13816

The specification shows that the instrument has clearly been meddled with, but possibly not irreversibly so and perhaps one might look towards restoring the Voix Celeste on the Swell, so important for quiet parish church organ use and, if a Diapason and Principal are bright enough then perhaps a 2ft on the Great, especially where a 2ft is available through the Swell, is arguably unnecessary (from experience of an 1890s Lewis supporting a small congregation) resulting in a Clarinet being an interesting stop giving the instrument character.

In the nature of its small scale parochial context, were alterations proposed, one might consider that reversing changes to some extent and restoring it to how it was could be more valuable and of more interest than electrocuting it, extending it and transforming it into something else, or worse, getting it to pretend to be something that it's not. . .

Aren't such changes as I understand are proposed the very sort of things that BIOS derogate?

Best wishes

David P

[Victor Potter]

Years ago I occasionally used to play a similar Walker organ of approximately the same vintage at Latimer Parish Church in Buckinghamshire which was in the grounds of and used by the Joint Services Staff College. The console design and position of the organ were almost exactly similar. The mechanical stop action was OK but the tracker action to the keyboards was so heavy as to be virtually impossible to play fluently with more than just a couple of stops added and the Swell to Great coupler made it inexorably worse. Although I was DoM at Dorking Parish Church for some years I never got to play the Mickleham organ but heard it once in a Carol Service and it sounded well. However, if the action is anything like Latimer it really needs some attention/replacement.

[David Pinnegar]

Dear Victor

Thanks. Interesting comparison and perspective.

I was given the heads-up on this instrument without first hand knowledge and hope that someone with direct knowledge of the instrument with the action as it is might give news.

Perhaps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUFWWOgSbbU at Tunbridge Wells originated as a similar instrument and has been enlarged most successfully and excitingly - but in a building for a congregation very much larger . . .

One might assume that as works were done to it by a generation who were quite gung-ho about making alterations, were the action to have been significantly defective it would have been done then . . .

Best wishes

David P

[AnOrganCornucopia]

Mickleham PC is about half a mile from where I sit, so please permit me to offer some comment based on recent experience of being registration assistant to a deputising organist of my acquaintance (established members of this forum will know to whom I refer).

It's a quaint little organ but it is not in any way unique. It's also not terribly characterful - the flutes are rather dull, there are no undulants, the one reed (an Oboe) is really not very good, the diapason chorus is pretty dull too. What it is is very restrictive indeed - and its chamber layout makes the tracker action rather impractical and the touch is both uneven and heavy (varying from a bit too heavy to the sort that gives players muscular cramp for days afterwards). The organ also plain isn't big enough for the church - it struggles to carry and, registration-wise, you're in a bit of a quandary in that full organ is still too quiet until you add the Great O.D. which is large in scale and more or less obliterates the rest of it.

Personally, I would rather that they simply got a completely new organ (perhaps using secondhand pipework) and allowed the Walker to survive unmolested elsewhere - but make no mistake, this instrument is no mini-Romsey. Even for its size, the very similar 1905 Henry Jones in the Catholic church in neighbouring Dorking knocks the socks off it (though that instrument is 13 stops in a building that needs at least 40...).

Before anyone suggests rebuilding at the West end, there isn't room there either - there's at most 8ft of headroom on the gallery and no space at floor level either.

So, please, don't mourn too much over this really very unremarkable instrument because it's not that special - better that you direct your valiant efforts towards more deserving cases (of which I can think of a few). Comparisons with small Lewises (of which there are a considerable number around here) are really not helpful - the Lewises are simply in a different league.

Incidentally, I would disagree vehemently with David's argument that the church is 'delightful'. 'Extremely mutilated' is closer to the mark. It dates back to about 1100 but there is not one single architectural detail that isn't Victorian and horribly machined in appearance. Even if it wasn't, authentic Norman it most certainly is not. It's one of the worst 'medieval' churches in Surrey, second only to St Mary's Stoke d'Abernon (with its famous Frobenius).

[matt h]

I see no reason why tracker action should not be sufficient for this instrument. Have played much larger organs with tracker. perhaps an overhaul of the existing action would be more appropriate.  I think sometimes the organ builders can be too gung ho in advising conversion to solid state; don't know if anyone else has had experience of this. 

[David Pinnegar]

Dear AOC

Thanks for your first hand experience. Matt's comment is valid too . . . sometimes some expert attention can work miracles.

If one looks at the specification, it's apparent that the undulant was done away with . . . and thus my comment about, if anything, reversion to its original form.

It would be interesting to hear anything from anyone from the church themselves. . . .

Best wishes

David P

[AnOrganCornucopia]

The thing is, Walker tended to make organs which were good tonally (occasionally nothing short of stupendous, as at Romsey, St Matthew's Northampton, Bristol Cathedral and Wimbledon RC) but the action has always been the let-down. Whether it's pure tracker (as at Mickleham), Barker lever (Romsey) or tubular pneumatic (Wimbledon), Walker actions are notoriously troublesome and often poorly designed.

I think I shall ask David Coram, something of an expert on these matters, to join the forum and elucidate.

To the previous poster - the problem with tracker action at Mickleham is the nature of the site and the chamber, which is an extremely awkward site with distinct problems for sound egress. In order to get any reasonable sort of sound, and get the best out of an organ in that chamber, tracker action simply isn't the best way to go. Tracker action is very nice to have where practicable, but in this case it's just an extra complication. Here, the old action just isn't worth preserving because it's not a good design and better examples survive elsewhere.

David, I shall see if I can get Chris Connett, the new organist at Mickleham, to join. The person who knows most about this project and is acting as consultant, is Barry Williams,(remainder of post deleted - Moderator)

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

This is proving to be something of an interesting thread and one which may have applicability beyond merely the Surrey church in question. The extent to which tracker actions can become heavy results from the "pluck" of the opening of the pallet and gives an element of control valued by sensitive performers giving a value to tracker instruments above and beyond those assisted by electrical means. Having played at St Maximin from my experience it is possible to get a tracker instrument, even a large one, to be a joy to play no matter how many stops are drawn.

As an early (but ashamedly lapsed) member of BIOS and sympathetic to their philosophy, I feel that this issue is important to the preservation of instruments honestly representative of their time.

What solutions are available for organs such as these?

Best wishes

David P

[AnOrganCornucopia]

The thing is that there is no benefit to be gained from a tracker action which is badly designed and (as is unavoidable on this site) awkwardly laid out. It's just HEAVY and uneven.

I think that Vincent Willis' floating lever action lacks a direct key-to-chest mechanical link - but it still enables the player to control the speed at which the pallets open. David Wyld is another we need here...

But really, the solution for this church is simple. Get rid of the tracker action, go electropneumatic and stick some biggish reeds in. This organ is tonally undistinguished and the action is unsatisfactory.

[matt h]

It would be interesting to know what has led the Church to consider making these changes. Whilst wanting to keep the character of any historic instrument intact, I can appreciate that sometimes a pipe organ which struggles to lead a full congregation might benefit from some sympathetic extension. A case in point being an organ I used to play occasionally in Bristol, Westbury Park Methodist (II+P), which had one or two of it's ranks extended and Octave/Sub-Octave couplers provided by solid state action, as well as allowing for the console to be placed across the church.  It was (and hopefully still is!) a very effective organ, and one I used to enjoy playing (indeed I chose to record my GCSE coursework there).  My problem with extension organs stems from playing many times the organ at Wesley College (Bristol), a 3 rank Compton in a building with absolutely no acoustics: Dreadful!!! 

I suppose if the pipe organ is seen as being ineffective this would lead to the inevitable discussions about installing an electronic, which would be (in my view) the greater evil.

Matt.

[David Drinkell]

I notice in NPOR that Westbury Park has only the Pedal Bourdon extended.  If it's been altered, maybe you could contact NPOR with an update.

Similarly, I don't think Methodist College, Bristol is mentioned at all.  Maybe you could send NPOR the spec, even it if was as dreadful as you say it was!

[matt h]

It is many years since I played Westbury Park, but I did say it was only one or two!  Wesley College closed in 2011, and I am trying to find out plans for the organ, although it wasn't good it was still my practise instrument when I visited my parents. When and if I find out what's happening it is my intention to let NPOR and this forum know; if it becomes available it would be a nice mid-sized house organ for someone. I think, from memory, it's ranks are Open Diapason, Stopped Diapason and Salicional.