September is National Organ Month in New Zealand...

[KB7DQH]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/tribune/5580019/Organ-month-ndash-complete-with-Woofyt

A Woofyt ???

Ever fancied exploring a pipe organ?

September is National Organ Month and Palmerston North's St Andrews in the City is having a free open day on Saturday, September 10, 10am to midday.

Church director of music Roy Tankersley says a Woofyt (Wooden octave of organ pipes for young technologists) for use in schools will be on show in the church's foyer on the day.

"This fascinating instrument demonstrates how a pipe organ works. It requires at least six people to operate it," Mr Tankersley says.

The Woofyt is an English invention by the director of a plumbing valve firm Bill Cleghorn and music educator Jeremy Sampson.

Mr Tankersley got permission to build New Zealand versions, and most major cities now possess a Woofyt supervised by local organist's associations.

It consists of an air pump operated by a pumping handle, a reservoir to contain and pressurise the air and 10 organ pipes mounted on individual boxes with a release valve for the wind.

Once the air is built up everyone can enjoy playing.

Other open day activities include making organ pipes out of cardboard, displays and a DVD presentation of a 12-year-old exploring the pipe organ in the Christchurch Town Hall.

Upstairs in the gallery, patrons have a chance to play St Andrews' pipe organ and to view the interior of the organ. The organ is English, build by Halmshaw in 1871. It is identical to the pipe organ in Christchurch's Catholic Basilica. The Basilica was badly damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes, and Mr Tankersley says nobody yet knows what has happened to its organ.

St Andrews' organ first went to the First Church of Otago in Dunedin, and it was moved to Palmerston North in 1908.

It was reinstalled in 2008, when the church rebuilt the organ loft and foyer, and its 1100 pipes were painstakingly cleaned.

"It's a very delicate operation. You use tiny soft brushes to remove the dust that builds up inside. Sometimes you tickle it out with special feathers."

The organ has three keyboards and a pedal board, with about 200 actual notes. But the tone of these notes can be changed by using various stops, and every note and every one of its stops has to have its own pipe.

Air to drive the organ comes from an electric blower, and magnetic relays and electrical switches link the notes on the keyboards to the pipes.

"It's a very stable organ. You tune a pipe organ by infinitesimally lengthening or shortening the pipes, you alter a collar at the top. Sometimes it's less than millimetres that you are moving ... we haven't had to do very much to it since it's been reinstalled," Mr Tankersley says.

Next Monday sees the first of five daily 30 minute recitals at 12.15pm by Manawatu organists.

On Monday, John Pryor will perform; Tuesday, Neal Gilchrist; Wednesday, Roy Tankersley; Thursday, Robert Clever and Friday, Don Sievwright.

Eric
KB7DQH