Current Issue

Oxbridge Organs - Part IV

Wadham College, Corpus Christi College and Oriel College

Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, rich Somerset landowners. It was largely built in one go, including the chapel, so there is a remarkable uniformity in its architecture and it is a fine artistic monument to the Jacobean age. As far as is known though, the college did not possess an organ until one was built by Willis & Sons no less, in 1878, which was funded by money left over from a subscription by college members for new windows in the antechapel. At this time though, four ranks of pipes (the Salicional, Cornopean, Oboe and Trumpet) were merely 'prepared for' and added later. In his history of the college, the architect Thomas Jackson (who had been an undergraduate there) noted how 'the organ stood at first without a case, nakedly on the floor of the south transept', that is in the left-hand arm of the antechapel as one views the organ in its present position in the middle of the antechapel, standing with the altar behind one.

Once enough money had accrued from the window subscription fund, Jackson himself designed the present organ loft and case in 1886 in the same Jacobean style as most of the other furnishings in the chapel, with characteristic strapwork, obelisks and slender columns. Jackson also noted that 'the organ is kept as narrow from front to back as the organ builder could be induced to make it, in order not to block the antechapel'. This explains the organ's appearance then as quite flat, as though pressed up against the chapel's west end, with pipes piled up on each other in two layers in the middle, Pedal pipe towers at the sides which are flat rather than canted outwards, and the console on the right-hand side (north end) of the pipework. It was in 1886 too that the prepared for pipes were inserted by Willis.

Pictured: Wadham College Organ

To see the whole article with full specification subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page

The House of Brindley - organ builders of Sheffield 1854-1939

Bryan Hughes

We are pleased to publish an extract from the latest forthcoming book by the noted organ historian Bryan Hughes, on the distinguished Brindley family of Organ Builders. The book will be published later in the year by Musical Opinion Ltd part of the valuable series of studies written by Mr Hughes. As we get nearer the publication date, 'The Organ' will be making an exclusive pre-publication offer of Mr Hughes's new book to its readers.

During the Victorian era Great Britain was the richest, most influential, and envied nation, and the workshop of the world. In Lytton Strachey's scholarly hand he records Britain's achievements. There were many artisans, both men and women, working in their own fields whose contribution expanded the nation's wealth and power. There were those too, who by their skill united mechanical artistry with the ethereal - in music: their reward was local fame and notoriety. Their memories are preserved in England's parish churches.

By the time Charles Brindley had reached the age of maturity the art of copying had been achieved with great success. The Industrial Revolution was forging ahead crowned by the huge success of the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1851. Charles Brindley was born in Sheffield in 1833, his father, also named Charles (1806-1843), was in business as a stone cutter at 103 Carver Street, Sheffield. The 1841 census records him as a stonemason of independent means. In the Sheffield Trade Directories he is registered as a stone cutter. It is important here to clarify Charles Brindley's position within the mason's craft, and also within the class conscious age of Victorian England, as this will clarify some of the mist that has surrounded his son Charles' progress into the craft of organ builder.

As a stone cutter Charles Brindley senior supplied the roughly cut blocks of stone to the masons' requirements. The final intricate carving was the domain of the skilled masons. His remuneration for this work would therefore be much lower than that of a skilled mason.

To see the whole article subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page

Anniversaries 2012

John Collins

In 2012 there are several composers of significant organ music whose anniversaries can be commemorated. There are several lesser-known names here whose compositions are also well worth exploring.

Giovanni Gabrieli 1557-1612 One of the leading Venetian composers of the late Renaissance, his 38 keyboard pieces comprise a set of Intonations, 12 Toccatas, 11 ricercars, 3 fantasias, 2 fugas and 9 canzonas. They are edited by Dalla Libera for Ricordi in three volumes; volume three contains thirteen keyboard settings of motets, many more were made by German composers but are not available in modern editions.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 1562-1621 Organist of the Oude Kirck Amsterdam and a seminal influence on North German organ music in the 17th century through his pupils. His authenticated keyboard works include some 17 toccatas, 24 fantasias, 1 ricercar, 12 sets of chorale and psalm variations and 12 sets of dance and song variations, with several more works in each category considered of doubtful attribution. Two recent complete editions include Harald Vogel and Pieter Dirksen for Breitkopf & Härtel in 4 volumes, and Siegbert Rampe for Bärenreiter in 8 volumes. A most useful guide is Pieter Dirksen's book 'The keyboard music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck' in which the pieces are discussed in depth.

Hans Leo Hassler 1564-1612 Primarily known today for his vocal music, he studied organ in Venice with Andrea Gabrieli and became a leading player in Augsburg. He left a substantial corpus of keyboard works of considerable scope and length, most of it preserved in the Turin MSS, including 8 toccatas, 18 ricercari, 18 canzone, 14 magnificats, an organ mass, 4 fugues and 2 sets of variations. A good selection, as well as the variations on Ich ging einmal spazieren, was edited by Georges Kiss for Schott and Sons. The toccatas were edited by S. Stribos for the American Institute of Musicology and the magnificats by A. Carpenè for il Levante Libreria. A few other pieces from other MSS sources have been included in various anthologies. 25 of the 39 intabulated songs from his Lustgarten of 1601 have been edited by M.Böcker for Breitkopf & Härtel The complete works from the Turin MSS are available in two volumes edited by W.Thein and U.Wethmuller for Breitkopf & Härtel, but at about £200 each they will remain well outside the reach of most players.

Pictured: Sweelinck

To see the whole article subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page

The Forster and Andrews Organ in St Augustine's, Grove Park, South-East London

A report compiled by James Palmer

We continue our occasional series on parish church organs with details of the history of an instrument which has been played by many distinguished musicians during its existence. We are grateful to John King, the local historian of Grove Park, Kenneth Richardson's masterly history of the church, 'Gem Set in Green', Father Gavin Berriman, the current vicar of St Augustine's, and to Christopher Town, the church's Director of Music (a post he has held for many years), for supplying much of the information we are pleased to publish.

The Anglican parish Church of St Augustine, Grove Park, situated between Blackheath and Bromley in South-East London, like many in the growth of suburban London in the second half of the nineteenth-century, came into existence in the 1880s, a consequence of the coming of the railway and the growth of large detached residences to accommodate the expanding business classes. As John King says, in his excellent monograph 'Grove Park - it's History Revisited' (2011 - from which much of the following is taken), 'The spiritual needs of the community were met in part by the opening of the new Anglican Church in St Mildred's Road [now part of London's South Circular Road] in 1878. This had largely been made possible by the Earl of Northbrook. Some of the new Anglican residents did not appear to cherish the short journey down the hill to St Mildred's Church on Sunday. There were still no horse-drawn buses which traversed Grove Park and not all the new residents had the service of a horse and carriage. The movement for an Anglican Church in Grove Park, which had the approval of the vicar of St Mildred's, was manifesting itself by the early summer of 1885. Before the end of that summer, the Earl of Northbrook had provided an acre of land, valued at £800, as a site for the church, together with a donation of £500. By March 1886 over £2,200 had been received for the building of the new church. Events moved quickly, and on Saturday afternoon, May 22, the church's foundation stone was laid by the Earl of Northbrook, and on the following October 24 St Augustine's Church was consecrated for divine worship by the Bishop of Rochester. The Organ in St Augustine's Church is a three-manual and pedal instrument with 34 speaking stops. It was built by Forster and Andrews of Hull in 1888, to a specification prepared by Dr (later Sir) Frederick Bridge, the Organist of Westminster Abbey, who performed the inaugural recital on May 26, 1888. Only a part of the organ had been completed by that date but further stops were added in 1892 and 1901.

To see the whole article with full specification subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page

The Organ Music of Sir Edward Elgar

Jerrold Northrop Moore

The organ played a defining role in Elgar's career as a composer from the time of his childhood in Worcester in the 1860s. His father was for many years organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church. And there it was that the organ made its first appeal to the little boy as a means for his own expression. Many years later the mature composer would recall:

'From the time I was about seven or eight I used to go and sit by my father and watch him play. After a time I began to try to play myself. At first the only thing I succeeded in producing was noise, but gradually, out of the chaos, harmony began to evolve itself.'

It was already characteristic of this little boy to seek his primary expression through music which he must make for himself. And the organ was immediately preferred to the little boy's first instrument, the piano, because it offered a more elaborate ensemble. It offered, in fact, the most elaborate ensemble of all the single instruments upon which one could extemporise one's own music. And so it offered the boy's closest approach to the most complex of all ensembles - the orchestra. Throughout the entire length of the creative career to come, Elgar's attraction to the organ was to be intertwined with his interest in the orchestra.

By the time he was fifteen, young Elgar was assisting his father by playing voluntaries and sometimes taking entire services at the Catholic Church. This experience suggested a second way in which the organ might serve a budding composer: its ensemble also offered a means for exploring the music of other composers. He bribed his boyhood friend Hubert Leicester to blow the organ at St George's for hours on end, by always beginning with young Leicester's favourite selection from Mozart. After that, the organist could play what he liked. Hubert Leicester remembered an instance:

'Was blowing organ one day for E.E. He played something quite new and strange. Ran round and said:

'Ted, what is that?'

'That, Hubert, is by a man who is not understood. His name is Wagner - a German - and you will hear more of him some day.'

'The piece was the Overture to Tannhäuser.'

Pictured: The Organ in Worcester Cathedral

To see the whole article subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page

The Mander restoration of the JW Walker Organ at The Sacred Heart, Wimbledon

A report compiled by James Palmer

Colin Hills, reporting in the November 2011-January 2012 issue of this journal on the inaugural recital by David Briggs, Organist Emeritus of Gloucester Cathedral, on the restored 1912 Walker organ in the large Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Wimbledon on October 21 last, praised the event as being 'everything such an occasion should produce.' He continued, 'In the first place, the restored instrument was in magnificent condition throughout, and it would take much space to expiate on the virtues of the Mander team and the outcome of their dedicated work as exemplified in David Brigg's recital, each item of which was very well introduced to the exceptionally large audience by this most gifted player.'

Since then, in the few months the instrument has been in use, and from the comments of those who have had the pleasure of playing it have been able to confirm - in particular, to the delight of the Church's Director of Music, Robert Rathbone - there would appear to be no doubt, as Mr Hills implied in his review, that this is truly an excellent instrument which 'could hardly have had a better launch than this; in his talk to the audience, Briggs described it as 'one of the great organs', a comment with which one can only concur.'

By way of background to the details of this restoration, we are very grateful to the Mander company for supplying much of the following information. The J W Walker organ was originally built in 1912. In 1935, and during some time later, a number of tonal changes were made in accordance with the musical taste of the time. These changes included five stops being added to the Choir Organ, the Great Organ Dulciana was re-voiced as a Flauto Dolce, the Swell Vox Humana was removed in favour of a Dulciana Twelfth and, somewhat later, the harmonic Flute 4 was removed to make way for an Octave 4.

To see the whole article subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page

A Gift for Clara

Carol Whalley traces the intriguing background to a remarkable present for a Victorian bride

This year marks the centenary of Clara Kennedy's death.

She died at Pau in the Pyrenees on April 9th 1912, though her probate says she lived in Harrogate. Her body was brought back to the UK to be with her husband. They had no issue.

Clara was born in 1839 in Ramsgate. Her father was Henry George Thornton, a miller by trade. He owned Sturry Mill: Sturry being a small village about three miles from Canterbury. During Clara's early years, the family - Henry George, Mary Jane (mother), Henry J, Clara, William Pugin and Lucy Thornton - moved from their cottage in Ramsgate to live in Mill House, Sturry. The mill was a large imposing building, painted white, with a pretty mill pool where all the village children played during the long summer days.

Clara, being a typical girl of the middle classes at that time, would probably spend her days learning skills such as music, needlework and reading. However, her younger brother William Pugin Thornton went to Kings School, where he excelled in his studies and eventually became an eminent throat surgeon, writing many learned books on the subject. In the 1861 census, Clara is shown as a 22-year-old still living in the family home. After Henry George died, the family left the mill and moved to St. George's Place, Canterbury. This would be in the Cathedral Precinct.

On the first of June 1865 Clara married the man of her dreams - Thomas Stuart Kennedy. The wedding must have been a lavish affair as it took place in the Cathedral itself. Thomas was a man of the world - a real man's man. He was tall and craggy faced with deep set penetrating eyes and a long thin moustache. Although born in Wallsuches near Horwich, Thomas had lived in many places during his upbringing.

He's shown in the 1841 census at the tender age of only 2 months with his Mother, who was Ann Ridgeway. Ann was from a very important family, the Ridgeways employed many people in their bleachworks near Horwich; they were great benefactors and commissioned the local church & school. The bleachworks was amongst the most modern in Europe if not the world. His father was Peter Kennedy, a rich industrialist. Peter had his fingers in many pies... one of his cotton mills was in Feldkirch, which was then part of Germany. Whilst spending time there Thomas became a great lover of the mountains, a love that stayed with him for life. In the 1851 census he's shown with his younger brother James Colean Kennedy, Mum, a nurse and two servants living at number 2, The Promenade in Southport. Presumably Peter is still abroad tending his mills. In the 1861 census Peter finally pops up... the family are all living together at Cooks House, Ambleside. The boys are 19yrs & 18yrs respectively.

Pictured: Edmund Schultz, builder of Clara's organ.

To see the whole article with full specification subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page

My first encounter with the Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ

Carol Williams, the distinguished American organist tells of a memorable initial meeting

Enormous silvery sheets of curved metal reaching up to the sky in a form that more resembles a bent house of cards than a building with the sun glistening from many of its surfaces, we see the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

January 20th 2011, I made my acquaintance with the Walt Disney Concert Hall as I arrived for my first rehearsal on the organ in preparation for a solo concert. I was really looking forward to meeting this unique lady. This organ has caused so much controversy in the organ business world.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall is right in the centre of Los Angeles, a short walk from the Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels which is another futuristic building of Los Angeles. Although the Concert Hall lobby is a beautiful mixture of glass, marble and what looks like very large square wooden organ pipes that help hold up the structure, we entered the building through the underground car park. Several levels below ground, we park are assigned a space. Ride the lift up to the administrative section on the second floor, pass along numerous corridors filled with copious photos of the Los Angeles Philharmonic members - after-all, they are the full time tenants. All other events are planned around their schedule.

We are then greeted by Phil Smith, the Organ Conservator, he gives a nod to the armed security officer seated behind a desk and we're buzzed in the door that leads to the back stage area. There is a massive array of lighting, dollies, switches and other sorts of things I really couldn't explain or understand but, must be all very important! We enter through two doors that make up a sound lock and then on to the large stage. My heart missed a few beats as I glanced up at the mammoth organ facade which is about 60 feet high. The twisted wood pipes seem to flow right to the top of the hall like blades of tall thick grass. I thought to myself, 'so this is the facade that has had so many negative comments'. Often referred to as a large box of French fries or an explosion of trumpets! Mr. Gehry, the architect lovingly refers to it as a log jam. All I could think of was 'stunning!'

The Disney Hall was begun with a donation from Walt Disney's widow. However, through the development and planning there were so many hurdles to overcome that in time the cost of the Hall became exuberant. In order to continue the project different sections of the Hall were financed with donations. The organ itself was a gift to the County of Los Angeles from the Toyota Motor Corporation. The unusual design of the organ case was Frank Gehry's idea and finally the result of the collaboration between the Concert Hall architect, Frank Gehry, and organ builder Manuel Rosales. While the mechanical and aural design of the organ is a collaboration between Rosales and Glatter-Gotz Orgelbau in Germany. This is actually Opus 9 for the young company Glatter-Gotz and Opus 24 for the Rosales Organ builder. Six containers full of organ pipes and various organ bits 'n bobs were shipped from Germany to Los Angeles. Some of the wood pipes were harvested in the United States, shipped to Germany to be manufactured and were included in the shipment back to the States.

To see the whole article subscribe to The Organ.

Return to top of page