Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

"Organ" in King's College Chapel


emsgdh

Recommended Posts

Friends:

Sorry to be thick, esp. if this subject has already been explained, but is there a digital instrument in the chapel during the big job's restoration ? Wondering what we are to hear for this year's L&C broadcast.

Karl Watson,

Staten Island, NY

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understand that the 9 Lessons and Carols is the last service with the organ. I don't suppose that there is a Christmas morning service at a collegiate carol although I stand to be corrected.

 

 

There is, indeed, a morning Eucharist in Kings College Chapel on Christmas morning - and there always has been!

 

This year the Music includes:Mozart Missa Brevis K275 in B flat and traditional hymns/carols. The sermon is preached by the Dean and the final Voluntary is the Widor Symphonie V - not unsurprisingly - the Toccata. The service begins at 11h00.

 

 

These pages from the College website give details of the organ restoration and the timescale of that work. Hope they're helpful.

 

http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/organ/restoration-2016/index.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

This is a major reconstruction of the King's organ, costing £1.2 million. There has been a determined effort to centre all of the Pedal upper work within the case, together with a new Pedal 8' Principal. The website even states that an effort will be made to restore the former 'brightness' of the instrument.

 

Either way, the sum of money involved does sound a tremendous amount - let's hope the results prove its worth.

 

 

Indeed it is a lot of money. My church couldn't afford to have "my" 7 stop single manual and pedal organ tuned this year...

 

Gloucester diocese still insisted on a 17% increase to the £4000+ "contribution" paid in 2014. What a way to run a business.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Harrison's are documenting the work in the gallery section of their website. Looks like they've already been busy for 6 months constructing all the new parts ahead of the dismantling which begins in the new year.

www.harrisonorgans.com/gallery/cambridge-kings-college

 

They are also documenting the re-pitching work at Peterborough Cathedral which involves lengthening all the pipes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Indeed it is a lot of money. My church couldn't afford to have "my" 7 stop single manual and pedal organ tuned this year...

 

Gloucester diocese still insisted on a 17% increase to the £4000+ "contribution" paid in 2014. What a way to run a business.

 

I could be wrong of course, but one tends to assume that King's is able to disburse the sort of money being dicussed here because they are who they are. And many will benefit from it, of course, even if it's just hearing the new organ on TV and radio. But in the case of handsoff's situation, I should like to think that the diocesan contribution he mentioned will be spent in a way that he and his congregation approve of. It does seem a rather large increase in these days of 0.1% inflation.

 

CEP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please don't misunderstand me. I do not resent for one moment the fact that KCC can and will spend this sum on the organ and I will doubtless enjoy and applaud the results of the work along with countless others.

 

From speaking to the congregation at my church, averaging fewer than 12 souls, I do get the impression that they do not think that the diocese necessarily spend the money well. It is entirely a one-way flow with ludicrously restrictive rules on what we may and may not do in our own parish and this will force our closure within 3 or 4 years. By then the organ will have died so I shan't be involved.

 

This is not the place for such a discussion and I was wrong to vent my feelings here. We should stick to the topic and I shall refrain from further comment unless I wish to add to the discussion about the organ in KCC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With respect, I think it is better to read here on the King's website about the details of the funding of the project rather than speculate on the finances of the college in relation to the organ. SL has given above a link to the college website. FAQs concerning the organ (including substitute instruments) are here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More money of course. But with King's I doubt whether money is a problem.

 

 

There is a misconception that institutions, such as Kings College at Cambridge, are awash with money!

 

They have to balance the books - just like anyone else!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

There is, indeed, a morning Eucharist in Kings College Chapel on Christmas morning - and there always has been!

 

This year the Music includes:Mozart Missa Brevis K275 in B flat and traditional hymns/carols. The sermon is preached by the Dean and the final Voluntary is the Widor Symphonie V - not unsurprisingly - the Toccata. The service begins at 11h00.

 

 

These pages from the College website give details of the organ restoration and the timescale of that work. Hope they're helpful.

 

http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/organ/restoration-2016/index.html

Same setting as we are having in Bristol Cathedral: 10am start with Choir + Organ + Orchestra. Usually a full house but the Bishop is preaching: the Dean is doing the midnight service tonight.

 

Merry Christmas one and all.

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Well worth a visit to the King's Cambridge Choir's site to read the latest on the organ work, but, it's particularly worth it to listen to a couple of beautiful evensongs on their webcast list accompanied by piano. If you're short of time, listen to Stanford in G Magnificat with piano duet accompaniment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

There's a recording of Jupiter from The Planets on YouTube. According to the credits this was played as a duet by Tom Etheridge and Richard Gowers, the organ scholars, after the final evensong before the organ was dismantled. Therefore probably the last ever recording of the instrument as it was at the end of 2015. It will be interesting to compare with the upgraded version later in the year.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeNgckY1NtI

 

Harrisons are continuing to post further photos of the work on their website.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Choir of King's College, Cambridge's Facebook page has provided the most comprehensive sequence of photographs since the end of last year. The latest shows that all the pipework has been returned and the scaffolding removed. The six-week painstaking process of voicing has begun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Friends:

Sorry to be thick, esp. if this subject has already been explained, but is there a digital instrument in the chapel during the big job's restoration ? Wondering what we are to hear for this year's L&C broadcast.

Karl Watson,

Staten Island, NY

To answer your original question - David Drinkell is correct; a digital substitute has not been employed during the restoration. There are two small chamber instruments which have been used, in addition to more unaccompanied repertoire,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Some latest updates from King's:

The largest one manual organ in Cambridge: https://youtu.be/LXtvbsEycvo

How the organ sounded before tuning and voicing: https://youtu.be/J2buKb-N-sw

 

I was in King's on Saturday and saw the voicing console. I managed to convince my dad for a short period of time that the organ had been replaced by an electronic instrument built in one of the college dorms...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was in King's on Saturday and saw the voicing console. I managed to convince my dad for a short period of time that the organ had been replaced by an electronic instrument built in one of the college dorms...

 

Nice one Choir_Man!

 

They seem not to have used multiplexed transmission for the voicing console, judging by the several multi-pin plugs each with its own fat cable. But this will make interfacing the console to a range of different organs more flexible, regardless of the type of transmission used by the instrument itself. And anyway, there's nothing wrong with conservative technology in general when it comes to organs. It has several advantages and it can be a sensible approach.

 

This sort of publicity can help promote the pipe organ by raising the profile of what goes on inside, something which I have found can stimulate the interest of today's younger tech-aware generation even if they are not particularly musical. I have an ordinary cheap and cheerful MIDI music keyboard sitting on a stand in my studio, just like those which pop bands use on stage. It's used for creating 'classical' digital organ sounds but in functional terms it's no different to H&H's voicing console in these clips. It's amazing how interested younger visitors are in this one item when they glimpse it while passing by the door - presumably because it provides an instant link to things they can relate to.

 

It's also amazing how little people in general, not just the younger ones, know about the organ, yet how interested they can become when their curiosity is aroused. A senior colleague some years ago, a physicist by background, once interrupted me when holding forth about organs. I had said something about moveable consoles and he couldn't understand how that could be done - he had never imagined there was any such thing as an electric action. Thereafter I had to spend ages describing almost every last detail of them! He was entranced, not to put too fine a point on it.

 

So H&H are to be congratulated for posting these fascinating videos. They can't but help enhance the profile of the instrument.

 

CEP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...