JWAnderson

Hi everyone, I've found another organ that is going to be rebuilt in the near future and would like to hear your thoughts ... again. It was originally a Brindley & Foster 1900 or something with 2man. pneumatic action, then rebuilt by Bert Hayman 1940s or 50s with electro-pneumatic action, then rebuilt again in 1971 by South Island Organ Company (SIOC) when new stops were added, still as a 2man. The 1971 rebuild included as far as I know a Nazard 2 2/3' on the Great, a Bourdon 16' extended from the Gt Stop'd Diap 8', a Fifteenth 4' and Octavin 2' on the Pedal from the Great Principal 8'. Also the Swell Oboe 8' was transposed to a Contra Oboe 16' TC. As far as I know the organist who is also going to rebuild it at SIOC wants another manual added to it. The Specification is: Great Bourdon 16' A Principal 8' B Stopped Diapason 8' A Dulciana 8' Octave 4' Harmonic Flute 4' Nazard 2 2/3' Fifteenth 2' Mixture III (poss. 17-19-22) Swell to Great Swell Violin Diapason 8' Rohr Flute 8' Salicional 8' Voix Celeste 8' TC Gemshorn 4' Lieblich Flute 4' Flautina 2' Larigot 1 1/3' Contra Oboe 16' TC (orig. Oboe 8') Cornopean 8' Tremulant Super Octave Unison Off Sub Octave Pedal Resultant Bass 32' C/D Principal 16' C Sub Bass 16' D Octave 8' C Bass Flute 8' D Fifteenth 4' B Octavin 2' B Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Ped to Gt Pistons Ped to Sw Pistons 4 Toe Pistons to Pedal 4 Toe Pistons to Swell 4 Thumb Pistons to Great 4 Thumb Pistons to Swell Rev. Thumb & Toe to SW to GT & GT to PED The church it is installed in is quite large, I would say it would accomodate about 100 people since it has a gallery upstairs. The organ would be installed in the Apse and would have about 12'-15' depth, probably about 10' width and at least 23' height and the screen which is in place at the moment would be taken down to show the organ's facade. The console would preferably be attached to the case.

It seems to me like a bit of a waste just to have the division sitting there and not actually be used.

I'm not actually sure that there was extra space on the soundboard for the Bourdon, so it would probably go onto another chest with other new ranks, but could use electro-magnets instead of using the pallets.

I quite like this speci that you have come up with. They were going to add the Violone 16, and use pipes for that in the back of the facade, but I'm not sure if they were going to add that on the Gt or just the Ped. They were also going to add a Vox Humana 8 on the Choir except I can't give exact details, since I haven't got the speci. One addition I think could be made is an Echo Bass 16, borrowed from the Swell Bourdon 16, just to provide a softer flute bass instead of the Sub Bass 16. As for the Mixtures the compositions could be something like: Gt Mixture IV (15.17.19.22), Gt Cornet III (12.15.17), Sw Mixture III (15.19.22 or higher like 19.22.26) JA

I've never actually been in the concert hall there so it is pretty difficult. Completely no idea about the acoustics. I'll try to find a speci for what they want to do in the rebuild soon. JA For more information about the hall, you can go to GALLAGHER CONCERT CHAMBER where there are some pics and a little bit of info about the acoustics.

A new console built into the casework was the sort I was thinking of, except not having the stops in horizontal rows. I would've had the stop jambs parallel to the manuals, but now I know that Lewis consoles would have had the horizontal, I think that's better. About the only 2 stops I would add would have to be a Trumpet 8' on the Gt and a Lewis style Posaune 16' on the Pedal, and I would probably remove the Acoustic 32' and possibly the Fifteenth & flute 4' on the pedal. JA

I'm going to have a talk to the organ factory director and ask him if he has any more info about who built which parts of the organ. The dates were actually Lewis 1885 and Croft 1935.

Its a very nice organ to play, except when I last played it when erected in factory, there was a huge amount of wind leaks somewhere from the main bellows. I know for certain that Croft would have changed the action to electro-pneumatic, and added the 4-ft extensions to the pedal openwood & subbass. He also added the Acoustic 32 and the Choir organ.

A university in the North Island, New Zealand has brought a T.C. Lewis 1883, rebuilt by George Croft 1930 something as a three-man, and they are planning to install it in there concert hall. They've already got a speci planned for rebuilding, but I would like to know what everyone would do if this was your instrument. The current speci is: Great Open Diapason 8 Lieblich Gedackt 8 Salicional 8 Octave 4 Harmonic Flute 4 (stopped bass till TC) Fifteenth 2 Swell to Great Swell to Great Octave Choir to Great Swell Bourdon 16 (was prepared for and never installed) Geigen Diapason 8 Rohr Flute 8 Gamba 8 Voix Celeste 8 (TC) Principal 4 Horn 8 Oboe 8 Tremulant (affects Gt aswell) Octave Sub Octave Choir Lieblich Gedackt 8 Dulciana 8 Flute 4 Piccolo 2 Clarinet 8 Tremulant Octave Sub Octave Pedal Acoustic Bass 32 Open Diapason 16 Sub Bass 16 Octave 8 Bass Flute 8 Fifteenth 4 Flute 4 Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Choir to Pedal Electro-Pneumatic action, balanced mechanical swell pedals to Swell & Choir 3 Toe Pistons to Gt & Ped, and 3 to Sw 3 Thumb Pistons to Gt & Ped, and 3 to Sw, rev. pistons to Sw to Gt & Gt to Ped Three manual console (lower man pretty much just tacked onto bottom) with stop keys. Its pretty much an attached console and is located about 1meter to the side of Choir box. Have fun! Layout: Great at front, Swell behind Great soundboard, Choir on right side of organ about half a meter lower than Great, Ped Sub Bass 16-8-4 behind Swell box and Open Wood 16-8-4 behind that.

Here is something for you: If you ever came to New Zealand, which organ would you rather play out of these... 1) Wellington Town Hall - Norman & Beard 1906 2) Christchurch Cathedral - Hill, Norman & Beard 1924 3) Christchurch Town Hall - Rieger 1997 4) Dunedin Town Hall - Hill, Norman & Beard 1929? (http://www.cityofdunedin.com/organ/organ.htm) If you do a bit of searching on the net you might find some of the others. I could also send some specifications just let me know. JA

Even worse than that, there is a guy in USA and his name is Drew Peacock. I think his parents musn't have liked him very much to give him a name like that.

One thing that I try to do to see different organs is go around on tuning trips with the local organ builders that I do work for after school and in holidays. There are a lot of old organs that are quite worth a look at around New Zealand. I know the feeling about trying to see an organ but never get the chance. The organ in Christchurch Cathedral (NZ) is one that I heard a couple of weekends ago at the Organists' Association Congress, and it sounds absolutely fantastic, even though it is covered in plastic wraping because of renovations to Cathedral. Laszlo Attila Almasy was playing it, he really does a good job, but page turning for him is one heck of a job.

My list would probably include: St Sulpice, Paris Bristol Cathedral Westminster Abbey St Paul's Cathedral, London Wellington Town Hall, New Zealand (really nice original 1906 Norman & Beard) Of course any large organ with more than 3manuals would be pretty nice to me, considering I've only played about 2 3manuals before. JA

Re: Adding a Pedal Trombone What you could do if there isn't enough space in the organ for the pipes or wouldn't be good for tuning/maintenance is, add it in a case at the side of the organ. An organ which I play was restored with additions in 1986 and the Trombone was added then in an extra case.

Hi everyone. My name is Josh Anderson (14), from Timaru in New Zealand. My musical history: started learning piano when I was 5yrs, but then stopped when I was 10yrs and played around on the church organ quite a bit. Then when I moved to Timaru in 2004 I started getting pointers from the church organist, and then at the start of last year I started having lessons from John Hargraves (organist / organ builder). Have been playing once a month at my church (on a digital sadly) since last year and once a month playing for John's choir at his church from this year. My interest in Pipe organs has been going since I was about 4 or 5, and have started working at the South Island Organ Company (http://www.sioc.co.nz) in Timaru after school on Fridays, where I have been doing odd jobs that come up and going on tuning trips around Timaru, and I hope to learn to tune at some point. Josh

The toaster that I play uses magnetic reed switches on the Pedalboard, so what I could do if I had alot of free time would be to take the pedalboard out and place the magnets on a higher point of the pedal so the height of the console could be put up a bit. I am just over 6' and I also have the problem where my knees hit the bottom of the lower manual, so this could be something to look at. JA

I think that the Atlantic City Midmer-Losh has the 64' Dulzian extended and has quint stops at 42-2/3', 21-1/3' etc, so if you used the 64' & 42-2/3' you could probably get a resultant 128' stop. Its sort of a resultant reed! JA

On the Atlantic City Midmer-Losh its called Sub Quint 21 1/3' JA

You could be right, but I always thought that the Positif (or the Lower Ch at WA) would be on the 2nd manual unless you have another main division like the Grand Choeur or something like that. If you have a look at the Westminster Abbey organ website it shows all the transfers there: http://www.westminster-abbey.org/organ/org_specs/index.html JA

Yes your right about this. It has the transfer couplers for Gt on Ch manual, Lower Ch on Gt manual, Upper Ch on Sw, Sw on Solo & Solo on Bombarde so you could have the manuals like they are in France etc. JA

I could be wrong, but I think the organ in Westminster Abbey might have a 'Swell to Solo' coupler. Its been a long time since I've seen that specification.

I heard about the 'Noli me tangere' stop, but what I heard was that if you pulled it out, the whole stop knob came out with the fox tail and you would have to get an organ builder to come and put it back in.

The organ I play only has General pistons for some reason (mind you it is digital!). I'd definitely prefer to have about 5 Divisionals depending on the size of the divisions which they affect and probably about the same number of Generals with a sequencer. Toe pistons would be good, probably about the same numbers with Generals available on the SW side toe pistons by drawstop.

If you go to http://www.stsulpice.com/Docs/consolediag.pdf, you can see on this diagram that there is supposed to be colours on the console.

I suppose it is probably different on every organ, just depends on the voicing probably. But like I said, I've never tried to make the Orchestral Oboe.