Rowland Wateridge
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Posts posted by Rowland Wateridge
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As I said, this is something of a mystery as the up to date specification was on the H&H website where I read it a few weeks ago.
For future readers who are interested, the link I provided to NPOR N00289 is reliable and instant. Just add the new Vox Humana 8’ to the Swell reeds to complete the picture. Everything else is correct and up to date. There are photographs, including the famous (or infamous?) 32’ Bombarde!
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Well, this is something of a mystery as I saw it on H&H’s website, fully updated, but today that page is not available. The 1988 specification is here, the only tonal alteration being the addition of a Vox Humana 8’ on the Swell. All else unchanged, so now an organ of 80 speaking stops.
https://npor.org.uk/survey/N00289Perhaps I should add that the NPOR link is a little misleading in appearing to refer to Hele as a principal builder. That was never the case and only two of their 1905 ranks survived in the 1988 rebuild, the Swell Violin Diapason and the famous Pedal Bombarde unit.
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A series of recitals to mark the restoration of Winchester Cathedral’s Father Willis/ H&H organ 1854-2024.
The inaugural recital is by Olivier Latry, (Notre Dame, Paris) on Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm.
Subsequent recitals, all on Sundays at 3.00 pm:
19th May Claudia Grinnell
16th June Andrew Lumsden
7th July Sarah Baldock
15th September Joshua Stephens
6th October Katherine Dienes-Williams
17th November Ben Cunningham
https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/organ-festival/
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Doubtless he will correct me if I am mistaken, but I thought A G Preston was referring to the Mander from St John’s, Cambridge being rebuilt at Kennington.
However, these are the brief details of the ‘new organ’ for St John’s, Cambridge on the H&H website:
New organ; 4 manuals, 67 stops.
The organ will incorporate 43 stops from the organ built by Henry Willis in 1889 for Hampstead Conservatoire and moved to St Peter’s Church Brighton in 1910. This valuable pipework survived subsequent alterations and will be restored to authentic musical speech; the pitch, changed in 1956, will be meticulously stabilised at A=440.
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All the media announcements I have seen refer to the organ ‘in course of installation’ so it’s unlikely that any UK Board members will have any direct experience of the instrument.
However, there is to be a recital series commencing in July. James O’Donnell is to give the inaugural recital on Friday 26th July at 7 pm:
https://events.humanitix.com/st-james-international-organ-festival-james-o-donnell
See also this event in the current month and a splendid view of the organ in situ:
https://events.humanitix.com/meet-the-organ-maker-an-interview-with-john-panning
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This organ was discussed on a previous thread “Henry Willis Junior Development Organ” in 2019 - scroll down to the two final comments:
https://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/topic/4460-henry-willis-junior-development-organ/
At that time NPOR R01764 listed the organ with a photograph of the closed console and no specification. Those details have since been helpfully provided: ‘DMM’ 2021. Sadly, there is no information about the fate of the former Father Willis organ (NPOR D02221) which, on paper at least, looks to have been rather fine.
I may be wrong, but I think the Junior Development organs were the brainchild of Henry Willis 4, rather than his father.
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Doubtless you intended to say Christ Church, Oxford. Here’s a link to the job advertisement:
https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/organist-and-official-student
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As announced on the Peterhouse thread, these recitals celebrating the restoration of the College organ. Note that the first is tomorrow:
Saturday 03 February – Katelyn Emerson (Gonville and Caius)
Saturday 10 February – Anthony Gritten (Royal Academy of Music)
Saturday 17 February – William Whitehead (Lincoln’s Inn)
Saturday 24 February – Sietze de Vries (Groningen)
Saturday 02 March – Anne Page (Cambridge)
Saturday 09 March – Anna Steppler (Peterhouse)All of the above recitals will take place in the Peterhouse Chapel and will begin at 6 p.m, lasting around an hour. The events are free to attend and are open to the public. Tickets can be booked either through Ticket Tailor at the above links, or by emailing Harriet Clark on harriet.clark@pet.cam.ac.uk. We ask that attendees enter the College via the Porter’s Lodge and be seated by 5.50 p.m. please.“
One must add how sad that Catherine Ennis did not live to see the project come to fruition.
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Inauguration of the restored College organ - 13 January 2024
Statement from Peterhouse, Cambridge:
“Earlier this month we were delighted to celebrate the end of our organ restoration project with a guest recital by Thomas Trotter. This was preceded by a discussion of the restoration process. It is wonderful to have the organ back in action and we hope you will agree that it is sounding marvellous.
“The organ, originally a Snetzler from 1765, has been restored in a collaborative endeavour between Flentrop Orgelbouw and Orgelbau Klais. The College is enormously grateful for the inspiration of the late Catherine Ennis, as well as the dedicated support of our organ advisors, Simon Jackson and David Graham, and the input of our Historical Advisor, Nicholas Thistlethwaite, and for the support of our generous benefactors.
“Following the inaugural concert we are hosting a recital series of guest organists throughout Lent Term. Still to come:
Saturday 03 February – Katelyn Emerson (Gonville and Caius)
Saturday 10 February – Anthony Gritten (Royal Academy of Music)
Saturday 17 February – William Whitehead (Lincoln’s Inn)
Saturday 24 February – Sietze de Vries (Groningen)
Saturday 02 March – Anne Page (Cambridge)
Saturday 09 March – Anna Steppler (Peterhouse)“All of the above recitals will take place in the Peterhouse Chapel and will begin at 6 p.m, lasting around an hour. The events are free to attend and are open to the public. Tickets can be booked either [through Ticket Tailor …], or by emailing Harriet Clark on harriet.clark@pet.cam.ac.uk. We ask that attendees enter the College via the Porter’s Lodge and be seated by 5.50 p.m. please.“
One must add how sad that Catherine Ennis did not live to see the project come to fruition.
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Interestingly, whoever wrote up the inaugural recital at St Patrick’s, Dundalk for Wikipedia said this “The organ was "opened" on 1 July 1900 at 1.00pm. Mr H.L. Balfour, organist at the Royal Albert Hall, gave a recital of classical music.”
Reverting to the ‘pedal movements’ (incidentally I have no recollection of the somewhat acerbic comment which Hebridean attributes to me! - and equally I don’t ‘know’ this organ), the linked Kenneth Coulter website contains photographs (scroll down to the one of the pedal board), showing what we would call ‘composition pedals’ and a balanced swell pedal. Like Hebridean, I assume ‘pedal movements’ refers to the composition pedals, and the photograph shows a reversible ‘horse-shoe’ pedal at each end. There is a comment that the swell pedal is unusually placed. That is doubtless due to its replacing the previous FW trigger swell pedal in its original position. Without knowing, that was possibly the work of N P Mander.
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Possibly not definitive, but my 1921 edition of the ‘Dictionary of Organs and Organists’ states, under Royal Albert Hall, London “Organist : H. L. Balfour MUS.B., F.R.C.O.”
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Thank you for your further researches. The two links from John-Paul Buzard relate to a Willis single manual and two ranks ‘Scudamore’ organ. The organ in Hawaii is also small, 9 ranks on two manuals and pedal with, as you say, the very curious comment “condition is playable, but not in usable condition” - I’m not sure quite what that means! In any event, if it is by an ‘unknown builder’ it does not qualify for inclusion.
However, back to the subject of this thread, St Joseph’s, Seattle, your Kenneth Coulter link is very valuable with photographs of the FW in its ‘new’ home, the case and pipe decorations especially interesting, and new console:
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There are several other examples of ‘escaped’ UK organs on the Continent, notably another Willis at Leiden, but the significance of the Seattle Willis is that, as far as I know, it is the only Willis on the Continent of North America, and a Father Willis to boot, with an important pedigree which seems to have escaped notice until now.
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I think you have correctly hit on St Patrick’s RC Pro-Cathedral, Dundalk. Moreover its Wikipedia entry gives a direct link to the organ now in St Joseph’s, Seattle. NPOR indicates that this was originally built in 1885 for Mr J L Balfour. Wikipedia tells us that the Dundalk Willis was ‘opened’ on 1st July 1900 by Mr J L Balfour, the organist and curator of the Royal Albert Hall organ. Father Willis died in February of the following year.
It occurs to me that the Valotti temperament may be due to the US installers or the builders currently maintaining the organ - or it may simply be their description of ‘Willis tuning’ which David Wyld says the company still uses.
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Congratulations! Yes, not sure how I managed to miss that. I searched NPOR for both ‘Harringey’ and ‘Harringay‘ (some confusion about the different spellings) and, of course, neither yielded this organ. NPOR details the minor alterations, and interesting to see that Mander’s were the last to work on the organ before its move to America.
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I came across this by sheer chance recently (searching for another St Joseph’s church). As far as I know, this hasn’t been mentioned previously on the Board. It seems that a largely original* Father Willis organ with 32 speaking stops has existed in America, specifically St Joseph’s Church, Seattle since 1987. The link below (clearly written for non-organists) gives full details:
http://www.stjosephparish.org/337/our-organ.html
Father Willis would doubtless be amused to hear himself described as ‘an Episcopal priest’, or to be credited with the organ in Westminster Cathedral! Nor am I aware that he built the organ in ‘St Patrick’s Cathedral’ (which possibly should be a reference to St Patrick’s (RC) Church) in Drogheda.
* I also have doubts about the Choir ‘Nazard’ 1892 (?), and suspect that is a later addition or substitution.
There is very limited information in the National Archives about the organ’s original home, Christ Church Harringey (1889-1981), said to be demolished in 1981, but no record of the organ there in researches so far. Any further details will be gratefully received.
But wonderful to discover a Willis organ in North America, and one by the great man himself.
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It would be helpful to have some firm information from someone who knows the instrument!
My admittedly limited knowledge/ experience of ventils was a demonstration of them on the small, but very effective, C-C/ Mutin organ at St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough (Hampshire).
Edited: Although I remain somewhat perplexed by this phenomenon, this is the builder’s detailed website page describing the organ, and of interest in its own right:
https://vandenheuvel-orgelbouw.nl/en/cms/frankrijk-en/sainteustacheparis-en
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1 hour ago, Contrabombarde said:
…. when the nave console is played, the notes on the mechanical console move, but not the drawstops!
Isn’t that due to the French registration techniques using ventils? The stops are all pre-set and it is the ventils which deliver wind to the chosen registration. It was noticeable that all five manuals were coupled but the octave couplers only operated on the manual(s) where they were drawn. The same is seen in videos at St Sulpice.
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Some possible shortcomings of the St Eustache organ were mentioned in one of the late Stephen Bicknell‘s ‘Irreverent Essays’. Although presented in a humorous style with much embellishment, using pseudonyms for the venue, organbuilder and participants, his opinion of the organ will be found by scrolling down to about the last one-third of the page:
https://www.stephenbicknell.org/3.6.62.php
You will see that he specifically refers to the Barker levers, among much else, and votes the ‘Cor de Bassett’ donated by Henry Willis III to Joseph Bonnet as the best stop in the organ!
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May I add my own welcome. I have South African friends, both there and here in the UK, but none has any ‘organ’ background.
There have been several South African topics on this forum: Henry Willis 4’s work at Johannesburg City Hall discussed in another context, and recently, more specifically, the organ builder G W Price of Cape Town (under General Discussion 28 November 2023).
You may well become the forum’s expert on South African organ matters!
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‘Henry Willis’ (David Wyld) has written about this more than once. This link provides the most telling information on the subject. This goes back some years. You will see that David Wyld wrote to Tony Blair, no less, in 2006. Scroll down to comment No 5:
https://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/topic/1973-how-about-a-campaign/
It’s pretty clear that, for whatever reason, Francis Jackson was never offered a knighthood.
(Incidentally, petitions relating to specific honours are not accepted by the government, either for the grant of an individual honour or withdrawal of one. This was clearly stated in response to a petition in 2022 seeking to withdraw an honour, paradoxically it was Tony Blair’s KG knighthood. This would have failed on other grounds - a KG knighthood being in the late Queen’s sole personal gift - but the official reply was as above, without mentioning the status of his knighthood.)
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The Archbishop’s forthcoming RVO knighthood was reported (or rather mis-reported by some of the ‘popular’ press) some weeks ago, and I assumed it was a KCVO, so Martin’s reference to “the top-most rank” of the RVO made me check the list and, indeed, it is the ‘top’ GCVO. He won’t, of course, be dubbed with a sword or use the title “Sir”, so it’s ‘just’ the addition of the post-nominal GCVO. And, to clarify, it is the Dean of Westminster who is made KCVO.
Without wishing to add to Barry Oakley’s blood pressure, there are more than 1,200 people in the Honours List, something which strikes me as staggering logistically. I believe some of the ‘lesser’ honours are conferred at local ceremonies by the appropriate Lord Lieutenant, but it’s still a huge number all to be bestowed individually.
Martin, I noticed that three LVOs go to ‘music advisers’ (but not the actual musicians on the day) and the military band conductor is honoured!
But why do we agonise about this issue every year! We all know that, with very few exceptions, the organist and/ or choir director simply doesn’t figure in the minds of much of the general public - or the honours ‘system’, as rather confirmed by just a BEM for Dr Christopher Kent.
Sir Antonio Pappano is promoted to CVO, and the only musician so honoured.
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Judith Weir CBE becomes a Dame, promoted to DBE for services to music.
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Has anyone actually analysed the ‘composition’ of the pedal organ? I’m unsure whether sjf1967 is also pulling our legs!
It’s now for James Atherton to ‘come clean’.
St John's, Cambridge
in The Organ
Posted
I think your assumption is correct. The latest information I have found on the Church website (incidentally a very impressive one) indicated as recently as last month “In 2025 we will be installing a four-manual pipe organ, currently in use in St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge, and are amid a major fundraising campaign to pay for the organ’s renovation and installation.”