The Changing Fortunes of the Organ (in South Africa)

[Colin Pykett]

I'm starting a new topic here, though its context is quite resonant with some recent ones.

I came across this dissertation the other day about the changing fortunes of the organ in South Africa.  Eminently readable and interesting (at least, I found it so) because it describes the dying embers of the impact of British Imperialism on the religious and sacred music scene there, as seen by someone on the ground who is trying to cope with it and pick up the pieces, rather than some remote and lofty historian from the UK telling us what they think it's like, as so often happens in discussions of this kind.  But the interesting thing is that the current situation has ended up pretty much like that we are experiencing here, told in the first person from the point of view of an organist deploring the gradual attrition both of the instrument and liturgy he loves.  He's pretty limited when it comes to solutions to the problem though, just as we seem to be on this forum.

Hopefully this link will work.  It should download quite a substantial PDF file of c. 160 pages (note, it downloads into your 'downloads' folder, rather than displaying it immediately in your browser.  At least, it did when I clicked on it from a page of search results.  So don't click it if you don't like this to happen.  Sometimes I find this habit of Google to be annoying, though this time it was worth it).

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjQ7u6bwtmBAxWBhv0HHeVGCPg4HhAWegQIDRAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvital.seals.ac.za%2Fvital%2Faccess%2Fservices%2FDownload%2Fvital%3A30569%2FSOURCE1&usg=AOvVaw0Vh2pPG9UWlMcjEy0bQQww&opi=89978449

 

[Adnosad]

I am quite sure that this  document is very informative  but will be a bit demanding on the ancient eyesight!

My only comment to make on " The Organ  In South Africa " would be with regard to  the inglorious remains of the instrument in Jo`burgh   City Hall.

Perhaps it has been replaced , or just collapsed completely now; maybe someone can inform me/us further ?

 

 

[Rowland Wateridge]

I think this information about Johannesburg City Hall is now more than two years old (maybe someone else has something more up to date).  I confess I haven’t read Colin’s lengthy link to see if it’s mentioned there.  

As observed on an earlier thread, it’s not very complimentary about Henry Willis 4 and 5’s work  …  …

https://www.coopergilltomkins.co.za/johannesburg-city-hall

[Colin Pykett]

Here's another SA story, not about Joburg but Cape Town cathedral this time, which took delivery of the pedal reed unit from the old Walker organ at St Mary's, Nottingham in the early 1970s.  This went down to 32' C, and the 32' stop was originally labelled 'Contra Trombone'.  I can still recall its unbelievably thunderous effect as I had lessons there from the then-DOM (the late Russell Missin) but, callow and tasteless youth that I was, I regretted that I was not allowed to use it very often (he usually poked it back in whenever a piston brought it on).  On one occasion I disturbed by this means the (very expert) ringers who had just rung up for Saturday night practice, and who must have pretty much fallen into a heap judging by the mess they made of it.  "Never mind" quoth Mr Missin calmly; "they usually do the same to us".   In Baroque Tricks Ralph Downes wrote of this stop "what was there of 'trombone' about a sound which merely threatened (it seemed) to wreck the organ gallery?  It was only after I had inherited its younger brother at Brompton Oratory, fifteen years later, that I could appreciate how this stop had been conceived and why it was basically so wrong".

It cost Cape Town £850, net of delivery which must have been astronomical, and a delightful picture of Mr Jimmy Riadore appeared in The Cape Times apparently supporting the longest pipe outside the cathedral walls.  Mr Riadore, with whom I have corresponded from time to time, was also mentioned in the link supplied by Rowland Wateridge above.

More details of this story insofar as it relates to the disposal of the Walker organ and its replacement by the Marcussen can be found in the excellent booklet 'The Organs and Organists of St Mary's Church, Nottingham' by Andrew Abbott and John Whittle.

[Rowland Wateridge]

My 1922 Dictionary of Organs and Organists is an invaluable tool for research of the history of organs, both lost and ones still with us, with details of their 1922 state and who played them.  There seems to have been an extraordinary number of Norman & Beard organs throughout southern Africa and particularly in South Africa itself.  An explanation for this can be found in the website of Cooper Gill & Tomkins (linked above commenting on the organ in Johannesburg City Hall) at their ‘History’ page:

https://www.coopergilltomkins.co.za/about-5

MM (we haven’t heard from him for some time) would be delighted to see the original founders’ roots with the Yorkshire firm of Binns.

[John Robinson]

Yes, I often wonder where MM is.