Organ Australia

Transcription

Organ Australia

Organ
Australia
December 2012
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Contents
From the Editor ........................................................................... 3
Letters to the Editor .................................................................. 6
Forthcoming Events .................................................................. 8
A National Journal for all interested
in the organ and its music,
published for subscribers and
members of all organ societies in
Australia by the Society of Organists
(Victoria) Incorporated.
News Reports .............................................................................. 10
Obituary ........................................................................................ 20
Repertoire Notes: Russian Organ Music ............................ 21
June Nixon: A Cathedral Organist’s Career ....................... 32
Looking Back: 25 and 10 Years Ago ..................................... 37
Concert, Book, and CD Reviews ............................................ 38
Organ-Building Reports ........................................................... 50
Volume 8, No. 4 – December 2012
Published by the Society of Organists (Victoria) Incorporated
Post Office Box 315, Camberwell 3124, Victoria, Australia
ABN 97 690 944 954
A 0028223J
ISSN 1832-8795
PP3409 29/00015
All materials published in Organ Australia are the property of the publishers [The Society of
Organists (Victoria) Incorporated] and may not be reproduced elsewhere without written
permission from the Society or its agents, in which case due acknowledgement must be made.
Front Cover Picture:
The Thomas Christopher Lewis organ of
St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Melbourne
(Photo by Simon RG Colvin)
Organ Australia, December 2012, page 1
The Australian Organ Directory
The Organ Australia Team
Editor
RJ Stove
0431 681 116
Layout, Printing & Distribution MAIL BOXES ETC, Elsternwick 03 9532 4396
Business Manager
Allan Smith
0419 347 787
David Vann Gail Orchard Garth Mansfield
Dr Gordon Atkinson
Ian Gibbs
Mark Joyner Bruce Duncan
07 3262 7997
02 4966 4450
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03 9529 2043
iggibbs@bigpond.com
08 8331 2611
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State Correspondents
Queensland
NSW (Hunter District) ACT Victoria
Tasmania
South Australia
Western Australia
Organ Australia
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editor, should be directed to:
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Subscription enquiries should be directed to:
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Phone: 0419 347 787
About Organ Australia:
Organ Australia is a national organ journal published quarterly (during March, June,
September and December) by the Society of Organists (Victoria) Incorporated for
members of participating Australian Organ Societies and individual subscribers. Organ
Australia aims to provide a publication containing material of local, state and national
interest to enable the exchange and sharing of ideas, plans and activities for all who
are interested in the organ and its music, as well as to promote a sense of community
amongst all organists and organ music lovers across Australia. Organ Australia depends
on you, its readers, to provide material for publication.
The logo shows a map of Australia from which State boundaries have been removed,
symbolising a unity within Australia, and six pipes representing each of the States that
have some kind of Organ Society; the whole being encircled by rings which reinforce the
concept of a community of organists unfettered by state and local boundaries.
Deadlines for all contributions, including camera-ready advertising, are
1 February, 1 May, 1 August and 1 November.
The Organ Society of Queensland
www.organsociety.com.au
President - Dr Steven Nisbet
rsnisbet@optusnet.com.au
Secretary - Denis Wayper
wayperd@bigpond.net.au
The Hunter District Organ Society
President - Gail Orchard
ddglo@bigpond.com
Secretary - Ian Guy
guy_i_1@hotmail.com
The Organ Music Society of Sydney
www.sydneyorgan.com
President - Hugh Knight
hbknight1@bigpond.com
Secretary - Geoff Lloyd
organsec@tpg.com.au
The Society of Organists (Victoria) Inc.
www.sov.org.au
President - Alan Roberts
president@sov.org.au
Secretary - Tony Love
secretary@sov.org.au
The Hobart Organ Society
President - Rod Thomson
rod.thomson@utas.edu.au
Secretary – Christa Rumsey
vivandchrista@gmail.com
The Organ Music Society of Adelaide
Incorporated
www.organmusicsociety.org.au
President - Gregory Crawford
gregory.crawford@adelaide.edu.au
Secretary – Helen Harrison
secretary@organmusicsociety.org.au
The Organ Society of
Western Australia (Incorporated)
www.oswa.org.au
President - John van den Berg
bergs@iinet.net.au
Secretary - Maree Duncan
maree.duncan@wn.com.au
The Wesley Music Centre (ACT)
www.wesleycanberra.org.au
Director - Garth Mansfield
wesleymc@bigpond.net.au
From the Editor …
Merry Christmas To All
(Except Cranks)
C
hristmas approaches. So there is no better
time to talk about hatred.
We organists tend to view ourselves – with
substantial justification – as unassuming,
conciliatory types. If life at many an Australian
church now approximates to a belated, protracted
episode of Dad’s Army, as it could well do, then
most of us would constitute that church’s Sergeant
Wilsons. Therefore it comes as rather a shock to
discover persons out there who actively loathe us:
loathe us not for our personal shortcomings, but
through being organists.
It might be thought that this loathing would
come purely from the guitars-and-tambourines
brigade. For that brigade, the intelligent, the
talented and the artistically decorous are not mere
sinners deserving neglect, but demons warranting
active exorcism. Nevertheless, there are other and
more interesting sources of modern anti-organ
sentiment. One such source is a certain kind of lay
Catholic crank, usually pseudonymous, invariably
male, and desperately trying to defend his visceral
emotions with a veneer of ersatz theologising.
He can be found in Britain and Australia – perhaps
in Continental Europe as well – but as might be
expected, he flourishes more exuberantly in the
USA. (America, that cruel and witty English cleric
Ronald Knox wrote in 1950, ‘is the last refuge of
the enthusiast.’ Knox used ‘enthusiasm’ not in
today’s sense, but instead, in the 18th-century
sense of an individual’s apocalyptic raving.)
Whereas once it required considerable dedication
to obtain such a crank’s moonbeams from the
larger historiographical lunacy, the Internet’s
emergence renders him almost inescapable.
One such scribbler called simply ‘Francis’, on the
normally intelligent Musica Sacra website, has
gone gangbusters against the very idea of having
organs in church. His prose
RJ Stove
is here reprinted without
(Photo by Barry Smith)
a single change made to
the spelling, grammar,
syntax, or letter-case of its author, who doubtless
possesses at least three years of something called
‘education’ from something called a ‘university’:
‘organ is a relatively new innovation in the liturgy
and once it was accepted into the church sadly
other kinds of tensions concerning sacred music
made things gray including theatrical styles and
“symphonic” based composition. opera reaked
havoc on the liturgy and the church has been
strangled with the battle ever since. mozart and
his ilk in my mind are among those who truly
cloud the purity of sacred music. Liszt and Franck
too. Now its a huge tangled mess and the Church
is going to have to go back to the basics of chant
and polyphony.’
Sheesh! Not only has opera ‘reaked’ havoc on
sacred composition (which opera? The Coronation
of Poppea? Siegfried? Pagliacci? La Bohème? Moses
and Aaron? Jenůfa? HMS Pinafore?); not only are
‘mozart and his ilk’ to blame for today’s religious
problems (so much for the real-life Mozart, devout
enough to rejoice in the news of Voltaire having
‘died like a dog’); but the organ is ‘a relatively new
innovation’! Well, yes, it probably would seem a
relatively new innovation if you were a Californian
redwood or a coelacanth; but since you’re not, it
isn’t. Organs appeared in churches from the 14th
century on a permanent basis, and much earlier
than that on a less regular basis. If this, pray, is
‘novelty’, then what is antiquity?
The best single comment on ‘Francis’’s post came
from a Pennsylvania-based reader who called
it ‘a prima facie example of reality becoming
increasingly indistinguishable from
TheOnion.com. Anybody who begins a sentence
with “mozart [sic] and his ilk” renders him or
herself an embodiment of self-parody.’ Leaving
aside ‘Francis’’s indictment of ‘Liszt and Franck too’,
let us recount a few hard historical facts about
organ-playing:
• Outside the Eastern Churches there has
not been a single major branch of world
Christianity – major enough to last 150
years, say, unlike Muggletonianism,
Sandemanianism, Thraskitism and suchlike
extinct beliefs – where the organ has been
uniformly condemned by that branch’s leaders.
• Those branches (elements of Scottish
Presbyterianism, for example) which
periodically condemned the organ as late as
the Edwardian era, do not do so now.
• Restricting or forbidding the organ’s use
in a church service seldom extended to
reprobating this use in other contexts. The
Calvinist city fathers of Amsterdam circa
1600 had no objection to Sweelinck’s solo
playing before and after their Sunday rite.
Quite the contrary. (They appear also to have
let Sweelinck play Lutheran chorale tunes,
despite the bad blood between Calvinism and
Lutheranism in the run-up to the Thirty Years’
War.)
• As far as Catholics are concerned, those
particular official documents – the 1903
Motu Proprio is the best-known – widely
thought (by those who have never read
them) to deplore all organ music, deplore
all instrumental music, or deplore all nonplainchant music, do nothing of the kind. They
deplore the misguided use of such art-forms:
a different thing altogether. And even their
condemnations are hedged about with escape
clauses, usually involving authorisation from a
bishop. In short, if a pre-1960s Catholic bride
really craved a kazoo-band at her nuptials, and
had cleared this demented hankering with the
branch office, little could stop her.
• The Second Vatican Council did not sanction
guitar-strumming adenoidal folkies, cantors
mooing into microphones, or selling off the
nearest Cavaillé-Coll masterpiece for firewood.
Its decree Sacrosanctum Concilium specifically
says: ‘In the Latin Church the pipe organ is to
be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional
musical instrument which adds a wonderful
splendour to the Church’s ceremonies and
powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to
higher things.’
Most Organ Australia readers will have realised all
these truths long since. Yet to realise them, while
leaving them unannounced, is to make a strategic
error. We are called, not merely to play the organ,
but in various ways to be (in lieu of a less ecclesialsounding word) apostles for our instrument.
Thus, we do wrong to underestimate the copious
varieties of ignoramus out there. As Mark Twain
once said: ‘It’s not so much what he don’t know,
but what he do know, that ain’t so.’ Cluelessness
might now take more sophisticated forms than it
did in Twain’s day – some of the most pugnacious
illiterates now alive have PhDs on their walls – but
it is unlikely to disappear soon.
The point has been made before (sometimes by
this magazine), but let it be made again, with
sufficient firmness to involve italics: at almost
every concert and church ceremony where the
organ is involved, someone present will probably
be hearing it for the first time. That someone’s
presence we should never forget. Just as we
should never forget his direct antithesis, the
aficionado whose organ memories stretch back to
live performances by Dupré.
Supposing organists wish to ignore audiences
outright, we can follow the paradigm of Glenn
Gould: spurn all live performance, and construct
a prolix ideology of specious self-congratulation
for giving Homo Sapiens the two-fingered salute.
Common sense should tell us what would have
happened to the piano by now if every other
significant pianist had gone down Gould’s path.
Fortunately for piano-lovers everywhere, Gould
has been the exception rather than the rule.
Besides, the organ has a clear advantage which
the piano (like the flute, like the violin, and like
the solo human voice) lacks: its comparative
imperviousness to the record producer’s art.
Ever since the time of Schnabel, Cortot, and
Rachmaninoff, if not earlier, recordings have given
a fairly faithful idea of what a piano sounds like.
From even Heifetz’s pre-war shellac productions
can be gleaned a comparably faithful idea of what
a violin sounds like. Similarly with the human
voice’s gramophonic representation since Amelita
Galli-Curci, indeed since Caruso. But even the
most opulent of modern recordings – and heaven
knows there are some splendidly vivid specimens
on the market today, which is one reason why
Organ Australia prints CD reviews – have limits in
their ability to communicate an organ’s grandeur.
The sheer physical presence of a thundering,
rumbling 32-foot Bombarde; the sheer majestic
howl of trumpet-stops echoing down a cathedral’s
nave in 17th-century Spanish organ fanfares: for
full enjoyment of these things (to quote the old
Peter Sellers movie tag-line), ‘there is nothing like
Being There.’
As long as there are organs, there will be people
– numerous people, we hope – who, having
discerned the constraints unavoidable with organ
discs, however good, want to hear organs live. Of
course, fulfilling that want presupposes organists
who are prepared, and able, to play them live. This,
in turn, presupposes organists ready, if they must,
to do battle against those like ‘Francis’ who seek to
eliminate their services.
In the last month of 2012 (where did the preceding
11 months go?), it behooves Organ Australia to
wish its readers, writers, and advertisers a Merry
Christmas. And God bless us every one. Except for
cranks.
Stop Press: On 25 October, the Boston Globe
– seemingly determined to prove that female
organ-haters can be just as historically illiterate as,
if not more so than, male organ-haters – published
a fact-free diatribe by one Jennifer Graham called
‘Save the church, kill the organs.’ This diatribe’s
content is as chilling and clueless as might be
expected from its title:
‘[T]he first thing we must do is kill all the organs
… Fifty years ago, there was hope that the organ,
like the Edsel and woolly leg warmers, would
eventually die of contempt … Perhaps Harvard
should pay attention to what they do at MIT.
Each April, as they have for 40 years, students
drop a piano from a dormitory roof. It’s time for
an organ drop, too.’
Happily, a browse through the article’s audiencefeedback section failed to find any reader who
agreed with Miss Graham, though a few readers
charitably supposed that she must have been
attempting (not with any great success) satire. The
best of the several dozen comments came from
someone who used the appropriate pseudonym
‘VirgilFox’: ‘I think the most ironic part is that this is
printed in a newspaper, something that will fizzle
out long before the pipe organ does.’
+++
This Organ Australia number contains, partly to
mark the festive season, more reviews than any
issue has contained for years. As well as numerous
discussions of recent Melbourne organ concerts,
there are critiques of a newly released book and
various CDs. Something, surely, can be found
among these products to please every Yuletide
gift-giving taste.
RJ Stove
Editor
Letters to the Editor
Jacques Taddei’s Teaching
From Jennifer Chou
Bayswater, Victoria
Dear Sir,
Q
uoting page 15 from Organ Australia,
September 2012, re the obituary of Jacques
Taddei: ‘He was director of the Conservatoire from
1987 till December 2004.’
To clear up possible confusion in translation from
the original article, it should be clarified that he
was Director of the Conservatoire à rayonnement
régional de Paris (CRR de Paris), formerly known
as Conservatoire national de région de Paris (CNR
de Paris) founded by Olivier Alain in 1976. It took
the name Conservatoire supérieur de Paris under
the direction of Jacques Taddei, and acquired its
current title in 2007. Thus, it is different from the
‘Paris Conservatoire’ or ‘Conservatoire de Paris’;
these names refer to the Conservatoire national
supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris (CNSMDP),
Brisbane’s Church Architecture
From Stephen Baggaley
Annerley, Queensland
Dear Sir,
T
hank you for the September 2012 issue
of Organ Australia which arrived in today’s
post.
Re ‘The OSQ 60th Anniversary Concert’ by David
Vann, pp 9-10, I note that on page 9 the author
has described St Andrew’s Uniting Church as a
‘neo-Gothic building’.
For the sake of accuracy I wish to point out that
which began its history in 1911, headed by Fauré,
and was renamed as CNSMDP and moved to its
present location in 1946.
A credit worth adding to Taddei’s ‘12 years
[as] cultural director of the Ville de RueilMalmaison’: he founded and was the director
of the Conservatoire National de Région de RueilMalmaison (CNR de Rueil-Malmaison, now CRR),
for which he continued to sign diplomas of
graduates, after he took up the directorship at
the Paris CNR. He even made the CNRs which
he had directed into places of musical excellence
rivalling some CNSMDP classes. His dazzling
organ concert at Radio France was among the
first organ recitals I went to when I first arrived
in Paris to study the organ. Surely, I treasure his
signature on my diploma.
Thank you for including Taddei’s obituary in the
September OA.
JENNIFER CHOU
this building’s style is more correctly described as
‘neo-Romanesque’, and the church’s own website
(http://www.saintandrews.org.au/history.htm)
acknowledges both Romanesque and Byzantine
influences in its details, a departure from the neoGothic style which was so popular at the time it
was constructed.
As the author of the Wikipedia entry (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Andrew%27s_
Presbyterian_-Church,_Brisbane) points out, the
choice of this style was not approved by many
who regarded Gothic style as more appropriate to
church architecture.
STEPHEN BAGGALEY
Elgar and the Organ
From John Maidment
Camberwell, Victoria
Dear Sir,
I
hesitate to question the authority of the
noted Elgar scholar Jerrold Northrop Moore
as expressed in his article ‘The Organ Music of
Sir Edward Elgar’, reprinted in Organ Australia,
September 2012. However, he repeats the error
on page 34 that the Elgar Sonata received its
première performance by Hugh Blair in July 1895
on the Hope-Jones organ at Worcester Cathedral.
This idea seems to have been perpetuated from a
statement in the Cecil Clutton and Austin Niland
book The British Organ (London: Batsford, 1963),
page 107, and subsequently by the late Carlo
Curley (booklet notes to the compact disc Organ
Imperial, Argo 433 450-2, 1991).
While work is stated to have begun on the HopeJones organ in 1894, it was not recorded as being
fully complete until acknowledged in the Chapter
minutes of 2 December 1896. This instrument was
dedicated on 28 July 1896 and a recital was given
afterwards by AL Peace (Relf Clark, ‘An Apparently
Controversial Instrument’, Journal of the British
Institute of Organ Studies, volume 17 [1993], page
54).
Given that most of the Hope-Jones organ was
located in the choir at Worcester, this work could
certainly have been proceeding in mid-1895, but
it seems unlikely that the instrument would have
been in a functional state by that time. HopeJones was only to use 14 ranks from the two Hill
& Son organs, some from the pedal division of
the four-manual transept organ of 1874, which
included two open 32-foot stops, so this section
may have been dealt with last in the sequence of
events.
Christopher Kent, in his article ‘Elgar’s Sonata
in G (Op.28): A study of the Manuscript Sources
and Original Interpretation’, published in the
Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies,
Volume Two (1978), pages 103-126, goes into
considerable detail in his examination of the
original manuscript for the Sonata, and the
registration suggestions, which he argues are
clearly prescribed for the four-manual Hill & Son
organ of 1874 placed in one of the transepts of the
Cathedral (the case of which survives).
Colin Pykett, on the website http://www.
pykett.org.uk/elgar’s_organ_sonata.htm, also
concludes that the Sonata couldn’t have been first
performed on the Hope-Jones organ, but argues
that the registration suggestions are generic
and not necessarily applicable to the 1874 Hill &
Son organ; Elgar may not have had any special
instrument in mind. However, it must be said
that Elgar was very familiar with the Hill & Son
organ, and it seems unlikely that his registration
suggestions could have been made for the HopeJones organ, which only existed on paper at the
time.
At the 2013 annual conference of the Organ
Historical Trust of Australia, we are hoping to
have a performance of some of the Elgar Sonata
on the 1875 Hill & Son organ, built for Adelaide
Town Hall, and now located at the Barossa
Regional Gallery. This instrument is very similar
in its tonal design to its bigger sister of 1874 at
Worcester and apart from the absence of a Tuba,
every other registration suggestion should be
able to be rigorously observed. There may need
to be registration assistants, to allow for the
frequent changes of mood and sound in the work
– confusion with its suggested first performance
on the Hope-Jones organ at Worcester may have
been based on its full range of accessories, and
the player’s task may have been somewhat easier.
However, Herbert Sumsion’s masterly recording
at Gloucester Cathedral in the mid-60s was done,
I am told, entirely with his own hand registration
and limited fixed pistons.
JOHN MAIDMENT
Forthcoming Events
Please note that while every effort has been made to obtain information which was accurate as of the day
on which this issue went to press, details do sometimes change; and therefore Organ Australia cannot take
responsibility for such changes. TBA = To Be Announced; TBC = To Be Confirmed.
New South Wales
Tuesday, 4 December, 7PM
Recital by Amy Johansen, Great Hall, University of
Sydney
Thursday, 6 December, 1:10PM
Recital by Oscar Smith, St Andrew’s Cathedral,
Sydney
Recital by Edward Theodore, St Andrew’s
Cathedral, Sydney
Sunday, 16 December, 2PM
Recital by David Drury, Christ Church St Laurence,
Broadway
Recital by Oliver Brett, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Recital at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney (organist
TBA)
Friday, 21 December, 1:10PM
Recital by Callum Close, St Stephen’s Church,
Macquarie Street, Sydney
Friday, 28 December, 12:30PM
Young Organists’ Day, Sydney Town Hall
(organists TBA)
Victoria
Saturday, 1 December, 5PM
Recital by David Macfarlane, St Patrick’s
Church, Mentone
Recital by Brendon Lukin, All Saints’ Church,
East St Kilda
Recital by Jennifer Chou, St Patrick’s Church,
Mentone
Sunday, 17 February, 12 noon
Meet the Organ Day, Melbourne Town Hall (see
next page for further details)
Queensland
Recital by Christopher Wrench, St John’s Cathedral,
Brisbane
South Australia
Recital at St John’s Church, Halifax Street, Adelaide
(organist TBA)
Wednesday, 2 January, 12 noon
Recital by Simon Vogler, St Paul’s Church, Port
Adelaide
Thursday, 13 December, 1PM
Recital by Graham Devenish, St John’s Church,
Fremantle
Thursday, 3 January, 12 noon
Recital by Chris Gent and Rev Bruce Naylor, St
Margaret’s Church, Woodville
Thursday, 20 December, 1PM
Recital by Graham Devenish, Wesley Uniting
Church, Hay Street, Perth
Friday, 4 January 12 noon
Recital by Andrew Ampt, St Barnabas’s Church,
Croydon
Australian Capital Territory
Western Australia
Recital by Marko Sever, Wesley Uniting Church,
Forrest
Sunday, 9 December, 9:30AM
Recital by Graham Devenish, St John’s Church,
Fremantle
Saturday, 16 February, 2PM
Recital by Jane Downer and Peter Hagen, Wesley
Music Centre, Forrest
News Reports
News from New South Wales
By Hugh Knight
Sydney Organ Competition
T
his year the Sydney Organ Competition,
organised by the Organ Music Society of
Sydney, was held on the Labour Day holiday: 1
October. It was an exciting event, although a very
busy time for the organisers, because all three
sections were held on the one day.
The Competition began in fine style in the
‘Big School’ hall of Sydney Grammar, with four
Junior Section contestants playing the Mander
instrument. The adjudicator was Peter Guy, from
Newcastle.
Samuel Giddy, from Yass, took out the first prize,
amazing the audience with a wonderful rendition
of the final movement of Bach’s First Trio Sonata,
and following this up with Vierne’s Carillon. The
other players also acquitted themselves very well.
After lunch, we moved to the Pitt Street Uniting
Church, with its 1910 three-manual Hill and Son
instrument, for the Intermediate Section. This
time the adjudicator was Philip Matthias. There
were five players, competing for a new first prize
of $1,500 donated by the Friends of The Sydney
Town Hall. Samuel Giddy also won this section,
playing Bach’s Prelude in C Major, BWV547 and the
first movement of Mendelssohn’s Sixth Sonata. All
competitors played a Bach piece, then a second
work. Works by Boëllmann, Langlais and Rosalie
Bonighton were chosen. Again the standard was
high, reflecting very favourably on the organ
teachers.
In the evening, St Andrew’s Cathedral, with its
large Hill/Letourneau instrument, was the venue
for finals of the Open Section, held every two
years. There is an elimination round, judged from
recordings submitted by the players, leaving three
performers to compete the final round, with each
giving a 40-minute recital. The finalists were David
Tagg, Edith Yam and Jessica Lim, all from Sydney,
and the adjudicators were Ross Cobb, Philip
Matthias (again) and Robert Wagner.
The cathedral, with its central location, proved a
very good venue, attracting a sizeable audience
which was treated to a feast of fine music.
The adjudicators’ task would not have been
easy. Edith Yam emerged as the winner of the
Vincent Sheppard Memorial Prize, with Jessica
Lim winning the John Brown Memorial Award
(second), and David Tagg winning the Jessie Lyle
Marsh Award (third) and the Australia Prize for an
Australian work.
Organ Concerts
Lunchtime free concerts at Sydney Town Hall
continue to be well-attended. Excellent recitals
were given by David Drury in August and Dongill Shin, from Korea, in October. The other recital
series at the two Sydney cathedrals (St Andrew’s
and St Mary’s), Christ Church St Laurence, and St
James’s in King Street also continue to promote
organ music in the city.
John Scott from New York gave an excellent
evening recital at St Mary’s Cathedral on Friday 24
August.
Summer Organ Academy
A sub-committee of the Organ Music Society has
been busy preparing for our second Summer
Organ Academy, from Thursday 27 December until
Monday 31 December. We are pleased to report
that, at the time of writing this, applications have
closed and there is a waiting list.
As with the successful inaugural event held in
2010, so in 2012, the Academy will be based at
the Sydney Church of England Grammar School
(‘Shore’) at North Sydney. But 16 organs will be
used, at venues ranging from Sydney Town Hall
and the University of Sydney, to school chapels (at
Abbotsleigh, Barker, Knox, St Aloysius, and Pymble
Ladies College) and seven churches.
We are looking forward to having James Parsons
with us again as a tutor. He is Head of Student
Development for the Royal College of Organists.
Also coming from the UK will be the irrepressible
Daniel Moult. Other tutors include Nicole Marane
– an Australian now based in the USA – and
Robert Ampt, Peter Kneeshaw and Philip Swanton
from Sydney. Students attending the Academy will
be allocated to one of six groups to cater for their
level of development in organ playing, and a wide
range of repertoire will be covered.
On Friday 28 December, at 12:30PM, some of
the participants will play in the annual Young
Organists’ Day concert, featuring the worldrenowned 1890 Hill and Son organ at Sydney
Town Hall. There is always a large audience for
this exciting free recital, and visitors to Sydney are
encouraged to attend.
At the end of the Academy, attendees will
participate in a recital in the Shore School Chapel,
and will then enjoy a barbecue and New Year’s
Eve festivities in the school grounds, which have
a ‘grandstand’ view of Sydney Harbour and of the
Harbour Bridge for the spectacular fireworks.
We remind readers that the Organ Music Society
of Sydney website www.omss.org.au has details of
all organ-related events in Sydney and surrounds,
and much more!
[Hugh Knight is President of the Organ Music Society
of Sydney.]
News from Queensland
become the cathedral’s Director
By David Vann
of Music, he quickly set about
promoting a series of recitals
featuring international and
risbane is very fortunate
Australian organists. Organto have one of the
music lovers welcomed this
country’s finest pipe organs in
series, which from humble
St John’s Cathedral. From the
beginnings has grown. Following
organ’s original construction
Rupert’s return to the UK, localand installation in 1909, the
Dong-Ill Shin
born and -bred organist Michael
builders Norman & Beard created
Fulcher was appointed to the position – after a
an instrument ideally suited to the neo-Gothic
term in New Zealand, at Wellington Cathedral –
cathedral, and as the cathedral itself grew (when
and has continued with these monthly recitals (at
funding became available), so did the organ. In
twilight) with renewed vigour.
1971 an enlarged rebuilt organ by Hill, Norman &
Beard was installed. The quality of this instrument
was immediately obvious and well appreciated. As On Saturday 6 October we were pleased to
welcome and hear Korean-born organist Dong-Ill
further sections of the cathedral were completed,
Shin. He has been the winner of countless organ
works were carried out on the organ, with the
contests around the world including the 20th
final labours being recently completed by Simon
Grand Prix de Chartres and has been hailed as
Pierce, who has made subtle changes to the wind
one of the world’s most promising talents of his
pressure and voicing.
generation. For his Brisbane recital he chose works
by Bach, Widor, Vierne, Saint-Saëns, and Wagner.
When Rupert Jeffcoat arrived from England to
B
He opened with the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
In this, we heard a performance that was very
clearly played with a sympathetic uncluttered
registration which was well suited for the St John’s
organ, although it was something that Bach
himself (assuming he did indeed write this music)
would never have envisaged when he set pen to
paper in the early 1700s. Setting an atmosphere
for what was yet to come, Dong-Ill then followed
with two further works which were indubitably
Bach’s: the Trio in D minor (BWV 583) and the
Fugue in G minor (BWV 578). These, again, were
impeccably played.
The next composer represented was Widor, and
we were treated to two of his pieces: the Andante
Sostenuto from the Symphonie Gothique, and
the Allegro from the Symphony No 6 in G Minor.
Again, well-chosen registrations and impeccable
keyboard technique ensured that the emotions
of Widor’s composing were captured. The restful
playing in the Andante and the calmness of the
solo showed this piece to excellent effect. I must
admit, however, that when it came to the Allegro,
the crescendo with the reeds certainly didn’t grab
my attention. Whether this was a consequence of
the registration chosen, or of the voicing works
that have been carried out on the organ, I am not
sure, but I personally felt a little unenthused.
Dong-Ill Shin gave us Vierne as Vierne should be
played! To me this was probably the highlight
of the concert: the Adagio and Final, from the
Symphony No 3 in F Sharp Minor, Opus 28.
The final two works of the recital were ‘The Swan’,
from Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, and the
‘Ride of the Valkyries’ from Wagner’s Die Walküre.
Both of these pieces were well played and were
fitting inclusions in this interesting programme.
A TV monitor with camera was used for the recital.
Unfortunately the camera had a noticeable delay,
and I felt that I was better off avoiding looking at
the screen.
[For details of Dong-Ill Shin’s recent Melbourne
visit, during which he played some of the same
compositions discussed here, see this issue’s Reviews
section.]
News from Tasmania
By Christa Rumsey
O
With the concert starting at 7:30PM,
the first guests arrived at 6:40! By
the time the auditorium doors were
opened at 7PM, a considerable
crowd filled the foyer. The main
auditorium was soon full and then
the upstairs area became populated.
Our estimate is about 300 in the
audience, which is fantastic for an
organ recital. The recital had the
feeling of a community event, for
there were several families with
children present.
n Friday, 26 October, the
Hobart Organ Society held
its annual Celebrity Organ Recital.
Christopher Wrench (Brisbane)
played the Smenge organ in
the Stanley Burbury Theatre
at the University of Tasmania’s
Hobart campus. The date of the
event turned out to be part of
a long weekend (Hobart Show
Day) and that was a concern, as
quite a few Hobartians take the
The programme had been designed
opportunity to leave town for a
Christopher Wrench
with an emphasis on Bach and the
few days. In this case, it may have
German baroque. The Praeludium in
actually provided a benefit, as the
G by Nikolaus Bruhns opened the recital with
audience size this year was even greater than last
a suitable flourish. This is a work with exciting
year!
toccata sections which allow the performer
great scope for freedoms of all kind and plain old
‘showing off’ – a virtuosic piece to be played in the
stylus phantasticus for which North German organ
music of that era is so famous. Christopher Wrench
responded and gave us a rendition full of drama
and excitement.
Then followed the beautiful set of variations
on Mein junges Leben hat ein End by Sweelinck,
which featured the clear and bright flutes on
the instrument. Based on a very simple, singable
melody, this work offers many textures and
moods. It was played with sensitivity and flair.
Bach’s arrangement of a Vivaldi violin concerto,
his Organ Concerto in D Minor, followed. The fugue
which forms part of the first movement and the
wonderfully expressive slow middle movements
were absolute highlights for me; the music
abounded with clear accentuation, awareness
of structure, sensitive shaping of phrases and
beautiful ornamentation in the slow movement.
We then took a little detour into the 20th century,
with Herbert Howells’s Master Tallis’ Testament.
This programme choice had surprised me, as we
normally associate the piece with a different type
of instrument, a more romantically voiced organ
in generous acoustic surroundings. But, with the
30th anniversary of Howells’s death occurring
next year, and with the link to Tudor church music
in the piece’s motifs and overall spirit, it fitted
in extremely well and the instrument sounded
mellow and warm.
After that, back to Bach! The Trio Sonata No 5 in
C Major was a joy to listen to; spirited, articulate,
exuberant and flawlessly played. The recital closed
with Bach’s F major Toccata and Fugue. One would
have thought that by now the audience might
have been a little tired and flagging, but not so!
The hearers were on the edges of their seats, and
it was great to see the interest and delight with
which this stunning piece was followed. There was
much to catch our attention: the showy virtuoso
pedal solos, the joyous and energetic interplay
of chords and arpeggio figures, the extremely
tricky trio sections and the crowning glory – the
closing fugue. The performance was masterful and
The Smenge organ, Burbury Theatre, Hobart
Christopher Wrench maintained the fantastic
tension of this long piece while making it all look
quite effortless!
I spoke to many people after this concert and the
comments were enthusiastic, both from those
who often hear organ music and from others who
never do. ‘I had no idea an organ could sound
like that,’ and ‘I never realised how physical organ
playing is’ were just two remarks made by listeners
who had never been to an organ recital. They both
saw the event as a ‘fantastic night.’ It just shows
that with a serious and solid recital programme,
chosen carefully to present variety, music which
is approachable and has general appeal, even the
uninitiated can take 75 minutes’ worth of organ
music and be keen for more … provided the
instrument is good and the artist on top of his/her
game. I am pleased that Hobart can occasionally
enjoy such an inspirational event. Apart from the
efforts of the Organ Society, it was made possible
by the generous assistance of the University of
Tasmania and the Conservatorium. And for all
those who missed the concert: ABC Classic FM was
there and recorded the recital for future broadcast
– watch out for it and hear it on the radio!
News from Europe
A Visit to Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and Organs in the UK:
Some Recollections and Observations
By Mark Joyner
I
recently made, with my family, my first (and, I
hope, not last) visit to Paris. Following this, we
spent some time in the UK. What follows is a bit
of a travelogue, describing some of our musical
experiences.
Over the course of the eight days we spent in
Paris, we visited all the ‘must see’ places. In terms
of organs on my ‘must hear’ list, that of SaintSulpice in Paris has long been right up there. The
whole aura surrounding Marcel Dupré seems to
have fascinated me since my school days. On the
one Sunday we were in Paris (the second Sunday
of Easter), we attended the 10:30AM and 12:05
Masses at this magnificent baroque church. Prior
to leaving Adelaide, I had E-mailed Daniel Roth
to find out if it were possible to come up to the
tribune. I was aware that that this had been the
tradition in times past, with Widor and Dupré,
but wasn’t sure of the current arrangement. His
courteous reply indicated that I was welcome
to come up and that this admittance happened
during the 12:05 Mass. He explained that only 15
people are able to be admitted at any one time.
We arrived at the famous church at 10:20, during
the course of the organ prelude: the Prelude and
Fugue in G, by Bach. I was quite overwhelmed
by both the majesty of the building and the
wonderful sounds coming from the organ. This
piece was played boldly, with both flues and
prominent reeds. The recordings I have heard
hadn’t really prepared me for the amazing beauty
and splendour of the organ’s sound. Following
this, as the congregation continued to assemble,
Daniel improvised a piece which rose to two huge
climaxes, and in which I detected snippets of
Victimae Paschali.
The 10:30 Mass was led, musically, by a young man
who sang into a microphone and conducted from
a front lectern. There was also a small group of
Daniel Roth
singers, who sang, mostly in alternation with
the congregation, seated up the front. The Kyrie,
followed by a section (to words I didn’t recognise),
a responsorial psalm and a Gospel Acclamation.
Those all involved interaction between the cantor,
singers, choir organ and main organ. Following
the Gospel, Daniel launched into a marvellous
Gospel procession (even though there was no
movement to warrant one!) based on O Filii et
Filiae, the melody upon which the acclamation
had been based.
He played at the offertory what I later discovered
was an Andante in E flat by Alexandre Boëly.
During the Communion, he began (again, I
discovered this only later) with Adoratio et Vox
Angelica by Théodore Dubois, featuring the Vox
Humana and solo oboe stops with a tremulant.
He followed this by an improvisation on the
melody Vulpius. Then, to my surprise, we all stood
and sang some Easter words to this tune – taken
at a very brisk pace – for which Daniel provided
wonderfully creative interludes, between the
verses. The postlude was the Dubois Toccata.
Virtually immediately after the postlude Daniel
began his customary recital or audition, starting
with the Franck Cantabile. This was followed by
the Saint-Saëns Fantasie in E flat and then a piece,
people at a time can readily see the console faceon. Daniel graciously welcomed and spoke to
those who were nearby, asking where they came
from. After the entrée he didn’t play again until
the offertory (I think, but I haven’t actually noted
what was played then).
Organ of Saint-Sulpice
which I think he improvised, based once again
on Victimae Paschali. For most of the audition, we
waited by the door to the tribune, so as to gain
access for the 12:05 Mass. Because most of the
assembled organ ‘enthusiasts’ talked so loudly,
seemingly oblivious to what was being played,
it was, sadly, very hard to hear the pieces, as the
door is under the organ. There was, I think it is fair
to say, a certain amount of jostling to ensure that
entrance was gained; by the time of admittance
there were 30 or so of us gathered there. The door
was eventually opened and we all moved, scrumlike, forward. I was the first of those not to gain
admission, and I was left wondering if I would
make it up there. Fortunately, some minutes later,
the door was re-opened, to emit some of the
first group, and the second shift of persons was
granted access.
I ascended the famous 67 steps with a certain
amount of awe. I hadn’t imagined the whole
tribune set-up would be quite so large and rabbitwarren-like. The famous small room contains, as
many will know, a rather severe bust of Widor, a
photo of Dupré at the console, a list of organists
(there have been only 12 since 1619), a framed
letter from Albert Schweitzer dating from 1962
(not the letter quoted in Dupré’s memoirs)
below a photo of him, two framed older-looking
documents relating to the console layout and
specification – possibly dating from when the
organ was rebuilt by Cavaillé-Coll – and a photo
of Dupré and Schweitzer together. The actual
console area is quite small, and really only two
Then, to my disappointment, during Communion,
when I was looking forward to an improvisation,
he accompanied two singers who appeared in
the loft, and who sang Franck’s Panis Angelicus,
both verses, twice through. Following this
– Communion hadn’t finished – rather than
an improvisation, there was music, of a Taizétype flavour, which involved the cantor at the
front singing over what, I think, was a recorded
accompaniment, consisting of a violin, an oboe
and an electric keyboard. This instrumental
combination had featured in earlier parts of the
Mass too. Some of this music was also sung by
the large congregation, and sung very well. The
church was full for this service, but was only
partially so for the earlier 10:30 Mass.
Soon after this we were told we had to leave the
tribune – something was said about a meeting to
follow. So at this Mass there was, unfortunately,
no sortie. Daniel covered the keyboards with a
reddish piece of material and stood to say goodbye to those still assembled there – including a
young couple, one of whose two small children
had managed to turn the console light off during
the service!
The experience of seeing the console and hearing
this mighty instrument was memorable, to
say the very least. It’s not hard to see why this
extraordinary masterpiece of Cavaillé-Coll has
had so few organistes titulaires over such a long
period. Dupré seemingly found it impossible to
retire from his ‘royal’ instrument (he died on the
same Sunday he had earlier played for Mass, 30
May 1971); and Widor retired only reluctantly, in
extreme old age, when (so Dupré recounted in his
memoirs) he believed he was losing his technique.
I believe that Jean-Jacques Grunenwald – Dupré’s
one-time pupil and successor – died in office too.
At the time we were in Paris, the main organs of
both Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame were out of
action. A very helpful nun at Sacré Coeur told me
that there was assistance with funding, as I believe
is usual in France, for the organ’s restoration, but
that the ideas of the government department
involved and the basilica over how the money is
to be specifically used, had not coincided. This
difference, it seems, has caused something of a
stalemate. At Saint-Eustache, a friendly guide,
who inhabited the little room up towards the
sanctuary, told me that Jean Guillou still plays
there, but now finds that – like Widor in old age at
Saint-Sulpice – he can’t manage the climb up the
stairs to the main console. Whether this is the sole
reason the new, moveable, console downstairs
was constructed, I am not sure. At La Trinité, the
day I visited, the church was all but empty; and as
with Saint-Eustache, I didn’t hear the organ.
Following our time in Paris, we proceeded to
England, and soon after arriving we made a
day trip to Salisbury and Winchester, by train.
England, we were told later, was experiencing
its wettest April on record. Although this didn’t
really adversely affect us (rain having become a
bit of a novelty in recent years to us Australians), it
certainly made the countryside very lovely. Whilst
we were walking through Winchester Cathedral,
the organ tuner was in attendance, trying to tune
what was clearly a rather recalcitrant mixture
note, with one of the organists holding down the
required key at the console. In order to test its
stability he launched several times into parts of
the Bach E flat Prelude and Fugue. It was nice to
hear its distinguished voice rolling around the vast
nave – England’s longest.
The following Sunday we attended the morning
services at St Paul’s Cathedral. Simon Hogan,
the organ scholar, most ably accompanied both
choral matins, from the main console and the
sung Eucharist, from the new nave console. Both
services were led by a visiting ladies choir. The
postlude after the Eucharist was the Dupré Prelude
and Fugue in B major, played quite stunningly. A
number of us, from a congregation of perhaps 300
to 400, stayed to listen and afterwards applauded
Simon appreciatively, for his brilliant playing.
That evening we heard Andrej Kouznetsov give
one of the recitals as part of the regular Sunday
Organ Recital Series at Westminster Abbey. He
gave splendid performances, in what was clearly
a concert with a nautical theme, of In memoriam
Titanic by Joseph Bonnet and of the Percy
Whitlock Plymouth Suite. Andrej, for those who
don’t know, hails from Sydney and is currently
Organ Scholar at the Abbey. I had not had the
pleasure of hearing him play before. For this recital
the nave (albeit not large) was full. I’m not sure
how many listeners that means, but certainly
several hundred. Following the recital we were
ushered out of the Abbey quite quickly, by some
rather cattle-dog-ish stewards.
The next Sunday we heard, and I later played,
another Father Willis organ, this time in Lincoln
Cathedral, where our son sings in the choir. Colin
Walsh, Lincoln’s Organist Laureate, was away,
but both the Assistant Director of Music and
Sub-Organist, Charles Harrison, and the Assistant
Organist, Claire Innes-Hopkins, played superbly
for the services we attended. Interestingly, both
organists refrained from lifting their hands from
the keys during the chanting of each psalm, an
approach to psalm accompaniment I had not
previously encountered. I liked this and found it
provided a unifying surround to the words. Organ
music over the days we were there included the
first movement of the Bach E Minor Trio Sonata
and Tournemire’s Improvisation on Victimae
Paschali. The 1898 Father Willis organ sounds
wonderful in that huge and magnificent building.
It is quite amazing really, that it all comes together
so well, as like many others in large English
cathedrals, the organ’s geographical layout is so
scattered.
En route to Lincoln, we visited Cambridge and
attended Evensong at King’s College. This was
the choristers’ first service back, after the Easter
holiday. We joined the queue along the chapel,
with a couple of hundred others, to await entry.
The service setting was Stanford in G and the
voluntary was Bach’s Schmŭcke Dich. While the
solo treble got off to a slightly nervous start in
the Magnificat, overall the singing and playing
were magnificent. The baritone soloist in the Nunc
Dimittis had a wonderfully rich voice. I am not sure
who played, but Stephen Cleobury conducted.
The choristers turned into typical students
afterwards as they poured forth from the choir
vestry, chatting loudly!
So in the space of three weeks, we heard five
wonderful organs. It is, to digress, interesting to
reflect upon the amount of re-working which
the Henry Willis instruments at St Paul’s and
Lincoln, and the Harrisons at King’s College and
Westminster Abbey have had, since they were
themselves re-constructed in 1872, 1898, 1934
and 1937, respectively. Theoretically I suppose,
because of this, they should not speak with such
integrity and unified voices as they actually do. Of
course they would not exist at all in their current
forms had not the radical work undertaken at
these times by Willis, the Harrisons, and CavailléColl happened. While I am not an advocate of
wholesale, unnecessary alterations to historic
organs, we can, I believe, lose sight of how
effective and artistically creative it can be to make
subtle and judicious changes to both playing
mechanisms and tonal palettes of organs. I am
thinking of things such as the added mutations
on the Choir Organ at Lincoln; the French Horn
(1930), the new North Choir Organ (1977) and
the Great Organ Fourniture IV (1994) at St Paul’s
Colin Walsh at Lincoln Cathedral
(Photo by Alton Organ Society, Hampshire)
Cathedral; and the four-rank Great Organ Quint
Mixture at King’s College, Cambridge (1968) –
which I think has been subsequently ‘tweaked’.
We seem, in some quarters, more and more to be
summarily dismissing the art of making carefullyconsidered additions to organs. Perhaps we
should relax our views to allow for sensible and
well-executed additions and alterations: easing
back a little from the justifiably rigid stance that
was required a few decades ago. (I am aware that
not everyone will agree with this and anyway, it is
really the subject of another article).
News from the USA
By Evan Angus MacCarthy
O
n the afternoon of Sunday 22 April, the
Harvard University Department of Music,
in collaboration with The Memorial Church
of Harvard University, hosted a conference at
The Memorial Church entitled The Organ in the
Academy, in recognition of the installation of the
new Opus 139 pipe organ by CB Fisk Inc., the
Charles B Fisk and Peter J Gomes Memorial Organ.
At 44 voices and 55 ranks, totalling over 3,000
pipes in a single wooden cabinet, this mechanicalaction organ is an exciting addition to the
musical community at Harvard and throughout
the Boston area, worthy of a symposium of talks,
performances, and discussion in celebration of
Harvard Memorial Church organ
the long and important relationship over many
centuries between the organ and university life.
organ music, and academic institutions. Covering
several centuries and case studies, the speakers
brought to light features of this important
musical and intellectual alliance that revealed an
important tradition that has a bright future.
John Knowles Paine
In the weeks following the organ’s dedication at
this year’s Easter Sunday service, several recitals
were given in the month of April to display the
organ’s brilliant tonal and dynamic palette, and its
adaptability to different repertoires and functions.
Performers included David Higgs (Professor of
Organ, and Chair, Organ and Historical Keyboards
Department at the Eastman School of Music,
Rochester, New York State), Chelsea Chen (Artistin-Residence at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church,
New York City; member of Duo Wong-Chen with
violinist Lewis Wong), David Briggs (concert
organist and composer; Organist Emeritus of
Gloucester Cathedral, United Kingdom), as well as
many students and members of the faculty. The
new Fisk organ resides prominently in the rear
gallery, joining a vintage Skinner organ, Opus 793
(the Jane Slaughter Hardenberg Memorial Organ),
which was installed at the front of church in
Appleton Chapel in November of 2010. These two
organs replaced a 1967 Fisk and a 1932 AeolianSkinner.
To call the conference festivities to order, Professor
Thomas Forrest Kelly of Harvard delivered
opening remarks, highlighting the wonders of
this new instrument, and expressing thanks for
the hard labours of many talented and committed
people. The speakers invited for the afternoon’s
proceedings were not asked to speak about the
new instrument itself or about a particular aspect
of organ repertory or composer. Instead, the
connecting theme of the afternoon’s talks was the
lasting and essential relationship between organs,
The keynote lecture of the afternoon was
delivered by John Butt, Gardiner Professor of
Music at the University of Glasgow, entitled
‘Organs and Universities – A Universal Association’.
Beginning with several personal anecdotes, then
broadening to a survey of organs in European
and American universities, Butt demonstrated the
several ways in which organs, organ building, and
organ music resemble a microcosm of universities
and their intellectual mission.
The talks then moved to historical case studies
of American organs and organ music. Following
Butt’s keynote lecture, the second paper (‘Puritans
and Organs at Harvard and in New England’)
was delivered by Glenda Goodman, then a PhD
candidate (now graduate) in historical musicology
at Harvard. Offering archival and literary evidence
of musical life in colonial America, Goodman
challenged the common perception that there
existed a fraught relationship between New
England Puritans and instrumental music,
especially organ music, by detailing the
commissioning, building, and transport of organs
to America in the 17th and 18th centuries.
I had the great fortune of giving the third talk,
‘Teaching from the Organ Bench: 19th-Century
Origins of Harvard’s Music Curriculum’, wherein
I laid out how the position of Harvard’s chapel
organist and choirmaster served as the gateway to
bringing about sanctioned instruction in music at
Harvard against much administrative opposition.
Organist and composer John Knowles Paine was
originally hired as organist for chapel services,
but over the course of a decade he was able
to escort music courses into the official course
catalogue, and thus help establish one of the first
professorships in music in America.
Christoph Wolff, Adams University Professor at
Harvard, delivered the fourth lecture: ‘Charles Fisk,
William Dowd, Frank Hubbard, and the Harvard
School of Instrument-Makers’. Wolff surveyed the
important 20th-century contributions of these
three Harvard College alumni to instrument
building (Fisk’s firm was responsible for building
the new organ). Grounded in personal anecdotes
and several references to individual instruments
built by these figures (including those owned by
Harvard), Wolff offered a unique perspective of the
impact of these men on the American historical
performance movement and on musical life at
Harvard and in New England.
One of the persons most closely involved in
bringing about this new Fisk organ was Edward
Elwyn Jones, Gund University Organist and
Choirmaster at Harvard. Jones delivered the fifth
and final talk, ‘The Organ(s) at Harvard: A Tour
and An Evaluation’, which surveyed, often with
illustration, the many organs that have been
built for Harvard University over the centuries,
describing their different functions for campus life.
In organising this symposium, it was quickly
agreed that a series of talks about organs and
organ music would be seriously lacking if the
opportunity was not arranged for the conference’s
official honouree to speak. Instead of silence
between the afternoon’s speakers, several of
Harvard’s current and former organists were
invited to perform brief musical interludes on the
new Fisk organ as well as on other organs in the
Memorial Church’s collection: the Skinner organ
(Opus 793) and a chamber organ by Klop. Edward
Elwyn Jones played the Allegro from Bach’s
Concerto in G (BWV 592a) on the new Fisk organ.
Christian Lane, Associate University Organist and
Choirmaster, performed on the Skinner the ‘Innig’
from Schumann’s Sechs Stücke in Kanonischer
Form. Nancy B Granert, the Memorial Church’s
organist-in-residence, featured the Klop chamber
organ with Sweelinck’s Ballo del Granduca. Murray
Forbes Somerville, Gund University Organist and
Choirmaster from 1990 until 2003, ended the
musical portion of the program with a recent work
by alumnus Carson P Cooman, his Rondino on ‘I
Love to Tell the Story’ (2011), on the new Fisk organ.
In all, the afternoon symposium with its lectures
and performances was a joyous occasion amidst
several weeks of celebrating this new fine addition
to Harvard’s musical community.
Obituary
CARLO CURLEY
(1952-2012)
Showmanship, generosity, and a special
Melbourne connection
By Melissa Lesnie, Limelight [Sydney],
14 August 2012
C
oncert organist Carlo Curley has died in
England at the age of 59. No cause of death
has been made public.
Curley was born into a musical
North Carolina family in 1952. The
precocious organist accepted his
first professional post at the age
of 15, began touring the USA at
17 and the following year became
Director of Music at Girard
College, Philadelphia.
restored; it would be one of the finest organs.” He
started off the interest in restoring the Town Hall
organ, and did a lot of work initially. He was the
catalyst for it. He returned to Melbourne after the
restoration and was very happy with what had
been done.’ Dr Nixon also praised Curley’s ‘hugely generous’
spirit: in 1990, when Melbourne’s St Paul’s
Cathedral organ was refurbished, he took part in
its opening concert and donated his fee towards
the cost of the restoration.
Curley even appeared
on the Australian variety
television show Hey, Hey, It’s
Saturday!, donning a vampire
cape in a performance of Bach’s
Toccata in D Minor. ‘He was an
organist who was an entertainer,’
Dr Nixon affirmed. ‘He was not a
dry, academic organist at all. He
did a lot of good for the organ
world, brought a lot of audiences
in. He was a very colourful
character, larger than life.’
He studied under two of the
greatest organists of the 20th
century: Virgil Fox and, in London,
Sir George Thalben-Ball. Early in
Carlo Curley in action
his career, he was invited by the
Curley’s approach to the organ and
President to play at the White House, becoming
his public paved the way for younger generation
the first classical organist to give a solo organ
of performers including Cameron Carpenter, who
recital there. Recording primarily for Decca, he
describes him as ‘one of the first true advocates,
enjoyed an international reputation for his elegant and actively artistic proponents, of the digital
performances, sense of humour and defiance of
organ and its importance both on the world stage
concert convention.
and to the artistic independence of organists.
Curley was a frequent visitor to Australia,
particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
when he championed the restoration of the
Melbourne Town Hall organ. June Nixon, organist
at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, recalls that
Curley ‘did a concert on the organ at Hamer Hall,
and had some very outspoken opinions about it.
‘What he found at the Town Hall was an organ
that was very much ripe for restoration and he
said, “This would be brilliant if we could have it
‘In not taking the bandwagon view of the pipe
organ as ultimately superior, he was and remains
many decades ahead of most of his colleagues, to
say nothing of his playing,’ he told Limelight.
[Reprinted by special permission of Limelight;
the article’s original location is http://www.
limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/311785,carlocurley-saviour-of-melbourne-town-hall-organhas-died.aspx]
[This introduction to the history of organ culture in Russia, and above all in St Petersburg, was delivered as
part of a lecture-recital in Melbourne’s Scots’ Church by Professor Zaretsky on 8 September.]
Repertoire Notes:
Russian Organ Music
By Daniel Zaretsky
T
he organ was first
known in Russia during
the 10th century, when
it came from Byzantium.
A remarkable fact is
that at much the same
period the division of the
Christian Church into the
West (Catholic) and East
(Orthodox) took place, and
the main musical peculiarity
of the Orthodox church
has been the total refusal
to employ any instruments
(including organ) during
the services and all kinds
of religious ceremonies.
Only human voices (as ‘living’
instruments), in the form of choir
singing, are used during the
service.
ceremonies by tsars as a festive
instrument, and many organists
were brought from Western
Europe. From the time of Peter the
Great (crowned in 1682), many
organs, mostly made in Germany,
were built in new foreign Catholic
and Protestant churches, as well
as for private use in the houses
of aristocratic society, and mainly
they were housed in Moscow and
especially in St Petersburg. But the
role of organ in the music culture
of Russia still was modest until the
middle of the 19th century.
The history of the organ in St
Petersburg dates back 300 years, as
Daniel Zaretsky
does the city itself, founded by Peter
the Great in 1703. For more than two
centuries, from 1712 till 1918, St Petersburg was
the capital of Russia. One of the specialties of the
Thus, from the very beginning, the way of the
development of organ culture in Russia became
a secular way, as there was never any tie between
the organ and the Orthodox Church. When
the organ first came to Russia, it was regarded
as an exotic instrument solely for amusement
and diverting, entertaining purposes, used,
for example, during feasts by Russian nobles,
together with folk instruments. Organists were
therefore amateur musicians as well. The organs
were just portatives.
From the 15th until the 18th century, the organ
was used mainly during receptions and wedding
Peter the Great (right) shaving
a nobleman’s beard
playing musical clock (Flötenuhr) by the English
master William Winrowe from London (it is now in
the Grand Hall of the Menshikov Palace). One of
the famous newspapers wrote in 1849: ‘Today the
organ is becoming more of a chamber instrument
and soon will replace the piano.’
Glinka
new Russian capital from the very beginning was
a multi-ethnic population with its high religious
tolerance. By the time of the Revolution of 1917
there were more than 30 non-Orthodox churches
with organs, and several concert halls with organs
as well. So the history of organ-building up to that
date had a very strong European orientation with
two main directions – secular and spiritual.
As for secular life, several small organs were to be
found in the palaces of the imperial family, as well
as in the homes of the nobility during the second
half of the 18th century and in the 19th century,
as well as in the houses of outstanding cultural
figures, in salons and theatres. One of the largest
instruments was installed in the Marble Palace in
1869 by the German organ-builder Wilhelm Sauer;
it had two manuals and 20 stops. Among others
were positive organs, claviorgans (invented in the
Middle Ages), and organs with clocks. They were
built by St Petersburg masters, mostly of German
origin. One of these builders, Franz Kirshnik
(1741-1802), was an inventor of freely-oscillating
reeds in organ pipes in 1780. This was mentioned
even by the Abbé Vogler (Georg Vogler, German
composer, teacher, and theorist), who visited
Kirshnik’s workshop in the spring of 1788.
Claviorgans were very popular in the music salons
of St Petersburg and Moscow. Even the famous
Russian composer Dmitri Bortnyansky composed
his Concerto Symphony (1790) for claviorgan and
chamber orchestra. Among the small organs
from the 18th century which survive, there is a
one-manual four-stop positive organ with a flute-
Some organs found in salons were very well
known in Russian musical circles, and they played
an important role in providing access to the organ
for many leading musical figures, such as Prince
Vladimir Odoevsky (philosopher, patron and
music critic as well as probably the first Russian
to write solo organ pieces) and the great Mikhail
Glinka. The most famous instrument was the
‘Sebastianon’ by organ-builder Maelzel (1848, two
manuals, eight stops), belonging to Odoevsky.
Unfortunately, this instrument has not been
preserved. Medium-sized organs were installed in
musical theatres. For example, in 1879 the Bolshoi
Theatre received a new instrument from Sauer
(one manual, 10 stops) and in 1914 this was rebuilt
and enlarged by the German firm EF Walcker (two
manuals, 16 stops).
The establishment of the professional Russian
organ school dates back to the second half
of the 19th century. In 1862 the first Russian
conservatoire was opened in St Petersburg,
where the organ class of Professor Heinrich Stiehl,
himself a graduate from the Leipzig Conservatoire,
began its work. One of the first students of the
St Petersburg organ class was none other than
Tchaikovsky.
For a long time the students practised on the
organ of the Lutheran Church of St Peter on
Nevsky Prospekt (the organists of this church
were in turn, from 1862 till 1921, also the heads
of the St Petersburg Conservatoire’s organ class).
Only in the 1880s were two German eightstop instruments installed in the St Petersburg
Conservatoire for students to use (one was made
by Sauer in 1884 and the other by Ladegast in
1888, the latter being rebuilt by Walcker in 1889).
Sauer’s organ, now moved to the Children’s Music
School, is a unique relic of Russian organ history,
as it was used for teaching and practising by
numerous outstanding organists and composers
(including Prokofiev, not to mention many
musicians from Estonia and Latvia).
The organ class at the Moscow Conservatoire
was opened in 1885, and already it had its own
two instruments, both built by Ladegast. Both
instruments were put in the chamber concert
hall (one on the stage and another one on the
upper gallery). The main aim of organ education
in Russia, as well as of piano education, was to
prepare virtuoso concert artists for performing
at recitals. So it was secular in its purpose. But
the first organ concerts were held in the foreign
churches.
At the end of the 19th century, as the construction
of organs in the public concert halls had begun,
secular organ music in Russia received a new,
decisive impulse. As a real concert instrument,
the organ benefited from the appearance of
wonderful instruments which were built in the
concert halls of St Petersburg’s and Moscow’s
Conservatoires (1897 and 1900 respectively)
by Walcker (three manuals, 46 stops) and the
celebrated Cavaillé-Coll (three manuals, 48 stops).
Originally the first of these instruments was
installed on the stage of the zoo in St Petersburg.
In 1912 it was rebuilt and moved to the hall of
the People’s House. Later two more remarkable
organs appeared: one in the Conference Hall of
the Clinical Gynaecological Institute (1903, three
manuals, 47 stops, enlarged in 1910 to 52 stops),
and another one (27 stops) in the building of the
Court Orchestra (1912; most likely it was the first
organ in Russia with a movable console). The
organ of the Gynaecological Institute was also
used for studying the influence of organ music on
human health. Organ concerts in the Conference
Hall were organised almost every day. Bed-bound
patients could listen to the music with the help of
special telephones located at every bed.
These instruments played a very important role
in the establishment and development of a
professional Russian organ school and the forming
of the traditions of organ concert performances
in Russia. They were all built by Walcker, the firm
that continued to be the main organ supplier for
St Petersburg in the 19th century and up to the
The Walcker organ at the Great Hall in St Petersburg’s
Conservatoire
beginning of the 20th century. Unfortunately only
one of those concert instruments survived: the
one from the Gynaecological Institute was moved
to the Great Philharmonic Hall in 1931, and later
underwent serious rebuilding in 1972 (by the
Rieger-Kloss company) and reconstruction in 2003
(by Klais).
Religious music played a really unique part in the
history of the development of organ culture in St
Petersburg and partly in Moscow, when compared
to other Russian cities. At the beginning of the
First World War, there were 64 non-Orthodox
churches and chapels in St Petersburg, with at
least 33 organs. Some of these instruments were,
without any exaggeration, real masterpieces of
Romantic organ-building.
The first church organ had already appeared in
St Petersburg in 1708, when, by an edict of Peter
the Great, an instrument from the closed church
in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) was moved to St
Petersburg for the Evangelical parish church there.
German organist H Zachau (1674-1740) once
performed on that instrument. In 1735-37 the
organ-builder J Joachim (1698-1758), from Mitau
(now Jelgava, Latvia), built a 24-stop organ for
the Lutheran Church of St Peter. That was one of
the biggest and best instruments in the city, even
at the beginning of the 19th century. It had 178
sounding pipes, 120 blind pipes, five oaken windchests (two for the Hauptwerk and pedal divisions,
one for the Oberwerk), and four big bellows. The
Catholic St Catherine’s Church on Nevsky Prospect
got its organ no later than the 1760s, and an
Italian composer, Vincenzo Manfredini (1737-99),
32 stops; moved to the Cappella in 1927;
underwent several rebuildings (1967-68
Rieger-Kloss, 2006-07 Eule).
conducted his oratorios there many times.
But the true growth of organ-building in St
Petersburg started in the 19th century, when
non-Orthodox religious communities had
established themselves and possessed sufficient
funds for large church buildings and organs.
Organ construction in St Petersburg and in the
whole of Russia was at its peak from the end of
the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th.
The main organ-builders involved at that stage
in St Petersburg were Terkmann and Kriisa from
Estonia, the Rieger brothers from Silesia, William
Hill and Brindley & Foster from England, Thule
from Finland, Biernacki from Poland, and Friedrich,
Walcker, Sauer, Grueneberg and Ladegast from
Germany. But most of the organs at that time were
built by just two German companies, Walcker
(Ludwigsburg) and Sauer (Frankfurt-on-Oder).
By 1914 there were 54 organs in St Petersburg
and the surrounding province which had been
installed by one or the other of these firms (37 by
Walcker and 17 by Sauer). So the dominant style
in the organ ‘landscape’ before the Revolution was
that of German Romanticism.
•
Anglican Church, W Hill, 1843, then Brindley
& Foster, 1877, three manuals, 23 stops;
preserved unchanged (but now in unplayable
condition).
•
Maltese Chapel of the Page Corps (Vorontsov
Palace), Walcker 1909, two manuals, 15 stops;
moved to Maly (Small) Opera and Ballet
Theatre in 1928, then came back and was
restored in 2005 by Kriisa.
•
St Catherine’s Swedish Lutheran Church,
Sauer, 1875, three manuals, 35 stops (the first
organ by Sauer with a Rollschweller-Walze
mechanism); not preserved.
•
Church of the Evangelical Hospital, Walcker,
1910, two manuals, 20 stops (preserved from
1957 at the Catholic Church of Virgin Mary;
now in a very bad condition).
+++
The golden age of organ-building in St Petersburg
came to an end with the First World War (the
last pre-war organ was installed in the Mariinsky
Theatre in 1914). Between the middle of the 19th
century and the Revolution, the most significant
church organs built in St Petersburg were:
•
St Peter’s German Lutheran Church, Walcker
1839-40, three manuals, 63 stops (initially with
two pedal-boards); rebuilt in 1869, 1885-86,
and 1910 (last variant: four manuals, 76 stops);
moved to Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow in 1940
(very badly installed), not preserved (pipes
were partially used by the firm Rieger-Kloss for
a new organ for the Donetsk Philharmonic Hall
in 1959).
•
Dutch Reformed Church, G Friedrich, 1832,
two manuals, 23 stops (the oldest existing
case in Russia, preserved – now in the Concert
Hall of the St Petersburg Cappella); then
Walcker renovation of the old case, 1891,
three manuals, 28 stops; then three manuals,
Many of the church organs in St Petersburg were
destroyed, as the Revolution of 1917 radically
changed society. (St Petersburg’s own name
was soon altered to Leningrad.) Almost all the
non-Orthodox churches were closed during the
1920s and 1930s. But at least a special organ
committee, members of which were Isaj Braudo,
W Deringer, and A Kotlyarevsky, was formed by
the Arts Administration at the City Council, in
order to define the future of the instruments and
to organise the relocation of the most valuable
organs from the churches to Leningrad’s cultural
institutions. Quite a few organs were moved under
the supervision of the experienced master G Kujat:
•
1927 – Dutch Church – to Cappella (then
enlarged)
•
1928 – Maltese Chapel – to the Maly Opera
Theatre
•
1931 – Gynaecological Institute – to the Great
Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonic
•
1935 – St Anne’s Lutheran Church – to the
Radio Committee
•
1940 – St Peter’s Lutheran Church – to the
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow
At the end of the 1960s only three of these
organs were being played regularly. But the
most important thing was that both of the main
concert halls of the city – the Philharmonic Hall
and the Cappella – still had very good Walckermanufactured Romantic organs. As a result, organ
concert life could be found in Leningrad, and
several generations of auditors were educated by
the soft and warm sound of these instruments.
Sadly, both organs were rebuilt and insensitively
enlarged by Rieger-Kloss at the end of the 1960s
and the beginning of the 1970s. In particular, the
Romantic style of the Philharmonic organ was
severely impaired by such overhauling.
As for the church organs, only the organ of the
Maltese Chapel finally came back to its original
location, after nearly 70 years of use in the Maly
Opera Theatre under adverse temperature
conditions. It was restored by Kriisa in 2005.
A revival of organ-building in Russia started in
the late 1950s, during the reign (1953-64) of
Khrushchev. For political reasons the choice of
firms was very limited: organs could be ordered
only from two socialist countries, East Germany
and Czechoslovakia. Up to the end of the 1980s,
approximately 80 instruments in nearly 30 cities
of Russia were built for concert halls and music
schools. Some of them were installed in former
church buildings (Catholic and Lutheran as well as
Orthodox) which had been converted into concert
halls, using the advantage of their acoustics. No
wonder that a great number of organ audiences
were educated. In Moscow the new organ from
Rieger-Kloss was installed in the Tchaikovsky
Concert Hall in 1959, and in St Petersburg in the
Glazunov Hall of the Conservatoire in 1961.
Another organ-builder invited to the Soviet
Union was Schuke (of Potsdam, in the German
Democratic Republic). The first Schuke organs
were built for the Small Hall of the Moscow
Conservatoire in 1959, and for the Concert Hall of
the Gorky (now Nizhny-Novgorod) Conservatoire
in 1960. Later on, about 30 large and middlesize organs were built in the concert halls of
the big cities in the USSR by Schuke, Sauer,
Eule, and Rieger-Kloss. As for the St Petersburg
Conservatoire, in 1972 a new organ from Sauer
appeared at the Organ Auditorium. Seven years
afterwards, a Rieger-Kloss organ was installed in
the Mariinsky Theatre. Almost all of instruments in
the Soviet Union were built under the influence of
the Orgelbewegung.
When the Soviet system collapsed in 1991, there
was almost no new organ-building at first, due
to the economic difficulties. That’s why some reopened Western churches received just small old
instruments from abroad, as gifts from various
religious communities, which no longer used
these organs themselves. Regrettably, many
of these instruments do not suit the sizes and
acoustics of their new homes. As one of the
exceptions, in 1997 a new organ was built by
Sauer for the previously mentioned St Catherine’s
Lutheran Church in St Petersburg.
The only Russian organ builder at the moment
is one from St Petersburg, P Tchilin, who has
built about 50 small organs, as well as positives
and portatives. Since about 10 years ago, as the
economic situation became more stable, new
organs made by leading Western organ-builders
(Flentrop from Holland, Beckerath, Klais, Eule,
Maier, Glatter-Goetz from Germany, Kern from
France, Grenzing from Spain, and Porthan from
Finland) have started to appear in the different
corners of Russia. And organ music has never
altogether lost its popularity, or its certain place in
the Russian music culture.
Nowadays there are eight conservatoires with
organ classes, where about 20 teachers have
normally about 50 students as organ majors,
studying organ as their main subject (you have to
add to this number many more students who are
learning organ as a second subject – composers,
pianists, musicologists). And the total number of
professional organists in the whole of Russia is still
less than in any big town in Germany, for example,
as they could be employed only in the concert
halls (as concert organists) or at the music schools
(as teachers). This number could be estimated as
about 60 persons. Compare that to the size of the
country and you will imagine how uncommon
and exotic this profession still is. On the other
hand this rarity makes a very attractive reason to
study organ for young musicians. of the compositions included in Abbé Joubert’s
volume (by Alexander Glazunov, César Cui, Sergey
Lyapunov, Georgy Catoire, Leonid Sabaneyev, and
Sergey Taneyev). The best piece – Choral Varié –
was written in 1913 by Taneyev, whose teachers
had included Tchaikovsky, and who himself was
professor of composition and counterpoint at the
Moscow Conservatoire. The Choral is based on a
quasi-Russian melody and progresses in mood
from the melancholic theme to a virtuoso and
festive final Fughetta.
+++
The first attempts by a major Russian composer
to write for organ were made by Glinka, who
produced some fugues for the instrument.
There are at least two important reasons why
France should be considered a country whose
contribution to the history of organ music in
Russia during the 20th century has been quite
outstanding.
To start with, it was Abbé Joseph Joubert, from
the small French town of Luçon, whose stroke of
genius in creating an Anthology of Contemporary
Organ Music inspired him also to approach – at
the beginning of the 20th century – a number
of prominent musicians in St Petersburg and
Moscow. As a result, more than a dozen beautiful
pieces by Russian composers appeared in the
Joubert collection, and the Abbé’s call awakened
several generations of composers in Russia to a
deeper interest in the organ.
A second reason was undoubtedly the CavailléColl organ in Moscow, cited earlier. This was
installed in Moscow partly because of the warm
relationship between Tchaikovsky and Widor. The
artistry of a number of outstanding musicians
who performed on this organ must certainly
have inspired many of the composers in Russia to
write for the organ. Widor was invited to Moscow
to play the inaugural recital on this particular
instrument, on 11 April 1901. He was soon
followed by Charles Tournemire, Marco Enrico
Bossi, and others.
The influence of the French symphonic organ and
its repertoire can easily be recognised in most
Some Preludes and Fugues were contributed by
Georgy Catoire, born in 1861 in Moscow, who took
lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1886 Catoire
showed several of his piano works to Tchaikovsky,
who warmly welcomed them and urged Catoire to
write further pieces, and not only for piano. From
1917 till his death in 1926 Catoire was professor
of composition at the Moscow Conservatoire.
One can clearly hear the influence of Tchaikovsky
in his organ utterances. Other organ pieces were
written by Glazunov, director of the St Petersburg
Conservatoire at the beginning of the 20th
century, who consulted Dupré for advice on
organ-related matters during his stay of several
years in Paris.
It is sad that the most famous of Russia’s
composers such as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff
did not write a single note for the organ,
although many organists continue to play,
even now, transcriptions of the ballet and vocal
music by these men. Also very often played are
transcriptions from characteristic piano-pieces
by Prokofiev, yet another one who didn’t write
anything for organ. Shostakovich wrote just
one organ solo – a Passacaglia – as an interlude
between the fourth and fifth scenes for his
opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk. But in the second,
Khrushchev-era version of that opera, the
Passacaglia disappeared, perhaps because the
few organs remaining in Russian opera houses
were in a very bad condition. Since Shostakovich
did not have a great first-hand knowledge of the
organ, he sought out the former organ professor
in St Petersburg’s Conservatoire: Isaj Braudo,
teacher of my teacher. As I was told, Braudo wasn’t
completely satisfied with the Passacaglia from the
continued on page 31
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ORGAN 1
ORGAN 2
MANUAL I
MANUAL I
Double Diapason
Open Diapason No 1
Open Diapason No 2
Hohl Flute
Stopped Diapason
Vox Celeste II
Principal
Harmonic Flute
Twelfth
Fifteeth
Flute
Sesquialtera
Mixture
Trumpet
Clarion
Tremulant
II
V
16
8
8
8
8
8
4
4
22/3
2
2
8
4
III
8
8
8
8
8
4
22/3
2
13/5
16
8
8
4
8
V
VII
Prinzipal
Bourdun
Prinzipal
Viola da Gamba
Rohrflote
Octav
Spitzflote
Quinta
Superoktav
Schwiegel
Mixtur
Kornett
Trompette
Trompette
Klarin
Tremulant
16
8
4
Quintaton
Bourdon
Flute Traversiere
Viole de Gambe
Voix Celeste
Octave
Flute Octaviante
Nasard
Octavin
Tierce
Plein Jeu
Bombarde
Trompette
Basson-Hautbois
Voix Humaine
Tremulant
III
32
32
16
16
16
8
8
8
4
32
16
16
8
8
4
Bourdon
Contrebasse
Soubasse
Violoncelle
Basse
Violoncelle
Bourdon
Quinte
Octave
Flute
Contre Bombarde
Bombarde
Basson
Trompette
Basson
Clarion
VI
V
16
16
8
8
8
4
4
22/3
2
1
16
8
4
MANUAL II
IV
16
8
8
8
8
4
4
22/3
2
13/5
Quintade
Prinzipal
Gemshorn
Gedeckt
Oktav
Rohrflote
Nasat
Blockflote
Terz
Scharff
IV
Dulzian
Schalmei
Vox Humana
Tromet
Trommpete en Chamade
Tremulant
16
8
8
4
PEDAL
PEDAL
Double Open Bass
Contra Violone
Open Diapason
Violone
Bourdon
Principal
Violloncello
Bass Flute
Fifteenth
Mixture
Contra Trombone
Trombone
Fagott
Trumpet
Schalmei
Clarion
MANUAL I
16
8
8
8
8
8
4
4
22/3
2
MANUAL II
MANUAL II
Open Diapason
Lieblich Gedackt
Salicional
Voix Celeste
Octave
Suabe Flute
Nasard
Super Octave
Tierce
Mixture
Double Trumpet
Cornopean
Oboe
Clarion
Trumpet en Chamade
Tremulant
Violon-basse
Bourdon
Montre
Gambe
Flute Harmonique
Bourdon
Block Prestant
Flute Octaviante
Quinte
Doublette
Fourniture
Plein Jeu
Bombarde
Trompette
Clairon
Tremulant
ORGAN 3
16
8
8
8
4
4
22/3
2
13/5
16
8
8
4
8
PEDAL
32
16
16
16
8
8
8
51/3
4
4
32
16
16
8
8
4
Untersatz
Prinzipal
Violonbass
Subbass
Oktav
Bassflote
Superoktav
Rohrflote
Nachthorn
Mixtur
Posaunebass
Posaune
Dulzian
Trompete
Klarin
Cornet
VI
32
16
16
16
8
8
4
4
2
32
16
16
8
4
2
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St MICHAEL and ALL ANGELS Anglican Church,
Christchurch - New Zealand
1872 Crisp Timber Church and 1861 Mountfort Belfry
PEDAL
(N) Acoustic Bass
32'
(J) Open Wood
16'
(FH) Open Metal
16'(a)
(B) Bourdon
16'(c)
(J) Principal
8'(d)
(B/N) Bass Flute
8' (c)
(J/N) Octave
4'(d)
(B/N) Contra Trombone 32’(b)
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16'(b)
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8'(b)
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(FH) Lieblich Bourdon 16'
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8'
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8'
(B) Principal
4'
(FH) Hohl Flute
4'
(FH) Fifteenth
2'
(FH/N) Mixture
(17-19-22)
(B) Cornopean
8'
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8'
Tremulant
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Swell Sub Octave
Swell Unison Off
1873 Bevington, enlarged 1896 Fincham & Hobday Organ
GREAT
(FH/N) Double Open Diapason 16'(a)
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(FH) Open Diapason II
8'(a)
(B) Claribel
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4'
(B/FH) Harmonic Flute
4'
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2 2/3'
(B) Fifteenth
2'
(N) Mixture
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(B/N) Double Trumpet
16’(b)
(B) Trumpet
8'(b)
Swell to Great
Choir to Great
CHOIR (enclosed)
(N) Stopped Diapason
(FH) Horn Diapason
(FH) Dulciana
(N) Vox Angelica TC
(FH) Clarinet
(B) Trumpet
Tremulant
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Swell to Choir
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8'
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8’(b)
(B) Bevington 1873, (J) Jenkins 1886, (FH) Fincham & Hobday 1897, (N) New.
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and now to electro mechanical. We will keep its tonal resources intact with some regrouping to return the original Bevington ranks to their original divisions and add some new ones to further enrich the tonal palette.
The organ has not been dismantled since 1897 and although well maintained, up-thrust damage from recent earthquakes forced its removal in 2011 from the Church and brought to a head the developing need for a full restoration to
restore original parts such as the winding system, slider soundboards, windchests, transmission and casework requiring
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fully resourced piston capture system. The church is one of very few in the central city that has remained open for worship during the earthquakes of the last 20 months and is a national treasure. Completion is scheduled for August 2013.
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continued from page 26
viewpoint of organ writing.
Christoph Kushnarev (1890-1960) was professor
of composition and polyphony at the Leningrad
Conservatoire. He left two large organ pieces,
a Passacaglia (1923) and a Sonata (1925), as
well as chamber music and music for choir. His
Passacaglia, unlike the neoclassical Sonata, was
written in a late Romantic style, showing some
similarity to Reger and Rheinberger. It is in strict
traditional form, with its variations and gradual
development from sorrow and dreaminess to
solemnity.
Georgi Muschel (1909-89) was professor of
composition at the Tashkent Conservatoire. The
Toccata is the final movement from his orientalsounding Suite for Organ. It’s a virtuoso piece, like
a perpetuum mobile or a movement of a railway
locomotive.
Gennadij Below (born 1939) is currently professor
of composition at the St Petersburg Conservatoire.
His Choral consists of three parts, the second of
which is based on a quasi-Russian melody, and
the third of which is close to the style of Jehan
Alain. As for recent Moscow composers, one can
mention such names as the late Alfred Schnittke
(Two Short Organ Pieces), Sofia Gubaidulina (Light
and Shadow), the late Oleg Jantchenko (whose
most famous work, Meditation, appeared in 1976
as a kind of written-out organ improvisation),
and Valery Kikta (born 1941), who has written
six organ suites. For some years now, there has
been a special competition held by the Moscow
Conservatoire for the best organ piece of the year.
Altogether, then, the Russian organ scene is
quite active. To this day it’s quite usual to have
full concert halls with sold-out tickets for organ
concerts: up to 1,500 listeners in Moscow and St
Petersburg.
A Cathedral Organist’s Career:
June Nixon
By RJ Stove
T
here cannot
be too many
organists anywhere in
the world who have
continuously occupied
a church post in a
major city for even
two decades; but on
3 February 2013 Dr
June Nixon, organist
and choir director of
St Paul’s Anglican
Dr June Nixon
Cathedral in
Melbourne, will be stepping down after no fewer
than four decades. (Shades of Widor, appointed
to his ‘temporary’ job at Saint-Sulpice in 1870,
and still theoretically temping when he resigned
thence in 1934.)
farmers in the area. My grandmother, aunt and
then my sister played the organ (harmonium
and later a tiny electronic) in a small country
church, over a period of nearly 100 years.
RJS: I believe you studied both piano and
organ at Melbourne University?
JN: Yes, after attending Teachers’ College for
two years I was very fortunate in having two
wonderful piano teachers, both of whom
had been organists: Eric Harrison, and Mack
Jost. I studied the organ at All Saints’ Church,
East St Kilda, with Bernard Clark; and it was at
All Saints’ where I first heard a boys’ choir. I’d
never heard that boys’ sound before, and was
absolutely captivated.
RJS: Do they still have a boys’ choir there?
It thus seemed an opportune moment to
interview Dr Nixon about her background, her
musical experiences, and her plans. We arranged
to meet during October at the distinctive 1890s
home which she and her husband maintain in
the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Middle
Park, no more than a 20-minute tram trip from the
city centre – and with a railway line on the other
side of the main street – but, even on a Friday
afternoon, astonishingly sylvan and peaceful.
+++
RJS: Was there a family history of organ
enthusiasm, or indeed of particular religious
enthusiasm?
JN: My grandmother, whom I didn’t know,
used to ride around the countryside sidesaddle, teaching piano to the daughters of the
JN: I believe so, though I haven’t been there for
a while, obviously.
RJS: And I gather you got a scholarship to
study in London after Melbourne.
JN: Yes, later. Because of the studentship
which paid for my degree, I was bonded to
the Education Department, to teach for three
years. I did the peripatetic thing. I’d go around
10 different schools, and do half a day in each.
These were primary school classes, which
I didn’t much like. At the same time, I was
having organ lessons, and I would get up very
early – I had a key to All Saints’ – and I would
do an hour or two of practice before and after
school. I was also given the opportunity to
accompany services there and take some of
the boys’ rehearsals. At the same time I was
singing in, and gaining experience playing
for the choir of, the Canterbury Fellowship. I
learned a great deal from Peter Chapman, a
wonderful choir-trainer.
The experience of school teaching during
those years actually made me realise just what
I really wanted to do, which was to travel to
London and obtain a Fellowship of the Royal
College of Organists. That was my grand
ambition, and even marriage didn’t deter me!
In 1967 I completed ARCO paperwork in
Melbourne, then flew to London where I had
six lessons with Douglas Hawkridge at St
James, Sussex Gardens. I then sat for ARCO
playing. A couple of days later, the college
called to say that I had passed, and that I
could do FRCO playing in three days’ time!
So it was very, very difficult. I had to prepare
not only the two programmes, but all of the
tests for each. With ARCO, the score reading
was in F and G clefs, but with FRCO you had
the alto and tenor clefs as well. I didn’t make
any attempt at all to do FRCO paperwork
then. When I returned home, I did that by
correspondence. I’d work away and work
away, and when I came up against a problem,
I’d write away an air-mail letter with a question,
but of course the answer didn’t come back
for a fortnight. By then I’d forgotten what the
question was! Anyway, I managed to pass.
RJS: In 1968 there was an organ competition, a
national one. You won it, didn’t you?
JN: Yes. But where I was really lucky here was
the fact that one of the adjudicators was Sir
William McKie. That was marvellous, because
he gave me some wonderful introductions
to eminent organists and organ lofts, as I had
hoped to return to England for some more
study.
Not long after, I read in The Age one day about
the first AEH Nickson Scholarship, together
with another called the Lizette Bentwich
Scholarship. I’m not sure who Lizette Bentwich
was, but I thought, I might as well apply. And
Sir William McKie
they gave me both! It wasn’t enough money to
support us, I must say, and we lived in poverty
for a year in London. But because of Sir
William’s introductions, I sat up at the Temple
Church with [Sir George] Thalben-Ball, almost
every Sunday of the year.
RJS: Really? As his assistant?
JN: Page-turner and so on. But I learned an
enormous amount from him. I also sat with
Christopher Dearnley, when he was at St Paul’s,
Douglas Guest at the Abbey, and of course, at
King’s, when Sir David Willcocks was there.
RJS: You knew him?
JN: Yes, he was very kind. For a while, we were
actually living in Norwich, while Neville [June
Nixon’s husband] had a job there. I would take
the train across to Cambridge, and I was able
to sit in on King’s College choir practices, then
in the loft for evensong, which was a great
privilege. Then I’d walk around for evensong
at St John’s, before taking the train back to
Norwich. I also took the opportunity during
that year for some brief study with MarieClaire Alain, and Lionel Rogg, I sat for the
Associateship of the Royal College of Music,
did conducting study with Charles Proctor and
Bernard Keefe at Trinity College, and gained
the CHM (choirmaster’s award) from the Royal
College of Organists. They gave me a prize for
this exam, and we were so poor we ate the
prize in the form a steak each for Christmas
dinner!
I really should mention Dr Stanley Vann too,
who had the finest choir I’d ever heard at
Peterborough Cathedral in the 1970s. He
was very kind to me, and we became great
friends. His choir so impressed me for its
sheer musicianship, and that unique balance
of technique and emotion one always strives
for. What’s more, he was able to achieve
this with amateur singers as well as with
professionals. Hearing this choir for the first
time was my ‘Damascene moment’!
RJS: It was, I believe, in 1973 that you obtained
the organ and choir directorship in Melbourne,
at St Paul’s.
JN: I began after Easter in 1973, but I was
actually offered the position on Boxing Day
1972.
RJS: I was going to ask how it occurred:
whether there was a competition among
entrants, or whether you were sounded out.
JN: No, they didn’t have a competition. It was
just on the strength of references, interviews
and experience I guess, and I was lucky to have
some nice references from what I’d done in
England.
RJS: You also, I gather, joined the teaching
faculty of music at Melbourne University. How
did that teaching position come your way?
Was it advertised?
JN: I can’t really remember. I must have been
talking to somebody, and said, ‘I’ve come back,
would there be a place for me?’ The Ormond
Professor of Music at the time was George
Loughlin, who was also an organist. He was
very encouraging.
RJS: I see that in 1995 you received the Percy
Jones Award from the Catholic Archdiocese of
Melbourne. How much, if at all, was Dr Jones
[Rev Dr Percy Jones, Music Director of St Patrick’s
Cathedral, Melbourne, 1942-73] a conscious
influence on your own musical activity?
JN: Only a little. He taught music history to
first-year students at Melbourne University. I
heard his choir a few times also. He was very
encouraging and kind to me.
RJS: What changes in church music have you
noticed – in church attendance, in general
official attitudes – in the decades since you
joined St Paul’s?
JN: All sorts of subtle changes, I suppose. It’s
mixed. In actual fact, congregations at the
cathedral seem to be increasing, especially for
services when the choir is involved. Numbers
at weekday evensong are, I’m told, greater
than any time in the cathedral’s history. As for
the carol services, the cathedral was becoming
so jam-packed that you could barely move,
and they are now turning people away for
security reasons. I’m enjoying the choir more
than ever these days, which makes it difficult,
in a way, to leave when things are going well.
But people always say it’s best to go when
things are going well. I have a wonderful lot
of boys and men. They are just wonderful and
very committed people. At the moment there
are about 20 boys. It varies between 19 and 24,
with 23 men.
But there certainly have been changes. I think
it was 1975 that the Australian Prayer Book
appeared. Twenty years ago, of course, came
women’s ordination.
RJS: And then – in 1999, was it? – your award
of the DMus Cantuar! What’s the procedure by
which one is awarded this particular honour?
JN: I don’t know! One day this letter arrived in
the mail, and I said to Neville, ‘Oh by the way,
I’ve had this letter.’ He said, Who from?’. And I
said, ‘It’s from George.’ He said, ‘George, who do
you mean, George? George Guest [of St John’s
College, Cambridge]?’ ‘No, not George Guest,
George Carey.’ ‘George Carey?’ I said, ‘You can
have a look if you like; it’s in the other room.’
Then I heard this scream from the other end of
the house!
Dr Nixon with Dr George (now Baron) Carey, Archbishop of
Canterbury from 1991 to 2002
RJS: And it was he?
JN: Yes. It’s addressed: ‘Dear June (if I may).’ At
the end: ‘Yours ever, George.’
+++
A papal edict of 1533 empowered the Archbishop
of Canterbury to award degrees on his own
initiative; and this power continued to exist even
after Henry VIII’s break with Rome. Dr Nixon
showed me the extraordinarily thick, huge
double-parchment certificate (‘apparently the
parchment lasts for several hundred years’),
complete with the Queen’s Seal, which she had
been awarded at Lambeth Palace. The service
of bestowing the doctorate was wholly in Latin.
Dr Nixon is the first woman ever to receive this
particular doctorate.
+++
RJS: Over the years, which organists have
influenced your playing most, and which
composers have influenced your writing most?
JN: Well, I suppose Thalben-Ball with organ
accompaniment, but it’s difficult to say who
influenced me any more than others. As far as
composition goes, well, that just happened.
I didn’t study composition at university. And
I’m very grateful now that I didn’t, because it
would have been so time-consuming that I
wouldn’t have been able to do what I wanted
to do then anyway.
St Paul’s, Melbourne
RJS: How did the composing start, if you
hadn’t studied it at university?
JN: It came about with the Australian Prayer
Book in 1975. I was told by the Dean at the
cathedral that they were introducing this new
prayer book, and they needed music for it.
‘Here are the words I want you to set.’ It was
all typed out. ‘I want you to do this.’ So I went
home and had a bit of a go at it, and taught it
to the choir. The morning after we sang it, the
Dean said: ‘That’s wonderful!’ (I’m sure that was
because it is very short, as he always wanted
the music to be kept short!) I then thought,
‘Well we can’t keep doing this over and over
again.’ So I came back with another one, and
eventually another one. Fortunately, we were
later given permission to use conventional
repertoire as well for Australian Prayer Book
services. From time to time a certain set of
words was asked for, and there either wasn’t
any music, or wasn’t anything that was
quite suitable for our choir, so I would write
something. It’s amazing what encouragement
can do for a musician – we don’t just need it,
we thrive on it!
What I have striven for at St Paul’s is a beauty
of choral sound, to match the beauty of the
organ, and the building. I wanted to create a
sound that was unique to St Paul’s Cathedral,
Melbourne, and I wanted people who came to
the cathedral to hear a sound and repertoire
that was distinctively ours, for an Australian
cathedral, and never a copy of any other
cathedral in any other country or for any other
culture.
Earlier I mentioned Stanley Vann, and his
choir at Peterborough. He was also a very fine
composer (and he wrote as many settings of
the canticles as did Herbert Howells!). Stanley
had been bitten by the chant bug – once he
started writing chants he couldn’t stop, and I
think I caught that bug from him, hence my
ambition to have our own psalter at St Paul’s. I have been so lucky to have inherited our fine
musical tradition of a choir of men and boys,
singing weekday evensong in addition to
the Sunday services, with its unique musical
education. I have always been acutely aware of
how much this is valued, and indeed envied,
in so many parts of the world, and that it has
been a life-changing experience for so many.
RJS: What are your immediate plans after next
February, musical and otherwise?
JN: Well, I think I’ll probably have to take stock
for a bit. Forty years is a long time. I hope to go
to Exeter Cathedral, for a cathedral organists’
conference, and there are a few other projects
on the go. It’ll be nice not to have the routine
of six or seven services per week, with eight
choir practices and all of the organisation.
You get used to it, because they’re such nice
people in the choir. But I will have a lot more
flexibility for other things.
RJS: Thanks very much, Dr Nixon.
An engraving of two organists, originally from the
14th century, and now in the British Museum.
Looking Back ...
25 and 10 Years Ago
Looking Back ... 25 Years Ago
Looking Back: 10 Years Ago
[In the December 1987 issue of this magazine’s
direct ancestor, Victorian Organ Journal, there
was a tribute to organist and choirmaster Leonard
Fullard, whose 80th birthday had just occurred,
and who since the 1930s had done much to
promote music at half a dozen churches in various
Melbourne suburbs.]
[Organo Pleno’s December 2002 number – the
name Organ Australia was not adopted till 2005
– included an account of the two-manual organ
acquired by an Anglican parish (Holy Trinity) in
East Melbourne.]
L
eonard Fullard, MBE, MusBac, began his
long and distinguished musical career as
organist at St Catharine’s Church, Caulfield.
Then, in turn, he served at St Mark’s, Fitzroy; St
George’s, Malvern; All Souls, Sandringham; St
Luke’s, North Brighton; St Paul’s, Canterbury;
then in 1944 to St John’s, East Malvern; and
five years later he went to Christ Church, South
Yarra. Here he has remained for 38 years, during
which time his dedication to the music of Bach
has become a household word.
Each year of his busy life at Christ Church has
been richly embellished by his famous annual
Bach Festival including, over the years, the
complete works for organ and harpsichord,
various orchestral works and the lesser-known
suites for solo violin and cello.
Soon after commencing at Christ Church, Mr
Fullard formed the Oriana Madrigal Choir. The
inspiration came to him during a visit by the
Boyd Neel String Orchestra, a small group of
specialist players. …
As a timely recognition of his outstanding
contribution to music, Mr Fullard was awarded
the MBE (Member of the Order of the British
Empire) by the Queen in 1974. In the following
year he realised a long-held desire to make
a pilgrimage to St Thomas’s Church, Leipzig,
where he played the organ. …
A
lthough installed in 1913, the provenance
of this instrument was unknown until
recently when information in the form of
advertisements in The Age of 19 and 30 October
1912 shed some light on its origin.
The advertisements were for the sale of a pipe
organ in a house in Fordham Road, Hawthorn.
The property, ‘Yarradale,’ belonged to Henry
M Boom who imported, in 1872, assorted
pipework of ‘fine spotted metal’ at a cost of
£50 from JW Walker of London. This included
part of an Open Diapason (37 pipes), Principal,
Dulciana, and two Fifteenth top octaves.
Furthermore the wooden flutes resemble those
of JC Bishop who provided several instruments
in Tasmania. …
John Maidment has suggested that it is possible
that Boom built the organ with assistance from
a professional organ builder, such as Alfred
Fuller, or maybe Fred Taylor who was not far
away in Burwood Road, Hawthorn. The minutes
of a vestry meeting (14 August 1913) note that
the existing organ was purchased from a Mr
Anderson for the sum of £250 ‘who was asked
to remove the organ at his earliest convenience.’
…
[From Laurie Moore, ‘The Organ of Holy Trinity
Anglican Church, East Melbourne,’ Organo Pleno,
December 2002, page 18]
[From Kingsley Sutton, ‘The Vision Splendid,’
Victorian Organ Journal, December 1987, pp 3-4]
Concert, Book, and CD Reviews
Concert Reviews
SCOTS’ CHURCH, MELBOURNE
INTERNATIONAL ORGAN
SERIES 2012
Reviewed by Glen Witham
Promenade Concert
(2 September)
T
he Scots’ Church Brass Ensemble, led by
David Farrands, opened the concert with a
lively performance of the Fanfare from La Péri by
Dukas, a work written in the early 20th century.
This was followed by the first of three audience
hymns: A Safe Stronghold Our God is Still, to the
accompaniment of the organ, played by Myfanwy
McIndoe, and the Brass Ensemble. It is often
referred to as the ‘Reformation Hymn’ and for
this occasion was arranged by Vaughan McAlley,
principal tenor in the Scots’ Church Choir.
Under the direction of Douglas Lawrence OAM,
this choir sang Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by
England’s Herbert Murrill (who died young in
1952) with great clarity and beauty, displaying
very well the contrast in rhythm between the
Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis. Then followed
a set of Variations on the Old 124th (a psalm tune)
composed by Vaughan McAlley, and played on
the Gallery organ by Christopher Trikilis, with
Myfanwy McIndoe on the Transept organ, and
Elizabeth Anderson on piano (originally the
piano part was intended for harpsichord). There
were four contrasting variations, followed by a
brief stunning coda. A most interesting modern
composition.
The choir returned to sing Vocalise, Opus 34 No
14, by Rachmaninoff. This could be described
as a song without words. Immediately the
choir captured the Russian flavour of this work.
Listeners were left in no doubt about the origins
of this work, in which we heard the beautiful
soaring sounds from the Scots’ Church principal
soprano, Deborah Kayser. Sheer delight.
After the Rachmaninoff, the Brass Ensemble came
back to play Canzona a 5 by Giovanni Gabrieli.
Written in the 16th century, this work contrasted
well with the first item on the programme which
was from the 20th century. The playing was very
articulate and reflected the era from which it had
come. Most enjoyable.
God Moves in a Mysterious Way was the second
hymn for audience participation. The words will
be found in most hymnals, and the tune, ‘London
New’, is very familiar to Presbyterians in particular.
It first appeared in the Scottish Psalter in 1635,
albeit under a different name. One sensed that
this hymn was less well known to the audience
than the other two hymns on the programme.
Myfanwy McIndoe continued her role at the
organ, but this time as soloist rather than
accompanist. She played the well-known Litanies
by Jehan Alain with great confidence, using very
appropriate registrations on the organ. At present
the organ scholar at Scots, she demonstrated
here her ability and the fact that she is one of the
upcoming organists of the future. Well done!
Then the Scots’ Church Choir presented two
traditional spirituals, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me
and My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord. These
pieces were beautifully and sensitively sung and
fully captured the style of the singing of spirituals.
On this occasion we heard the soprano, Felicity
Bolitho, enhance the works with delightful
singing. Thank you.
The Great Panathenaea by Roy Gubby (an
Englishman who lived from 1911 to 1987) was the
next item offered by the Brass Quintet. Published
in 1973, this work managed to convey the feel of
a procession up the path to the Parthenon, and
the playing brought it alive. It was quite a striking
piece of brass playing.
energetic toccata entitled ‘The people respond
– Amen’ followed, and brought this work to a
magnificent end.
We were then transported into the realm of
English cathedral music as the choir sang Sir
Edward Cuthbert Bairstow’s Sing Ye to the Lord,
dating from 1911. The choral work was superb and
the organ accompaniment sounded very English
indeed, which, of course, complemented the
singing of the choir beautifully.
A contribution by Sweelinck, Variations on ‘Estce Mars’, was in marked contrast to the opening
Fagiani piece, both in style and in registration.
This was a lovely piece of music, played with great
precision and clarity. Following this we heard
Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546.
The use of 16’ manual tone detracted from the
clarity of the Prelude. In the Fugue, we heard a
lighter, clearer sound in which the parts could be
clearly followed, but the return of the 16’ stop on
the Great Organ meant that the clarity suffered
somewhat. Nevertheless, the playing was very
articulate with a steady rhythm throughout.
Jerusalem, by Parry, sung by the choir and
audience, brought the Promenade concert to
a conclusion. The organ and brass had a rather
untidy entry to the introduction, but this was
quickly resolved and led the audience into some
lusty singing, after which they gave themselves
some well-deserved applause. That was also a way
of saying a big ‘thank you’ to all those who had
taken part in this grand ‘Prom’ concert.
Organ recital by John Scott
(4 September)
F
ormerly organist at St Paul’s Cathedral,
London, and currently organist at St
Thomas’s (Episcopal) Church in New York
City, John Scott provided his listeners with an
interesting programme, including two works by
contemporary composers which were unknown
to the reviewer and probably to most, if not
all, members of the audience. The first of these
was Veni Creator Spiritus, Opus 93b, written in
2009. Whilst the Latin hymn tune is well known,
the composition based on it by Italy’s Eugenio
M Fagiani (born in 1972) is not. It commenced
with an arresting and dramatic opening, which
demonstrated the skill and dexterity of the player.
There were six variations on the theme in which
the full resources of the Rieger organ were skilfully
demonstrated. The other contemporary work was
Two Movements from ‘Rubrics’, by Don Locklair, an
American composer born in 1949. We heard the
fourth and fifth movements. The first, ‘The Peace
may be exchanged’, was, as the title suggests,
quiet, and was very sensitive, showing just what
sonorities can be achieved on an organ. The
This programme’s final work was Vierne’s
Symphony No 4 in G Minor, Opus 32. The first few
chords evoked the sensation of being in a large
church or cathedral in France, due no doubt to the
nature of Vierne’s writing and to Scott’s judicious
use of registration. Wonderful! The Allegro
movement opened aggressively but became
subdued in the middle section. In the following
Minuet, we heard beautifully played quiet reeds
and flutes, before the work moved on to the
Romance, which benefited from mutation stops
and other subtle effects very suited to this music.
The final movement was very energetic and very
much in the French style, bringing this recital to
a conclusion. It aroused great enthusiasm from
the audience members, who called for an encore,
which the recitalist gave.
Lecture-recital by Daniel Zaretsky
(8 September)
D
r Zaretsky, organist at the St Petersburg
Grand Philharmonic Hall and Professor
of Organ at the State University and the State
Conservatoire in that city, presented a very well
prepared lecture and demonstration to a small
but appreciative audience. He traced the history
of Russian music composition in general, and
Russian organ music in particular. Also, he spoke
about building, rebuilding, and restoration of
organs in his country, and the circumstances
which affected this history. The most significant
events included World War I, the Russian
Revolution, World War II, and the Organ Reform
Movement. Professor Zaretsky drew attention to
the fact that musical instruments are not used in
the Russian Orthodox Church, but that organs will
be found in many Lutheran and Roman Catholic
churches in Russia. Most of his listeners were
surprised to learn that there were so many organs
in that country. Following the lecture, we heard
selections of Russian organ music from all periods,
all of which were well selected and presented in
an informative and interesting manner.
Organ recital by Daniel Zaretsky
(9 September)
T
he recital (as opposed to lecture-recital)
programme by Dr Zaretsky opened with Bach:
the Prelude and Fugue in E Flat, BWV 552 (‘St Anne’).
But between the Prelude and the Fugue we heard
a different Bach composition: Kyrie, Gott Vater in
Ewigkeit, BWV 669. From the outset, the playing
was very firm and clear. Dr Zaretsky performed
the Fugue at an appropriate tempo, with the inner
parts being rendered quite clearly, demonstrating
excellent articulation. An interesting aspect of
his treatment of the fugue was the use of the
gallery organ for the antiphonal sections. In the
Kyrie, we heard flutes, both as solo voices and as
accompaniments, played in a beautiful flowing
style.
A selection of three works from Eugène Gigout’s
Ten Pieces – Minuet, Scherzo, and Toccata in B
Minor – was the next item on the programme.
The Minuet was delightful, with judicious use
in this performance of various soft stops on the
organ, including the gallery organ. This led into
the bright and flowing Scherzo, played with
great clarity and rhythm. The Toccata (the most
famous thing that Gigout ever wrote) was quite
restrained at first, but built up to an exciting
conclusion. Certain sections of the Toccata did not
use the pedal organ, so that when the pedal entry
occurred, the effect was quite dramatic.
More French Romantic music came next. It was by
Widor: the Adagio and Toccata, from Symphony
No 5 in F, Op 42 No 1. The Adagio was played
with great feeling and sensitivity, careful choice
of softer stops being quite evident. Then the
celebrated Toccata burst forth, at a tempo where
the demisemiquavers could be heard properly.
It was an exciting rendition, played with great
precision, of a work well suited to the Rieger organ
in Scots.
Then came a challenging piece by Prokofiev
(not originally written for organ), Suggestion
Diabolique, Opus 4 No 4. We were introduced
to some very unusual sounds, melodies, and
progressions, played with excellent clarity and
articulation. It was quite a short piece, the title of
which probably says it all.
The programme concluded with Georgi
Mushel’s Toccata, a 20th-century composition
from Uzbekistan. It was played with vigour and
precision, demonstrating this player’s great skill
and competence.
Organ recital by Axel Flierl
(11 September)
A
xel Flierl is Organist and Choir Director at the
Basilica of St Peter and Paul in Dillingen an
der Donau (Bavaria). His programme opened with
a popular favourite: the Bach Prelude and ‘Wedge’
Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548. It was played with a
good sense of rhythm, and made extensive use
of the gallery organ coupled to the main organ.
The fugue moved at a brisk pace, with the pedal
line tending to dominate at times. Overall it was a
good performance.
It was followed by a work by Pierre Cochereau
(who died in 1984, having been organist at
Notre Dame de Paris): Berceuse à la mémoire de
Louis Vierne. The gallery organ was once more
used to good effect, with some rather haunting
melodies. In the middle section of the work we
heard a number of different solo voices, again
incorporating the gallery organ in a pleasing
manner. This was an enjoyable miniature, which
fitted into the programme very nicely between
the Bach and the succeeding Reger.
Actually, the Reger contribution consisted
of two pieces: Te Deum, Opus 59 No 12, and
Melodia, Opus 59, No 11. Playing the Te Deum first
provided a good contrast in volume and style
between the music which preceded it and that
which followed it. The Te Deum opened with the
commanding sound of the Gallery Trumpet stop,
and was followed by an arresting section from
the main organ which continued the excitement,
culminating with the entry of the pedal organ,
bringing the work to a wonderful conclusion. Then
we had the serene Melodia, which showed a very
good choice of quiet stops, building up slightly
in the middle section, and then dying away to a
very soft finish. The playing showed great care and
sensitivity of interpretation.
Charles Tournemire was the next composer to
be heard. We were given the Communion from
Suite 25 of his huge cycle L’Orgue Mystique.
This Communion, a quiet piece, seemed to
flow on nicely from the Reger. The opening
bars were dominated by a very long sustained
note before moving into a section which well
exhibited the mystical quality perceptible in so
much of Tournemire’s output. No loud passages
interrupted the quietness and mystery of this
beautiful music, again played skilfully with the
utmost sensitivity.
The final item on the programme was the Suite,
Opus 5, by another and later Frenchman: Maurice
Duruflé. It had three movements: Prelude,
Sicilienne, and Toccata. The Prelude commenced
relatively quietly, but soon built up in volume
and tempo, leading into a chordal section which
in turn was followed by a big increase in sound
before quietening down and progressing into
a lovely solo passage and a subdued ending.
The Sicilenne contained some lovely solo
passages and quiet flowing music. Then the
renowned Toccata was heard to great effect,
with magnificent manual playing, exciting pedal
entries, and crashing chords leading to a sustained
climax to conclude the work.
An encore was then played in response to the
wonderful audience applause. The work chosen
was Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, arranged for
solo organ by Duruflé: a fitting and lovely end to
an outstanding concert.
Organ recital by Calvin Bowman
(18 September)
W
e were treated to an all-Bach programme in
this concert, the first work being the Dorian
Toccata and Fugue, BWV 538. The toccata was
played at a very brisk tempo with good balance
between manuals and pedal. In the passages
played on the Positive manual (to achieve
dynamic contrast), the pedal intruded somewhat,
and did not balance well with the lighter sound of
the Positive. The fugue subject is rather long, and
was introduced at a stately tempo. Here the pedal
line was strong and clear with a steady rhythm
being maintained throughout.
Then came the Trio Sonata No 5 in C, BWV 529. The
first movement (Allegro) was bright, with good
balance in the parts. The Largo movement could
have been taken a little slower perhaps. The use
of rubato playing in appropriate places added to
the attractiveness of this movement. Again, there
was good balance between the three parts. The
finale (another Allegro) was taken at a very brisk
but appropriate tempo, similar to that of the first
movement, with good balance and clarity. While
the time taken between movements was a little
too long, and weakened a sense of continuity of
the work, overall this was an enjoyable and fluent
performance.
The Trio Sonata was followed by the Pastorale in
F, BWV 590, which contains four brief movements.
In the first, the choice of mutations and soft
reeds was interesting and effective, providing a
different character to the music to that to which
we are accustomed. The Rieger organ at Scots
has (as readers will already have gathered) some
lovely flutes, and they were used to great effect
in the next two movements, first at 4’ pitch,
and then at 8’ pitch, providing an appropriate
contrast between the two movements. In choice
of stops and in speed, the final movement was
unexpectedly bright. Perhaps the work did not
quite catch the sensitive feeling of a pastoral
because of the tempi and the style of the final
section, but it was enjoyable listening indeed.
A more celebrated piece, the Passacaglia in C
Minor, BWV 582, brought the programme to a
fitting conclusion. The work commenced with
the eight-bar theme on the pedals with a very
strong and clear tone, which contrasted with the
quiet entry which is so often heard. As the work
progressed, a good balance between manuals
and pedals was evident, with the theme on the
pedals being maintained consistently throughout
but not overpowering the manuals. In all, 21
variations were heard, leading up to the dramatic
interrupted cadence and pause near the end,
following which the Passacaglia drew to an
exciting conclusion.
Any all-Bach programme can be a challenge to
both player and listener. On this occasion the
hearers showed by their applause how much they
appreciated this programme and Dr Bowman’s
excellent playing.
Organ recital by Dong-Ill Shin
(25 September)
T
his programme, which was played entirely
from memory, started with Bach’s Fugue in G
Minor, BWV 578. The registration chosen by the
player was lucid, with the parts being heard quite
clearly. The entry of the pedal reed was quite firm,
and balanced the manuals fairly well, whereas in
some previous performances by others the pedal
overwhelmed the manuals. The pedal line towards
the end was a little more subdued than usual, with
good effect.
A further Bach piece, the Trio in D Minor BWV
583, was the second item. The voices were well
balanced with excellent clarity in each part. One
was aware of confident and controlled playing.
The next three works were all from the French
Romantic era. Of these, the first was by Vierne:
the Adagio and Final from his Symphony No 3
in F Sharp Minor, Opus 28. The Adagio – which
has been described as a song without words –
was played with much feeling and sensitivity,
capturing the essence of this movement so very
well. With the Final, in sonata form, we were
accorded dramatic playing: first of all in the
toccata-like opening, through the more restrained
middle section, to the brilliant conclusion in which
the pedal reed was heard with great effect. The
dynamics were quite clear and arresting, showing
the player’s complete mastery of the instrument.
Then we heard the Andante Sostenuto from
Widor’s Symphonie Gothique, Opus 70. A peaceful
and prayerful mood introduced this lovely work,
the soft opening passage being followed by a
louder but still sensitive and appropriate middle
section, itself falling away to a beautifully played
quiet ending.
The third work from this era was the sole piece
by Henri Mulet which is included with some
frequency in recitals: Tu es Petra. Here the playing
and the dynamics were brilliant, with well-chosen
registrations throughout. The fast passages were
very clear and precise, and although some may
feel that the basic tempo was a little too quick,
that was not my impression. Again, this was a
masterly performance.
By contrast, the last work on the programme
was very English in character and very well
known: Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No
1. This was played with enthusiasm and good
registration, although I thought that the section
which we associate with the words ‘Land of Hope
and Glory’ was a little too fast. After all, it is a
march, and this was not very evident from the
chosen tempo. Nevertheless, it was enjoyed by the
audience.
As an encore, we heard that beautiful piece
by Saint-Saëns: ‘The Swan’, from Carnival of the
Animals. In this arrangement, the quiet flutes
were used with much feeling. And so concluded
another outstanding recital.
The Future: Student Organists
(29 September)
James McClure
The concert began with the Prelude and Fugue in
B Flat which turns up in the standard catalogue
of Bach’s music – bearing the number BWV 560
– but which might not actually have been by
him at all (and is often attributed to one of Bach’s
pupils). Whoever did write it, we heard it played
at a well-controlled tempo with a bright and clear
registration. The pedal was well balanced against
the manual parts. This same registration was used
in the fugue. In some indubitably authentic Bach,
namely the Herzlich thut mich verlangen choraleprelude (BWV 727), this performance showed
good choices of registration. The chorale would
have flowed more with just a slightly faster tempo.
Nevertheless, the playing was most enjoyable.
Myfanwy McIndoe
Another Bach work followed: the Toccata in F,
BWV 540. The tempo chosen for this piece may
have been a little too fast, as there were some
occasional inaccuracies. Overall, it was a pleasant
performance.
Samuel Whitehead
This organist played two pieces: first, some Bach
(Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659), and
then some Gigout (Grand Choeur Dialogué). In
the Bach work, the registration chosen was most
appropriate with a good flowing tempo. A most
pleasing performance. In the Gigout work, I
thought the use of the Gallery Reed was rather too
heavy. There are other reeds on this organ, the use
of which would have been more appropriate. The
playing displayed confidence.
Rhys Arvidson
From this performer we had the first two
movements from Guilmant’s Sonata No 1 in D
Minor, Opus 42. The opening section (Introduction
and Allegro) was most striking, with a full organ.
It would have been more effective if it had not
followed the previous robust Gigout work, but
of course the choice of the previous programme
would have been unknown to this player.
However, the movement flowed nicely with good
dynamics. The second movement (Pastorale) was
gentle with good registration. A surprising and
most effective feature was the deployment of the
Vox Humana stop with the 32’ pedal. This was a
very enjoyable performance.
Myfanwy McIndoe
Christopher Trikilis
This player chose a work by Vierne: Trois
Improvisations, of which the three movements
were Marche Episcopale, Méditaton, and Cortège.
Vierne never actually wrote these down:
he recorded them, and years later Duruflé
painstakingly notated them from the recordings.
We heard a very grand opening section with good
registration, followed by a gentler passage, then
returning to the fullness of the opening section.
The flowing Méditation was very clear and came to
a very quiet conclusion. With the Cortège we again
heard the grandeur of the Marche, there being
once more a softer middle section and a brilliant
conclusion. The playing was very confident,
making full use of the organ’s rich tonal resources.
Myfanwy McIndoe returned to play the Guilmant
Sonata’s third and last movement, called,
appropriately, Final. We heard bright, clear playing
at a well-controlled and appropriate tempo. The
dynamics were excellent, showing good control
of the organ, especially in the hymn-like section
and at the return of the original theme. This was
a fitting conclusion to a wonderful afternoon of
organ music.
General Comment
Young organists should take care not to overuse the full organ’s capacity, and especially the
Gallery Reed on this particular instrument. Full
organ tone can be very exciting, but it can also be
tiring if used too frequently and inappropriately.
Still, all the organists who played in this concert
are to be congratulated on their performances
and encouraged to further their careers on the
organ. The Director of Music at the Scots’ Church,
Douglas Lawrence, is also to be congratulated, for
having had the foresight to include this concert
in the series and for encouraging these young
organists.
Organ and …
MELBOURNE TOWN HALL, 26 SEPTEMBER
David Macfarlane (organ), Josephine Vains (cello)
Reviewed by Bruce Steele
A
t first sight an unlikely combination – Grand
Organ and Cello. This was a fascinating
programme, obviously enjoyed by a lunchtime
audience of over 500. To match the full tone of the
cello, David Macfarlane conjured some glorious
sounds from the wealth of softer stops on this
organ. Not that there is any very great music
written for this combination, but what we heard
was out of the ordinary and the audience listened
with rapt attention.
The concert began in muted mood with the Prière,
Opus 158, by Saint-Saëns, followed immediately
by Joseph Jongen’s lively Humoresque, Opus
92. The third item, commissioned by the City of
Melbourne, was Relentless by Tim McHenry. Its
title was perhaps misleading, as the drive of the
opening and closing sections was contrasted with
a lovely episode including pizzicato from the cello.
The composer received a warm ovation from the
audience. I for one would like to hear the piece
again and really get to know it.
A highlight of the program was David’s
arrangement of the Adagio from Vierne’s
Symphony No 3, with the cello taking the solo
line. It was a great idea and resulted in a moving
performance.
Each performer then gave a solo piece. As the
organ had been generally muted to this point,
it was time to hear the big sound people expect
from this organ – ‘blowing the spiders out of
the pipes’, as David said. He played the Finale
from Widor’s Symphony No 6 in grand style. This
was followed by Josephine Vains playing the
Ricercar No 7 by a 17th-century Italian composer,
Domenico Gabrielli. While in softer moments the
cello was a bit lost in the vastness of the hall, the
piece was beautifully judged.
The program ended with the third movement,
Allegro non troppo, from Dupré’s Sonata for Cello
and Organ, Opus 60. I would like to have heard the
whole sonata, but this brought the concert to a
fine ending.
The Melbourne Town Hall’s Organ and … series,
reminiscent of the Organ Plus series presented
in the 1980s, is to be commended. In contrast to
the virtuoso grand recitals of the Organic Lunch
series, it shows many subtler aspects of the
revitalised Town Hall organ and different ways it
can be used. On 11 October, for instance, there
was a programme of computer compositions with
students from the Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology (RMIT). We should be grateful to the
City Council and Ariel Valent for promoting such a
variety of concerts with this great instrument.
Organ Music from
Luther’s Homeland
TRINITY GERMAN CHURCH, EAST MELBOURNE,
28 AUGUST
Reviewed by Hans Schroeder
S
ometimes the roads to Melbourne are
bizarre. In the case of distinguished
Kirchenmusikdirektor Matthias Böhlert, from
Salzwedel (Germany), the road led via the Russian
city of Vladivostok, where Böhlert performed
several organ recitals at St Paul’s Lutheran Church
in 2010 and 2011, on an organ donated by the
German Lutheran Churches in Melbourne and
Sydney in 2005. As part of the series Bach@
Trinity2012: International Bach Festival, Matthias
Böhlert now was invited to perform ‘Music from
Luther’s Homeland’: at an evening recital at the
German Church, East Melbourne and – a slightly
different programme – at St Michael’s, Collins
Street, Melbourne. As well as pieces by such
well-known composers as Handel, Bach, and
Mendelssohn, he brought some rarely heard
music from Northern Germany:
According to contemporaries Nikolaus Bruhns
(1665-97) was a virtuoso at Husum Cathedral
(Husum is approximately 140 kilometres northwest of Hamburg), capable of performing his own
cantata by playing continuo on the organ pedal
and the violin while singing, all at the same time.
The Prelude in E Minor (‘The Great’) we heard was
composed in typical Northern German style on a
par with Buxtehude’s organ works.
Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) was born in Halle
(near Leipzig), and in his early years worked as
organist at St Moritz’ church in that city. After
studying in Amsterdam he returned to Halle, and,
amongst other things, became well-known with
his Tabulatura Nova and the Görlitz Tablature Book.
The Modus ludendi in pleno organo pedaliter a 6
voci included in this concert contains doublepedal, and in its broad-flowing tempo exudes a
strong effect.
Gottfried August Ritter (1811-85) was a pupil
of a Bach descendant in Berlin, August Wilhelm
Bach, and is known as one of the high-profile
organists of the 19th century, instrumental in
reviving the art of improvisation and publishing
the pioneering works Organ School and History
of Organ Playing. Liszt was a friend of Ritter. In
his Sonata in E Minor, Opus 19, from 1850, Ritter
modified the classical sonata style to a more
fanciful structure.
About the organist: Matthias Böhlert was born
in Zeitz (Saxony-Anhalt) where he received his
first piano and organ lessons, sang in various
church and oratorio choirs, and worked as
honorary organist before taking up studies
in 1978 at the Halle College for Protestant
Church Music. Amongst his teachers were
Almuth Reuter (organist at St Thomas’s, Leipzig)
and Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller. He
has been the organist and choir master at St
Katherine’s Church in Salzwedel (Saxony-Anhalt,
population 25,000) since 1984. He was appointed
Kirchenmusikdirektor in 2004, ‘in recognition [as
the citation put it] of the excellent results of his
work with choirs of all ages and activities in other
areas of sacred music and the particular impact
on growing church membership and the innerGerman communication, all of which is well
beyond the township of Salzwedel.’
A sought-after organist, Böhlert has frequently
been invited to perform in Germany, Austria,
Poland, Japan and particularly Vladivostok, as
mentioned earlier. This was his first visit to our
shores. Böhlert’s compositional creativity includes
organ and piano works, solo voices and choral
literature expressing his Christian faith. He has
recorded a large selection of CDs.
Book Reviews
AN AMERICAN ORGANIST IN
PARIS:
THE LETTERS OF LEE ORVILLE
ERVIN, 1930-1931
By Michael Hix
Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland
130 pp
ISBN 978-0-8108-8338-3
$143.95
Reviewed by John
Maidment
I
t was not unusual last
century for organists
in Australia and America
to travel overseas for
further training with
leading performers.
One immediately thinks
of Lilian Frost, the
distinguished Australian
organist, going to
Paris in 1912 to study with Widor. This became
increasingly common in the inter-war years, and
this book charts the time spent in Paris by a young
American organist, Lee Orville Erwin (1908-2000),
studying with André Marchal.
Marchal was an inspired choice, as Erwin gained
much in his interpretative and improvisatory
skills that would stand him in good stead as
one of America’s leading theatre organists. It is
interesting to note that more than two decades
later the Sydney organist Norman Johnston also
studied with Marchal. So, later still, did Michael
Dudman, whose playing both in live recitals and
on ABC radio, particularly of French repertoire, is
fondly remembered. Marchal also visited Australia
in 1953 and being a blind organist, performed
at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind in
Melbourne, among other places. I can recall going
to Marchal’s house in Paris in 1975 and hearing
him talk and perform – one was never conscious
of his lack of sight and he always had a broad
smile on his face.
What is interesting about this book is that Lee
Orville Erwin chose to go to Paris to study, given
his experiences playing theatre organ at a very
young age. We learn that money was short (this
was at the height of the Depression) and that he
had to be very careful about his expenses. He
was well looked after by sympathetic landladies
and made the most of his time there. We read, in
letters to his mother, about his lessons, and his
travels around France, particularly to Magagnosc,
in the south of France near Cannes, where he
spent holidays with a musician there – always
ensuring that he practised regularly and kept up
his harmony studies. In Paris, he was associated
with the American Cathedral, where he became
an assistant organist, listened to Marchal play at
Saint-Germain-des-Près, where he was organist,
but strangely there is no mention of Widor or
Vierne, whose performances at Saint-Sulpice and
Notre-Dame would surely have been a magnet,
one imagines.
Because the letters are written to his mother in
America, Erwin doesn’t talk about what repertoire
he was playing, which in some ways diminishes
the utility of the book. It would have been very
helpful to learn what pieces he was studying with
Marchal, and what suggestions Marchal made
about interpretation.
Also, it would have been very interesting to
listen to Erwin play, and to see what harmonic
vocabulary had been absorbed from his time
in France. It would have been startling, for
example, to find that his theatre-organ playing
incorporated modal harmonies, which were all
the rage in France. In any case, Erwin had a very
successful, and apparently lucrative, career both
as an organist and as a composer in the United
States in the decades following his return, and
was associated with many films and theatrical
presentations, even participating in the silent
movie revival in the 1960s. The comprehensive
introduction to the letters, written by Michael Hix,
is perhaps the most valuable part of the book, and
it includes a number of illustrations.
CD Reviews
THE VOICE OF PUGET, VOLUME I
Music by Clérambault, Dubois, Guilmant, JeanJacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier, Denis Bédard,
Alexandre Boëly, Michel Corrette, Théodore
Salomé, Édmond Lemaigre, and René Becker
Pastór de Lasala (organ)
Musica Organica Australis 004 – Total Time
57’13”
Reviewed by Andrew Mariotti
T
he organ in
the Chapel
of Kincoppal –
Rose Bay, Sydney
– has had major
restoration works
carried out on it in
the last few years.
Originally the organ
was built in 1890
by Théodore Puget Père et Fils (organ-builders of
Toulouse) as a 13-stop, two-manual instrument,
with pedals and mechanical action, and was
installed in the Sacred Heart convent of Bordeaux.
After its initial installation, the organ had an
interesting history, and found its way to Australia
by accident. During the time of the anti-clerical
laws in France, the Mother-General of the Society
of the Sacred Heart conceived a plan that would
enable the possessions of 41 convents in France
to be saved, and not disposed of by the French
government at the time. It was fortunate that
this organ and other items in the chapel were
dismantled, packed up and sent abroad.
This CD’s music would, overall, appeal to a wider
audience than that of organists alone, and is a
pleasure to listen to, because of the different
sounds that the instrument can produce. By the
way, the organist also uses some of the unusual
accessories of this organ: the orage or ‘storm’
stop in Track Eight (an 18th-century piece, Michel
Corrette’s Grand Jeu); and the ventil pedals, very
advantageously, in Track 11 (a 19th-century piece,
Théodore Salomé’s Cantilène). Even though the
music is specifically chosen to be French for this
instrument, it would have been nice to hear a
couple of non-French pieces to demonstrate how
versatile the instrument can be.
The organ arrived in Sydney in 1904, and was
installed by Charles Richardson, a local builder.
However, as the gallery was too shallow, the organ
had to be modified from its original configuration
(whereby the console was placed underneath
the organ) and the whole instrument was moved
closer towards the ceiling. The organ was rebuilt
by Noad in 1960 and was in a dire state by the
1990s. Restoration commenced in January 2005.
The organ was dismantled and shipped to France,
overhauled by two firms, and shipped back to
Australia, where it was installed and then tonally
finished by a third firm. The whole process was
finally completed in May 2011. Since then the
organ has had its original mechanical action and
specifications.
Track Three – Salve Regina, by the present-day
French-Canadian composer Denis Bédard –
has a minor issue with the balance in terms
of the registration (the gamba and céleste
accompaniment is not quite loud enough for
the Montre). It is unfortunate that the tremulant
is noisy and also rather fast when used for the
Voix Humaine stop, as it is on Track Seven (Michel
Corrette again, this time a Musette) and part of
Track 10 (a Guilmant Adagio). Apparently the
noise issues have been fixed subsequent to this
recording.
The music programme on this CD has been
chosen specifically to show off the very beautiful
French Romantic colours that one would expect
of an instrument such as this, including the very
colourful reed stops, the beautiful flute stops, and
a Voix Céleste. Altogether the organ sounds much
larger than its stop-lists on paper would suggest.
Overall the music on the CD is very well played,
with excellent phrasing, articulation, and selection
of speeds, as well as choice of stops and smooth
changes of registration. It is evident that the
organist has taken great care and time to show
the capabilities and sounds of the instrument
and let the organ ‘do the talking’, so to speak.
Furthermore, the player has shown off the stops
of this fine instrument both in solos and in
combination. The recording quality is excellent.
The CD comes with an eight-page booklet that
includes the interesting history of the organ,
information about the Organ Historical Trust of
Australia and the Christopher Dearnley Award
(where funding assistance came from to produce
this CD), the specification of the organ, and a
biography of the organist. It would have been
useful to include the specification of the organ
listed vertically for each division, as well as an
English translation of the accessories for those
who are not French-literate. The CD costs $30
(including postage within Australia) and can be
obtained via cheque or money order, made out
to ‘Chapel Society Kincoppal-Rose Bay’. Address:
47 Moola Parade, Chatswood, 2067, New South
Wales.
Offering good value for money, this recording
is highly recommended for those interested in
listening to French Romantic organ music played
on the sort of instrument it was composed for. Let
us hope that Volume II is not too far away!
HISTORICAL ORGANS OF THE
PHILIPPINES
Guy Bovet (organ)
Gallo CD 1361-1364 (four discs) – Total Time:
242’42”
Reviewed by Jennifer Chou
W
hen the Spanish colonised the Philippines
in the 1500s, Manila became the capital and
grew as the commercial hub between the New
World, Asia, and Spain. To convert the natives to
Catholicism, religious orders sent missionaries to
this remote colony.
The first Bishop of Manila, Domingo de Salazar,
arrived in the Philippines in 1581. He brought
music books and instruments to the colony,
including a small organ. Gradually religious orders
built schools, churches, and monasteries where
music was taught. Many churches were built with
organs, on which Iberian music was widely played,
and the natives learned and performed this ‘new
music.’ Unfortunately, after the short British
occupation of Manila in 1762-64, most documents
about the first two centuries of musical activity in
Manila were lost.
Nearly all of the historical organs in the Philippines
were built in the 1800s in the Iberian manner
that is found all over Spain and Portugal,
and throughout Latin America. The main
characteristics of Iberian organs are the split
keyboard, stops in the lower part sounding one
octave higher, and the presence of horizontal
trumpets. Most of the organs have one manual
only, and the split keyboard therefore allows
the organist to play different tone-colours in
each hand. The organs were not thought to play
polyphony.
Released this year is a set of four CDs devoted
to Historical Organs of the Philippines, performed
by the world renowned Hispanic organ music
specialist Guy Bovet. Among six historical organs
selected for this recording is the famous Bamboo
Organ of St Joseph’s Parish Church, Las Piñas
City, Metro Manila. It was built by Father Diego
Cera, who came to the Philippines in 1792. In his
first organ, he used bamboo pipes for just one
of the stops. But in 1824, he completed an organ
with pipes all made of bamboo, except for the
horizontal reeds, which were probably imported
from Spain for St Joseph’s. Little did Father Cera
know that this organ would earn him a place in
the history of organ-building!
The other organs selected for this recording
include three instruments on the island of Bohol:
Holy Trinity Parish Church (Loay), St Peter’s Parish
Church (Loboc), Immaculate Conception Parish
Church (Baclayon); the organ of the St Augustine
of Hippo Parish Church, Bacong (Negros Oriental),
and the organ of the San Agustin Church,
Intramuros, Manila. Apart from the vast variety of
Iberian organ music by Basque, Catalan, Spanish
and Italian composers such as José Cabanilles,
Pablo Bruna, Antonio de Cabezón, and Antonio
Valente, this recording includes improvisation and
recent compositions by Guy Bovet and German
organist Wolfgang Oehms (1932-93).
On CD 1 is music mostly from the 1600s and
1700s, by no fewer than 10 different composers,
comprising different genres of musical
compositions such as tiento, sonata, and sinfonia.
This material was recorded on three organs on
Bohol, built between 1824 and 1896. The last
track, Obra de octavo tono Timbales (anonymous),
is specially entertaining, with the solo reed on
the manual and the two tambores in the pedal
(imitation drums with two bass pipes).
CD 2 opens with Bovet’s improvisation A Tribute
to the Philippines that exhibits the different stops
including the Pajaros (birds) on the 1894 organ at
St Augustine of Hippo Parish Church in Bacong. It
then turns towards romantic Spanish music from
the 1800s, and concludes with a grand Ofertorio
by Pedro Albéniz (1793-1855) that lasts 10 and a
half minutes.
Half of CD 3 features music from the 1500s and
the 1600s. The organ at San Agustin Church,
Intramuros, Manila, was used in this recording.
This organ, which was completed in 1814,
unusually has two manuals. It survived artillery
bombardment that levelled most of Intramuros
in 1945. Two of the most well-known Spanish
composers, the previously mentioned Cabezón
(1510-66) and Francisco Correa de Arauxo (15841654), have a slice on this CD.
The flute stops have charming, warm and clear
tone that one can listen to all day long. One also
hears on these organs bird-sounds, Zimbelstern,
and tambores that are often part of Iberian organ
music, and composers aimed to feature these
effects in their compositions.
The last CD of the set is dedicated to the famous
bamboo organ in Las Piñas. It opens with
Variations on ‘Purihin Ang Panginoon’ (Praise the
Lord) by Bovet himself, followed by Spanish organ
music from the 1600s and 1700s. The main feature
in this CD is the Eight Pieces on Filipino Folk Tunes
(written specially for the bamboo organ in 1990)
by Wolfgang Oehms.
The organs heard on this recording are all restored
by Filipino organ builder Cealwyn Tagle, head of
the Diego Cera Organ Builders (DCOB). Tagle was
trained in Austria at Helmut Allgäuer Orgelbau,
and in Germany at Klais Orgelbau. Since 1997,
the company has restored over a dozen historical
organs in the Philippines and has constructed new
organs in the Philippines and elsewhere.
All the CDs are very enjoyable to listen to. The
fiery and majestic sounds of the reeds on these
organs are powerful but not overwhelming. Each
one is a fine solo stop, and when played as a
chorus they give the impression of a wind band.
The discs in this series can be purchased as
individual CDs, as a boxed set, and as MP3
downloads at websites such as Amazon. When
you buy these CDs, you are contributing to the
education of young Filipino organists.
Bovet has a discography of over 60 recordings
featuring modern and historical instruments
world-wide. He regularly serves on juries for
international organ competitions, is the chief
editor of the Swiss periodical La Tribune de l’Orgue,
and teaches and gives numerous master-classes
on Spanish organ music and other subjects all
over the world. This set of CDs is a manifestation
of Bovet’s impeccable playing and expertise in the
field.
Organ-Building Reports
Australian Pipe Organs Pty Ltd
By Daniel Bittner
St Paul’s Cathedral, Bendigo: Overhaul of the
Choir and Swell ‘whiffle tree’ swell engines.
In the latter part of this year the company has
been kept busy with a diverse range of work
including the following:
Church of the Immaculate Conception,
Hawthorn, Victoria: Cleaning of the Great organ
pipe-work and provision of new Great stop
actions. Organ built by George Fincham, 1879;
rebuilt by George Fincham & Sons, 1965.
Wesley Uniting Church, Geelong: Earlier in the
year new wind-chests were provided for the Choir
Dulciana 8’-2’ and other Choir stop extensions,
Great Open Diapason No 2, and the rebuilding of
the Pedal Open Diapason 16’-8’ and Bourdon 16’-8’
wind-chests with new actions was also carried out.
St Ambrose’s Church, Brunswick, Victoria:
Cleaning of the Great organ and provision of
additional staying to support the pipe-work
properly. Organ built by William Anderson in the
1880s and restored by Knud Smenge in 1982.
A new Pedal Trombone 16’, 1-12 pipes, which is a
downward extension of the high pressure Choir
Tromba 8’-4’ stop, has been provided in place of
the former Diaphone 16’.
St Mary Mackillop Church, Keilor Downs,
Victoria: Cleaning of the 1970 Hill, Norman &
Beard instrument and organ loft, following storm
damage.
Residence of Mr Milan Hudecek, Collingwood,
Victoria: This seven-rank Möller ‘Double Artiste’
instrument – which also includes a chimes unit
located high up on the music room wall – was
enlarged using a further eight ranks of carefully
sourced Möller pipe-work, was completed in
September, visited by some Society members on
Cup Day, and demonstrated by council member
Hugh Fullarton.
St Paul’s Church, Camperdown, Victoria:
Overhaul of the Great organ draw-chest actions
– organ built by Fincham & Hobday in 1895, and
rebuilt by the same company in 1962.
The company was also commissioned to provide
some additional matching furniture for the music
room.
Basilica of Our Lady of Victories, Camberwell,
Victoria: Replacement of the Great division stop
actions. Organ built by TW Magahy, Cork, in 1920,
and rebuilt by George Fincham & Sons in 1980.
Christ Church, Longford, Tasmania: Restoration
of the historic Gunther and Horwood ‘Seraphine’
reed instrument is nearly complete, with an
expected return to the church later this year. The
work has involved a complete restoration of the
double rise bellows and feeders, the keyboard, the
pallet assembly, and the reed pan, all of which had
been extensively water-damaged.
And for the new year:
The Collingwood house organ (Photo by Daniel Bittner)
St Mary’s Church, Thornbury, Victoria: Rebuilding
and relocation, in two new divided cases, of the
1941 Hill, Norman & Beard instrument of three
ranks and a mixture. The instrument is to be
enlarged, with the provision of an additional five
ranks of pipes, and a replacement detached
console incorporating the existing keyboards and
pedal-board. For this project, the consultant is Dr
Geoffrey Cox.
The pipe-making department continues to be
kept busy, providing new pipe-work and restoring
existing pipe-work for the trade.
Sydney Town Hall Grand Organ
Cleaning and Documentation
Project
By Kelvin Hastie
The 1886-89 Hill & Son Grand Organ in Sydney
Town Hall is Australia’s most famous organ.
When opened in August 1890 it was the largest
instrument in the world and its Contra Trombone
64’ stop was the source of much comment. Today
it remains internationally renowned for the
majesty of its choruses and the subtle beauty of
its wide array of softer tone colours. The organ’s
faithful restoration, carried out by Roger H Pogson
between 1972 and 1982, has also been acclaimed
internationally.
Son’s Magnum Opus [Woodford, NSW: Birralee
Publishing, 1999], p 108).
With the establishment of the Organ Society of
Sydney in 1950 came a progressive voice in the
local organ world, not just in the promotion of the
principles of the Organ Reform Movement and
modern mechanical action organs, but also in the
respect shown for historic instruments, notably
those of Hill & Son. In consequence, not only did
significant mechanical-action organs appear in
Sydney more than a decade earlier than the other
Australian capitals, but the campaign to restore
older instruments was also more advanced in
Sydney than elsewhere in the country. At the
time, old organs throughout Australia were often
sanitised and standardised through the removal
of unison ranks in favour of ill-balanced upperwork, the electrification of actions, the expansion
of tonal schemes through a myriad of additions
on unit chests and the ridicule and destruction of
worthy instruments from the early 20th century.
Pogson’s restoration of the Sydney Town Hall
organ was true to the recommendations of the
1964 technical report. He restored all double-rise
bellows (including several that ST Noad & Son had
cut down to single-rise), retained all wind-chests
and sound-boards and meticulously repaired
the internal mechanisms
of the console. Although
Before the Pogson
Pogson altered some manual
restoration, the instrument
soundboard under-actions,
was virtually unplayable
the vacuum pneumatic system
and, like so many other
for the manual note actions
large organs of the Englishwas retained. (It is important
speaking world, it could
to note here that the action
easily have fallen victim to
is entirely tubular-pneumatic,
standardisation through
but with mechanical coupling.
electrification and tonal
The couplers to the Great are
AG Hill’s 1886 drawing of the proposed Town Hall
modification, or even
organ case (illustration by courtesy of the City of assisted by Barker levers.)
removal. In spite of its
Sydney Archives)
condition, the potential for
Although the pitch change
successful restoration was, thankfully, appreciated (to concert standard of A=440Hz) of 1939 was
by those organists, organ-builders and scientists
retained by Pogson, he took great care in handling
who prepared a technical report for the Sydney
the pipe-work to minimise any further impact on
City Council in 1964: this recommended that
its speech characteristics and voicing. Even so, it
the Grand Organ be restored ‘as near as possible
is obvious that raising the pitch had an impact
to how Hill originally built it’ (Robert Ampt,
on the overall sound of the organ, in particular
The Sydney Town Hall Organ: William Hill &
making the chorus reeds coarser in tone colour.
When Pogson moved to Orange in 1982, care of
the instrument passed to Manuel da Costa, who
faithfully tuned and maintained it until 2011,
when at age 72 he retired from organ tuning and
maintenance work in Sydney. Tribute must be paid
to Mr da Costa for his commitment to the Town
Hall organ, which was always superbly tuned and
mechanically reliable during the period of his
tenure.
Closure of the Sydney Town Hall in 2008 for major
works silenced the instrument for two years.
Considerable dirt and dust accumulated inside the
organ, which had not been cleaned since 1991.
In 2009 the City of Sydney resolved to have the
instrument cleaned and documented according
to international organ documentation protocols,
and a contract was subsequently let to Peter
DG Jewkes Pty Ltd, with the author serving as
consultant.
The first task completed by the consultant was
the preparation of a Condition Audit in 2009,
which was based on an extensive survey of the
instrument and detailed advice from Manuel
da Costa. Other preparatory work was required
before the cleaning and documentation project
could proceed, including the completion of
occupational health and safety risk assessments
and the improvement of access and walkways
inside the instrument.
Sydney Town Hall is heavily booked for events
and work on the organ has had to be fitted
around this schedule. While this has inevitably
slowed progress, the City Council has been able
to keep the organ playable, even though sections
being worked on have been out of use. Though
this has been a challenge for City Organist
Robert Ampt, and other visiting performers, the
advantage of this policy has been that audiences
have continued to enjoy the instrument, usually
unaware that sections of the instrument were
unavailable to the player. The most recent public
concerts, performed by David Drury, Robert
Ampt, Amy Johansen and Dong-Ill Shin, were
highly successful and well received by the large
audiences in attendance.
The project commenced in January 2010 with
Jewkes staff at Sydney Town Hall (L to R): Martin Smith,
Rodney Ford, David Morrison (Photo by Kelvin Hastie)
work to clean and re-gild the façade pipes. This
was followed by work on the Echo division, then
the Solo flues, enclosed Solo reeds, Solo Tubas,
Choir and recently the Swell. Since the project
commenced, monthly meetings have been held
in which reports of progress have been tabled
and discussions held in relation to other relevant
matters, such as the humidification of the organ
loft and the proposed aural documentation
project, to be carried out at the conclusion of
the cleaning and technical documentation
work. These meetings are chaired by Geoff Brew
(Specialist Projects Manager) and attended by
Stephen Tyler (Portfolio Manager – Property),
Robert Ampt (Sydney City Organist, as already
mentioned), Eric Yeo (Assistant Principal Engineer,
Sustainability – NSW Public Works), Peter Jewkes,
Rodney Ford (of Peter DG Jewkes Pty Ltd), Kelvin
Hastie (consultant) and other representatives of
the City of Sydney, as required.
Robert Ampt’s publication cited earlier, The Sydney
Town Hall Organ: William Hill & Son’s Magnum Opus,
outlines not only the history of music-making and
the organ, but issues related to its construction
and maintenance. Problems experienced during
periods of low humidity were noted from the
outset, with the organ ciphering as a result of the
shrinking of timber components within the first
two decades of its use. These issues remain with
us today and are by no means unknown among
other famous organs around the world, such as
those at the Royal Albert Hall, London and the
Newberry Memorial Organ in Woolsey Hall at Yale
University. Indeed the current curators of both
those organs have been contacted for advice
about various aspects of the Sydney project –
extensive networking at the international level has
been an important part of the development of a
conservation plan for the Town Hall organ.
The issue of the humidification of the organ
has been discussed at length, with on-going
monitoring of temperature and humidity
occurring both in the organ loft and in the body
of the Town Hall. A visit was made to the Concert
Hall of the Sydney Opera House in early 2011 to
examine the re-introduction of humidification
units in the air-conditioning system there. This
re-introduction, by all reports, has solved the
serious issues of low humidity and its impact on
hall structures and the Ronald Sharp organ. The
provision of humidification to the Sydney Town
Hall’s air-conditioning system has been ruled out
for the present, owing to cost and energy factors
and problems keeping the hall sufficiently sealed
to retain humidity. Localised humidification of the
critical area behind the console via non-invasive
ducting and the fitting of temporary plastic
sheeting have proven highly successful and more
permanent arrangements (to be non-invasive and
removable) are planned.
The present three blowers were supplied in 1929
by Hill & Son and Norman & Beard Ltd (Duplex)
and the original DC electric motors were replaced
by new Crompton-Parkinson (Australia) Pty Ltd AC
motors, provided by Noyes Bros of Sydney in 1948.
These blowers’ effectiveness has been measured,
as the wind supply has sometimes been taxed
by the demands of full organ. In 2012 the
vacuum section of the high-pressure blower was
disconnected by Rodney Ford, and experiments
with separate temporary vacuum machines
were trialled. This has solved the problem of fullorgan wind shortage, while also improving the
responsiveness of the combination piston action.
As a result, a permanent vacuum machine will be
custom made and permanently fitted.
In addition to cleaning and documenting the
organ, the Jewkes firm has been engaged to
carry out tuning and maintenance, while also
undertaking major repairs. These have been
the re-leathering of two bellows: bellows 13
(high pressure supply to Swell and Solo reeds,
completed in early 2011) and bellows 1 (main
high pressure bellows, completed in early 2012).
The firm has re-leathered these two bellows
strictly according to traditional practice, using the
same types of leather and animal glue as the Hill
firm. Re-leathering of other action components
has also occurred and major work on the Barker
lever motors will commence when the organ is
out of use in January 2013. Other repairs include
miscellaneous re-leathering throughout the
organ and work on the cork stoppers of all ranks
of Rohrflöte construction, including the Choir’s
Lieblich Gedackt 8’ and Lieblich Flöte 4.
The documentation project, led by Rodney
Ford, involves the removal of pipe-work smaller
than eight feet to a workroom adjacent to the
organ loft, with rack-boards and upper-boards
dismantled and sliders and bearers cleaned,
inspected and measured. Tables are also inspected
and the general dimensions of the chests and
enclosures recorded. Action components are
measured and drawn. Drawings in digital format
(AutoCAD) will form an integral part of the final
document. It is also important to note that some
60 drawings of components made by Hill & Son
between 1886 and 1889 (and obtained by Robert
Ampt from the British Organ Archive) also inform
the project.
Pipe-work is being cleaned using a vacuum
process and brushes. Both metal and wood
pipes are wiped down: no pipes are immersed
in water at any stage. Leather and cork seals of
stopped wood and metal pipes are checked.
Measurements of C and F# pipes in each octave
are taken, the material (and its thickness) noted,
with pipe diameters, mouth shape, mouth width,
cut-up, toe-hole diameter, foot length, pipe shape,
voicing devices and tuning devices recorded.
Additional comments are appended to each
page of notes on each rank. For example, it is
noted that the Echo Flageolet 2’ was transposed
a semitone upwards, almost certainly in 1939
when the organ’s general pitch was flattened. It
is also noted that many pipes have two sets of
inscriptions – scored and in Indian ink. These will
all be noted in the photographic documentation
that will accompany the measurements and
digital drawings.
Detailed measurements and drawings have also
been made of the reeds: resonators and boot
contents (C and F-sharp) have been documented,
noting material, material thickness, external
diameter and top and tip, resonator length, shallot
length, shallot diameter, tongue thickness (top
and bottom), tongue width (at bottom), shallot
slot length, tip hole diameter and voicing devices
(caps, slots and holes).
Many players of the organ will know that the
bottom octave of the Choir Bassoon 16’ has
been out of use since the Pogson restoration, as
the pipes could not be made to speak properly,
possibly through a design flaw from the outset,
exacerbated by the pitch change of 1939. Work
has been carried out in England by Dr David
Frostick (an authority on Hill reeds) and new boots
have had to be made. The originals will, of course,
be archived in the organ loft. Three resonators
of the Swell Bassoon 16’ (middle G-sharp, A,
and A-sharp) were found to be unoriginal and
of small scale: new resonators have now been
fitted. At the time of writing further cleaning and
documentation work is being undertaken on the
Swell division.
While conclusion of the project is not envisaged
for another 12 months, work is proceeding as
access permits. Staff from Peter DG Jewkes Pty Ltd
involved on site so far have been Peter Jewkes,
Rodney Ford, David Morrison, Cliff Bingham,
Henrik Jarmatz, Martin Smith and Kornelius
Schmidt.
Peter DG Jewkes Pty Ltd By Peter Jewkes
Recent projects in hand have included: Sydney Town Hall: Work has been on-going on
the long cleaning, renovation and documentation
project, whilst keeping the organ playable at all
times for recital use, as well as for the innumerable
occasions on which
the hall (and its
organ) have been
hired for functions.
Most recently work
has been centred
on cleaning and
documenting of
the massive Swell
division, located deep
inside the organ loft,
divided into two huge
Swell boxes – one for
the bottom octave
Sydney Town Hall organ’s huge
of every stop, and
16’ Double Diapason pipes, Swell
the other for all
box (Photo by Rodney Ford)
stops from ‘Tenor C’
upward. In January the organ will be taken completely off
wind for some weeks to allow for further bellows
re-leathering, as well as for re-leathering of the
famous Barker Lever motors.
St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, State Circle,
Canberra: Though Victorian in appearance, this
imposing building dates only from the 1930s and
owes more to ‘Cinema Gothic’ than to its Victorian
or genuine counterparts. Its fine proportions and
‘dress circle’ site in the national capital, however,
have bestowed icon status on it for many years.
The organ was originally installed by Hill, Norman
& Beard in 1934, rebuilt by that firm in 1965, and
restored by the Jewkes firm in 1981 with some
subsequent tonal revision since that time (notably
replacement of Trumpet and Mixture stops). In
recent years a phased maintenance programme
has been in place, most recently restoration of the
main Swell bellows, which was returned to Sydney
and re-leathered with traditional white lambskin.
Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney: Apart from
the firm’s routine tuning and maintenance of
this historic instrument (Hill & Son, 1892) to
keep it in optimum condition for the numerous
liturgical and recital demands placed upon it,
work has recently included re-leathering of all the
large external ‘power motors’ which operate the
pneumatic action of the Pedal stops. As with the
St Anne’s, Strathfield, New South Wales: This
interesting building was designed by the wellknown local firm of Sulman & Power, and houses
an instrument originally from 1895, again by
Charles Richardson, rebuilt circa 1939, and
again in 1970 with various tonal modifications
over the years. A recent phased programme of
maintenance has been undertaken, with the latest
stage being the provision of a new silent German
blower, and re-leathering of the large static wind
‘breakdown’ bellows located in the church’s
cavernous crypt.
St Jude’s, Bowral
(Photo by Trevor Bunning)
Wakeley Pipe Organs Pty Ltd
Barker lever motors on this organ’s larger sibling
at Sydney Town Hall, so here: precision and
patience are required with these uniquely-shaped
mahogany and leather ribbed motors, to ensure
the promptest possible response for players. By Ian Wakeley
Wakeley Organs has had another busy year with
many projects completed. A selection of these
includes:
St Jude’s, Bowral, New South Wales: This
picturesque church, designed by Edmund Blacket,
contains an elaborately-encased instrument
originally by Charles Richardson in 1899,
drastically rebuilt in 1981 by George Fincham
& Sons. In 2003 the Jewkes firm embarked on
a programme of renovation and ‘development’
devised by St Jude’s organist, Dr Allan Beavis. One
of the earlier items carried out was replacement of
the 1981 stop action with silent electric solenoids
(whilst the key action remained mechanical) and
provision of a dual-level solid-state capture system
for the combination pistons. Since that time, use
of the organ by extremely competent players
has increased exponentially, with at least six
performers regularly presiding at the console; so
it was felt that the existing capture system should
be upgraded to multi-level operation, to cater for
the demands of different performers. This work is
now under way, with the original highly reliable
system having been returned to its English makers
for the requisite upgrade, with re-installation
scheduled shortly after its return to Australia. New
‘hardware’ for control of the 96 levels of memory
will be discreetly fitted to the console. Gulangyu Organ Museum, South-East China:
Major restoration work was undertaken on the
1909 Norman & Beard organ, which we relocated
and installed in 2004. The original triple-stage
pneumatic action and large double-rise bellows
were re-leathered throughout. This saw the
replacement of the original 103-year-old leather,
a rather impressive life span for leather, and a
testament to the quality of materials used when
the instrument was built. The action motors were
re-leathered in our Bayswater workshop, while the
bellows were re-leathered on site in our Museum
workshop. Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Carlton, Victoria:
The refurbishment and installation of the 1929
Balbiani organ (two manuals, seven stops),
formerly in St Francis Xavier’s Catholic Church,
Bowenfels, New South Wales, was completed
earlier this year. This instrument was originally
built for the Brigidine Convent in the Sydney
suburb of Randwick, which was opened in 1930.
The refurbishment work included: a new blower
and housing, solid-state control system, casework restoration, wind-chest refurbishment, and
the re-making
of the console
as detachable.
This charming
instrument is
installed in the
sanctuary and
accompanies the
seminarians from
Corpus Christi
College, located
next to Sacred
Heart Church.
New hand-turned
Balbiani console and organ in
walnut stop-knobs
Sacred Heart, Carlton
and porcelain stop
(Photo by Ian Wakeley)
labels were installed
to replace the non-original 1950s stop-tabs. The
console also features a new solid walnut music
desk, shaped and carved in the style of music
desks found on other Balbiani organs.
Christ Church Anglican Church, Echuca, Victoria:
Refurbishment of the 1873 Fincham / 1919 Taylor
/ 1982 Fincham & Sons organ in Christ Church
Anglican Church in Echuca has been completed
(two manuals, 13 stops). The refurbishment
included the addition of a new Cornopean and
Mixture stops to the Swell and a new side case
to match the original 1873 front case-work. A
rededication by Right Reverend Andrew Curnow,
Bishop of Bendigo, was carried out during the
opening concert on 28 September, which was
given by John Rivers, Director of Music at All
Saints’ Anglican Church, East St Kilda.
Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy, Victoria:
The 1988 Knud Smenge practice organ (two
manuals, five stops), formerly in the University’s
recital hall, was stored in our workshop while
building works were carried out at the University.
Whilst the organ was in our workshop, it was
cleaned, and the case-work polished, prior to
being installed in the newly built chapel. The
instrument sounds very well in the new building.
Zion Lutheran Church, Walla Walla, New South
Wales: The 1869 George Fincham organ built
for the Wesleyan Church, South Melbourne, was
re-built and installed in Walla Walla by Laurie
Pipe Organs in 1967. The dry climatic conditions
experienced in the area during the summer
months had caused major runnings in the slider
wind-chests. Our firm has recently completed the
refurbishment of both Swell and Great slider windchests. In conjunction with this work the organ
was cleaned throughout. The Great Harmonic
Flute 4’ and Cromorne 8’ stops were completed
with the installation of their bottom octave pipes.
St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Chelsea, Victoria:
When we refurbished and installed the 1906
Frederick Taylor organ (two manuals, 23 stops)
in 2011, the bottom octave of the Swell Double
Trumpet 16’ was only prepared for. These pipes
have now been installed to complete the
instrument. The pipes were manufactured by
Melbourne pipe-maker Tim Gilley. This addition’s
effect is noticeable mostly on the Pedal division,
where the stop is also available.
St Joseph’s Church, Chelsea (Photo by Ian Wakeley)
Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Williamstown,
Victoria: A fine example of William Anderson’s
work is found in this church. Built in 1895-96, the
organ (two manuals, 14 stops) had had very little
work carried out on it until this year, when Stage
One in its conservation was completed. This work
included the historic restoration of the manual key
and pedal coupler mechanisms, which are trackeraction throughout. All action parts, including
the keyboards, were removed to our workshop
for the restoration work. It is hoped that further
conservation work will be carried out in the near
future.

Organ Australia

Transcription

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