 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The organ which presently stands in Cooke Centenary Church Belfast is, for the most part, made up from two instruments.
The first is the original E. F. Walcker organ of 1913, which was one of only two in the province. The build quality of this instrument was by and large exemplary, but it suffered from its rather unusual "cone chest" or "Keggelade" action, which had thousands of moving parts. Over the years, wear and tear made the action become unreliable and because all the parts moved, even with no stops drawn, quiet playing was virtually drowned by action noise. (This can still be heard today because one of the original soundboards had to be retained for the Choir Organ)
The second "donor instrument" was the organ which stood in Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church Belfast for over 100 years, before the church itself was closed. This organ was originally built by Peter Conacher of Huddersfield in 1876 and contained a lot of very fine work. It was obviously one of their more up-market jobs, as it contained five ranks from Zimmerman of Paris - the Swell Salicional, Voix Celeste, Cornopean, Oboe and Clarion. The organ was added to in the thirties, forties and fifties by various builders, eventually ending up as a 3 manual / 4 division organ of some 97 stops. This organ, more than most, had suffered by being repeatedly brought into line with the musical tastes of the times. For instance the Swell wind pressure had been raised to 5.75 inches (145mm) in order to accommodate the (not terribly good) revoicing of the reed chorus, and the fluework was rather unhappy at this pressure. However it was always regarded as one of the finest instruments in the city, and this indeed was my reaction when I played it in a semi-derelict Carlisle Memorial Church just prior to its removal.
The same could not be said about the musical attributes of the Walcker, which lacked both brightness and warmth. This was borne out by the fact that the larger bass pipes were all of too small a scale (i.e. they were not wide enough in relation to their length), and all the small treble pipes were of too large a scale (i.e. too wide in relation to their length). However, it had quite a few redeeming features - all the flute stops were beautifully constructed and voiced, and all the metal pipework was very well made. This has only recently come to light because some pipes have responded very well to revoicing. This has caused a few minor changes to be made already, and many more were planned for the future.
The conception of an instrument of this size is not an easy matter, as it is tied to musical function as well as what is available in pipework terms. The number of stops is ultimately dictated by the size of the soundboards on which the pipes stand as well as the total space available.
It was essential to use the existing casework and keep within the outline of the front pipes where possible. (From the top of the gallery one can see some of the pedal reed pipes on the left sticking up above the front pipes, but this is not evident from any other vantage point.)
It was decided to keep the existing internal layout as far as possible, in order to use the building frame which was of excellent construction and, by and large, totally over engineered in the best Teutonic tradition. The only radical change was to swap the positions of the Great and the Choir pipework. The Great is now dead center, with the Swell above, Pedal (mostly) to the left, and Choir to the right.
At the outset, I decided that no instrument could be capable of giving authentic sounds suitable for the entire repertoire, even when dealing with entirely new materials. The basis of the instrument's tonal plan is therefore basically English but with some minor deviations in the tonality of the reeds. These are either slightly French, or blatantly French. Recordings of the great Cavaille-Coll organs in Paris, Toulouse and Rouen, influenced this decision (and there has been abundant study and publication of Cavaille-Coll's work), as well as the fact that there are several very successful organs on the English mainland which follow this practice - Coventry Cathedral being possibly the best. From this, it can be deduced that this instrument is most successful in the French repertoire, and has the correct sorts of sounds for the interpretation of works from Couperin to Vierne. Tribute must here be paid to the work of Aiden Scanlon of Dublin in voicing some of the reed stops, and all, I hope, will eventually receive his treatment. His fresh and painstaking approach is a constant inspiration, and the end musical result is always his final arbiter.
"That's not the way Cavaille-Coll would have done it, but it sounds right, so maybe we are heading in the right direction. We'll leave it for the time being and live with it " would be typical. I have now lived with these reed stops for around ten years and there is no sign of me getting tired of them or wanting any changes made. Adding the Pedal Bombarde at the end of a fairly bold hymn still gives that good feeling!! Sort of naughty but nice!
One thing which became apparent fairly early on was the fact that the twelve pipes of the 32 foot Open Wood which was in Carlisle Memorial Church could not be accommodated. Later on, after about the twentieth attempt at the internal layout, I realized that even the 16' section of the Open Wood would not fit! I had for several years been experimenting with electronic organ sounds with only limited success. However, advances in electronics, computers and modern digital musical instruments make it possible to replay what amounts to a digital recording of a real organ pipe through a loudspeaker, and I decided that this was the only way I could get my Open Wood stop both 16' and 32'. The actual system installed meant that there was additional capacity, so we got a 32' Bourdon, two 32' reeds, and a few other stops virtually for nothing. These electronic versions of the " real thing " are not perfect yet, but in normal musical use it would take a very acute ear to actually detect the masquerade.
This is only one of a number of compromises that have had to be made in this instrument. Playing it Sunday by Sunday, none are glaring compromises. All are based on physical or financial constraints, of which there were plenty, and the primary purpose of the organ is to lead and enrich the Sunday worship. It is my hope that the organ does fulfil this job. Anything after that is a bonus, and the final judge must be the listener.
You can hear the instrument in all its glory on the Audio Page.
For those interested, the history of both organs is on file at the National Pipe Organ Register.