Visits/events confirmed so far for 2023 as follows:
Chair's Recital, St Matthew's Church, Walsall.
Recital on the 4-manual Green 1773/Bishop 1842/Binns 1908/Walker 1952/Nicholson 2000/Organ by chairman Peter Morris. Music by Buxtehude, Stanley, Hindemith, Coates, Lidon along with 3 Preludes by Whitlock, Hunt and Rowley on Darwall's 148th, written by John Darwall, the vicar of Walsall in 1773, as the tune for Ye Holy Angels bright.
Visit to St Gabriel's Fulbrook, Walsall and All Saints' West Bromwich.
Commencing at 1.30pm, this visit will begin at St Gabriel's Church, where there is a new hybrid organ, recently dedicated. The notion of combined digital and pipe instruments is catching on. Some years ago there was a partnership between Peter Collins and Allen computer organs, brokered by Carlo Curley, which resulted in a controversial collaboration in Trönö, Sweden. There is, of course, a number of issues involved in such things as 'purity', cost, and compatibility, and our visit may well touch on some of those imponderables.
We are due a few miles down the road (and bus route) at All Saints Church, West Bromwich at 3.00 as guests of organist Gunvant Patel. Peter Morris first met this organ in 1969 when he was appointed as organist and choirmaster there and it was in a rather sad state. It had been built in 1898 by Brindley & Foster of Sheffield and was designed by Sir Frederick Bridge of Westminster Abbey, whose father sang in All Saints choir. The Birmingham firm of Harris had worked on it in 1949, but by 1969 it was almost unplayable as its tubular-pneumatic action was failing. W.Hawkins of Walsall were brought in to rebuild it, with financial help from the local Stanley Trust, and the result was a transformation. The consultant was Richard Greening, organist of Lichfield Cathedral, who played the opening recital in 1971. Roy Massey, Francis Jackson, Derrick Cantrell and Peter Morris also played in subsequent weeks.
Further major work was undertaken by Nicholson's in 2001, when the projected Choir manual was added and the internal layout was altered. Shortly afterwards there were some electronic additions - eg a Tuba and a big Great Diapason. It will be interesting to compare the present state of the organ with St Gabriels.
Visit to Nicholson's in Malvern and St Michael's Tenbury Wells 10.30
Not often that you catch up with two Town Hall organs and a 4-manual Willis on the same day. And information 'from the horse's mouth!
Andrew Caskie, MD of Nicholson', has kindly volunteered to show us round the impressive factory on the edge of the Malvern Hills, and to tell us about some of the work going on there. The biggest of the two big jobs at the moment is the 127-stop Leeds Town Hall rebuild, featuring 3 new divisions (Echo Choir, Grand, Solo). Manchester Town Hall is a smaller instrument and is a joint project with Flentrop to return this venerable instrument to its 1877 Cavaille-Coll roots.
The second part of the visit (at 2.00) is to the remarkable chapel of St Michael's Tenbury Wells where Roger Judd will explain and demonstrate the background behind the establishment and the 4-manual Father Willis organ in the Chapel.
St Michael's College was founded as a choir school by Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley in 1856. It lasted until 1985 and the organists included John Stainer, Heathcote Statham, Ernest Bullock, Kenneth Beard, Lucian Nethsingha, Roy Massey and Roger Judd. Among its alumni are G.R Sinclair, Christopher Robinson and Jonathan Harvey.
RCO's International Organ Day
Details are still to be finalised but Callum Alger FRCO will lead a training event in St Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton with a late morning session for adults and an early afternoon introduction for school age children, in association with Wolverhampton Music Education Hub. It will be open to anybody from our area, using the mobile console on the Father Willis organ. Timings are likely to be 11.00 to 12.00 and 1.30 to 2.30.
Visit to Sutton Coldfield (Emmanuel, Wylde Green, St Peter's Maney and St Michael's Boldmere).
Emmanuel, Wylde Green's Henry Willis III organ came from the Seventh Church of Christ Scientist in Kensington. It was built in 1932. In 1986 it was taken out and stored because the Kensington church was being remodelled and organ space was lost. The organist there at the time was Walsall’s Harold Britton. It was purchased by Emmanuel Church and installed there in 2002. There is an Apse section of the organ behind the High Altar. Cleaning work is just being completed by the Willis firm. 3/59 St Peter's Church Maney is nearby. It is a substantial 3/31 Nicholson Organ whose origins go back to before World War 2. It is known that there was work carried out by Nicholson's in 1938 and after 1945. St Michael's Boldmere is a modern church, following a fire in 1964. The organ is a work by Cuthbert Harrison, completed in 1967 and the voicing is very bright and typical of the period (think Coventry Cathedral). 2/32.
More details of this visit will be found in the next newsletter.
Visit to St Margaret's Church, Olton 2.30 pm
This 1900 Norman & Beard organ has just been sensitively rebuilt by Henry Groves, with Paul Hale as the consultant. There are now 44 speaking stops across 3 manuals. Paul Hale gave the inaugural recital in October 2021. The work is described on his website.
