REPAIR & REFURBISHMENT
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Many of the old blowers, while not as
e cient electrically, still work quite well,
he points out. “As long as the motors
and moving parts have been kept well
lubricated, they should provide years of
service.” What can be a bigger issue is
the blower’s physical location. “A poorly
located blower can do a lot of damage
to an instrument. If the blower is located
too far from the organ, the instrument
may su er from unsteady wind pressure.
Likewise, if the blower is placed near
a furnace room or other heat source,
the heated air will cause problems with
tuning.”
A larger concern of Murphy’s is not so
much the mechanism as the mechanics;
that the reservoir of young talent coming
into the industry is not as deep as it used
to be, “although it is gratifying that we
can still nd people who want the kind of
self-ful lment this line of work can give
them”. They need to be able to handle
many challenging tasks and develop the
appropriate skill sets. “For example, I have
one full-time female worker, in what is a
male-dominated trade, who is the ‘voicer’
– the person who manipulates the pipes
and makes them ‘speak’. She has very
high eye-hand dexterity and coordination.
And we have a team that understands the
need for high levels of cooperation across
numerous disciplines, whether that be
wiring, woodworking or computer-driven
software systems.”
These skills are appreciated all the
more so, he states, when you consider the
condition in which some pipe organs arrive
for repair. “The organ may have been in a
room that hasn’t seen any plaster repairs
in a hundred years, and where the roof and
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
Inset: A Spencer blower from 1910
completely refurbished prior to
re-installation (Patrick J Murphy &
Associates)
ceiling leaked badly. They can be in a really
poor state.” This, though, is the stock
in trade of a company such as his. The
satisfaction for all involved is seeing the
instrument brought back to life, restored.
“By repair, what’s old is new again.”
That is a sentiment echoed by
Harrison & Harrison’s Andrew Scott.
The company’s work on York Minster
and Canterbury Cathedral, for instance,
was very much about “creating a new
instrument from old material”. On the
subject of modern air compressors
playing a part in the future of organ
building and restoration, he also has
strong reservations. “Such units would
have to provide a steady and constant
pressure, and in a large instrument there
can be upwards of 20 di erent pressures
feeding di erent departments of pipes
– you would therefore need twenty
di erent air compressor units to do
that. Such an array of equipment
would also take up much more room
than centrifugal blowing plants.
NOT ONLY PRESSURE
“Also, I don’t think it would work, in
any event,” he points out. “While they
would no doubt deliver in pressure,
pipe organs require not only pressure,
but signi cant volumes of wind.
Perhaps more importantly, though,
such directly coupled equipment would
make the pipework ‘speak’ in a very
di erent way.”
When it comes to the electrical
components that make up a pipe
organ, however, modernity does have
a signi cant role to play. “Restoration
projects will always be carried out
using traditional methods, but there
are some new instruments still being
built with mechanical and pneumatic
action. However, low-voltage electrical
technology has found a place in
modern organ building. Electrical
switches and relays are superseded by
microprocessor-based systems, allowing
organists to have in nitely adjustable
CANTERBURY
CATHEDRAL
According to Harrison & Harrison,
Samuel Green built an organ on the
pulpitum in 1784: that instrument was
relocated to the south triforium of
the quire in 1827, and it was here that
Henry Willis built a new four-manual
instrument in 1886, with a pioneering
form of electro-pneumatic action.
During the twentieth century,
alterations were made by Norman
& Beard and by Henry Willis & Sons.
In 1979 NP Mander carried out a
more radical rebuild, which included
removal of the Solo Organ. Much
of Father Willis’s pipework survived
these interventions and forms
the backbone of the new organ,
completed early 2020 after nearly
four years’ work. There is now a new
organ in the quire, retaining some
Father Willis pipework. The organ
comprises four manuals and 83 stops,
plus the existing nave division of six
stops.
combination
actions stored on a tablet to
control the organ more freely.
“In the past, the organ console
needed to be physically attached to the
organ,” adds Scott, “but computer and
bre optic technology makes it possible
not only for the console to be positioned
away from the organ itself – a ording
the player a better aural perception of
balance – but parts of an organ can be
spread around a large building. While
we have this technology available to us,
pipe organ building will always be rooted
in traditional methods and still rely on a
musician sitting at the console, choosing
the stops and putting the notes down in
the right order.”
Winter 2021 www.operationsengineer.org.uk 39
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