HISTORY OF THE OLD HIGH ORGAN

“The Old High Church organ is a unique work of art; every bit as much as in a fine painting, sculpture or piece of architecture. It was installed in 1892 by Henry Willis, who at that time enjoyed world-wide acclaim for the quality of his workmanship. In more recent times, changes to the action have for some time been giving cause for concern and the organ has been increasingly subject to faults and breakdowns. It is this state of affairs which has led the present Kirk Session to decide to restore the instrument to its former glory and to pass on to posterity an instrument which will continue to give reliable service for many years to come.”

“The work is to be carried out by one of Britain’s foremost organ builders; Nicholson of Malvern. It is proposed that the pneumatic action which was installed in the 1920’s be replaced by mechanical action similar to that which Henry Willis provided in the original instrument. The wind supply, which is causing serious concern because of deterioration in both wood and leather, will be fully restored.”

“Only pipe-work which is fully in keeping with the original Willis concept will be retained and it will be re-voiced so as to reveal its original quality in a way which has not been heard for over eighty years.”

“This is an exciting and visionary project and it will leave the congregation with a fine instrument capable of enhancing worship far into the future. It will also be an organ which the whole City of Inverness can be proud of.”

H.C. Richardson, Independentadvisor to our Organ Restoration Committee, is  Director of Music at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Inverness

Mr Richardson gave this talk at the launch of the Organ Appeal on 24 January 2009.

The Organ in the Old High Church, Inverness

Many people are understandably perplexed by the fact that pipe organs are so expensive to build and renovate and so it may be worthwhile spending a moment or two discussing the basics of organ construction. Historically the organ dates from as far back as the 3rd century BC and would seem to have been the result of a Greek engineering experiment aimed at establishing a means of allowing one person to play more than one flute at a time. The modern organ is an instrument which basically does that but in a more complex and flexible way. Thus the old pejorative Scots phrase ‘Kist O’ Whistles’ isn’t really so wide of the mark.  By ‘modern’ in this context I really mean from the early 18th century onwards because, for example, the organs on which J.S. Bach played and for which he composed were amazingly sophisticated and must have represented some of the most complex technology in existence at that time.

The pipe organ, then, allows one player to be in control of many different sets of pipes, each set having its own tone colour and having one pipe for each key on the keyboard – or each pedal on the pedal board. These pipes are made of either wood or metal and can range in length from 32 feet to less than one inch. On this organ the longest pipe is 16 feet. Very simply, a long pipe produces a low note and a short pipe produces a high one and different shapes and methods of construction allow them to produce different tone colours. Each set of pipes is brought into use by a stop knob at the side of the console and this allows the player to produce the desired blend of colours for each piece or part of a piece. Thus it should really be called a start knob but it was originally designed to stop all of the ranks of pipes from sounding together all of the time and so it is called a stop knob. The ranks of pipes are therefore usually referred to as ‘stops’ and it is customary to describe the size of an organ by the number of stops which it has.

This organ has around 20 stops, which is not particularly large, but even it has over 1000 pipes and, as you can see the player uses two keyboards and a pedal board to allow air to enter the pipes and produce musical sounds. The air is provided nowadays by an electric blower.

This very over-simplified description may allow you to begin to imagine the range of skills which need to be represented in a company which builds pipe organs. Pipes of both metal and wood need to be fashioned and skilfully voiced so that the required tone colour is produced evenly throughout each rank. Wooden reservoirs and wind chests require to be constructed in such a way that they do not leak air and can allow air at exactly the correct pressure to be available when required. Actions which link the keys to the pipes must be made and regulated so that the organist has proper control. Finally every pipe needs to be tuned to exactly the correct pitch.

This particular organ was installed in 1892 by Henry Willis. The Willis Organ Company which he founded in 1845 is regarded as being in the very forefront of British Victorian organ building. It was a family firm and he, as founder of the dynasty, is always known by the affectionate epithet, ‘Father Willis’. The possession of a Father Willis organ is widely regarded as a special privilege and some very notable establishments share this distinction with the Old High Church e.g. The Royal Albert Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, and Truro Cathedral to name but a few. Needless to say these others are much larger than this one but the quality of the craftsmanship is precisely the same. All of the famous organs which I have mentioned have of course undergone renovation and restoration by several eminent builders over the intervening years but, because of the sympathetic way in which the work has been carried out, the special Father Willis character is still apparent.

This organ, also, has been altered considerably since its installation, most notably when it was enlarged and modified by the Glasgow firm of Henry Hilsdon in 1923. At that time the action was altered from a mechanical one, which basically linked the keys mechanically to the pipes, to a pneumatic one which uses compressed air. This involved the installation of a great deal of lead tubing and it is partly a serious deterioration of this tubing which is causing many of the problems which are now being experienced.  The way in which the 1923 work was carried out cannot, in all honesty, be said to have been of the highest calibre and it did not pay full regard to Father Willis’ original concept. At a time when a great premium was placed on technical innovation it would no doubt be seen as an ‘improvement’ on Henry Willis’ work – a view which nowadays would be regarded as nothing less than heresy!  Thus, the organ as it stands today is rather like an old master languishing under several layers of dark varnish with holes beginning to appear in the canvas. The pressing need to put it back into good physical order also gives us the opportunity to ensure that a wonderful Father Willis organ re-emerges.

This is not mere musical archaeology, however. It is a project aimed at restoring to this church and to the whole community of Inverness an instrument which will be able to enhance worship, civic occasions and musical events for many years into the future. ”