John Avery Chamber Organ 1792

Available for HW IV and HW V Onwards

This is another rare and charming organ representing our second facsimile English HW organ dating from before the 1800's. 

The organ is presented in a much more sumptuous case than the smaller Avery instrument and it would seem that it was built for the church - there being no records of it having been placed elsewhere in its history. 

The instrument is a large single manual with nine stops and pedals. The Stopped Diapason and the Mixture are split into bass and treble halves whilst the remainder are complete. The instruments has a long compass down to G, finishing at F giving a compass of 59 notes. The keyboard slides out into place once the covering "flap" is opened. As per the norm for instruments of this period, G# in the bass does not exist in the real instrument (we have provided pitch shifted notes to provide the missing pipes). The tuning is most likely 10th. comma which allows pretty much all keys to be played without the unpleasant wolves of other temperaments. Thanks to Hauptwerk many different temperaments can be applied as users see fit. The instrument is cone tuned throughout. The instrument remains untouched and unaltered with the exception of the provision of an electric blower a few years ago and the replacement of the damaged Hautboy with a stop from a similar aged instrument. The drawstops are held in by a notch when "off" and spring out when "pulled".

The specification is: 

Double Diapason

Open Diapason

Dulciana

Stopped Diapason Bass

Stopped Diapason Treble

Principal

Flute

Fifteenth

Sesquialtera

Cornet

Hautboy

There is a shifting pedal to cancel or bring on the upper work.

The Sesquialtera and Cornet are misnamed since neither contain a third sounding rank and are merely straight forward 19:22 based quint mixtures breaking at C-60 which is also where the stop splits. Compasses of some of the other stops are a little strange in that with the exception of the Stopped Diapason none of the unison stops extend to low G (10 2/3'). The Dulciana ceases at C-48 and the Open Diapason only goes down to F#-42. The remainder is not grooved. The Double Diapason finishes at G-43. The Hautboy is a short compass stop commencing at C-60.

The keyboard compass is 59 notes from 031-G to 089-F and the pedal compass is 17 notes (the bottom G# is missing) from G-31 to C-48. 

We have presented the organ in three different versions: Version 1 is of the organ recorded very close up at about 2" from the pipes. Version 2 is of the organ recorded from about 10' back and Version 3 combines both close and medium recordings with the choice of either or both recording positions. The reverberation in the church is fairly minimal and the medium distance set is presented "wet". The close recorded samples are to all intent and purpose dry with negligible ambience.

N.B. The reversible pedal that cancels out the split upper-work stops has not been included because it would be impossible to duplicate this facility exactly as it works in reality. Seven combinations plus a cancel have been provided as an alternative. Because HW defaults to a C compass keyboard, it will be necessary for users to reset the bottom note as 031-G using the "Keyboards" settings under "Organ Settings" in order to access the GGG compass. the screen shot below is for the close and medium combined set.

James Davis founded his business in 1780 together with his brother David near the Lancastrian town of Preston. The business was moved to London in 1790 and Samuel Renn the nephew of James was apprenticed to the firm at this time eventually becoming foreman. The company produced a large number of small instruments together with larger instruments including Wymondham Abbey, Stockport and Stonyhurst College. David became a partner with Clementi the piano and harpsichord maker and Samuel Renn went on to found the company of Renn, the Renn and Boston. Samuel Renn had a nephew called Kirtland who took over the business in 1845 and he in turn was joined by a partner called Jardine. Eventually the company became known by the singular name of Jardine. Thus as with many organ builders it was a small world and it is often surprising as to who turns up where in many organ builders histories.

Although the output of Davis was quite large, only about 18 instruments are known to survive and the majority of these have been completely absorbed into instruments by later builders. Those organs that remain in original and unaltered condition are few and far between.

N.B. The library has both organs available under one "instrument" with a choice of either "listening" position or both Close and Medium together (for use in surround / multi channel set-ups).

Anonymous @ 1760-1780

Available for HW IV and HW V Onwards

This instrument can be found in a tiny church in a little countryside village hamlet which is barely on the map. It is one of a few known to me that are not currently listed under the N.P.O.R. The case design and tonal quality of the basic instrument would lead me to believe that it was constructed somewhere between 1760 and 1780 as a single manual for its original owner and at a later time (post @ 1850), the instrument was moved to its current location and rebuilt as a two manual and pedal instrument with two extra stops : Keraulophone 8' and Wald Flute 4'. I estimate post 1850 because the Keraulophone (an attempt at a string stop) was not invented until 1843 by Gray and Davison.

The instrument casework implies that it is an altered single manual chamber organ because there is a very definite "join" at the sides. I believe that the rear of the sides were tacked on to the original and were taken from the back of the instrument. The compass extends to F54 and some of the stops extend only down to F18 as is common in other chamber organs of the late 1700's. The dummy half wooden decorated "metal" case-front pipes are also typical of this period and type of instrument. As to where it came from and who built it, this is entirely conjecture. Certainly, several builders of chamber organs could have been responsible since there are other examples of their work in the area. The church in itself is of the Victorian age so the instrument obviously came from somewhere else originally as stated above. Close by is an old former priory now owned by a well known impresario and I reckon that the instrument probably originated from here. 

Despite the fact that the blower is rather hissy and I had to resort to tape and blu-tac to reduce the noise, the stops in themselves are very pleasant and the diapason chorus of 8, 4 and 2 on the Great blends well. There is an additional Dulciana and a divided Stopped Diapason which are also rather nice. I have already mentioned the Keraulophone which definitely would not have been part of any original instrument but the 4' Flute is a standard open stop of wood contruction.

I have decided to create the HW instrument in two versions which include 

1. The original odd specification with an added simple Bourdon pedal. 

2. As an extended single manual with pedal which moves the 4' Swell flute to join the Great and I have added a typical split Sesquialtera / Cornet. The Keraulophone has been omitted. 

As you can see from the photos, there are no pedal coupler drawstops and the manuals are automatically connected by pull-downs.

The specification is as follows;

GREAT ORGAN

Stopped Diapason Bass 8 ft

Stopped Diapason Treble 8 ft

Open Diapason 8 ft

Principal 4 ft

Dulciana 8 ft

Fifteenth 2 ft

SWELL ORGAN

Kraulophone 8 ft

Principal 4 ft

Swell to Great

The second and third photos above show the stop arrangement for the Swell and Great organs and likewise photos 4 and 5 show the pipework. Notice the classic Keraulophone holes at the top. In the final photograph, you can see the join in the cornice which coincides exactly with the start of the swell box. Obviously the new console was tacked on to the front replacing the original. The HW stop screens are shown below:

E. J.  Johnson 1971

Available for HW IV and HW V Onwards

This is a modern instrument built by the well respected Cambridge firm of Johnson. It is a typical box / continuo instrument with five stops and is situated in the tiny church of Shepton Montague in the middle of the Somerset countryside. Several identical and almost identical instruments can be found in a number of other locations including universities and cathedrals. The church is interesting in that the original footprint of the building remains showing a larger building. However, a fire destroyed much of the fabric and when the church was rebuilt, the original sacristy area was not rebuilt and the church was shortened to its present size. The footprint of the original sacristy is still visible. The organ is adequate to accompany the small occasional congregations that attend in this remote village.

When the organ was first installed, only three stops were provided with the remaining stops prepared for and these were added some decades later so that the instrument is now complete. The quality of craftsmanship is typical of the firm and the materials used are also of high quality with spotted metal and hardwood being used for the pipework. As you will hear; the tonal quality of the instrument is neither old English chamber organ or too modern European and strikes a useful balance between the two schools.

There is an amusing anecdote connected with the sampling of this instrument in that I got imprisoned in the church when the caretaker came to lock up late in the afternoon without checking that there was anyone inside. It was only by fortune that my partner was passing by and discovered the church locked with me inside it (I was still sampling). With no mobile phone (and no signal anyway) things might have been difficult since the church is literally in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, we were able to get to a point where a signal could be found about half a mile down the road, contact was made with the caretaker and I was eventually released from my prison. The vicar and the whole hamlet were highly amused.

The specification is as follows:

Gedeckt 8'

Rohrflute 4'

Principal 2'

Tierce 1 3/5' (Middle C)

Mixture II rks (22:26)

E.J. JOHNSON 1971: £55.00

The photos below show the real instrument and church together with the fully functional Hauptwerk instrument. The graphics and ODF have been developed by Stephen and Olivia Nagioff.