Smith, Snetzler, Willis & Others

Situated in a beautiful Parish church in the Devonshire town of Tiverton, this instrument is of considerable historical importance in that it contains some very old pipework dating from immediately after the Restoration. It is also famous for being the organ on which Mendelsohn's Wedding March was first performed.
The organ is presented in a magnificent Schwarbrick style case and the carvings were carried out by Grinling Gibbons who was also responsible for many London churches including St. Paul's Cathedral. 
The original instrument was built by Christian Smith (nephew to Father Bernard Smith) in 1696 although some claim that it was actually built by Bernard himself. Various local builders carried out work from time to time until 1770 when John Snetzler rebuilt and enlarged the instrument adding the Swell organ and several more stops. Bishop carried out some work in 1845 and Father Willis completely rebuilt the instrument (using much of the old pipework)to something approaching its current specification in 1867. Whilst Willis introduced his own stamp, particularly with the reeds, he did respect the work of Smith and Snetzler and there are one or two stops which have genuine pipework dating back to 1696 and 1770. A rather unfortunate rebuild by Noel Mander in 1967 destroyed the basic design of the Choir organ from the original Willis design but fortunately, left the rest unaltered and intact.
The organ was originally located on a screen before being moved to a West end Gallery in 1826. In 1856 it was moved to its current position on the North side of the church.
The instrument is in considerable need of restoration and is now beginning to show its age. The action to the Great organ is Barker Lever whilst that to the Swell and Choir are mechanical. The pedal is pneumatic. Despite its condition, the instrument produces a fine sound and definitely has a Father Willis flavour provided by the seven reeds. One strange anomaly is the Swell Bourdon 16' which is actually a Contra Gamba 16'. It is not the easiest instrument to play because the key touch throughout is very shallow - almost negligible on the Choir organ. Unfortunately, until the instrument is completely rebuilt or restored, there is no additional adjustment that can be undertaken to redress this problem according to the current organ builders.
Sadly, the Mander work removed two of the Willis Choir unison stops a Claribel Flute 8' and a Viol d'amour 8' and replaced them with a rather oddly composed Nason Flute 4' (running from Mid C with an 8' bass) plus two mixtures. The additional stops did improve the instrument with a little extra brightness and the concept was valid at the time but one wonders whetehr it would have been allowed today. Should the instrument be restored at some juncture, it will be most likely be via a grant which will probably insist that the specification be returned to the original as Father Willis left it.
As can be seen from the photographs, there is very little in the way of wooden pipework in the manual divisions (excluding some basses). The Pedal organ including the Ophicleide is made up entirely of wooden ranks except for the "Flute" 8' which is a metal Violoncello. The Great Stopped Diapason 8' is in fact an open wooden flute (apart from in the bass) which joins the equally misnamed Swell Bourdon 16' and Pedal Flute 8' - in reality a Contra Gamba and a Violoncello 8'. Although the Gt stop is certainly not a Stopped Diapason in terms of its construction or overall sound, it is nonetheless a rather pleasant register. However, unlike the majority of instruments containing "Gemshorns" which are commonly just standard principal pipes with perhaps some slotting, the Gemshorn's in this instrument are genuine conical stops and one definitely dates from 1696. It is difficult to work out what other pipework could be by either Smith or Snetzler - most likely the display pipes and parts of ranks elsewhere. It would be nice to think that the Choir Dulciana is a Snetzler stop since he introduced the stop to the UK but it's probably doubtful. Looking at the photographs and hearing the stops, the majority of the ranks are typically Father Willis in both form and tone.

It is also with great sadness that I mention that the fine organist; Andrew Curtis who was also a well respected music teacher at the local schools died suddenly of cancer in December 2019. He had hoped to replicate the organ in Hauptwerk so that the instrument was still "available" whilst funds were raised for a rebuild. He was very impressed by how close our early developments with the samples compared with the real instrument. Although some of the ranks or parts of them have found their way into our Concert series of libraries, this will be the first time that a facsimile of the whole instrument has been created.

In producing this instrument, I have endeavoured to provide a facsimile of the instrument as it stands today whilst re-introducing the "lost stops" replaced by Mander in 1967. As noted below, a Tierce has been added to the Swell Cornet to provide a more typical Willis Swell III rank mixture. The current II rank Cornet is NOT a Cornet at all but a straight forward 19;22 Quint Mixture. In reality, the only Additional stop is a Swell Celeste although it is possible that the original (removed) Choir Viol D'Amour might have been an undulating stop. The Choir Nason Flute has been "corrected" to a conventional full compass stop without the current 8' to 4' jump at middle C. The layout of the organ allows one to play the original Willis specification, the 1967 rebuilt one or both together.

Additional Octave and Sub-octave couplers have been provided to the Choir organ for additional flexibility. The Swell Octave Couplers are original helped considerably by the Barker action.

The specification is as follows:

Basic Screen shot of single monitor screen

Additional stops are marked in red lettering. On the Great organ, there are two Sesquialteras one within the Great stops and the other to the left of the Choir stops. The former is the original and the latter is a matching replacement with single ranks. In addition Choir stops that were removed in the Mander rebuild, have been reintroduced from a similar Father Willis organ.

It can be surmised that the original Swell Cornet was probably a 12;17 stop but was altered to the current quint mixture composition of 19:22. The toe holes and rack boards show that this was a two rank. A separate third tierce rank has been added to create a more typical Willis mixture. It can be added as wished to complete a III rank Cornet. There is an additional Celeste which is not present in the existing specification for extended use. This is made up of FW pipes from another instrument. There will most likely be additional Pedal stops to provide a more independent Pedal division. Possible candidates are an 8' + 4' extensions to the Bourdon 16' and possibly an 8 ' extension to the Open Wood to 8'.


The above image is the pre- release basic screen using HW graphics. The layout may change in the final release.


Great Organ

Barker Lever


Contra Gamba           16

Open Diapason (I)      8

Open Diapason(II)      8

Stopped Diapason    8    wood and metal        Viola                          8

Principal                    4

Twelfth                     3

Fifteenth                  2

Sesquialtera            III               17.19.22        Posaune               8     heavy wind            Clarion                      4      heavy wind

Swell Organ

Tracker


Bourdon               16   (Contra Gamba)

Open Diapason       8

Lieblich Gedact      8

Salicional                8

Gemshorn              4

Flageolet                2

Cornet                   II     19.22

Oboe                      8

Cornopean             8

Clarion                   4

Additional Celeste and Tierce rank

Tremulant

Original Choir organ

Tracker


Dulciana                    8

Lieblich Gedackt       8     wood and metal        Viol d'Amour             8

Claribel Flute            8

Gemshorn                 4

Flageolet                   2

Corno di Bassetto      8

Rebuilt Choir Organ

Tracker


Dulciana                   8

Lieblich Gedackt      8

Gemshorn                4

Nason Flute             4      Mid C, 8' bass

Flageolet                 2

Sesquialtera            II     12:17

Sharp Mixture         III     22.26.29

Corno di Bassetto   8

Pedal Organ

Tubular pneumatic


Open Diapason        16     wood            Bourdon                  16     wood

Flute                       8       metal Violoncello

Ophicleide              16      wood, heavy wind

Couplers etc.

Swell to Pedal

Swell to Great

Swell octave to Great

Swell suboctave to Great

Choir to Great

Choir to Pedal

Great to Pedal 


Accessories

balanced swell pedal
3 combination pedals to Swell and Great.


Work is in progress on this set and it is hoped that it will be ready sometime in early 2024.

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