The Organ in St Mary's
Scottish Episcopal Church, Dalmahoy
Last
updated: 4 April 2011
The organ
began life as a one-manual chamber organ of 54-notes by the Edinburgh organ builder David
Hamilton (1800-1863), probably for Dalmahoy House, originally the
home of the Earl of Morton (now the Marriott Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club, in the same
grounds as the church). Several features of the organ suggest that the original
instrument dates from 1840, or even earlier. The church was consecrated on 24th
September 1850, and at some point between 1850 and 1890 the organ was installed
in the alcove by the north door of the nave. Later, David Hamilton’s brothers, Thomas and
James, added the 30-note Pedal Organ.
In 1902,
the organ was moved and reconstructed in its present position in an organ
chamber on the north side of the chancel, enlarged to two 58-note manuals and re-voiced
by Charles and Frederick Hamilton under the direction of T.H.Collinson, organist
of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, who gave the opening recital on 9th
March 1902. The casework, console, new mechanical action, Swell Organ, and
several stops were added. The original 54-note soundboard was re-used for the Great
Organ, and the pipes for the extra top 4 notes were added on a separate
pneumatic action slider soundboard. Because of the restrictions of height in the organ chamber,
the Swell Box could not accommodate the bass of the 8' Open Diapason, so the bottom
7
pipes are on a separate pneumatic action chest outside the Swell Box, alongside
6 bass pipes of the Great 8' Open Diapason! Of the pipes in the two case fronts,
only 4 are actually speakers, from the Great Open Diapason. All the rest are
dummies.
In 1979,
a Clarinet on the Great was replaced by a very strange and loud Mixture stop
(19,22 but breaking back an octave to 12,15 at middle-C, thus duplicating the
existing Twelfth and Fifteenth stops!).
Much of
the surviving pipework is made of good quality thin alloy with high tin content, a
feature of Saxon organ builders, and we know that David Hamilton received his
training in Saxony.
The
organ is under the care of Henry Willis and Sons Ltd.,
who completely refurbished, re-voice and enlarged the organ in 2008/9. The organ was completely removed to their factory
(with the exception of the wooden casework on the north wall of the chancel) in
May 2008. The organ was re-installed and completed in the church in May 2009.
Whilst the organ was removed we were able to attend to the “spalling”
stonework within the organ chamber caused by previous roof leaks.
In
addition to the complete refurbishment and re-voicing of the organ, the strange
1979 Mixture stop on the Great Organ was replaced by a new Mixture of much more
suitable scale and true 19,22 (116 pipes), only breaking back an octave for the
top 10 notes. Henry Willis and Sons also added
two new stops. These are a Mixture on the Swell Organ and a
magnificent, powerful, Great Trumpet (58 pipes) which is installed just behind
the north chancel case. The Trumpet pipes sit under a stone arch with a headroom
of only about 3 feet 6 inches (107 cm) from the soundboard. As some of the pipes are over 8
feet (244 cm)
long these pipes are of some very interesting shapes, as can be seen in the
photographs below,
together with the new Swell (left) and Great Mixture pipes (right). The only
visual effect of these changes is that the Swell Box was enlarged and projects a
further 8 inches (21 cm) into the Sacristy/Vestry to
accommodate the Swell Mixture (116 pipes), but only above head-height,
and of course two extra drawstops at the console. The console woodwork was
stripped of its very dark varnish and is now a much lighter oak finish (see
photo below of Carlo Curley at the console).
The variety, range and quality of tone is superb from
the sweet and very gentle Swell Salicional to the very impressive Full Organ. A
new radiating and concave pedal board was also installed to replace the
previously concave but parallel pedal board, and the Swell Pedal has been
re-positioned so that it does not touch D# and F# on the pedal board when closed.
Our 'new' organ was opened by Mr Carlo Curley, the
internationally acclaimed American concert organist, who gave an exhilarating
'Organ Extravaganza' on Monday 25th May 2009 to a packed church. (www.carlo.com)
For further information on Henry Willis & Sons Ltd., visit their web site at:
www.willis-organs.com
For the “organically” minded the specification of our organ is now:
|
Organ Specification 2009
By Henry Willis & Sons Ltd
Great Organ
Swell Organ
Pipes Pipes
Open Diapason
8’ 58
Open Diapason
8’ 58
Clarabella
8’ 58 Lieblich Gedact
8’ 58
Viola da Gamba (Grooved) 8’
51 Salicional (Grooved)
8’ 51
Principal
4’ 58 Voix Celeste (TC)
8’ 46
Dulcet Twelfth
3’ (sic) 58
Principal
4’ 58
Fifteenth
2’ 58
Mixture II (New) 12,15
116
Mixture II (New) 19,22
116 Oboe (Full compass) 8’
58
Trumpet (New)
8’ 58 Tremulant
Pedal Organ (New R&C pedal board) Couplers
Pipes
Bourdon
16’ 30 Swell to Great
Swell to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Action
Manuals – Mechanical Balanced
Mechanical Swell pedal (re-positioned)
Pedals – Pneumatic
We would liked to have enlarged the Pedal Organ, but there is just not enough
room in the organ chamber.
|
|
John A Blaber - Resident Organist,
St Mary's Dalmahoy |