Durban - From a note that wouldn’t play to bellows that were leaking like a sieve, the St Thomas Church organ ‒ one of the best church organs in the country and the pride of Durban’s Berea ‒ was in need of major restoration.
Now, in celebration of months of work, master organist Dr Christopher Cockburn will perform on the 116-year-old Henry Willis organ on May 30 at 3pm, in a programme of famous organ music – including Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
Resident organist at St Thomas Church Mervyn Payne, who was involved in the restoration project, says the organ is one of the best church pipe organs in the country.
It was made by the world-renowned Henry Willis and Sons ‒ a Liverpool firm of organ builders founded in 1845, who built many of the greatest organs in the UK including those in Winchester Cathedral, St Paul’s Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and Kings College Chapel, London.
“Willis, in those days, was the Rolls-Royce of organ builders, building for most of the cathedrals and city halls in England,” says Payne. “As far as I know, there is only one other in South Africa, in the Western Cape.”
The organ parts were shipped in crates to South Africa and assembled by a local organ builder in 1905.
“It was Installed in a purpose-built organ chamber in the church. Originally the console (keyboard) was under the pipes and was connected to them mechanically, but in the 1950s or ’60s, the church electrified the action of the organ. They moved the console to the other side of the chancel so you now sit facing the pipes.”
When the organ was first installed, the wind it required was hydraulically pumped with water pressure.
“Some of the original mechanism still remains in the organ chamber but it would be nice to see how it worked. It was probably two pistons operated by water pressure which, when one went down the other went up and blew air into the bellows.”
The organ has about 1 300 pipes. “It’s not big compared with a cathedral organ which could have 6 000 or 7 000 pipes but, by normal church standards, it is quite a large organ,” said Payne
It’s also an English romantic instrument which hasn’t been interfered with, which excited Cockburn and also informs his programme.
“An organ is a work of art. One should no more tamper with the design of a good organ than repaint the background to the Mona Lisa,” Cockburn says.
A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Cockburn is known throughout South Africa as an organ recitalist and accompanist. He lectures at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he graduated with a Doctorate in musicology.
"It is very satisfying to play. What has happened to so many English romantic organs is that people have tried to give them a Baroque character, or a French character, and that's when the instrument loses its integrity. In fact, sometimes once they have been modified, you find that nothing sounds really good on them anymore.”
Payne describes the French style as fond of their reed stops ‒ trumpet, oboe, cor anglais and clarinet ‒ which make a reedy sound, while the English sound is more flutey.
“Also a Baroque organ was mechanical, smaller and much more precise than romantic organs which, at their height, issued a wall of sound but became very vague, with so much going on that you couldn’t discern any detail.
“For an organ to work properly you need constant and unvarying wind pressure and to do that, you have a big wind reservoir called the bellows,” says Payne. “For our organ it’s the size of a small room in area but not in height and sits under the pipes and the flexible parts are made of leather ‒ not any leather but a special grade of leather. For the past nearly 15 years we’ve been getting more and more leaks. We patched it and patched it but it was getting near the end of its life.
“When the leather was replaced we discovered it was last releathered in 1967. There was an inscription inside the main bellows for local organ builders Cooper Gill and Tomkins and a guarantee for 50 years,” he says.
The restoration cost R260 000 and took two months to complete.
“We removed the bellows from the chamber and dismantled them and removed all the old leather. New leather had to be cut to fit and glued onto the original frame.” The organ’s electro pneumatic action on the stops was also overhauled.
Payne, although not a professional musician, has always been fascinated by the organ and learnt to play it while at Kearsney College in the 1960s.
“I remember at church I would get my father to take me to where the organ was being played. I was about 3 feet high and could only see it from underneath the keyboard. But it fascinated me. I started learning piano and, once I was reasonable on the piano, started learning the organ at school with John Harper (also a fellow of the Royal College of Organists). I then studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but it’s been a hobby all along.”
While Cockburn’s recital is the official reopening of the organ, Payne has had a sneak preview.
One of the differences is that when the organ is switched on, it’s quiet.
“Before, there was this wind noise from all the leaks. One of the improvements while doing the bellows and action was that they had a lot of the pipes out for cleaning and regulating and then, once reinstalled and retuned, the organ sounds pristine again. Dust gathers in them over the years and affects the sound,” he said.
And the note that wouldn’t play?
Even after everything was completed, one note on one of the largest pipes on the organ wouldn’t sound. “On investigating, a ball of very old newspaper from the 1920s was in the bottom of the pipe, blocking it,” he says. It’s now note perfect.
Catch Dr Christopher Cockburn in concert at St Thomas Church on May 30 at 3pm. Tickets, at R100/R80 pensioners and students, can be booked at the church office in the mornings at 031 201 2204 or WhatsApp Mervyn Payne at 082 706 4619.
The Independent on Saturday