Pipe Organs of England - Pipedreams - American Public Media

PAGE 34SUNDAY, 13 MAYSt. Paul’s Cathedral, LondonThe Organist: Simon JohnsonThe Organ:1694 Smith – 1872, 1900, 1930,1949 Willis – 1977, 1994, 2008 Mander, V/108This famous instrument has been through many vicissitudes, not leastbeing sawn in half when the Victorians removed Wren’s screen! Thatevent also saw, in 1872, the birth of a 52 stop instrument by Father Willis.The height of sophistication for its time and complete with pneumatictubes running beneath the chancel floor, it nevertheless contained alimited amount of earlier pipework; there are bits of the Father Smithorgan of 1694 still to be found today in amongst the Great fluework.The organ has grown gradually since, famously gaining Tubas in thedome in 1900 and undergoing a number of upheavals; indeed for a timeduring the first part of the 20th century the entire instrument lived inthe nave, while the dome was under repair. Mander Organs completedan ambitious rebuild in time for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, andit is in this form that the organ remains. Nevertheless, there have beena number of small tweaks to the specification since then, and in 2008the old Dome Tubas – battered by war, dirt, and unhelpfulatmospheric conditions – were gently retired to storage.Their place has been taken by three new reeds by Mander,and a Dome Console was added at the same time.The beautiful cases are only as deep as they look (with outstretchedarms it is almost possible to span their depth),but somehow house the Swell, Great and Choir organs,along with the original Willis 1872 Tubas. The ChancelPedal, much of which was new in the 1970s, lives alongsidethe Solo box one bay further east on the north side, inthe so-called “snake pit” (at one point in the organ’s history,this area was so packed with pipework that the PedalBourdon had to be hung upside down. It was not a pleasantplace to work). In the north-east quarter dome can befound the entire Dome Organ.The 1970s manual chorus replaced a postwar effort by WillisIII, which used second-hand Lewis pipework and was located in a different gallery. It was crowned by two Father Willischorus reeds (which were on the Solo originally) until 2008, when they were replaced for the same reasons as the DomeTubas. Much of the Dome Pedal pipework is old and has moved home several times, and the Trompette Militaire – the firststop of its type in the UK – was installed by Willis III in 1930. The 1970s West Organ has, in addition to the famous RoyalTrumpets, a small chorus in the south triforium for congregational support.