Notes on organ technology

THE SCOPE OF THIS PAGE

Organs, using similar principles to those of the main St James organ, have been around since before the time of Jesus Christ.  A  page such as this could not possibly do the subject justice.  So, in here, you will find some notes and discussion relevant to the St James’ organs.  If you would like further information, there are many excellent books on the subject, or simply Google ‘church organs’ or something similar, and the web will produce plenty of information.  For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_organ  (Remember that, if you use this link, once you’ve read that page, to close that screen to get you back to this one).

THE TWO ST JAMES ORGANS

1. THE MAIN ORGAN

The main St James’ organ is situated in its own organ loft on the left of the Chancel.  That is its second home.  When it was ordered, the Chancel had not been built, the church consisting of only the current Nave.  So John Wardle designed it to fit under the Norman rounded arches there.  He even had to trim the shape of the swell box from its normal rectangular shape to fit under the sloping roof of the North Aisle.  This organ was first used on 21st December 1881.  It is almost untouched from its original configuration apart from:-

1)  The installation in the early 1900s of an electric motor to drive the blower that provides the air supply.  This was probably more reliable than the choirboys previously used.  They seem to have spent much time scribbling comments on the wood of the swell box.

2)   In 1950, the original flat pedal board was replaced with a more modern concave radiating one.  At the same time, the main pedal pipes (which are large square wooden pipes in two ranks at the east and west walls of the organ loft, one of which you can see behind the Lady Chapel altar).were changed from a wooden tracker action to electrical relay action.

THE FRONT PIPEWORK OF THE MAIN ST jAMES’ ORGAN, SHOWING HOW THE CURVE OF THE PIPES FITS THE NAVE ARCHES, NOT THE GOTHIC ARCH THAT IT NOW OCCUPIES

 

THE PEDAL BOARD

In recent times, this organ was given Historic Organ status by the British Institute of Organ Studies, being declared as “a significant formative example of Wadsworth prolific output in the North East of Scotland”.

THE SCRIBBLINGS on the SWELL BOX

Inside the organ loft, the workings of the organ contain the usual swell box found on most church organs, which is a large wooden box containing pipes, with louvres which are moved to make the sound louder or softer.  The St James organ’s swell box has two interesting features.

First is its shape.  Most swell boxes are simply rectangular.  The St James swell box has a sloping roof.  The reason for this is that the organ was originally installed in the north aisle of the nave, and this has a low, sloping roof.  Hence the need for a sloping roof on the swell box so that it would fit under the church roof.

Secondly, the swell box is covered in scribblings, mainly made by choirboys and other young visitors.  They would have had access to the loft, because they were chosen to pump the organ (before the electric blower was fitted in 1948).  The scribblings contain many fascinating bits:

  • Somebody has written (in French) the words of the French National Anthem
  • The electrician – Ronald Maitland – who fitted the electric blower and the electrical relays for the new pedal board in 1948 recorded his work
  • John Wardle, as did most organ builders, signed his installation, but he or someone added that he was at St James until 1942.

1. THE DEMONSTRATOR ORGAN

The second organ in St James was acquired as part of the Exhibition to be able to show how tracker organs work, and to do so in an educational, hands-on setting.  It was originally a chamber organ supplied to a small church in Cowie, Stirlingshire (which is now closed).  In reconstructing it here, the opportunity was taken to put on perspex panels, so that the mechanism can be seen, and the pipes can be removed and examined.  Students can access all the workings of the organ..

The organ can be used educationally to show that:-:

  • each pipe produces a separate note
  • the length of the pipe determines which note it sounds

 

At a more sophisticated level, it can show

  • The physics of the forces being transmitted through the tracking action
  • Wave interference and beating, standing waves, harmonics, overtones
  • how people hear and react to sounds
  • the materials science needed to produce music
  • how musical notation works