THE ORGAN – ST CYPRIAN PARISH CHURCH, DURBAN
By Errol Bristow (Organist St Cyprians)
The original organ was ordered from the firm of HELE & Company of Plymouth, England, in 1876 and installed in the Smith Street church in 1878. It would appear that the organ was commissioned before the church was built. The instrument was quite small and comprised of no more than 7 stops, most probably on 1 manual but possibly 2 manuals with a pedal stop that was later discarded.The presence of Brindley and Foster (Sheffield, England) pipes on both manuals and pedal would indicate that William Kemp of Pietermaritzburg at some stage enlarged the organ. Kemp was an ex-employee of Brindley and Foster who set up business in Pietermaritzburg in 1901 having installed numerous organs in SA up to that time, including the City Hall organs of both Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the first having been destroyed by fire in 1895. It is often wondered why the members of St Cyprians placed the order for the organ with Hele & Company, particularly as the firm had only been in existence for about 10 years. A possible explanation lies in an article in the Autumn 1994 edition of the Dartmoor Magazine in which it was mentioned that a Revd William Yate Daykin of Sheepstor Parish church, near Plymouth, left in 1895 to take up a post as Archdeacon of Durban. It is thought it may conceivably be possible that Revd Daykin may have had a previous contact with Hele & Co and recommended them to the church Council.
When the church moved from Smith Street to its present position at Congella the organ would have been removed as well and installed by a Mr Kitchener of Cooper Gill & Tomkins, and there it stood in much of its unaltered form until the rebuild starting 20 August 1998. Roy Low of the SABC said his Father used to play the organ at St Cyprians during the last war and that the front pipes came from the old Central Methodist church in West Street, so alterations must of taken place in the early sixties when the Methodist Church moved to corner Aliwal and West Street. The existing Open Diapason being removed to make way for the new Diapason with extension to 16 ft Violone Diapason on the pedals. And so the organ continued to function together with Consol and Choir upstairs in the loft, the organ being assembled against the rear wall with choir and consol in front.
During 1981 I took over position of organist from Sydney Herbert and was told that the organ was having its 10 year overhaul. The instrument was brought forward and the consol together with the choir was moved downstairs. The old consol could just about cope with the distance as the action was air activated and it needed a complete overhaul. It was decided to put in a new 3 manual consol on modern lines than to try and overhaul the totally outdated, non standard consol. Michael Hankinson, then organist for the City Hall, Durban, was called in as consultant for R Tozer pipe organ builder. The price of the consol was R10,000,00 and was installed after September 1983 in it’s present position. No funds being available for the Choir organ, the installation cost ± R10,000.00.
As the years progressed ciphers were much in evidence and to rectify the fault pipes would be pulled out to silence the offending note. The organ was getting to a stage where it was starting to be un-playable due to the deterioration of the leather purse blocks in the sound boards which is a very time consuming and costly job to repair, but which could be spread over the years. A better proposition arrived as we heard there was an organ for sale from the Presbyterian Church in Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg, which was sold to us for R30,000.00 minus the consol and blower. To do repairs on this system would be at a third of the price of our purse block system.
THE MOVE – THE DISMANTLING – THE ASSEMBLY
Saturday 16th May 1998 a work party of men assembled at St Cyprians to travel to Pietermaritzburg and bring back the new organ. On arrival at Pietermaritzburg we found most of the organ had been dismantled and packed ready for loading into Mr Evans 5 ton furniture van. Members of the work party were quite amazed as to the weight of some of the parts and the frailty of others. The Van was full, and so was the boots of the member’s cars. The van would return on the Monday and bring back the remainder of parts. The fragile pipe work would be brought by Colin Hele, the organ builder. All our work was completed by 11h00 which was to the delight of some members and the Rector, as they were off to see an important Rugby match at Kings Park! When the van arrived back at St Cyprian’s we unloaded and stacked as much as we could of the parts upstairs, and the heavy wind chests and trunking we stored in the Chapel and side-aisle of the church. The old organ would have to be dismantled close to the time when the organ builder wished to commence with his assembly work as we wished to keep the organ sounding as long as possible. The last time the old organ sounded was the 09th August, 1998 and in order to play it out Margaret and I rendered the following at both 7am and 9 am services:
Toccata D Minor – J.S. Bach
Bells Across the Meadows – Albert Ketélbey
In a Monastery Garden – Albert Ketélbey
Phantom Melody - Albert Ketélbey
Softly & Tenderly
Panis Angelica – Cesar Franck
Trumpet Voluntary – Clark & Trumpet Tune & Air – Purcell
The Choir sang The Holy City with the congregation joining in at the 9am service.
Tuesday 11th August 998 we started dismantling the old organ and I am very grateful for the assistance of Roy Lowe (Chairman of Natal Branch Theatre Organ Society).
All parts were marked and numbered and so if we ever need to, we can assemble it again. We finished our work on Thursday 13th August 1998 with a few loose ends to neaten up on Friday. The cost to strip the new organ in Pietermaritzburg by the organ builder was R6840 inclusive of VAT. Cost to strip the old organ ourselves – Nil. Now comes the big crunch - How do we get the heavy parts up stairs? We asked for a few quotations from rigging and scaffolding firms, the cheapest being R7,000.00. We were starting to run out of time and in the end obtained permission to borrow scaffolding with a 2 ton chain block and beam and again I am grateful for the assistance of Taffy Reese in the erection of 2 scaffold towers - only to find on completion that our towers needed to be raised by another 2 sections. We are extremely grateful for the assistance of Ronny and his brother Billy King who was a structural Engineer in the University of Natal, Department of Civil Engineering who kindly lent us the additional
scaffolding and secured the towers to the balcony and passed it for safe use.
Saturday 22 August 1998 we had another work party together with the organ builder lifting the parts into place in the organ loft. All went smoothly with no accidents.
The following Saturday another work party to help the organ builder in the assembly of the Swell Box. The chipboard is extremely heavy being 43.5m x 2m x 30mm thick. When this was completed, the heavy Swell Wind Chest was placed inside on end. The Swell Box then had to be painted inside and out and to Taffy Reese again, thank you. You made a fine job of it. Another work party was confirmed the following Saturday to lift the heavy wind chests onto their supports once Colin Hele had positioned and fixed them to the base frame. The church is extremely grateful to the work parties and various persons who have made themselves available during this venture, with them we would have been faced with huge labour costs. It was Colin Hele who said to me one day during the assembly work, you can see this is a Christian church when everyone comes together to help.
The organ, although not complete to-date, was blessed by Bishop Ruben on Sunday 08 November 1998 at pm Service of Songs of Praise and as to this time of writing there are still eight stops to be connected.
To those interested in costs, one might say we paid R30,000.00 for the organ, why the extra costs? Well the answer is simple – you still have to install it!
To dismantle Presbyterian Church Organ – R6,840.00
Swell Organ: To constructing and erecting a new swell box of 32mm chipboard, painted on both sides, assembling the Swell Organ within the enclosure, assembling the wind system, Swell front frames, shutter system and operating mechanism, alterations to the tallest pipes to fit box, alteration to frame and wind ducting, provide a new test-board to accommodate the new solid state switching system and necessary wiring, to cleaning, repairing and installing the swell pipe work, including the supply of such materials as necessary, including additional wind ducting, screws, cables etc – R18,240.00 (Broken down – Labour - R9,576.00 & Materials R8,664.00.) Great Organ: To assembling the Great main wind chests, wind system and adapting the front pipe system as required, to supplying a new test-board to accommodate the new solid state switching system and necessary wiring, including the supply of materials as necessary, wind ducting, screws, cable etc – R15,618.00 (Broken down – Labour R8,208.00 & Materials R7,410.00).
All prices include VAT. There is an additional cost to alter the draw stop names of not more than R650.00 plus VAT. Without the help of the work parties and others the costs would have been considerably higher
OLD ORGAN SPECIFICATION
GREAT SWELL
Hohl Flute 8 'Bourdon 16’
Open Diapason 8’ Open Diapason 8’
Dulciana 8’ Stopped Diapason 8’
Gamba 8’ Salicional 8’
Harmonic Flute 4’ Voix Celeste 8’
Principal 4’ Wald Flute 4’
Fifteenth 2’ Gemhorn 4’
Mixture 2rk Twelfth *2 ⅔
Trumpet *8’ Quortone *12th & 15th
Cornopean 8'
Oboe 8’
Tremulant
PEDAL CHOIR
Bourdon 16’ Rohr Holtz Gedact *8’
Violone 16’ Gemshorn *4’
Bass Flute 8’ Nazar d*2⅔
Violincello *8’ Spindle Flu 2’
Tenor Flute *4’ Larigot *1⅓
Viola *4’ Octavin *1’
Piccolo *2’ Trumpet *8’
Trumpet *16’
Couplers: Swell 4’ Swell 1 6’ Swell to Great 4’ Swell to Great 16’ Swell to Great 8’ Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal, Choir to Pedal, Swell to Choir, Great to Choir, Stops marked * were added to new consol but lack of funds prevented installation.
NEW ORGAN SPECIFICATION
GREAT SWELL
Open Diapason 8’ Open Diapason 8’
Geigen Diapason 8' Hohl Flute 8’
Stop Diapason 8’ Salicional 8’
Dulciana 8’ Voix Celeste 8'
Principal 4’ Gemshorn 4’
Octave Geigen 4’ Mixture 3 rk
Twelfth 2⅔ Contra Oboe 16’
Fifteenth 2’ Cornopean 8’
8
Trumpet prepared for Oboe 8’
Tremulant
PEDAL
Bourdon 16’
Violone 16’
Bass Flute 8’
Violin Chello *8'
Tenor Flute *4'
Fagotto 16’
Couplers: Swell 4’ Swell 16’ Swell to Great 4’ Swell to Great 16’ Swell to Great 8’ Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal, Choir to Pedal, Swell to Choir, Great to Choir.
The only part of the old organ in use with the new organ will be the pedal organ. We therefore have two complete organs in the organ loft, one working, one spare, pipes can be swapped for existing ranks or sold to offset costs and we keep back what we want.
The intention is to install the old wind chests on their mounting legs and replace the pipes in their proper positions – in this way parts will not be damaged and if we need additions i.e. choir organ etc we have the parts, and much of the work can be done ourselves – in fact just about all.
In closing, I will need the help of a small work party of about 6 when we get there.
© Errol Bristow 2010
When the church moved from Smith Street to its present position at Congella the organ would have been removed as well and installed by a Mr Kitchener of Cooper Gill & Tomkins, and there it stood in much of its unaltered form until the rebuild starting 20 August 1998. Roy Low of the SABC said his Father used to play the organ at St Cyprians during the last war and that the front pipes came from the old Central Methodist church in West Street, so alterations must of taken place in the early sixties when the Methodist Church moved to corner Aliwal and West Street. The existing Open Diapason being removed to make way for the new Diapason with extension to 16 ft Violone Diapason on the pedals. And so the organ continued to function together with Consol and Choir upstairs in the loft, the organ being assembled against the rear wall with choir and consol in front.
During 1981 I took over position of organist from Sydney Herbert and was told that the organ was having its 10 year overhaul. The instrument was brought forward and the consol together with the choir was moved downstairs. The old consol could just about cope with the distance as the action was air activated and it needed a complete overhaul. It was decided to put in a new 3 manual consol on modern lines than to try and overhaul the totally outdated, non standard consol. Michael Hankinson, then organist for the City Hall, Durban, was called in as consultant for R Tozer pipe organ builder. The price of the consol was R10,000,00 and was installed after September 1983 in it’s present position. No funds being available for the Choir organ, the installation cost ± R10,000.00.
As the years progressed ciphers were much in evidence and to rectify the fault pipes would be pulled out to silence the offending note. The organ was getting to a stage where it was starting to be un-playable due to the deterioration of the leather purse blocks in the sound boards which is a very time consuming and costly job to repair, but which could be spread over the years. A better proposition arrived as we heard there was an organ for sale from the Presbyterian Church in Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg, which was sold to us for R30,000.00 minus the consol and blower. To do repairs on this system would be at a third of the price of our purse block system.
THE MOVE – THE DISMANTLING – THE ASSEMBLY
Saturday 16th May 1998 a work party of men assembled at St Cyprians to travel to Pietermaritzburg and bring back the new organ. On arrival at Pietermaritzburg we found most of the organ had been dismantled and packed ready for loading into Mr Evans 5 ton furniture van. Members of the work party were quite amazed as to the weight of some of the parts and the frailty of others. The Van was full, and so was the boots of the member’s cars. The van would return on the Monday and bring back the remainder of parts. The fragile pipe work would be brought by Colin Hele, the organ builder. All our work was completed by 11h00 which was to the delight of some members and the Rector, as they were off to see an important Rugby match at Kings Park! When the van arrived back at St Cyprian’s we unloaded and stacked as much as we could of the parts upstairs, and the heavy wind chests and trunking we stored in the Chapel and side-aisle of the church. The old organ would have to be dismantled close to the time when the organ builder wished to commence with his assembly work as we wished to keep the organ sounding as long as possible. The last time the old organ sounded was the 09th August, 1998 and in order to play it out Margaret and I rendered the following at both 7am and 9 am services:
Toccata D Minor – J.S. Bach
Bells Across the Meadows – Albert Ketélbey
In a Monastery Garden – Albert Ketélbey
Phantom Melody - Albert Ketélbey
Softly & Tenderly
Panis Angelica – Cesar Franck
Trumpet Voluntary – Clark & Trumpet Tune & Air – Purcell
The Choir sang The Holy City with the congregation joining in at the 9am service.
Tuesday 11th August 998 we started dismantling the old organ and I am very grateful for the assistance of Roy Lowe (Chairman of Natal Branch Theatre Organ Society).
All parts were marked and numbered and so if we ever need to, we can assemble it again. We finished our work on Thursday 13th August 1998 with a few loose ends to neaten up on Friday. The cost to strip the new organ in Pietermaritzburg by the organ builder was R6840 inclusive of VAT. Cost to strip the old organ ourselves – Nil. Now comes the big crunch - How do we get the heavy parts up stairs? We asked for a few quotations from rigging and scaffolding firms, the cheapest being R7,000.00. We were starting to run out of time and in the end obtained permission to borrow scaffolding with a 2 ton chain block and beam and again I am grateful for the assistance of Taffy Reese in the erection of 2 scaffold towers - only to find on completion that our towers needed to be raised by another 2 sections. We are extremely grateful for the assistance of Ronny and his brother Billy King who was a structural Engineer in the University of Natal, Department of Civil Engineering who kindly lent us the additional
scaffolding and secured the towers to the balcony and passed it for safe use.
Saturday 22 August 1998 we had another work party together with the organ builder lifting the parts into place in the organ loft. All went smoothly with no accidents.
The following Saturday another work party to help the organ builder in the assembly of the Swell Box. The chipboard is extremely heavy being 43.5m x 2m x 30mm thick. When this was completed, the heavy Swell Wind Chest was placed inside on end. The Swell Box then had to be painted inside and out and to Taffy Reese again, thank you. You made a fine job of it. Another work party was confirmed the following Saturday to lift the heavy wind chests onto their supports once Colin Hele had positioned and fixed them to the base frame. The church is extremely grateful to the work parties and various persons who have made themselves available during this venture, with them we would have been faced with huge labour costs. It was Colin Hele who said to me one day during the assembly work, you can see this is a Christian church when everyone comes together to help.
The organ, although not complete to-date, was blessed by Bishop Ruben on Sunday 08 November 1998 at pm Service of Songs of Praise and as to this time of writing there are still eight stops to be connected.
To those interested in costs, one might say we paid R30,000.00 for the organ, why the extra costs? Well the answer is simple – you still have to install it!
To dismantle Presbyterian Church Organ – R6,840.00
Swell Organ: To constructing and erecting a new swell box of 32mm chipboard, painted on both sides, assembling the Swell Organ within the enclosure, assembling the wind system, Swell front frames, shutter system and operating mechanism, alterations to the tallest pipes to fit box, alteration to frame and wind ducting, provide a new test-board to accommodate the new solid state switching system and necessary wiring, to cleaning, repairing and installing the swell pipe work, including the supply of such materials as necessary, including additional wind ducting, screws, cables etc – R18,240.00 (Broken down – Labour - R9,576.00 & Materials R8,664.00.) Great Organ: To assembling the Great main wind chests, wind system and adapting the front pipe system as required, to supplying a new test-board to accommodate the new solid state switching system and necessary wiring, including the supply of materials as necessary, wind ducting, screws, cable etc – R15,618.00 (Broken down – Labour R8,208.00 & Materials R7,410.00).
All prices include VAT. There is an additional cost to alter the draw stop names of not more than R650.00 plus VAT. Without the help of the work parties and others the costs would have been considerably higher
OLD ORGAN SPECIFICATION
GREAT SWELL
Hohl Flute 8 'Bourdon 16’
Open Diapason 8’ Open Diapason 8’
Dulciana 8’ Stopped Diapason 8’
Gamba 8’ Salicional 8’
Harmonic Flute 4’ Voix Celeste 8’
Principal 4’ Wald Flute 4’
Fifteenth 2’ Gemhorn 4’
Mixture 2rk Twelfth *2 ⅔
Trumpet *8’ Quortone *12th & 15th
Cornopean 8'
Oboe 8’
Tremulant
PEDAL CHOIR
Bourdon 16’ Rohr Holtz Gedact *8’
Violone 16’ Gemshorn *4’
Bass Flute 8’ Nazar d*2⅔
Violincello *8’ Spindle Flu 2’
Tenor Flute *4’ Larigot *1⅓
Viola *4’ Octavin *1’
Piccolo *2’ Trumpet *8’
Trumpet *16’
Couplers: Swell 4’ Swell 1 6’ Swell to Great 4’ Swell to Great 16’ Swell to Great 8’ Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal, Choir to Pedal, Swell to Choir, Great to Choir, Stops marked * were added to new consol but lack of funds prevented installation.
NEW ORGAN SPECIFICATION
GREAT SWELL
Open Diapason 8’ Open Diapason 8’
Geigen Diapason 8' Hohl Flute 8’
Stop Diapason 8’ Salicional 8’
Dulciana 8’ Voix Celeste 8'
Principal 4’ Gemshorn 4’
Octave Geigen 4’ Mixture 3 rk
Twelfth 2⅔ Contra Oboe 16’
Fifteenth 2’ Cornopean 8’
8
Trumpet prepared for Oboe 8’
Tremulant
PEDAL
Bourdon 16’
Violone 16’
Bass Flute 8’
Violin Chello *8'
Tenor Flute *4'
Fagotto 16’
Couplers: Swell 4’ Swell 16’ Swell to Great 4’ Swell to Great 16’ Swell to Great 8’ Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal, Choir to Pedal, Swell to Choir, Great to Choir.
The only part of the old organ in use with the new organ will be the pedal organ. We therefore have two complete organs in the organ loft, one working, one spare, pipes can be swapped for existing ranks or sold to offset costs and we keep back what we want.
The intention is to install the old wind chests on their mounting legs and replace the pipes in their proper positions – in this way parts will not be damaged and if we need additions i.e. choir organ etc we have the parts, and much of the work can be done ourselves – in fact just about all.
In closing, I will need the help of a small work party of about 6 when we get there.
© Errol Bristow 2010
