The King of Instruments: a Voice Reborn
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The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge Final Logo Brand Extension Logo 06.27.12 THE KING OF INSTRUMENTS A VOICE REBORN STEPHEN CLEOBURY TRACK LIST TRACK THE KING OF INSTRUMENTS A VOICE REBORN 1 Alleluyas Simon Preston 05:19 Preludes from Das Clavierübung III Johann Sebastian Bach 2 Wir glauben all' an einen Gott (BWV 680) 03:33 3 Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam (BWV 684) 04:35 4 Kyrie, Gott, heiliger Geist (BWV 671) 04:16 Organ Sonata, Op. 65, No. 1 in F minor Felix Mendelssohn 5 I. Allegro moderato e serioso 05:28 6 II. Adagio 03:01 7 III. Andante recitativo 02:50 8 IV. Allegro assai 03:46 9 Resurgam Harvey Grace 08:22 10 Pièce héroïque (M 37) César Franck 08:53 Preludes from Das Orgelbüchlein Johann Sebastian Bach 11 In dir ist Freude (BWV 615) 02:42 12 O Mensch, bewein', dein' Sünde groß (BWV 622) 05:14 13 Heut' triumphiret Gottes Sohn (BWV 630) 01:26 14 Procession Royale George Baker [World Premiere Recording] 04:12 Total Time 63:37 2 1 2 3 FOREWORD features of David’s music-making, I like FOREWORD to think that he would have approved of BY STEPHEN CLEOBURY what has been achieved by Harrison and Harrison in this connection. As I know from reading the correspondence I first played the King’s organ in the late which passed in the 1930s between Arthur 1960s when I was Organ Student at St John’s Harrison and Boris Ord, Ord was especially College. David Willcocks had asked me to concerned with the organ as a vehicle for accompany a festal evensong for the Royal accompanying the College Choir, and, in School of Church Music which he was many ways, the organ’s great strength is directing. My preparation for this included found in this role. It is, perhaps, unsurpassed a short meeting with David at the organ in the range of subtle colour it can offer in console in which he told me that the first helping singers to paint the words of the two stops I should draw should be the choir psalms, a subtle art which is still very much to great coupler, since the choir organ spoke alive in the hands of our current organ clearly and could be heard well from the scholars. But the size and versatility of the console, and the 8-foot pedal flute, which instrument also enable it successfully to was located behind the player on the wall encompass a wide range of repertoire, half way up the organ loft stairs. This, he including the baroque. I have chosen six said, would enable me to hear what note I Bach chorale preludes for this disc, which was playing on the pedals! Little did I know not only show something of the extraordinary then that, some fifty years later, I would be range of treatment the composer brings able to have the pedal flute placed inside to this genre, but, in the context of this, the main case, and, indeed, by reorganising the first recording on the restored organ, the interior of the case, that it would be demonstrate six different registrations, possible to hear the pedal notes with real presenting a number of ‘organ pleno’ clarity without the assistance of a sound combinations and, in two cases, making source on the stairs. As a result of the recent use of the choir mutation stops which are, restoration all the ranks on the organ speak for me, a special beauty of this organ. with greater clarity and rhythmic precision, and, as these two things were such important The three substantial works in the centre of the programme deploy the organ in 4 romantic repertoire. The sound world of the 8-foot pedal principal. This has created, Mendelssohn is inevitably Bach-influenced: for the first time here, a complete principal the slow movement, however, features a chorus in the pedal division. number of the flute registers, including the new 4-foot on the great, and the following The recording begins and ends with music ‘recitativo’ contrasts the swell oboe with the by personal friends and colleagues. In his solo cor anglais - a contrast not indicated in exhilarating Alleluyas Simon Preston displays the score, but which seems effective. Harvey a virtuosity as a composer to equal his skill Grace’s dramatic work, a recent discovery as a player. I am sure he would not deny for me, allows the player to use the full range the influence of Messiaen. It is interesting of dynamics and colour available, the solo to reflect that his first recordings of Messiaen tuba making one of three brief appearances were made when he was organ scholar at in this disc. (I feel that the effectiveness King’s. George Baker, who lives and works of this stop is in inverse proportion to the in Dallas, Texas, is a francophile when it frequency of its use!) Franck’s work is comes to the organ. His knowledge of the well served by the variety of reeds, as well composers and players, the instruments and as by the newly constructed lower notes the repertoire of the French is not matched of the great 16-foot principal. Although by anyone else I know. I was honoured not a major feature of the piece, the pedal that he wrote this piece for me to play, and ostinato in the central section is given this is its first recording. character by the second of the new ranks, Organ images - pages 3, 7, 10 & 11 1 The refurbished console. 2 Fifteen metres from ground level with the angel on the north west corner of the main case after cleaning. 3 The Chapel organ seen from the altar with the sun setting behind it. 4 Looking up at the Chapel ceiling from inside the empty main organ case. 5 Old soundboards in the main case are dismantled, early January 2016. 6 A lorry parked by the Chapel with parts of the restored organ ready to be installed. 7 Inside the main case, looking north-east (after restoration). 8 A voicer uses a remote console to refine the sound of each of the 4,300 pipes following their reinstallation. 9 Inside the main case, looking north-east (before restoration). 10 Pipes returning to the Chapel from the workshop. 11 The organ case stands empty in the Chapel after the pipes are removed to be cleaned and repaired. 5 THE ORGANS is believed that around 25 years later this THE ORGANS organ was moved from the East End of the OF KING’S Chapel and mounted on top of the screen. Although the Long Parliament ordered the COLLEGE CHAPEL removal of the pipes half a century later, the wooden case was left intact, mounted A SHORT HISTORY on what is one of the finest Renaissance screens in the country. Successive re-buildings were undertaken The early organs by Lancelot Pease (1661), Thomas Thamar (1673-7), Renatus Harris (1686-8), John Avery It is thought that there were two organs in (1802-4), and the firm of William Hill (1834, King’s College Chapel as early as the 1530s. 1859, 1889 and 1911). Records show that two small organs were moved from a temporary Chapel used Twentieth century during the construction of today’s Chapel. At least one of these organs was then removed In 1934 the organ was enlarged and rebuilt in 1570 at the orders of the Commissioners in its present form by Harrison & Harrison, of Queen Elizabeth and the pipes were sold with some of the Hill pipework retained by Roger Goad (Provost, 1570-1610). and re-voiced. The specification, drawn up in consultation with Boris Ord (Organist On 22 June 1605, the renowned organ builder 1929-57), included separate mutations on the Thomas Dallam began work on a new organ Choir Organ, unusual in England at that time. in the Chapel. The accounts for his work have survived, showing in detail the materials Minor changes were made in 1950, when and hospitality provided by the College the Pedal Fifteenth and Mixture were added. while the work was done. The order for this In 1968 the organ was overhauled and several new organ, totalling £370, was considered new stops were provided (11, 12, 22, 48 and so important that Dallam closed his London 50), four old ranks being displaced. Further factory and took his men to Cambridge, restoration work was carried out in 1992, where they worked for fourteen months. It when the console was renovated and the 6 electrical system modernised. Further The front pipes were originally coloured essential repairs took place in 2003 and and patterned; the plain gilding dates from 2009, during which it became clear that a the eighteenth century. In 1859 the main case major restoration would be needed. was increased in depth to accommodate the enlarged organ, the console being moved The organ case from between the main and Choir cases to its present position on the north side. There is some uncertainty about the history of the wooden case, which is one of the oldest Today, the Great and Swell Organs and the in England. While it has traditionally been Tuba occupy the main case, facing east; the thought that the main case survives from the Choir Organ is at the lower level behind original Dallam organ of 1605-6, it is more the Choir case; the Solo Organ and most likely that only some decorative components of the Pedal stops are placed within the may originate from that time.