Oxbridge Organs – IX Jesus College, Oxford Curtis Rogers Dating from 1571 by petition of Hugh Price, a Welshman, to Elizabeth I, Jesus College with an entirely new instrument by Wil- was founded with the particular intention that it should educate scholars from the liam Drake, the old one having been re- Principality, a tradition which continued formally until well into the 19th century. moved to the church of St. Michael and Problems in receiving bequests of money from Price meant that the College did not All Angels in New Marston, a suburb of have any significant buildings for some time and a chapel was provided only in the Oxford1. As is typical of Drake, the organ 1620s. With the intervening Civil War and Commonwealth there does not seem to is modelled on English types of the early have been any provision for music in the chapel but at certain times subsequently 19th century. On the College’s website there is evidence that organs were used there. One was apparently borrowed in 1686 page for the organ, Drake explains that for the funeral of the College’s Principal, Sir Leoline Jenkins. By 1769 the College had the ‘the sound of this organ reflects the an organ by Byfield & Green, and then at some unspecified point after that a Beving- move, which took place during this peri- ton. od, towards a broader and more mellow timbre coupled with greater dynamic The latter instrument was replaced in tration of 8´ stops on the Swell. It seems range, which did not, however, obscure 1899 with one by J.J. Binns for which the that there were a couple of modifications the colourful image of individual sounds specification was designed by John Var- to the voicing by Gray & Davison in 1934, which characterise older English instru- ley-Roberts, who was then Informator namely the substitution of a 1¾´ Larigot ments’. Two decades on, this remains Choristarum of Magdalen College. The for an 8´ Dolce on the Great, and a 2´ Fla- a good description of the organ’s style National Pipe Organ Register gives the geolet for the 8´ Vox Angelica to create a today: it is a refined instrument that specification as consisting of 16 stops more varied chorus on the Swell. produces a uniformly pleasant sound, on three divisions, with a heavy concen- The Binns organ was replaced in 1993 discernible even in the Trumpet for in- Specifications Great Swell Pedal Couplers: Open Diapason 8 Open Diapason 8 Stopt Diapason 18 Swell to Great; Swell to Stopt Diapason 8 Stopt Diapason 8 Principal 8 Pedal; Great to Pedal Dulciana 8 Prinicpal 4 Fifteenth 4 Hitch (kick-down) Swell Principal 4 Fifteenth 2 Trumpet 16 control Flute 4 Cornet Bass III Twelfth 2 2/3 Cornet Treble III Fifteenth 2 Mixture III Sesquialtera IV Trumpet 8 Furniture III Hautboy 8 Cornet V Trumpet Bass 8 Trumpet Treble 8 16 No 364 | THE ORGAN | SUMMER 2013 SUMMER 2013 | THE ORGAN | No 364 17.