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NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS AND DONORS
SEPTEMBER 2009
THE FIRST SOUNDS
The first sounds of the restored Auckland town hall organ have reached the far corners of the Great Hall. Even though only 15% of the organ is tonally finished there is every indication is that this is going to be one of the grandest of pipe organs.
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Entry to the town hall is strictly limited while the critical final ‘voicing’ is carried out by experts from Orgelbau Klais. Every pipe has to be carefully adjusted to reach its optimum and final sound. With over 5000 pipes to adjust this takes a lot of time, a lot of skill and a lot of patience. This is the most critical part of building the organ.
Consultant Ian Bell of London and company head Philipp Klais from Bonn recently spent two days in Auckland to assess the work of voicer, Markus Linden and to set the pattern for the next stage of tonal finishing.
The voicer and finisher is a special kind of person and the best are held in high regard.
This quote from ‘The Art of Organ Building” by G.A. Audsley says it all – timeless words even though they were written in 1905!
“The voices of the organ are like the pigments on the painter’s palette, which by their skilful mixture, produce an endless variety of tone-colours – some bright and advancing, others subdued and retiring; some conveying the idea of brilliant light, others that of darkness or shade; some expressive of mirth and joy, others of mourning and sadness. If all this is granted to the voices and tone-colours of the organ, surely it is impossible to overrate the office or the art of the voicer.
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It matters not how complicated and responsive the mechanical portion of the organ may be; how beautiful its exterior may be; and how carefully finished its pipe work is; unless the very soul of the artistic voicer has been lavished upon its tonal forces, the whole is a failure as a true musical instrument.”
THIS MONTH'S PICTURES
1. Lukas May unwraps the next batch of pristine pipes
2. Markus Linden prepares to make adjustments to the pipes
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3. Ian Bell and Philipp Klais at the keys, assess the sounds
4. Philipp Klais explains the process to Stephen Hamilton,
chairman of town hall organ Trust.
INAUGURATION
March 2010 - details coming soon
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