The organist and the photographer

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This is, I think, the third photograph that I've posted showing a church organist. There's something about a dark church, with the silhouette of the musician at the console in a pool of light, that appeals to me. The first, taken at St Wulfram's in Grantham made much of the rather fine, highly ornate, organ case. The second was taken, as I recall, in Holbeach church and was more a study in concentration. It also resulted in a flurry of hits on the blog by people (presumably) looking to book an organist for their wedding. Today's comes from Ledbury church in Herefordshire, and here I took the opportunity to include myself in the shot, reflected in the mirror that the organist uses to take a cue from the officiating vicar.

As I processed the photograph I noticed a couple of copies of "Hymns Old & New". These can often be seen on church organs. As a youngster I was aware of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" and I've always assumed that the current book is an updated version of this old classic. However, I'm told that's not the case; the book "Common Praise" seems to attempt that task. Moreover, as I read a little more about "Hymns Old & New" I discovered that it is a tome that appears to be either loved or reviled. Critics accuse it of re-casting old favourites in different keys, and generally  pitching them for lower voices. "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is, apparently, in F rather than the usual G (gasp!). They also see the hymns as being subject to "politically correctness" citing the fact that "Onward Christian Soldiers" has become "Onward Christian Pilgrims"! I don't have a view on all of this but in reading the scathing comments about this collection of hymns, and the equally passionate defence of the modernised versions of old favourites, I was reminded that there's often nothing like religion for irreligious argument, vituperation and rancour.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14.8mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Norwich cathedral organ

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Having spent thirty odd years looking at ecclesiastical architecture I know that Sunday morning isn't the best time to visit a church if you wish to have unrestricted access to the building. There's an old joke about vicars only working one day a week, and Sunday morning is the time many churches are open for "business", so those in search of architecture, history and the rest, have to fit in when and where they can. But, sometimes your schedule is such that Sunday morning can't be avoided, and so it was last weekend when we called in at Norwich Cathedral.

As we cycled down to the cloister entrance the number of cars in the car park was the first clue that the building was in use. Then, when we entered the cloisters, the thunder of the organ and massed voices raised in hymns of praise confirmed it for us. However, we weren't down-hearted; in fact we were relieved, because we had just cycled eight or so miles into the city, and the threatening clouds had started to produce rain. So, we took advantage of the signs indicating that the chancel remained open to visitors, went in for a look around and some photographs, and then sat in the covered walk-way of the cloisters to wait for the service and the rain to stop.

After forty minutes or so people began to pour out of the building and we went in to view the nave and the other parts that we'd missed. I'd never visited this particular cathedral before, and my initial impressions are that I'm somewhat disappointed by the exterior, but impressed by the interior. I'll perhaps enlarge on that when I post some other shots. Today's image was one of those that forces itself upon you. It shows the heavy Norman columns and arches supporting the beautiful Gothic vaulting, with the attenuated organ pipes below. The floodlight roof and nave walls made an interesting warm background for the chancel and organ that remained unlit as it had been throughout the service.

When we came out of the cathedral it was still raining so we had a further wait until we felt able to venture out in to the city that, as well as a cathedral, also holds 35 medieval parish churches.

photograph & text T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12.8mm (60mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Curve stitching, string art and organ pipes

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When I was in primary school, aged about ten years old, a teacher introduced us to curve stitching - the art/mathematics of arranging straight lines in such a way that they produced optical curves and circles. First of all we were shown how to do it with a ruler and pencil on paper, then we progressed to making pictures using this principle: that involved card and coloured threads. I seem to recall that my piece of work involved a yacht under sail on a rolling sea with the sun overhead. It was engrossing fun. Pictures made in this way are often called "string art", though there is very little art involved in the process.

Those lessons from decades ago came to mind when I was processing this photograph of some church organ pipes. The builder of this particular instrument - G. M. Holdich of 4 Judd Place East, New Road, King's Cross, London, according to an affixed plate - had arranged the mouths of the pipes in a curve that was higher in the centre. This gave me the opportunity to select an ogee section of these in the viewfinder and compose a shot that incorporated a "line of beauty." However, when I came to process the image on the computer what should have been obvious, had I given it any thought, then struck me quite forcibly: the "curve" was actually made of a series of horizontal lines each stepped slightly in relation to the other. Not curve stitching proper, perhaps, but a curve made of straight lines, nonetheless, hence my memory of the fun in school.

These organ pipes are not as decorative as those I posted a while ago. However, a bright day was causing them to reflect shafts of sunlight on stone columns and walls that were coloured by light through stained glass in such a way that I thought them worthy of a photograph

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Beautifying the church organ

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What can you do to integrate a thumping great organ into its place in the church. There are two main approaches to this problem. The first is hide it (in an arch, alcove, etc), and the second is beautify it, either by making it complementary to the existing fittings and furnishings, or by making it an eye-catching thing of beauty in its own right.

Many of the first church organs were subject to beautification. The keyboard was encased in an elaborate, decorative, wooden surround, and the pipes were also wrapped around - to a greater or lesser extent - with pierced and carved wood. I've seen wooden organ cases of the most elaborate design, all veneers, inlay and sculpture, carved by the likes of Grinling Gibbons, that display all the decorative details at the disposal of the eighteenth century, from swan-neck pediments to cornucopias and swags. Much the same is true of the nineteenth century attempts to beautify the organ, though using the heavier decoration of those years. However, Victorian designers often deliberately displayed the pipes themselves, in ranks, graduated by size, with painted, stencilled details applied to the metal-work, much as in the example shown from Little Eversden. These designs are often very delicate, and reflect the fashion of the time. Some of the Arts & Crafts stencilling is particularly good.

This style of decoration continued into the twentieth century. However, those years were often times when renovation was the order of the day, and the installation of new pipe organs was something of a rarity. On the whole the restorers maintained and repaired that which was there. But, a few brave vicars employed architects to fashion new cases for their organs. I came across one such, dating from 1972, in Spalding church the other day. The painted wooden screen featuring parallel slats and inverted square pyramids is by G.G.Pace, an architect and designer of church furnishings whose work I have admired in Yorkshire and Lancashire churches. My photograph doesn't display the interest of Pace's design very well - I was looking to create a semi-abstract image - but I may return and take another photograph to show this fine piece of work which is a welcome change from the usual polished wood cases.

photographs & text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1 (Photo 2)
Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/24 (1/8)
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 (-1.0) EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Church organs

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"Laudate eum in chordis et organo"
(Praise him with strings and pipes),
from The Bible (Psalm 150)

The sound of a church pipe organ is probably my second favourite organ sound (after the Hammond B3). However, whilst it's something I see a lot of during my visits to churches I remain fairly ignorant of the instrument. What I do know is that, as far as English church music goes, it is a relative newcomer. The unaccompanied plainsong of earlier times was superseded, in parish churches and elsewhere, by a consort, ensemble or small orchestra of instrumentalists. These players on their fiddle, crumhorn, flute, hurdy gurdy, shawm and other early instruments, accompanied the hymns of the medieval church and continued through into the nineteenth century, when their playing - on more recognisable oboes, trumpets, flutes, violins and so on - often took place from a gallery at the west end of the nave. A number of churches kept, and now display, the instruments of these earlier accompanists.

From the seventeenth century onwards organs started to make an appearance in churches, often cased in wood beautifully carved by the likes of Grinling Gibbons. The first instruments were hand-powered with bellows pumped by a boy hidden away behind the keyboard. In the twentieth century an electric pump replaced this method of raising wind, though the original hand levers often remain. The Victorians installed many beautiful (and often very large) church organs, bequeathing not only a magnificent instrument on the parish and future ages, but also the attendant large bills for maintenance, repair and restoration. These costs became too much for the declining church memberships of the second half of the twentieth century, and quite a few parishes substituted a cheaper electric or electronic instrument.

St Wulfram's church at Grantham, Lincolnshire, received its first organ in 1640, but it was destroyed in the Civil War in 1643. In 1736 a three manual organ manufactured by Byfield was installed. It was extensively rebuilt in the 1860s but was described as "quite worn out" by 1904 - a testament, perhaps, to the religious and musical enthusiasm of the intervening years! In 1906 it was rebuilt and enlarged with a beautiful case designed by Sir Walter Tapper RA. Further overhauls and rebuilds occurred in 1972 and 1993/4. Interestingly some of the original pipes of 1736 continue in use today.

I took my photograph of the keyboard of the organ during a visit to the church. It was being played by someone who was practising their craft, and its thunderous sound was the perfect accompaniment for our architectural exploration.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/15
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On