Royal Albert Hall Organ
The Grand Organ (described by its builder as The Voice of Jupiter) situated in the Royal Albert Hall in London is the second largest pipe organ in the United Kingdom, after the Liverpool Cathedral Grand Organ.
It was originally built by
The Willis organ
The original organ was built by
Harrisons
The Durham firm of
In the 1970s, Harrisons refurbished the console and replaced the switchgear in the action, made minor changes to the voicing and added a roof in an unsuccessful attempt to project the sound forward. Composer Wendy Carlos featured the organ during the closing title sequence of the 1982 Disney science fiction film Tron, performed by organist Martin Neary.
By the end of the 20th century, the organ was again in a state of disrepair, with a number of stops unusable due to leaks in the wind system, cracks in the soundboards, and other problems. By 2002, it was maintained only through "heroic efforts" on the part of Harrisons and could not be used at all without their staff present, in case of mishap. The wind chests and pipes were leaking noisily and wind pressure was insufficient to support full use. The leatherwork in the actions was also failing.
The Mander rebuild
In 2002, the organ was taken out of commission for an extensive rebuild by Mander Organs. Some consideration was given to restoring the organ to its original Willis specification, but the subsequent alterations and enlargements had made this impractical and it was felt that it should remain essentially as-is.
The dryness of the Hall had damaged the soundboards, so these were replaced and new and larger wind trunks provided. The roof was removed, and the reed stops in the Great division were restored to their 1924 wind pressures. The 1970s split of the Great Organ (allowing two independent Great Organs to be registered and played simultaneously on different manuals) was rationalised, effectively offering separate Willis and Harrison choruses; also a Fourniture IV was added, bringing the total to 147 stops and 9,997[
The organ was re-opened at a gala concert on the evening of 26 June 2004 with
Notable recordings
In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the organ was sampled by a recording team led by film composer James Everingham. Microphones were placed around the auditorium, including a binaural microphone placed inside the royal box. These recordings were then edited and developed such that composers can play the pre-registered organ as a virtual instrument within a digital audio workstation, using the Native Instruments Kontakt platform. Royal Albert Hall Organ[7] was publicly released on 5 April 2022.
Stoplist since 2004
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- Couplers: I Choir to Pedal, II Great to Pedal, III Swell to Pedal, IV Solo to Pedal, V Choir (unenclosed) on Solo, VII Octave Orchestral, VIII Sub Octave Second Division (Orchestral), IX Unison off, X Swell to Choir, XI Solo to Choir, XII Reeds on Choir, XIII Great Second Division on Choir,[Ann. 3] XIV Choir to Great, XV Swell to Great, XVI Solo to Great, XVIII Octave (16′, 8′, 4′ stops only), XIX Solo to Swell, XXI Octave, XXII Sub Octave, XXIII Unison off, XXIV Octave Bombard (16′, 8′, 4′ stops only), XXV Bombard on Choir, XXVI Tubas on Choir.
- Annotations
Reed stops are in boldface.[8]
See also
References
- ^ a b "The Grand Organ Royal Albert Hall, London". Mander Organs. 27 January 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ "Henry Willis Organ". Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
- ^ Woodcraft, Molloy (9 November 2014). "Pink Floyd: The Endless River review – 'a good way to call it a day'". The Observer. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
- ^ NME News Desk (26 September 2014). "Pink Floyd producer says Royal Albert Hall organ solo used on new album was 'moment of rebellion'". NME. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
- ^ Griffin, Matt (18 January 2018). "The Royal Albert Hall's grand organ makes music history, with Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Eels and more". Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
- Independent.co.uk. Archived from the originalon 6 May 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
- ^ Royal Albert Hall Organ website
- ^ The specification of the organ on the National Pipe Organ Register
External links
- The organ rebuild as described by Mander Organs
- The Grand Organ of The Royal Albert Hall by Gillian Weir
- Henry Willis & Sons Ltd. Organ Builders (United Kingdom)