Ben Anguige at the new console
Negotiation & Ordering
Walkden is a town formally in the city of Salford, some seven miles outside of Manchester. For many years St Paul’s Church has had another brand’s first-generation digital instrument which has served them well. However, it came to the end of its days with repairs now being exceptionally difficult due to a lack of both spare parts and an experienced engineer.
Following initial discussions between Dr Keith Harrington and their highly talented and experienced organist Ben Anguige it was clear that a Makin Windermere instrument would meet their ongoing needs for many years to come. Having discussed the option of a tabstop or drawstop instrument, the PCC decided that a drawstop instrument would be preferable and the right investment to make to ensure they would continue to attract such a high-calibre organist in the future. The financial details were soon ironed out with the Treasurer Jackie Meredith and the organ was built.
Installation
Normally only our staff are involved with the installation. However, in this instance Ben decided to really get involved. He takes up the story:-
The removal of the existing organ, which had been in situ for coming up to 3 decades was certainly a trip down Evolution lane!. Once we had removed the original Wilkinson of Kendal facade pipes for access the quite enormous speakers were a sight to behold!, not least the bass speaker which was encased in a 14ft by 3ft square MDF boom box, a 3 man lift by John, Steve and I, and some ratchet straps later we had encouraged it down to ground level! The new speakers which were sat waiting in the Nave were simply dwarfed by the enormity of their predecessors, in bulk, weight and size but certainly not in capacity!! The original install took place a couple of weeks ahead of the planned voicing session. Playing it raw ‘out of the box’ gave me ample practice time and live usage in a few of our regular services to really explore the capabilities, more importantly was to truly understand the abundance of opportunities we clearly had available to really make this instrument unique to the building.
Voicing
Ben continues:-
Voicing took place earlier this week, Ian arrived a little earlier which gave him the opportunity to listen at key points around the building, as I played through various pieces using a wide variety of combinations, solo voices and choruses to gain a live understanding of the space, how the organ was sounding within the space, which enabled him to have a key, critical insight into how we should best start voicing the instrument for the building.
Ian and Keith were exceptional, Ian with his incisive ear and Keith playing the laptop keyboard like Liberace to produce a quite incredible change to the ‘out of the box’ sounds. There were several conversations along the way where Keith & Ian listened intently to how I would like the organ to play, how it was working in its real life setting and how we were wanting it to sound and present into the building. This gave way to a number of changes which were personal to both the Organist and sympathetic to the building, which I thought was critical and most appreciated. However, at the core of all conversations, discussions and decisions was how the instrument complimented the building. Every single stop and note was voiced, and balanced from the Diapason stops, allowing a layering and balancing of sounds that ensured we now have every single stop speaking clearly, visible in all registrations and balanced at all points within the many combination possibilities.
At times, some of the solo stops didn’t quite match with the sound we were creating within the building, the sampling technology allowed for further exploration of different, as an example, Oboe stops which ensured that the instrument really does now have a unique and correct voice for the building within which it will spend its working life – The resulting Instrument is a quite truly astoundingly brilliant addition to the church, with an unsurpassed clarity and a brilliance of sound at every point.
Every organist has a favourite voice / combination of their own instrument; I’m still enjoying exploring!!! but the Solo Tuba and Trumpet are brilliantly incisive and utterly magnificent as their ceremonial sound cuts through the building. Whilst tackling the Swell and Choir strings I was reminded of Virgil Fox, at the Riverside console who had a piston affectionately named ‘Squishy’. In a similar vein, General No 2 on our Walkden instrument will be known as ‘Lush’. The strings really do have to be heard to be believed, they quite literally wrap around you in the most spine-tingling way. However, the Hohl Flute on the Great is simply divine and probably my front runner for No 1 spot, it is truly beautiful.
Technology has obviously come on leaps and bounds since its predecessor’s incarnation. The Windermere 3-53D now set up, voiced and balanced is capable of the simplest of tasks right through to full scale works with a truly unsurpassed reality of sound. For anyone considering purchasing the latest Makin models I really cannot praise the quality and diversity of the instruments enough.
Should you wish to come and have a play of this latest model, in situ, in a church building then please do get in touch, we are more than happy to welcome you. If you really want to hear it put through its paces, then do free up space in your diaries for our Opening recital on Saturday June 26th where Ian will explore everything it has to offer!
