GIVEN that its organ is currently away, undergoing restoration, casual visitors to Gloucester Cathedral may be surprised to listen to what they think is the organ being played. Built in 1666 with 3600 pipes, it’s the only complete Seventeenth-century case within the country, and it’s recognised as one of the vital prestigious instruments of its kind.
But what visitors are literally hearing is the organist playing a 25-year-old Allen console connected to a pc, using software that samples each pipe on an organ together with the sounds that the organ makes mechanically. The result’s a virtual version of that instrument. Gloucester is using the Hereford Cathedral sample set, one in all the primary to be made.
“Because it’s sampled sound, it’s quite a bit more realistic than digital organs of 15 or 20 years ago,” the assistant director of music, Jonathan Hope, said this week. “If you’ve got the best amount of speakers with the best amount of power behind them, you’ll be able to make the organ ring across the cathedral within the short term.
“Brilliant though the technology is, it could’t be the identical physically — when it comes to the air moving around — that the pipe organ gives. But it’s as close as you’ll be able to get at the moment.”
Work with Nicholson & Co. Ltd is, the cathedral reports, progressing well on the restoration, and is central to the cathedral’s £3-million In Tune campaign, a musical outreach project including the establishing of a singing and organ academy. The money will even help to fund an organ scholarship. The campaign was boosted recently by a £1-million donation from the Julia Rausing Trust.
The organ, last rebuilt within the Seventies, was now intended to be a liturgical instrument, a concert instrument, and an instrument to “encourage a future generation of musicians”, Mr Hope said. “It must have the ability to accompany each the smallest chorister singing a Seventeenth-century verse anthem and a congregation of 1000 ‘giving it large’ at Christmas.”
The latest instrument shall be back in operation in time for the 2026 Three Choirs Festival and other celebrations planned for next yr.
