Me playing the organ at the beautiful church of St Nicholas in the village of Burton, Cheshire.
The organ, job number A279, was built by the famous John Compton Organ Company Ltd in September 1934. In 1985 the organ was overhauled by Rushworth & Dreaper (who took over the pipe division of Comptons in the mid 1960s) and a new chamber at the rear of the church was built complete with a dummy pipe facade. In the usual Compton style, the organ is built using the extension principal with 4 ranks of pipes (Diapason, Hohl Flute, Salicional and Tromba) all fully enclosed with the exception of the 32ft polyphonic bass. The specification reads:
PEDAL
Sub Bass 32'
Bourdon 16'
Echo Bass 16'
Flute 8'
Salicional 8'
Tromba Bass 16'
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
GREAT
Contra Flute 16'
Open Diapason 8'
Hohl Flute 8
Salicional 8'
Octave 4'
Salicet 4'
Twelfth 2.2/3'
Fifteenth 2'
Swell to Great
SWELL
Contra Salicional 16'
Hohl Flute 8'
Salicional 8'
Flute 4'
Salicet 4'
Echo Cymbale III
Tromba Bass 16'
Tromba 8'
Tromba Octave 4'
Tremulant (affects whole organ)
ACCESSORIES
4 double touch thumb pistons to Great and Pedal
4 double touch thumb pistons to Swell
1 canceller thumb piston - Great to Pedal
1 canceller thumb piston - Swell to Pedal
Double touch canceller to each department
2 balanced expression pedals - organ
1 balances expression pedal - crescendo
Voltmeter
For this first video im playing the worship song 'Come with me, come wander' from the new Methodist hymn book 'Singing the faith'. This makes use of the contrasting sounds available on this gem of an instrument.
Many thanks to Reverend Cathy Helm for allowing me access to this wonderful Compton organ.
NOTE: this is purely my interest in order to make sure that these fine organs are archived forever and I do not make any monetary profit by this video being on youtube.
For more information on the John Compton Organ Company Ltd and to see me play other Compton organs, please click on the following link for my site dedicated to the John Compton Organ Company Ltd:
http://comptonorgans.yolasite.com/
REQUEST: I am always on the lookout for Compton organs to play - particularly electrones - so if you know of any churches which still have these then please do let me know. I will happily give a donation or pay any applicable room hire charge.
