Music

The Choir:

 

There has been a long tradition of choral music at Bolton Parish Church, stretching back before the time of the present building.  Our competent and well-balanced fifteen-voice SATB choir currently rehearses every Thursday evening between 7.30 and 9.00 p.m., and for 20-30 minutes before each service.  We have a repertoire stretching from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, including pieces in up to eight parts.   Some choir members have music graduate or diploma status.   However, we are constantly on the look-out for additional voices in each part.     

 

The regular services include a Parish Eucharist every Sunday at which the choir sings a suitable anthem or motet, and a full cathedral-style Choral Evensong on the fourth Sunday of the month for most of the year.  Currently the choir also sings at an evening Eucharist on Ash Wednesday and Ascension Day, and there are substantial Advent and Christmas Carol Services in traditional style.   In addition, the church frequently hosts civic and diocesan services involving special music.

 

The Sunday Eucharist alternates between Common Worship (Order 1), currently using a congregational setting by Patrick Appleford, and the Book of Common Prayer, using Martin Shaw’s Folk Mass (or in Lent & Advent, Merbecke).   The hymn-book currently used is Common Praise, introduced a few years ago.   Members of the congregation are appreciative of the choir’s contributions to services, and find them both uplifting and contemplative.

 

A series of lunchtime concerts has recently been inaugurated on Tuesdays, and it is hoped to expand the scope of these in the future.   The church also hosts concerts by other local choirs (e.g. Brixi Singers and Bolton Chamber Choir) and a number of bands and orchestras.

COUPLERS            

Swell to Pedal

Great to Pedal   

Choir to Pedal

Swell to Great

Choir to Great

Swell to Choir

 

Great & Pedal Pistons Coupled

Generals on Swell toe Pistons

 

ACCESSORIES         

Eight pistons each to Swell, Great & Choir

Eight toe pistons to Pedal

Eight toe pistons to Swell (duplicating thumb pistons)

Eight General Pistons

General Cancel Piston

Thumb pistons to all inter-departmental couplers

Toe pistons to Swell to Great & Great to Pedal

Thumb pistons to Pedal Echo Bass & Trombone

Toe pistons to Pedal Acoustic Bass & Sackbut

Sequencer advance, retard and restore pistons

                   

Sixteen channels to all departmental pistons

Ninety-six channels to general pistons

999-stage sequencer

(All fully adjustable at the console)

 

Solid-state transmission and combination action made by

A J & L Taylor (UK) Ltd, of Ramsbottom    

                   

New pipe-work in 2008 made by F Booth & Sons Ltd, Leeds

 

COMPASS

Pedals CC-g, 32 notes:  Manuals CC-a3, 58 notes

BOLTON PARISH CHURCH    An outline history of the organ

 

In the museum corner of the Parish Church there are some contemporary paintings of the old church, built in the fifteenth century and demolished in 1867, but as far as we can tell, it was not until 1795 that an organ was installed in that building.   It was built by Samuel Green of London, and had two manuals and fourteen speaking stops, at least nine of which still survive today.   As was customary in England at the time, there was no pedal keyboard, and the compass of the Swell manual only went down to tenor F.

 

The growth of church choirs in the nineteenth century, and the range of music performed, highlighted the inadequacies of this instrument, and a new organ was commissioned from Gray & Davison, which was completed in 1852.   This had three manuals and thirty-six speaking stops, ten of which were retained from the previous organ.

 

The condition of the church building was already causing some concern when the 1852 instrument was installed, and the generosity of a local cotton magnate, Peter Ormerod, allowed the church to be demolished and replaced by the present magnificent structure, designed by E.G.Paley, and consecrated in 1871.   The Gray & Davison organ was stored during the building of the new church, and was then installed in the North choir aisle when the church was completed, but soon proved inadequate for the much larger building.

 

In 1880, therefore, William Hill & Sons were chosen to provide a suitable instrument for the church, and once again, they incorporated a great deal of the pipe-work from the previous instrument.   The new organ had four manuals and forty-eight speaking stops, and a magnificent new case designed by Dr Arthur Hill, the grandson of William.   (As no photographic evidence exists, we cannot be certain whether Green’s case, enlarged in 1852, had also been transferred to the new building in 1871.)

 

The new organ served the church until 1952, by which time the pneumatically assisted mechanical action was heavy and unreliable.   The firm of Hill, Norman & Beard Ltd was therefore called upon to carry out a major rebuild, which was completed in 1953.   The fourth manual and the old Choir organ were discarded (the fourth manual was not the usual Solo, but an Echo, and the Choir, standing immediately behind the transept case, was a bizarre hotch-potch of stops, including a Portunal, Celestina and Piercèd Gamba).   A new electro-pneumatic action was provided, and a new three-manual console.   The Echo chest and some of its pipes formed the basis of a “new” Choir organ, but always sounded rather distant, being situated beyond the Great and Swell, opposite the sanctuary steps.   Some sixteen stops were discarded in all, though many of the Green and Gray & Davison pipes once again survived this massacre.   By the use of the extension principle in the high-pressure Trumpet rank, and the enlargement of the Pedal organ, the number of stops was increased slightly.   Some alterations took place between 1969 and 1976, the chief of which was the detaching of the console from the body of the organ, allowing the player to hear more correctly the balance of the various departments.

 

By the turn of the present century, the 1953 electro-pneumatic action was showing signs of its age, ciphers and failures becoming regular occurrences.   John Norman was commissioned to inspect the organ, and as a result of his report, five organ-builders were approached to provide estimates for the necessary work.   In our opinion, Principal Pipe Organs of York, founded and directed by Geoffrey Coffin, submitted the proposals which matched most closely our own views, and which were also the most reasonable financially.   The Swell organ is unchanged, but two stops removed from the Great in 1953 have now been re-instated.  The Choir organ has been re-sited immediately behind the transept case, and some unsatisfactory stops of 1953 and 1969 have been replaced by new or second-hand pipe-work, giving a much better balance.  A small, enclosed division of four stops has been added, partly compensating for the loss of the Echo organ in 1953.

Many of the extended stops on the Pedal organ have been replaced by straight ranks (mostly second-hand), but the reed rank is now separated from the Harmonic Trumpets and mainly replaced by new pipes, giving a better balance but also adding much-needed depth of tone in this huge building.

 

A very large grant from the Markland Trust provided half the expected cost: a further grant of £15,000 from the Pilling Trust enabled work to commence towards the end of 2007.   The Appeal launched in January 2007 has raised much of the balance, and is still on-going.  We are very grateful to those individuals, trusts and businesses who have made contributions, great and small, to this appeal, and we feel that the organ as now completed will serve the church and the town well for many years to come, and is well equipped to do justice to all schools of organ music from the sixteenth century to the present day.

 

 

Specification 2008-9 – Principal Pipe Organs, York.

The Organ:

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