An Organ by Bevington and Sons of London.

This firm was founded in 1784 by Henry Bevington who had been an apprentice to Ohram and Nutt, who were the successors to Snetzler, and eminent organ builder who settled in England in 1740 after leaving his native country, Germany.

The Organ at All Saints' Church of England, Hunter's Hill.

This 2-manual, tracker-action organ of 26 speaking stops was purchased for £810. Adding shipping and erection costs, it would have cost nearly £1000. Mr. C. J. Jackson of Detersham put up and tuned the instrument in the short space of twelve days, on the north side of the chancel. The casework is of pitch pine, the Pedal bourdon flanks the arch of the northern transept while the chancel front consists of the Great double diapason. The pipes are decorated in sea-green and gold, steel grey and maroon.

Swell Organ:The harmonic flute goes to tenor C only. The bell gamba has a flute bass. The diapason is a keen stop. The harmonic flute has a prominent third harmonic. The mixture ranks are 12 15 19 at CC; at gg# this breaks back to 8 15. The cornopean and oboe are harmonic (i.e. they are flue pipes) from ccc#.

Great Organ: THe 8' flute is a stopped wood pipe to middle c then open pipes to the top. It is a true clarabella in sound and workmanship. The bass pipes have high curved mouth and the whole rank is amply winded.The stop is very beautiful in tone. The salicional is a most distinctive stop of its kind, being halfway between salicional and dulciana tone. The 4' flute is of stopped metal, finely nicked and fitted with the usual "chimneys." The "ears" come well out over the mouth, thus: The mixture ranks at CC are 12 15 and 22 and it breaks at middle C to give 15 19 22. The trumpet has hooded pipes. This is done to prevent dust and dirt affecting speech. The double diapason is metal throughout.

Choir Organ: The stopped flute is deeply nicked. The dulciana is metal throughout, nicked on both edges. The 4' flute is nicked on both block and cap. The clarionet et bassoon is of very good tone considering its age, the bassoon pipes (lowest octave) having pierced flares.

Pedal Organ: Both these stops are of big scale.

This instrument is a most solid piece of workmanship. The pipework is of the finest materials. The pipe metal is a "mixture" of high quality and the pipes are very heavy to lift. There is a high degree of "finish" in each pipe and the voicing both in sound and appearance is most artistic. Everything is neatly done. The existence of a double open metal stop on the great organ to its bottom note says much for the standard of organ-building carried out by this firm. This stop would surely have been borrowed for the pedal department had the action been pneumatic instead of tracker.

In vouching for the builders' work Dr. E. Hopkins of the Temple Church, London in a report dated March 14th, 1884 spoke of the good tone and excellent workmanship of the instrument.

He spoke of the Salicional, voix celestes, vox angelica and lieblich gedact as stops of distinctive character. He described the general effect of the great organ as full and bright without being at all cutting or piercing.

The present writer was informed there was another Bevington organ in Sydney but Mr. Ken Noad, a partner of the firm which maintains the majority of Sydney organs, does not know of it.

AN ORGAN BY BRYCESON OF LONDON

The Organ at St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church, Marrickville

This church situated in Marrickville Road seats just under 2000 people. It is a large, lofty building with a semi-circular roof. This may account for the considerable sound reverberation period which greatly enhances the organ tone. The instrument, which is situated on the northern side of the western gallery, is a 3-manual organ of 39 speaking stops built in 1865.

According to Father Stanislaus, priest-in-charge of the music at St. Brigid's, the organ early in the present century belonged to a Mr. McQuade, a theatrical entrepeneur. It is believed that McQuade bought the organ second-hand in England and had it installed in a specially constructed room in his home at Darling Point. In 1915, the Sydney piano firm of Rendall added a pedal trombone 16' and a set of chimes. About 1920, the organ was purchased for the present church at a cost of £1,500. It was re-erected here by C. Richardson but the pedal trombone and set of chimes were not connected.

With the exception of the pedal stops and the lowest octave of the swell double diapason, the organ is tracker action. The casework consists of pipes from the metal open 16' and the great open diapason 8'. The mechanical condition of the organ is very poor. While the key action operates satisfactorily enough, the stop mechanism and composition pedals are clumsy to operate. The flue and even reed work has stood remarkably well and there is plenty of good pipe material in the instrument. It is proposed to install electric action in the near future

The specification reveals a variety of quieter stops at different pitches. There is no "extension" work in the instrument.

Swell Organ: The swell bourdon sounds the lowest octave only and thus provides the bass for the missing lowest octave of the double open diapason, a wood stop. Unless the player wished to obtain a 16'bass with the left hand while using and 8' stop with the right and when playing on the same manual, there seems to be no reason why the two stops shouldn't be regarded as one rank and have only one Drawstop as in the case of the great 16' stop.

There are also no basses to the keraulophon, lieblich gedact or gedact flute. To overcome this, there is a stop't bass 8' available by separate Drawstop and only speaking the lowest octave. This is done for economy reasons, the metal and wood for the lowest and largest pipes thereby being saved.

The open diapason is wood in its lowest octave. The keraulophon is typical of its type possessing circular hole, slot and tuning slide. The principal is of metal throughout the manual compass. The gedact flute is a stopped metal pipe. Only one break could be detected in the mixture which gave 17 19 22 at CC and 12 15 from middle C upwards. The oboe and Cornopean were typical stops of their class. The viole d'orchestre and vox humana are in a separate box opening into and with the swell box. They are at present disconnected.

The spare fourteenth slide has been added to the front of the original soundboard. This slide was possibly to hold a rank of hautboy pipes, a spare bottom octave of such pipes lying underneath the organ at present.

All scalings at CC

Choir Organ: Although labeled cor anglais, these pipes belong to the orchestral oboe class. The 2' gemshorn pipes are inverted conical in shape and at the unusual 2" pitch are very pleasant. The 4' gamba is metal through out. The flute d'amour is a stopped wood pipe. The 8' gamba is the only stop possessing a bass octave, the stop's bass here serving the same purpose as its namesake on the swell.

The disconnected trombone pipes have no tongues. It has wooden resonators for the lowest octave and metal pipes, some mitred, for the rest of its compass. It is of very poor quality.

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