The BEAUTIFUL 1890 Hill & Son Organ at Hunter Baillie Church, Sydney
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
- Join Pep Organ for a tour of a heritage listed church and its organ. The Hunter Baillie Memorial Church is a 19th-century Presbyterian church located in Annandale, an inner-west suburb of Sydney. It has a Hill and Son organ from 1890, one of the best-preserved instruments in the city, with casework of exceptional aesthetic quality. The organ has been restored to its original condition in the past two decades.
More about the church: en.wikipedia.o...
More about the organ: www.ohta.org.a...
Special thanks to organist Ted Grantham and the church community for letting us access the building - and also to Ralph Lane OAM, who was responsible for overseeing the instrument's restoration. And of course, thanks to my wife Kim for filming the video and being so patient in the cramped organ loft!
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What a beautiful instrument. Thank you Titus for this engaging introduction and delightful presentation!
Thank you for your voyage of discovery on this beautiful instrument.
How nice that it has been kept in its original specification.
I couldn't be more pleasantly surprised by your poise and the quality of your presentation
Very good tonal demonstration. The Hill organ you must visit is the one at Ss Peter & Paul’s old Cathedral, Goulburn. It has a Trombone to die for.
I must see it some time.
A beautiful instrument and excellent introduction.
Excellent presentation of a beautiful instrument!
I had the pleasure of "re-habilitating" the Choir Clarionet and flute/flue work back in the early 2000's during Mark Fisher's tenure as carer for the organ. The rank was in very poor condition and regulation and thankfully it came up to the mark as demonstated by you here Titus. It should be noted that Peter Jewkes reinstated the Great Trumpet, which for some extrordinary reason had been moved to the Swell (???) - or the Swell Cornopean moved to the Great as a 16' ??? in many years past by others not known to me. I remember selling a Hill & Son Pedal Violone Cello to Ralph Lane many years ago that he'd hoped to add to the Pedal of the instrument. Regrettably that never happened. I think many builders over the years have had 'played around' with this organ, but it is good to know that it is now back to what Hill originally planned.
Thanks for the demo, Titus!
It was a pleasure, James.
"international sources"
throws in "Victoria" at the end 🤣
Well played!
Sneaky!
Lovely to see inside I never went into it - what I missed.
A beautiful church and a splendid Hill & Son Organ. Thank you very much, Titus, for this wonderful demonstration of the organ's historical importance and also its tonal possibilities: bravo!
Thank you Graham! Do you have any Hill organs to play on near you?
@@peporgan Sadly I have never played a Hill organ. The nearest one to where I live is in Selby Abbey, 75 miles away. It has just been restored and makes a glorious sound - you'd love it as it's the very big brother of the Hunter Baillie instrument!
I really enjoyed that tour of that very beautiful instrument! Wonderful job with playing but also with the photography and editing (Kim?)! Hope you do more videos like this. It would be fun to see the interior pipe work and the blower system, when possible! Thanks so much!
Kim did the photography, I edited the video. Thanks Nick!
@@peporgan Thanks for your response! Really appreciate your thoughtful and well crafted videos! Best wishes to you both!
Nice! Beautiful case! Does it have tracker action or is it tubular pneumatic?
Check out the 1870 Hill organ in St. John True brook, Liverpool, Uk. It reminds me of that instrument. William Faulkes was organist there for 5 years during the early 1900s.
Thank you for your demonstration!! You just answer my question at the end of your demostration. It's a tracker!
The wobble on the great is unusual, we have a fully restored Hill & Son in Tanunda which is magnificent
The case like the work of Dr Arthur Hill who designed many fine cases eg Peterborough Cathedral and Beverley Minster. In England. Hill mixtures usually begin 17,19,22, but the tierce drops our after tenor c. It makes such a difference to have an organ in the right place.
Fantastic video
Thank you!
Great video as usual Titus.
The amount of flex in the Great manual would put me off a lot; like walking on a suspension bridge.
Very disappointing that the integrity of the restoration has been compromised by going with a makeshift balanced swell pedal instead of the proper ratchet lever from the period.
Hill & Son pipe organs are in a league of their own.
Cheers.
The balanced swell pedal was actually installed back in the 19th century, not long after the original organ was completed. So it can be considered authentic to the time.
Hi Titus, what a lovely presentation and demonstration! BRAVO! My honest feelings right now are I wish I could listen to you play it for several hours and just soak it up! My extremely limited experience is that Hill organs are delightfully voiced and you soon fall in love with them, despite the limitations as you described. I was surprised there were only 2 pedal stops for a 3 manual, I thought perhaps Hill might have included an 8 ft violon cello and a 16 ft trombone? Sometimes there would be a 16 ft reed in the swell and maybe a celeste (often no mixture though). I imagine some of the larger Hill organs would have had Barker lever assistance installed which would be nice for the manual coupling.
Have you had a chance to play the Hill & Son at Tanunda SA? Yku would thoroughly enjoy it, formerly from the Adelaide Town Hall, it was beautifully restored by the team including Steve Kaisler and George Stephens.
Take care, John
Ps would love to hear any other recordings you made here!
I would love to play the Tanunda Hill some day.
@@peporgan Awesome! If you ever travel to SA, let me know, and I will ask Steve for you! Take care John
I didn't interpret "hymn machine" as derogatory either. Just thought it quite apt. I guess "squawk box" is derogatory.
A ""hymn machine": I've never heard that way of describing an organ before. Much better than a" squawk box" as is sometimes used to describe a neo-baroque instrument.
It may not be a derogative description, merely accurate to its intentions. Hymn machines still need to be beautiful, to do a good job!
@@peporgan Like the American reed organ!
@@Modeltnick Indeed!
PULL ALL THE STOPS and Play PHANTOM of the OPERA! Bwahahahaha. . .
That the church's fabric is of Pyrmont stone is a myth that was created after the building was completed & opened in 1889. The very inferior stone was extracted from the newly opened Walz's quarry at Arncliffe (now Gardiner's Park, Banksia). The principal trustee & executor of the Baillie estate was Thomas Buckland, Chairman of (among other firms) Colonial Sugar Refinery which generated its profits using Kanaka & indentured labour in Queensland (where the Baillies had acquired farmland) & in the Pacific, &, of course, child labour in its Sydney refinery.
Hello, this is fascinating. Thanks for letting me know. Do you think the benefactor of the building was aware of this? Was there a deliberate intention to cut costs and then conceal that information?
This organ has rather a harsh tone apart from the Choir Organ which I preferred. The Swell reeds shout rather than sing, The Great Mixture screeches and makes the division sound a touch top heavy. I think the Chorus is more than adequate without the Mixture. This is all in my opinion
The organ looks a lot more visibly attractive than it sounds. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to play it for the reasons I mentioned in a previous comment. It certainly is a hymn machine as apposed to a concert instrument. In fact, depending on the size of the church congregation, I can imagine that if not played with a degree of restraint, ie. not using the Great Mixture and the Swell Cornopean, It could drown
out the singing . Again these are my opinions and are not meant to be in any way derogatory.
A wonderful instrument for sure. But why is it this much out of tune if it has been restored? The swell 8’s are the worst. A fine organ like this deserves to be tuned well!
Certainly, but funding is rarely available and the church is not used extensively outside of Sunday mornings.