Repair or Replace?
A guide for parishes considering the future of their organ
This note is published to help parishes to decide between repair and replacement of their organ and, if the choice is replacement, how to choose a new instrument. More detailed information on the subject can be found in Towards the Conservation of Historic Organs and Historic Organ Conservation both published by Church House Publishing for the Church Buildings Council (CBC). Both titles are available from Church House Bookshop.
Click here for guidance note on Organ case conservation:
For information on the disposal, relocation and purchase of a redundant pipe organ please see the guidance leaflet on Redundant Pipe Organs (pdf document*) produced by the Institute of British Organ Building and the CBC.
*If you don't have a (free) Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer, you can get one from http://www.adobe.com/.
The Present Organ
Before any decisions are taken, it is necessary to make a careful assessment of the existing instrument. For this you may need help. In Anglican churches, each Diocesan Advisory Committee will have an Organs Adviser.
The questions that you should ask are:
- Who built the organ? When?
- Has it been restored or rebuilt? By whom and when?
- Does it contain earlier material, such as pipes or casework, which may be of historic value?
- Within its own category, is the instrument of any musical distinction? Is it mechanically well-made?
- How much will it cost to repair or restore?
- How suitable is the design of instrument for the present and future needs of the church?
An organ by a good maker will be a work of art, particularly if substantially unaltered, and should be respected in its own right, with regard for its historic importance. Destruction or substantial alteration of an historic instrument is not only poor stewardship; it is likely to be seen as an act of vandalism. Organs of historic value may qualify for financial help from trusts and public bodies. Instruments where an historic case has been re-used or which incorporate earlier pipes in a later organ may also qualify. Modest grants are frequently made by the CBC, whose support has often been found helpful in raising funds. The restoration to its original state of an organ which has been altered or moved may well produce an immediate visual and musical improvement.
Restoration
If the instrument is either of historic value or is fundamentally sound, the best advice is likely to be that the organ should be retained and restored. However, if the suitability of an instrument is in question, it is necessary to look closely at the reasons advanced for change. The reasons most commonly offered are:
- The organ is too small to meet the musical needs of the church.
- It is unreliable and has been declared irreparable.
- It is in the wrong place.
- It looks ugly.
- It is physically too large.
- The repair of the organ is beyond the financial resources of the parish.
A series of issues lie behind such statements. It is important to think them through before any decisions are made.
1. The musical needs of the church
Do you need an organ for:
- Leading and sustaining congregational singing?
- Accompaniment of the choir, if any?
- The performance of organ music, both as part of the offering of worship and for concerts and recitals?
- To educate, support and encourage your present and future organists and church musicians?
How large an Instrument do you need?
How large does an organ really need to be? It is sometimes assumed that a big church or a large congregation needs an organ with a large variety of stops or tone colours. This is not necessarily so and a small organ, properly placed and voiced, can support a very large congregation. The nave organ at Canterbury Cathedral, for example, is adequate for hymn accompaniment with only seven stops. A well-designed organ of modest size will be more useful than a poorly-designed instrument of twice its size.
Claims by the organist or organ builder that the organ is too small are to be regarded with scepticism and certainly not accepted without independent expert advice. If an organ has served a parish for many years, it may seem strange that it has suddenly become too small!
Musical Repertoire
Where the demands on the organ do not extend beyond the leading of basic congregational singing and the performance of not more than the simpler organ repertoire, an appropriately-designed single-manual pipe organ, with or without pedals, can meet all requirements. Such instruments may have the advantage of being small enough to be movable.
The flexibility of a two manual and pedal organ becomes more desirable when the church choir needs to be accompanied in a range of responsorial or more elaborate choral music, and an adequate instrument will be important to attract and retain competent organists. This is also true where it is considered that an extensive repertoire of organ music, in voluntaries or recitals, is required as an important part of the musical life of the parish. The design of a new organ to provide the greatest variety of effects from the minimum resources requires great skill and is generally beyond the training and experience of the majority of parish organists.
2. The present instrument is unreliable
Can it be repaired? Who says that it cannot? It is important to check out the advice of an organ builder, or of an organist, with an appropriate adviser. There may be some organists and some organ builders who, in favouring a particular course of action, allow their personal preferences to override what is realistically possible and appropriate for the needs of the church in worship.
3. The right position for the instrument
The ideal position is in the open, where the sound can speak clearly and effortlessly into the main body of the church building. For this reason, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the vast majority of organs stood on a west gallery; this is still the most common arrangement in continental churches.
In England, surpliced choirs were introduced into Anglican parish churches in the second half of the nineteenth century, largely in imitation of cathedrals. As a consequence, many organs were moved into chancel aisles, side chapels or specially-constructed organ chambers in order to be near the choir. Sometimes there was not really adequate room for either organ or choir in spaces whose original purpose was for liturgical action. On the continent, the problem was partly overcome by providing a separate and quite small organ to accompany the choir, leaving a larger instrument at the west end. In order to answer the main question, one has to ask some further questions:
- What does the present position of choir and organ say about the function of music in worship?
- Has there been, or is there likely to be, any liturgical re-ordering of the church which might affect the position of choir and organ? (It is essential to have a clear overall plan for any scheme of re-ordering, even if the work is to be carried out in stages.)
- Is there a choir? If there is, where would it best be placed:
- to lead the singing of the congregation?
- to sing choral music?
If the answers to i. and ii. are different, is there any reason why the choir should not move during the service? (If these points have not been considered, Anglican parishes may find a discussion with members of the Diocesan Advisory Committee advisable before decisions are made.)
- Where, given the position of the altar, choir, etc., is the best place for the organ? (Whatever happens, it is most desirable that the organist and choir should be in close proximity both to each other and to the source of sound.)
4. Appearance
There is no reason for a pipe organ to look ugly; indeed an instrument with a well-designed case in the right position ought to be a significant visual enrichment to a church interior. If possible, the organ should be a free-standing musical and architectural entity, its pipes and mechanism protected by casework which helps to blend and project the sound. Dull rows of zinc pipes and large veneered loudspeaker cabinets are equally to be deplored.
Pipe organs with electric or electro-pneumatic action, where pipes can be placed in various arrangements at a distance from the console, are more vulnerable to the eccentricities of architects and designers than are organs with mechanical action, where the layout of the action imposes its own discipline.
Electronic instruments, especially the cheaper ones, tend to have standard console designs, available in a variety of colours and materials, rather than be designed to relate to the church furnishings. To do their job properly, the loudspeakers of electronic instruments must necessarily be substantial pieces of equipment, very much larger than loudspeakers used for speech reinforcement in churches, or for music reproduction in a domestic setting. Indeed, the closer the imitation of a pipe organ, the more voluminous they need to be. Loudspeakers should be positioned to musical as well as visual advantage. They are often placed so far from the console that the organist is encouraged to play excessively loudly. A more accurate impression of an organ will be given if the loudspeakers are not dispersed around the building. The appearance of the loudspeaker cabinets can be a serious architectural problem, especially in an historic church; they need to be carefully and individually designed to fit the building, and never placed within an existing pipe organ.
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5. Cost and reliability
Overall costs not only include first cost but also depend on reliability and longevity. In this respect, we have more long-term experience of the various types of pipe organs than we have of electronic instruments, since the latter have only been with us for about fifty years.
Initial costs
Except where the church is very small, the initial purchase cost of an electronic instrument will normally be considerably less than that of an adequate new pipe organ. On the other hand, the purchase costs of electronic instruments do vary very widely and the better instruments are by no means cheap. (The models sold principally for 'entertainment' use are not recommended; they have cabinet-work which is unworthy as a piece of church furniture and tonal characteristics which make a travesty of most church music.)
The cost of a pipe organ is almost directly proportional to size but, with an electronic instrument, the cost is largely determined by the type and quality of the basic equipment, the number of stops making relatively little difference. For this reason, consoles with stop-lists of cathedral proportions are sometimes found on electronic instruments in churches of modest size and musical ambitions, churches which have very little likelihood of being able to employ an organist capable of exploiting them to proper musical advantage. Such instruments also suffer from severe problems of musical scale, each stop necessarily being a shadow of its proper self to avoid the 'full organ' sound being overbearing.
Long-term costs
Any pipe organ with reed pipes needs regular tuning. Pipe organs with mechanical action need cleaning and minor repairs at intervals of 25-40 years, depending on usage and environmental conditions, at a cost which may be about 5 per cent of that of a new instrument. By contrast, the majority of electronic instruments need no tuning at all, though most do need some maintenance.
The overall cost comparison is made much more level by the lower depreciation costs of pipe organs, generally assessed by insurance companies at 1 per cent per annum. In the long run, pipes and casework will last almost indefinitely and the action of a good mechanical-action pipe organ lasts seventy to one hundred and fifty years. Whilst the manufacturers of current electronic instruments believe them to be better than their predecessors and guarantee them for a number of years, experience of similar technology in the computer industry indicates that an average of twenty years is a fair expectation, and second-hand values generally reflect this. With continuing changes in technology, anxieties have been expressed in some quarters about the future supply of trained service personnel and specialist spare parts.
Taking all these factors into consideration, overall costs for a good quality instrument tend to be roughly equal in larger churches seating upwards of 600 people, and move in favour of pipe organs in smaller churches.
Making a Choice
After assessing the potential of your existing organ in relation to your needs, taking into account not only musical but liturgical and financial aspects, how is a decision to be made?
Any proposal for restoration or replacement of the organ in an Anglican church will require a legal faculty, granted by the Chancellor of the Diocese. His decision will be taken after consideration of the advice of the Diocesan Advisory Committee, with its Organs Adviser. The Committee's advice should be sought at an early stage, and will be based not only on musical criteria but also on liturgical and visual considerations.
It is important to take qualified and impartial advice. Use the organs advisers appointed by your denomination; they are there to help and protect you. This is particularly important where instruments of historic value are involved. An adviser can help you select a short-list of organ builders with skills appropriate to your needs and circumstances. Of course, an adviser is just that and there is a limit to the extent of his involvement. The employment of a specialist consultant may be helpful in particular cases.
Be clear what weight you are putting on the musical, visual, liturgical and financial factors. If there is a case for change, one factor only is not sufficient reason. A decision based only on musical considerations, ignoring all others, could be as mistaken as one taken purely on financial grounds.
In conclusion, your choice will lie between:
- Restoration and repair of an existing instrument without fundamental change. This is almost always preferred when an organ is of historic value.
- Adaptation and either enlargement or reduction in size of an existing instrument, perhaps in conjunction with removal to a new position.
- The acquisition and installation of an existing pipe-organ. (See the IBO List of Redundant Organs.)
- The purchase and installation of a second-hand electronic instrument. Because of high depreciation, such instruments are available cheaply. Although a tempting way to overcome a short-term problem, this can be hazardous, both in terms of musical quality and of reliability. It should be totally avoided if the maker is no longer in business.
- The commissioning of a new organ, which may be:
- A new pipe organ, preferably in a free-standing case and with mechanical action. In smaller churches, the instrument may even be small enough to be movable.
- A new electronic instrument, with console and loudspeakers all adjacent to the choir and designed to blend with the existing architecture and furnishings of the building. The stop list should also match the scale of the building. Over-large stop lists are to be avoided. Because electronic instruments vary so widely in quality, do not rely on demonstrations for your choice but take impartial advice; advisers in the Church of England receive guidance from the CBC. In the Roman Catholic Church the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council states that 'Preference is to be given to the pipe organ'. Its Organ Advisory Group will not therefore normally recommend the acquisition or retention of an electronic instrument. As indicated, both in the Constitution on the Liturgy and the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, in common with rites, buildings and other art objects, the organ is to have the quality of 'noble simplicity'.
An organ is used to assist in the praise of God. In his service, mere size is less important than quality. This advice has been produced by the Church Buildings Council and others.
October 2001 & June 2008
