St. Augustine

MUSIC AT ST. BEDE'S

the parish choir

The Choir sings at every 9.30 Mass on Sundays as well as Holy days and the major liturgical celebrations of the Church. Rehearsals take place every Thursday from 7.00 – 8.30pm.

Singers Wanted!!!

The choir is always looking for new members of all ages to join and would be keen to hear from anyone that is interest. You do not have to be able to read music or have any previous musical experience to join. If you enjoy singing and are interested in learning something new, then why not give it a try.Please speak to any member of the choir if you would like to be Involved.

St. Augustine: “He who sings, prays twice". The choir currently has around 16 members and sings a varied repertoire of music.We now also have a Junior Choir that occasionally sings at the 9.30 Sunday Mass. This is made up of students from St Bede's Primary School, who rehearse on Monday's after the school day.

Contact

If you have any enquiries with regards to music at St Bede's please contact Paul Brennan, Organist & Choirmaster.

music@stbedeschurchrotherham.co.uk

THE ORGAN

The William Hill & Son and Norman & Beard Pipe Organ is located in the gallery at the back of thechurch. The organ was moved from St Pauls Church, Great Yarmouth in 1993/94 by Aistrup & Hind church organ builders who maintained the organ until 2015 . The origins of the organ date as far back as 1907 and, after being rebuilt in the early 1950’s, the opening recital was performed by Reginald Foort (the BBC Theatre organist).

Organ Restoration

Organ Restoration - The organ was removed from St Bede’s for its full restoration in October 2015.

The renovation of the Hill, Norman & Beard organ will include: Re-leathering and attention to the bellows, complete repair of the soundboards, completed re-wiring, repairs to collapsing pipes, and a new electronic control system to replace the electromechanical switch system. All pipes will be cleaned, repaired or replaced and the whole organ will be re- voiced. The very poor quality sounding ranks of pipes will be replaced and there will be an addition of two new stops – a 4ft flute (to go along with a new 8ft Great flute that will replace the very poor quality one in place) and 3-rank Great mixture, both to be positioned on a new chest. An 8 ft Pedal principle will also be part of the new specification as the pipes covering the Swell box will be now be re-connected.

The console will see all new keys to replace those that a nearing the end of their serviceable life, with new stop tabs to host the additional ranks of pipes as well as additional thumb and toe pistons (all possible with the new solid state electronic system).

The project will see that the church will have an excellent quality instrument all in working order for the next 50-100 Years.

Henry Willis & Sons Ltd from Liverpool is carrying out the renovation and they started removing the organ from the church to take to their works on 12th October, which took 3 days to do.

The organ before. The Console. Electromechanical Switch

Progress – February 2016 - On Friday 12th February, a few of us went to the Henry Willis & Sons Organ works in Liverpool to see the progress of the restoration. David Wyld, the Manging Director gave us an interesting tour of the organ works and showed us how the organ (although in many pieces across the factory) was coming along.The bellows have been re-leathered, the sound boards are nearly complete (with new leather pallets and all new springs). All wooden and metal pipes have been cleaned, repaired and voiced and new keys are awaiting delivery. There was more damage (and poor work that had been done in many years gone by) than was originally thought, but Willis are doing complete repairs and doing the job correctly so that the organ will be in excellent working condition for the future.

Part of the organ Works One of the two bellows, repaired and re-leatheredWooden pipes repaired and cleaned One of The Sound boards (that pipes sit on and air is supplied to make them speak) almost done. Front pipes stripped of their gold paint – waiting to be re-painted after cleaningThe 16ft Contra-Oboe – Repaired after collapsing under own weight, cleaned and re-voiced.Metal Pipes all dealt with and boxed up ready.Console in progress, with Pedal board renovated.The ‘Voicing organ ’ – where all pipes are tested.

We were happy to report that progress is going well. As you can see, there is a lot of detailed work that is being done on the organ (which is the most complex of all musical instruments), which will be covered up by pipes and casing and not seen again by people in church.All this complex work will ensure we will have a long lasting, high quality organ for many generations to come, but all this comes at a significant cost – that being £70,000.If you are able to contribute in any way to the restoration fund, your generosity would be gratefully received.

If you would like any more information or have any questions, please do contact Paul Brennan (Organist) either at church or via the contact form on the Parish website. I will be more than happy to discuss any aspects of the organ restoration project with you.