Chester Cathedral Organ. Played by Jonathan Scott.

Chester Cathedral Organ.

Played by Jonathan Scott.

29 May 2021.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

The Choral Tradition at Chester is 900 years old, dating from the foundation of the Bendedictine Monastery.

In 1844, an Organ by Gray & Davison of London was installed in the Cathedral, replacing an instrument with parts dating back to 1626, possibly by Father Bernard Smith. 

Father Bernard Smith, 1630 – 1708, was a German-born Master-Organ-maker in England in the Late-17th-Century.

The Organ was rebuilt and enlarged by Whiteley Bros. of Chester in 1876, to include harmonic flutes and reeds by Cavaillé-Coll. 

It was later moved to its present position at the front of the North Transept. In 1910, William Hill and Son of London extensively rebuilt and re-voiced the Organ, replacing the Cavaillé-Coll reeds with new pipes of their own. 

The Choir division of the Organ was enlarged and moved behind the Choir-Stalls on the South side. The instrument was again overhauled by Rushworth and Dreaper of Liverpool in 1969, when a new mechanism and some new pipework made to a design by the Organist, Roger Fisher, was installed; the following year, the instrument was inaugurated by Maurice Duruflé and his wife, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé.

Since 1991, the Organ has been in the care of David Wells, a Liverpudlian Organ-builder.[4]

The Organ Case was built and designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.[5]

The Organ’s four manual keyboards run through a five-octave range and its radiating concave pedal board runs through a two-and-a-half-octave range. 

The key and draw stop mechanisms employ electro-pneumatic action. Its bellows are pumped electrically, which is triggered by a key at the console, thus powering the instrument. 

The console labels and keys are veneered in ivory; and it has 109 pistons including fourteen generals on thirty-two memory channels.

It is tuned to a' = 440hz in equal temperament. In total, the instrument carries sixty-nine stops accounting to eighty-six ranks of pipes.