ORGAN OF THE MONTH 63: September 2007
St
Anne's, Moseley |
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The second of three instruments visited by BOA members earlier this year on the (Birmingham) City Centre Organ Crawl - see Organ of the Month 61 for the first! As this church is in Moseley, it was perhaps a slight exaggeration to describe this as part of the "city centre", but the left photo shows that at least some members of BOA (including IAO General Secretary John Stormont - back to camera) found it!
This large two-manual instrument incorporates some pipework from an earlier chamber organ by Lewis (c 1875) but is largely the work of Brindley & Foster. It received attention in the early 1950s from Hawkins in order to correct the effects of wartime bomb damage. The original tubular pneumatic action was converted to direct electric during the 1991 rebuild by Nicholson.
The organ has a number of unusual features. There is no casework surrounding the pipes (see central photo). The stop controls, which have ceramic heads, are arranged in horizontal rows instead of the usual diagonal treatment. The console has a brass ship's clock, originally provided by a Mr Lewis Aldridge, but replaced in 2002 by a modern electric version after the original had been stolen. Last, but not least, is the intriguingly named Flauto Magico: an open metal stop of delightful tone quality on the Swell.