Liverpool Cathedral's big Willis III now being restored...

[flared_ophicleide]

The large 1926 H. Willis III organ at Liverpool Cathedral is being restored and money is still being raised, so that the work can continue. They also have an adopt-a-pipe program as well.

I'll provide the details tomorrow, for anyone interested in helping.

[arie v]

Hi,

Isn't that the biggest organ in the UK?

AV

[flared_ophicleide]

It is the largest organ in the UK, and except for minor changes made by the builder in 1940, addition of a Trompette Militaire (1997) and a small Diapason plenum in the Central Space (2007), it remains unaltered.

Here are details on how to adopt a pipe and contribute:

Go to liverpoolcathedral.org.uk/about/the-organ.aspx

once there, click on "Adopt an organ pipe!" found in the right-hand column. This is pdf, so you'll be asked if you want to open it (bottom of the screen). Application is printable.

Mailing address is on the app, but for safe measure, I included 20 St. James Rd. in the address, when I sent mine in.

[Mirabilis]

Yes, the largest organ in the UK is that of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

[Paul Emmons]

I couldn't see much information as to what the restoration will do, particularly as to the Willis's "infinite gradation" swell box control. Does this system still have its admirers? Anyone not used to it must find it quite a steep learning curve. With this system, the swell shoes are normally in an intermediate position, to which a spring mechanism returns them. Pressing the pedals down or up controls not the amount of opening and closing of the shutters, but the speed. Therefore the pedal itself does not indicate the state of the swell box, and the console needs an indicator to display it. On Liverpool's nave console (and presumably the main console as well), these dials are above the respective stops on the stop jambs. A recitalist whom I observed several years ago very often had to swing his head from side to side just to look at them. It seemed quite inconvenient. It was at Liverpool, I think, that this system replaced an original mechanism providing "32 stations" of each swell box, which weren't considered a fine enough gradation, even though most pneumatic swell engines provide fewer than that. I would think that it would be easy nowadays to design a system with which infinite, or practically infinite, gradation is preserved compatibly with the traditional way of controlling it.