Back in Service
Restored Musical Treasure Returns to Saint David’s.
By RoseMarie Alfieri
I
ts origins are somewhat uncertain—was its first home a chapel in the palace of James I or a beer garden? It has been deemed unique, “eccentric with a character and life of its own”—but the beauty and symbolic significance to the school of Saint David’s seventeenth-century organ, which has accompanied the boys’ hymns in daily Chapel for nearly fifty years, is indisputable. This past year the organ, a gift from the Hearst family, underwent a major restoration; and it plays now magnificently in the Chapel illuminated by another of the school’s great treasures, the stained glass windows. The organ arrived at Saint David’s in 1957 via a Brooklyn warehouse, which Headmaster David Hume had visited at the behest of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst. She wished to donate to Saint David’s the stained glass windows, which were stored there. While at the warehouse, Mr. Hume discovered a Flemish-styled organ in a dusty corner, and he decided the school must have it. Mrs. Hearst agreed. Shortly thereafter, the Hearsts donated the organ to Saint David’s. “Since it is probably the oldest organ in this country that is actually in use,” wrote Headmaster Hume in his 1967 Headmaster’s Report, at the time of the organ’s first renovation, “it represents a piece of history that contributes to the breadth of the education of boys at Saint David’s, as well as being a delightful musical instrument in its own right.” While it features late seventeenth-century English carvings, experts have determined the organ to consist of a “potpourri” of parts, with the keys and pipes dating from the late seventeenth century, and the wind chest, key, and stop mechanism from the early nineteenth century. A clue to the organ’s beginnings is the monogram IR carved on the key fronts, which could indicate that its origin was during the reign of James I, and that it could have served as an organ in the palace chapel. (This explanation however is uncertain because the organ also features a rose design, indicative of the Tudor reign, and James was a Stuart). Additionally, the ornate hop vines that are painted on its pipe screen lend speculation that the organ actually was housed in the “less
ecclesiastical setting” of a beer garden. In the 1920s the organ was sold to the Hearst family, and it remained with them until its donation to Saint David’s. The organ’s quirkiness is perhaps most evident in what is probably its most unique feature: the keyboard. “The keys are all rounded and smaller than a standard keyboard,” said Jeffrey Moore, Chair of the Music Department, and the man who has played the organ during daily Chapel for the past eleven years. The odd shape and size of the keys make it difficult to play and increase the likelihood of hitting a wrong note. “The keyboard is one of the mysteries of the organ; all the organ makers who looked at the instrument thought it unusual,” said Moore. Another odd feature is its pitch—it stubbornly refuses, despite all efforts, to be tuned to the usual A above middle C. Instead it insists on settling at a slightly higher pitch which, according to organ restorer Tony Meloni, is no big deal: “Just don’t ask a brass or woodwind player to come to the Chapel and ‘jam.’ ” At various points since the 1967 restoration, the school showed interest in again renovating the organ. Beginning about twenty years ago, as the quality of the musical instru-
Summer 2005 • 13