The Organ (listen to the organ - mp3)
There is no record of any organ having been acquired for use in St. Michael's Church until the year 1699 and it was built by Father Smith. St. Michael’s Church probably possessed the first organ ever brought to this island. This organ was later sold to St. Philip's Church.
The Organ of 1788 was supplied by Longman and Boderip of Cheapside, London.
After several renovations to the 1788 organ, the Vestry, recognising that the organ had served its time, decided to replace it with a modern instrument, and in June, 1923, the legislature passed an Act sanctioning the raising of a loan of £5,000 to defray the cost, The contract was placed with Messrs. J. W. Walker & Sons, London. In order to accommodate the new organ in a place as near to the choir as possible, a portion of the gallery in the south-east of the cathedral was removed and excavations were made in preparation for making a concrete foundation.
In 1939 the time had come for a complete overhaul and renovation and it was thought expedient to move the organ to the west gallery, as electric action had, by that date, been more or less perfected. It had also been found that the nave position was unsatisfactory.
The action was converted to electro-pneumatic and an entirely new four-manual all-electric drawstop console was installed. A new department of the organ was added, - the chancel organ, given by the daughters of the late Sir William K. Chandler, K.C.M. G., in his memory.
The ship in which the chancel organ was despatched from England in 1940, after many vicissitudes, including bombing and running ashore, was eventually sunk by enemy action and it was not until 1948 that this department of the organ could be sent out and installed. The irony of it was that, due to an oversight, the chancel organ missed the boat it was intended for and was sunk, but the blower, which travelled by another ship, arrived safely. For eight years, therefore, there was a chancel organ case and blower but no organ inside.
Both divisions (chancel & west-end) are played from a detached console positioned in the eastern end of the Nave. Renovations were carried out on this instrument by Messrs. J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd. in 1941. Further renovations and tonal revisions were done by J.W. Walker & Sons in 1974. In 1988 renovations were done by Messrs. Keith Jones, Gloucestershire, England. This involved additions to the swell organ and the installation of solid state circuitry by Mr. Jeffrey M. Heard.
The organ now has eight memories. Each memory has six (6) pistons each on the Positive, Swell, Great and Pedal divisions, three (3) on the Chancel division and six (6) Generals.
ORGAN SPECIFICATION (pdf format)
