the clayton church pipe organ
Clayton Wesley Uniting Church has a fine church pipe organ, built and installed
by the Adelaide firm of J.E. Dodd & Sons in 1897. It is one of
just a few Dodd organs that remain in anything like original condition.
It is used every Sunday for church services and for occasional recitals.
The Story of the Organ
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 provided the occasion for a patriotic
display of flags inside the church augmented by a large banner stretched
in front of the choir stalls proclaiming Victoria R.I. Funds
were raised in the same year for a new pipe organ, with generous support
coming from Sir Edwin Smith and Peter Wood, members of the congregation
and prominent Adelaide businessmen.
The original organ, installed in
1882, was an instrument purchased from Norwood Baptist Church. The
new organ, which was built by J.E. Dodd of Adelaide, cost £1000. To
accommodate the new organ, thirty-three slender pipes were fitted into
the large arch on the internal eastern wall in an ordered grouping,
the more massive pipes being placed behind these out of sight, though
still discernible by the musically curious. One church chorister confessed
that during services in her youth she would often divert herself by
counting the decorative gold rings on the frontal pipes - all 165 of
them. The former organ went to College Park Congregational Church and
later, to Mount Lofty Congregational Church.
Josiah Eustace Dodd (1856-1952) was one of Australia's leading
organ-builders and with his company, J.E. Dodd & Sons, carried out around
80 new organ commissions in Australia and New Zealand during his lengthy
career. Perhaps,
somewhat surprisingly, Eustace Dodd was not particularly musical but
had a good ear for tuning, voicing and balance, and the firm was well-known
for its fine casework and general construction work.
The J.E. Dodd organ
was first used on 8th September 1897, for a recital and sacred concert
conducted by William Sanders, the organist and choirmaster. Clayton
both then and now, maintained a notable choir and a high musical tradition
nurtured by a succession of talented and dedicated organists and choirmasters.
Specifications
of the J.E. Dodd Pipe Organ
GREAT |
|
Octave |
4' |
Bourdon |
16' |
Flauto Traverso |
4' |
Open Diapason |
8' |
Fifteenth |
2' |
Claribel |
8' |
Mixture |
III rks |
Lieblich Gedackt |
8' |
Oboe |
8' |
Dulciana |
8' |
Cornopean |
8' |
Viola |
8' |
PEDAL |
|
Principal |
4' |
Open Diapason (wood) |
16' |
Harmonic Flute |
4' |
Open Diapason (metal) |
16' |
Fifteenth |
2' |
Bourdon |
16' |
Sesquialtera |
III rks |
Open Diapason (wood) |
8' |
Clarinet |
8' |
COUPLERS |
|
Trumpet |
8' |
Swell to Great |
|
SWELL |
|
Swell to Pedal |
|
Lieblich Bourdon |
16' |
Great to Pedal |
|
Geigen Principal |
8' |
|
|
Hohl Flute |
8' |
Total number of pipes |
1600 |
Viol D’Orchestre |
8' |
|
|
Voix Celeste |
8' |
|
|