The
Old Narragansett Church was built in the year 1707 and is the
oldest
Anglican church building north of the Potomac. Now owned by the Diocese
of Rhode Island, it is administered by a trust which includes
representatives of Saint Paul's Church, Wickford, for whom I had built
a new organ a few years before.
At the point that I was contacted about providing an organ for the Old
Narragansett Church, I had serendipitously heard about the availability
of the English chamber organ just the previous week. The organ, then
owned by Dr. James Boeringer, was almost exactly contemporary with the
building. It didn't take much prompting for me to pay a visit to see
just what we might consider. What met my eyes was appalling! Time had
certainly taken its toll. At least three major rebuilds had occurred in
its lifetime, with additional work besides. Each succeeding effort was
substantially poorer than the last. (I'll hasten to add that none of
these were of Dr. Boeringer's doing.) Still - something cried out that
this was really a project which needed to happen. The trust agreed,
purchased the organ and contracted with the Stuart Organ Company to
restore it.
The remnants were moved to the Stuart shop. No attempt was made to
assemble the organ at first, our thinking being that it would be easier
to deduce the evolution of the instrument with the parts being able to
be individually examined. This did, indeed, turn out to be
the
case. After living with it for a few months we were able to piece
together the history as follows:
- early pipework (about half) dates to the early 17th century,
predating the early
Restoration period
construction.
- the remainder of the pipework dated from the 19th century, an added
Open Diapason
treble dating from the early 19th c
rebuild, others simply being ill-conceived replacements
- In its later, existing, form, the casework dated to the
early 19th c rebuild by
John Vincent of London
- 17th c parts indicated construction early in the Restoration period,
with a rebuild,
apparently by the same hand c 1680's
- The organ was significantly rebuilt c 1730 - sliding keyboard and
backfall key action
dated from this period, as well as a crude
extension of the windchest to provide bass
extension to GGG. This provided for 8' pipes
only, with no stop action control.
The 18th c alteration required new casework to
accommodate the changes,
no trace of which existed.
The surviving material indicated that the most definable state of the
organ was its c 1680's rebuild. The decision was taken to restore the
instrument to this state. This would involve discarding all later
material and replicating pieces no longer extant from the original
construction. While in most cases this approach would today be regarded
as far too aggressive and intrusive, in the present instance it seemed
the only viable way to proceed. Sufficient work survived from the 17th
c work to be able to "fill in the gaps" with remarkably little
speculation. The same could not be said for the 18th c rebuild, where
neither visual nor tonal design could be accurately ascertained. Even
the 19th c work yielded little evidence of the organ's tonal state at
that time.
Two study trips to England yielded valuable information on details to
be replicated. It was found that the organ is almost certainly by the
same hand as one owned by the Manders, and the visual design elements
are replicas of that instrument. Many were very helpful in
sharing information. Especially helpful in providing assistance were
Noel and John Mander, Stephen Bicknell and Barbara Owen.
While somewhat speculative, some twenty-five years of weighing the
evidence suggests to me that the organ was almost certainly built for
John Playford. If my analysis of the evidence is correct (which I
believe it to be) the organ was most likely built by George(?) Dallam
early in the Restoration, was damaged in the Great Fire of 1666 (which
stopped at Playford's doorstep), then rebuilt by George Dallam
c1680-85. The date of rebuilding suggests that this may have been done
for Henry Purcell. Playford was Purcell's publisher. This was also
about the time late in his life that he would have begun dispersing his
assets and about the time Purcell would have acquired his organ, known
to have been hired out for the coronation of James II. As yet, I have
been unable to track down a promising lead which might corroborate this
supposition.
The Organ
Stopt Diapason 8
Principal 4
Mixture II (bass and treble divided c/c#)
Pitch: approximately A 425
Compass: D-d 49 notes, D# plays C
(originally C-c, C# playing A)
Temperament: Quarter comma meantone, three sharps, two flats
Wind system: Alternating wedge bellows (largely original)
Pipework: Approximately half from the early 17th century, remainder
newly
constructed replicas based on the extant material
Casework: most stiles and rails of the lower case, rear panel complete:
c 1660
Rear panel of upper case: c 1680
The remainder of the the casework is replicated from the Mander example
Carving: Dimitrios Klitsas
Ironsmithing: Bruce Walker
Relocated through the Organ Clearing House, Alan Laufman, Director
This is believed to be the oldest organ in use for church services in
the United States.
