In response to Donald Maclagan's post on 27 Oct 2001 regarding the Evans &
Barr organ in Kingussie Parish Church, Scotland, here is a brief outline of
the history of that firm.
Evans & Barr were in essence the first organ building firm in the north of
Ireland. Dublin was traditionally the centre for instrument making and in
the 1830s the large and renowned firm of Telford was established there.
In the early 19th Century Ulster itself had relatively few organs, the
majority of these having been built in England. Telfords never had much
influence in the north and with the upsurgence of church building from the
1860s onwards, Conacher and Walker were the traditional choice of builder.
The Presbyterian Church had been fighting the controversy of accompanied
music for decades and eventually by 1900 pipe organs were gradually
beginning to appear in their churches. Charles Evans and William Barr were
employees of Nicholson & Lord of Walsall and would have worked in Ireland
on several organs around this time. I rather suspect that when Nicholson &
Lord installed their new organ in Newcastle Parish Church Co. Down in
1901/2 that Evans & Barr seized the opportunity and made the decision to
stay. They established themselves in Belfast city centre in 1903 and within
3 years were building substantial instruments. Their organ at All Saint's
Parish Church Belfast in 1906 is of such build quality that they may have
been trying for the organ contract for the new St Anne's Cathedral in the
city.
Evans & Barr Ltd moved to newly built premises in 1911 off the Donegall
Road in south Belfast and around this time established a small branch in
Dublin. The years following the First World War brought in numerous
contracts for War Memorial organs. From 1915 to the late 1920s instruments
were built for places in South Wales and Scotland but this trend did not
continue.
For some years until 1918, Richard O Whitelegg worked as a voicer, he had
previously worked for Harrison (Durham) and Gern (London) and after he left
he went on to work for Willis (London) and Moller (USA). A later voicer,
Arthur Watson, trained & worked with Binns, Fitton & Hayley in Leeds and
came to work for Evans & Barr 1950-56 before he set up the Irish Organ Co.
with another employee, Bill Davidson. In 1949 Maurice Goodall a pipemaker
who worked for F J Rodgers in Leeds came over to work with Evans & Barr,
Doug Loker followed and the two set up the Belfast City Organ Pipe Works in
part of the organbuilding premises. There they made pipes for firms all
over the world and continued until 1997 when they were incorporated into
Wells-Kennedy Partnership and now trade as WK Pipecraft.
William Barr left Evans & Barr and built a few organs on his own, the firm
continued and passed to Charles Evans' son, Grosvenor, who it is said had
little interest in organbuilding. Internal rivalry eventually led to
bankruptcy in 1963 bringing to a sad end what started as an important
contribution to the British and Irish organ scenes.
Looking at the style of the organs built, the early ones were mechanical
action with pneumatic pedals. Tonally they were equal to the style of
similar builders of the times with little or no upperwork. Evans & Barr
believed in strong foundation tone which is reflected in their Open
Diapasons and Bourdons right through their existence. Early Dulcianas were
pleasant but by the 1920s they started to become weedy in tone. Strings
gradually became narrow scaled and scratchy. Reeds were never bright in
tone but were in general stable. Mutations were almost unheard of but one
or two organs had a Twelfth in the Great chorus. Flutes were small scaled
stopped Gedacts or Stopped Diapasons on the Swell or a prominent Clarabella
on the Great balanced between the Open Diapason and Dulciana. The overall
tone would be dull by today's standards but it should be viewed in the
context of the time. In the early years of the firm the voicing would have
been of a good standard but as time progressed this deteriorated so by the
late 1930s it was more commercialised.
Pneumatic action quickly became the choice for most organs ten years into
the firm's life. This was traditionally built using charge pneumatics
incorporating small lifter motors exhausting external power motors.
Electrical ideas were brought to the firm from the USA and 1928 saw the
first organ built with electric action using ventil chests. This system was
developed and became the standard for most organs from there on. Pneumatic
action was still used even until 1959 but this was more to do with internal
rivalry.
Evans & Barr's finest organs were their larger 3 manuals of up to 40 stops.
St Enoch's Presbyterian in Belfast is no longer in existence but Our Lady
of Lourdes, Moneyglass Co. Antrim even though it requires restoration has
been awarded a Historic Organ Certificate by the British Institute of Organ
Studies. Others have been rebuilt and modified. One very popular organ
produced in great numbers was the 'Ideal' pipe organ. The standard model
was a shortened F compass keyboard with 6 stops (16 8 8 8 8 4). The action
was mostly mechanical with the melodic Pedal Effect 16' on pneumatic
action. Only the Open Diapason and the Pedal Effect were unenclosed. This
was a similar model to those produced by Casson's Positive Organ Co.
without the complicated derivations and effects. While the 'Ideal' organ
was quite limiting it was produced cheaply and many are still serving
today. In the 1940s the 'Special Standard' pipe organ was produced but it
was not successful and few remain in existence. It was based on a 5 ranks
extended to give 25 stops.
By the close of Evans & Barr in 1963, over 50 'Ideal' organs had been
produced and over 75 pipe organs had been installed in Presbyterian
churches. The total number of organs produced amounts to just over 300. The
Irish Organ Co. took on several Evans & Barr employees after the bankruptcy
and continued with large contracts but in recent years the retirement of
staff has left this firm with only a couple of employees. From the 1960s
onwards and in line with the fragmentation of British organ building in
general, several small firms set up in Northern Ireland mostly with 2
employees. Wells-Kennedy Partnership was one of these but has been the only
one to build itself up to rival the capacity of firms like Evans & Barr.
Alistair McCartney B.Sc.
Belfast, Northern Ireland
[log in to unmask]
www.organ.dnet.co.uk
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