Pittwater House School
61 Westmoreland Avenue, Collaroy
TC Lewis 1886, GC Griffin 1927, PDG Jewkes 1989 (3/27 electro-pneumatic)
(Formerly in Newcastle Central Methodist Mission)
From SOJ December 1989 - January 1990 and the Pittwater House website http://www.pittwaterhouse.com.au/front/print-friendly.php?id_nav=236 :
The Organ in the Great Hall
Visitors to Pittwater House are usually surprised to find the large pipe organ that dominates the western wall of the Great Hall. The hall was built in 1984 in a utilitarian but pleasant design of red brick and from outside shows no hint of the real gem inside. Installed in 1989, the pipe organ originally resided in the City of Newcastle (a port city only about 2 hrs drive north of Sydney) where it was located in the Central Methodist Mission in King Street from 1903 prior to its removal for restoration and installation at Pittwater House.
The organ fills the hall with music as it is used at least weekly for School chapel services and assemblies and is well used for ceremonial events and as a teaching instrument.
The Jewkes Console
Historical significance*
T C Lewis of London built five organs for Australia. One of them was the organ now located at Pittwater House which was originally built for the Wesleyan Church in Tyrell Street in Newcastle. The organ was installed there by Charles Richardson in 1886 and opened on 8 March 1887 by George F King, organist of St Mary’s West Maitland. In 1903 the organ was relocated by Richardson into the new Central Methodist Hall in King Street, Newcastle (see Graeme Rushworth’s Historic Organs of New South Wales, p. 306 for a photograph from this period).
The specification was:
| Great Principal Flute Dolce Octave Swell Geigan Principal (sic) Hohl Flute Geigan Principal Trumpete Pedal Sub Bass |
8 8 8 4 8 8 4 8 16 |
The Lewis organ remained there until 1927 when it was extensively rebuilt by Gregory C Griffin of Newcastle. Griffin used Palmer of London pipe work and created “an unusually wide flat case to take advantage of the area at the front of the hall” (Jewkes, 1993, p.11). The opening concert of the new organ was given by Sydney City Organist Ernest Truman on 1 September 1927.
The Griffin specification was:
| Great Bourdon Open Diapason Hohl Flute Principal Fifteenth Trumpet Swell Geigen Principal Salicional Voix Celeste Rohr Gedact Gemshorn Horn Oboe Choir Gedact Dolce Lieblich Flute Clarionet Pedal Open Diapason Bourdon Octave |
16 8 8 4 2 8 8 8 8 8 4 8 8 8 8 4 8 16 16 8 |
* * * * TC TC * (Gt) |
* stops from the Lewis organ
In the late 1950’s the organ was in need of extensive repair and Steven Sakacs of Melbourne reduced the instrument to two manuals with a ‘floating’ enclose Positif division. Many ranks were transposed, revoiced or altered and a large amount of new Dutch pipe work was installed. The original console was removed and its cavity blanked off and a new detached console with stop keys was fitted in front.
The specification was:
| Great Bourdon Open Diapason Hohl Flute Principal Octave Mixture Horn Trompette Positif Holzgedact Flute Blockflute Tersiansharp Swell Lieblich Bourdon Principal Rohr Gedact Salicional Nasard Oboe Clarinet Pedal (3 ranks) Open Bass Sub Bass Octave Gedact Bass Quint Flute Choral Bass Viola Rauschpipe Baritone Horn |
16 8 8 4 2 V 8 4 8 4 2 III-IV 16 8 8 8 2-2/3 8 8 16 16 8 8 5-1/3 4 4 4 II 8 4 |
TC, on unit chest actually IV, new ex. Swell ex. Gt 8' new, "homemade" TC, ex. Ch Gedact TC new, 1-24 from Dolce ex. Ch ex. Swell Celeste |
Pipework in the Great division
An organ nearly lost is found
When the present Principal, Mr Richard Morgan, was Director of the Newcastle Regional Museum he used to sneak away for lunchtime practices on the rather dilapidated but still functioning instrument in the King Street Mission. In the late 1980’s he was nearly the only organist who played it. In mid-1987 he was told: “don’t bother returning as the Mission is sold and the organ is going for scrap”. Immediately he contacted his father, Rex Morgan AM, MBE, the Founder and (at that time) Principal of The Pittwater House Schools to tell him of its impending demise. Rex Morgan quickly negotiated with the church to purchase the instrument for its scrap value (then Australian $10,000).
Restoration*
Sydney organ builder Peter Jewkes was familiar with the instrument and undertook the dismantling and storage of the organ. He then developed the restoration scheme that returned the instrument to its 1927 G C Griffin scheme of Great, Swell, Choir and Pedal divisions. There were the additions of 2 new ranks and the return of several ranks/groups of pipes to their original positions. With the new console and refurbishment of the case the total cost of restoration was A$100,000 and completed in 1989.
The Jewkes restoration was significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, an interesting typically Australian organ (its British heritage significantly supplanted by local remodelling) was presented and now enjoys regular and appropriate usage. Secondly the School now enjoys a superb historic instrument for use at its many occasions of celebration and assembly and, thirdly, the organ was rebuilt in a manner which allows great versatility with its three manuals and some significant Jewkes additions (Trumpet 8ft, Trombone 16ft, pedal Fifteenth 4ft, Choir tremulant, couplers and combination pistons, solid-state electronics, blower and bellows).
The 1927 casework blends very well with the interior of the School’s Great Hall and Jewkes’s choice of gold for the display pipes makes the organ a striking centrepiece of the Hall. A new console was commissioned with a piston capture memory system and finished in African mahogany on the exterior and bleached Tasmanian oak for the stop jambs. The stop knobs are made from local cedar with ‘ivorene’ domes.
(* All of the information here has been taken from articles by Sydney Organ Builder, Peter Jewkes. See sources below).
Sources: Peter Jewkes, “The Organ at The Pittwater House School, Collaroy, NSW” The Sydney Organ Journal Vol 20 No. 6 December/January 1990
Jewkes, “Pittwater House School” The Sydney Organ Journal Vol 24 No. 1 February/March 1993
Recent work
During January 2002 the firm of Peter D G Jewkes Pty Ltd completed a major routine clean and overhaul of the organ. Reed stops were stripped down and cleaned repairs to pipe work were completed where necessary. Magnets were replaced and repairs to the bellows (damaged by a hungry rat during the winter of 2002) were made during 2003.
Future
Planning is underway for the addition of a new Diapason to the Great Division. This will enhance the chorus and provide a more robust fundamental rank for this division. The present diapason is of dubious origin, perhaps being cobbled together during the 1964 rebuild. Many of the pipes have German markings and are not part of the original or 1927 work. The new rank may be borrowed for the Pedal for a new 16’ stop. It is hope that the Jewkes firm will be working on this project in the near future.
Pipework in the Swell division
Organ music at Pittwater House
Richard Morgan was the organist responsible for most of the music the Lewis/Richardson/Jewkes organ has produced between 1991 and 2004. In 2004 Jim Abraham, an ARCO, was appointed as Co-ordinator of Creative Arts in the Secondary Schools and became the next official School Organist.
There is a pleasing level of interest in playing the instrument from members of the Music (or Creative Arts) Faculty and in recent years James Jakka Coyle has been a regular organist for School activities. Coyle is both a teacher of music and a composer with a growing catalogue of published works, including many for organ.
Pupils of the School also use the organ as a learning instrument and in 2003 a Year 12 music student used the organ to present her HSC Major Composition piece. Music classes ‘take a tour’ of the instrument when their curricula demands.
The organ leads the singing at the School’s weekly chapel services and is also played by students and staff for assembly processions. At major School functions the organ is joined by the School’s ceremonial orchestra and is occasionally used to accompany soloists.
An annual event in the Great Hall for the organ has been the Pipe Organ sections of the Northern Beaches (formerly Warringah) Eisteddfod. Student organists from all over Sydney come to compete in this locally supported performing arts competition.
There is no commercial recording of the organ available which is a shame as the ambience of the Hall and the lack of extraneous noise would be an asset to recording this instrument under expert hands and feet.
The specification is:
| GREAT Bourdon Open Diapason Hohl Flute Principal Fifteenth Mixture IV Trumpet SWELL Geigen Principal Rohr Gedact Salicional Voix Celestes Gemshorn Horn Oboe Tremulant Sub Octave Octave Unison Off CHOIR Stop Diapason Lieblich Flute Blockflute Larigot Clarionet Trumpet Tremulant PEDAL Major Bass Bourdon Octave Fifteenth Trombone Trumpet Clarion COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Choir Choir to Great Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Choir to Pedal |
16 8 8 4 2 IV 8 8 8 8 8 4 8 8 8 4 2 1-1/3 8 8 16 16 8 4 16 8 4 |
TC TC (from Gt) (from Gt) (from Gt) (from Gt) (from Gt) |
5 thumb pistons to Swell
5 thumb pistons to Great
3 thumb pistons to Choir
5 toe pistons to Pedal
5 general thumb pistons
Great and Pedal Combinations coupled