Hillie2412

Easter again I’ve lost count.   My first Easter was in 1912, so I’ve had mmmm 108 Easters so far This year’s Easter services have been special, but then they always are.   I could see lots of people in the congregations, lots of loud hymn singing, lots of lovely choral music and even some completely new descants specially written for the Abbey And it’s been a little poignant hearing all that lovely French organ music again, knowing that in Paris an organ that’s even older than me was so nearly lost to the musical world.   I just hope that there is no irreparable damage But do they really think that organ music by such as Tournemire and Langlais works on my pipes?!   Despite the tuning and repairs by Mr Gary, I have to work so hard to keep up and even when I do, my reeds don’t sound much like those in the terrific organs by M. Cavaille Coll Ah well, I just did my best.   But once those missing pipes are installed, my innards restored and pi...

And the other day there was a real calamity  I’ve already told you that in my tenth year, they replaced my choirboy wind pump with a large electric blower with a switch by someone called Bob.   That worked well for over 90 years but the motor then had to be replaced with a new fangled one   -   in fact there are now two electric blowers doing the work of Bob But the wind mechanisms were never removed and were left perilously close to the largest of my wind storage areas Well, the other day when Mr Nigel came to try out some of that modern music he seems to like, these old redundant mechanisms fell onto the wind store, completely jamming it and making it impossible for me to draw breath My Gary had to drive all the way here from Hereford and soon fixed me up, but it just goes to show that someone needs to get all of my insides sorted.   We do not want a repeat of that episode   -   although it did mean that Mr Nigel couldn’t play any o...

The is one more problem to tell you about Mr Gary comes regularly to try and keep me in tip top condition.   To get to all my pipes and hinged motors, he has to crawl all round my insides, often in among all that dirt, and often having to squeeze into narrow spaces.   To get up into my inside areas he has to climb a long ladder, which he now has hooked onto the side of my platform, but I do worry that it will eventually be too difficult for him   -   although at the moment he is still young enough for there to be no problem at all But someone does need to improve access to my innards and pipes.   I have seen pictures of new organs   -   looking clean and sparkly, with shiny new pipes, but also with walkways and built-in ladders to make it all so much easier 

Over the years some very kind people have been very generous and given money to the Abbey for some of my missing pipes to be given to me That happened in 1937 and some trumpety Posaune pipes were added to my middle keyboard.   The Abbey also found a set of very fat metal pipes called diapason, also for my middle keyboard, and these were also added.   But unfortunately they are not at all what Mr William had in mind so do not blend with the lovely pipes he made Also in 1945, Sir Charles added casework to my front.   This greatly improved my appearance and still looks magnificent Then, in 1945, some missing pipes were added to the top keyboard.   But at the same time, one of my most lovely sets of pipes, the oboe, was moved down the row to make them sound deeper, and 12 lovely little pipes were taken out and discarded.   It is such a pity that this happened and I hope that someone will move the pipes back up the row

There was a incident today and I’m afraid I upset Mr Brian He was playing some very nice hymn tunes and getting all ready to play for the service on Sunday morning.   But, by mistake, his fingers touched one of my buttons and all my stop heads shot out and jammed.   I was telling you about my decaying hinges and this is one of the problems that occurs.   Touch my buttons in the wrong way, and I jam   -   I really don’t want to do this, but it can happen Anyway Mr Brian was all of a tizz, and wondered what had happened and what to do about it.   He tried turning my electric power off, that didn’t work.   He tried kicking me   -   that definitely didn’t work either.   Then he looked at my buttons and realised one was pushed in too far.   All it needed was a little turn to the left   -   simple when you know how.   We are now friends again, fortunately So all was now well again but this problem will happen ...

I was telling you about my pipes Mr William made sure they work together and sound beautiful.   But a lot has happened in this building in the last 100 years and it is now over 50 years since anyone gave my pipes a good clean.   So now, if you climb up inside me, you can see layers of dust on the pipes, and I’m afraid many of them look jolly battered.   I still do my best to produce lovely sounds, but I could do so much better and sound much brighter if all my pipes were given a good clean and polish, just like your teeth! And I’m afraid enough air doesn’t always work its way around my insides to get to the pipes.   Over the years, my leather hinges have decayed and my lungs are leaking   -   yes, I’m a wheezy 100 year old lady now   -   and despite all the attention given to me by that nice young Mr Gary, I can’t give of my best