Ashton-under-Lyne, Albion Church, T.C. Lewis Organ (1895)

by A. K.

We are very lucky that in 1953, when the firm of Rushworth and Draper was called in to “rebuild” the T.C. Lewis organ at Albion Church, they left Lewis’ tonal and wind supply schemes intact, and simply made a new console, moved its wonderful solo tuba outside the expression box, and added two stops to the pedal.

Thus we have the great gift of an almost untouched T.C. Lewis instrument from 1895, where almost all others have been modified over the years to suit changing tastes. For example, a larger “restored Lewis” worth experiencing is in Southwark Cathedral, London, it has most of the original pipework, but over the years had its pitch and wind pressure and voicing severely changed, and finally underwent a restoration which attempted to recreate the original sound. Here we have a much more untouched “original” Lewis to explore and enjoy. T.C. Lewis was highly regarded in his day: “His work combined the best qualities of the German and French tonal palette (his string and flute stops are exquisite) with a robust and exciting diapason chorus. The standard of craftsmanship in the voicing and finishing of a Lewis organ is such that, a century later, the sounds continue to charm and exhilarate the listener” (from John Power in The Organ An Encyclopedia).

Lewis started building organs in the early 1860s — right about the time that Cavaille-Coll had already been building acclaimed instruments for 20 years and had just unveiled his largest organ in St-Sulpice. Lewis was very much influenced by many aspects of the “C-C” sound — and by the approach to flue stops by Schultze (the last of a five generation German organ building family).

Nicholas Thistlewaite in The Making of the Victorian Organ: “Alongside the lieblich gedachts, hohlflotes, geigen principals, and rohrflotes that he adopted from Schultze’s use, Lewis set harmonic flutes, celestes, gambas, and orchestral reeds derived from French practice”. Unlike most 19th century and later builders, Lewis stayed with relatively low but copiously supplied wind pressures for both flues and reeds.

His firm built about 600 organs before he left his firm around 1900.

There are excellent recordings of the Albion Church instrument on CD and YouTube, many by virtuoso organist Jonathan Scott, who tells us “the sound has always remained for me one of the most brilliant and exciting musical instruments that I've ever had the pleasure to play”. We can hear all of these characteristics — especially including its remarkable “orchestral balance” and imitative voices — in Scott playing his arrangement of Saint-Saens famous “Finale” to his “Organ” Symphony No. 3 which combines both the organ and orchestral parts of the score. Many of the organ designs of the late 19th century aimed to be able to not only handle romantic era music styles, but to allow orchestral transcriptions to be rendered well enough to evoke the originals. This was especially the case in Great Britain where there was a movement to create town hall organs on which traveling virtuosos such as W.T. Best and Edwin Lemare could bring contemporary masterpieces to municipalities which didn’t have orchestras.

However, Lewis had ideas of his own, and was an early important part of the related next wave of organ sound: the transition from “Romantic” to “Symphonic” organs. We can hear what was special about Lewis’ approach on the Albion Church instrument. For example, one can get an excellent C-C 8’ “all manuals coupled Fonds” sound, and other French effects. However, the Pedal has many 16’ voices to choose from, and the versatile loud 16’ reed is tonally between a Baroque Posaune and a French Bombarde: it sounds very “Trombone-like”. There are Harmonic flutes and many imitative voices, all blending, yet clear in ensemble.

There are also wonderful string voices. Jonathan Scott says “The Pedal Violone 16’ is classed as one of the best examples in the world. [It] actually sounds like a huge Double Bass and is amazing with the Swell strings with sub and octave couplers”.

A characteristic voice of large English symphonic organs was a very loud but usually “round” brass sound — called a “Tuba”— that could allow an important theme to be played over a full tutti. The Albion Lewis makes this stop — at what seems to be the perfect level of sound (instead of seeming too loud) — available independently on the Solo, Choir, and Pedal divisions.

An important achievement of Lewis on the Albion Church organ is that the tuttis are never muddy, and full organ is a truly great and clear sound.

This sample set now makes the art of this genius organ designer and builder available to organists everywhere, and especially for the many who can’t travel to Ashton under Lyne to play this special instrument.

We would like to thank Jonathan Scott, the Albion Church, and especially Derek Sharples, for their help, and David Wood for keeping the organ in such excellent condition.

Further reading:

The Organ An Encyclopedia, edited By Douglas Bush, Richard Kassel, 2014 by Routledge

The History of the English Organ, Stephen Bicknell, Cambridge University Press, 1996

The Making of the Victorian Organ, Nicholas Thistlewaite, Cambridge University Press, 1990

Web information about the organ: https://www.jonathanscott.co.uk/albionchurchorgan.htm

Web information about T.C.Lewis: https://www.ohta.org.au/doc/articles/Lewis.html