Heavenly Harmony: Organs and Organists of Exeter Cathedral

Malcolm Walker, David Davies

• Publisher: Impress Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781907605659
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Religious Architecture

Heavenly Harmony tells the fascinating story of the organs and organists of Exeter Cathedral, beginning in 1284, when Roger de Ropford and his wife and heirs were made responsible for making bells for the cathedral and repairing the clock and organ. Since then, there has always been at least one organ in the cathedral, except from 1646 to 1660, when the puritanical Parliamentarians who then controlled Exeter banned the use of organs in churches across England and Wales. The magnificent case which towers above the great Pulpitum screen today was originally completed in 1665 but has since been enlarged more than once, notably in 1891, when an extra division of the instrument was added. Who built and repaired the organs of the cathedral down the centuries. How have the organs evolved, and why? What happened to the organ during the English Civil War? How badly damaged was the organ when a bomb struck the cathedral in 1942? Why was it necessary to carry out a major renovation of the organ in 2013 and 2014? The book addresses these and many other questions. The story of those appointed to play the organs is one of variable standards of behaviour and musicianship, from the high quality of the decades before the Civil War through the nadir of cathedral music in the eighteenth century to the brilliance of today. The book contains pen portraits of all of the cathedral s organists since the late sixteenth century and also mentions assistant organists, masters of the choristers and many of those who pumped the bellows in the days before electric blowers.