First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (July 2011)]
First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (July 2011)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2011, 2014 (last updated June 2014)
The First Church of Christ Scientist at North Quay, Brisbane, was opened in 1940. Designed by the architects Lucas and Cummings of Brisbane, it is an example of the Interwar Stripped Classical style with its vestigial central portico, careful proportions and rhythmical placement of windows.1
[Photographs by Geoffrey Cox (July 2011)]
The organ was completed as a two-manual instrument in July 1940 by Whitehouse Bros of Brisbane at a cost of £1,146.7.6, the original quote and estimate having been given in December 1938.2 This was one of the firm’s larger early projects using electro-pneumatic action, although it was not on the scale of their rebuild at Central Congregational Church, Ipswich in 1935 (2 manuals, 29 stops) or their new organ for St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney in 1942 (2 manuals, 27 stops). The pipework is concealed behind a grille, and the detached roll-top console is placed to one side at the front of the church. The stop-tabs are of the Wurlitzer variety, as had been used in earlier Whitehouse extension organs and at the Central Congregational Church, Ipswich.
Interior of the First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (July 2011)]
It is interesting to note that the firm secured contracts to build or rebuild organs for Christian Science churches throughout the country. After rebuilding the large 3-manual Dodd organ at First Church of Christ Scientist, Darlinghurst, NSW in 1937, they built new organs for the same denomination not only in Brisbane (1940), but also in Chatswood, NSW (2 manuals, 1941-42), Perth, WA (3 manuals, 1953) and Adelaide, SA (2 manuals, 1957), as well as overhauling the 3-manual Willis at First Church of Christ Scientist, Melbourne in 1953. All of these instruments used electro-pneumatic action. The strong association with Christian Science churches may have come through the prominent Brisbane organist, Miss Margery Horn, who played at the First Church of Christ Scientist, first as Deputy Organist for six years, and then as Official Organist for 20 years from August 1943 to August 1963.3
Miss Margery Horn at the enlarged three-manual console (after 1950)
[Photograph from the Scrapbooks of Margery Horn]
There is a certain degree of conflicting information about the size and specification of the Brisbane organ as it existed originally in 1940, but it is clear that it comprised 14 stops, with proposals for later additions. The original entry (dated July 1940) in the firm's ledger refers to 'supplying & fitting 5 extra stop keys',4 which were apparently 'prepared-for' stops at the two-manual console. By 1946, two different schemes had been developed for enlarging the organ, both involving the addition of five stops, one retaining two manuals while the other involved the addition of a third manual.5 The original 1940 specification can be deduced from the following two-manual scheme of 1946 for 19 stops spread over two manuals, in which the proposed additions are asterisked:
* * * * * |
GREAT Open Diapason Gamba Clarabel Stop Diapason Dulciana Octave Flute Clarinet SWELL Violin Diapason Lieblich Gedact Salicional Voix Celeste Principal Piccolo Cornopean Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Bass Flute Violoncello COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell Sub Octave Swell Super Octave Swell to Great Sub Octave Swell to Great Super Octave |
8 8 8 8 8 4 4 8 8 8 8 8 4 2 8 8 16 8 8 |
Electro-pneumatic action
Detached stop-key console
Balanced Swell Pedal (mechanical)
Swell Tremulant
Compass: 61/30
3 thumb pistons to Great Organ
3 thumb pistons to Swell Organ.
* additions as proposed in 1946.6
The original two-manual console at the
First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane
[Photographs from the Scrapbooks of Miss Margery Horn]
A slightly different two-manual specification is recorded in another source, possibly representing the stop-names as they appeared on the original console, although it gives no indication that any of the stops was merely 'prepared for'. This specification comprises only 18 stops, differing from the one above in the omission of the Gamba 8ft on the Great Organ and the Piccolo 2ft on the Swell, but including a Fifteenth 2ft on the Great.7 One of the five 'prepared' stops appears therefore to be missing in this account.
By the early 1950s, the decision had clearly been made to enlarge the organ to three manuals rather than adding stops to the existing two: A ledger entry in December 1950 refers to 'making dummy console'.8 This appears to have involved a simple enlargement of the existing console to three manuals. The five-stop Choir Organ was not added, however, until December 1952, at a cost of £1,512.8.0.9
The enlarged Whitehouse console (after 1950)
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (July 2011)]
The original Great Stopped Diapason 8ft appears to have been transferred to the new Choir and a new Claribel 8ft added to the Great at this time. The resulting three-manual specification is as follows:
| GREAT Open Diapason Claribel Dulciana Octave Flute SWELL Violin Diapason Lieblich Gedack [sic] Salicional Principal Cornopean Oboe CHOIR Stopped Diapason Gamba Flute Piccolo Clarinet PEDAL Bourdon Bass Flute Violincello [sic] COUPLERS Swell to Pedal Choir to Pedal Swell to Great Choir to Great Swell to Choir Swell Sub Swell Super Swell Sub to Great Swell Super to Great |
8 8 8 4 4 8 8 8 4 8 8 8 8 4 2 8 16 8 8 |
A A |
Swell tremulant
Choir tremulant
Electro-pneumatic action
Detached stop-key console
Balanced Swell pedal (mechanical)
Balanced Choir pedal (mechanical)
3 thumb pistons to Great
3 thumb pistons to Swell
3 thumb pistons to Choir
Compass: 61/30.10
Stop-keys of the enlarged Whitehouse console (after 1950)
[Photographs by Geoffrey Cox (July 2011)
Major refurbishment of the organ was undertaken in 2010 by Pierce Pipe Organs of Brisbane, including the replacement of the original Great and Swell action magnets, rewiring, re-leathering of the Great and Swell bellows, and electrification of the pneumatic Pedal chests and action.11
___________________________________________________________
1 Queensland Heritage Council, Queensland Heritage Register, location 17459.
2 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), pp. 35-37, 314.
3 Letter dated 8 September 1963 from E.M. Riding (Clerk, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane) to Miss Margery Horn, on the occasion of her resignation as Official Organist (Scrapbooks of Miss Margery Horn).
4 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), p. 314.
5 Letter dated 30 April 1946, from Whitehouse Bros to The Clerk, First Church of Christ Scientist, supplied January 2003 from the church archives.
6 Letter dated 30 April 1946. This agrees essentially with the specification recorded by Ian Tucker (c.1970), which may even derive from the letter itself.
7 Collected Organ Specifications of Bernie Brohan (c.1952).
8 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), p. 400.
9 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), p. 313 [apparently interpolated close to the original 1940 entry].
10 Specification noted by G. Cox, 1972, 2003 & 2011.
11 Details from www.piercepipeorgans.com.au/pipe-organ-news (accessed 20 July 2011).