A Dobson organ from Iowa comes to Merton College, Oxford
The installation of the new Dobson organ at Merton College, Oxford, is underway, and you can follow it on Facebook and Twitter. Benjamin Nicholas, Organist and Director of Music at Merton, and Merton’s Chaplain, Simon Jones, have been tweeting pictures, and Dobson’s themselves have a great Facebook page with loads of pictures of the design, development and building of the organ – from inside and out. It’s splendid to see clean wood, bright metal and fresh wiring being assembled into a brand new instrument: here’s a gallery from Dobson’s website showing the components under construction.
This is Dobson’s Op91, and only the third American-made organ to be sent to England since WW2*. They won an international competition for the commission, and it’s been five years in the building. Based in a small town in Iowa, they employ 18 people in a nineteenth century building in the city square which was a former factory for electric poles and fence posts. For more about Dobson’s, visit their website, and here’s an article from the Omaha World-Herald which describes the project and the company in detail. The specification of Op91 is here.
Merton College celebrates its 750th anniversary in 2014 – the organ will be completed in November 2013, and dedication recitals will be announced for 2014. I believe the first use will be for the Advent Services on 30th November and 1st December this year.
The first of the containers arrives after a 4,500 mile journey, mostly by sea /Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
Scaffolding goes up, 30 June /Merton College Choir
One of the upper back case frames is sent up /Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
Bob Savage uncrates a collection of turnings, baubles, doodads, gewgaws, trinkets, knick-knacks and gimcracks /Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
The middle of the 3 Swell slider windchests is sent up /Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
South side of organ case, 5 July /Benjamin Nicholas
Dean Zenor fits flexible hoses for the facade pipes /Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
Foreman Dean Heim unpacks Great Bourdon pipes /Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
The zimbelstern star, which is about 18″ in diameter and gilded, traveled in its own custom-made box. The string is to assist with handling /Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
- Star of wonder, Star of light! The zimbelstern takes its rightful place, 13th July /Simon Jones
For more pictures and news as the build develops follow Benjamin Nicholas @BenjieNicholas and Simon Jones @SimonJo29622614 on Twitter
*The other two American-built organs in the UK are the Richards, Fowkes & Co 2012 instrument at St George’s, Hanover Square London, and the Lawrence Phelps and Associates organ built for Hexham Abbey in 1974. There’s more on the Richards, Fowkes & Co organ in my interview with Simon Williams, Organist and Director of Music at St George’s, Hanover Square, here. I must follow up on the Hexham instrument!
