Stavanger Cathedral, Norway

The connection to the British Isles was always significant. One Andrew Smith from Scotland was particularly busy in Stavanger Cathedral producing, in the 17th century, no less than five epitaphs and a sumptuously carved and decorated pulpit.

In 1992, the Reil brothers completed a fine classical organ on a new gallery at the West end of the Nave. Its installation necessitated the removal of some of the roof trusses. Fortunately the roof did not suffer from the removal of some of its support but, when it was finished, the Historic Buildings Commission was rather less than happy. Not because the organ looked less than fine – nobody could think that – but it was somewhat larger than they had imagined it was going to be. This had consequences for the Choir organ later on.

It had always been the intention of the organ committee that, ultimately, Stavanger Cathedral should have two organs. The main West gallery instrument would serve most purposes, but with the distance involved it was not ideal for accompanying the choirs (there are no less than five of them) at the East end of the building, nor did it have the romantic resources necessary for the increasing interest being shown in Norway in the romantic liturgical music of England in particular. So with the completion of the main organ, attention was turned to the acquisition of a Choir organ.

The original intention was for a modest instrument of about 12 stops on two manuals, with an as well developed Swell department as could be hoped for within the limitations of size. But the Swell was, in any event, always intended to be rather more than a mere few stops in a box. Proposals were made for an instrument in a suitable Gothic case to complement the architecture of the Choir but the saga of the West organ was too fresh in the minds of the Historic Buildings Commission. It was not keen on an organ in the Choir at all and rejected the initial proposals out of hand. More proposals followed and were also rejected but, finally, certain criteria were set which at least gave us parameters to work to. Except that they were unworkable. The most significant limiting factor was the height of the organ, which was determined by the lowest edge of the sloping Gothic window ledge in the Choir – too low to enable us to build an instrument with acceptable visual proportions and too low to accommodate the sort of instrument the music demanded.

By moving the intended site of the organ slightly further West, it could come down a few steps which would at least give us a little more much needed height. But only one such place could be considered, and that presented a width problem. The organ would have to fit between the "Bishop’s Door" and the substantial wall of the Chancel arch. This was going to be workable – until the Historic Buildings Commission got involved again. This time it was a depth restriction they wished to place on the organ. The new site was too close to the 17th century Andrew Smith pulpit. The organ must not project more than an absolute maximum of a few centimetres beyond the chancel wall, nor must it be highly decorated or else it will detract from the pulpit itself. Oh yes, and it must be painted a dark grey green to look as much like the stonework as possible. But we were at least given dimensions to work to and they had to be written into the contract. The maximum height was to be 3 metres (9'10"), the width 2.1 metres (6'11"), the depth 1.2 metres (3'11"). It was not to be a fixture, indeed it had to be moveable. It was in fact built on and around a self contained steel chassis with large diameter neoprene wheels.

Designing an organ for the accompaniment of the romantic choral literature within these limitations of size was all but impossible. A two-manual scheme was out of the question if there were to be a reasonably sized department under expression. The specification was therefore essentially dictated by the space available to us. It had to have front pipes, and the possibility of using dummies was not ever considered, so finally an instrument of eight stops was agreed, with all the manual stops excepting the Open Diapason enclosed in a swell box.

Having settled the specification, designing the instrument was no easy task. We asked for 50mm more width. The answer came back: No. So we asked for 25mm. Same answer: No. So thicknesses of timber in the organ were shaved by a millimetre here and a millimetre there. The centre tower was made a little more pointed, the Bourdon scaled a note or two smaller, and eventually we achieved our 2.1m maximum width. (Ssh! we didn’t count the carving or mouldings in any of the measurements.) The pedal board was made to be removed especially easily, and the keyboard retracts behind a cover attached to the music desk, as shown in the black and white photographs. Everything was to be made in finest oak, polished and then painted over in grey-green. The idea was that in a few years time when the dust had settled, the paint would be stripped off the case revealing the natural oak. In the end a change in the Historic Buildings Commission enabled common sense to prevail and the oak casework was oiled rather than painted.

In order to make the organ easier to manage when accompanying the choirs (particularly in the more romantic repertoire), two shifting action pedals were provided, something which seemed to be new to Norwegian organists. By selecting the stops which each pedal put off carefully, a means was found whereby four distinct dynamic levels could be selected at will by operating one, the other or both shifting action pedals together. The voicing is intentionally on the romantic side with blend being important to allow as many differing combinations of stops as possible within the limited choice. The use of the organ also dictated the choice of an Oboe, and its inclusion lends the combination of those stops under expression a surprisingly convincing large Swell effect when used with a choir.