A very special donation to Saint George’s Parish Church Treorchy

Saint George’s Parish Church, situated in the center of the village of Cwmparc South Wales, recently had to replace their much loved 30-year-old Viscount organ in a very short period of time owing to extensive failure.

The budget was very limited and obtaining permission for external speakers and wiring was going to take considerable time. A new instrument with powerful internal amplification was purchased with funding from the Welsh Church Act Fund and the Treorchy Wind Farm Project. After considerable re-voicing, it soon became apparent this powerful instrument was not able to fulfill the needs of a full congregation thus more amplification and additional loudspeakers were required.

After six months the necessary limited permission for wiring, concealed loudspeakers, and no drilling of any holes within the structure of this Grade II listed building had been obtained. Alas, there was no further funding available to complete the project. Viscount Organs came to our rescue with a very generous donation of an even larger instrument, plus external speakers, amplification, and free installation!

Tony Packer of Aspire Classical Organs supplied us with the new instrument and covered all installation costs. David Mason, Owner of Viscount Organs UK head office, generously supplied all the loudspeakers and amplification.

The new instrument installed was an Envoy 35-F with custom stops added, finished in real oak, with four satellite loudspeakers and one very large Bass speaker. This was all completed in less than five days before the commencement of Holy Week: incredible service and customer care from everyone at Viscount Organs.

We were delighted with the invisible placement of speakers, giving a very “present” sound, and the choice of wind-chest layout giving an excellent special presence. The alternative voice function distinguishes this organ as being something very special. We have selected some gentler registers for our week-by-week voicing, as this is a large organ for not a large church. The capability of also adjusting the voicing has tailor-made a versatile musical instrument whose warm tone fills but never overwhelms, the space.

Choosing a lower-pitched mixture in the swell also meant that when using the super octave coupler the Effect is very exciting with no harsh screaming and constant breaking back in the performance of Bach’s contrapuntal music. We enjoyed voicing the oboe so that it is useful both as a solo reed for French organ literature and as a chorus reed in a Wesley anthem.