Diocesan News
St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny to launch €650,000 organ fund appeal
Work started today (Tuesday 18 April) on the ?650,000 restoration of the organ at St Canice's cathedral, Kilkenny. Part of the on-going cathedral restoration programme, no major work has been undertaken on the organ since the 1853 Bevington was removed from its original gallery and rebuilt in its present location in 1905. Now, after over a century of service, it is to be dismantled, restored and rebuilt in augmented form in a more favourable location fronting the east wall of the north transept.
The work will be handled by the Irish firm of Trevor Crowe Ltd, and will be overseen by internationally renowned recitalist Professor Gerard Gillen, of NUI Maynooth, who is acting as organ advisor to the cathedral.
In 1905 the principal requirement was to accompany choral services in the chancel, and the accompaniment of nave congregations was knowingly dismissed as unimportant. In the course of the twentieth century, however, the liturgical and musical requirements changed enormously, and in this new century the cathedral organ is expected to make a real musical impact in the nave as well as the chancel, both in congregational accompaniment and in solo performance. Whilst the resiting and augmentation of the organ must enable it to be loud enough to match a large choir and orchestra, it is important that its gentler sounds (the musicality of which has always been admired) should be preserved and not altered, and this is why it is necessary to add to the complement of voices within the instrument and not merely to louden the existing ones.
The rebuilt and augmented instrument will contain some 47 registers, totalling just over 3,000 pipes.
The cathedral will officially launch a ?650,000 appeal fund to cover the cost of this major work in May 2006. Speaking in St Canice's cathedral today, the dean, the Very Revd Norman Lynas said "Musically, this one of the most exciting ventures ever to be undertaken by the cathedral, and I urge all music lovers to support this most worthwhile appeal."
Mark Bowyer (cathedral administrator), Trevor Crowe (organ builder) and the Very Revd Norman Lynas at the start of the restoration.
The organ at St Canice's Cathedral (picture courtesy of Dylan Vaughan)
Further details of how to support this exciting project may be obtained from:
Mark Bowyer,
Cathedral Administrator,
St Canice's Cathedral,
The Close,
Kilkenny.
Tel: +353 56 776 4971
Fax: +353 56 772 3646
Web: www.stcanicescathedral.ie
Email: Cathedral administrator