All things praise thee - Chris Lawton at St Martin's in the Bullring Church, Birmingham

  • 12 years ago
Me playing the organ at St Martin in the Bullring in Birmingham city centre, West Midlands.

The organ was originally built by Harrison and Harrison of Durham in 1907 as a 3 manual instrument situated in a chamber on the north side of the chancel. In 1955 the organ was rebuilt by the John Compton Organ Company Ltd and moved to its present location in the north transept. A new detached drawstop console was provided on the south side of the chancel. As part of the rebuild, the original choir division was split and a new enclosed solo division was created with the addition of new stops including Tuba, Cor Anglais and Clarinet. In 2000 the organ was restored by Nicholson's of Malvern, Worcestershire.

As a Compton organ enthusiast it is a delight to see that the console remains original including flat head drawstops, thumb pistons and swell pedal indicators.

For this first video im playing the hymn 'All things praise thee, Lord most high' to the tune 'Te Laudant Omnia'. In the second verse can be heard the swell 'Harmonic Trumpet' and in the third verse the Compton 'Tuba' can be heard providing the melody. In the fourth verse the lines of the first line are 'All things praise thee high and low'' so I try to emphasise this in my playing.

Many thanks to the officials at St Martin's for allowing me access to this wonderful instrument which is a wonderful example of 3 superb organ builders.

NOTE: this is purely my interest in order to make sure that these fine organs are archived forever and I do not make any monetary profit by this video being on dailymotion.

For more information on the John Compton Organ Company Ltd and to see me play other Compton organs, please click on the following link for my site dedicated to the John Compton Organ Company Ltd:

http://comptonorgans.yolasite.com/

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