Music Staff | Ensembles | Instruments | 
Concerts and Events (MACCC)

Instruments in Use at Christ Church Cranbrook

The Christ Church Cranbrook Organ | The Carillon | The Chamber Organ | Handbells

The Christ Church Cranbrook Mander/Skinner organ is a complex musical instrument. Its more than 5400 speaking pipes are seated in rows on wind-chests harboring forced air supplied by turbine blowers. The organist, seated at the organ's console, plays upon the manual and pedal keyboards. The keys initiate electronic impulses which are relayed to the wind-chests via solid-state circuitry. Air passes from the wind-chest into the pipe when a "stopper" or pallet opens, activated by the solid-state circuitry. The pipe then speaks.

Organ pipes are grouped according to their tonal characteristics: variety, volume, timbre, musical function, and so forth. Each group of pipes contains at least one pipe for every key on the manual or pedal keyboard. The organ term for a group or row of pipes is rank. The Christ Church Cranbrook organ has 85 ranks of pipes. When the organ is designed, certain ranks are grouped and situated together in divisions. Each division, tonally complete in itself, is called by the term organ.

The Christ Church Cranbrook organ is comprised of six manual and two pedal divisions. The foundation manual division is the Great Organ. The Swell Organ is composed of ranks of pipes which are encased in a huge wooden enclosure with louvered shutters on one side. When the shutters are closed, sound inside the wooden box is virtually prevented from reaching the listener. When the shutters are opened gradually the sound trapped inside the box swells out into the room.

The beautifully decorated organ has four manual keyboards and a pedal board. The controls situated on both sides of the keyboards are called stopknobs or "stops," one for each different rank of pipes. A rank of pipes which sounds like a clarinet would be activated by pulling on the stopknob labeled Clarinet. In this manner the organist combines various tonal colors to portray the music.

Click here for a history and specifications for the Christ Church Cranbrook Mander/Skinner organ.

The Carillon

According to the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America, a carillon is "a musical instrument consisting of at least two octaves of carillon bells arranged in chromatic series and played from a keyboard permitting control of expression through variation of touch. A carillon bell is a cast bronze cup-shaped bell whose partial tones are in such harmonious relationship to each other as to permit many such bells to be sounded together in varied chords with harmonious and concordant effect."

The original carillon at Christ Church Cranbrook is comprised of 46 bells from the Taylor Bell Foundry in Loughborough, England. The beautiful instrument was a gift in 1927 to the new church building from Grace Booth Wallace, Harold Lindsey Wallace ,and their children (Elizabeth Ellen,Ellen Virginia, Richard Booth, Shirley Anne and Catherine Booth).

The new carillon was dedicated at a concert on Sunday, September 30, 1928, played by Anton Brees, a native of Antwerp who at that time was carillonneur at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Brees later became carillonneur at the famous Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida. He returned to the church for several summers to play. This was the beginning of what is now called the Summer Carillon Series.

The largest bell or "bourdon" of the carillon is the low B-flat, which measures 5 feet, eight inches in diameter and weighs 6,700 pounds. The carillon was later expanded with smaller treble bells to its current total of 50 bells, or four complete octaves. Its most recent updates include a new playing console or clavier plus new practice instrument and new benches designed by Rick Watson, then with the Verdin Co., in the mid-1990s. In 2001, 14 new treble bells from Ohio-based Meeks, Watson and Co. replaced earlier ones of poor sound quality. These projects were made possible through gifts from friends and members of the church, most notably from Kathryn and William Gossett.

The carillon is a set of at least 23 bells tuned to the notes of the chromatic scale. The bells of a carillon, unless doubling as swinging bells, are stationary. The Booth-Wallace carillon has no swinging bells and is in concert pitch. Only the carillon clapper moves when actuated by an intricate system of wires connected to a keyboard or clavier. The lower two octaves of the Christ Church Cranbrook carillon are also activated by pedals. The action of the clappers is affected by springs or counterweights but is purely manual.

Clapper size relates to the size of the bell and should meet the inside or mouth area of the bell at a perfect strike point for the best musical tone. Clappers can be replaced and/or turned to new strike points to reduce wear on the bell. The bells are tuned and perfected at the foundry. Because it is exposed to dirt and weather, the instrument benefits from regular maintenance, including cleaning and lubrication of moving parts and inspection for signs or corrosion or wear.

Christ Church Cranbrook enjoys one of the most spacious playing chambers in the carillon world. Under the bell chamber and at the top of 70 circular steps, it was carpeted and updated with built-in cabinets in the mid-1990s. The playing/office area has an air conditioner and plenty of room for tower tour guests to observe the carillonneur at the clavier or the practice instrument. The room also houses our unique Ellacombe, a set of eight ropes attached to their own hammers or clappers, which can ring out a C-to-C octave for simple tunes or change ringing.

There now are close to 200 carillons in North America. Information on them can be found on the website of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, the professional association that promotes the art of the carillon.

The Chamber Organ

A gift of parishioner, Virginia Sory Brown in memory of her mother and aunt, the Christ Church Cranbrook Chamber Organ was built by George Bozeman, Jr. and Company, Organ builders, Deerfield, New Hampshire.

The musical design of the instrument is influenced by mid to late 18th-century English bureau organs and the small chamber organs which George Frederic Handel would have known and played.  Mr. Bozeman proposed in particular a design patterned after a chamber organ which Handel used for the first performance of Messiah given in Dublin in 1742.  One notable example of similar instruments is found in this country in the Governor's mansion in historic Williamsburg.  It was built c. 1760 by British organ builders, Adcock & Pether.