The Christchurch Town Hall Organ: A Journey Through Time

A new pipe organ was always an integral part of the Christchurch Town Hall concept plan, both architecturally and acoustically. In the design of the auditorium, provision was made for an organ to be installed in the optimum position: a dedicated organ chamber placed centrally above the stage behind the choir stalls, with the case spanning the back wall. It was hoped that the new instrument would be in place for the town hall opening ceremonies in 1972 but, unfortunately, financial constraints meant that it was put on hold. Good things take time, but few would have dreamed that it would not be until 1997, a quarter of a century after the opening of the building, that Christchurch would once again have a civic pipe organ and the auditorium would finally be completed.

The twenty-five years with no town hall organ was a continuation of a pattern that dogged Christchurch, which has had three city organs over a century, with lengthy gaps between them. The first was gifted to the city by the government at the close of the New Zealand International Exhibition, held in Christchurch in 1906 to 1907. Built by Eustace Ingram, a London organ builder whose business was later taken over by Gray & Davison, it was at the time the second largest instrument in the Southern Hemisphere. Since the city had no town hall, the organ was installed in His Majesty’s Theatre, Manchester Street, and Dr John Bradshaw, organist of Christchurch Cathedral, who was appointed city organist in 1908, gave regular recitals until 1917, when the building – and the organ – was destroyed by fire.

It took thirteen years for a replacement instrument to be purchased from the insurance money and accrued interest. This second city organ, also by Hill, Norman & Beard, was installed in the Municipal Concert Hall (later renamed the Civic Theatre). The opening recital was given on 15 March 1930. The organ enjoyed golden years, especially in the 1930s when Dr Bradshaw gave regular Sunday evening recitals, which reached a wider audience when these began to be broadcast on the radio. However, the organ was not considered suitable in size or design for a modern town hall, and in 1974, when the Civic Theatre became the home of TV3, the organ was, somewhat controversially, sold to St John’s Presbyterian Church in Whangarei. Then began what proved to be a long period not only of waiting for a replacement but also of intensive fundraising. The proceeds from some of the opening functions for the new Christchurch Town Hall and the sale of the Civic Theatre organ, together with a donation of $10,000 from Mr & Mrs C.J. Ferrier, were held by the Christchurch City Council in a special fund.

In 1979 the Christchurch Civic Music Council under the chairmanship of Wallace Woodley was approached by organist Bernard Bicknell with a view to starting a campaign for an organ in the town hall. The next year the Town Hall Organ Fund-raising Committee was set up. Despite this initiative, slow progress was made and it was not until August 1984 that the music council asked Brian Harman to set up the Town Hall Organ Trust Fund using the $2200 that had already been accumulated. A further $10,600 was raised in 1985 and two years later a substantial donation of $100,000 was received from Bernard and Brenda Bicknell (Bernard Bicknell was later appointed clerk of works for the installation of the organ). Because the 1980s were years of high interest rates, there was steady growth in the trust’s funds.

An application in 1985 to the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council resulted in a promised grant of $100,000 once the organ was installed, but this lapsed. A new application to the Lotteries Grants Board secured a grant of $150,000 in May 1990, with an additional offer of a short-term loan for the same amount, provided it was taken up within two years. By this stage the trust fund had amassed $345,593, which meant that together with the $150,000 grant and the monies held by the city council (which with interest had grown to
$315,876), the sum of $811,469, plus the offer of a further $150,000 loan, was available for the project. It was decided to take urgent action to purchase the long-overdue organ, and regularly seeking advice and help from international touring organists, including Dame Gillian Weir and Peter Hurford. It was normal practice for organ builders to be asked for quotations for a pre-conceived organ size and specification, but owing to rampant inflation the gap between the updated quotes and the funds available appeared to be steadily widening. It was time for a new approach. The council therefore resolved to invite a number of leading organ makers to tender for the project based on the following criteria:

1. The size, architectural design and acoustic properties of the auditorium.
2. The space available for the organ.
3. The various uses envisaged – ‘civic occasions, schools’ music festivals, graduation ceremonies, choral performances, religious festivals and services, organ concertos with orchestra, organ recitals, incidental music, broad- casting and recording, accompanying soloists, in lieu of an orchestra at some functions, organ competitions and congresses’.
4. The estimated sum of money available by the time the organ would be built.

The firm that put forward the most innovative proposal would win the contract to build the organ. Al- though less conventional, it was an appropriate approach, following the excellent precedent of the design competition for the town hall building.

A number of different organ companies from Europe, America and England tendered, and the proposal by Rieger Orgelbau of Schwarzach, Austria, was selected. Founded by Franz Rieger in 1845, the firm has been owned by the Glatter-Götz family since 1924. It is renowned for building concert hall organs, such as those in the Adelaide Festival Centre (1973), Suntory Hall, Tokyo (1986), the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (1989), the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris (1991) and the Mission Centre in Seoul, Korea (1992).

The company’s international reputation and the prestigious venues in which these instruments were located meant that Christchurch could be confident that the instrument commissioned for the city would be of the highest quality.

Towards the end of 1991 a substantial legacy of $77,792 was received from the estate of Miss Catherine Calder, which meant that funds close to $900,000 were now available. The music council, which calculated that there would still be a shortfall of about $190,000, enlisted the assistance of the Avonhead Rotary Club to spearhead the final round of fundraising. Early in 1992 a new fundraising committee, chaired by Ron Long, was formed and in February that year a delegation from the music council and Avonhead Rotary met with the Town Hall Board’s organ subcommittee. The board’s unanimous motion, recommending that a contract with Rieger be approved, was passed by the full Christchurch City Council on 27 April 1992. Because major work could only be carried out during January when hall bookings were minimal, it wasn’t until January 1996 that the necessary alterations to the rear of the choir stalls could be made, and January 1997 before Rieger could have the organ built and transported to Christchurch. A further three-month period was required to install, voice and tune the organ.

The organ’s final cost was approximately $1.2 million, of which approximately 97.8% was raised through public funds. This testifies to the persistent efforts of many thousands in the community who never gave up the vision for a civic organ worthy of the Christchurch Town Hall. Small and large groups got behind the cause, and individuals, families and groups supported the traditional ‘buy a pipe’ campaign. The long ‘pipe dream’ finally became a reality and its installation completed the auditorium both visually and acoustically 25 years after the complex opened in 1972.

At 12:51 pm on 22 February 2011, a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck directly underneath the city, causing severe devastation and killing 173 people. A city once rich in organs (approximately 77) lost many of its pipe organs forever in a few seconds. Fortunately the instrument suffered only minor damage and was gloriously restored to splendour by Rieger in late 2018 and early 2019.
At the time of the 2011 quake, two Rieger workers were in Christchurch, about to finish the final voicing and tuning of 12 new ranks (shown in red on the specification) which had been added thanks to a munificent legacy from the late Frank Partridge. These new colours are heard for the first time today in an organ truly re-sounding after shocks.