In this age of MP3 players and iPods we tend to forget that for a long time, the only place where ordinary people could listen to decent music for free, was a church. Bernard Busuttil takes a look at the restoration of a unique forefather of the MP3 player, a pipe organ at the Oratory of the Collegiate Church in Cospicua

Before the invention of street organs, or (terramaxka) as it is known locally, churches also served as theatres for the masses. Consequently, these invested in a maestro di cappella, who would have been a leading composer at the time.

Through restoration, we can now appreciate the various facets of the pipe organ, such as the small, yet unique example at the Oratory of the Collegiate Parish Church of Cospicua.

The University of Malta was first interested in the restoration of the organ, while the initiative was taken up by the Mediterranean Institute at the university with the special contribution of Tessie Camilleri.

The organ’s restoration is currently underway, under the supervision of Dr Simon Mercieca. The project, the cost of which is expected to run into five-digit numbers, will be funded entirely by APS Bank, whose chairman, Prof. Emanuel Delia also showed a special interest in the venture. Restoration started last year and is expected to be ready by September 2009.

Renowned organ restorer Robert Buhagiar was entrusted with carrying out this work on the organ’s mechanical and tonal components. Trained as an electrical engineer, Mr Buhagiar’s interest in pipe organs led him to study them in Italy. In 1999 he set up his own studio in Zabbar where he has restored a good number of instruments, notably the organ in the Mosta Dome and Mdina Cathedral.

Mr Buhagiar said the organ in the Cospicua oratory is a very small pipe organ, probably circa 18th century and of Sicilian origin, sometimes referred to as an ottavino. He held that this type of organ is nowadays quite rare to come across, even in Sicily. It is believed that the Cospicua organ’s last major re-fit was carried out in 1852, as this date was found painted on one side of a wooden pipe after this was extracted from the organ during dismantling.

The main feature of ottavino organs is their foundation stop (known in Maltese as registru) which is an octave higher than the norm. This means that the dimensions of the organ can be smaller than one would normally expect; a desirable attribute in an organ, which is intended to be portable to an extent.

Such ottavino organs, said Mr Buhagiar, were usually employed to accompany female choirs, as these have high-pitched voices, and therefore these were not an uncommon feature in female religious institutions. Also, it was cheaper to buy a smaller organ.

Due to the organ’s limited technical and tonal specification, this organ is not suited to large-scale works found in the organ repertoire. However, it is suitable for solo renditions of a specific keyboard repertoire and to accompany small choirs and chamber music.

Given the scarce number of such ottavino organs, the one in Cospicua is of a certain national importance. Mr Buhagiar explained that organs provide excellent testimony to the skilled craftsmanship and artistic style at the time of their construction - hence the reason that good old organs are appreciated and much effort is devoted to their conservation and restoration.

However, this particular organ has further interesting technical features which make it even more interesting from a historic point-of-view.

The first characteristic is found in the peculiarity of its pedalboard, which is a set of wooden levers which the organist presses with his feet (toes and heels) in order to produce the bass sounds. This organ has an inverted pedalboard, which is a very rare feature. This means that contrary to the normal notion of a keyboard, the so-called black notes are not placed above the white notes, as their positions are inverted. Mr Buhagiar maintains that this peculiar arrangement does not give it any advantage musically or during a performance, but is a very interesting feature.

The other interesting feature is that the organ has an independent bass windchest. This peculiarity is highly unusual for such organs, held Mr Buhagiar.

Restoration

Mr Buhagiar said the organ was in very bad condition, as it had been lying derelict in the organ loft of the oratory for many years. The beautiful organ case is damaged in various places and in need of structural reinforcement, while some of the decorated case panels were found on the floor detached from the organ.

He explained that about a third of the metal pipes were found to be missing, but luckily the missing pipes belong to the high-pitched stops which lend a brilliance to the tone, rather than set the foundation tone. The original pipes were in a very bad state as most pipes were crushed or flattened. The wooden pipes had loose glue joints and therefore could not produce good sound.

The restorer explained how the organ’s parts were carefully dismantled from the case and inspected, after which all wooden parts were fumigated and treated for woodworm.

The keyboard was found not to be the original one. Mr Buhagiar thought about making an historic copy based on another ottavino organ, and it turned out that certain very important technical specifications matched perfectly, so this was enough justification to make an exact replica of the other ottavino keyboard.

However, he found that the pedalboard was severely damaged, as all the keys were broken at the point where they protrude from the organ’s case. The remaining parts of the pedalboard had been heavily infested with woodworm, such that the wooden structure was very fragile. A copy of the original pedalboard will be built, said Mr Buhagiar, and while the original part will be conserved it will not be brought to working condition since this would further damage the already fragile structure.

Mr Buhagiar then took to restoring the metal pipes. He said this involved reshaping the pipes and restoring the correct geometrics of the pipes' mouth. The missing pipes were thus identified and their scales calculated according to the original pipes. These will be rebuilt and voiced to sound like the original surviving pipes.

The restorer also described how he embarked on restoring the organ’s brain, the wind chest. He explained that it consisted of a block of wood in which a number of channels are dug – as many as there are keys in the keyboard – 45 in this case. Each channel has a valve and air is admitted to this channel when the organist presses a note. Once the air is in the channel it is distributed to the various pipes according to which stop is set on or off. Upon dismantling, Mr Buhagiar was dismayed to find that the wind chest was severely eaten away by woodworm. However after further investigation it was noted that the damage had been limited to the upper boards and did not penetrate substantially to the main part of the wind chest where the channels are dug. Therefore the upper boards have been rebuilt as exact replicas of the original ones. The valves have all been cleared of the original worn-out leather and will be re-upholstered. The valve springs will be regulated to the correct tension.

Above the wind chest stands the rack-board, which is a piece of thick cardboard with holes through which stand all the pipes on the wind chest. The original rack-board was found to be too damaged to be restored to working order, and will thus be conserved while a new one is rebuilt.

Mr Buhagiar explained the patience needed to clean all the parts of the mechanism that manually operates the action roller board. He found that the board, which consists of a set of about 40 thin metal roads, was in a bad state of conservation due mostly to the metal having rusted and become clogged with dirt. He had to patiently clean all the parts of the mechanism, describing the process as fundamental for the correct operation of the organ.

He also described how air was pumped into the organ through its two wedge-style original bellows, which can be operated by hand to provide wind to the organ.

The bellows have been stripped of their leather and will be completely re-leathered, while the original wooden parts will be retained. He said that a small and very silent electric blower will be connected, but the manual provision of wind will still be retained.

In the meantime, the case will undergo restoration at the hands of Joe Buhagiar. The restoration of the case includes its strengthening and re-painting in green using a mix of natural colours used at the time.

The case, made of red deal, was found to be without a top as its flat top seems to have been ruined by the passage of time. A new top is expected to be fitted.

The plainly decorated case is made of three sections. The top one houses the pipes, the bottom one houses the bellows while a platform raises the organ, thus rendering it more visible, as it is housed in the oratory’s gallery.

The case has few sculpted decorations and painted flower motifs. The main panel was gilded, while the inside of the doors that close up the key board were painted either by Francesco Zahra (1710-1773), or by a student of Rokku Buhagiar (1725-1805). The paintings are being restored by Joseph Muscat.

After all parts are restored, these will be carefully reassembled within the case and all mechanical links re-instated. The pipes will be voiced to the correct speech characteristics and will be tuned in a historically consistent temperament, which while giving some key flavour still allows the use of all keys.