Keble College, Oxford

Keble College is one of the masterworks of the eminent Victorian architect William Butterfield. The magnificent, lofty chapel, completed in 1876, is a riot of decorative brickwork, tiling and mosaic work. The original organ was provided by William Hill. Butterfield designed its case, and is said to have personally executed the stencilled decoration of the front pipes.

In 1892 the memorial side chapel was created to house Holman Hunt’s masterpiece The Light of the World, and the organ was moved to its present gallery position. From that time it saw a series of rebuilds and enlargements, but by the 1980s had fallen into serious disrepair. Earlier proposals for a new organ did not reach fruition, and since 1992 the chapel music has relied on an electronic instrument.

The new organ aims to have a consonance with its Victorian surroundings, and an important aspect of the new instrument will be the conservation of the decorated prospect pipes, which have an architectural integrity with Butterfield’s magnificent chapel. The chapel boasts perhaps the finest acoustic in Oxford, with generous reverberation, and the organ will benefit from its placement in the wide, shallow and tall transept.

The core departments of the new organ recognise the spirit of the late nineteenth century, enriched by the colours of the third and fourth manuals and enabling the performance of a wide repertoire, both solo and choral.

Great	1	Double Diapason	16
manual II	2	Open Diapason	8
	3	Stopped Diapason	8
	4	Gamba	8
	5	Principal	4
	6	Wald Flute	4
	7	Fifteenth	2
	8	Sesquialtera II	2	2/3
	9	Mixture IV	1	1/3
	10	Trumpet	8
	i	Bombarde to Great
	ii	Swell to Great
	iii	Solo to Great

Swell	11	Open Diapason	8
manual III	12	Gedackt	8
	13	Salicional	8
	14	Vox Angelica	8
	15	Principal	4
	16	Rohrflute	4
	17	Gemshorn	2
	18	Mixture III-IV	2	2/3
	19	Contra Fagotto	16
	20	Cornopean	8
	21	Oboe	8
	22	Clarion	4
	iv	Tremulant

Solo-Choir	23	Open Flute	8
manual I	24	Viola	8
	25	Flauto Traverso	4
	26	Fugara	4
	27	Nazard	2	2/3
	28	Flageolet	2
	29	Tierce	1	3/5
	30	Cor Anglais	16
	31	Clarinet	8
	32	Vox Humana	8
	v	Tremulant
	vi	Swell to Solo

Bombarde	33	Posaune	8
manual IV	34	Cornet V	8

Pedal	35	Open Wood	16
	36	Bourdon	16
	37	Violone	16
	38	Quint	10	2/3
	39	Violoncello	8
	40	Bass Flute	8
	41	Fifteenth	4
	42	Mixture III	3	1/5
	43	Trombone	16
	vii	Bombarde to Pedal
	viii	Swell to Pedal
	ix	Great to Pedal
	x	Solo to Pedal

Tracker key action : slider soundboards

Electric stop and combination actions

The decorated front pipes and woodwork were removed from the chapel at the end of September 2009, and will undergo cleaning and conservation at our workshops. The gallery is now clear of the remnants of the previous organ, allowing restoration of the transept window. Design work will take place over the next few months, in preparation for starting to build the new organ from Easter 2010 onwards.

Keble drawing