Choir membership at St Paul's is open to both male and female singers of all ages.  We are always on the lookout for new members who enjoy singing a wide repertoire of choral music, but if you have little or no experience of singing please do not be deterred from applying.  Members are expected to make a regular commitment to the choir by attending the weekly Friday night rehearsal and Sunday Choral Services during term-time.

 

Beyond the singing of services, the choir enjoys a lively and varied social life and has twice sung with professional orchestras as well as singing cathedral services in Peterborough and Dublin in recent months.

 

For more information about choir membership, please contact the Director of Music, Ian Runnells, for an informal chat.

The Organ

 

The core of the present instrument originated in the 1890’s, built by Hill, Norman and Beard.  It contained 44 stops, the action was tubular-pneumatic and the console was situated underneath the present mezzanine organ platform. Little was done until 1939 when the organ was overhauled and the action converted to electro-pneumatic. Delay in starting the work centred around the indecision as to the console position, eventually being situated in a new organ loft on the South side of the chancel, a position it occupies today. The work was entrusted to the original builders and apart from a few insignificant tonal changes, the character of the instrument was unchanged and lasted as such until the mid 1980’s.  Unfortunately  the past 25 years have proved to be a less happy period of the instrument’s existence. A desire to imitate the French Classical Organ resulted in a scheme being drawn up which sacrificed the entire enclosed choir organ and grafted much new mixturework and mutation stops onto an otherwise very English instrument. It is perhaps further unfortunate that money was spent on providing new pipework at the expense of providing new soundboards which had been advised for some time, the current examples being of Ventil Roosevelt design. We are to launch a formal appeal later this year for the much needed reconstruction of the instrument. A return to the original spirit of the 1890’s instrument is envisaged.

The present specification is as follows:

Great

1. Double Open Diapason  16ft  

2. Open Diapason No 1  8ft  

3. Open Diapason No 2  8ft  

4. Stopped Diapason  8ft  

5.  Double Quint t.c  5 1/3ft  

6. Principal   4ft  

7. Stopped Flute   4ft

8. Double Tierce   3 1/5ft

9. Twelfth    2 2/3ft

10. Fifteenth   2ft

11. Mixture 19.22.26.29  IV

12 Cornet 1.8.12.15.17 t. c  V

13. Trumpet   8ft

 

Choir

1. Open Flute   8ft

2. Stopped Flute   8ft

3. Principal   4ft

4. Flute Harmonique  4ft

5. Nazard    2 2/3ft

6. Gemshorn   2ft

7. Tierce    1 3/5ft

8. Larigot    1 1/3ft

9. Septieme   1 1/7ft

10. None    8/9ft

11. Cymbal 26.29.33.36.40  V

12. Clarinet    8ft

13. Orchestral Oboe  8ft

14. Trombone   16ft (pedal)

15. Trumpet   8ft (great)

16. Clarion    4ft (ext of Trumpet)

 

 

 

 

 

Swell

1. Bourdon   16ft

2. Open Diapason No 1  8ft

3. Open Diapason No 2  8ft

4. Rohr Flote   8ft

5. Salicional   8ft

6. Voix Celeste t.c   8ft

7. Principal   4ft

8. Suabe Flute   4ft

9.  Fifteenth   2ft

10. Mixture 19.22   II

11. Sesquialtera 12.17  II

12. Sharp Mixture 26.29.33.36 IV

13.  Vox Humana   8ft

14. Oboe    8ft

15. Double Trumpet  16ft

16. Horn    8ft

17. Clarion    4ft

Pedal Reeds

Great Pipework

The Choir

The Choir at Peterborough Cathedral  -  January 2009

Pedal

1. Subbass   32ft (acoustic)

2. Open Wood   16ft

3. Open Diapason   16ft

4. Bourdon   16ft

5. Echo Bourdon   16ft

6. Double Quint   10 2/3ft (from open Diap.)

7. Principal   8ft (from open Diap.)

8. Bass Flute   8ft

9. Tierce    6 2/5ft

10. Quint    5 1/3ft

11. Septieme   4 4/7ft

12. Fifteenth   4ft (from open Diap.)

13. Open Flute   4ft

14. Gemshorn   2ft

15. Trombone   16ft

16. Fagotto    16ft (swell)

17. Trumpet   8ft

18. Shawm    4ft