Concert Hall, University of Glasgow

1. The Unitarian Organ

Snetzler (1747), Donaldson (1788), Bevington (1855), MacKenzie (1985)

Great                                   Pedal
-----                                   -----
Open Diapason              S 8          Bourdon                   16
Stop Diapason              S 8            Pedals to Great
Principal                  S 4
Twelfth                    S 2+         Swell (TC+stopped bass)
Fifteenth                  S 2          -----
Seventeenth                M 1+         Double Diapason         D 16
Furniture (3/4 ranks)      M            Open Diapason           D  8
  Swell to Great                        Principal               D  4
                                        Cornopean               D  8
Accessories                             Oboe                    D  8
-----------
Lever swell pedal
Two single-acting composition pedals
Blowing by hand or electric fan
Mechanical action

Notes ----- The instrument has its origins in a one-manual organ built in 1747 by John Snetzler for St.Andrew's Qualified (non-Jacobite Episcopal) Chapel, Carrubbers' Close, Edinburgh. Five of the original stops (marked "S" above) survive in the present instrument. In 1775 the organ was moved to St.Andrew's Qualified Chapel, Willowacre, Glasgow ("St.Andrew's-by-the-Green"), where in 1788 it was enlarged by the addition of a short-compass Swell organ (stops marked "D" above) by John Donaldson of York. In 1811 it was again moved to the new Unitarian Chapel in Union Street, where it seems to have remained unaltered until the congregation moved to St.Vincent Street in 1855/56. Henry Bevington removed the organ to his Soho workshops, where it survived a fire in the premises, and rebuilt it in the new building in 1856, giving the re-opening recital himself. The instrument was provided with a case in the classical style of the portico of the building itself. ... [to be continued]


2. The Chamber Organ
James Bruce (ca.1840)
Manual (6 stops)                        Compass
------                                  -------
Open Diapason (from F)     m 8          GGG (short octave) to g (57 notes)
Stopped Diapason Bass      w 8
Stopped Diapason Treble    w 8          Accessories
Principal                  m 4          -----------
Flute                      w 4          Manual and pedal blowing levers
Fifteenth                  m 2          Electric fan blowing unit

Notes ----- The instrument was originally built with both 57-note finger and 42-note barrel playing mechanisms, but the latter was removed at some time in the past. The organ stood for a number of years in St.Margaret and St.Mungo's Episcopal Church, Old Rutherglen Road, Glasgow, and was gifted to the University in 1973, after the closure of the church. On at least three occasions in the past various additions had been made to the instrument, but in 1975, when the organ was re-erected in the Concert Hall, these additions were dispensed with, in an attempt to restore the original character of the instrument. The organ and its electric fan blowing unit are mounted on a movable platform.

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