Henry Willis & Sons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009) |
Henry Willis & Sons is a firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845 in Liverpool, UK, examples of whose work can also be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family continued the family tradition of organ building until 1997.The company is now under the ownership of David Wyld who is Managing Director.
The charismatic founder of the company, the eponymous Henry Willis, was nicknamed "Father Willis" because of his contribution to the art and science of organ building, and to distinguish him from his younger relatives working in the firm.
He was a friend of Samuel Sebastian Wesley whom he met at Cheltenham, and who was instrumental in gaining for Willis the contract for his first cathedral organ at Gloucester in 1847.
Willis's are regarded as the leading organ builders of the Victorian era, itself a time when both civic and religious commitment led to the erection of a large number of impressive buildings and other public works. During the Industrial Revolution any town worth its salt would want an imposing Town Hall, preferably with a Willis organ, and a substantial (and similarly equipped) church. Industrialists competed to endow the most lavish halls and instruments.
The result was a convergence of both a very fine and technically proficient organ builder, and a substantial number of commissions for really exceptional instruments. This heritage has, fortunately, lived on.
[edit] Notable Willis organs
The most famous "Father" Willis organs are probably those in the Royal Albert Hall, St Paul's, Salisbury and Truro Cathedrals, but there are many more including the cathedrals in Aberdeen, Calcutta, Canterbury, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hereford,Lincoln and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, St. Mary's Church, Southampton, Giggleswick School, Felsted School and the town church of Inverness, the Old High Church.
Windsor Castle had a Willis until it was destroyed by a fire in November 1992, as do Blenheim Palace and several town halls (e.g. Reading), the Sheldonian Theatre and the Royal Academy of Music.
The tiny hamlet of St Michaels, near Tenbury Wells also has a full organ which was installed into the new church created to support the then new St Michaels College in the mid 1800s. The 4,600 pipes organ built in 1892 was originally installed in the Brisbane Exhibition Building but in 1927 was moved to the Brisbane City Hall in Brisbane.[1] The organ in St Bees Priory Church (1899) was the last major instrument to be personally supervised by "Father" Henry Willis.
Father Willis's organ won the gold medal in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. The organ was later installed in Winchester Cathedral by the family firm, after being cut down to the appropriate size for the cathedral. Other examples of very fine Willis organs can be found in the firm's hometown, St George's Hall and the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, which both house Willis organs. The organ built by Willis & Sons in Liverpool Cathedral is also the largest organ in the UK.
The "Josiah Wedgewood" Willis organ has been installed in St. Peter's Church on Hayling Island.
Although four generations of Henry Willis are mostly remembered for organs on the grand scale they also built smaller instruments.
Henry Willis 4 built many Junior Development Plan Organs which he designed to be economical initially but with scope for expansion as funds became available. There is an example in St, Anne's Church in East Wittering, West Sussex.
[edit] References
- ^ "Organ recital marks 80 years at City Hall". www. northside-chronicle.whereilive.com.au. http://northside-chronicle.whereilive.com.au/news/story/organ-recital-marks-80-years-at-city-hall/. Retrieved 13/11/2009.
- Sumner W L, "The Organ, its evolution, principles of construction and use". 1973 ISBN 035604162X
