Pipe Organ

The organ in our Church is known as Conacher Organ (pronounced as Konaiker) as it was manufactured by Conacher & Co, Huddersfield, England. It is estimated to have been built in 1880 by Conacher & CO for a Church in Mumbai. It was subsequently moved to a Church in Bangalore. In 1944 it finally reached EWC. The cost in 1880 was about 200 pounds. Today a new Pipe Organ will cost more than Rs. 2.5 Crores. The antique value of the Organ makes it priceless.
Our Organ has 3 keyboards (Manuals), each with 56 Ivory & Ebony keys and a foot-pedal keyboard having 30 keys. It has a total of 940 lead and wooden pipes, the longest measuring 16 feet and the smallest as small as a pencil.

Lead pipes add to the resonance and clarity of the notes while the wooden ones add to the rich bass tone. The Organ has 17 stops. A “stop” is a set of usually 53 pipes which together produces the sound of a musical instrument. Hence our Organ can produce 17 different musical instruments. The wooden pipe work is made from sugar pine and mahogany; the casework is of pitch pine.

Over a period of time, dust and grime tend to accumulate in the pipes and mute the rich tone of the Organ. Constant use leads to wear and tear of the parts. The restoration work is meant to replace the worn parts and service reusable ones. The restoration work is expected to increase the life of the organ by about 100 years.

We, members of EWC, are blessed to have such a priceless gift from our forefathers and it is our responsibility and bounden duty to preserve this heritage for our children & their children.