ARTICLE WRITTEN BY KEITH AINSWORTH

MEMBER OF THE MUSIC COMMITTEE OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BIRMINGHAM AND PUBLISHED IN MUSIC AND LITURGY IN FEBRUARY 2011

 On 8^th March, I had been due to meet with Fr Peter Jones to discuss the proposed new organ for my parish of St Thomas More, Coventry. He had just been appointed as Director of Music for the Papal Mass and Benefaction of John Henry Newman, so our new organ was swiftly ‘parked’ and the meeting became the first meeting of the core team which Fr Peter assembled to plan and implement the music for the Beatification. Having decided upon a choir of over 2000, we all agreed that the music should have dignity, solemnity and variety: the best that could be provided, given the importance of the event. We decided that the accompaniment would have to be organ, brass and timpani.

Which organ? Fr Peter and I had been looking closely at the Viscount ‘Physis’ digital organs for St Thomas More, and, having tried every make in the UK, we both felt that their UNICO 500 model (the Regent 356D in the UK), which we had twice tried in the church in different configurations, provided the best digital sound on the market.

Most digital organs produce their sound using digitally recorded samples from real ranks of pipes. Often a short sample is recorded from just one pipe of one rank and it is digitally reproduced at all the other relevant pitches. When a key is pressed, the sample repeats in a loop until the key is released. The degree to which an ‘authentic’ organ sound is generated depends upon many factors, such as the length of each sample, the quality of the recording equipment, and the quality of the organs software, amplification and loudspeakers. There is huge variation from one instrument to another.

The Physis technology (developed and patented by Viscount) synthesises the sound of a complete rank of pipes, building up a digital ‘picture’ of how the pipes sound in their position on the organ (including, for example the sympathetic resonances from adjacent pipes), which is then digitally reproduced using ultra high-speed processing for as long as the key is held down. For the technically minded, the Unico 500 uses 8 SHARK Processors (each of 2.4 GFLOPS peak performance) running on Linux. This means that the system can send and process over 12 billion instructions per second (sustained rate).

 I met with Jeremy Meager, the joint MD of Viscount UK, and he agreed to lend us a Unico 500 at cost. Jeremy also agreed to spend as long as it would take to voice the organ in liaison with Wigwam Acoustics Limited, who were providing the sound system for the Mass.

 The venue changed from Coventry to Cofton Park. When we got an artists impression of the stage area, we hit the first big snag. Although there was staging for a whole choir, it was uncovered, as there were no funds for a roof. Because the insurers required the instruments to be under cover we suggested a covered instrument stage next to the choir, but Mgr Marini, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, while being very happy with the music choices, would not countenance any structure ‘out front’. For a while there was a suggestion that the instruments should be in a pit under the stage until we pointed out the level of vibration from the timps directly beneath the Pope. Finally, we were given a semi-rigid pavilion behind the sanctuary – 200 mtrs from Fr Peters conducting position and completely out of sight.

The organ arrived on Thursday before the Mass and was placed in the pavilion. Jeremy Meager and Wigwams brilliant chief sound engineer (who only answered to ‘Mystic’) connected its 21 channels to the main sound system. When they had finished the organ sounded in the park as if it were playing in a huge cathedral. Wigwam also built in software that fractionally delayed the playing of the sound from the back of the park to the front, so there was no appreciable sound delay at the back but plenty of controlled resonance, which meant that the organs Physis technology could do its stuff to great effect. On Friday, after Jeremy had finally declared himself satisfied with the organ voicing, the microphones for the other instruments were integrated into the system. On Saturday, the choir arrived for the first full rehearsal and Mystic’s team phased the choir microphones in and set all the levels during the rehearsals. It was astonishing to hear the resonance of the music in the empty parkland.

 Using several sound and CCTV links, foldback speakers for the choir and every large outdoor video monitor available in the UK, the sound and vision engineers allowed the two conductors to synchronise the two choir sections, the four cantors, the organist and the instrumentalists. During the choirs 6am rehearsal on Sunday morning James MacMillan listened with me in the rain and gave me his suggestions for the balancing of the organ and the instruments, which Wigwam immediately implemented. As far I can tell, it all seemed to come together – but others can judge that!