Rebuilding of Norwich Cathedral's organ nears completion

The rebuilding of a Victorian organ that is nearing completion has been "a labour of love", an organ voicer said.

Norwich Cathedral's organ has been undergoing a 15-month renovation, costing £1.8m.

The organ was installed in 1899 and was last rebuilt after being damaged in a fire in 1938.

Andrew Fiddes, associate voicer at Harrison & Harrison, said he hoped the organ's 5,767 pipes, about 40% of which were new, would "speak in harmony".

The project, which has been funded by the They Shall Laugh and Sing Music Appeal, is expected to be finished by early July.

Two digital organs have been used in the Anglican cathedral during the renovation.

Voicing the organ is the final part, said Mr Fiddes from the Durham-based company.

It started on 24 April and takes between eight and 10 weeks, and involves the team listening to each pipe for fine tuning.

The 29-year-old said organ voicing was a "labour of love" and "we pour our heart and soul into it".

Ashley Grote, master of music at Norwich Cathedral, said the instrument had been "ingeniously built within the shell of the old organ console".

It was "essential" the rebuilding took place so the organ would be "fit for purpose for the next 80 years or more".

"The organ in the cathedral here has a wonderful, rich, warm tone to it, and it has a huge, varied palette of different colours and sounds, so we didn't want to compromise that in any way," he added.

Mr Fiddes said when the project gets finished in early July, the team would be "leaving part of ourselves behind".

"We do get emotionally attached to the instruments that we work on because instruments are living and breathing things. They're not just machines... they speak into the building and they have the power to change emotion," he said.

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