THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411130043
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Long : 150 lines
It all started when Barbara Owen read a newspaper article about three years ago. Small chamber organ. Very old. Historic church somewhere in Virginia.
If you're a consultant on historical musical instruments for museums nationwide, as Owen is, this sort of thing catches your attention.
So she began her long search through documents until she found what she was looking for - and untangled a mystery nearly 400 years old.
In Smithfield.
What Owen found has been likened to unearthing a long-lost work by Michelangelo.
``I had a friend in England doing some research, and he was going through the accounts of the LeStrange family,'' Owen said recently. ``He actually found it when he was going through the family's accounts - record of an organ purchased by Nicholas LeStrange in 1630.''
And that same organ, Owen concluded, is the one tucked in a corner near the altar of Historic St. Luke's Church.
Now there's no question about it: Experts in historic instruments in the United States and England agree the St. Luke's organ survived not only Oliver Cromwell's Puritan ideals during the English Civil War, when so many early instruments were destroyed, but it also survived the passage of almost four centuries.
``To our knowledge, it is the oldest organ in this country,'' said George K. Taylor of Taylor and Boody Organbuilders in Staunton after examining the organ in September. ``It is a unique treasure of invaluable worth.''
It is about 365 years old.
How such a treasure came to this country is part of the mystery.
It was a mystery in 1957 when it was packed, ``apparently with some secrecy,'' for shipment to this country by Noel Mander of St. Peter's Organ Works in London. And it is still a mystery.
``They were not told it was leaving the country,'' Owen said, after talking with Mander. ``They were just told to go and pack it up. No one over there knew where it went.''
And it is somewhat of a mystery how it came to St. Luke's, said Dick Austin, curator of the church, which was built in 1632.
Austin said the organ was a gift to the church from Nancy Chapman Bangs Wallower, a Smithfield native who first married a Washington attorney and later a Wall Street millionaire. Wallower donated money for an organ when the church was restored in the 1950s. But Austin said he believes she may have been under the impression she was buying a new organ.
Nobody can say exactly how the funds were diverted to an English antique, which was playable when it arrived in 1957. Soon, however, because of humidity in the church, the organ's bellows deteriorated and it became simply a showpiece with a fine oak cabinet and doors depicting biblical scenes of David and Saul on one side, Jephthah's daughter on the other.
``Based on correspondence I have read, she made an offer to buy an organ,'' Austin said about letters between Wallower and Henry Mason Day, the first president of the Historic St. Luke's Foundation. ``He wrote back and said, `We have found an appropriate organ in England.' He was very dedicated to the idea that everything that went into the church would be of the appropriate period.''
The late Mr. Day will never know just how appropriate the organ is for the church, Austin said, because St. Luke's Foundation now can claim not only America's oldest church, but America's oldest organ, as well.
Through her research, Owen discovered that the organ was bought by LeStrange, a dedicated amateur viol player. Chamber organs like the one at St. Luke's were often built specifically to be accompanied by the viol, generally a six-stringed instrument played with a curved bow and popular in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Nicholas and his brother, Roger, were accomplished on the viol. John Jenkins, one of the great 17th-century English composers, lived with the family from 1644 to 1660. His compositions for the viol and organ are still widely played today.
The LeStrange family, all patrons of music, lived at Hunstanton Hall, a moated mansion in Norfolk, England. English history indicates that the family probably defied Cromwell and continued to provide a safe haven for lovers of music and for musical instruments throughout the English Civil War.
The mansion and its contents, including the organ, were bought by a Capt. J. Lane in 1949. Owen said Lane is said to have been a rather eccentric collector who often bought and sold on a whim.
Much of the music world knew about the sale at the time, but apparently nobody knew where the organ went.
``In 1949, at a sale of effects from Hunstanton Hall, Norfolk, Capt. J. Lane of Snaresbrook, Essex, purchased a positive organ and stand,'' Michael Wilson wrote in an article in the University of South Carolina Press in 1968. ``The organ, apparently anonymous, was in a paneled oak case with two painted wings. All the pipes were of wood. It would be interesting to learn the present whereabouts of this instrument.''
Thanks to Owen's detective work, now Wilson knows. But finding the organ was only the first step. Now, music aficionados are clamoring to have it restored.
``I really think it would sound wonderful - very gentle and soft and sweet and wonderful to listen to. Perfect for that beautiful church,'' said John Shortridge, former curator of musical instruments at the Smithsonian Institution and a Colonial Williamsburg consultant who inspected the organ with Owen.
``Since such instruments are so rare, a restored one would attract a great deal of interest throughout the United States,'' said Richard Bodig, president of the 900-member Viola da Gamba Society of America, a group of musicians who have pledged to help fund the restoration.
``It would impart a unique distinction on old St. Luke's and inspire the gratitude of all who treasure the music and instruments of 17th-century England.''
That's what Austin has been saying all along. And although he was never certain until now the extent of the treasure the church possesses, he has stood over the organ, protecting it like a mother hen, Owen said.
``He has kept all the amateurs away from it,'' she said. ``That's to his credit.''
Considering the organ's age, experts say it's in immaculate condition, except for the bellows. But Taylor, of Taylor and Boody, said it does need urgent attention to both the workings and intricate artwork on the pipes - set into a central painting that gives the illusion of an archway in a cathedral - and the doors.
Taylor's firm has said a preliminary exmaination would cost about $5,000. Taylor won't say how much the actual restoration would cost.
Austin wants to see the work done, but he's still being cautious, still protective.
``If I have anything to do with it, this won't be a restoration - it will be a conservation,'' the curator said. ``When we accepted it, we accepted the responsibility for its preservation. We don't have the right to allow it to just sit here.''
Shortridge, along with his wife, Linda, one of this country's most respected makers of viols, and Owen spent 10 hours in September taking the small organ apart and examining it.
Now they can hardly wait to see the job completed. And they can't wait to hear it play.
``For us in the music work, it is comparable to finding a lost Michelangelo,'' Shortridge said. ``It is a priceless document to English organ-building.''
The Smithfield organ was built by Christian Smith, a man who may have been father or uncle to Bernard Smith, England's best-known 17th-century organ builder. And it was built about 50 years before Bernard, the better-known organ builder, started in the trade.
One mystery is solved, Shortridge said. There's still another he'd like to resolve.
In 1924, at Sotheby's in London, a similar organ was sold at auction. Records indicate it was shipped to the United States. That organ was the property of King James I, used in what was called his ``traveling chapel.'' The other organ has palm tree artwork on a closed cabinet at the bottom depicting the Holy Land.
``If we ever turned up that organ, it would mean that every surviving example of organs of its kind are in this country,'' Shortridge said. ``It's very sad for England - but very lucky for us.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JOHN H. SHEALLY II/Staff
The solution to a mystery nearly 400 years old led to the discovery
of what experts say is America's oldest organ in a church in
Smithfield.
by CNB