St Peter’s Irthlingborough March 2019

For those of us with a far too detailed knowledge of the digital organ industry the name of Irthlinghborough in Northamptonshire stands out as the home of Copeman-Hart. In my youth this was the digital organ I one day hoped to be able to own. Ernest Hart set a standard well above ‘the competitor pack’ in both sound and console quality, with eye watering prices to match. You will understand therefore the delight I took when we secured, after 2 years hard work by the incumbent, permission to install a Viscount instrument in the local Irthlingborough church. Our instrument speakers are installed in the rather fine west end case of a Compton extension organ. The pipe organ needs a complete rewiring of console and chests and new solid state ‘extension organ’ logic boards. The cost of this was beyond the church. Also the lack of an organist to play made such an investment even more difficult. As the Viscount could play from ‘midi files’ when an organist was not in place the much lower cost and auto play made the digital choice compelling.