Paul Kirner’s Music Palace

I recently was back in Wales to join a group of organists to celebrate the opening of Aspire Organs new showroom in Pyle, a small town close to Port Talbot.

Tony had carefully refurbished the space to provide a very comfortable and spacious presentation of both new and used instruments, together with a substantial external speaker array.

Seventeen instruments were available, and like our own showroom in Bicester, there was almost too much choice for customers to explore unless a two-day visit had been planned.

How many locations around the UK offer 17 instruments? Certainly not many, yet later that day I was to visit another Welsh location that offered even more!

Discovering the Music Palace in Porth

Some 20 miles away back toward Cardiff in South Street, Porth, you will find Paul Kirner’s Music Palace in what was the Saron Chapel. Situated in Ynyshir, Porth – the gateway to the Rhondda Valley – it houses a collection which presently consists of four theatre pipe organs, along with a wide variety of vintage electronic organs and keyboards, as well as an extensive collection of other media and memorabilia.

​Paul Kirner’s musical journey

Paul Kirner, a professional musician who toured clubland for many years, and his late wife Hazel – singer and comedienne – became experienced musical hosts. They opened their very successful venue, Compton Lodge in Sapcote, Leicestershire, in May 1979.

Centred around the Compton organ from the Odeon Wealdstone, the Lodge became a centre for concerts and social events. By the time Paul presented the final concert there on the 40th anniversary in May 2019, the organ had grown to more than three times its original size, to become one of the most comprehensive theatre organs in the country.

A centre for preservation and performance

Paul created the Music Palace to preserve and show off the history of Theatre Organs, both pipe and electronic instruments, in an environment where they could be played and enjoyed.

There are currently four theatre pipe organs either playing, or in the final stages of installation. In addition to the organs, the Palace also has a large collection of original tooling and machinery – some from the Compton factory, and from the works of Wurlitzer’s UK agents S.J. Wright Ltd. These enable maintenance of the collection, as well as supporting other organ projects around the world.

The origins and decline of the theatre organ

​The theatre organ was originally developed in the early 1920s, to provide a less expensive alternative to a full orchestra in the larger picture houses where a solo piano wouldn’t be adequate.

To imitate the instruments of the orchestra’s percussion section, a full range of real instruments was provided including, xylophone, glockenspiel, chimes, sleigh bells, drums, cymbals, and sound effects for silent films such as bird whistle, motor horn, horses’ hooves etc. All of these were operated by ingenious wind-powered mechanisms.

The arrival of the ‘talkies’ in 1927, meant the original purpose of the theatre organ had disappeared and, indeed, in the USA they nearly all fell into disuse. However, in the UK, where ‘cine-variety’ was popular, the organs remained in use to accompany stage acts and to provide background music between items in the programme, as well as being featured as an attraction in its own right in a 15 or 20 minute interlude.

Therefore, installations of theatre organs continued in the British Isles right up until the outbreak of the Second World War. Theatre organs were also a very popular feature on the radio, with broadcasts daily for many years on both national and regional programmes.

​These magnificent machines are now a part of our social and musical history.

An enthusiast’s paradise

The Music Palace is curated by Ben Snowdon, whose encyclopaedic knowledge and enthusiasm for the instrument is instantly apparent. He is also a technical wizard and one of the small team challenged with keeping these ancient mechanical marvels in working order.

Such is the attention to historic detail that the two lifts that raise and lower the Compton and Christie consoles in and out of the hand dug pit are original mechanisms using chains and pulleys to provide the power. Today the same effect would no doubt be achieved with a hydraulic solution but that would not be faithful to the history of these instruments.

The same level of historical detail runs through everything you see and hear at the Palace.

The electronic organ collection

In the classical pipe organ world, digital instruments are often viewed with disdain. Sometime referred to as toasters due to the layout of the internal electronics. That is not the case here, where at least 12 electronic entertainment organs can be seen. Many made by Hammond in the 1960s and 70s.

I was surprised to learn that Compton started building electronic instruments in the 1930s when there must have been a similar energy to find a cheaper solution also using less space than conventional building in pipes required.

The Melotone was one of the first electronic stops with the sound created by sine waves engraved into rotating metal discs while Hammond developed rotating tone wheels with different sets of teeth to create the different pitch notes.

You will hear an electric motor starting up when switching on a Hammond organ from the 60s and 70s before the sound generation later moved to solid state electronics.

Classical vs theatre: a different playing experience

There is a reasonable divide between organists of the classical and theatre genre. I certainly find it hard work to be comfortable at an instrument so clearly designed for solo lines to be set alongside an accompaniment with an almost endless choice of sound colour for both parts plus percussion.

Theatre organs also have an additional technical challenge with some keyboards offering ‘second touch’ whereby the keyboard can give an additional sound if pressed to a lower position in effect meaning that the two hands can play 3 keyboards simultaneously! A mind-bending challenge.

A must-visit destination

Whatever your view of the two very different styles of pipe instrument, the Music Palace is an absolute must visit venue for all interested in organ history.

There is an opportunity to get up and close to so many instruments, have a presentation of the history in general and these instruments in particular, a cup of tea and a cake or a drink at an evening event.

Visit the Music Palace website to see what up next on the calendar.