The Rochford Compton

THE ORGAN
Cinema Organs are sometimes called Unit Orchestras. This is because in the early days of cinema, silent films were accompanied by music to help set the mood for the action on the screen. In small cinemas this music was provided by a pianist. Larger cinemas used orchestras. It was found that cost savings could be made by replacing the orchestra with an organ.
A conventional pipe organ has only a limited range of tone colours. In order to be as versatile as possible special pipes were designed to imitate instruments of the orchestra such as Trumpet, Strings, Tuba Clarinet etc. They also incorporated devices to produce sound effects such as a set of drums, Train Whistle, Castanets,Tambourine Chinese block, Sleigh Bells etc. These are mounted on a frame, (see picture) and are often affectionally referred to as the "Toy Counter."
They also have what are usually referred to as Tonal Percussions. Typically a Xylophone, Glocklenspiel and some had a Vibraphone, all real instruments played from the console keyboards.

The Rochford organ is a typical instrument of moderate size and many hundreds like it were manufactured. The organ in the State Theatre Grays is almost identical.
The Rochford organ consists of six sets of pipes or "ranks" as they are sometimes called. These are arranged in two chambers one above the other.
In the lower chamber, usually referred to as the Main Chamber, are the ranks that form the base tone colours of the organ. These are Diapason, Flute and String.
In the upper chamber are the Solo ranks. The Tibia, Tuba and the Trumpet. These are the pipes that provide the more striking tone colours, used either on their own or in combination to suit the mood of the music. There are sufficient pipes in each rank to sound notes from the highest pitch like a piccolo to the lowest like a double bass.

Melotone
Compton organs frequently have in addition an electro-mechanical device called a Melotone. This can produce musical tones and was indeed the forunner of the electronic organ. The Rochford Compton has a particularily fine sounding example of one although it is not the original.
The present unit was constructed with parts from a genuine Compton Melotone electronic organ and replaces the original Theatrone unit which was damaged by water.
It is a sight to behold with it's spinning wheels and glowing 1920's electronic valves. Sadly it is not visable to an audience.

Console
On the console there are three keyboards and a pedalboard. The top keyboard is called the Solo, the middle is the Great and the lower is the accompaniment. Three keyboards may seem extravagant but it does enable the organist to set up different combinations of pipes on each thus making it easier to play.
The Solo keyboard controls a selection of the Solo pipes, mainly Tibia, Trumpet and Tuba. It also plays the Melotone.
The Great keyboard can play all of the pipes of the organ and also has couplers that can link it to the other keyboards. The Accompaniment keyboard controls mainly the pipes in the Accompaniment Chamber.

The pedalboard plays the lowest pipes for the Bass notes.

Surround
The organ consoles were often quite ornate and many, like the Rochford/Kingsway Organ had illuminated surrounds. These are glass cabinets fitted with coloured lamps controlled by stop keys on the console. The organist can select almost any colour or set it on automatic when it will slowly cycle through all colours of the rainbow. The mechanical unit that cycled the power through the console lamps originally was as large as a wardrobe! Unfortunately this machine was lost many years ago and the Rochford organ lights are now driven by a modern electronic unit the size of a Video recorder. That's progress.

To summarise, the organist has at his command a formidable machine which can produce a thrilling range of sounds and visual effects.

Organ Specification...