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After the enthusiasm presaging the intended restoration of the Schulze organ at Doncaster, one could be forgiven for wondering whether the outcome would match expectations. The effective withdrawal of Lottery funding for organ projects has effectively pulled the rug from under the feet of historic restorations including the Doncaster project. This seems to be symptomatic of a wider malaise affecting attitudes to the organ in this country. The question may well be asked why the future of historic organs should depend on gifts from a national gambling scheme instead of an informed national concern and care for objects of historic and artistic importance.
Interest in historic organs tends to be financially driven; this is probably the result of the prevailing amateur status of organists, as well as the general ethos of conservatoire teaching, which teaches students to expect organs with standardised stop lists, a plethora of playing aids and computerised control. The skills of coping with and exploiting the resource of an historic organ seem to be but rarely taught.
What message a reasonably authentic restoration of Schulze's masterpiece might have sent to the organ world at large? There are obvious and major difficulties associated with such a scheme, but we think they were not only surmountable but most desirable. The educative value of the work could have inculcated an inquisitiveness about how this instrument affected music played on it: how its registration opportunities (or their absence) contributed to our perception of organ music as music per se, how the accompaniment of choirs was managed by this organ for almost 40 years of its life at a time when the Romantic movement in church circles was in full song.
The present scheme of work, including reworking of the action, does not essay to restore the organ to Schulze's original. It will probably maintain its playability and make it potentially more reliable than at present, but it will however take the organ even further away from Schulze's conception. The charge that a rigorous restoration scheme would remain the preserve of a small group of cognoscenti which could handle the peculiarities of Schulze's design, not only challenges the ability of many informed organists to adapt to and exploit the organ, but also calls into question the advancement of knowledge.
The decisions taken at Doncaster have been made, probably only in good faith as a practical way forward against a background of the general unreadiness to finance and promote the concept of restoration. The lack of public will to make such ventures succeed will continue, causing the owners of historic organs much anguish, and undermining the will and confidence of those who dare to challenge the status quo. Doncaster was the birthplace of the steam locomotive 'Mallard' that achieved the world speed record for steam; the engine is still with us, lovingly and accurately restored as a memorial to the genius of its designer, Sir Nigel Gresley. Doncaster also possesses Edmund Schulze's magnum opus, a potential memorial to the genius of an organ builder who revolutionised the British organ. The contrast between the public support given to transport history and organs is striking.
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