Charles Spackman Barker

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Charles Spackman Barker

Charles Spackman Barker (born October 10, 1804 in Bath , † November 26, 1879 in Maidstone ) was an English organ builder .

Life

Section through a Barker lever

Barker came from a family of artists. His father Joseph Barker was just like his uncle Thomas Barker (1767–1847) a painter. Barker got his first name after his godfather, the auctioneer Charles Spackman, a supporter of his father. When Barker was orphaned at the age of only five, he was raised by his godfather, Charles Spackman.

Because of his interest in the natural sciences, Barker first completed an apprenticeship with a pharmacist and dentist, but gave up this job because of its sensitive nature. Instead, Barker began an apprenticeship with the organ builder James C. Bishop (1783-1854) in London, the inventor of the Clarabella register, around 1830 for two years . In 1832 Barker started his own business in Bath. When York Minster received a new organ from Elliot & Hill in 1832, Barker was negatively impressed by its difficult playing style. The organist Matthew Cambridge complained to Barker that the effort required to play this organ was "sufficient to paralyze most men" (English: " enough to paralyze most men ").

Since then, Barker has tried to remedy the difficult playability of large organs. First he developed a system with pistons and cylinders based on the principle of the hydraulic press, but this was still imperfect and was not well received in England. Thereupon Barker went to Paris in 1837, where he invented a pneumatic lever, a device for easier opening of the clay valves . This pneumatic machine, which was named Barker lever soon after him , was patented in 1839. At first he gave the license for the construction of the bar lever to the organ building company Cavaillé-Coll . Cavaillé-Coll developed the Barker lever to series production and used it for the first time in the large organ of the royal basilica Saint-Denis .

Barker turned down a contract with Cavaillé-Coll and instead signed an agreement with the organ building company Daublaine-Callinet , of which he was now a member. In 1844 he accidentally set fire to the six-month-old organ made by the Daublaine-Callinet company in the Saint-Eustache church in Paris with a candlestick , which ruined the company. It was then taken over by Pierre-Alexandre Ducroquet . With this, Barker rebuilt the organ until 1854.

In 1851 Charles Barker took part in the Great Industrial Exhibition in London with an organ . In 1855 he was awarded the French Legion of Honor .

After Joseph Merklin took over the company from Ducroquet that year , Barker went into business with foreman Charles Verschneider in 1858. He developed at the suggestion of the organist Albert Peschard an electric key action , which he first time in the collegiate St Laurent in 1865 Salon-de-Provence einbaute.

In 1870 he returned to England because of the unrest in Paris . His student Paul Férat continued to work on repairs in Paris. Charles Barker died unnoticed in 1879.

Organs (selection)

Charles Barker built organs mainly in northern France. He used his Barker levers as well as electric and electro-pneumatic action for the first time worldwide . However, due to some problems, the electric music mechanisms had to be removed again after a while.

year place church image ma
nuale		 re-
gister		 Remarks
around 1855 Paulerspury United Reformed Church I / P 7th Barker & Son
1860 Saint-Maixent-l'École Église abbatiale St-Leger II / P 17th
1861 Caen Notre-Dame-de-la-Gloriette III / P 39 receive
1862 Avignon St-Agricol
Avignon, St-Agricol, intérieur45.jpg
 III / P 29 receive
1863 Chalon-sur-Saône St Vincent Cathedral II / P 10 Choir organ, with Charles Verschneider
1863 Chalon-sur-Saône St-Jean-de-Vignes I / p 6th with Charles Verschneider
1863 Cherbourg Basilique Ste-Trinité II / P 14th with Charles Verschneider
1864 Meudon St. Martin II / P 18th with Charles Verschneider
1865 Salon-de-Provence St Laurent II / P 27 with Charles Verschneider, the world's first organ with an electric key mechanism
1868 Paris St-Augustin
Grand orgue de saint Augustin (Paris) .jpg
 III / P 43 with Albert Peschard, with the first electro-pneumatic transmission ever, 1897/99 conversion and expansion to III / P, 52 with now mechanical action mechanism by Cavaillé-Coll, further changes of arrangement and restoration
1868 Paris St-Pierre-de-Montrouge III / P 43 receive

literature

  • P. d'Anchald: Charles Sparkman Barker: A reassessment of the earlier years of his career . In: Journal BIOS . tape 33 , 2009, p. 4-29 .
  • Salomon Kümmerle: Barker, Charles Sparkmann . In: Encyclopedia of Protestant Church Music . tape 1 . Gütersloh 1888, p. 120 f .
  • Alfred Reichling: Barker, Charles Spackman . In: Music in the past and present . Person part, band 2 . Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel / Stuttgart 1999, p. 254 f .
  • R. Meyrick Roberts: Charles Spackman Barker . In: The Organ . tape 13 . Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel / Stuttgart 1933, p. 186 f .
  • David Smit: Barker, Charles Spackman . In: Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel (Eds.): The Organ. To Encyclopedia . Routledge, New York, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-94174-1 , pp. 49 f .

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Guy Oldham and Nicholas Thistlethwaite: Charles Spackman Barker , in: Grove Music Online Link
  2. ↑ See Guy Oldham and Nicholas Thistlethwaite: Charles Spackman Barker , in: Grove Music Online Link
  3. ^ Gordon DW Curtis: A Provincial Organ Builder in Victorian England: William Sweetland of Bath . Farnham 2011. ISBN 978-1-4094-1752-1 . There chap. 3: Bath organ builders , pp. 35f.
  4. ^ Alfred Reichling: Charles Spackman Barker Link
  5. ^ Alfred Reichling: Charles Spackman Barker Link
  6. ^ Gordon DW Curtis: A Provincial Organ Builder in Victorian England: William Sweetland of Bath . Farnham 2011. ISBN 978-1-4094-1752-1 . There chap. 3: Bath organ builders , p. 35.
  7. ^ Technique of the organ by Roland Eberlein , Ic, with explanations of how it works
  8. ↑ Organ in Paulerspury Orgeldatabase (Dutch)
  9. ↑ Organ Organ Database (Dutch)
  10. ↑ Organ Organ Database (Dutch)
  11. ^ Organ in Avignon Orgeldatabase (Dutch)
  12. ↑ Organ Organ Database (Dutch)
  13. ↑ Organ Organ Database (Dutch)
  14. ↑ Organ in Cherbourg Orgeldatabase (Dutch)
  15. ↑ Organ in Meudon Orgeldatabase (Dutch)
  16. ↑ Organ in Salon-de-Provence Orgeldatabase (Dutch)
  17. ^ Organ in St-Augustin Edition Lade (German)
  18. ↑ Organ Organ Database (Dutch)
personal data
SURNAME Barker, Charles Spackman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English organ builder
DATE OF BIRTH baptized October 10, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Bath
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1879
Place of death Maidstone