A Great Labour of Love

The history of the pipe organ in Argentina has witnessed the ruin of many instruments
that would have been worth preserving. This sad reality is even more inconceivable given
that in many cases the perpetrators of these outrages charged an astronomical figure for
their work. That's why when one mentions the phrase " labour of love " in general one
tends to think wrongly. Thank God there are still people who do a lot of good "for art's
sake". Such is the example of a great man, Mr. Alfred Pratt, who recently restored the
English organ at St. George's College in Quilmes.
Alfredo Pratt, of English and Irish parentage, graduated from St. George 's College in
1955. After finishing his studies, he moved to England where he worked for Thorncroft,
returning to the country in 1961.
Alfred remembers the beautiful celebrations in the School Chapel with the organ
accompanying the daily hymn singing. He never imagined that one day he would save
not only the organ, but also two clocks of great value found in the towers of the famous
campus.
The British firm Hele & Co. built the Colleges organ in 1914. This company was founded
in 1866 when Mr. George Hele built his first instrument for Saint Paul 's Church in Truro,
and years after providing others for the Wesleyan Methodist Church, St. John 's Waterloo
Road (London) and Saint Mary Magdalenes (Torquay).
For more information on the company's history Hele the reader can visit the following
website: http://www.pipeorgans.co.uk/history1.htm

Mr. Drysdale donated this mechanical organ of two manuals and pedals to the school in
memory of his sister, Jane Gibson San Sinenna. The beautiful instrument served the
school loyally for approximately seventy-five years. It was in the 1990s when someone
without much interest in the instrument decided to destroy it! Such a person, guided by
ignorance, took the keyboards, pedal-board and instrument mechanics and installed a
Yamaha keyboard instead. What a sin! All was well for a long time until one day a
horrified Alfred discovered what they had done to the organ and was left in total
astonishment. It must be noted that Alfred did not know anything about pipe organs and
before carrying out the required salvation work, he had to learn how to do so, writing to
the factory in England and reading all he could about it.
His first mission was to find all the parts. In the basement of the chapel he found almost
all the missing parts. Unfortunately, as seen in the photos, the parts dumped there had
fallen victim to the dust and moisture. In addition and not just a minor detail, the pedalboard was missing, so Alfred had to make a new one!

The keyboards found in the basement of the chapel.

Various parts found in the basement.

A part of the destroyed pedal-board and the Yamaha sustain pedal!!!!

Construction of new pedal board

The organ after being saved from its previous, ruined state.

The organ after the repairs carried out by Mr. Pratt

Characteristics of the Organ:

Great (58 notes)
Open Diapason
Dulciana
Claribel Flute
Flute harmonique

8'
8'
8'
4'

Swell (58 notes)

Open Diapason
Viola Da Gamba
Liblich Gedackt
Vox Angelica
Gemshorn

8'
8'
8'
8'
4'

Pedal (30 notes)

Bourdon

16'

Combinations: Sw/GT, Gt/Ped, Sw/Ped

Diapason: A=435

In October of 2007, Mr. Pratt received special recognition for his restorative work. A

plaque was installed in the chapel in his honor and concerts were given on the recovered
instrument. Although the organ still requires tuning, on my last visit to the College I have
seen how a true Labour of Love can be much more than numbers, prices and vested
interests when it comes to the history of the treasures we have in our beloved
Argentinean Republic.

The international community welcomes and salutes the organist Mr. Pratt for this project,
which has a happy ending thanks to his great "Labour of Love".

Bravo Alfred!
Dr. Ezequiel Menndez