The Pipe Organ in China Project Website: Updates for September 2020.
30 September 2020The following updates have been made on the POCP website this month:
MAC1831, small updates to images and text.
SHA1881, minor updates to text.
A new blog post from Prof. Urrows, about the controversy in 1865 over the design of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Shanghai, was posted on 2 September.
Prof. Urrows’ article, “Life and Death at Dongjiadu: A Jesuit writes during the Taiping Rebellion”, was published in Vol. 6 of The Journal of the Macau Ricci Institute (in English and Chinese.) Prof. Urrows is a Research Fellow of the Institute. This article concerns François Ravary SJ, the ‘mastermind’ behind SHA1857 and all the other bamboo organs built at Zikawei and Tushanwan. Please following this link to download the article:
Finally, The Project was sorry to learn, belatedly, of the death of Herr Dr. Paul Steinmeyer, on 3 August 2019, at the age of 85. Dr. Steinmeyer was the heir to Orgelbau Steinmeyer, a venerable firm of German organ builders in Oettingen, Bavaria, which closed down in 2001. Dr. Steinmeyer kept the factory is good condition, conducted tours, and the building is now an organ museum. Most importantly, he managed the archives of the firm which operated for 154 years. During the 2000s he provided The Project with important information and documents relating to the one Steinmeyer organ installed in China (SHA1932), as well as to their renovation of the 1909 Link organ in Qingdao (TAO1909) in the same year.
SHA1932, from The Far East Magazine, 1934-36.
Photo of the Month (below): Choirboys rehearsing with a harmonium at Pakhoi (Beihai), Guangxi Province, 1920s or early 30s. Note the two cantors singing from the double music stand, and the harmonium player in ‘civies’.
Organs in the Census: 192
Hits over the past year: 10,422
Hits since launch: 20,450
HAPPY MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL 中秋節
from the POCP.