Being a church organist is a little like working with horses, in that you don't do it for the money. It's a vocational thing. And for Colin Nicholls, now about to retire after more than 26 years as organist and master of the choristers at St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, that vocation involved carpentry, composition, organ-repairs (almost pipe by pipe), choir recruitment and choral tours and the organisation of all special ceremonies, including the almost legendary Christmas service of Nine Lessons and Carols., writes Mary Leland
There was also many behind-the-scenes involvements, often shared or enhanced by his wife, Angela.
A graduate of Trinity College of Music in London, lecturer in organ studies at the Cork School of Music and lecturer in harmony at UCC, Nicholls has contributed so much to the cultural life of his adopted city that it is not surprising that he was also conferred with an honorary MA for services to music by the National University of Ireland. Looking back on these years of achievement, he can say now that the chance he took in moving to Cork from his London job as a teacher of maths and music in 1981 was worth the risk. Appointed assistant organist to Andrew Padmore at the cathedral, he had planned to invest three years in the experiment of making a living from the kind of music he prefers, but instead he became master of the choristers when Padmore moved on to Belfast in 1984. No-one warned him that this was a position with a history of longevity (Padmore's seven-year tenure being an exception). The first recorded organist at the cathedral was William Love, who lasted for 21 years from 1677. Another long-lasting occupant was James Stephens from 1811 to 1860, followed by James Christopher Marks from 1860 to 1903. For almost half of the 20th century the position was filled by J.T. Horne, who was appointed in 1922 and retired in 1977.
Nicholls also succeeded Andrew Padmore as musical director of the East Cork Choral Society, and his role as the official accompanist for the annual Feis Maitiu competitions in string and woodwind introduced him to many young instrumentalists. That may seem like a far cry from Fauré or Stanford, except that in the Nicholls musical canon nothing is too far from anything. He knows and understands the Anglican tradition in all its complexity and richness and he is not above adding to it himself on occasion, while the fact that there's a bit more to the organ repertoire is often demonstrated by the recessional music at the cathedral. Nicholls can also give the lie to any impression that organs might not be the most portable of instruments; the one he built himself in his study in the Organist's House in Dean Street will be moving with him to his new home.
(Another example of organ portability is offered by the Collegiate Church of St Mary in Youghal. There, rector Andrew McCroskery and organist and director of the clerks choral Ian Sexton, formerly assistant to Nicholls, have acquired the organ from the closed Church of St. Michael-on-the-Mount-Without in Bristol. Originally dating from 1690 and rebuilt from 1884 to 1887, this was transported in an operation which required the closure of several of Youghal's streets to allow the passage of the mammoth container trucks. Now it has been installed by Paul Neiland of Wexford in the north bay of the crossing of the great nave of St Mary's. For this project the church, once familiar both to the Earls of Desmond and Sir Walter Raleigh and containing the tomb of Sir Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork, received the inspired assistance of the Diocese of Bristol, Bristol City Council and the Urban District Council in Youghal, along with a large anonymous donation. Although the organ itself came free of charge on condition that it would be restored for use in an Anglican church, this was essential to meeting the other costs involved.)
An evangelist of organs, Colin Nicholls produced a CD in 2005 to celebrate several of Cork's hidden organs, along with a dossier on their location, makers and condition. Among them was the organ at the long-deconsecrated Christ Church, latterly the Cork Archives Institute and now awaiting restoration and repair at the discretion of Cork City Council. The organ there was built in 1878 by T.C. Lewis of London and restored with the help of the Carnegie Trust, the City Council and the VEC; it is still so eminently playable that for a time it served as a teaching instrument for the Cork School of Music, though the accumulation of archive material has dampened the church's previously enviable acoustic.
A new organ has been commissioned for the Cork School of Music and the casework and facade pipes are now being built in by Neilands. For students this will replace lessons on the 3,012-pipe organ at St Fin Barre's which was built by William Hill in 1870 and recased by the Cork organ-builders T.W. Magahy. Moved to its present position in a specially-excavated pit in the north transept in 1889 it is separate from its curtained console behind the pulpit.
It is from here that Colin Nicholls (most recently supported by assistant organist James Taylor) has been a mainstay of the cathedral's tradition of worship. His long commitment and contribution to the life of the cathedral will be celebrated there at the sung Eucharist at 11.15 on Sunday week, September 16th.
His successor is Malcolm Wisener of St Bartholemew's Church in Clyde Road, Dublin and chorus master of the Culwick Choral Society, who takes up the position of organist and director of music at the cathedral next month.
As every church organisat knows, the real job description is that of keeping the whole earth "in tune with heaven". So it's not really like working with horses after all.