Year on the Web

23rd March 1997

The sounds of an organ

The pipe organ at St. Michael's and All Angel's Polwatte, Colombo 3 is one of the few of its kind still in use in Sri Lanka. It was installed in 1922 and to celebrate 75 years of its existence, this year, a Festival of Choirs on Easter Sunday evening at 6 p.m. is one of the events planned in this connection.

The original Church of St. Michael was completed and dedicated in 1887, at which time the widow of Jeronis Pieris donated a pipe organ which is no more. But by 1918 it was decided to enlarge the church to accommodate an ever increasing congregation. Ultimately an entirely new building was constructed and an anonymous donor offered to pay the entire cost of adding a nave to the new building, "as an appreciation of all that St. Michael's has been and is to me and many others." The same donor, Mr. T.L. Villiers, whose veil of anonymity could not be hidden for long had ordered an organ to be build in England by Hill, Norman and Beard, a company which is still in existence in Essex and it was installed in the Church the same year, in memory of his son killed in action in 1917 in World War I. Thomas L. Villiers, later Sir Thomas, came to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) as a planter in 1887 at the age of 18. He was the son of Prebendary Henry Montagu Villiers and the grandson of Lord John Russell, one of Queen Victoria's Prime Ministers.

The Organists who have served the church include Rev. L.G.B. Fernando, during whose time regular broadcasts were made over Radio Ceylon, and a direct transmission line existed to the Broadcasting Station. Among the other organists are Bob Edwards, who was also a much loved schoolmaster at Royal College, teaching singing in addition to Maths, Latin and English. Russell Bartholomews, who now is the distinguished organist and choirmaster at S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia, and Indrani Abrahams, who together with Evangeline Chellappah and Sita Hallock are the only surviving pupils of that doyen of teachers of organ and singing Mrs. Spencer-Sheppard. The Organ is used by all three congregations English, Sinhala and Tamil, and is a good example of an essentially Western musical instrument, the "King of Instruments" in fact, being used by people of all cultures in their worship.

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