By April 1879 the Commissioner’s of the 1879 International Exhibition had agreed to the purchase of an organ for the ‘Garden Palace’ building and appointment of a musical director to oversee the recitals. Alongside traditional works to resound around the exhibition halls over the following six months was a full orchestral work, Sydney International Exhibition March, especially composed by Giorza. Like the International Exhibitions that preceded it there were complaints about the acoustics, and even more about the ‘leathern congestion’ of the organ, but this didn’t stop 30,000 attending one of the performances held in the ‘Garden Palace’.
Photography by Messrs Richards and Company
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Post by Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator
Oddly enough it was this organ which first sparked my interest in the Garden Palace. When not beachcombing I am a musician and a ‘resting’ organist. Years ago I used to play an instrument which had been in the 1851 Great Exhibition in London (Crystal Palace), now in Sherborne Abbey, Dorset. Most of these grand exhibition halls had one or more huge instuments which demonstrated the latest technology in organ building. Alas, Sydney made a big error and purchased a second-hand 75 year old small and clapped out ‘lemon’. It is described as “almost the only blemish connected with the Exhibition”. Luckily Sydney got it very right with the Town Hall Organ ten years later.
I can only imagine how bad the acoustics were – like a cathedral crossed with a railway station. People clomping around on the wooden floors and galleries would have sounded like a non-stop thunderstorm. The Sydney Morning Herald of 27 Feb 1880 has an amusing description of scheduled concerts being interrupted by the Band from the Bismarck! – http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fYkQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1ZUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6110%2C6179159