William Drake (organ builder)

William Drake (1943–2014) was the founder of the firm of William Drake, Organ Builder that manufactures pipe organs in Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. He held a Royal Warrant as organ builder to the Queen.

Biography

Drake was born in Baltimore, Maryland to an English father and mother of Swiss-American citizenship. Returning to England in 1952 on the death of his father he was educated at Dartington College of Arts where he learned the organ under John Wellingham.

He was inspired to become an organ builder as a boy following a visit to the St Albans International Organ Festival at St Albans Abbey. After completing an apprenticeship in Austria with Rieger Orgelbau he worked with Rudolf Janker in Göttingen. He built a small award-winning organ as his Meisterstuck in the workshop of Patrick Collon in Brussels.

Drake established the firm of William Drake Ltd in 1974 in Buckfastleigh, Devon. The company was part of the John Loosemore Centre for Organ and Early Music - an entity that taught a number of subjects concerning the organ - such as playing of the organ, history, and organ-building. Eventually that program was discontinued, but Drake's organ-building firm continued in the premises.

William Drake

William Drake may refer to:

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Bill Drake (rugby league)

William "Bill" D. Drake (20 February 1931 – 8 October 2012) was an English professional rugby league footballer of the 1950s and 1960s who represented Great Britain, England, and Cumberland, and at club level played for Heworth ARLFC, Hull, Leeds, and York as a back, and later a forward, during the era of contested scrums.

Born in Workington, Bill Drake was the younger (by 10-minutes) twin brother of fellow rugby league footballer, Jim Drake.

Drake, who had already gained representative selection for Cumberland, played in Hull's 10-9 victory over Halifax in the Championship final during the 1955–56 season at Maine Road, Manchester on Saturday 12 May 1956. He played at second-row forward in Hull's 13-30 defeat by Wigan in the 1959 Challenge Cup final during the 1958–59 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 9 May 1959. Drake missed the 1960 Challenge Cup final during the 1959–60 season though injury, being replaced by Mike Smith who became the first player to ever make a first team début in a Challenge Cup final,

Organ building

Organ building is the profession of designing, building, restoring and maintaining pipe organs.

The organ builder usually receives a commission to design an organ with a particular disposition of stops, manuals, and actions, creates a design to best respond to spatial, technical and acoustic considerations, and then constructs the instrument. The profession requires specific knowledge of such matters as the scale length of organ pipes and also familiarity with the various materials used (including woods, metals, felt, and leather) and an understanding of statics, aerodynamics, mechanics and electronics. However, although in theory the builder is responsible for all facets of construction, in practice organ building workshops include specialists in pipes, actions, and cabinets, and tasks such as manufacture of pipes, metal casting, and making rarely used components are often delegated to outside firms.

After manufacture of all parts of a new organ, the pipes must be pre-tuned and voiced to the desired pitch and sound characteristics. The instrument is then usually partly or wholly assembled in the workshop, dismantled, and reassembled on-site, after which the pipes receive a final tuning and voicing.