See the robot invented to play Peterborough Cathedral's organ

Friday 27 November

The latest “Pipewatch” video is out. This is the second in our series of short videos following the story of re-pitching Peterborough Cathedral's organ from Old Philharmonic to standard Concert Pitch.

This episode looks at the meticulous work involved in capturing the organ's original sound before a single pipe was removed. It is work that involved a specially designed robot, created by former Cathedral chorister and sound engineer Ben Trenchard.

Each note on the 5286-pipe organ was recorded three times – a short note, a medium length note and a long note. Having these sounds accurately captured means that the organ builders carrying out the re-pitch, Harrison and Harrison, have a complete sample to refer to.

The recording had to be done overnight so as to minimise background noise. A first attempt at this painstaking task a couple of years ago resulted in the team giving in to sleep at about 2.00am and going home to bed! It was then that Ben Trenchard realised he would have to invent a robot to automatically play each note, with the human element limited to making sure all was working as it should.

The resulting machine not only played each note for exactly the same length of time but was also able to press the registration sequence button to advance the stops.

The robotic recording nights were on the whole successful, although one of the sessions had to be re-recorded due to a motorbike engine heard in the Precincts in the early hours!

Pipewatch: Meet the Robot can be viewed on the Cathedral website at https://youtu.be/OogqIs7kMDE.

See photos taken during the shooting of Pipewatch: Meet the Robot

It is expected that the next video in the series will be released in a few months’ time.


  • Peterborough Cathedral is re-pitching its 19th Century Hill organ from Old Philharmonic to standard Concert Pitch. Once the organ is at standard pitch it will be possible to use it with orchestras and brass bands, and to train choristers and other singers at the same pitch as the music they hear elsewhere.

  • Work to re-pitch the Cathedral organ began in July 2015 and is due for completion in early 2017.

  • The re-pitch project has been very generously supported by numerous private charitable trusts, commercial organisations, organists’ associations and individual donors.

  • The organ re-pitch is one of several projects that are part of Peterborough 900, the campaign to improve facilities at Peterborough Cathedral in the years leading up to its 900th anniversary in 2018.

  • The Pipewatch videos are being made by Thordis Fridriksson of Thunderfairy Production.

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