When an organ has been cleaned and rebuilt after restoration, one of the most important stages is “voicing” – the careful process of tuning and balancing every pipe so the instrument sounds as it should. After months away in the workshop, thousands of pipes must be checked individually.

At first, the organ can sound surprisingly strange: sour, uneven, dissonant and sometimes almost “hurdy-gurdy” in character, with notes speaking too loudly, too softly, or not properly at all.

In this film, Andrew Scott from organ builders Harrison & Harrison explains his work over several weeks once a restored organ had returned to its home in the Chapel at King’s College, Cambridge. Listening carefully to every stop and every note, he demonstrates how organ builders adjust tuning, balance and speech pipe by pipe until the instrument’s full colour, richness and character gradually return.