After leaving Luton Sixth Form College in 1969, Martin began an apprenticeship with Hendrick ten Bruggencate and Grant Degens and Bradbeer, with extra training with Derek Jones, pipe maker, of Beelaugh Norfolk, and Karl Lötzerich near Kassel, Germany.
He then spent two weeks with the Polish Department for Restoration of Organs (PKZ) examining organs unrestored, restored and being restored, and documentation in 1976.
From 1977 – 1979 he worked with Gabriel Kney in Ontario, Canada.
Then in 1980 he set up a workshop with Dominic Gwynn in Northampton making new organs in historic styles, and restorations to museum standards.
In 1985 they moved to Welbeck Abbey Estate near Worksop in Nottinghamshire and became Martin Goetze and Dominic Gwynn Ltd, and Edward Bennett joined the firm.
Martin was a supreme craftsman. He had that combination of curiosity, knowledge, dexterity and amazing persistence needed to produce a good result. I doubt if any organ builder in the world could have designed and produced the whole instrument to the standard that Martin could. Our firm has completed over 100 organs, new and restorations. Their quality would not have been so high without Martin’s contribution and direction.
Martin was a long-time member of the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation (now the International Institute for Conservation), and the British Institute for Organ Studies, G&G have been accredited members of the Institute of British Organ Building from its founding in 1995. Martin became a member of the Board in 2005 and was President from 2009 to 2013. Goetze & Gwynn were founder members of the Institute of British Organ Building, and meetings at their workshops have always been characterised by an emphasis on practical training sessions, especially in metal pipe making and conservation disciplines. Martin served on the Board of the IBO, latterly as President, where he championed the development of a standardised national apprenticeship scheme and qualification.
His curiosity extended well beyond the techniques of the craft. He was interested in church music, singing and playing the organ himself. He was interested in church architecture, in liturgy, furniture design, etc. He could see the bigger picture and developed a taste of his own.
These words were written by Martin himself (8.3.2008 according to the computer, presumably when he stood for the board of the IBO):
Inspired by the four manual Norman and Beard organ I had played at church (made for the chapel at Luton Hoo), I decided on a career in organbuilding. At eighteen I was too old for the dozen traditional organbuilding firms I applied to, but accepted by Grant Degens and Bradbeer, whose chipboard aluminium and glass organs were a revelation.
Having gained some experience in Germany and Canada, I returned to Northampton, setting up a workshop with Dominic Gwynn making small organs. A larger church organ contract required a move to our present location in Sherwood Forest, where we have been beavering away on new and old organs of all sizes (well, nearly).
My interest in old organs stems from a busman’s holiday to see Polish organs in 1976. It was fascinating and exciting to see so many weird organs in ruins, and some that had been documented and restored. This stopped with the dismantling of communism, and now they apparently need to be restored again, a lesson in the importance of maintenance.
I am becoming more aware of the need for appropriate training for organ restorers, consultants and organists as the direction of church music is struggling to find how the pipe organ fits in.
We have a little workshop choir (not mandatory for employees) which I have taken to Italy and Spain for short concert tours including organs we have restored. I’ve not really had time to pin down any other hobbies yet.
Our good friend and colleague, Martin Goetze, died at the age of 63 on Sunday August 23rd 2015. Martin had endearing qualities – a wry outlook on the world and mischievous sense of humour – for which he will be most greatly missed by those of us who were privileged to know and work with him.
Our Chilean friend and colleague Jose Manuel Izquierdo Konig has sent us a compilation of scenes taken from short television films made by his friends Pepe Torres and Francisco Anderson, as a tribute to Martin. The link is below: