1878 Sagar Organ

by Joseph Fitzer

The Organ Historical Society held its forty-second annual convention in Portland, Oregon, from Sunday, July 13, through Saturday, July 19. Here are, first, a kind of organ travelogue and, secondly, some broader considerations evoked by the organs and the playing.

 

Convention headquarters was the Best Western Rose Garden Hotel,  across the Willamette River from downtown Portland. Accommodations were certainly adequate, as was transportation. So was the food, when we finally got it. Future convention leaders really must insist to caterers who are seemingly geared for bar mitzvahs and weddings that there be four food-serving lines, and if possible a single seating. Only in this way can 200 OHS convention-goers keep to their tight schedule of organ demonstrations and bus rides, and possibly have the chance of a short walk before the next scheduled activity. It is also worth noting that as the OHS ages so do its members; it is cruel to keep the oldest of them standing a long time in line. Because of a disagreement between the hotel and the convention leadership, the exhibits and evening social hour had to be transferred to the shop of organ-builder Richard Bond, with a shuttle bus. Later the René Marceau shop was opened for a social hour as well, but it appeared that the need of using the after-hours bus resulted in lower attendance. In general, the painstaking, thoughtful southern hospitality of the 1989 New Orleans and 1993 Louisville conventions remains an ideal well worth keeping in mind. But on to the music.

Sunday

The convention opened at 3 pm on Sunday the 13th, with Michael Barnes playing the 1870 Derrick-Felgemaker "portable organ," which has a diapason and a dulciana to tenor F, a stopped diapason bass that is always on, a manual super coupler, and a 17-note pedal coupler. It was played at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Portland, although Mr. Barnes owns the instrument. He was assisted by Susan McBerry, soprano.

The next event was Karl Mansfield's demonstration of the 1887 Cole & Woodberry at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Vancouver, Washington. (Vancouver is across the Columbia River from the Portland area. Portland is at the meeting of the tributary Willamette and the "really big" Columbia.) This II/23 instrument was rebuilt in 1996 by Jeremy Cooper of Concord, New Hampshire; it was relocated through The Organ Clearing House, as were many of the instruments heard at this convention.

It is noteworthy, indeed, that only two of the old instruments we heard at the Portland convention are in their original locations. It may well be that, as more old churches close, relocation is the shape of the future.1 It seems that there was an original stock of tracker organs set up during the later 19th century, but that few of these remain.2 The earlier stock of tracker organs yielded in time to electro-pneumatic instruments of varying merit and to the ubiquitous electronic substitutes. These, evidently, are yielding in turn to new tracker organs as well as to a significant number of old trackers transplanted from points east.

The third Sunday event was a program of Reform synagogue music presented by John Strege, organist and choral director, with Judith Schiff, soloist, and a vocal quartet, at Congregation Beth Israel, Portland, using a 1928 Reuter organ with five divisions, one of them a floating string division.

On Sunday evening, Douglas Cleveland presented a recital of French romantic and post-romantic music, including the entire second symphony of Louis Vierne, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. The instrument there is a 1987 III/89 of Manuel Rosales; one local organ enthusiast described it as being a true "magnet" for the organ art in the Portland area. Because of previously set travel plans I was unable to arrive in Portland before late Sunday evening; but I heard that Sunday's happenings were something for the builders, rebuilders, movers, singers and players--and their local fans--to be justifiably proud of.3

Monday

Monday the 14th began with a lecture on the organ history of the Pacific Northwest by David Dahl, professor of music and university organist, Pacific Lutheran University, and director of music at Christ Episcopal Church, both in Tacoma, Washington. He emphasized the importance of the installation, in 1965, of a large Flentrop organ in St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, under the leadership of then organist Peter Hallock. This, along with other, smaller European instruments gave impetus to local builders to begin using north German models, and ultimately, according to Professor Dahl, to a climate of opinion wherein the first choice of the educated northwest organist will be a tracker organ. Organ "reform"--the term is deliberately used--is primarily a reform back to the northern 17th or 18th centuries.

The next two presentations provided examples for Dahl's lecture. The first was at St. Mark's Cathedral (Anglican Church in America) in Portland where we heard a III/44 by Werner Bosch of Kassel, Germany. We are particular indebted to Mark Brombaugh, who at the last minute substituted for the ailing Delbert Saman. Mr. Brombaugh also showed off a thoroughly charming Dutch chamber organ from around 1790, restored with new casework in 1982 by Frans Bosman.

Then we moved on to Beaverton, Oregon, and St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, where William Porter (professor at The New England Conservatory) gave a fine short program on an excellent 1994 instrument (II/20) by Tacoma Builder Paul Fritts. One sensed here a thoughtful and successful adaptation of the baroque model, designed for the large, hard-surfaced European church, to a not-so-large and rather dry American room. Professor Porter improvised, and played Bruhns and Buxtehude expressively, in a manner suggesting improvisation. One assumes improvisations listed in a program are pieces not written down (as opposed to made up on the spot); that, too, is doubtless authentic baroque practice. There are beyond question countless baroque masterpieces known now to the angels alone, but Professor Porter's pieces, known to us, too, were enthusiastically applauded.

On Monday afternoon James Hammann of New Orleans gave (handsomely as always) an all-Mendelssohn program on the 1890 II/13 Kilgen at St. Pius X Catholic Church, Portland, which organ was moved to its present location in 1985 by Bond Pipe Organs. This small but refined instrument (22/3' and 2' but no mixture) suited the Mendelssohn very well. On other occasions OHS audiences have heard Dr. Hammann play elaborate numbers; they would have been out of place here, so he offered the short Mendelssohn pieces instead.

Next came the demonstration of a similar instrument in St. Thomas Moore Catholic Church, Portland. In this case Bond in 1982 somewhat altered a 1914 Kilgen, but was constrained by the congregation to locate it in a thoroughly unsuitable place, a sort of organ cave behind the main altar. Portland organist Thomas Curry did the best he could in an interesting program of period pieces by Walter Spinney and Wenham Smith. But the sound fall-off from cave to nave was most regrettable; one hopes the owners will sacrifice some nave pews to better sound. Smith's variations on Beecher, one of the finest, most dramatic variation sets by a 19th-century American, thus lost much of their impact.4

After St. Thomas More's we went to St. Patrick's, Portland, where Dean Applegate first played briefly on a small English organ (c. 1875, unknown builder, two whole and two half ranks), restored by Bond. But the main attraction was Mr. Applegate's Cantores in Ecclesia, a choir of women, girls and boys who under his direction performed a program of 20th-century British music for treble voices. An excellent accompaniment was provided by Douglas Cleveland, who was asked to do this on short notice.

The final event of this busy day was also a kind of double-header, if not triple-header. In St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral Bruce Neswick played first the 1996 II/19 Martin Ott organ in the chancel and then the III/41 Los Angeles Art Organ (Murray Harris) instrument in the rear gallery. The latter organ seemed to be a kind of conventioneer, too, having migrated here from San Francisco, where it was heard in the 1988 OHS convention. It was rebuilt in 1996 with some additions by Bond, and Mr. Neswick's choice of (among other things) Brahm's Prelude and Fugue in A minor was particularly apt for showing it off. As a closer, this artist and Oakland organist and composer Ronald McKean improvised a passacaglia using both organs.

Tuesday

Tuesday, July 15, began with a lecture on OHS-sponsored European organ tours by executive director William Van Pelt. Then we went to All Saints Episcopal Church, Portland, where we heard Cheryl Drewes, the incumbent organist, give one of the most musically satisfying demonstrations of the convention--and on one of the most satisfying instruments. The Bond firm enhanced an 1892 Jardine organ, adding, subtracting and moving assorted ranks (now II/15); the result is dramatic, well suited to the room. Some observers did wonder a bit at Bond's penchant for enameling organ pipes white: they tend to remind one of objects not normally associated with the organ.

Oh happy day: the next presentation was also one of the musically most satisfying of the convention--David Dahl's demonstration of a five-rank, divided single-manual Hinners of 1915. This was in the Presbyterian Church in Aurora, south of Portland. In repertory ranging from Francisco Peraza (d. 1598) to Haydn, Dahl made skillful use of the divided keyboard. The church's pastor, Mary Sue Evers, made a very telling point about getting people to play it: if they got a decent though small pipe organ they stood a much better chance of getting a credible musician for their worship. After hearing the Hinners we heard an excellent lecture on the Hinners firm by Allison Alcorn-Oppedahl. Her remarks had the considerable merit not only of discussing the Hinners instruments, but of incorporating many more social-science reflections than remarks by organ historians usually do. Hinners organs were cannily marketed  to a market that came (the small, usually rural church) and then went.

After an ice-cream social and a longish bus ride to Vancouver, Washington, we next heard Marilyn Kay Stulken ably demonstrate a one-manual, eight-rank Moline organ of 1879. Since this organ did not have a divided keyboard, Ms. Stulken made very creative use of a stop-puller assistant; her selections ranged from John Redford to Johannes Brahms, and this little 8-4-2' instrument handled them remarkably well, provided one overlooked some problems of tuning temperament. The final event of the day was also in Vancouver, at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, where Paul Klemme played organ solo numbers and accompanied trumpeter Gerald Webster on a II/17 W. K. Adams' Sons (Providence, RI, 1890), rebuilt and modified by Bond (1985).

Wednesday

Wednesday, July 16, opened with the annual meeting of the Society, presided over by outgoing president Kristin Farmer. We were encouraged to hear that the OHS is in good financial shape, but reminded--friends of the OHS, take note--that a substantial and necessary part of the Society's income comes from book, score and CD catalogue sales. The OHS now has a web page. When the ballots had been counted Barbara Owen emerged as the new president, with Scot Huntington as vice-president, and Michael Barone, Lois Regestein and Peter Sykes as new board members. Michael Barone, producer of the public radio series Pipedreams, also received the Distinguished Service Award. The 1997 Biggs fellows (recipients of an award designed to aid in attending a first OHS convention) were Joseph McCabe of Buffalo and Nicole Bensoussan of San Diego, both of whom are seventeen. Next year's convention will be in Denver (June 21-27), and that of 1999 in Montréal.

After the meeting we went to Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Portland, to hear an 1885 II/12 instrument, builder unknown, rebuilt with additions by Bond. Perhaps because of excessive carpeting and its location under an arch, it sounded rather thin. Where there seems to be a problem with the marriage of a relocated organ--or any organ--and its church the listener must, of course, take into consideration that the OHS are often an SRO crowd of sound-absorbers. The scheduled demonstrator, William Schuster, was detained, and while we awaited his arrival David Dahl accompanied an impromptu hymn-sing. Mr. Schuster's billing of four slight pieces by André Fleury as "An Organ Symphony" rather stretched a label. (It should be noted in passing that Fleury composed two real symphonies.)

Next stop was St. Ignatius Catholic Church, also in Portland, where Timothy and Nancy Le Roi Nickel presented a duet program on a (now) II/17 from around 1880, builder unknown, rebuilt in 1901 by Kilgen and rebuilt again in 1982 by Bond, with notable additions. The duet players did well, but they might wish to consider whether what is executed as a duet actually sounds like a duet, that is, with two real musical contributors in it. In piano duet-playing this is more readily evident, but the many levels of organ pitch tend to produce many notes but not necessarily the impression of two executants.5 Alas, our players were assigned a gallery organ, and part of the fun of duets is seeing them done.

Next came Grant Edwards's demonstration of the instrument in the Presbyterian Church at Milwaukie, an 1898 Pilcher rebuilt to II/13 by Bond in 1992. It is, in its present reincarnation, a handsome instrument, placed in the corner of a kind of liturgical stage in a fairly reverberant room. Mr. Edwards made it reverberate, but he and other players might consider that the repertory the "little American organ" does least convincingly is the French baroque.

The afternoon ended with a roller-skating session at the Oaks Roller Rink, Portland, while Don Feely played the four-manual 1926 Wurlitzer, formerly in the Broadway Theater, Portland. But the Wurlitzer is out in the middle of the rink with no swell boxes. Here once more is an instance of an equivocal situation for the player, listener and reviewer. We have to be grateful the thing was done at all, that is, the organ preserved, and yet we can easily think of cogent reasons for doing things differently.

After supper came what many at the convention considered its finest event, the recital by Peter Sykes (Longy School, Cambridge, and New England Conservatory, Boston) on the 1883 Hook & Hastings II/20 located in the Old Church concert hall, Portland, and restored by the Bond firm. Player and organ were superb. The first half of the program consisted of C. P. E. Bach's Sonata 6, Mozart's K. 594 Fantasia, a "Canzonetta" by G. W. Chadwick, and Lemmens's "Fanfare." After an intermission came Mendelssohn's Sonata 6, two short chorale-preludes of J. S. Bach, and a rousing rendering by all of J. S. Bach's harmonization of "Jesus, Priceless Treasure." For the Old Church Society, Inc., Delbert Saman accepted an OHS Historic Organ Plaque. Not least in this instrument's attractions is the fine restoration of its front pipes in brilliant red, green, blue and gold. It is worth noting, too, that Sykes followed the old OHS custom of providing a handout listing the registrations used. Before this recital people were recalling with pleasure his 1987 recital in Newburyport; now, no doubt, they will also fondly remember this one.6

Thursday

Thursday, July 17, started with a demonstration by James Holloway at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Washington. The instrument is in the orgue de choeur, or chancel, manner, built in 1990 by Frans Bosman, II/15 with additions prepared for. The 8' foundations together were delightfully clear. As for the tutti, all this organ needs is a "French" room; the whole ensemble (at least to this listener) tended to split into its elements, though again one must consider the acoustical effect of an SRO crowd.

The next demonstration was by James Denman, at Epiphany Episcopal Church, Chehallis, Washington. The organ was a II/10 Lancashire-Marshall of 1895, renovated in 1979 by the late Randall McCarty. In the same town we heard an 1890 Koehnken & Grimm, II/12, restored by Huestis & Associates and S. L. Huntington & Co. in 1993. The demonstrator was Joseph Adam. The silver pipes stenciled in crimson and dark green and the butternut casework were particularly handsome.

After lunch we traveled to Cathlamet, Puget Island, where in Our Savior's Lutheran Church Jane Edge ably demonstrated a fine I/9 Roosevelt of 1895 relocated from Katonah, New York. Her program included one of Mozart's church sonatas, K. 336, in which she was assisted by violinists Anne Edge and Phyllis Kessel and cellist Mary Flotree. Her program also included a community rendition of "Roll On, Columbia," one of the songs the Bonneville Power Authority hired Woody Guthrie to write in 1941 to popularize their dam.7

After returning to Portland we next heard a truly magnificent instrument, a 1916 E. M. Skinner IV/49, built for the Portland Civic Auditorium, restored in 1971-75 by the late David Bruce Newman, and now located in an auditorium at the Alpenrose Dairy. After a prayer and the singing of the national anthem we saw a short Laurel and Hardy silent film, quietly accompanied by Paul Quarino. Then came supper as guests of the dairy, and then a recital by Minneapolis organist Robert Vickery. In a series of mostly short pieces Vickery showed off a great variety of lovely Skinner sounds. Since this was an evening recital one could have wished for musically more developed numbers. Opening the chamber-access doors for the closer, a slight Firmin Swinnen toccata, seemed in poor taste; Skinner certainly did not aim for the threshold of pain with sheer loudness. We can hope that this fine instrument, created for a site significantly larger than its present home, will some day find a more suitable one.

Friday

On Friday, July 18, the first demonstration was by Charles Rus of San Francisco, using the 1904 II/13 Möller in the First Christian Church, Albany, Oregon. With its elegantly curving woodwork, this little organ is one of the most attractive pipe-fence organs I have seen. Mr. Rus' selections were well chosen to show off the instrument and very well played; they included a Buxtehude praeludium (pace temperament!) and what one listener called an attractive example of "90s American light," Three Pieces by Craig Phillips, tonal though dissonant, lively, thinly scored.

We next visited St. Mary's Catholic Church, Corvallis, Oregon, which has an 1892 II/20 Jardine rebuilt and altered by Bond in 1986. The demonstrator was Portland organist Paul Wood Cunningham. Also in Corvallis we heard another Portland organist, Lanny Collins, play a program of Orgelbüchlein chorales on the robust II/28 Noack installed in 1980 in the First United Methodist Church. Quite robust as well is the 1996 II/27 Bond in Cone Chapel (a large classroom, really) at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, which was demonstrated by Marian Ruhl Metson.

One the way back to Portland we stopped at St. Anne's Chapel, Marylhurst College, where Tamara Still demonstrated a fine large Bozeman instrument, built in the French romantic style in 1994, III/37 with additional ranks prepared for, incorporating many ranks from a 1901 Hutchings-Votey. Back in Portland we were treated to another of the especially satisfying musical happenings of the convention, a demonstration by Michigan artist Mary Ann Crugher Balduf of an 1851 Henry Erben organ, which is in the "Chapel Hall" of the First Presbyterian Church and appears to have been in Portland since some time in the 1860s. With expert, split-second assistance from stop-puller Brian Buehler, Ms. Balduf used the one manual and six ranks with great imagination.

Friday ended with a program of recently composed works, including some of his own, performed by Ronald McKean on the 1996 II/37 Bond instrument (incorporating many pipes from an 1881 John Bergstrom) in Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Portland. The rich plenum includes a seven-rank mixture on the great--this in a high-ceilinged, reverberant hall. This instrument and the one in All Saints Episcopal Church were among the favorite Bond instruments heard. The presence in the pews of little plainsong hymnals (Liber Cantualis) suggested the possibility of alternatim literature involving the whole assembly, but that was not to be. Too bad, since so much baroque organ music (and Boëly, too) was meant to be used that way.

Saturday

The last day of the convention, Saturday, July 19, started off pleasantly with Will Headlee's demonstration of the 1913 II/18 Hinners in St. Charles Church, Portland. The attractive and reverberant room let shine what elsewhere might have been a rather bland instrument.8 Next we took a longish trip south to Mt. Angel Benedictine Monastery, in a striking hilltop setting, where of course we sang Engelberg and where Beverly Ratajak demonstrated two instruments. The 1966 II/16, built by Martin Ott for the monks' choir, was meant to accompany their sung office, which we heard it do, but its sound does not carry well into the nave. This is doubtless why the abbey has commissioned the Ott firm to begin, in 1998, a three-manual tracker in the rear gallery. Also heard was a delightful little three-rank instrument, now in a meeting hall, built in 1896 by one Joseph Speldrich, a dairy farmer working for the monastery. After a stop at the Eola Hills Winery we heard Barbara Baird of the University of Oregon, Eugene, demonstrate the 1972 Ahrend IV/51 in Beall Concert Hall at the University. The temperament is Werckmeister III, which gave Sweelinck's "Est-ce Mars" variations rather more sprightliness than they often get. One wished Boyvin's suite in the first tone had been alternated with a sung (or failing in that, a played in unison) Magnificat or Gloria, which would have presented the integral musical form.

Concluding the convention was the John Brombaugh instrument in Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, III/51, 1976, but altered by the builder in 1983, 1989 and 1992. The demonstrator was Margaret Evans of Southern Oregon State College, Ashland. The day ended with a round of applause for convention chairman Cliff Fairley and his colleagues, including program chairman Tim Drewes.

The Portland convention differed somewhat from many earlier OHS conventions. To be sure, the Pacific Northwest, like other large sections of the United States and Canada, simply does not have that many old organs. Given our national inclination to discard organs perceived as old, if they had fewer to start with, they now have even fewer left. Thus the 1997 convention heard, it appears, just about all the old organs--still in the original site, or transplanted--in the geographic area selected for the convention. Of particular note and a cause for celebration is how these old organs are loved and cared for; I did not hear a single organ that was not, it seemed, in a good state of repair. Many of the thirty-nine organs heard, however, were actually quite new instruments, or instruments that had been not restored precisely but rebuilt, so that even if this latter class of instruments contains more or less of old components, they are effectly new instruments.9 What we encountered in Portland, one might say, is along with organs an organ idea, an idea that has always figured in OHS concerns but that figured here more prominently. It is that tracker organs, often with a north German flavor, are the good organs, no matter what their age. One wonders if for some folks they are good for you like Saabs, Birkenstocks and benignly fertilized vegetables: when you get them you will be reformed.

The choice of organs to be heard in the Portland area inescapably tended to impress on the auditor, reformed or not, how tonally different organ-reform organs are from the area's stock of unaltered old American organs. As to choice of organs, we were led to wonder further how many admirable instruments might exist in the Portland area that are old, more or less, but just not trackers and/or in some manner baroque in tonal design. Of the thirty-nine instruments heard there were only three non-trackers, the 1928 Reuter, the denuded 1926 Wurlitzer, and, most importantly, the 1916 E. M. Skinner. Of course, if the number of unaltered old organs, whatever their type, were to be the criterion for holding an OHS convention in a certain area, and if that number were pegged to the level of the Northeast, then no convention would ever be held in Portland or other areas lightly endowed with old organs. That would not be good either for these areas or for the OHS at large. However, when a convention is held in such an area it would be well to aim for the greatest conceptual clarity attainable, and recognize that organ reform is not good organs tout court, but an idea, or complex of ideas, about what makes a good organ, and about which there remains some disagreement.10

The juxtaposition of truly old American with organ reform organs, the greater number of them being small to medium-sized two-manual instruments, leads to two further considerations.

First, one of the strengths of the Portland convention was that it offered the possibility of hearing baroque literature in other than equal temperament. Naturally, it sounds much better that way. Might we go a step further and ponder whether pre-equal-temperament literature sounds wrong played in equal temperament?11 I do not propose to answer that question, but several strategies come to mind. Might churches in a community or a denominational administrative area agree informally to offer different temperaments and literature? Or maybe the wave of the future laps on the shores of Cathlamet, where an interesting group of people with a one-manual instrument are considering installing another one-manual instrument: what if the second one were to be tuned in mean-tone? Some of the organists we heard seemed to think that "full organ" meant using most or all of the stops (and especially in passages where it wasn't needed, the 16' pedal reed). But might not a medium-sized organ, dedicated to the disciplined player, include alternatively tuned ensembles? In one of those tutti frutti OHS programs designed to show the prospective electronic-substitute buyer that a little American organ from 1895 really can play all manner of music, Sweelinck sounds "all right," but with a certain wistfulness one recognizes that he sounds much better out of equal temperament. The other side of this thought is that 19th-century instruments are better employed in doing 19th-century and later music, with judicious selections from the 18th century.

Secondly, a staple of OHS demonstrations--and properly so--is the program made of short pieces, miniatures. It shows off the possibilities of the instrument, and does it fast. Hearing a week-long succession of such demonstrations, necessary as they may be, does get you  thinking. Specifically, is there a danger that a procedure for a quick demonstration might become a musical ideal, the notion that organ music consists of miniatures, either versets or dance-movements, or fantasias put together from short-winded expositions? As anyone familiar with the problems of the opera composer knows, whereas under driving emotion words contract, music expands. Music is naturally expansive, both in opera and in music history generally. In other words, the so-called symphonic organ and the invention of various sorts of playing aids resulted from a real musical felt need, and not from the invasion of the organ world by wicked engineers. One hopes that future convention leaders and players, particularly those entrusted with the longer, evening recitals, will show us more instruments and literature characterized by a certain expansiveness.12 (The Cleveland and Sykes recitals set a worthy example.) To be avoided is the impression that the OHS fancies little instruments that do little snippets of music, and do them sometimes in tunings that would make the composers wince. Such an impression would, of course, belie the actual breadth of outlook found in the OHS, which is thus a good reason for taking care not to create it. The organs are the stars, yes, but they shine brightest in a heaven of clear musical thinking. One of the best achievements of the Portland convention is that it stimulated thinking about the organ art.

Notes

                  1.              Transplanted organs, often, are not spared the paradox that now affects so many old, now restored objects: all cleaned up and placed in rather antiseptic surroundings, they lose what Edith Wharton called the "rich low murmur of the past." Fast and Loose & The Buccaneers, ed. V. H. Winner (University Press of Virginia, 1993), p. 369.

                  2.              In 1870 prosperous Portland had some 10,000 inhabitants. Cf. Judy Jewell, Compass American Guides: Oregon (Oakland, 1996), p. 42.

                  3.              For the instruments see remarks by Barbara Owen and Alan Laufman in "OHS to Visit the 'City of Roses'," The Tracker XL: 1 (1997), pp. 6-7; and also Lee Garrett, "American Organ Reform in Retrospect," part II, The American Organist XXXI: 8 (August, 1997), pp. 74-75. For the convention programs of July 13 see "Dulciana's Diary," first autumn, 1997, issue of The Stopt Diapason (news-letter of the Chicago Chapter of the OHS).

                  4.              My copy is found in W. E. Ashmall, ed., The Organist's Journal, vol. I (New York, 1889-90), pp. 53-60. The title page lists Smith as active at Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church in Brooklyn and carries the dedication, "To the memory of a Great and Good Man." Beecher had died in 1887. Variation 8 is entitled "Funeral March on the death of a hero." So Smith took an upbeat view of Beecher's legal problems.

                  5.              Robert Cundick's Three Pieces (Concordia, 1991) are a model of the kind of texture I have in mind.

                  6.              Hook & Hastings installed five organs in Portland between 1872 and 1886. This is the only one left. There are those, this writer included, who think the Hook & Hastings instruments of this time (and a little before and after) are the finest of all American work.

                  7.              Jewell, op. cit., p. 224.

                  8.              The church furnishings here were turned sideways, so that the altar is now on what was formerly the "gospel," or left side of the nave. It would not always work, but this is certainly a thoughtful way of getting more of the congregation closer to the altar while leaving the organ in place. (In this case, however, an organ was relocated from another church to the space originally provided for a pipe organ.) In sum, this rethinking of the nave makes it a theatre as opposed to a pseudo-medieval hall.

                  9.              Alas, two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, so 19th-century aeolines yield their chest space to upperwork. Still, there has from time to time been some debate as to whether aeoline-like ranks served as overtone-making "blending" stops and as such are integral to various registration combinations. In this view they are not just for giving pitch to the choir and additional piquancy to ministerial prayers.

                  10.           Garrett, op. cit., p. 77, wisely comments, "The important thing is that builders from both traditions [tracker and electric action] are talking to each other in a fashion not known 30 years ago." In time this more ample, generous reading of organ history will doubtless become more widely accepted.

                  11.           In time the organ with a 17th-century stop list and a 19th-century tuning may well be seen as a kind of compromise, just as some now view the more or less baroque stop list played with an electric action.

                  12.           I do not mean recitalists should yet again inflect their graduation recital on the OHS, as has occurred from time to time in previous years; if they are going to expand something, let it be their repertory.

R. E. Coleberd

R. E. Coleberd, an economist and retired petroleum industry executive, is a contributing editor of The Diapason. He is a director of The Reuter Organ Company.

Introduction

In the following narrative, the interaction of an organist and an organbuilder in the design of a new instrument and selection of a builder is described in some detail by each of them. The organist, Jerome Meachen, an Oberlin and Union graduate, was organist/choirmaster of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1957 St. John’s, upon the recommendation of Meachen, acquired a 70-rank, three-manual McManis organ. It was followed, when he changed positions, by a 67-rank, three-manual at Redeemer Episcopal Church in Sarasota, Florida (completed in 1966), and in 1973, by a 49-rank, three-manual for Manatee Community College, Bradenton, Florida. The builder, Charles McManis, a trained organist who had apprenticed briefly with Walter Holtkamp before World War II, operated a small shop in Kansas City, Kansas. His skill in flue voicing would become widely recognized and acclaimed in a sixty-year career, which counted more than 125 new instruments and rebuilds.

The discussion highlights the steps in the evolution of their tonal philosophy. It was a process of listening, comparing and choosing sounds and stops in the quest for authenticity in the revolutionary epoch that characterized American organbuilding in the decades following World War II. Before their first meeting, Meachen had acquired a preference for non-legato playing while McManis had been taught the legato style. Despite this difference, the two men found common ground in their admiration and profound respect for the tonal work of William A. Johnson, a legendary nineteenth-century New England tracker builder, and his successors.

Background

The choice of a relatively unknown independent builder in 1956 was decidedly the exception for this era. In the 1950s, pipe organ building in America was the province of the integrated major builders who had controlled the market for new instruments since the turn of the century. M. P. Möller of Hagerstown, Maryland, the “General Motors” of the industry, with a force of more than 400 workers, delivered 365 instruments in 1928 and in the decade 1950-60, with perhaps 200 employees, built 125 organs per year.1 Other builders, those who had survived the drastic shakeout during the Great Depression of the 1930s, were likewise busy, with comparatively large work forces and lengthy backlogs.

In retrospect we might safely say the 1950s, though a vibrant decade, marked the beginning of the end of what could be termed the “commercial” era of organbuilding in America that extended back to the 1920s and perhaps even earlier. Builders, including such highly successful businessmen as Mathias Peter Möller, concentrated almost exclusively on production to meet the enormous market demand in all venues. Company executives, sons of the founder, not musicians, were largely unfamiliar with the great literature for the organ. Sadly, they scarcely comprehended the interface between Bach, Buxtehude and other composers and the subtleties and nuances of fine voicing and finishing in building the King of Instruments. Their instruments were often quite successful in the context of a “production organ,” with uniform and consistent voicing, thanks to the skills of talented shop voicers, but, in retrospect, they were perhaps lacking in artistic statement, which can come only from meticulous tonal finishing. On small organs there was virtually no concept of tonal finishing once the instrument was installed and tuned. Only with the large “signature” instruments was time scheduled for tonal finishing, for example by John Schleigh of Möller and Herb Pratt of Aeolian-Skinner.2

Yet the organ reform movement was underway and gaining momentum, beginning with the pathfinding efforts in the 1930s of E. Power Biggs, Melville Smith, King Covell and others. The major themes are well known: lower wind pressures, smaller scales and higher pitches in flue work and the introduction of chorus in place of solo reeds. A “vertical” tonal palette emerged, featuring a full range of pitches in place of the former “horizontal” palette, dominated by stops of 8-foot pitch. These elements combined in the cohesive blending of individual voices, and the emphasis on ensemble in the building of primary and secondary choruses as reflected in the work of Walter Holtkamp and G. Donald Harrison in the North German and American Classic paradigms.

Leaders in the organist profession, highly educated, widely traveled and well-read, people like Robert Noehren and Parvin Titus, were captivated by the new sounds and ensembles which awakened them to the instrument’s rich music from antiquity. They began paying close attention to European instruments, through travel and recordings, as well as 19th-century work of notable American builders (Hook, Erben, Johnson and others). They wisely looked beyond the stoplist and listened carefully to the sound. The reintroduction of the tracker instrument, first by European builders, followed by an emerging U.S. industry of small shops, reinforced the historic and intrinsic artistic value of the King of Instruments. Steady improvement in the tone quality of the electronic instruments soon spelled the end of the commodity segment of the pipe organ market rooted in the image of an organ as a utilitarian device in support of corporate worship.3

By the end of the century it was recognized that the heart and soul of a pipe organ, a work of art, is the tonal edifice, which begins with a vision and continues through design, voicing and tonal finishing of the instrument. These requirements were most often found in the combined talents of the tonal architect and skilled, dedicated artisans in his shop, seldom in one individual. Harrison, Holtkamp and Fisk, for example, were superb designers but were not voicers. Schopp, Pearson and Zajic were supremely talented reed voicers. But once in a while one individual comprised them all. George Michel of Kimball perhaps came close and, in the author’s judgment, Charles McManis fits this image.

In any revolutionary epoch, change in an established industry comes slowly and sometimes from the outside. American organbuilders, badly shaken by the lean years of the Great Depression and World War II, were to some degree insular, isolated and ingrown. On balance they were reluctant to abandon existing practices and slow to adopt new and untried techniques with unknown consequences. Voicers, trained in-house on high-pressure, wide-scale stops of 8-foot pitch, scarcely comprehended the new generation of flues and reeds. They and their superiors had been disinterested in historic instruments, American and European, which they viewed as antiquated and obsolete. But they could not ignore the revolutionary changes around them, and some firms wisely brought in outsiders--men like Richard Piper at Austin and Franklin Mitchell at Reuter--who were listening and eager to apply their ideas to new stoplists.

At the close of World War II, the demand for organ work far exceeded the supply of qualified people. Factories enjoyed lengthy backlogs and were hard pressed to meet production schedules. Service firms comprised primarily older men, former employees of firms who had failed in the Great Depression--for example, Syl Kohler in Louisville (Pilcher) and Ben Sperbeck and Milton Stannke in Rock Island (Bennett). Honest and hard working, they can best be described as mechanics; few had either voicing experience or any concept of a modern chorus or ensemble. This afforded an opportunity for a newcomer, a young man who had listened carefully, had a firm conviction of what pipe sound should be, and had acquired the voicing skills to bring the sound of a pipe to the tone quality he desired.

Jerome Meachen writes:

A native of Oklahoma City, I studied organ with Dana Lewis Griffin, a student of David McK. Williams at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on Park Avenue in New York City, and then enrolled at Oberlin College where my teachers were Leo Holden and Grigg Fountain. Holden was a 19th-century organ teacher--Rheinberger, romantic, and very happy with the E. M. Skinner organ in the chapel. His whole approach to organ playing was: “write down the fingering I give you and the registration I want you to use.” It was a very dry--and I felt antiquated--approach. In contrast, Fountain said: “select your own registration from what you hear, we will discuss it and you defend it.” This was essential to broadening my understanding of organ music and what I wanted to develop in my own touch on the instrument. While at Oberlin I practiced on the Johnson organ at Christ Episcopal Church in Oberlin courtesy of Arnold Blackburn, also on the Oberlin organ faculty. This awakened me to the beautiful voicing of this builder. Of course northeast Ohio was Holtkamp country. When I began studying with Fountain, my last two years, he had just obtained a Holtkamp at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Cleveland. While I was fascinated with the sounds of this instrument, I found it ear-shattering. I well remember one Saturday afternoon when I was practicing at St. Paul’s. Walter Holtkamp came in, climbed up on the Swell box and said play full organ. He just reveled in the volume, but I found that sort of sound excruciating.

A milestone in my career was a recital at Oberlin by Ernest White. I was fascinated by his approach, non-legato, in contrast to legato, which was the basic style at Oberlin. Legato evolved because of the acoustics organists had to deal with in American churches. Nothing happened after you took your finger off the note so you had to pull everything together.

After graduating from Oberlin I enrolled in the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where I arranged to study with Ernest White, then an adjunct faculty member. We shared a common interest in repertoire and liturgy. White had me listen to orchestral recordings of Mozart and commented: remember, “Bach was a violinist as well as an organist.” Bob Clark, another graduate student, and I found White way ahead of his time in non-legato sound, which broadens your understanding of the organ. This is the sound one finds in Europe and what we were striving for in America. Working with White was working with the literature and developing the capacity to do his particular style of non-legato in terms of liturgy, the Anglican approach and plainsong. This was very enlightening to me. I was fascinated by White’s approach to playing the studio organ at St. Mary the Virgin, the second studio instrument, this one by Möller. His technique was a detached sound, like the ringing of bells. Unfortunately, the voicing was so loud it was difficult to listen to. This alerted me to the distinction between intensity and decibels, a key distinction in my thinking. I was also intrigued by the design of the organ, which had a 32’ Cornet using individual stops and two Swell boxes providing two ensembles. This inspired the use of separate swell boxes and couplers for flues and reeds at St. John’s. My admiration for Johnson continued when I practiced on their instrument at the Mott Haven Dutch Reformed Church in the Bronx while at Union.4

Charles McManis writes:

As a pre-teenager in Kansas City in the 1920s, with my parents I often rode the streetcar to Independence Boulevard Christian Church to hear Sunday afternoon recitals by the legendary Hans Feil on the four-manual, 1910 Austin organ. In the 1930s while I was a student at the University of Kansas, I spent summers and holidays working with Peter E. Nielsen, a local serviceman, tuning and rebuilding pipe organs. Two of these instruments were Johnson trackers from the 1880s.5 They were especially impressive and were to influence fundamentally my concept of voicing.

Enrolling as a liberal arts major at the University of Kansas in Lawrence I became a student of University Organist Laurel Everette Anderson, an Oberlin master’s graduate who then studied for three years in Paris with Joseph Bonnet. He taught the legato method, and emphasized proper turning of phrases and making real music out of notes. He greatly expanded my knowledge of the pipe organ and emphasized nuances of color and singing quality in organ voices. Following graduation with an A.B. degree in 1936 and having already set my sights on becoming an organbuilder, I obtained a Mus.B. at KU in 1937, which required my playing an hour-long recital from memory. The thought occurred to me that I might be the first organbuilder who could play more than “Yankee Doodle” on what he had built.

I began my organbuilding career with a shop in the basement of my parents’ home. I rebuilt three organs and built one new instrument. My Opus 2, 1939--electrifying and adding nine ranks to a 1910 tubular-pneumatic Kilgen--is still playing in the Central Christian Church in Kansas City, Kansas. Then, having learned of his growing prominence in the organ reform movement, I apprenticed with Walter Holtkamp in Cleveland for a few months, eager to learn from him. I assisted with the installation of a three-manual Holtkamp organ at Olivet College in Michigan. It had Great and Positiv slider chests, but the Swell had ventil stop-action for want of sufficient space for a slider chest. When I compared the sounds of slider chest pipes and those on the ventil chest I was surprised to find that I could hear no difference. Walter’s instruments were visually well designed and beautiful to look at but, frankly, I was disappointed with his ensemble sound and tone quality. The voicing lacked a certain richness of tone. In checking Holtkamp pipes I noticed that he nicked only on the languids and not on the lower lips. As a result, pipes occasionally tended to emit an abnormal squeaking sound. He was not interested in building a truly classic organ as much as building a distinctive Holtkamp organ. In retrospect I find that I employed very few of Holtkamp’s ideas in my later work. Based on my background in music, I wasn’t hearing in his organs the sounds I wished to hear in my own instruments.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry in World War II, I enlisted in the Army. Prior to shipment overseas my outfit was stationed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, for a few days. I went on pass to New York City to hear G. Donald Harrison’s new Aeolian-Skinner in the main sanctuary of St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church. This was my first acquaintance with mixtures and upperwork, which Laurel Anderson had talked about at KU, but which were conspicuously absent in the Austin organ in Hoch Auditorium there. Then, as a chaplain’s assistant, I was stationed in Europe where I took every opportunity to play and inspect European instruments. I remember, in particular, the famous Cavaillé-Coll instrument in the church of St. Ouen at Rouen, which inspired Guilmant’s Eighth Organ Symphony. This was the first time I had seen a five-rank mounted cornet and reeds with sunken blocks in the boots.6 After the war I returned to Kansas City, Kansas and set up shop again. On one occasion, being in New York City, I attended a recital given by Ernest White on his new Möller studio organ at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. I left at intermission because the organ was painfully loud. In my voicing I try to make a rank of pipes only as loud as needed to ping the tone off the walls, blowing only hard enough to fill the room at the desired volume.7

Jerome: Following graduation from Union, I was appointed organist/choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Waterbury, Connecticut. When we went looking for a new instrument to replace the 1869 Hook & Hastings, I wasn’t enamored with the sounds of Holtkamp, Möller, Schlicker and Austin, and mentioned my dilemma to my good friend Bob Clark, whose judgment I valued. He was organist at the Peddie Memorial Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, where my wife was soloist, having the best-paying solo position in the area, while I was at Union. He said, “Why don’t you check with Charles McManis, who builds organs that sing and don’t shout.” When I learned he was in Danbury, Connecticut, I went down to get acquainted, and we hit it off immediately.

Charles: In the early 1950s I became acquainted with Robert Noehren through our writings in The Diapason and The American Organist magazines. I worked for him on the Hill Auditorium Skinner in Ann Arbor, and built a new organ for Frankenmuth, Michigan, where he was the consultant. When he was named consultant on the Johnson at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Danbury, Connecticut, whose organist had been his student at Michigan, I was called in. My strong feelings concerning Johnson flue pipe voicing began during my apprenticeship days in Kansas City. I discovered that diapason pipes mouth-blown very gently, then increased to full volume, had scarcely any change in pitch. Volume was regulated at the toe hole, not by opening the flue. In contrast, classical open toe voicing regulated volume at the mouth, which I found totally inadequate. I revoiced the 8-foot Principal, increasing its richness of tone, primarily by opening the toes and, to a lesser degree adjusting the mouths. Jerry and I connected as musicians, no doubt in part because I too had a degree in organ. We both agreed on what we didn’t like. I obtained the contract for the St. John’s, Waterbury, organ (see photo and stoplist) in part because Parvin Titus was the consultant. The St. John’s rector, Rev. John Youngblood, had been a curate in Cincinnati, knew Mr. Titus and trusted his judgment. Also, I had built the new instrument for the Second Church of Christ, Scientist in Dayton, where Titus also had been the consultant.

Jerome: The Johnson sound was already in my head, not only from Oberlin, but from the fine Johnson in Mott Haven Dutch Reformed Church in the Bronx, where I first practiced when I went to New York. I explained that we were looking for intensity not decibels in organ sound, colors and ensembles that sing. Charles showed me what he was doing. It was soon obvious this was just the ticket for us. These initial impressions were confirmed when my wife and I visited St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Kansas, and heard for the first time a complete McManis instrument. All the voices were exquisite; the 8-foot principal was a well-supported, big baritone sound. Having worked in training choirs at an early age, striving to blend individual voices, I found in the lovely individual voices of this organ an exquisite ensemble and chorus.

Charles: When Jerry came to Kansas City, the mixtures and ensemble sounds on the Great and Swell at St. Paul’s were what really got to him. The voices together on each manual resulted in contrasting sounds but very much related. We talked at length about voicing and drew up a specification for a three-manual instrument for St. John’s. (See specification.) I also discussed what I had done in reworking old pipes and changing pitch. This was very important because in the 1869 Hook & Hastings at St. John’s a number of old ranks were reworked.

I first saw Waterbury after Meachen returned from Kansas City, and was dismayed to find dry acoustics and such terribly large scales in the Hook & Hastings. The only principal stop I could use was the 16-foot on the Great, which would work well in the Pedal division. We were able to cut down and revoice a number of 8-foot stops; for example, the 4-foot principal on the Swell had been an 8-foot violin diapason. If the scale and mouth treatment were correct, the desired sound would follow.

Let me quote from my forthcoming autobiography to explain the tonal philosophy of this instrument: “The classic Werkprinzip theory of terraced manual pitches had not yet hit the AGO cocktail hour conversation when Jerry and I drew up the design for Opus 35 (St. John’s Church Waterbury, CT) on that Sunday afternoon. Submitted to organ consultant Parvin Titus, he heartily approved of the design, but suggested inclusion of the rather outstanding Oboe from the 1869 H&H. But back to the Werkprinzip! While numerous other stops are needed in each division, the backbone is the Principal chorus, as shown below:

I:              Great     8’ Principal       11/3’      Mixture

II:            Swell    4’ Principal        2/3’       Scharf

III:          Brustwerk           2’ Principal        1/3’       Cymbel

Pedal     8’ Principal       11/3’     Mixture

For purposes of contrapuntal clarity, the Pedal chorus should be the same pitch as the Great, plus suitable 16’ underpinning. Polyphony does better without the growl of a sub-octave mixture cluster.”

After the tornado hit downtown Waterbury in July, 1989, heavily damaging the St. John’s organ, I replaced 35 ranks of pipes including replacement of the Brustwerk Singend Regal with a brass Krummhorn and substitution of a Swell 4’ Clarion for the earlier 4’ Krummhorn. Also, the 32’ extension of the Pedal reed was linked to the Posaune instead of the Contrafagotto.

Jerome: Another factor which impressed me about the McManis was its compatibility with what I call a theatre sound by which I mean, it had to dance. In the theatre organ you had a detached pedal and a strong emphasis on the melodic line when you are thinking bass line and melody. This is why I was very comfortable doing figured bases. It was non-legato; it was instrumental. When you were featuring the posthorn, you were quite willing to detach it. My father loved theatre organ, so from the time I started playing, I developed something of a theatre style. Searle Wright, the well-known organist at St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University, also did a great theatre style.

Charles inspired my definition of intensity because he viewed the entire instrument as a whole. In a three-manual you could draw the principal and mixture on each division, couple them together and you had a basic ensemble evoking a very intense, rich but not very loud sound because you didn’t have to fill in and thus did not have an awful lot of stops working. Thus the concept of full organ was very discriminating; the full organ piston didn’t bring on everything. You are dealing with colors and when you put everything on you end up with brown or gray. And with a tremolo on each division if you wanted to cantus firmus you could do it anywhere in the instrument.

This instrument fulfills my belief in the theological aspect of an organ. With my developing interest in liturgy I was very much aware of the person in the pew. I hold that the organ must be people-friendly, in support of congregational singing whether it be chant or hymnody. Surrounding rather than hitting the congregation with sound--making a joyful noise, not just a noise. Charles spoke of attending a recital on the Möller practice organ at St. Mary the Virgin in New York and finding it so loud he left after the first half of the program. I agree. White offered me a chance to practice on that organ but I told him I would be using only one or two stops so I might as well practice on the chapel organ. The sound was so high in decibels I couldn’t hear it.

Redeemer and Manatee

This paper has focused on the St. John’s organ. Those at Redeemer Episcopal Church and Manatee Community College continued the fundamental practices in the philosophy of McManis and Meachen. They also reflected modifications and forward thinking in their approach, as did the rebuilding and restoration of St. John’s in 1989.

At Redeemer in Florida, the former ten-rank Möller, with its subsequent addition of nineteen Aeolian-Skinner ranks, was skillfully integrated into the 67-rank new instrument. In place of the 16’ Quintaton on the Great, they chose a 16’ Gemshorn mounted on the chancel wall, extended to an 8’ Gemshorn and a 4’ tapered flute in a seamless tonal progression. The Great and Positiv exposed chests were equipped with toeboard expansion chambers to increase richness of tone.

The 49-rank Manatee Community College organ was installed in Neel Auditorium at the point of a pie-shaped building on a 35-foot shelf at the back of the stage. In an obviously “werkprinzip” layout (see photo, page 20), in a variety of shapes, it was enclosed in a mahogany case. The 16’ Pedal Principal exposed at the center hid the movement of Swell shutters behind. To its left were the lower notes of the 16’ Subbass and 16’ Posaune; to the right, the pipes of the Hooded Trumpet and more Subbass metal pipes. To the far left in the left façade was the Great 8’ Principal, and to the far right the 4’ Positiv Principal in the façade. Roofs of the façades differed but all were related to the focal point mentioned above.

The Manatee Great included a 16’ Gemshorn, all the usual 8’ and 4’ stops, plus a normal 11/3’ Mixture, a 2/3’ Acuta, and an 8’ Trumpet. The Swell mixture was a 1’ Scharf and the Positiv had a 1/3’ Cymbel. The thoroughly adequate Pedal division included a 32’ Dulzian and the usual 8’ and 4’ ranks. As would be expected, the Pedal mixture lowest pitch was 11/3’, but pipe scales were larger than those of the Great Mixture.

Summary

The above dialogue illustrates the way in which the concept of organ sound in the mind of an organist and soon-to-be builder begins with formal study of the instrument and is heavily influenced by the instructor and his experience. With this background, they are then prepared to compare and contrast a wide variety of sound in determining their own definition of it: for Meachen and McManis, a singing sound. It also argues that the ultimate test of the voicer’s art, be it Johnson or McManis, is the 8’ Diapason found on the Great, a belief shared by organists and builders for many years.

In an article in The Diapason, based upon his lecture to the AIO Convention in Pittsburgh in 1977, McManis explains the details of flue voicing and the practices of Tannenberg, Gratian, Kilgen, Hook & Hastings, Johnson, Wurlitzer, Estey (William E. Haskell), Cavaillé-Coll, and Kimball.8 This paper, now considered a classic, together with the recognition of his peers in his selection as instructor in flue voicing at a seminar of the American Institute of Organbuilders, established him, in the author’s judgment, as one of the finest flue voicers of the twentieth century.9

Charles passed away, at age 91, on December 3, 2004 in South Burlington, Vermont. Providentially, he and his wife Judith had just completed his autobiography. It contains vivid recollections of personalities and detailed descriptions of his instruments in a sixty-year career that spanned the arc of the postwar history of organbuilding in America. This priceless volume is scheduled to be published by the Organ Historical Society in 2005. It will find a prominent place on the shelf of every organist, organbuilder and organ enthusiast.

For research assistance and critical comments on drafts of this paper, the author gratefully acknowledges: Gene Bedient, Jerry Dawson, Charles Eames, Donald Gillette, Albert Neutel, Barbara Owen, Michael Quimby, Elizabeth Schmidt, Jack Sievert and R. E. Wagner.

Bradley Rule

Bradley Rule received a Bachelor of Arts in Organ Performance from the University of Tennessee, from which he graduated with high honors in 1982. From 1982 to 1988 he worked for the Andover Organ Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and at this firm he encountered hundreds of different kinds of mechanical-action organs.
After working nearly six years at Andover Organ Co., Mr. Rule returned to his home of East Tennessee and began business for himself. He set up shop in the old St. Luke Presbyterian Church building in New Market, Tennessee, a venerable old brick building which has served admirably as an organ building shop. Mr. Rule has built and restored organs from Alabama to Massachusetts in the years since 1988.
In addition to his lifelong pursuit of organbuilding, Bradley Rule has held various positions as organist or organist/director from 1976 until 1991, at which point his organbuilding business began to demand his undivided attention. During these years, his organist activities included playing concerts and making recordings, in addition to the usual weekly church duties.

While completing the installation of a new organ in the
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in late 1998, I was drawn into a
conversation between Will Dunklin, the organist, and Marian Moffett, a viol da
gamba player who is a member of a local early music ensemble. Marian indicated
an interest in acquiring a small chamber organ for her home, which would be
appropriate as a continuo instrument for early (particularly English) music.
After briefly discussing prices, both Will and myself commented that an early
American organ (pre-1860) would possess many of the tonal characteristics
required for such a use, as well as providing its own historical interest.
Besides, restoration of such an instrument would likely be quite economical
compared to the price of a new organ.

After checking with the Organ Clearing House, we found
nothing small enough for such a use, and the matter got shelved in the back of
my mind. About a year later, I received a message from Marian that Will had
found a small American chamber organ on eBay, for sale by a doctor in Michigan.
After some negotiation, she purchased the organ and went with Will in a rented
van, returning two days later with said instrument. In such a serendipitous
series of events, then, did this enigmatic and charming little instrument fall
into my hands for the purpose of restoration.

Provenance

Establishing the provenance of the instrument was the first
item of interest; since the organ sat in the shop for a year before work could
commence, it gave me some time to pursue the subject. Alas, despite our efforts,
the little instrument still remains anonymous. The following, however, are some
of the identifying characteristics pertinent to its provenance.

The cabinet holds a number of clues, which help us make some
general conclusions. The cabinet (as well as the chest and internal framework)
is made of eastern white pine, with a smattering of cherry and black walnut.
This clearly identifies it as an American-made instrument. The Empire case,
with its ubiquitous crotch mahogany veneer and late Empire styling, seems to
place it between about 1845-1855. According to Barbara Owen, the cabinet looks
like the work of early Connecticut builders. This dovetails nicely with the
oral history we received from the previous owner, who had been told that the
organ was built for the Lockwood family of Norwalk, Connecticut. Apart from
these general observations, the cabinet holds another clue: the ripple
moldings, which appear in several shapes and sizes. According to an article by
Carlyle Lynch in the magazine Fine Woodworking (May/June 1986, pp. 62-64), such
molding was made by only one company in America, the Jonathan Clark Brown clock
company in Bristol, Connecticut. This company made the gew gaw covered clocks
known as steeple clocks, but after the factory burned in 1853, J. C. Brown
clocks no longer were made with the unique ripple moldings. Such moldings
require an elaborate, slow-moving machine for their manufacture, and the
machine was evidently never rebuilt. If the builder purchased his ripple
moldings from the clock company, then it is clear the instrument was built
before 1853.

The hardware found on and in the instrument provides more
tantalizing hints as to the organ's provenance. The mix of early factory-made
components with other hardware which is clearly hand-made seems to place the
organ on the very cusp of the Industrial Revolution. For instance, the lock for
the keydesk lid bears unmistakable marks of being handmade: all parts were hand
filed out of solid brass, and then fitted together with hand-threaded screws. Yet,
the hinges which occur in various places (e.g., swell pedal, main reservoir)
are all of cast iron and bear the name "Clark's Patent." While a bit
crude (they certainly are not interchangeable), they bear all the signs of
early factory production. An additional item of interest is that one leaf of
each hinge was cast around the pin while the pin was inserted into the other
leaf. This makes it impossible for the pin to ever work its way out; it also
makes it impossible to separate one leaf from the other, short of a sledge
hammer.

The most interesting piece of hardware is the square iron
roller for the swell mechanism. Clearly stamped on the bar is the word CLYDACH.
It turns out that Clydach was a Welsh ironworks established in 1793, continuing
in production until about 1858. I'm not sure what this reveals about early
American sources of iron and steel. Of course, it is possible that the builder
recycled the piece of iron from an older apparatus or structure.

Finally, even the humble wood screws give us some
information. They are a mix of the earlier blunt ended screws and the more
modern pointed screws, and all but one or two were clearly made by a machine.
This also seems to point to about 1850-1855, although I am unsure when the more
modern pointed wood screws became available. The E. & G.G. Hook organ of
1847 in Sandwich, Massachusetts, was put together entirely with blunt ended
machine-made screws, so it seems that modern wood screws came along a few years
later.

One intriguing note is written (sometimes scrawled) on
almost every piece of the instrument. The message "No. 2" can be
found on the bellows, keyboard, backboard, knee panel, etc. The inescapable
conclusion is that there must be (or must once have been) a "No. 1"
lurking out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered.

The reader is left to draw his own conclusions about the
provenance of the instrument. Clearly, the Empire style and the handmade
hardware place the instrument no later than about 1855. The wood screws fit
into the time frame of about 1850. The oral history as well as the general
design of the case place the builder in Connecticut. We were unable to find
information about "Clark's Patent" hinges, and CLYDACH presents more
an enigma than it does an answer. Perhaps a reader will recognize one of these
items and shed a bit more light on the history of this little instrument.

Restoration techniques

The following describes the techniques and materials used
for the restoration. An astute reader will occasionally see the tension which occurs
when the desire to restore the organ to its original state is not always in the
best interest of the customer. Ultimately, we did almost nothing to the
instrument which could not be easily reversed later. Additionally, we took
great care to avoid removing any original material (no pipe tops were trimmed,
and even the finish was not entirely removed).

Cabinet

Failing joints were disassembled when practical and re-glued
with hot hide glue. Other joints were simply injected with hot hide glue and
clamped for 24 hours minimum.

The reservoir and feeder assembly share a common 1"
thick horizontal board which is dadoed into the sides of the carcass. This
board was originally glued into the dados and glued and nailed to the front
rail directly above the two pedals (the self-closing swell pedal on the left,
and the single pumping pedal on the right). Mahogany crotch veneer was then
applied over the nails. Someone had previously done a very nice job of sawing
through the nails and sliding the entire assembly out the back of the
instrument in order to patch the bellows. We decided to leave this alteration,
since it is truly the only way to access the bellows for releathering. Maple
cleats were added so that the 1" board could be screwed securely to the sides
of the carcass.

Stabilizing and repairing the veneer became one of the most
time-consuming jobs. Like many Empire pieces, the crotch burl mahogany seemed
to shed little bits of veneer onto the floor every time one walked past. About
half of the veneer was no longer securely glued to the white pine below, and
the ogee-shaped front board of the folding lid was missing about 70% of its
veneer. The ogee crown molding veneer was almost entirely unglued from its
substrate, although miraculously most of the veneer was still there. The
decision was made to remove the remaining tatters of veneer from the ogee
shaped lid front and use the bits to patch veneer on the rest of the piece. The
lid front was then entirely re-veneered with book-matched mahogany crotch burl.

The crown molding presented another challenge; the veneer
was so brittle that even the slightest attempt to lift it in order to work glue
under it caused it to shatter. Clamping was difficult; since the veneer was
glued over a hand-planed ogee, the shape of the contour changed from one end to
the other, and the molding on the sides of the crown were quite different in
shape from each other and from the front. This precluded any possibility of
making precise blocks to fit the shape of the molding. The solution was finally
to inject fish glue through tiny holes in the veneer and clamp a sand-filled
Ziplock bag firmly over the area. The sand conformed perfectly to the contour
of the molding and distributed the clamping pressure evenly. The fish glue,
being a protein-based glue, was compatible with the old hot glue and adhered
well, though it required long clamping times of about 48 hours. Close
inspection reveals the pinpoint size holes through which the glue was injected,
but it seemed the least destructive way to stabilize and re-glue the very
brittle veneer.

Conservation of the finish required a careful approach.
Rather than subject the piece to the humiliation of being entirely stripped and
refinished, we decided instead to conserve what was left of the old shellac
finish. Parts of the case, such as the underside of the lid, retained the
original finish in excellent condition. Other parts had obviously been covered
with an additional layer of low quality shellac. Besides this, someone had
studiously "patched" every missing veneer chip by the application of
red-primer colored latex paint. Paint ended up on the surrounding intact veneer
as much as it did on the offending gap in the veneer. To address these multiple
problems, the course of action was as follows:

The top layer of accreted dirt and crazed finish was sanded
off using 400-grit sandpaper with paint thinner as a lubricant. This required
removing only a very thin film of finish. Then, a pad of wool and cheesecloth
was filled with shellac and applied over the remaining old shellac. This
smoothed out any remaining "alligatored" shellac. This French Polish
technique was repeated about a dozen times until the surface took on an evenly
covered appearance and began to glow. Then, at the request of the customer, the
shellac was sanded lightly and was covered with two coats of high quality
varnish for durability. On parts of the cabinet where extensive veneer patching
was required (such as the crown molding), the resulting surface was too rough
and the old finish too compromised for conservation; it was necessary to sand
the entire surface down to the bare wood. Then, colored pumice was rubbed into
the grain along with residual sanding dust and garnet shellac, after which the
usual french polish technique was used, followed by the two coats of varnish.
The orange colored garnet-lac returned the "old" color to the newly
sanded wood, making a perfect match. The results were visually stunning; the
mahogany crotch burl fairly leaps off the surface of the piece with three-dimensional
fervor. The keydesk itself is veneered with rosewood, and since the lid
evidently was always closed, the finish on the rosewood required little
attention.

The center panel of cloth was originally a very thin silk,
bright turquoise in color. We found well-preserved pieces of it under the wood
half-dummy façade pipes. Marian decided the original color was
remarkably wrong for her house (I had to agree), and chose a silk of subdued
gold instead. The turquoise silk is still under the dummies for future
reference. Behind the cloth panel is a very small swell front, with shades
which open only about 45 degrees. After listening to the instrument, we decided
that omitting the shades made the organ considerably louder, and virtually
perfect in balance to a small consort of viols. Fortunately, there is a large
well behind the crown molding which provided a perfect storage space for the
shades. Reinstalling them would be the work of a few minutes should a future
owner wish to use the organ in its completely original state.

Wind system

The bellows still had its original leather, but every square
inch of it had been secondarily covered years ago with hot glue and rubber
cloth, probably by the same party mentioned earlier who went to such lengths to
remove the bellows plate from the organ. The rubber cloth and hot glue had
ossified into a stiff, inflexible board-like structure which had caused all
bellows hinging to rip itself apart upon inflation of the reservoir; the single
large feeder suffered the same fate. The bellows and feeder were completely
releathered with hot hide glue and goatskin. The bellows and feeder boards were
rather generously filled with splits, cracks and checks; the worst were
reinforced with butterfly-type patches, and all were entirely covered with
rubber cloth to prevent leakage.

The short wooden wind line which conducts wind from the top
of the bellows plate into the chest was originally simply fitted into place by
friction, but the horizontal members of the cabinet frame did not shrink and
expand in the same direction as the vertical boards of which the wind line was
made; in summer, as the cabinet expanded and lifted the entire upper assembly
away from the bellows, the leakage must have been spectacular. The joints
around the wind line had probably received more attention over the years than
any other part of the organ. Numerous layers of patching (leather, glue, rubber
cloth) attested to the trouble which this particular design flaw had visited
upon those who chose to play the instrument in humid weather. It seemed that a
change was necessary, so four small oak cleats were attached to the narrow ends
of the wind line so that it could be screwed securely to both the bellows top
and the bottom board of the pallet box. The cleats are clearly and
intentionally not a part of the original construction.

Chest

The chest was plagued by innumerable runs, and after some
investigation, they all were found to be caused by a joint in the table. The
front five inches or so of the grid is covered with a thin (1/4") mahogany
table. The rest of the chest is covered by one large pine channel block,
13/4" thick and honeycombed with many channels. The joint between the thin
mahogany and the thick pine channel block is naturally a source of some tension;
even though no crack had opened up between the two, the mahogany had almost
imperceptibly lifted along the joint. The problem was solved by screwing down
the mahogany piece with a screw in every rib, and by gluing a piece of thin
leather in each channel to bridge the joint. Should the joint ever move again,
the flexible leather should absorb the movement and prevent leakage. All key
channels, as well as all offset channels, were poured out with sanding sealer.
Shellac could have been used, but since the work was being performed in the
humid summer weather of East Tennessee, I decided to avoid shellac because of
the tendency of its solvent (alcohol) to absorb water from the air.

The bottom of the grid was originally covered in a thick
cotton covered with much shellac. We chose to replace it with rubber cloth.
Pallets were re-covered with two layers of leather, just as they were
originally, and they were installed in the original fashion, glued with hot
glue at the tail and held down by a small pine slat nailed on by tiny cut
nails. The builder evidently thought it was necessary to provide pallet sizes
commensurate to the wind demand, so the already tiny bass pallets (43/4"
long) were made even shorter at middle C (4" long).

Key and stop action

The keys are mounted on a balance pin rail at a ratio of
roughly 2:5. Thus, the pallets open a small, but nonetheless sufficient,
amount. Under the keyboard is mounted an elegant mahogany backfall (ratio 1:1)
which pushes down on very slender (.047") brass wire stickers. The
stickers pass through the 1/4" mahogany table, which also serves as their
register, and push the pallets open. All the stickers are original and the
action is pleasing to play and surprisingly responsive; in spite of the tiny
pallets, a definite pluck can still be felt in the keys. Key bushings are wood
on round brass pins, and the keys are covered in their original ivory. The
pallet springs are brass, clearly factory-made, and were still all perfectly
regulated when I checked them. No spring varied from all the others more than
1/4 ounce. I left them unchanged. The builder solved one problem with the
keyboard in a rather clever way. Since the keyboard is so short, it is not
possible to place the usual 19th-century style lead-weighted floating thumper
rail behind the nameboard. The builder instead installed the nameboard itself
in loose dados in the stop jambs so that its felted bottom edge simply sits on
the keys, keeping them in tension and making it possible to adjust them
perfectly level. When seasonal changes occur, the nameboard itself simply rides
up and down in the dados. (Of course, since this particular nameboard has no
actual name, it must be a nameboard in name only).

The stop action would seem to need no mention, except for
the stop to the left of the keyboards. The single knob to the right pulls on
the tiny slider for the Principal 4', which leaves the knob on the left with no
job to do at all. However, the builder thoughtfully provided a slotted block so
that the knob, which does absolutely nothing, can be pulled out just like its
brother on the right. The disappointing aspect is that the Principal had its
original engraved ivory disc, but the ivory disc on the left was missing. I
glued in a blank ivory disc for appearance's sake, but I will always wonder
what the label on the dummy knob said. Perhaps it might have even been engraved
with the builder's name.

Pipework

The pipework is unusual from the start in that both ranks
are metal: a Dulciana 8' and Principal 4'. The Dulciana has the usual wooden
bass of the period: large scaled, low cut-up and quinty. No identifying marks
were found on any of the pipes, not even on the seven zinc pipes of the
Dulciana (F18-B24). Early zinc often had an embossed stamp identifying the
(often French) manufacturer. The rest of the pipework is common metal. The
wooden basses were labeled in distinctive block lettering, with pencil, very
unlike the elegant old cursive one usually sees on 19th-century pipes. (I have
seen identical lettering on one other set of New England stopped basses which
the OCH found in an 1890s organ. The pipes were basses to a chimney flute, and
the entire stop had been completely reworked and re-scaled for its second use.
Alas, these pipes were also of unknown provenance).

I can find no rhyme or reason for the varying mouth widths
and variable scales. Surely part of the reason is that the common metal
pipework betrays the hand of a somewhat inexperienced pipemaker. While in
general neatly made, the solder seams are not as smooth and perfect as one
usually sees on 19th-century American pipework. It is particularly
disconcerting to see a pinhole of light shining through from the back of the
pipe when one is looking in through the mouth. These pinholes occur where the
back seam of the body meets the back seam of the foot at the languid, and are
present on several pipes. They did not particularly affect the pipes'
performance, so I left them. It does seem likely that scales were made
deliberately small in the tenor range of both ranks simply so that pipes could
be made to fit in the very cramped quarters. The very fat stopped wood basses
take up a huge amount of space, making it necessary to cram the metal pipes
into a very small area. Both ranks increase several scales in size from tenor
to treble: the Dulciana gets four scales larger, and the Principal increases by
three. (See pipe scale chart.)

From the chart, one can see that the cut-ups are all over
the map. The Principal seems to have a fairly even increase in cut-up toward
the treble, but the Dulciana seems to follow no discernible pattern. Mouth
widths are more predictable, generally hovering between 1/4 and 2/9.

The original pitch was fairly easy to ascertain. The pipes
seemed most comfortable speaking at 21/4"; at that pressure at 70 degrees,
the pitch was about A432. Since the whole point of this project was to make the
organ useful to an early music ensemble, the decision was made to fit tuning
sleeves carefully onto the pipes, and lower the pitch as much as possible. This
is a completely reversible procedure, with the added benefit being that it did
not require tampering with the tops of the pipes at all. The organ pitch is now
A421, not as low as the A415 the early music players had hoped for, but still
low enough that the instruments can tune to it easily.

One remarkable aspect of the tuning is that the Dulciana,
which showed no real signs of having been tampered with, was almost completely
in tune with the pipes at dead length and the few errant pipes brought into
regulation. A few chords quickly revealed that the keys of C, D, F and G were
close to pure, while the remote keys (B, F#, Db) were quite out of tune. This
sparked a lively discussion with Marian about temperament, and after some
research into early music temperaments (research done entirely by Marian) we
decided to tune the organ to Erlangen comma, which yields perfect thirds
between c and e, & d and f#. This temperament dates to the 15th century,
and is particularly suited to use with viols, avoiding the tuning conflicts which
mean-tone introduces between keyboard and viols.

Playing the organ is truly like stepping back in time;
voicing from this era demands less from each pipe than our modern ears
ordinarily expect. The gentle metal trebles in conjunction with the quinty wood
bass is a quintessentially early sound; virtually no one was still building
organs with that inimitable sound by 1860. Adding the small Principal 4' to the
Dulciana is an exercise in judicious restraint more than it is an augmentation
of the sound. All in all, it is an instrument from a different time and place,
built for sensibilities and perceptions unique to its milieu. Other than
changing the pitch, we did nothing to the instrument to make it more relevant
or modern. It so happens that leaving things as they were makes the organ
almost perfect for the customer's use. The subtle tone and slightly unsteady
wind work almost seamlessly with a small consort of viols da gamba. Placing the
instrument in a small room brings the sound into context, and music begins to
make sense on it. It is truly a chamber organ, and is at home in that
environment.     

The author wishes to thank Barbara Owen for her gracious and
invaluable assistance in seeking the origins of this instrument; Marian
Moffett, for her research on a multiplicity of subjects; and Will Dunklin, for
his generous help in bringing the organ to Tennessee as well as for insightful
advice during the project.

Pipe scale chart

Principal 4' (labeled "Pr.") TC 42 pipes

Note        Diameter
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Mouth
width      Ratio
of mouth width    Cut-up
style='mso-tab-count:1'>  Ratio of cut-up                       
style="mso-spacerun: yes">   Toe size

C13           41m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          29m
        .225
        7.8m
      .190
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.98m

C25           22.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>    18m         .254
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        4.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .200
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.99m

C37           15.8m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>    12m         .241
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.0m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .189
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.28m

C49          10m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          7.2m
      .229
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.1m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .210
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.03m

F54            7.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        6m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            .254
        1.9m
      .253
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        1.77m

 

Dulciana (labeled "Dul") 54 pipes

C1              110x90m
                90m
                                21.8m
  .242

C13          64x52
  52m                                 11.2m
  .215

E17          55x43
  43m                                 10m
        .232

F18           58m
        45m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          .246
        11.8m
  .203         6.09m

C25          42.7m
  31m         .231
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        7.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .175
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        5m

C37          27.5m
  21m         .243
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.9m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .141
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.04m

C49          17m
        13.1m
  .245         3.4m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        .200
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.71m

F54           13.5m
  10m         .235
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .185
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.38m

The ratio of the mouth width is in relation to the
circumference: .250 would be 1/4 mw and so on. The ratio of the cut-up is a
simple ratio of the diameter.

Cover

Grant Edwards, Portland,
Oregon

Episcopal Church of the
Nativity, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia

 

From the builder

The road from this organ's conception to its completion was
long, complicated, and a bit adventurous. It began as every organist's dream of
having a lovely pipe organ at home. Having worked at Bond Organbuilders since
June 1993, where I am now in my tenth year as a craftsman, I felt confident
enough by the fall of 1995 to begin design and construction on my own
instrument. This would have been impossible if not for the generosity and
patience of Richard and Roberta Bond and the rest of the crew, as the organ's
components would gradually take up a large portion of shop space--more space,
in fact, than I had initially expected. After constructing the coupler chassis,
I felt it had come at far too much cost to my free time for the 10 stops
originally planned. Soon, a solo flute, 16' reed, and other goodies had found
their way onto the drawing-board.

Temporary lodging

After three long years of work on evenings and weekends, the
organ was eventually complete, albeit homeless. And my colleagues desperately
needed their set-up room for another project. The First Congregational Church
(UCC) in downtown Portland, where I have been organist since 1995, was more
than happy to provide room and board for the new organ in their downstairs
chapel. Because of the small size of the chapel, the organ had to be voiced as
"dolce" as possible. A large panel of wood at the bottom of the swell
opening also served intentionally to block any direct sound egress from the
mouths of the interior pipes. These measures successfully bottled up the
organ's potency, and it was well received by the congregation and community.

From the Northwest to the Southeast

Having enlisted the Organ Clearing House to help find a buyer,
I received inquiries from around the country. In February of 2001, I received a
call from Bruce Fowkes, who said that the Episcopal Church of the Nativity was
interested in my Opus One, which they had become aware of via the OCH's web
site. The church subsequently invited me to visit their sanctuary, to determine
if it would indeed work well in their space. After measuring the available
area, we found that the organ would fit exactly as if it were meant for the
space. In addition, the church planned to remove the chancel carpeting and
install ceramic flooring throughout. The organ committee soon paid a visit to
Portland to see and hear the organ for themselves, and in June, 2001 a contract
was signed for installation in October. A few final details, including voicing
of the new Mixture pipes, were completed by the beginning of February, and
parish organist John Wigal played the inaugural recital on April 21, 2002.

Nips and tucks

John Wigal and the church's organ committee readily agreed
to a short list of modifications which we mutually felt to be desirable in the
given situation. The primary visual issue involved placement of the largest
open 8' and stopped 16' pipes, which were originally racked informally along
both sides of the case. The future corner location of the organ would obscure
the left side of the case while exposing the right side. The solution was to
create a side display of new flamed copper façade pipes, notes 1-9 of
the 8' Principal which had been too large for the swell box. The bottom octave
of the 16' could easily be stashed against the wall behind the organ. The new
display basses allowed the opportunity to rescale the 8' Principal three notes
larger (and the 4' Octave one note larger), for a fuller tone given the room's
capacity. The primary tonal change was addition of a new Mixture stop. So that
all the enclosed pipes might also be allowed to speak directly into the room,
the large "muting" board was removed from the shade frame and the
swell shades extended downward, creating an opening well below the level of the
pipe mouths.

Small is beautiful

Since this organ had been designed as a small yet tonally
complete chamber instrument, and since its eventual location remained a mystery,
it was kept as compact as possible. It measures only 91/2 feet tall at its
crown and 8 feet wide in the front, the compromise being that it is somewhat
deeper than might be expected. Many labor-intensive methods were employed to
save space in the interior, such as the hanging of bass pipes lengthwise along
the ceiling of the swell box. Tubular-pneumatic action is used for the largest
pipes of the 8' reed (which behave badly when tubed off) and 16' Sub Bass, thus
also reducing key pluck and wind consumption. An almost ridiculous number of
pipes (137) are tubed off the main windchest for the sake of spatial economy,
and the 16' pedal reed is planted behind the organ on its own valve box. A
single slider windchest of 112 note channels contains alternating pallets for
both manuals side by side, the pedal channels being divided out of the front
halves of the Upper Manual channels. The suspended manual key action is simply
splayed chromatically by means of squares towards the back of the organ. A
third arm on each of the pedal coupler rollers directly pulls open the pedal
pallets in the front of the windchest, requiring many vertical trackers to pass
through both manual keyboards.

A tonal world where none exclude

I am a great admirer of historic instruments of diverse
times and places, and find many modern instruments modeled after these examples
to be a wonder to the eye as well as the ear. I have attempted to create a kind
of "melting pot" in which echoes of many past tonal ideas may be
perceived: the orchestral richness of the French Romanic, the colorful
brightness of the German Baroque, the refined simplicity of 19th-century
America, and even a bit of the pomp and bombast of Britain. I hope to create an
ensemble of voices which blend into one full, cohesive chorus while at the same
time retaining as much color and personality in each individual voice. I want
to build organs capable of performing the widest variety of music effectively
and convincingly, if not with that ever-elusive spirit of "historical purity."

When my Opus One was newly complete, I billed it as an
"American Classic Chamber Organ," by virtue of its attempt to be the
most musically flexible instrument possible within a limited number of tonal
resources. It has a refreshing, modern sound that is nevertheless strongly
reminiscent of 19th-century American instruments. I attempted to overcome some
shortcomings in this style that I otherwise admire by including upperwork and
colorful mutations that are rather brighter than in a typical 1883 Hook &
Hastings.

A firm foundation

The organ includes many features which I have found to be
advantageous in a small instrument, such as placing the 8' Principal inside the
single expression box rather than in the façade. Indeed, having almost
all the organ's pipes behind swell shutters allows a degree of control
especially useful for accompaniment purposes. The "full" complement
of unison stops may be somewhat unusual for modern instruments of this size,
and this is even more true of a manual Sub Bass. Despite appearances, it is the
mid-range of this 16' stopped rank that is displayed in the front of the case
instead of the Principal. When playing on full organ, the 16' does not
prominently stand out if the swell box is closed, since the shutters mute far more
treble frequencies than bass. Not only does the 16' lend a satisfying weight to
the full ensemble, but it is specifically called for in a great variety of
literature.

Features create flexibility

Another way in which I expanded the utility of the organ's
limited resources is through the duplexing of several stops, a practice that is
becoming almost commonplace in mechanical-action organs. Four stops of the
Lower Manual are available in the Pedal via a second position in the
corresponding drawknobs, if the organist intentionally pulls up and out.
Notches locate the usual first positions, into which the stop shanks fall
naturally with the aid of a spring. As originally built, the two manuals also
shared a 22/3' Quinte and a 2' Doublet, which together served as a sort of
ersatz Mixture. When the Mixture was added to the Lower Manual, its 2' pitch
was made available as a half-draw stop, rendering a shared 2' redundant. The
Quinte's duplexing was left intact, however, but its pipes were revoiced as a
fluty Nazard to better mate with the Tierce. The Upper Manual was given a new
2' Recorder where the principal-scaled Doublet had been, thus completing a full
consort of six flutes. These are varied in character, and include an open wood
Descant Flute (Melodia) singing out from behind the center façade pipes.
Since I was compelled to co-opt its drawknob for the Mixture addition, the 16'
Pedal Bassoon is now controlled solely by a hitch-down foot lever, convenient
for hands-free activation. The Hautboy functions well as a chorus reed and can
produce a Trumpet-like solo voice when assisted by "helper stops."
The mutation stops blend seamlessly, forming reed-like effects, and the gentle
Viola has been found to be especially popular with listeners.

Heavenly casework

The organ's casework is made of quarter-sawn white oak
finished with hand-rubbed tung oil and varnish. Metal façade pipes are
of flamed copper. Wood façade pipes, in a design uniquely created for
this organ, feature fronts of lacewood with ebony trim and oak mouthpieces
carved in Roman arch form. The lacewood and ebony detailing is repeated in the
key-cheeks and music desk. Pipe shades depict stars, moons, and comets. Stars
surrounding the Chi Rho-emblazoned sun represent the nine planets, in their
relative sizes and exaggerated colors. Above the keydesk, a violet inscription
reads "Earth & All Stars Sing."

Summary

I am deeply satisfied with the
outcome of this, my first organbuilding endeavor. My subsequent trips to
Chattanooga and Fort Oglethorpe since the installation never cease to uplift my
spirits, with credit due as much to the wonderful friends I have met there as
to the success of the new organ. I am especially grateful to the members of the
Church of the Nativity, who took a leap of faith in commissioning a major work
of art from an unknown builder, and also to John Wigal for bringing the
instrument so skillfully to life through music.

--Grant Edwards

 

Acknowledgments: Matthew
Bellochio, installation and tonal finishing assistant; Michael Wheeler,
installation assistant; Robert Hubatch, execution of central sun carving
(replacement of vanished original); Ralph Richards, Bruce Fowkes & Co.,
supportive local organ builders.

Very special thanks to Richard
and Roberta Bond and the entire Bond staff for tireless encouragement, advice,
and a pretty darn enviable organ building shop.

From the organist

In October of 2000 I began as
interim organist/choirmaster for the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Fort
Oglethorpe, Georgia. The congregation is a relatively young one, having built
its nave in the early 1960s. The church was using a four-rank unit organ, over
sixty years old and in very bad need of repair. The organ was first housed in
the Chattanooga Funeral Home, then made an interim stop before settling at Nativity.
A 4' Octave replaced a soft string rank when the organ was installed in the
church to assist in hymn playing. The instrument, all in one unit, except for
the blower and reservoir, was placed at a 45-degree angle on the floor level of
the nave behind and to the outside of the pulpit. This had been accomplished by
removing a section of the elevated choir floor. Consequently, the organ was 18
inches lower than all of the surrounding floor and was partially hidden from
the congregation by a solid wall about 5 feet in height. The blower and
reservoir, intended for installation in another room, had been installed in the
corner behind the organ, making them very noisy all the time.

The rector and vestry were aware
of the poor state of the instrument prior to my arrival, but had not been able
create a plan or the funding to deal with the situation. The possibility of
replacing the organ was significantly due to the generosity of Arthur Yates,
who left an endowment to the congregation upon his death. The organ and its
accompanying remodeling in the nave were financed entirely through the Nativity
Endowment Fund. In early 2001 after some educational discussions with the
vestry, a committee was formed to investigate the replacement of the
instrument. Because the Church of the Nativity is a small congregation seating
only 140 in the nave, we began a search for a small unit-style instrument.
During this investigation period, a local organ builder noted the Grant Edwards
organ on the Organ Clearinghouse website and contacted me having felt the
instrument was appropriate for our space. Subsequent phone calls with John
Bishop and Grant Edwards led to a visit to our church by Mr. Edwards and a
return visit by three members of our committee to Portland in May of 2001. The committee
was immediately struck with the beauty and craftsmanship of the casework. The
sound of the instrument, particularly of the varied flutes and the 8'
Principal, led the committee to quickly recommend the purchase of the organ
with some modifications agreed on by both committee and builder.

The vestry then charged the
organ committee to institute changes which would enhance the worship space and
the organ installation. This allowed for the removal of carpeting in the aisle
and the choir space. The pews were removed and the entire floor area was
covered with 18" ceramic tile. In order to allow for better egress of
sound, the raised floor was returned under the organ and the organ was
installed on the long axis of the nave. The previous solid railings were
replaced with a wrought iron and oak railing. New lighting around the choir and
organ was installed as well as increased general lighting in the entire nave.

It is very easy to see that the
organ has exceeded everyone's expectations. The church's worship has been
enhanced, hymn singing has been markedly improved, and many in the community
have been welcomed into the church for the first time. The Church of the
Nativity has kept its endowment funds for use on special projects only. This
has not only allowed for the completion of the organ, but also for many mission
projects, both local and international. The leadership of this small church and
the craftsmanship and work of Grant Edwards deserve recognition and praise.

John E. Wigal

Organist/Choirmaster

Grant Edwards, Portland, Oregon, Opus 1

Episcopal Church of the
Nativity, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia

16 ranks, 810 pipes

Mechanical key and stop action,
two manuals and pedal (56/30), balanced expression pedal, hitch-down couplers

Lower Manual

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Sub
Bass

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Chimney
Flute

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Descant
Flute (middle C)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octave

                  22/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Nazard (from
Upper Manual)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Fifteenth
&

                                    Mixture
III (double-draw)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Hautboy

Upper Manual

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stopped
Wood

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viola

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Open
Flute

                  22/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Nazard

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Recorder

                  13/5
style='mso-tab-count:1'>       Tierce

                                    Tremulant
(affects entire organ)

Pedal

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Sub
Bass (from Lower Manual)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal
(from Lower Manual)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octave
(from Lower Manual)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bassoon

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Hautboy
(from Lower Manual)

 

                                    Lower
Manual to Pedal

                                    Upper
Manual to Pedal

                                    Manual
Coupler

 

Fenris Pipe Organ
style='font-weight:normal'>, Kilkenny, Minnesota, has built a new organ for
Ascension Lutheran Church in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where music director Eileen
Nelson Ness oversees a music program with adult, community, and youth choirs.
The new organ replaces an electronic simulator, and was part of a larger
construction project that consisted of bumping out the chancel to provide choir
space on one side and an organ chamber on the other. The two-manual and pedal
organ comprises 12 ranks, with provision for five more.

Our challenge, as organbuilders,
was to build a new instrument for an unconventionally shaped room with carpet
and padded pews. It also had to match the room and reuse pipework and some
components from an instrument the church had previously purchased as "seed."

The principal chorus is new,
façade pipes are from the earlier instrument. Casework and console are
new, made of red oak, with an oversized bench for teaching. The organ is
located in a pit; slab on frost footing with double 5/8 sheetrock taped and painted,
sloped ceiling. Chest action is electro-mechanical, with electro-pneumatic for
the 16' Subbass; switching system is Peterson. Wind pressure is 31⁄2
inches. Stoplist, scaling and voicing are by Bob Rayburn; design and
cabinetwork by Wes Remmey.

—Wes Remmey

Fenris Pipe Organ, Inc.

 

GREAT

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Rohr
Gedackt

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Holzgedackt
(Sw)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octave

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Rohr
Flute (ext)

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Quint (Sw)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Fifteenth
(ext)

                  IV
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Mixture
(wired, prep)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Trumpet

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clarion
(ext)

                                    Gt/Gt
4

                                    Sw/Gt
16-8-4

SWELL

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Lieblich
Gedackt (ext)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Holzgedackt

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viola

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Voix
Celeste (T.C.)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gedackt
(ext)

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Nazard (T.C.)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octave
(ext)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Block
Flute (ext)

                  13⁄5'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Tierce (wired,
prep)

                  11⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Quint (ext)

                  IV
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Mixture
(wired, prep)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bassoon
(T.C., ext)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Oboe

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Schalmei
(ext)

                                    Sw/Sw
16-4

                                    Tremolo

PEDAL

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Subbass

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Lieblich
Gedackt (Sw)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Bourdon
(Sw)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Choral
Bass (ext)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octave
(ext)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Posaune
(prep)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Trumpet
(Gt)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Oboe
(Sw)

                                    Gt/Ped

                                    Sw/Ped

 

Lauck Pipe Organ Company
style='font-weight:normal'>, Otsego, Michigan, has built a new organ for St.
Peter's Cathedral, Marquette, Michigan. Our opus 54 is a three-manual organ
which replaces a small two-manual instrument. Several ranks of pipes from the
previous organ were incorporated into the new instrument. The painted casework
recapitulates the Romanesque architecture of the building. The tin
façade pipes are from the Great 8' Montre, Great 8' Flûte
Harmonique and, Pedal 8' Montre.

Space was at a premium as the
gallery is not large and we were not permitted to obstruct the windows. The
left case contains the Great with Choir above while the right case contains the
Pedal with Swell above.

St. Peter's Cathedral is an old
and historic building constructed of local brown sandstone. The huge interior,
hard surfaces, and ceramic tile floor provide excellent acoustics. With over 5
seconds of reverberation, a high gallery and long nave, this room is an
organbuilder's dream. The organ is generously scaled and voiced on moderate
wind pressures ranging from 3 to 4 inches, with the Swell reeds (parallel domed
shallots) on 5 inches, and the Great Trompette (tapered shallots) on 8 inches.
The voicing is transparent and not forced.

--James Lauck

Lauck Pipe Organ Company

 

GREAT

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bourdon
(ext)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Montre

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
à Cheminée

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
Harmonique (49 pipes)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Prestant

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
Octaviante (ext Fl Harm)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Doublette

                  IV
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Fourniture

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Trompette
de Fête

                                    Gt/Gt
4

                                    Sw/Gt
16-8-4

                                    Ch/Gt
16-8-4

SWELL

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Bourdon

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viole
d'Gambe

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Voix
Céleste (49 pipes)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Prestant

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
Harmonique

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
Ouverte (ext)

                  IV
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Plein
Jeu

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Basson

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Trompette

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Hautbois
(ext)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clairon
(ext)

                                    Tremulant

                                    Sw/Sw
16-UO-4

CHOIR

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
Couverte

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viola

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viola
Céleste (49 pipes)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Prestant

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
à Fuseau

                  22/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Nazard

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Doublette
(ext)

                  13/5'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Tierce

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Larigot (ext)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cromorne

                                    Tremulant

                                    Ch/Ch
16-UO-4

                                    Sw/Ch
16-8-4

PEDAL

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contrebourdon
(resultant)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contrebasse

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Soubasse

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bourdon
(Gt)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Montre
(ext)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Bourdon
(ext Soubasse)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flûte
à Cheminée (Gt)

                  51/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Quinte (from 16'
Bourdon)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Prestant
(ext)

                  II
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Fourniture

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bombarde
(ext Gt)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Basson
(Sw)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Trompette
(Gt)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clairon
(Gt)

                                    Gt/Ped
8-4

                                    Sw/Ped
8-4

                                    Ch/Ped
8-4

 

J. Zamberlan & Co
style='font-weight:normal'>., Wintersville, Ohio, has built a new organ for St.
Andrew's Episcopal Church, Greencastle, Indiana. The firm's Opus 1 comprises 18
stops, 23 ranks, over two manuals and pedal. Three normal couplers, Gt/Ped,
Sw/Ped and Sw/Gt, are controlled by hitchdown pedals. There is one general
tremulant affecting the entire organ. A cymbelstern is installed on top of the
center tower. Pedal lights are wired into the blower switch. Great at impost
level, Swell in the bottom rear, Pedal above that (behind Great). The key action
is entirely mechanical, as is the stop action, except for the two pedal stops
which are activated by slider solenoids. Casework of red oak, with hinged
panels allowing easy access into most parts of the instrument. Keydesk area in
butternut; keyboard naturals of bone with sharps of ebony; pedal keys rock
maple, sharps ebony-capped; stopknobs, hitchdown pedals, etc. of bocote;
stopknob disks of certified legal ivory. Total number of pipes is 1,182. Old
pipes extensively repaired, including new languids for several stops; slide
tuners, temperament is Kellner. Manual/pedal compass 58/30.

 

GREAT

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Open
Diapason (new, façade, 28%)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stopped
Diapason*

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octave*

                  22/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Twelfth*

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Fifteenth*

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cornet
IV (new, from c13-c49, 28%)

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Mixture III-IV (new,
28%)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Trumpet
(new, zinc & 52% resonators)

SWELL (enclosed)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Geigen
Diapason+ (1-12, stp fl)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stopped
Flute+ (1-6 new, cypress)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Voix
Céleste*

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal+

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flute+

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flautino+

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bassoon
(new, 52% resonators)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Hautboy
(new, 52% resonators)

PEDAL (flat pedalboard)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bourdon
(new, soft maple)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Trombone
(new, zinc & 28% resonators)

* E. & G.G. Hook, 1870

+ Stevens & Jewett, 1856

by James B. Hartman

Fair Organist--"I am sorry you had to give off blowing for us, Giles."

 

Giles--"Yes, Miss; the organ don't sound what it did, do it? Jim, the new blower, be a very good chap, but 'e ain't got no music in 'im. Now, we did used to give 'em summat worth 'earin', didn't we, Miss?"

(Winnipeg Town Topics, 28 August 1909.)

The history of organs in Manitoba, Canada, is a neglected aspect of the musical, cultural, and church history of the province. A 45-year period around the turn of the century was the "Golden Age" of the organ in Manitoba. More than one-third of all the known pipe organ installations in the province up to the present occurred in this period, many of them in newly constructed churches. Both the instruments and the recitals played on them were matters of intense public interest. The installation of a new church orgn was not only a matter of pride and celebration on the part of the congregation, but it was also a significant event in the musical life of the community. This article presents a brief chronicle of the organ--the instruments, the builders, and the players--during this period of slightly more than four decades.

Religious Denominations and Historic Churches

Within fifty years after the displaced tenant farmers from the north of Scotland had arrived in Manitoba's Red River district between 1812 and 1814, many of the major religious denominations, now well established, had built their first churches. The first Roman Catholic churches were constructed in 1819 and 1822, followed by a series of cathedrals completed in 1833, 1862, and 1908. The Anglicans, whose religion was brought to the country by missionaries and employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, built their first Church Mission House in 1822, followed by several other churches along the rivers, including St. Andrew's on the west bank of the Red River in 1849 and St. James on the north bank of the Assiniboine River in 1853. Holy Trinity, Fort Garry's first Anglican church, was opened in 1868. The Presbyterians erected Kildonan Presbyterian Church on the northern outskirts of the settlement in 1851; the first Knox Church was established at a more central location in 1868, succeeded by larger buildings on other urban sites in 1884 and 1917. Other Presbyterian congregations constructed places of worship in various sections of the city: St. Andrew's in 1882, Augustine in 1887 and 1904, and Westminster in 1912. The Methodists founded their first mission at Red River in 1868; their first Grace Church was dedicated in 1871, enlarged in 1877, followed by a new building in 1883; the Wesley congregation established their first church buildings in 1883 and 1898. The Congregationalists arrived in 1879 and erected their first church building in Winnipeg in the early 1880s, followed by a second in 1890.1

Music in the Churches

The place of music in religious worship varied according to the denomination. Music was not readily accepted throughout the country by the Presbyterians, for they did not allow organs or hymns; the only singing was metrical psalms, later supported by a bass viol or flute. This situation continued until 1872, when their General Assembly decided to permit the use of organs.2 In Manitoba some members of the Kildonan Presbyterian Church congregation objected to the introduction of a choir and to the idea of having an organ. In a debate on these issues, one parishioner announced that if an organ were put in the church he would bring around Old Bob, his horse, "and take the 'kist o' whustles' out of the house of the Lord and dump it by the roadside." When the organ eventually was put in, another dissenting member transferred to St. Andrew's mission church, unaware that a small melodeon was used in services there, too. Nevertheless, soon after his daughter was appointed to play the instrument in Kildonan Church he returned there. This repentant parishioner was John "Scotchman" Sutherland, later an elected member of the first Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.3

In Winnipeg, where other religious denominations considered the organ an appropriate aspect of Christian praise, things went more smoothly. Grace Methodist acquired a small reed organ in 1873, and two years later a prominent mill owner presented the Baptist Chapel with a similar instrument.4 Other city churches, as well as those in outlying areas, also purchased reed organs, and they served these congregations for many years.

Reed Organs

The reed organ today exists only as a reminder of a bygone era, but it played an important part in the musical life of the community around the turn of the century. In addition to supporting congregational singing in the churches, reed organs were the focus of religious devotions and entertainment in family parlours throughout North America.

It is likely that the first reed organ in Manitoba was not imported but was built here. According to the recollections of an early pioneer, the first organ in St. Boniface Cathedral (the 1833 building destroyed by fire in 1860) was a melodeon made by Dr. Duncan, a medical officer with the regular army. He was "devoted to music and a very ingenious man."5 This may have been the same organ acquired by the Grey Nuns sometime after their arrival at the St. Boniface mission in 1844; later they gave the instrument to the parishioners of the Cathedral. One of the nuns, Sister Lagrave, played Dr. Duncan's organ in the Cathedral, but it was lost in the fire that destroyed the fourth Cathedral in 1968.6

An early imported reed organ, built around 1800 by Trayser & Cie, Stuttgart, Germany, was brought from England through York Factory in the mid-1800s, intended for use in a northern diocese of the Anglican church. During the journey the York boat overturned on the Nelson River, but the organ was recovered and brought south to St. Andrew's, where it was left with a local Sunday school teacher who was also the church choir leader. The organ was designed to be carried by four men using poles looped through metal rings, two on either side of the case; this allowed the organ to be moved to and from nearby St. Thomas Church. This instrument, now nearly 200 years old, is in the museum at St. Andrew's-on-the-Red Anglican Church, near Lockport.

Although nineteenth-century reed organs went under different names, all of them used wind-blown metal reeds to produce the sound. The smaller varieties, called melodeons or cottage organs, were compact, table-sized, semi-portable instruments. The larger versions were called harmoniums, cabinet organs, parlour organs, or pump organs, and their wind supply was produced by dual foot treadles that powered the bellows. Their fancy cases, decorated with ornate mouldings and carvings, made them desirable pieces of furniture in Victorian parlours in both city homes and farm dwellings. Larger church models had as many as 20 drawstops and sometimes pedal keyboards; these required an assistant to pump the bellows handle at one side of the case. Often they were mistaken by the public for pipe organs, since some of them had imitation pipes mounted on top of the case.7

Most of the reed organs in Manitoba churches and homes were built in southern Ontario by a few of the larger companies founded in the 1870s and supplied through their agents or retail outlets in Winnipeg. Before rail connections were established with Eastern Canada, organs were transported across the northern United States to St. Paul, Minnesota, and then north to Winnipeg by river boat. One of the largest manufacturers was the Bell Organ and Piano Company (or the Bell Piano and Organ Company, depending on its priorities); one of their large two-manual, 16-stop reed organs, with "mouse-proof" pedals, was installed in St. Alban's Anglican Church, Oak Lake, around 1890, and it is still in use. Other prominent Ontario makers included the Dominion Organ and Piano Company, the W. Doherty Piano and Organ Company, and the Thomas Organ Company. A large two-manual, 20-stop, Doherty instrument, built around 1904, originally in St. Alban's Anglican Church, Snowflake, is still in regular use in St. Andrew's-on-the-Red Anglican Church.

The T. Eaton Company, Winnipeg's largest retail store, sold several models of cabinet reed organs, made by the Goderich Organ Company, through its mail order catalogues around 1900. The basic "Queen" model, with 5 octaves, 10 stops, and 3 sets of reeds, was $29.50; the top-priced "Empress piano-cased" model, with 6 octaves, 12 stops, and 5 sets of reeds, was $75.00 (the lowest priced piano was $150.00). In 1902 J.J.H. McLean's music store invited the public to informal recitals on an automatic self-playing organ, "The Bellolian."

There was competition from American sources, however. In the mid-1870s Winnipeg newspapers carried advertisements by a dealer in St. Paul, Minnesota, offering pianos and organs to Manitoba residents, free of duty. The Manitoba Music Store in Winnipeg offered instruments by both American and Canadian makers, as well as tuning, repairs, and instruction. Several reed organs from the Estey Company, Brattleboro, Vermont, were supplied to Manitoba churches through a Winnipeg agent in the 1880s; a one-manual, 19-stop instrument, with ornamental pipes, now electrified, is still in use in St. Andrew's-on-the-Red Anglican Church.   

A pioneer in Deloraine recalled a large imposing instrument installed in the Presbyterian Church there in 1897. The organ had two manuals and pedals, with ornamental pipes, and was powered by the strong arms of older boys or young men who pumped a heavy handle to inflate the two bellows. She remembered that pumpers earned the reputation of "good pumper" or otherwise. Too much enthusiasm on the part of the pumper made it difficult for the organist to adjust the volume, whereas a "good pumper" had more appreciation for the mood of the music and waited for the signals. One time, during an organ recital, a belt connecting the two bellows broke. The pumper was frantically working the handle, hoping to add more power to the remaining bellows, while the organist was giving signals for more volume, more volume! When the ordeal was over, the pumper was exhausted and drenched with perspiration. That pumper still remembered that occasion vividly at the age of 85.8

A later development of the reed organ was the vocalion, patented in 1872 and first exhibited in 1885, which had a smoother, organ-like tone. It was the instrument of choice for a few churches, but its relatively high cost made it uncompetitive with that of small pipe organs. One organist-critic called vocalions "atrocities." In 1890 McIntosh's Music House in Winnipeg advertised "The Vocalion Organ for Churches, etc; Parlour and Church Organs of every description."

Another variation was a hybrid instrument employing both reeds and pipes to approximate true pipe organ sounds in a less costly instrument. The Compensating Pipe Organ Company, which was in business in Toronto in the early 1900s, offered these instruments to Manitoba purchasers through a Winnipeg dealer, the Grundy Music Company. The company's agent installed a two-manual, 14-stop instrument, with full pedal keyboard, in St. John's Cathedral in 1902, replacing a less powerful model by the same maker:

The St. John's Cathedral is to be congratulated on the installation of its new organ, not only on account of the quality of the instrument, but also on its having been built for the Cathedral in time for the ordination of the new dean.

It is to be conceded that it is a very good thing indeed for churches, large or small, Sunday Schools, concert halls, etc., that it is now brought within their means to obtain a high grade organ, producing genuine pipe organ music, one that takes up less than half the space of any other instrument producing a similar musical result, (thus saving expensive alterations), and one that, as has before been said, can produce such beautiful effects with reeds and pipes, played together, (they can be tuned to each other at any temperament) and one which can be bought for half the price that has hitherto prevailed for instruments of similar volume. Similar musical results have never been produced before.9

Nevertheless, the musical qualities of the organ were not highly regarded by one professional organist: "Compensating organs, of which the less said the better, and which the hearer should be very generously compensated for listening to."10

Although many thousands of reed organs were sold during the peak period of their popularity between 1870 and 1910, their decline in popularity accompanied other innovations in musical entertainment, such as the player piano, the gramophone, and the radio, all of which transferred music appreciation in the home from a participatory activity into a passive one. Few reed organ manufacturers remained in business after 1930, and apart from those few instruments still being played in several rural Manitoba churches, the remaining survivors are collector's items in private homes and museums.

Pipe Organs

The history of pipe organs in Manitoba is largely a chronicle of events in Winnipeg. An expanding urban population, increasing wealth, the growth of the various religious denominations, and the flowering of musical culture all resulted in the construction of a large number of churches within a relatively short span of time. In the French-Canadian community of St. Boniface, three Roman Catholic Cathedrals had been erected in succession (1822, 1833, 1862) before other denominations began to construct their houses of worship in Winnipeg, on the opposite side of the Red River. The first major boom in church building construction began in the 1880s and extended to about 1915. Many of Winnipeg's largest and finest churches were built in these early years. Since many of the business, political, and community leaders, predominantly Anglo-Saxon in origin, were prominent members of the larger city congregations, they undoubtedly exercised considerable influence on decisions regarding the construction of church buildings, as well as on the installation of organs.

The pattern of organ installations in Winnipeg reflected, but did not exactly parallel, the major periods of construction of church buildings. The greatest number of organ installations in the city occurred between 1900 and 1930. In rural centres most of the early churches did not acquire pipe organs immediately, but used reed organs until they could afford pipe organs at a later date. The frequency of known organ installations during the period under consideration is evident in this summary:

                City        Rural     Total

1875-79                2                                2

1880-89                9               1               10

1890-99                6               1               7

1900-09                15            8               23

1910-19                20            3               23

Winnipeg newspapers published reports of the arrival of new organs, along with descriptions of their appearance and mechanical construction, often with complete stoplists. One such account, written by a city organist, assumed a broad educational function by including a lengthy discourse on the place of the organ in church worship, recent mechanical improvements in organ design, and the characteristics of the sound.11

In the 1880s Winnipeg had two or perhaps three organ builders, and it is likely that they were related to one another. The two partners H. W. Bolton and A. B. Handscomb were listed as organ builders in the city in 1883. It was this H. W. Bolton, formerly in Montréal, who submitted an unsuccessful tender in 1884 for the installation of a new organ in All Saints' Anglican Church. There was also Fred W. Bolton, another builder who worked in the city in 1885 and 1886, and Wm. Henry Bolton who was listed as an organ builder only in 1887. In the same year a one-manual, five-stop, pipe organ was installed in the Presbyterian Church, Birtle, Manitoba, by "Messrs. Bolton and Baldwin of Winnipeg." Which of the Boltons was involved in this venture is uncertain. As for the colleague Baldwin, he might have been one of a number of mechanics, fitters, or carpenters working in the city at that time who may have assisted Bolton on a part-time basis. A Bolton pipe organ installed in the Baptist Church, Winnipeg, in 1883 received a brief compliment in the press:

The chief characteristic of the organ is its sweetness of tone. The range of effects is necessarily limited on account of the smallness of the organ, but the delightful mellowness of tone is a great relief from the screaming effects of large and more pretentious instruments.12

Another Bolton organ was installed in Christ Church Anglican, Winnipeg, around 1886, but if any other Bolton organs were installed in Manitoba churches none of them survive, and there is no remaining evidence of the builders' activities in the area. The following sections provide brief accounts of some of the major organ installations in Manitoba in the early years.

St. Boniface Cathedral

The first pipe organ in Manitoba was installed in St. Boniface Cathedral in 1875 by Louis Mitchell, the Montréal builder who accompanied his new instrument across the continent and down the Red River from Moorhead, North Dakota, on the steamboat International. The unloading of the cargo on the St. Boniface side of the river was accomplished with the permission of the customs tax collector at the port of Winnipeg on 14 June 1875; more than fifty men were needed to complete the task.13

A large church organ arrived last Monday on the International for the Cathedral of St. Boniface. It was made in Montréal by Mr. Mitchell, the celebrated organ builder. It is the first church organ imported into the North-West, it is 19 ft high, 12 ft 6 in wide, and 11 ft deep. The case, which is already put up, is in the Grecian style, which is well adapted to the architecture of the Cathedral. The Organ weighs 12,000 pounds and costs over $3,200.

We hear that this new organ will be inaugurated on the 24th inst, upon the occasion of the celebration of St Jean Baptist day, and that there will be in the evening a grand concert at the Cathedral, the proceeds of which will go towards the fund for the completion of the church. All the musicians and artists of the Province will be present on the occasion.14

The organ was the gift of a group of friends of Monseigneur Alexandre Taché in recognition of the thirtieth anniversary of the date of his departure from Québec for the mission at Red River, and of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his appointment as Archbishop of the diocese. At the time of the installation of the organ, about $1,100 had been raised by pupils and associates from the seminary in St. Hyacinthe, Québec. Although the specifications of the organ were not given, the dimensions of the instrument suggest that it may have had about twelve ranks of pipes.

The ultimate destiny of the organ was the first instance of organ recycling. In 1921, when the Cathedral purchased a larger instrument from the First Lutheran Church, Winnipeg, the Mitchell organ was removed and divided into two smaller instruments; one went to a school in St. Boniface, and the other to a mission in Lebret, Saskatchewan, both operated by the Oblate Fathers.15

Holy Trinity Anglican Church

Holy Trinity Anglican Church acquired its first pipe organ in 1878; it was installed by Samuel Warren & Son, a prominent company in the history of Canadian organ building. Warren, a descendant of one of the passengers on the 1620 voyage of The Mayflower, acquired his technical skills in Boston before emigrating to Montréal in 1836, where he built and repaired organs. The family firm moved to Toronto in 1878 and produced more than 350 pipe organs, along with pianos and other musical instruments, until it was sold to another organ company 1896. The newspaper report of the installation described the instrument in some detail:

The organ is from the establishment of Messrs. S. R. Warren & Son of Montréal and Toronto, and does great credit to that well-known firm. Its price is $3,000, and it is a powerful instrument, containing two rows of keys and full pedale, and twenty-four draw stops. Some of these are of exquisite sweetness, particularly the Claribel Flute, the Viol di gamba, and the Oboe in the swell, and the Dulciana and the Harmonic Flute in the great organ.

The case is of chestnut wood with black walnut facings, and the front pipes are beautifully decorated with fleur de lis, and other ecclesiastical designs, in blue, gold and chocolate color. The top is surmounted with carved pinnacles. The body of the organ is contained in a chamber, built specially for the purpose; the front projecting about two feet into the church on the south side of the reading desk, giving a good view to the congregation of the case and ornamented pipes. Mr. Warren having lately visited the principal organ factories in England, France and Germany, now applies to his instruments all the modern improvements, of which we may specially mention the voicing and tuning of the pipes. The present instrument has been carefully constructed in this respect and its builder has succeeded in giving to its notes a softness and sweetness not always heard even in larger and more expensive organs.16

When Holy Trinity Church moved to a new location in 1884, the Warren organ was relocated and enlarged by the builder. It was claimed that the renovated instrument was the largest west of Toronto. The organ was further enlarged eight years later. In 1912 it was replaced by a large four-manual, 50-stop instrument, manufactured by the Canadian Pipe Organ Company, founded two years previously in St. Hyacinthe, Québec, by some staff of Casavant Frères who had decided to go into business on their own. The new organ was again described as the finest in the Canadian West.

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church

The inauguration of a new organ sometimes was marked not just by the performance of a single recitalist, but by a concert involving the church choir and several soloists. One such concert took place on 20 April 1883, on the occasion of the opening of the new organ at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. The event was unusual in one respect; the organ builder, Samuel Mitchell of Montréal, was also the featured recitalist. Probably he was related to Louis Mitchell, who had installed the first organ in St. Boniface Cathedral in 1875. The newspaper report covered both the design of the organ and Mitchell's recital:

St. Mary's Church was well filled last night upon the occasion of the inauguration of the new organ by Mr. Samuel Mitchell of Montreal, one of the builders. The organ stands in the gallery just over the main entrance, and presents a very handsome appearance. The case is Moresque in design, and is richly decorated, the arrangement of colors ornamenting the front pipes being most effective.

The chief characteristic of the organ is its powerful tone, the reeds are voiced to a high pressure, and perhaps a little too coarse to suit the sensitive ear, but upon the whole it is well suited to the purpose for which it is intended.

The medley of National airs played by Mr. Mitchell which came after a short intermission, fully demonstrated the capabilities of the instrument. The imitation of the bagpipes greatly amused the audience, and the last expiring croak at the conclusion of "The Campbells are Comin'" elicited the laughter of all. Mr. Mitchell is a very clever manipulator, and the imitation of the fife and drum band was excellent.17 

Thirty-five years later, the Mitchell organ was replaced by a new two-manual, 18-stop Casavant instrument. This organ, installed in 1918 at a cost of $3,692, would serve the church for a further forty years before being rebuilt by the same company.

Victoria Hall

Winnipeg's Victoria Hall, built in 1883 and later renamed the Winnipeg Theatre and Opera House, was the site for many concerts, musical events, and other entertainments in the early years. Some church congregations held services in the Hall before their own buildings were completed. One of the ventures of the Winnipeg Oratorio Society, which performed there, was to provide an organ for this building. The newspaper account of the forthcoming installation in 1884 pointed out that the 11-stop instrument, whose builder was not identified, was intended to be used instead of a string band and would equal an orchestra of about thirty performers.18 The list of stops included many ranks imitative of orchestral instruments: viol di gamba, horn, concert flute, clarionet, flute, piccolo, violin, and bass.

Grace Methodist Church

The first pipe organ in Grace Methodist Church was installed by S. R. Warren & Son in 1885, but a few years later it had deteriorated to the point of receiving an ultimate insult: "The organ at Grace church has arrived at that state of perfection when it is difficult to tell it from a circus calliope."19 When a new three-manual, 34-stop organ was installed by R. S. Williams & Son, Oshawa, in 1894, the decrepit instrument was transferred to Westminster Presbyterian Church.

The newspaper account of the new installation consisted entirely of a long discourse on the organ's technical innovations, which were thought to be resistant to Winnipeg's severe climatic changes. Even so, more than half of the report of the opening recital by a Minneapolis organist consisted of a series of observations on the theme that the organ needed "a good shaking down," for an intermittently-sounding pedal note marred the opening selection,  and some of the valves were sticking. The instrument tended to go out of tune before the end of the program, perhaps due to a drop in the temperature of the church on the cold December evening. Nevertheless, the voicing was rated as excellent, as were the English-style diapasons and the reeds, some of them imported from France.20

An even more magnificent organ was acquired by the church in 1907: a four-manual, 46-stop instrument built by Casavant Frères, the largest organ in the history of the company to that date. The Casavant brothers, Joseph-Claver and Samuel-Marie, had established their factory in St. Hyacinthe, Québec, in 1879, following several years touring Europe, inspecting organs, and visiting workshops. In the following years their fame spread steadily beyond the towns and cities of Québec. The first Casavant organ in Manitoba was installed in the Parish Church, St. Norbert, just south of Winnipeg, in 1899. During the period under consideration, the company installed eighteen complete instruments in Winnipeg and five in rural towns.

The installation of the new Grace Church organ was celebrated in the evening of New Year's Day 1908 by a concert that included the choir, soloists, and a recital. The newspaper coverage of the event reported that the audience of nearly eight hundred people was delighted with the new "chest of whistles" and with the performance by the organist George Bowles (composer of the operetta, "The Manhaters of Manhattan," a Christmas cantata, and other works, when he was not otherwise occupied as the manager of the Winnipeg's Union Bank), although it was doubted that the ranks of reed pipes would remain in tune due to the severe temperature variations in a church heated by hot air.21

The eventual fate of the Grace Church organ is a unique story in the history of organs in Manitoba. Around 1942 Stuart Kolbinson, then a young man 24 years old, was working with C. Franklin Legge, the Toronto organ manufacturer, servicing a small Winnipeg organ built by a local company, probably Bolton. Legge introduced his assistant to the Grace Church organ, saying,"This will be for sale someday." Legge's prediction proved correct. Although Grace Church was regarded as the mother church of Methodism in the west, the wealthy congregation of the downtown church drifted away into the new city suburbs over the years, and the church building was demolished in 1955 to make way for a parking lot. Kolbinson bought the Casavant instrument for $2,000 and transported it to his prairie farm in the Kindersley district in Saskatchewan, where it was stored for several years. By 1963 Kolbinson had constructed a special building to house the organ, and it was ready to play. As stories of the heritage instrument spread, organists from as far away as Oregon came to try it out. Kolbinson left the farm in 1971 to enter the hotel business in Vancouver, then moved to Victoria, leaving his organ behind at the farm. After selling the farm in 1976, he returned there in 1979 to pack up his organ for the trip to Victoria. Although the organ had remained in an unheated building for several years, it played well except for being a little out of tune. Kolbinson, now retired, built a large extension to his Victoria home, including a bell tower, to accommodate the large instrument. In later years he reflected on his experience:

I have had many difficulties, but it is worth it, and I am sure that after I am gone the organ will still be the pleasure of those who will in the future have care of it. There is no reason why it won't be singing a century from today. . . .

Occasionally I have a visit from someone who knew old Grace Church in its glory days, but as time passes these get fewer as the passing years take their toll. All the clever hands that built [the organ] so well have long since laid down their tools for the last time. All honor to them, who took leather, wood, lead, tin and zinc and fashioned an instrument whose voice shall always sing their praise.22

Presbyterian Church, Birtle

The earliest known installation of a pipe organ in rural Manitoba was in a small town in western Manitoba; it was made by Bolton, the Winnipeg builder active in the 1880s. This chronicle of events appeared in a report of the state of music in the town at the time:

On his arrival here in 1882 your correspondent found only one miserable little melodeon and two pianos in the whole place. . . . Early in the spring of 1887 the Presbyterians, who had been holding their services in the Town Hall, decided to build a church of their own and succeeded in erecting and opening a very comfortable building by the 19th of June, but not satisfied with this they went a step further and substituted a small but good pipe organ" for the reed organ they had hitherto used. They now claim [incorrectly] to have the only pipe organ in the country west of Winnipeg. It was built by Messrs. Bolton and Baldwin of Winnipeg and is valued at $1000. At present it has only one manual with four stops, viz:--open diapason, stopped diapason, dulciana and principal and a Burdon [sic] set of pedal pipes, it also has a tremolo and swell box. This is just a start, I have no hesitation in saying that in another year or two there will be an addition to it in the way of a "swell organ" which will give them an A 1 instrument for a small church. On the evening of October 29th we opened the organ with a concert and organ recital. . . .

In conclusion I think you will agree with me that this is quite a go-ahead little town. This last year we have built two churches worth $5000, placed a $1000 pipe organ in one of them and subscribed over $200 to a band, all this is a town of less than 3000 inhabitants.23

All Saints' Anglican Church

In 1883 a new site was selected for All Saints' Anglican Church, and within a year services were conducted in the unfinished building. One of the ideals of the founders of this parish was that worship services should place more emphasis on the musical and ritualistic aspects of worship than was customary in Anglican churches in Winnipeg at the time. Accordingly, the nucleus of a substantial organ fund was established by the Ladies' Aid Society in 1884; even the Girls' Guild obtained some money from their activities that they wished to save for the organ. One aspect of the fund- raising activities of the Ladies' Aid Society received strong criticism in this anonymous letter:

Ch. of All Sts. has just been formally opened by the Bishop of Ruperts Land. 2 things in connection with the church and its opening are public property, and neither is creditable to those concerned. . . . [One] matter is the illegal, immoral lottery which the church is sanctioning for the benefit of the organ fund. A bed quilt or something of the sort is to be gambled for, the proceeds of the swindle to go to the church. All Saints Church is improperly named, it should be called All Sinners. To expect true Christianity in a fashionable church seems as absurd as to expect to find decency in a monkey house.24

Three builders submitted tenders for the proposed organ: H. W. Bolton, S.R. Warren & Son, and Casavant Frères. The successful applicant was Warren, who berated Bolton in several letters to church officials, referring to another organ that Warren had been asked to rebuild:

We are aware that there is a builder in Winnipeg but we should think that your congregation would hardly care to take the risk of entrusting the work to a man who has made so many disgraceful failures as the Queen's Hall organ in Montréal and in fact everything he has attempted.25

The decision on the organ was deferred until the debt on the church building was paid off. Finally, the new instrument was installed in 1891 and duly reported in the press:

Mr. Shaw of Messrs. Warren & Son, Toronto, is in the city placing the new organ in All Saints' Church, built by his firm, in position. The instrument has been carefully planned and the stops chosen for balance of power and variety of tone. It has two manuals with five stops on each and provision for two more on the swell and one on the great. Artistically, it will be a great improvement to the church, the front bracketed out into the chancel, projecting about two feet,. and the pipes are tastefully decorated.26

During the war years 1914-17 it was decided that a new pipe organ would provide a fitting war memorial, and a committee was formed:

The result of this committee's work was the placing of an order with Messrs. Casavant Frères of Québec, the well-known manufacturers, for a new pipe organ at a price of $8,344 to be delivered in July 1917 . . . and it is pleasant to relate that the Ladies' Aid Society again came to the front and very generously offered to meet each installment of $500 with interest as the same matured. The organ was duly installed as a memorial to the men of All Saints' who fell in the war and was dedicated on Sunday the 16th September 1917, the Church being crowded. The old organ was at the desire of the Ladies' Aid Society presented to the Congregation of St. Alban's Church in the City of Winnipeg.27

This article will be continued.

This article, by Dr. Zdenek Fridrich, was revised and submitted by Mary Skalicky, and translated by Blanka Horáková of Ostrava University and by Michael Skalicky.

by Zdenek Fridrich-Kvetuse Fridrichova

Dr. Zdenek Fridrich is Professor of Musicology at Palacky University, Olomouc (Moravia), Czech Republic, and Organist at the Cathedral of The Virgin Mary in the Snow, Olomouc. He is an authority on historical organs in Moravia.

Mary Skalicky holds BMus degrees in organ and piano from Southern Methodist University, and the MMus in organ from The University of Michigan. Further study was done at Yale University, The Amsterdam Conservatory of Music, The Netherlands Carillon School, and The Academy of Music, Prague, Czechoslovakia. She has made research-concert tours to the Czech Republic in 1984, 1992 and 1995. Ms. Skalicky's concert tours have included programs at the Cathedral of The Virgin Mary in the Snow, Olomouc; St. Maurice's Church, Olomouc; the Fifth International Organ Festival and Tepla Monastery, Tepla, Bohemia, Czech Republic; and the International Organ Festival, Oliwa Cathedral, Gdansk, Poland. She is currently finishing the book, "The Baroque Organ in Bohemia and Moravia."

The Jesuit buildings at Republic Square and University
Street, Olomouc, are today situated at the former location of an original
Franciscan cloister with a church. This building was taken over by the Jesuits
in 1567, who reconstructed it gradually into today's appearance. In 1712-19,
the Jesuits built a majestic cathedral on the location of the original church,
constructed according to the design of Adam Glöckl from 1693 by the
master-builder, Lukas Glöckl. This cathedral, in regard to its Baroque
beauty, artistic value, and stylistic purity of architecture, belongs among the
world's most beautiful. The rich interior of the cathedral was begun in 1720
and not completed before 1740. Paintings were done by famous artists such as
Handke, Schmidt, and Wickart. Sculptures, stucco, and goldsmith's decorations
were made by Riga, Ricca, Zirn, Rossmayer and others.

After two hundred and fifty years, some signs of
deterioration of the extraordinary moveable decorative objects appeared, as
well as wood-worm damage. It was restored and the unique architectural complex
in the sacristy preserved as a result of work done by the "Historical
Monument Care Center." The same preservation process was needed, also, for
the stately organ case, comprising wooden structures, ornaments, sculptures,
and carvings. The overall design for the organ case and for these artistic
creations may have been done by the Brno sculptor and stucco artisan, Antonin
Riga, who died in 1728, the year when the construction of the instrument began.
He was replaced by Jan Vaclav Sturmer/Sturner from Olomouc, who probably began
work on the wood-carvings according to Riga's plans. However, he died in 1729
and the work was finished by workers from his shop.

The organ consists of two slender, symmetrical cases located
on both sides of the stained glass window, filling the rear corner spaces of
the choir. There is a positiv on the railing of the choir. In the middle of
these three cases there stands the key-desk. The positiv consists of two, tall,
lateral towers; two well-balanced pipe flats; and, a middle, lower tower. There
is carving above it which is a continuation of the richly-carved decoration of
both towers; and, in the middle, a medallion with rays emanating, above which
rest heads of angels.

The plan of both the main cases is quite complicated. One
might say, roughly, that each case consists of three main towers, with the
three areas in between filled with pipes in facade. These main organ cases,
which are approximately twelve meters in height, fill the huge space of the
choir vaulting. The main decoration of the cases consists, besides the
pyramidal pipe arrangement, of a large number of carved wooden statues which
reach to the top of the choir vaulting. The enclosure of the vaulting of the
arch was completely filled with this arrangement until June 12, 1836. On that
day, as is aptly described on a plaque which still hangs over the positiv, a
sudden flash of lightening hit the right church tower at 2:30 p.m., while
people were inside the church, ran through the vaulting and struck a lifesized
stucco statue of St. Cecilia! This bolt caused two angels and a large amount of
mortar to fall down right next to the organist who was playing. All of the
debris fell down on the manuals, causing the organ to produce wailing sounds
which added to the dramatic character of the moment. The decorations which fell
probably had formed an enclosure in the sculpture-laden arch of the vault. They
were not restored. Also, it seems as if there are two more statues missing from
the choir railing. Apparently, they stood on pedestals, for one may still see
the openings where they were attached.

Today, the statues--there are 41 located on all cases of the
organ--can be divided roughly into three groups according to their height. The
six tallest range in height from 2.30-2.75 meters; then there is a group of
four life-sized statues; the rest measure about one meter. All of these
statues, with the exception of the two Atlantes supporting the structures in
the corners of the main organ cases, are engaged in the act of making
music--they sing or play instruments. These statues faithfully render their
music on authentic instruments of the period: flutes, a flute-a-bec, as well as
a transverse flute; oboes (shalmey), bassoon (faggot), French horn, cornets,
tympani, triangles, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, harps, and bagpipes. Each
figure assumes the ideal position for holding its particular instrument. It is
remarkable to see the correct position of the hand and the rise of the fingers,
as well as holding of the sticks. And even the embouchure on the wind instruments is characteristic of the proper technique!

Renewal, conservation, and preservation of the organ case,
the beam construction, and of the floor was done by specialists from the
Olomouc "District Center of State Monuments Care." Academic sculptor,
J. Necka from Olomouc, was charged with the task of restoration of the organ
case. According to his notation, the organ case had been greatly damaged by
wood-worms; some parts of the statues, draperies, and wood carvings were
missing. As a result, they either had to be newly carved or added
synthetically. For the sake of stability, all parts of the sculptures and
carvings had to be supported by screws or wooden pins, and fastened to the
cases by means of iron strips. The wood-worm was exterminated by "Lastanox
Q"; all wooden parts were preserved by "solakryl"; and the
finish was completed with a protective paint made of beeswax and resin.

The restorer has a high regard for the exquisite design of
the unique sculptures. Each one is marked by a high degree of realism--the
expression of the face, the position and bearing of the body--all is quite
natural and slightly exalted. In repairing them, the restorer did not find a
holograph or other evidence of their origin. On the basis of a stylistic
analysis, he assumes that they are, probably, the work of three independent
sculptors, but sculptors who were absolutely unified in their stylistic
approach. Similar features are found between a contrabass player and a bassoon
player. Both are strikingly similar, especially in the shape of their heads.
There are great similarities to Sturmer's carvings under the choir in the
church of St. Kopecek, not far from Olomouc. One carver's hand probably cut out
the figure of King David, and his colleague the other harpist. And, finally, there is the sculpture of the conductor with his group exhibiting other individual characteristics. The most striking characteristics of the entire group of sculptures are the very carefully delineated details, such as teeth, nails, and expressions of faces. The viewer is attracted by the great realism and perfection of the work.

Draperies, heads, and small sculptures of angels were
carried out by another group of wood-carver craftsmen. In the opinion of the
restorer, there must have been six to ten people working on the decoration of
the organ cases. These organ cases were not designed on plane curves, but are
tri-dimensional; in fact, they form a sculptural group which may be viewed from
three sides. This organ case as a whole is considered to be one of the best of
its kind, with a fantastic, dynamic design.

In regard to sound, the organ underwent great changes during
its long history. In 1728, Johann Gottfried Halbich (Helbig, Halbig), an
organist from Kralik, was charged with the task of building the organ for the
recently erected cathedral. In the State Record Office in Brno, there is
preserved a document written in German, a contract dated May 12, 1728, signed
by the rector of the Jesuit College in Olomouc, as well as the organist, in
which, besides other things, there is described an order for the organ, the
specifications, and budget.

Apparently work was begun in the same year as the signing of
the contract. The organist received his pay in installments, with the last
pay--664 gold coins--on May 27, 1730. The final sum for the organ was 3,056
gold coins. It is not possible to say exactly when the organ was actually
finished. There was the tradition of making the last installment a year after
the work was completed. So one may assume that the organ was finished in 1729.

As far as can be determined, this was the most important of
Halbich's organs, and ranked among the largest in Moravia at the time. It had
twenty-five voices, meaning that it was also the largest organ in Olomouc, even
exceeding Agodoni's organ in the Olomouc Cathedral which had only twenty-three
voices. At that time, it was rare for the largest organs in Moravia to exceed
thirty voices. Halbich's organ was a prototype of Baroque organs of Northern
Moravian origin. Unlike the Southern Moravian instruments, there was a striking
number of mixtures and mutations which formed nearly one-half of all the
voices. The range of the two manuals was from C to c''', with the short low
octave. The pedal contained eighteen notes, compared to only twelve in the
Southern Moravian region. One may understand this feature to be an influence of
Silesian organ building.

The instrument was, from a musical standpoint, divided into
three parts. On the railing of the choir stood the positiv (second manual);
inside the two main cases were the pipes of the first manual and pedal. The
main division gave the organ its majesty, brilliance, and power; the positiv
was a small counterpart with its fragile, silvery sound; the pedal performed
the thorough-bass, although there was the possibility of an independent melodic
line.

Regarding its sound, Halbrich's organ must have been an
excellent instrument. Also, mechanically, it obviously was superior, for during
the eighteenth century it functioned almost without repair. After suppression
of the Jesuit order in 1773, the cathedral was given to the Army in 1785, and
it became a garrison church. During the nineteenth century, several repairs
were made to the organ, but no essential change was made. During World War I,
the organ was placed under the protection of the "Historical Monument
Care" foundation, and as a result the tin pipes were not confiscated.

In 1916-17, a large scale restoration was carried out inside
the church. The Austrian Army, probably in an effort to avoid frontline duty,
engaged for this work a large number of artists who were in the service; for
example, painters A. Kaspar, L. Hofbauer, R. Cerny; and sculptors J. Pelikan,
and J. Kak. Also, organist J. Neusser, along with tool-maker J. Velik, joined
in the restoration. This restoration of the entire church was completed
successfully, and there is a positive expert's report on the organ and a
disposal written by A. Petzold.

Therefore, it is difficult to understand the reconstruction
of the organ in 1924-27. Perhaps it was to make playing easier and to add some
technical contrivances. Another reason could have been a general
misunderstanding of Baroque voicing and a romantic tendency which required an
equal, deeper, darker tone. Organist Matej Strimska from Uherske' Hradiste, a
very handy craftsman, reconstructed the organ in the spirit of his time. He
disconnected the positiv completely from operation and added new wind-chests
for both manuals and pedal, which continued to be operated mechanically. Only
the stop-action was pneumatic. The overall layout was changed completely.
Romantic registers were added, for example Aeoline, Vox Coelestis, Bourdon,
etc. The sound of the organ was in marked contrast to its Baroque appearance.
And that is the reason for the necessity to restore the sound to its original
state. Sufficient numbers of historical documents are preserved in archives,
such as the contract with the organist from 1728; files about the organ from
1916-17; evaluations of the organ, etc.

Fortunately, organist Strimska had mainly used metal pipes
for his reconstruction. He also used wooden ones, providing that they were not
damaged by wood-worms or rot. And, underneath the floor of the choir,
Halbrich's original wind-chests belonging to the main division were found, as
well as some parts of the wind-trunks, parts of the mechanical works, etc.
Also, a majority of the carved wooden decorations belonging to the original
key-desk were found.

All of the early documents helped to work out a project for
restoration of the organ. But there were still many problems, for example, what
should be done with the short low octave of the positiv. And it was necessary
to solve the problem of the disproportion between the number of voices in the
positiv as stated in the contract and the actual number of pipe ranks on the
wind-chest. The contract spoke of seven voices, whereas there were eight voices
on the wind-chest. Similar questions arose in regard to the number of voices in
the pedal. And other problems arose in determining the tuning and voicing of
single stops, specific wind pressure, etc.

The firm of "Varhany Krnov" (Rieger-Kloss Organs)
was charged with this work. On the basis of special committee negotiations (the
committee consisted of District Committee personnel from Olomouc's "Historical Monument Center"), a plan was worked out for the reconstruction in 1974. This project fulfilled all requirements of the "Historical Monument Care" manual, which are codified in technical literature and which are respected worldwide, as well as in the Czech Republic. As prescribed in the project, the Krnov firm finished the reconstruction of Halbrich's instrument in July, 1977. The reconstructed organ was approved on August 8, 1977. And, as the approval officer stated, the goal had been attained: to restore the original sound and appearance of Halbich's instrument.

The organ has been given its original disposition according
to the contract from 1728. A deviation is in the Quinta 11/2' + 1' in the
Positiv which, demonstrably, stood on the original wind-chest of eight
registers, though the contract spoke of only seven. They also kept the later
additions of the Flauta Major 8' in the main division and the Portunal Bass 8'
in the pedal, made during the nineteenth century, due to their stylish function.
The old pipes were used to a great extent in 60% of the registers. The missing
or damaged pipes were replaced by copies; those which were merely imperfect,
repaired. Nearly all pipes were adapted according to the original voicing and
construction. Reduction of wind-pressure to Baroque standards of approximately
60 mm water-column required lowering of the "cut-ups" to the original
height. The new pipe voicing, mainly the mixtures, was done according to
tradition established for sounds of instruments of the eighteenth century. The
pitch was established at A440cps.

With the exception of the positiv, where the wind-chest was
preserved with its forty-five tones, C-c''', the main division and pedal have
new wind-chests which permit a full chromatic range. The manual of the main
division has fifty-six chromatic tones, C-g''', the pedal thirty tones, C-f'.
The disproportion problems concerning the missing notes in the original bottom
short-octave and the c''' range of the positiv were solved, successfully, by
placement of the missing notes in the upper part of the main case, with
electro-magnetic connections. Today, the organ has 2,204 pipes. The key-desk is
built at the original location, and its appearance faithfully duplicates a
painting of it by A. Kaspar, made during the early period. It is decorated on
the side with six well-preserved volutes and by two ornamental carvings on the
cornice, one of which is original, the other, a replica. The manuals and
roller-bars are connected to the wind-chest by means of mechanical tracker
action. Names of the registers are inscribed on the drawknobs with Baroque
lettering.

The great regard for historical tradition, coupled with
painstaking attention to detail by all institutions involved in the
restoration, helped to preserve this extraordinary cultural and artistic
treasure. The organ, which is the oldest instrument in Olomouc, represents the
best art of the North Moravian organ builders with its artistic value and rich
disposition. This organ demonstrates the great skill of the restorer artist, as
well as that of the organ firm. It is, in fact, one of the first instruments by
a native master to be restored in Moravia in such a comprehensive way. In the
extraordinary acoustics of the Cathedral, the organ is used for concerts of Baroque music, for accompaniment of soloists and choirs, and for the rendition of chamber music, with small or large ensemble.

Bibliography

J. Tittel: Die Restauration der Maria Schneekirche . . .
Olmutz, 1918

R. Smetana: Pruvodce pamatkana v Olomouci, Olomouc, 1948

J. Sehnal: Dejiny varhanny v Kostel P. M. Snezne' v
Olomouci, Casopis Moravskeho musea, Brno, 1966

Z. Fridrich, K problemu historickvch varhan na Morave'.
Sbornik panatkove pece. Ostrava, 1971

Disposition of the organ:

Manual I, the main division, C-g3

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flauta
major

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Quintadena

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viola
de gamba

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Salicional

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octava

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flauta
minor

                  3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Quinta

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Superoctava

                                    Rauschquinta
11/2' + 1'

                  3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Sesquialtera
II

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Mixtura
VI

                  1'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cimbal
IV

Manual II, positiv, C-g3

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Copl
major

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Copl
minor

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Fugara

                  3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Quintflauta

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octava

                                    Quinta
11/2' + 1'

                                    Mixtura
III

                                    Tremolo

Pedal, C-f'

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Principal
Bass

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Sub
Bass

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Octav
Bass

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Portunal
Bass

                  6'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Quint
Bass

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Superoctava

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cornet
Bass IV

                                    II/I

                                    II/P

                                    I/P

Slider wind-chests with mechanical key, stop and coupler
action; modern electrically operated blowers; however the hand-operated bellows
have been maintained.