Cover Feature

Orgues Létourneau, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada; First United Methodist Church, Lubbock, Texas

Even when measured by expansive Texan standards, First United Methodist Church in Lubbock is extraordinary in scale. The church’s Gothic bell tower is visible from just about anywhere in downtown Lubbock. The church campus sprawls over two city blocks and includes spacious wings for music, Christian education, youth, and even physical fitness. Completed in 1955, the sanctuary seats over 1,800 people, and its spectacular rose window is reportedly among the eight largest in the world. Confronted with such a voluminous space, organ enthusiasts and builders alike would be forgiven if their thoughts gravitated towards grand schemes. Nonetheless, First Methodist’s sanctuary opened its doors in March of 1955 with M. P. Möller’s Opus 8530, a positively ascetic instrument of 38 ranks spread over seven divisions and located in all four corners of the sanctuary. The organ was played by a three-manual console. Having studied the original pipework and seen the original wind pressure markings as part of this project, the Forrest Memorial Organ was surely understated in its effect.

Möller added a new Great division to the instrument in 1980, introducing visible pipework set on cantilevered chests bracketing the rose window. The original Great was repurposed as a Positiv division, and the other divisions were revised in the fashion of the day, largely replacing foundation tone with new mixtures, cornets, and mutations. Towards the end of the same decade, Möller replaced the 1954 console with a new four-manual console, which allowed the addition of several digital voices by Walker Technical Company.

Möller’s Opus 8530 arrived at its final form a few years later when two new stops built by A. R. Schopp’s & Sons were added to the Swell division, a 4′ Blockflöte and an 8′ Tuba. Now at 54 ranks and supplemented by nearly a dozen digital voices, the instrument could fill the church with sound. The Möller pipework was nonetheless uniformly under-scaled for the space and sounded forced as it was inevitably “pushed” for maximum output. For such a large room, the Pedal division was also curiously limited to two dedicated ranks, a skinny wooden Contrabass and a generous Bourdon.

By the mid 2010s, parts of the instrument were failing. Some of the organ’s larger reed pipes were collapsing, wind reservoirs were audibly leaking, expression mechanisms were unreliable, and the instrument’s electro-pneumatic windchests were ciphering with regularity. The church’s organ committee, ably led by Mr. Danny Johnston, explored options to replace the obsolete Möller mechanisms while retaining as much of the pipework as was practical. The committee travelled to listen to various instruments in Texas, and four companies were invited to submit proposals. Two instruments convinced the committee that Létourneau was the right choice: our Opus 88 at Saint Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano (four manuals, 77 ranks) and our Opus 127 at Saint Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas (three manuals, 61 ranks).

After listening to the church’s aspirations for the project, studying the situation carefully, and surveying the Möller organ’s pipework, we developed a proposal for First United Methodist in several phases that retained nearly thirty ranks from the previous instrument. The project kicked off in the spring of 2019 with the replacement of the Antiphonal Great and Antiphonal Swell organs on either side of the gallery with new Antiphonal and Echo divisions totalling eleven ranks; the voicing was completed later that summer. Independently expressive, these two divisions served as a small but capable instrument for over a year, proving their ability to accompany the church’s adult choir of over seventy voices. With the completion of the chancel organ, these divisions draw sound from the chancel through the long nave, surrounding the congregation with sound without drawing attention to themselves.

As soon as the gallery organ and its two-manual console were ready for service, the dismantling of the chancel organ began. In all parts of the organ, pipes slated for reuse were repaired, cleaned, and in the case of the Möller pipework, liberally rescaled for the new instrument. For example, the scales of the Swell and Antiphonal 8′ Open Diapason stops were enlarged by three and four pipes, respectively. Two of the Möller’s narrow stopped basses were replaced with new wooden pipes for a fuller sound in the 8′ octave. After the addition of seven new pipes at various points in the tenor through soprano octaves, the Möller 8′ Harmonic Flute was completely transformed into the present Antiphonal 4′ Traverse Flute.

The first portion of the chancel organ arrived in Lubbock towards the end of 2019, and a second shipment arrived in early 2020. As the full extent of Covid-19 made itself known, how to continue the organ’s installation became a preoccupation as lockdowns and international travel restrictions sidelined our company’s Québec-based organ builders. After some logistical reshuffling, we engaged a crack team led by Samantha Koch and Daniel Hancock to continue the installation in Lubbock that included the talents of Ryan Boyle, Brian Seever, and Jon Lester. (Daniel and Samantha subsequently joined our team in Québec at the end of 2020.) This last phase of the installation included the Great division and the four 16′ tin façades with their oak casework around the church’s chancel area.

Our Opus 135 is playable from two new consoles. There is a large and traditional four-manual stopknob console in the chancel, and a two-manual console in the gallery with touchscreen controls. The gallery console offers the same stop controls as its larger brother at the other end of the sanctuary, giving organists complete control of the instrument in real time. Both consoles also share the same capture system, allowing the organist to move from one end of the building to the other without concern for registrations. The system boasts 999 levels of memory, as well as an independent sixteen levels of memory for the divisional pistons. Using Solid State Organ System’s powerful MultiSystem II platform, the switching system in all four organ chambers is linked by fiber optic cable for effortlessly rapid communication. Further, the organ has SSOS’s Organist Palette, an iPad interface allowing wireless record-playback throughout the sanctuary, a transposer, and a clock with stopwatch. The Organist Palette offers controls to adjust the General piston sequencer, the various Sostenuto functions, and the point of division for the Pedal Divide feature. Both consoles also use a programmable expression matrix, a concept we borrowed from Richard Houghten, which allows all five of the organ’s expressive divisions to be interchanged between any of the consoles’ three expression pedals.

The new organ’s tonal design took shape in a comfortably English mold, based on a large and noble Great division. Split between the two chancel façades, the Great offers colorful foundation stops, an elegant 16′ principal chorus topped with a six-rank mixture, and large-scale trumpets at 8′ and 4′ pitches. The 16′ Double Diapason is extended to play as the 8′ Open Diapason No. 2; the rank’s slotted pipes are voiced for a harmonically richer timbre to contrast with the larger, more foundational Open Diapason No. 1.

The Swell offers all the dynamic and tonal range one would expect for choral works or organ repertoire. Its specification is disciplined, containing the organ’s secondary principal chorus, a richly colored string and celeste, and a lighthearted chorus of flutes. The Swell foundations smooth the buildup between the Choir and Great divisions but equally reinforce the Great in orchestrally minded registrations. The Swell’s battery of trumpets with English shallots dominates the division without stretching above their station; they enrich the Great ensemble with nuance and color.

The Choir is the tertiary division, with a range of mezzo foundations, from its slotted principals to the open Concert Flute to the delicate Lieblich Gedackt rank. The organ’s softest stops, the Erzähler and Erzähler Celeste, possess more character than a typical Flute Celeste. When used in tandem with the Echo division, the effect is an ethereal shroud over the sanctuary, ideally proportioned to introduce solo colors from the Great, Swell, or Solo. With all the harmonic vibrancy and carrying power of a solo stop, the Choir’s cornet décomposé is still controlled in power such that its mutations can reinforce the principals for smaller contrapuntal works or in alternatim passages with other divisions. Möller’s 8′ English Horn from 1954 was thoroughly revoiced, and its hollow, peaky timbre contrasts beautifully with the Swell’s warm 8′ Oboe. The new Clarinet was fitted with teardrop shallots for a slightly bolder timbre than a prototypical English example without limiting its utility. Both reeds are balanced for use in dialogue with each other against the Swell, but they too can also be strengthened with elements from the cornet.

The Solo division stands out with a strong Doppelflöte and a pair of warm reverse-tapered gambas. The 8′ Tuba pipes by A. R. Schopp’s & Sons merit special mention for their resonators’ enormous scale, as well as their early jump to harmonic length at 4′ C. The Tuba rank was revoiced on nearly seventeen inches pressure with a round, fundamental tone that works beautifully as a solo voice—especially when employed in octaves—but can also buttress the whole ensemble. It will contrast magnificently as the darker foil to the future Trompette en chamade to be installed above the rear gallery. We also added a new 16′ octave to the Tuba using shallots and heavy zinc sheets supplied by Schopp’s for seamless cohesion. Intended to give the pedals the last word in extraordinary circumstances, the 16′ Ophicleide’s effect is especially astonishing from the chancel console!

The organ’s twelve-rank Pedal division features independent metal principals at 16′, 8′, and 4′. A five-rank mixture completes the Pedal chorus, with the mixture incorporating a soft tierce rank for a subtly distinctive timbre. The pedals are reinforced by a large 16′–8′ Open Wood rank and the restored Möller 16′–8′ Subbass, as well as a 16′ Trombone and 8′ Trumpet on nearly six inches pressure. The Pedal is also augmented by four digital 32′ stops provided by Walker, including a penetrating Contra Bass, a subtle Bourdon, a vibrant Contra Trombone, and a milder Contra Fagotto, with this last voice usefully enclosed within the Swell division.

As with any Létourneau instrument, a great deal of reflection went into how Opus 135 could best serve a host of musical needs, whether it is supporting a modern worship service, accompanying a grand choral anthem, or serving as the vehicle to present the organ’s repertoire. We believe the specification bears this out. With 75 ranks and five expressive divisions, there are endless possibilities for creative registration without having to turn the instrument on its head.  Each of the main divisions is based on foundations appropriate to the space, with incisive 16′ ranks that enhance their respective choruses without opacity. At the other end of the spectrum, great attention was paid to the role of upperwork with the happy result that the mixtures and higher pitches add presence and texture without overwhelming the balance of the chorus. The overall effect is one of grandeur, cohesion, and warmth.

We have thoroughly enjoyed working with so many fine people at First United Methodist Church during the course of this thrilling project, despite some unexpected twists and turns. Our work has been greatly helped at various points along the way by Danny Johnston, Dr. Seung-Won Cho, David Warren, Keith Bell, and the Reverend Todd Salzwedel. We are also grateful to Mrs. Mary Frances Baucum and the church’s Board of Trustees who were so supportive of the organ committee’s work and recommendations.

In the broader context of the Létourneau company, our Opus 135 for First United Methodist Church is the first instrument completed under the proprietorship of Dudley Oakes (Read about this here). This pipe organ is simultaneously the logical continuation of the artistic evolution that the company was already on and a first expression of our renewed pursuit of tonal excellence. Within the company, there is a growing sense of being in a strong position. The second generation of leadership has many lessons from the past to guide us into the future while still having the freedom to advance in new and exciting directions. With several exciting projects in the years ahead, we invite you to watch this space!

—Orgues Létourneau

Builder’s website

Church’s website

GREAT – Manual II – 95mm pressure

16′ Double Diapason, 12 pipes new, extension of Open Diapason No. 2

16′ Lieblich Gedackt — from Choir

8′ Open Diapason No. 1, 61 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Open Diapason No. 2, 61 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Harmonic Flute, 61 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Salicional, 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Chimney Flute, 61 pipes new, wood and 40% tin

4′ Principal, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

4′ Open Flute, 61 pipes Schopp’s pipes

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth, 61 pipes new, 56% tin

2′ Fifteenth, 61 pipes new, 56% tin

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV–VI, 306 pipes new, 56% tin

16′ Double Trumpet — from Swell

8′ Trompette, 66 pipes, new, 56% tin

4′ Clairon, 78 pipes, new, 56% tin

8′ Tuba — from Solo

Great Sub Octave

Great Unison Off

Great Octave

Chimes (from Solo)

Zimbelstern

ANTIPHONAL (enclosed) – Manual II – 115mm pressure

16′ Contra Geigen, 12 pipes new, extension of 8′ Geigen

8′ Open Diapason, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

8′ Chimney Flute, 61 pipes Möller pipes with new wood bass

8′ Geigen, 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

4′ Principal, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

4′ Traverse Flute, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

2′ Fifteenth, 61 pipes Möller pipes

Tremulant

Antiphonal Sub Octave

Antiphonal Unison Off

Antiphonal Octave

8′ Trompette en chamade — prepared for future addition

SWELL (enclosed) – Manual III –– 115mm pressure

16′ Contra Gamba, 12 pipes new, extension of 8′ Gamba

8′ Open Diapason, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

8′ Gamba, 61 pipes Möller pipes

8′ Voix Celeste, 54 pipes from g8, Möller pipes with new zinc bass

8′ Bourdon, 61 pipes Möller pipes

4′ Principal, 61 pipes Möller pipes

4′ Harmonic Flute, 61 pipes new, 40% tin

2′ Piccolo, 61 pipes new, 40% tin

2′ Mixture III–V, 247 pipes new, 56% tin

16′ Double Trumpet, 61 pipes new, 56% tin, harmonic at c49

8′ Trumpet, 66 pipes new, 56% tin, harmonic at c37

8′ Oboe, 61 pipes new, 56% tin, capped resonators

8′ Vox Humana, 61 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Clarion, 78 pipes new, 56% tin, harmonic at c25

Tremulant

Swell Sub Octave

Swell Unison Off

Swell Octave

ECHO (enclosed) – Manual III – 115mm pressure

16′ Bourdon, 12 pipes Möller pipes, extension of 8′ Bourdon

8′ Viole de gambe, 61 pipes Möller pipes

8′ Voix Celeste, 54 pipes from g8, Möller pipes with new zinc bass

8′ Bourdon, 61 pipes Möller pipes

4′ Violon, 61 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Cor d’amour, 61 pipes Möller pipes, capped resonators

Tremulant

Echo Sub Octave

Echo Unison Off

Echo Octave

CHOIR (enclosed) – Manual I – 110mm pressure

16′ Lieblich Gedackt, 12 pipes new, extension of 8′ Lieblich Gedackt

8′ Geigen Diapason, 61 pipes Möller pipes

8′ Concert Flute, 61 pipes Casavant pipes with new treble

8′ Erzähler, 61 pipes Möller pipes

8′ Erzähler Celeste, 54 pipes from g8, new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Lieblich Gedackt, 61 pipes Möller pipes with new wood bass

4′ Geigen Principal, 61 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Koppelflöte, 61 pipes Möller pipes

2-2⁄3′ Nazard, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

2′ Flageolet, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tierce, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

1′ Fife, 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipes

8′ English Horn, 61 pipes Möller pipes

8′ Clarinet, 61 pipes new, 56% tin

Tremulant

Choir Sub Octave

Choir Unison Off

Choir Octave

8′ French Horn — from Solo

16′ Ophicleide — from Solo and Pedal

8′ Tuba — from Solo

4′ Tuba — from Solo

8′ Trompette en chamade — from Antiphonal

Harp — from Solo

SOLO (enclosed) – Manual IV – 255mm pressure

8′ Doppelflöte, 61 pipes new, wood and 40% tin

8′ Viola, 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Viola Celeste, 54 pipes from g8, new, zinc and 56% tin

Tremulant

8′ French Horn, 49 pipes from c13, new, 56% tin, 425mm pressure

8′ Tuba, 85 pipes Schopp’s pipes, 425mm pressure

Solo Sub Octave

Solo Unison Off

Solo Octave

8′ Trompette en chamade — from Antiphonal

Chimes digital Walker Technical Co.

Harp digital Walker Technical Co.

Glockenspiel digital Walker Technical Co.

PEDAL – 105mm pressure

32′ Contra Bass, digital Walker Technical Co.

32′ Contra Bourdon, digital Walker Technical Co.

16′ Open Wood, 32 pipes new, wood

16′ Open Diapason No. 1, 32 pipes new, 70% tin

16′ Open Diapason No. 2 — from Great

16′ Subbass, 32 pipes Möller pipes

16′ Gamba — from Swell

16′ Lieblich Gedackt — from Choir

8′ Open Wood, 12 pipes new, extension of 16′ Open Wood

8′ Principal, 32 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Subbass, 12 pipes Möller pipes, extension of 16′ Subbass

8′ Gamba — from Swell

8′ Lieblich Gedackt — from Choir

4′ Choral Bass, 32 pipes new, 56% tin

3-1⁄5′ Mixture V, 160 pipes new, 56% tin

32′ Contra Bombarde digital Walker Technical Co.

32′ Contra Fagotto digital enclosed with Swell, Walker Technical Co.

16′ Ophicleide 12 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin, ext. of Solo 8′ Tuba

16′ Trombone 32 pipes new, 145mm pressure

16′ Trumpet — from Swell

8′ Tuba — from Solo

8′ Trumpet 32 pipes new, 145mm pressure

4′ Tuba — from Solo

8′ Trompette en chamade — from Antiphonal

Chimes (from Solo)

ANTIPHONAL PEDAL

16′ Geigen — from Antiphonal

16′ Bourdon — from Echo

8′ Geigen — from Antiphonal

8′ Bourdon — from Echo

97 total stops; 75 ranks; 4,233 pipes

Great Mixture IV–VI

c1 to b12 19 22 26 29

c13 to b24 15 19 22 26

c25 to f#31 12 15 19 22 26

g32 to b36 8 12 15 19 22

c37 to f#43 1 8 12 15 19 22

g44 to e53 1 5 8 12 15 19

f54 to c61 1 5 8 8 12 15

Swell Mixture III–V

c1 to e17 15  19 22

f18 to b36 12 15 19 22

c37 to e41 8 12 15 19

f42 to b48 1 8 12 15 19

c49 to c61 1 8 8 12 15

Pedal Mixture V

c1 to g32 17 19 22 26 29

 

Read about Létourneau Opus 132 here.

Orgues Létourneau, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada; Market Square Presbyterian Church, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

From the builder

Market Square Presbyterian Church has long been a landmark in Pennsylvania’s capital city. The congregation was founded in 1794 and has occupied its current sanctuary since 1860. The church today is simultaneously traditional and modern, with worship services that balance thought-provoking sermons and inspiring music. Market Square Church also puts an emphasis on service, with ministries to support homeless and transient persons in downtown Harrisburg, as well as refugees and immigrants. The congregation is actively involved in a variety of social justice endeavors, supports environmental initiatives, provides hospitality to local groups, and offers a broad embrace to the LGBTQ+ community. It has been our experience that all are admirably welcome at Market Square Church.

Our first of many visits to Market Square Church was at the invitation of the church’s new minister of music, the tireless Tyler Canonico. Our broad mandate was to survey the church’s pipe organ and to present options on what could be done.

M. P. Möller’s Opus 11805 of three manuals and 83 ranks was completed in 1991, incorporating much of the church’s previous Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ from 1947 (Opus 1048). The Aeolian-Skinner had been hidden within chambers, but the Möller displayed zinc and spotted metal façade pipes in a case housing its Grand Orgue division across the back of the loft. A new Positif division was divided between two cases on the gallery rail. The organ additionally had two sizable and independently expressive Récit divisions in opposing chambers; both Récits played awkwardly from the upper manual at the console.

During that first visit, we concluded a top-to-bottom reconstruction of the organ was needed. In addition to desirable tonal improvements, the three-manual console was worn beyond redemption, and the instrument’s switching system was obsolete. The crude casework needed to be replaced with something more appropriate, but more pressing, the two organ chambers’ flimsy hardboard walls and ceilings required substantial improvement.

Our subsequent proposal recommended reusing the Möller and Aeolian-Skinner materials where possible as a measure of good stewardship. This included most of the pipework, the electro-pneumatic windchests, and some wind reservoirs. From a tonal perspective, we wanted to consolidate the instrument within the limits of what the windchests could accommodate. While a new Great and part of the Pedal would reside in a central organ case, the Möller’s Récit divisions could be brought together into a proper Swell in the east chamber. A tertiary Choir division would offer complementary colors in the west chamber, and through refashioning one of the Aeolian-Skinner windchests, a new ten-rank String division could reside under the Choir division. A small Positive division would reuse one of the chests previously on the gallery rail but would sit in front of the Choir behind the loft’s west ceiling grille.

The project we proposed was significant but at no time did we get the sense that our far-reaching ideas were unsettling to the organ study committee. The committee seemed ready for a challenge, as did the broader church in later meetings. Indeed, our discussions about renewing the pipe organ grew into a broader review of the church’s sanctuary and its acoustic, as well as the organ loft and the limitations it presented for the choir. Acoustician Dan Clayton soon joined the team, ensuring the acoustic would be improved for music without harming the spoken word. This global project at Market Square Church was spearheaded by David and Gwen Lehman over a two-year period. Their assiduous work resulted in new hardwood flooring for the sanctuary, comfortable new pews, a reconfigured choir loft, and refurbished organ chambers. Throughout the project, the organ study committee’s and the Lehmans’ efforts were supported time and time again by the church’s director of music emerita, Ellen Hunt, and the church’s senior pastor, the Reverend Tom Sweet.

The Möller pipe organ was removed and packed for shipment to our workshops in January 2020 by a team from Létourneau, along with John Carmichael of Patrick J. Murphy & Associates. Once in our workshop, our pipe makers took a complete inventory of the Möller and Aeolian-Skinner pipework, making repairs as necessary. Fellow organbuilder Randall Dyer had also helpfully provided valuable scaling information and related documentation on Opus 11805 from his M. P. Möller archive.

Several stops were rescaled as part of the project, including the Great 8′ Harmonic Flute, the Great five-rank Cornet, the Swell 8′ Viole de gambe, and the Swell 8′ Voix Celeste to better obtain these stops’ characteristic colors. Other ranks were repurposed: a Möller 8′ Flûte céleste rank now serves as the Pedal 51⁄3′ Quint while the 13⁄5′ Tierce from the Möller Positif is now the Pedal 2′ Open Flute with the addition of new bass pipes. Of the new organ’s 83 ranks, some 21 ranks came from Aeolian-Skinner’s Boston workshops and another 46 ranks were made in Hagerstown, with the final 16 ranks having been built in St-Hyacinthe.

The Aeolian-Skinner and Möller electro-pneumatic windchests were restored to like-new condition in our workshops, with new unit chests built as needed. Designed by Claude Demers, the new organ case was built by our cabinetmakers from solid maple with walnut accents. The façade displays tin pipework from the Great 8′ Open Diapason, the Pedal 8′ Principal, and most prominently, the 8′ Trompette en chamade. The pipe shades were designed in a greatly simplified Gothic style and were machined on our CNC machine.

One of the project’s surprises occurred while examining the bass of the Pedal 16′ Contrabass in our woodshop. These twelve pipes were built in pine by Aeolian-Skinner to a lean scale and voiced with large beards. Without an organ built around them, their full length was revealed to show the pipe bodies were not quite true. The pipes had been deliberately built with “bellies,” meaning the middle of the pipe body is fractionally larger than the ends. Seen more frequently in metal string pipes, the theory is the bellied construction encourages prompt speech. This discovery presented an opportunity to document these pipes and how they were constructed.

The new organ—Létourneau’s Opus 136—made its way to Harrisburg in the spring of 2021, with the installation by our team continuing into the summer. The onsite flue voicing was fully underway by September, and the work was painstakingly executed by Samantha Koch and Christopher Bono, with help at various points from Megan Farrell (of Patrick J. Murphy & Associates) and John Johnson. The final phase of the voicing, Opus 136’s twelve ranks of reeds were voiced by Michel Godbout. The voicing process was assisted by a remote keyboard placed in the center of the sanctuary’s third pew. Connected wirelessly to the Solid State Organ Systems’ switching network, the keyboard allowed us to carefully evaluate sounds from another reference point beyond the console, usefully confirming or correcting voicing decisions made from the loft.

Though completed in late October 2021, Opus 136’s first solo concert took place on February 25, 2022, with virtuoso Ken Cowan at the console. In response to works by Widor, Litaize, and Bach—as well as transcriptions of works by Saint-Saëns and Wagner—the capacity crowd’s responses were nothing short of ecstatic. Mr. Cowan also brilliantly introduced a work commissioned for the evening, the Michelangelo Fantasy by Dr. Scott H. Eggert.

— Orgues Létourneau

From the minister of music

Blessed by but not captive to a rich history, Market Square Presbyterian Church continues to serve its congregants and its community through worship and music. The major renovations of our pipe organ and sanctuary reaffirm our congregation’s commitment to the present and future of this church as a beacon of hope on the square.

When I interviewed for the post of minister of music, the Rev. Thomas Sweet told me of the church’s need to launch an organ project. After my arrival in July 2017, I soon found myself presenting to various committees the many failings of the church’s M. P. Möller organ. Co-chaired by Ellen Hunt (minister of music emerita) and me, our organ study committee interviewed several organbuilders, and we concluded that Létourneau was the best company for our project. After working with Létourneau to refine their proposal, the contract for the instrument was unanimously approved by the church’s board of trustees and session in January of 2018.

Létourneau Opus 136 reuses the best of the Aeolian-Skinner and Möller pipework to reorient the organ towards accompanying duties, leading hymn singing, and the performance of solo repertoire. Each stop was reworked and revoiced by Létourneau for remarkably cohesive choruses while assuring each stop’s musicality. On Létourneau’s recommendation, Market Square Church rebuilt the organ chambers with harder, denser surfaces to better reflect sound. Now, the full spectrum from the organ’s expressive divisions is projected into the sanctuary, especially in the bass and middle registers. With the old Positif cases removed from the loft rail, the rail itself was reconstructed to resemble the original from 1860, with minor differences to accommodate acoustical considerations and building codes.

The sanctuary renovation was occasioned by a desire to improve its acoustic for choral singing, hymnody, and the pipe organ while preserving the fine acoustic for the spoken word. This was achieved by installing a hardwood floor, with minimal carpeting in the aisles. The church took advantage of this opportunity to refresh the sanctuary with a new color scheme for the walls and ceiling, new pews with acoustically neutral cushions, and a new sound system.

Market Square Church has, from its earliest days, been located in the heart of Harrisburg, and it serves its members’ needs as well as those of the surrounding community. The church’s music ministry has been integral in this effort as a means of making God, beauty, and our shared humanity accessible to everyone, member or not. Generously underwritten by the Nedra J. Schilling Foundation, the organ project was conceived and approved under this principle as a gift to members and the community at large, now and for the future.

The members of Market Square Church as well as Harrisburg’s broader musical community have been delighted as we continue to explore the capabilities of our Létourneau pipe organ. I remain thankful to all who gave generously—especially during the pandemic—and I am grateful to the amazing team at Létourneau who delivered such an astonishing musical instrument!

—Tyler A. Canonico, Minister of Music

GREAT – Manual II – 95 mm pressure

16′ Violoncello 12 pipes extension of 8′ Violoncello

8′ Open Diapason 61 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Harmonic Flute 61 pipes Möller and new pipework

8′ Violoncello 61 pipes Möller pipework

8′ Chimney Flute 61 pipes 1–12 Möller, 13–61 Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Principal 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Open Flute 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Mixture V 305 pipes Möller and new pipework

1′ Sharp Mixture IV 244 pipes Möller and new pipework

8′ Grand Cornet V 220 pipes c13 through g56, rescaled Möller pipework

16′ Double Trumpet 61 pipes 1–12 Möller, 13–61 Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Trumpet 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Clarion 61 pipes Möller pipework

Great 16′

Great Unison Off

Great 4′

8′ Trompette en chamade 66 pipes new, 70% tin (140 mm pressure)

Zimbelstern I 6 bells

Zimbelstern II 8 bells

Nachtigal

Chimes from Choir

SWELL (enclosed) – Manual III – 125 mm pressure

8′ Open Diapason 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Flûte traversière 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Viole de gambe 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipework

8′ Voix Celeste 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipework with new bass

8′ Lieblich Gedackt 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Principal 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Flûte octaviante 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Octavin 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Mixture III–V 259 pipes Möller pipework with new

16′ Fagotto 61 pipes 1–24 Aeolian-Skinner, 25–61 Möller pipework

8′ Trumpet 66 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Oboe 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Vox Humana 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Clarion 78 pipes new, 56% tin

Tremulant

Swell 16′

Swell Unison Off

Swell 4′

16′ Trompette en chamade (TC) from Great

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

STRING (enclosed) – floating – 285 mm pressure

16′ Contre Viole 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Viole d’orchestre 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Viole Celeste 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Dulciana 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Unda maris 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Viole octaviante 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

4′ Dulcet 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

31⁄5′ Chœur des violes III 183 pipes new, 56% tin

Tremulant

Echo Chimes from Positive

Harp from Choir

CHOIR (enclosed) – Manual I – 110 mm pressure

16′ Bourdon 12 pipes extension of 8′ Bourdon (Möller pipework)

8′ Geigen Diapason 61 pipes Möller pipework

8′ Bourdon 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Gemshorn 61 pipes Möller pipework

2-2⁄3′ Nazard 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Flageolet 61 pipes Möller pipework

1-3⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes Möller pipework

8′ Clarinet 61 pipes Möller pipework

Tremulant

8′ Tuba 61 pipes Möller pipework (350 mm pressure)

Choir 16′

Choir Unison Off

Choir 4′

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Chimes digital Walker Technical Co.

Harp digital Walker Technical Co.

Glockenspiel digital Walker Technical Co.

POSITIVE – Manual IV – 85 mm pressure

8′ Stopped Diapason 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Koppelflöte 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes Möller pipework

1-1⁄3′ Larigot 61 pipes Möller pipework

1-1⁄3′ Tierce Mixture V 305 pipes Möller and new pipework

8′ Cremona 61 pipes new, 56% tin

Tremulant

Positive 16′

Positive Unison Off

Positive 4′

16′ Tuba (TC) from Choir

8′ Tuba from Choir

16′ Trompette en chamade (TC) from Great

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Echo Chimes digital Walker Technical Co.

Glockenspiel from Choir

PEDAL – 142 mm and 120 mm pressure

32′ Contra Geigen digital Walker Technical Co.

32′ Contra Bourdon digital Walker Technical Co.

16′ Contrabass 32 pipes 1–12 Aeolian-Skinner, 13–32 Möller pipework

16′ Violoncello from Great

16′ Subbass 32 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

16′ Viole d’orchestre from String

16′ Bourdon from Choir

8′ Principal 32 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Spitzflöte 32 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Violoncello from Great

8′ Bourdon from Choir

5-1⁄3′ Quint 32 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Choral Bass 32 pipes rescaled Möller pipework

4′ Spitzflöte 12 pipes extension of 8′ Spitzflöte

2′ Open Flute 32 pipes rescaled Möller pipework

2-2⁄3′ Mixture IV 128 pipes Möller pipework

32′ Contra Bombarde digital Walker Technical Co.

32′ Contra Fagotto 12 pipes extension of Swell 16′ Fagotto

16′ Bombarde 32 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework (150 mm w.p.)

16′ Fagotto from Swell

8′ Bombarde 12 pipes extension of 16′ Bombarde

4′ Bombarde 12 pipes extension of 8′ Bombarde

8′ Tuba from Choir

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Chimes from Choir

Echo Chimes from Positive

Orage Walker Technical Co.

Intermanual Couplers

Great to Pedal Great 4′ to Pedal

Swell to Pedal Swell 4′ to Pedal

Choir to Pedal Choir 4′ to Pedal

Positive to Pedal Positive 4′ to Pedal

String to Pedal String 4′ to Pedal

Swell 16′ to Great Swell to Great Swell 4′ to Great

Choir 16′ to Great Choir to Great Choir 4′ to Great

Positive 16′ to Great Positive to Great Positive 4′ to Great

String 16′ to Great String to Great String 4′ to Great

Swell 16′ to Choir Swell to Choir Swell 4′ to Choir

Positive 16′ to Choir Positive to Choir Positive 4′ to Choir

String 16′ to Choir String to Choir String 4′ to Choir

String 16′ to Swell String to Swell String 4′ to Swell

Positive 16′ to Swell Positive to Swell Positive 4′ to Swell

Choir to Swell

Great to Positive

Swell to Positive

Choir to Positive

String to Positive

Mixture Compositions

Great Mixture V

c1 to b12 15 19 22 26 29

c13 to b24 12 15 19 22 26

c25 to b36 8 12 15 19 22

c37 to g44 1 8 12 15 19

g#44 to c61 1 5 8 12 15

Great Sharp Mixture IV

c1 to b12 22 26 29 33

c13 to a22 19 22 26 29

a#23 to g#33 15 19 22 26

a34 to f42 12 15 19 22

f#43 to d#52 8 12 15 19

e53 to c61 1 8 12 15

Swell Mixture III–IV

c1 to e17 15 19 22

f18 to e29 12 15 19 22

f30 to e41 8 12 15 19 22

f42 to c49 1 8 12 15 19

c#50 to c61 1 5 8 12 15

Positive Tierce Mixture V

c1 to c#14 19 22 24 26 29

d15 to e29 15 19 22 24 26

f30 to g44 12 15 17 19 22

g#44 to d51 8 12 15 17 19

d#52 to c61 1 8 10 12 15

String Choeur des violes III

c1 to c49 10 12 15

c#50 to f54 8 10 12

f#55 to g#57 5 8 10

a58 to c61 3 5 8

Pedal Mixture IV

c1 to g32 19 22 26 29

 

83 total stops, 83 ranks, 4,683 pipes

 

Builder’s website: www.letourneauorgans.com

 

Church’s website: www.marketsquarechurch.org

 

Photo credits:

Cover and page 22: Ollie Silver

Trompette-en-chamade and console: Don Giles

Remaining photos: Orgues Létourneau

Létourneau Pipe Organs, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada; Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

From the builder

New pipe organs are certainly cause for celebration, and a new pipe organ in a concert hall setting is especially worthy. Its visual presence reminds concert goers of the organ’s existence outside the church walls and acknowledges the instrument’s pride of place when it comes to acoustic music. The concert hall also presents unique opportunities for organists to add magic to almost any kind of musical presentation. With their new 81-rank Létourneau instrument, Brigham Young University is poised to reap the benefits that only a pipe organ can provide.

Discussions began in 2019 between BYU and Létourneau Pipe Organs about a new pipe organ for their forthcoming concert hall. The design was largely complete at that time, and the hall today is the core of BYU’s new music building. Compared with the classic shoebox-shaped concert hall, this venue’s vineyard-style architecture places the stage closer to the center of the hall such that no seat is more than fifteen rows from the stage. Behind and above the stage is the organ chamber, within which now resides Létourneau’s Opus 100. Its 45-foot-wide wooden façade was made from rift-sawn oak and walnut with vertical maple accents. Nestled into the casework are 93 speaking tin pipes taken from the bass octaves of the Great 16′ Double Open Diapason, the Great 8′ First Open Diapason, the Pedal 16′ First Open Diapason, and the Pedal 8′ Principal stops.

The university’s organists, Don Cook and Neil Harmon, expressed a desire for an instrument in English Town Hall style. To explain, it became customary from the mid-nineteenth century into the early-twentieth century for cities and towns in the United Kingdom to install significant pipe organs in their civic auditoriums, as well as to engage civic organists to perform on them. These instruments—along with the technological advancements they ushered in—facilitated the development of complex orchestral transcriptions by organists W. T. Best, G. D. Cunningham, and Edwin H. Lemare, among others.

Many of these instruments still exist in places like Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Rochdale, Reading, Sheffield, and Ulster, not to mention London’s Royal Albert Hall. While each reflects its builder’s distinct tonal approach, they are broadly similar in style and can comfortably present the organ’s core repertoire on their own terms. They are just as adept at presenting colorful orchestral transcriptions or at standing in for an orchestra to accompany massed choirs. With due care when registering, these instruments are at ease with a Bach fugue, a Mendelssohn sonata, a Franck chorale, a Vierne symphony, a transcription of a Wagner overture, or fulfilling the organ part in Holst’s The Planets.

Our tonal plan for Opus 100 follows an established recipe: The organ features two distinct open diapasons on the Great, as well as open diapasons in the Swell and Choir divisions. The Great principal chorus is based on a 16′ Double Open Diapason with multiple mixtures to suit the desired effect; the Great is completed by a battery of trumpets on eight inches of wind. The Swell duplicates the Great in many ways but on a smaller scale, while the instrument’s more delicate effects are found in the Choir. The Solo division offers a powerful wooden flute stop, a briny pair of narrow-scale violes d’orchestre, and two orchestrally inspired reed stops. Brawny might be a good adjective for the Pedal division, with its two 32′ flue stops, a 16′-8′ Open Wood rank, and a compelling reed chorus from 32′ through 4′.

With the certainty that the organ would be heard alongside one of BYU’s many symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, or choral ensembles, additional fortifications are present in the form of two high-pressure tuba ranks. The first, the 16′-8′-4′ Tuba unit stop in Solo division, is voiced at just under fifteen inches of pressure and, with its smooth golden tone, can serve as the ultimate chorus reed for the manuals and pedal to bulk up the instrument’s sonic presence. The other, the 8′ Tuba mirabilis in the Choir, speaks on nineteen inches of wind and contrasts with more “point” in its timbre.

One of the parameters established from the outset was that the instrument would feature a console attached to the façade with mechanical key actions, as well as another console at stage level playing the instrument through entirely electric actions. Because of the substantial wind pressures required to fill the auditorium and concerns about the weight of the key actions, the attached console has been provided with Kowalyshyn Servo Pneumatic Levers to ensure the key actions remain responsive and proportional. Ensuring flexibility, both consoles offer a full complement of sub octave, unison, and octave couplers and a comprehensive system of pistons for up to 99 users with 64 memory levels each.

The designation of this instrument as Létourneau’s Opus 100 merits explanation as it continues a company practice wherein significant opus numbers are reserved for grand instruments that represent something of a tour de force. The first such instrument was the company’s Opus 50 completed at the Francis Winspear Centre of Music in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 2002. There are similarities between Opus 50 and Opus 100: Both are large instruments that amply fill their respective concert hall with sound. In both cases, the pipe organ can be played from two consoles, with one attached to the instrument’s casework and the other moveable at stage level.

A pipe organ was always an integral part of BYU’s vision for its new concert hall, and we trust that this new and significant instrument will fulfill the university’s aspirations. It is humbling to think of the music that will come forth from Opus 100 from countless students, from BYU’s faculty, and from guest artists. Outside of solo presentations, there are also the many choirs that will be accompanied, or the orchestras and other ensembles that will be enriched, by the pipe organ’s unmistakable presence.

The entire Létourneau team is honored to have been selected to build this instrument and for our work to be associated with Brigham Young University into the future. It has been our pleasure to have worked with many fine people from BYU over the last five years, including Dean Ed Adams, Ray Bernier, Don Cook, Travis Dance, Jeremy Grimshaw, and Neil Harmon. We are grateful for their trust, for their patience, and for their unwavering support in our pursuit of artistic excellence.

—Andrew Forrest

From the musicians

Over many decades, the Brigham Young University organ program has enjoyed excellent practice facilities for organ majors and an organ lab for non-major organ study. However, access to a good concert organ has been difficult.

Moving to a new music building in 2023 created an opportunity to equip a 1,000-seat concert hall with a new pipe organ. The directors of our ensembles wanted an excellent instrument, and of course the organ faculty was poised to help bring a first-class organ to BYU.

A university organ committee was involved in the early stages of the new building’s design. We proposed an organ with two consoles—a tracker console in the façade and a movable console on the stage. An organ leaning in an English Romantic direction was proposed, to complement the French Romantic, Germanic, and American Classic organs in Salt Lake City.

Visits to several organs crafted by Létourneau in 2011 and 2019 led to a contract for a new four-manual, 81-rank instrument based on an English town hall scheme. The façade, designed by Létourneau with input from a BYU design committee, was to reflect the jagged-mountaintop theme echoed throughout the building. The terraced stage console allows easy view of the ensemble directors. The vineyard-style hall produces about two seconds of reverberation.

Organ alumni attended a conference underwritten by Marjorie Volkel following the organ dedicatory recital by Durham Cathedral organist Daniel Cook on October 25, 2024. One can imagine the joy they feel over their alma mater finally acquiring a concert organ that measures up to our active educational programs.

Current students are ecstatic over the new arrival and can access it regularly for practice, lessons, and performances. Although the new organ is located in a multi-use hall, administrators provide as much access as possible.

The inaugural season of performances includes solo recitals by faculty, alumni, and Salt Lake Tabernacle organists. Several choral and orchestral performances are scheduled, including the premiere of a new major work for women’s chorus and organ by Daniel Gawthrop. A community hymn sing is also scheduled.

The BYU community is set to enjoy the warmth, beauty, and power of this world-class organ for generations. We appreciate the university, the College of Fine Arts and Communications, the School of Music, and Létourneau Organs with Andrew Forrest for working together so nicely in the creation of this beautiful concert organ.

—Neil Harmon and Don Cook

Brigham Young University organ faculty

 

Builder’s website: www.letourneauorgans.com/

University website: http://cfac.byu.edu/organ

Inaugural season of events: organ.byu.edu/concert-hall-series/

Cover photo: Nate Edwards / BYU Photo

 

GREAT – Manual II – 130mm pressure

16′ Double Open Diapason, 61 pipes, 70% tin

8′ First Open Diapason, 61 pipes, 70% tin

8′ Second Open Diapason, 61 pipes, 56% tin

8′ Harmonic Flute, 61 pipes, wood and 56% tin, harmonic @ g32

8′ Viola di gamba, 61 pipes, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Stopped Diapason, 61 pipes, wood and 40% tin

4′ Principal, 61 pipes, 56% tin

4′ Open Flute, 68 pipes, 40% tin

2 2⁄3′ Twelfth, 61 pipes, 56% tin

2′ Fifteenth, 61 pipes, 56% tin

1 3⁄5′ Seventeenth, 61 pipes, 56% tin

2 2⁄3′ Grand Mixture II–III, 159 pipes, 12-15, 56% tin

1 1⁄3′ Mixture IV, 244 pipes, 19-22-26-29, 56% tin

1⁄2′ Sharp Mixture 183 pipes, 29-33-36, 56% tin

16′ Contra Posaune 61 pipes 56% tin, harmonic @ f#43, 205mm pressure

8′ Trumpet 68 pipes 56% tin, harmonic @ f#31, 205mm pressure

4′ Clarion 68 pipes 56% tin, harmonic @ f#19, 205mm pressure

Great 16, Great Unison Off, Great 4

8′ Tuba mirabilis (Choir)

Cymbelstern

Nachtigall

SWELL (enclosed) – Manual III – 140mm pressure

16′ Contra Gamba, 61 pipes, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Open Diapason, 61 pipes, 56% tin

8′ Concert Flute, 61 pipes, wood and 56% tin

8′ Gamba, 61 pipes, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Voix Celeste, 54 pipes from g8, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Bourdon, 61 pipes, wood and 40% tin

4′ Principal, 61 pipes, 56% tin

4′ Flauto Traverso, 61 pipes, 40% tin

2′ Fifteenth, 61 pipes, 56% tin

2′ Piccolo Harmonique, 61 pipes, 40% tin

11⁄3′ Mixture III–IV, 232 pipes, 19-22-26, 56% tin

16′ Double Trumpet, 61 pipes, 56% tin, harmonic @ c49

8′ Trumpet, 66 pipes, 56% tin, harmonic @ c37

8′ Oboe, 61 pipes, 56% tin, capped resonators

8′ Vox Humana, 61 pipes, 56% tin, capped resonators

4′ Clairon, 78 pipes, 56% tin, harmonic @ c25

Tremulant

Swell 16, Swell Unison Off, Swell 4

CHOIR (enclosed) – Manual I – 115mm pressure

16′ Lieblich Gedact, 61 pipes, wood and 40% tin

8′ Geigen Diapason, 61 pipes, 56% tin

8′ Rohr Flute, 61 pipes, wood and 40% tin

8′ Dulciana, 61 pipes, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Vox Angelica, 54 pipes from g8, zinc and 56% tin

4′ Fugara, 61 pipes, 56% tin

4′ Koppel Flute, 61 pipes, 40% tin

2 2⁄3′ Nazard, 61 pipes, 40% tin

2′ Gemshorn, 61 pipes, 56% tin

1 3⁄5′ Tierce, 61 pipes, 40% tin

1 1⁄3′ Larigot, 61 pipes, 40% tin

1′ Mixture III, 183 pipes, 22-26-29, 56% tin

16′ Contra Fagotto, 61 pipes, 56% tin

8′ Trumpet, 66 pipes, 56% tin

8′ Cremona, 61 pipes, new, zinc and 56% tin

Tremulant

Choir 16, Choir Unison Off, Choir 4

8′ Tuba mirabilis, 61 pipes, 56% tin, harmonic @ f#19, 495mm pressure

Great Reeds on Choir

SOLO (enclosed) – Manual IV – 280mm pressure

8′ Flauto mirabilis, 61 pipes, wood

8′ Viole d’orchestre, 61 pipes, zinc and 70% tin

8′ Viole Celeste, 54 pipes from g8, zinc and 70% tin

8′ Clarinet, 61 pipes, 56% tin

8′ English Horn, 61 pipes, zinc and 56% tin

Tremulant

16′ Contra Tuba, 12 pipes ext of 8′ Tuba, 56% tin, 400mm pressure

8′ Tuba, 61 pipes, 56% tin, 400mm pressure

4′ Tuba Clarion, 24 pipes ext of 8′ Tuba, 56% tin, 400mm pressure

Choir 16, Choir Unison Off, Choir 4

8′ Tuba mirabilis (Choir)

Chimes 37 notes Walker digital voice

Harp 61 notes Walker digital voice

Glockenspiel 61 notes Walker digital voice

Great Reeds on Solo

PEDAL – 150mm pressure

32′ Double Open Diapason, 12 pipes ext of 16′ Open Diapason, wood, Haskell construction

32′ Contra Bourdon, 12 pipes ext of 16′ Bourdon, wood

16′ Open Wood, 32 pipes, wood

16′ First Open Diapason, 32 pipes, 70% tin

16′ Second Open Diapason (Great)

16′ Bourdon, 32 pipes, wood

16′ Gamba (Swell)

16′ Lieblich Gedact (Choir)

10 2⁄3′ Grand Quint, 32 pipes, 56% tin

8′ Open Wood, 12 pipes ext of 16′ Open Wood, wood

8′ Principal, 32 pipes, 70% tin

8′ Spitz Flute, 32 pipes, 56% tin

4′ Choral Bass, 32 pipes, 56% tin

2 2⁄3′ Mixture IV, 128 pipes, 19-22-26-29, 56% tin

32′ Contra Posaune, 12 pipes ext of Gt 16′ Contra Posaune, zinc and 56% tin, 225mm pressure

16′ Tuba (Solo)

16′ Trombone, 32 pipes, 56% tin, 205mm pressure

16′ Fagotto (Choir)

8′ Tuba (Solo)

8′ Trumpet, 32 pipes, 56% tin, 205mm pressure

4′ Tuba Clarion (Solo)

4′ Clarion, 32 pipes, 56% tin, 205mm pressure

8′ Tuba mirabilis (Choir)

Great Reeds on Choir

Pedal Divide

82 stops; 81 ranks; 4,608 pipes

 

Couplers

Great to Pedal 8, 4

Swell to Pedal 8, 4

Choir to Pedal 8, 4

Solo to Pedal 8, 4

Swell to Great 16, 8, 4

Choir to Great 16, 8, 4

Solo to Great 16, 8, 4

Swell to Choir 16, 8, 4

Solo to Choir 16, 8, 4

Solo to Swell

Great to Solo

Swell to Solo

Choir to Solo

 

Consoles

• One four-manual and pedal console in the en fenêtre position with mechanical key actions and Kowalyshyn Servo Pneumatic Lever machines.

• One four-manual and pedal moveable console at stage level with electric actions.

• Common combination action between consoles for up to 100 users and 64 levels of memory per user. 8 Great pistons, 8 Swell pistons, 8 Choir pistons, 6 Solo pistons, 8 Pedal pistons and 16 General pistons, as well as multiple Next and Previous pistons.

Mixture Compositions

Great Grand Mixture II–III

c1 to b12 12 15

c13 to b24 8 12

c25 to b36 1 5 8

c37 to f#43 -5 1 5

g44 to c61 -8 -5 1

Great Mixture IV

c1 to b12 19 22 26 29

c13 to f#19 15 19 22 26

g20 to f#31 12 15 19 22

g32 to f#43 8 12 15 19

g44 to c61 1 8 12 15

Great Sharp Mixture III

c1 to g#9 29 33 36

a10 to f18 26 29 33

f#19 to d27 22 26 29

e28 to b36 19 22 26

c37 to g#45 15 19 22

a46 to e53 12 15 19

f54 to c61 8 12 15

Swell Mixture III

c1 to b12 19 22 26

c13 to b24 15 19 22 26

c25 to e41 12 15 19 22

f42 to d51 8 12 15 19

d#52 to c61 1 8 12 15

Choir Mixture III

c1 to a10 22 26 29

a#11 to g20 19 22 26

g#21 to f30 15 19 22

f#31 to d#40 12 15 19

e41 to c61 8 12 15

Pedal Mixture IV

c1 to g32 19 22 26 29

Létourneau Pipe Organs, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada; Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church is a large, welcoming ELCA congregation founded in 1908. Serving the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, the church opened its present sanctuary in 1952 with subsequent additions to the church complex to accommodate the congregation’s growth and needs. An unusually active congregation, Gloria Dei undertakes its outreach and social justice ministries enthusiastically through various environmental, housing, hunger, and advocacy initiatives.

The pipe organ from Gloria Dei’s previous church building served the new sanctuary until it was replaced in 1962 by M. P. Möller’s Opus 9864. A three-manual instrument, the Möller employed significant unification throughout its modest specification, making the very most of its 36 ranks. The small and oddly shaped organ chamber dictated that the Möller had to be shoehorned in to a rarely seen degree. With chamber openings along one side of the chancel, most organ tone passed laterally across the chancel where it was then reflected off the opposite wall and dispersed out to the nave—but not before first passing through the deep chancel arch. As a result, the Möller was barely adequate for its many roles and was augmented in 1975 with the addition of an eight-rank Antiphonal division high on the back wall of the sanctuary, again by M. P. Möller.

After more than five decades of service, the Möller’s electro-pneumatic windchests were exhibiting typical signs of wear and leather failure, but the cramped organ chamber made chest repairs unreasonably difficult and costly. Cleverly, a unit chest was set up as an interim solution at the back of the Swell division to serve as a catchall for dead note actions as they came up. Pipes whose actions had failed were plucked from their original chests, reset on the unit chest at the back of the chamber, and the unit chest wired accordingly to the switching system.

The accelerating frequency of problems with the Möller was a serious issue, but the organ’s compromised location meant that a complete restoration—or even an all-new instrument in the same chamber—would not provide the improvement Gloria Dei was seeking. As part of their deliberations, the Gloria Dei organ committee looked carefully at all options as far as the organ’s placement and soon determined that the organ should go across the front wall of the chancel. Exceptionally, the organ committee’s discernment process blossomed into a larger sanctuary renewal campaign entitled “Rise, O Church.” In the words of Pastor Bradley Schmeling, “Rise, O Church is more than just buying a new organ or doing some remodeling. It’s about our dedication to be a growing, vibrant congregation ready to meet the needs of future generations and our neighboring community.”

In the meantime, Létourneau had been advertising a 1959 Casavant Frères pipe organ that the company had rescued from a closed church in Toronto, Ontario. The advertisement proposed completing the Casavant’s specification with several new stops, and this caught the attention of Gloria Dei’s organ consultant, Gregory Peterson, then of Luther College, and Tim Strand, Gloria Dei’s director of music.

The Casavant was an early instrument in Lawrence Phelps’s tenure as tonal director and displayed some of the first steps in the profound and rapid change of style Phelps oversaw in Casavant Frères organs. Vestiges from the era predating Phelps include the 16′ Flûte conique and the 8′ Aeoline stops in the Swell plus an augmented Pedal division. On the other hand, the Choir 4′ Koppelflöte, the organ’s narrow-scaled reed stops with parallel shallots, the generally thin-walled pipework, and the boldly scaled upperwork were examples of Phelps’s emerging aesthetic. As the Casavant featured no casework or façade pipes, our advertisement also offered new casework with façade pipes for the expanded instrument.

With the Casavant’s 34-rank specification as a starting point, we expanded the instrument with eighteen additional ranks to complete each of the instrument’s four divisions. To the Great division, we added a 16′ Contra Geigen stop and a soaring 8′ Flûte harmonique, as well as trumpet stops at 8′ and 4′ pitches. The Swell division was already largely complete; the only changes were the replacement of the 8′ Aeoline with a proper 4′ Principal stop and the addition of a new 16′ Bombarde stop with full-length resonators scaled to match the 8′ Trompette and 4′ Clairon.

Devised in an era when Positiv divisions were coming into fashion, the original Choir division was judged to be short on 8′ foundation tone. The addition of new 8′ Geigen Principal and 4′ Geigen Octave stops addressed this point, as well as the new undulating rank to go with the 8′ Spitzflöte. A new three-rank Sharp mixture completes the Choir’s principal chorus, offering more brilliance than its counterparts in the Swell. To augment the existing Swell 8′ Oboe and Choir 8′ Clarinet stops, we added a delicate 8′ Cor anglais as a third solo reed option.

The Pedal division was built on a rich-toned 16′ Contrabass stop in zinc, though it was originally extended to play at 8′ and 4′ pitches. The original 8′ extension of the 16′ Subbass rank was maintained, but new 8′ Principal and 4′ Choral Bass ranks plus a three-rank mixture were added to provide a true pedal chorus. Bold reed stops at 16′ and 8′ were also added to give the Pedal the necessary grandeur and color.

The Casavant electro-pneumatic windchests in solid mahogany were restored in our workshops, with new electro-pneumatic chests provided as needed. The original chests’ 68-note compass was retained and carried over into the new windchests as well. The organ’s painted casework was designed by Claude Demers and was constructed from maple; it features polished pipework in 70% tin from the Great 16′ Contra Geigen, the Great 8′ Principal, and the Pedal 8′ Principal ranks.

The eight-rank Antiphonal division and its 8′ Trompette en chamade with polished brass resonators were retained as part of the project for added support from the rear of the nave. The Möller electro-pneumatic windchests were restored, while the Antiphonal’s wind system was rebuilt to incorporate a new blower.

The instrument is played from a new three-manual console with the shell made from rift sawn red oak and the interior panels in walnut. Built to be as compact as possible for good sightlines, the console offers organists 999 levels of memory, twelve General pistons with sequencer, a sostenuto effect for each manual, a Great-Choir Manual Transfer feature, and a Pedal Divide coupler. Numeric displays showing the positions of the Swell and Choir’s expression shades are included, as is Solid State Organ System’s Organist Palette. An iPad-controlled suite of features, the palette includes a wireless record-playback interface, visual management of the General piston sequencer, a transposer, and control of the various sostenutos and the Pedal Divide coupler.

The organ was delivered to the church in late October of 2022 and was installed in collaboration with the Organ Clearing House. The voicing of the instrument commenced after Thanksgiving with the welcome participation of Jonathan Ortloff for several weeks, and the project was wrapped up in the New Year.

Létourneau’s Opus 137 was played by Tim Strand in its first solo concert on April 23, 2023. Seminal works by Cook, Bach, Duruflé, and Vierne were heard by a large and especially enthusiastic crowd, as were the world premieres of two new pieces. The first, Partita on “Rise O Church, like Christ Arisen” by David Cherwien, is based on the hymn of the same name, tune Surge Ecclesia (written by Mr. Strand), and featuring words written by Dr. Chewien’s late wife Susan. The second work was a rich new setting of the Swedish tune “The Earth Adorned in Verdant Robe” for saxophone and organ by Robert Buckley Farlee, with Kurt Claussen playing the soprano saxophone.

Many people played important roles—some visible, some less so—in helping us and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church realize this organ project. We would like to thank Tim Strand, Gregory Peterson, Pastor Bradley Schmeling, Mike Kruger (chair of Gloria Dei’s Sanctuary Renewal Task Force), Teresa Sterns (project manager for Gloria Dei), Todd Kraft and Sara Du of HGA Architects, the team at Langer Construction, the Organ Clearing House, and the Ortloff Organ Company.

—Létourneau Pipe Organs

Photo credit: Andrew Forrest

 

GREAT – Manual II

16′ Contra Geigen 68 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Principal 68 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Harmonic Flute 68 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Gemshorn 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Bourdon 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

4′ Octave 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

4′ Rohrflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV 244 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Trumpet 68 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Clarion 68 pipes new, 56% tin

Great 16′ - Great Unison Off - Great 4′

8′ Trompette en chamade 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework (with Antiphonal)

Zimbelstern

SWELL (enclosed) – Manual III

16′ Flûte conique 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Viole de gambe 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Voix Celeste 61 pipes from g8, Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Rohrflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

4′ Principal 68 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Nachthorn 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Piccolo 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Mixture III 183 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

16′ Bombarde 68 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Trompette 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Oboe 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework, new shallots

4′ Clairon 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

Tremulant

Swell 16′ - Swell Unison Off - Swell 4′

CHOIR (enclosed) – Manual I

8′ Geigen Diapason 68 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Gedackt 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Spitzflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Flute Celeste 61 pipes from g8, new, zinc and 56% tin

4′ Geigen Principal 68 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Koppelflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2-2⁄3′ Nazard 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Flageolet 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

1-3⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

1′ Sharp Mixture III 183 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Clarinet 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Cor anglais 68 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

Tremulant

Choir 16′ - Choir Unison Off - Choir 4′

16′ Trompette en chamade (TC) from Great

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

ANTIPHONAL – floating

8′ Spitz Principal 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

4′ Octave 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

4′ Gedackt 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

2′ Super Octave 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

1′ Mixture III 183 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

PEDAL

32′ Resultant derived

16′ Contrabass 32 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

16′ Geigen from Great

16′ Spitz Principal 12 pipes extension of Antiphonal 8′ Spitz Principal

16′ Subbass 32 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

16′ Flûte conique from Swell

8′ Principal 32 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Bass Flute 12 pipes extension of 16′ Subbass

8′ Flûte conique from Swell

4′ Choral Bass 32 pipes new, 56% tin

2-2⁄3′ Mixture III 96 pipes new, 56% tin

16′ Trombone 32 pipes new, 56% tin

16′ Bombarde from Swell

8′ Trumpet 32 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

4′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Intermanual Couplers

Great to Pedal

Great 4′ to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Swell 4′ to Pedal

Choir to Pedal

Choir 4′ to Pedal

Antiphonal to Pedal

Swell 16′ to Great

Swell to Great

Swell 4′ to Great

Choir 16′ to Great

Choir to Great

Choir 4′ to Great

Antiphonal to Great 

Swell 16′ to Choir

Swell to Choir

Swell 4′ to Choir

Great to Choir

Antiphonal to Choir

Choir to Swell

Antiphonal to Swell 

 

59 stops, 60 ranks, 3,591 pipes

 

Mixture Compositions

Great Mixture IV

c1 to b12 19 22 26 29

c13 to b24 15 19 22 26

c25 to f42 12 15 19 22

f#43 to b48 8 12 15 19

c49 to c61 1 8 12 15

Swell Mixture III

c1 to f18 15 19 22

f#19 to f30 12 15 19

f#31 to f54 8 12 15

f#55 to c61 1 8 12

Choir Sharp Mixture III

c1 to d#16 22 26 29

e17 to d27 19 22 26

d#28 to c#38 15 19 22

d39 to c49 12 15 19

c#50 to c61 8 12 15

Antiphonal Mixture III

c1 to f18 22 26 29

f#19 to c37 19 22 26

c#38 to c49 15 19 22

c#50 to e53 12 15 19

f54 to c61 8 12 15

Pedal Mixture III

c1 to g32 19 22 26

 

Builder website: www.letourneauorgans.com

Church website: www.gloriadeistpaul.org

The First Church, UCC, Nashua, New Hampshire

Austin Organs, Inc., Hartford, Connecticut, Opus 1406

From the Minister of Music and Consultant

When I was appointed Minister of Music in 2008, the organ was to be on the docket for a long-anticipated restoration early in my tenure. Upon learning about the vision for this instrument that was started under Dr. Robin Dinda, FAGO, in the early 1990s, two things were clear: the Young Memorial Console built by Austin in 1996 prepared the organ for significant expansion, and a new floating Solo division was to be part of this vision.

Over the years, attempts were made to undo tonal changes from the 1970s and 1980s (primarily light upperwork in the Great), which sacrificed some of the instrument’s most beautiful original softer stops. At some point in the past two decades, the original enclosed Great 8′ Gemshorn (once stored inside the organ casework) disappeared, as well as the original 8′ Harmonic Tuba. A significant, but somewhat misguided change to the entire Great division in the early 2000s continued to take the instrument away from its original symphonic roots. The “return” to these 1926 roots ultimately became the basis for our church’s $2.3 million Capital Campaign for Ministry, Music, and Mission in 2014.

This vision would be to restore the organ to its 1926 tonal specification and nomenclature and add new upperwork, scaled and voiced in typical 1920s Austin character. The original tonal design had no mixtures or mutations and only one 2′ stop (in the Swell). The existing stewardship of our 1996 three-manual console guided us in adding the prepared floating Solo division, with an eye toward more liturgical function rather than tonal tradition. In effect, we now have a III/47 versatile main instrument, with a 13-rank Solo (with two composite stops) bringing the total rank count to 60—an instrument easily suited for four manuals, but keeping former stewardship and sightline considerations in check for a three-manual console, with many options.

The Solo was designed with double-sided nave and chancel sets of swell shades. This allows use of the Solo division not only as a powerful solo voice (or part of the greater organ ensemble) but also adds the possibility of accompanying a choir from that area of the sanctuary with closed shades and Pedal stop additions. Consequently, the new division also assists our 5-octave bell choir, through a tonal reference closer to their placement in the church.

Austin concentrated on securing Austin (or similar) pipework from the original era, and where vintage pipes could not be sourced, Austin provided new pipework made to patterns Austin used in the 1920s. As a result, we have a thrilling instrument with a 21st-century eye towards its 1926 heritage—an impressive, warm sound over six divisions, and one of the most flexible accompanying instruments in Northern New England. Four celestes (three string and one flute) add wonderful warmth. Original color stops like the Vox Humana and vintage Harp (and classic fan tremulants) deliver sounds of yesteryear. The organ features complete string, flute, and diapason ensembles, with reeds (some independent and some unit treatments), and has retained the original two full-length 16′ reeds under expression! The versatility of the instrument is astounding, especially when one utilizes sub/super-coupling and unisons off. The return of 23 ranks of extension octaves (73 notes) provides a thrilling shimmer that can compete with the best of Boston’s local craze with Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner.

Two of the organ’s returned softest stops, the Swell 8′ Echo Salicional, (1930 Midmer-Losh) and the Enclosed Great 8′ Gemshorn  (1925 Austin) have added sensitive softer dynamics, which now allow the instrument to offer every variation from ppp to ffff. Masterful tonal finishing led by Daniel Kingman, Austin’s senior voicer and associate tonal director, truly kept everything warm, lush, and never shrill. Full organ never “screams.” Additions to the instrument include the three-rank Solo Vox Seraphique (15th, 17th, 19th), a 1924-vintage harmonics stop that is designed to pair with the Major Gamba and Celeste to create a unique shimmer and color combination; this is a rare effect found in perhaps only a very small handful of instruments. The large-scaled Mounted Cornet IV in the Solo is designed to pair with the Solo’s Doppelflute, and also pairs with the new linen-lead pattern, leather-lipped Grand Diapason on the Open Great. This near-Stentorphone color alone fills the room with a sound long forgotten (and greatly misunderstood) in the days of American Classic and Neo-Baroque revival.

Complex “borrows” of stops, either as new divisional extensions, or in the Pedal, add amazing variations to registration. Cross-coupling of the Enclosed Great and Choir (to the Choir and Swell respectively) allows a flexibility unparalleled for an organ of this size. The mechanics are truly an engineering marvel, and every ounce of possibility was brought out of this instrument’s re-design, thanks to collaboration with the Austin staff.

I am privileged to sit at this console every week and was truly honored to serve as the principal consultant for this important and historic work. Thanks are due in particular to Charles Morris who acted as the church’s representative. The team at Austin was accommodating of nearly anything asked of them. The extension of the case and grillework for the new Solo division truly looks like it has always been in the sanctuary. The resulting instrument thrills congregation, recitalists, and audiences alike. By offering a minimum of seven public programs featuring the Anderson Memorial Organ annually on our First Music Concert Series, the organ’s voice is widely heard in this region and has garnered much regional attention, in print and on television—as the most significant organ project in the state of New Hampshire in a decade. It is an honor to be at the helm of this historic ministry, now with an instrument that will continue to praise God for generations to come. Soli Deo Gloria.

—Joseph R. Olefirowicz, CAGO

Minister of Music

Principal Organ Consultant

From the Builder

On our preliminary visit to the church, we were introduced to an instrument built by Austin some 90 years previous that was barely an echo of what had been installed. The contract was signed on December 19, 1925, with promised completion by September 1, 1926. By today’s standards, this timeframe would be unheard of, since a 3-manual, 42-stop instrument would surely require a minimum of 16 to 24 months. In 1925, however, the company was in the epoch of its greatest production, shipping nearly two organs per week. This contract was signed on behalf of Austin by Elisha Fowler of Boston, formerly of the Hutchings Company, but since 1919 served as New England (and later Midwest) sales representative for Austin. Also a seasoned tonal designer, Mr. Fowler likely had strong influence in drawing up the tonal specification for this organ. One interesting element in the contract stated that:

The Austin Organ Company hereby guarantees tonal satisfaction to Mrs. Frank Anderson, donor; Earl F. Nauss, minister; and Maurice Hoffman, organist; and agrees to exchange any and all pipes which do not satisfy and to continue to do so until results satisfactory to the committee named have been attained.

Perusing the files, no pipes appeared to have been returned by order of the committee; a happy circumstance that must have caused sighs of great relief in Hartford!

The organ was initially scaled rather heroically on wind pressure of seven inches water column. The Great Principal Diapason was 40 scale (nearly 6¾ inches diameter at bottom C). There was an accompanying “Small Diapason” of 46 scale, which is a scale that would be typical of instruments built in the late 1960s to 1970s. A revision in March of 1926 shows that the Principal Diapason bass was changed to 43 scale and the Small Diapason to 49 scale. This would be more in keeping with other similar instruments of the time in typical rooms. In today’s thinking, the 43 scale/17th ratio is typical of German Normalmensur, while the 49-scale Diapason (with a narrow mouth) is typical of a Violin Diapason and would be a bit more incisive. Likewise, the Swell Diapason bass was changed from 40 scale to 43. This provided the power and color in the manual range, without excessive heaviness in the pedal; it also consumed less windchest real estate.

The tonal palette of this instrument was certainly typical for the era and boasted a plethora of fundamental stops; absent were mixtures or mutations. Similar organs of the period—for example, Opus 1409 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, an instrument of 75 stops—boasted upperwork and a full set of independent mutations in the Swell, including a Nazard, Flautina, Tierce, Septieme, and Twenty Second. (An interesting side note, this organ appears to be the first instance found of an Austin with double expression—a box within a box—in the Swell department.) Mixtures were found in several instruments of the period, but usually confined to the Swell Organ. A notable exception is Austin Opus 1416, for the Sesquicentennial Exposition, built in 1926. At 162 ranks—it was for many generations the largest pipe organ built by Austin under a single contract. Each of the principal divisions has multiple ranks of mixtures; and of course, reed choruses, flute choruses, strings, mutations, etc.

Armed with this history, we surveyed the condition of this venerable instrument in Nashua. The organ had been a victim of several attempts at “tonal modernization” over the years. Diapasons had been removed and replaced with lighter-scaled pipework; a rather large mixture was added to the Great; and the Tuba was removed and replaced with a poorly recycled supply-house Trumpet. Also, the enclosed divisions had several stops removed, altered, or replaced entirely with random pipework. Many hours of discussion were spent attempting to recreate, or frankly create a new tonal specification that would echo the vision for this instrument, as if a time machine had transported us back to 1926, but with greater resources available, such as were reserved for larger instruments as mentioned above.

The result of fraternal collaboration between Joseph Olefirowicz and the Austin staff was to create a tonal design that could have been lifted from Austin’s archives. The overall limit of the “new” specification was perhaps a bit exhaustive, but the result is an extremely versatile instrument with amazing tonal variety and possibilities.

In our grand scheme, a significant addition was the inclusion of a new Solo division. There was space allowed on the 1996 console, and we were offered the possibility of utilizing a pass-through storage area located on the far right of the organ case. To transform this space into an organ chamber would require the construction of some new casework with additional tone openings. The existing organ has some unique carving that resembles vines within its openings. We scanned images of this casework and created a CAD file that was turned into magnificent scaled panels identical to the original. The Solo was voiced to speak on 10 inches wind pressure, typical of the era, which required the installation of an additional blower. To accommodate this requirement, we pulled a vintage Spencer blower from our inventory and sent it back to the factory for refurbishment and a new motor equipped with a variable frequency drive controller.

Upon completing the design phase, reality struck a severe chord when the actual challenge of building this instrument necessitated sourcing the required pipes to achieve the desired result. In some cases, it was as simple as making (or finding) an octave or a few pipes to restore scaling; many of the 73-note extension octaves had been lost to time, but happily we were able to source replacements for all of those lost from vintage inventory. In other cases we required complete stops; many were procured from Austin’s inventory. Some stops were new manufactured pipes made to vintage Austin patterns. An example is the 8′ Bassoon in the Great.  While perhaps not typical of the time, there was a desire and need for a lighter chorus reed in the exposed division. This particular pattern was originally used in Opus 1010 (c. 1921 in the Eastman Theatre, Rochester New York) and also in Opus 1109 (1922, at the Cincinnati Music Hall). The original patterns were located in our archive and used for this instrument. Likewise, vintage patterns likely used for the original pipes in 1926 were used for the replacement Tuba in the Great. Conversely, we chose a vintage E. M. Skinner pattern for the Solo Tuba—for variety of dynamic and color. The Solo English Horn was sourced from vintage inventory, a 1924 Austin instrument.

We feel that this instrument embodies not only the 1920s tonal concepts, as detailed herein, but Austin’s design paradigm—a concept we refer to as Symphonic-Liturgical Tonal Design

It is arguable that the most advanced form of musical expression we celebrate today is the symphony orchestra. It is a comprehensive and versatile entity. Evidence of this fact is provided by reviewing any concert program. On any given evening, one can encounter a most sublime movement from Ravel; just a moment later, the terrific thunder crash of a powerful Wagnerian overture! These variations in repertoire, dynamic, and emotion are all delivered by the same performers and the same instruments. In much the same way, a well-designed tonal palette in an organ capable of supporting these timbres and styles gives an organist the ability to perform with similar flexibility.

Why do we consider this ability to be important?

The pipe organ in church today must bridge the gap between traditional solo organ literature, liturgical accompaniment, choral support, and yet have the ability to perform contemporary accompaniment and literature. One can only imagine where the next trend might lead! The tone of the instrument must be pleasing—but not that alone—for the instrument must be capable of fulfilling its role in the liturgy. In summation: the organ must be extremely versatile and able to be play almost any literature, and the organ’s tonality also has to be outstanding in its conceptualization, voicing, and disposition.

We feel that the Austin organ is built of the most solid construction to support the extra demands placed on a symphonic organ. Our design (the famed Austin Universal Airchest System) assures the church of steady wind, ease of maintenance, and maximum utilization of available space. We strive to build the most comfortable organ consoles with the finest control systems available.

The sound of an Austin organ plenum (tonal ensemble) is unique. To achieve our desired level of warmth and simultaneous transparency requires not only our specific style of voicing, but very close attention to pipe scaling, regulation, and of great importance, explicit confidence in our Austin Universal Airchest System.

Celebrating 125 years of pipe organ building experience, and our dedicated staff comprising one of the oldest pipe organ factories in the country; we are ready to build one of the finest instruments possible, and then provide ongoing support and service.

—Michael Fazio

President & Tonal Director

Austin Organs, Inc.

Austin team members involved with Opus 1406 renovation:

Raymond Albright

Michael Chiradia

Bruce Coderre

Colin Coderre

Jacob Dowgewicz

Michael Hart

Curt Hawkes

Victor Hoyt

Dan Kingman

Rafael Ramos

David Secour

Stewart Skates +

Richard Taylor

Tony Valdez

Anne Wysocki

Mike Fazio

GREAT ORGAN (* = enclosed Great)

16′ Major Diapason 73 pipes

8′ Grand Diapason 73 pipes

8′ Principal Diapason 73 pipes

8′ Small Diapason (ext) 12 pipes

8′ Flauto Major (Ped 16′ Dia) 41 pipes

8′ Violoncello * 73 pipes

8′ Gemshorn * 73 pipes

8′ Bourdon * 73 pipes

8′ Flute Celeste (Ch)

8′ Unda Maris (Ch)

4′ Octave 73 pipes

4′ Principal * 73 pipes

4′ Harmonic Flute * 73 pipes

22⁄3′ Twelfth 61 pipes

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes

IV Fourniture (19-22-26-29) 244 pipes

16′ Tuba * (ext) 12 pipes

8′ Harmonic Tuba * 61 pipes

8′ Bassoon 73 pipes

4′ Clarion * (ext) 12 pipes

Harp (Ch)

Chimes 25 tubes

Tremulant *

SWELL ORGAN

16′ Bourdon 73 pipes

8′ Open Diapason 73 pipes

8′ Rohr Flute 73 pipes

8′ Viole D’Orchestre 73 pipes

8′ Viole Celeste (TC) 61 pipes

8′ Echo Salicional 73 pipes

4′ Fugara 73 pipes

4′ Flauto Traverso 73 pipes

4′ Violina (ext)

22⁄3′ Nasard 61 pipes

2′ Flageolet 61 pipes

13⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes

III Mixture (15-19-22) 183 pipes

16′ Contra Posaune 73 pipes

8′ Tuba Mirabilis (Solo)

8′ Cornopean 73 pipes

8′ Oboe 73 pipes

8′ Vox Humana 61 pipes

Tremulant

CHOIR ORGAN

16′ Quintade (ext) 12 pipes

8′ Geigen Principal 73 pipes

8′ Concert Flute 73 pipes

8′ Flute Celeste (TC) 61 pipes

8′ Dulciana 73 pipes

8′ Unda Maris (TC) 61 pipes

8′ Quintadena 73 pipes

4′ Geigen Octave (ext)

4′ Flute D’Amour 73 pipes

2′ Piccolo 61 pipes

11⁄3′ Larigot 61 pipes

16′ Tuba (Gt)

8′ Harmonic Tuba (Gt)

8′ Clarinet 73 pipes

4′ Tuba Clarion (Gt)

Harp (Austin) 61 bars

Chimes (Gt)

Tremulant

SOLO ORGAN

8′ Doppelflute 73 pipes

8′ Major Gamba 73 pipes

8′ Gamba Celeste 73 pipes

4′ Flute Ouverte 73 pipes

4′ Gambette (ext) 12 pipes

4′ Gambette Celeste (ext) 12 pipes

III Vox Seraphique (15-17-19) 183 pipes

IV Mounted Cornet (TC) (8-12-15-17) 196 pipes

8′ Cor Anglais 73 pipes

8′ Tuba Mirabilis 73 pipes

Tremulant

Nave Shades Off

Chancel Shades Off

PEDAL ORGAN

32′ Diapason (Resultant)

32′ Bourdon (Resultant)

32′ Lieblich Gedeckt (Resultant, Sw)

16′ Open Diapason 32 pipes

16′ Violone (Gt)

16′ Bourdon 32 pipes

16′ Flute Bass (ext, Solo) 12 pipes

16′ Quintaten (Ch)

16′ Lieblich (Sw)

8′ Octave (Gt)

8′ Major Flute (Solo)

8′ Gross Flute (ext 16′ Diap) 12 pipes

8′ Flauto Dolce (ext 16′ Bdn) 12 pipes

4′ Super Octave (Gt)

4′ Flute (Sw)

32′ Grand Cornet (Resultant)

16′ Tuba (Gt)

16′ Posaune (Sw)

8′ Tuba Mirabilis (Solo)

8′ Harmonic Tuba (Gt)

4′ Clarion (Gt)

Chimes (Gt)

Pedal to Pedal 4

EXPRESSION PEDALS

Choir/Enclosed Great

Swell

Solo

Register Crescendo

CONTROLS

999-levels of memory

Bridal signal (HCTB)

Clock

Continuo

“Go-to” function

Manual Transfer

Piston sequencer

Playback

Transposer

Ventil (mixtures)

Ventil (reeds)

Builder’s website: http://austinorgans.com

Church’s website: tfcucc.org

Photo credit: Len Levasseur

Scott Cantrell

Scott Cantrell began a 45-year career as a classical music critic writing for the precursor of The American Organist. An organist and choirmaster in earlier years, he has often written about organs, organ music, and organists. Since 1999 he has been classical music critic of The Dallas Morning News, on a freelance basis since 2015. He holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

It was an organbuilder’s dream assignment, and a formidable challenge: a monumental instrument in a grand church renowned for elegant music and liturgy—as well as architecture—with the generous acoustics most church musicians only dream of. Because of its high visibility, it was sure to draw high-intensity attention from organists—and others—with widely varied experiences, tastes, and expectations. Sure enough, the crowd that packed Saint Thomas Church on New York’s Fifth Avenue for the October 5 dedicatory recital on the new Dobson organ was well littered with the glitterati of the organ world. Other crowds filled the nave for the October 7 Sunday morning Solemn Eucharist, afternoon Solemn Evensong, and an ensuing recital by Saint Thomas associate organist Benjamin Sheen.

Aside from thirteen stops recycled from the previous Saint Thomas instrument, the Irene D. and William R. Miller Chancel Organ is completely new. It is dedicated to the memory of former organist and director of music John Scott, whose tragically early 2015 death, at age 59, deprived the world, as well as the parish, of a brilliant organist and choral director. The instrument’s clear and dramatic contrast from its predecessor certainly represents Scott’s own tastes and vision, from an English heritage including earlier appointments at London’s Southwark and Saint Paul’s cathedrals. If the former chancel organ, incorporating multiple generations of pipework and changing tonal conceptions, was the product of some Franco-American imaginations, the new organ is more Anglo-American, although incorporating French-style reeds. In particular, it provides far better accompanimental resources in the English choral repertory central to Saint Thomas’s musico-liturgical identity.

Mongrel that it was, the previous Saint Thomas instrument, known as the Arents Organ after its lead donors, had its glorious effects—especially after the church’s acoustics were dramatically improved in the 1970s by removing tapestries that had hung on the north wall of the nave and sealing sound-muffling Guastavino tile on the ceilings. The massive “crash” of its rich, reedy full-organ sound was justly beloved, and the plush foundations had a velvet-textured purr unlike any other. Hearing ten seconds of either of those sonorities, you would immediately say, “Ah, Saint Thomas.” There were also bold flutes of quite special beauty. During Gerre Hancock’s tenure as organist-choirmaster, from 1971 to 2004, he and a succession of assistant organists worked wonders with the resources at hand. Who will ever forget those post-Evensong improvisations?

But with only one expressive division, the Swell, and no Romantic solo stops, the previous instrument was handicapped for the more elaborately orchestrated accompaniments of Anglican choral music. It was not an organ designed for the smooth crescendos and decrescendos of Hubert Parry and Herbert Howells. It had no English horn or French horn, let alone a crowning, hot-coals tuba. And, mechanically it was failing, to an extent that at the very least a major renovation was urgent.

Below are some personal first impressions from those two recitals and two services. But first, a bit of history.

From Skinner to Dobson

The elegant building we admire today, blending French and English Gothic elements, replete with elaborate stone and woodcarvings, was the final collaboration between architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Opened in October 1913, it originally had an organ by the Ernest M. Skinner Company, Opus 205, over which organist T. Tertius Noble, recruited from York Minster in England, presided until his retirement in 1943. By the time another Englishman, T. Frederick H. Candlyn, succeeded Noble, the relatively dense, dark tone of the thirty-year-old Skinner organ had fallen out of fashion, and Candlyn found it especially frustrating for leading congregational singing. By now, Skinner had been edged out of the merged Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co. and set up his own firm, E. M. Skinner & Son.

Meanwhile, G. Donald Harrison, an Englishman formerly with Willis, had assumed tonal direction of Aeolian-Skinner and was creating a stir with newly brightened and clarified choruses. Candlyn was keen to clarify the Saint Thomas organ’s sound, but he remained faithful to Skinner, who in 1945 was contracted to rework and replace mixtures and chorus reeds and make other changes to brighten the sound, plus make a number of changes to the console. Although still healthy and vigorous, Skinner now was 79 years old, and his work was apparently less than satisfactory. Only three years later, further brightening and clarification were carried out by M. P. Möller, in an effort to produce, as Candlyn wrote, “a Willis organ with all the brilliance of the French.”

Candlyn’s successor, William Self, arrived in 1954 with decidedly Francophilic inclinations. Doubtless perceiving the existing Saint Thomas organ as a dated mishmash, he arranged for Harrison and Aeolian-Skinner, by now the Cadillac of American organbuilders, to create a virtually new instrument, retaining just a few hundred pipes and some windchests from its predecessor. Tragically, Harrison, long in precarious health, died of a heart attack during the installation. The crew rushed to complete most of the organ for a planned recital by Pierre Cochereau at the 1956 national convention of the American Guild of Organists.

The new instrument was nominally French, complete with front-and-back Grand Choeur divisions of reeds bolder than usual with Aeolian-Skinner. I say “nominally,” as recordings made in October 1957 by Marcel Dupré (recently reissued in a boxed set of his Mercury and Philips recordings) capture a fairly taut American Classic instrument that had, as it were, taken a first-year French course. Although it was widely acclaimed a crowning masterpiece of Harrison’s work, even it did not fully satisfy Self’s tonal ideals, and it did not last long without major modifications.

During the 1960s, blasting for expansion of the Museum of Modern Art behind the church caused collapse of an organ chamber ceiling, and a clogged roof drain flooded the Swell division. Some of the Skinner chests were becoming unreliable. Aeolian-Skinner was unable to handle the needed work at the time, but recommended two former employees, Gilbert Adams and Anthony Buffano, who had set up their own operation.

This was a period when organbuilders all over the United States were finding pouch leathers tanned in new ways failing faster than in the past, a problem aggravated by heavy urban pollution just beginning to be addressed in those days. Attempting to provide greater durability, Adams replaced a number of the Aeolian-Skinner pitman chests with new slider chests and began extensive tonal changes. Adams replaced Aeolian-Skinner reeds with bolder, more Frenchified examples, reconstituted mixtures, and removed the formerly expressive Choir division in favor of an exposed, quasi-baroque Vorwerk. The antiphonal divisions were removed in preparation for a separate new instrument to be installed in the rear gallery; some of the antiphonal pipework was shifted to the chancel organ.

(Inaugurated in 1969, the Loening Memorial Organ in the gallery, by Adams, was a four-manual, mechanical-action instrument based on French Classic models. Plagued with mechanical issues from the start and generally considered tonally unconvincing, it soon fell out of use. It was removed to make room for the 1996 Loening-Hancock organ, based on German and Dutch baroque models, by Taylor & Boody Organbuilders. With a third manual and additional manual and pedal stops added in 2015, this remains an elegant example of its style.)

With heavy use in multiple services each week and regular recitals, the Arents organ had ongoing mechanical issues. The organbuilding firm of Mann & Trupiano maintained it insofar as possible, making further changes, including adding new reeds to the Swell. By the time Gerre Hancock was succeeded by John Scott in 2004, it was clear that, at the least, a major rebuilding, including replacement of almost all the windchests, had become a necessity. The church commissioned independent studies of the existing organ, with consideration of the musical demands of the Saint Thomas music program, from consultants Joseph Dzeda and Jonathan Ambrosino.

One could have advanced an argument for preserving the best tonal resources of the Arents organ, replacing the windchests, replacing the Vorwerk with an expressive Choir division, and adding an expressive Solo division with more orchestral voices. But, after decades of hit-and-miss accretions and deletions, reconstitutions and revoicings, there was also a strong argument for a newly coherent conception, more specifically geared to the actual week-by-week uses of the instrument. This was the conclusion of both the Dzeda and Ambrosino studies, and Dobson Pipe Organ Builders was selected to develop conceptions for the new instrument, in consultation with John Scott and Ambrosino, who was retained as ongoing consultant.

“There is this sort of holy grail of the organ that will do anything,” says John Panning, Dobson’s vice president and tonal director. “But John [Scott] didn’t want a mishmash that had no coherence. A lot of the basic structure was agreed on very early: Great, Swell, Choir, Solo. The arrangement of the building had a lot to do with it. John was really about trying to have as many options as possible for accompanying the choir, without losing the classical core of the organ from a literature standpoint.

Everyone admired certain aspects of the Arents organ. Yes, there was a reaction against it, but there was also a conscious effort to retain some of it. There was that iconic St. Thomas blaze of tone down the nave, and we really wanted to have the same kind of French character in the reeds, but with a little more control than before. In every manual division there is a chorus of French reeds. The Great chorus of 16′, 8′, and 4′ are made in French construction. The Swell Trompette and Clairon are French, and the trebles of the Basson in the Choir are also French construction. There are reeds with French shallots in the Solo, on 10 inches of wind.

In the Swell, in addition to French-style 8′ Trompette and 4′ Clairon there are more Anglo-American chorus reeds at 16′ and 8′ pitch, better suited to choral accompaniments. The surprise is perhaps that the Great includes no Germanic 8′ trumpet stop as an alternative to the 16′, 8′, and 4′ chorus of French reeds. The Solo has not one but two very English tubas; one registers “merely” a hearty forte, while the Tuba Mirabilis, on twenty-five inches of wind, proclaims a truly heroic voice. Also new to the instrument are more orchestral voices in the Solo: a Viol d’Orchestre and companion Celeste modeled on early twentieth-century examples by the English builder Arthur Harrison, plus Cor Anglais, French Horn, and Orchestral Oboe.

Designing a new organ also presented the opportunity to rationalize placement of the divisions, which had been shifted over the years, not always to advantage, and to improve tonal egress from chambers. The all-important Great division formerly had been exposed in front of the northwest chamber, in the bay beyond the glorious 1913 case, hardly advantageous for leading congregational singing. (Directions here are physical rather than liturgical; reversed from traditional orientation, the church’s altar is at the physical west end of the building.)

In the new dispensation, the Great is in the new case on the southeast end of the chancel, opposite the 1913 case, with the new Positive division below. The Swell remains in the 1913 case, but physically pushed forward more than before. The expressive Choir division is in the southeast chamber behind the new case; the expressive Solo is in the southwest chamber, beyond the new case. Pedal pipework is divided between the 1913 case and the northwest chamber beyond; the bottom octave of the 32′ Contrabass, in Haskell construction, lies horizontally, out of sight, on the galleries in front of the Solo and Pedal chambers. In physically laying out the organ, priorities included lowering some chamber ceilings to reduce sound traps and installing thick and tightly sealing shutters on the three expressive divisions.

By the time Daniel Hyde succeeded John Scott, in 2016, the new organ was already under construction. “John had very specific ideas of what the Arents organ couldn’t do, and what he wanted the new organ to do,” Hyde says. “The specification was already locked down. I was able to have some input of specifics of the console layout and console design, and various gadgets for the convenience of the player. I was very much involved in the tonal finishing, as it was voiced in the church.”

A few words about the two organ cases, old and new, are in order. The elegant 1913 case, part of Bertram Goodhue’s original design for the church and executed by the Boston firm of Irving & Casson, speaks in more of a French accent, with its curved pipe towers and frilly pipe shades. Gleaming tin façade pipes now replace the duller zinc pipes that had been there for generations. As ideas for a new organ evolved, it was eventually decided to reject the previous “flowerpot” displays of pipes and fit the opposite side of the chancel with a new case of commensurate grandeur. Lynn Dobson, president and artistic director of the firm bearing his name, designed the new case, in collaboration with Saint Thomas’s then-new rector, Fr. Carl Turner, and the Bangor, Pennsylvania, woodworking shop of Dennis O. and Dennis D. Collier. The new case has a flatter, more Renaissance look, capped with a trumpeting angel. Pipe shade carvings include likenesses of current and past musicians and rectors, members of the organ committee and donors. Fears that it would be overly intrusive have proved unfounded; the two cases carry on a subtle dialogue of complementarity, like the decani and cantoris sides of a chancel choir.

How does the new organ sound?

Below are initial, and necessarily personal, impressions of the new Dobson organ. At various times, among the two recitals and two services, I sat on different sides of the middle aisle about 1⁄4 and 1⁄3 of the way down the nave. Others in different seats, obviously, will have had different impressions—especially of an organ speaking from chambers, its sound having to turn a corner to project down a long nave. The sonic impact varied, of course, from a packed nave for the opening recital to a more normal congregation for the Sunday Evensong and recital.

Right from the start of Daniel Hyde’s inaugural recital, in the Edwin Lemare arrangement of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Overture, it was clear that the new organ had a well-knit finesse hardly characteristic of its predecessor. (Live video transmission from the console to a large screen in the choir revealed that one of Hyde’s socks was decorated with the American flag, the other with the Union Jack.) There was a decent suggestion of the reedy richness of the Arents organ, but on far better behavior, with massive pedal tone. Hyde effortlessly cycled through what seemed a gazillion registration changes, demonstrating the new instrument’s dynamic and coloristic range and its ability to manage seamless crescendos and decrescendos of timbre as well as volume. Fanfare figures sounded fore and aft, from the hot-coals tubas and the newly energized Aeolian-Skinner Trompette en Chamade. Strings and celestes purred. Indeed, it was such a virtuoso demonstration that one wished for individual sounds to linger a little longer!

Four Bach settings of the chorale “Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr” demonstrated more classical sonorities, including a silvery plenum, a Sesquialtera, 8′ and 4′ flutes, and 8′, 4′, and 2′ principals. A campy, carnival-esque Karg-Elert Valse mignonne briefly displayed the
sizzling Solo Viol d’Orchestre and Celeste, elsewhere foundations and chimes(!). In the opening dialogues of the Franck E-Major Choral, Hyde added the Swell’s more English Trumpet to the Oboe, which overdid the reedy effect; in the “chorale” proper a 4′ flute oddly joined the Vox Humana. In the reprise of the theme of Sweelinck’s Mein junges Leben variations we heard the Voce Umana, an Italian-style principal celeste, on the Positive. Hyde’s playing was brilliant where called for and everywhere fastidious, although it was a surprise to hear the earlier music played with such unrelenting legato.

At the Sunday morning Solemn Eucharist the new organ was unheard until after the official blessing at the beginning of the service. The prelude, Bach’s G-Major Prelude and Fugue, BWV 541, and opening hymn, “Come, thou Holy Spirit, come” (Veni Sancte Spiritus), were played on the Taylor & Boody instrument in the rear gallery. But then the Miller-Scott organ got to show off big reedy blasts and purring foundations in the Gloria of the Langlais Messe solennelle. The anthem was Candlyn’s Christ, whose glory fills the skies, the postlude Gigout’s Grand choeur dialogué, with fiery fanfares on the antiphonal Trompette en Chamade.

At Solemn Evensong, the new organ displayed plush grandeur in Edwardian music: George Dyson’s sturdy Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D and the virtually orchestral drama of Edward Bairstow’s Blessed city, heavenly Salem. The subtlety of registration changes certainly could not have been achieved on the previous organ (although former assistant organist Michael Kleinschmidt certainly whipped up an exciting accompaniment for the Bairstow on a CD from Gerre Hancock’s era). At the end, as clouds of incense rose, the choir sang the plainsong “Te Deum” with full-organ thunderings between verses. The concluding voluntary was the Langlais Hymne d’Actions de grâces “Te Deum,” the antiphonal Chamade’s new 16′ extension joining in the opening statement.

Associate organist Benjamin Sheen, who had done heroic accompanimental duties during the two services, brought no less authority to the post-Evensong recital. Perhaps redressing the surprising absence of English music on Hyde’s opening recital, he opened with Tom Winpenny’s transcription of Walton’s March for A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, composed for a stillborn English TV series based on Sir William Churchill’s four-book collection. He closed with the great Introduction, Passacaglia, and Fugue of Healey Willan, composed three years after the English native emigrated to Canada. Again, the new organ supplied idiomatic richness of tone and subtly elaborate “orchestrations.” Bold flutes—the Great 8′ Harmonic Flute and the Solo Flauto Mirabilis—sang out in Vierne’s water-splashed Naïades, and the Tuba Mirabilis was heard in very loud full cry in Lionel Rogg’s transcription of Liszt’s Saint François de Paule marchant sur les flots.

Some overall, and necessarily provisional, impressions now. Certainly the new Miller-Scott organ is carefully considered and fastidiously voiced. The overall effect is elegant and cohesive in ways the Arents organ, for all its excitement, never could be. The full organ is rich and stirring, although, at least in these first hearings, individual voices and lesser combinations tended to feel understated. The three swell boxes have enormous dynamic ranges.

Projecting organ tone out of chancel chambers down a long nave will always be a challenge. A bit of grit and texture in a chancel can register as a subtler, but enlivening, energy in a nave. With the new organ, at least from the nave perspective, I personally would welcome a bit more texture, a bit less absolute smoothness, to the flues.

Another thing that struck me was a certain difficulty in hearing the soprano line in hymn accompaniments, a tendency for tone to cluster around the middle of the keyboards. This may have had more to do with accompanimental registrations chosen, which almost across the board struck me as too reserved. But I did find myself wanting more ascending energy in the treble, especially from the all-important Great division. For all the stated aims of projecting more sound from the Great, especially, I did wonder if the new left-side case, relatively flat and densely filled in with carvings, were not a more inhibiting factor than had been expected. The Positive division seemed very reticent, although again that may have been more a matter of registrations chosen, and where I was sitting at the time. Some Pedal notes stuck out more than others.

Although in rehearsals the Saint Thomas organists had taken advantage of the built-in playback system to check registrations and balances in the nave, the opening recital and Sunday services were their first chances to hear the full resources of the organ with full congregations. There is no way to gauge an organ’s real-life effect without adding the acoustical impact of bodies in the pews.

With so lavishly appointed an instrument, organists will need time to discover what works best in what situations. The console, necessarily sequestered in a recess under the new left-side case, is the worst possible place to judge balances. Already, Hyde, Panning, and Ambrosino all acknowledge that some balances need readjusting. “I think the main structure of the choruses we’re happy with,” Hyde says. “I might want to look at a little different balance in the bass department. When the building is as full as it was, it probably needs a little bit of thinning out of the bottom of the texture. The room sort of balloons the sound slightly.”

Panning says, “There are still things to do to the organ that were not complete for the dedication. Chief among those, we’ve decided to remake the bottom octave of the 32′ Swell reed extension. We want to bring up the Swell and Solo trumpets. And we noticed that some notes of the 32′ flues do really bloom.

“I noticed in a couple places that some of the registrations sounded a little bland, sort of homogenizing, although there are some quite lovely and individual sounds. As for the balance, it is true that there is quite a lot of tenor and mid-octave energy. Some of that comes from the reeds that we want to re-balance.”

Happily, and especially for an instrument of this size and complexity, there are plans to revisit these and other issues in the summer, at the end of the choir season. Hyde himself will leave after Easter, to succeed Stephen Cleobury at King’s College, Cambridge. Saint Thomas has named British-born American organist Jeremy Filsell as Hyde’s successor.

“For me, personally, as a voicer, I really welcome the ability to edit,” Panning says. “It’s wonderful to be able to do something, consider it for a while, and come back. We are planning to come back after the organ has been used in a number of ways, and consult with Dan and Ben and see what needs adjustment. We want to accommodate real-world conditions. We don’t presume that we have the full picture when we say the organ is done.” ν

Builder’s website: www.dobsonorgan.com

Church’s website: www.saintthomaschurch.org

Dobson Pipe Organ Builders Opus 93 (2018)

GREAT (Manual II, in new case)

32′ Diapason (ext 16′)

16′ Diapason (partly in façade, 73 pipes)

16′ Bourdon (61 pipes)

8′ First Diapason (61 pipes)

8′ Second Diapason (61 pipes)

8′ Harmonic Flute (61 pipes)

8′ Gamba (1956 pipework, 61 pipes)

8′ Chimney Flute (61 pipes)

4′ First Octave (61 pipes)

4′ Second Octave (61 pipes)

4′ Spire Flute (61 pipes)

31⁄5′ Grosse Tierce (61 pipes)

22⁄3′ Twelfth (61 pipes)

2′ Fifteenth (61 pipes)

13⁄5′ Seventeenth (61 pipes)

V Cornet (8′, mounted, TG, 185 pipes)

IV Mixture (2′, 244 pipes)

III Cymbal (2⁄3′, 183 pipes)

16′ Bombarde (61 pipes)

8′ Trompette (61 pipes)

4′ Clairon (61 pipes)

Tremulant

SWELL (Manual III, enclosed in northeast chamber)

16′ Bourdon (61 pipes)

8′ Diapason (61 pipes)

8′ Viola (61 pipes)

8′ Viola Celeste (61 pipes)

8′ Flûte Traversière (1956, Flûte Harmonique, revoiced, 61 pipes)

8′ Lieblich Gedeckt (61 pipes)

8′ Flûte Douce (1956 pipework, 61 pipes)

8′ Flûte Céleste (1956 pipework, 61 pipes)

4′ Octave (61 pipes)

4′ Fugara (61 pipes)

4′ Flûte Octaviante (1956 Gr. Flûte Harmonique, revoiced, 61 pipes)

22⁄3′ Quint (61 pipes)

2′ Fifteenth (61 pipes)

2′ Octavin (61 pipes)

13⁄5′ Tierce (61 pipes)

IV Cornet (4′, mounted, TG, 148 pipes)

IV Plein Jeu (11⁄3′, 244 pipes)

16′ Double Trumpet (61 pipes)

8′ Trompette (61 pipes)

8′ Trumpet (61 pipes)

8′ Hautbois (61 pipes)

8′ Vox Humana (61 pipes)

4′ Clairon (61 pipes)

Tremulant

CHOIR (Manual I, enclosed in southeast chamber)

16′ Quintaton (61 pipes)

8′ Diapason (61 pipes)

8′ Spire Flute (61 pipes)

8′ Flute Celeste (61 pipes)

4′ Gemshorn (61 pipes)

4′ Flute (1956 Enc. Positiv pipework, 61 pipes)

22⁄3′ Nazard (61 pipes)

2′ Doublette (61 pipes)

2′ Recorder (61 pipes)

13⁄5′ Tierce (61 pipes)

11⁄3′ Larigot (61 pipes)

11⁄7′ Septième (61 pipes)

1′ Piccolo (61 pipes)

16′ Basson (61 pipes)

8′ Trompette (61 pipes)

8′ Clarinet (61 pipes)

4′ Clairon (61 pipes)

Tremulant

8′ Tuba Mirabilis (Solo)

8′ Trompette en Chamade (existing, with new 16′ and 4′ octaves, 85 pipes)

POSITIVE (Manual I, in new case)

8′ Principal (partly in façade, 61 pipes)

8′ Voce Umana (21–61, partly in façade, 41 pipes)

8′ Gedeckt (61 pipes)

4′ Octave (61 pipes)

4′ Chimney Flute (61 pipes)

2′ Super Octave (61 pipes)

II Sesquialtera (22⁄3′, 122 pipes)

IV Sharp Mixture (11⁄3′, 244 pipes)

8′ Cromorne (61 pipes)

Tremulant

SOLO (Manual IV, enclosed in southwest chamber)

16′ Contra Gamba (61 pipes)

8′ Flauto Mirabilis (61 pipes)

8′ Gamba (61 pipes)

8′ Gamba Celeste (61 pipes)

8′ Viole d’Orchestre (61 pipes)

8′ Viole Celeste (61 pipes)

4′ Orchestral Flute (61 pipes)

4′ Viole Octaviante (61 pipes)

III Cornet des Violes (31⁄5′, 183 pipes)

16′ Cor Anglais (61 pipes)

8′ French Horn (61 pipes)

8′ Orchestral Oboe (61 pipes)

Tremulant

16′ Trombone (61 pipes)

8′ Tuba (61 pipes)

8′ Trompette (61 pipes)

4′ Clairon (61 pipes)

8′ Tuba Mirabilis (unenclosed, 25′′ wind pressure, 61 pipes)

8′ Trompette en Chamade (Choir)

Chimes (25 tubes)

PEDAL (in northwest chamber and existing case)

32′ Contrabass (44 pipes)

32′ Diapason (Great)

32′ Subbass (56 pipes)

16′ Contrabass (ext 32′)

16′ First Diapason (partly in façade, 32 pipes)

16′ Second Diapason (Great)

16′ Subbass (ext 16′)

16′ Contra Gamba (Solo)

16′ Bourdon (Great)

16′ Echo Bourdon (Swell)

102⁄3′ Quint (fr Gt 16′ Bourdon)

8′ Octave (partly in façade, 32 pipes)

8′ Bass Flute (56 pipes)

8′ Gamba (Solo)

8′ Gedeckt (ext 32′)

8′ Bourdon (Sw 16′)

62⁄5′ Grosse Tierce (1956 pipework, 32 pipes)

44⁄7′ Grosse Septième (1956 pipework, 32 pipes)

4′ Super Octave (partly in façade, 32 pipes)

4′ Flute (ext 8′)

31⁄5′ Seventeenth (1956 pipework, 32 pipes)

2′ Flute (ext 8′)

IV Mixture (22⁄3′, 128 pipes)

32′ Contre Bombarde (1956 pipework, 44 pipes)

32′ Trombone (ext Sw 16′, 12 pipes)

16′ Bombarde (ext 32′)

16′ Posaune (32 pipes)

16′ Trumpet (Sw)

8′ Trompette (32 pipes)

4′ Clairon (32 pipes)

4′ Schalmey (32 pipes)

8′ Tuba Mirabilis (So)

8′ Trompette en Chamade (Ch)

Chimes (So)

Couplers

Great

Great 16 (does not affect 32′)

Great Unison Off

Great 4

Solo Chorus Reeds on Great

Great Reeds on Choir

Great Reeds on Swell

Great Reeds on Pedal

Swell to Great 16

Swell to Great

Swell to Great 4

Choir to Great 16

Choir to Great

Choir to Great 4

Positive to Great

Solo to Great 16

Solo to Great

Solo to Great 4

Swell

Swell 16

Swell Unison Off

Swell 4

Choir to Swell

Positive to Swell

Solo to Swell

Choir

Choir 16

Choir Unison Off

Choir 4

Swell to Choir 16

Swell to Choir

Swell to Choir 4

Solo to Choir 16

Solo to Choir

Solo to Choir 4

Pedal to Choir

Positive

Positive Unison Off

Solo

Solo 16

Solo Unison Off

Solo 4

Swell to Solo

Choir to Solo

Positive to Solo

Pedal

Pedal Unison Off

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Swell to Pedal 4

Choir to Pedal

Choir to Pedal 4

Positive to Pedal

Solo to Pedal

Solo to Pedal 4

Accessories

Bells (free bells)

All Swells to Swell

Pedal Divide (adjustable)

Manual I/II Transfer

Positive on IV

Great & Pedal Combinations Coupled

Total number of ranks: 126

Total number of stops: 102

Total number of pipes: 7,069

Photo credit: Ira Lippke