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
