Keeping Up with the OrganNet Or, "Try Not to Spin Your Wheels in Cyberspace"

by Herbert L. Huestis

The organ world of the Internet is indeed awash in web pages--a tangled mass of advertising with each "www.com" page clamoring for the "net-surfer's" attention. Some are merely informative sites, while the greatest share are "home pages" of organ builders and technicians. No one wants to be left out of the world wide web--there are books in every drug store promoting the benefits of advertising on the Internet. Someone behind every new web page is hoping for a bit of the largess that is promised by the purveyors of a new form of drug store novel: How to Succeed on the Web! What was once a vehicle for research and information is looking more and more like a topsy-turvy "yellow pages."

That being said, the situation will surely get worse before it gets better. Here and there one finds various sites that guide the earnest user amongst and between the "billboards," so they can find topics of real interest. The first bit of advice to organists who want to let their "fingers do the walking" on the Internet is to start with major "links" in the organ world, rather than trying to sort out the thousands of entries that are listed on the "search engines" like Webcrawler, Lycos, Yahoo, InfoSeek and Alta Vista.

Some links are found right where you would expect them--for example, The American Guild of Organists at http://www.agohq.org and the Royal College of Canadian Organists at http://www.capitalnet.com/~rjewell/rcco.html. Many fine offerings may be found at "Pipe Organs and Related Topics" at http://uacsc2.albany.edu/~piporg-l and of course, The Diapason at http://www.sgcpubs.com/thediapason.html and The Osiris Archive at http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/earlym-l/organs.

A most unexpected listing of pipe organ subjects appears under the "Nerdworld" banner at http://www.nerdworld.com.nw8061.html. Here the reader will find the American Pipe Organ Builders Association pages, resource pages for finding recordings of pipe organ related compact disks, and the usual organ builders' home pages!

Enough of internet jargon--perhaps it is useful to highlight typical people and places that serve as tour guides to this electronic malaise of competing "addresses." There are a few personalities who have emerged as leaders in "OrganNet" happenings. Here they are:

Ben Chi and Piporg-L

http://uacsc2.albany.edu/~piporg-l

The Piporg-L list remains as the most successful email gathering place for organ enthusiasts. The links presented here are logical and well organized. An evening spent perusing information and organizations here will be rewarding indeed.

Steve Fox and The Seattle Pipe Organ Scene

This is a fine example of "area" tours that are available on the net. Similar examples may be found all over the world. Armchair travelogues abound, and thanks to the web, world-wide commuters can plan the itinerary of any trip around organs of a geographical area. Steve can be found at http://www.eskimo.com/~sfox/seaorgan.htm.

Maureen Jais-Mick and AGO online

Ongoing columns in The American Organist serve as an excellent guide to OrganNet surfers. Its not a bad idea to clip out these columns and keep a little notebook of worthy places. Look for Maureen at http://www.agohq.org/-tao/agonline.html

Ross Jewell and Christopher Dawes of the RCCO

These two gentlemen are the "communications" department of the RCCO and their guide to the net is very focused and well organized.

Nerdworld

Nerdworld links are available in an extensive number of subject areas and topics of interest. This straightforward listing tends to highlight important organizations and associations and picks up important links that are hard to find elsewhere.

Here are a few tips to help unravel the morass of information you will encounter in a typical jaunt on the Internet.

Bookmark your interesting links

All internet software has long provided a means to "bookmark" points of interest found in an evening's surfing. That little mouse button called "add bookmark" can be extremely handy if you want to return to the scene of the crime to gather a bit more information later.

Saving documents

"Control-S" usually saves the document you are scanning directly to your computer. It's a sort of "quick ftp" meaning "file transfer protocol." That means you can almost effortlessly gather complete web pages and organ tours by "copying the file," or "saving as . . . "

Open a simultaneous word processor while you are "surfing"

It can be most helpful to open a word processor in your computer before you open your web browser. This means that if you come across an interesting address or site location, you can "copy" a bit of the screen text you encounter for future reference.

Keep a "link" notebook

This is the usual enjoinder to "organize your thoughts." It seems that "surfing" on the net suggests that the computer user is mindlessly floating from one bit of information to another, when in fact, we know that the human brain does not actually have to operate that way. Many folks are natural organizers in many aspects of their life, and once they sit in front of their computer, they have the option managing their time there, just they do in other aspects of their work and leisure. It's odd that people who would not take a motor trip without a planned itinerary will park themselves in front of the computer screen and mindlessly click the mouse without thinking "where am I going and what am I doing?"

Take heart. You can plan your computer commute the same way you plan other activities. As they say, "Just do it!" If you take the time to write down your preludes and postludes and choral anthem of the week--you can make a few notes of the sites you want to visit--that way you can reduce your computer time a bit, so that you don't raise the dander of the "computer widow (or widower)" in the other room. Bon Voyage!

by Herbert L. Huestis

The Osiris Archive--A Personal Account

Internet address:

http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/ftp/pub/

earlym-l/organs/

The Osiris Archive, since its inception a little over a year
ago, has grown to over 1300 organ specifications and sports a 23-page index. There is every reason to believe that it will soon double or quadruple in size. The idea of a database for organ specifications and related information has been
around for quite a long time, but the Osiris database actually worked. Why?

For me, the biggest problem in creating an organ database
was not how to enter the data, but how to design a format that would accept
information from a variety of sources without being too restrictive. Typical
databases work just fine for phone books and the rolodex at the office, but as
they grow more complex to accommodate a wide variety of details, they become
more restrictive with regard to how data may be organized. The accommodation of
organ specifications, scalings, drawings, photographs, discography and a host
of other particulars is no easy matter.

The idea of working on an organ database came into focus
when I attended the conference on "The Historical Organ in America,"
hosted by Arizona State University, The Westfield Center and The American Organ
Academy in 1991. (See Huestis and Zuiderveld, "The Historical Organ in
America," The Diapason, June 1992:10.) The outcome of that conference was
a unique organ documentary published by the Westfield Center. This documentary
was most unusual because a group of artisan organ builders, rather than
harboring "trade secrets," released architectural drawings, scalings
and procedures used for the construction of a series of very fine instruments.

That uniqueness was also evident in the wide diversity of
this chronicle of hand made organs--ranging from John Brombaugh's mean-tone
organ for the Haga Church in Göteborg, Sweden to Fritz Noack's
reconstruction of the famous Hook organ at Mechanic's Hall in Worcester,
Massachusetts.

The presentation of these volumes of data was enhanced by
the masterful editing done by Lynn Edwards of The Westfield Center. She was
able to put together a readable publication that dealt with a huge variety of
information. Squeezed into this account of contemporary organ building were
such diverse subjects ranging from tuning and temperaments to the details of
electronic combination actions. She included pipe scalings, computer drawings
(CAD), printouts of wind chest designs and illustrations of reed shallots. And
brought it off in an attractive and readable volume!

All this made me think: "How can you do something like
this in a database? Can it take in all these different kinds of information
without coming apart at the seams?" As I pondered these questions, I was
slowly learning the  mysteries of
the "Unix" computer operating system, so that I could "surf the
'Net." This was just a few years ago--before the latest generation of
computers made the Internet into a picture show. At that time, Unix operating
systems were the basis for many bulletin boards and electronic meeting places
along the Internet's cyber-highway. I realized that the Unix system was a key
to a comprehensive database for organs, because it could accommodate a huge
variety of information the same way that electronic bulletin boards house thousands of computer files on an immense array of subjects.

I struggled with this notion for a couple of years when a
solution came to me through a contact on the Internet. Piporg-l (the OrganNet)
had become established and was growing rapidly. Along with Piporg-l, a sister
list had appeared called Earlym-l. In addition to the usual offerings of early
music trivia, recordings and general comment, it included archive at the
University of Economics in Vienna. By and by, I corresponded with Gerhard
Gonter, a systems analyist at the Vienna facility, who had set up a database
list, primarily having to do with early music recordings and catalogs. I told
him what of my interest in a pipe organ database, and he offered me a spot in
the Osiris computer to set up a directory, and subsequently a home page for
world wide web access.

Running on this unix system, the Osiris directory was ideal
for a completely free-form database. I could catalog entries by builder, site,
city, country and date and anything else that seemed like a pertinent key word.
Like this:

Cavaille-coll.notre-dame.paris.france.1868

Each keyword is separated by a period, and altogether, they
become the unique title of a file that may be read with any word processor.
There are no special "fields" or "catalogues" or
"tables" to worry about. The Internet is an ideal location for this
kind of database and its phenomenal growth is surely the result of its
interactive nature. Had this database been started "in the blind"
without the possibility of interactive access, its growth would probably have
been much more limited.

Another key element in the growth of the Osiris Archive is
the participation of about a dozen volunteers in the preparation of document
files. Volunteers come from all over the world--the USA, Germany, England,
Singapore, Italy, and Australia, to name a few places. Several volunteers have
concentrated on historic organs, making many of the entries especially
invaluable. Some have specialized in particular places, such as the organs of
Oxford, England. Some files are very complex, with scalings for all the pipes
of the organ. Others are simply the specification and little else. A file can
be long or short, simple or complex, a simple document or a spreadsheet. All
are accessible on the Unix system.

It is a mark of acceptance of the Osiris Archive that more
and more requesters  are
disappointed when they do not find a specification there. The present total of
1300 organs is just a beginning. The time will surely come when the list is
many times that number and many organs will be represented not only by their
stoplist, but discography, builders' notes, scales and "all sorts and
conditions" of data. Until that time, we can just watch it grow.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>   

Here is an analysis of the Osiris Archive, dated January 16,
1996, giving the number of organs for each builder.

   1: adams

   1: adema

   1:
aeolian-skinner-sipe

  21:
aeolian-skinner

   5:
aeolian

   1: agati

   1:
ahrend-brunzema

   5:
ahrend

   2:
aizpuru

   1:
akerman-lund

   1: alain

   1:
alberdi-marti

   1: alley

  28: amezua

  10: andover

   1:
anneessens

   2:
antegnati

   2:
appleton

   1:
aragones

   1:
argaiz

   1:
arrizabalaga

  20: austin

   1:
azarola

   1: baetz

   1:
banayas

   1:
banzaf

   1:
baquero

   1:
barckhoff

   1: bates

   1: batz

   1: beckerath-wolff

  14: beckerath

  15: bedient

   1:
benzmiller

   2:
berdalonga

   7:
berghaus

   1:
berns-pels-zoon

   1:
betolaza

   1:
bielfeld

   1:
bielfeldt

   7:
bigelow

   1: binss

   1:
birouste

   2:
blancafort

   7: blank

   1:
boisseau

   7: bond

   1: bono

   3: bosch

   1:
bozeman-gibson

   4:
bozeman

   1:
bradford

   2:
breinbauer

   1:
brindley-foster

   1:
brombaugh-richards-fowkes

  15: brombaugh

   1: brown

   2:
brunner

   1:
buckhow

   4:
buzard

   1:
byfield

   1:
cadinanos

   1:
cahmen

   2:
caimari

   2:
calvete

   1:
cananos

   1: carod

  14: casavant

  24:
cavaille-coll

   1:
chapline

   2:
christersen-soenner

   1:
christoph

   1:
church

   4:
clicquot

   1:
cole-woodbury

   1:
collins

   1:
collon-st-michael

   1:
conacher

 
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  1: coulter

   1: crum

   1:
dallam-willis-walker

   1:
danion-gonzales

   1:
daublaine

   1:
deania

   1:
debierre-beuchet

   1:
debierre

   1:
delarosa

   1: dial

   2:
dobson

   1:
donahue

   4:
dourte

   1: drake

   1:
ducroquet

   1:
duyschot-vater

 
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  1: duyschot

   2:
echevarria

   1:
egedacher

   3:
eleizgaray

   4: erben

   1:
estadella

  11: estey

   1:
evans-barr

   1: fabry

   1:
farmer

   1:
farrand-votey

   2:
faucher

   1:
fincke

   1:
fisk-andover

  26: fisk

  10: flentrop

   2: forster-andrews

   1:
fowler

   1:
freiburger

   1:
freundt

   1:
freytag

   2:
fritts-richards

   6:
fritts

   2:
frobenius

   1:
fuhrer

   2:
gabler

   1:
garnier

   1:
garrels

   1:
gerhardt

   1: ghys

   2: gill

   1: gluck

   2: gober

   1: goetz

   8: gomez

   2:
goulding-wood

   1: graaf

   1: grant

   2:
gray-davidson

   2: gray

   3:
grenzing

   2:
groenlunds

   1:
grotian

   1:
grueneberg

   1:
guilbault-therien

   1:
guilbaut-therien

   1:
guillemin

   3:
guzowski-steppe

   1:
hagerbeer-schnitger

   1: hall

   1:
hamill

   1:
hammarberg

   1:
hammond

   4:
harris

   4:
harrison-harrison

   8:
harrison

   2:
harrold

   1:
hedlund-marcussen

   1:
heinrich

   1:
hencke

   1:
hendrickson

   2:
herbst

   1:
hernandez

   1: hesse

   2:
heuvel

   1: hilbus

   2:
hildebrandt

   6:
hill-norman-beard

   8: hill

   1:
hillebrand

   2:
hinsch

   1: hinsz

   1: hoack

   2:
hofmann

   1:
holtkamp-sparling

   5:
holtkamp

   2:
holzhey

   1:
hooghuys

  10:
hook-hastings

   1:
hook-noack

  21: hook

   1: hoppe

   1:
howard

   1:
howell

   2:
hradetzky

   1: humpe

   2:
hutchings-plaisted

   1:
hutchings-votey

   1:
hutchings

   1: iben

   1:
ihalainen

   3:
inchaurbe

   1:
international-organ-found

   1:
irisarre-serrano

   1:
isnard

   6:
jaeckel

   1: jann

   2: jardine

   1:
jehmlich

   5:
johnson

   5: jones

   1:
jordan

   2: jurva

   1:
kaat-en-tijhuis

   9:
kangasala

   1: kegg

   1:
kemper

   2: kern

   1:
kessler

   1:
kilgen-fabry

   4:
kilgen

   8:
kimball

   3: king

   1:
kirkham

  10: klais

   1:
klapmeyer

   1:
kleuker

   6: kney

   1: knol

   1:
koenig

   1:
koenken-grimm

   1: konig

   3:
koppejan

   1:
kreienbrink

   1: kuhn

   1:
kyburz

   2:
ladegast

   5: lane

   1:
larraga

   1: lauck

   1:
laukhuff

   1:
lawson

   1:
lefebre

   7:
letourneau

   2:
levsen

   1:
lewis-harrison

   2:
lewis-hitchcock

   5: lewis

   1:
lingiardi

   1: link

   1: list

   1:
lively-fulcher

   1:
llopis

   1:
loback

   2:
lorentz

   2:
maarschalkerweerd

   4:
mander

   2:
maneru

   1:
maneua

   1:
marceau

   8:
marcussen

   1:
marklove

   1: marti

   1:
martin

   1:
martinez

   1:
meere-quelhorst

   1:
merklin-kuehn

   3:
merklin

   6:
metzler

   1: meyer

   1:
michell-thynne

   2:
midmer-losh

  15: moller

   1:
monturas

   1:
monturus

   5: moore

   1:
morey-barnes

   1: morey

   1: moser

   1:
moucherel-formentelli

   1:
moucherel

   2:
mueller

   2:
muller

   1: mundt

   1: munoz

   1:
murphy

   1:
mutin-cavaille-coll

   1: mutin

   1:
navaratnum

   1:
neidhart-lhote

   1:
neijenhoff

   1: neri

   3:
nicholson

   1: niehoff-johansen

   1:
noack-hook

   3: noack

   3:
noehren

   2:
nordlie

   1:
oberlinger

   3: odell

   1:
oestreich

   1: oliva

   1:
ontko-young

   6: ontko

  11:
organeria-espanola

   1: oria

   3:
ortega

   2: ott

   1:
papenius

   1:
paschen

   3: pasi

   1: perez

   1:
peruga

   2:
petty-madden

   1:
phelps

   1:
phelps

   2:
phelps

   1: pike

   4:
pilcher

   2:
pilzecker

   1:
pirkkanen

   1: pock

   1:
pozalgues

   1:
proscia

   1: puget

   1: putz

   1: puyo

   1:
quarles-mander

   1:
quimby

   1: ranft

   1: range

   5:
redman

   1:
reichel

   7: reil

   1:
reques

   3:
reuter

   1:
richards-fowkes

   1:
richards

   1:
richborn

   3:
rieger-kloss

  10: rieger

   1: riepp

   1: roche

   1:
rodriguez

   6:
roosevelt

  29: roques

   4:
rosales

   1:
rottenstein

   1: rueda

   5:
ruffatti

   4:
ruggles

   1: rule

   1:
rushworth-dreaper

   1:
russell

   1: ryder

   2:
salazar

   3:
sanchez

   1:
sanchez

   1:
sandtner

   3:
sanjuan

   1: saur

   1:
schaedle

   8:
schlicker

   1:
schmieder

  16: schnitger

   1:
schoeler

   8:
schoenstein

   1:
schonat

   1:
schott

   1:
schrider

   1:
schroter

   1:
schuelke

   5:
schuke

   1:
schwann

   1:
semrad

   2:
serassi

   1: sharp

   1:
sieber

  17: silbermann

   1:
simmons

   9: sipe

  23: skinner

 
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 1: smethurst

   4: smith

   2:
snetzler

   1: spain

   1: spath

   1: stein

   5:
steiner

   3:
steinmeyer

   3:
stellwagen

   4:
stevens

   1:
stoltz

   1:
streit

   1:
stromback

   1:
swart-hagerbeer

   2:
tamburini

   1:
tannenberg

   7:
tarazona

  10:
taylor-boody

   1:
thielmann

   2:
thomas

   1:
thompson

   3: thule

   1:
tilton

   1:
toledo

   1: treat

   1: trebs

   1:
treutmann-hillebrand

   2: trost

   1: tuomi

   1:
ugarte

   1:
unknown-italian

  75: unknown

   1:
urarte

   2:
usarralde

   1: valdonado

   1:
van-deventer

   1:
van-daalen

   3:
vandaalen

   3:
vater-mueller-witte

   1: vater

   2:
verdalonga

   2:
virtanen

   1:
visscher

   4:
visser-rowland

   1:
volkland

   1:
von-holy

   1: votey

   2:
votteler-holtkamp

   1:
wadsworth-taylor

   4:
wagner

   1:
wahlstrom

   1:
walcker-flentrop

   9:
walcker

   9:
walker

   1:
wanamaker

   1:
wandke-frels

   1:
wangerin

   1:
weisse

   9:
wells-kennedy

   1:
welte-mignon

   1: welte

   1:
westenfelder

   1:
whalley-genung

   8: wicks

   1: wiese

   7:
wilhelm

   1:
willis-mander

  12: willis

   1:
winterhalter

   2: woehl

   1: woehl

  16: wolff

   1:
woodberry

   1:
wulf-dalitz

   7:
wurlitzer

   1: ynes

   1:
yokota

   3:
zimmer

Total = 1290

by Herb Huestis

One of the leading events to make news on the OrganNet--technical name, PIPORG-L--was the 1995 convention of the American Institute of Organbuilders in San Jose, California. Dave Schutt, a founding member of Piporg-L, lives in San Jose and, with several members of the list, gave play-by-play descriptions of events as they occurred. High points included presentations on San Francisco Bay area organbuilding, including a visit to the Schoenstein Organ Shop, hosted by Jack Bethards. Robert Bates' presentation of the three fabulous organs (Fritts, Murray Harris and Fisk) at Stanford University was unforgettable. E.M. Skinner organs played a prominent role in the presentations with Nelson Barden's humorous  presentation of a serious subject--"Secrets of Successful Restoration." A riveting lecture, followed with a video presentation of the "demystification" of pitman chests by Joseph Dzeda and Nicholas Thompson-Allen, curators of the organ at Yale.

This was high powered stuff.

As various secrets and suggestions were let out of Pandora's box, they soon hit the net, often the same day they were presented. Once on the wire, they mushroomed into "threads" or lines of discussion. One of the most interesting topics was that of tuning, always good for many points of view.

For example:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:49:47 -0500

From: Eugene Blackstone

Subject: AIO Convention (Day Three)

Dave Schutt reports:

Bill Visscher talked about the tuning of mixtures. He had some little felt cones that had been fabricated to keep some pipes in the mixture from playing. They seemed to be very effective, and you don't end up with cotton all over the place. Bill had a 7-rank note that he tuned and a big scale Cornet that he tuned (one note).

Dave: while we have been using felt cones for tuning mixtures at home, when it has come to tuning the V Cornet, felt cones stuck in the top of the pipes have  been ineffective in preventing the pipes from speaking (off pitch, of course). So we have used cotton wads on sticks. I gather there must be something special about  Bill V.'s felt cones that silenced the large scale Cornet? If so, I'd like to try it. (And I presume that others of you use felt cones, too, and could tell me in what way they are constructed to silence a wide scale Cornet).

A quick reply came in:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:58:19 -0700

From: Peter Schmuckal

Subject: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three)

I was also at that talk. Bill was using bushing cloth, not felt to construct his cones.  They were a lot heavier than felt.

And another.

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 21:04:21 -0700

From: Jim Tyler

Subject: Tuning Mixtures (Was: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three))

Another approach is a handful of tuning "mops." These amount to a bundle of short pieces of string or yarn taped to the end of a long thin rod. They can be gently lowered into the pipe, where the mop effectively interferes with the pipe's speech. The ones I've used have been thin metal rods, but I should think thin acrylic (perspex) rods would be lighter and perhaps less likely to damage the languid if accidently dropped into the pipe, rather than gently inserted. You have to have quite a collection of these mops, in a variety of sizes, but they last quite a while if  carefully made. They don't "shed" the way cotton does. Cones are, however, better for the *really* tiny pipes near the top of the compass.

Hope this helps!

Another reader was concerned for the health of languids:

I am personally fearful of placing anything that has any weight on the languids.  I use bushing cloth cones. They can be placed on the top of the pipe or inverted. The largest one that I use will fit over a 2¢ pipe (the lowest pitch mixture I presently tune is a 2-2/3¢). The smallest ones are about 3/8≤ dia by 1≤. There is something strange about the conical shape that stops the pipe from speaking. They are also very light weight and only rarely move the tuning slide. During tuning seasons I carry them nested in my shirt pocket (try that with your paint brushes and rods!).

Lanny Hochhalter

And another:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 20:06:26 -0400

From: Cullie Mowers

Subject: Mixture-tuning caps

The "felt" (actually heavy bushing cloth) caps for Tuning mixtures are *great,* and I've used them for years. I've also presented sets of them to organ maintenance colleagues after seeing bits of cotton, slivers of paper, etc. scattered on the walk- and rack-boards of organs they service!  The last set I bought (1989, under the name "K-D Kaps") cost $15.00; they were made by Kathy Foley. The address at that time was: K-D Kaps, PO Box 9223, Bolton, CT  06043. These are cones very professionally sewn out of heavy red bushing cloth. Each set contains several sizes; I forget just how many, and how many caps of each size, but they do the job on virtually every mixture I've encountered. Only exceptions have been the lowest-pitch rank of one Pedal mixture, and one bizarre mixture we ran onto which had slotted pipes in the lower pitch ranges. I hope that Ms. Foley or her heirs and assigns are still in business; *everyone* oughta have these gadgets in the tool box.

I could not resist sticking in my two cents:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 23:26:03 EDT

From: Herbert Huestis <[email protected]>

Subject: Tuning Mixtures

For what its worth, I have found that the most effective "mop" for tuning high mixture pipes is a very small artist's paint brush--or two for bigger pipes and mops for the biggest. They completely silence the pipe as well as clean the dust from the languid. Artist's brushes are invaluable when tuning coned pipes, since the removal of the dust is often all that is necessary to "tune" the pipe.

This "cleaning" of the languid tends to return the pipe to its original tuning. And if the brush is carefully inserted, the tuning mechanism will not be altered.

These tuning procedures are the mark of the most careful and sensitive technicians--for example, Robert and Richard Lahaise, who take care of the famous Hook organs in the Boston area. Of their work, Thomas Murray wrote:

The First Church of Jamaica Plain (where the Hook brothers are said to have been members) is a superb Hook instrument of 3 manuals and 31 speaking stops, built in 1854 and surviving in virtually unaltered condition. The smaller pipes, most of which are still cone tuned, are well preserved thanks to careful tuning procedures employed over the years.  The writer recalls watching with great interest as the Mixture and Sesquialtra stops were "tuned" prior to our recording sessions by the removal of dirt from the pipes with a tiny camel's hair brush, a practice which significantly reduces the risk of damage to the pipes by the use of tuning cones. (Liner notes from Mendelssohn Organ Sonatas, Sheffield label.)

Could there be any better recommendation for this technique?

Well, there you have it. That's how a "thread" works on the OrganNet. To follow threads, you log on and read all the messages on a particular subject. Often it will start with some inoccuous comment and balloon into a full-fledged discussion that may take you well into uncharted territory.

Let's hope you don't have to navigate through any storms, or get "burned" by a "flame."  And who knows what you will find?  There is so much to learn!

Many thanks to these volunteers who have typed specifications or made other contributions to the Osiris Archive! Thanks to these efforts, there are more than 1100 organ specifications and other data housed at this World Wide Web site.

Martin Chalton                  England

Walter Davis     United States

Albert Falop      United States

Glen Frank         United States

Richard Greene                United States

Kernin Ilkka      Finland

Carl Kishline     United States

Kenneth Matthews        United States

Ian McClelland                 Ireland

David Lowry    United States

Peter Rodwell  Spain

Richard Sedcole               New Zealand

Jonathan Tan    Singapore

Timothy Tikker                United States

Herb Huestis, Editor

The Osiris Archive, housed at the Vienna University of Economics, Austria

http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/pub/earlym-l/organs

Sidebar

Subject: Some Tuning Humah....

Date: 14-Oct-95 at 05:58  

From: Edward Peterson

INTERNET: [email protected]

TO: 70771,1047

----------------------------

REEDTUNE.EXE

----------------------------

Ed's Practice-Makes-Perfect Tuning Program   (c)1995

This program is not guaranteed in any way and works only for reed organs. For tuning pipe organs get Ed's Practical ComputerChromoTune Your Pipe Organ v2.7b.

Please check your Autoexec.Dingbat file before running this program;

It must contain the line "SET Tongue-in-cheek"!

Start:

Tune_Organ:

                  if "out-of-tune badly" run subroutine1;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Tune_Reed;

                  if In_Tune leavewellenoughalone;

                  if "flat" GoSub2Flat;

                                    Sub2Flat:

                                                      withdraw - scrape, scrape;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      play - assess;

                                                      if "nowsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "stillflat" GoSub2Flat;

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      else goto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                  if "sharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                    Sub2Sharp:

                                                      withdraw - file, file;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      listen;

                                                      if "stillsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "nowflat" GoSub2Flat; 

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      if "error" returnto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                 

                  expect "InTune"

                  ifandwhen In_Tune goto Next_Reed;

Next_Reed:

                  goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

                  if Not_In_Tune loopback else;

                  when "temperamentbad" gosub4 Find_Wolf;

                  if "temperamentgood" find Distrust_Ears_Anyway;

                   expect "In_Tune"

                  quitif In_Tune;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Find_Wolf:

                  gosub1 Set_Temperament;

                  endif "In_Tune";

                  next;

[Subroutine1]:

                  Set_Temperament:

                                    if "bad" goto Start_Over;

                                    else goto Call_Tuner;

                                    ifgood Thank_God;

                                    if "UknowwhatURdoing" proceed;

                                    then goto Tune_Organ;

                                    endif "notknowwhatURdoing";                                                   endsubroutine1;

                                    next;

                                    quit;

Call_Tuner:

                  goto Call_Number;                          wait;

                  wait months;

                  wait manymonths;

                  iftuned pay handsomely;

                  else goto Start_Over;

                  quit;

                  next;

 

Pull_Hair_Out:

                  then goto Start_Over; 

                  ifnot hairy gosub1;

                  quit;

 

Start_Over:

                  call Subroutine1;

                  ifgood loopback Tune_Organ;

                  else goto Pull_Hair_Out;

                  if "understandthis" goto ITT Tech;

                  if "notunderstandthis" goto music school;

                  failquit;

                  quit;

                  endif "last resort":

                  call Call_Tuner;

                  end

                  end

by Herbert L. Huestis

Part 1 was published in the January, 2000 issue of The
Diapason.

As early as 1917 the grim effects of war became all too
apparent with the confiscation of organ pipes for war industries in Europe. A
few terse announcements bespeak the horror of having pipes ripped out of ancient
instruments for the tin they contained. By 1918, pipe organ construction was
curtailed in the U.S. by a war industries board. In the absence of production,
plans for war memorial organs dominated stoplists. An editorial appeared in
1919 which was entitled "Organ Boom Has Begun." In 1927 Mathias Peter
Möller presented an organ as a war memorial to the Thanksgiving Lutheran
Church in Copenhagen, Denmark, the country of his birth.

War measures returned in 1942 when the Office of Production
Management in Washington, DC forbade construction of organs and ordered the
conversion of the industry to defense work. These restrictions continued
through 1946. Once again, generosity prevailed when the Canadian College
of  Organists announced that it
would raise $50,000 for the British Organ Restoration Fund to restore organs in
England which were destroyed in the Second World War.

Post-war topics tended to polarize into romantic and classic
camps, a trend that still continues unabated. In 1945, Dr. Wilfred Payne penned
an article, "Choosing a Design for a Post-War Organ." The author
attempted to show how to avoid confusion in deciding between romantic and
classic specifications.(45:Aug. Record 1932, year 1945.)

Perhaps these dialogues and disputes reached their zenith with
the "Great Sludge Debate of 1976." The intervening years were full of
articles on the pro and con side, including those by William Barnes, Isolde
Ahlgrimm, Henry Willis, Rudolph Von Beckerath, Joseph Whitehead, Lawrence
Phelps, George Lee Hamrick, and Ernest White. Not the least of these
contributions came from the pen of Ernest M. Skinner. In the January issue of
1961, it was noted that

Mr. Skinner was a distinguished figure at innumerable AGO
conventions. Always articulate and often argumentative he was widely known as a
personality as well as the outstanding builder of his generation. A frequent
writer of "letters to the editor" in this publication, his article on
his career  which he wrote on his
85th birthday is reprinted.

The reappearance of American tracker organs in 1960 began a
decade-long series of "Two Manual Organ" issues of The Diapason. All
manner of organ architecture received a thorough going over, not the least of
which was Ernest White's exposition on "The One Rank Mixture." Far
from tongue-in-cheek, this article was a very successful and forthright
discussion of the concept of 
breaking mixtures in contrast to compound stops.

The middle years of the long 90-year publication of The
Diapason highlight the transition of American and European organ building and
architecture toward what was perceived as classic ideals of the period. They
also chronicle what might be considered the industrial period of American organ
building and the mileau in which domestic organs were built, ranging from the
opulence of Aeolian Organ clientele to the mid-town churches that ordered
enormous pipe organs from Austin, Möller, Aeolian-Skinner and Casavant, to
name a few.

Part III of this series will take a look at the appearance
of artisan organ builders and the changing organ playing aesthetic as it
appeared in The Diapason Index from the 1970s to the present day. In the
meantime, the reader can investigate these 15,000 entries first hand at the
Osiris Archive, home of The Diapason Index, at the following address on The
Internet:

www.wu-wien.ac.at/earlym-l/organs/diapason.search.html

Searches on one keyword will take you through the index for
any primary topic. The best way to refine the search is to download the results
of the first keyword search and use any word processor to search on secondary
keywords. This provides the ability to scan on the Internet for general themes
and zero in on specific entries at a later time.

by Herbert L. Huestis

AGO.DOT.COM

A Tale of Two Organs

\x\dotcom

 

One aspect of the first AGO national convention of the new millennium was that critical reaction to new organs was instantaneous since "all points" bulletins were sent from laptop computers to the ends of the earth within hours of each event. Each program of the convention was a done deal two hours after its conclusion. There is no retreat from this form of instant replay.

This must be a rather frightening development for organ builders who whose instruments are showcased at a convention--after all, they want to satisfy their clients. Mistakes are hard to forgive when they are so well well advertised!

An excellent case in point was the first recital of the Seattle convention, that of Guy Bovet on the barely finished C.B. Fisk organ at Benaroya Hall, the home of the Seattle Symphony. This organ contains an unusually large supply of monumental stops for a tracker organ of North German lineage, including a "Stentor" division on very high wind pressure. Somehow, Bovet deemed the inclusion of these Promethean stops appropriate for a performance of Bach's E-flat Prelude and Fugue. If there had been wallpaper on the walls of the newly completed symphony hall, it would have curled from the sheer force of sound. Numerous listeners complained of headaches, and despite the lack of a sound meter, it seemed as if, somehow, someone was breaking the law.

A full report of this and other concerts will be provided in the October issue of The Diapason, but within the context of an OrganNet column, what is truly amazing is the speed at which various sources reported on Bovet's performance and the nature of the organ and acoustics of the hall.

This fateful performance was given the evening of July 2. That very evening, the following comment was made on Piporg-l, the Internet pipe organ list.

Dear List:

Seattle Post-Intelligencer critic R.M. Campbell has a piece on the paper's web site commenting on Benaroya Hall's Watjen Concert Organ which receives its public opening this weekend. It can be found at http://seattlep-i.com

The classical section of the Seattle Post-Intelligence web page contains four reviews of the Fisk organ by R.M. Campbell, music critic. They are thoughtful, balanced and well informed on matters organological. Rare stuff for the average music critic. We'll risk a short quote:

However, from my seat in Row N on the main floor, the instrument sounded shrill and too bright in the treble as it moved into forte and beyond. This is an unpleasant sound, with no warmth and little resonance.

These thoughts were echoed by various commentators on Piporg-l:

. . . Benaroya Hall is a big space though not a flattering one, and the Fisk is voiced typically big. (Some people I talked to found it disastrously dead. I know dead, and this isn't it, but as the saying goes it is more visually than acoustically spacious.) The organ definitely can be heard in the hall;

. . . The first Alain Fantaisie was something of a horror from where I sat, and more so for people sitting at higher levels who were nailed by typically maximum-voiced principals and mixtures.

. . . It is unfortunate that such a new building is built with faulty acoustics, especially with so many experts on the loose.

. . . It is not fair to place all the blame on the acoustics of the building (re: shrill treble). Clearly the finishers could have brought down the treble to match the acoustic environment at least to some extent. It does not take a rocket scientist to tell us that a dry room brings out the high frequencies. If Fisk came back in they could probably do something to improve the situation.

Well, it does appear that the Fisk people did come back. In a subsequent review, posted on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer web site, R.M. Campbell comments:

With more than 2,000 of those coming and going through Benaroya's doors for the American Guild of Organists convention--drawn here by the Fisk organ and other notable new instruments such as the Rosales organ at St. James Cathedral--the stakes of judgment become even higher. Organists are rarely short of opinions.

My e-mail from professional musicians, after my reviews of the first two concerts, was remarkably high in quantity and pungent in criticism of the Fisk organ itself.

Certainly, the instrument, which the Seattle Symphony Orchestra is calling the Watjen organ after Craig and Joan Watjen who donated the funds for its commission, has not been a complete success. The major complaint has been that its sound, particularly from the main floor, turns unpleasantly shrill and loud in the upper register. Technicians from the Fisk company have been hard at work this week, symphony officials said, making further adjustments to an instrument situated in a hall acoustically unfriendly to organs in general.

In the front row of the Founders' Tier, I knew I had the best seat for the organ. From there, it sounded balanced, clearly focused, rich in interesting colors and not so given to blasts of brash sound.

It appears that the Fisk voicers were hard at work ameliorating the forced tone that became so apparent when the hall was full. Perhaps they realized that the room (and not the orchestra) was the enemy.

The sharp (and probably justified) criticism of this organ certainly illustrates how high the stakes have become in this era of multi-million dollar organs and the global village, especially when these inaugural concerts are timed to coincide with a national AGO convention.

There was another side to this coin, where the "dot.com" fluidity and speed of communication allowed another organ builder bask in the heady limelight of extremely favorable criticism. However one must immediately caution that, in this case, the acoustical environment for this organ is superb, and most organists know that the room is the most important stop on the organ. The second organ to make its debut at the AGO convention is the new Rosales instrument built for St. James Cathedral, only a few blocks away from Benaroya Hall, but separated by light years in the mystical qualities an organ can invoke, when it finds itself in room that inspires wonder and awe.

Here again, the Pipe Organ List carried immediate reviews and comments.

. . . If Sunday night was a case of unmet high expectations, Monday started with surprise and delight. Some 25 years ago I lived in Seattle, and I remember the 1907 west end Hutchings-Votey of St. James Cathedral (RC) as a wheezy instrument in a dreary room. Well, it's not 1975 any more. The 4/51 organ has received some attention, the building has been stripped of its carpeting and acoustic tiles, and it now sings. Also, there is now a 3/48 Rosales in the chancel with a 4-manual console from which both instruments can be played. And played they were!

. . . The organ and the organist were both brilliant. I've long been a fan of Kynaston and yesterday reconfirmed my fondness for his playing. The organ is wonderful and is a masterpiece. The use of the old H-V organ in the other end of the cathedral was used to great effect. It was a masterful program. I think I heard people weeping after the Karg-Elert because it was so beautiful (there were people weeping after Bovet's Karg-Elert, too, but for a different reason).

I would expect that Manuel Rosales, organbuilder, Nicholas Kynasten, organist, Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral, Stephen Dieck, president of C.B. Fisk, Guy Bovet, organist, Carole Terry, curator of the Banaroya organ, and Charles Harris, architect of Benaroya Hall, will go their separate ways after a week of to and fro criticism from some 1500 organists gathered in Seattle and immensely magnified by the speed and power of the internet in this global village. There is no time to gather one's wits when things go very wrong or very well indeed. Dot.com communication gives a whole new dimension to artists and their work.     n

 

Note:

Quotes from Piporg-l (The Organ List) are verbatim and are not individually referenced.  Sources may be found by searching the Piporg-l archives at

www.albany.edu/piporg-l/

The first option on the Piporg-l web page will be

"Piporg-l list services and archives"

Click on that option and a screen will appear with the words

"Search the archives"

(http://listserv.albany.edu/archives/piporg-l.html)

This is a typical search engine where you can submit keywords to retrieve messages of interest to you. To retrieve the quotes listed in this OrganNet report (and more) you may enter: Seattle; Fisk. That's all you have to do.

by Herbert L. Heustis

Herbert L. Heustis is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

In the process of building an electronic index, the immense value of the Internet became apparent. The most difficult challenges were exemplified by two problems: the first was the need for easy data entry and the second was a need for universal access, once the work was completed.

Ease of data entry required a way to get data into the computer without bogging down in a laborious time and cost intensive process.  Funds were not only "limited"—they were nonexistent. The solution to this problem was the work of volunteers who were retired organ enthusiasts. Typing assignments were organized into 10-hour blocks. Each volunteer had an assignment and, upon completion, sent the diskette to us. They could use any word processor and pace themselves at their best rate.

The second problem was not so easily solved. A "beta" version of the software was circulated with mixed results. Some users praised the work we had done and others replied with a litany of complaints relating to the software—they were very frustrated if it didn't work on their computer! It was obvious that we were facing a problem of universal access, as well as distribution, packaging and the like.

The answer to these problems became apparent one evening when your lowly scribe was surfing the net and came across the Early Music Archive at the University of Vienna School of Economics. It was our enormous good fortune that Gerhard Gonter, administrator of the archive, offered us a place on the "Osiris" computer. Thus, the Osiris Archive of organ specifications was born and with it, a home page for Herbert L. Heustis Index.

Technically, the Osiris Archive is a "Unix FTP Site" which means that it is completely transparent and "software free." The files on this site can be downloaded to any computer with any net browser or ftp software.

The reader can now see that we achieved both universal data entry and universal access. By eliminating the requirement for any particular software, we removed barriers to the use of the program and the acquisition of information. Over the last decade, there have been numerous announcements of "organ databases," but few actual accomplishments. It is a good guess that the gremlin that stops progress on these project is the need for specific software, formatting and hardware requirements. The Internet and the free-form databases that it makes possible solve these problems and allow database projects to go forward to completion. In its ninth decade of publication, Herbert L. Heustis salutes the Internet for making its electronic database possible.