New Organs

Marceau & Associates Pipe Organ Builders, Inc., Seattle, Washington
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Stanwood, Washington
Opus 27, 2009
Marceau & Associates Pipe Organ Builders has completed their Opus 27 project at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Stanwood, Washington. The original instrument was built by Balcom & Vaughan Organ Builders of Seattle as their Opus 735, completed in 1968 for the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, Washington. This organ served as the primary musical resource for the Bellevue congregation until 1995, when a new sanctuary was built that included a new Casavant Frères pipe organ. At that time, the original sanctuary became the chapel, providing services on a smaller scale. In 2008, the chapel and adjoining buildings were slated for demolition to expand the current church campus. This news was brought to the attention of the organ committee of Our Saviour’s Lutheran, who decided to purchase this organ instead of rebuilding and enlarging their existing Kimball/Balcom & Vaughan instrument.
In May 2008, with the help of volunteers from Our Saviour’s, the organ was removed and transported to the Marceau organ shop in Seattle. From June to September, the organ was repaired, modified and redesigned to fit into the two organ chambers in Stanwood. The winding system was reduced to eliminate redundant reservoirs, a new electrical system by the Syndyne Corporation of Vancouver, Washington was installed, and all pipes were cleaned and revoiced for a more musical result. During the fall, the organ was installed and finished. It was used for the first time on Thanksgiving.
Since the original organ had no visible pipework, a new façade was designed with members of the church fabricating all of the casework. New polished zinc pipes from A. R. Schopp’s Sons of Canton, Ohio were installed in January 2009. The organ contains 21 stops, 26 ranks and 1,572 pipes, with preparations for a Great 8′ Erzähler Celeste and Swell 13⁄5′ Tierce. While the Great principal chorus is unenclosed, the Great flutes and string stops are enclosed, allowing for a greater degree of expression from both manuals.
The Great 22⁄3′ Quinte was not an original stop; this was created from the Pedal Mixture, which was not retained in the new stoplist. The principal chorus on the Great was revoiced to have a more prominent fundamental emphasis, which included reducing the dynamic output of the Mixture so that this stop now sits atop the ensemble without overpowering the listener with the original hard, glassy sound. The Swell 8′ Trompette was also programmed to play from the Great, replacing the duplexing of the Swell 8′ Hautbois from the original stoplist. The 16′ Posaune is now extended from the 8′ Trompette instead of the original 8′ Hautbois. The result is a smoother segue to this low octave of pipes.
A special thanks goes out to Jon Stoneman of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. His activities included the original planning of the organ project, removal and installation, providing volunteer help, technical advising throughout the project and providing home stays during the installation.
Members of the Marceau staff involved with the project included Sean Haley, René Marceau, Ruth Register, and Tom Skyler. Organbuilder Frans Bosman provided much needed technical assistance and support.
—René Marceau
5113 Russell Ave., NW
Seattle, WA 98107
206/521-0954
cell 503/522-2153
<[email protected]>

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church,
Stanwood, Washington
Marceau & Associates Opus 27, 2009
GREAT
16′ Rohrbass (Sw)
8′ Principal (part façade)
8′ Gedeckt
8′ Erzähler
8′ Erzähler Celeste, TC
4′ Octave
4′ Spillflute
22⁄3′ Quinte
2′ Super Octave
11⁄3′ Mixture IV
8′ Trompette (Sw)
Chimes
Great to Great 16′
Swell to Great 16′
Swell to Great 8′
Swell to Great 4′
MIDI on Great
Zimbelstern

SWELL
8′ Rohrflute
8′ Viola
8′ Viola Celeste, TC
8′ Erzähler (Gt)
8′ Erzähler Celeste, TC (Gt)
4′ Principal
4′ Flute Douce
22⁄3′ Nasard
2′ Blockflute
13⁄5′ Tierce
1′ Plein Jeu III
16′ Posaune (ext)
8′ Trompette
8′ Hautbois
4′ Clarion (ext)
Tremulant
Swell to Swell 16′
Swell Unison Off
Swell to Swell 4′
MIDI on Swell

PEDAL
16′ Subbass
16′ Rohrbass (Sw)
8′ Principal (part façade)
8′ Rohrflute (Sw)
4′ Choralbass
4′ Rohrflute (Sw)
16′ Posaune (Sw)
8′ Trompette (Sw)
4′ Clarion (Sw)
Great to Pedal 8′
Swell to Pedal 8′
Swell to Pedal 4′
MIDI on Pedal

R. T. Swanson, Inc.,
Grand Ledge, Michigan
St. John’s Lutheran Church,
Saginaw, Michigan
The history of the pipe organ at St. John’s actually starts with an organ built by the Tellers-Kent Organ Company of Erie, Pennsylvania for St. Lorenz Lutheran Church of Frankenmuth, Michigan in 1930. When St. Lorenz bought a new Casavant pipe organ in 1967, their old instrument became available. William Kaltrider of Owosso, Michigan was engaged by St. John’s to build an organ by reusing much of the St. Lorenz instrument and providing a new console, electrical system and two new blowers. By 2000, many of the 1967 components were becoming increasingly unreliable. Another problem with the 1967 installation was that the organ pipes were installed in two cramped chambers on both sides of the balcony and they spoke through very small tone openings, resulting in a “muffled” tone quality.
In December 2001, St. John’s signed a contract with our company to build an essentially new pipe organ while salvaging as much of the previous instrument as was practical for reuse. Eighteen new windchests were built, allowing the most efficient layout for better tonal egress as well as better accessibility for tuning and maintenance. The action is electro-mechanical. The Swiss-made Meidinger blowers were connected to a new wind system that includes new reservoirs and schwimmers to regulate the wind supply.
Most of the pipes of the Great and Choir–Positive divisions are on windchests cantilevered out from the balcony rail by way of steel framework. The windchests and frames are clad in contemporary oak cabinetry stained to match the other oak in the sanctuary. Three ranks of the Choir–Positive are expressive and located in their own enclosure. Of the organ’s 25 ranks of pipes, 8 are new, 10 are from the St. Lorenz organ, and 7 are used ranks from other sources. All of the old flue ranks were reconditioned and revoiced in our shop. The Trumpet and Oboe ranks were reconditioned and revoiced by Trivo Company of Hagerstown, Maryland. The 8′ Cromorne was built and voiced by Eastern Organ Pipes of Hagerstown, Maryland. All new flue pipes were built by CMC Organ Pipes of Erie, Pennsylvania and voiced in our shop.
The console cabinet from 1967 was retained and refitted with new manual keyboards, stop tablets and the new ICS 4000 control system by Peterson Electro-Musical Products of Alsip, Illinois. The ICS 4000 system features a 99-level combination action and complete MIDI capabilities including record/playback.
Tonal egress from the existing organ chambers was improved by enlarging the tone openings and by installing all new expression shades. Preparations have been made for the future addition of a horizontal brass Trompette en Chamade, which will jut out from the center of the balcony railing.
A dedicatory organ concert on February 25, 2007 featured Professor Leonard Proeber from Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw.
—Richard Swanson

GREAT
8′ Principal +
8′ Doppelflöte *
8′ Gemshorn
4′ Octave +
4′ Doppelflöte (ext) *
22⁄3′ Twelfth TC +
2′ Fifteenth (ext Octave) +
11⁄3′ Mixture III +
8′ Trumpet (Sw)
Chimes
Great to Great 16′, UO, 4′
Swell to Great 16′, 8′, 4′
Choir to Great 16′, 8′, 4′
MIDI on Great

SWELL
16′ Bourdon
8′ Geigenprincipal
8′ Bourdon (ext) *
8′ Viole de Gambe *
8′ Voix Celeste *
4′ Geigenoctave (ext)
4′ Flûte Harmonique
2′ Piccolo (ext)
2′ Mixture III +
8′ Trumpet *
8′ Oboe *
4′ Clarion (ext)*
Tremulant
Swell to Swell 16′, UO, 4′
MIDI on Swell

CHOIR–POSITIVE
8′ Holzgedeckt
8′ Flauto Dolce (expressive)
8′ Flauto Dolce Celeste (expressive)
4′ Principal +
4′ Rohrflöte *
22⁄3′ Nazard TC *
2′ Octave (ext Principal) +
2′ Rohrpfeife (ext)*
13⁄5′ Tierce TC *
11⁄3′ Quinteflöte (ext 22⁄3′) *
8′ Cromorne (expressive) +
8′ Trompette en Chamade †
Tremulant
Chimes
Choir to Choir 16′, UO, 4′
Swell to Choir 16′, 8′, 4′
MIDI on Choir

PEDAL
32′ Resultant *
16′ Subbass *
16′ Bourdon (Sw)*
8′ Octave
8′ Bourdon (Sw)*
8′ Gemshorn (Gt)
4′ Fifteenth (ext Octave)
4′ Rohrflöte (Ch)*
2′ Twentysecond (ext Octave)
16′ Trombone (ext 8′)*
8′ Trumpet (Sw)*
4′ Clarion (Sw)*
Great to Pedal 8′, 4′
Swell to Pedal 8′, 4′
Choir to Pedal 8′, 4′
MIDI on Pedal

* = pipework from the 1930 Tellers-Kent organ originally at St. Lorenz, Frankenmuth
+ = new pipework
† = preparation for future addition

Marceau & Associates Pipe Organ Builders, Inc., Seattle, Washington
Trinity Parish Episcopal Church, Seattle, Washington

From the builder
My first contact with Trinity Parish took place in the summer of 1978, when, as an employee of Balcom & Vaughan Pipe Organs of Seattle, I was on the crew that removed the church’s 1902 Kimball instrument. I recall the rather thick layer of furnace dust and grime that made the removal fairly dirty! Since none of the windchests or reservoirs were to be retained in the new organ project, these components were destined for the dump. That project incorporated some of the original Kimball pipework, but not with any degree of success. I subsequently relocated to Portland, Oregon and founded Marceau Pipe Organs in 1985.
I had begun maintenance of the Trinity pipe organ in 1983, when Martin Olson was appointed organist/choirmaster. As the existing console began to show signs of advancing age, Marceau Pipe Organs was awarded the contract of building our first three-manual, tiered drawknob console. With the able assistance of Frans Bosman (who built the console shell), we assembled new components from P&S Organ Supply (keyboards), Harris Precision Products (stop action controls), and Solid State Logic (combination action—now Solid State Organ Systems), and installed this in the fall of 1989.
The second phase focused on a redesign of the organ chamber to accommodate new slider-pallet windchests (produced in the Marceau shop) and a façade that would pay homage to the original Kimball façade. The budget did not allow for the total number of stops to be installed at that time. It was through fate that this instrument was completed! The massive Nisqually earthquake of 2001 almost closed this historic building for good, if it were not for the unshakable vision of this congregation, led by their rector, the Rev. Paul Collins.
During the time in which the church was being rebuilt and upgraded, we were fortunate enough to acquire a large pipe organ of about 35 ranks. From this inventory, stops that were prepared for future addition could be added at about half the cost of new pipes. One of the unique trademarks of a Marceau pipe organ is the inclusion of vintage pipework that is rescaled, revoiced, and re-regulated to be successfully integrated with stops, both old and new. The Trinity Parish pipe organ is no exception. A quick glance at the stoplist suggests a number of musical possibilities that make it possible to interpret organ repertoire from Bach to Manz and everything in between!
In 2005, I moved back to Seattle to open a Seattle office for our activities in the Puget Sound region. In 2008, we moved into a small but very useful shop in the Ballard district and have seen our work increase dramatically since then. While I enjoy each project that comes through the shop, I will always think fondly of our Opus IV at Trinity Parish and how that instrument continues to be one of great satisfaction and pride.
—René A. Marceau

From the organist
I started as organist/music director at Trinity Parish Church in 1983, over 27 years ago. At that time, there was a recently remodeled pipe organ, with no façade pipes, grille cloth, and a used console that was gradually failing. I had worked with Marceau & Associates on other organ projects in the past and engaged him to build us a new console. This proved to be the start of a professional and personal friendship that has lasted many years! This was Marceau’s first console and was planned with tonal revisions and (hopefully) new pipework in the future. I didn’t know where the money was to come from, but I had a lot of faith. Shortly after the new console was built, notes started going dead, and we found out that the organ had used Perflex instead of leather; we faced a future with an increasing number of dead notes.
At this time the vestry encouraged us to look at the existing tonal plan, and the organ was totally rebuilt using slider chests. Each of the three arches of the organ had façade pipes installed, helping to keep the visual appearance of the organ consistent with the nineteenth-century English Country Gothic architecture. At this point, we were out of money and only about a third of the planned pipework was installed.
Our planning for fund raising came to an abrupt halt on Ash Wednesday 2001. The Nisqually earthquake hit about an hour before the 12:10 Ash Wednesday service. The organ was not too badly damaged, but the building was unusable. Part of the tower collapsed into the nave, and the north and south transept walls moved outward, so that daylight could be seen coming through the walls! We were red-tagged by the city, meaning that no one could go into the building. For almost five years we worshipped in the parish hall, using the piano and a lovely one-manual positive (built by Marceau), lent to us by the Seattle AGO chapter. At times we didn’t know if the money would be found to rebuild the church, but Trinity persevered and the millions of dollars needed were raised.
As we approached the completion of the church restoration, we realized that if we didn’t finish acquiring the missing pipework now, it might never happen. The vestry gave approval, and thanks to a lot of searching by René Marceau, we added the missing 20 ranks of pipes—all recycled pipework. Today, the 19th-century sanctuary has solid wood floors, hard reflective walls, and very little carpet. Thanks to Marceau’s voicing skills, the pipework from 1902 works with the ranks added in the 1970s and 2000s.
During the first several weeks in the rebuilt sanctuary and “new” organ, I was surprised that almost everyone stayed and listened quietly to the postlude, but I didn’t think it would last. I was proven wrong again! Four years later, almost everyone still stays for the postlude! Years ago, under the leadership of Ed Hanson, there was a weekly lunchtime organ recital every Wednesday. When the church and the organ were rebuilt, I decided to revive that tradition, and for some years now we have had a weekly organ recital, often featuring student organists from the area. These recitals, combined with other concerts here at Trinity, make this organ one of the most heard organs in the Seattle area.
—Martin Olson
Organist/music director

History
Trinity Episcopal Church has a long history as one of Seattle’s oldest congregations—and music has been a part of that history from the very beginning. While the parish’s first organ was a reed organ of unknown manufacture, the parish has the credit of being the first to bring a pipe organ to Seattle. Preserved vestry notes from February 2, 1882, page 82, indicate a signed order to buy an organ “of Mr. Bergstrom’s make” for $1,500. This is further corroborated in Thomas E. Jessett’s Pioneering God’s Country—The History of the Diocese of Olympia, 1853–1953, in which he states on page 33, “The first pipe organ in Washington was installed in Trinity Church, Seattle, in 1882.”
By 1900, the parish was ready to acquire a larger instrument, and a contract was drawn up towards the purchase of a larger pipe organ. The vestry even announced they were willing to spend $6,000 if necessary. Such was the importance of music to the parish!
A contract was signed with the Hutchings Organ Co. of Boston for an organ to cost $2,500 plus $138 for a water engine to provide wind. The organ was shipped in December 1900. Such a listing does not appear on the Hutchings opus list, so it was likely built under the name of Hutchings-Votey, whose opus list is not complete. Coincidentally, the parish requested Dr. Franklin S. Palmer of San Francisco to come test the completed organ and to play the dedicatory concert. Dr. Palmer would later become the organist of St. James R.C. Cathedral in Seattle, and was principal in the design and acquisition of that congregation’s well-known 4-manual, 1907 Hutchings-Votey. Sadly, the Hutchings-Votey only lasted about a year, and was destroyed by a fire within the church on January 19, 1902.
By May 2 of that same year, the vestry awarded a contract to the W. W. Kimball Co. of Chicago for a three-manual organ to cost $7,500. It had 30 speaking stops and 29 ranks, and despite the growing influence of orchestral organs, the Kimball was built more along mid-to-late 19th-century tonal designs, with a mostly complete 16′, 8′, 4′, 22⁄3′, and 2′ principal chorus on the Great, capped by an 8′ Orchestral Trumpet. The Swell reflected more of the orchestral influence, with one 16′ flue register, six 8′ flue registers, and only one 4′ flue register, plus an 8-8-8 reed complement. Even the Choir sported a 16′ flue, but included the standard 2′ Harmonic Piccolo and 8′ Clarinet among its stops. And the Pedal of 16-16-16-8 included a very fine wooden Violone. Monthly recitals were given by the organist, and often included a soloist, a quartet, or even the full choir.
In 1945 the organ was electrified by Charles W. Allen, successor to Kimball representative Arthur D. Longmore. An only slightly used Kimball console was acquired from the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Tacoma, one of two installed there. The chest primaries were electrified, some stops were moved from the Great to the Choir, and a few new ranks were added/substituted. The organ lasted pretty much unaltered in this form until 1977.
Beginning in 1975, Balcom & Vaughan Pipe Organs, Inc. of Seattle had been discussing options for rebuilding the Kimball at Trinity. Various stoplists and drawings were considered. In 1979 the parish finally decided upon a plan, and the organ was rebuilt. But the Balcom & Vaughan was essentially a new organ, on new chests, with predominantly new pipework, and retaining 12 selected voices from the venerable old Kimball. The impressive 1902 Kimball façades were eliminated, and little ‘buffets’ of exposed pipework took their place. The B & V was designed along “American Classic” lines akin to Aeolian-Skinner, which is where then B & V president, William J. Bunch, had been working for many years. While the new organ was more transparent-sounding than the Kimball, and offered more color in the way of mutations and mixtures, the blend between new and old was not entirely satisfying, nor did the brighter ensembles seem to adequately fill the church space.
In 1989 the Portland firm of Marceau & Associates provided a handsome new terraced drawknob console to replace the existing used Kimball stopkey console. Several preliminary stop changes were made with existing pipework to improve the sound of the organ. In 1995 Trinity Church awarded a contract to Marceau & Associates for the rebuilding of the existing organ. This effort sought to take the existing pipework and through rescaling, recombining, and revoicing, create a more cohesive whole, including appropriate new pipework. Each of the manual divisions now has a principal chorus in proper terraced dynamics. Part of this project was to recreate the three Kimball façades in spirit, but with a new twist. The church now has an eclectic 3-manual organ, with bold principals, colorful flutes, two strings with mated celestes, mutation voices, mixtures, and reeds of both chorus and solo colors. And all is housed behind a handsome façade of polished zinc principals in the original three bays, providing a sense of visual continuity with the past.
—Jim Stettner
Organ historian

Stoplist description
As with any instrument, the most critical areas of interest are the principal choruses. Our Opus IV is blessed with two divisions with 8′ Principals (Great and Positiv). The Great principal chorus is based on a normal scale 8′ Principal, with the low 19 notes in the façade. The 4′ Octave, 2′ Super Octave, and III–V Mixture are all stops retained from the 1978 project, rescaled and revoiced for a more energetic, colorful presence in the room. The Positiv principal chorus is 1–2 notes smaller, with a higher-pitched Mixture. Added to this chorus is the Sesquialtera II, of principal character, which imparts a “reedy” quality to the overall sound. Of particular note is the 8′ Principal. It is scaled 2 notes smaller than the Great 8′ Principal; when heard in the chancel it has a very Geigen-like quality, but takes on more character in the nave, and is a perfect complement to its “big brother.”
The Swell principal chorus, based on the 4′ level, includes a III–IV Mixture, which works well with the reeds in this division. The Pedal principal chorus is based on the 16′ Principal (of wood) and progresses up to the III Mixture, which includes a Tierce rank. I find this addition completes the Pedal chorus without the need to include the reeds.
The Great flutes (8′ Rohrflute, 4′ Koppelflute) provide the foundation for the rest of the flute stops. Contrasting and complementary stops appear in the Positiv (8′ Gedackt, 4′ Spillflute, 2′ Lochgedackt), with smoother-sounding stops in the Swell (8′ Holzgedackt, 4′ Nachthorn, 2′ Waldflute). Of particular note is the Positiv 2′ Lochgedackt, whose character is gentle enough to soften the assertive sounds of the Sesquialtera.
There are two sets of strings, found on the Swell and Positiv manuals. The Swell 8′ Salicional and Positiv 8′ Gemshorn are from the 1902 Kimball; the Voix Celeste is of an unknown builder, while the Gemshorn Celeste is an original Dolce built by Stinkens in the late 1960s.
It is interesting to note that all of the manual reeds were built by Stinkens at some point in time. My colleague, Frans Bosman, was very successful in regulating each stop to work well in both solo and ensemble roles. The Great 8′ Trompete is dark and robust in character, contrasting with the brighter, more aggressive Swell 8′ Trompette. The Swell 8′ Oboe is also bright but at least one or two dynamic levels softer. The unit Fagott rank is from the 1978 project, appearing in the Pedal only. It was extended to play on the Swell at both 8′ and 4′ pitches. The Positiv 8′ Krummhorn is scaled more as a Dulzian, giving this stop the power to add color to the Positiv chorus. The most surprising set of reeds is found in the Pedal. Both the 16′ Posaune/8′ Trumpet and 4′ Clarion are vintage pipes. There was some concern about tonal and dynamic blend; these fears were laid to rest when, after regulating these stops, they were the perfect balance to the full ensemble!
There are Tierce ranks in every division. The Great mounted Cornet (located behind the façade pipes) can be used for classic French repertoire, the Positiv Sesquialtera II can be used in both solo and ensemble roles, the Swell Cornet decomposée allows for the individual mutations to be used separately or in combination, and the Pedal Mixture contains the tierce rank and is quite effective in chorus work.
—René A. Marceau

Zion’s Lutheran Church, East Germantown, Indiana

A native of Indiana, Michael Rathke received his early organbuilding training with Goulding & Wood, Inc. He subsequently served a formal five-year apprenticeship plus a further two journeyman years with C.B. Fisk, Inc. In 2002 he traveled to England to work with Mander Organs, assisting with the refurbishment of the 1871 Willis organ in London’s Royal Albert Hall and the restoration of the 1766 George England organ at the Danson Mansion in Kent. Upon his return to the United States in 2004, Rathke established his own workshop, where his focus continues to be the building, restoration, and conservation of fine mechanical-action instruments.

I first visited Zion’s Lutheran Church in 1986, near the beginning of my organbuilding apprenticeship. I recall surprise in discovering that the venerable M.P. Möller, with whose plentiful local electro-pneumatic installations I was familiar, had once built mechanical-action instruments. If Zion’s organ were representative, Möller’s tracker output had clearly been more than respectable. Apart from a stiff key action, the organ was a pleasure to play, and its 16 stops made a grand sound in this relatively small church.

My next visit came 25 years later, shortly after setting up my own workshop nearby. On this occasion I was less struck by the Möller’s quality than by its evident deterioration. The organ looked fine, having recently received cosmetic repairs; its basic sound also remained fairly convincing, if not precisely as I remembered. But mechanically, the organ was a mess. The key action was heavy, sticky, and unpredictable; both manual windchests were suffering from obvious and severe sponsil damage; and the two reservoirs (supply-house units that had replaced the original double-rise) were living on borrowed time. Ciphers that could not be rectified abounded; other notes would barely play because their channels had been excessively bled to alleviate sponsil ciphers. The parishioners of Zion’s remained proud of their historic organ, admired its sound, and affirmed that it had served well since arriving in 1933 from a neighboring church. But it had also been an ongoing maintenance challenge. This vigorous but small congregation was understandably weary of spending money at regular intervals and being assured time and again that the organ was now “good as new,” only to find that each assurance had been optimistic, at best. 

When we were asked to take over the organ’s routine tuning and maintenance, we were also charged with making appropriate long-term recommendations. Our first was simply a year of watchful waiting, during which we proposed to carry out touch-up tuning and minor repairs but to do no major work, striving to keep near-term maintenance spending to an absolute minimum. We were thus able to observe the Möller through a full cycle of heating and cooling seasons, especially important given its location partly within an uninsulated organ chamber. This evaluation period also allowed the church a welcome respite from excessive cash outlays and to consider, for the first time, comprehensively restoring its fine but long-suffering pipe organ.

Several things soon became apparent. First, the 1933 relocation from St. Paul’s Lutheran in nearby Richmond—carried out by “two farmers and a mechanic,” according to local tradition—had begun the instrument’s woes. The movers had clearly been competent general craftsmen, but they appear not to have been trained organbuilders. Second, the masonry chamber within which some two-thirds of the organ resided was not well sealed, leaking cold air in winter and hot air in summer, along with the odd bit of blown snow and rain. Third, although the chamber tone opening was more than ample and allowed good tonal egress, the chamber itself was almost too small for the organ it enclosed. The pedal chests had been wedged in at contrary angles, with key action run cross-lots and cobbled together from an assortment of wood tracker stock and soft copper wire. Fourth, the movers had provided absolutely no tuning or maintenance access. To carry out such basic operations as adjusting key action nuts required removal of most of the pedal pipes; to tune the Oboe necessitated either the removal of façade pipes or a precarious climb high above the pedal division.

During this year-long interim, Zion’s organ committee wrestled with a number of options and contending opinions from parishioners, some of whom felt strongly that it was time to “stop pouring money down a black hole, discard the old Möller, and replace it with an ‘up-to-date’ electronic.” While congregational sentiment ran generally against this course, especially among clergy and musicians, many felt rebuilding the Möller or selling it outright would make the most sense. Others in this 190-year-old church advocated a comprehensive restoration, emphasizing the organ’s history, accumulated stewardship, and importance to the fine music program for which Zion’s was known. The church solicited bids for all options, each of which was studied and debated in detail.

Following a vote by the entire church membership, M.P. Rathke, Inc. was awarded the contract for a full and strict mechanical restoration of the Möller. The organ committee chair later explained that we had tendered the winning bid in large part because it was also the low bid, the cost of comprehensively restoring the Möller being significantly less even than a modest electronic to replace it. (The previous sentence is worth re-reading for anyone fortunate enough to possess a historic instrument from any builder.)

During the course of restoration the organ was dismantled in its entirety. Pipework, which upon initial inspection had appeared clean and in relatively good condition, was stored in the church fellowship hall; everything else was taken to our workshop for cleaning, refurbishment, and repair. While in-shop work was proceeding, parishioners were busy tuckpointing, insulating, sealing, caulking, and painting the organ chamber. They also removed carpet from the choir area in front of the organ, sanded and refinished the yellow pine floor below, and invested in a simple humidification unit, built into the existing forced-air HVAC system.

Physical repairs, reinforcement, and reconstruction 

The mechanical restoration was labor-intensive but relatively straightforward. We discovered that sponsil failure had been caused not only by the common condition of overheated, dry winter air, but also by sagging at midpoint of both manual windchests owing to glueline creep. Grid sponsils had thus opened on their undersides like the folds of an accordion in response to 115 years of gravity. After patching and regluing the sponsils, we provided reinforcement to the grid rails of both manual chests to prevent future deflection and to ensure that sponsil repairs would remain permanent. Keyboards were cleaned, flattened, polished, and rebushed; key tails were refelted and releathered. The Swell to Great coupler was comprehensively refurbished. Drawknobs were cleaned and relacquered, stop jambs were rebushed, and a purpose-made rotary blower switch (replacing a massive and unsightly industrial knife switch) was manufactured and applied to the old Bellows Signal stopknob. Kristen Farmer of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was engaged to strip the many layers of flat black paint that had been applied to the nameboard and to carry out a painstaking restoration of the original silver-leaf stenciling (Photo 1). Five components required remanufacturing, either in full or in part:

1. Double-rise reservoir—It is clear that the organ’s original 5′ x 8′ double-rise reservoir survived the 1933 move to Zion’s along with the rest of the instrument. But in the early 1960s the old reservoir was cut into pieces and replaced by a pair of small and inadequate supply house units, likely because of the difficulty of carrying out proper releathering within the extremely tight confines of the chamber. Most of the old reservoir was discarded at that time, but a few pieces were reused as walkboards, bracing, and a jury-rigged post shoring up one corner of the organ’s framework (ironically, replacing a structural post that had been hacked away to gain demolition access to the old reservoir).

Replicating the reservoir turned out to be less difficult than envisioned, for enough fragments remained that we were able to determine all dimensions and relevant construction details. After developing a working design, we entrusted the actual fabrication to
J. Zamberlan & Co. of Wintersville, Ohio (Photo 2). I first met Joe Zamberlan in 1989 during our respective apprenticeships with Fisk and Noack; our similar training and philosophies have since led to collaborations on a number of projects, Zion’s being but the most recent.

2. Pedal key action—When the Möller was built for St. Paul’s Lutheran in 1897, its internal layout was fairly typical: the Swell stood directly behind the Great at impost level, with pedal chests located near floor level, one on the CC side and the other on the ## side (Sketch A, p. 28). At Zion’s, however, this configuration was impossible owing to the absence of space on the ## side. The 1933 movers thus placed all pedal resources on the CC side, where an L-shaped chamber configuration afforded almost enough room.

However, the Zion’s chamber also required the Pedal chests to be located farther toward the back wall (away from the player) than at St. Paul’s. The original action had employed a unique rollerboard, with cranked arms below the pedalboard and rollers running straight back from the keydesk; trackers had then continued at right angles to the Pedal chests. With the chests forced rearward, the 1933 movers chose not the preferable solution of extending the rollerboard and maintaining the original geometry, but rather the Rube Goldberg solution of chiseling away part of the chamber wall and running trackers at a 45-degree angle (Sketch B, p. 28). This somewhat counter-intuitive approach did get the job done, more or less, but it also reduced tracker motion by nearly 50% and imposed undesirable friction and lateral stresses on the Pedal action. We constructed a new rollerboard—essentially a “stretched” replica of the original (Photo 3) utilizing every scrap of old material we could salvage—and installed it in a manner consistent with Möller’s 1897 design (Sketch C, p. 28.)

3. Pedal winding and stop action— The asymmetrical chamber at Zion’s prompted the 1933 movers to choose yet another unusual solution. Because the Bourdon 16′ chest was slightly too long to fit the available space, it was jammed in askew; the slightly shorter Flute 8′ chest fit alongside with no difficulty. Both pedal chests were then served by the same key action run, but winding was less straightforward because each chest employed ventil rather than slider stop action. Thus two wind ducts were required, but only the 16′ Bourdon chest could be winded easily. Undaunted, the movers ran a second galvanized duct straight through the Bourdon chest rollerboard (!), cut a rough hole in the 8′ Flute chest bung board, inserted the duct, puttied it in place, and then located stop action ventils as best they could. Among other drawbacks, this clumsy arrangement made impossible the removal of the Flute chest bung board for maintenance. (Photo 4) The 2013 solution entailed attaching both stop-action ventils to the reservoir (their original location), constructing new poplar wind ducts to match remnants of the originals, and installing in a manner consistent with other Möllers of the period. (Photo 5)

4. Floor frame and building frame replication—During the 1960s, the Möller underwent a rough removal of portions of its floor and building frames to facilitate demolition of its original double-rise reservoir. Instead of reinstalling the load-bearing post, beam, and floor frame, workers simply nailed up scabs of material left over from the old reservoir, which at best provided crude and insufficient support. (Photo 6) We manufactured and installed replicas of the original floor frame and building frame, taking care to match wood species and copy joinery techniques from the rest of the instrument. 

5. Replica reservoir placement and Great wind duct re-routing—During its time at Zion’s, the Möller’s supreme drawback had been a lack of maintenance access. The general culprit was a narrow (8′2′′) chamber opening, compared with the width of the organ’s main internal structure (8′0′′), but specific obstacles included the location and orientation of both the original double-rise reservoir and the Great wind duct.

The 2013 solution was twofold. First, we turned the new reservoir 90 degrees from its original orientation, which allowed us to respect the essential layout of the original wind system while simultaneously opening a clear access path into the organ. (Sketch C) The end-on positioning of the new bellows will also make possible its easy removal for future releathering, as opposed to the crosswise orientation of the original, whose zero-clearance installation in 1933 surely contributed to its eventual demise.

The Great wind duct posed a more perplexing challenge. The original duct was intact in 2012; unfortunately, it completely blocked the only possible service access into the organ. The revised duct now exits the reservoir, crosses under the maintenance walkway, rises vertically, crosses back over the walkway, and finally makes a 90-degree turn forward to enter the Great pallet box. Although the new duct’s construction is somewhat complex, every effort was made to replicate winding characteristics of the original: routing was kept as direct as possible, and cross-sections were deliberately made slightly oversize to compensate both for increased duct length (an additional 19′′) and for necessary additional twists and turns.

Tonal restoration

Successful restorative voicing depends on a number of factors including sufficient intact material, the restorer’s familiarity with other instruments of the school and period, a cautious and deliberate approach, and especially an agenda-free willingness to allow pipes to tell the voicer what they want to do rather than vice versa. In the following paragraphs we will describe the Möller’s altered tonal state in 2012, outline its evaluation, and summarize how we undertook to reconstruct the 1897 sound.

In 1986, Möller Opus 188 still possessed many of the sonorities that inspired worshipers almost a century prior. By 2012, some beautiful sounds remained, although in greatly attenuated form. The exact cause and timing are difficult to pinpoint, in part because church records from the period are sketchy, but also because of the involvement of so many different technicians, some of whom attempted experimental voicing in a manner both curiously random and spectacularly unsuccessful. The physical evidence furnished by the pipes themselves in 2012 seems the most reliable record and will be related here.

All wood pipes were in essentially original condition, requiring little apart from minor regulation and physical repair. The organ’s sole reed stop—a sweet and assertive Oboe and Bassoon 8′—was likewise in decent physical shape apart from some badly torn tuning scrolls. It had undergone tonal work in 1970 by a local technician who, incredibly, chose to sign each C resonator in block capital letters incised with an awl. Fortunately, his voicing efforts were limited to lightly kinking and roughly cross-filing numerous tongues, both of which steps were reversed in 2013. The entire organ had unfortunately been repitched in 2000 to A-440, predictably choking off many reeds; restoring the original pitch of A-435 helped greatly in recovering the Oboe’s stability, promptness, and robustness of tone.

The metal fluework was a mixed bag. On the plus side, almost all interior pipework was physically intact, if not tonally unaltered. Pipes that were slotted in 1897 happily remained so; pipes originally cone-tuned had been fitted with sleeves but fortunately left close to their natural speaking lengths, so the net tonal effect was negligible. Numerous feet had collapsed from years of heavy-handed cone tuning and the use of thin foot material in the first place; we repaired this damage as a matter of course.

On the minus side, many inside pipes had been randomly altered by a variety of bizarre procedures. About a dozen lower lips had been pinched tight against the languids to where only the original coarse nicking allowed wind through the flue; these pipes murmured more than spoke. (This curious method was limited primarily to the Quintadena bass of the 8′ Aeoline.) A distressing number of windways had been aggressively filed open, removing significant material from both languid and lower lip. Upper lips of many mid-range principals had been torn and distorted; some appeared to have been gnawed by rats. Most front pipes, recipients in 2000 of a fresh coat of gold paint, barely spoke in 2012. While the paint job itself was competently executed from a cosmetic standpoint, obvious pre-existing damage had been simply painted over. Examples included out-of-round pipe bodies, dents, missing or broken tuning scrolls, collapsed lead toes, broken ears, and hooks held on by little more than a vestige of solder. Most front pipe windways had also received a generous infusion of paint (!), completely clogging the original nicking and materially reducing flueway cross-sections. Many dangled from their hooks, with wind leaking audibly at collapsed toes; this latter defect became evident only after the friction tape applied in 2000 as a band-aid repair dried out and began to unravel. Zinc conveyancing from the Great windchest was damaged or missing in many instances, causing weak or dead notes; a smooth dynamic transition between façade pipes and their interior continuations (Great Open Diapason, Dulciana, Octave) was nonexistent.

At this point we faced a critical dilemma. On one hand, we had been hired only to restore the Möller mechanically and to perform minor pipe repairs. Wholesale restorative voicing and major pipe repairs were neither contemplated nor included in the contract price. On the other hand, some pipe damage and tonal alterations became clear only after the restored action and wind system allowed pipes to be heard under full wind and precise control. We faced an uncomfortable choice between simply fulfilling the terms of our contract—delivering a perfectly functioning but poor sounding instrument—or moving ahead with necessary tonal work for which we could never be fully compensated. We ultimately chose the latter, not because it was a sound business decision—it was in fact a terrible business decision—but because of the virtual certainty that, if we didn’t, no one ever would. Then this fine and rare pipe organ, mechanically sound but tonally compromised, would likely be discarded eventually. (It is axiomatic that tonally ugly instruments are seldom preserved, no matter how well they function.) In the end, we simply couldn’t bear the thought. And so we prayed, put our noses to the grindstone, and forged ahead.

We tackled the façade first, essentially moving our pipe shop into the Zion’s sanctuary for a full month. Most of the 33 large speaking front pipes required rounding up on large mandrels, as well as removal of visible dents. Components such as ears whose proper reattachment would have involved soldering—impossible without scorching the gold lacquer —were repaired using clear epoxy. The most difficult operation was removing the enormous amount of paint that in 2000 had been sprayed down into the windways, filling in nicking and coating languids and lower lips with an unwelcome layer of crud. Our front pipe work was accompanied at all times by moderate sweat and considerable sotto voce profanity.

Inside pipes were in some ways easier because they were smaller, but there were also many more of them. A few had to be completely remade; a hundred or so more received careful corrective voicing to match their untouched neighbors; a few hundred more required little apart from cleaning, re-prepping, and normal regulation for tone, power, and speech. The final result is as much a testimony to Möller’s original pipemaking and voicing as to our care in resurrecting them.

Have the results repaid our efforts? On the one hand, it is not too much to say that Möller Opus 188 is once again mechanically reliable and tonally impressive, with a richness and versatility that compare favorably with the best of New England work from the period. As restorers, we are exceptionally proud of this magnificent pipe organ we have labored to bring back to life. On the other hand, ours is admittedly the pride of parents, or at least foster parents, and thus similarly subjective. The final assessment must rest with history, which will be informed by countless organists who have yet to experience this remarkable and historic instrument. We therefore encourage all interested readers to visit Zion’s Lutheran Church, to play and listen, and to decide for themselves. Especially we invite you to share with us your reactions and impressions. 

Restorers of the Organ

Joey Jarboe

Caleb Ringwald

Nicholas Ringwald

Paul Rathke

Michael Rathke

Special thanks to Fritz Noack, Christopher Sedlak, and Timothy McEwan.

Goulding & Wood Organ Builders, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Opus 50

The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Lexington, Kentucky

From the organbuilder

“Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” could well serve as the motto for the organ project at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Lexington, Kentucky. The Gothic revival building holds a wealth of architectural and design detail, culminating in an extravagance of carved furnishings in the chancel. Wainscot paneling in the sanctuary depicts scenes from the life of Christ, and the reredos displays a large tableau of the Last Supper. 

Liturgical worship in the parish matches the opulence of the setting, with an unusually well-developed choral program encompassing all ages. Over the past twelve years, organist and choirmaster John Linker has built a music department known throughout the area for excellence. The Good Shepherd choirs have held residencies in English cathedrals and this summer made their first concert tour of continental Europe.

Throughout this period of musical expansion, the congregation has been served by a 1970s neo-Baroque organ of modest resources. Although the instrument was a fine example of its aesthetic approach and served the parish well for forty years, the organ was inadequate for the scope of the music program as it has evolved. It contained only one manual reed and no celeste rank. In short, the organ struggled to keep up with the demands of accompanying Anglican chant psalmody and the choral music of Stanford and Howells. 

Conversation about replacing the organ began nearly a decade ago, yet while the need was never in dispute, external forces seemed to derail the discussion at every turn. Building on the foundation laid by Fr. Robert Sessum, interim rector Fr. Ron Pogue seized the opportunity during the time of transition in leadership to force the issue. The committee moved quickly under the focused leadership of chair Joseph Jones, and a contract was signed after a brief flurry of activity.

The organ is thus designed primarily as a handmaiden for musical liturgy in the Anglican tradition as it has been received by the American church. The instrument’s resources are uniquely tailored to the setting it serves in every regard. Recognizing the value of a wide tonal palette, the chancel instrument is double the size of the previous organ, gaining variety in tone rather than increase in volume. A new chamber was created by renovating a second-story storage room, allowing organ on both sides of the chancel for the first time. The existing chamber, formerly housing the Swell, now holds the Choir in intimate proximity to the voices it accompanies. The Swell resides within the new chamber, high in the chancel where its robust voice can speak freely into the room. The Great is divided in twin cantilevered cases facing each other, with the plenum stops on the cantoris side and color stops on the decani. Maximizing the versatility of this arrangement, the two halves of the Great can be silenced through individual Unison Off controls and coupled to the fourth manual separately. This allows, for instance, the Great principal cornet to dialogue with the Great Trumpet.

Early on, the committee determined that having a division in the back of the room would be a top priority. For all the storied choir-centric nature of the Anglican tradition, worship in America resoundingly seeks to involve the assembly in song. With the acoustically compromising arrangement of chancel chambers off the central axis of the room, an Antiphonal organ on the back wall would help unify music-making throughout the church. Whenever the issue of funding was raised, the Antiphonal division was widely recognized as the most palatable sacrifice, yet it remained a strong desire among the committee. Thanks to the efficacy of the fund-raising campaign and the generosity of the Miller and Wrigley families, the committee was able to avoid any limitations. Twin cases frame the majestic western lancet window, and the polished display pipes reflect the colorful light from the stained glass. The polished brass Festival Trumpet completes the visual effect with a regal touch.

Any student of organ design will recognize the predictable nature of stop lists from instrument to instrument across styles of organ building. The distinctive quality of tonal design lies in the careful specification of scales, mouth widths, and voicing techniques. All of these details are meticulously overseen by our head voicer, Brandon Woods, who works with each stop through design to final regulation in the room. In this he is ably assisted by David Sims, who contributes to each step of the process. This instrument features a weight in tone and variety in color consistent with the demands of accompanying voices in a sensitive, supportive manner. Each division includes an 8′ principal stop, each of varying volume and personality. The plenum choruses complement each other in combination as well as stand individually with integrity. As with many of our recent instruments, mouth widths below 1′ C on principal pipes are kept fairly narrow, allowing the upper lips of mouths to rise. This imparts a tone with generous fundamental development. With diapason chorus stops, this yields 8′ and 4′ stops with compelling and distinctive personalities. Higher-pitched stops and mixtures step back in scaling and broaden in mouth width to permit more upper partial development. Volume and speech are reserved in these stops, preventing them from dominating the texture. The result is a chorus with sheen but whose power comes from the fundamental.

The reed stops of the organ traverse a wide spectrum of musical effect. The Great Trumpet has lead resonators of generous scale and shallots with sharply tapered openings. These combine for a sound rich and heavy, blending into the principal chorus seamlessly. The Swell reed chorus features parallel openings on the shallots for a full-throated brilliance that pours from its chamber. The Choir’s Clarinet is gentle and voluptuous in the style of E. M. Skinner stops. The instrument is crowned by two solo reeds, the Choir Tuba and the Antiphonal Festival Trumpet. The Tuba is a typical high-pressure reed, in the style of Willis, with a broad, enveloping tone. The Festival Trumpet is commanding, speaking from its dramatic position, yet mild enough to use (sparingly) in chords.

Celeste ranks are of particular note in this organ. In addition to the ubiquitous strings in the Swell and Dulciana in the Choir, the Antiphonal contains a Diapason Celeste. Both unison and celeste ranks use slotted pipes to encourage the undulation, and the keen tone that derives from the slots makes for a distinctive sound. The timbre is unapologetically diapason in quality, and the vigorous sound of the two ranks together fills the room in a luxuriant wash of sound.

Windchests throughout the organ feature our unique electro-pneumatic slider and pallet design. The combination of tone channels running across stops and wholly pneumatic action enables the pipework to speak incisively yet without any harshness in attack. Further, the stops meld together as they draw wind from a common source. Arranging the mechanics and structure proved to be an extremely challenging task, particularly as the new Swell chamber’s dimensions continued to be a moving target throughout design and even construction of the organ. Staff design engineer Kurt Ryll and shop manager Mark Goulding nonetheless arrived at a layout that, if not commodious, certainly supports maintenance access to every component. Moving about the organ for routine tuning is remarkably simple, belying the complexity of the design necessary to achieve this.

The cabinetry of the organ and console was executed by Robert Duffy and Robert Heighway, culling elements from the room, such as the Tudor roses that adorn the rood screen and ornamental bosses featured in the reredos. The console uses marquetry to separate the divisions within the stop jambs and to frame the burled central panel of the music desk. Throughout the organ, both internal and visible details are finished with an attention to detail consistent with the quality of woodworking in the church.

The sum of all these disparate parts is an instrument that truly speaks forth, carrying the people’s song and supporting the choir in their leadership. While our intention was for it to be specifically suited to the worship of this congregation, we made no attempt to embody shallow or derivative notions of English organ building. This is an American instrument embracing the gamut of organ literature, hymnody, and choral music employed by the congregation. In realizing this goal we gratefully acknowledge the contributions of organist and choirmaster John Linker and committee chair Joseph Jones. We also recognize the steady leadership of the rector, Fr. Brian Cole, who inherited a project already underway and oversaw the completion with a dedication and enthusiasm as if it were his own. We look forward to sharing with the congregation in the upkeep of the organ, watching as it enlivens the worship at Church of the Good Shepherd and enriches the musical life of Lexington.

—Jason Overall

Goulding & Wood, Inc.

Indianapolis, Indiana

Robert Duffy, casework, cabinetry, and wood carvings

John Goulding, reed racking

Mark Goulding, shop foreman, general shop construction

Chris Gray, general shop construction

Robert Heighway, console cabinetry, casework cabinetry, and slider chests

Jerin Kelly, wind chests, general shop construction

Phil Lehman, office manager

Tyler MacDonald, wind chests

Jason Overall, office support and tonal design

Kurt Ryll, case design and engineering

David Sims, system wiring, tonal finishing

Michael Vores, structure, expression boxes, general shop construction

Brandon Woods, tonal design, voicing, and finishing.

From the organist & choirmaster

Goulding & Wood Opus 50 (named “The Miller and Wrigley Organ”) is the physical manifestation of many years of consideration, consultation, site visits, fundraising, and, of course, prayer. On my appointment to the Church of the Good Shepherd in 2001, it was immediately apparent that the previous neo-Baroque instrument had limited resources for accompanying the Anglican liturgy. As more and more electro-magnets and memory capture components failed, it was decided to replace the instrument with an organ more suitable to the fine Gothic architecture of Good Shepherd, and having a more diverse tonal palette, rather than to restore the previous instrument.

Upon his retirement in 2009, former rector Fr. Robert Sessum suggested to the congregation that the next project in the immediate future of Good Shepherd should be to replace the organ. The congregation heeded the advice of Fr. Sessum, and over the next two years an organ committee and organ capital campaign committee were formed under the guidance of the interim rector, Fr. Ron Pogue. Our new rector, Fr. Brian Cole, oversaw installation of the new instrument. It is a privilege to have worked with these three clergymen in seeing the dream of a new instrument for Good Shepherd come true.

In selecting a builder, the committee had their work cut out for them. My personal preference favors mechanical action, as I have found tracker instruments to be superior tools of artistic expression. Early on in the process, however, our committee had to dismiss this as an option due to Good Shepherd’s architecture and our desire to have symmetrically balanced cases on both sides of the chancel, as well as an Antiphonal division at the west end to better support hymn singing. After reviewing numerous designs, specifications, and participating in site visits, the committee unanimously chose Goulding & Wood.

Over many months we worked closely with Goulding & Wood president Jason Overall and head voicer Brandon Woods on a specification that would meet Good Shepherd’s liturgical needs and be unique. We agreed to reuse some of the finest pipework from the old instrument in the new organ. The former Great 8′ Principal and 4′ Octave were revoiced and now reside in the Choir as 8′ Open Diapason and the 4′ Principal. The former 16′ Subbass (which was, in fact, from the parish’s Pilcher organ from the 1920s) was revoiced and at home again in Good Shepherd. The Pedal 4′ Schalmey as well as the Zimbelstern were also worthy of recycling.  

As its primary function is to accompany the Anglican liturgy, a complete and powerful Swell division is a must. The new Swell boasts a complete principal chorus, luscious strings, and harmonic flutes at 4′ and 2′ pitches, as well as a full complement of 16′ through 4′ reeds. While the Swell, Choir, and Pedal divisions appear fairly standard in specification, it is the Great and Antiphonal divisions that have the most innovative design and function. The Great is divided on both sides of the quire, and as such, each side can be coupled separately to the fourth manual to solo out melodies of hymns or other innovative uses. In addition to having a complete principal chorus, the Antiphonal also boasts a “Diapason Celeste.” While a Voce Umana or a Fiffaro might be common in Italian organs, a stop such as this is rarely found on English-inspired American organs. Furthermore, this stop is indeed an open, full-bodied, English-style Diapason. Though its use in repertoire is extremely rare (it is likely not the sound Frescobaldi had in mind!), it is incredibly useful in improvisations. The sound of this celeste is rich and embodying. Indeed, the entire instrument draws a new level of musicality and creativity from those fortunate to play it, and it is the prayerful congregant who receives the greatest benefit.

The people of Good Shepherd take great pride in our choir program, which has attained a high degree of international recognition over the past decade. Attention to and participation in congregational hymn singing is now at an all-time high for this parish. Now that this glorious instrument is in place, matching the beauty of the choir, the architectural environment, and the mighty singing of the congregation, we eagerly anticipate reaching new heights in our spiritual and musical journeys, and discovering new ways in which we are all able to see glimpses of heaven right here on earth.

—John Linker

From the organ committee

The organ committee consisted of a cross-section of the congregation, Dr. Schuyler W. Robinson, professor of organ at the University of Kentucky, and our church organist/choirmaster. The committee’s charge was to determine the type, size, and placement of the future instrument, and to set the budget. Its most important task was to find the perfect fit between the church and the company selected to build the instrument. The committee hired a consultant to help it identify the best North American organ builders, and we invited five of them to Lexington to present preliminary designs and cost estimates for the project. The committee then sent our two organists to play instruments representative of each builder. 

After careful deliberation, we chose Goulding & Wood of Indianapolis. Their plan was exciting and seemed to fit our needs perfectly. When the instrument was ready for installation, Goulding & Wood issued an invitation to the congregation to come to their workshop in Indianapolis to hear the organ before their team dismantled it and began to transfer it to Lexington. A few weeks later, the first pipes arrived and were paraded into the nave of the church, led by our bagpiper, and were blessed during a short service. The new and exciting musical voice of the Church of the Good Shepherd is a dream come true.

—J. R. Jones

Organ Committee Chair

From the rector

One of the real gifts of the Episcopal/Anglican tradition is the ability to keep a healthy tension between tradition and change. At Good Shepherd, the arrival of Goulding & Wood Opus 50 (the “Miller and Wrigley Organ”) is a fine example of that gift. 

The builders from Goulding & Wood were very sensitive to the change that takes place when an instrument like this is placed in an historic space. Throughout the weeks of building on site, we welcomed parishioners and community members to visit our church during construction. Numerous photographs and videos, both formal and informal, were taken to record the work. Even though the builders were guests to our space, they served as good hosts, as long-time members and newcomers asked questions while the installation process unfolded. 

Now that it is in place, the organ appears to have always been in our liturgical space. The antiphonal division now frames the glorious Abbott Window in the rear of the church and accentuates the colors of the stained glass. The new organ has also already been a catalyst for more vigorous congregational singing. The old organ console has been refashioned to make a smaller altar for our Sunday evening Eucharist. 

We are all blessed to be a part of Good Shepherd’s story at this time. The Miller and Wrigley Organ, while new, affirms the great strengths of traditional Anglican worship. Because of its incredible versatility, this instrument will serve as an anchor as we expand the musical life of the parish in arts offerings to the Lexington community. 

—The Rev’d Brian Cole

Goulding & Wood, Inc.,
Indianapolis, Indiana
Opus 28 (1996) and Opus 49 (2009)
First United Methodist Church, Rocky Mount, North Carolina

From the organbuilder
One of the greatest pleasures we have as organbuilders is seeing the development of our relationships with the congregations whose churches house our instruments. We have found that our organs serve as catalysts for ongoing shared experiences with musicians, clergy, and lay people across a wide spectrum of geographic, demographic, and denominational ranges. We are grateful for our ever-growing circle of friends, many of whom feel like family. Nowhere is this truer than with the people of First United Methodist Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. We have continued to maintain close ties with the congregation even as the staff musicians have changed through the years. As such, it was with great excitement that we received word that the church was interested in fulfilling the preparations left on our Opus 28 instrument from 1996. As the conversation continued, the church further inquired about the realization of an Antiphonal division as well.
Discussion over this Antiphonal organ had been brief at the time of the chancel instrument installation. Console preparations to control the division were included, but no timeline was established for moving forward. Part of this preliminary design was to situate the instrument on the rear wall of the main sanctuary, allowing it to also speak into the adjacent chapel. The two rooms are perpendicular in orientation, with the back wall of the sanctuary serving as the side wall of the chapel. Although no definite decisions were made in 1996, the assumption was that the small Kilgen extension organ that served the chapel would provide a repository for the pipework of this very modest division.
As we considered the project more fully, it became apparent that the resources of the Kilgen organ were insufficient for either chapel or sanctuary use. Rather than using any sort of unit chest design, we proposed building an instrument employing a slider windchest with all new pipework. To maximize the flexibility of the organ for chapel use, we split the slider chest grid at middle C and furnished separate stop controls for bass and treble slides. The chapel console then accesses the instrument through divided stops, much in the way of a seventeenth-century English organ. This concept similarly influenced the specification, although the organ is not an attempt to copy any historical style. At the same time, the choice of a wooden Stopped Diapason, an elegantly thin Dulciana with matching celeste, and treble Cornet derives from English precedents. In scaling and voicing, however, the pipework adheres to the acoustical environment of both chapel and sanctuary, balancing with the tonal style of the chancel instrument so as to contribute to a satisfying musical ensemble when paired together.
In order to negotiate the dual uses of the organ, and to maximize the division’s expressive capabilities, the organ speaks through shade frames behind each façade. Upon turning on the chapel console, the shade frame facing into the main sanctuary closes and remains fixed, focusing all the sound into the chapel. Conversely, turning on the chancel console closes the chapel shades and allows the sanctuary side shade to be assigned to either the Swell or Choir shoe. All stops reside within the expression enclosure, including the 16′ Stopped Diapason. Within the chapel, the organ has a wide dynamic range, from the faint whisper of the Dulciana with the box closed to a satisfying full organ that fills the room with warmth. Although the chapel has a modestly sized floor plan, it has the same ceiling height as the main sanctuary. The proportions of the room, then, create a generous acoustical environment. The large cubic volume accommodates the abundant sound of the organ, while the placement of the instrument high on the wall distributes sound evenly, resulting in a musical presence that is embracing but never oppressive.
Mechanically, the organ is arranged in two levels, with the bass chest above the treble chest. Access for tuning and maintenance is easy throughout the layout despite the small size of the case. All mechanical systems and winding, including the blower, are located inside the case, yet the organization is logical and efficient. The division of the windchest into bass and treble facilitates imaginative use of the organ within the chapel. By drawing different combinations for right and left hands, two-manual repertoire can be rendered convincingly. Cornet voluntaries and trios with obbligato pedal are especially effective.
Tonally, the organ is typical of our organs in favoring fairly high cut-ups, substantial scaling, and thick-walled pipework, all of which encourages fundamental development. The Open Diapason is modestly scaled at 149 mm, taking into account the intimate context of the chapel. By contrast, the Stopped Diapason is a full 85 mm by 114 mm, adding thickness and weight to ensembles. Similarly, the 4′ Recorder is scaled at 81 mm with a 20th halving ratio and constructed of linen lead with a gentle 2:3 ratio taper. The Dulciana is a slender 88 mm at 8′ C and bearded for the first two octaves. Mouth widths are narrow, allowing for high cut-ups; all stops below 2′ pitch have 2/9 mouths, with the exception of the 4′ Recorder, whose first two octaves have 1/5 mouths. Only the treble of the 2′ and the Fourniture have 1/4-width mouths, restraining the upper end from growing glassy or obtrusive.
The current project also completed the chancel organ, rounding out the reed choruses in particular. The Great division received a new 16′ Fagotto, lending gravitas and weight to the ensemble. The Swell’s battery of reeds is now capped with a powerful 4′ Clairon, and the 16′ Basson is extended to 32′ pitch for the Pedal division. Other additions to the Pedal are a blending 8′ Trompete and solo 4′ Schalmei. Crowning the organ in the chancel is a commanding 8′ Bombarde with generous fundamental development and rich power. This reed also provides an effective contrast with the brilliant 8′ Fanfare Trumpet located within a section of the Antiphonal case partitioned from the main division. As such, it does not speak into the chapel, nor is it accessible by the chapel console. As an Antiphonal solo color, however, it is a thrilling presence in the room, able to stand up against full organ from the front. The only flue preparation was the 8′ Harmonic Flute on the Great, and the addition of this color opens up its own wealth of repertoire.
As with all of our recent work, the metal pipework for both the new instrument and the preparations was built by A. R. Schopp’s Sons, Inc. of Alliance, Ohio. Bob Schopp, David Schopp, Joe Russo, and their entire staff are a terrific resource and helpful partners in achieving the musical goals we seek. This job also required some sophisticated alterations to the chancel console solid-state systems, modifying controls built before the organ in back was even designed. We are grateful to Duncan Crundwell, Mark Gilliam, and Alan Bragg of Solid State Organ Systems for providing these changes and the new control systems, all of which worked from the start without a single glitch. Norman Y. Chambliss III of Chambliss and Rabil Contractors, Inc. ably and cheerfully coordinated the room modifications, including preparation of the rear wall to accommodate the steel support structure. Dr. Marcia Heirman, director of music for First United Methodist Church, has been a great friend to our shop throughout her tenure, and this project was especially fulfilling to embark upon with her. We look forward to watching as she continues to develop the music ministries of the church and incorporates the organ into the worship life of the congregation. We also wish to recognize the important work, sincere friendship, and unflagging support of the late Harry Pearsall. Harry was instrumental in the 1996 organ project, and we enjoyed keeping in touch with him through the intervening years. He was the first one to notify us of the prospect of this project in the spring of 2007, and he anticipated the completion of the organ with great eagerness. Unfortunately, Harry passed away in August shortly before the installation of the Antiphonal organ. We shall miss Harry’s kind smile and gentle presence on our future trips to Rocky Mount, and we are grateful to have this instrument as a testament to his perseverance and commitment to liturgical music in the church. May his dedication and stewardship serve as a reminder to all who hear the organ that, in the words of senior pastor Bob Bergland, music is “means of grace that people may come into the presence of God and have that experience of God’s nearness.”
—Jason Overall

Goulding & Wood, Inc.
Robert Duffy—case design and construction/supervision, installation
Mark Goulding—project team leader, installation
Robert Heighway—console design and construction, case construction, structure, installation
Phil Lehman—business manager, office support
Tyler MacDonald—slider chest construction, installation
Jason Overall—project development, onsite regulation
Tim Piotrzkowski—winding, chest construction, installation
Kurt Ryll—engineering and design
David Sims—voicing, console and system wiring, onsite tuning and regulation
Michael Vores—structure, winding, case construction, installation
Brandon Woods—tonal design and voicing

From the director of music
A long anticipated completion of the original 1996 Goulding & Wood (Opus 28) organ was realized in November 2009 as the company installed 1,048 additional pipes at First United Methodist in Rocky Mount. The installation included the addition of an Antiphonal division for the main organ, a new console in the chapel, the completion of the reed choruses in the chancel, a new fanfare trumpet in the antiphonal division for use in the sanctuary only, and a harmonic flute solo stop on the Great. Completed, the organ now fills the sanctuary with 69 ranks of beautiful and warm timbres.
The most obvious addition to the organ is the stunning Antiphonal division with a beautiful double façade, whose presence at the rear of the sanctuary fits so well architecturally it seems as if it has always been there. The chancel side of the double façade allows this division to be played independently from a new one-manual, split console in the chapel to serve as a new chapel organ. Independently, this organ is catalogued as Opus 49 by Goulding & Wood. The organ now embraces and surrounds the congregation with music and fills the large sanctuary without overpowering and overwhelming.
The organ completion was dedicated in the worship service on January 10. Upcoming dedication recitals will be presented by Dr. Monica Sparzak of Fayetteville, North Carolina, February 21; Dr. William Weisser of Edenton Street United Methodist in Raleigh, March 14; Christin Baker, sub dean of the East Carolina AGO chapter and an East Carolina University student, April 11; and Dr. Marcia Heirman with Lawrence Goering on May 16; all of these recitals will be at 4 pm. Coming in the fall will be Dr. Marilyn Mason, University Organist and Chairman of the University of Michigan Organ Department in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Dr. Michael Stefanek of Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Jeffrey Thompson of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Dates and times for the fall 2010 recitals will be announced later.
—Dr. Marcia Heirman

Goulding & Wood, Inc.
Opus 28 (1996) and Opus 49 (2009)
First United Methodist Church
Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Opus 28 Chancel Organ
(prepared pipework installed in 2009 listed in bold)
GREAT (Manual II)
16′ Violone
8′ Principal
8′ Violone (extension)
8′ Harmonic Flute
8′ Bourdon
4′ Octave
4′ Block Flute
2′ Super Octave
22⁄3′ Sesquialtera II (tenor c)
11⁄3′ Mixture IV
16′ Fagotto
8′ Trumpet
8′ Bombarde
8′ Fanfare Trumpet (hooded, in
Antiphonal case)
Tremulant
Great to Great 16
Unison Off
Great to Great 4
Chimes

SWELL (Manual III, enclosed)
8′ Geigen
8′ Geigen Celeste (tenor c)
8′ Stopped Diapason
4′ Principal
4′ Clear Flute
2′ Octave
11⁄3′ Quint
2′ Plein Jeu III–IV
1′ Cymbale II
16′ Basson-Hautbois
8′ Trompette
8′ Hautbois (extension)
4′ Clairon
8′ Fanfare Trumpet (Antiphonal)
Tremulant
Swell to Swell 16
Unison Off
Swell to Swell 4

CHOIR (Manual I, enclosed)
16′ Rohr Gedeckt (extension)
8′ Rohrflöte
8′ Salicional
8′ Salicional Celeste (tenor c)
8′ Flauto Dolce
8′ Flute Celeste (tenor c)
4′ Principal
4′ Spielflöte
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Spitzflöte
13⁄5′ Tierce
11⁄3′ Larigot
1′ Sifflöte
8′ Oboe
8′ Bombarde (Great)
8′ Fanfare Trumpet (Antiphonal)
Tremulant
Choir to Choir 16
Unison Off
Choir to Choir 4

PEDAL
32′ Resultant (from Rohr Gedeckt)
16′ Principal
16′ Subbass
16′ Violone (Great)
16′ Rohr Gedeckt (Choir)
8′ Octave
8′ Pommer
8′ Violone (Great)
8′ Rohr Gedeckt (Choir)
4′ Choralbass
4′ Koppelflöte
2′ Octavebass
11⁄3′ Mixture II
32′ Contre Basson (extension/Swell)
16′ Posaune
16′ Basson (Swell)
8′ Trompete
8′ Basson (Swell)
4′ Schalmei
8′ Bombarde (Great)
8′ Fanfare Trumpet (Antiphonal)

Opus 49 Antiphonal/Chapel Organ

MANUAL
8′ Open Diapason (1–13 in façade)
8′ Stopped Diapason
8′ Dulciana
8′ Unda Maris
4′ Principal (1–6 in façade)
4′ Recorder
2′ Fifteenth
22⁄3′ Sesquialtera II (from middle c)
11⁄3′ Fourniture II–III
Tremulant

PEDAL
16′ Stopped Diapason (extension of
Manual stop)
8′ Stopped Diapason (Manual stop)
Manual to Pedal Coupler

Chapel console: One-manual mahogany keydesk with natural keys in maple and sharps in rosewood. Stop controls divided bass and treble (b-24/c-25) except Fourniture, Dulciana, and Unda Maris.

Chest action: Goulding & Wood’s exclusive design of electro-pneumatic slider and pallet windchest.

Casework: Dual façades with two sets of speaking display pipes. Woodwork designed and painted to match church interior.

Goulding & Wood, Inc.
823 Massachusetts Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46204

800/814-9690
[email protected]
www.gouldingandwood.com

From the organbuilder

While our firm has been very prolific as a builder of new instruments since our founding in 1973, our company also has been very significant as a rebuilder and maintenance firm. So in 2011, when our firm was invited to Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, we approached a situation that required all of our skill sets.

A four-manual, 84-rank instrument by another firm had been contracted years earlier and was installed in their new sanctuary between 2008 and 2011. The church was having numerous concerns about the organ after it had been installed. There were mechanical and performance issues, but even more than this, the organ simply did not support their worship. 

Under the direction of the Reverend Carlos Ichter, minister of music, a number of pipe organ builders and consultants were invited to provide an assessment of the organ. The “solutions” given by others ranged from accepting it as it was and trying to increase wind pressure to completely starting over. With the considerable cost, this was not a consideration the church could contemplate, and accepting it as it was would not be an option.

We were asked if we could look at the organ to determine if we could find a way to make the organ a success and what it would require. As we studied the organ and researched the church records, we found numerous contracts, changes, and alterations that had occurred in the design of the instrument from its inception up to when it was installed. Without belaboring the point, this told an interesting story and explained the footing the church took with negotiations going forward, where they had to question everything that they were told.

We started our formal study of the instrument by bringing a team of eight of our staff to the church for one week. We studied the stoplist and scaling of the organ, the chest actions, the winding system, the expression shades, the organ console, the electrical system and relays, and the organ chassis as a whole. We dissected the internal workings of the organ and to better know the pipework, took the time to tune the organ. Next, we voiced some samples of the existing pipework to explore the latitude available for change.

The placement of the organ was in organ chambers in the front of the chancel behind a façade of 32′ pipes, and in a rear antiphonal. The chancel organ chambers sit high in the sanctuary with relatively small tone openings. Portions of these chambers have significant tone traps. The layout and placement of the pipework and chassis acted as physical barriers to the tonal egress of other stops in the organ. There were multiple instances of bass pipes being placed directly in the front of the chambers and covering the tone openings to a very large degree. 

We started our tonal design with a needs study and development of a clearly written, cogent plan for the musical support role of the organ in the church. Our work was to be a change agent to the development of an eclectic instrument that could take part in all forms of music including choral and congregational accompaniment, its role with orchestra, and service playing.

Much of the flue pipework in the organ was of decent quality and well built. However, the organ had a number of individual symphonic, orchestral-oriented stops—which, while beautiful, had been allowed more influence on the overall specification at the expense of a solid foundational accompaniment core. We felt that through reallocation of the flue resources we could accomplish the artistic considerations of a revised specification, while preserving many of the resources in a fiscally conservative manner. 

To begin our work, the pipework and console were removed to our workshop to be refurbished for the new specification. We remanufactured the drawknob jambs to include an entirely new string organ, replaced all of the drawknobs and engraving, replaced the tablet rail, and relocated the combination control panel to a central location so it could easily be seen by the organist. We also made changes to the console expression shoes and pedalboard to conform to AGO specifications, rewired the piston sequencer to function in a conventional manner, and added several pistons to the organ for performance features.

The specification contained a large number of slotted stops, including strings, harmonic pipes, and mixture compositions. The slotting exacerbated the fifth at the expense of the unison pitch and became unstable at a pressure that the pipe mouth cutups couldn’t handle. This third harmonic of the series was pervasive in all of the larger massed flue choruses. Through additions, stop exchange, reallocation of pipework, re-pitching and revoicing, we were able to reinforce the unison registers and improve treble ascendency.

The organ as it had been conceived included a partially enclosed Great. This had placed the flutes and reed of the Great division in the rearmost location of the entire organ where the dynamics were diminutive at best. We decided to abandon this location for a chamber next to the Swell and Great divisions that could speak directly into the sanctuary. This new unenclosed Great location allowed the diapason, flutes, and reed to speak unimpeded into the 2,200-seat room. This projected their full color and harmonics without a loss of dynamics. In the rightmost chamber location, we added to the independent resources of the Pedal division and extended the compass of two Pedal registers, so they could be drawn into the Great as secondary manual registers, balancing out the 8′ fundamental tone from both sides of the chancel.

Many of the strings throughout the organ were orchestral in nature, and small scaled. These thin string stops did not support choral and congregational accompaniment or blend well with the principal and flute chorus fonds. In our design, we decided to gather these romantic resources into an enclosed string division with the inclusion of an 8′ Tibia and 8′ Vox Humana. The movement of these stops from the Great, Swell, and Choir allowed room to add larger divisional strings and additional foundational flue resources. 

The Antiphonal division was enlarged with an independent 8′ Rohrflute. Included with this division are 16′, 8′, 8′ registers to the pedal. The result proved very useful for providing reinforcement and sculpture to the chancel Pedal in the room acoustics.

The organ reeds were generally of a darker color. Some of the organ reeds had been designed for another instrument and had been repurposed and modified for this organ. In addition to the sound of the organ reeds, which was not conducive to our tonal vision, there were a number of loose shallots, and tongue and wedge issues, and tongues that created voicing and tuning problems. Due to differing wind pressures, it was not possible to consider moving reed stops from division to division in support of the revised specification. At the completion of our work, all of the reeds had been rebuilt or replaced. 

The largest solo reed in this organ is the 8′ Tuba Mirabilis. Built of copper and installed as an “en Chamade,” it had been on 24′′ wind pressure, which was too commanding for the sanctuary. It was re-tongued and revoiced on 19′′ wind pressure. Even revoiced, the horizontal focus leaves it as a commanding reed but with greater blending use. We added an 8′ Tromba Heroique stop to the Solo division as a scalable dynamic registration option. With the Solo expression box open it can be a commanding solo stop, but closed can be used as a large ensemble chorus reed.

The Pedal did not have the gravitas that was required of it. The 32′, 16′ Violone unit and 16′ Principal in the façade were revoiced to better fit the room. The 16′ Major Bourdon was rescaled with higher arched cut-ups added to allow more foundational weight. In the Pedal, we added several additional 16′ registers, additional 8′ stops, and a large mixture. In the case of the 32′ reed registers, they had subdued speech and colors that were not cohesive with the final specification as we envisioned it. This became a moot point, as there was no room to relocate these stops. We replaced these extensions with digital voices, which, in this instance, was a better tonal choice. 

The internal layout of the pipework, windchests, winding system, expression shades, and chassis blocked sound. Additionally, there were portions of the organ where access for tuning and maintenance was very difficult. We found places in the organ where some individual pipes had been offset and other places where notes had been silenced rather than attempt repairs on individual chest actions. In conjunction with the redesigned specification we addressed serviceability, winding, and tonal egress.

The windchests were built with a proprietary form of electro-mechanical action in conjunction with an internally developed individual electro-pneumatic action. The reason for the blended actions seems to have been the very high wind pressures employed. The measured wind pressures on the organ ranged from 6¼′′ up to a high of 28′′. This is a realm where electro-mechanical action has rarely been used, with typical wind pressures between 3′′–5′′ being the historic norm for most instruments with this type of chest action. Unfortunately, the individual electro-pneumatic actions had very little travel and constricted the flow of wind into the pipe toes. The result was that a large number of bass pipes were starved of wind. As part of a test we stripped off the rubber cloth pouch on one of the actions and rebuilt it to allow greater depth of travel. The result of this test was immediate and noticeable. These valves were removed from the organ and rebuilt for a large number of the bass registers in the organ, including the 32′ Violone and the core 16′ and 8′ foundational registers. 

In our negotiations with the church the façade pipes and its structure were a specific exclusion. The pipes of the façade are from the 32′ Violone, 16′ Principal, and the 8′ Second Open Diapason, as well as a large number of dummy pipes. Our intent was to voice the pipes of the façade, not taking liability for their construction or racking. As the church had reasoned and we had concurred, it was brand new and should not have been an issue. This supposition changed when several pipes of the (horizontal) 8′ Tuba Mirabilis had hooks that had separated and the racking for these pipes had deflected downward. This set of pipes was in the façade hanging directly over the choir members’ heads and became a looming concern. The church asked us to scaffold up the front of the church and survey the condition of the entire façade and its racking. We found a number of problems that had the potential to be safety issues. Over a period of two weeks we scaffolded the front of the church, secured the toeboards, added vertical structure, installed custom steel supports, added secondary hooks on a number of pipes, and properly secured the pipe racks to the structure. 

The original horizontal expression shades were made with edges over half the thickness of the non-beveled part of the expression shades and opened toward the ceiling. This directed sound into tone traps and away from the choir and congregation. These shades had 4′′ of felt on the front and rear beveled surfaces for a total of 8′ of absorptive felt. The tonal result was a shade opening that acted nearly half-closed even when the shades were wide open. In addition to occlusion, the open shades presented a felted wall to the enclosed division and provided absorption for the non-enclosed stops in front of the shades. We replaced all of the expression shades in the chancel divisions. This allowed one-third more opening to the enclosed divisions and reduced the sound absorption of the open shades to a negligible factor.

To generate the high wind pressures called for in the original organ design, there were a large number of blowers feeding into each other to raise the wind pressures. This created internal turbulence, noise, and heat, as well as noticeable flutter in some of the reservoir tops. The leather on the reservoirs was not well adhered and was beginning to separate from the reservoir wood shells. We knew that for the organ to be successful, we would need to redesign the winding system. This was not a small consideration. In the end all of the reservoirs were rebuilt or replaced with new. We were able to reduce the total number of reservoirs from 49 to 31, and reduce the number of blowers from nine to five, total. We also replaced twelve tremolos.

Our full team of pipe voicers were brought to Tallowood where we located a voicing machine and several workbenches outside of the organ chambers in a stairwell. The voicing of this organ was a marathon of setting pipe samples in the chambers and then removing the pipes so that the large degree of work could be performed outside of the chamber. These pipes were then handed back into the organ chambers and tonally finished. In an instrument on multiple levels with eight separate chamber locations and 94 ranks that included 5,598 speaking pipes, this was no small undertaking. We were able to process the pipework in a seamless fashion, trading off table work with in-chamber finishing. Even with these efficiencies, this process still took months of work. We brought up the organ by division and encouraged the church to begin using it in worship services after approximately half of the instrument was completed. Attending services and rehearsals became a way to gauge and focus our efforts. It was exciting for our firm and for the church, as each week there were additional resources made available to be heard for the first time. In a final review of the project, there were numerous changes that we made to the instrument. My notes show 168 separate items, all of which had subsets. I was asked at one point about one of the smaller changes we were making. The question was, “how important will that one change be?” I answered that one change may in and of itself be small in stature; however, the multiplicity of small changes would couple to become a great change. In the end, the choices we made allowed for a successful outcome, where others had not seen this route to success—at least not at a reasonable cost given the degree of change required. A measure of this success, at the end of this project, was that the church’s faith had been restored in pipe organ builders. We would like to thank the congregation and leadership of the church for the faith that they personally placed in us. I also would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank our staff for their dedicated efforts.

—Arthur E. Schlueter III

Artistic and Tonal Direction

A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company

From the minister of music

The journey to the completion of our pipe organ was not an easy one. When we came to the full realization that our original instrument was riddled with problems, we sought the council of numerous organists and organ builders in order to find a viable solution. The A.E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company offered us the most attractive option for completion of our instrument. We spent nearly three years addressing numerous concerns, including listening to disenchanted church members and allowing for difficult conversations in committee meetings. Ultimately, the church approved the proposal from Schlueter, and we now have a beautiful, completed instrument. We are grateful for the Schlueter team and the Tallowood members for the completion of this magnificent instrument for the glory of God.

—Carlos Ichter

Cover photo credit: Mark Johanson