James Lewis

James Lewis is an organist, organ historian and commercial photographer. He has researched the organs of California for over 35 years and has published articles on the subject in several periodicals. This article is a small section of a much larger text of a forthcoming book from the Organ Historical Society.

Introduction
Los Angeles is home today to many wonderful organs. During the early twentieth century, pipe organs were constructed for spaces beyond the typical church, theater, or university setting. This article traces the histories of over a dozen pipe organs in private homes, social clubs, school and church auditoriums, and even a home furnishings store. It provides a glimpse of organbuilding—and life—in a more glamorous, pre-Depression age.

Temple Baptist Church
Come back in time to the spring of 1906, where we find the Temple Baptist Church of Los Angeles readying their new building for opening. Although the new complex was financed by a religious organization, it was not designed as a traditional church building. Architect Charles Whittlesey produced plans that included a 2700-seat theater auditorium with a full working stage, two smaller halls, and a nine-story office block, providing the burgeoning city with a venue for various entertainments and civic events, and Temple Church with facilities for church activities. Even though the official name of the building was Temple Auditorium, it was also known over the years as Clune’s Theatre and Philharmonic Auditorium. In addition to church services, the Auditorium was used for concerts, public meetings, ballet, silent motion pictures, and beginning in 1921, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Light Opera Association.
It was the first steel-reinforced poured concrete structure in Los Angeles. The auditorium had five narrow balconies and was decorated in a simplified Art Nouveau-style influenced by Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium in Chicago. Color and gold leaf were liberally used, and the concentric rings of the ceiling over the orchestra section were covered with Sullivanesque ornamentation and studded with electric lights. Concealed behind this area, on either side of the stage, was the organ.
The Auditorium Company ordered a large four-manual organ (Opus 156) from the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Similar to the auditorium itself, the instrument was used more for secular occasions than for church services. It was the first large, modern organ in Los Angeles and contained such innovations as second touch, high wind pressures, an array of orchestral voices, and an all-electric, movable console with adjustable combination action.
The instrument had a partially enclosed Great division, with a large selection of 8′ stops that included four 8′ Open Diapasons. Second touch was available on the Swell keyboard through a Great to Swell coupler. The Choir division was labeled Orchestral and contained a variety of soft string and flute stops along with three orchestral reeds. The Solo division was on 25″ wind pressure and unenclosed except for the Harmonic Tuba, unified to play at 16′, 8′ and 4′ pitches. 25″ wind pressure was also used in the Pedal division for the Magnaton stop, playable at 32′ and 16′. An article about the Auditorium in the Architectural Record magazine stated “the roof is reinforced with steel so that the tones of the large organ will not cause any structural damage.”1 A mighty organ, indeed!
The four-manual console was located in the orchestra pit and movable within a range of 50 feet. Its design was influenced by the early consoles of Robert Hope-Jones and featured two rows of stop keys placed above the top keyboard, a style affectionately known as a “toothbrush console,” because to an active imagination the two rows of stop keys looked like the rows of bristles on a toothbrush.
In 1912, Dr. Ray Hastings (1880–1940) was appointed house organist, and he played for church services, silent motion pictures, radio broadcasts, public recitals, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.2
Temple Auditorium and its mighty Austin organ served Los Angeles for many years, but by the 1950s the place was beginning to look a bit tired. Sometime after World War II, the interior was painted a ghastly shade of green, covering up all the color and gold of the original decorative scheme. In 1965 the Philharmonic Orchestra and Light Opera both moved to the new Los Angeles Music Center and the Auditorium never again operated as a theater.
The organ began to develop serious wind leaks, and the 25″-wind-pressure Solo division and Pedal Magnaton were finally disconnected. A supply-house console replaced the original Austin console in the 1960s and was moved out of the orchestra pit to the stage.
Sunday morning services of Temple Baptist Church became sparsely attended as people moved out of Los Angeles to the new suburbs. There did not seem to be any use for the old Auditorium, and the complex finally succumbed to the wrecker’s ball in 1985. The pipework from the Austin organ was sold off piecemeal and the chests were left in the chambers to come down with the demolition of the building. What began as Los Angeles’s first, modern organ of the 20th-century came to an ignominious end.

Temple Auditorium, Los Angeles
Austin Organ Company, 1906, Opus 156

GREAT
(unenclosed)
16′ Major Diapason
16′ Contra Dulciana
8′ First Diapason
8′ Second Diapason
8′ Third Diapason
8′ Gross Flute
8′ Claribel Flute
4′ Octave
4′ Hohl Flute
3′ Twelfth
2′ Fifteenth
(enclosed)
8′ Horn Diapason
8′ Violoncello
8′ Viol d’Amour
8′ Doppel Flute
4′ Fugara
III Mixture
16′ Double Trumpet
8′ Trumpet
4′ Clarion

SWELL
16′ Gross Gamba
8′ Diapason Phonon
8′ Violin Diapason
8′ Gemshorn
8′ Echo Viole
8′ Vox Angelica
8′ Gemshorn
8′ Rohr Flute
8′ Flauto Dolce
8′ Unda Maris
8′ Quintadena
4′ Principal
4′ Harmonic Flute
2′ Flageolet
III Dolce Cornet
16′ Contra Posaune
8′ Cornopean
8′ Oboe
8′ Vox Humana
Tremolo
Vox Humana Tremolo

ORCHESTRAL
16′ Contra Viole
8′ Geigen Principal
8′ Viole d’Orchestre
8′ Viole Celeste
8′ Vox Seraphique
8′ Concert Flute
8′ Lieblich Gedackt
4′ Violina
4′ Flauto Traverso
2′ Piccolo Harmonique
16′ Double Oboe Horn
8′ Clarinet
8′ Cor Anglais
Tremolo

SOLO
8′ Grand Diapason
8′ Flauto Major
8′ Gross Gamba
4′ Gambette
4′ Flute Ouverte
2′ Super Octave
8′ Orchestral Oboe
8′ Saxophone (synthetic)
16′ Tuba Profunda
8′ Harmonic Tuba (ext)
4′ Clarion (ext)

PEDAL
32′ Contra Magnaton
32′ Resultant
16′ Magnaton
16′ Major Diapason
16′ Small Diapason (Gt)
16′ Violone
16′ Bourdon
16′ Dulciana (Gt)
16′ Contra Viole (Orch)
8′ Gross Flute
8′ ‘Cello
8′ Flauto Dolce
4′ Super Octave
16′ Tuba Profunda (Solo)
8′ Tuba (Solo)

Swell Sub
Swell Octave
Orchestral Sub
Orchestral Octave
Solo Sub
Solo Super
Swell to Pedal
Swell to Pedal Octave
Great to Pedal
Orchestral to Pedal
Solo to Pedal
Swell to Great Sub
Swell to Great Unison
Swell to Great Octave
Orchestral to Great Sub
Orchestral to Great Unison
Solo to Great Unison
Solo to Great Octave
Great to Swell Unison Second Touch
Swell to Orchestral Sub
Swell to Orchestral Unison
Swell to Orchestral Octave
Solo to Orchestral Unison

Tally’s Broadway Theatre
Eight years after the Temple Auditorium organ was installed, Tally’s Broadway Theatre took delivery on a four-manual organ advertised as “The World’s Finest Theatre Pipe Organ.” The 47-rank organ had been ordered early in 1913 from the Los Angeles builder Murray M. Harris, but by the time it was installed in 1914 the name of the firm had been changed to the Johnston Organ Company and the factory moved to the nearby suburb of Van Nuys.
Tally’s instrument must have been the original “surround sound,” as most of the pipework was installed in shallow chambers extending down both sides of the rectangular-shaped auditorium. The Choir division was on the stage and had its own façade, while the Echo was behind a grille at one side of the stage. Positioned on a lift in the orchestra pit, the four-manual drawknob console was equipped with a roll player.
This was not the sort of theatre organ that would come into prominence during the 1920s, a highly unified instrument full of color stops all blended together by numerous tremolos. Tally’s organ was not that much different from a Murray M. Harris church organ, except for the saucer bells and a lack of upperwork.
Installation was still underway when it came time for the opening concert, but since the show must go on, the event took place. A reviewer wrote “while the unfinished and badly out of tune instrument, under the skillful manipulation of an excellent performer, did give pleasure to a large portion of the big audience, nevertheless it was an unfinished and badly out of tune instrument and as such it could not favorably impress the ear of the critic.”3
Charles Demorest, a former student of Harrison Wild in Chicago, who played at Tally’s, was also the organist at the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, and gave Monday afternoon recitals on the organ in Hamburger’s department store. In the May, 1914 edition of The Pacific Coast Musician it was mentioned that “Charles Demorest is doing much to uphold good music for the motion picture theatres by the quality of his organ work at Tally’s Broadway Theatre, Los Angeles, where he has a concert organ of immense resources at his command. This instrument is a four-manual organ equipped with chimes, saucer bells, concert harp and echo organ. Mr. Demorest plays a special program every Wednesday afternoon at four o’clock where an orchestra and soloists further contribute to the excellence at the Tally Theatre.”4
In the mid-1920s, the May Company department store next door to Tally’s was doing a booming business and needed larger quarters. Negotiations with Tally led to the theater being purchased and torn down to make way for a greatly expanded May Company building. The organ was crated up and moved to Mr. Tally’s Glen Ranch, where it was stored in a barn. It was eventually ruined by water damage when the roof leaked.

Tally’s Broadway Theatre
Johnston Organ Company, 1914

GREAT
16′ Double Open Diapason
8′ First Open Diapason
8′ Second Open Diapason
8′ Viola
8′ Viol d’Amour
8′ Tibia Clausa
8′ Clarabella
4′ Octave
4′ Wald Flute
8′ Trumpet
Cathedral Chimes
Concert Harp
Saucer Bells

SWELL
16′ Bourdon
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Violin Diapason
8′ Violin
8′ Voix Celeste
8′ Aeoline
8′ Stopped Flute
4′ Harmonic Flute
2′ Harmonic Piccolo
16′ Contra Fagotto
8′ Horn
8′ Oboe
8′ Vox Humana

CHOIR
16′ Double Dulciana
8′ Geigen Principal
8′ Dulciana
8′ Lieblich Gedackt
8′ Quintadena
4′ Dulcet
8′ Clarinet

SOLO
8′ Diapason Phonon
8′ Harmonic Flute
8′ Tibia Plena
8′ Harmonic Tuba
8′ Orchestral Oboe

ECHO
8′ Flauto Dolce
8′ Unda Maris
8′ Concert Flute
8′ Orchestral Viol
4′ Flute d’Amour
8′ Vox Mystica

PEDAL
32′ Acoustic Bass
16′ Open Diapason
16′ Bourdon
16′ Contra Basso (Gt)
16′ Dulciana (Ch)
16′ Lieblich Gedackt (Sw)
8′ Violoncello
8′ Gross Flute
8′ Flute
16′ Trombone

Swell Tremolo
Choir Tremolo
Solo Tremolo
Echo Tremolo

Trinity Auditorium
In 1914, inspired perhaps by the success of Temple Auditorium, Trinity Southern Methodist Church opened their new Trinity Auditorium, a large Beaux Arts structure on South Grand Avenue containing a multi-use 1500-seat auditorium and a nine-story hotel with rooftop ballroom.
An organ was ordered from the Murray M. Harris Company, but just like the Tally’s Theatre organ, it was installed under the name of the Johnston Organ Company. The organ was a four-manual instrument of 63 ranks situated above the stage floor, but within the proscenium arch, with an Echo division in the dome at the center of the room. The drawknob console was at one side of the orchestra pit.
The tonal design was typical of a large, late Murray Harris organ, boasting an assortment of 8′ stops and big chorus reeds on both the Great and Solo, but without the usual Great mixture. The Tibias, Diapason Phonon in the Swell and the slim-scale strings of the Solo division, stops not normally found on Harris organs, show the influence of Stanley Williams, the firm’s voicer since 1911, who had worked with Hope-Jones in England.
Arthur Blakeley was house organist and played for church services, silent motion pictures, weekly public recitals and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, who used the building from 1918 to 1921. It was noted that by May 1915, Blakeley had provided music for 108 performances of a film entitled “Cabiria” and played over one hundred different compositions in his weekly recitals, ranging from works by Bach, Handel and Wagner to Reubke’s Sonata on the 94th Psalm.5
There was one area in which Trinity Auditorium failed to emulate Temple Auditorium—financing. To construct the auditorium and hotel complex the church secured such a heavy mortgage that one newspaper account claimed it was financed clear into the 21st century. A few years after it opened, Trinity Auditorium was taken over by a management company that continued to operate it as a public venue, and the church moved to humbler quarters.
Trinity Auditorium was a popular place for meetings of the local AGO chapter, and among the artists heard there were Pietro Yon, Charles Courboin, and Clarence Eddy. The organ continued to be used for films, concerts and later on, radio broadcasts, but by the 1940s it had become a liability. To save the expense of upkeep on an instrument that by then was only occasionally used and to secure more space on the stage, the organ was removed and broken up for parts.

Trinity Auditorium
Johnston Organ Company, 1914

GREAT
16′ Double Open Diapason
8′ First Open Diapason
8′ Second Open Diapason
8′ Viola di Gamba
8′ Viol d’Amour
8′ Tibia Clausa
8′ Doppel Floete
4′ Octave
4′ Harmonic Flute
22⁄3′ Octave Quint
2′ Super Octave
16′ Double Trumpet
8′ Trumpet
4′ Clarion
Cathedral Chimes

SWELL
16′ Lieblich Bourdon
8′ Diapason Phonon
8′ Violin Diapason
8′ Salicional
8′ Aeoline
8′ Vox Celeste
8′ Lieblich Gedackt
8′ Clarabella
4′ Principal
4′ Lieblich Floete
4′ Violina
2′ Harmonic Piccolo
IV Dolce Cornet
16′ Contra Fagotto
8′ Cornopean
8′ Oboe
Tremolo

CHOIR
16′ Double Dulciana
8′ Geigen Principal
8′ Dulciana
8′ Quintadena
8′ Melodia
4′ Wald Floete
4′ Dulcet
8′ Clarinet
Tremolo
Concert Harp

SOLO
8′ Gross Gamba
8′ Tibia Plena
8′ Harmonic Flute
8′ Viole d’Orchestre
8′ Viole Celeste
16′ Ophicleide
8′ Tuba
4′ Tuba Clarion

ECHO
16′ Echo Bourdon
8′ Echo Diapason
8′ Viol Etheria
8′ Unda Maris
8′ Concert Flute
4′ Flauto Traverso
8′ Vox Humana
Tremolo
Concert Harp (Ch)

PEDAL
32′ Double Open Diapason
32′ Resultant
16′ Open Diapason
16′ Violone
16′ Tibia Profundo
16′ Bourdon
16′ Lieblich Gedackt (Sw)
16′ Dulciana (Ch)
16′ Echo Bourdon (Echo)
8′ Octave
8′ Violoncello
8′ Flute
16′ Trombone
16′ Ophicleide (Solo)
8′ Tuba (Solo)

University of Southern California
In 1920, the University of Southern California placed an order for a large concert organ to be built by the Robert-Morton Organ Company and installed in the new Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus. Under a headline reading “Organ Attracts,” the Los Angeles Times told that “a great increase of interest is being manifested by the faculty and student body of the organ department, USC, since the announcement was recently made that the new organ, one of the largest in the southwest, is soon to be installed in the auditorium of that institution. The instrument will be provided with eighty stops and 500 pipes.”6 Well, perhaps a few more than 500!
Bovard is a large auditorium graced with a dollop of Gothic tracery, originally seating 2,100 on the main floor and in two balconies. The Robert-Morton organ, the largest instrument built by the firm, was located in concrete chambers on either side of the stage and completely enclosed, except for the 16′ Pedal Bourdon. It was not an ideal installation, as the Swell and Choir divisions were placed so they spoke onto the stage area and the Great and Solo were located in the auditorium proper. For organ recitals, the stage curtains had to be open so the audience could hear the entire instrument.
By 1920, the builder no longer made drawknob consoles, so the Bovard organ was supplied with a four-manual horseshoe console. It was placed in the orchestra pit and had color-coded stop keys; diapasons were white, flutes blue, strings amber, reeds red, and the couplers were short-length black stop keys placed over the top keyboard.7
The organ had two enormous 32′ stops. When the instrument was completed at the Van Nuys factory, low C of the 32′ Bombarde was assembled outside the main building and supplied with air so that its sound could be demonstrated for the local residents.
In June of 1921, the organ was dedicated in two recitals given by the British virtuoso Edwin Lemare. It was a well-used instrument in its day, providing music for university events, concerts, commencement exercises, and it served as the major practice and recital organ for many USC organ students.
By the mid-1970s the organ had fallen out of favor and some of the pipework was vandalized by students, causing the instrument to become unplayable. It was finally removed from the auditorium in 1978, and the undamaged pipework was sold for use in other organs.

University of Southern California
Robert-Morton Organ Company, 1921

GREAT
16′ Double Open Diapason
8′ First Open Diapason
8′ Second Open Diapason
8′ Third Open Diapason
8′ Viola
8′ Erzahler
8′ Doppel Flute
8′ Melodia
4′ Octave
4′ Wald Floete
2′ Flageolet
V Mixture
16′ Double Trumpet
8′ Trumpet
4′ Clarion

SWELL
16′ Bourdon
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Horn Diapason
8′ Salicional
8′ Celeste
8′ Aeoline
8′ Viol d’Orchestre
8′ Viol Celeste
8′ Stopped Diapason
8′ Clarabella
8′ Gemshorn
4′ Violin
4′ Harmonic Flute
2′ Piccolo
III Cornet
16′ Contra Fagotto
8′ Cornopean
8′ Flugel Horn
8′ Oboe
8′ Vox Humana
4′ Clarion
Tremolo

CHOIR
16′ Contra Viole
8′ Geigen Principal
8′ Dulciana
8′ Quintadena
8′ Concert Flute
8′ Flute Celeste
4′ Flute
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Piccolo

SOLO
8′ Stentorphone
8′ Gross Flute
8′ Gamba
8′ Gamba Celeste
8′ French Horn
8′ English Horn
8′ Saxophone
8′ Clarinet
8′ Orchestral Oboe
8′ Tuba
Harp
Chimes

ECHO
8′ Cor de Nuit
8′ Muted Viole
8′ Viole Celeste
4′ Zauberfloete
8′ Vox Humana
Tremolo

PEDAL
32′ Double Open Diapason
32′ Resultant
16′ Open Diapason
16′ Bourdon
16′ Violone (Gt)
16′ Lieblich Bourdon (Sw)
16′ Contra Viole (Ch)
16′ Echo Bourdon
8′ Principal
8′ Flute
8′ Cello
8′ Dulciana
4′ Flute
Compensating Mixture
32′ Bombarde
16′ Trombone
16′ Fagotto (Sw)
8′ Trumpet

Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre
When Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre was constructed at Sixth and Hill Streets in 1923, Tally’s Broadway Theatre must have looked rather dowdy in comparison. The Metropolitan, a monumental piece of architecture, was and remained the largest theater in Los Angeles and had a four-manual, 36-rank Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra, Opus #543. This was the largest organ built by Wurlitzer at the time, beating out the celebrated Denver Auditorium organ by one rank. The 36 ranks of pipes were divided between two sections of the theater: 24 ranks in chambers located over the proscenium arch and 12 ranks in the Echo division at the rear of the balcony. Albert Hay Malotte, Gaylord Carter and Alexander Schreiner were Metropolitan organists at various times, accompanying films and presenting organ solos enhanced by lighting subtly changing color to match the mood of the music.
James Nuttall, who installed the organ, escorted a writer for the Los Angeles Times through the newly installed instrument and provided a description of its resources:
The tonal chambers, or swell boxes as they are technically termed, each measure 20 feet long and 11 feet wide, and are arranged above the proscenium arch. They are constructed in such a manner that they are practically sound proof, being built of nonporous inert material, with the interior finished in hard plaster. The front wall of each chamber facing the auditorium is left open and into this opening is fitted a mechanism built in the form of a large laminated Venetian blind. The opening and closing of the shutters in this Venetian blind produce unlimited dynamic tonal expression from the softest whisper to an almost overwhelming volume.
In the basement of the theatre is the blowing apparatus consisting of two Kinetic blowers connected directly to a twenty-five horsepower motor. Each of the blowers is capable of supplying 2500 cubic feet compressed air per minute. The compressed air is used to work the electro-pneumatic actions as well as to supply the various tone producers.
There are four manuals on the console, and the pedal board on which the bass notes are played with the feet. The stop keys number 236 and these are arranged above the keyboards on three tiers and are divided into departments of independent organs. The lowest manual is the accompaniment organ, the middle keyboard is the great organ and is so arranged so the echo organ may be played from this manual. The third manual is a bombarde organ and the top one is the solo organ.8

Although the advent of sound motion pictures silenced many of the organs in Los Angeles theaters, the Metropolitan organ was in use much longer due to the continuation of live stage shows well into the 1950s. In 1960 the theater was closed and by 1961 it had been demolished and the organ broken up for parts.

Poly-Technic High School
Poly-Technic High School was one of several high schools in the Los Angeles area to have a pipe organ. For their new auditorium, completed in 1924, the school ordered a four-manual organ from the Estey Organ Company. Decorated in the Spanish Renaissance style, the auditorium seated 1,800 and had a full working stage. The organ was installed in chambers located on either side of the proscenium, with the console in the orchestra pit.
The instrument had an automatic roll player in a separate cabinet and a console with Estey’s recent invention, the “luminous piston stop control.” These were lighted buttons placed in rows above the top manual of the console. When pushed, the button lit up signifying that that particular stop was on. Another push turned the stop off. This system presented all sorts of problems; it was inconvenient to use, the “luminous piston” was difficult to see under bright lights, it could give an organist a very nasty shock, and some organists could not resist spelling out naughty words with the lights.
The organ had a clear, pleasant sound in the auditorium’s good acoustics due possibly to Estey’s local representative Charles McQuigg, a former voicer of the Murray M. Harris Company, who installed and finished the instrument. Crowning the full organ was a reedless Tuba Mirabilis voiced on 15″ wind pressure, an invention of William Haskell of the Estey Company. The pipes looked like an open wood flute, but sounded like a stringy Horn Diapason. It was a rather convincing sound, until one knew the secret.
Classes in organ instruction were offered at Poly High, the instrument was used for recitals and public events held in the auditorium, and the roll player was used to play transcriptions of orchestral works for music education classes.
The organ eventually fell silent due to lack of use, lack of maintenance, and problems with the luminous pistons. When the auditorium was refurbished in 1979, the organ was removed so that the chamber openings could be used for stage lighting trees. It was sold, put into storage, and eventually broken up for parts.

Poly-Technic High School
Estey Organ Company, 1924, Opus 2225

GREAT
8′ Open Diapason I
8′ Open Diapason II
8′ Dulciana
8′ Gemshorn
8′ Gross Flute
8′ Melodia
4′ Flute Harmonic
8′ Tuba
Harp

SWELL
16′ Bourdon
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Salicional
8′ Viole d’Orchestre
8′ Viole Celeste
8′ Stopped Diapason
4′ Flauto Traverso
8′ Oboe (reedless)
8′ Cornopean
8′ Vox Humana
Tremolo
Chimes

CHOIR
8′ Violin Diapason
8′ Viol d’Amour
8′ Clarabella
8′ Unda Maris
4′ Flute d’Amour
8′ Clarinet (reedless)
Tremolo

SOLO
8′ Stentorphone
8′ Gross Gamba
8′ First Violins III
8′ Concert Flute
4′ Wald Flute
2′ Piccolo
8′ Orchestral Oboe
8′ Tuba Mirabilis (reedless)

PEDAL
32′ Resultant
16′ Open Diapason
16′ Bourdon
16′ Lieblich Gedackt (Sw)
8′ Bass Flute
8′ Tuba Mirabilis (Solo)

The Uplifter’s Club
One of a number of organs installed in Los Angeles’s private clubs was this instrument built by the Skinner Organ Company in 1924 for the Uplifter’s Club. Located in the remote Santa Monica Canyon section of Los Angeles, the club was formed in 1913 as a splinter group of the Los Angeles Athletic Club by a number of wealthy members, for “high jinx.”9 Recreational facilities were constructed in the canyon and some members built cabins and cottages to use for weekend retreats.
In 1923 construction on a large clubhouse began and in 1924 the three-manual Skinner organ was installed. The instrument was a large residence-style organ with many duplexed stops and a roll player mechanism. The organ provided music for the relaxation of members, music for skits and plays, and occasionally a local organist was invited in to play a recital of light selections.
During World War II the club began selling off its holdings, and by 1947, it had disbanded. The organ was sold to the First Methodist Church of Glendale, where it was treated to a number of indignities to make the instrument more suitable for church use, the result being at great odds with the original intent of the organ.

The Uplifter’s Club
Skinner Organ Company, 1924, Opus 449

MANUAL I
8′ Diapason
8′ Chimney Flute
8′ Gedackt
8′ Violoncello
8′ Voix Celestes II rks
8′ Flute Celestes II rks
4′ Orchestral Flute
4′ Unda Maris II rks
8′ Vox Humana
8′ French Horn
8′ Tuba
Tremolo
Harp
Celesta
Chimes
Kettle Drums

MANUAL II
8′ Chimney Flute
8′ Violoncello
4′ Orchestral Flute
8′ Corno d’Amore
8′ English Horn
8′ Vox Humana
8′ French Horn
8′ Tuba
Tremolo
Chimes
Kettle Drums

MANUAL III
8′ Diapason
8′ Voix Celestes II rks
8′ Flute Celestes II rks
8′ Gedackt
4′ Unda Maris II rks
Tremolo
Harp
Celesta
Piano (prepared)

PEDAL
16′ Bourdon
16′ Echo Lieblich
16′ Gedackt
8′ Still Gedackt
16′ Trombone (Tuba)

The Elks Club
Located just off the fashionable Wilshire Corridor facing Westlake Park was the Elks Club, a 12-story building constructed in 1926 to contain a lodge hall, dining rooms, lounges, swimming pool, tennis and racquetball courts, a full gymnasium, and residential facilities for members. Entering the building, one encountered a monumental reception hall some 50 feet in height, with a vaulted ceiling painted with scenes from mythology. A wide staircase rose dramatically to the Memorial Room that functioned as a lobby for the lodge room.
On the front page of the Van Nuys News for November 18, 1924 was an article announcing “H. P. Platt, manager of the Robert-Morton Organ Company, announces that his concern has been awarded a contract for constructing a huge pipe organ to be placed in the new Elks Temple of Los Angeles. Specifications for the huge organ will make it the largest unified orchestra pipe organ in the United States. The contract price was said to be $50,000.”
“Unified orchestra pipe organ” is probably the best description for the four-manual, 60-rank organ that the Robert-Morton firm installed in the Elks Club in 1926. The stops are divided into Great, Swell, Choir, Solo and Pedal divisions, but the contents of each are not what one would expect in either a concert or theatre organ.
The main organ is in four chambers, one in each corner of the lodge room, with Echo and Antiphonal divisions speaking through openings centered over the entrance doors. These two divisions were heard in either the lodge room or the Memorial Room by means of dual expression shades. A two-manual console in the Memorial Room played the Echo/Antiphonal divisions so an organist could entertain lodge members lingering in the Memorial area before a meeting without the sound penetrating into the lodge room.
Currently, the instrument is unplayable. The two-manual console has been disconnected and although the four-manual console remains in position, over half of the ivories are missing. Workmen stomping through the pipe chambers on various occasions have trod on many of the smaller pipes, a few sets are missing, and water leaks have damaged other portions of the organ.
Stepping back in time to happier days, we can read about the organ when it was the talk of organ-playing Los Angeles. In December, 1925, a Los Angeles newspaper reported “the new $50,000 organ for the Elk’s great temple will be given its official test before officers of the Elk’s Building Association tomorrow evening. The test recital will be at the plant of the Robert-Morton Organ Company, builders of the instrument. For the benefit of members of the lodge and the public, the recital will be broadcast over KNX radio between 7 and 7:30 o’clock. A half an hour of cathedral and concert music will be played on the huge instrument by Sibley Pease, official organist of the Elk’s lodge.”10
In May 1926, Warren Allen, organist of Stanford University, gave the opening recital, playing compositions by Bach, Boccherini, Saint-Saëns, Douglas, Wagner and ending with the Finale from Vierne’s Symphony No. 1. A reviewer noted that “the organ is an instrument of concert resources and full organ is almost overpowering in tone. It ranks as one of the finest in the city.”11
For many years the organ was used almost every day of the week for lodge meetings, concerts and radio broadcasts. Dwindling membership and the expense of upkeep on the huge Elks building caused the remaining members to find smaller quarters in the late 1960s. Left abandoned for a while, the building has seen use as a YMCA, a retirement center, and a seedy hotel; it is currently being rented for large social events and filming. Due to the extensive damage done to the organ and the great expense of a restoration, this is probably another large, once-popular instrument that will never play again.

Elks Temple, Los Angeles
Robert-Morton Organ Company, 1926

GREAT
16′ Open Diapason
16′ Gamba (TC)
8′ First Diapason
8′ Second Diapason
8′ Tuba
8′ French Horn
8′ Kinura
8′ Gross Flute
8′ Clarinet
8′ Doppel Flute
8′ Gamba
8′ Violin I
8′ Violin II
8′ Violin III
8′ Quintadena
8′ Dulciana
4′ Tuba Clarion
4′ Octave Diapason
4′ Doppel Flute
22⁄3′ Twelfth
2′ Fifteenth
III Cornet
Harp
Glockenspiel
Xylophone
Chimes
Strings F
Great 2nd Touch
8′ Tuba
8′ French Horn
8′ Gross Flute
8′ Gamba

SWELL
16′ Contra Fagotto
16′ Tibia Clausa
16′ Swell Bourdon
16′ Violin (TC)
8′ Trumpet
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Violin
8′ Tibia Mollis
8′ Tibia Clausa
8′ Gedackt
8′ Orchestral Oboe
8′ Vox Humana
8′ Violin I
8′ Violin II
8′ Violin III
8′ Viol d’Orchestre
8′ Viole Celeste
8′ Salicional
8′ Aeoline
4′ Octave Diapason
4′ Tibia Clausa
4′ Bourdon Flute
4′ Flauto Traverso
4′ Vox Humana
4′ Violina
4′ Salicet
22⁄3′ Bourdon Nazard
2′ Bourdon Piccolo
Harp
Glockenspiel
Xylophone
Chimes
Bird
Strings P
Strings MF
Swell 2nd Touch
16′ Fagotto
16′ Trumpet (TC)
16′ Bourdon
8′ Tibia Clausa
4′ Flauto Traverso

CHOIR
16′ Violin (TC)
16′ Double Dulciana
8′ English Diapason
8′ Flugel Horn
8′ Clarabella
8′ Clarinet
8′ Gemshorn
8′ Viola
8′ Violin I
8′ Violin II
8′ Violin III
8′ Dulciana
8′ Unda Maris
4′ Harmonic Flute
4′ Violina
4′ Dulcet
2′ Flageolet
2′ Dolcissimo
Snare Drum Tap
Snare Drum Roll
Tom-Tom
Castanets
Sleigh Bells
Wood Drum
Tambourine
Strings F
Choir 2nd Touch
8′ English Diapason
8′ Flugel Horn
8′ Clarabella
8′ Clarinet

SOLO
8′ Tuba Mirabilis
8′ Stentorphone
8′ Philomela
8′ Gross Gamba
8′ Oboe Horn
4′ Tuba Clarion
4′ Gambette
Chimes

ANTIPHONAL
8′ Trumpet
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Hohl Flute

ECHO
16′ Echo Bourdon
8′ Night Horn
8′ Flute Celeste
8′ Viol Sordino
8′ Vox Humana
4′ Fern Flute
4′ Violetta
Bird

PEDAL
32′ Resultant Bass
16′ Double Open Diapason
16′ Trombone
16′ Pedal Bourdon
16′ Swell Bourdon
16′ Echo Bourdon
16′ Contra Fagotto
16′ Violone
16′ Dulciana
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Tuba
8′ Pedal Flute
8′ Doppel Flute
8′ Echo Bourdon
8′ Cello
8′ Dulciana
4′ Tuba Clarion
4′ Dulcet
III Cornet

Pedal 2nd touch
Bass Drum
Snare Drum
Tympani
Bass Drum/Cymbal
Buttons Above Solo
Klaxon
Telephone
Cow Bell
Bird
Tremolos
Swell
Great
Choir
Solo
Antiphonal
Echo
Swell Vox Humana
Echo Vox Humana
Couplers
Pedal Octaves
Great to Pedal 8, 4
Swell to Pedal 8, 4
Choir to Pedal 8
Solo to Pedal 8
Swell to Swell 16, 4
Choir to Swell 16, 8, 4
Solo to Swell 16, 8, 4
Great to Great 16, 4
Swell to Great 16, 8, 4
Choir to Great 16, 8, 4
Solo to Great 16, 8, 4
Choir to Choir 16, 4
Swell to Choir 16, 8, 4
Solo to Solo 16, 4

Barker Brothers
Barker Brothers, the pre-eminent home furnishings store of Los Angeles, moved into a new building in 1927. Occupying all of 7th Street between Flower and Figueroa Streets, the 12-story façade was in Renaissance Revival style and loosely patterned after the Strozzi Palace in Florence. Entering through the main doors, the visitor stepped into a 40′ high lobby court furnished with leather sofas and chairs, oriental carpets, and a decorated vaulted ceiling.
During the 1920s, Barker Brothers served as the southern California representative for the Welte Organ Company. Their previous store had a Welte organ used to entertain customers, and when Barkers moved out, the instrument was rebuilt into two organs; the main section went, with a new console, to the Pasadena home of Baldwin M. Baldwin, and the Echo division, also provided with a new console, was packed off to Mrs. Belle Malloy in San Pedro.
Barker Brothers’ new store had three Welte organs. In the lobby court was a four-manual, 26-rank concert organ that was played daily for the store’s patrons. The four-manual drawknob console was centered along the east side of the lobby and the chamber openings high on the wall had gold display pipes. A three-manual, nine-rank theatre-style instrument was in a 600-seat auditorium on the 10th floor, and a two-manual, 10-rank organ with player attachment was installed in the interior design studio.
On the evening of March 28, 1927, the three Welte organs were dedicated, beginning with the instrument in the lobby court and then moving to the auditorium organ, where members of the Los Angeles Organists’ Club entertained. Guests were invited to hear the residence organ in the interior design department and enjoy the automatic roll player device.
Among the organists playing the lobby court organ on that evening were Albert Hay Malotte and Alexander Schreiner. Malotte played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the quartet from Verdi’s Rigoletto, but Schreiner no doubt stole the show when he played the “Great” g-minor fugue of Bach and closed the program with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.12
The lobby court organ was very popular with Los Angeles residents and the daily recitals were well attended. Welte designed the instrument for maximum flexibility; the Great and Choir shared stops, while the Swell and Solo were independent divisions, except for the Great Tuba Sonora that was available on the Solo at 16′, 8′ and 4′ pitches.
When the Welte Organ Company closed in 1931, the residence organ was sold to a home in the Brentwood section of the city. The auditorium instrument was eventually sold to the Presbyterian Church in La Canada, but the lobby court organ was kept in use until the early 1950s. After the Second World War, the daily organ recitals were popular with older folks who lived in affordable but respectable downtown residential hotels. The store management felt having pensioners strewn about the lobby lowered the tone of their upscale operation and removed the organ in 1955, selling the console to a private party and the pipe work to a local church.
There was a more insidious reason for removing the Welte organ. Barker Brothers had become the local agents for the new Hammond Chord Organ and didn’t want competition from the “real thing” while an employee was demonstrating the new electric device. The Los Angeles Times for May 12, 1955 announced: “A musical tradition at Barker Bros. has been broken! Barker Bros. pipe organ of some 30 odd years vintage is no longer the cornerstone of the store’s tradition. One fine day it was an impressive part of the main lobby and the next day, the massive monolith was a legend. A compact, sweet little number, modern in design and execution, has replaced the pipe organ. The Hammond Chord Organ now reigns supreme. A representative from Barker’s Piano Salon on the mezzanine floor is in daily attendance at his Chord Organ post.”

Barker Brothers Store
Lobby Court Organ
Welte Organ Company, 1927

GREAT
16′ Double Open Diapason
8′ Principal Diapason
8′ English Diapason
8′ Tibia Minor
8′ Claribel Flute
8′ Viola
4′ Octave
4′ Forest Flute
8′ Tuba Sonora
Harp
Celesta
Piano

SWELL
16′ Lieblich Gedackt
8′ Diapason Phonon
8′ Philomela
8′ Gedackt
8′ Violin II rks
8′ Solo Violin
8′ Salicional
8′ Vox Angelica
4′ Chimney Flute
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Flautino
13⁄5′ Tierce
16′ Contra Fagotto
8′ Trumpet
8′ Oboe Horn
8′ Vox Humana
4′ Octave Oboe
Tremolo
Vox Humana Vibrato
Harp
Celesta
Piano

CHOIR
16′ Contra Viol
8′ English Diapason
8′ Tibia Minor
8′ Claribel Flute
8′ Flute Celeste
8′ Viola
8′ Muted Violin
8′ Voix Celeste
8′ Viola
4′ Traverse Flute
2′ Piccolo
8′ Clarinet
Tremolo
Choir 2nd Touch
8′ Principal Diapason
8′ Tibia Minor
8′ Tuba Sonora
8′ Clarinet
Celesta
Chimes
Solo to Choir
Swell to Choir

SOLO
8′ Tibia Clausa
8′ Violoncello
4′ Harmonic Flute
16′ Tuba Profunda
8′ Tuba Sonora
8′ French Horn
8′ English Horn
4′ Cornet
Tremolo
Harp
Celesta
Chimes
Piano

PEDAL
32′ Acoustic Bass
16′ Diaphonic Diapason
16′ Bourdon
16′ Violone (Gt)
16′ Lieblich Gedackt (Sw)
8′ Octave
8′ Flute
8′ Cello (Gt)
8′ Gedackt (Sw)
16′ Tuba Profunda (Solo)
8′ Tuba Sonora (Solo)
4′ Cornet (Solo)
16′ Piano
8′ Piano
Chimes

Organ studios, residences,
theaters
During the 1920s, many American organ builders maintained organ studios in Los Angeles to provide prospective customers with a sample of their wares. The studio usually featured a residence-style organ, complete with automatic player, in a home-like setting. The Skinner Organ Company went so far as to install a residence organ in the home of their local representative, Stanley W. Williams.13 The Aeolian Company displayed their Opus 1740 in the George Birkel Music Company, where fine pianos and phonographs were also available. Wurlitzer had a studio in downtown Los Angeles and a second showroom in the posh Ambassador Hotel, where they installed a Style R16, three-manual, ten-rank residence organ. In an overstuffed room off the hotel’s main lobby, patrons of the hotel could relax and listen to organ music presented several times a day by a member of the Wurlitzer staff.
Residence organs were popular additions to many of the fine homes built in Los Angeles before the Depression hit. Members of the movie colony enjoyed organs in their homes, and the Robert-Morton Company built instruments for Thomas Ince, for Marion Davies’s immense beach house, and for Charlie Chaplin, who used the organ to compose most of the music for his films.
Aeolian had organs in the homes of Harold Lloyd, cowboy actor Dustin Farnum, and Francis Marion Thompson, in addition to instruments in the residences of radio pioneer Earle C. Anthony, oil baron Lee Phillips, department store mogul Arthur Letts, and Willits Hole, who had an Aeolian organ in the art gallery wing of his Fremont Place mansion.
The Estey Organ Company’s sole contribution to the film colony was a small four-rank unified organ in the Hollywood home of “Keystone Kop” Chester Conklin.
There were a number of Welte residence organs scattered around Los Angeles, including a two-manual instrument in the home of John Evans, a property later owned by actress Ann Sheridan and Liberace. The large Welte organ in Lynn Atkinson’s exquisite Louis XVI-style home was in a ballroom that opened onto terraced gardens. The exterior of the estate was used as the television home of the “Beverly Hillbillies,” although the then-current owner finally tossed out the production company because too many tourists were knocking on the front door wanting to meet Jed Clampett.
The largest residence organ in Los Angeles was in the 62-acre estate of Silsby Spalding. The Aeolian organ (Opus 1373) had three manuals, six divisions, a 32′ Open Diapason, and 67 ranks of pipes. It was installed in the Spalding’s large music room in 1919 and spoke through three tall arches faced with ornamental metal grilles.
Two very exclusive and elegant apartment buildings in Los Angeles each had a Robert-Morton organ in the living room of the largest apartment. “La Ronda” and the “Andalusia” were both located on Havenhurst Drive and built in the Spanish style with enclosed gardens and fountains surrounding the apartments. The organ in the Andalusia had four ranks of pipes, a roll playing mechanism plus xylophone, marimba, chimes, celesta, and a small toy counter. La Ronda’s Robert-Morton organ had five ranks of pipes, no roll player, and fewer percussion stops.
There were a number of secular organs that had been planned toward the end of the 1920s, but were never built, and one could argue that with several of the instruments, their early demise was a desirable thing.
During the 1920s, Charles Winder ran the Artcraft Organ Company, a small firm that built garden-variety organs for neighborhood churches throughout southern California. In 1926 Winder announced the formation of a new company, The Symphonaer Company, to build “symphony concert organs.” The announcement continued: “The Symphonaer Concert Organ is described as an instrument that reproduces the true symphony orchestra, giving the effect of every instrument used in the largest of symphony orchestras.” A $1,000,000 plant was to be built offering employment to 100 craftsmen. Joining the venture was the British concert organist Edwin Lemare, who would serve as director of music and specifications. Built alongside the factory would be Symphonaer Hall, a recital hall equipped with a large Symphonaer organ, where Lemare would give frequent recitals and broadcast the instrument over a local radio station.14 The enterprise died in the planning stages and the Artcraft Organ Company went broke in 1928.
Alexander Pantages ordered a five-manual Robert-Morton organ for his spectacular Hollywood Pantages Theatre that opened in 1930. Although the theater was and still is a success, the organ was never built due to the advent of sound films, an expensive lawsuit in which Pantages was involved, and the closing of the Robert-Morton Company. The four large organ chambers remain empty to this day.
The Hollywood Bowl, the world’s largest natural amphitheater, is used as a popular venue for summer concerts, accommodating audiences of up to 18,000. The Hollywood Bowl program for July, 1929, published a letter from the Bowl manager relating that organist Edwin Lemare was working to interest the Hollywood Bowl Association in installing an outdoor organ in the amphitheater. The letter went on to state that Lemare had prevailed on an organ builder to install an organ in the Bowl provided that $10,000 was spent to build enclosures for the instrument.15 Fortunately, the scheme never progressed past the planning stage.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
In the late 1920s, the Welte Organ Company submitted a proposal to the Civic Bureau of Music and Art of Los Angeles to build a five-manual outdoor organ for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.16 The Coliseum, opened in 1923, covers a total of 17 acres and originally seated 76,000. Although there is nothing in the proposal stating where the organ would be located in the huge stadium, concrete enclosures may have been planned in and around the Peristyle, a focal point along the east end of the huge structure.
The installation of an organ in the Coliseum would have been an even greater acoustical nightmare than an organ in the Hollywood Bowl. Among the features of the proposed specification was a fifth manual called “Orchestral” that was home to four separately enclosed divisions, Diapason, Brass, String and Woodwind, three of which had their own pedal sections. The console would have stopkeys placed on angled jambs and a remote combination action. Nothing ever came of the proposal, and the 1929 stock market crash and closing of the Welte Corporation in 1931 sealed the instrument’s fate.
The proposal reads:

The Welte Organ Company, Inc., hereby agrees to build for the Civic Bureau of Music and Art, Los Angeles, California; herein referred to as Purchaser, and to install in the Coliseum, Los Angeles, California—ONE WELTE PIPE ORGAN. Ready to use and in accordance with the following specifications, viz: Manuals, five, compass CC to C4, 61 notes; Pedals, compass CCC to G, 32 notes; the windchests of manuals affected by octave couplers to be extended one octave above the compass of the keyboard, to 73 notes. Electro-pneumatic action throughout. Philharmonic pitch A-440. Console type, concert; stop control, stopkeys and tablets. Combination action adjustable at the console, visibly affecting the registers. Remote control inside setter.

Los Angeles Coliseum

GREAT - Manual II
16′ Double Diapason
16′ Bourdon
8′ First Diapason
8′ Second Diapason
8′ Third Diapason
8′ Violoncello
8′ Double Flute
8′ Clarabella
51⁄3′ Quint
4′ First Octave
4′ Second Octave
4′ Third Octave
4′ Tibia Plena
4′ Harmonic Flute
31⁄5′ Tenth
22⁄3′ Twelfth
2′ Fifteenth
V Plein Jeu
V Cymbale
16′ Double Trumpet
8′ Tromba
4′ Clarion
8′ Grand Piano
4′ Grand Piano
Minor Chimes
Great 2nd Touch
Diapason Section
Brass Section
String Section
Woodwind Section
Solo to Great 8
Tower Chime
2′ Glockenspiel

SWELL - Manual III
16′ Quintaton
16′ Contra Viola
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Horn Diapason
8′ Viola da Gamba
8′ Salicional
8′ Voix Celeste
8′ Tibia Clausa
8′ Harmonic Flute
4′ Octave
4′ Geigen Principal
4′ Salicet II rks
4′ Flute Couverte
4′ Traverse Flute
31⁄5′ Tenth
22⁄3′ Twelfth
2′ Fifteenth
2′ Piccolo
VI Mixture
16′ Contra Posaune
8′ Cornopean
8′ Trumpet
8′ Oboe Horn
8′ Vox Humana II rks
4′ Clarion
8′ Grand Piano
4′ Grand Piano
Swell 2nd Touch
Diapason Section
Brass Section
String Section
Woodwind Section
Solo to Swell 8
Chimes
2′ Glockenspiel

CHOIR - Manual I
16′ Waldhorn
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Waldhorn
8′ Tibia Minor
8′ Viol d’Orchestre
8′ Violes Celestes II rks
8′ Claribel Flute
8′ Quintaphon
4′ Octave
4′ Wald Flute
4′ Violin
22⁄3′ Twelfth
2′ Fifteenth
2′ Flageolet
13⁄5′ Seventeenth
11⁄7′ Septieme
1′ Twenty-Second
16′ Contra Fagotto
8′ Clarinet
8′ Vox Humana II rks
4′ Clarion
Minor Chimes
2′ Glockenspiel
8′ Grand Piano
4′ Grand Piano
2′ Xylophone
Snare Drum, Tap
Snare Drum, Roll
Choir 2nd Touch
Diapason Section
Brass Section
String Section
Woodwind Section
Solo to Choir
Chimes
2′ Glockenspiel
Snare Drum, Roll
Triangle

SOLO - Manual IV
16′ Violone
8′ Diapason Magna
8′ Tibia Plena
8′ Solo Gamba
8′ Gamba Celestes II rks
8′ Harmonic Flute
4′ Octave
4′ Concert Flute
4′ Solo Violin
III Cornet
16′ Ophicleide
8′ Tuba Mirabilis
8′ Tuba Sonora
8′ Military Trumpet
8′ French Horn
8′ Orchestral Oboe
4′ Clarion

ORCHESTRAL - Manual V
Diapason Section
16′ Major Diapason
8′ Double Languid Diapason I
8′ Double Languid Diapason II
8′ Diapason Phonon
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Geigen Principal
4′ Double Languid Octave
4′ Octave
22⁄3′ Twelfth
2′ Fifteenth
11⁄3′ Nineteenth
1′ Twenty-Second
IX Grand Chorus
Diapason Section Pedal
16′ Diaphonic Diapason
16′ Diapason
102⁄3′ Quint
8′ Diapason Octave
8′ Octave
4′ Super Octave

Brass Section
16′ Trombone
16′ Serpent
8′ Tuba Magna
8′ Tuba Sonora
8′ Tuba Mirabilis
8′ French Trumpet
8′ Muted Trumpet
8′ Post Horn
8′ French Horn (closed tone)
8′ French Horn (open tone)
51⁄3′ Corno Quint
4′ Tuba Clarion
4′ Trumpet Clarion
22⁄3′ Corno Twelfth
2′ Cor Octave
Brass Section Pedal
32′ Contra Bombarde
16′ Bombarde
16′ Trombone
8′ Trumpet

String Section
16′ Contra Basso
16′ Violin Diapason
16′ Contra Viola
8′ Violin Diapason
8′ Violin Diapason Celeste
8′ Violoncello I
8′ Violoncello II
8′ Cello Celestes II rks
8′ Nazard Gamba
8′ Gamba Celeste
8′ First Violin
8′ Second Violin
8′ Third Violin
8′ Violin Celestes II rks
8′ First Viola
8′ Second Viola
8′ Viola Celestes II rks
8′ Muted Violins III rks
4′ String Octave
4′ Violins II rks
4′ Muted Violins III rks
2′ String Fifteenth
III Cornet des Violes
String Section Pedal
32′ String Diaphone
16′ Double Bass
16′ Violone
8′ Cello

Woodwind Section
16′ Bassoon
16′ Bass Saxophone
8′ First Saxophone
8′ Second Saxophone
4′ Soprano Saxophone
8′ English Horn
16′ Bass Clarinet
8′ Basset Horn
8′ First Clarinet
8′ Second Clarinet
8′ Orchestral Oboe
8′ Kinura
8′ Orchestral Flute
4′ Solo Flute
2′ Solo Piccolo

PEDAL
64′ Gravissima
32′ Diaphone
32′ Violone
16′ Diaphone
16′ Major Bass
16′ Diapason
16′ Violone
16′ Contra Basso (String)
16′ Tibia Clausa
16′ Wald Horn (Ch)
16′ Bourdon
16′ Contra Viola (String)
102⁄3′ Quint
8′ Diaphone
8′ Principal
8′ Octave
8′ Violoncello
8′ Wald Horn (Ch)
8′ Flute
51⁄3′ Octave Quint
4′ Super Octave
4′ Fifteenth
4′ Tibia Flute
V Harmonics
V Fourniture
32′ Contra Bombarde
16′ Bombarde
16′ Tuba Profunda
16′ Serpent (Brass)
16′ Ophicleide (Solo)
16′ Double Trumpet (Gt)
16′ Contra Posaune (Sw)
16′ Contra Fagotto (Ch)
8′ Bombarde
8′ Tuba Sonora
4′ Bombarde
4′ Cornet
16′ Grand Piano
8′ Grand Piano
Bass Drum, Stroke

Pedal 2nd Touch
64′ Gravissima
32′ Diaphone
32′ Contra Bombarde
Solo to Pedal 8
Solo to Pedal 4
Diapason Section 8
Diapason Section 4
Brass Section 8
Brass Section 4
Tower Chimes
Minor Chimes
Thunder Drum, Stroke
Thunder Drum, Roll
Kettle Drum, Roll
Chinese Gong
Persian Cymbal
Vibratos
Choir
Choir Vox Humana
Swell
Swell Vox Humana
Solo
Woodwind
String, Fast
String, Slow

Conclusion
The stories of these instruments testify to the near-ubiquity of the pipe organ early in the twentieth century, including its use in films and stage shows. Even film actors owned and played pipe organs, in a golden age that now survives only in recollections such as this.

 

 

Sarah Mahler Hughes

Sarah Mahler Hughes is Professor of Music, Organist of the College, and Chair of the Music Department at Ripon College, where she has taught since 1989. In July 2002 she appeared as a guest recitalist at the XVI Festival Internazionale Storici Organi della Valsesia in Campertogno (Piedmont), Italy. A special scholarly/artistic grant enabled her to examine and play a number of historic organs in Germany, including the 1687 Schnitger organ at the church of St. Peter and Paul in Cappel. In July 2004 she examined and played historic keyboard instruments in the Russell Collection at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and in other cities.

A recent holiday in Scotland provided many opportunities to see and play organs and other historical instruments in addition to being a tourist in this beautiful country. My children and I spent two weeks visiting friends in St. Madoes. Using this village between Perth and Dundee as our home base, we toured much of the country and experienced Scottish history and hospitality firsthand. The trip was made possible in part by a scholarly/artistic grant from Ripon College.

Our first stop was Edinburgh. En route to the Castle we wandered into St. Giles' Cathedral, where John Knox initiated the Scottish Reformation in 1560. The Chancel Choir of the First United Methodist Church of Lubbock, Texas, was rehearsing in preparation for a lunchtime concert, and I heard Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus accompanied on the beautiful 1992 Rieger. The organ is one of the instruments featured on the 2-CD set, Twelve Organs of Edinburgh.1

The next organ I saw, and the first one I played, was in Old Saint Paul's [Scottish Episcopal] Church in Edinburgh. Built by Henry "Father" Willis in 1888 and subsequently refurbished in 1905, 1936, 1960, 1968 and most recently, by Nicholson's of Worcester in 1977, the specifications are as follows:

Great

16' Dulciana

8' Open Diapason I

8' Open Diapason II

8' Stopped Flute

8' Dulciana

4' Principal

4' Spindle Flute

22/3' Twelfth

2' Fifteenth

III–IV Mixture

8' Trumpet

Swell

8' Open Diapason

8' Lieblich Gedackt

8' Salicional

8' Celeste (TC)

4' Gemshorn

III–IVMixture

16' Contra Oboe

8' Cornopean

Tremulant

Pedal

32' Subbass (derived)

16' Open Diapason (wood)

16' Bourdon

16' Dulciana (Great)

8' Octave (ext)

8' Bass Flute (ext)

8' Dulciana (ext)

4' Super Octave (ext)

4' Octave Flute (ext)

4' Dulcet (ext)

16’            Trombone (ext Trumpet)

8' Trumpet (Great)

The organ has a rich, warm sound eminently suitable for both service accompaniment and solo organ repertoire. A sample of the former may be heard on the CD Hearts & Voices, Hymns sung by the Choir of Old Saint Paul's Church.2

The following day I was privileged to spend several hours playing instruments in the Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments in St. Cecilia's Hall at the University of Edinburgh. John Kitchen, Senior Lecturer and College Organist, was my tour guide as we worked our way through two rooms of virginals, spinets, and harpsichords from the 16th to 19th centuries.3 There were also three organs in the collection, and this seems the most appropriate place to mention them.

The first is an enharmonic chamber organ built by Thomas Parker in 1765. Parker was a pupil of Richard Bridge, a London builder favored by Handel.4 Bridge himself was supposedly trained by Renatus Harris. The  instrument has one manual with the usual short octave at the bottom. The real curiosity is a set of levers, two on each side of the case above the keyboard, that allow the player to select accidentals: Ab or G# and Bb or A# on the left-hand side, Db or C# and Eb or D# on the right. Parker provided a set of pipes for each pitch and the organ case is correspondingly wider than that of the usual chamber organ. What a fascinating way to learn firsthand about mean-tone tuning! It's also interesting to imagine how a player would handle a chromatic piece—assistants might be required to change the levers during a performance. The four registers of the organ include a Stopt [sic] Diapason 8', Open Diapason 8' (which only extends to tenor C, requiring both diapasons to be played together in order to use the full range of the keyboard), Principal 4', and Fifteenth 2'. Dr. Kitchen has recorded Stanley's Voluntary in G, op. 7, no. 9, and Handel's Fugue in A minor, op. 3, on the Parker organ.5 Interestingly, Parker built a second, two-manual enharmonic organ for the Foundling Hospital in 1768.

Another 18th-century chamber organ dates from 1763, the date when St. Cecilia's Hall opened. The organ was used in concerts until the hall closed in 1798. (The hall, having been refurbished in the 1960s, is once again the venue for concerts featuring instruments from the Russell Collection.) The third instrument, located in the Newman Gallery, is a Bernard "Father" Smith chamber organ from c. 1680. The specifications, which consist entirely of divided stops, are:

Bass

8' Diapason Bass

4' Principal Bass

2' Fifteenth

Treble

8' Diapason Treble

4' Principal Treble

2' Octave Treble

[rebuilt by Mander]

Wind is supplied through either a foot bellows or a modern electric blower. All of the above chamber organs reflect the disposition of English organs built after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660; i.e., principal stops at 8', 4', and 2' and, in the case of the Parker, stopped diapasons at 8'. The conventional registrational pattern of the time included solo stops plus accompaniment (hence the usefulness of the divided stops arrangement), diapasons (open plus stopped) for slow introductory movements, and full organ (8', 4', and 2') for faster movements. Stephen Bicknell has suggested that "There was a considerable revival of interest [in chamber organs] in the second half of the 18th century contemporary with (and perhaps because of) the great popularity of Handel, who seems regularly to have used small or even portable organs when playing continuo and for the performance of organ concertos as interludes to larger works."6   Bicknell also states that

By the end of the eighteenth century the chamber organ was firmly established as the instrument of choice for a well-to-do household, challenging both the harpsichord and the emerging fortepiano. The relative stability of tuning compared to a stringed keyboard instrument must have been an advantage, but it should also be noted that a small organ is a good vehicle not just for keyboard music, but also for transcriptions of instrumental works, and could readily be used for the accompaniment of family prayers.

He concludes that the organ's qualities of "reliability, versatility and dignity" must have accounted for its popularity.7

A greater contrast with these historical instruments than the McEwan Hall organ at the University of Edinburgh cannot be imagined. Built by Robert Hope-Jones in 1897, rebuilt by Henry Willis in 1953 and by Rushworth and Dreaper in 1980, the organ has problems because of the disparate placement of its divisions (the hall was designed without provisions for an organ, even though it was common for municipal concert halls at that time to include large instruments). Nonetheless, the organ sounds grand in the reverberant acoustics of the hall, where university graduations are held. The console looks a bit like a Jules Verne creation with its pressure gauges and electric dials, one of which is connected to the swell pedal to show incremental gradation (or "incremental frustration" as it's known to players).

The preceding organ and those described below all date from the second half of the 19th century, living testaments to the phenomenal rate of growth in organ building in England between 1860 and 1900. A few statistics tell the tale: in 1898, Harrison & Harrison of Durham claimed to have built 1,100 organs since 1861. Norman & Beard of Norwich produced even more astonishing numbers: between 1898 when their new factory was built and 1915 the company built over 1,000 new organs. In comparison, Sauer of Germany reached opus 1,000 only after fifty years of activity.8 Reasons for the rapid expansion in English organ building are numerous and include the wholesale replacement of older instruments, particularly those with a limited compass, increased prosperity of the middle class, which paid for new church instruments, and the construction of municipal concert halls in towns of any size.

The next organs I played were in Dundee, the fourth-largest city in Scotland. Three distinguished instruments exist in a three-block area in the heart of the city, which is pleasant and pedestrian-friendly. The first organ is located in St. Mary's Parish Church (Church of Scotland). I had not called ahead—in fact, I was simply being a tourist walking about Dundee and decided to poke my head in since the front door was open. Upon seeing the rich interior and a magnificent display of pipes in the rear balcony, I asked the volunteer guide if I might look at the organ. She very graciously assented, and I was delighted to discover a large three-manual instrument built in 1865 by Forster and Andrew of Hull and subsequently rebuilt by Rothwell (1939) and J. W. Walker (1969 and 1988). The console was open and inviting, so it was only a matter of minutes before I was actually playing. The specifications are:

Great

16' Double Diapason

8' Open Diapason 1

8' Open Diapason 2

8' Stopped Diapason

4' Principal

22/3' Harmonic Flute

2' Twelfth

2' Fifteenth

II Sesquialtera

IV Mixture

16' Double Trumpet

8' Trumpet (ext)

4' Clarion (ext)

Swell

8' Open Diapason

8' Viola da Gamba

8' Voix celeste

4' Principal

4' Lieblich Flute

2' Flageolet

III Mixture

16' Contra Fagotto

8' Cornopean

8' Oboe

4' Clarion

Super Octave

Sub Octave

Choir

8' Rohr Flute

8' Salicional

4' Gedeckt Flute

22/3' Principal

2' Nazard

2' Flautina

13/5' Tierce

11/3' Larigot

III Cymbel

8' Krummhorn

16' Double Trumpet

8' Trumpet (ext)

4' Clarion (ext)

Pedal

16' Open Diapason

16' Sub Bass

8' Flute Bass (ext)

8' Violoncello (ext)

4' Choral Bass (ext)

16’ Trombone

8' Tromba (ext)

A full battery of couplers and pistons plus an 8-channel memory system makes this organ suited for many kinds of repertoire. I only had time to try a voluntary by Stanley and a Buxtehude toccata before my younger daughter came looking for me (I'd left her and her sister parked outside), but I was impressed by the sound and feel of the organ in this parish church that in 1990 celebrated its octocentenary.

My serendipitous sampling of organs in Dundee continued on another day at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. As churches go in Scotland, it is rather new, the cornerstone having been laid in 1853. The organ was built by Hill and Son of London in 1865, the year of the Cathedral's consecration. Hill, Norman and Beard reconstructed the instrument in 1975. Like the organs I saw in other British churches (with the exception of St. Mary's), this instrument is located in the choir with the pipes facing the singers. The organist's back is to the choir. The disposition of this large organ is similar to St. Mary's:

Great

16' Double Diapason

8' Open Diapason

8' Stopped Diapason

8' Gemshorn

8' Viole d'amour

4' Principal

4' Harmonic Flute

22/3' Twelfth

2' Fifteenth

IVMixture

8' Grand Trumpet

Swell

8' Open Diapason

8' Stopped Diapason

8' Viole d'orchestre*

8' Viole Celestes

4' Principal

2' Fifteenth

II Mixture

16' Shalmey

8' Cornopean

8' Oboe

4' Clairon

Suboctave

[Super] Octave

Choir

8' Lieblich Gedeckt

8' Gamba

4' Suabe Flute

2' Flautina

11/3' Larigot

8' Grand Trumpet

8' Clarinet

Sub Octave

[Super] Octave

Tremulant

Pedal

32' Harmonic Bass

16' Bourdon

16' Echo Bourdon**

16' Open Diapason

8' Bass Flute

8' Octave

4' Super Octave

4' Flute

2' Octave

16' Trombone

4' Clairon

Sub Octave

[Super] Octave

Unison Off

Tremulant

Swell & Choir under expression

Sw-Ch, Sw-Gt, Ch-Gt, manual-pedal couplers

General (4) and divisional pistons

* Very stringlike; works especially well with the Viole Celestes

** Enhances the Bourdon 16'

As was the case at St. Mary's, I was allowed access to the organ by helpful parishioners. When I arrived at St. Paul's on a Saturday morning, the only person I could find on the premises (even though the front doors were wide open and a charity hamburger stand was getting ready to open for business on the front steps) was the verger. He led me to the instrument, turning on power switches and lights as we went, saying "We have to show you Scottish hospitality!" I played for an hour, trying out various sounds and combinations and finally let it rip with the Widor Toccata. Feeling self-indulgent but happy with the sonic results, I set about changing my shoes and packing up when I was startled by two members of the flower committee who appeared and thanked me for playing. They told me that people in the street, hearing the music, had stopped to peer inside the church, probably wondering if a wedding were in progress.

A third large organ exists in Dundee within blocks of St. Mary's and St. Paul's. Situated approximately midway between the two churches is Caird Hall, Dundee's civic auditorium. The organ was built in 1922 by Harrison & Harrison to a design by the famous blind organist of Edinburgh, Alfred Hollins. The Caird Hall organ was Harrison & Harrison's first concert hall organ; as such it differs from some of their other instruments in having brighter reeds (on heavier pressure than usual) and more orchestral colors than the average church organ. In 1991 the organ was restored by the original firm with only minor changes to its original sound. No tonal changes were made, but the pitch was raised to make the organ usable with other instruments. Carlo Curley played the rededication recital on this occasion. A stoplist follows:

Great

16' Double Geigen

16' Bourdon (wood and metal)

8' Large Open Diapason

8' Small Open Diapason

8' Geigen

8' Hohlflute

8' Rohrflute

4' Octave

4' Waldflute

22/3' Octave Quint

2' Super Octave

IV Harmonics 17,19,b21,22

16' Contra Tromba

8' Tromba

4' Octave Tromba

Swell

8' Open Diapason

8' Stopped Diapason

8' Echo Salicional

8' Vox Angelica

4' Octave Geigen

4' Stopped flute (metal)

2' Fifteenth

V Mixture 12,19,22,26,29

8' Oboe

8' Vox Humana

Tremulant

16' Double Trumpet

8' Trumpet

8' Horn

4' Clarion

Orchestral Organ

16' Double Salicional (metal)

8' Viole d'Orchestre

8' Violes Celestes (to FF, 2 ranks)

8' Harmonic Flute

4' Concert Flute (harmonic)

2' Harmonic Piccolo

16' Cor Anglais

8' Corno di Bassetto

8' Orchestral Oboe

Tremulant

8' Tuba (unenclosed)

Pedal

32' Double Open Wood (FFFF)

16' Open Wood

16' Open Diapason (metal, leathered)

16' Geigen (Gt)

16' Salicional (Orch organ)

16' Subbass (Gt)

8' Octave (wood)

8' Flute (Gt)

16' Ophicleide (metal)

16' Trombone (Gt)

8' Posaune

The organ's pneumatic action has been fitted with an electronic memory, and the combination pedals removed and replaced with toe pistons. Otherwise, the instrument remains as it was originally. A concert series in the early autumn featured the organ and it was recorded in October 2004. I was unable to play the Caird Hall organ because of a guitar festival in progress, but the staff was most helpful in showing me the console and wind system and providing me with specifications for the instrument.

Some general observations can be made, at this point, about the organs I saw in Scotland. The large instruments are originally from the 19th century and are based on an orchestral tonal design with a preponderance of stops at 8' pitch. The pedal divisions rely heavily on extensions from the manuals. Bicknell identifies the philosophy underlying this esthetic as ‘build-up:' "the gradual crescendo from piano to fortissimo achieved by adding stops one by one, [which] seems to be the dominant characteristic of these Victorian instruments."9 It works in this wise: flue pipes come in many colors, from clear and fluty to reedy with harmonic overtones. As the flues approach the reedy end of the spectrum, mild strings and reeds come into play, creating a smooth blend. Swell-to-Great couplers further increase fullness of sound while masking any addition of single stops, and the Swell pedal also assists in creating a smooth crescendo. As Bicknell points out,

This manner of playing was later to become an idée fixe with English builders and players . . . As a method it was taken so much for granted that it can safely be assumed that Willis's mixtures were not usually intended to be heard unless some reeds were already drawn . . . there is no provision for a chorus of principals and mixtures that can be used extensively on its own: this is . . . in complete contrast to German taste.10

Although the reference is to instruments built by Willis, the description is general enough to be applied to other large late-19th and early 20th-century organs.

Perhaps it seems incongruous that all of the organs I saw and played in Scotland were built by English firms. Were there no Scottish organbuilders in the 19th century and earlier? Regardless of how we might think of Britons as members of a United Kingdom, there are national differences among the English, Scots, Welsh, and Irish. A bit of research was necessary to unearth information about organbuilding in Scotland, from which a clearer picture emerges of the past three centuries.

At the heart of the question is the ban on instruments in church issued by the Church of Scotland from the Reformation (around 1560) until around 1868.11 Organs were allowed for concerts and domestic use, but none were built or installed in this denomination until a very late date. Other denominations—the Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, Congregationalist, and Baptist churches—were exempt, and instruments dating from the 18th century are known to have existed in them.12 Early 19th-century Scottish organbuilders, including Small, Bruce & Co of Edinburgh, John Renton, also of Edinburgh, and Robert Mirrlees of Glasgow, specialized in chamber organs, at least two of which are extant.13 I was very surprised to learn that the oldest surviving Glasgow-built organ was made by James Watt in 1762. The renowned engineer and inventor, associated more with the first steam engine than with pipe organs, constructed a single-manual instrument concealed in a table. It was the first of three organs built by Watt.14

In the second half of the 19th century, other firms arose in Dundee, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, but they found it difficult to compete with the well-established English builders. An admittedly cursory search for information on Scottish builders in the 19th and early 20th centuries produced nothing—but perhaps a written history is in progress.

Today, Lammermuir Pipe Organs (est. 1983) is perhaps the best-known firm in Scotland and the only workshop "north of the border" specializing in new, mechanical-action organs.15 Op. 50 is scheduled for completion in 2005. The other company listed in an Internet link to pipe organ builders in the United Kingdom is Michael Macdonald (est. 1975) of Glasgow.16 Interestingly, besides building new instruments, Macdonald engages in rescuing historic organs from redundant buildings (primarily churches closed due to dwindling congregations).

I would like to think of my visit to Scotland as a prelude to further organ crawls  there and in other parts of the United Kingdom. There are many instruments to be played and much history to be learned in these islands.  

First Baptist Church, Ocala, Florida

 

The Wicks Organ Co., Highland, Illinois, Opus 6382

 

In 1992, First Baptist Church of Ocala, Florida began a process of rebirth after a fire claimed all they had: furnishings, libraries, a concert grand piano, a Skinner pipe organ, choir robes, hymnals and Bibles. The congregation built a new 2,800-seat facility, which is one of the largest churches in Ocala. The final step of their rebuilding process was bringing a pipe organ into the new building.

David Kocsis, Wicks Area Sales Director writes:

Among the unique features of this project, the organ was to be a gift from a non-member--but one whose daughter and son-in-law were members. Secondly, the church provided a single sheet outlining their requirements for this instrument. The organ was to be a "supplemental" instrument, used mostly to enhance the 25-piece orchestra and 180-voice choir. It would also, upon occasion, be used as a recital instrument. They wanted an instrument of the "American Classic" school with the following characteristics incorporated: four-manual drawknob console; multiple Principal choruses; plentiful and opulent strings; a variety of flute choruses and solo stops; reeds to complement the overall instrument and offer solo opportunities; a Pedal division that offers strong, solid underpinning with at least two 32’ stops; a Trompette-en-Chamade of polished copper with flared bells; exposed pipework across entire chamber area (52 ft.) to eliminate existing latticework and grillwork; preparation on console for Chimes and Zimbelstern; MIDI capability.

Our proposal was for an instrument of 74 pipe ranks over five divisions with an additional four 32-foot computer-generated stops in the Pedal division, using the Walker Paradox system. The plan also called for (at the direction of the church) preparations for an 11-rank Solo division, and a 9-rank Antiphonal division.

We decided early on that Daniel Angerstein would tonally finish the instrument. Although First Baptist, Ocala was not a bad room, the irregular shape and carpeting did not make it acoustically live, either. Our factory-trained technician in Florida, Mr. Robert Campbell, would handle the  installation.

The specification for the instrument was a joint venture design involving Area Director David Kocsis, his associate Herb Ridgely, and voicer Dan Angerstein. After the contract was signed in late November, 1998, the three members of the design team met at the church to study the acoustics, room layout, chamber space, etc., so that detailed design work could begin. On the drive back to Atlanta, the pipe scales for the organ were discussed and finalized. The entire organ would be on 5" wind pressure with the notable exception of the Trompette-en-Chamade, which was to be on 10" wind pressure, and the Choir division English Tuba on 12". In order to "ring" the room, the Great 8' Principal would be built to a 40 scale, and the Great 8' Montre a 42 scale. One of the features of the design is the placement of the lowest pipes of the Pedal 16' Open Wood in the organ facade, stained to match the rest of the woodwork in the sanctuary. This placement allows the most profound of 16-foot foundation tone immediate access to the room. Of particular interest in the Walker system designed for this organ is that the computer-generated harp in the Choir can also be used with the Tremulant, providing a vibraharp sound.

There are several ancillary console controls that enhance ease of playing such a massive console, and also add facility to the instrument. These include: Pedal, Solo and Swell Melody couplers to the Great, all Swells to Swell, all Mixtures Off, all 32's Off, All Reeds Off, and All Celestes Off. To allow maximum visibility and eye contact between the organist and the minister of music, all inter-manual couplers were placed in the stop jambs, rather than on a coupler rail. This resulted in a console somewhat wider than normal (slightly over 8 feet). There are eight divisional pistons and 15 General pistons with 32 levels of memory. A 13-position transposer is included. The main body of the casework is painted semi-gloss off white, again matching the main color in the sanctuary. The whole idea was to give the impression that the building and the organ had been conceived as an integral whole.

The first of two truckloads of pipe organ arrived in Ocala on March 22, 2000, and the second truck arrived on April 12. Installation was completed on June 3 and voicing of the instrument in the room began on June 5. The logistical problems associated with installing a large pipe organ are many. The crew faced a 52-foot facade that begins 12' above the top choir riser and extends upward to accommodate full length 16-foot metal Principals and full length 16-foot Open Wood pipes. Bob Campbell's crew had scaffolding from floor to ceiling that would cover one of the four sections, and it took a considerable amount of careful planning to insure that all work was completed on one bay before tearing down the scaffolding and moving it to the next location.

From the beginning of the installation, the entire organ facade was covered every Sunday during church services so that the completed installation could be unveiled at one time. This occasion occurred on Sunday, June 4, 2000. The Sanctuary was dimly lit, and at the appropriate time, the entire organ facade was lit by a battery of specially placed lighting. This was only the prelude--the organ was heard for the first time by the congregation on July 2.

We at Wicks thank the committee and staff of first Baptist Church of Ocala for placing their trust in us to build an instrument according to their wishes. In particular, we would like to thank Dr. Ed Johnson, Sr. Pastor; Mr. Terry Williams, Minister of Music; and Mr. Larry Kerner, Chair of the Organ Committee. The entire congregation placed its confidence in us from the outset, and was extremely helpful from the beginning of the detailed design process through the installation. Several members of the church also volunteered their time and talents to help with the installation, especially with fitting and trimming of the facade to accommodate slight building irregularities. This really was a "team" effort, and everyone should be very proud of the results.

The dedication of the new IV/74 instrument at the First Baptist Church of Ocala, FL will be held on Sunday, September 24, 2000, featuring John Weaver, organ chair at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and The Julliard School of Music in New York City.

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GREAT

1. 16' Montre

2. 16'    Bourdon

3. 8' Principal

4. 8' Montre (from #1)

5. 8' Flute Couverte

6. 8' Flute Harmonique

7. 4' Octave

8. 8' Gemshorn

9. 4' Nachthorn

10. 22/3' Twelfth

11. 2' Fifteenth

12. 2' Hohlflute (from #6)

13. 13/5' Seventeenth

14. IV-V Fourniture

15. IV Cymbale

16. 16' Kontra Trompete (from #17)

17. 8' Trompete

18. 8' Trompete en Chamade (10≤ w.p.)

19. Tremulant (Flutes)

20. Chimes [D]

21. Zimbelstern

22. Pedal Bass Coupler to Great

23. Swell Melody Coupler to Great

24. Solo Melody Coupler to Great

25. MIDI on Great

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SWELL (Enclosed)

26. 16' Bourdon Doux

27. 8' Geigen Principal

28. 8' Rohrflute (from #26)

29. 8' Viola Pomposa

30. 8' Viola Celeste

31. 8' Flauto Dolce

32. 8' Dolce Celeste TC

33. 4' Prestant

34. 4' Flauto Traverso

35. 22/3' Nazard

36. 2' Quarte de Nazard

37. 13/5' Tierce

38. IV-V Plein Jeu

39. III-IV Cymbale

40. 16' Contre Trompette

41. 8' Trompette

42. 8' Oboe

43. 8' Vox Humana

44. 4' Clairon (from #40)

45. 8' English Tuba (Ch)

46. 8' Trompette en Chamade (Gt)

47. Tremulant

48. MIDI On Swell

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CHOIR (Enclosed)

49. 16' Gemshorn [D]

50. 8' English Diapason

51. 8' Flute Ouverte

52. 8' Gemshorn

53. 8' Gemshorn Celeste TC

54. 4' Principal

55. 4' Koppelflute

56. 2' Principal

57. 11/3' Larigot

58. 1' Principal (from #56)

59. II Sesquialtera

60. IV-V Scharf

61. 16' Dulzian (from #62)

62. 8' Cromorne

63. 4' Rohr Schalmei

64. 16' English Tuba TC (from #65)

65. 8' English Tuba (12≤ w.p.)

66. 8' Trompette en Chamade (Gt)

67. 8' Harp [D]

68. 4' Harp Celesta [D]

69. Tremulant

70. MIDI On Choir

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SOLO (Enclosed)

15 Prepared Stops

71. 16' Trompette en Chamade TC (Gt)

72. 8' Trompette en Chamade (Gt)

73. 4' Trompette en Chamade (Gt)

74. 16' English Tuba TC (Ch)

75. 8' English Tuba (Ch)

76. 4' English Tuba (Ch)

77. MIDI On Solo

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ANTIPHONAL (Floating)

12 Prepared Stops

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ANTIPHONAL PEDAL

1 Prepared Stop

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PEDAL

78. 32' Contra Principal [D]

79. 32' Contra Bourdon [D]

80. 16' Open Wood

81. 16' Bourdon

82. 16' Principal

83. 16' Montre (Gt)

84. 16' Bourdon Doux (Sw)

85. 16' Gemshorn (Ch)

86. 8' Octave

87. 8' Major Bass (from #80)

88. 8' Bourdon (from #81)

89. 8' Viola (Sw)

90. 8' Open Flute (Ch)

91. 62/5' Gross Terz (Gt)

92. 51/3' Gross Quinte (Gt)

93. 4' Choral Bass

94. 4' Cantus Flute

95. 2' Flute (from #94)

96. IV Grave Mixture

97. IV Acuta

98. 32' Contra Bombarde [D]

99. 32' Contra Fagotto [D]

100. 32' Cornet des Bombardes IV

101. 16' Bombarde

102. 16' Contre Trompette (Sw)

103. 16' Kontra Trompete (Gt)

104. 16' Dulzian (Ch)

105. 8' Trompette

106. 8' Trompete (Gt)

107. 8' Oboe (Sw)

108. 4' Bombarde Clarion (from #101)

109. 4' Oboe (Sw)

110. 4' Schalmei (Ch)

111. 8' Trompette en Chamade (Gt)

112. 8' English Tuba (Ch)

113. Chimes (Gt)

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[D] = Digital Ranks

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Couplers

Sw/Gt 16 8 4

Ch/Gt 16 8 4

So/Gt 16 8 4

Ant on Gt

So/Sw 16 8 4

Ant on Sw

Sw/Ch 16 8 4

So/Ch 16 8 4

Ant on Ch

Ant on So

Gt 16 UO

Sw 16 UO 4

Ch 16 UO 4

So 16 UO 4

Ant UO 4

Gt/Ped 8 4

Sw/Ped 8 4

Ch/Ped 8 4

So/Ped 8 4

Ant/Ped 8

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Charles M. Ruggles, Conifer, Colorado, has built a new organ for The Randolph Church, Randolph, New Hampshire. The organ is designed on classic models typical of instruments found in New England and European churches; two manuals and pedal, mechanical action. Its structural and tonal characteristics make it suitable for the needs of The Randolph Church--for service playing, accompanying congregational singing, and playing a wide segment of standard organ literature. The case features cherry wood frame, redwood panels, and walnut trim. The Rohrflöte 8 and Octave 2 are common between the two manuals; the Bourdon 16 is an extension of the Bourdon 8. Manual compass 56 notes, pedal compass 30 notes; standard AGO pedalboard. Couplers, operated by foot levers, include Great to Pedal, Swell to Pedal, and Swell to Great.

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GREAT

                  8'             Principal

                  8'             Rohrflöte

                  4'             Octave

                  2'             Octave

                                    Mixture

                                    Sesquialtera II (from middle c)

SWELL

                  8'             Rohrflöte

                  8'             Gamba (tenor C)

                  4'             Flute

                  2'             Octave

                  8'             Dulcian

PEDAL

                  16'          Bourdon

                  8'             Bourdon

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B. Rule & Company, New Market, Tennessee, has rebuilt and installed a Hook & Hastings organ for Covenant Baptist Church, Houston, Texas. Built by Hook & Hastings in 1893 for First Baptist Church of Georgetown, Kentucky, the organ was removed from this church in 1963. It was owned for many years by David Bottom, of Lexington, Kentucky, who set it up in several different locations before carefully putting it in storage several years ago. B. Rule recommended the organ to Covenant Baptist Church, who bought it from David Bottom. Compass: 58/27.

B. Rule & Co. rebuilt the organ, including a complete rebuild of the chests and bellows and re-covering the manual keys with bone. The hand-pumping mechanism was also restored. Two changes were made: the Dulciana was replaced with a 2' Fifteenth, and the Oboe was extended to full compass from its previous tenor C status.

The small new sanctuary has a concrete floor and live acoustics, creating an environment which encourages congregational singing. The acoustical consultant was Charles Boner. The organist of the church is Carl McAliley, who played a joint dedication recital with Bruce Power on March 4.

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GREAT

                  8'             Open Diapason

                  8'             Melodia

                  4'             Octave

                  2'             Fifteenth

SWELL

                  8'             Stopped Diapason

                  8'             Viola (1-12 from St. Diap)

                  4'             Harmonic Flute

                  8'             Oboe

PEDAL

                  16'          Bourdon

Accessories

                                    Sw/Gt

                                    Gt/Ped

                                    Sw/Ped

                                    Sw/Gt Octaves

                                    Tremolo

                                    Blower Signal

 

Cover

Buzard Pipe
Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois

Opus 29,
completed November, 2003

All Saints
Episcopal Church, Atlanta, Georgia

Some years ago I was contacted about a new organ for All Saints Episcopal
Church by the assistant organist, Jefferson McConnaughey. We seemed to be
speaking the same language concerning how we thought organs should sound, and I
was eager to meet him, music directors Ray and Elizabeth Chenault, and to visit
the church. Our conversations were put on hold while the parish called a new
rector and undertook other projects. At the time we were blessed with
commissions to build the organ at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, Oklahoma
City, and large instruments for Glenview Community Church (III/71) and Holy
Family Catholic Church of Rockford, Illinois (III/56).

A few years went by, and I was invited to visit the church. Judging from the
size of the instrument under discussion, I expected to enter a huge space.
Instead, the church was more modest than vast, the acoustic more understated
than generous. At first blush, it seemed that 40 stops could have adequately
met their needs. But, no real lady ever gives up all her secrets at once, and
so I patiently looked and listened.

I listened to their former instrument while walking around the room, and
observed the acoustical phenomena under which the musicians had been laboring
for so long. The organ, although installed in the chancel in relatively close
proximity to the congregation, diminished drastically in volume in the nave. I
concluded that a part of the organ had to be installed in the body of the
church, to support singing and "pull" the sound out of the main part
of the organ installed in the chancel. Additionally, sound generated in the
nave lost its energy quickly; sound simply didn't travel well without becoming
garbled.

The musicians wanted to be able to properly register an organ to
"text-paint" Anglican Chant, choral anthems and ceremonial music in
the Anglican musical tradition. They needed a wide variety of accompanimental
tone colors at every dynamic level so that the organ could always support the
singers, even at pianissimo volume levels. It was equally important that the
organ musically render the great body of organ literature, even that of the
French Baroque school, of which Mr. McConnaughey seemed quite fond. And, the
Chenaults are duo organists; the literature which has been (and has yet to be)
commissioned for them had to be accommodated. This requires a large organ, as
coloristic stops outside the component voices for the essential choruses had to
be included and integrated into the design. Fortunately, these stops were never
in competition for space or funding, nor were our classic concepts of the
hierarchical scaling of divisions within the instrument ever compromised. Some
specific organs were studied: The Temple Church, London; King's College,
Cambridge; and St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

There is a beautiful chapel behind the Epistle side choir stalls, at 90
degrees to the axis of the church, which also serves as an overflow room on
Sundays. Worshippers there were relegated to viewing services on a small
closed-circuit TV, and could not participate in the hymn-singing because, being
outside the body of the church, they couldn't hear the organ. If the new organ
were to address and meet all the musical and acoustical requirements of the
church, then the chapel also needed to have some pipes in it, so that those
seated there could feel a part of the worshiping community.

All of these requirements were brought to bear upon a single instrument. Yes,
I agreed, this instrument has to be large--very large. Even if the room seats
only 550 souls, the musical and physical requirements dictated an organ of a
size which one might initially think out of proportion.

The position and installation of the new Main Organ was relatively
straightforward. The Great, Swell, Choir, Tuba, and Pedal would have to be
installed in the chancel, in an enlarged version of their existing chamber,
plus spaces created by cantilevering steel platforms into the chancel space on
both Epistle and Gospel sides.

The antiphonal division, a romantic Solo Organ including a Diapason Chorus
which mirrors the Great, had to be installed in the nave. But there was no
floor space for cases, no desire to see columns, and windows everywhere, many
of them signed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. By clever engineering of the diatonic
windchest layouts (which we had first used at St. Paul's Cathedral in Oklahoma
City) we were able to tuck the Solo Organ cases up in the rafters of the church
above the narthex, on either side of a central great window. By creative use of
perspective, we were able to engineer the location of the supporting steel
platforms so that they wouldn't block the view of the Tiffany windows in the
side aisles, yet give us sufficient height for the pipes inside the cases.

As conversations concerning the tonal design took shape, Ray, Elizabeth, and
Jeff fell in love with our tonal style which, while embracing eclecticism, has
its own unique personality. They visited both our large organs, and Jeff
actually played Sunday services on our Opus 7 organ at The Chapel of St. John
the Divine in my wife Linda's stead. The All Saints organ is a very logical
outgrowth of our style as practiced in our smaller organs, and as our two
larger organs have led us. The humble beginnings of Opus 7 at the Chapel, in
which we made 29 stops into a cathedral organ, can be seen all over this much
larger organ. Well-informed national and historical inspirations are
distributed throughout, so that the whole is at unity with itself. No German
Hauptwerk, French Récit or English Chair Organs for us. For example the
Great includes the mature English practice of 8' First & Second Open
Diapasons, married nicely to the French Fonds d'Orgue. A voluptuous Full English
Swell has continental fire by virtue of the authentic (but modified) French
reed battery, but the lyrical soft solo reed is a plaintive English Oboe. No
quirky nomenclature either. Although rooted in 19th-century English practice of
"Diapason, Principal, Twelfth, Fifteenth," etc., the stops in our
organs are what they say they are. If the Swell reed is spelled
"Trompette," you can be assured that you will hear a Trumpet with
French shallots and pipe construction.

The Great is based upon a 16' Double Open Diapason of tin which stands
proudly in the Gospel side case along with the rest of the division. A complete
Diapason chorus through Mixture, flutes at 8' & 4', and a Viola da Gamba
make up the flue work, and the reeds are Trombas, brought up to the manuals from
the Pedal Trombone. The Mixture breaks at octaves, rather than at fifth
intervals. In this way, one doesn't hear alternating unison and fifths playing
as the top rank, and the breaks are virtually unheard.

The Great also incorporates an harmonic corroborating stop which was more at
home in English and American concert organs of the early part of the last
century. Our four-rank Harmonic Mixture has in it a unison, a quint, a tierce,
and a flat-seventh. These are all the harmonics present in Tromba class reeds,
which are on the Great at 8' and 4' pitches. We originally included the
Harmonic Mixture as a way to prevent the dark Trombas from covering the
brightness of the mixture work in full organ, but have found that when used
sans Trombas, the ancient flavor of 18th-century Dutch organs is perceived in
an uncanny way. One could even imagine the wind to be unsteady--but of course
it's not!

The Solo has a Diapason Chorus nearly mirroring the Great, and despite its
distance from the Main Organ, it can exactly balance the Great Plenum in
certain contexts. The Solo contains a pair of E. M. Skinner-inspired Gambas,
the celesting rank in the case across the church from its unison pair. Now
that's a Celeste! The Flügel Horn, while a lyrical romantic solo reed, has
just enough harmonic interest to function beautifully as a chorus reed. The
Bassett Horn is certainly at home playing obbligato parts in Elgar, but has
just enough Cromorne in it to play Daquin with a French nose in the air.

One can use the Choir in a classic context, as a Positiv when a lighter foil
to the Great is desired. But this division is the real choral accompanying
workhorse. It's one of the most elegant, light, but profound Choir divisions we
have created. The Choir features a flute chorus from 16' up, and a proper
Diapason chorus complete with a four-rank quint mixture, a fifth interval
higher than the Great. But the luxurious feature in this day and age is our
Dulciana Chorus, which includes a three-rank mixture in which the 4' enters
early on at tenor C. Our Dulcianas are truly small Diapasons, and there is
nothing like the effect of accompanying voices with Diapason color, but at such
a soft volume. The Dulciana Mixture has many uses in coloring and painting
texts, 90% of which I would never have envisioned. Our Cornopeans are
small-scaled, but fundamental Trumpets as the original prototypes were, not the
horn-like Cornopeans one would otherwise love to hate. The Clarinet is truly of
English style, and the English Horn is orchestral in color with enough body to
be the foundation of the Choir reed battery, yet enough jazz in the color to
differentiate itself from the more fundamental Swell English Oboe.

The Chapel Organ includes a small-scaled Diapason Chorus at 8' and 4' to
lead the hymn-singing, and an 8' Aeoline and Vox Angelica. These very, very
soft string-toned stops allow the worshippers there to feel connected, and also
provide a powerfully effective pianissimo "wrap-around" effect as the
softest sounds concluding a smooth decrescendo. These little strings can just
be barely heard in the nave as the expression box closes on the Solo Flute
Cœlestis. When they play alone, they are literally in another room, off in
the distance.

In the All Saints organ, the Great, Swell, Choir, Solo, and a portion of the
Pedal divisions play upon 4 inches of wind pressure. The Trombones and Trombas
play upon 7 inches of wind, the Solo Festival Trumpets on 6 inches, and the
Major Tuba plays upon 20 inches of wind. The Tuba is housed in its own
expression box, and the organist can easily select which expression shoe may be
used to operate the Tuba's expression (or whether it is to remain open) by a
simple rotary switch. We aim to expand the color and dynamic range of the pipe
organ, while keeping the console controls simple and straightforward.

Before I was selected as their builder, Ray, Elizabeth, and Jeff charged me
to design the perfect instrument for all their requirements, and they would
undertake the responsibility of presenting this plan to the organ committee to
get their reaction, and see if the instrument would have to suffer at the hands
of "value engineers." Although my past experience made me somewhat
timid about presenting such a large (expensive) instrument as part of a
selection competition, we arrived at the specification of 63 straight speaking
stops, 87 ranks of pipes (5229 pipes overall), in five free-standing cases
throughout their church.

I will never forget the evening of a crucial organ committee meeting when I
received an excited telephone call from Ray. The musicians presented the
proposal and the room fell silent. People on the committee asked questions to
the effect: "Now, do all three of you musicians agree on this builder? Do
all three of you agree with each other in every respect to this instrument?"
When the answer was an emphatic yes, a committee member said: "How many
times do musicians agree with each other about anything, let alone every of the
many thousands of details in this organ's design!? This is what we need for All
Saints, and we need John-Paul to build it for us." A member of the
committee, Sarah Kennedy, later wrote a check for the entire project, in loving
memory and in honor of her family, The Kenans.

The organs' visual designs were developed during August and September of
2001. The first draft of the Chapel Organ's design was revised to be more in
keeping with the modern nature of the chapel (and less like King's College,
Cambridge). The Main Organ and the Solo Organs were built according to my first
pen-and-ink renderings.

All of my design drawings are executed by hand. The discipline of cleaning
the drafting table and truing the parallel bars and 90-degree instruments
contributes to clearing my mind of everything except what I need to think about
for the organ on the blank piece of paper.

It is always my goal to design organ cases which appear as though they had
always been in the church. The All Saints cases use shapes and colors found
throughout the room, and mirror the restrained nature of the Victorian Gothic
design. But the cases become vivid, exciting, and dramatic by incorporation of
the fabulous red enamel and gold leaf adorning the church's clerestory. The
inclusion of the red gave me license to add contracting pieces of red-stained
Honduras mahogany in the stained white oak cases. The soaring nature of the
Solo Organs, as their lines ascend while moving toward the great window, seemed
to cry out for heraldic angels, announcing the Great Day of Judgment on
gold-leafed trumpets. Thanks to parishioner David Foerster for making these
possible.

All of us will remember exactly where we were on 9/11. I was at the drafting
table finishing the designs for the Main Organ cases. I had penciled the
drawing the day before and was preparing to ink the drawing when I heard the
news reports. My entire staff came up to the drafting room and we all went to
the conference area where a small television showed us the horrors unfold as
the second airliner smashed into the second building. As we heard a large
airplane overhead, being sent to land at our local airport, I was asked if we
were going to close for the day. I said, no. We had to go about our task of
making beautiful things, especially in light of the ugliness that visited
itself on our country that day. If we wanted to take time off individually to
mourn our country's losses, go with my blessing, but the doors would remain
open and I would continue to draw a beautiful pair of pipe organ cases.

I set to cleaning out my India ink pens, and put on a CD of The English
Anthem II from St. Paul's Cathedral,
London.

Oh Lord, look down from heaven, and behold the habitation
of Thy holiness and of Thy glory: Where is Thy zeal and Thy strength? Thy
mercies towards me, are they restrained?

My deepest thanks to the musicians at All Saints Church, everyone on the
organ committee, Greg Kellison, chairman; Paul Elliott, the rector; David
Foerster, and Sarah Kennedy for selecting me and my firm for this tremendous
commission.

My overwhelming gratitude goes to the members of my staff whose hard work
and dedication made such an excellent instrument so sublime: Charles Eames,
executive vice president, general manager and chief engineer; Brian K. Davis,
associate tonal director; Keith Williams, service department director; Shayne
Tippett, shop manager; Jay Salmon, office manager; Evan Rench, pipe maker,
voicer; Steve Downes, tonal assistant; C. Robert Leach, cabinetmaker; Stuart
Martin, cabinetmaker; Kenneth McCabe, winding systems; Ray Wiggs, consoles,
windchests; Robert Ference, service technician; Stuart Weber, service
technician; Jonathan Borchardt, service technician; JoAnne Hutchcraft Rench,
receptionist.

--John-Paul Buzard

GREAT (4-inch wind pressure)

Manual II - unenclosed pipework

16' Double Open Diapason

8' First Open Diapason

8' Second Open Diapason (ext 16')

8' Viola da Gamba

8' Harmonic Flute

8' Bourdon

4' Principal

4' Spire Flute

22/3' Twelfth

2' Fifteenth

2' Fourniture V

13/5' Harmonic Mixture IV

16' Double Trumpet

8' Trombas (ext Ped)

4' Clarion (ext Ped)

Tremulant

Chimes

8' Major Tuba (20" wind)

8' Tuba Solo (melody coupler)

8' Fanfare Trumpets (Solo)

SWELL (4-inch wind pressure)

Manual III - enclosed and expressive

8' Open Diapason

8' Stopped Diapason

8' Salicional

8' Voix Celeste

4' Principal

4' Harmonic Flute

22/3' Nazard

2' Flageolet

13/5' Tierce

22/3' Full Mixture V

16' Bassoon

8' Trompette

8' Oboe

8' Vox Humana

4' Clarion (ext 16')

Tremulant

8' Major Tuba (Gt)

8' Fanfare Trumpets (Solo)

CHOIR (4-inch wind pressure)

Manual I - enclosed and expressive

16' Lieblich Gedeckt (wood)

8' English Open Diapason

8' Flûte à Bibéron

8' Gedeckt Flute (ext 16')

8' Dulciana

8' Unda Maris

4' Principal

4' Koppel Flute

2' Recorder

2' Mixture III–IV (Dulcianas)

11/3' Fourniture IV

Sesquialtera II (22/3' & 13/5')

16' English Horn

8' Cornopean

8' Clarinet

Tremulant

Cymbalstern (14 bells)

8' Major Tuba (Gt)

8' Fanfare Trumpets (Solo)

Harp (digital)

Celesta (digital)

ANTIPHONAL SOLO (4- & 51/2-inch wind)

Manual IV - in twin cases over the narthex (expressive)

8' Open Diapason

8' Viola da Gamba

8' Gamba Celeste (CC)

8' Melodia

8' Flute Cœlestis II (Ludwigtone)

4' Principal

4' Flûte d'Amour

2' Doublette

11/3' Mixture IV

8' Flügel Horn

8' Corno di Bassetto

Tremulant

Cymbalstern (8 bells)

Chimes (Gt)

8' Fanfare Trumpets

8' Major Tuba (Gt)

Harp (digital)

Celesta (digital)

PEDAL (various wind pressures)

32' Double Open Diapason (digital)

32' Subbass (digital)

32' Lieblich Gedeckt (Ch, digital)

16' First Open Diapason

16' Second Open Diapason (Gt)

16' Bourdon

16' Lieblich Gedeckt (Ch)

8' Principal

8' Bass Flute (ext 16' Bourdon)

8' Gedeckt Flute (ext 16' Lieblich)

4' Choral Bass

4' Open Flute (ext 16' Bourdon)

22/3' Mixture IV

32' Contra Trombone (wood)

16' Trombone (wood, ext 32')

16' Double Trumpet (Gt)

16' Bassoon (Sw)

8' Trumpet (ext 16')

4' Clarion (Sw)

8' Major Tuba (Gt)

8' Fanfare Trumpets (Solo)

CHAPEL (4-inch wind, floating)

8' Open Diapason

8' Aeoline

8' Vox Angelica (tc)

4' Principal

Chapel on Great

Chapel on Swell

Chapel on Choir

Chapel on Solo

Chapel on Pedal

Intraddivisional couplers

Gt/Gt 16-UO-4

Sw/Sw 16-UO-4

Ch/Ch 16-UO-4

Solo/Solo 16-UO-4

Interdivisional couplers

Gt/Ped 8, 4

Sw/Ped 8, 4

Ch/Ped 8, 4

Solo/Ped 8, 4

Sw/Gt 16, 8, 4

Ch/Gt 16, 8, 4

Solo/Gt 16, 8, 4

Sw/Ch 16, 8, 4

Solo/Ch 16, 8, 4

Pedal Stops to Divisional Pistons

The Wicks Organ Company, Highland,
Illinois has built a new organ for the Barrington United Methodist Church,
Barrington, Illinois. In 1999 the church building was destroyed by fire. Their
losses included a 41-rank Möller pipe organ, which had been rebuilt as
recently as 1988. As planning for their new building began, the search for a
new pipe organ started. The church’s demands for their new organ were
that it had to be a great congregational organ, but also able to perform for
recitals as well. The sanctuary was to be a top-notch performance facility as
well as a place of worship. The church desired an organ of 3 manuals and 5
divisions, including an antiphonal. Each division was to have a principal
chorus, and the foundations of the Great organ were to be exposed.

The church committee heard many styles of instruments built by Wicks over
the last seven decades. This included, a North German neo-Baroque style
instrument, a symphonic organ scaled and designed by Henry V. Willis, an
American Classic, and an Aeolian instrument from the 1920s that had been
rebuilt by the Wicks Organ Company in conjunction with Mr. Madison Lindsey. The
service playing abilities of each instrument were demonstrated to the
committee, and they identified and found themselves drawn to the
English/symphonic style of the rebuilt Aeolian instrument. The organ committee
chose Wicks over several other builders after hearing several new Wicks
installations and the company ‘s recent success in exactly this style of
instrument.

The completed organ is described as an English service organ with orchestral
capabilities. The instrument is able to not only provide a seamless crescendo
from ppp to fff, but can do it with flair. In addition to service music, the
organ is able to perform every possible type of organ literature from the
Renaissance to the present. It is also able to realize orchestral
transcriptions with great skill, thanks to the presence of many orchestral solo
stops in each division, blending choruses, and 2-inch thick beveled and overlapping
felted shades. The completed organ consists of 24 ranks of pipes and 25 digital
voices. The Wicks design team pre-engineered space to accommodate real pipe
ranks to replace these voices. The Swell is on 7 inches of wind, the Pedal 10
inches; the Choir and Great are on 6 inches, with the exception of the
Clarinet, English Horn, and Tuba in the choir, which are all on 10 inches.

The solo reeds of this organ are of a unique style, derived from the
Willis/Wicks style reeds used in many Wicks organs over the decades, married to
the traditional ideas of Skinner solo reeds. The end results were clear,
smooth, stops of unique color and great versatility throughout the compass. The
greatest asset to the organ is the lively acoustical environment of the sanctuary.
The collaboration of the building committee, acousticians Kirkegaard &
Associates of Chicago, and the Wicks Organ Company have resulted in a
beautiful, successful combination of organ and room.

The console is drawknob style with 45-degree side jambs, a glass music rack,
and P&S keys with ivory resin naturals and ebony sharps. The drawknobs are
made of polished hardwood. Made of red oak, the interior is very light and the
exterior is stained to match the woodwork of the chancel furnishings. The console
features a tilt tab that allows the digital Tuba and Festival Trumpet to
emanate from the antiphonal division located in the rear of the church instead
of their native divisions. The console also has a Manual I/II transfer for
French literature.

Installation of Opus 6412 began in August of 2003, and an initial tonal
finishing and adjustment of digital voices took place in early September. After
the church’s dedication, Wicks tonal director Dr. William Hamner and reed
voicer Greg Caldwell completed an entire tonal finishing.

--Brent Johnson

Great (exposed)

16’ Violone*

8’ First Open Diapason

8’ Second Open Diapason

8’ Violoncello

8’ Harmonic Flute (Ch)

4’ Principal

4’ Flute Octaviante

2’ Fifteenth

IV Full Mixture

8’ Chorus Tuba (Ch)

8’ Festival Trumpet* (Ant)

8’ Tuba Mirabilis* (Ant)

Chimes* (Ant)

Swell (expressive)

16’ Minor Bourdon*

8’ Open Diapason

8’ Stopped Diapason*

8’ Viola*

8’ Viola Celeste*

8’ Flauto Dolce*

8’ Flute Celeste*

4’ Octave Diapason

4’ Triangular Flute*

22/3’ Nazard*

2’ Recorder*

13/5’ Tierce*

IV Plein Jeu

16’ Waldhorn*

8’ Cornopean

8’ Oboe*

4’ Clarion

8’ Festival Trumpet* (Ant)

8’ Tuba Mirabilis* (Ant)

Tremolo

Choir (expressive)

8’ Geigen (1-12*)

8’ Concert Flute

8’ Dolcan*

8’ Dolcan Celeste*

4’ Octave Geigen

4’ Transverse Flute

2’ Harmonic Piccolo

16’ Bass Clarinet

8’ Clarinet

8’ English Horn

8’ French Horn*

8’ Festival Trumpet* (Ant)

8’ Tuba Mirabilis* (Ant)

8’ Chorus Tuba

Tremolo

Harp*

Antiphonal (unenclosed - floating) (prepared)

8’ Festival Trumpet*

8’ Tuba Mirabilis*

Chimes*

Antiphonal Pedal (prepared)

Pedal

32’ Contre Bourdon*

16’ Open Wood

16’ Major Bourdon

16’ Violone* (Gt)

16’ Minor Bourdon* (Sw)

8’ Principal

8’ Flute

8’ Stopped Flute

4’ Octave

4’ Harmonic Flute (Gt)

32’ Ophicleide*

16’ Trombone (1–12*)

16’ Waldhorn (Sw)

8’ Tromba

8’ Trumpet (Sw)

4’ Oboe (Sw)

7-bell zimbelstern

*= Digital Voices

Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc.,

Warrensburg, Missouri

SkyRose Chapel, Rose Hills
Memorial Park, Whittier, California

Opus 46

 

SkyRose Chapel, in the Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier,
California, is located on a hill overlooking Los Angeles and the San Gabriel
and Sycamore Valleys. SkyRose Chapel is situated within beautifully landscaped
gardens that also do duty as a cemetery--SkyRose Chapel is the largest funeral
chapel in the world. Renowned architects Fay Jones and Maurice Jennings designed
SkyRose Chapel to be built of oak, Oregon redwood, bouquet canyon stone,
Douglas fir, and glass in a contemporary A-frame style that is at home in the
hills which the afternoon sun turns a vibrant rose color. SkyRose Chapel has
become popular as an attractive venue for weddings as well as for funerals.

The installation of a pipe organ in SkyRose Chapel had
always been the dream of Dennis Poulsen, Chairman of the Board of Rose Hills
Memorial Park. This dream was researched and brought to fruition by Mr. Poulsen
and Bruce Lazenby, Vice President of Engineering of Rose Hills Memorial Park.

The Rose Hills Foundation selected Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc.,
to build the pipe organ for the strikingly lovely SkyRose Chapel. The Quimby
pipe organ, Opus 46, has 65 ranks together with harp and chimes spread over
four manuals and pedal. The distinctly American design is eclectic in
conception and enables the instrument to perform a wide range of service and
organ literature. Messrs. Poulsen and Lazenby requested Michael Quimby, Tonal
Director, to design a tonal specification that would handle the diverse musical
demands required for funeral services, weddings, and recitals.

The instrument contains an unusually high proportion of
celeste ranks, and also a very high proportion of color reeds. The reeds in the
Solo division include several historic Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner ranks--the
Tuba Mirabilis (1924), French Horn (1946), English Horn (1946) and Corno di
Bassetto (1946). These ranks are included in the pipe organ on their original
windchest and reservoir. Also noteworthy are the 1924 Deagan "Class
A" Chimes and the restored 1929 Skinner Harp, both on their original
restored electro-pneumatic actions.

The electric blowers winding the organ amount to a total of
eleven and one-half horsepower, supplying wind at pressures ranging from
4" for the Choir division to 15" for the Tuba Mirabilis. There are
fourteen reservoirs and four schwimmers. The main chests, built by Quimby Pipe
Organs, Inc., are slider windchests built to the original Blackinton design
fitted with electro-pneumatic pallets. The Swell, Choir and Solo divisions have
68-note chests, providing additional topnotes for use with the octave couplers.
Electro-pneumatic unit chests are used for the offsets and extended ranks.

Quimby Pipe Organs' Opus 46 is located in an elevated
gallery near the rear of SkyRose Chapel. The visual presentation of the pipe
organ is of oak casework containing thirty-eight zinc façade pipes with
gold-colored mouths drawn from the Pedal 32' Principal and Great 16' Violone
ranks that are placed on platforms of escalating heights above the floor of the
gallery as well as nine oak pipes positioned along the side of the case. The
longest façade pipe, approximately 26' in length, is low G of the 32' Principal. The wood pipes along the side of the case are part of the Pedal 16' Bourdon rank. The Pedal 32' Posaune is full length, and is located behind the exposed wood pipes.

Quimby Pipe Organs' woodworkers constructed the case and
console in their workshop. Quimby Pipe Organs' designer and woodworkers
designed the oak organ case and console in consultation with Fay Jones and
Maurice Jennings in order to ensure an appearance in harmony with the
architecture of the Chapel. Harris Precision Products, Inc., of Whittier,
California, manufactured the console components and shipped them across the
country to Warrensburg where Quimby's woodworkers installed them in the
console. The console was then shipped back with the organ to Whittier! The
instrument is controlled by a multiplex relay with MIDI, including full
playback capability, and a combination action with 99 memory levels.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  There are eight pistons to each
division and eighteen general pistons, together with three ensemble pistons,
three programmable Crescendo settings, and numerous reversibles.

Members of Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc., who made significant
contributions to the construction of the SkyRose instrument included Doug
Christie, Chris Emerson, Charles Ford, Johanna Harrington, Eric Johnson, Kevin
Kissinger, Brad McGuffey, Michael Miller, Gary Olden, Michael Quimby, Wayne
Shirk, Stan Sparrowhawk, Elizabeth Viscusi, and Randy Watkins.

Dr. Frederick Hohman presented the pipe organ to the public
in the dedicatory recital of the SkyRose organ on Saturday, September 20th,
1997.

--Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc.

GREAT (unenclosed)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Violone
(1-14 façade)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Diapason
(1-7 from Ped Principal)

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Harmonic
Flute (1-12 from 8' Bdn)

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

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

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

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

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Super
Octave

                  11⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Mixture IV

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Tuba
Mirabilis (Solo)

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

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

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

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

                                    Tremolo

                                    Chimes
(Solo)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Harp
(Solo)

                                    Tower
Chimes (prepared for)

                                    MIDI
on Great

SWELL (enclosed)

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

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

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Voix
Celeste (GG)

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

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

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

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

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Rohr Nasat

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

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

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

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Plein
Jeu IV (2' rank from Octave)

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Vox
Humana

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Vox
Mystique (Vox Humana, box closed)

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

                                    Tremolo

                                    Chimes
(Solo)

                                    MIDI
on Swell

CHOIR (enclosed)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Silver
Flute (1-12 digital)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flauto
Mirabilis (Solo)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gamba
(Solo)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gamba
Celeste (Solo)

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Melodia
(1-12 from Rohr Flute)

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Silver
Flute Celeste (TC)

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Orchestral
Flute (Solo)

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  1'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Mixture
III

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

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Tuba
Mirabilis (Solo)

                                    Tremolo

                                    Chimes
(Solo)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Harp
(Solo)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Celesta
(Solo)

                                    MIDI
on Choir

SOLO (enclosed)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra
Gamba (1-12 digital)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flauto
Mirabilis

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gamba
Celeste

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             English
Horn

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             French
Horn

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Corno
di Bassetto

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Tuba
Mirabilis

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

                                    Tremolo

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

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

                                    Tower
Chimes (prepared for)

                                    Chimes
(20 tubes)

                                    MIDI
on Solo

PEDAL (unenclosed)

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Sub
Principal (1-7 digital, 8-31 façade)

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra
Bourdon (1-12 digital)

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Violone
(Great)

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Gamba
(Solo)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Gedeckt
(Swell)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Silver
Flute (Choir)

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Violoncello
(Great)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viola
Celeste II (Swell)

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gedeckt
(Swell)

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

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

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Mixture IV

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra
Posaune (full length, ext Great Trumpet)

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra
Basson (1-12 digital, ext Swell Hautbois)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Posaune
(ext Great Trumpet)

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Hautbois
(Swell)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Cromorne
(Choir)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Tuba
Mirabilis (Solo)

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

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Hautbois
(Swell)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cromorne
(Choir)

                                    Chimes
(Solo)

                                    MIDI
on Pedal

Lively-Fulcher Organbuilders, Alexandria, Virginia

St. Olaf Catholic Church,
Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

In 1997, Fr. John Forliti, Pastor of St. Olaf Church,
appointed Dr. Merritt Nequette and a parish committee to lead an organ project
at the church. The committee enlisted the services of Jonathan Biggers as organ
consultant. After a thorough study, Lively-Fulcher Organbuilders of Alexandria,
Virginia was chosen to build the new instrument which was installed and
completed in July, 2001.

The organ was inaugurated in a series of concerts in 2002
beginning with a service of blessing by Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, Archbishop
of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and organ recital performed by Dr. Lynn Trapp,
director of worship and music, organist, at St. Olaf Church, on February 9,
2002.  A hymn text by Delores
Dufner, OSB was commissioned for the occasion.

The series of inaugural concerts featured a recital and
masterclass by Swiss organist, Guy Bovet; a program of organ and contemporary
music with Twin Cities artists; Pipedreams Live hosted by Michael Barone of
Minnesota Public Radio and performers of the Liturgical Organists Consortium;
field days for elementary students to learn about the king of instruments; and
an organ and orchestra concert with Jonathan Biggers, organist, and the Kenwood
Chamber Orchestra, orchestra in residence at St. Olaf Church, conducted by Ken
Freed. This concert included the premiere of a commissioned work for organ and
orchestra composed by Richard Proulx.

The instrument has 61 stops and 67 ranks (49 independent
registers) playable over five divisions, Grand Orgue, Récit Expressif,
Positif Expressif, Bombarde and Pédale. The manual and pedal key actions
make use of electric slider windchests and the stop action is electric, complete
with state of the art combination action, 256 levels of memory and a sequencer.
The wind supply is regulated by a traditional bellows system linked to the wind
chests by wooden wind lines. The console is built in a low profile, curved jamb
configuration to enhance the organist's ability to follow the liturgy and
conduct the choir. The console has natural keys covered in bone and sharp keys
of solid ebony. The internal layout of the divisions within the organ case
places the Positif Expressif centrally in the lower middle of the case and the
Grand Orgue above that with the Récit Expressif behind the Grand Orgue.
The Bombarde reeds are located in the Positif box and the Pédale
division is divided on either side of the manuals and behind the 16-foot pedal towers
in the case. Wood pipes were made in the organbuilders' workshop and metal
pipes were made to their specifications in Germany.

The casework, constructed of African mahogany, takes its
inspiration from the contemporary architecture of the room and has simple
Scandinavian design elements yet a firm traditional layout. The façade
pipes are made of 72% tin and include pipes from the Grand Orgue Montre 16',
Montre 8' and Pédale Montre 8'. The organ is completely housed within
its own freestanding casework and because of the deep gallery around three
sides of the room is positioned at the front center of the church. A
Cymbelstern stop is provided on the instrument and the church's tower bells can
be played from the Récit keyboard.

The design of the pipe shades for the instrument is tied to
the rich traditions associated with St. Olaf. They are made of basswood with
patterns of dragons, eagles and serpents which are found in the Book of Kells.
These designs are slightly earlier than King Olaf's time, but they are strong
Scandinavian symbols from the period. The cross piercing the crown is based on
an 8th-century piece made for St. Rupert. The crown motif was specifically
chosen to represent St. Olaf and the crosses and crowns are covered with
24-carat gold leaf.

The tonal inspiration for the instrument is firmly based in
19th-century France but is designed and voiced with a broad literature base in
mind. The Tutti is robust to support large choirs, orchestra, and the singing
of a capacity crowd of worshipers. The organ has a wide variety of soft colors
as well. The broad foundation tone of the 8-foot stops and thick-walled
expressiveness of the Récit and Positif boxes ensure the accompanimental
versatility necessary for the performance of choral and solo literature. The
warm yet clear broadly scaled principal chorus work, blended with the mutations
and reed colors associated with Clicquot and Cavaillé-Coll, make for a
versatile medium for the main body of the organ literature. The voicing and
blending of individual stops coupled with the color requirements of French,
German and English literature allow the convincing performance of a wide range
of literature. This instrument is not meant as a copy of any one style nor is
it intended to be a collection of styles trying to do everything, but rather is
intended to be a modern instrument of the 21st century speaking with its own
voice.

--Lynn Trapp

 

GRAND ORGUE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Quinte

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

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Fourniture
V

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

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

                                    Tremulant

                                    Octaves
graves

                                    Récit
sur G.O.

                                    Positif
sur G.O.

                                    Bombarde
sur G.O.

POSITIF EXPRESSIF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Quarte
de nazard

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

                  11⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Larigot

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

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

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

                                    Tremulant

                                    Octaves
graves

                                    Récit
sur Positif

                                    Bombarde
sur Positif

                                    Positif
unison off

RÉCIT EXPRESSIF

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viole
de gambe

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cor
de nuit

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

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

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

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Plein
Jeu IV

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Cornet II

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

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clairon
harmonique

                                    Tremulant

                                    Octaves
graves

BOMBARDE (floating)

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Tuba
mirabilis

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cornet
V (tg)

PÉDALE

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contre
soubasse (electronic)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Grosse
flûte

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Montre
(G.O.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Fourniture IV

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contre
bombarde (ext)

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

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

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

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

                                    Tirasse
Bombarde

                                    Tirasse
G.O.

                                    Tirasse
Positif

                                    Tirasse
Récit

 

G.O./Positif manual transfer

Chimes sur G.O.

Tower Bells sur Récit

Cymbelstern

Pedal & Manual pistons coupled

Sequencer

 

Weston Harris and Thomas J. McDonough, Organ Crafters of
Los Angeles, have completed a
three-manual, 38-rank organ at St. Augustine By-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Santa
Monica, California.  The organ
incorporates elements from the church's previous organ built in 1967 by Abbott
and Sieker Organ Builders as well as the historic Möller/Estey organ at
Bridges Hall of Music, Pomona College (recently replaced by Fisk Opus 117).
Other pipework was donated from the private collection of Mr. Joseph Horning, a
prominent Los Angeles organist and organ consultant who died in 2000.

The church is located at the popular Third Street Promenade
at Santa Monica Beach Pier. The organ enjoys a high gallery placement in an
extraordinary acoustical setting. Given this exceptional location, the new
organ's tonal style is based largely on the 1948 Aeolian-Skinner organ of the
Salt Lake City Tabernacle, where Mr. Harris studied organ performance and
apprenticed in organbuilding. The voices are gentle, and choruses finely
layered.

The previous organ (see photo) was installed in 1967 as a
temporary instrument for the new church following the arson burning of the
church's historic 1867 building. The new organ case forms the Positiv Organ
featuring pipes from the Bridges Hall of Music (front tower pipes) and wood
Holzgedeckt pipes. The flute pipes were obtained from a burnt-out church in
nearby Venice, California. They were barely rescued--being quickly pulled from
their windchest just as the wrecking ball was knocking through the chamber
walls. The fire scarring on the pipes provides an extraordinary antique patina
for the new organ case design.

--Weston Harris

 

GREAT (enclosed)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    Mixture
IV

                                    Cymbale
III

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

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

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

                                    Tremulant

                                    Gt/Gt
16-4

SWELL (enclosed)

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viola
Celeste (TG)

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

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

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

                  11⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Mixture III

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Bassoon
(1-12 extension)*

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

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

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

                                    Tremulant

                                    Sw/Sw
16-UO-4

POSITIV (unenclosed)

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Mounted
Cornet IV (TG)

                                    Pos/Pos

                                    Pos/Gt

                                    Tower
Bells (8 Whitehall bells)

STATE TRUMPET (unenclosed)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          State
Trumpet*

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

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

                                    Trumpet
to Gt

                                    Trumpet
to Sw

                                    Trumpet
to Pos

PEDAL (enclosed in Great)

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra
Bourdon*

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Dolce
Gedeckt*

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

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Lieblich
Gedeckt (1-12 ext)*

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

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

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

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

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

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra
Posaune*

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Posaune
(1-12 extension Gt Trumpet)

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

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

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

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

 

Full interdivisional couplers

*indicates unification

A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company, Lithonia, Georgia
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Monday, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The levee system failed, and over 80% of New Orleans was flooded. For weeks, portions of the city remained under water, with heat and moisture completing the destructive cycle that Katrina began. While waiting for the water to dissipate, we knew that the damage to persons and property would be immense.
Our firm was called by the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to evaluate and salvage the damaged instruments on the campus. Founded in 1917, the seminary sits on a 75-acre campus in the hardest-hit 9th Ward area of New Orleans. The Division of Church Music Ministries aims “to equip leaders for excellence in music ministry among Southern Baptists through performance, education, and technology.” Our charge was to assure that the musical resources were available for their mission.
What we found upon our arrival is perhaps best described by Seminary President Dr. Charles S. Kelly, Jr.:

Hurricane Katrina well and truly earned its designation as the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. Our campus, like most of the city, was devastated. Our homes, many of our buildings, most of our grounds, and virtually all of our musical instruments were hit very, very, hard. The recovery process was long, difficult, and messy beyond anyone’s ability to describe. . . . What made our plight even more difficult was the massive damage to the rest of the campus and the severe losses sustained by our faculty, staff, and student families. The larger picture of what had to be done to reopen the campus and care for our families made allocation of the necessary dollars for the recovery of our lost and severely damaged instruments a very difficult thing to do.

Our work on the campus involved the protection and removal of many of the significant music instruments including multiple grand pianos, a harpsichord, and the 1954 Möller (III/27) and 1966 Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1468 (IV/38) pipe organs. Of prime concern was protecting the instruments to prevent further damage. In addition to water, the storm brought massive amounts of airborne contaminants into the instruments, and, with heat, mold.
The Möller organ, located in the Sellers Music Building Recital Hall, was damaged when the roof gave way, flooding the organ with thousands of gallons of water that passed through the two chambers and filled the pitman chests and winding system. When we arrived several weeks later and opened the chests, there was still a significant amount of water in the organ.
The Aeolian-Skinner was damaged when the 150-mile-per-hour winds blew out the window behind the organ. For hours on end, the outside became the inside as the storm vented its fury on the Skinner. As with the recital hall organ, we found water in the organ many weeks after the storm.
It was inevitable that there would be long and intense negotiations with insurance companies about the losses and rebuilding. The enormity of Katrina simply overwhelmed insurers. One could go on at length about the negotiations and the efforts and education that were required with the insurance companies. Suffice it to say that at one point the insurers appraised the older, smaller Möller at a greater amount than the larger, newer Aeolian-Skinner.
The Möller organ’s status was very clear cut because of the extreme damage to the chassis and its utilitarian design. The Aeolian-Skinner and its disposition was a thornier issue. The damage to the organ was severe, but with heroic measures it could have been restored. The problem was that a true restoration would involve tremendous expense that could exceed the organ’s replacement cost. The insurance company did not understand that if you replace the chests, swell box, some pipework, the winding system, and the console with new materials, the organ would cease to be Opus 1468. While we fought for funds for restoration, the client and our firm resolved that either the Skinner would be unaltered and restored without change, or if changes were required, that the resources would be folded into a new instrument. As negotiations concluded, funds available for the Skinner were not sufficient for a true restoration.
In addition to wide-ranging discussions about how the instruments would be used, we also traveled with Dr. Becky Lombard, professor of music theory and keyboard studies, to hear many of our recent instruments. We evaluated how these differing specifications might relate to the needs of the seminary and the church music program. From these visits it became apparent that we would build two distinctly different instruments.

Sellers Recital Hall (III/34)
The recital hall organ is used primarily for teaching and for literature performance. Space was limited, but we felt that the organ could be enlarged to provide additional resources not present in the 1954 instrument. With the performance of literature being the goal, choices had to be made about meeting the requirements of specific periods—yet the stoplist couldn’t be too era-specific.
The decision was made to design an instrument that could create the colors of all periods of music history. We also had to consider accompaniment of voice, both solo and choral. In this diminutive hall with seating for around 100, we had to create a rich, full palette without overwhelming the performer or listener. Tonally, the voicing is in a very clean, unforced style. There is crispness to registrations that will promote clean, articulate playing.
This organ had to be able to transform itself into any number of service instruments that the student might encounter in music ministry. The organ we designed is three manuals with 34 ranks of pipe resources. It is equally tempered to accommodate contemporary worship and use with piano accompaniment, and also offers full MIDI capability. This was the first instrument delivered to the campus.

Leavell Chapel (IV/83)
The chapel organ was designed with a different focus. While literature will be performed regularly, the organ’s role in service playing determined the overriding design. Each week chapel services are held and the organ is called on to support congregational singing and to accompany soloists. Collaborative performances with the organ and piano are quite common. The organ is also used to play for services with small numbers in the congregation and, at the end of each semester, for a “packed house” during graduation ceremonies, so a wide dynamic range was needed. The chapel is a cavernous space with seating for over 2000.
When the Aeolian-Skinner was installed, it had 38 ranks with “prepared for” Choir and Positiv divisions and additional Pedal and Great registers that were never added. The room had been acoustically altered from its 1966 incarnation, and the gently voiced Great and Swell on the Skinner did not have the presence required for this hall. Because of other uses of the chapel, the room had been softened with acoustically absorbent material, and this was to remain in place.
The new organ was conceived as a four-manual with Great, Swell, Choir, and Solo divisions. It is located on the central axis of the room on a shelf. The dimensions of this space are 36 feet wide and 18 feet deep.
It was important to the school that the room remain visually unaltered; so, the old façade and casework were restored. The Skinner 16′ Sub Principal was revoiced into a 16′ Violone for the Great division. The college wanted to leave the window at the rear of the organ, which was a concern thermally and acoustically. To overcome this problem, the new windows were designed as insulated units rated to resist a storm stronger than Katrina. We placed the enclosed expression boxes across the rear span of the space with inward partitions to provide our own back chamber wall. With a height of over 16 feet, the expression boxes provide a forward focus for the organ in addition to the needed thermal barrier, while still allowing light through the windows above the organ.
In designing the specification and scaling, I wanted to provide the resources that would allow the performer a vast array of color and weight, suitable for any repertoire. The organ was built with the classical underpinnings of principal, flute, and reed chorus structure to support classical and sacred repertoire; in a bow to Romanticism, I included elements of the American romantic or symphonic organ. This blending provides an instrument that would be evocative of early American Classicism, albeit with cleaner and more articulate flue choruses.
In concert with this eclectic tonal design, an expressive, floating Solo division was included. Included in this division are some of the rarer high-pressure stops, including French Horn, English Tuba, Solo Gamba and companion Celeste, and the hauntingly beautiful 8′ Philomela and 4′ Flauto Major.
We were able to retain about half of the Skinner resources, which were revoiced and rescaled for the new instrument. Some stops were either too damaged, or the material suspect, to consider their reuse. The original Skinner reeds were French in design and small-scaled. We felt that the size and acoustic of the chapel, in conjunction with the stoplist design, would be better served with English shallots, thicker tongues, and higher wind pressures. In addition to chorus reeds, the organ has a full battery of high wind pressure solo reeds that were duplexed in a floating Trompeteria division at multiple pitches with separate couplers.
In keeping with the accompanimental nature of the organ, each division is designed around an independent 8′-weighted principal chorus. The divisional choruses, while differing in color, are designed to be compounded as a unified whole. The mixtures in this instrument are pitched lower than what might be found in many contemporary instruments. Where additional treble ascendency is required, secondary higher-pitched mixtures were also included in each division, scaled and voiced to serve as a functional foil to the divisional chorus without stridency.
The strings and flutes in the expressive divisions are designed to build weightless accompaniment for choral work, or massed in support of romantic or transcription repertoire. The organ features a divided string division located among the Swell, Choir, and Solo divisions, to be compounded by means of couplers. Ever present, to be blended with this string chorus, is the 8′ Vox Humana, which has its own enclosure and tremulant.
With the exception of some 32′ Pedal registers and percussions, the organ does not include digital augmentation. We wanted the organ to stand on wind-blown resources. In support of this decision, we added an additional register to the Pedal—the independent 16′ Wood Open. Installed to the right and left of the center organ core and on 7½ inches of wind pressure, it provides a solid fundamental that is truly felt in the room.
Our experience in servicing instruments in this region has made us aware of the need for stability in the materials and action choices, due to the temperature extremes and constant humidity. The organ chest action is electro-pneumatic slider, with all reeds on electro-pneumatic unit action. The flue pipes and the reed pipes are thus on actions that maximize the speech characteristics of each type of pipe. This also allows the flues and reeds to be placed on differing wind pressures and tremulants. The wind is regulated with dual-curtain valve, spring and weighted reservoirs.
The wind pressures on this instrument vary from 4 to 18 inches. To control these resources, the expression boxes are built 1½ inches thick, with interlocking shades. Multiple motors are used on the shade fronts to allow a full dynamic gradation. The four-manual, drawknob console, built of mahogany and ebony, includes features such as multiple-level memory, transposer, Great/Choir manual transfer, piston sequencer, programmable crescendo and sforzando, record/playback capability, and MIDI.

Installation and voicing
The removal, building, and installation of these instruments were herculean tasks. It is an understatement to say that the staff of the Schlueter firm took up residence in New Orleans. I simply cannot give enough credit to the leadership of our senior organ builders Marc Conley, John Tanner, Rob Black, and Bud Taylor for the untold hours of travel and work that they put into these projects. Organ building cannot be achieved as the result of any one individual, but requires a skilled team. These individuals continue to exceed expectations in the creation of art.
From the outset, we decided that these two instruments would be voiced in the rooms, with the pipes arriving to the installation only prevoiced to allow full latitude with cut-ups and any required nicking. All of the samples were set in the chambers on their windchests and then the pipes were removed from the chambers. We brought a portable voicing machine and layout tables into spaces adjacent to the organ chambers to voice the pipes prior to their reinstallation in the chambers for final voicing and tonal finishing. Because of the size of these two projects, it was necessary to work as a team in tonal finishing, led by Daniel Angerstein, with the able assistance of John Tanner, Marc Conley, Bud Taylor, Kevin Cartwright, Lee Hendricks, and Gerald Schultz. As with so much of our previous work, I want to single out Dan and his contributions. In the many weeks of tonal finishing, he patiently brought forth the organs as they had been envisioned by the client and the builder.

Final thoughts
As we designed the two organs, it became clear that the organs that were desired could not be afforded by the school with the balance of their settlements. Over the years, we have been privileged to gift resources to churches. As owners, my father and I looked inward and decided that the importance of a continuing role of the organ in worship was a worthy cause. This required us to consider a donation, and without revealing the dollar value of our gifts, suffice it to say that there is a four-manual, 83-rank instrument where there had been a 38-rank instrument, and a 34-rank instrument where there had been a 27-rank instrument.
We would like to thank Dr. Charles Kelly, Dr. Becky Lombard, and Dr. Kenneth Gabrielse for their contributions and support during this project. Thanks also to our dedicated staff, listed on our website (www.pipe-organ.com).
Our tonal philosophy is to “build instruments that have warmth not at the expense of clarity, and clarity not at the expense of warmth, and to serve God in our efforts.” We pray that in future years our gifts endorse the importance of the organ in worship, and we hope that our instruments will plant the seeds of worship through music, for future students who pass through this institution.
—Arthur Schlueter III

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Leavell Chapel, four manuals, 83 ranks
GREAT – Manual II (unenclosed)
16′ Violone (73 pipes) (1–24 façade)
8′ First Open Diapason (Pedal)
8′ Second Open Diapason
8′ Principal (1–12 façade)
8′ Stille Principal (from Cornet)
8′ Violone (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Harmonic Flute (49 pipes)
(1–12 common bass)
8′ Bourdon
4′ Octave
4′ Diapason (Pedal ext, 12 pipes)
4′ Nachthorn
22⁄3′ Twelfth
2′ Super Octave
V Cornet TC
2′ Mixture VI
1′ Scharf IV
16′ Contre Trumpet (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Trumpet
8′ Tromba Heroique (Choir)
8′ English Tuba (Solo)
Tremolo
Gt/Gt 16′–Unison Off–4′
SWELL – Manual III (enclosed)
16′ Lieblich Gedeckt (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Geigen Principal
8′ Rohr Gedeckt
8′ Viola de Gamba
8′ Voix Celeste
8′ Dolce
8′ Dolce Celeste (54 pipes)
4′ Principal
4′ Harmonic Flute
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Flageolet
13⁄5′ Tierce
22⁄3′ Plein Jeu V
1′ Klein Fourniture IV
16′ Contra Bassoon (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Trumpet
8′ Oboe
8′ Vox Humana
4′ Clairon
Tremolo
Sw/Sw 16′–Unison Off–4′
CHOIR – Manual I (enclosed)
16′ Gemshorn (ext, 12 notes)
8′ Principal
8′ Hohl Flute
8′ Gemshorn
8′ Gemshorn Celeste (49 pipes)
4′ Principal
4′ Koppel Flute
22⁄3′ Nasat
2′ Principal
13⁄5′ Terz
11⁄3′ Larigot
11⁄3′ Choral Mixture IV
8′ Clarinet
8′ Tromba Heroique (high pressure)
8′ English Tuba (Solo)
8′ Trompette En Chamade (Trompeteria)
Tremolo
Chimes (digital)
Harp (digital)
Zimbelstern (9 bells)
Ch/Ch 16′–Unison Off–4′
SOLO – Manual IV (enclosed)
8′ Philomela
8′ Gamba
8′ Gamba Celeste
4′ Flauto Major
8′ French Horn
8′ Tromba Heroique (Choir)
8′ English Tuba (high pressure)
Tremulant
Solo/Solo 16′–Unison Off–4′
TROMPETERIA – Manual IV
16′ Tromba Heroique (Choir)
8′ Tromba Heroique (Choir)
4′ Tromba Heroique (Choir)
16′ English Tuba (Solo)
8′ English Tuba (Solo)
4′ English Tuba (Solo)
8′ Trompette En Chamade (high pressure)
Trompeteria Unison Off
Trompeteria on Great
Trompeteria on Swell
Trompeteria on Choir
PEDAL
32′ Violone (digital)
32′ Bourdon (digital)
16′ Open Wood
16′ Principal (ext, 12 pipes)
16′ Violone (Great)
16′ Gemshorn (Choir)
16′ Subbass
16′ Lieblich Gedeckt (Swell)
8′ Octave Bass
8′ Violone (Great)
8′ Bass Flute (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Spitz Flute
4′ Choral Bass
4′ Nachthorn
22⁄3′ Mixture V
32′ Harmonics (wired cornet series)
32′ Contra Trombone (digital)
16′ Trombone (ext, 12 pipes, enclosed in Ch)
16′ Contre Trumpet (Great)
16′ Contra Bassoon (Swell)
8′ Tuba (Solo)
8′ Tromba (Choir)
8′ Trumpet (Great)
4′ Tromba Clarion (Choir)

Standard couplers and MIDI

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Sellers Recital Hall, three manuals, 34 ranks

GREAT
16′ Pommer (Choir)
8′ Gedeckt Pommer (Choir)
8′ Principal
8′ Bourdon
4′ Octave
4′ Nachthorn
4′ Gedeckt (Choir)
2′ Super Octave
11⁄3′ Fourniture IV
16′ Contre Trompette (Swell)
8′ Trompette (Swell)
8′ Clarinet (Choir)
8′ Festival Trumpet (Pedal)
Tremolo
Chimes
Great 4′

SWELL (expressive)
16′ Contra Viola (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Gedeckt
8′ Viola de Gambe
8′ Viola Celeste (49 pipes)
4′ Principal
4′ Spitzflute
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Blockflute
13⁄5′ Tierce
2′ Plein Jeu III–IV
16′ Basson-Hautbois (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Trompette
8′ Festival Trumpet (Pedal)
8′ Hautbois
4′ Hautbois (ext, 12 pipes)
Tremolo
Swell 16′–Unison Off–4′

CHOIR (expressive)
16′ Pommer
8′ Koppel Flute
8′ Viola
8′ Viole Dolce
8′ Viole Dolce Celeste TC
4′ Principal
4′ Gedeckt (ext, 24 pipes, from 16′)
2′ Gemshorn
11⁄3′ Larigot
8′ Clarinet
8′ Festival Trumpet (Pedal)
Celesta (digital)
Harp (digital)
Tremolo
Choir 16′–Unison Off–4′

PEDAL
32′ Bourdon (digital)
16′ Principal (digital)
16′ Contra Viola (Swell)
16′ Sub Bass
16′ Pommer (Choir)
8′ Principal
8′ Viola (Swell)
8′ Bourdon (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Gedeckt (Choir)
4′ Choral Bass (ext, 12 pipes)
4′ Bourdon (ext, 12 pipes)
4′ Viola (ext, 12 pipes)
32′ Posaune (digital)
16′ Contre Trompette (ext, 12 pipes)
16′ Hautbois (ext, 12 pipes)
8′ Trompette (Swell)
8′ Hautbois (Swell)
4′ Hautbois (Swell)
4′ Clarinet (Choir)

Standard couplers and MIDI

On a personal note
“New Orleans Spared”—Such was the erroneous headline of the newspaper in Savannah, Georgia, on the morning after Hurricane Katrina. At the time, the Schlueter firm was completing the organ at First Presbyterian Church in Savannah (featured in The Diapason, April 2006). My father, members of the installation crew, and I had stared anxiously at the news the previous evening and wondered about our friends in New Orleans and outlying areas. Our firm has worked in the aftermath of a number of major hurricanes and storms in recovery and restoration efforts. Unlike these other disasters, every day the situation in New Orleans grew steadily worse.
Almost exactly one year prior to Katrina, we had completed the rebuilding, relocation, and enlargement of the IV/74 instrument for the First Baptist Church in New Orleans. We made many acquaintances during this period, and through the Internet we were able to find many of our friends who had fled to other cities and states. We prepared for what would face us when the water receded and we could make our way into the city.
It was surreal as the shop vehicles were packed with our own stores of food, water, fuel and medicine for the trip. As we neared the Gulf Coast, the sheer enormity of the disaster began to unfold. We crossed Lake Pontchartrain’s 24-mile causeway on a road that had been reduced to a single lane, following the collapse of entire spans of the eastbound lanes. As we arrived in the evening, the scene before us was a macabre black hole that enveloped the city. From the elevated roadway, the marginally lit downtown of New Orleans was surrounded by a dark, lightless void for miles and miles, indicating the extent of the flooding. We arrived in the city under martial law, and had to learn the intricacies of identification and going through armed checkpoints.
With the daylight, the enormity of the flood was overwhelming. Driving into the 9th Ward, you could see watermarks that were many feet over one’s head. Homes, businesses, and structures sported the hieroglyphics of spray paint, with X’s, O’s and slashes to indicate that the structures had been searched and what had been found. Traveling around places once familiar, we found abandoned cars, collapsed buildings, and most distressingly, an absence of life. When we talked with people we knew and asked what we could do, the answer was always the same, “Pray for us.”
In the ensuing months that stretched out over two years for the three instruments we worked on, we became emotionally involved with the city and its people. We came to New Orleans to work on behalf of the First Baptist Church of New Orleans and the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and to restore part of their community. When we visit today, there are still signs of Katrina that only the passage of time will erase, but undeniable is the resilience of the people as they seek to rebuild their community. It is our hope that our response to Katrina on behalf of this community exemplifies “laborare est orare.”
—Arthur Schlueter III