Organs in Leadville, Colorado

by Richard Peek
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Richard Peek is minister of Music of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In the small town of Leadville, CO, there are two good examples of 19th-century organ building. Leadville was not always a small town. In the second half of the 19th century, the rich silver, gold and lead deposits in the area produced a boom economy which drew a population of between 40 and 50 thousand people. In addition to the miners, many camp followers arrived which led to the creation of a colorful era which still draws thousands of visitors today to savor its interesting Victorian architecture and other mementos of its past. In addition to its gambling houses and houses of ill repute, there were banks, stores and churches. One of them was St. George's Episcopal Church which was patterned after St. George's Church in New York City. Its lot was purchased from the well-known Horace Tabor and it features hand hewn beams and Gothic arches of native timber. Its two-manual and pedal organ was purchased in 1880 from the George H. Ryder firm of Boston, MA. The facade pipes feature a blue and gold star pattern which reflected the original ceiling of the chancel. According to local tradition, the organ was transported by ox-cart over the Weston Pass, and installed in the church in the latter part of 1881. Since it was hand pumped, on the back of the organ case and walls of the blower room many names of various organ pumpers were carved and written.

The specification is as follows:

                                     GREAT

                  8' Open Diapason (bass pipes in facade)

                  8' Melodia

                  8' Dulciana

                  4' Octave

                  3' Twelfth (22/3')

                  2'             Fifteenth                                                

                                     SWELL

                  8' Stopped Diapason Treble

                  8' Stopped Diapason Bass

                  8' Keraulophone (Tenor C)

                  8' Oboe

                  4' Flute Celeste

                                     Tremolo                                                                                                                                            PEDAL

                  16'          Bourdon

Sw. to Gt., Sw to Ped., Gt to Ped.

There are 2 composition Pedals: One to draw full Great and one to reduce the Great to the Melodia and Dulciana.

The swell shoe is placed to the far right of the pedal board. Compass of the manuals is C to a'''. Compass of the pedal is C to d'. Mechanical action.

The organ seems to be very much as it was when first installed, with the exception of an electric blower which was added in 1953. The Keraulophone has the character of a  Violin Diapason and the 4' Flute Celeste is tuned straight rather than sharp which makes it more usable. The Swell Oboe has a penetrating quality which dominates the division. The Great ensemble is quite bright, even without a mixture. This is due to the resonant character of the room which is mostly hard surfaces.

The other organ of interest was built for the First Federated Church in downtown Leadville in 1889 by the William Schuelke Organ Company of Milwaukee, WI, as opus 67. When the church voted to leave downtown and move to the suburbs, they brought this instrument with them and the church is now known as the First Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). They also brought along with them their church bell which was cast by the McSeane Bell Foundry of Baltimore, MD, in 1870.

The organ specification is as follows:

                                    GREAT

                  16'          Bourdon (TC)

                  8'             Open Diapason (bass in facade)

                  8'             Melodia

                  8'             Dulciana

                  4'             Principal

                  2/3'         Twelfth (22/3')

                  2'             Fifteenth

                                    SWELL

                  8'             Open Diapason

                  8'             Stopped Diapason

                  8'             Salicional (bottom octave stopped)

                  4'             Flute Harmonic

                  8'             Oboe and Bassoon

                                    Tremolo

                                    PEDAL

                  16'          Bourdon

Sw. to Gt., Sw. to Ped., Gt. to Ped.

Mechanical action, electric blower (later addition).

Manual compass C to a''''; Pedal compass C to d'.

The swell shoe is to the right of the pedal board. There are again two composition pedals, one for the full Great (less the 2') and one to bring it down to the Melodia and Dulciana.

The instrument was restored in 1968 by Edward T. Bollinger of Denver, CO. The two organs have a similar sound, due to similarities in their specifications. However, the Great ensemble of the Schuelke organ is richer due to the addition of the 16' Bourdon. The Swell division also is richer and has more feeling of ensemble due to the addition of the Sw. Open Diapason 8'. Nevertheless, the Ryder organ is the more brilliant due to the better acoustical setting. In the Presbyterian Church there is a thick carpet which absorbs some of the organ sound.

Both organs possess well balanced principal choruses in contrast to many later organs which scaled the 8' Open Diapason so big that it drowned out the upper work. The facade has flats of Open Diapason pipes which alternate groups of yellow and green pipes, patterned in gold and white with gold mouths.

There is more to Leadville than its colorful past and spectacular scenery, and the organ enthusiast might well wish to explore these interesting and historic instruments.

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Cover Feature

A. David Moore, North Pomfret, Vermont, Opus 27

The home of George Becker and Christo Bresnahan,

San Francisco, California

From the builder

Opus 27 is a compact two-manual organ designed to give the player the
greatest number of stop combinations and colors from a small stoplist. The
lower keyboard controls the Great, the upper the Positive. The manual compass
is 56 notes, and the straight pedalboard has 30 notes. Couplers include
Positive to Great, Positive to Pedal, Great to Pedal. The tremulant affects the
entire organ.

The Great has an 8' Clarabella, a 4' Principal in the display, Twelfth,
Fifteenth and Seventeenth. The Clarabella is scaled after examples found on
early Hook organs. The bass octave is stopped. Pipes from tenor C are of open
wood and of English style construction with the windway carved into the cap.
They are similar to early New England-style Stopped Diapason pipes without the
stopper. The blocks have a little step down after the front edge next to the
windway, which helps a great deal with the speech of the pipes. Provision of an
8' open stop on the Great allows for a rich plenum with a strong fundamental.
The Clarabella, drawn alone, serves as a distinctive foil to the 8' Stopped
Diapason. The Clarabella must not be confused with the Melodia, also an open 8'
stop. (The Melodia typically has an inverted mouth, a cap that protrudes over
the front of the pipe, more nicks, and a block, the top of which is curved
forward in various degrees depending on the builder.) Twenty-one Principal
pipes are in the display above the keyboards. The treble pipes are in the case,
followed, front to back, by Fifteenth, Twelfth and Seventeenth. Initially
conceived as a double draw Sesquialtera, it was thought better to separate the
two ranks to allow greater freedom of registration.

The Positive has an 8' Stopped Diapason of wood, a 4' Flute and an 8'
Trumpet. The Stopped Diapason is quite literally an open wood diapason which is
stopped, in the manner of early Hook and English examples. The speech has a
hint of quint and a subtle chiff. The Flute is of open wood pipes. The bass of
the Trumpet has wooden resonators, wooden blocks and shallots.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> The blocks and shallots are turned (on
a South Bend lathe) from a single piece of wood. The inside bore of the shallot
is tapered. The tongue is held in place with a hardwood cleat and two small
wood screws. The opening in the shallot is tapered and milled into the wooden
face. The dimensions of shallot opening, bore, taper and resonator inside
diameters are close to eighteenth-century North European practice. The use of
wood for the shallot avoids the need for lead-faced shallots or leathered
shallot faces. The wood face, in terms of hardness, is somewhere between lead
or brass and a leathered surface. The brass tongues are fairly wide, thick, and
tapered. The lowest octave has wooden resonators which impart a strong
fundamental and circumvent concerns about collapse. Metal resonators are used
from 4' C with wood shallot-blocks; at middle C the resonators are metal, the
blocks lead and the shallots brass, much like an old North European Trumpet.
The Trumpet has a brightness of speech as well as a distinct and prominent
fundamental throughout. The Trumpet can be played either from the upper manual
or from the pedal, or on both manuals and pedal simultaneously. It is useful
for a cantus firmus, or for an independent pedal line when used with the 8' and
4' Positive stops against the lower manual plenum, and is satisfying as a solo
register.

The Pedal contains the 16' Subbass of butternut wood; the lowest six pipes
flank the manuals. The butternut, like most of the wood in the organ, was
felled on the North Pomfret Moore property. The logs were sawed into boards of
various thicknesses on a WoodMizer thin-kerf band sawmill. Much of the wood is
quarter sawn.

Metal in the Principal is lead with 28% tin. Smaller amounts of antimony,
bismuth and copper are added to the metal alloy. The melting pot holds 700 lbs
of metal. To this is added 1.25 lbs of antimony, .25 lbs of bismuth and 2.5 lbs
of copper. Copper seems to give the alloy a nice ringing sound. Antimony is
added to prevent metal collapse. Pipe metal was poured, hammered and fashioned
into pipes all in the Moore workshop. (A Dom Bédos-type hammering
machine, made by Dave Moore, graces the workshop and is used "once in a
while.") A new hammering machine that can automatically hammer a full
sheet of metal as it is taken from the casting table is now used. This machine
has 17 metal hammers that are raised and dropped onto the metal all at once,
covering the whole width of the sheet. The sheet is then advanced a fraction of
an inch and the hammers move over slightly. Metal hammered with this machine
prevents the "bacon effect" (caused by sheets of metal being hammered
on the edges more than in the middle, thus the sheet starts to get wavy like a
piece of cooked bacon). Hammering pipe metal is an old practice that hardens
the metal, optimizes pipe resonance and imparts a richness of timbre not
otherwise obtainable.

The metal pipework is voiced with fairly wide windways and regulation at the
toe hole for most stops. The toe holes are closed down until the volume of the
pipe is just right. In essence, an Open Diapason register would have pretty
much open toes in the mid range and then the treble pipes would be regulated a
bit at the top register. Toe regulation is important in stops above 4' pitch.
Thus with a 2' stop the windways are kept just right in the top octaves and the
volume is controlled at the toe. This keeps the top ranges of the stop from
being too loud and overpowering. This style of voicing, with moderate nicking,
is just about what the early New England organ builders practiced. One can
often find this type of voicing in various European styles. The pipes are cone
tuned.

The action is suspended, and is provided with easily accessible adjustment
nuts. Trackers are of wood with rolled threaded brass ends and wood or leather
nuts for adjustments. Some tracker ends have wires into the wooden trackers
that go through unbushed metal rollerboard arms. The pedal action has some felt
bushings and washers but the manual keyboards do not.

Winding for the organ is controlled by a small curtain valve. A small
single-fold reservoir is located at the bottom inside the case and feeds air to
three windchests through solid wood trunks in the manner of old instruments.
Pressure is 211/16 inches. Winding is flexible in that a sustained note in one
part of the keyboard is influenced by a moving passage in another part of the
register. The blower is a quiet operating Laukhuff. The tremulant is of the
tremblant doux type described by Dom Bédos and found on early French and
New England organs. A leather-covered door is poised at an angle in a horizontal
section of the main wind trunk. When the tremulant is engaged, the door
oscillates back and forth, creating fluctuation in the wind pressure and a
tremulant effect that varies depending on what is being played.

--A. David Moore

From the owner

I first met Dave Moore in 1970 when he was renting an apartment in the
Pigeon Cove house of Charlie and Ann Fisk. David apprenticed in the then small
Fisk shop before establishing his own workshop in North Pomfret, Vermont, where
he has been designing and building historically informed mechanical action
organs for over three decades. This unique builder has traveled extensively and
studied some of the finest old (and some new) organs of Germany, France, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and England. He has a working knowledge of the
treatises of Clicquot and Dom Bédos. Living and working in New England,
he has acquired a knowledge, both intimate and scholarly, of the 18th- and
19th-century New England builders. His association with the likes of John Fesperman,
Barbara Owen, Fenner Douglass, Mark Brombaugh and Kevin Birch (to name but a
few) has contributed to his understanding of the organ and its music. (Indeed,
David himself is a quite respectable organist.)

Opus 27 was built almost entirely from trees harvested by David Moore on his
Vermont farm, from lead and tin melted, poured and hammered, and from cow
bones, fashioned into keys and stop labels, all in his workshop. When I visited
the shop in 2000 to see the progress of the instrument, boards for the Subbass
still had bark on them! Wood in the organ includes butternut, black cherry,
maple, ash, walnut, pine and oak. Basswood is used for the tableboards of the
windchests. Sliders are made of poplar. Pipe shades were designed by Tom Bowen
and carved by Dave Laro.

Working out the stoplist was an exciting process involving frequent e-mails,
conversations and a number of changes. The goal was to create an instrument of
character (Moore character) with a light, responsive suspended action, stops of
distinctive color, resilient winding, and a case which bespeaks its New England
roots.

Dave Moore and Thad Stamps drove the organ from North Pomfret to San
Francisco in 72 hours! Christo and I helped them unload pipetrays, blower and
organ parts into the modestly sized music room of our San Francisco Victorian.
Over the next three weeks the organ was erected and Dave completed tonal
finishing. The organ has an unmistakable character reflecting David's vision,
his New England craftsmanship and his musical genius. Opus 27 was celebrated
with a dedication recital played in January 2003 by Charles Krigbaum. At that
time Dave Moore gave a brief demonstration of the organ to an appreciative
audience.

Dave Moore prefers to avoid the term eclectic for his organs:

. . . the organs I've made have
a certain sound to them. Pretty full, quite a lot of fundamental, good solid
bass to most things, upperwork designed along the lines of early American
organs . . . I prefer not to have them labeled in any one way. If you say,
"This is an organ constructed after French principles," some people
think that all you can play on it is French music. I prefer to keep the stop
nomenclature in English, so that if someone comes along and says, "Aha!
This is very much like the old Dutch organs, it's perfect for that," they
play that music on it and they're very happy . . . You're much better off if
you can accept an instrument for what it is and play what you can on it.1

Although I have found the organ especially appropriate for playing Bach,
Sweelinck and their contemporaries (having myself played many old organs of
Holland and North and Central Germany), opus 27 does admirably well with the
likes of Franck, Hindemith, Pinkham and Hampton. David Moore and his co-workers
Tom Bowen and Thaddeus Stamps have created a cohesive, harmonious and
imminently musical organ in a little shop in rural Vermont. The sheer joy of
playing this splendid and modestly elegant instrument is, for me, as good as it
gets.

--George Becker, M.D.

Notes

1. Quoted from the essay "A. David Moore, Organ Builder: An Account of
His Work (1971-1994)" by Kevin Birch, music director of St. John's R.C.
Church, Bangor, Maine.

A. David Moore Opus 27 can be heard at the following website
. Dr. Becker, an orthopaedic surgeon, is assistant organist
at the Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Contact: George
Becker, M.D., 1375 Sutter St., Suite 304, San Francisco, CA 94109;
415/563-7383 . Cover photo: Sean Vallely

GREAT

8' Clarabella

4' Principal

22/3' Twelfth

2' Fifteenth

13/5' Seventeenth

Tremulant
(affects entire organ)

POSITIVE

8' Stopped
Diapason

4' Flute

8' Trumpet

PEDAL

16' Subbass

8' Trumpet

Couplers

Gt/Ped

Pos/Ped

Pos/Gt

30-note, straight pedalboard

Kellner temperament

A = 440

Fabry, Inc., Fox Lake, Illinois, has
completed the renovation of the organ at Zion Lutheran Church, Marengo,
Illinois, originally built in 1960 by Haase Pipe Organs of Chicago as three
manuals and 40 ranks. In 1986 the congregation demolished their old church and
built a new one on the same site. The organ was dismantled, stored, and then
installed in the new building. Over time, the organ deteriorated to the point
where some major work was necessary.

In February 2002, Fabry was engaged to repair, refurbish, and enlarge the
organ. Phase one, completed in October 2002, included a new three-manual
console with movable platform built by Fabry. The new console was fitted with a
Peterson MSP-1000 combination action, multiplex coupler relay and chamber
relay, and is prepared for MIDI. Phase two, completed in February 2003,
included the addition of six ranks of pipework, several additional windchests,
four new wind supply reservoirs, four electric tremolos, a Zimbelstern, and
complete revoicing and re-regulation of the entire instrument. Some of the
existing pipework was repaired and re-racked, and one rank was relocated. David
G. Fabry built all the chestwork, three-manual console, and movable platform.
Joseph Poland handled the installation.

GREAT

16' Quintadena

8' Principal

8' Bourdon

4' Octave

4' Gemshorn

2' Fifteenth

V Mixture

8' English
Trumpet (new)

Chimes

Tremolo

Gt/Gt
16-UO-4, Sw/Gt 16-8-4, Pos/Gt 16-8-4, MIDI/Gt

POSITIV

8' Quintadena

8' Wood
Flute (new)

8' Wood
Flute Celeste (new)

4' Rohrflote

2' Principal

11/3' Larigot

1' Sifflote

III Scharf

8' Trumpet
(Gt)

8' Cromorne

Zimbelstern
(new)

Tremolo

Pos/Pos
16-UO-4, Sw/Pos 16-8-4, MIDI/Pos

SWELL

8' Rohrgedeckt

8' Gamba

8' Gamba
Celeste (TC)

4' Principal

4' Spitzflote

22/3' Nazard

2' Koppelflote

13/5' Tierce
(new)

IV Mixture

16' Chalumeau
(new)

8' Trompete

4' Schalmei

Tremolo

Sw/Sw
16-UO-4, Pos/Sw, Gt/Sw,

MIDI/Sw

PEDAL

32' Acoustic
Bass (resultant)

16' Principal
(new)

16' Subbass

16' Quintadena
(Gt)

8' Principal

8' Nachthorn

4' Choral
Bass

II Rausch
Pfeife

32' Bombarde
(resultant)

16' Chalumeau
(Sw)

16' Posaune

4' Schalmei
(Sw)

Gt/Ped
8-4, Sw/Ped 8-4,

Pos/Ped
8-4, MIDI/Ped

Bedient Pipe Organ Company

Roca, Nebraska

First Presbyterian Church

Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

The challenge to Bedient was to maintain the integral parts of an 1889
Steere and Turner, update and expand the organ, while at the same time make the
organ user-friendly and accessible. Opus 72 at First Presbyterian Church,
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin (II/30) accomplished just that. In 2003, much of the
organ was dismantled and moved to our Lincoln, Nebraska shop where it was
reassembled, and old and new were interlaced.

New additions to the organ are 11 ranks of pipes (including a new speaking
façade drawn from the Principal 8' and Pedal Principal 8'), a new,
enlarged Swell windchest, electro-pneumatic stop action, solid-state
combination action, electro-pneumatic Pedal key action, wind system components,
both keyboards, the pedalboard and an adjustable height organ bench. Retained
and modified were the Great windchest and Pedal Bourdon wind-chest, some of the
façade casework (necessitating the stripping of old paint and careful
matching of cherry wood finish on both old and new parts), and structural parts
of the organ. The entire organ was revoiced to accommodate the newly renovated
sanctuary and blend the old and new pipes to be as one. The new stops are
indicated in italics.

--Gene Bedient

GREAT

16' Bourdon

8' Principal

8' Dulciana

8' Melodia

4' Octave

4' Flute
d'Amore

2' Fifteenth

Mixture
III-V

8' Clarinet

8' Trompete

SWELL

8' Open
Diapason

8' Salicional

8' Voix
céleste (tc)

8' Stopped
Diapason (new pipes 13-58)

4' Spitzflute

22/3' Nazard

2' Doublette

13/5' Tierce

Mixture
II (1980s addition)

8' Oboe

8' Trumpet
(1980s addition)

PEDAL

16' Bourdon

8' Principal

8' Bourdon
(ext)

4' Octave
(ext)

16' Fagott

Couplers

Great/Pedal

Swell/Pedal

Swell/Great

Tremulant

A Caledonian Odyssey: Historical Keyboard Instruments in Scotland

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.

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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.  

New Organs

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Cover

Lauck Pipe Organ Company, Otsego, Michigan

Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights,
Illinois

Trinity Christian College is a four-year liberal arts college founded in
1959 and located in Palos Heights, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles southwest of
Chicago. It is dedicated to providing students with a quality higher education
in the Reformed Christian tradition. The college has grown extensively in
recent years with many new buildings erected. In 2001, the college dedicated a
new 1,200-seat auditorium: The Martin and Janet Ozinga Chapel. The chapel is
also the home of the college's music department with faculty offices, rehearsal
rooms, a recital hall, a music computer lab, and practice rooms. An organ for
the auditorium was envisioned from the building's conception.

Under the chairmanship of music department chair Helen Van Wyck, a committee
was formed to choose a builder for the organ. Paula Pugh Romanaux was selected
as the consultant to work with the committee. After visiting several of our organs,
Lauck Pipe Organ Company was chosen to build the organ. Working with the
builder, the committee decided that the instrument would be located at the back
of the stage and would occupy the central position. The committee felt that an
organ with a detached console would prove more flexible, especially when used
with orchestra and to accompany small ensembles.

Several designs for the organ case were prepared ranging from traditional to
contemporary, the latter being chosen. The proportions of the case are generous
in order to fill the expansive rear wall of the stage area. The façade
consists of the 16' Principal, 8' Pedal Octave and the 8' Great Diapason,
with  pipes of polished tin. The
casework is arranged so that the Pedal division occupies the center and two
outer towers. Between the left and center tower is the Great Principal chorus
with the Choir division above. Between the right and center towers are the
Great flutes and reed with the Swell division above. A shallow case with
expression shades capable of a full range of motion allow for excellent egress
of sound. The emblem at the top of the center tower is the college's logo done
in relief and gilded.

Over the past 30 years, we have built many French-terraced consoles with
curved terraces, but Marilyn Mulder, the school's organ instructor, suggested a
console based on a design she saw at Chicago's Orchestra Hall. From her
photograph, we designed and built a console with straight, oblique terraces.
The woodwork is of cherry to match other furnishings in the chapel. The
terraces, keycheeks, manual and pedal sharps, and drawknobs are all of
rosewood. The manual naturals are of bone. Peterson supplied the MIDI system
and combination action. Lauck manufactured the coupler and relay systems, as
well as the electric expression servos.

The room, alas, suffers from insufficient reflection of sound. As we worked
with the acoustician and architect, the organ committee and I realized we would
not be able to have all of our requests granted; the acoustician was more
interested in absorbing rather than reflecting sound. The architect and
building committee did agree that the expansive drywall ceiling would be well
supported and made up of a double layer glued together so as to not absorb the
lower frequencies. Preliminary acoustical tests of the room proved that we
needed a lot of sound to fill it. The organ had to be scaled very boldly, with
variable scales and higher cut-ups being freely employed. In addition, generous
wind pressures, especially in the reeds, would be used. Our tonal concept was
to establish well-developed Principal choruses in each division, colorful and
contrasting flute choruses, and chorus reeds that bind together well. This goal
was achieved and supplemented by colorful solo reeds and strings with character
and variety.

The Great is based on a 16' Principal. The 8' extension of the Principal can
be used as a second Diapason and creates a rich fond d'orgue with the open and
stopped flutes. Mutations provide for a Great Principal Cornet. To ensure a
bold, full pedal, the 16' Diapason is really a 16' open wood located in the
central tower of the case. The Great 16' Principal is also available in the
Pedal for use in lighter textures, while the 8' Octave and 4' Choralbass are
independent. The Trumpet-en-Chamade is made of tin and is voiced on 10 inches
of wind pressure using domed parallel shallots. The Pedal Trombone unit is also
voiced with domed parallel shallots on 8 inches of wind pressure. The Swell
reeds are on 6 inches of wind with the Bassoon/Oboe having tapered shallots and
the Trumpet/Clarion parallel shallots. The Swell Gamba and Gamba Celeste are
slotted with rollers throughout. It is a well-developed string tone with good
strength and carrying power; however, the expression boxes and shades are
heavily built and can make the strings evaporate when desired. The Swell also
has a Flute Celeste, which is built as a Ludwigtone; basically, two wood pipes
built with a common middle wall on one foot. The Choir Viola and Viola Celeste
are of about equal power to the Swell strings but are not slotted and are of a
broader tone quality. They are voiced to work together perfectly yet retain
their individual colors.

The Lauck employees that built Opus 55 include: Craig Manor, console design
and construction, wood pipes; Ken Reed, pipemaker, office manager; Ben Aldrich,
design, windchests, foreman; Bob Dykstra, windchests, wood pipes, casework;
Dick Slider, windchests, lower casework; Dan Staley, circuit board
manufacturing, wiring; Jim Lauck, design, voicing, tonal finishing; Jonathan
Tuuk; tonal finishing.

--Jim Lauck

Lauck Opus 55, 2002

3 manuals, 46 ranks, electric action

GREAT

16' Principal  (61 pipes)

8' Diapason (61 pipes)

8' Principal (12 pipes)

8' Rohrflute (61 pipes)

8' Flute Harmonique (61 pipes)

4' Octave (61 pipes)

4' Principal (12 pipes)

4' Flute Octaviante (12 pipes)

22/3' Quint (61 pipes)

2' Superoctave (61 pipes)

13/5' Tierce (61 pipes)

IV Fourniture (244 pipes)

8' Trumpet (61 pipes)

8' Trumpet-en-Chamade (61 pipes)

                        Great
to Great 4

                        Swell
to Great 16-8-4

                        Choir
to Great 16-8-4

                        Zimbelstern

SWELL

16'  Bourdon (12 pipes)

8' Bourdon (61 pipes)

8' Gamba (61 pipes)

8' Gamba Celeste (49 pipes)

8' Flute Celeste (49 pipes)

4' Principal (61 pipes)

4' Spitzflute (61 pipes)

2' Blockflute (12 pipes)

V Mixture (293 pipes)

16' Bassoon (61 pipes)

8' Trumpet (61 pipes)

8' Oboe (12 pipes)

4' Clarion (12 pipes)

Tremulant

Swell to Swell 16-UO-4

CHOIR

8' Gedeckt (61 pipes)

8' Viola  (61 pipes)

8' Viola Celeste (49 pipes)

4' Principal (61 pipes)

4' Koppelflute (61 pipes)

22/3' Nazard (61 pipes)

2' Octave (61 pipes)

2' Flautino (12 pipes)

13/5' Tierce (61 pipes)

11/3' Larigot (5 pipes)

III Scharff (183 pipes)

8' Cromorne (61 pipes)

8' Trumpet-en-Chamade (Gt)

Tremulant

Choir to Choir 16-UO-4

Swell to Choir 16-8-4       

PEDAL

32' Sub Bourdon (electronic ext)

16' Diapason (open wood) (32 pipes)

16' Principal (Great)

16' Subbass (32 pipes)

16' Bourdon (Swell)

8' Octave  (32 pipes)

8' Principal (Great)

8' Bass Flute (12 pipes)

4' Choralbass  (32 pipes)

II Rauschquint (64 pipes)

II Mixture  (24 pipes)

32' Contra Bassoon (electronic ext)

16' Trombone (32 pipes)

16' Bassoon (Swell)

8' Trumpet (12 pipes)

4' Clarion (12 pipes)

4' Cromorne (Choir)

Great to Pedal 8-4

Swell to Pedal 8-4

Choir to Pedal 8-4

Lauck Pipe Organ Company

92 - 24th Street

Otsego, MI 49078-9633

Telephone: 269/694-4500

Fax: 269/694-4401

<[email protected]>

Cover photo by Richard Lanenga

 

Paul Fritts and Co., Tacoma,
Washington, has built a new organ for Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.
The mechanical-action pipe organ is installed in the 500-seat Mary Anna Fox
Martel Recital Hall of the Belle Skinner Music Building. It contains 34 stops
distributed over two manuals (Hauptwerk and Positiv) and Pedal.

The tonal design reflects both the North and Middle German schools of
organbuilding from the first half of the eighteenth century. North German
features include fully independent manual and pedal divisions with
well-developed upper work; a full spectrum of mutation stops (two on double
draws); and seven reed stops, 20% of the registers. Middle German building is
represented by a variety of six manual 8' flue stops; the “gravity”
of 16' stops in each manual division and four 16' pedal stops; a Tierce rank
which can be added to the Hauptwerk Mixture; and the inclusion of the Positiv
division in the main case, rather than positioned to the rear of the player.

The northern features pay homage to the seventeenth-century style of Arp
Schnitger and the middle German school points more to the pre-Romantic
eighteenth-century styles of Wender, Trost, Hildebrandt and others. The new
Vassar organ is well-suited for music of J. S. Bach with its cosmopolitan
mixture of northern, middle, and southern European traits. Other literature
from the sixteenth-century through the works of Mendelssohn will also sound to
advantage.

The new organ is placed centrally in a gallery nine feet above the stage
floor in the front of the hall. The case has a bright burgundy enamel finish.
Gold leaf highlights the gray painted pipe shades. The case and many internal
parts are crafted from popular. 
Many other woods were chosen for their various properties, including
mahogany, oak, maple, ebony, redwood and sugar pine.

Along with the new organ came alterations to the organ gallery and stage
area significantly improving acoustics, and a climate control system for the
recital hall. The Marian and Speros Martel Foundation Inc. donated funds
covering both the organ and hall improvements. Glenn D. White recommended
acoustical improvements, and Richard Turlington designed architectural plans
for the room. Frances D. Fergusson, President of Vassar College, initiated the
project. George B. Stauffer was consultant.

To inaugurate the new instrument, Merellyn Gallagher, James David Christie,
and Joan Lippincott played solo recitals in February and March 2003.

HAUPTWERK

16' Principal

8' Octava

8' Rohrflöte

8' Viol di Gamba

4' Octava

4' Spitzflöte

Nasat/Cornet II*

2' Superoctava

Mixture Tierce

Mixture IV–VI

16' Trompet

8' Trompet

POSITIVE

8' Geigenprincipal

8' Gedackt

8' Quintadena

4' Octava

4' Rohrflöte

2' Octava

2' Gemshorn

11/3' Quinte

Quint/Sesquialtara II*

Mixture IV–V

16' Fagotto

8' Dulcian

PEDAL

16' Principal**

16' Violon

16' Subbass

8' Octava***

8' Bourdon***

4' Octava

Mixture V–VII

16' Posaune

8' Trompet

4' Trompet

* Double draw

** Bottom octave transmission from Hauptwerk

*** Extension

Couplers

                        Positiv
to Hauptwerk

                        Hauptwerk
to Pedal          

                        Positiv
to Pedal

Manual/Pedal compass: 56/30, flat pedalboard

Burnished tin front pipes

Solid wood casework with pipe shades carved by Judy Fritts

Suspended key action

Mechanical stop action

Variable tremulant

Three bellows fitted with pedals for foot pumping

Wind stabilizer

Pitch: A 440

Temperament: Kellner

Wind pressure: 74 mm. (ca. 3≤)

Fabry Pipe Organs, Inc., of Fox
Lake, Illinois, has completed the 5-rank antiphonal division added to the
original Möller organ in Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, Homewood,
Illinois.

Fabry Inc. installed the original M.P. Möller instrument (2 manuals, 19
ranks) in 1980 in the rear balcony of the sanctuary and has been maintaining
the organ since that time. The console was prepared for an antiphonal division.
On many occasions while tuning the instrument, the organist, Mrs. Phyllis
Silhan, would always say, “I hope I get to see this instrument completed
before I retire.” Twenty-two years later, the church elected to add the
antiphonal division.

The new antiphonal division was installed in October of 2002. The original
specification for this division--8' Gedeckt, 4' Gemshorn, 2' Flautino, II
Mixture--was changed to 8' Gedeckt, 4' Octave, 4' Harmonic Flute, 2' Fifteenth,
and 8' Oboe. A new solid-state relay was provided that is totally prepared for
the addition of a small antiphonal console.

Fabry Inc. would like to thank the organist, Mrs. Phyllis Silhan, and
Reverend Dr. Timothy Knaff, who coordinated the entire project. David G. Fabry
built all the chestwork and new casework. Crew leader Joseph Poland handled the
installation.

GREAT

8' Principal

8' Bourdon

4' Octave

2' Super Octave

IV Fourniture

8' Trompette (Sw)

SWELL

8' Rohrflote

8' Viola

8' Viola Celeste

4' Spitz Principal

4' Rohrflote (ext)

2' Hohlflote

III Scharf

8' Trompette

ANTIPHONAL (new division)

8' Gedeckt

4' Octave

4' Harmonic Flute

2' Fifteenth

8' Oboe

PEDAL

16' Contra Bass

16' Rohr Bourdon (ext)

8' Principal (Gt)

8' Rohrflote (Sw)

4' Nachthorn

16' Bombarde (ext)

4' Clarion (Sw)

COUPLERS

                        Gt
& Sw to Ped 8

                        Sw
to Gt 16-8-4

                        Gt
4

                        Sw
16-UO-4

                        Antiph
to Ped 8

                        Antiph
to Gt 8

                        Antiph
to Sw 8

Organ Design and the Kraft Music Hall

by Jack M. Bethards

Jack M. Bethards is President and Tonal Director, Schoenstein & Co. Organ Builders. A San Francisco Bay Area native, he holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. He has been a professional musician and is currently active in the American Guild of Organists. He is past president of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America and member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, the International Society of Organbuilders, the Organ Historical Society and the Association Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. He serves on the advisory boards of several organ preservation societies. In his 43 years of pipe organ work and research, Mr. Bethards has been a frequent lecturer and contributor of articles to professional journals. A major thrust of his study, including work abroad, has been Romantic organ building in France, Germany, England and America.

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Schoenstein & Co. is the oldest and largest organ factory in the Western states. The Schoenstein family has been building instruments for five generations. The firm was started in the Black Forest of Germany in the mid-19th century and in 1877 in San Francisco. In addition to organ building, Schoenstein & Co. does restoration work specializing in historic organs including the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Aeolian-Skinner organ.

 

What do Miracle Whip® and Velveeta® have to do with stop lists and pipe scaling?  Not much. I am thinking more about Robert Armbruster's magnificent NBC studio orchestra that played so brilliantly on the Kraft Music Hall in the late 1940s.  His aggregation stretched versatility to the maximum. In addition to the usual theme, signature, and background music, he had to accompany Nelson Eddy and Dorothy Kirsten in arias from grand opera, art songs, favorites from operetta and musical comedy, as well as popular melodies of the day. The orchestra had to perform overtures and other legitimate repertoire on the same airwaves as the NBC Symphony and also make a good showing against popular orchestra leaders such as Paul Whiteman. All of this was done within the confines of a modest-size studio and the well-controlled budget of a broadcast that had to pay its own way. Does this sound familiar to those involved in planning for a church pipe organ? To me, it is directly analogous to the age-old quest of providing cathedral music in a parish church setting. Getting the most out of a limited number of stops has been a fascinating challenge and, when successful, a point of great pride for organ builders over centuries.

How did Robert Armbruster and his many colleagues in the fields of broadcast, motion picture, phonograph recording, and theater music bring the grandeur of the symphony orchestra to their audiences when budget and space were limited? It seems quite obvious that they analyzed the major effects produced by the full symphony orchestra and developed patterns of reduced instrumentation that captured the most important ones. A typical radio orchestra of the day might be composed of two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet), one oboe (doubling English horn), one bassoon, two horns, three trumpets, two trombones, one tuba (bell-front recording type), one harp, two percussion (one traps, one tympani and mallets), eight violins, three violas, three 'cellos, and two basses. Sometimes for popular music two or three of the woodwind players would double saxophone. Piano (doubling celesta) and guitar might also be added. These jazz effects were strictly secondary. The orchestra was expected to sound symphonic, and did so at  less than one-third the size of a full symphony orchestra.

The string section in such an orchestra was just large enough to create a rich, full and luxurious sound. At least one of every woodwind tone color was represented. The brass section was larger than necessary to balance the number of strings and winds; however, it was vital to have brass power in reserve to provide the climactic crescendo that could not come from other choirs of the orchestra without far more players. In other words, brass was dominant in the tutti. Solid, powerful bass is an important component of the symphony orchestra, and the tuba was often more important in the role of doubling the string basses than in playing the bottom brass line.

Of course a cleverly worked out list of instrumentation is not nearly enough. Each instrumentalist must be capable of producing exquisite tonal color and have absolute control of dynamics, attack, accent, and release. I don't know of any effect more thrilling in music than hearing one of these great Hollywood orchestras performing at the height of the mid-century period when art music was considered appropriate as mass commercial entertainment. The world's greatest musicians were gathered in Hollywood. They played with a degree of self-confidence and authority that elevated these rather modest ensembles into the major leagues.

Many organ builders, ourselves  included, strive to produce small organs which do big musical jobs. Our choir organs in the French Romantic style and Multum In Parvo (much from little) parish church organs in the English style have captured the essence of comprehensive church organs in extremely small formats. A few years ago we set out to expand this concept with an effort to produce the major effects of the symphonic organ with a limited number of stops. It was conceded for decades that an organ could not be considered symphonic unless it had at least three manuals and 50 or so stops and those who advocate giant instruments--the bigger the better--would scoff at considering anything under 100 ranks symphonic. We came to the conclusion that much of the material in large symphonic organs, although sumptuously beautiful, was duplicative. But even after eliminating duplications, a symphonic stop list was far too large for the average church. We decided to follow the Kraft Music Hall model--analyze the major effects of symphonic organs and see if they could be reproduced in miniature. Obviously it would require more than just a few stops, but we felt that the job could be done with less than twenty.

Before going further one might question the practical value of this exercise. It is our belief that for most churches the organ can only earn its way if it has enough variety and tonal color and a wide enough dynamic range not only to accomplish the nearly impossible list of church musical jobs, but to prevent boredom from setting in among both musicians and listeners over time. Instruments dedicated entirely to the organ solo repertoire, which is the common approach in small designs, fall short in their ability to do the jobs that most congregations want accomplished. For most churches an organ of symphonic character is the ideal--they want versatility, musical leadership, and emotional connection. But they usually want these in a modest size building and on a budget. So aside from the pure pleasure of solving a musical puzzle, we had a good reason to build the smallest symphonic organ we could. We got our first opportunity in the exceptionally beautiful chapel of the First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Our first task was to delineate the major effects of the larger symphonic organs:

Tonal Qualities

1.              Unison diapason tone of at least two different colors and dynamic levels with chorus work suitable to each.

2.              Flutes of vividly differentiated tone color including one powerful, open solo flute.

3.              Two celeste stops: a pair of genuine orchestral strings, and a pair of soft ethereal voices. Most small organs rely on one compromise celeste pair to do these two very different jobs. Such stops usually tend toward flute or diapason tone. Although they may be attractive, they do not elevate an instrument into the symphonic class.  Keen strings are absolutely necessary, but so are the less assertive, dolce tones. Both should be represented, and the string pairs should be full-compass to low C.

4.              Color reed tone useful in both solo and accompaniment roles.

5.              Heroic chorus and solo trumpet tone. In smaller acoustics, power is best achieved with unison tone of great intensity--not loud, high-pitched mixture tone. The proper character is usually achieved through high wind pressure reeds.

6.              Powerful Pedal bass. The symphonic organ has representatives of each tone color in the Pedal department. A Bourdon is not enough; there must also be open flue tone and reed tone to provide clarity, point, and drama. If possible, 32' tone should be included.

Control Elements

7.              Effective expression. A symphonic organ must be able to produce a crescendo from ppp to fff. It also should be able to produce full organ chorus effects at less than full organ volume. Part of this has to do with the proper terracing of voices, but solid expression boxes with responsive shades are vital, too.

8.              Contrasting expression. There must be at least two divisions under expression for an organ to start claiming symphonic status. In a small instrument as many voices as possible should be under expression. In the symphonic concept, unexpressive voices are a luxury normally reserved for large instruments. In some cases layout demands that certain voices be unexpressive, for example where the Swell must be behind the Great, but this should be an exception.

9.              Precise, responsive, silent, lightning fast key and stop actions and a steady wind system.

10.           A comfortable console well equip-ped with playing aids.

Comparing the lists of orchestral instrumentation and organ stops, let us consider what are the most essential elements of each in addition to the bedrock string and brass sections of the orchestra and the comparable diapasons and chorus reeds of the organ. In other words, what special sounds and effects elevate the orchestra and the organ to the symphonic class or, put more simply, make a small ensemble sound big. In the orchestra, french horn, harp, tympani, and solid bass are vital. In the organ the key elements are real strings, a big solo flute, an heroic solo trumpet and also powerful, clear bass. In the orchestra, players must have absolute control over their instruments or else the conductor will not be able to create grand effects from limited instrumentation. In the organ, the key and stop action, wind system, expression system, and console must be perfectly responsive for the organist to be able to lift the organ to the symphonic level. Just as each member of the orchestra must have developed a beautiful and distinctive sound, so the voicer must give his pipes definite character and beautiful tone.

First Presbyterian Church

Spartanburg, South Carolina

Now let's review the Spartanburg organ stop list to see how it fulfills the symphonic ideal. The Great and Swell each have independent diapasons. The name Salicional may be a bit misleading to those who consider it a member of the string family. We use that name (and the name Dulciana) to indicate stops of the echo diapason class, which is characterized by pure diapason tone of moderate to low power. This nomenclature is quite common on British and continental Romantic organs. On the Great, the 8' Open Diapason is complemented with an independent 4' Principal that is quite narrowly scaled in the bass and tenor progressing upward to more nearly match the scale of the Diapason in the high treble. The Principal is rich in harmonics providing a simple, but quite satisfying chorus effect that also works well with the super coupler. The chorus of the Great is completed with a Mixture. Although it is often very useful, particularly in a small scheme to specify an independent Twelfth and Fifteenth instead of a Mixture, the unique tone color provided by a compound stop is essential to the symphonic ensemble. It is comparable to the difference between a three-violin section in a salon ensemble and eight violins in a small symphonic orchestra. In a scheme of only 12 voices it is impossible to have an independent diapason chorus in the Swell, but the unification of a small scale echo diapason makes a very convincing substitute, especially when the Stopped Diapason is included to provide additional unison weight. Unification works best when it is substituting for stops that would not have a very great scale difference if they were straight. In general, the smaller the unison scale the less difference there would be in its octave and fifteenth. Therefore, the Salicional is a good candidate for such treatment.

This organ has four distinctly different flute tones. The 8' Stopped Diapason is of wood with pierced stoppers from middle C producing a colorful but also solidly fundamental sound. The 4' Chimney Flute is an excellent companion, being of extremely small scale with a light, buoyant and lyrical tone. Its 22/3' unification adds interesting solo colors. The Corno Dolce of the Great is a moderate scale open flute with a 1/4 taper. The Harmonic Flute is a powerful solo voice which ascends in power up the scale. It also adds significantly to the foundation of the Great.

Genuine orchestral string tone is provided by the Vox Celeste (II). These are narrow scale strings of exceptionally keen intonation. The contrasting undulating effect is provided by the Flute Celeste which is paired with the Corno Dolce. It has a smooth, ethereal character with just enough edge to add distinct point to accompaniment lines and, with its celeste, to make a heavenly effect leading into the more pungent strings. It can be drawn on the Swell at both 8' and 4' pitches as a means of beginning the Swell build-up. Introduction of the Vox Celeste (II) with swell box closed is hardly noticed when it is preceded by the Flute Celeste at 8' and 4' pitch, the Great box having been opened. Although to many it would seem to be an impractical luxury to extend the Swell Vox Celeste to 8' pitch and also include an ethereal celeste on the Great, we believe that it is one of the basics for the symphonic effect.

For a color reed in this instrument we selected a Flügel Horn--truly a chameleon among stops. It sounds like a small scale or muted trumpet. In certain registers, especially when doubled by a flute, it can produce a French Horn character, and it also serves all of the traditional accompaniment and solo roles of the Oboe. E.M. Skinner often preferred a Flügel Horn in place of an Oboe on small stop lists because of its versatility. The color reed was placed on the Great both to provide mild chorus reed character for that division and so that it can be accompanied by Swell voices.

Chorus reed tone is provided by the Tuba Minor. Traditionally, the name tuba is applied to trumpets or trombas of exceptional power. The trumpet-type is brilliant, singing and bell-like in its tone while the tromba-type is darker, more sonorous and smoother. The tuba in this instrument is definitely of the trumpet class. It is voiced on 8” of wind pressure and is enclosed separately within the Swell box producing double the normal dynamic range.  Its shades are kept partially closed when it is serving in the role of a standard chorus trumpet. When its shades are closed it can play the part of a color reed, the volume level being like that of an oboe. When its shades are fully open this stop takes on an heroic character suitable for trumpet tunes, fanfares, and the like. When played on the Swell manual at 16' and 8' with the super coupler, it provides a thrilling full Swell effect.

It is unusual in an organ of this size to include three 16' Pedal stops, but these are vital if the organ is to be lifted out of the small organ class. A normal 16' Bourdon is augmented by the 16' Corno Dolce which is scaled so as to produce a very prompt-speaking clear and firm bass. It has a reduced scale in the bottom two octaves to produce the kind of bite one hears from the orchestral double bass. The profundity of the Pedal comes from the full length 16' extension of the Swell Tuba.

All of the voices of this organ are under expression. The Great and Swell are located next to one another and speak into the chapel through a ceiling grill. Swell shades open nearly 90˚ and are operated by a powerful, fast electric-pneumatic motor. It would be impossible to create a symphonic caliber dynamic range on an organ of this size without at least one powerful stop under double expression. Described above, this device increases the organ's dynamic range from mp to pp and at the other end of the spectrum from ff to fff.

The action system employs the Schoenstein individual valve Expansion Cell wind chest and the wind system uses five separate regulators to provide absolutely steady wind of adequate capacity and appropriate pressure. The console includes a solid state capture combination action with 16 memories and our Range feature which permits the organist to program pistons to be either generals or divisionals in any combination desired.

This organ has proven to be versatile far beyond what one would expect of a 12-voice scheme. In the context of a modest sized room, the organ is truly symphonic in character and has proven itself capable of playing most of the standard organ repertoire as well as sophisticated choir accompaniments and service music. The main characteristic that separates it from other organs of its size is the number of tone color possibilities and the impressive dynamic range. It is capable of a sustained uninterrupted crescendo from ppp to fff providing a sense of grandeur that is seldom heard even in instruments much larger. This also means that it has met the goal of any good accompanimental organ design: to have a variety of tonal colors available at any volume level the conductor desires.

University of St. Thomas

Houston, Texas

Our next opportunity to test this concept came at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. We were especially honored to work with architect Philip Johnson in designing an instrument for his striking chapel of St. Basil. The building promised an outstanding acoustic and perfect placement, which enabled us to work on a slightly larger format. Since there was to be a display pipe façade, we added an unenclosed First Open Diapason to the Great that is extended into the Pedal providing a fourth 16' Pedal stop on this 15-voice instrument. At the request of our client, we substituted a Clarinet for the Flügel Horn. Although we gave up the mild secondary chorus reed tone character of the Flügel Horn, we gained a color of more contrast with the Tuba. In the Swell we added a unified echo principal mutation at 22/3' and 11/3'. This stop is scaled to balance with the Salicional and augment the organ's secondary chorus as well as provide several options for additional color. The most significant change was to place the keen orchestral strings on high pressure in the secondary Swell expression box along with the Tuba. This is a great advantage for it allows the strings to be muted to various volume levels to serve in more accompaniment roles. Obviously, the build-up of celeste tone is quite enhanced. This also illustrates the value of the opportunity to work with an architect in designing an ideal organ space. In Spartanburg there was no way to enlarge the double expressive box, but in Houston we could tailor make the space to suit the optimum tonal design.

Grace United Methodist Church

Greensboro, North Carolina

Our next instrument along these lines at Grace United Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, provided a real challenge in placement. Although the side chancel chamber was of adequate size, the opening only spanned about half of it and could not be enlarged. This meant that the Great would fill the opening and that the tone of the Swell would have to speak across the Great and make a 180-degree turn to reach the nave. Obviously we could not enclose the Great, so we cut it back to the bare essentials and built up the Swell, duplexing several of its stops on to the Great. This plan was used with great success by E.M. Skinner in his small schemes. The Harmonic Flute, with its ascending increase in treble power, is one of the few solo voices that can work well unenclosed. Since the Corno Dolce and Celeste had to be in the Swell in order to be under expression, there was no room for its 16' extension, and the Harmonic Flute had to have its own bass. We have often noted the interesting musical quality of the orchestra's traverse flute, which changes to a distinctly string quality in its lowest range resulting from the tube of the flute being the same scale for its entire compass, and we decided to extend the Harmonic Flute into a string-scale bass stop at both 16' and 8' pitch. We reduced the diameter of the pipes as they progressed downward so that the tenor and bass of the Harmonic Flute is distinctly in the string family--enough so to name the extensions 'Cello and Double Bass.

The Great chorus, being unexpressive, required special treatment. An independent 2' Fifteenth completes the chorus, but Mixture tone is also necessary. In an organ of this size, Mixture tone is most useful when it is under expression, so we increased its size and power, placing it within the double expressive sub-division of the Swell. Used with the tuba it adds brilliance to the full Swell build-up. Used alone it can be adjusted to various different volume levels to suit lesser Swell combinations. In full organ combinations, when coupled to the Great, it tops off the diapason chorus.  After seeing the utility of four 16' Pedal stops in Houston, we wanted to do the same here. Fortunately the chamber was large enough to include a 16' extension of the Great Open Diapason. Since the stop did not have to be on display, we were able to make it of wood which yields a very solid, prompt-speaking tone.

Because this organ replaced an older instrument which had a very nice Vox Humana on its own chest, we were able to include this luxury economically. Being in the double expressive section adds to its exotic effect.

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Our next small symphonic organ was built for Grace Episcopal Church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, an Anglo-Catholic parish that enthusiastically supports the highest traditions of Anglican music. The instrument was designed specifically to accompany the Anglican choral service. This musical emphasis combined with space restrictions in the small gallery dictated some variations on the symphonic theme. First, we substituted the Aeoline and Vox Angelica for the Corno Dolce and Flute Celeste. To make the absolutely smooth, unbroken build-up so beloved in this musical tradition, both celestes are in the string family. The Aeoline and Vox Angelica are keen but very delicate and blend perfectly into the powerful solo Gambas with both inner and outer shades of the Swell closed. Space and budget allowed the luxury of two color reeds so we could have our cake and eat it too with both Clarinet and Flügel Horn.

The lovely church lent itself to a victorian Gothic façade with decorated front pipes. This, in turn, gave us the opportunity to put two Great stops in display--the first Open Diapason and Harmonic Flute with its 'Cello and Double Bass extension. These stops can be accompanied with stops in their own division by using the Enclosed Great to Swell coupler.

The Swell box was not large enough to include open 8' bass pipes; therefore, we provided two unison stops, an open wood Claribel Flute and our very small scale English-style Lieblich Gedeckt sharing a common bass. The Swell has an independent 4' Gemshorn (a tapered principal) and 2' Fifteenth along with principal scale Quint and Tierce mutations to complete its chorus.

Using pipes from the former organ gave us the luxury of two independent Pedal stops making a total of five 16' stops in a 20-voice organ! This yields a reed, an open wood, a moderate scale string, and two levels of bourdon tone, the extremely soft character of the enclosed Lieblich Gedeckt being helpful for accompanying the more delicate sounds of the organ.

St. Paul's School

Brooklandville, Maryland

Our latest example was just completed for St. Paul's School in Brooklandville, Maryland. This large Episcopal school has an attractive, new, collegiate-style chapel. The organ is located in a chamber above the narthex providing plenty of room for a complete exposition of this style. It combines and expands upon the designs of the earlier organs. The only unenclosed stop is the Grand Open Diapason, the bass of which is wood located horizontally on the roof of the expression boxes. The 4' Chimney Flute and Tuba from the Swell are borrowed onto the Great. An Oboe is added to the Swell giving this scheme the two most basic color reed tones. Most important, however, is the provision for a true 32' stop extending to low G. Although this is not part of the initial installation, space is prepared.

A review of these five stop lists shows that although musical, acoustical, and placement considerations must be taken into account if each installation is to reach its maximum potential, a basic design concept adhering to specific design criteria can be maintained. Our objective with each of these jobs was to preserve the symphonic character that was so attractive to our clients as they auditioned similar instruments and at the same time tailor a design to meet their requirements and space restrictions. This is the continuing fascination and challenge of organ design. The satisfaction derived from it is quite similar to the exhilaration an orchestrator feels when his work has yielded a sound that should only come from an orchestra two or three times as large. I'll bet Robert Armbruster enjoyed the playbacks of his Kraft Music Hall performances with the same relish we experience on hearing fine artists play one of these miniature symphonic church organs.

Schoenstein & Co.

First Presbyterian Church

Spartanburg, South Carolina

Chapel organ

2-manual and pedal organ

12 voices-15 ranks

Electric-pneumatic action

GREAT (Expressive)

                  16'          Corno Dolce (12 pipes)

                  8'             Open Diapason

                  8'             Harmonic Flute (Corno Dolce bass)

                  8'             Corno Dolce

                  8'             Flute Celeste (TC)

                  8'             Voix Celeste II (Sw)

                  4'             Principal

                  4'             Corno Dolce (12 pipes)

                  2'             Mixture III

                  16'          Flügel Horn (TC)

                  8'             Flügel Horn

                                    Tremulant

                                    Chimes (TA)

SWELL (Expressive)

                  16'          Bourdon (wood, 12 pipes)

                   8'            Salicional (Stopped Diapason bass)   

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (wood)

                  8'             Voix Celeste II

                  8'             Flute Celeste II (Gt)

                  4'             Salicet (12 pipes)

                  4'             Chimney Flute

                  4'             Flute Celeste II (Gt)

                  22/3'      Nazard (from Chimney Flute)        

                  2'             Fifteenth (12 pipes)

                  16'          Bass Tuba† (12 pipes)

                  8'             Tuba Minor†

                                    Tremulant

†In separate box inside Swell, 71/2” wind.

PEDAL            

                  16'          Corno Dolce (Gt)

                  16'          Bourdon (Sw)

                  8'             Open Diapason (Gt)

                  8'             Corno Dolce (Gt)

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (Sw)

                  4'             Octave (Gt Open Diapason)

                  16'          Bass Tuba (Sw)

                   8'            Tuba Minor (Sw)

                   4'           Flügel Horn (Gt)

Full couplers and usual accessories.

Schoenstein & Co.

Chapel Of St. Basil

University of St. Thomas

Houston, Texas

Two-manual and pedal organ

15 voices-17 ranks

Electric-pneumatic action

GREAT (Expressive)

                  16'          Corno Dolce (12 pipes)

                  8'             First Open Diapason†

                  8'             Second Open Diapason

                  8'             Harmonic Flute (Corno Dolce bass)

                   8'            Corno Dolce

                  8'             Flute Celeste (TC)

                  8'             Salicional (Sw)

                  4'             Principal

                  2'             Mixture III

                  8'             Clarinet

                                    Tremulant

†In display

SWELL (Expressive)         

                  16'          Bourdon (wood, 12 pipes)

                  8'             Salicional

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (wood)

                  8'             Gamba†

                  8'             Gamba Celeste†

                  8'             Corno Dolce (Gt)

                  8'             Flute Celeste (Gt)

                  4'             Salicet (12 pipes)

                  4'             Chimney Flute

                  4'             Corno Dolce (Gt)             

                  4'             Flute Celeste (Gt)

                  22/3'      Twelfth (TC-from Nineteenth)

                  22/3'      Nazard (from Chimney Flute)

                  2'             Fifteenth (12 pipes)

                  11/3'      Nineteenth

                  16'          Bass Tuba† (12 pipes)

                  8'             Tuba Minor†

                                    Tremulant

†In separate box inside Swell, 71/2” wind.

PEDAL

                  16'          Diapason (Ext 1st Open Diapason)

                  16'          Corno Dolce (Gt)

                  16'          Bourdon (Sw)

                  8'             Open Diapason (Gt Second Open)

                  8'             Corno Dolce (Gt)

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (Sw)

                  4'             Octave (Gt First Open)

                  4'             Flute (Gt Harmonic Flute)

                  16'          Bass Tuba (Sw)

                  8'             Tuba Minor (Sw)

                  4'             Clarinet (Gt)

Full couplers and usual accessories.

 

Schoenstein & Co.

Grace United Methodist Church

Greensboro, North Carollina

Two-manual and pedal organ

16 voices-19 ranks

Electric-pneumatic action

GREAT               

                  16'          Double Bass (Ped)

                  8'             Open Diapason

                  8'             Harmonic Flute ('Cello bass, 29 pipes)

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (Sw)

                  8'             Corno Dolce (Sw)

                  8'             Flute Celeste (Sw)

                  4'             Principal

                  2'             Fifteenth

                  8'             Tuba (Sw)

SWELL (Expressive)

                  16'          Bourdon (12 pipes)

                  8'             Salicional

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (wood)

                  8'             Gamba†

                  8'             Celeste (GG)†

                  8'             Corno Dolce

                  8'             Flute Celeste (TC)

                  4'             Salicet (12 pipes)

                  4'             Chimney Flute

                  22/3'      Nazard (from Chimney Flute)

                  2'             Fifteenth (12 pipes)

                  2'             Mixture IV†

                  16'          Bass Tuba† (12 pipes)

                  8'             Tuba†

                  8'             Flügel Horn

                  8'             Vox Humana†

                                    Tremulant          

† In separate box inside Swell, Vox in separate control box.

PEDAL                

                  16'          Open Diapason (12 pipes)

                  16'          Double Bass (12 pipes)

16'          Bourdon (Sw)

                  8'             'Cello

                  8'             Salicional (Sw)

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (Sw)

                  4'             Flute (Gt Harmonic Flute)

                  4'             Super Octave (Gt Open Diapason)

                  16'          Bass Tuba (Sw)

                  8'             Tuba (Sw)

                  4'             Flügel Horn (Sw)

Full couplers and usual accessories.

 

Schoenstein & Co.           

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Two-manual and pedal organ

20 voices-23 ranks

Electric-pneumatic action

GREAT (Expressive)

                  16'          Double Bass (Ped)

                  8'             First Open Diapason†

                  8'             Harmonic Flute† ('Cello bass)

                  8'             Second Open Diapason

                  8'             Aeoline

                  8'             Vox Angelica (TC)

                  8'             Lieblich Gedeckt (Sw)

                 4'             Principal

                  2'             Mixture IV

                  8'             Clarinet (TC)

†In display

SWELL (Expressive)

                  16'          Lieblich Gedeckt (wood, 24 pipes)

                  8'             Gamba†

                  8'             Gamba Celeste (TC)†

                  8'             Claribel Flute (Lieblich Gedeckt bass)

                  8'             Lieblich Gedeckt (metal)

                  4'             Gemshorn

                  22/3'      Twelfth (Nineteenth treble, 12                 pipes)

                  2'             Fifteenth

                  13/5'      Seventeenth (TC)

                   11/3'    Nineteenth

                  16'          Bass Tuba† (12 pipes)

                  8'             Tuba Minor†

                  8'             Flügel Horn

                                    Tremulant

†In separate box inside Swell, 10” wind.

PEDAL  

                   32'         Resultant

                  16'          Open Wood (12 pipes)

                  16'          Bourdon

                  16'          Double Bass (12 pipes)

                  16'          Lieblich Gedeckt (Sw)

                  8'             Principal (wood and metal)

                  8'             Octave (Gt 2nd Diapason)

                  8'             'Cello

                  8'             Claribel Flute (Sw)

                  4'             Fifteenth (metal, 12 pipes)

                  4'             Flute (Gt)

                  16'          Bass Tuba (Sw)

                  8'             Tuba (Sw)

                  8'             Flügel Horn (Sw)

Full couplers and usual accessories.

Schoenstein & Co.

St. Paul's School

Brooklandville, Maryland

Two-manual and pedal organ

18 voices-20 ranks

Electric-pneumatic action

GREAT (Expressive)  

                  16'          Corno Dolce (12 pipes, Harmonic Flute treble)

                  8'             Grand Open Diapason†

                  8'             Open Diapason

                  8'             Harmonic Flute (Corno Dolce bass)

                  8'             Salicional (Sw)

                  8'             Corno Dolce

                  4'             Flute Celeste (TC)

                  4'             Principal

                  4'             Chimney Flute (Sw)

                  2'             Mixture III

                  8'             Tuba (Sw)

                  8'             Clarinet

                                    Tremulant   

†In display

SWELL (Expressive) 

                  16'          Bourdon (wood, 12 pipes)

                  8'             Salicional

                  8'             Stopped Diapason (wood)

                  8'             Gamba†

                  8'             Gamba Celeste†

                  8'             Corno Dolce (Gt)

                  8'             Flute Celeste (Gt)

                  4'             Salicet (12 pipes)

                  4'             Chimney Flute

                  4'             Corno Dolce (Gt)

                  4'             Flute Celeste (Gt)

                  22/3'      Nazard (from Chimney Flute)

                  22/3       Twelfth (TC-from Nineteenth)

                  2'             Fifteenth (12 pipes)

                  13/5'      Seventeenth (TC)

                  11/3'      Nineteenth

                  8'             Oboe

                  16'          Bass Tuba† (12 pipes)

                  8'             Tuba†

                                    Tremulant

†In separate box inside Swell, 10” wind.

PEDAL

                  32'          Resultant† (Sub Bass and Bourdon)

                  16'          Double Open Diapason (12 pipes)

                  16'          Sub Bass

                  16'          Corno Dolce (Gt)      

16'          Bourdon (Sw)

                  8'             Open Diapason (Gt Grand Open)

                  8'             Flute (Gt Harmonic Flute)

                  8'             Salicional (Sw)

                   8'            Stopped Diapason (Sw)

                  4'             Octave (Gt Grand Open)

                  4'             Flute (Gt Harmonic Flute)

                  16'          Bass Tuba (Sw)

                   8'            Tuba (Sw)

                  4'             Clarinet (Gt)

†Prepared for addition of 32' pipes.

Full couplers and usual accessories.

New Organs

Default

John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, IL, has built a new organ for First Congregational Church, Crystal Lake, IL: opus 16, 18 stops, 24 ranks. Although the original church was built in 1867, this is the congregation's first pipe organ. The first instrument was a reed organ which served faithfully for nearly 100 years. The reed organ's handsome case was made into the church's pulpit, still in use today. A Hammond electronic instrument followed, which the new pipe organ replaces.

The church expanded its crowded chancel to accommodate the
large music program and the new organ, installed front and center as a backdrop
for the worship space. The project incorporated the organ's design into the
greatly expanded chancel, harmonizing with the stately American colonial
architecture of the building.

The tonal design is a contemporary adaptation of American
organbuilding styles prevalent when the church was originally built. One notes
a large percentage of wood pipes as in earlier times. There are more open and
harmonic stops than one might typically see in new "eclectic"
instruments. The disposition of the flute choruses, large-scaled Great Open
Diapason, and plaintive English Oboe are also reminiscent of many 19th-century
organs. The inclusion of mixtures on both manuals, a full battery of Swell
reeds, employment of contemporary voicing techniques and classic scaling
concepts provides a contemporary sound for leading hymn singing, accompanying
choral and instrumental ensembles, and rendering a wide variety of solo
literature.

The Great division is located in the left side of the organ
case, with the Swell enclosed on the right side. The Pedal is divided between
both the Great and Swell. Facade pipes are from the Pedal 8' Octave and Great
8' Open Diapason, made from lightly polished English tin. Members of the Buzard
staff include: Phillip Campbell, Brian K. Davis, Stephen Downes, Charles Eames,
Michael Fisher, Charles R. Leach, Stuart Martin, Jay Sallmon, and Ray Wiggs.
Eva Wedel is minister of music of the church; Barbara Thorsen is organist.

GREAT

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Open
Diapason (tin - facade)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Melodia
(open wood)

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

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

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

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Fourniture IV

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Minor
Trumpet (Sw 16')

                                    Cymbalstern

                                    Gt
16-UO-4

                                    Sw
16-8-4

SWELL

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stopped
Diapason (wood)

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Harmonic
Flute (open metal)

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

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

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clarion
(ext 16')

                                    Tremulant

                                    Sw
16-UO-4

PEDAL

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Subbass
(1-12 elect ext Bourdon)

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Lieblich
Gedeckt (1-12 elect ext Gt)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clarion
(Sw 16')

                                    Gt
8-4

                                    Sw
8-4

B. Rule & Co.,
New Market, TN, has recently completed a four-stop practice organ for a
residence in Knoxville, TN. A simple mechanical action of cherry backfalls and
correctly-sized pallet valves ensure a responsive touch, including a definite
sense of "pluck." The action compensates for seasonal humidity
changes. Several ranks of 19th-century pipework, small-scaled and gently
voiced, were incorporated into the organ. 
The old Vox Humana was revoiced into a regal-type reed. The Principal
4', made by Paul Byron of York, ME, has eight polished tin pipes in the facade.
The customer, who has experience with building harpsichords from kits, was able
to do some of the work, including painting the case, recovering the recycled
keyboards (c. 1865) with boxwood, and cutting out the patterns in the
ornamental center door panels. Windpressure 23/4"; temperament 1/6 comma,
after van Biezen; compass 56/30; couplers I/Ped, II/Ped, II/I.

MANUAL I

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

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

MANUAL II

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

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

PEDAL

                                    I/Ped

                                    II/Ped

The Schlicker Organ Company, Buffalo, NY, has built a new organ for Forest Park United Methodist
Church, Fort Wayne, IN: three manuals, 36 ranks. The new organ replaces an
instrument that was severely damaged by fire. Some of the pipework was
restored, rescaled, and revoiced in keeping with the concept of the new instrument.
The 3-manual English style console is moveable, and the choir has flexible
seating, allowing a variety of performance possibilities. Chest design is
electric slider with a solid state combination action.

GREAT

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Gemshorn
(prep)

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gemshorn
(ext, prep)

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

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

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

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

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

                                    Chimes

                                    Zimbelstern

SWELL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Quint

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Oboe/Bassoon

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

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

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

                                    Tremolo

CHOIR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    Tremolo

FANFARE (prep)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Trompeta
(tc, ext)

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

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

PEDAL

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Resultant
(Gemshorn & Bourdon)

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Gemshorn
(Gt, prep)

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gemshorn
(Gt, prep)

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

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Oboe
(Sw)

John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders,
style='font-weight:normal'> Champaign, IL, has built a new organ for First
United Methodist Church, Park Ridge, IL: Opus 15, 34 stops, 42 ranks. The
church is a brick structure designed in the 1920s by a member of the
congregation. Of Tudor influence, the exterior features patterned brickwork,
interesting chimney treatments, and lavish half-timber work. The sanctuary's
interior features heavy hand-adzed dark oak beams, almost square windows, and
low arches.

The organ's cases were inspired by the oldest extant pipe
organ, in Sion, Switzerland. The heavy embattlement crenelations and mouldings
atop the towers and flats match details in the room and in architecture of the
period. The arched facade openings match the stained glass window frames and other broad arches elsewhere in the building. The casework of white oak is stained to harmonize with other furnishings. A simple universal pattern woven into circles is used for the pipeshades.

Tonal design was inspired by English cathedral organbuilding
style. A straight 3-manual organ would not fit within the available space or
projected budget, but the organ had to have a wide variety of unison colors,
complete choruses, mutation stops, reed stops for the Full Swell, a profound
pedal, and a high volume solo stop. A two-manual, divided swell concept was
developed to offer accompanimental flexibility and eliminate duplicate stops
needed to fill out a complete third division. Although inspired by English
examples, it is not an English romantic organ. A light articulation in the
speech of appropriate stops, moderate wind pressures, and inclusion of mutation
and mixture stops serve to make this an American organ of the 1990s.

Because of limited space in the balcony, the Great division
is housed in a free-standing case in front of the balcony rail; the Swell and
Pedal are in the balcony behind matching casework. The Great case is supported
by columns extending to the nave floor. English tin of 75% was used for the
facade pipes, incorporating the Great 8' Open Diapason, 4' Principal, and Pedal
8' Octave. Great flutes are 50% tin with relatively small mouths. Reed pipes,
with the exception of the low octave of the Pedal Trombone, are made entirely
of 50% tin, and utilize English shallots with varying degrees of opening and
taper. The Tuba 8' is horizontally mounted atop the swell box, just behind the
flats. The pipes retained from former instruments were thoroughly rebuilt and
revoiced for the new tonal concept. The Buzard staff included: Brian Davis,
voicer, pipe repair, tonal finishing; Stephen Downes, windchests, winding
system, framing, installation; Charles Eames, engineering, windchests,
electrical system, management; Michael Fisher, pipe repair, tonal finishing;
Charles Robert Leach, case, framing, installation; Stuart Martin, case,
framing, installation; Jay K. Salmon, office and Zen management; Ray Wiggs,
windchests, console, installation.

--John-Paul Buzard

GREAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  13/5'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Seventeenth*

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Fourniture IV

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Minor
Trumpet (Sw 16')

                                    Tremulant

                                    Cymbalstern

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Tuba
Solo (C25-C61)

SWELL "A"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clarion
(from 16')

                                    Tremulant

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Tuba
Solo (C25-C61, Gt)

SWELL "B"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    Tremulant

PEDAL

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Subbass
(1-12 electonic)

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Lieblich
Gedeckt (1-12 electr)

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra
Bass*

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal
(tin facade)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Clarion
(Sw 16')

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

* denotes old pipework

Austin Organs, Inc.,
Hartford, CT, has recently completed its Opus 2759 for Christ Church UCC
Congregational, Brockton, MA. The new building is octagonal in shape with the
organ situated 90° from the chancel. This position places the choir in
front of the organ with the solid-state drawknob console centered. The room
enjoys a favorable acoustic. The entire Choir division is prepared for. The
facade is composed of pipes from the Great 8' Principal, Great 8' Harmonic
Flute, Pedal 16' Principal, and Pedal 8' Octave. Director of music and organist
is J. Kimball Darling.

GREAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    Tremulant

                                    Chimes

SWELL

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

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

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

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

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

                  22/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Nasard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    Tremulant

CHOIR (prep)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  II
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Scharf

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

                                    Tremulant

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

PEDAL

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Resultant

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Principal
(ext Gt 8')

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gedeckt
(Ch, prep)

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

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

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Trombone
(ext Gt 8')

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Cromorne
(Ch, prep)

T. R. Rench and Co., Racine, WI, has completed a new organ for Coon Valley Lutheran Church, Coon Valley, WI. This is the third pipe organ in this Norwegian Lutheran church, and replaces a theatre organ installed in the 1950s. (The style 135 Wurlitzer is being re-installed in its original theatre in nearby Viroqua, WI.) Containing 17 sets of pipes (19 ranks), the new organ is of electro-pneumatic construction, and all windchests are of the unit type. Windpressures are 5" for the 16' Trumpet and 33/4" for the organ in general. The stoplist reflects 19th-century American and German Romantic tonal styles. However, a Cornet group is provided and the Swell division contains the basic elements of a Positive division. The layout of the instrument has the Swell in the organ chamber and the Great in front, contained by casework of walnut and mahogany. The front display pipes are from the church's first organ, restored to the original stencil designs and colors. Consultant to the church council was John Henley of Sauk City, WI.

GREAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    IIIMixture

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

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

SWELL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13/5'      Tierce

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Larigot (ext)

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

                                    Tremulant

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

PEDAL

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Sub
Bass

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Open
Bass

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

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

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

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

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

The Schlicker Organ Company, Buffalo, NY, has built a new organ for First United Methodist Church,
Green Bay, WI. The 29-rank organ is located in divided cases in the rear
gallery, allowing it to speak clearly into the nave. The tonal concept provides
a complete 2-manual organ with 8' Principal choruses in each division. In order
to increase tonal flexibility for solo literature as well as accompanying the
choir, three Swell stops were given a separate manual and couplers as a Solo
division. This allows them to be used as part of the Swell chorus or in
contrast to it. The three-manual, terraced drawknob console is prepared for a
future antiphonal division, playable from the Solo manual. Schlicker's artistic
director, J. Stanton Peters, designed the specification and scaling to include
broad scaled principals with high cut-ups and a wide spectrum of colors, producing
a vocal quality and versatility in its liturgical function.

GREAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  II
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Sesquialtera

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

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

SWELL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    Tremolo

SOLO (enclosed with Swell)

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

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

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

                                    Tremolo

ANTIPHONAL (prep)

PEDAL

                  32'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Resultant

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

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

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

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

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

                  IV
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Mixture
(prep)

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

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Oboe
(Sw)

Visscher Associates,
Santa Cruz, CA, has built a new organ for Trinity United Methodist Church,
Chico, CA. Casework is of California walnut and Eastern black walnut. Facade
pipes in the towers are of polished copper, with the center pipe in each
"point" having a "flamed" upper lip of polished tin. Facade
pipes in the flats are of 75% tin. Key and stop action are mechanical. Swell
shades immediately behind the facade pipes provide expression for the manual
stops except the 8' Prestant. The depth from the wall to the front of the case
is 60 inches, which allows choir members to stand in front of the organ when
singing. To make the organ this shallow, bottom octave pipes of the Pedal 16'
Subbass and 16' Bassoon were located in recesses on the back wall to either
side of the main case. Having only space and funds for a smaller organ of 14
stops, the decision was made to opt for what is basically a single manual division with "either-or" registration, allowing any of the manual stops to be played on either keyboard. The option not taken, of dividing the stoplist between two independent divisions, would significantly decrease registration possibilities. Manual stop levers move up to the "on" position for the upper keyboard, to a detent in the middle for off, and down to the "on" position for the lower keyboard. The bottom 12 pipes of the 16' Contra-Bassoon are unique in that they employ "Haskell" miters for
the bottom octave. The two-piece resonator has a half-length "cap" of
parallel proportions fitting over a half-length, tapered bass, creating a
continuous taper, full-length, 16' resonator in nine feet. Dr. David Rothe was
consultant and played the dedication recital. Molly Wadsworth was chair of the
organ committee, and Ellen Rowan is Pastor of the church. Visscher Associates'
staff involved in building this organ included Lorraine Emery, Bret Smith,
Timothy O'Brien, Ernesto Sustaita, Gwen Shupe, and William Visscher.

MANUAL I or II

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Viol
(1-4 from Gedeckt)

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

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

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

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

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

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Quint

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

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

                                    Chimes

PEDAL

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

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

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Contra-Bassoon

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

 

Accessories

Tremulant

16' Contra-Bassoon reversible

I/Ped reversible

II/Ped reversible

II/I reversible

J.F. Nordlie Company,
Sioux Falls, SD, has built a new organ for Edina Community Lutheran Church,
Edina, MN: an electro-mechanical action instrument of six ranks. The free
standing case and open keydesk are constructed of rift sawn red oak. The low 20
pipes of the Principal 8' are made of polished aluminum and make up the facade.
The console is connected to the organ by a single fiber optic cable allowing
flexibility in placement. The integrated combination/relay action as built by
Matters, Inc., allows complete programmable control over the switching system
and a sophisticated combination action complete with transposer and player
mechanism. Carsten Slostad is Music Director for the church and served as
consultant on the organ project. The organ was built in the Nordlie shop by
craftsmen John F. Nordlie, Paul E. Nordlie, Trintje Nordlie, David L. Beyer,
Martin D. Larsen, Eric Grane, James Greenwald, and Beth MacDonald.

Analysis

A Bourdon 16' 85 pipes, 13-85 enclosed, 1-24 wood, variable
scale, 1-40 Gedackt, 41-54 Rohrflöte, 55-85 Blockflöte

B Principal 8' CC-g'' 44 open metal pipes unenclosed, 1-20
aluminum facade

C Octave 4' c°-g'''' 56 open metal pipes unenclosed

D Gemshorn 8' 85 pipes, enclosed, variable scale

E Quinte 11/3' CC-d''' 51 pipes, enclosed, variable scale

F Terz 13/5' c°-d''' 39 pipes, enclosed

G Trumpet 16' prepared

GREAT

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gedackt
A

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

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Rohrflöte
A

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

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

                  13/5'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Terz F

                  1'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Mixture
II-III D&E

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Trumpet
G (prep)

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

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

SWELL

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gedackt
A

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Rohrflöte
A

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gemshorn
D

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

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

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gemshorn
D

                  13/5'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Terz F

                  11/3
style='mso-tab-count:1'>       Quint E

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Trumpet
G (prep)

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

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

PEDAL

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

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

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gedackt
A

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

                  51/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Quint A

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

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Gedackt
A

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

                  11/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Mixture III
C&E

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Harmonics
D

                  16'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          Trumpet
G (prep)

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

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

MIDI

Eight programmable stops x nine levels memory for a total of
72 MIDI stops. All stops with choice of coupling or non-coupling and accessible
in any division. Connections for MIDI in, MIDI out, and MIDI thru.

New Organs

Default

Cover

Rieger-Kloss
Company, Krnov, Czech Republic

Government
Street Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

Members of the Government Street Presbyterian Church worked for several
years developing a plan for the renovation of their beautiful and historical
church in downtown Mobile. Among the many items that needed serious attention
was the pipe organ--the former organ was an Estey installed in 1905. It had
been renovated a number of times and had so many alterations that it could
hardly be credited back to its original builder. The one thing that had
remained constant was the organ pipe facade. After an in-depth study by a very
thorough organ committee, it was decided that the old organ had so many
problems that it would be better stewardship for the church to purchase a new
instrument. It was initially assumed that the new organ would occupy the same
space as the old organ. William Gray of the Rieger-Kloss Company entered onto
the scene rather late in the process and challenged the committee to look at
the total music ministry to develop a plan of how the organ, choir and
congregation could all relate musically together more effectively. The Estey
had occupied the entire center gallery, and the choir had to sit off to the far
side of the organ; there was no proper choir loft. Mr. Gray impressed on the
committee that if they were ever going to correct this problem, this was the
time to do so. In order to make room for a rear choir gallery, the organ was
located in three organ cases. The organ cases were located left and right of
the center gallery plus a very shallow division in the center, across the back
wall. This was not only a time to purchase a new organ but to develop workable
space for the music ministry of the church.

A tracker action organ was very seriously considered for Government Street
Presbyterian Church. However, if a good space were created for the choir there
would be very long tracker runs to the organ cases which would greatly decrease
the effectiveness of the tracker action. It was also decided that it would be a
great advantage to have a movable console. After all the facts were weighed, it
was decided that slider chests with electric pull downs, along with a few unit
chests, would be most appropriate for this instrument.

The Rieger-Kloss Pipe Organ Company of Krnov, Czech Republic was selected to
build the new organ for Government Street Presbyterian Church in January of
2000. Rieger-Kloss is one of Europe's oldest builders of pipe organs,
incorporated in 1873; however, the Rieger brothers were building organs as
early as the 1840s. They are unique in the industry in that they have a College
of Organ Building, a four-year accredited degreed course. The school enrolls 12
students each year and if they all stay for the full four years, they have a maximum
of 48 students enrolled. The company works to keep the best and brightest of
these students and then they furnish many of the other major builders in Europe
with their young craftsmen.

Although Rieger-Kloss is one of the largest builders of pipe organs in the
world, it operates as a small company. Each organ is built by a team of Master
Organ Builders; in the case of Mobile, an 8-member team built this instrument.
They see the organ from its conception to its completion. They assemble the
organ in the Rieger-Kloss shop erecting room to check out all systems. Although
pipes are placed on the wind chest and played, they are only tuned; they are
not finally regulated and tonal finished until they arrive in their permanent
home.

Government Street Presbyterian Church, being a historical building, required
a lot of attention to architectural details of the room. Marcel Kolarz, the
Rieger-Kloss case designer, was brought over from Europe to study the room and
to design the organ cases developed around the master plan that
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Mr. Gray had set forth for this room.
The cases reflect numerous architectural details from the building. For
instance, the columns in the organ case and the dental design that forms the
top moldings are all details of the existing room. The capitals at the top of
the columns and the lacy pipe shades were all hand carved by Petr Brodak and
come from details of the building. The organ cases and pipe shades are white
with gilded gold trim as is found in the existing room. All of the pipes seen in
the fa?ßade of the organ cases are speaking pipes, made of 70% tin and 30% lead,
highly polished natural metal; the mouths of the pipes are gilded gold.

The console is four manuals with pedals. The outside cabinet of the console
is white and the interior is walnut. The natural keys are highly polished bone
and the sharp keys are walnut. The pedalboard natural keys are made of white
rock maple and the sharps of walnut. The console is a state-of-the-art design
with a very elaborate computer system, having 200+ levels of memory. A
sequencer allows the organist to program the pistons in the order that he/she
plans to use them and the organ will automatically progress through the pistons
in the order programmed. This organ also has a playback system, with which the
organist can record on a computer disc and have the organ play back exactly the
performance. Three of the manuals plus the pedal division are traditional
divisions--the Great Organ, the Positiv Organ, the Swell Organ and the Pedal
Organ. In addition to this, the fourth manual (top keyboard) represents the
Grand Choir Resonance, an idea that comes from the French school of organ
building. The Grand Choir Resonance division manual plays the entire Pedal
division on the fourth manual, with each of the Pedal stops extended to play
the full 61 notes of the manual. This opens up many unique registration colors
and is most valuable in service playing, especially for accompanying hymns. It
is also gives a fabulous richness to the organ in playing French toccatas and
other literature where the pitch line is high on the keyboard. The horizontal
Trompette-en-Chamade can solo above the entire organ and also play fanfares.

The tonal finishing of the organ required a little more than six weeks.
Daniel Angerstein came to Mobile and
set all of the
"C"s for the different ranks of pipes, and Frantisek Kutalek and
Tomas Fafilek matched the notes in between to the "C"s. The room is
especially treble heavy but has a very weak response to the bass harmonics. As
a result, it posed a special challenge for the tonal finishers.

Other members of the Rieger-Kloss team who built the Government Street
Presbyterian Church organ were Zdenik Mican, David Vystrcil, Rostislav
Kohoutek, Tomas Kusak and Miraslav Mitura.

In addition to providing inspiring music for worship, the church is planning
a concert series; so far, they have sponsored Merrill Davis, John Weaver and
Fred Swann in concert. The resident organist, Terry Maddox, has played a
recital, and they have sponsored noonday recitals with local organists
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> during Lent. An International Organist
Festival is being projected for the near future.

The Rieger-Kloss organ at Government Street Presbyterian Church is designed
especially for their building and for the musical needs of this congregation.
It was designed architecturally to
look as if it were always a part of this lovely, historical building and it is
equally suited to the musical demands of the church. It is a high quality
instrument which, if well maintained, will be there as long as the building
stands and will meet the demands of musical growth of the congregation. May it
always bring great and inspirational music to those who hear its majestic
sounds.

--William Gray

GREAT (partially expressive) Manual II

16' Violoneprestant

8' Principal

8' Flute
Harmonique

8' Bourdon

8' Violincelle
(ext)

8' Erzahler
Celeste (II)

4' Octave

4' Spillflote

22/3' Quint

2' Super
Octave

2' Flute

22/3' Grand
Chorus (VI)

8' Trumpet

Tremulant

POSITIV (unenclosed) Manual I

8' Principal

8' Holzgedeckt

4' Octave

4' Flute

2' Principal

11/3' Larigot

1' Cymbel
(IV)

8' Klein
Trompete

8' Cromorne

Tremulant

Zimbelstern

16' Trompette-en-Chamade
(TC, Grand Choir Resonance)

8' Trompette-en-Chamade
(Grand Choir Resonance)

SWELL (expressive) Manual III

16' Bourdon
Bass (ext)

8' Viola
Pomposa

8' Viola
Celeste

8' Chimney
Flute

8' Flute
Celeste (II)

4' Prestant

4' Spire
Flute

22/3' Nazard

2' Principal

2' Blockflote

13/5' Tierce

11/3' Mixture
Minor (V)

16' Basson

8' Trompette

8' Hautbois

8' Vox
Humana

4' Clarion

Tremulant

16' Trompette-en-Chamade
(TC, Grand Choir)

8' Trompette-en-Chamade
(Grand Choir)

GRAND CHOIR (unenclosed) Manual IV

16' Violoneprestant
(Great)

16' Bourdon

8' Principal

8' Bourdon

8' Violincelle
(Great)

4' Octave

4' Flute

2' Super
Octave

Mixture
(IV-VIII)

16' Trompetenbass

8' Trompete

4' Klarine
(ext)

Chimes

16' Trompette-en-Chamade
(TC)

8' Trompette-en-Chamade

PEDAL

32' Double
Open Wood (digital)

32' Contra
Bourdon

16' Open
Wood (digital)

16' Violoneprestant
(Great)

16' Subbass

16' Bourdon
Bass (Swell)

102/3' Rohrquinte
(Swell)

8' Octavebass

8' Gedacktflote

8' Violincelle
(Great)

4' Choral
Bass (ext Octavebass)

Mixture
(IV)

32' Contra
Fagott (ext)

16' Trompetenbass

16' Basson
(Swell)

8' Trompete

4' Klarine

8' Trompette-en-Chamade

4' Clairon-en-Chamade

Chimes
(Grand Choir)

Couplers

Gt/Ped
8

Sw/Pedal
8, 4

Pos/Ped
8, 4

Great
Unison Off

Sw/Gt
16, 8, 4

Pos/Gt
8

Grand
Ch/Gt 8

Gt/Grand
Ch 8

Pos/Grand
Ch 8

Sw/Grand
Ch 8

Sw
16-UO-4

Grand
Ch/Sw

Positiv
Unison Off

Gt/Pos
8

Sw/Pos
16, 8, 4

Grand
Ch/Pos 8

Cover photo by Matt Bechteler

Assistance with cover graphics: Matthias Minnig

Fabry Inc., Fox Lake, Illinois, has
installed a 1957 Schantz organ (two manuals, 13 ranks) at Prince of Peace
Catholic Church, Lake Villa, Illinois. The instrument was originally built for
Grace Christian Church in Kendallville, Indiana. The church decided to sell the
instrument rather than take it to their new sanctuary currently being built.
Fabry Inc. brought the two churches together to make their own purchase
agreement, and then dismantled, transported, and reinstalled the organ with
several improvements for Prince of Peace Catholic Church. Improvements include
a new blower, new solid state relay, new electric tremolos, new swell box
enclosure using original shade frames, new electric shade actions, refinished
bench and top of console, and new oak finish casework. Installation was
completed in May of 2002 and the dedidation was played on September 15 by Mr.
Ernie Hiltebrand and Mrs. Gina Buckley. Fabry Inc. would like to thank Mr.
Hiltebrand, director of music ministry, who handled the purchase and
coordinated the installation for the Rev. Richard Yanos, the pastor of Prince
of Peace Church. David G. Fabry and Joseph Poland reengineered, built all the new
casework, and tonally finished the instrument.

GREAT

8' Open
Diapason -- Rank 1

8' Bourdon--
Rank 2

8' Dulciana
-- Rank 3

8' Unda
Maris (TC) -- Rank 4

4' Octave
-- Rank 5

4' Hohlfloete
-- Rank 6

2' Fifteenth
(ext)

Chimes
style='mso-tab-count:1'> -- 25 bars

Tremolo

SWELL

16' Rohrgedeckt
-- Rank 7

8' Geigen
Diapason -- Rank 8

8' Rohrfloete
(ext)

8' Salicional
-- Rank 9

8' Voix
Celeste (TC) -- Rank 10

4' Geigen
Octave (ext)

4' Flute
Harmonic -- Rank 11

2 2/3' Nazard
(borrow)

2' Piccolo
(ext)

8' Oboe
-- Rank 12

4' Oboe
Clarion (ext)

Tremolo

PEDAL

16' Subbass
-- Rank 13

16' Rohrgedeckt
(Sw)

8' Bass
Flute (ext)

8' Rohrflute
(Sw)

4' Bass
Flute (ext)

4' Rohrflute
(Sw)

Couplers

Gt/Gt
16-UO-4

Sw/Sw
16-UO-4

Sw/Gt
16-8-4

Gt/Ped
8-4

Sw/Ped
8-4

Schneider Pipe Organs, Inc., of
Kenney, Illinois, has completed the first phase of a multi-stage renovation of
the 1922 Hinners organ in Zion Lutheran Church, Peoria, Illinois. The initial
phase consisted of rebuilding the console and rewiring the organ utilizing a
Matters microprocessor-based relay system with a fiber-optic link between the
console and the organ chamber. All wiring on the existing windchests was
replaced with new modern wiring. A new pedalboard to replace the existing one,
which was disintegrating due to years of heavy use, was also installed. At the
same time, new 120 volt AC wiring and magnetic starter for the existing organ
blower and a new DC rectifier were installed, as well as new fluorescent
lighting within the organ chamber and blower room. Service receptacles for
maintenance work were also added to the installation. Limited pneumatic repairs
were made to the existing electro-pneumatic windchests as a temporary measure,
as well as replacement of a number of badly damaged and crudely repaired treble
pipes of the Stopped Diapason rank.

Completion of this phase of the work was March, 2002. It was rededicated on
Reformation Sunday, October 27, 2002, in conjunction with and celebrating 10
years of the ordination of the incumbent pastor, The Rev. Steven Paul Tibbetts,
S.T.S. at Zion. The day-long celebration included a Festival Eucharist
(Reformation), potluck meal, organ rededication concert, and Vespers. In
between were displays of the 75th anniversary of the completion of the main
church building.

Anticipated future phases are to include complete removal of the existing
windchests and pipework of the instrument from the chamber space while it is
being replastered and repainted, and construction of all-new wind-chests with
electro-mechanical action and expansion chambers. Participants in the project
included W.C. Burkett, Nick Fry, Dan Schneider, Matt Schneider, Joan Schneider,
Richard Schneider.

GREAT

8' Principal

8' Rohr
Floete

4' Principal

4' Rohr
Floete (ext)

2' Spitz
Floete (ext)

11/3' Mixture
II (new)

8' Oboe
(Sw)

Gt
UO-4

Sw/Gt
16-8-4

SWELL

16' Z?§rtbass
(ext)

8' Geigen
Principal

8' Holzgedackt

8' Salicional

8' Vox
Celeste (49 pipes)

4' Geigen
Octave (ext)

4' Traverse
Floete (ext)

4' Violina
(ext)

22/3' Nazard
(ext)

2' Principal
(ext)

13/5' Terz
(ext)

16' Basson
(ext, new L/2 basses)

8' Oboe

4' Schalmey
(ext)

Tremolo

Sw
16-UO-4

PEDAL

32' Acoustic
Bass (resultant, Zartbass)

16' Grand
Bourdon

16' Zartbass
(Sw)

8' Principalbass
(Gt)

8' Bourdon
(ext)

8' Gedackt
(Sw)

4' Choralbass
(ext Gt)

4' Gedackt
(Sw)

16' Basson
(Sw)

8' Oboe
(Sw)

4' Schalmey
(Sw)

Gt/Ped

Sw/Ped

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