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Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders, Inc.,
Camillus, New York, Opus 2
West Baptist Church, Oswego, New York

From the music minister
The original organ in the West Baptist Church was built by John G. Marklove in 1867, and was placed in the front right corner of the sanctuary with the console attached. The instrument had two manuals with mechanical key and stop action. Anything beyond this is not known, although the former organist has said that there was a second console in the back of the organ, which allowed the instrument to be played from the adjoining room. Unfortunately, we don’t even know the original stoplist.
In 1951 Paul C. Buhl of Utica was contracted to do a full rebuild of the church’s organ. Sadly, the work was not up to today’s standards. The organ was completely taken apart and the original Marklove slider-and-pallet windchests were chopped into pieces (we found parts of old chests used as catwalks, ladders, etc.). The pipework was mixed and matched with pipes from other instruments of unknown origin. In some cases, we found pipes from the same rank used in four different stops; this was especially apparent in the Pedal division. The configuration of ranks hardly made sense in terms of scale matching or materials used, not to mention any tonal coherence. Two manual keyboards that were built into the façade were disposed of and replaced with a three-manual console with electric action, detached from the organ chamber. Inside the organ chamber the Buhl Company placed new, direct-electric chests and distributed the existing pipework into three divisions. They ended up adding a few “modern strings,” changing the configuration of mixtures, duplexing many ranks, borrowing stops from one manual to another—all of it in a way that the person playing the organ couldn’t possibly tell whether the sound was coming from this or that division. In addition, the electrical system suffered from poor wiring and faults caused by climatic conditions. For years the church’s building has been extremely humid during summer months, which contributed to severe mold growth and this, in turn, caused a complete deterioration of old insulation made of fabric. Shorting wires caused an array of ciphers and dead notes and created a situation of serious unreliability.
In addition, the Pedal had only two independent stops and was unable to sufficiently support the sound of the full organ. The organ committee quickly became aware that another renovation was not a feasible option and decided to employ Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders to build a new instrument that would retain the original façade (at least in the general sense) and restore as much of the old pipework as possible, leaving the judgment of selecting the useful pipes to the organbuilder. All other components of the organ are brand new and were built specifically for this instrument.
—Abel Searor

From the organbuilder
When in 2006 our firm was contracted for the maintenance of the Buhl organ at the West Baptist Church in Oswego, New York, from the first visit to the church we knew that something had to be done with the existing instrument and that the situation was quite serious. As time progressed, we were first asked to do a complete renovation; however, upon further examination of the instrument, we advised the organ committee that funds spent for the renovation would simply become money wasted—the organ was beyond any sensible repair. It was then that a small miracle happened. The members of the West Baptist Church, quite few in numbers and certainly not spoiled with overflow of extra capital, decided to accept our proposal for a new organ that would incorporate the existing pipework (with great modifications, however) and would retain the existing outside appearance (although slightly changed as well).
When the decision was made to build a new organ, there was no question that going the “old way” would most certainly be the best way. We are passionate supporters of tracker organs. It has been proven through centuries of experience that the most reliable and artistically gratifying key action is a mechanical one. We also put our complete trust in the time-proven manner of building windchests with sliders and pallets. We strongly believe that the characteristics and performance of a tracker organ are unquestionably superior to any other kind of action. Coming from this viewpoint, the new organ was designed with fully mechanical key and stop action. We opted to go back to the two-manual setup and designed a stoplist that was not influenced by any particular style or builder. We simply wanted to create an instrument that would be quite universal, full of tonal variety, and suitable for many musical genres. We intended, however, to sustain a bit of an “old fashioned” flavor, which is clearly manifested in the voicing of pipes.
The new organ was built on a tight budget; therefore, some of the work has been done by the members of the congregation. The Buhl organ from 1951 had been completely removed and disposed of. The organ chamber was emptied out and renovated. New plasterboard was installed, and everything got a fresh coat of paint. The floor was refinished, and sufficient room was made in front of the organ for a new console—built into the organ case with two manuals and a pedal keyboard. All of this work was done by the members of the church.
The largest pipes, from the wooden Principal 16? in the Pedal, were placed on “benches” along the walls and connected via flexible conduits to a separate chest designated exclusively for this rank. The reason for this was twofold. First, these pipes were too big to fit on a “regular” pedal chest and, second, they required a considerable amount of wind, which would almost certainly cause a shortage of wind for the rest of the ranks, if placed on the same chest. The remaining pedal ranks were placed on two identical windchests butting against each other side to side.
All pipework in all divisions is distributed in a major-third configuration, of course split in the middle into two traditional sides, C and C-sharp. The Swell and Great divisions are mounted above the three single-rise wedge bellows. All windchests were provided with small shocker bellows, allowing for steady wind supply even during times of high wind demand. All major wind conduits are made out of wood; small offsets were carried out with flexible conduits.
We kept roughly 70% of the pipework from the Marklove/Buhl organ. It was nearly impossible to determine which pipes were “true originals” from 1867 and which came from some other sources. We opted for keeping only the pipes that offered us a chance to do a decent revoicing. The remaining 30% we acquired from various sources; however, all the pipework was voiced together as one instrument—the process took nearly five months.
The new instrument boasts 27 stops, 33 ranks, for a total of 1,803 pipes. Since it is nearly impossible to describe the sound, we can only say that the goal was to have an organ with a confident, but not bold, tonal character. Therefore, all of our voicing efforts went in the direction of having the pipes speaking in a manner that is naturally free and unobstructed. There is never a problem with using fewer stops, if needed, but one cannot produce a fortissimo effect if there is no substance to support it. In no way, however, is the organ “shrieky” or unpleasant, even with all the stops pulled out. Working with the relatively low wind pressure of 69 mm for the manuals turned out to be quite rewarding. The pipes develop a sound that is not forced and is very “singing” in nature, yet not lacking in natural strength.
The façade was left in its original general concept. The façade pipes were completely stripped to bare metal and repainted with the addition of some subtle stenciling. In the top portion of the middle arch, we added a painted rosette with elaborate decorative floral elements. The lower portion of the frontal cabinet had to be modified in order to accommodate our new keyboards and the drawknob desks. We used American walnut for all new frontal elements—the same wood species as the old cabinet. Neither time nor money was spared when it came to the console area. The keys are made of tightly grained spruce, naturals with granadilla overlays, sharps with maple and natural bone. Natural keys have their fronts embellished with a half-circle arch. The key cheeks as well as the music stand are made of solid walnut with hard maple inlays. Drawknobs are made from Norwegian maple. In the center of the ball there is a round inlay made of sterling silver and Baltic amber in honey color. The knobs were custom turned for us by Johannes Rieber in Oslo, Norway; the amber pieces were also made especially for this purpose—they came from Poland from one of the most renowned figures in amber art circles, Mariusz Drapikowski (his original creations are on permanent display at the Vatican Museum).
The tracker action is carried out in the simplest of ways, which is a bulletproof formula ensuring reliability for many years to come. Keys are a double-armed lever, with 10 mm movement in the front and 7.5 mm in the back. Trackers are made from red cedar, squares from hornbeam, and rollers from aluminum with wooden arms. Because of extreme humidity problems, we chose to make all pallets out of aluminum. The windchests were made of solid oak and maple, toe boards and pipe racking out of poplar. The stop action is made from white ash, sliders from the laminated phenolic fabric. The air is supplied by a 1-HP, three-phase Ventus blower.
We wish to extend our thanks to all members of the West Baptist Church in Oswego, New York for entrusting us with this project. We hope that this project will indeed help to rejuvenate the church family and that it will serve the community “For the glory of God.”
—Tomasz Lewtak
Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders, Inc.
1003 Barnwood Lane
Camillus, NY 13031
<www.lewtak.com&gt;

Craftsmen who worked on this project:
Vanessa McCrea—woodworking, bookkeeping, purchasing and general help (doing all the things that nobody else wanted to do . . . )
Iwona Henschke—pipe restoration, stenciling
Jeff King—electrical work, organ chamber and floor finishing
Gerry DeMoors—carillon restoration and electronics
Johannes Rieber—drawknob turning
Mariusz Drapikowski—Baltic amber and sterling silver setting
Pawel Lewtak—façade design, woodworking, pipe restoration
Tomasz Lewtak—mechanical design, woodworking, voicing and tuning

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Cover feature (February 2006)

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Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders, Camillus, New York, 2005

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church “On the Hill,” Camillus, New York


The Church

The history of St. Joseph’s Church in Camillus, New York, goes back to 1852, when the first resident pastor came to the parish and began to care for the religious needs of local Catholics. The original St. Joseph’s Church in the village of Camillus was built in 1867. The congregation eventually outgrew the small space of the old church, and in 1965 construction started on a new building—the cross-shaped church, with parabolic arches rising 90 feet and dramatic windows at the ends of each wing. As is often the case when substantial funds are required for construction, the purchase of a new pipe organ had to wait its turn. The delay turned out to be a long one—almost 40 years!
For years the rich and varied music program of St. Joseph’s Parish was supported by an electronic organ substitute and a Kawai grand piano. During the fall of 2001, an opportunity came along, and finally the decision was made to begin the construction of a new pipe organ that would fulfill the musical needs of the congregation and would aesthetically complete the sanctuary of St. Joseph’s. That year, another church in the Diocese of Syracuse—St. Louis in Oswego, New York—was closed and the pipe organ from this church was purchased with the thought that it would become a jump-board for a much larger instrument at St. Joseph’s.

The Old Organ

The old organ, a tracker consisting of two manuals with 21 stops, was built by Casavant Frères in 1896 as their Opus 69. It was the first organ from this builder imported in the United States.
At the time of acquisition, the Casavant organ was in a state of complete disrepair. It was obvious that a true historical renovation was not feasible for two primary reasons: the cost and the size of the instrument. Even if the parish were to allocate the funds, St. Joseph’s has a cubic volume approximately four times that of St. Louis Church. The volume of sound required to fill this large space could not possibly be achieved from a rather small and softly voiced instrument. With heavy hearts and facing no other options, the old organ from Oswego was dismantled and moved to St. Joseph’s in Camillus. Only the salvageable parts would be used in a new instrument. Virtually all of the old pipework was saved. A total of 1,202 pipes were moved to Camillus, most of which were in shoddy physical condition; some were badly damaged due to poor maintenance and careless handling. For example, an existing Mixture III on the second manual had twelve original pipes missing in the center, the sign of an obvious “tuning accident” occurring many years ago. These were replaced with “stock” pipes that did not make any sense in terms of either scaling or in the proper Mixture repetition sequence. Many wooden pipes also had visible water damage. The same was true for both manual windchests, which were also transported to St. Joseph’s. From four pedal chests only two were salvageable, with the remaining two damaged beyond any reasonable repair.

The New Tonal Design

Even though the old organ had to be dismantled, it became the backbone for—first and foremost—the tonal design of the new instrument. Professor Ulrik Spang-Hanssen from the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Aarhus, Denmark was consulted, and a plan was devised for the preservation of the original stop configuration, augmenting it with a new third keyboard that would serve as the foundation for the “big sound.” Very few old ranks have been shifted. What was acquired from Oswego became the second and third manuals (Positif and Récit) with some changes necessary to move the timbre out of the dark and 8'-heavy character. The original configuration did not have any fifths or thirds among its stops. In addition, the first manual (the Great) had four 8' stops and one 4' stop; the second manual (the Swell) had a 16' Bourdon and a sub-octave coupler to the Great. New ranks were added with the purpose of not just strengthening the volume, but more importantly brightening the sound of the organo pleno in these two divisions. The old Great (current Positif) received the 2' Piccolo from the old Swell, and the original Dulciana 8' was moved to the new Grand Orgue division. The old Swell (current Récit) received a new Nasard 22?3', Principal 2' and Tierce 13?5'. From the same division, the Trumpet 8¢ and Bourdon 16' were moved to the new Grand Orgue.

The addition of a new first manual (the Grand Orgue) allowed not only for keeping the stop configuration as close to the original as possible, but also opened completely new sound prospects to build on and to draw from. This is the division that is by far the strongest. It is rather basic in terms of utilized ranks, not too far from the tonal character of the old instrument and yet created with the sole purpose of giving a complete Principal chorus to the entire instrument. The Cornet Harmonique III deserves special mention. It is a three-rank cornet (22?3¢, 2¢ and 13?5¢) consisting of widely scaled, overblown flute pipes with two small holes midway through the body length. The aural effect is quite unusual: the cornet combination has a far greater penetration and clarity of timbre thanks to the characteristic “hollow” sound of the harmonic pipes.

Obviously the Pedal division required more power. This was simply achieved by adding to the original three stops (Double Open 16', Bourdon 16' and Violoncello 8') a new Octave 8', Cor de Nuit 4' and a round-sounding 16' Buzène, a reed stop with leathered shallots. It would have been an asset to have a mixture in the Pedal; however, the financial constraints made it impossible. The total number of new pipes added is 1,100.

The New Façade

The difficult task of designing the façade for this organ fell on our shoulders after we approached various outside architects and artists. The problems we encountered with the architects were their lack of understanding the principles of how the organ works, not knowing what is and what is not attainable. There was also the lack of positive and healthy aesthetics. The objectives were quite simple: first, to fit the organ into the arch shape of the ceiling, and second, to show that this instrument blends the old with the new. An additional requirement came from the fact that it had been explicitly requested that the console must stay on the main floor of the church while the rest of the organ rests on a 10-foot high loft. The reasoning for this came from the liturgical documents of the Second Vatican Council, which dictates that the music ministry is not to be separated from the congregation. In the case of a tracker organ, it immediately makes things a lot more complicated simply because the linkage becomes dangerously long.

The design of this church building cannot be classified as “contemporary” but it may be described as “modern.” However, all throughout the building there are many elements of traditional architectural design: harmonious lines, time-honored proportions, and a lot of symmetry. The answer to all of these challenges came from my brother, architect Pawel Lewtak. He is the creator of the design that became a real head-turner among parishioners and visitors alike. In his words, his worst fear was to create another organ that would be sitting “up there” with the console that is placed “down there,” and one has little to do with the other. Instead, he created a homogenous shape that ties the top with the base in a seamless manner. The tower-like structure of segments gives it slenderness and allows for traditional pipe grouping. To reflect what is inside the organ case, the original façade pipes were kept in their distinctive clusters, and new groups of double flamed copper pipes were added. Copper was definitely the material of choice for its perfect blend with the surrounding color scheme.

There is one special feature of this façade that separates it from all others: mirrors, more specifically, forty of them! Hardly noticeable at first glance, they add light, depth, spark, and elegance. The mirrors are only four inches wide, and are of various lengths. They are placed in wooden frames in the spaces between the pipe clusters. They enhance the design by offering a true three-dimensional effect. As people walk through the church they are always viewing a distinctive picture with variegated light reflections, innumerable shadows and highlights, an array of geometrical shapes, yet all elements are well organized with pleasing aesthetic integrity.

The façade is made of white ash with mahogany ornaments, and the case behind it is made from birch and carefully selected white poplar.

The Mechanics and Materials

The key action is purely mechanical. It is referred to as a suspended action and was the only logical choice given our circumstances. Long distance between the keyboards and the windchests dictated absolute precision in the making of the tracker action. The longest linkage run is 33 feet and yet the average weight of the key—when the chests are under pressure—is only 120 grams. The action is not the least sluggish thanks to the employment of a pressure rail on the back of each keyboard with springs that remove some of the key weight. Each division has its own floating rail allowing for climatic changes of the wood of the trackers, which are made of red cedar. The squares are fashioned out of aluminum as are the rollers and roller arms. On the longest rollers, needle bearings were utilized to support the weight of each roller.

The keys are made of tight-grained pine covered with black African wood (grenadilla) for the naturals, and bone-on-maple for the sharps. The cheeks of the keyboards are white oak with ebony inlays.
All windchests are of slider and tone-channel construction. Two old windchests (Positif and Récit) have been completely taken apart and restored to mint condition. In both, the pallets used are of a so-called “relief” type: in essence, each pallet consists of two pieces, one of which is being pulled down first thus releasing the pressure and breaking the initial resistance. After cleaning, releathering and complete re-regulating of all the parts, they work flawlessly. New windchests are made out of select yellow pine and have single pallets in all but the lowest octaves. In the bass, we installed two pallets per tone channel, but with sequential opening, which causes the touch to be the same as the rest of the keys.
Pedal pipes are split diatonically and stand on either side of the case. The open 16¢ flute stands on its own two chests (C side and C# side). The remaining pedal pipes received two new windchests with space for both the old and the new ranks.

The stop action is state-of-the-art electric. The stop plates, made of grenadilla, hide behind them contactless switches. The system offers full convenience of 1,280 memory levels for even the most demanding performer. Half of the levels are lock-protected. The layout of thumb and toe pistons is very simple and offers some necessary redundancy. Couplers can be operated either by thumb pistons or toe studs. Also, the navigation through the system’s memory levels can be done either by hand, by foot or on the side by an assistant. There is one expression pedal for the Récit and a Crescendo pedal. The Crescendo, in order to work, first must be activated by a toe stud. It is fully programmable and has a digital level display from 0 through 30. A similar kind of digital level display is in place for the expression pedal of the Récit. The shutters are operated by a 30-stage, digitally controlled electric motor.

The organ utilizes a three-phase 1.5 hp electric blower with slow RPM. There are two reservoir bellows—one old one and one new— providing ample air supply to the whole instrument. There are three tremolos, one for each manual. Two of them have electronically adjustable speed of undulation right at the console.

The Voicing

Any organ is only as good as it sounds. Therefore, even though we spared neither time nor money on mechanical details, the most important element remained the voicing. All of the old ranks received some sort of voicing re-vamp. They had all previously been voiced down for a much smaller building. We made them more free speaking, definitely less obstructed at the toe. All of the old ranks were heavily nicked, which made things difficult at times. The new ranks were voiced with a little bit of chiff, just enough to make their speech more pronounced in the large acoustics of St. Joseph’s Church. The old reeds needed to be re-tongued in order to gain a larger sound. The Trumpet 8¢, especially, required more brilliance and volume in order to balance well with the rest of the Grand Orgue. The organ is tuned to a Tartini-Vallotti temperament, which gives it a pleasant color and tonal personality. The instrument has much to offer in terms of variety of sound colors as well as the dynamics and individual stop character.



From an organbuilder’s perspective, taking a vintage 1896 organ and bringing it up to present day expectations, and having an organ that could be used for church services as well as concert performances has been a personally demanding and ingratiating experience. In organ building, the idea is always to be creative while retaining the original elements and merging them with new technologies. It is rewarding beyond words when an artist sits down at the console and you begin to see the smiles of pleasure. It means you have accomplished your goal of creating the finest organ from available sources.
Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders wishes to extend our sincere thanks to all volunteers who gave their time and energy to this most worthy project. We also thank the parishioners of St. Joseph’s Church of Camillus, New York, for their continuing understanding, patience and support.

—Tomasz Lewtak

Organbuilder




The following craftsmen took part in the construction of the organ for St. Joseph’s Church in Camillus, New York:

Tomasz Lewtak – mechanical design, pipe scaling, voicing, woodworking

Pawel Lewtak – façade design, woodworking, traction

Gerry DeMoors – electronics, carillon, general construction

Kevin Reedy – general construction

John Fergusson – woodworking.




Lewtak Opus 1

St. Joseph’s Church “On the Hill”

Camillus, New York


GRAND ORGUE

16' Bourdon*

8' Grand Principal

8' Dulciane*

8' Flûte à Cheminée

4' Octave

4' Flûte à Fuseau

3' Quinte

2' Doublette

2' Flûte

III Cornet Harmonique

IV Mixture

8' Trompette*

Tremblant Fort

POSITIF

8' Montre*

8' Mélodie*

8' Gambe*

4' Prestant*

2' Piccolo*

Carillon a22–f42

Tremblant Doux

RÉCIT

8' Viole de Gambe*

8' Principal*

8' Flûte Harmonique*

8' Bourdon*

8' Voix Cèleste*

4' Flûte Harmonique*

4' Fugara*

22?3' Nasard

2' Principal

13?5' Tierce

III Mixture*

8' Basson-Hautbois*

8' Cor Anglais*

Tremblant Doux

PÉDALE

16' Flûte Basse*

16' Bourdon*

8' Octave

8' Violoncello*

4' Cor de Nuit

16' Buzène




* Original Casavant stop

Mechanical key action

Electric stop action

Electronic register presets, 1280 memory levels

Wind pressure: 90 mm Positif, Récit & Pédale; 82 mm Grand Orgue

Couplers: III-I, II-I, III-II, III-P, II-P, I-P

Tuning A34=438 Hz at 18ºC

Temperament: Tartini-Vallotti

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Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders, Inc., Camillus, New York
First Presbyterian Church,
Greenville, North Carolina

A note from the organist/choirmaster
When I arrived at FPC Greenville in 1998, the 1971 two-manual W. Zimmer and Sons organ of about 20 ranks stood in the rear gallery. A gift of the Guy V. Smith, Max R. Joyner, and James Gibson families, it had served the congregation, community, and East Carolina University music department well for almost 40 years. When it was determined that the congregation and music program needed a larger instrument with placement in the chancel, we began exploring moving and expanding the organ.
The Zimmer’s copper façade pipes of the 8′ Pedal Principal were spread across the rear wall, directly behind the choir, in the shallow but wide gallery. With the Rückpositif division directly behind the organ bench and cantilevered over the balcony wall, the choir singers were literally in the middle of the organ pipes. The organ was of German neo-Baroque style, with no Swell or other enclosed division. It did have some nice pipework, a strong principal chorus, and a relatively independent pedal division for an organ of this size.
Originally the plan was to move the organ to the front chancel area with a few additions. The project evolved, and due to the generous gift from the estate of Mary Potts Goodman Sorenson, it was to become essentially a new organ—utilizing most of the pipes from the original instrument, along with new ranks, to make it over twice the original size.
We wanted the following qualities in a new instrument: well-rounded sound that would support and enhance congregational singing; an organ that would speak evenly through the worship space, filling but not overwhelming it; one that would play repertoire of all periods and be a worthy recital instrument. We also wanted to build upon the German nature of the original. I had wished for full-length 16′ pedal ranks, string ranks, a Swell division with reeds and mixtures, colorful mutations, and additional flutes and 8′ ranks—a lot to ask on a limited budget.
Upon the first visit of Tom Lewtak, his enthusiasm and vision of the possibilities for the space were inspiring to everyone. There were no problems or limitations that were not dealt with in a positive way and solved. When we got the first drawings, everyone was impressed by the boldness and artistry of the design, which was dramatic, yet still looked like it belonged in the space. It complements the contemporary design of the church building and its best feature, the beautiful stained glass windows.
Before renovations, which started in 2009, the focal point of the sanctuary was the prominent high pulpit with a large overhanging tester, which fanned out toward the congregation. Looking further and behind this, one would see the empty space behind the pulpit forming a kind of alcove, which rose to over 40 feet. What was this space designed for if not for organ pipes? So it is now filled with a beautiful arrangement of pipes, casework, and tower façades.
First Presbyterian Greenville is located on the edge of the campus of East Carolina University and enjoys a close relationship with the ECU music department. The Zimmer organ, at one time the premier instrument in Greenville, had been used as a teaching and practice tool for students. Many recitals, organ and other, have been held in our space. The church has been host to many AGO meetings and events.
Even when the organ was a little over half done and heard at the Eastern Carolina AGO chapter meeting last fall, participants were overwhelmingly positive about the sound, observing its sweetness of tone as well as power. This is even more the case now, and we are fortunate to have an instrument with character and color, warmth in the ensembles and choruses, with brilliance as well as depth.

William M. Wood, organist/choirmaster, is originally from Graham, North Carolina. He did undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Elon University, and holds the Master of Sacred Music in organ from East Carolina University. His organ teachers have included Robert B. King, William J.N. Stokes, and Janette Fishell. A frequent recitalist, he has served churches in Richmond, Virginia, and in North Carolina.
From the organbuilder
Building a straight tracker organ in a space that requires 30-foot-long tracker runs is always a challenge. I feel very strongly that mechanical action is superior, so I had no doubts that this is what was needed at First Presbyterian Church in Greenville, North Carolina—that is, if the church wanted to remain a leading center for cultural events in town. The acoustics of the sanctuary are more like those found in concert halls than in churches. There is sufficient reverberation to fill the room with lively sound, and the bass response is excellent, thanks to brick walls all around. The conditions for a new instrument were very favorable; this allowed us to design an instrument that, despite having just two manuals, has a comprehensive specification throughout, giving the organist a wealth of possibilities.
The tonal design called for a mid-German-style organ, with full principal chorus in the Great and rich complement of flutes in the Swell, along with strings and a well-developed reed section throughout the instrument. Both manuals are based on 16′ stops—Bourdon 16′ in the Great, and Fagott 16′ in the Swell—which provides the necessary gravitas of sound. The Great offers Principals 8′, 4′, 22⁄3′, 2′, and Mixture. This, along with a warm Trumpet 8′ and a bright Clarion 4′,
guarantees a strong plenum. There are also two flutes in the Great, to enable soft registrations and good blend for accompaniments. Lastly, there is a lively Cornet III, which serves as a versatile transition stop, good for both solo as well as plenum, with or without the Mixture.
The Swell has a substantial selection of colorful ranks. At the 8′ level we have included a wide-scale Hohlflöte, Quintadena, and Gambe, along with complementing Celeste. The Prestant 4′ has a slightly stringy quality to it, and the metal Gedackt 4′ perfectly complements the 8′ flute. Going up, we added a 2′ Piccolo and 11⁄3′ Larigot—this gives lightness and a “sparkle” to this division. The Mixture III–IV in the Swell is a bit unusual in that it includes a Tierce. The Tierce is voiced very mildly, not to be too present, and yet changes the character of the Mixture toward the “wider” sound, rather than the typical high-pitched shrill. This allows the Mixture to be used more frequently even in smaller ensembles with no danger of overpowering the singers. The Swell offers a generous choice of reeds as well; aside from the already mentioned Fagott 16′, we have included Oboe 8′ and Rohrschalmei 4′.
The Pedal division features a Posaune 16′ with full-length metal resonators, which along with a metal Principal 16′ makes for a solid bass foundation, even at the loudest dynamic level. The Pedal is independent enough to support the manuals without coupling, but of course we installed traditional couplers I–P and II–P for additional flexibility.
Since flexibility was one of the main goals in the design of this organ, it is worth mentioning the inclusion of an additional II–I Sub coupler. It is a fully mechanical coupler and yes, it does make you work a bit harder than normal, but it is worth it. The usefulness of this coupler is unquestionable, both for solo combinations as well as full-organ playing. Just consider this—when you sub-couple the 16′ Fagott to the Great, you end up playing a 32′ pitch on the main manual!
One peculiarity of this organ is the fact that the Quintadena 8′ of the Swell division happens to be placed entirely outside of the expression box. This is because we inherited the façade pipes from the old Zimmer organ, and among them was this Quintadena, which had 20 of the lowest pipes in the façade. We did not want to have 20 pipes out in the open and the remaining 36 under expression, so the logical solution was to offset the top of this rank completely outside the Swell. It seems to be working quite well, giving the Quintadena a distinct solo capability.
The design of the façade went through several stages. We first submitted three different proposals from which one was chosen and then modified to fit the space, the needs, and the taste of the congregation. The cabinetry is made from solid cherry, real mahogany, sapele, and wenge (the last two species are native to African tropical forests). Milder wood tones were needed to complement the church interior, and yet we did not want to make a completely dark façade, as the light in the building is rather subdued. The façade consists of eight towers—five in the lower tier and three in the upper—with rather daring angles and lines. As one can see on the drawing, the windchests and all playing components sit on the loft, twelve feet above the floor level, but the console is placed on the main floor. In designing the façade, we strove to make the organ look as “one”, with no detectable division between the upstairs and the downstairs. The towers are visually supported by the console cabinet, making the design very cohesive. In reality, the presence of the “loft” is hardly noticeable. The highest tower peak is 41.5 feet (12.6 meters) above the floor of the sanctuary, and the façade is 17.4 feet (5.3 meters) wide. Needless to say, the rigging was difficult and risky. We were able to use 90% of the Zimmer façade pipes: 29 made from copper and 27 made out of tin. All pipes were totally renovated so that they would look like new.
The console boasts our trademark features: drawknobs turned in Norway from real mahogany wood and then inlayed with Baltic amber stones set in sterling silver. The jewelry work was hand-crafted in Poland. The keyboards were produced in Germany, with key coverings provided by us. The naturals are covered with Madagascar rosewood called Bois de Rose, the sharps covered with bone. Bois de Rose was also used throughout the keydesk, key cheeks, and the music stand for inlays. All thumb pistons that control the electronics were capped with this wood as well. Stop nameplates are made of sugar maple and laser-engraved. The music rack is made of solid wenge wood and has all lighting fixtures concealed within it. It is easily detachable, to provide access to action regulation right behind it.
The key action is purely mechanical, with suspended action. It only has two square rails per manual to change the direction of the tracker run. One of the square rails for each manual is free-floating, providing the necessary self-adjustment of the action for climatic changes. The trackers are made from bass wood (linden tree) and all tracker parts (squares, arms, etc.) are made of hornbeam. Because of the significant distance between the windchests and the keyboards, we opted for a “double pallet” construction—imagine a normal pallet being sliced horizontally into two parts; the lower part opens first (breaking very minimal pluck force) and then the upper part falls down, letting a sufficient amount of wind into the tone channel. It is a simple and bulletproof solution for long tracker runs, allowing the key action to be light and crisp even with many stops drawn.
For the stop action, we utilized a German-made solid-state system with 3,999 levels of memory. Stops are controlled by drawknobs connected through this electronic system to slider solenoids opening and closing the stops. The console layout is European in its character, with only a minimal amount of buttons and gadgets. There is a clear numeric indicator for the swell shutters and for the crescendo. The thumb pistons are placed above the second manual, not under or between the keyboards. An average American organist will find it very user friendly, although different from our typical AGO standard. We also included one special feature for the drawknobs—the nameplates become gently illuminated from the back when the stops are turned on. It makes one’s eyes immediately aware of which stop is on and which is off.
Voicing—always the most important part of any organ—took a good half-year to complete. All pipes from the old Zimmer organ were treated as virgin pipework and revoiced from scratch, just like new pipes. The neo-Baroque flavor was removed in favor of a more rounded but full-bodied sound. There is no hint of shrillness and yet the sound is vibrant and bright. The instrument has plenty of power to impress the listener, with the might so typical for the King of Instruments; however, it is not senseless noise, which annoys our ears so often these days. For those who really want to experience the sound of this instrument, I cannot offer words of description. You need to come to Greenville and listen. The dedication of this organ will take place this month, on March 27, presented by Christopher Marks, assistant professor of organ at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to the people and staff of First Presbyterian Church of Greenville, North Carolina. Their incredible kindness, patience, and enthusiasm made this project the most gratifying experience one can ask for. This project would not have been possible without the support of Dr. William Neely, pastor.

Tomasz Lewtak was educated as an organist, having two master’s degrees in organ performance. His inspiration to become an organbuilder came at the age of 16, when he viewed the building process of the monumental organ at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Gdansk (Danzig), Poland, by the German firm of Hillebrand. Later, he studied organbuilding and design during his five years at the Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. The following years took him to Denmark and Norway, where he apprenticed with Carsten Lund Organ Builders of Copenhagen. He acquired his voicing skills from Mogens Pedersen, chief voicer of Frobenius Organ Builders. Tomasz Lewtak is responsible for tonal design, pipe scaling, voicing, windchest and action design.
The following people worked on this project: Tomasz Lewtak, Pawel Lewtak, Craig Regan, Elliott Regan, Peter Clouser, Vanessa McCrea, Tony Pernisi, Michael McCrea, Kevin Reedy, and Joe Stillwell. Special thanks to Dick Marks for his volunteer service.
Photo credit: Tomasz Lewtak, unless indicated otherwise.
For more information about Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders: <A HREF="http://www.lewtak.com">www.lewtak.com</A&gt;.

First Presbyterian Church
Greenville, North Carolina
2 manuals, 30 stops, 40 ranks

GREAT
16′ Bourdon
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflöte
4′ Octave
4′ Spillflöte
22⁄3′ Quinte
2′ Principal
Cornet III
Mixture IV–V
8′ Trumpet
4′ Clarion

SWELL (under expression)
8′ Quintadena (outside of Swell)
8′ Hohlflöte
8′ Gambe
8′ Celeste
4′ Prestant
4′ Gedackt
2′ Blockflöte
11⁄3′ Larigot
Mixture III–IV
16′ Fagott
8′ Oboe
4′ Rohrschalmei
Tremolo

PEDAL
16′ Principal
16′ Subbass
8′ Octavbass
8′ Bassflöte
4′ Choralbass
Rauschquinte II
16′ Posaune
Couplers
II–I
II SUB–I
I–P
II–P

Manual keyboard compass: C–g′′′ (56 keys), naturals in black, sharps in white.
Pedal keyboard compass: C–g′ (32 keys), parallel keys, slightly concave.
Wind pressure: 90 mm water column for manuals, 99 mm for the pedal.
Mechanical key action (suspended), self-compensating for seasonal changes.
Electric stop action with 3,999 levels of electronic memory.

 

Cover feature

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Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders, Camillus, New York

Holy Trinity Church,

Utica, New York

The pipe organ at Holy Trinity Church is, without doubt, a real treasure—not just for the parish community of Holy Trinity, but for the greater Utica area as well. It is a splendid instrument originally built in 1923 by Clarence E. Morey and his firm, located in Utica, New York. The organ has 29 speaking ranks divided among three manuals and pedal. Two of the manual divisions are enclosed in expression boxes. Interestingly, the original “identity” of this organ has been very well disguised. Previous restorers took down the plaque with the builder’s name, and only after opening the windchests did we discover the name of the original maker. The pastor of Holy Trinity Church, Rev. Arthur Hapanowicz, took it upon himself to find some information about the original builder. Since little is known about this builder, it is worth providing a bit of history. Following is the obituary from the Utica newspaper, The Observer-Dispatch, June 22, 1935:



CLARENCE E. MOREY, ORGAN BUILDER

March 31, 1872–June 20 1935



C. E. MOREY, 63 SUCCUMBS HERE




HAD BEEN MANUFACTURING ORGANS HERE SINCE 1893



Clarence E. Morey, 63, 1537 Oneida Street, organ builder, died in his home Thursday night after an illness of several months.

Mr. Morey was born in Little Falls, March 31, 1872. He was educated in the public schools and in Fairfield Seminary, and then came to Utica. He worked in the office of Edward D. Mathews, attorney, for a short time. Next he worked in the office of Crouse & Brandagee, clothing manufacturers.



Bought Equipment

In 1893, with A. L. Barnes he formed the firm of Morey & Barnes and bought the equipment of the organ factory of the late John G. Marklove and continued the manufacture of organs. Three years later Mr. Morey bought out the interest of his partner and continued the business alone. In 1901 he built a new factory at 305 Niagara Street and moved his business there. In 1925 Mr. Morey sold this building and built a new factory at 1024 Champlin Avenue. He has since continued his business at this location.
During his long career in the business Mr. Morey had constructed a great many organs and while they are in use in various parts of New York and adjoining states, about a score of them are used in Utica. Mr. Morey had been from its organization in 1917 a junior member of the firm of Earl B. Worden & Company, dealers in pianos and talking machines.



Active in Organizations

Mr. Morey was a member of Utica Lodge 47, F. & A.M Rotary Club, Utica Council, Boy Scouts of America, Winchell Camp 43, of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Oneida Historical Society, and the Commercial Travelers Mutual Accident Association of America. He attended Westminster Presbyterian Church.
February 10, 1897, Mr. Morey married Miss Jean H. Brockett, who is living. He has two sons, Frank B. of Albany, NY and Nathaniel B. of Hamburg, NY. Five grandchildren.



In many ways the organ at Holy Trinity Church is a special and valuable instrument. Many of the pipes have outstanding sonic qualities, rarely found in other organs. Among stops that deserve special mention is a Double Flute 8' (Concert Flute) on the Great, wooden pipes, each pipe having two mouths. It was originally voiced with very natural, open and unobstructed sound of an unusual strength. Another stop of particular beauty is the Mixture III in the same division, which adds brightness to the overall sound, but without the unpleasant shrillness so often found in other instruments of lesser quality.

The organ at Holy Trinity Church was originally built with tubular-pneumatic action, with its complicated array of lead tubing. Many years later, probably in the 1950s, the action was electrified. This system, even though much better than the original purely pneumatic arrangement, requires careful maintenance and complete renovation after a certain number of years. Also, as time goes by, every organ naturally goes through the process of aging—dust accumulates, leather deteriorates, air conduits start leaking, and many other elements of the inner structure call for some serious attention. The organ had been renovated in 1972 by Bryant Parsons & Sons (currently Parsons Organbuilders) of Canandaigua, New York. The work performed was good, but some 30-plus years later the instrument was obviously in need of serious repairs.

In the spring of 2006, Holy Trinity Parish contracted Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders of Camillus, New York, to carry out all necessary work in regards to both the internal technical problems and the external new appearance of this aging instrument. A total overhaul was performed, and a new façade was built over the past six months. The work done was truly all-encompassing: the organ was completely disassembled; all pipes were taken out for thorough cleaning and repairs of scrolls and stoppers; windchests were thoroughly repaired, including some releathering; nearly all air conduits were replaced; the entire pipe support was renovated and enhanced.

There was a big problem with the structural support of the Great windchest, which rested on one of the 16' pipes from the Pedal! We had no choice but to design and build a new support for this part of the organ. Twelve new pipes for the lowest octave of Bourdon 16' were added to improve the bass range of the Great division. Several ranks of the original pipework were revoiced to make them stronger in sound. The electrical system was also carefully checked and repaired, all contacts cleaned, and the combination action repaired.

In addition, we added a completely new appearance to this organ by building a new façade. The cabinetry is made of solid white oak. Original pipes were stripped of the several layers of old paint and cut to new dimensions. The dynamic configuration of the new design is the original creation of my brother, architect Pawel Lewtak. The colors on the new front of the organ were carefully selected from the two predominant shades of the stained glass windows and the entrance doors.

It is with great joy that we present this organ back to Holy Trinity Parish. We are confident that the beauty of the King of Instruments will enhance all liturgical celebrations and will serve this church community for many years to come. It is truly gratifying to know that there are still people who believe in the value of a real pipe organ. During his rededicatory message, the church’s music director and organist, Stephen Zielinski, stated: “There was never a doubt as to what to do with our aging pipe organ. The electronic substitute was never an option. This is because we know that the pipe organ fills our church with beautiful sound, and the electronic organ would simply fill it with noise . . .” To this, we just say AMEN.

—Tomasz Lewtak

Organbuilder



The rededication ceremony and organ recital took place on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. The performance featured Gail Archer, who serves as Chair of the Music Department at Barnard College, Columbia University, and Professor of Organ at Manhattan School of Music. We are most grateful for her gracious acceptance of our invitation.

The following craftsmen took part in the restoration of the organ at Holy Trinity Church in Utica, New York:

Tomasz Lewtak—mechanical design, voicing, woodworking

Pawel Lewtak—façade design, woodworking

Janusz Rutkowski—general construction

Iwona Henschke—pipe stenciling

Gerry DeMoors—electronics and electrical components

Rita Ostrom–tuning and voicing assistance

Photo credit: Tomasz Lewtak


1923 C. E. Morey organ

GREAT

16' Bourdon

8' Open Diapason

8' Viola da Gamba

8' Concert Flute

8' Dulciana

4' Octave

4' Flute d’Amour

III Mixture

8' Trumpet

Chimes (21 tubes)

Gt 16'–UO–4'

Sw/Gt 16'–8'–4'

Ch/Gt 16'–8'–4'



SWELL

8' Open Diapason

8' Stopped Diapason

8' Aeolian

8' Salicional

8' Quintadena

8' Vox Celestis

4' Harmonic Flute

2' Piccolo

8' Oboe

8' Vox Humana

8' Cornopean

Sw 16'–UO–4'

Tremolo


CHOIR

8' Geigen Principal

8' Melodia

8' Dolce

8' Unda Maris

8' Flauto Traverso

Ch 16'–UO–4'

Sw/Ch 16'–8'–4'

Tremolo


PEDAL

16' Double Open Diapason

16' Bourdon

16' Lieblich Gedact

8' Flute

Gt/Ped 8'–4'

Sw/Ped 8'–4'

Ch/Ped 8'–4'

An Old Mexican Organ

Edward Pepe and James Wyly

A graduate of Yale University, Edward Pepe holds master’s degrees in organ performance (New England Conservatory of Music) and photography (University of Massachusetts). He spent two years studying historic performance practice with Harald Vogel at the Norddeutsche Orgelakademie. He is co-founder of both the Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies in the United States of North America and the Instituto de Órganos Históricos de Oaxaca in Mexico.<br>
An organist and independent scholar living, working, and performing in Oaxaca, Mexico since 1999, he has presented talks on restoration issues in various parts of that country, and led tours to historic instruments in the States of Tlaxcala, Queretaro and Guanajuato, as well as in Mexico City for both Minnesota Public Radio and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He is the author of numerous articles on historic organs and viceregal music in Mexico, and is preparing a book on the subject.
<br><br>
James Wyly is an artist and independent scholar of the organ. A graduate of Amherst College, he holds doctoral degrees in music (University of Missouri) and in clinical psychology (Illinois School of Professional Psychology). He has published a number of studies of Spanish organ building practices, which include his doctoral dissertation in music. As a musicologist, organist and harpsichordist, he taught music at the college level from 1964 to 1976 (Elmhurst College and Grinnell College), and subsequently practiced psychotherapy in Chicago until 2003. He currently lives in Oaxaca, Mexico.

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1. Introduction

Recent years have seen a notable increase in interest among organists and scholars in old Mexican organs. Each year congresses, tours, and study trips of various kinds bring organists, organ historians, organ builders, and general enthusiasts to Mexico from Europe as well as North and South America. As we learn more about the old Iberian and Ibero-American organ repertory, the numerous1 old Mexican instruments surviving from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and perhaps even the seventeenth centuries, built as they are in styles closely related to Iberian organs, become ever more important to our understanding. Yet for the vast majority of organists, a study trip to Mexican organs remains impractical, especially as the number of old organs in Mexico that are actually in playing condition remains small, and of these, not a few are in relatively inaccessible locations. Therefore organists interested in this area must depend heavily on recordings.

The organist who buys a compact disc in hopes of learning something about the Iberian tradition of organ music must proceed with caution, however. The history of Mexico’s organs has been just as complex as her politics, and just because an old Mexican organ is today in a state of repair sufficient for the making of a recording does not necessarily mean that the recorded sounds will have a great deal to do with either the way the organ was originally conceived or how its sound may have evolved over time. Therefore, it seems useful to describe in some detail what is presently known about one of the old Mexican organs of which some recent recordings are available.2 As will be seen, this, the organ in the village church of San Jerónimo in San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya (also known as Tlacochahuaya de Morelos) in the state of Oaxaca, presents us with a history and a set of questions which, while they are of course specific to this particular instrument, can also be considered as generally characteristic of the kinds of issues one faces when one starts to think about how an old Mexican organ might have originally sounded and been played. As we formulate our questions we shall try to describe in some detail what is known about the history and present-day state of this instrument, which is currently one of the better-known old organs of Mexico; and this, in turn, will enable us to make a few comments about the larger picture regarding old organs in Mexico.

2. The Church Building

As is common in Mexico, we possess only fragmentary documentation concerning the Tlacochahuaya church and its organ(s). As their history is intertwined let us review what is known. Tlacochahuaya lies about 12 miles east of Oaxaca de Juárez, the capital of the state. We know that the church was originally built in the 1550s and ’60s as part of an extensive network of Dominican complexes intended to promote evange-lization in Oaxaca. The present structure conforms to the original dimensions of 11 by 45 meters. (The ratio of 1:4 is reflected in the interior, the roughly square crossing at the front, to which a shallow sanctuary is attached, and the equivalent baptistry/gallery area at the back being separated by a nave of roughly double their length.) The church’s cruciform shape is original. The present church walls are also almost certainly original3 but at least up to the 1660s they were spanned by wooden beams and a wooden roof. There are no external buttresses, which might be expected had vaulting originally been contemplated. Nevertheless, sometime between ca. 1660 and 1803 San Jerónimo was given its present brick vaults. Over apse, crossing and choir, they are domical, constructed of diminishing rings: the barrel vault of the nave is made with bricks placed on edge, set on the axis of the nave.4 It could well be that the vaults date from a major renovation during the 1730s, since in the west façade, which is not original to the church, the weather-damaged legend, se [ac]abo de renobar esta [por?]tada primero de agosto de 1737aos can still be made out above the main door. The two west towers, each of which contains stairs to the gallery (one is currently blocked off), would then seem to date from that time, as probably would the elaborate decorative painting of the interior.

This implies that the gallery at the west end of the original wooden-roofed church must have had a ceiling that was a good deal lower than the present one, especially since the walls of the choir area were raised at the time the vaulting was added (accounting for the unusual proportions of the church’s façade). The floor of the loft, likely of wood, was also lower, as is confirmed by the original bell-tower, which still stands on the south side of the nave. Halfway up its stair is a blocked-off doorway, apparently the original way to the old gallery, which would have entered the church at a level lower than the present gallery floor. Not only would this gallery have been lower, it would have been darker, for it would have lacked the present large west window. This space, by the way, must have served, until Tlacochahuaya was secularized in the eighteenth century, as a coro from which the friars sang their offices, for to this day it contains a large, four-sided lectern of the type used to hold large choir books. Perhaps it also included choir stalls, and perhaps, as in nearby Yanhuitlán, there was an indigenous choir that sang polyphony.5

It must also be noted that Oaxaca suffered a major earthquake in 1714. Perhaps there was damage to the Tlacochahuaya church that needed repair. A nearly simultaneous major rebuilding project, completed in 1733, was carried out at the largely destroyed Oaxaca cathedral6 and might have acted as an impetus towards renovations in Tlacochahuaya.

The overall layout of the Dominican complex in Tlacochahuaya is also worth mentioning here, since it tells us much about the friars’ daily routine, including musical practices. In a departure from the usual custom of placing the convent on either the south or north side of the church, the convent in Tlacochahuaya is for unknown reasons located to the east, behind the apse. As a result, it was not possible to have the usual entrance leading directly from the second floor of the convent into the choir loft,7 which gave the friars easy access to the choir area for the performance of the monastic hours. Instead, the early bell tower in Tlacochahuaya seems to have served this purpose. The two stairwells in Tlacochahuaya’s west towers,8 leading up from the main floor to the choir, can then be seen as an indication of a stronger indigenous participation in music making in the later years of Dominican control.9

3. The Organ: History

Now we may turn to what we know of the changes this organ has undergone; and while we may not possess a full record of them, it is already clear that, as with so many old organs, it may be misleading to speak of the Tlacochahuaya instrument in terms of a single date or a style that relates exclusively to one period or another. And if we are to make real use of what we know about its present state we need to know as much as we can about which parts of that state date from when, and what has happened to them over time.

We might remind ourselves that as far as the present state of the organ is concerned, we are not dealing with a “restoration” in the conservation world’s currently accepted use of the term. In fact, there is presently no organ in Mexico that can be considered to be “restored,” if restoration means that after a thorough and thoroughly documented historical study a conscious plan has been carried out to return a given organ either to its original state or to a designated moment in its history, conserving all old material, replacing irrecoverably damaged or missing old work with the best possible working reproductions of it, taking care to make all changes as close to reversible as is mechanically feasible, making available full documentation regarding the intervention, and so on.10 Rather, we are dealing with an old, working organ that has been altered many times in the process of repeatedly repairing and updating it—which is of course the way almost all work on extant organs has been carried out for hundreds of years, with the exception of a relatively few interventions in historically important organs during our own time.

Let us begin with the existing disposition of the organ. The stops are divided, those in the left column extending from C (short octave) to c1 and those in the right column from c#1 to c3 (21 and 24 notes, respectively). The names here assigned to the stops appear on paper labels from the 1990 renovation; we do not know what they were originally called. Additional information supplied by the authors appears in brackets. (See Stoplist 1 on page 25.)

The disposition exhibits a Mexican penchant for keeping pitches low. In the left hand, pitches do not rise above the twenty-second (here a 1/2'), and even that register breaks back an octave in the tenor. In the right hand, there are no pitches above the twelfth (here a 11⁄3'), and, once again, the register breaks back an octave. The absence of higher pitches may be due to the fact that the chest, and hence the phonic conception, was originally that of a 4' organ. The doublings of the Flautado and Octava in the right hand conform with a Spanish practice (as, for instance, described by Pablo Nassarre11) of strengthening pitches depending upon the acoustics of the church building. The lack of compound stops has been discussed elsewhere.12

The largest pipe of the Bardón is marked with the date 1735. This is practically the only concrete piece of evidence we have about the organ’s chronology; but even so, we cannot really be sure of what it tells us. It is often assumed that the Tlacochahuaya organ predates 1735, and that the 8' Bardón and the reed stops constitute a 1735 modification to an earlier, more compact version of the organ that perhaps sat on a table. If we start from this assumption, we will immediately note that the pipe of the Bardón rank standing on tenor c is marked with a crusader’s cross—with which Mexican builders often signified the first pipe of a rank—and we will say that the register was originally a 4' rank and that 1735 marks a moment of major change in the organ’s nature, in which its fundamental pitch dropped by an octave. It would follow that the grooved toeboard upon which the bass octave of Bardón pipes now rests, which extends out beyond the edge of the windchest, was made new at the time of the renovation. It is usually assumed that the reed stops were added at the same time, and while this certainly makes sense, there exists no external evidence in support of this idea; nor need we assume that both reeds were installed at the same time. We can say, however, that at the time(s) the Bajoncillo and Clarín were added, the present stop action was not in place and the stops were still worked by extensions of the sliders at the sides of the case, for there are slots for all the present sliders, including the reeds, plus one on the left, presumably for a now-removed Tambor (Drum), and one on the right which still holds the slider that controls the Pájaros (Birdsong). The Bajoncillo stands at the front of the chest, in the place the façade Flautado basses would have occupied had they been side by side with their treble equivalents.13

The surviving old pipework (which constitutes about half the number of flue pipes in the organ) is homogenous, and, since it coincides with the chest’s toehole spacing, there is no real reason to assume that it is anything but original, or at least contemporary with the wind-chest. The disposition previous to the hypothesized c. 1735 intervention, then, would be assumed to have been as shown in Stoplist 2.
Minus the Tapadillo, this coincides exactly with the dispositions of the table organs at San Andrés Zautla (1726) and San Pedro Mártir Yucuxaco (1740), both in the state of Oaxaca. In addition, the disposition of the organ in San Pedro Quiatoni (1729) is identical to that of Tlacochahuaya, except for the reeds.14 Indeed, Quiatoni’s Tapado also started out at 4¢ pitch and was changed at some unknown time to 8' pitch. We shall return to the implications of these and other similarities among these organs.
Nonetheless, the notion that the 1735 date marks a modification to a pre-existing table organ, rather than the date of the organ’s original conception, raises some difficult questions. As we have noted, there are miters on the sides of the case, which indicate that extensions of the sliders once passed through them and served as the stop action. While old table organs were often so arranged, this neither demonstrates that the original construction was much before 1735 (the organ in San Dionisio Ocotepec, Oaxaca, of 1721 was built with such extensions) nor that at one time it sat on a table (the Ocotepec organ’s case extends to the floor). An examination of the Tlacochahuaya case also shows that the configuration of miters constitutes an adaptation of the case, since they are cut not into the case itself, but into boards that were themselves inserted into the case. When this was done is also unclear.
The type of key action in the Tlacochahuaya organ is also relevant to our thinking both about the date and the type of the hypothesized original organ—that is, whether it was built as a table organ or as a freestanding positive. We are dealing with two possible actions here: on the one hand, the actual key action, which is a suspended action without a rollerboard (no table organ with a rollerboard is currently catalogued in Mexico); and on the other hand, a pin action.15 Essentially, a pin action allows the keyboard to be placed above the pallets, more or less at the level of the sliders, so it can be seen as a height-saving measure. Table organs with pin actions would seem to be particularly suitable to Oaxaca, then, in two regards: first because frequent earthquakes required that churches be built relatively low to the ground; and second, because in Oaxaca’s villages resources were limited, so churches and their organs were often small.

What are the odds, then, of the Tlacochahuaya organ’s originally having had a pin action? Among the eleven existing table organs in the state of Tlaxcala, six have rollerboard-less, suspended actions like Tlacochahuaya’s, and five have pin actions.16 In Oaxaca, however, the pin action definitely dominates: only one (Santa María Peñoles) of the fourteen known table organs certainly had an action like Tlacochahuaya’s. On the other hand, there are no known floor-standing organs with pin actions in Oaxaca, or anywhere else in Mexico (supporting the idea that pin actions were meant to save height). Given that the conversion of a pin action to a suspended action would have required an extensive and complicated reworking of the fundamental structure of the organ, it would seem likely that the Tlacochahuaya organ today contains the type of key action with which it was first built, and that the odds therefore do not favor its having been first built as a table organ. Here, the floor of the original choir loft being lower means that, in spite of there having been a lower choir ceiling before the 1730s renovation, a floor organ could still have fit in the space.

If we turn to the two reed stops, the notion that they were added to the organ also implies some serious work to the windchest. Indeed, an ingenious construction in Tlacochahuaya does allow the grooveboard for the Clarín to pass in front of and under that of the Flautado. But this means that if the organ had a previous incarnation without the Clarín, accommodating the new stop meant not only making a new toeboard and slider, and drilling out the table, but the grooveboard of the façade Flautado also would have had to be rebuilt. Accommodating the Bajoncillo would have been a little easier since there could easily have been empty space beside the treble pipes of the Flautado, but the table still would have had to be drilled and a slider made.

From the point of view of organ construction, then, to achieve the present version of the Tlacochahuaya organ from the hypothetical earlier one, whether table- or floor-standing, would have required some very elaborate rebuilding. But other factors also speak against an earlier version of the organ. The similarities among the Oaxacan instruments we have mentioned extend to the design of their upper cases, suggesting that they were all built in the same shop, or at least belonged to a “school” of organbuilding practices. It is quite possible that the organs are all variations on a basic “model” that was produced in quantity: indeed, various parts of the Quiatoni organ are labeled “San Pedro,” which could suggest that the builder was constructing several similar instruments at one time. Thus, even if the Tlacochahuaya organ had an earlier version, it would seem to have been originally built only a few years before its rebuilding in 1735. This is possible, though such a thoroughgoing revision of a nearly new instrument would have required unusual circumstances.

But there are other possibilities. Perhaps the Tlacochahuaya organ was rethought as it was being built, employing roughed-out components that were semi-mass-produced and kept ready to finish in the shop. Or, maybe the organ was ordered “like that in San Pedro Quiatoni, but with a Clarín in the façade and a Bajoncillo.” In either case, we could suppose that the builder made some clever adaptations using a stock model of a 4' windchest already on hand, and the organ was delivered as a new organ that already had its 8' foundation and reeds. And perhaps the organbuilder fitted the new organ into an already framed-up case that had to be raised to accommodate the façade Clarín, which might account for the inserted boards that have the slider miters, as well as for the double row of ornamental cartouches above the keyboard (unusual for an organ this size). In the end, all we can say is that there are several plausible scenarios here, and at present we lack sufficient evidence to make a firm choice among them.

It is worth pointing out that the Tlacochahuaya organ is the only one of the above-mentioned group of organs to have a basic but complete Iberian-style reed ensemble. The placement of a Bajoncillo inside the case is likewise unusual (the more common interior reed in Oaxaca—either just in the bass, or in both bass and treble—is a Trompeta Real, invariably at 8¢ pitch). We do not know enough about Mexican organ music from the period to say whether this was due to budgetary or esthetic considerations. The first documented occurrence of façade trumpets in Mexico seems to be the Jorge de Sesma organ that was built in 1689 in Madrid for the cathedral of Mexico City. Façade trumpets, then of relatively recent invention, might have taken some time to reach a place like Tlacochahuaya, in which case the right-hand reed stop would date at the earliest from shortly before 1735; but, if we assume the organ was reconstructed from a complete, reedless original, either or both reeds could have been added at any point between 1735 and the installation of the existing stop action, as well. Whenever they were installed (in an adaptation of an existing almost-new organ, as original to an organ built in 1735, or as a modification to the organ after 1735), the reeds would have marked a dramatic change in the sound of the music, and the impulse that caused them to be included represents a change in the local musical esthetic—the dating of which carries large implications for our understanding of the history of this organ and the way music of a given period was played on it.

As we have mentioned, the slots in the sides of the case suggest that the present stop action postdates the reed stops; and we have demonstrated that there existed in Oaxaca freestanding organs with a lower case that used extensions of the sliders protruding through the case as the register action. In fact, if, as is often assumed, the organ case was painted at the time the church was vaulted, then we have additional evidence that the stop action came later, for the scribe marks for the stop action’s miters are still visible—on top of the case painting.

Having been fitted into a pre-existing case, the stop action occupies insufficient space and its parts are too small to develop leverage enough to move the sliders easily. To compound the problem, the connections between the traces and the (too short) levers on the rollers are secured simply by loose-fitting nails. All of this results in so much resistance and slack in the system that changing the position of a stopknob in no way guarantees that the corresponding slider will have budged. Everything about the stop action suggests improvised workmanship, which is inconsistent with the rest of the organ, as well as with surviving eighteenth- and nineteenth-century stop actions in other Oaxacan organs.17 It would seem reasonable to assume that the stop action is a relatively recent, cosmetic addition and that it may well represent the last major alteration the organ endured before the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The nails, which are inclined to fall out at inopportune moments, could be later still.

With Mexico’s war for independence from Spain (1810–1821), political events began to exercise significant influence on the history of the organ in Mexico. Since independence, Mexican politics have been characterized by frequent periods of instability punctuated by civil wars, not to mention political and military incursions from Europe and the United States. Such an environment was hardly conducive to the culture of the organ, for which the most important single political event of the period is probably the suppression of religious orders and the nationalization of ecclesiastical property that began in 1859. For the organ in general, this meant less funding for new building as the relationship between church and state as well as the ownership of church properties remained unresolved through the third quarter of the nineteenth century as chaotic governments quickly succeeded one another. While organs of first-rate workmanship were sometimes built and older instruments were repaired after 1859, an irreversible slide had begun, fueled by political and ecclesiastical conflicts, lack of funds, shifts in spending priorities towards more secular projects, and social instability; and the coup de grâce was delivered in the form of the 1910–1920 revolution, during which many organs, reportedly including that of Tlacochahuaya, having become increasingly decrepit from lack of maintenance, were rendered unplayable by occupying armies and subsequent vandalism.18 Changes in liturgical practice since Vatican II (1962–65) have established tastes unsympathetic to the revival of older forms of ecclesiastical music, and today in the overwhelming majority of Mexican churches the organs, whether functional or not, are regarded as mere curiosities—where they are recognized as organs at all.

4. The Organ: Renovation

Such was the state of the Tlacochahuaya organ until 1990–91, when the organ was disassembled, cleaned, and thoroughly rebuilt. The project was under the direction of the North American organ builder, Susan Tattershall. The Mexican builders José Luís Falcón and Joaquín Wesslowski collaborated. We need only focus on two aspects of this work as Tattershall has published a fuller account of it.19 We need to think, however, about what happened to the pipework and the bellows.

Luckily, about half of the pipework in Tlacochahuaya is old (in the Tapado, for instance, 20 of the 45 pipes are new, and all but one of these is in the treble). The extant pipes were repaired and the ranks were completed with new work by Joaquín Wesslowski.20 The new pipework in Tlacochahuaya was finely made to replicate the old, which has not always been the case with modern-day interventions in Oaxaca’s organs. The Oaxacan habit of numbering all pipes from 1 to 45 facilitated the relocation of pipes that had been moved. Notwithstanding that pipes are sometimes reused (and lengthened or shortened) and can carry several numbers, and that the presence of breaking registers can complicate the reconstruction of an organ’s disposition, similar organs in the area confirm Tattershall’s conclusions in this regard.

Naturally the question arises as to what alterations the pipework may have endured over the years. The organs at San Andrés Zautla and San Pedro Quiatoni provide a useful comparison, for both organs are practically complete (the Quiatoni organ is unplayable), including almost all their pipework, and the Quiatoni organ gives every evidence of being largely in its original (1729) state.21 As we have noted, both are in many ways similar to the Tlacochahuaya instrument. In all three organs all the principal ranks are of almost the same scale and have mouths 1/4 of their circumference. Cutups vary and some in the Tlacochahuaya organ show signs of adjustment, but it is safe to say the originals averaged around 1/4 in the bass, increasing to 2/5 in the treble. The similarities are apparent in the following table, which compares the diameters of the 4¢ façade ranks at Tlacochahuaya, Quiatoni, and Zautla, to which, for interest’s sake, we have added the Yucuxaco organ’s 4¢ façade rank.22 The Yucuxaco organ is about two pipes narrower than the other three, though its scales follow a similar pattern; again, we wonder if all of these organs could be by the same builder.23 (See Scale chart 1.)

There is every indication that at least in terms of its grosser measurements, the Tlacochahuaya pipework reflects early practice and that pipes were not substituted after “classical” (i.e., derived from Iberian baroque practice) organ building ceased to be practiced in Oaxaca around 1900. Furthermore, the principal chorus stands substantially as it was designed, and the proportional strength among its ranks probably does not deviate far from the classic-period organbuilders’ intentions.

Not enough study of Oaxacan reed stops has yet been made to determine whether the present duckbill shallots and tongues (in both stops) reflect local 18th-century practice. Their similarity to Spanish and Mexican reeds of the time, however, suggests that they do. Admittedly, neither of the reed stops at Tlacochahuaya works very well; the quality is uneven and the pipes speak far more slowly than do 18th-century Spanish and Portuguese examples. Indeed, they speak so slowly and irregularly that playing the kind of fast passages and repeated notes called for in Iberian Tientos de clarínes, Tientos de batalla, etc., is virtually impossible.

As we have noted, the stopped 8' rank was rebuilt from a 4' one; both of the two lowest octaves are numbered as if they were the first octave, so presumably the lowest octave was added to a pre-existing stop—which just possibly could have come from another organ, or from an existing supply of pipes in the builder’s shop. (An extension was built on the topboard to hold the lowest eight pipes.) It conforms in mouth shape, scale, etc., with other similar eighteenth-century Mexican stops. The diameters of the C-pipes are compared with those of the similar stop at San Pedro Quiatoni in the following table. (See Scale chart 2.)

Tattershall describes making what was essentially a newly built bellows to replace the pre-1990 winding system, which, unless something happened after Fesperman and Kelemen photographed the organ, must have been intact, although not functional, at the time of her work; and she suggests that this older winding system had in turn replaced one that had been behind the organ. This of course assumes an altogether different earlier location for the organ, the bellows of which then would have been rebuilt when the organ was given its present location at the side of the gallery. She bases the theory that the bellows was once behind the organ on the claim that the old right-hand stops, which protruded through the side of the case, could not be reached had the bellows been at the side; but this is not true, for experimentation demonstrates that the miters on the right of the case are perfectly accessible to anyone standing at the organist’s right (the Pájaro stop is still worked this way). There is really no evidence to suggest that the bellows was ever behind the organ. Most importantly, Tattershall believes the pre-1990 bellows to have been of 19th-century construction and she did not preserve it. She describes it as “a set of internal frames, onto which an enormous hand-sewn bag of cowskin had been tacked with upholstery nails. . . . When open, it looked like an enormous smithy’s bellows, though rectangular . . . A tell-tale strip of white fuzz and old glue around the rim of the bellows covers made it clear that the cowhide arrangement was a later creation . . .”24 But later than when? For, as nobody knew in 1990, this is neither a smithy bellows nor a 19th-century type of organ bellows, but a kind of organ bellows that was in use at least from the early 16th century (a Spanish example of which was recently documented by Gerard A. C. de Graaf in a little organ from the 1520s in Salamanca Cathedral’s Capilla Dorada).25 It is not impossible that the old Tlacochahuaya bellows was revised in the 19th century, but nevertheless it represented a type of Iberian bellows with a long history and it could have been made at any time during the organ’s existence—or earlier, given that it could have been brought from another location during a revision in the Tlacochahuaya organ. As only its weights are preserved, we are unlikely ever to resolve the questions about the old bellows’ date and provenance, which are raised by de Graaf’s description of the Capilla Dorada organ. Bellows of the Capilla Dorada type survive in other locations in Oaxaca,26 however, and study of them could help to clarify the issue.

This in turn opens the question of the organ’s earlier windpressure(s). Today the organ speaks on 84mm, achieved by two 1990 wedge bellows weighted by the old but undatable weights.27 Some people have suggested this may be too high, and the organ at San Andrés Zautla, whose principal pipes are virtually identical to those at Tlacochahuaya, and which was rebuilt by Tattershall in 1998 with newly made wedge bellows, speaks on only 73mm.28 But the matter of Tlacochahuaya’s wind pressure remains speculative, for if it were lower than 84mm the reed pipes would behave even less satisfactorily than at present; so all we can say about the pre-1990 winding system is that it was of the Capilla Dorada type, its provenance is undeterminable, and it may have endured several revisions over at least the past 280 years.

Another factor influencing the organ’s sound is that the case presently has no back, and in 1990–91 the organ was voiced on the assumption that this was the way it had always been. However, most old organ cases in Oaxaca have backs, and a pre-restoration photograph of the organ by John Fesperman’s Smithsonian Institution team29 shows a panel, unfastened at the top, leaning against the wall behind the organ. At least one performer has experimented with installing temporary backs, and whether the back of the case is open or closed makes a discernible difference in the organ’s sound. The age of the panel in the Fesperman photograph is of course indeterminable.

The organ’s keyboard is evidently not original. The keys are stamped with numbers in the manner of a pre-fabricated keyboard of the 19th century. That it was not built specifically for Tlacochahuaya is made completely clear by its numbering: the lowest key begins with the number 5. The keys for C, C-sharp, D and E-flat were discarded in adapting it to the short-octave chest. Accordingly, the highest key is numbered 49. The octave span, 165mm, is characteristic of late 19th-century pianos and harmoniums.30

(please go to continuation)

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John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois

Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church, Lexington, Kentucky, Buzard 2009–2010 renovation

Hayes Barton United Methodist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina, Buzard Opus 39, June 2010

I am proud to showcase a recently completed new organ, and a renovation project successfully accomplished by our service and tonal departments, to give a glimpse into the depth of our firm, and the differing types of projects that we regularly and successfully undertake.
Some years back The Diapason featured a renovation project of ours at First Presbyterian Church, also in Lexington, Kentucky. Word of the success of this project quickly sped through the community, and we were contacted by Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church’s music director, Clif Cason, about the possibility of giving their 1963 Rieger tracker action organ a mechanical and tonal “going over.” He and the parishioners at Maxwell Street Church liked the transparency and vigor of the organ’s neo-Baroque style, but weren’t convinced of the inharmonic noise in the flue voicing, nor the unstable and thin-toned reeds. The organ exhibited mechanical symptoms which signaled that work was necessary, and we discovered that the organ was impossible to tune, or keep in tune.
All of us had a turn to inspect this organ: general manager Charles Eames, tonal director Brian Davis, service department director Keith Williams, service department foreman, David Brown, and I. We discovered that the pallets had been covered in a foam-rubber substance, which was becoming sticky and gooey. Additionally, the felt bushings in the keyboards and pedalboard had worn to a point at which the action was clattery. The organ leaked wind inordinately, especially where the pull-down wires exited the slider chests’ pallet boxes.
We re-covered the pallets with felt and leather. All the deteriorated leather purses at the pull-down wires were replaced with felt punchings held down by small lead weights. Keyboards and pedalboard were restored, tracker “combs” that had been removed were replaced, small “bleed” holes were drilled into the slider chests’ tables, and the action was re-hung and balanced properly. Since re-regulating the action and eliminating the flaws we found in our initial inspection, we have discovered that many of the steel needle-axles that act as a bearing for the actions’ squares have worn and will on occasion jump out of their bearing clevises. Replacement of these axles will be a future maintenance operation.
Tonally, the organ was not a happy instrument. Years of heavy cone tuning had done its damage, especially to the small mixture pipes in the organ. Tuning scrolls on façade pipes and the larger flue pipes on the chests had been rolled down too far, and could not tune flat enough. Throughout, the sound was noisy, with a disproportionate amount of speech articulation, scratchiness in the tone, and in many of the small mixture pipes, quick speech to the point of over-blowing an octave. The reeds’ resonators were too short to couple to the pitches that the reeds’ tongues were producing, contributing to a thin and unstable tone. We all concluded that the existing flue pipes could be physically restored and the voicing amended for a significantly improved musical result. However, the reed pipes needed to be replaced.
Our tonal director, Brian Davis, came to us from Visser-Rowland & Associates and was not only intimate with the techniques of flue-regulation voicing, but also significant achievements in neo-Baroque reed making that had been made by German reed pipe maker Roland Killinger in the late 1960s. These developments produced neo-Baroque reeds of excellent tone and tuning stability, even though voiced on very low wind pressures. Ironically, just as Mr. Killinger’s experiments began to produce results, the neo-Baroque trend ended, and few of these new reeds were ever made—until this project.
All of the organ’s pipes (except the largest wood pipes screwed onto the case sides) came back to our workshop for cleaning, repair, and re-voicing. The damage to the small pipes by heavy cone tuning was too significant to warrant restoration of the cone-tuning system, so we installed stainless steel tuning slides on the smaller pipes, and restored (in many instances replaced) the scrolls on the larger pipes. While we had the pipes out we also removed the toeboards to vacuum clean the chest tables and sliders, and to manufacture toeboard overlays and new racking for the new reeds. We observed that the organ used modern-style spring-loaded slider seals, except that from about middle “C” on up these sleeves were sealed with diaphragms of pneumatic leather—all of which were ripped and leaking. No wonder this organ could not be tuned, and no wonder former technicians simply bashed and bashed those poor little pipes sharper and sharper with their tuning cones—because they weren’t receiving enough wind, because of the leaking leather! New slider seals sans leather replaced the originals. Not surprisingly, now the organ can be tuned, and stays in tune.
In order to get as much sound from the relatively small-scaled 16′ Subbass pipes (stamped “Lieblich” by the way), the corrugated tubing connecting the toe holes on the chest to the toes of the pipes screwed onto the case was replaced with larger diameter tubing, and we installed “lifters” onto the pallets, so that the pedal action would be able to open the pallets farther.
There was a half-length 16′ Posaune in the Pedal, but it was of such small scale, producing no fundamental pitch, that we opted to place a nicely scaled 8′ Trompete in its place. Music director Clif Cason envisions a second phase of the project to install a new full-length 16′ Posaune in the back of the organ, and a Pedal 16′ Offenbass in additional cases alongside the existing instrument. This may be tied into a long-hoped-for chancel renovation and re-configuration project.
The re-installation of the organ took approximately two weeks, and tonal finishing occupied three weeks. The result is a phenomenally clean, clear, transparent, buoyant, musical sound. The reeds are full and round, the direct result of Roland Killinger’s research from the 1960s. This organ, and our rebuilt organ at First Presbyterian Church, will be featured in the AGO regional convention to be held next summer in Lexington.
It is possible to work faithfully in a style that may not be one’s own when renovating an existing instrument. But this takes complete subrogation of one’s self from the tonal and mechanical equation. Our firm has the depth and experience to successfully undertake such a project, while at the same time developing our own personal style of modern organbuilding. Many know that I’m a romantic at heart. One of my colleagues said to my son at the recent AGO convention (to paraphrase) “It’s because of your father, that we can build modern romantic organs.”
The new organ at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina came about because the wonderful people on the organ committee had a romantic and emotional reaction to our organs at All Saints Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and Williamsburg Presbyterian Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. They asked their consultant, Keith Shafer, why they needed to listen to any other builders’ instruments after hearing ours, because they knew in their hearts that they had fallen in love. But they followed the consultant’s discipline, and hearing others confirmed their impression of heart. They had to have a Buzard organ in their church!
Their organ project was coupled with a tremendously successful sanctuary renovation project, in which the visual and acoustical environments were transformed into a dignified, lively and holy place of worship. Organist David Witt spent endless hours coordinating architects, contractors, and consultants. The interior designer was Terry Byrd Eason and the acoustician was Dana Kirkegaard.
Engineering this instrument of 43 stops and 52 ranks was one of the greatest physical challenges for executive vice-president Charles Eames (also a Visser-Rowland alumnus). Every inch of roof gable, every nook and cranny of former organ chambers, and a space above a newly developed sacristy became home for the instrument, all of which can easily be reached for maintenance and tuning.
The warmth and breadth of the tonal palette encompasses a dynamic and lively Principal chorus as the backbone of the instrument, as well as flute, string, and reed choruses. No two stops of the same class are identical, which translates into tremendous tonal variety. The organ can accompany a single small child, through a choir of 100. And, the improved acoustics coupled with our voicing allows one to feel the sound all around oneself, and that one is always supported in singing.
During our last week of tonal finishing in early June, son Stephen came down to Raleigh from his last summer at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and played an impromptu concert for the members of the church’s building and organ committees. Playing for about half an hour, the clarity of the Principal choruses was highlighted, then the softer, suave voices in the Swell and Choir as well as the lyrical reeds; then the organ’s orchestral nature shone in the Willan Introduction, Passacaglia, and Fugue. All agreed that they never thought pipe organs could sound this way.
Yes, I am a romantic at heart, a professional of mind, perhaps a pragmatist and dreamer all rolled into one. But so is everyone else on my staff, and we would love nothing more than to be a part of your worshipping community, whether it involves building you a new pipe organ, or renovating an instrument you have, with which you want to fall in love again.
—John-Paul Buzard

Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church, Lexington, Kentucky
1963 Rieger Orgelbau, Austria, mechanical action, 21 stops, 30 ranks
2010 renovations John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois. Completed October 15, 2010

HAUPTWERK Manual I 55mm wind pressure
8′ Principal 61 pipes
8′ Röhrflöte 61 pipes
4′ Octave 61 pipes
II Sesquialter 122 pipes
2′ Blockflöte 61 pipes
11⁄3′ Mixtur V 305 pipes
16′ Röhrschalmei 61 pipes*
8′ Trompete 61 pipes*
II–I 8′

POSITIV Manual II
55mm wind pressure
8′ Holzgedeckt 61 pipes
4′ Principal 61 pipes
4′ Koppelflöte 61 pipes
2′ Octave 61 pipes
11⁄3′ Quint 61 pipes
2⁄3′ Scharff IV 244 pipes
8′ Krummhorn 61 pipes*
Tremulant

PEDAL 55mm wind pressure
16′ Offenbass (* prepared for)
16′ Subbass 44 pipes
8′ Octavbass 32 pipes
8′ Subbass 32 notes
4′ Gemshorn 32 pipes
2′ Rauschpfeiffe III 96 pipes
16′ Posaune (* prepared for)
8′ Trompete 32 pipes*
4′ Schalmei 32 pipes*
Tremulant
I–P 8′
II–P 8′
(* denotes new pipes)

John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois
Hayes Barton United Methodist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina
Three manuals, 43 stops, 52 ranks, electric-slider action
Completed June 2010

GREAT (4-inch wind pressure)
16′ Lieblich Gedeckt 61 pipes
8′ Open Diapason 61 pipes
polished tin in façade
8′ Viola da Gamba 61 pipes
8′ Flûte Harmonique 61 pipes
polished tin in façade
8′ Bourdon 61 pipes
4′ Principal 61 pipes
4′ Spire Flute 61 pipes
22⁄3′ Twelfth 61 pipes
2’ Fifteenth 61 pipes
11⁄3′ Mixture IV 244 pipes
8′ Trompete 68 pipes
(doubled flue trebles)
8′ Tromba (Pedal)
4′ Tromba Clarion (Pedal)
8′ Major Tuba (Choir)
Tuba Solo (melody coupler)
Tremulant
Cymbalstern 14 bells
Chimes (digital)
Great-Great 16-UO-4
Swell-Great 16-8-4
Choir-Great 16-8-4

SWELL (4-inch wind pressure)
16′ Gedeckt Pommer 43 pipes
(1–18 from Great)
8′ Violin Diapason 61 pipes
8′ Stopped Diapason 61 pipes
8′ Salicional 61 pipes
8′ Voix Celeste 61 pipes
8′ Flûte Cœlestis 86 pipes
(Ludwigtone)
4′ Principal 61 pipes
4′ Harmonic Flute 61 pipes
22⁄3′ Nazard 61 pipes
2′ Recorder 61 pipes
13⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes
2′ Full Mixture IV 244 pipes
16′ Bassoon 85 pipes
8′ Trompette 68 pipes
(doubled flue trebles)
8′ Oboe 61 pipes
4′ Clarion (ext Bassoon)
8′ Major Tuba (Choir)
Tremulant
Chimes (digital)
Swell-Swell 16-UO-4

CHOIR (4-inch wind pressure, except as noted)
8′ English Open Diapason 61 pipes
8′ Flûte à Bibéron 61 pipes
8′ Dulciana 61 pipes
8′ Unda Maris 49 pipes
4′ Principal 61 pipes
4′ Block Flute 61 pipes
2′ Doublette 61 pipes
11⁄3′ Larigot 61 pipes
1′ Fourniture IV 244 pipes
8′ Clarinet 61 pipes
8′ Tromba (Pedal)
4′ Tromba Clarion (Pedal)
8′ Major Tuba 61 pipes
25 inch wind pressure
Tremulant
Chimes (digital)
Harp (digital)
Celesta (digital)
Choir-Choir 16-UO-4
Swell-Choir 16-8-4

PEDAL (4-inch wind pressure, except as noted)
32′ Double Open Diapason (digital)
32′ Subbass (digital)
32′ Lieblich Gedeckt (digital)
16′ Open Diapason 32 pipes
wood and metal in facade;
1–6 12-inch wind
16′ Bourdon 44 pipes
8′ Open Bass 44 pipes
polished tin in façade
8′ Principal 44 pipes
polished tin in façade
8′ Bourdon (ext)
8′ Violoncello 32 pipes
polished tin in façade
4′ Choral Bass (ext)
4′ Open Flute (ext)
16′ Trombone 85 pipes
7-inch wind pressure
16′ Bassoon (Swell)
8′ Trumpet (ext)
4′ Clarion (ext)
8′ Major Tuba (Choir)
Chimes (digital)
Great-Pedal 8-4
Swell-Pedal 8-4
Choir-Pedal 8-4

Photo credit: John-Paul Buzard

800/397-3103
www.Buzardorgans.com

M.P. Rathke restores 1897 Möller Opus 188

Zion’s Lutheran Church, East Germantown, Indiana

Michael Rathke

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Physical repairs, reinforcement, and reconstruction 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Replica reservoir placement and Great wind duct re-routing—During its time at Zion’s, the Möller’s supreme drawback had been a lack of maintenance access. The general culprit was a narrow (82′′) chamber opening, compared with the width of the organ’s main internal structure (80′′), but specific obstacles included the location and orientation of both the original double-rise reservoir and the Great wind duct.

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

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

Tonal restoration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restorers of the Organ

Joey Jarboe

Caleb Ringwald

Nicholas Ringwald

Paul Rathke

Michael Rathke

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

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