Cover feature

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Devon Hollingsworth served for 25 years as director of music/organist at Christ Church of Oak Brook, in Illinois, where he continues in his 33rd year as organist. His church music training was at Wheaton College (Illinois) and Northwestern University, studying organ performance with Frederick Schulze, Jack Goode, Gladys Christensen, and Karel Paukert, and choral training with Rex Hicks and Grigg Fountain. He was responsible for more than 15 music groups at Christ Church, including a concert series, a conservatory of music, and a full Kindermusik program. Hollingsworth has been featured on national television for his organ design and consultation activities. He is married to Carol, and they live in DeKalb, Illinois, where he has installed 15 ranks of pipes to play along with their custom Allen organ in a new music room. The organ and the grand piano play from the computer, and several organs have been recently added to the collection, including a player pipe organ, an RT-3 Hammond organ with Leslie speaker, a second grand piano, and a Holmberg pipe organ clock. Tours are available by request.

Long before I began my formal training
for degrees in organ performance, I spent many occasions playing my grandmother’s Hammond C-3, known as the “Church Model Hammond.” During my junior year in high school, in 1962, I was given the job of organist at my family’s church, the Evangelical Free Church of Boone, Iowa. It was there that I learned long-suffering and patience, playing the wheezy amplified reed Wurlitzer organ that would entertain the kids as well as the adults by catching fire at least once a year during services.
My parents eventually purchased a Hammond A-100 (see photo) for my home practicing, and I used that organ extensively for practice, even during summers off from college. So the concept of a home organ was well established, and there was another interesting story I often heard from members of the Free Church once they found out about my interest in organ playing. These people would tell me about Byron Carlson, another “musical son” of the congregation, who removed a small theatre organ from the Boone theatre, and installed it in his parents’ house.
So, early on, when I determined that the pipe organ was going to be my life focus and profession, the seeds of a home pipe organ were firmly planted in my mind. And I was thrilled later in my college years to meet Byron Carlson, who had been quite successful in his own business, manufacturing power cords for vacuum cleaners, and had built a mansion around a four-manual theatre organ he secured from a theatre in Chicago. During a trip to dedicate an organ in Minneapolis, I got to visit the Carlsons, and played the organ, and got to inspect the details of the meticulously done installation.

Hammond roots
The practicing I had done on the Hammond organ at home prepared me for a very busy organ department at Wheaton College, where student practice time on even the small pipe organs in their little rooms was at a premium. I found, though, that I could spend many extra hours on the Hammond RT-3, a concert organ Hammond built supposedly to please classical organists. It proved valuable for me, because it had the standard pedalboard, and the click and pop of the Hammond keying forced me to play correctly, as it was very unforgiving of variations in rhythm and phrasing—I was forced to play steadily and cleanly. I believe I was the lone individual who didn’t mind the Hammond, so there was always an instrument free for me on which to practice!
The Wheaton College 4-manual 65-rank Schantz pipe organ console is pictured here. Of course, it was a treat to get time on this instrument, so we made the most of it when the opportunities came.

First:
Wicks practice organ
On I went to Northwestern for graduate studies in organ performance, as well as a new part-time position as organist-choirmaster at Trinity Lutheran Church in Skokie. During this time, I was alerted to the availability of one of those small practice organs built by Wicks Organ Company, well worn from rigorous practicing of students for many years; $250 and it came to my three-room apartment at Trinity, where I was now organist-choirmaster-custodian!
It soon grew from the three ranks of Dulciana, Salicional, and Flute to include a Schantz 2′ Principal, and soon after that I was fortunate to buy the bottom 24 pipes of an almost-new Schantz 8′ Principal, so I now had this stop at 8′ through 2′ pitch. By this time also, having heard there was a newer console available for sale at the Wicks factory, I drove to Highland, Illinois and got a beautiful blonde-finish console that would allow for the growth of many more pipes and stops. Back in those years, sets of good pipework were very inexpensive, as many new organs were being built, and very little of the old pipework would be included or be rebuilt into the new instruments. Incidentally, returning from Highland wasn’t much fun as I found myself driving in a blinding snowstorm, but made it safely back to Skokie.
See the photo of the original console and three ranks of pipes, followed by the expanded specification, with chests and pipes filling the living room and bedroom of the three-room apartment.
Before I knew it, I had ten ranks playing, including a two-rank Sesquialtera made from two sets of Kimball pipes, and purchased with a brand new chest for only $150! Kurt Roderer and the workers at his shop helped me very often at no charge, which enabled me to secure the best collection of pipework and chest work possible during those years.
After six years in the small apartment, I moved the organ, along with the 7′5″ Yamaha piano I had purchased new, into the upper story of a two-flat owned by a dear choir member. The grand piano and organ console had to be craned up to the second-floor little balcony, and we put on quite a show for the neighbors, who were quite used to pianos being craned up, but not pipe organ consoles. This apartment had nine rooms including a sun porch, with all the rooms having nine-foot ceilings! Still, I had to hang the taller pipes on the wall, and lay down on the floor a couple wooden ones, but it was a great year.

Second:
Kilgen—and a Wangerin Organ Player!
During that year I acquired another practice organ from Wheaton College, a two-rank Kilgen Petite Ensemble. This was the favorite of the practice organs during my four years there at Wheaton, as it had a loud string rank as well as a flute, and produced the sound of an organ many times its size. This pipe organ arrived at a very timely moment, as I had just purchased a Wangerin Organ Player while on a trip to Minneapolis to dedicate a pipe organ in a suburb there. I had a fun time wiring the pipes, as there were no labels, only a “rat’s nest” of wires.
This little two-rank organ came in very handy, though, on the Fourth of July weekend. My landlady had warned me that I probably wouldn’t be able to do much, maybe not even sleep, as the next-door neighbors had teenage kids who brought a large stereo outside to their back yard, and usually cranked up the stereo for quite a party with their friends. My landlady was not exaggerating either, as the noise was so loud, I was about to give up and go away myself as I was the only one in the building, the others having left for the weekend to avoid the noise!
Then an idea came to me. I put a piano roll in the player organ, the pipes of which were now in the sunroom. I set the player to “Repeat” so the roll would automatically rewind and play continuously. I opened the windows on the side of the house where all the noise was coming from. The player wasn’t very loud, but its sound caused quite a chaos in the existing music and must have ruined their party, because within a half hour, they had relocated to another place, where they undoubtedly were driving other neighbors crazy.
I loved this apartment dearly, but I only could stay there a year, as I soon got my first full-time job at Christ Church of Oak Brook. A couple of choir members there helped me move the organs during a terrible snowstorm to my first house, in Hinsdale. Curiously enough, one of them, my soon-to-be assistant director, had an eight-rank Kilgen in his house! He never got it playing, though, and soon after he was married, the organ was sold.
My grand piano and two pipe organs were installed in the 2½-car garage, which the previous owners had already partially converted into a large family room. The main organ and piano filled this room, and the roll player and pipes were in an alcove just inside the house from that room. Carol and I got married at that time and soon after that, in September 1982, our son Mark arrived.

Movin’ on up
It wasn’t long before the housing market suddenly skyrocketed, and we discovered that our land was worth more than the house. So we traded the land for a new two-story house (we had to pay a lot more also!), and this time we had to move the organs and piano only a mile to the west of where we lived in Hinsdale to Willowbrook.
The builder caught the vision for the pipe organ, and left out a bedroom upstairs so we could have a two-story music room. The pipes looked stunning, mounted on three levels. We lived there for 11 years. It was four years until I got the pipes hooked up, as I had to figure out how I was going to connect the new Allen Classic I digital organ console to the pipes. Allen built a relay that has been working flawlessly ever since. Many musical gatherings and hymn sings were held there until a forced downsizing of my position at Christ Church meant that we had to do some serious downsizing at home also.
We had heard about the towns of DeKalb and Sycamore, about 45 miles from Christ Church in Oak Brook, and the second house we looked at was the one we’re still living in, in spite of the fact when we first moved in, there was little room for the instruments. Fortunately, the basement was finished, so the Kilgen went down there, along with my stereo and music. The pipes resided in a spare bedroom upstairs for about two years, until one day when Carol mentioned that I might consider cutting a hole in the bedroom wall and set the pipes to playing in that room. It was not a very expensive process, and so in about six weeks, I had them playing again. It normally took only three weeks, but this time I had to extend many cables, so it took a bit longer.
One December, we had over ten gatherings of ten to fifteen people each time. Hundreds of visitors later, it became possible to consider either building a music room onto the existing house or finding a bigger one.

The music room
The market was great for buying a new house, but not so great for selling the existing one. Every other house that we visited seemed to be good for the instruments but not suitable in other areas, or the other areas were wonderful, but there would have to be considerable modification of the rooms where we might put the instruments. Often, there would be no living room, dining room, or either left after adding the instruments. So, we decided to add a music room, and as is often wont to happen, we eventually remodeled the entire house inside and out. Carol had been teaching piano students for several years, and after getting her another smaller grand to use in teaching as well as a possible second piano for concerts and gatherings, we embarked on what could have been a disaster from beginning to end, and we heard many tales of woe from many people who had undertaken remodeling projects on their homes!
We heard about Andy’s Construction from a parent of one of Carol’s students, and Ken and Ben began what would be the most wonderful construction project you could ever hope for. They knew nothing about pipe organs, but they carefully made sure that the room was done to perfection, and we soon discovered that this room is the best yet! Ken and Ben Anderson made sure there was someone at the house every day but a couple of days, so things got done quite fast, and some days more than one activity was going on at the same time. I remember one day when four different companies were working on the house! Soundwise, the pipes seem to be perfectly scaled for this wonderful room, and there is now room for 20+ people to enjoy the instruments and take part in our sing-a-longs.
Many people have asked how the neighbors like us with two pipe organs. I have often wondered what they thought when we were carrying those huge 10-foot-long pipes into our homes. I have never had one complaint from any neighbor, and, in every instance, the neighbors have been sorry to have us leave. Because of my allergies, I have seldom had the luxury of having the windows open, so there were precious few times when the neighbors could hear the organs. Because they’re on low wind pressures, 3½ and 4 inches water column for each organ, the sound doesn’t carry well through the air.
During my time in the two-flat apartment, I was lucky to be able to walk down the street while a friend played the organ one evening. There, because of trees overhanging the street on both sides, the sound softly wafted all the way down our block, very pleasant and unusual to hear, but enjoyable for sure. While the piano and organ console were being craned down from the apartment, I stood with our next-door neighbors, who were teary-eyed to see the instruments and me leave. So I’ve always had a good relationship with neighbors, who enjoy bringing friends and relatives to see the house, and we’ve made hundreds of new friends and hope to continue doing so.
Our sincere hope is to share the music and the instruments with as many people as we possibly can, and to promote one of our dearest causes, the singing of hymns and the performance of the finest music possible. You are cordially invited to contact us at any time to set up an opportunity to share with your relatives and friends our collections of instruments. ■

The main organ and Yamaha piano have been moved six times:
• Three-room apartment in the parish house of Trinity Lutheran Church, Skokie, 1970–76
• Top nine-room apartment in Evanston, 1976–77
• Hinsdale house, 1977–91
• Willowbrook house, 1991–2002
• Bedroom of DeKalb home, 2002–09
• New music room addition, 2009
The pipe ranks and their builders:
Wooden Flute 16′–2′, Wicks
Metal Flute 4′–2′, Stinkens
Principal 8′–2′, Schantz
Diapason 4′–2′, Stinkens
Salicional 8′–2′, Casavant
Salicional Celeste 4′–2′, Wicks
Sesquialtera (derived from a four-rank Kimball Mixture)
String Mixture, five ranks, Aeolian
Trumpet 8′, Stinkens

There are currently 14 pipe ranks playing, and the console and relay are prepared for up to 15 ranks.

Pipe analysis
16′ Bourdon 96 pipes Wicks
8′ Principal 84 pipes Schantz
8′ Diapason 72 pipes Stinkens
(bottom 12 wood)
8′ Metal Flute 72 pipes Stinkens
4′ Salicional 83 pipes Casavant
4′ Salicional Celeste 72 pipes Wicks
Sesquialtera II 98 pipes Kimball
Harmonic Mixture 287 pipes Aeolian
8′ Trumpet 61 pipes Stinkens
925 pipes

Pipe section
GREAT
8′ Principal
8′ Diapason
8′ Metal Flute
8′ Salicional
4′ Principal
4′ Diapason
4′ Bourdon
4′ Metal Flute
2′ Principal
Sesquialtera II
Harmonic Mixture V

SWELL
16′ Bourdon
8′ Bourdon
8′ Salicional
8′ Salicional Celeste
4′ Principal
4′ Bourdon
4′ Metal Flute
4′ Salicional
4′ Salicional Celeste
2′ Bourdon
Gadget II

PEDAL
16′ Bourdon
8′ Principal
8′ Bourdon
8′ Metal Flute
4′ Principal
4′ Metal Flute
Gadget I

Currently, Swell Gadget II plays a 29-tuned bars Glockenspiel

Digital section
GREAT
8′ Swell to Great
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflote
4′ Octave
4′ Koppelflote
2′ Flachflote
Mixture IV
Gr-Ped Unenclosed
Reverberation

SWELL
8′ Gedackt
8′ Salicional
8′ Voix Celeste
4′ Koppelflote
2′ Klein Principal
Scharf II
8′ Krummhorn

PEDAL
16′ Gedackt
16′ Lieblich Gedackt
8′ Octave
8′ Flute
4′ Choral Bass
8′ Trompete
8′ Great to Pedal
8′ Swell to Pedal

MIDI to Swell
MIDI to Great
MIDI to Pedal
Antiphonal speakers
Global tuning

J.H. & C.S. Odell,
East Hampton, Connecticut
Scarborough Presbyterian Church, Scarborough, New York
I remember receiving my first phone call from Scarborough Presbyterian Church in late January 2005. I was delighted to have the chance to become acquainted with this church and with its organ, my own family’s J.H. and C.S. Odell Opus 327, installed in 1894. Six years on, there is much to report.
One cannot help but be immediately taken in by the beauty of Scarborough Presbyterian, both interior and exterior. The church is set along old Route 9 in Briarcliff Manor. Approached from either north or south, the siting of the building (whose exterior is rich with classical elements) blends in gracefully with its setting.
Scarborough Church was a gift from Mrs. Elliott Shepard as a memorial to her husband in 1893. The architects of record for the church were Haydel and Shepard, a short-lived partnership of Stanford White’s nephew, Haydel, and a nephew of Mr. Shepard. Their only other significant building, the Fabbri Mansion on Manhattan’s 64th Street, echoes the neo-classical style of Scarborough Church—briefly called, “Shepard Memorial,” but organized later as Scarborough Presbyterian. A reprint of the dedication announcement from the May 12, 1895 edition of the New York Times includes copious detail of the building’s appointments, which in modern architectural parlance is properly classified as Beaux-Arts:

The main design of the ground plan is a cross, a porte cochere being one of the short arms of the cross, and the pastor’s study the other arm. The church is built of granite rubble, with trimmings of Indiana limestone. The granite is of a pink tinge, which harmonizes pleasantly with the grayish limestone, and the effect is very striking to the visitor.
The height of the tower from the steps to the top of the cross is about 120 feet. The architecture of the exterior is a distinctly American interpretation of the Renaissance idea as it was in the time of Louis XIV. The granite used in the body of the structure was quarried on the estate of Col. Shepard, which is a short distance south of the edifice.
In the three large windows of the main structure, each nineteen feet high, are stained glass designs. Strictly classical treatment has been used in the interior of the building. The main auditorium has a seating capacity of 350, and the Sunday-school room of 150 persons. The floors are of mosaic in the church, and the pews are of carved wood. The building is as near as possible fireproof, as little wood being employed in the construction as circumstances would permit.
The wood-paneled [coffered] ceiling is secured to the entablature by carved wooden corbels. This ceiling is one of the main features of the room. It is made of California redwood. Its side surfaces are enriched with twenty-eight panels, each six feet square, and with carved wooden rosettes in their centers. This design encloses, as in a large frame, a large panel, itself broken up and subdivided into a considerable number of smaller panels. In the center of the ceiling is a great carved redwood cross. The inner walls are of cement, tinted to harmonize with the ceiling.
The choir dome, under which the pulpit is placed, at the end of the church, is paneled with rosettes, and a large skylight admits light from above. The building is lighted at night with electric lights, and the heating is to be in the winter season by hot-air appliances from the basement. Perfect ventilation is secured by means of exhaust flues in the side walls from the floors to the roof. The organ is in the main tower, while the keyboard is under the choir dome.

As the article states, the console was originally placed in the chancel area, leading me to speculate that this organ was likely the first all-electric adaptation of the patented Odell tubular-pneumatic action. In comparison, there are appreciable, if minor, design differences in the primary mechanism employed in the manual chest action used in our Op. 313 at St. Michael’s Church on West 34th Street in Manhattan. That organ, which is presently under our care and slated for major restoration work in 2012, was originally all tubular-pneumatic when it was built only one year prior in 1893. It has been interesting to note the nuance in mechanisms, scaling, and voicing practices of two Odell instruments that were built at nearly the same time.
As one can easily imagine the unwieldiness of playing the gallery organ from the chancel, it is not surprising that the console was later relocated to the gallery. Apart from this, the organ remained largely intact until the first major campaign of rebuilding and revisions began in the late 1980s through the 1990s.
At one time, there had been ambitious plans for the instrument, evidenced in the documentation of the Peterson switching system installed by a prior technician. Most of these plans went unrealized, though the addition of an anachronistic and stylistically questionable “Positiv” division had been carried out. Other changes included additional reed stops in the Swell, as well as evidence of attempts at rescaling, mostly in the principal stops of the Great.
In the meantime, problems of the winding system and mechanism were largely ignored. It was in this state that I first examined the organ at Scarborough in 2005. The Swell chest was then largely non-functional, owing mostly to issues with stuck sliders and pallet actions in need of rebuilding. I quickly realized that not only would a program of full mechanical restoration be needed, but also a careful reversal of many of the tonal changes, if the final result were to resemble anything that would make sense to a properly trained organist.
In addition to the difficulties with the organ, Scarborough was managing a leadership transition, something that is always trying in the life of any parish. The congregation faced this while contemporaneously entertaining bids for the organ project from us and other local firms, as well as considering wholesale replacement of the organ with a new electronic substitute. It was not until I made a detailed presentation to the congregation that we were able to at least keep the latter option off the table.
While we eventually prevailed as selectee for the organ project, there was no appreciable progress in going to contract until the appointment of Kenneth Potter as organist and director of music in 2007. Potter took the position on the condition of the organ’s restoration. This was agreeable to the Session and we were at last able to proceed.
No sooner had Mr. Potter taken the position than he reached out to me, and a lively discussion ensued on how best to revise and restore the organ. Plans at one point had even branched out into an entirely new case design, for which I excitedly prepared several conceptual sketches, but these were later set aside for both practical and aesthetic reasons. With our limited budget, the majority of our work would have to focus on restoration of the pipes, console, and mechanism. Moreover, with limited gallery space and an already richly appointed interior, it was difficult to realize a case design that would match the level of ornamentation or allow for a proper sense of proportion without getting into models that we knew would be far too elaborate. We officially went to contract in late 2007 and set to commence work in early 2008.
Eventually we settled on the design one sees today, which in many respects closely resembles the organ’s 1894 specification. The floating “Positiv” is gone, its Oboe restored and returned to its proper place in the Swell. The Swell Vox Humana was likewise deleted in favor of the Bassoon 16′, though not without some regret. The addition of the Clarion 4′ was kept, though the stop was revoiced in order to be more in scale (in terms of power) with the rest of the division’s reed chorus. Apart from careful tonal finishing and some adjustments to the power of some of the stops, the rest of the division remains as original but for the replacement of the Aeoline with a matched Voix Céleste for the Salicional.
I approached the Great with similar care. In sorting through the pipework in the shop I was able to review (and correct) prior attempts in rescaling and revoicing. Thankfully, the critical backbone stops of the division (the Open Diapason 8′, Gross Flute 8′, Gamba 8′, and Harmonic Flute 4′) had been left mostly untouched. Efforts had been made to re-scale the principal chorus from 4′ upward with limited success: rather than inserting new pipes in the bass and shifting the entire rank upward, pipes from various sources were randomly inserted in the compass of the Principal, Twelfth, and Fifteenth. To the uninitiated this probably seemed a harmless practice, but I was determined to restore some sense of order. Thus we maintained (and in some cases increased) the rescaling, as my experience with Odell scaling practices from this era (as well as my review of this instrument in particular) called for a significant increase in order to balance the power of the stops of the chorus without attempting to “voice around the scale.” Thus I reoriented the prior attempts at rescaling by fabricating new pipes with properly matching 2/7 mouths, using matched common metal (roughly 70% lead) as opposed to the uncharacteristic spotted metal used before. This allowed better control in the adjustment of the power of these ranks as I worked on them in the voicing room.
The other changes to the Great included the addition of the original Swell Bourdon on new unit windchests, so as to be available at 16′ and 8′ pitch. The Dulciana was deleted in favor of a new, matching principal-scaled Seventeenth. This exchange was part of an overall plan to keep a third-sounding rank available in the division, since the original Great Cornet mixture (17-19-22) was to be rescaled and recomposed into a suitable chorus mixture based on 2′ pitch (15-19-22). The original Cornet Mixture in the Swell had been retained, and Ken and I were in agreement that one tierce mixture per organ was more than sufficient.
Apart from these changes, pipe restoration was straightforward. Along with the windchests and console, everything was brought back to our facility and carefully cleaned. Metal ranks went through our pipe shop for repair. Wooden pipes were repaired and pipe stoppers were repacked. But for the Bassoon 16′ in the Swell and the Trumpet in the Great (which I kept for myself to work on), the Swell reeds went to Trivo in Hagerstown for restoration. Broken reed pipes were properly reblocked, tuning inserts were replaced, and shallots, tongues, and wedges were carefully cleaned and refitted as required.
The rebuilding of the mechanism presented several challenges. The manual windchests were essentially Odell slider chests with electro-pneumatic pulldown motors and slider motors. Both chests were completely stripped down to their tables at our facility so they could be evaluated and repaired. Thankfully, re-tabling was not needed, though damage to some of the sliders was so severe that some of them had to be replaced. Unlike modern slider chests (where engineered plywood is used), the bottoms of the Odell chest grids are covered with motor cloth, and the pallet openings are formed by blocking in the channels inside the pallet box and covering the area with a layer of packing leather. All this was restored to match the original configuration, whereafter the grid channels were carefully sized with thinned shellac, as is the custom. It was an arduous, not to say messy process, but the result was the total elimination of the numerous runs and bleeds encountered prior to removal. Finally, the chest pallets were all re-dressed with new felt and leather, and the motor and primary systems rebuilt.
With the slider motor system we faced a particular difficulty: Odell pneumatic slider motors were an innovative design in their day, but they can be fickle. When they work, they work well, but they often grow slow and unresponsive. Knowing this, in the planning stages of the project I seriously considered conversion to an electric slider motor system, but instead held this out as a last resort. The original pneumatic motors were dutifully rebuilt, and after some experimentation I eventually realized a solution: by placing the slider motor assemblies on their own separate wind reservoir and increasing the pressure moderately, I realized two immediate benefits: the slider motion was now swift and sure, and the action of the sliders no longer had any effect on the divisional wind pressure as they were actuated. I owe the inspiration for this concept to my colleague Timothy Fink, who several years ago used a similar approach when he designed his own pneumatically powered slider system (based in part on the Odell design) for the new organ he built for Grace Lutheran Church in Naples, Florida.
As the Pedal division had recently had its action rebuilt, we were free to leave this section alone and concentrate our remaining efforts on the console, winding system, and façade.
Dealing with the winding system was simple. The original massive single-rise reservoir was replaced with four new properly sized Odell reservoirs, one for each division, and the fourth for the aforementioned slider motor assemblies.
The console carcass was gutted and fitted with new, rear-fulcrum keyboards with basswood levers, and the manual compass restored to the original 58 notes. The newer pedalboard was kept. The stop-action rail and stop-action magnets were replaced with a much more reliable Harris tilting-tablet assembly, whose appearance is more characteristic of a traditional Odell console. The interior of the console was fitted with new panels made of sapele. We installed a new, integrated control system with the customary modern feature set.
The façade, which contains the bottom seventeen notes of the Great Open Diapason, was carefully stripped, repaired, and restored. The original zinc tuning flaps were replaced with spotted metal tuning scrolls. I personally handled the preparation and finishing process. A catalyzed base primer that bonds directly to the metal was used as the undercoat, over which I applied specialized metal lacquer mixed with gold flake powder. The result is a richer, deeper gold color that was accented by the application of silver flake lacquer on the pipe mouth inserts.
Our final step was to replace the 1950s-era wall panels below the impost of the façade. The layout was sketched by my wife Susan, who is a classically trained architect. With no cues from me, she intuitively established a rail and stile pattern that picked up on the center point placements of the pipes in the façade, while maintaining symmetry throughout. The panel molding, which required a custom-made set of molder knives, is a duplication of the custom panel moldings used throughout the church. The panels themselves are made from the same sapele used in the console, and are stained to match the existing appointments. Though it is minor, this was a welcome embellishment to the appearance of the organ.
Members of the Odell staff who contributed to this project include: John Williams (chest restoration, new chest, panel, and reservoir fabrication), Stewart Skates (pipe repair, fabrication, and restoration), Scotty Giffen (site, restoration, and assembly work), David Wason (wiring, site, restoration, and assembly work), Douglas Keilitz (site work, tuning, and tonal finishing), and myself (design, planning, wood and metal pipe finishing, voicing, and tonal finishing). Rigging for the removal and reinstallation was handled by our friends at Auer’s of New York City, long known for their skill in handling this sort of work.
We are grateful to the staff and congregation of Scarborough Presbyterian Church for being given the opportunity to restore this instrument and return it to service. I am particularly grateful to Kenneth and Christine Potter (who have become great friends as well as champions of our work), and also the Reverends Chris Iosso, Dae Jung, and Tim Ives, worship and music committee chair Lindsay Farrell, and most especially the late Florence Fletcher, to whose memory the new organ façade is dedicated.
—Edward Odell
East Hampton, Connecticut

It isn’t often that an organist takes a job with the congregation already understanding that the organ needs to be rebuilt, and he gets a significant say in how it gets done. My first decision was to commit what one might call a heresy among organists. I agreed that the organ needed to be reduced in size; we went from 37 ranks to 30. The results speak for themselves, as much of that reduction involved removing redundant ranks, ranks that served no useful purpose.
Prior to the rebuild, the Swell had become almost completely unplayable and been more or less abandoned. We realized the removal of the entire instrument to the Odell shop would be needed. Now rebuilt, the Swell is a wonderful division of great subtlety and color.
It made sense to keep certain additions, but we wanted these additions to form a real ensemble, and for the organ to speak into the room naturally. A fine Clarion 4′ had been added to the Swell. The Bassoon 16′, Cornopean 8′, Oboe 8′, and Clarion 4′ formed a reed battery that we were loath to break up. In order to keep it, the old Vox Humana 8′ had to go. I deeply regretted this loss, but I love the full reed chorus as it is now. The Aeoline 8′ went the same way to make room for the Voix Céleste. There was more than enough pipework left for quiet music, with the very gentle strings, a Stopped Diapason 8′, and a lovely Rohr Flute 4′ of surpassing beauty.
In the Great division, the previous Tierce had been derived from a split slider on the Mixture. It never worked very well, but I felt it was important to have a full Cornet on the Great, so we sacrificed the Dulciana. The Seventeenth that took its place is the only wholly new rank in the rebuild. The Dulciana’s place in the tonal scheme was taken by an 8′ extension of the 16′ Bourdon. I felt that with the three other strong 8′ stops (Open Diapason 8′, Gross Flute 8′, and Gamba 8′) we needed a quiet 8′ flute. This Bourdon 8′ can be coupled with the Gamba 8′ and form a fonds doux, but it also works beautifully alone, or with the Principal 4′ or Harmonic Flute 4′. With all 8′ flue stops on the Great drawn, one has a close approximation of the classic fonds de huit. After rescaling and restoration, the Great chorus is powerful and intense. With the coupling of the Swell reeds, it becomes immense.
In the process of this rebuild, I learned a lot about what stops are truly necessary. As someone who cut his teeth on the Organ Reform movement, I had difficulty understanding a tonal scheme built on generously scaled 8′ stops, with smaller upperwork, or a second manual division without a Principal 4′. In time, I have come to understand this instrument on its own terms. The Violina 4′ really does serve a purpose, and I have come to love the very modest 4′ Rohr Flute in the Swell; it is delicate and very non-intrusive, and I never seem to stop finding uses for it. The Flute 2′ with the Cornet III makes a wonderful sparkle in that division without adding weight. The Oboe 8′, now returned to the Swell, is an excellent addition to the division’s chorus, adding just enough weight to balance the flues. So much for the Swell organs I was previously accustomed to, with their 8′ Gedeckt foundation and blazing upperwork!
It thrills me endlessly to have other organists come in and play. I love to wander around downstairs and listen, often asking what stops they have on. This organ, which sounds immensely powerful in the gallery, is gentle and convincing downstairs—the fullest registration is not overpowering, but rather full, blended, and satisfying.
There isn’t an ugly stop on the entire instrument. Every rank is distinct, beautiful, and makes the listener sit up and notice, whether quiet, mezzo forte, or loud. Nothing is overbearing and the range of color is amazing. Edward Odell has demonstrated great skill as a voicer, taking stops that had been poorly regulated, and restoring, focusing, and adjusting them to create a satisfying, integrated ensemble. He was ably assisted by Doug Keilitz on the tonal finishing.
Let me conclude by saying we are blessed with some of the finest acoustics I have ever experienced in a church, both for organ and choral music. The instrument is now inspiring our choir to new heights. As I had hoped, the wonderful sounds coming from the loft are enhancing our worship and attracting new members.
—Kenneth Potter
Organist and Director of Music

J.H. & C.S. Odell Opus 327
Scarborough Presbyterian Church, Scarborough, New York

GREAT
16′ Bourdon 70 pipes
8′ Open Diapason 58 pipes
8′ Gamba 58 pipes
8′ Gross Flute 58 pipes
8′ Bourdon (from 16′ Bourdon)
4′ Principal 58 pipes
4′ Harmonic Flute 58 pipes
22⁄3 Twelfth 58 pipes
2′ Fifteenth 58 pipes
13⁄5′ Seventeenth (new) 58 pipes
III Mixture 174 pipes
8′ Trumpet 58 pipes

SWELL – Expressive –
in reconfigured expression chamber
16′ Bourdon 58 pipes
8′ Open Diapason 58 pipes
8′ Stopped Diapason 58 pipes
8′ Salicional 58 pipes
8′ Voix Céleste 58 pipes
4′ Violina 58 pipes
4′ Rohr Flute 58 pipes
2′ Flute 58 pipes
III Cornet 174 pipes
16′ Bassoon 58 pipes
8′ Cornopean 58 pipes
8′ Oboe 58 pipes
4′ Clarion 58 pipes
Tremulant

PEDAL
32′ Resultant (special configuration,
from Open Wood and Bourdon)
16′ Open Wood 30 pipes
16′ Bourdon 54 pipes
8′ Gedeckt (ext 16′ Bourdon)
8′ Violoncello 30 pipes
4′ Flute (ext 16′ Bourdon)
16′ Bassoon (from Swell)

Mixture Compositions
Great
1 to 25 15-19-22
26 to 37 12-15-19
38 to 58 8-12-15

Swell
1 to 25 17-19-22
26 to 37 15-17-19
38 to 58 8-15-17

Couplers
Great to Pedal 8′ (reversible)
Great to Pedal 4′
Swell to Pedal 8′ (reversible)
Swell to Pedal 4′

Great to Great 16′
Great Unison Off
Great to Great 4′

Swell to Great 16′
Swell to Great 8′ (reversible)
Swell to Great 4′

Swell to Swell 16′
Swell Unison Off
Swell to Swell 4′

Pistons
12 generals (duplicated on toe pistons)
6 divisionals per division
4 reversibles (3 coupler, 1 Sforzando)

Accessories
32 levels of capture memory
12-step transposer
Programmable Sforzando
Memory controls in keyslip
Programmable Crescendo
MIDI for record/playback

J.H. & C.S. Odell Opus 645

United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston,

Westport, Connecticut

From the builder

I first looked over the 1968 Angell pipe organ at the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston in the winter of 2005, having been recommended to the church by our friend K. Bryan Kirk. What we found in Westport was an organ with many pipes that were well made, but in some cases unusually constructed and, by our standards, only roughly voiced. The flue pipes were made mostly with a high content of tin. We suspect Tim Koelewijn was the original pipemaker. Just about everything else in the organ had been made by domestic and foreign supply houses. Overall, quality varied widely. Some things were very neatly done.

Though by our standards not altogether under-scaled, the organ did suffer in just about every other way from the prevailing trends of the era when it was built. Wind pressures were low: less than two inches in the Great and three in the Swell. Looking at the original stoplist, we noted that none of the choruses in the organ were complete, though the organ did boast two Célestes and a triple-overblowing Zauberflöte. The reed complement for the organ consisted of a double-blocked French style 8’ Trompette (extended to 16’ in the Pedal) and a 4’ Rohr Shalmei.

The windchest mechanism was a problematic plunger-type solenoid system that had been giving trouble for years. The console was a veneered plywood supply house unit already years beyond its life expectancy. The open contact switching system was dispersed throughout the organ; some of its components had already failed. The wind supply for the entire Great division was provided by a single 18≤ by 24≤ reservoir whose internal volume was largely dedicated to its curtain valve.
After an initial tuning of the organ, the church’s new music director and organist, Todd Simmons, pressed me as to what could be done to make the organ better. I pointed out that the organ had mechanical and tonal issues, to be sure, but there was something to work with here, some raw material, which with proper attention could be the basis for a good pipe organ. In my wife Holly’s words, the existing pipework possessed “unrealized potential.”

Weeks later we met with the trustees to present our findings, expecting that at some point in the future funds could be raised to finance the organ project. One can imagine my surprise when Mr. Simmons called me a few weeks later to say that a single anonymous donor had stepped forward. How soon could we start? Thus we found ourselves sweating in the summer heat on a stretch of days the following July, packing and removing the pipes that would become the basis for our Opus 645.
In the design process we developed a new specification with input from K. Bryan Kirk. We instinctively sought first to meet the essential requirements of a liturgical instrument, something we believe to be utterly crucial, especially in the case of smaller pipe organs. Given the limited space for the organ, we felt a two-manual scheme with few frills would be best. We resisted a request for digital augmentation, instead focusing on a design that would be pipe only.

Certain early decisions seemed obvious. Given the dry acoustic of the church, the baseline scale of the Great chorus needed to be increased. This chorus was also completed with the addition of appropriately scaled new pipework from 22⁄3’ pitch upward. The cutup schedule of the existing Great capped flute was raised, arched, and the stop entirely revoiced. A new independent 4’ Harmonic Flute (based on the unique and very successful scale found in our historic Opus 178 at St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn) was constructed and voiced. Over the course of the project nearly every zinc pipe in the organ made its way through our pipe shop: frozen metal caps were freed, tuning inserts and toes replaced, seams and scrolls repaired. Being left in a raw state, many of the zinc pipes had an unsightly powdery white oxidation. We removed this, and gave all zinc basses a sealing coat of varnish to protect them.
The wind pressure of all manual divisions was raised to a more moderate four inches. Holly, then pregnant with our son Caleb, did her usual superb job of revoicing all the other existing and new flue pipework, managing to do so before reaching her final trimester. During this past winter we joked more than once: which would be given birth first, our son Caleb or the organ for Westport?

Where, before, the Great division of the organ had seven ranks, it had now eleven. To provide for this expanded division adequately, we built a new, larger reservoir. The rest of the organ’s wind system was rebuilt and reengineered as the new design required.

In dealing with the Swell division, again certain decisions seemed obvious. The 4’ Rohr Shalmei, only marginally useful, was replaced with an 8’ Oboe, expertly voiced by Sam Hughes. Proceeding as she did in the Great, Holly revoiced all of the existing Swell flues and voiced the new pipework for the Swell flute chorus, which was completed to 13⁄5’ pitch. The existing Trompette was kept, though carefully cleaned up and regulated in a cooperative effort between Sam and Holly.

In our recently expanded East Hampton shop I concentrated on the construction of the console, while our shop foreman John Williams constructed new windchests whose design was first developed for our organ at St. Ann’s in Bridgehampton. The unusually short feet of the 8’ old flute basses made for some interesting pipesetting. New offset chests were provided for everything save the original Pedal Subbass, a mammoth mahogany affair that only needed rebuilding.

The new console was based on our current terrace-jamb design with several embellishments. Improvements on the existing design include a slightly deeper cabinet with an added horizontal stile, raised panel work, additional applied moldings, hand-carved brackets, a two-piece knee panel and solid walnut music desk, the latter being picture-framed with the same quarter-sawn white oak used for the carcass and façade.

The console features an integrated solid-state capture and control system with fully programmable features, MIDI interface, and our standard complement of rear-fulcrum keyboards with basswood levers. The oblique drawknob heads are a reproduction of our 19th-century design. Respected organists who have played it have described our console at Westport as “elegant and comfortable.”
My design of the façade was in part born of necessity. Since both the manual and pedal principal stops were being rescaled, new bass pipes would be required. We naturally needed to make the most of the existing chamber space, and one of the simplest ways to do that was by moving the basses of these stops out into a façade.

Every pipe in the façade is functional. The bass notes of the Great and Pedal principals are polished aluminum, made to our specifications by Matters, Inc. of Hermosa, South Dakota. The pipes are arranged in three towers and two flats and the overall height of the case tops out at 15 feet, mounted roughly 10 feet above the sanctuary floor. The style of the casework is deliberately simple, so as to be in harmony with the appointments of the church sanctuary.

The façade performs a very important function in giving one a visual focal point. It declares the organ present, and urges one to consider it rather than wonder from where behind the grille cloth the organ might be. Its cruciform arrangement also reflects elements of sacred numerology: three towers with three pipes each for the Trinity, ten pipes located within the inner flats for the Commandments.

The sanctuary space in Westport could be described as a postwar-modernist take on the “Akron Plan,” less the adjoining Fellowship Hall. Four sets of pews radiate from the altar and pulpit up front, with organ and choir off to the left. The space over the altar is open with a ceiling height of approximately 35 feet. This intersects with a lower A-frame suspended transversely over the pews. From there the ceiling slopes downward to the rear of the pews to meet a northeasterly facing wall that is mostly glass. The floor is a simple concrete aggregate. Thankfully, carpet was absent. More simply described, it is a space with a great deal of cubic volume, but not overly reverberant.

Throughout the process we gave a great deal of thought to what levels of power would be appropriate for the various tonal resources of the organ. Our concerns about sufficient tonal egress from the chambers were put to rest when we experienced how well the organ spoke into the room. In the tonal finishing process we were pleased to discover how our scaling and voicing decisions suited the space. With a well-balanced variety of 8’ tone available, the organ easily leads congregational singing in a variety of settings.

Overall, we are very happy with what we have achieved in Westport. I would be remiss not to mention others who have contributed to this project: my wife and business partner Holly Odell was responsible for revoicing all existing pipework and voicing of new pipework. John Williams built nearly all the windchests and was responsible for all pipesetting. John and I collaborated on the wind reservoirs and organ case elements. In addition to overall mechanical design and layout, I milled, built and finished the console and casework as well as handling most other finishing duties. Working out of our pipe shop, Stewart Skates handled all pipe repairs. Luc Ladurantaye of Lac Saguay, Quebec, built the new metal pipes to our specifications. Gordon Auchincloss assisted in the wiring and final assembly of the console, and Thomas White assisted in windchest construction and wiring. John Williams, Thomas White, and myself handled the installation. Tonal finishing duties were divided between Holly and myself, with occasional assistance from Richard Hamar and Fred Heffner.

—Edward Odell



From the music director

In my third year as choir director and first year as organist of the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston, I was introduced to Edward Odell by K. Bryan Kirk, as we were in search of someone local to assume the maintenance of our Angell pipe organ. While I was not dissatisfied with the firm maintaining our organ at that time, I knew it was only a matter of time before a major overhaul was needed, and no one had ever made a complete inspection and report on our instrument. Given the current condition of our organ, I felt comforted in knowing someone local could resuscitate it at a moment’s notice.

After a thorough tuning and evaluation of the organ, I was encouraged by Mr. Odell’s report that although there were serious electrical and tonal issues present, the pipes themselves were well made and could be repaired and voiced (apparently for the first time ever) if we had the means to fund an organ project. Having just completed a fund-raising campaign for a new grand piano, our church did not have extra money to start an organ building fund-raiser, and we felt uncomfortable asking the congregation to dig into their wallets again so soon. This was discouraging as we knew that time was close at hand; in recent years our organ had become increasingly undependable.

Not long after we began exploring these issues, it happened one Sunday morning that the entire organ pedalboard suddenly made itself unusable. Having little alternative, I decided to play that morning’s service on the piano. This coming just a few weeks after Mr. Odell’s presentation to our trustees, there was (understandably) a certain degree of panic, since we were totally unprepared financially to fund an organ project this soon. Even though our organ was one of the longest surviving Angell pipe organs in the area, we had hoped (and expected) it to last longer. It was more and more apparent that something had to be done soon. Before we even had a chance to strategize, I received a call the next day from the pastor informing me that a donor wishing to remain anonymous had left a very large check on his desk with the intention of funding the organ project.

As has been elsewhere stated, our previous instrument suffered from a lack of tonal finishing and the pipes themselves had never been voiced properly. The pipes being of relatively small scale, we were used to a thin, shallow sound that did not possess enough power to adequately fill our worship space, even when I registered full organ. At the start of the project, I had doubts as to whether any new organ would be strong enough, given the room’s difficult acoustics and the location of the organ chambers. Mr. Odell assured us that once the new organ was installed, we would be amazed at the difference.
One of the most impressive enhancements with the new organ, aside from the exquisite façade, is the quality of sound as well as the power behind it. We now have an instrument that adequately leads our congregation in singing, as well as providing full, but subtle, accompaniment for the choir anthems. I can honestly say that at every step of the way, Mr. Odell and his firm have not only met but exceeded my expectations with our new organ and have gone above and beyond the call of duty to deliver an instrument that is even better than the original proposal stated.

It is a testament to his excellent work that not only do the trained musicians in the congregation appreciate this new pipe organ, even the untrained listeners have noticed a huge improvement over the previous instrument. One member (who at one time happened to be unsupportive of the project) admits that now she could not imagine our service without a pipe organ. The church is well pleased, as am I, and we celebrate at every Sunday service this work of art courtesy of the firm of J.H. & C.S. Odell.

—Todd Simmons, organist and music director, United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston



From the consultant

When I began teaching in 1988 at a music school in Westport, Connecticut, I was naturally curious about local pipe organs. Over the years, I became more familiar with the organ at a nearby church: the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston. The instrument was in poor mechanical condition: it exhibited a failing combination action, frequent ciphers, tuning instability and other frustrations, even though periodic maintenance was given. Being a product of its time, it was very thin in sound, had little bass response (as did the room) and few solo colors. Most importantly, there was no sense of real ensemble, even when the tutti was drawn. The instrument was also limited in its dynamic range for choral accompaniment and congregational singing, and was weak when trying to blend with other instruments. Overall, the organ did not make a strong impact.

A few years later a new organist and choir director was hired, Todd Simmons, one of my teaching colleagues from the music school. As the organ continued to deteriorate, he and the church became even more disappointed with the organ’s unreliability and marginal tonal resources. Knowing I had done other consulting work, Todd asked me to work with him and the church regarding the organ. Realizing the inherent problems, both musical and mechanical, we began an in-depth study of what could be done to either rebuild or replace the organ with something that would not only offer more tonal possibilities but also fill the room and excite the strong congregational singing potential we knew was there.

As we talked, it was apparent that virtually a new organ would be the best option, although much of the existing pipework could be retained if it were rescaled, revoiced and placed on a new, reliable chassis. The organ needed to be reliable and have a wider dynamic range, more tonal colors and a strong sense of presence in the room. It had to strongly lead and accompany congregational singing and sensitively render choral, solo and instrumental accompaniment.

From the outset, one of my pervading concerns was the church’s acoustic, which, while fine for chamber music, was a bit dry for organ and choral music and congregational singing. Having noted the difference in the acoustic when the room was more fully occupied, I knew the challenge of filling the room efficiently would be a mandate for the builder.

Our task began to take shape. Meetings were held and candidate builders were vetted. As work continued, a stop-list began to emerge, while we kept in mind budget and space limitations. One of my thoughts was to ask for a façade, as the previous organ had nothing visible but for a console in a lowered pit in the choir area. I reasoned that a façade would reinforce the impression that the church was getting something new, better and different. We agreed from the beginning that the organ should remain an all-pipe instrument.

After naming a few candidates, one firm was clearly the most interested, experienced and willing to work with us and on this organ. Having known the Odells and their fine lineage of historic instruments as well as their excellent work on new organs and various projects over many years, I was happy to welcome their presence.

The church had Edward and Holly Odell give the organ a full tuning and submit a proposal for either rebuilding or a new organ. As the Odells looked through the organ, they determined that a new console, chassis and electrical system would be required, and that it would be possible to rebuild one small windchest, but otherwise new windchests would be required throughout. By adding a façade for visual interest, some new pipework and retaining about half the existing pipework (though carefully rescaled and revoiced), the organ could take on a new character that would be far more flexible and of greater quality than its predecessor. This concept, coupled with their thorough proposal, helped to land them the contract.

As the new organ design was developed, the specification was refined. Among the ideas we discussed was the clever suggestion to borrow the Great 4’ Octave as an 8’ Second Principal stop on the Great, creating a secondary 8’ Principal for smaller combinations. The stop could also be used to fill out foundation tone when needed. As we continued to explore various tonal issues, it was noted that the old organ had no soft reed color or solo flute color. Among other things, Odell suggested adding an 8’ Oboe and building a new Harmonic Flute, patterned after historic Odell examples, but carefully adapted for the flute scales at Westport.

My early recommendations had included new 22⁄3’ and 2’ principal stops to replace the existing flute-scaled 2’ in the Great. The Odells suggested going further to install a new Mixture to create a full Principal chorus, giving the organ a sense of ensemble, a true plenum, something it never had.
Having listened to the result, I can state these stops create a truly full-sounding principal chorus, finally integrating the instrument into the room. The organ as conceived by the Odells has made a huge difference for hymn and repertoire playing and can now “ring the room” more effectively.

The Great also contains the revoiced 8’ Bourdon, now sounding more like a continuo stop, suitable in choral music or to accompany the Swell’s cornet decomposée. The Gemshorn and its Celeste were retained for flexibility in accompanying and providing more soft colors.

The Swell received “the Odell treatment,” in that all the pipework was revoiced. The flues, strings and mutations were all transformed by voicer Holly Odell, and the reeds were reworked to make a dramatic difference. The strings and 8’ Rohrflute now have more presence and can fully support the choir, as well as contribute to the ensemble. The Swell cornet decomposée is now nicely balanced, and the flutes have a more piquant character.

The new 8’ Oboe offers a nice color for softer choral accompaniment and foundation combinations, as well as providing a new solo stop. The existing 8’ Trompette, originally extended to 16’ for the Pedal, was also cleaned, revoiced and regulated into a stop that now serves a dual-purpose chorus/solo reed. The 16’ octave, now reconditioned, adds more gravitas to the Pedal and the full ensemble.
The full ensemble now fills the church worship space with a richer, warmer and well-blended tone. The softer sounds are more usable and possess a wider dynamic range, so the possibilities for choral, vocal and instrumental accompaniment are greatly enhanced.

As a concerned observer, I paid close attention to the project throughout the building process. The Odells always welcomed my inquiries and kept all parties informed with frequent photographs from their shop. Once the installation commenced, it was exciting to see how beautifully designed and well made all components of the organ were, both inside and out. During the tonal finishing, it was gratifying to witness the attention to detail in balancing each stop and the various ensembles. Further, it was refreshing to hear from the builder that materials and workmanship were never an issue; they simply insisted that in every aspect things be done thoroughly, with the highest level of attention to detail.

The organ is now in regular use and a series of dedication concerts have been planned. My thanks go to Edward and Holly Odell, their associates, to Todd Simmons and the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston, Connecticut, and the donor for having me work with them in a collaborative effort to complete this important project to enrich the worship and outreach of this vibrant congregation.

—K. Bryan Kirk, advisor/consultant

J.H. & C.S. Odell Opus 645

United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston, Westport, Connecticut

Great (Wind pressure 4")

8’ Principal CC–AA en façade, otherwise 70% tin, 61 pipes

8’ Second Principal 1–12 from Principal 8’, 13–49 from Octave 4’

8’ Bourdon 70% tin, arched cutup, 61 pipes

8’ Harmonic Flute 1–12 from Bourdon 8’, 13–61 from Harmonic Flute 4’

8’ Gemshorn 70% tin, 2/3 taper, 61 pipes

8’ Gemshorn Céleste 70% tin, 2/3 taper, 49 pipes

4’ Octave 70% tin, 61 pipes

4’ Harmonic Flute 55% spotted metal, special Odell scale, harmonic at
middle C, 61 pipes

22⁄3’ Quint 55% spotted metal, 61 pipes

2’ Super Octave 55% spotted metal, 61 pipes

III Mixture 55% spotted metal, 19-22-26, 183 pipes

Chimes. 25 tubes


Swell (Expressive, in existing chamber, wind pressure 4")

16’ Rohr Gedeckt wood, 13–61 from Rohr Flute 8’, 12 pipes

8’ Rohr Flute 70% tin, chimneyed, 61 pipes

8’ Gamba 70% tin, bearded, 61 pipes

8’ Gamba Céleste 70% tin, bearded, 49 pipes

4’ Spitz Principal 70% tin, 2/3 taper, 61 pipes

4’ Flute 55% spotted metal, 2/3 taper, 61 pipes
22⁄3’ Nazard 70% tin, capped and chimneyed to middle C, 61 pipes

2’ Block Flute 70% tin, 61 pipes

13⁄5’ Tierce 55% spotted metal, 2/3 taper, 61 pipes

8’ Trompette double blocked, French shallots, 56 reeds, 61 pipes

8’ Oboe dual taper resonators, English shallots, 49 reeds, 61 pipes

Tremulant


Pedal

16’ Subbass wood, 32 pipes

16’ Rohr Gedeckt from Swell

8’ Octave CC–GG# en façade, otherwise 70% tin, 32 pipes

8’ Bourdon extension, Subbass, 12 pipes

8’ Rohr Flute from Swell

4’ Choralbass extension, Octave 8’, 12 pipes

4’ Flute from Swell

16’ Trompette extension to Swell Trompette, 12 pipes

8’ Trompette from Swell

8’ Oboe from Swell

4’ Clarion from Swell

Russell & Co. Organ Builders,
Chester, Vermont
First Presbyterian Church, Ithaca, New York

From the builder
The term magnum opus is often used in the organbuilding trade to denote the apotheosis of an organbuilder’s career. It is an impressive expression, and the organs that receive such an accolade are usually equally impressive. It is interesting to note, however, that the distinction of magnum opus can be an ephemeral one. What a builder thinks of as his ‘biggest and best’ may be eclipsed just a few years later with an opus magnum novum. In any event, at the outset of a project an organbuilder has termed his magnum opus, he inevitably approaches the creation of the instrument with great reverence and dedication. When we received the contract to build our opus 47 for First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, New York, we knew this would be our magnum opus and, regardless of whether a grander organ would leave our shop in years to come, took on the project in this way, making no little plans to design and build a pipe organ worthy of this special moniker.
First Presbyterian is a grand Romanesque stone structure built in 1894 and located in the heart of downtown Ithaca. The sanctuary seats 500 under a high barrel vault, coffered and richly ornamented with plaster florets. The church enjoys a large, vibrant congregation and an equally active music program, including a sizable adult choir, children’s choir, and handbell choir. In conjunction with the organ project, the sanctuary was renovated to remedy the less-than-desirable acoustics. Previously, the entire floor of the room was carpeted, and the pews were cushioned in heavy velvet. A completely new ceramic tile floor, new and less-absorbent seat cushions, hardened wall surfaces, and a new rear wall designed to reflect sound randomly all contribute to a lively and supportive acoustic, approaching three seconds of reverberation.
The preceding instrument began its life in 1901 as Austin’s opus 39—a three-manual instrument of 47 ranks, including a five-rank Echo organ added in 1930. The organ was installed in the front of the church behind a handsome white oak case crowned with a magnificent central tower rising nearly the full height of the sanctuary. Designed in traditional early 20th-century style, the organ contained the typical myriad of foundation stops, with sparse trimmings of upperwork, undergirded by an ample and satisfying pedal department. Sixty-five years later, Austin was called to rebuild the organ in keeping with the tonal thinking of the day. The result was completely new pipework typical of late 1960s construction and voicing; the Echo organ, thanks to the organist, Dorothy Arnold, was retained and unchanged. With many manual stops sharing common basses, and the pedal division largely borrowed from the manuals, there was little foundation tone. The scaling of the new pipework exacerbated this condition, with halving ratios that resulted in a thin bass and a treble ascendancy unwelcome in so dry a room. The impressive 16¢ and 8¢ 1901 façade was completely replaced by much narrower-scaled pipes with English bay mouths, leaving large, odd-looking gaps between the pipes.
By the 1990s, the organ proved to be inadequate for the many demands the church’s music program placed upon it. Mounting mechanical problems toward the end of the decade that rendered the instrument increasingly unreliable led the church’s organist, George Damp, and the director of music, Larry Doebler, to realize that a completely new instrument was needed to correct the tonal inadequacies of the existing instrument and to fill the needs of the extensive music program. The church named John Schwandt as consultant on the project. Dr. Schwandt recommended requesting proposals from lesser-known builders of high quality. After a national search, Russell & Co. of Chester, Vermont was selected in late 2002 to build the new organ.
A profusion of new romantic organs in recent years, as well as a renewed reverence and interest in the work of early 20th-century American builders, specifically Skinner, was the milieu for the design and construction of this instrument. While Russell & Co. have built several large instruments along French romantic lines, an American romantic/ symphonic organ presented a new challenge: how to take all the lessons learned from our previous instruments, combine them with a century of progress in American organbuilding, and produce an organ capable of accompanying congregational song, playing choral and orchestral literature, and still be able to play the solo organ repertoire, all the while staying true to a ‘symphonic’ ideal.
This challenge was met valiantly with an effective partnership between our firm and George Damp. Having spent all his professional life as an organist, teacher, and church musician, George brought years of experience and a clear idea of what he wanted to the drawing board—a grand, large-scale organ that would make Ernest Skinner proud, but would also not disappoint the likes of G. Donald Harrison. While orchestral voices and ensembles were of great importance, so too was the presence of well-developed and blended choruses in each division.
Our initial proposal was for a three-manual organ with a separately enclosed Solo and Choir sharing one manual. However, during our early discussions with the church music staff, it became clear that to fill all the demands placed upon it, a significantly larger, four-manual instrument would be better suited and would eliminate several reluctant compromises in the original design. Having completed the rebuild of a four-manual Æolian-Skinner, opus 1433, for First Unitarian Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the building of a new, large three-manual French romantic organ for the Cathedral of St. Paul, also in Worcester, we felt ready to tackle our first new four-manual organ. During the selection process, George visited Worcester’s First Baptist Church, home to a rebuilt Reuter for which we constructed a new, large four-manual Skinner-style console. Skinner consoles have long been renowned for their visual elegance, impeccable craftsmanship, and intuitive and comfortable ergonomics. It was agreed First Presbyterian should possess such a console to complement the new organ.
First Presbyterian has long been host to performances of choral and chamber music by numerous local ensembles, and the acoustical renovation that preceded the organ installation only made the space more attractive for outside groups’ use. Knowing this, we included in the initial proposal a small division designed for use as a continuo organ at chancel level. George was hesitant at first—it seemed like a water and oil situation to have such a division included in a grand romantic organ. However, with a large, higher-pressure instrument as the main organ, George and Larry Doebler agreed that it would be futile to attempt to use it in continuo playing, and not only agreed to the division’s inclusion, but encouraged its enlargement. What started out as a small five-stop division grew into a full-fledged low-pressure Positiv, complete with a Sesquialtera and a very gently voiced four-rank Scharff. Its elegant case makes use of the crown and columns of the large throne chair that used to sit in the middle of the chancel, blending the case with the rest of the chancel decoration.
While spacious, the two front organ chambers had previously housed 47 ranks of pipes, including a very small pedal division. One of the project’s greatest challenges was to make 79 ranks of pipes fit in these same chambers—including a large-scale independent pedal division with three 32' stops—while maintaining easy access to each pipe and mechanism. After much experimenting in the forgiving world of computer-aided design, a layout that achieved both of these goals was reached. Aside from the Antiphonal and Positiv, the entire instrument is installed behind the organ case, with the Great, Solo and Choir divisions to the congregation’s left, and the Swell and Pedal on the right. There is no ceiling over these chambers, allowing for a great deal of sound to ascend into the barrel vault over the chancel, creating a wonderful blending chamber of sorts, which then projects the sound well into the room. Even from the center of the chancel, it is difficult to tell from which side sounds are coming.
The Antiphonal organ is located high up in the right rear corner of the sanctuary. The Antiphonal Swell division, consisting of the original Echo organ with two additions, is housed in the former Echo organ chamber. The two stops of the Antiphonal Great sit on a newly constructed ledge in front of the chamber, with the pipes from the 8' Prestant forming a simple and elegant façade.
The console constructed for opus 47 models the console at First Baptist in Worcester. Built of quarter-sawn red oak and walnut with a hand-rubbed oil and stain finish, it complements the elegance of the renovated sanctuary and restored organ case. With manual keys of 10th-cut ivory and ebony, and pedals of maple and ebony, the console immediately has a luxurious tactile feel. Through many consultations with George as well as with the organists working in our own shop, the selection and layout of controls were designed to be as intuitive to the player as possible. The stopjamb layout takes its cue from the tall consoles of English cathedrals; this provides the vertical space to lay out the complete choruses of each division in one line, making drawing every plenum quick and straightforward. Though a complete list of playing aids and mechanicals accompanies the specification, several are worth noting here. With the choral accompanist in mind, the Swell is provided with ten divisional pistons, and pedal-to-manual combination couplers with discrete memories are available on each division. A 99-level combination action is included with 16 general pistons and a sequencer; additionally, each piston can be easily modified as to which stops it affects, releasing the player from the distinction and restraints of divisional and general pistons. Divisional cancels are also provided by pushing the division nameplate on the stopjamb.
The key and stop action throughout the instrument is electro-pneumatic, a departure from our usual practice of employing slider and pallet chests. The chests are modeled on late 1960s Aeolian-Skinner pitman chests, with several of our own modifications. Even the Positiv, speaking on 23⁄4" pressure, plays on a pitman chest and works beautifully, resulting in quick and desirable pipe speech, ideal for its anticipated continuo use.
A design goal from the outset of the project was to make the organ large enough to have four complete manual divisions (seven, including the Positiv and Antiphonal Great and Swell), but to keep costs manageable, all the while not sacrificing quality. To this end, we looked to the existing Austin pipework, all having been new (with the exception of the Echo) in 1969, to see what might be reused in the new organ. While hard to believe this neo-baroque pipework could blend its way into an American romantic organ, we found much of the pipework was well constructed and cut up low enough to permit its successful rescaling and revoicing in a very different style.
Of the 40 completely new ranks of pipes added to the organ, all new choruses and flutes are constructed of 94% lead alloy, a practice we have long employed, allowing our voicers to achieve a degree of tonal superiority unattainable with the use of lighter, higher tin content alloys. In general, this allows the 8¢ line to be weighty and warm, progressing through a velvety chorus to light and silvery upperwork—all mixtures in the organ are also of the same high-lead content. The epitome of this construction and voicing style is the 8¢ Montre on the Great, a 42-scale Diapason more English than French, despite its name. Being placed outside the Great expression box, the Montre’s tone is commanding, warm and strong, and is paired with the enclosed 44-scale 8' Principal for lighter choruses. True to the design objective, choruses through at least 4¢ were provided in the three main manual divisions (Great, Swell, Choir), resulting in three very independent divisions that terrace and blend successfully for the performance of French literature. With the old Great 8' Principal revoiced as the Swell Diapason, and the 45-scale English Diapason in the Choir of special variable scale, the five combined 8' Diapasons create a rich, singing tone that serves as a lush solo color, as well as the basis for the aforementioned well-blended choruses.
One of the hallmarks of an American symphonic organ is the abundance of orchestral reeds, so carefully developed by the likes of Skinner a century ago. Fittingly, opus 47 has a delicious array of imitative stops spread out amid the manual divisions. The demand for these stops allowed us to use several ranks we had been storing in our stockroom for many years while the popular organ style called for very different reed stops. In the Choir division, the Clarinet finds its traditional home, and comes to Ithaca as a restored Johnson Bell Clarinet. In our study of early 20th-century American organs, a common finding was that the Choir division, while potentially having enough foundation tone, nearly always lacked the trumpet-class reed timbre to assert itself against the Swell organ. In this light, the second Choir reed deserves special note as an unusual stop, even in this age of rediscovered orchestral sounds. The 8' Waldhorn uses restored Aeolian pipes from the Higgins estate in Worcester, Massachusetts. This medium-scaled, capped trumpet is not quite a French Horn, and not quite a Trumpet, but something in between. It has a chameleon-like quality in that it is a beautiful and haunting solo voice, but when drawn with the full Choir, it acts as a chorus reed, giving the Choir a definite presence amidst full organ.
Two new reeds, the English Horn in the Solo, and the Orchestral Oboe in the Antiphonal Swell, were beautifully voiced by Chris Broome, turning out exactly as we had wanted them, and possessing striking imitative qualities.
For climactic moments in both repertoire and accompaniments, two solo chorus reeds are provided in the Solo division. The enclosed Tuba Mirabilis has harmonic resonators from tenor F# and is voiced on 15" pressure, providing the traditional dark, smooth and powerful tone suggested by its name. The 8' Silver Trumpet, played on 10" pressure, serves to contrast with the Tuba for a different effect. Envisioned in the same manner as the Solo Trumpet Harmonique at Yale’s Woolsey Hall, the pipes are constructed with French shallots and placed outside the Solo enclosure, yielding a brighter and brassier tone. While neither stop is oppressively loud, when combined they yield a tone of refined power that can top full organ with single notes.
Another criterion from early on in the project was to have a profusion of string stops of varying power and brightness to enable a truly orchestral string crescendo from pp to ff. While there are the usual strings sprinkled throughout the Choir and Swell, the Solo strings truly cap the string chorus, possessing incredible intensity and brilliance. Although the Solo was originally designed with one pair, the discovery of two ranks of Skinner orchestral strings in our stockroom led to the addition of a second set to be the pinnacle of the string chorus. Voicer Ted Gilbert worked wonders with these two pairs—the Gamba is the quieter of the two, possessing an almost woody quality, whereas the Cello represents the extreme limit of bright, powerful, shimmering string voicing. Twelve ranks of string or undulating tone in the organ, from the Swell Flauto Dolce through the Solo Cello, provide a seamless powerful crescendo, made even more effective with the use of double expression in the Solo.
No symphonic organ is complete without an expression system that can fully restrain the power of the instrument and instantly change the dynamic of the stops drawn. To this end, no fewer than six Skinner-replica whiffletree expression motors are used in this organ. While the Swell, Choir, and Antiphonal Swell are enclosed and expressive as expected, the Solo and Great warrant description of their expressive capabilities. From the outset, we had designed the Great to be partially enclosed, mainly the reeds and upperwork. Additionally, the Solo was to speak through its own shades into the Great box, providing the division with the aforementioned double expression.
The Great organ’s expressive capabilities were expanded early on with the decision to enclose the entire division with the exception of the 8' Montre and 16' Principal. Through careful scaling and voicing, the division doesn’t suffer its enclosure with the shades open, and contains the tonal resources necessary to lead enthusiastic congregational singing with all 500 seats filled, as well as serving its traditional role in the performance of organ literature. However, with the added benefit of 16-stage expression, these same tonal resources can be manipulated to match any congregation size, as well as provide another enclosed division of power for choral accompaniment.
At the same time, to give the Solo and Great more independence from each other, we added a second set of shades to the Solo, allowing the division to speak directly into the chancel. This provides the Solo division with a third expressive option. As installed, the Solo swell box is behind the Great box and four feet higher. The primary Solo shades open into the Great, with the Solo chancel shades being at the very top of the Solo box, four feet high, and opening directly into the room. While giving an acceptable dynamic range, these smaller shades provide an enormous timbral range, noticed especially with the strings. With the full Solo string chorus playing and the main Solo shades open, the full weight of the 8' stops comes through—one can almost hear bows drawn across the strings. However, when the upper shades open, the full range of upper harmonics from these stops erupts from the box, filling out the sound just when you thought it couldn’t be any brighter and more sonorous.
The control of all these expression options is met with four swell shoes, including the crescendo shoe. The Solo shoe normally controls the chancel shades. However, when the “Solo Double Expression” drawknob is drawn, the Solo shoe operates both sets of Solo shades, as well as the Great shades, in a set sequence to give the maximum crescendo possible. Additionally, a second drawknob closes the Solo chancel shades should that be desired, and sets the Solo shoe to control only the main Solo shades. The Great and Antiphonal Swell expression functions are independently assignable to any shoe, including crescendo. When not assigned, the shades default to a position settable by the organist. Harris Precision Products retrofitted two of their standard drawknob units with potentiometers to set these defaults, and thus these controls are seamlessly integrated into the console via rotating drawknobs. All Swells to Swell is provided to afford simple control over the entire dynamic range of the organ, and indicators are provided below the coupler rail to show the position of each set of shades.
The use of such sophisticated expression functions allows the organist to present the full dynamic range of the orchestra, and the use of the smaller Solo chancel shades allows for the ultimate in dynamic and timbral expression, a feature unique to this organ, and one we hope to further develop and use in subsequent installations.
To complement the varied and colorful manual divisions, a large, independent Pedal division affords the appropriate bass sonority for whatever registration is drawn on the manuals. Consisting of eleven independent ranks and 29 stops, the Pedal organ is augmented by judicious borrowing from the manuals. Four 32' stops are provided to underpin the instrument and provide a true feeling of gravitas. From the initial planning phases of the project, it was made clear that no digital voices were to be used in the organ; thus, all 32' stops play real pipes, or are derived. The Bourdon, of generous scale, is voiced gently for use with the softest registrations, but with enough quint in its tone to be made stronger as more pedal stops are added. The 32' Principal, an extension of the 16¢, uses Haskell pipes to GGGG#, the rest of the 32' octave being a resultant. The full-length 32' Contra Posaune, also masterfully voiced by Chris Broome, gives plenty of weight and power to full organ, but without being brash or rattling. For a ‘second’ 32' reed, the Harmonics is a 102⁄3' cornet, derived from the Great 16' Double Trumpet and 16' Gemshorn, giving the semblance of 32' reed tone underneath smaller tutti registrations.
With the added features of sophisticated expression, as well as the inclusion of more fully developed choruses, First Presbyterian’s instrument represents a logical and successful extension and merging of the two dominant styles of 20th-century American organbuilding: the symphonic and American classic schools. The instrument serves as a platform for the successful performance of a wide body of organ literature, as well as fulfilling its accompanimental roles. In its design, construction, voicing and tonal finishing, we feel truly proud to call this instrument our magnum opus, regardless of what instruments leave our shop in years to come, and thank First Presbyterian for the opportunity to set our sights high and build an organ we have so long dreamed of creating. We therefore commend this instrument to the glory of God and the people of First Presbyterian Church as a product of our finest craftsmanship. May it long bring joy and inspiration to those who hear and play it, just as it has inspired us as organbuilders in its creation.
Those working on the project included: Stephen Russell, David Gordon, Gail Grandmont, Carole Russell, Theodore Gilbert, Jonathan Ortloff, Larry Chace, Frank Thompson, Matthew Russell, Peter Walker, Allan Taylor, Eric Johansson, and Andrew Lawrence.
—Jonathan Ortloff

From the organist
Now in my fifth decade of deep affection for the pipe organ, its music, and its role in worship, I am brought to this point of extraordinary magnificence in the creation of the opus 47 Russell & Co. organ. During these five decades, I have witnessed many trends and fads in organbuilding. The commitment of this church to the pipe organ as its primary medium for the leading of congregational song is all the more inspiring to me.
This instrument transcends the fads of recent decades. The organ/sanctuary committee, formed by this church in the fall of 2000 and guided by our organ consultant, John Schwandt, selected several organbuilders to consider for the project. This committee authorized my colleague Larry Doebler and me to travel far and wide to experience the work of the builders we had selected as finalists, each of whom subsequently visited the church to inspect the sanctuary space and existing organ. In the end, we all had no doubt that Russell & Co. was the appropriate choice for us.
While we were confident that our new organ would be very fine indeed, we could not have anticipated the level of magnificence that has been achieved here by Stephen Russell and his colleagues. In my 50 years of playing pipe organs, I have never been privileged to play an organ so elegant, expressive and versatile as this one. The word synergy is one that I have never before been comfortable using. This powerful word, meaning “combined or cooperative action or force,” is the perfect term to describe the wondrous emergence and continuing presence of this organ. Beginning with the collective sharing of the original committee, the guidance of Anita Cummings, pastor of this church at the outset of the project, the beneficence of Mrs. Dorothy Park, church member and donor of funds for this organ, the courage and vision of church members to undertake and fund the acoustical transformation of the sanctuary from sonically “dead” to vibrant and moderately reverberant, and the mutual respect and creative sharing of organbuilder, consultant and resident organist, have resulted in the ultimate synergy: the harmonious blending of thought, craft, sound and space that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
I offer gratitude and the highest of commendations to master organbuilder/voicer, Stephen Russell, his dedicated staff, and the many others who have had a hand in the three-year process of the emergence of opus 47!
—George Edward Damp

From the church
The history of our new Russell organ begins with the construction of our current sanctuary in 1894. In 1901, the Austin Company installed our first permanent organ (the oak façade that currently supports the visible organ pipes behind the choir is part of that original installation). In 1930, the Echo organ (above the southwest entrance to the sanctuary) was added. In 1969, Austin built a completely new organ in the chancel, one typical of that period—an instrument that, with its sheer power and rough voicing, overwhelmed our beautiful, but acoustically rather dead, sanctuary.
Problems with the Austin organ started to appear in the early 1990s. Minor problems continued to occur, and it was clear that something needed to be done. An organ/sanctuary committee was formed that, early in its existence, possessed the keen insight that the sanctuary itself was a part of the organ (the box that the organ’s voice is dispersed into), and that any renovations to the organ must be accomplished within the acoustical framework of the sanctuary.
As a result, the committee hired an organ consultant, John Schwandt, and an acoustical consultant, Scott Riedel, to guide them through the decision-making process of repairing our organ. Each made an initial, individual presentation to the committee, but most memorable was their joint participation in a lengthy “town meeting” with the committee and members of the congregation. The meeting ended with a focus for the project—to improve our worship experience by enhancing both music and the spoken word through renovations to both the organ and the sanctuary.
Early on in this process, then-pastor Anita Cummings and organist George Damp approached Mrs. Dorothy Park with the invitation to become a supporter of this exciting adventure for the church. After several subsequent discussions, Mrs. Park indicated that the church deserved the finest organ created by the finest builder, and that she would cover the cost of the organ if the congregation would pay for the acoustical renovations.
A clear consensus decided that Stephen Russell was the right person to build the new organ. At the same time, Schickel Architecture of Ithaca was selected to design the renovations to the sanctuary. Several significant changes to the sanctuary were implemented to improve the acoustical environment. Certainly the most outstanding component of the sanctuary renovations is the reconstruction of the rear wall of the sanctuary. Its subtle sunburst pattern surrounding a high circular window is both extremely pleasing to the eye as well as functional in randomly scattering sound.
Suffice it to say, every aspect of the organ, from its general layout to the voicing of each individual pipe (all 5,000 of them) was accomplished with the unique features of our sanctuary in mind. The outcome is truly a gift for the ages, something that First Presbyterian Church can share with Ithaca and the surrounding area for decades to come. One can only hope that the generosity of Mrs. Park and the efforts of those involved in this project will be more than repaid by the joy and exhilaration shared by all those who experience our wonderful new organ.
—Tom Owens,
Elder and member of session,
First Presbyterian Church

From the consultant
It is a privilege to offer a few words regarding Russell & Co. opus 47. In a world that so desperately hungers for and needs beauty, it is satisfying to have been a part of a long process that has ultimately yielded a thing of great beauty that will inspire the generations yet to come.
My primary involvement in this project occurred before contract-signing. It is my fervent belief that consultants should provide general education and thereby enable church committees to make an informed decision about what is best for their congregation’s worship and community life. However, before we could start to talk about organs, it was very important to have the bigger picture in perspective, namely the inferior acoustical properties of the room. The committee wisely considered the importance of good acoustics that benefit congregational prayer, singing, oratory, as well as but not limited to instrumental music. Scott Riedel provided acoustical consultation; the action taken on most of his recommendations yielded a vastly improved sacred space.
The pipe organ, while not the only possible instrument for worship, remains the best single instrument to lead corporate worship because of its ability to sustain tones from soft to loud and from every pitch level. A well-designed and constructed pipe organ should enable an organist to creatively and expressively accomplish this musical leadership, often interpreting music of many different styles. It was my recommendation that an organ of rich, warm tone and with ample variety of color from all pipe families (principal, flute, string, and reed) be considered. The great organbuilders of the past were not striving to build instruments after someone else’s style, but to create organs suited to the rooms in which they were installed and reflecting the cultural identity of their time and place. That Russell opus 47 resembles in some aspects organs of the early half of the 20th century is entirely irrelevant. The fact remains that it is not an E. M. Skinner organ, an Æolian-Skinner organ, a Kimball organ, or any other organ. Rather, I believe that this instrument transcends labeling of any kind. Opus 47 has richness of color, overall warmth, and clarity. In previous periods of organ building, rich fundamental tone and clarity were thought to be mutually exclusive attributes; one could not have both. The refined voicing and the mechanical perfection of the pitman windchest exemplify an organ that will allow for music of any style. Congratulations are due to the committee and congregation for investing in their future so well!
—John D. Schwandt

Russell & Co. Organ Builders, Opus 47
First Presbyterian Church, Ithaca, New York, May 2006

GREAT – II (Expressive)
16' Principal* 49 pipes, 1–12=Pedal
16' Gemshorn* 12
8' Montre* 61
8' Principal 61
8' Bourdon 61
8' Flûte Harmonique 49
8' Gemshorn 61
4' Octave 61
4' Rohrflöte 61
22⁄3' Nasard 61
2' Fifteenth 61
11⁄3' Fourniture IV–V 297
16' Double Trumpet 61
8' Trumpet 61
Chancel Great Off
MIDI on Great
*Unenclosed

SWELL – III (Expressive)
16' Lieblich Gedeckt 61
8' Diapason 61
8' Bourdon 61
8' Viola 61
8' Viola Celeste 61
8' Flauto Dolce 61
8' Flute Celeste 49
4' Octave 61
4' Nachthorn 61
2' Octave 61
2' Plein Jeu IV–V 296
16' Fagotto 61
8' French Trumpet 61
8' Oboe d’Amour 61
8' Vox Humana 61
4' Clarion 61
Tremulant
MIDI on Swell
Swell Sub
Chancel Swell Off
Swell Super

CHOIR – I (Expressive)
8' English Diapason 61
8' Hohlflöte 61
8' Quintadena 61
8' Erzahler 61
8' Erzahler Celeste 49
4' Octave 61
4' Koppelflöte 61
22⁄3' Nazard 61
2' Flute 61
13⁄5' Tierce 61
16' Corno di Bassetto 12
8' Waldhorn 61
8' Clarinet 61
Chimes Ant. Swell
Tremulant
Choir Sub
Choir Off
Choir Super
MIDI on Choir

POSITIV – I
8' Gedeckt 61
8' Spillflöete 61
4' Prestant 61
2' Principal 61
11⁄3' Quint 61
22⁄3' Sesquialtera II 122
1' Scharff III–IV 232
Tremulant
Zimbelstern
Positiv Off

SOLO – IV (Expressive)
16' Cello 12
8' Concert Flute 61
8' Cello 61
8' Cello Celeste 61
8' Gamba 61
8' Gamba Celeste 61
8' English Horn 61
8' Tuba Mirabilis 61
8' Silver Trumpet* 70, double trebles
Chimes Ant. Swell
Tremulant
Solo Sub
Solo Off
Solo Super
MIDI on Solo
*Unenclosed

ANTIPHONAL GREAT – II
8' Prestant 61
8' Stopped Flute 61
Antiphonal Great Off
Antiphonal Great Super

ANTIPHONAL SWELL – III
8' Gedeckt 61
8' Viole Aetheria 61
8' Vox Angelica 49
4' Flute d’Amour 61
8' Orchestral Oboe 61
8' Vox Humana 61
Chimes
Tremulant
Antiphonal Swell Sub
Antiphonal Swell Off
Antiphonal Swell Super

PEDAL
32' Principal (GGGG#) 4
32' Contra Bourdon 12
16' Open

Russell & Co. Organ Builders,
Chester, Vermont
First Presbyterian Church, Ithaca, New York

John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois
First Presbyterian Church,
Lexington, Kentucky

From the organ builder
Organ projects take a long time. In the case of this undertaking, it can perhaps be said that this project has taken 110 years! It was in 1897 that the W. W. Kimball Co. of Chicago installed a two-manual and pedal tubular pneumatic action pipe organ in First Presbyterian Church. In 1936, Kimball revisited their then 40-year old instrument, converting the action to electropneumatic action and making some minor tonal changes. Subsequent alterations and repairs, not up to the quality of the original work, led to the decision to pursue a comprehensive rebuilding.
It was in May 2004 that Buzard Pipe Organ Builders first inspected the organ and met with the church’s organ committee. Our enthusiasm for the project and approach to the particular requirements of the project were a good fit with the church’s desires, and after jointly refining our vision a contract was signed on June 6, 2005 for a complete rebuilding of the church’s pipe organ. The organ was removed to the Buzard factory in February 2006, with re-installation beginning just about a year later and taking about two months on site.
This project is not a restoration. Many changes had already been made to the instrument over its first 100 years, and although the organ made some nice sounds, it could not provide the full tonal palette that is desired for what this instrument is called upon to do. In addition, the mechanical systems of the organ were neither in good condition nor adaptable to the tonal changes being made.
The new wind system retains and supplements the original Kimball reservoirs and tremolos, with new wooden wind trunks throughout the organ. A completely new console and switching system have been crafted, incorporating preparations for future installation of an Antiphonal division in the gallery (the location of the church’s first pipe organ).
New electric pull-down slider and pallet windchests have been constructed for the straight manual stops, and new electropneumatic action windchests have been constructed for the unit stops. A new building frame and structure has been constructed behind the original casework, with new enclosures incorporating the Kimball shutter frames.
Twenty-five stops of Kimball pipework have been retained, supplemented with 11 ranks of new pipework. All of the existing pipes have been carefully repaired and revoiced, and all the new pipes were custom scaled and built for this project under the watchful eyes (and ears) of the Buzard Company’s tonal director, Brian K. Davis, with all tonal finishing completed on site by Mr. Davis and Mr. Buzard. The visible façade pipes, containing basses of the 16′ and 8′ Diapasons, have been brilliantly decorated using the original patterning.
The organ is now in as-new condition, ready to sound forth in its second century with both bold new voices and sounds that echo from its past. Everything old is new again!
—Keith Williams and David Brown
Buzard Pipe Organ Builders
Service Department

From the organ consultant
In March 2004, I was invited by the director of music and arts, Marlon Hurst, to advise the organ committee of the First Presbyterian Church with regard to their organ. On visiting the church, I found a rather decrepit instrument, originally built in 1897 by the noted Kimball firm, which had subsequently been repaired, patched, altered and added to on several occasions by various people. Kimball had electrified the action (originally tubular) and replaced the console in 1936, but both action and console were now rapidly deteriorating, resulting in dead notes, loose pedal keys, and an erratic combination action. Examination of the interior revealed obsolete windchests, a patchwork electrical system with components ranging from the 1936 electrification to recent solid-state, a replacement (and slow) swell shade motor, inoperative top-note pedal extensions, leaky windlines patched with duct tape, recently recovered reservoirs and winkers, and evidence of some re-leathering of primaries.
Even visually, the organ had been changed, the casework darkened, and the display pipes (along with much of the rest of the church interior) painted a dull off-white to match the sanctuary’s then rather drab interior. Tonally, there had been a few substitutions, along with various additions and extensions on offset chests, most of them done at different times and by different people. The original Kimball pipework was, however, reasonably intact and in good condition, although generally in poor tonal regulation and tune, some stops showing evidence of less than successful revoicing attempts. Yet despite the gradual disintegration of the organ’s original integrity, this pipework, with all its defects, still gave a strong and admirable impression of the original rich Kimball sound.
The committee had been wrestling with various approaches, from possible restoration to more patchwork repairs and additions to total replacement. After discussion with this very motivated committee, a more attractive option emerged. Because of all the changes and additions, restoration as an authentic Kimball was really out of the question. More patchwork could be dismissed on the basis of the dubious results it had achieved in the past. An entirely new organ was an option, but the most costly one. And then there was the matter of all of that excellent Kimball pipework with its distinctive character, which all of us agreed that we liked. Since the faults of the organ as it stood were primarily mechanical, we eventually agreed to focus on a new option, that of retaining and respectfully treating the Kimball pipework, possibly with a few carefully integrated new stops, but replacing all of the mechanical components with new, excepting perhaps the console shell and a few reservoirs. The hoped-for result would be a reliable and essentially new organ with a “vintage” sound.
The committee’s eventual choice of the Buzard firm was based not only on their favorable impressions of the quality of the firm’s work, but also on the builder’s willingness to make the most of the Kimball pipework in a tonal design that also included some additions to expand the overall usefulness of the organ in the church’s very active and vital music program.
Because the organ project was to be integrated into a larger plan of renovating and redecorating the church interior under the direction of Terry Byrd Eason, making more space for the choir was strongly recommended by all involved and was included in this plan. Once a builder had been chosen, he and the architect worked together on renovating the organ chamber and certain other details. Eventually it was discovered that Kimball’s display pipes had originally been colorfully stenciled, and, with the enthusiastic agreement of all involved, restoration of this element was added to the project and executed by Kristin Farmer, one of the most highly respected practitioners of this rather arcane art-form. Along with the restoration of the pulpit furniture to its original finish and a warmer and more historically authentic color scheme, the stenciled pipes have added considerably to the visual interest of the room.
Throughout the three years of the organ project, the committee and I were in regular communication as questions arose and some minor changes were considered. Indeed, I will have to say that Marlon Hurst and his committee comprised one of the most conscientiously dedicated groups that I have ever worked with. That their dedication paid off abundantly was demonstrated on Sunday, April 29, 2007, when the organ and the beautifully refurbished sanctuary—complete with improved acoustics—were dedicated in a unique festival of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs that included hymn-singing, choral music and organ music (both solo and with brass) impressively performed by John D. Schwandt. In one nicely orchestrated and well-attended event, the organ was put through its paces in all of its varied functions, and came through with flying colors. Its Kimball antecedents were clearly present in the warm foundations, lush strings and colorful solo stops, now all well-regulated again. Buzard’s new mixtures dovetailed seamlessly into the well-balanced choruses and the powerful new Tromba rank proved a successful “climax” stop. Musicians, clergy, architect, consultants and builders alike came away happy with what had been accomplished. But of greatest importance will be the far-reaching effects of a more welcoming sanctuary and a well-crafted and versatile organ for the church’s future worship and outreach.
—Barbara Owen
organ consultant

From the director of music and arts
The consideration of a major renovation—or replacement—of the pipe organ proved to be the impetus for examining other areas of concern in the 1874 sanctuary—issues of acoustics, chancel design, lighting, structural integrity and aging HVAC systems. Much like the maintenance history of the organ, each of these areas had received varying degrees of attention and improvement during the past century, but none of the improvements had been made in the context of a comprehensive plan.
With the identification of such a potentially comprehensive restoration project to the organ and sanctuary, a long range planning team (LRPT) was formed with the charge to thoroughly investigate the needs of the sanctuary and organ in the context of the overall ministry of the congregation. The LRPT enlisted the services of two consultants who would prove to be crucial to the direction of the project: Terry Byrd Eason, liturgical design consultant; and Barbara Owen, organ consultant.
Ms. Owen visited the church in March, 2004 and spent a day examining all aspects of the organ. The LRPT was reluctant to completely replace the instrument since it was installed during the same general period of construction as the church’s sanctuary. Furthermore, the warm Kimball sounds were valued by both the church’s members and music staff. Given Ms. Owen’s high estimation of the integrity of the existing Kimball pipes, it was decided that the church would seek a builder who would agree to build a new mechanical instrument, and who would combine the best of the existing Kimball pipe work with certain ranks of new pipes in a tonal scheme that would broaden the tonal palette and provide more timbral cohesiveness in the instrument.
At Ms. Owen’s recommendation, proposals and bids for the rebuilding project were solicited and received from five regional organ builders. In turn, trips were made to Atlanta, Cincinnati and Indianapolis to listen to representative work of each builder who submitted a proposal. Under the continued (and always impartial) guidance of Barbara Owen, we narrowed the field to two builders. A larger organ committee was formed to visit representative rebuilding work of our two final candidates. After hearing the tonal work of John-Paul Buzard, the committee unanimously agreed that it was Mr. Buzard’s work and proposal that best matched the goals stated by the LRPT.
In February 2006, the organ was sent to the Buzard shop. In the year following, the church underwent a restoration that included a complete redesign of the chancel and choir areas, the replacement of the church’s HVAC systems—including the re-routing of the HVAC ductwork for both efficiency and acoustic purposes—a complete scaffolding of the sanctuary to repair and replace sagging plaster in the drop-vaulted ceiling, the addition of new lighting and sound/recording systems and, most important to the organ project, the replacement of wall-to-wall carpeting in the chancel and nave with an oak hardwood surface. The combination of plaster repair and the installation of a hardwood floor in the choir, chancel and nave created an acoustic space that is now resonant and warm—an ideal environment for congregational song and prayer, choral singing and “the playing of the merry organ.”
At some point in the mid-20th century, the organ façade pipes (a functioning 16′ Open Diapason) had been painted over to match the color of the sanctuary walls. There was some photographic evidence from the early 20th century that the façade had originally been stenciled, though the details of the pattern were not discernible from the quality of the extant photographs. As the paint was being stripped from the pipes, the “shadow” of the original ornate stenciling pattern was discovered—and it was found intact to such a degree that its restoration was made possible.
Careful consideration was given to the color choices so that they would be consonant with the overall color scheme in the sanctuary. It was further decided that a large wooden cross, designed by Terry Byrd Eason, would be commissioned to hang in front of the façade pipes.
After all of the planning and careful consideration that led to the selection of a builder had been completed, we could only rest in the faith that we had been thorough in our process and that we had made the right choice in John-Paul Buzard. When John-Paul completed his work on the organ in April 2007, it was confirmed that we had chosen well. His respect for the pre-existing voicing found in the Kimball pipes guided his approach to the voicing of the entire instrument. Now, the old pipework blends with the new in a seamless way that is at once identifiably Kimball, while being skillfully broadened beyond the constraints of late 19th-century American tonal philosophies.
The end result of the project is that we have preserved the best of what we had inherited from our predecessors and have provided for those who worship in this place now and in the years to come an instrument that is capable of accompanying a wide variety of choral and congregational song, and on which can be faithfully played the broad spectrum of historic and modern organ repertoire. Soli Deo Gloria.
—Marlon Hurst, director of music and arts
Tina Wagoner, organist
Dr. Ben Arnold, Sara Holroyd, Jack Lansill, Renée Smith, organ committee

Regarding the restoration of the stenciled façade
The exciting call from Terry Byrd Eason (liturgical design consultant for the First Presbyterian Church, Lexington project) came in early January 2007. He explained that he was working with a church that had an 1897 Kimball façade, which needed to be re-stenciled with its original patterns. The façade had been painted over several times, but was now thoroughly stripped down to the bare zinc. He assured me that the Kimball designs were all on the pipes, etched into the zinc. Not being one who is afraid of a challenge, I took on the job.
The pipes arrived via an 18-wheel tractor-trailer—all 41 of them! My mind could only think, “where am I going to put all these pipes?” And they were huge. Eventually we got them all stored away.
The process began with just looking at the pipes. I wanted to recreate the façade accurately, but having no idea of the original, I was hesitant to just dig in immediately. So I “looked” at the pipes for two weeks. I laid the pipes from each flat side by side, and walked past them several times a day. Finally, I began to comprehend the original layouts and relationships of designs—from one pipe to another and from one flat to another.
I traced the designs, drew them on paper, and then cut stencils. Some stencils were 51″ long and 15″ wide! When the stencils were ready to use, the pipes, one by one, were primed and sanded to a smooth finish. A scale stick was made for each of the pipes so the designs would be placed back in the exact original position.
Colors for the pipes were selected by Terry Byrd Eason to match the walls and interior colors of the sanctuary, leaving the exact disposition of the colors to my discretion. Luckily, in working with the pipes I did find indications of the original colors hidden in nooks and crannies of the pipes. Bright red and green were found, telling me that we were in keeping with the original spirit of the façade design.
First the body of each pipe was painted with five different colors and banded with 24-carat gold. Second, the stencils were applied, some applied by pouncing with a stencil brush while others were gold leafed. These leafed designs had to be traced on the pipes with a pencil, and the gold size was applied with an artist’s brush. The mouths of all the pipes were gold leafed. The bodies of the pipes were nearly completely covered by stenciled designs, and hand painting was required in some areas.
After nine weeks of painting (I saw the sunrise many days), the pipes were finished and ready to go home to Lexington. They now stand proudly in their home and will once again play for at least one hundred years.
My thanks to Terry Byrd Eason for his expert help and to David Brown of Buzard Organ Builders who did the tracings of the original designs.
—Kristin Farmer

John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders
First Presbyterian Church, Lexington, Kentucky
28 straight stops, 35 ranks
(with preparation for 7-stop, 9-rank Antiphonal division)

GREAT (Manual II)
Underlined stops enclosed
4″ wind pressure
12 stops, 15 ranks
16′ Double Open Diapason* (façade 7–30; 1–6 from Bourdon)
8′ First Open Diapason* (façade 1–15)
8′ Second Open Diapason* (from 16′)
8′ Viola da Gamba
8′ Doppel Flute*
8′ Dulciana*
8′ Unda Maris*
4′ Principal*
4′ Flute d’Amour*
22⁄3′ Twelfth
2′ Fifteenth*
Mixture IV
8′ Trumpet*
8′ Trombas (from Pedal)
Tremulant
Chimes (25 notes, old tubes, new action)
Great to Great 4-UO
Enclosed Great to Great 16-UO-4
Swell to Great 16′, 8′, 4′
Antiphonal to Great 8′

ANTIPHONAL (Manual I)
(in balcony, preparation in console & switching)
7 stops, 9 ranks
8′ English Open Diapason
8′ Melodia
8′ Flûte à Bibéron
4′ Principal
4′ Suabe Flute
Mixture III
8′ Corno di Bassetto
8′ Trombas (from Pedal)
Antiphonal Unison Off
Great to Antiphonal 8′, 4′
Enclosed Great to Antiph. 16′, 8′, 4′
Swell to Antiphonal 16′, 8′, 4′
Cymbalstern (toe piston)
SWELL (Manual III)
Enclosed, 4″ wind pressure
12 stops, 16 ranks
16′ Lieblich Gedeckt*
8′ Violin Diapason*
8′ Stopped Diapason*
8′ Salicional*
8′ Voix Celeste* (GG)
4′ Principal*
4′ Harmonic Flute
2′ Flautina*
Sesquialtera II*
Mixture IV
8′ Cornopean
8′ Oboe*
Swell to Swell 16-UO-4
Antiphonal to Swell 8′

PEDAL
Trombone enclosed
4″ wind pressure
4 stops, 4 ranks
32′ Bourdon (ext, 1–12 digital)
32′ Lieblich Gedeckt (ext, 1–12 digital)
16′ First Open Diapason*
16′ Second Open Diapason* (Gt)
16′ Bourdon*
16′ Lieblich Gedeckt (Sw)
8′ Principal*
8′ Bass Flute* (ext, 12 new pipes)
8′ Bourdon (ext)
8′ Gedeckt Flute (Sw)
8′ Violoncello*
4′ Choral Bass*
4′ Open Flute (ext Bdn, 24 new pipes)
16′ Trombone
8′ Trombas (ext)
4′ Clarion (ext)
16′ Antiphonal Gedeckt (ext)
16′ Antiphonal Bassoon (ext)
Great to Pedal 8′, 4′
Enclosed Great to Pedal 8′, 4′
Swell to Pedal 8′, 4′
Antiphonal to Pedal 8′

An asterisk (*) denotes pipework retained from the existing organ and restored for the new tonal context.

Photo credit: John-Paul Buzard