Juget-Sinclair to restore Beckerath organ at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montréal

Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders, Montréal, Québec, Canada: 

St. Joseph’s Oratory, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders, Montréal, Québec, Canada

St. Joseph’s Oratory, Montréal, Québec, Canada

From the builder

The idea to fully restore the Beckerath organ at St. Joseph’s Oratory came from then Organist Titulaire Philippe Bélanger. We came up with different proposals, some involving changes to the instrument, some not, but for the moment we were firmly in the world of the hypothetical; no harm in talking about changes to the instrument—it was only a mental exercise then. Any thought that this might actually occur was accompanied by cold sweat and sleeplessness—after all, perhaps no other instrument has had a greater influence on organ building in Québec, and its influence has been worldwide.

Eventually, to our great relief, the authorities at St. Joseph’s Oratory wisely came to the conclusion that an outside expert and a proper bidding process were required. George Taylor was hired, deus ex machina, and three Québec companies were asked to bid on a very thorough RFP that specified no changes to the tonal specification. “No changes” may seem an obvious requirement, but it is not. Most musicians sitting at the console are soon surprised by what seems missing from the specification, despite its 78-stop, 5-manual footprint. But any thought of making changes leads straight to dilemma.

One example is instructive: the idea had naturally surfaced to add a trumpet to the Récit (yes, a 78-stop instrument with French pretensions and no Trompette on the Récit!). Now, how to add it—it could be added to the back of the chest grid; that way no one could complain about any stop being removed. Or, the Musette 4′ could be removed and replaced with a trumpet. The Musette could be racked mute on a wall in the swell box, for its own protection. I was amused by these two possibilities—the first pleases the musician at the console, who finds the original specification intact—plus, it provides the trumpet they always needed. The second pleases the restorer 50 years (or more!) from now, who finds a windchest that has not been denatured by holes bored through the frame to accommodate the extra toe board, and inevitably returns the Musette to its toe holes. 

This dilemma cannot be resolved and let us not pretend it can. Any restoration, no matter how respectful, will remove some original material. In a museum setting, an ancient clavichord may be copied rather than restored so that the original continues to exist, unmolested, as a document for future generations. The copies allow musicians to play instruments that are as close as possible to the originals and to be informed by the experience. This is clearly not an option for organs, and to add to the conundrum, they exist primarily to accompany a changing liturgy. Organs occupy a strange space somewhere between typewriter and violin—between pragmatism and art—actually both at once. 

But surely this is not of concern for an instrument of only 50 years? What made this project difficult to define in the early stages? In a way, it was an organ of conflict—wonderful to play, a beast to play; the specification is huge, but with huge holes; it is a historic monument, but only 50 years old. There are organbuilders the world over who consider themselves the spiritual sons of Rudolf von Beckerath, and the torchbearers of his tradition. The tension created by these issues  made the appointment of George Taylor, outside expert, a stroke of genius that perhaps made the project the success that we believe it is.

It was decided to make no changes to the musical qualities of the instrument, but to rebuild the key action completely. If a line can be drawn in an organ between the musical and the mechanical, it is surely at the pallet itself, and this became an important distinction. In this instrument, the pallet openings on all divisions are unnecessarily wide—up to 30 mm with only 5 mm of travel at the nose, a terribly inefficient design, if efficiency is what you are after. Naturally, the question arose whether or not to change the pallet design—to provide as much or perhaps more wind and reduce pluck at the same time. But inevitably, the nature of the pipe attack would be changed, even if the quantity of wind was not. It was decided that in order to preserve the musical integrity of the instrument, the pallet dimensions should not be altered. This made for an interesting case study—without reducing pluck, to what extent could the action be made more agreeable to play, with up to four manuals coupled? The action, as we found it, was slow to repeat, but the spring force felt at the keyboard was nearly right. By reducing mass in the action train, we would be able to improve repetition, but the pluck would not be greatly reduced. Would musicians find the action to be improved, and if so, by how much?

A complete rebuild of the action was undertaken, using the tools available to us: reduce mass, reduce friction, and ensure proper functioning of all the elements. New roller boards were built for the Grand-Orgue, Récit, Bombarde, and Positif divisions. This was perhaps responsible for the greatest reduction in action mass; the original design follows laws of physics that we apparently no longer have access to. The mass of the rollers was adding a lot of inertia to the action, but there was also friction and flexibility. All trackers were replaced with carbon fiber—1 mm rod for vertical runs and ½ x 3mm section for horizontal runs. This material, as well as being very light and strong, has the benefit of remaining straight, so alignment is easy. But we did notice a tendency for people to think that as long as carbon fiber was involved, success was ensured. In reality, it is a material, like any other, whose qualities need to be understood for success.

The organ was first stripped of its action, and the console was removed and taken to the shop. There was a feeling of revisiting 1960 at this stage. We found cheeks on the sides of the console that clearly had held a sling used to hoist the console up over the gallery rail. The hole in the ceiling was still there, at the perfect location, ready for us to run a heavy rope through, and the console was soon lowered to the floor of the nave and brought to the shop. Then, restoration continued with two teams, one at the shop restoring the console and building new action parts, the other on site restoring windchests and pipework.

Restoration of each division of the organ was undertaken one after another, starting at the top with the Récit. Pipes were removed and taken to be cleaned and straightened in the chapelle des familles. This soundproof room just below the organ loft is intended for crying babies and their parents during Mass—ideal for pipe restoration, and roomy enough for a fairly complete pipe shop. At the same time, the Récit windchests were turned over and restored in place. This top-to-bottom approach allowed us to break a large instrument into manageable chunks, and had the additional benefit of allowing any dust we created to settle below, to the next division scheduled for restoration.

Particular attention was paid to the console, as it had lost the stark Germanic austerity—apparently not held in much esteem in the intervening years—that now seems oddly exotic. The original plastic stopknobs had long ago been replaced, so new maple ones were made, copying examples from the other Montréal Beckeraths. A sequencer was added, as were divisional pistons, using the same unorthodox arrangement found on the 1963 Beckerath in Pittsburgh—with inter-manual divisionals placed at e-f and b-c, between the sharps. Holes had been cut into the stop jambs over the years to accommodate various versions of instantly obsolete combination action. These were filled and veneered with matching pear wood. The goal was to restore and update the console so that future additions to the combination action would not deface the console. To this end, Solid State Organ Systems provided touch screen functionality via a wireless iPad, so that future changes can be handled here.

The five largest pipes of the Grand-Orgue Montre 16′, visible in the large central pipe flat, had been repaired once and collapsed twice since 1960. It was decided that new pipes were needed, built with knowledge reacquired since 1960, of how to make pipes that will stand. The rest of the tin façade pipes were removed, cleaned, repaired, polished, and returned to their holes. The twelve façade pipes that make up the first octave of the Pédale Montre 32′ are of zinc, and were cleaned in place. The entire operation required full scaffolding in front of the façade, which provided a clear signal to the public that a major project was underway.

Winding to the Montre 16′ was originally provided pneumatically to the bottom five pipes of the stop, to reduce wind demand on the channel. We continued this practice through the rest of the first octave, as there was considerable robbing going on, starting from F. Surprisingly, we had never heard complaints about this, but we were sure that if it was not improved, we would. New pneumatic offset chests were constructed following the design of the old one, which functions perfectly.

Voicing was undertaken in a spirit of respect for the builder. Sunken languids were raised, speech problems were taken care of, and stops were equalized, but every effort was taken to stay true to the intent of the builder. After pipes were straightened and cleaned, voicing was checked on a voicing jack before returning the pipes to their chests. Racking and pipe stays were improved and solidified where needed, but in general this had been well done originally. Façade pipes in danger of recollapse were relieved of about half of their weight by hanging them from springs, and should be safe now.

Reaction to the restoration has been very positive, to our great pleasure and even relief, but it has also been instructive. Musicians tend to feel that the voice of the organ has changed—not for the worse—but we are quick to stress that every effort was taken not to change the voicing one iota. But we’ve seen this before—the simple act of removing dust from an instrument changes its timbre. And we wonder if something else isn’t at work: the action is so changed that one’s approach to playing the instrument is different, and it does sound different—it can be more virile, and it sounds more precise, because it can be played more precisely.

In our work building new organs, Juget-Sinclair started with small instruments and has slowly grown, taking on larger and larger work. This restoration has given us the opportunity to take on a major instrument with new challenges of design and infrastructure. The success of this project fills us with confidence for the future, and we feel validates our approach of maintaining a small shop that builds as much as possible in-house. The variety of skills that we are able to foster through this approach serves us particularly well in restoration, where one never knows what challenges will arise. And we hope, in an ever-shrinking new organ market, that this is a model that will keep us occupied for some time.

The following participated in the restoration, which amounted to over 8,000 hours of work: Jocelyn Bélair, Robin Côté, François Couture, Dean Eckmann, Jean-Dominique Felx, Denis Juget, Céline Richard, Stephen Sinclair, Raymond Batroussy, Arnaud Duchenaux, Richard Houghten, and Vladimir Vaculik.

—Stephen Sinclair

A musician’s perspective

In spite of widespread secularization in Québec during the quiet revolution of the sixties, the attendance of about 50,000 Québecers at the celebration of the canonization of Brother André Bessette in Montréal’s Olympic Stadium on October 30, 2010 underscored the extent to which he is still very much this city’s beloved son. Shortly after making profession as a monk with the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Montréal in 1874, Brother André became a doorman at the College of Notre Dame. In the ensuing years, healings attributed to his prayer and intercession quickly gained for him a reputation as a faith healer. Increasing numbers of congregants drawn by the “Miracle Man of Montréal” quickly outgrew the small chapel he had erected in 1904 on the north slope of Mont Royal. The building of the current basilica commenced in 1924 and was completed in 1967. Today, St. Joseph’s Oratory stands as a towering testament to the life of this humble brother and is a prominent destination for pilgrims, tourists, and music lovers alike.

Given the oratory’s importance in the life of Montréal from its earliest days, the organ that was to be built here was going to have great civic importance from the outset. And given the immense grandeur of this sanctuary, the instrument would be of monumental proportion. After bids were considered, the fathers of the Congregation of the Holy Cross sent a letter on February 25, 1958 to Rudolf von Beckerath that he had been awarded the contract for the construction of the basilica organ. The contract was signed on June 23 of the same year and the builder was committed to deliver an organ within thirty months. Shortly thereafter, Beckerath submitted a design and several sketches. Among the various requests, Raymond Daveluy, titular organist, requested alterations to the stoplist that would allow the playing of a Récit de tierce, and the architects requested that the case embody more vertical lines. In early 1960, 167 crates arrived by sea, and installation commenced. The inaugural recital was given by Parisian organist André Marchal on November 13, 1960. The opening piece, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D Major, was played by Raymond Daveluy. Marchal followed with a program featuring the works of Louis and François Couperin, Clérambault, Daquin, and Tournemire. He also played de Grigny’s Tierce en taille, Franck’s Choral No. 3, Bach’s Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor, Langlais’ Te Deum, and ended the program with an improvisation.

That the building of the oratory organ would be entrusted to a German firm and not to Casavant Frères was a shock to the nationalist sensibilities of many. Coming only thirteen years after the war in which Québecers were conscripted to fight against Germany, this decision unleashed quite a firestorm in the Québec media of the day. However, there was a growing sense among many North American organists and musicians in the 1950s that the organ reform—as it was manifest in the work of Harrison, Holtkamp, and also Casavant Frères during the postwar period—did not go far enough in restoring principles of organ construction from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of these young organists became familiar with organ reform in Holland and Germany on their European journeys. 

Then in 1957, Rudolf von Beckerath installed a 44-stop, four-manual instrument in Trinity Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio. The instrument featured a freestanding case designed according to the werkprinzip, mechanical key and stop action, lower wind pressure, and classical voicing inspired by the instruments of Arp Schnitger. While in North America, Beckerath paid a visit to Montréal in 1957 in response to an invitation from a group of local organists—Kenneth Gilbert, Raymond Daveluy, and Gaston and Lucienne Arel. In the aftermath of that meeting, the respective church administrations of these organists signed contracts with Beckerath. The instruments were delivered and inaugurated at Queen Mary Road United Church in 1959, at St. Joseph’s Oratory in 1960, and at Église Immaculée Conception in 1961. 

These three Montréal Beckerath organs succeeded in bringing the current wave of organ reform, not only to Montréal and to Canada, but to North America as a whole. Indeed, along with the Beckerath at Trinity Lutheran and the Flentrop organ installed in the Busch-Reisinger Museum of Harvard University in 1958, these instruments took North American organ reform to an entirely new level. Beckerath’s renown was spreading quickly, and many young North American organbuilders went to apprentice with him—including George Taylor, Fritz Noack, and John Brombaugh. 

Meanwhile, back at home, Casavant Frères realized that changing conceptions of organbuilding and design required a new paradigm and decided to embrace the organ reform. Casavant’s Charles Perrault and tonal and artistic director Lawrence Phelps brought to North America Karl Wilhelm in 1960 and Hellmuth Wolff in 1963 to run a mechanical organ department; since then, very few mechanical action organs have been imported into Québec. Each of these directors, in turn, went on to start their own workshops and shortly became major players, not only in Canada, but in the organbuilding world internationally. Going even further, Casavant recruited Gerhard Brunzema—already an authority in the organ world—as tonal and artistic director of Casavant Frères in 1972. Thus, the Beckerath instrument at St. Joseph’s Oratory had profound impact locally, but was also a key part of that influential wavefront of reform that was both international and historic in scope. 

Though quite young as organs go, the oratory instrument had developed several problems requiring attention. During its 1960 installation, construction of the basilica was still underway. The stone floor had yet to be installed and many interior modifications were still being made in the sanctuary and in the organ loft. This resulted in a premature internal accumulation of dust in the instrument such that, in that same decade, the instrument was already in need of cleaning and some internal components had to be replaced. By the turn of the century, the organ was again in need of a thorough cleaning and many pipes were in danger of collapse. The first initiatives toward restoration were taken in 2005 by Philippe Bélanger, who was organist at the time. Following a grant from the Québec Ministry of Culture overseen by the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec, the project was underway. George Taylor—having apprenticed with Rudolf von Beckerath and having restored the 1963 Beckerath organ at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Pittsburgh in 2009—was named consultant for the project. The firms of Casavant Frères, Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders, and Orgues Létourneau were asked to submit bids; Juget-Sinclair was selected to undertake the restoration.

From the organist’s point of view, the changes to the instrument are subtle, but striking. Though playing with manuals coupled on any instrument of this size is not exactly light, the touch is considerably lighter and even more responsive than before. The action used to have a certain sponginess—releases were a little sluggish and manual couplers had a mildly sodden heaviness. These have been significantly improved—the touch is lighter, there is increased precision of attack, crispness in release, and there seems to be a better calibration of attack and release between divisions when the couplers are engaged. Also, there is a remarkable clarity and brilliance to the sound. The crystalline shimmer of the plenum is especially arresting. Not least, the combination action now avails the player with all current conveniences—there are copious general pistons, multiple levels of memory, and a sequencer.

The renovated instrument was celebrated in two inaugural concerts in October 2012. On October 7, Frédéric Champion, laureate of the first Canadian International Organ Competition, played a concert to a capacity audience. The recital featured works by Bruhns, Florentz, Cabanilles, Robin, and Bach, as well as Champion’s own transcriptions of Debussy, Liszt, and Saint-Saëns. The following week, there was a second inaugural concert presented by Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal under the direction of Gilbert Patenaude. The first half of the concert featured a cappella choral works, while the second half featured Louis Vierne’s Messe solennelle en ut dièse, op. 16. The choir, situated around the altar, was accompanied by the father-son team, Jacques and Vincent Boucher, with the father playing the choir organ, and son playing the Beckerath. It was a stunning performance with impeccable coordination between organ loft and chancel. With over 4,000 in attendance, this was truly a celebration worthy of this grand instrument.

—David Szanto

Beckerath, 1960/restored by Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders, 2012

St. Joseph’s Oratory, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders,
Montreal, Québec, Canada
Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee

From the organbuilder
We were first contacted by Second Presbyterian music director Nancy Turner in early 2004. A visit to Nashville to meet the committee revealed a fine group of people with good ideas, but no church as yet. Building a new organ for a structure that doesn’t yet exist is quite different from the usual. We’ve developed a routine when we visit a church where we will be building: we make a pipe (a 2′ C Principal) that we bring with us to voice on site—on whatever is left of the outgoing organ—noting the wind pressure on the pipe itself. We then use the pipe as a starting point in prevoicing in the shop. This habit allows us the security of knowing we won’t be too far off.
Of course at Second Presbyterian we didn’t have that luxury, let alone the usual walk-through to get a feel for the acoustics. It is quite a different thing to base your efforts entirely on architectural plans and acoustician’s predictions. But we have a hidden ace: our shop is a reinforced concrete structure built in 1919, with 30-foot vaulted ceilings, so the acoustics are flattering. We pre-voice a little loud, leaving the cut-ups low. It sounds good enough for a little concert in the shop before the organ is packed up. We’re often surprised when we set up an organ in the church for the first time, and we hear how the voicing was left—That sounded OK in the shop?! This is our assurance that we’ve left enough room for on-site voicing.
Denis Juget started his shop in a former chicken coop in his back yard in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Québec in 1994. It was a fairly large chicken coop, which allowed him to build seven practice organs, each one a little different, and a continuo organ. I joined him in 1998, and we moved the shop to Montreal, first in a 2500-square-foot space, then expanding to our present 5000 square feet. The team has slowly built up to eight. We take great pleasure in building very nearly everything ourselves from raw materials—from casting pipe metal to pipe making, from action parts to casework. We cast our own reed blocks and make our own shallots. We make pallet springs and roller arms. We are continually confronted with doubt about whether this practice is reasonable, but have never bothered with the calculation—confident, I suppose, that the costs are far outweighed by the hidden benefits. The first is complete freedom in design—an existing part doesn’t fit the bill? Imagine a new one! The second is the inestimable value of having a small team capable of this varied work. These eight people can do anything.
The Second Presbyterian organ is set in the choir loft and speaks down the central axis of the octagonal nave. The console is built in, but elevated three feet from floor level; risers for the choir butt against the front frame, and the pedalboard sits on the top riser. Down on floor level are the bellows and blower-box, with the Pedal division behind. The manual divisions are above, with the Grand-Orgue in front and the Récit expressif behind. There is no back to the Grand-Orgue case and only a partial roof above it to allow sound egress. The pedal Trombone 16′ resonators are full length and extend up behind the Récit swell box. A ceiling truss passes inches above the Récit roof, and the central tower of the Grand-Orgue pokes up between two trusses. Key action is mechanical, and stop action electric.
The wind system starts with a single-fold cuneiform bellows. Wind trunks are in quarter-sawn white oak. There are concussion bellows on each division, and the wind is quite solid. The tremulant is a vent perdu style—a departure from our usual “Dom Bedos” style. Offset pipes are winded by wooden channels. We avoid using flexible tubing, only for the fun of it, whenever we can, which is almost always.
The elevated console posed a design problem: the organ case tended to look squashed. We found that incorporating mirrored pipe flats had the effect of visually lengthening the case. Mirrored façades are usually made by joining two identical pipes at the foot and winding them secretly from behind so that they speak in unison. We didn’t need the extra power and space was not over-abundant, so this led to a façade arrangement that is possibly novel: we made the twinned pipes each play a different note. This gives an arrangement where the 12 notes of the octave are divided into eight groups! The interval between adjacent pipes is an augmented fifth. The Montre 8′ has five interior pipes: three full-length wooden basses (C, C#, D) and two interior pipes at the top (g#′′′, a′′′). The rest of the stop is in the façade, made up entirely of speaking pipes.
Key action is suspended, with floating square rails to compensate for dimensional changes. Trackers are kept taut by tensioner bellows to avoid bounciness. The pedal coupler does not play through—with I/P and II/I couplers both on, a note played in the pedal will play manual I but not II. Consequently, we have to lighten the manual I keys with springs so that, with I/P and II/I couplers both on and a note held down in the pedal, that same note played on Manual II doesn’t stay down or repeat slowly. Key action is designed and built to be responsive and reliable, and to have a weight appropriate to the instrument without being overly heavy when coupled. Pedal action uses our parallel motion pedal pallets, which provide copious wind.
The combination action is by Laukhuff, with general and divisional pistons as well as a simple sequencer. Drawknobs and thumb and toe pistons are by Harris, slider solenoids by Heuss, and control cards by Laukhuff. Rather than a tutti, there are two toe pistons, which are settable reversibles and could be used for anything one would want to come and go with a push of a piston, such as appels d’anches.
Swell action is mechanical, with a simple and direct linkage. It uses ball-bearings wherever possible, including at both ends of each swell shade. We use the most common source of high quality bearing we can find: rollerblade bearings. We go to great lengths to make the swell box as airtight as possible. The swell box sits on top of the Récit wind chests, and all the basses are inside the box. The shades are very closely fit in their opening, and carefully adjusted to ensure good dynamic range. The geometry of the action is designed so that much more subtlety of swell shade movement is given at the ppp end to compensate for mechanical swell action’s natural tendency to have half the dynamic range in the first 1/4 of swell pedal motion. This geometry would normally feel strange underfoot as it would become suddenly light at the closed end. We install a brake that again compensates for this effect. It all ends up being worthwhile; the feeling and precision of a carefully regulated mechanical swell action is unmatched.
Pipe scales in this instrument are not variable, but mathematical, and often with a constant added, which has the effect of narrowing the scale in the middle of the keyboard or fattening it at the ends. Scales are based on our own experience, but informed by historical examples. Samples of any new reed scales are built and voiced in the shop before the stop goes into production. The Viole de gambe 8′ and Voix céleste 8′ are slotted. The céleste is placed just behind the Basson-Hautbois 8′ on the chest to avoid acoustical conflict. The Flûte douce 4′ is in cherry. Principals and manual reeds are in hammered tin, and flutes are in hammered lead. We order our lead ingots with the necessary impurities already added, which gives stability to the high lead pipes (11⁄2% tin). We also use that same lead in all our alloys, so they all have some trace amounts of copper, antimony, and bismuth. The façade is also hammered, in 75% tin. Our pipes are made so that the metal at the top of the pipe is considerably thinner than around the mouth and at the foot. We feel that this is crucial to the long term stability of the pipework, as it takes a lot of weight off of the top and adds thickness to the bottom, where it is needed. Open pipes are cone tuned (except the slotted strings), and stopped flutes are tuned at the ears as they have soldered caps so that they will never slip. The Trombone 16′ is full length, with pine resonators, wooden boots, and leathered brass shallots.
John Brock recorded the instrument for the Raven label, exploring a wide range of repertoire. The CD is entitled Second Wind—a reference to the fire and rebuilding—and we hope it aptly demonstrates the success of the rebuilding program.
Working on this instrument with Denis Juget and me in the shop were Robin Côté, François Couture, Céline Richard, Jean-Dominique Felx, and Jerome Veenendaal. Turned stop knobs and all engravings were by recorder maker Jean-Luc Boudreau. Raymonde Champagne designed the pipe shades. The celtic cross was gilded by Jean-Claude Vonesch.
A special thank-you is in order to John Brock, Nancy Turner, Allen Townsend, and everyone at Second Presbyterian for all their assistance and understanding during the whole project. It’s impossible to overestimate the value of providing “conditions favorable to organbuilding.”
—Stephen Sinclair

From the consultant
In 2004 I was engaged by the organ committee of Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville, to assist them in the search for an organ to replace the one they had lost when their church burned the previous year. They were interested in an organ of good quality that would have the flexibility to support congregational singing, accompany the church’s choirs, and perform a reasonably wide range of styles of organ music. The plans for the new church building included approximately 300 seats, with organ and choir in a fairly spacious rear gallery and the promise of better-than-average acoustics. It was obvious that a building like this didn’t need an extremely large organ, and we were confident that they could find the right organ within their prescribed budget.
Church organist Nancy Turner and I set about gathering information from and about organbuilders in whom we were interested. Early on the name of Juget-Sinclair surfaced. I had once had an opportunity to play one of their excellent 3-stop practice organs, but that was the extent of our knowledge of their work. However, the reports we got from people who knew their instruments were so promising that we decided to investigate further. After trips to see and play Juget-Sinclair organs in Birmingham, Alabama, and Hickory, North Carolina, the committee was convinced that this was what they wanted, and a contract was soon signed for the organ.
The result is an instrument of first-rate quality. The early reports that we got on Denis Juget and Stephen Sinclair’s work had been correct: they do whatever it takes to “get it right.” The organ is a real jewel in its setting, and it does all the things that the organ committee had hoped for, i.e., it supports congregational singing (the congregation sings enthusiastically), it offers flexibility in choir accompaniment, and it plays a wide range of organ literature very convincingly. It’s also a very responsive instrument, one that encourages the player in the best of ways.
It seems to me that the good organs of the world share several important characteristics, namely, a captivating, sometimes dramatic sound resulting from good pipe scaling and voicing, an attractive visual element, a reliable and responsive mechanism, and a cohesive sense of style. Juget-Sinclair has managed to achieve all of this in this modest organ. It was a pleasure working with them.
—John Brock

Grand-Orgue
8′ Montre
8′ Flûte à cheminée
4′ Prestant
4′ Flûte conique
2′ Doublette
11⁄3′ Fourniture IV
8′ Trompette

Récit expressif
8′ Bourdon
8′ Viole de gambe
8′ Voix céleste
4′ Principal
4′ Flûte douce
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Flûte
13⁄5′ Tierce
2′ Plein jeu IV
8′ Basson-Hautbois

Pédale
16′ Soubasse
8′ Flûte ouverte
4′ Octave
16′ Trombone

Couplers: II/I - I/P - II/P
Tremblant Récit

Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders
2250, rue Pitt, #307
Montreal, QC H4E 4H1

514/932-9898
www.juget-sinclair.com

Lewtak Pipe Organ Builders, Camillus, New York, 2005

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


The Church

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

The Old Organ

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

The New Tonal Design

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

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

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

The New Façade

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

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

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

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

The Mechanics and Materials

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

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

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

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

The Voicing

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



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

—Tomasz Lewtak

Organbuilder




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

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

Pawel Lewtak – façade design, woodworking, traction

Gerry DeMoors – electronics, carillon, general construction

Kevin Reedy – general construction

John Fergusson – woodworking.




Lewtak Opus 1

St. Joseph’s Church “On the Hill”

Camillus, New York


GRAND ORGUE

16' Bourdon*

8' Grand Principal

8' Dulciane*

8' Flûte à Cheminée

4' Octave

4' Flûte à Fuseau

3' Quinte

2' Doublette

2' Flûte

III Cornet Harmonique

IV Mixture

8' Trompette*

Tremblant Fort

POSITIF

8' Montre*

8' Mélodie*

8' Gambe*

4' Prestant*

2' Piccolo*

Carillon a22–f42

Tremblant Doux

RÉCIT

8' Viole de Gambe*

8' Principal*

8' Flûte Harmonique*

8' Bourdon*

8' Voix Cèleste*

4' Flûte Harmonique*

4' Fugara*

22?3' Nasard

2' Principal

13?5' Tierce

III Mixture*

8' Basson-Hautbois*

8' Cor Anglais*

Tremblant Doux

PÉDALE

16' Flûte Basse*

16' Bourdon*

8' Octave

8' Violoncello*

4' Cor de Nuit

16' Buzène




* Original Casavant stop

Mechanical key action

Electric stop action

Electronic register presets, 1280 memory levels

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

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

Tuning A34=438 Hz at 18ºC

Temperament: Tartini-Vallotti