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Gober Organs, Inc., Elora, Ontario, Canada

The Oratory, St. Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota

This one-manual organ was conceived expressly for gentle support of singing in the daily prayer services of this Benedictine womens’ community. The services involve the whole community and take place in complete silence except for the readings, the chanting and singing of psalms and hymns. In this setting an organ of normal softness would still be too loud. For portions of the service, psalms are chanted in alternatim between the leader and the people. The very sweet Gedackt 8' contrasts with a Gamba 8' whose complex overtones give it great pitch definition, useful for accompanying lay singers. These two stops can be switched between psalm verses using the reversible pedal. The 4' and 2' flutes, both conical, give combinations in the nature of a flute consort, with rhythmical underpinning given by the pedal 16'.

The case functions as a swell box that encloses all the manual pipes; a swell pedal operates the end panels of the case. In the spirit of the austere simplicity of the community’s buildings and their furnishings, the solid white oak case’s only adornment is a shallow scalloping given to the quarter-sawn end panels by the carver’s gouge, creating an undulating effect in the grain.

Halbert Gober


Manual C–f3 (54 notes)

8' Gedackt

8' Gamba (C–A with Gedackt)

4' Recorder

2' Fife

Pedal C–d1 (27 notes)

16' Subbass



Manual-Pedal coupler

Orgues Létourneau Limitée, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada

The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

Following a complete reconstruction of the church’s chancel area, Létourneau’s Opus 83 was completed in March 2005. The organ was formally dedicated by Peter Sykes a month later in two recitals featuring works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Tunder, Bach and Vierne. The concerts were highlighted by the world premiere of a commissioned work by Joel Martinson entitled Out of the Depths: Three Essays on a Chorale.

The organ’s stoplist was prepared in collaboration with the church’s director of music, Ernest Drown, and reflects a classical disposition that pairs well with the instrument’s suspended mechanical key action. The organ has proven itself to be equally adept at supporting the church’s worship services and in the words of Mr. Drown, “has an uncanny sensitivity to the player’s intentions or lack of same . . . I get off the bench a better player every time.”

The organ features a two-manual and pedal console built into the organ case (en fenêtre); manuals have bone naturals and ebony accidentals, while the pedalboard features maple naturals with ebony accidentals. The stop action is electric, permitting a complete system of pistons with 64 levels of memory.

Andrew Forrest


GREAT

16' Bourdon

8' Open Diapason

8' Chimney Flute

4' Principal

4' Spindle Flute

22⁄3' Nazard

2' Fifteenth

2' Block Flute

13⁄5' Tierce

11⁄3' Mixture IV

8' Trumpet

Tremulant

Swell to Great

SWELL (enclosed)

8' Salicional

8' Stopped Diapason

4' Principal

4' Spire Flute

2' Fifteenth

11⁄3' Larigot

1' Mixture III

8' Oboe

Tremulant

PEDAL

16' Subbass

8' Principal

8' Bass Flute

4' Choral Bass

16' Trombone

8' Trumpet

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

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Orgues Létourneau Limitée, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada

The Pasquerilla Spiritual Center,

The Pennsylvania State University,

State College, Pennsylvania

The largest worship space of its kind in the United States, the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center at Penn State provides worship space for over 55 different religious groups. Designed by Philadelphia architect James Oleg Kruhly, the worship space evokes a sense of tranquility and dignity without appearing austere. Reflecting these same qualities, the visual design of the new mechanical action pipe organ is the result of a joint effort between Mr. Kruhly and Létourneau. Despite the challenge of designing the instrument around several large HVAC ducts, the organ boasts a responsive key action and excellent tonal projection into the 700-seat worship space.

The tonal design for the organ was developed with the university’s former organ instructor, Ann Marie Rigler, and the result is an instrument that can respond sensitively to both liturgical requirements and organ repertoire. Subsequent to the completion of the instrument, Dr. Rigler was appointed College Organist for William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, but returned to Penn State to perform the organ’s inaugural recital on November 6, 2005. Her program included works by Craig Phillips, William Mathias (with the Penn State Concert Choir, Dr. Lynn Drafall conducting), Jehan Alain, Heinrich Reimann, Joe Utterback, J. S. Bach and Louis Vierne.

The organ features a two-manual and pedal console attached to the lower organ case. The manuals have bone-covered naturals and ebony accidentals, while the pedalboard features maple naturals with ebony accidentals. Stop action throughout is electric, permitting a complete system of pistons with 32 levels of memory.

—Andrew Forrest



GREAT

16’ Bourdon

8’ Principal

8’ Chimney Flute

4’ Octave

4’ Spindle Flute

2’ Super Octave

11⁄3’ Mixture IV–V

22⁄3’ Cornet III

8’ Trumpet

Tremulant

Swell to Great


SWELL (enclosed)

8’ Salicional

8’ Voix Celeste (from G8)

8’ Lieblich Gedackt

4’ Principal

4’ Spire Flute

22⁄3’ Nazard

2’ Flageolet

13⁄5’ Tierce

11⁄3’ Larigot

2’ Mixture IV

16’ Bassoon

8’ Trumpet

4’ Clarion

Tremulant


PEDAL
16’ Principal

16’ Subbass

8’ Octave

8’ Bass Flute

4’ Choral Bass

22⁄3’ Mixture III

16’ Posaune

8’ Trumpet

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

New Organs

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The Reuter Organ Company, Lawrence, Kansas

St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Alexandria, Louisiana, Opus 2218

A handsome and acoustically marvelous space, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Alexandria, Louisiana is truly a remarkable home for Reuter opus 2218. Given the historic beauty of the building and the care with which it has been restored, the goal of the project was to craft an instrument worthy of such a space and sensitive to existing resources. “We evaluated three designs from major organ builders,” says Jack Randall, an Alexandria architect and member of the cathedral’s organ committee. “The Reuter design was far superior to the others in that it was so respectful of the 100-plus year-old cathedral architecture, which is eclectic English Gothic style, rendered in indigenous brick on the exterior and wood and plaster on the interior. We were particularly impressed with two features of the Reuter design: 1) the antiphonal organ is completely concealed behind the ornate Gothic reredos; 2) the design of the façade pipes in the choir loft is truly beautiful and reflects the form and shapes of the reredos and the stained glass window above it, which depicts Christ ascending with arms upraised amid radiant clouds. The façade sits perfectly in the Gothic arch behind the choir.”

After much discussion, an organ design of 48 ranks was developed, using 17 ranks from the original organ and its subsequent rebuilds, including pipes from the Estey firm of Brattleboro, Vermont (1920s), as well as other builders and supply houses (1970s & 1980s). In June 2003, all of the salvaged pipework and mechanisms were transported to the Reuter facility in Lawrence, Kansas to be reconditioned and assimilated into the new instrument. After the installation, tonal finishing, and tuning—which happened over the course of about eight weeks—the organ was heard for the first time by the organ committee on Monday evening, November 24, 2003, and used for its first Mass on that Thanksgiving weekend.

Forty-three ranks are engineered into the tower chamber in the gallery, and the remaining five ranks and chimes are installed inconspicuously in a small chamber (the Echo division) behind the high altar. The Grande Orgue and Pédale are mounted high, front and center in the tower chamber. The Récit Expressif and Positif Expressif are installed at the back of the tower chamber behind large banks of mechanical shutters. The Echo division became the new home for some of the most beautiful and beloved sounds from the original Estey organ. Intended primarily for accompanying the cantors during Mass, the Echo is enclosed with a small bank of shutters mounted on the chamber ceiling. The polished copper and polished zinc speaking façade pipes of the Pédale 16¢ Montre are displayed in front of the gallery tower chamber, accentuating the Gothic arch and maintaining the traditional style of the building.

— Reuter Organ Co. /

S. Christopher Leaver



Photo: Reuter Organ Co. / Bill Klimas

Reuter Opus 2218

38 stops, 48 ranks

GRANDE ORGUE

16' Diapason (Positif)

8' Montre

8' Bourdon

8' Flûte Harmonique

4' Prestant

4' Flûte à Fuseau

2' Doublette

IV Fourniture

III Cornet

16' Contre Trompette (Récit)

8' Bombarde

8' Trompette en Chamade

Glockenstern

Cloches (Echo)

MIDI


RÉCIT EXPRESSIF

16' Flûte à Cheminée

8' Flûte à Cheminée (ext)

8' Salicional

8' Voix Céleste (TC)

4' Prestant

4' Flûte Ouverte

22/3' Nazard

2' Flûte (ext)

13/5' Tierce

IV Plein Jeu

16' Contre Trompette

8' Trompette (ext)

8' Hautbois

8' Voix Humaine

8' Trompette en Chamade (G.O.)

Tremblant

MIDI


POSITIF EXPRESSIF

16' Dolce

8' Diapason

8' Cor de Nuit

8' Dolce (ext)

8' Unda Maris (TC)

4' Octave Diapason (ext)

4' Flûte Traversière

2' Flageolet

11/3' Quint

III Mixture

8' Petit Trompette

8' Clarinette

8' Trompette en Chamade (G.O.)

Tremblant

MIDI


ECHO

8' Principal

8' Voix Aetheria

8' Voix Céleste (TC)

8' Bourdon

4' Octave

4' Flûte Ouverte

Cloches (Chimes)

Cymbelstern


ECHO PÉDALE

16' Bourdon (ext, 1–12 digital)

8' Bourdon (Echo)


PÉDALE

32' Acoustic Bass

16' Montre

16' Soubasse

16' Dolce (Positif)

16' Bourdon (Récit)

8' Octave (ext)

8' Soubasse (ext)

8' Diapason (Positif)

8' Dolce (Positif)

8' Bourdon (Récit)

4' Octave (ext)

4' Soubasse (ext)

32' Basson (ext, Récit)

16' Bombarde (ext, G.O.)

16' Contre Trompette (Récit)

8' Bombarde (G.O.)

8' Trompette (Récit)

4' Trompette (Récit)

8' Trompette en Chamade (G.O.)

MIDI

Orgues Létourneau Limitée, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada

The Lutheran Church of the Nativity, Alexandria, Virginia

Létourneau’s Opus 94 was completed in late 2004 with a dedicatory concert played by Haig Mardirosian, who also served as consultant to the project. Though physically a small instrument—measuring 11' wide, 11' tall and 8'9" deep including pedalboard—this 18-stop mechanical action organ was designed and voiced to produce an exceptionally wide variety of sonorities. Based on an 8' Principal and boasting a variety of other unison stops, the instrument has proven adept at accompanying the church’s liturgy and performing organ repertoire. Where practical, pipes in the bass octave have been shared between similar stops to save space (e.g., the Great 8' Chimney Flute and the Swell 8' Stopped Diapason share common pipes for the first 10 notes). The entire instrument is enclosed within one swell box—excepting the Great 8' Open Diapason and Pedal 16'-8' Bourdon—though the traditional dynamic relationship between Great and Swell has been preserved through voicing. The attached two-manual console features bone naturals and ebony accidentals, while the pedalboard features maple naturals with ebony accidentals.

—Andrew Forrest



Photo © Dupont Photographers Inc.

GREAT (enclosed with Swell)

8' Open Diapason (façade)

8' Chimney Flute

8' Salicional

4' Octave

4' Harmonic Flute

2' Fifteenth

11/3' Mixture III (Swell)

8' Echo Trumpet (Swell)

Swell to Great


SWELL (enclosed)

8' Stopped Diapason (wood)

8' Gamba

8' Voix Celeste (TC)

4' Principal

4' Spitz Flute

11/3' Larigot

11/3' Mixture III

8' Echo Trumpet


PEDAL

16' Bourdon

8' Octave Bourdon

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal



General Tremulant

New Organs

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Orgues Létourneau Limitée, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada, Opus 93

The Abbey of Gethsemani, Trappist, Kentucky

With roots tracing back to the 11th century Cistercian monks in France, the Abbey of Gethsemani was first established in Trappist, Kentucky in 1848. Today, the abbey is a vibrant and thriving community with 65 monks, hosting retreats year-round and supporting their work by mail-order and Internet sales of homemade fruitcakes, cheeses and bourbon fudge. Divine worship continues to be the foundation of the Trappist community and their activities, with the cycle of seven prayer services observed daily.
When confronted with the need to replace their previous pipe organ, the monks embarked on an exhaustive process to choose an organ builder. While a fine tonal result was an obvious priority, equal importance was placed on commissioning a mechanical-action instrument that was both comfortable to play and built to the highest standard of quality.

The end result of their search is the 29-rank instrument pictured here. The instrument’s simple casework is made from solid red oak and was designed to complement the abbey’s unadorned architecture. The façade displays pipes from the 16' Montre stop, made from 70% polished tin. Completed in December 2003, the organ serves daily, accompanying the abbey’s services, and was dedicated in a series of recitals by Philip T. Hines, Jr. and W. Dudley Oakes.

The organ’s console en fenêtre has bone and ebony keyboards and offers mechanical key action. The stop action is electric and boasts a 16-level piston capture system by Solid State Organ Systems of Alexandria, Virginia.

—Andrew Forrest

Orgues Létourneau Limitée

Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec


GRAND-ORGUE

16' Montre

8' Montre

8' Flûte à cheminée

8' Salicional

4' Prestant

4' Flûte conique

22?3' Nazard

2' Doublette

13?5' Tierce

11?3' Fourniture IV–VI

8' Trompette

Tremblant

Récit au Grand-Orgue

RÉCIT EXPRESSIF

8' Viole de gambe

8' Voix céleste

8' Bourdon

4' Prestant

4' Flûte à fuseau

2' Doublette

22?3' Cornet III

8' Hautbois

Tremblant

PÉDALE

16' Montre (G-O)

16' Soubasse

8' Prestant

8' Bourdon

4' Basse de chorale

16' Bombarde

8' Trompette

Grand-Orgue à la Pédale

Récit à la Pédale

Bedient Pipe Organ Company, Roca, Nebraska

Opus 71, Amistad Chapel, United Church of Christ Church House, Cleveland, Ohio

Opus 71, a Phoenix model from our Legacy Line, is a modest instrument with grand tonal possibilities. It is designed to lead liturgy, hymn singing and to play a significant amount of organ literature.
Eighteenth- and 19th-century organs of France and Germany inspire the design of the organ.
The organ case is constructed of Honduras mahogany and includes decorative pipe shades of iroko wood. The twenty-three pipes in the façade are speaking pipes and part of the Principal 8' stop. Their mouths are gilded with 23-karat gold leaf. The keyboard naturals are covered with blackwood, and the accidentals are of white maple. The pedal keys are made of oak, and the accidentals are capped with moradillo.

The fourteen sets of pipes in the organ produce twelve individual stops and total 807 pipes. The custom-designed iroko wood pipe shades incorporate maritime elements reflecting African captives’ revolt during transport to the United States on the slave ship, Amistad.

—Gene Bedient

GREAT

8' Principal (tc)

4' Octave

2' Octave

II Sesquialtera

II–III Mixture

SWELL (enclosed)

8' Salicional

8' Gedackt

4' Spitzflute

2' Flute

8' Trumpet Treble

8' Cromorne Bass

PEDAL

16' Subbass

8' Flute

Couplers

Great/Pedal

Swell/Pedal

Swell/Great

Tremulant

Cover feature

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Gober Organs, Inc.,

Elora, Ontario, Canada

First Church in Oberlin,

United Church of Christ,

Oberlin, Ohio

The opportunity to build a new tracker organ for First Church in Oberlin, Ohio afforded us the opportunity to interpret traditional organbuilding principles in the light of the aesthetic and acoustical demands of this historic congregation’s 19th-century building, as well as the community’s culture.

The town of Oberlin was founded in 1834 by settlers coming to what was then the Western Reserve of the original States. From the outset, the community was marked by a religious fervor, even a certain similarity to utopian communities common in the United States at the time. For decades, the pastor of this congregation, as well as the president of Oberlin College, was Charles Grandison Finney, famed throughout the United States as an evangelistic leader. The town was a hotbed of socially progressive activity. Two focuses in that realm were the abolitionist movement opposing slavery, and the temperance movement, which sought to improve the quality of life among working families by expounding the moral and practical benefits of abstinence from alcohol use. The memory of abolitionism remains visible today in the form of local monuments and historic sites relating to Oberlin’s role as a station on the Underground Railroad. (The long-ended activities of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union had effects on liquor bylaws in the town until very recently.) The tradition of political positions espoused by groups and individuals in the community—both in the college, the dominant cultural force in town these days, and in the town at large including its churches—is a clear outgrowth of a heritage dating back to its beginnings.

The other obvious context our new organ finds itself in is that of the opulent array of organs found in the town’s churches and in the buildings of Oberlin College and its Conservatory of Music. One of these organs, a Barckhoff organ in Peace Community Church, was built in the 19th century. All the others relate more or less directly to another progressive wave, one that swept Oberlin in the 20th century: the organ reform movement. They range from the conservatory’s two one-manual Flentrop organs from the mid and late 1950s—one of which had been in the Busch-Reisinger Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, prior to the arrival of the 3-manual organ there—to the Cavaillé-Coll-style Fisk organ in Finney Chapel, completed in 2001. The whole assemblage numbers about 30 organs, including practice instruments and continuo organs, built by Brombaugh, Bedient, Noack, and Holtkamp, among others. My employees and I have taken care of most of these instruments for almost fifteen years, and can attest to the compelling nature of the collection both in terms of its overall quality and as an admonishment against hubris in planning and building fine pipe organs.

The sanctuary of First Church, known as the Meeting House, in the tradition of New England Congregational churches, is a spare, nearly square room with a flat ceiling, white walls, and lots of light pouring in through tall windows with small panes of streaky glass. The seating capacity is over 1000 in pews both on the ground level and a balcony, which surrounds the room and forms the choir loft at the front.

First Church has had various organs, the first one having been built by Hook & Hastings in the 19th century. Successive modifications of the Meeting House since then were accompanied by new organs, most recently an electropneumatic one built by Homer Blanchard in 1962. It was assembled from a variety of components old and new and housed in a handsome neo-classical case, a holdover from an earlier Estey organ. The Blanchard organ included some windchests, swell boxes, and ranks of pipes from E. M. Skinner Opus 230, originally built in 1914 for the no longer extant Second Church in Oberlin.

In replacing the still serviceable 1962 organ, the church’s goal was to have a mechanical-action instrument that would convincingly fill the Meeting House in spite of its rather dry acoustics, while drawing more on historical antecedents than its predecessor had. By the time I was approached for a proposal for an organ, it had become clear to the First Church organ committee that although the previous organ had had three manuals, it would be more rational to concentrate a new organ’s resources on two manuals.

This new organ was to become an instrument whose focus, apart from the accompaniment of the congregation singing traditional Protestant hymns—including many from the 19th century that remain a staple—would be the performance of organ literature, not least that of the post-1800 era. Its specification bears some resemblance to a Hook organ of similar size, but there are differences—the lack of an Aeoline, or echo string, and the inclusion of a large treble Cornet in the Great, for example, relating to the performance of literature that we view as canonical, and our relative lack of interest today in playing the transcriptions of orchestral and popular music that were de rigueur.

The congregation’s desire to keep the existing organ case seemed obvious, both from a practical standpoint and from the wish to preserve the accrued history of the building. The case is large and located in the ideal position in the church, though not shaped at all like a typical mechanical organ, being 30' wide and 10' deep but only 18' high. Nonetheless, it was possible to fit our organ’s design into the logical matrix that defines a well-conceived tracker organ: the major third pipe layouts result in the compactness necessary for simple, short and optimally light action, while providing plenty of space for the pipes to speak and easy tuning accessibility. And the direct relationship between windchest layout and façade permits straightforward and efficient winding of speaking façade pipes.

The two manual divisions are located across the center half or so of the case, the Great in front and the Swell behind. The bass and tenor pipes of the Great Diapason 8' are in reverse chest order in the façade’s center opening. The Pedal windchests are at either end of the case, and their façade pipes are the tenor range of the Pedal Diapason 16', interspersed with those of the prepared-for Violoncello 16', following the major third layout of the chests. Ours is not a large organ in number of stops, but each stop is complete—each of the 8' foundation stops is present from low C, and, given the generous pipe scaling throughout, the organ fills the case completely.

The appearance of the organ exterior is little changed. The mouths of each group of façade pipes, of 70% tin, now form a garland-like curve mirroring the arched openings in which they stand. The new keydesk en fenêtre, in contrast to the white painted case, is of solid mortise-and-tenon, frame-and-panel black walnut with a natural oil finish. The stop names on the drawknobs were written in a style evocative of 19th-century American organs by Toronto calligrapher Diane Iannuziello and scanned and laser-engraved onto the faces.

In seeking antecedents for our organ, I considered the history of the congregation and its building in the perspective of their origins as a settlement of a New England Congregationalist group. The First Church sanctuary is a large, nearly square flat-ceilinged room surrounded on all sides by a balcony, which in the front of the room forms the choir loft. Although it is a solid 19th-century building, it is acoustically unsupportive, with its large windows, partly carpeted wooden floor, and cushions on many of the pews. The surface which, given the location of the organ high up in the room, should be most supportive of the organ’s tone, is the ceiling. But it consists only of a single thickness of drywall, the result of a renovation that saw the removal of the original plaster ceiling.

This is not unlike the situation for which many of Hook & Hastings’ organs were conceived. I visited several of their instruments seeking a better understanding of how they filled such rooms with music. Here I found foundation stops that are a world away from wispy neo-Baroque principals. The diameter of a typical Hook Great Principal is larger than the Pedal Principal of many a 20th-century tracker. Such pipes are capable of giving forth a strong fundamental tone without being “pushed” using ears or beards, and it was just such a broad, unforced foundation that First Church’s new organ would require.
By the same token, the most striking stop from Skinner Opus 230 that was still playing at First Church was the Pedal Open Wood Diapason 16¢, a stronger cousin of corresponding stops in Hook organs. The effect that extremely powerful stop had in First Church’s dry acoustic could be likened to that of a healthy Subbass in a resonant room. It was evident that those Skinner pipes needed to become part of our new organ, and that the scaling of the organ as a whole would have to be as generous as that of the Hook pipes I had examined. The higher-pitched elements in the principal choruses did not require the same kind of departure from our norm, but I also lavished attention on the scaling of the reed stops in order to obtain an effortless strength from the fundamental with no hint of harshness.

Besides the Wood Diapason, there were other stops from Skinner Opus 230 that I felt had a place in such a scheme—in spite of the seeming improbability of Skinner pipes in a tracker organ. These included, in addition to the Pedal Wood Diapason and Bourdon, the Swell Bourdons 16' and 8', the Viola da Gamba and Vox Coelestis, and two 4¢ traverse flutes, one of which became a 2' in our organ. What I was banking on with these manual stops was the potential for infusing them with new life by opening the toeholes to more than compensate for the somewhat lower wind pressure we used. For the strings, that was the sole voicing adjustment needed; in the case of the flutes, I further optimized the tone by adjusting the other major factors, the windway size and languid position, just as I do with new pipes. For all the stops, the effect was great—in spite of the heavily nicked languids, those stops speak with greater intensity than they did in the predecessor organ and are very much at home in this organ’s overall sound. The Skinner organ’s Clarinet will also take its place as a second reed in the Great when funds become available.

Another element from the 1914 Skinner instrument that we reused to great advantage is the swell frames from both the Swell and Choir boxes, with their priceless sugar pine shutters. They are on three sides of the large swell box. To maximize the damping effect of the closed Swell box, all of its other surfaces are double-walled with dead air spaces between. The resulting dynamic range exceeded our wildest expectations.

The organ is tuned in a new, slightly unequal temperament devised by Oberlin organ performance student Titus van den Heuvel. In contrast to other unequal temperaments, it favors keys in the flat and sharp directions from C major equally, a valuable feature in a church where many hymns are sung in the “many flat” realm.

The organ’s presence in the Meeting House was enhanced through acoustical improvements specified by acoustician Dana Kirkegaard. These amount to an unseen “bandshell” behind and above the organ. At the rear, hardboard was installed inside the church’s exterior brick and the void between filled with vermiculite, harnessing the solidity of the masonry and providing heat insulation. The very essential and particularly laborious ceiling reinforcement was undertaken with great vigor by a stalwart team of volunteers from the congregation. In the front third of the church, over the organ and choir, lightweight but highly rigid panels consisting of corrugated cardboard sandwiched between thicknesses of plywood were added above the ceiling. The installation of this material entailed trimming individual pieces to fit in the irregular spaces between the 19th-century ceiling joists, then bonding them securely to the top side of the drywall using gallons of adhesive—without this step, the presence of the panels would have had no effect.

The organ was dedicated as the Cauffiel Organ, honoring musician Jane Cauffiel Thomson, a long-time Oberlin resident and First Church member, whose visionary idea and generous gift towards the building of a new organ got this project started. An inaugural recital played jointly by Oberlin Conservatory professors David Boe and James David Christie took place in September 2004. Since then numerous other concerts have taken place, including a weekly noon series. It was organized by First Church organist Bálint Karosi, a conservatory graduate student who has been a Westfield Center Scholar and competed for the 2006 Grand Prix de Chartres. Other recitalists have included Jean Galard, organiste titulaire of Beauvais Cathedral and St. Medard in Paris, and László Fassang of Budapest and St. Sebastián, Spain. In February 2007, First Church was the scene of a Langlais Festival of the Oberlin Conservatory, which featured a recital and masterclass given by Marie-Louise Langlais. And in addition to its primary use in the weekly services of First Church, the organ is used by both Oberlin Conservatory professors as a teaching instrument two days a week under an arrangement between the conservatory and First Church.

A CD recorded on the organ by Bálint Karosi is forthcoming. It includes performances of works by Bach, Widor, Liszt, and Mr. Karosi himself, and will be available from Gober Organs, Inc., and First Church.
This is the first time in my work I have undertaken a synthesis like this, and it has been a challenge whose pleasures have at least equaled those of designing a new instrument from scratch. I am a firm believer in the principle that constraints foster good art. Some of the constraints here were given, others, like the effort to incorporate historical tonal material, were inspired by the cultural context of the instrument.

Among the people I owe thanks to are Prof. David Boe, who advised the First Church organ committee on this project, and Dr. Harold Slocum, its chair. First Church member David Clark spearheaded the implementation of the physical preparations for the organ’s installation and took care of the generous housing arrangements. Richard Houghten planned and installed the SSL electronic stop and combination action. And last but not least, Gober Organs employees Matthias Schmidt, Wendy McConnell, Burkhard Moeller, Mike Collins, Ian Hathaway, and Hendrik Oudshoorn.

—Halbert Gober



Photo credit: Halbert Gober

Gober Organs, Inc.

50 First Line Road

Elora, Ontario N0B 1S0

Canada

www.goberorgans.com

New Organs

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Lauck Pipe Organ Company,
Otsego, Michigan
Opus 61, 2009
Karl Schrock Residence,
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Through the years, we have had the pleasure to build a substantial number of small residence organs for many college professors and church organists. There has always come a great sense of satisfaction in creating these smaller wonders because we know we are building these exclusively for one person. We also know that the money for these instruments is usually born from hard work and frugal saving. The joy is in giving the customer their long-anticipated dream and creating the most value for their money.
Our latest residence organ was for Dr. Karl Schrock, who is head of the organ program at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. This five-rank mechanical action organ has white oak casework, ebony naturals with coco bolo sharps, and ebony drawknobs.
—James Lauck

MANUAL I
8′ Rohrflute 61 pipes
4′ Principal (in façade) 61 pipes

MANUAL II
8′ Gedeckt (oak) 49 pipes
common bass
2′ Blockflute 61 pipes

PEDAL
16′ Pommer 32 pipes

Man I–Man II
Man I–Ped
Man II–Ped

269/694-4500
[email protected]

J. Zamberlan & Co.,
Wintersville, Ohio
Christ, Prince of Peace Parish, Ford City, Pennsylvania

Christ, Prince of Peace Parish was formed on July 23, 2002, from the merger of three parishes in Ford City; the building formerly known as St. Mary’s Church is now the sole worship site. A 1930s organ occupied split cases in the rear gallery; this instrument had been rebuilt in 1965, and by 2002 was experiencing severe mechanical problems, in addition to suffering from a lack of ensemble and variety of stops.
Initial design concepts retained the choir in the gallery, but in the end the parish decided a nave location was preferable for the singers. In addition to the console, a 3-rank unenclosed “choir” division, available independently on either manual, is located in the shallow right transept. Wind for this division comes from a small blower and reservoir located in the church basement but fed from an intake housed in the base of the choir casework, which also encloses the support steel for the chest as well as shelves for choir music.
Several ranks from the old organ were incorporated into the new stoplist, as well as two stops from a 1965 Möller at one of the closed churches. The existing quartersawn white oak gallery casework was retained, as were the façade pipes, which were refinished for the church by a local auto body shop. The new console, as well as the choir casework, is of red oak, finished to harmonize with the pews; this casework also incorporates panels from former modesty screens in the choir area. The console interior is of Honduras mahogany, oiled and waxed. Keyboards have bone naturals and ebony accidentals, with drawknobs, pistons, etc. of bocote; legal ivory is used for labels and stopknob faces.
The solid-state control system includes 128 levels of memory for 8 generals and 4 divisionals, as well as several reversibles. At the suggestion of a visiting recitalist, the parish agreed in 2008 to add Great and Swell Unison Off toestud reversibles to enhance the organ’s versatility; this permits drawing the normal stops plus Choir stops on either manual, then using the Unison Off and pedal coupler to achieve separate voices on that manual and the pedal.
The main chests of the organ are slider with electric pulldowns, with bass notes utilizing double pallets where necessary. All pallets were carefully sized, and pallet travel was kept at 4mm, in order to keep the action responsive. Several stops are either duplexed between divisions or unified; these sit on chests with individual note actions (electro-mechanical except for the largest bass pipes), which incorporate expansion chambers between the valve and toe to minimize undesirable speech characteristics sometimes found in this chest design. The organ comprises 37 stops, 27 registers, 36 ranks, and 1993 pipes, and is our largest instrument to date. Donald Fellows, director of music at St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh, dedicated the organ on March 18, 2007. The parish director of music is Andrew Motyka.
—Joseph G. Zamberlan

GREAT (58 notes)
8′ Diapason
8′ Rohrflute (existing Tellers,
C1–b48 wood)
4′ Octave
4′ Open Flute (existing Tellers,
formerly in Swell, C1–c49 wood)
2′ Fifteenth
4′ Cornet IV (c13–c49)
11⁄3′ Mixture IV
8′ Trompette
8′ Cromorne
8′ Choir Gemshorn
8′ Choir Bourdon
4′ Choir Italian Principal
4′ Choir Bourdon (ext)
2′ Choir Bourdon (ext)
Swell to Great 16′
Swell to Great
Tremulant
Cymbelstern
MIDI

SWELL (58 notes)
16′ Quintaten (C1–f18 wood)
8′ Violin Diapason (existing Tellers,
C1–B12 from Gedackt)
8′ Gedackt (existing Möller, wood)
8′ Viole de Gambe (existing Tellers,
formerly in Great)
8′ Voix Céleste (existing Möller,
from G8)
4′ Principal
4′ Flute (existing Tellers, formerly in Great, C1–a46 wood)
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Spitzflute
13⁄5′ Tierce
2′ Plein Jeu III
2⁄3′ Cymbale II
16′ Basson
8′ Hautbois (ext)
8′ Choir Gemshorn
8′ Choir Bourdon
4′ Choir Italian Principal
4′ Choir Bourdon (ext)
2′ Choir Bourdon (ext)
Tremulant
MIDI

PEDAL (32 notes, AGO)
32′ Bourdon (C1–B12 independent 10 2⁄3′
wood with Subbass,
from c13 Subbass)
16′ Principal (prep)
16′ Subbass (wood)
16′ Quintaten (Swell)
8′ Octave (prep)
8′ Gedackt (ext)
4′ Choral Bass (prep)
16′ Trombone (wooden resonators)
16′ Basson (Swell)
8′ Trompette (Great)
8′ Cromorne (Great)
4′ Clairon (Great)
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
MIDI

740/765-9028
[email protected]

 

New Organs

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Karl Wilhelm Inc., Mont St. Hilaire, Québec, Canada, Opus 157

St. John’s Catholic Church, Fenton, Michigan

This new 44-stop organ, Opus 157 by Karl Wilhelm Inc., was made possible by the generosity of longtime parishioner Mrs. Alvesta Veness and the William Bowman and Ann McGuire estates, as well as other benefactors and contributors from the congregation and the community. The organ project was led by Rev. David W. Harvey with the assistance of several other parishioners. Dr. David Wagner performed the dedication recital.

The organ consists of four divisions: the Great is in the center above the impost, the Swell is right behind the Great and is enclosed in its own case, the Rückpositiv is in the gallery rail, and the Pedal is on either side of the main case. There are 3,017 pipes in this instrument. The metal façade pipes are 70% tin and 30% lead, metal flute pipes are 40% tin and 60% lead. Open pipes are cone tuned; stopped pipes have fixed caps. The temperament is Bach-Kellner A440. The playing action of the organ is direct mechanical (suspended tracker). There are two manual couplers and three pedal couplers. Manual/pedal compass is 56/30. The stop action is electric and offers a complete set of registration aids featuring 32 levels of solid-state memory. Two cuneiform bellows and one electric blower provide the winding.

— Karl Wilhelm Inc.

Facteurs d’Orgues-Organbuilders

Karl Wilhelm Opus 157

St. John’s Catholic Church

Fenton, Michigan

GREAT C–g’’’

16’ Bourdon

8’ Prinzipal

8’ Rohrflöte

8’ Flute Harmonique

4’ Oktave

4’ Spitzflöte

22⁄3’ Quinte

2’ Superoktave

8’ Cornet V (c’–d’’’)

11⁄3’ Mixtur IV

1’ Zimbel III

8’ Trompette

4’ Clairon


SWELL C–g’’’ (enclosed)

8’ Principal

8’ Gambe

8’ Celeste TC

8’ Hohlflöte

4’ Principal

4’ Flute Harmonique

2’ Waldflöte

22⁄3’ Cornet III (TF)

2’ Mixtur IV

16’ Basson

8’ Trompette

8’ Hautbois

Tremolo


RÜCKPOSITIV C–g’’’

8’ Prinzipal

8’ Gedackt

4’ Prinzipal

4’ Rohrflöte

22⁄3’ Nasard

2’ Doublette

13⁄5’ Terz

11⁄3’ Larigot

1’ Scharf IV

8’ Cromorne

Tremolo


PEDAL C–f’

16’ Prinzipal

16’ Subbass

8’ Prinzipal

8’ Bourdon

4’ Choralbass

22⁄3’ Rauschpfeife IV

16’ Posaune

8’ Trompete

4’ Clairon



Note:

Prinzipal 16’ in the Pedal: C–E, open 8’ wooden pipes and common with Subbass 16’; F–f’, 70% tin and located in the façade.

Prinzipal 8’ shares the first octave with the Prinzipal 16’ in the Pedal.

Prinzipal 8’ of the Positiv has common pipes from C–G# with Gedackt 8’.


Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Lake City, Iowa

Calvary Lutheran Church, Brookfield, Wisconsin

Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Lake City, Iowa, has completed its Op. 72 for Calvary Lutheran Church, Brookfield, Wisconsin. Despite the low ceiling height at the rear of the church, a balcony was a part of the original design of the building. As part of a renovation project, the congregation removed the balcony and resolved to place a mechanical action organ in a free-standing position on the main floor. The choir and handbells would then be arranged about the organ.

Even without the hindrance of the balcony, fitting an organ into the broadly V-shaped space proved a challenge. Many different plans were made, finally resulting in a design in which the Swell is located behind and above the choir seating, the Great is placed forward in a separate case and the Pedal is situated behind the Great. The console, placed in the Great case, is so located that the organist can direct the choir. In spite of its seemingly scattered arrangement, the mechanical design of the organ is quite straightforward and all parts are readily accessible for tuning and maintenance. The design of the curving white oak casework echoes the arcing lines of the ceiling, which rises toward the front of the sanctuary.

The tonal design of the organ is intended to inspire enthusiastic congregational singing and to accompany a wide variety of choral literature. The instrument is voiced on a wind pressure of 76 millimeters, which is supplied from a large, parallel-rise reservoir. Tuning is in equal temperament. Metal pipes are made of the usual alloys of tin and lead; all wood pipes are made of poplar and cherry. The key action is mechanical; an electric stop action and multi-level combination action are provided. Several Pedal stops are made available at two pitches through a system of mechanical duplexing.
Calvary was assisted in this project by John Behnke, organ consultant, and Scott Riedel, acoustical consultant. Suzanne and Steve Hibbard were director of music and organist, respectively, at the time of the organ’s construction. Bill Bravener is the current director of music.

—John Panning



Photo credit: Lynn Dobson


GREAT (58 notes)

16’ Bourdon

8’ Prestant

8’ Chimney Flute

4’ Octave

4’ Nachthorn

2’ Fifteenth

11⁄3’ Mixture IV

8’ Trumpet

Swell to Great


SWELL (58 notes, expressive)

8’ Gedackt

8’ Salicional

8’ Celeste FF

4’ Principal

4’ Traverse Flute

22⁄3’ Nazard

2’ Piccolo

13⁄5’ Tierce

11⁄3’ Quinte

8’ Oboe


PEDAL (32 notes)

16’ Subbass

16’ Bourdon (Gt)

8’ Principal

8’ Gedackt (ext)

4’ Choralbass (ext)

16’ Posaune

8’ Trumpet (ext)

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal



Tremulant

Zimbelstern

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