B. Rule renovation at First Presbyterian, Knoxville

B. Rule & Company, New Market, Tennessee;

First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, Tennessee

Brad Rule

The organ at First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, Tennessee, represented in 1963 the ideals of the modernist side of the Organ Reform movement then in vogue. Like Modernism itself, asserting a dynamic of utter clarity of structure and form, Casavant Opus 2756 spoke boldly and brightly into the nave with nothing to hinder its clear tonal egress. Those who are old enough to remember that era recall it as an exciting time: dull, inarticulate organs hidden in chambers, voiced on high pressures and devoid of any “sparkle” were being replaced with articulate, bright instruments on low pressure, speaking directly into the space.

After fifty years of heavy use, a consensus had emerged from generations of First Presbyterian’s choir directors and organists that the instrument was too inflexible, too aggressive, and often tiring to listen to. Useful accompaniment stops were few and far between, and the full plenum was uncomfortably loud. Romantic-era organ literature did not come off well. Choir members often expressed dread if the organist had planned an energetic prelude! It did not help that the instrument spoke into an acoustically dead room.

Our first step was to make an analysis in an attempt to address the many complaints about the organ, which actually contained much beautifully made pipework and a well-thought-out stoplist. Below is a summary of our findings.   

Pipework

The scaling of the principals and flutes of the Pedal and Great was, surprisingly, very close to scales we ourselves would utilize for such a room, although most ranks increased in scale toward the treble more than we would have chosen. Some became so widely scaled in the treble as to be highly unusual.

Acoustics

Sound energy from the organ dropped off quickly in the room. For a room of moderate size (seating 350–400) the loss of energy was puzzling. Perhaps the aggressive voicing was an attempt to get the organ sound to travel the length of the acoustically dead nave.

Further investigation revealed, after some gentle tapping on the nave walls with our “proprietary acoustical sounding rod” (i. e., a long pine stick), that in many places the plaster was entirely loose from the solid brick walls. In addition, the ceilings of the side aisles consisted of Masonite pegboard. Pew cushions absorbed any remaining sound energy.

Esthetics

The once elegant neo-classical sanctuary had gone through a number of unfortunate contemporary alterations in 1963. The front walls of the church had been turned into one seamless Bauhaus curtain wall, with repetitive rectangles created by two-by-sixes, all covered with metal screening and painted white. A casual observer would assume it to be a huge cold-air return. The sanctuary also lost its lovely Tiffany chandeliers in the bid to bring everything up to date.

Solutions

Pipework: Further analysis of the pipework showed that, in the ranks that became unusually large in the treble, the mouths were also wider than normal. This, combined with open-toe voicing and no nicking, created an aggressive attack and an abrasive vowel sound: think of the short “a” when one sharply utters the word “scat” to an unwanted animal. The only remedy for this was to replace those pipes.

The two worst offenders in vowel sound were the 2′ Great Fifteenth and the Swell 4′ Spitz Principal. Replacing just these two ranks with properly scaled pipes aided considerably in bringing the organ into blend. The remaining ranks were effectively revoiced by closing toes, opening windways, and adding discreet nicking.

The large-scaled Pedal and Great trumpets were originally voiced with a distinctive curve so that the initial tongue slap on the shallot created an audible attack; this curve also contributed to a similar short vowel sound. Adding considerably more curve changed the character of these stops completely, resulting in a darker vowel sound with more fundamental tone.

The Swell Trumpet and Basson were replaced with new reed stops (8′ Trumpet and 16′ Clarinet) made by Fred Oyster and designed to meld tonally with this instrument. Both ranks turned out exceptionally well. New flue pipework was made by Janusz Lasota, and the gold, Roman mouth façade pipes were made by Organ Supply Industries.

Wind pressures were raised slightly to help create more fundamental tone and better control with closed-toe voicing. However, all of the flutes were left with open toes, as were most of the rather delicate Positive principal stops.

We augmented the Pedal division with a circa-1910 “mega-Bourdon” (as known in organbuilder parlance) on 4½ inches wind pressure to add significant weight under big registrations; this was a much-needed addition to the bass-deficient 1963 tonal scheme. A 16′ Principal was out of the question due to space limitations.

Acoustics: The walls in the problem areas were re-plastered and the pegboard in the aisle ceilings was removed to reveal hard plaster. This, along with removal of the pew cushions, made a distinct improvement in the room resonance, particularly in the bass.

Esthetics: we built two matching organ cases in Classical style to replace the 1963 metal grilles: in tone openings without organ cases we built new grilles after a pattern developed by Thomas Sheraton for library cabinet doors. The new grille design also nicely replicates the lead came tracework in the older stained glass windows. Former organbuilder and now architect William Dunklin designed the organ façades; it was a real pleasure to work with an architect who understood the esthetics and proportions of classical architecture as well as the musical requirements of the organ.

Console: the 1963 console with vertical jambs, while handsome, was bulky and tall. We built a new low-profile console with terraced jambs to make the work of an organist/choirmaster easier.

The new console specifications are as follows: cabinet of maple, to match existing pews and trim; terraced stop jambs and key cheeks of sapele. The oblique knobs are of pau ferro and maple, and the electric knob units as well as the knobs and labels are from Harris. The music rack is book-matched mahogany crotch burl with integral LED music light. The control system is a Peterson ICS-4000 with MIDI, 99 levels of memory, and sequencer.

Results: the sound of both organ and choir now projects nicely down the full length of the nave. The organ sings with a warm, pleasant voice, yet the clarity of the plenum is still excellent. It now handles literature from Bach to Duruflé very successfully. The instrument is ready for at least another half-century of good service to this congregation.

Many thanks to Denis Blain at Casavant for his advice on re-leathering the low-pressure Casavant pitman chests. Also to Mark Pace, organist, for hospitably making our installation as easy as possible.

B. Rule & Company staff:

Steven Lloyd

Hannah Martin

Naomi Martin

Julie Mundy-Sullivan

Brad Rule

 

GREAT (Manual II, wind pressure 2-11⁄16″, increased from 2″)   

16′ Diapason Dolce 1–7 from Gedeckt, new, 8–26 in façade 54 pipes

16′ Gedeckt revoiced 61 pipes

8′ Principal 1-17 new, in façade, revoiced 61 pipes

8′ Diapason Dolce ext 16′ Diapason Dolce 12 pipes

8′ Bourdon revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Octave revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Spireflute new 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth revoiced 61 pipes

2′ Fifteenth new from middle C 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV revoiced 244 pipes

8′ Trumpet revoiced 61 pipes

SWELL (Manual III, enclosed, wind pressure 3″, increased from 2-3⁄4″)

8′ Chimney Flute revoiced 61 pipes

8′ Salicional revoiced 61 pipes

8′ Celeste revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Principal new from middle C 61 pipes

4′ Nachthorn revoiced 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Nasard revoiced 61 pipes

2′ Blockflöte revoiced 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tierce revoiced 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Fourniture IV originally 2⁄3′, revoiced 244 pipes

16′ Clarinet new, replaces 16′ Basson 61 pipes

8′ Trumpet new 61 pipes

8′ Oboe revoiced 61 pipes

Tremulant

POSITIVE (Manual I, wind pressure 2-1⁄4″, increased from 1-7⁄8″)

8′ Spireflute replaces 8′ Quintadena 61 pipes

8′ Gedeckt revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Principal revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Koppelflöte revoiced 61 pipes

2′ Superoctave revoiced 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Nasat revoiced 61 pipes

1′ Sifflöte revoiced 61 pipes

1⁄2′ Zimbel III revoiced 183 pipes

8′ Krummhorn revoiced 61 pipes

Zimbelstern

PEDAL (wind pressure 3″, increased from 2-3⁄4″)

16′ Bourdon new, large scale, wind pressure 4-5⁄8′′ 32 pipes

16′ Subbass unaltered 32 pipes

16′ Violone revoiced 32 pipes

16′ Gedeckt from Great

8′ Principal revoiced 32 pipes

8′ Gedeckt revoiced 32 pipes

4′ Choral Bass revoiced 32 pipes

4′ Rohrflöte revoiced 32 pipes

2′ Nachthorn revoiced 32 pipes

2′ Mixture IV revoiced 128 pipes

16′ Trombone revoiced 32 pipes

8′ Trumpet revoiced 32 pipes

4′ Schalmei revoiced 32 pipes

 

Chamade to Great (wind pressure 4-3⁄4′′) 61 pipes

Chamade to Great 16   

Chamade to Positive

Chamade to Pedal

 

Couplers

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Positive to Pedal

Swell to Great 16

Swell to Great

Positive to Great

Pedal to Great

Swell to Positive 16

Swell to Positive

Swell to Swell 16

Great/Positive Reverse

  

46 stops, 55 ranks, 2,925 pipes

Peterson ICS 4000 with MIDI, Record/Playback, Sequencer, 100 levels of memory

 

Pistons:

10 generals

5 divisionals each division

Next and Previous

Swell, Great, and Positive to Pedal reversibles

Chamade to Great reversible

Chamade to Positive reversible

Zimbelstern reversible

Swell expression pedal 16 stages

Programmable Crescendo pedal

 

Builder’s website: http://bruleorgans.com

Church website: www.fpcknox.org

 

Photo credit: Hannah Odom

Mark Pace plays "Festive Trumpet Tune" by David German on the B. Rule & Company organ at First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, Tennessee. The organ, three manuals, 46 stops, 55 ranks, 2,925 pipes, is featured on the cover of the March issue of The Diapason.

Orgues Létourneau, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada; Market Square Presbyterian Church, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

From the builder

Market Square Presbyterian Church has long been a landmark in Pennsylvania’s capital city. The congregation was founded in 1794 and has occupied its current sanctuary since 1860. The church today is simultaneously traditional and modern, with worship services that balance thought-provoking sermons and inspiring music. Market Square Church also puts an emphasis on service, with ministries to support homeless and transient persons in downtown Harrisburg, as well as refugees and immigrants. The congregation is actively involved in a variety of social justice endeavors, supports environmental initiatives, provides hospitality to local groups, and offers a broad embrace to the LGBTQ+ community. It has been our experience that all are admirably welcome at Market Square Church.

Our first of many visits to Market Square Church was at the invitation of the church’s new minister of music, the tireless Tyler Canonico. Our broad mandate was to survey the church’s pipe organ and to present options on what could be done.

M. P. Möller’s Opus 11805 of three manuals and 83 ranks was completed in 1991, incorporating much of the church’s previous Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ from 1947 (Opus 1048). The Aeolian-Skinner had been hidden within chambers, but the Möller displayed zinc and spotted metal façade pipes in a case housing its Grand Orgue division across the back of the loft. A new Positif division was divided between two cases on the gallery rail. The organ additionally had two sizable and independently expressive Récit divisions in opposing chambers; both Récits played awkwardly from the upper manual at the console.

During that first visit, we concluded a top-to-bottom reconstruction of the organ was needed. In addition to desirable tonal improvements, the three-manual console was worn beyond redemption, and the instrument’s switching system was obsolete. The crude casework needed to be replaced with something more appropriate, but more pressing, the two organ chambers’ flimsy hardboard walls and ceilings required substantial improvement.

Our subsequent proposal recommended reusing the Möller and Aeolian-Skinner materials where possible as a measure of good stewardship. This included most of the pipework, the electro-pneumatic windchests, and some wind reservoirs. From a tonal perspective, we wanted to consolidate the instrument within the limits of what the windchests could accommodate. While a new Great and part of the Pedal would reside in a central organ case, the Möller’s Récit divisions could be brought together into a proper Swell in the east chamber. A tertiary Choir division would offer complementary colors in the west chamber, and through refashioning one of the Aeolian-Skinner windchests, a new ten-rank String division could reside under the Choir division. A small Positive division would reuse one of the chests previously on the gallery rail but would sit in front of the Choir behind the loft’s west ceiling grille.

The project we proposed was significant but at no time did we get the sense that our far-reaching ideas were unsettling to the organ study committee. The committee seemed ready for a challenge, as did the broader church in later meetings. Indeed, our discussions about renewing the pipe organ grew into a broader review of the church’s sanctuary and its acoustic, as well as the organ loft and the limitations it presented for the choir. Acoustician Dan Clayton soon joined the team, ensuring the acoustic would be improved for music without harming the spoken word. This global project at Market Square Church was spearheaded by David and Gwen Lehman over a two-year period. Their assiduous work resulted in new hardwood flooring for the sanctuary, comfortable new pews, a reconfigured choir loft, and refurbished organ chambers. Throughout the project, the organ study committee’s and the Lehmans’ efforts were supported time and time again by the church’s director of music emerita, Ellen Hunt, and the church’s senior pastor, the Reverend Tom Sweet.

The Möller pipe organ was removed and packed for shipment to our workshops in January 2020 by a team from Létourneau, along with John Carmichael of Patrick J. Murphy & Associates. Once in our workshop, our pipe makers took a complete inventory of the Möller and Aeolian-Skinner pipework, making repairs as necessary. Fellow organbuilder Randall Dyer had also helpfully provided valuable scaling information and related documentation on Opus 11805 from his M. P. Möller archive.

Several stops were rescaled as part of the project, including the Great 8′ Harmonic Flute, the Great five-rank Cornet, the Swell 8′ Viole de gambe, and the Swell 8′ Voix Celeste to better obtain these stops’ characteristic colors. Other ranks were repurposed: a Möller 8′ Flûte céleste rank now serves as the Pedal 51⁄3′ Quint while the 13⁄5′ Tierce from the Möller Positif is now the Pedal 2′ Open Flute with the addition of new bass pipes. Of the new organ’s 83 ranks, some 21 ranks came from Aeolian-Skinner’s Boston workshops and another 46 ranks were made in Hagerstown, with the final 16 ranks having been built in St-Hyacinthe.

The Aeolian-Skinner and Möller electro-pneumatic windchests were restored to like-new condition in our workshops, with new unit chests built as needed. Designed by Claude Demers, the new organ case was built by our cabinetmakers from solid maple with walnut accents. The façade displays tin pipework from the Great 8′ Open Diapason, the Pedal 8′ Principal, and most prominently, the 8′ Trompette en chamade. The pipe shades were designed in a greatly simplified Gothic style and were machined on our CNC machine.

One of the project’s surprises occurred while examining the bass of the Pedal 16′ Contrabass in our woodshop. These twelve pipes were built in pine by Aeolian-Skinner to a lean scale and voiced with large beards. Without an organ built around them, their full length was revealed to show the pipe bodies were not quite true. The pipes had been deliberately built with “bellies,” meaning the middle of the pipe body is fractionally larger than the ends. Seen more frequently in metal string pipes, the theory is the bellied construction encourages prompt speech. This discovery presented an opportunity to document these pipes and how they were constructed.

The new organ—Létourneau’s Opus 136—made its way to Harrisburg in the spring of 2021, with the installation by our team continuing into the summer. The onsite flue voicing was fully underway by September, and the work was painstakingly executed by Samantha Koch and Christopher Bono, with help at various points from Megan Farrell (of Patrick J. Murphy & Associates) and John Johnson. The final phase of the voicing, Opus 136’s twelve ranks of reeds were voiced by Michel Godbout. The voicing process was assisted by a remote keyboard placed in the center of the sanctuary’s third pew. Connected wirelessly to the Solid State Organ Systems’ switching network, the keyboard allowed us to carefully evaluate sounds from another reference point beyond the console, usefully confirming or correcting voicing decisions made from the loft.

Though completed in late October 2021, Opus 136’s first solo concert took place on February 25, 2022, with virtuoso Ken Cowan at the console. In response to works by Widor, Litaize, and Bach—as well as transcriptions of works by Saint-Saëns and Wagner—the capacity crowd’s responses were nothing short of ecstatic. Mr. Cowan also brilliantly introduced a work commissioned for the evening, the Michelangelo Fantasy by Dr. Scott H. Eggert.

— Orgues Létourneau

From the minister of music

Blessed by but not captive to a rich history, Market Square Presbyterian Church continues to serve its congregants and its community through worship and music. The major renovations of our pipe organ and sanctuary reaffirm our congregation’s commitment to the present and future of this church as a beacon of hope on the square.

When I interviewed for the post of minister of music, the Rev. Thomas Sweet told me of the church’s need to launch an organ project. After my arrival in July 2017, I soon found myself presenting to various committees the many failings of the church’s M. P. Möller organ. Co-chaired by Ellen Hunt (minister of music emerita) and me, our organ study committee interviewed several organbuilders, and we concluded that Létourneau was the best company for our project. After working with Létourneau to refine their proposal, the contract for the instrument was unanimously approved by the church’s board of trustees and session in January of 2018.

Létourneau Opus 136 reuses the best of the Aeolian-Skinner and Möller pipework to reorient the organ towards accompanying duties, leading hymn singing, and the performance of solo repertoire. Each stop was reworked and revoiced by Létourneau for remarkably cohesive choruses while assuring each stop’s musicality. On Létourneau’s recommendation, Market Square Church rebuilt the organ chambers with harder, denser surfaces to better reflect sound. Now, the full spectrum from the organ’s expressive divisions is projected into the sanctuary, especially in the bass and middle registers. With the old Positif cases removed from the loft rail, the rail itself was reconstructed to resemble the original from 1860, with minor differences to accommodate acoustical considerations and building codes.

The sanctuary renovation was occasioned by a desire to improve its acoustic for choral singing, hymnody, and the pipe organ while preserving the fine acoustic for the spoken word. This was achieved by installing a hardwood floor, with minimal carpeting in the aisles. The church took advantage of this opportunity to refresh the sanctuary with a new color scheme for the walls and ceiling, new pews with acoustically neutral cushions, and a new sound system.

Market Square Church has, from its earliest days, been located in the heart of Harrisburg, and it serves its members’ needs as well as those of the surrounding community. The church’s music ministry has been integral in this effort as a means of making God, beauty, and our shared humanity accessible to everyone, member or not. Generously underwritten by the Nedra J. Schilling Foundation, the organ project was conceived and approved under this principle as a gift to members and the community at large, now and for the future.

The members of Market Square Church as well as Harrisburg’s broader musical community have been delighted as we continue to explore the capabilities of our Létourneau pipe organ. I remain thankful to all who gave generously—especially during the pandemic—and I am grateful to the amazing team at Létourneau who delivered such an astonishing musical instrument!

—Tyler A. Canonico, Minister of Music

GREAT – Manual II – 95 mm pressure

16′ Violoncello 12 pipes extension of 8′ Violoncello

8′ Open Diapason 61 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Harmonic Flute 61 pipes Möller and new pipework

8′ Violoncello 61 pipes Möller pipework

8′ Chimney Flute 61 pipes 1–12 Möller, 13–61 Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Principal 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Open Flute 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Mixture V 305 pipes Möller and new pipework

1′ Sharp Mixture IV 244 pipes Möller and new pipework

8′ Grand Cornet V 220 pipes c13 through g56, rescaled Möller pipework

16′ Double Trumpet 61 pipes 1–12 Möller, 13–61 Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Trumpet 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Clarion 61 pipes Möller pipework

Great 16′

Great Unison Off

Great 4′

8′ Trompette en chamade 66 pipes new, 70% tin (140 mm pressure)

Zimbelstern I 6 bells

Zimbelstern II 8 bells

Nachtigal

Chimes from Choir

SWELL (enclosed) – Manual III – 125 mm pressure

8′ Open Diapason 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Flûte traversière 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Viole de gambe 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipework

8′ Voix Celeste 61 pipes rescaled Möller pipework with new bass

8′ Lieblich Gedackt 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Principal 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Flûte octaviante 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Octavin 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Mixture III–V 259 pipes Möller pipework with new

16′ Fagotto 61 pipes 1–24 Aeolian-Skinner, 25–61 Möller pipework

8′ Trumpet 66 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Oboe 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Vox Humana 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Clarion 78 pipes new, 56% tin

Tremulant

Swell 16′

Swell Unison Off

Swell 4′

16′ Trompette en chamade (TC) from Great

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

STRING (enclosed) – floating – 285 mm pressure

16′ Contre Viole 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Viole d’orchestre 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Viole Celeste 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

8′ Dulciana 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Unda maris 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Viole octaviante 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

4′ Dulcet 61 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

31⁄5′ Chœur des violes III 183 pipes new, 56% tin

Tremulant

Echo Chimes from Positive

Harp from Choir

CHOIR (enclosed) – Manual I – 110 mm pressure

16′ Bourdon 12 pipes extension of 8′ Bourdon (Möller pipework)

8′ Geigen Diapason 61 pipes Möller pipework

8′ Bourdon 61 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

4′ Gemshorn 61 pipes Möller pipework

2-2⁄3′ Nazard 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Flageolet 61 pipes Möller pipework

1-3⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes Möller pipework

8′ Clarinet 61 pipes Möller pipework

Tremulant

8′ Tuba 61 pipes Möller pipework (350 mm pressure)

Choir 16′

Choir Unison Off

Choir 4′

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Chimes digital Walker Technical Co.

Harp digital Walker Technical Co.

Glockenspiel digital Walker Technical Co.

POSITIVE – Manual IV – 85 mm pressure

8′ Stopped Diapason 61 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Koppelflöte 61 pipes Möller pipework

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes Möller pipework

1-1⁄3′ Larigot 61 pipes Möller pipework

1-1⁄3′ Tierce Mixture V 305 pipes Möller and new pipework

8′ Cremona 61 pipes new, 56% tin

Tremulant

Positive 16′

Positive Unison Off

Positive 4′

16′ Tuba (TC) from Choir

8′ Tuba from Choir

16′ Trompette en chamade (TC) from Great

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Echo Chimes digital Walker Technical Co.

Glockenspiel from Choir

PEDAL – 142 mm and 120 mm pressure

32′ Contra Geigen digital Walker Technical Co.

32′ Contra Bourdon digital Walker Technical Co.

16′ Contrabass 32 pipes 1–12 Aeolian-Skinner, 13–32 Möller pipework

16′ Violoncello from Great

16′ Subbass 32 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

16′ Viole d’orchestre from String

16′ Bourdon from Choir

8′ Principal 32 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Spitzflöte 32 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework

8′ Violoncello from Great

8′ Bourdon from Choir

5-1⁄3′ Quint 32 pipes Möller pipework

4′ Choral Bass 32 pipes rescaled Möller pipework

4′ Spitzflöte 12 pipes extension of 8′ Spitzflöte

2′ Open Flute 32 pipes rescaled Möller pipework

2-2⁄3′ Mixture IV 128 pipes Möller pipework

32′ Contra Bombarde digital Walker Technical Co.

32′ Contra Fagotto 12 pipes extension of Swell 16′ Fagotto

16′ Bombarde 32 pipes Aeolian-Skinner pipework (150 mm w.p.)

16′ Fagotto from Swell

8′ Bombarde 12 pipes extension of 16′ Bombarde

4′ Bombarde 12 pipes extension of 8′ Bombarde

8′ Tuba from Choir

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Chimes from Choir

Echo Chimes from Positive

Orage Walker Technical Co.

Intermanual Couplers

Great to Pedal Great 4′ to Pedal

Swell to Pedal Swell 4′ to Pedal

Choir to Pedal Choir 4′ to Pedal

Positive to Pedal Positive 4′ to Pedal

String to Pedal String 4′ to Pedal

Swell 16′ to Great Swell to Great Swell 4′ to Great

Choir 16′ to Great Choir to Great Choir 4′ to Great

Positive 16′ to Great Positive to Great Positive 4′ to Great

String 16′ to Great String to Great String 4′ to Great

Swell 16′ to Choir Swell to Choir Swell 4′ to Choir

Positive 16′ to Choir Positive to Choir Positive 4′ to Choir

String 16′ to Choir String to Choir String 4′ to Choir

String 16′ to Swell String to Swell String 4′ to Swell

Positive 16′ to Swell Positive to Swell Positive 4′ to Swell

Choir to Swell

Great to Positive

Swell to Positive

Choir to Positive

String to Positive

Mixture Compositions

Great Mixture V

c1 to b12 15 19 22 26 29

c13 to b24 12 15 19 22 26

c25 to b36 8 12 15 19 22

c37 to g44 1 8 12 15 19

g#44 to c61 1 5 8 12 15

Great Sharp Mixture IV

c1 to b12 22 26 29 33

c13 to a22 19 22 26 29

a#23 to g#33 15 19 22 26

a34 to f42 12 15 19 22

f#43 to d#52 8 12 15 19

e53 to c61 1 8 12 15

Swell Mixture III–IV

c1 to e17 15 19 22

f18 to e29 12 15 19 22

f30 to e41 8 12 15 19 22

f42 to c49 1 8 12 15 19

c#50 to c61 1 5 8 12 15

Positive Tierce Mixture V

c1 to c#14 19 22 24 26 29

d15 to e29 15 19 22 24 26

f30 to g44 12 15 17 19 22

g#44 to d51 8 12 15 17 19

d#52 to c61 1 8 10 12 15

String Choeur des violes III

c1 to c49 10 12 15

c#50 to f54 8 10 12

f#55 to g#57 5 8 10

a58 to c61 3 5 8

Pedal Mixture IV

c1 to g32 19 22 26 29

 

83 total stops, 83 ranks, 4,683 pipes

 

Builder’s website: www.letourneauorgans.com

 

Church’s website: www.marketsquarechurch.org

 

Photo credits:

Cover and page 22: Ollie Silver

Trompette-en-chamade and console: Don Giles

Remaining photos: Orgues Létourneau

A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Co., Lithonia, Georgia; St. Simons Island Presbyterian Church, St. Simons Island, Georgia

Arthur E. Schlueter, III, Visual and Tonal Direction, A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Co.

St. Simons Island is a coastal community with roots that include coastal Indian tribes, the Spanish occupation, pre-Revolutionary War America as part of the original American colonies, and John and Charles Wesley preaching on this island under the majestic oak trees. In more recent years it has developed into a coastal retreat that is known colloquially as part of the Golden Isles. As a point of reference, this part of Georgia has been a place of retreat and reflection for the Schlueter family for years.

It is in this setting that our work with St. Simons Island Presbyterian Church began several years ago. The original organ, built in 1984, was a modest 23 ranks in size divided up into a three-manual specification. It was prepared for a number of additions that had not been completed. Unfortunately, the environment of an island location can prove difficult on mechanical systems, and the console was failing. With its condition and reliability in question, the church sent out a query about replacing it with a new console and replacement of its electrical system and relays.

As we met with the church about the organ, we discussed their current needs as well as future plans and aspirations. Central to their planning was a major architectural change and enlargement of the church. While this would possibly be years in the offing, we knew that future needs had to be framed into our design of a replacement console.

We built a three-manual terraced console that would be able to control the then-present specification but also would be prepared for a new future instrument and enhanced specification. Its low profile allowed an easy sightline to the choir and congregation, which the former console never had, and portability with inbuilt castors. The console was built of mahogany with oblique drawknobs turned out of African blackwood. The control system we used allowed us to support the former specification, and could easily be programmed to support a larger and differing specification in the future.

It would be several years between the installation of the new console and the rebuilding of the church, but with the passage of time this became a reality. Our staff worked with the church architect to redesign the center organ space for a larger, more complete instrument.

When the church moved forward to renovate and enlarge their sanctuary, the future plans that we considered when the new console was built proved fruitful as a guide to the design of the new organ in its specification and space requirements.

The design of the new church sanctuary sought to use the basic shell and core of the church while providing a much more expansive chancel and wider transepts. This was achieved with additional seating while keeping a worship space that feels intimate.

The former instrument did not have any visible pipes and was behind a grille. Early on it was decided that there would be a visual element in the new organ with the inclusion of speaking façade pipes.

The visual design of the organ was two-fold; the lower portion of the organ case was to act as a rear wall to focus the choir, the upper portion of the case has a cantilever that not only breaks up the flat planes of the organ case but allows us a slight shelf to sonically project the organ forward of the choir, clergy, and cele-brants. The people in the chancel can hear the organ, but importantly do not have to take the brunt of the organ during large congregational registrations.

The ceiling height in the church did not allow for 16′ pipes. We designed the pipes to be overlength and back-slotted to give the 8′ Principal and 8′ Octave more loft than the façade otherwise would have had. The organ case pipes are built of polished aluminum and follow the fall of the ceiling. The varying-length toes of the façade pipes provide a gentle reinforcement to the other arcs in the sanctuary. The polished pipes do not act like mirrors; rather, they take on and subtly reinforce the natural lighting hues of the church. The end result of design is a pipe façade and case that not only is acoustically functional for the organ but also one that forms an elegant visual backdrop for the suspended cross.

To support tuning stability, the interior layout of the organ was designed to place the majority of the pipework on the same thermocline. The divisions’ orientation has the Swell on the left, the Great in the center with the Choir behind it, and the Pedal on the right. The expression boxes were designed to allow the organist to hear the entire range of degrees of expression through bi-directional use of the expression shades with multiple expression motors. This allows the organist to hear the organ in the same fashion it is heard by the congregant in the pews.

The new specification we designed was to have more tonal resources for choral and congregational accompaniment, more specification weight around an 8′ pitch center, and additional palettes of color. For use with choir and soloist, we envisioned an instrument with a large number of resources under expression. This allows even large registrations to be fully contained when text painting under the choir.

We knew that the church would use the instrument in outreach through public concerts with choir and organ. While the organ is fundamentally designed to support the music needs of the church service, the island that this church sits on supports a population with a rich arts community. In addition to the sacred use of the organ, we sought an enhanced ability to support a wider body of organ repertoire of many different periods and styles.

The new organ incorporates pipes from the previous instrument. This is an important consideration that we give gravity to in all of our work. Consider the gifts required to build an instrument. The generous people who give these gifts should have every hope and wish that their gifts continue to be honored. We cannot say it enough, stewardship is important.

Accordingly, in studying the previous instrument, we found that through divisional shifting of resources, along with revoicing, repitching, and/or rescaling, that much of the pipework could and should be retained. In all about one-third of the resources in the previous organ were able to find a home in the new instrument. The final specification is 38 ranks with resources and colors that eclipse the previous instrument.

The Great division was designed with a well-developed principal chorus with the 8′ and 4′ flute registers as thickening agents. The 4′ Hohlflöte in the Great is a chameleon that can take its place in the ensemble or be very effective as a solo device with the appropriate treble ascendance. The reeds of the Great are duplexed from the Swell. In this acoustic we chose English shallots with their “ah” vowel cavity that proves very friendly in this acoustic. The Swell division features side opening shades into the Great to provide equanimity of speech between the Great chorus and added reeds when used together. The Great has a second 8′ principal (Geigen Principal) that can be added for larger registrations to support robust congregational singing.

An unusual feature in the organ is the number of mutations. As discussed previously, we knew color to be important. The rich 2-2⁄3′, 1-3⁄5′, and 1-1⁄3′ pitches allow the large number of registers differing accents and solo devices with their use. Importantly, the parallel borrows of the 1-1⁄3′ pitches from the 2-2⁄3′ in the Swell and Choir provide the building of “mixture texture” in the Swell and Choir without aggression. The ability to fold in unweighted treble ascendance prior to registering the chorus mixtures allows a more seamless buildup of the organ crescendo.

The strings in the Swell and the Choir individually provide the necessary ether when required and when coupled together and drawing in the 8′ Muted Violes and the 8′ Vox Humana make an effective enclosed string organ. Again, in tipping our hat to a duality in stop design, the scale of the strings in both divisions allows them to act as small anchoring principals to the enclosed division choruses when drawn and thickened with the 8′ flute registers.

The Pedal has several independent registers to support the independent contrapuntal voice. We also provided a number of manual-to-pedal duplexes to provide additional grounding to the pedal. Because of space requirements, we utilized custom digital voices for 1–12 of the 32′ registers and for 1–12 of the 16′ Principal. These digital stops are voiced to seamlessly fold into the pipe resources.

While we did save some pipework, our experience with the organ, guided by the current organ curator, convinced us that a new chassis should be considered. The church sits on an island with extremes of humidity, and there had been seasonal problems with the organ chassis in conjunction with the regular environmental changes. The new chassis included all new electro-pneumatic slider windchests, new unit windchests, a new winding system, new support structure, and new expression boxes and swell shades. The aforementioned console and relays built by our firm were recast for the new specification.

Just as we prepared for growth when we built a new console years ago, there are plans for additional growth. The console has controls for a Fanfare division that will provide additional foundation for congregational support and allow the addition of a solo reed. While not only visually dramatic, the solo reed, when added, will provide the appropriate “sending” for the numerous weddings hosted at this church.

The organ was built and installed during the pandemic. I know that all of us have differing trials that occurred during this period of time. We were fortunate to have such a supportive church to work with along with supportive family and staff. We simply could not have accomplished the building and installation of this instrument without the help of so many. Their thoughts, prayers, and aspirations sustained and supported us. In the midst of the organ installation we were onsite during Ash Wednesday. With the fresh imposition of ashes on our foreheads, we were reminded that we come from dust and to dust we will return. It was comforting to know that as we take our place in history, our work will outlive us and continue to support the ministry, music, and worship at this church.

The members of this community of faith are to be commended for their dedicated and hard work. They sought to both preserve a worship space that was known while recasting it into a fundamentally new church. They diligently worked to provide a space that acoustically supports music and spoken word. In their work they excelled brilliantly. Accordingly, in addition to my family and staff, I want to single out: Rev. Alan Dyer, pastor; Rhonda Hambright, director of music; Amy Bishop, organist; James Freeman, instrument curator; Tom Baltzell, chair, building committee; Matt Hodgdon, building committee; Karen Schmidt, building committee; Robert Ussery, Ussery-Rule Architects; Cory Rule, Ussery-Rule Architects; Joe Combs, project manager, Ussery-Rule Architects; Tracy Morelan, design architect, Ussery-Rule Architects; Dee Davis, decorator; Ryan and Rand Tyson, owners, Tyson Construction Company; Chuck Miller, superintendent, Tyson Construction Company; members and friends of St. Simons Island Presbyterian Church.

The building of any instrument demands the efforts of a talented and dedicated team. Our team includes: Arthur E. Schlueter, Jr., Arthur E. Schlueter, III, John Tanner, Marc Conley, Patrick Hodges, Jeremiah Hodges, Marshall Foxworthy, Peter Duys, Bob Weaver, Kerry Bunn, Al Schroer, Shan Dalton-Bowen, Michael DeSimone, Dallas Wood, Josey Davis, Preston Wilson, Clifton Frierson, Kelvin Cheatham, Ruth Lopez, Sara Cruz, Ruth Gomez, and Yolanda Sandoval.

Visit www.pipe-organ.com for more information or to contact A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company.

Photo credit: Harlan Hambright

GREAT (Manual II)

16′ Pommer (Choir)

8′ Principal 61 pipes

8′ Geigen Principal 49 pipes (1–12 Pedal Principal)

8′ Bourdon 61 pipes

4′ Octave 61 pipes

4′ Hohlflöte 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth (TC) 49 pipes

2′ Super Octave 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Seventeenth (TC) 49 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Mixture III–V 281 pipes

Tremulant

16′ Contra Fagotto (Swell)

8′ Trumpet (Swell)

Chimes (Choir)

Zimbelstern

CHOIR (Manual I, enclosed)

16′ Pommer 61 pipes

8′ Holzgedeckt 61 pipes

8′ Erzahler 61 pipes

8′ Erzahler Celeste (TC) 49 pipes

4′ Weit Principal 61 pipes

4′ Gedeckt Pommer (ext 16′) 24 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Nasat (TC) 49 pipes

2′ Klein Octave 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Terz (TC) 49 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Quint (ext Nasat) 12 pipes

1′ Sifflöte (ext 16′ Pommer 12 pipes (top octave repeats)

II Carillon (from 1-1⁄3′ and 1-3⁄5′)

8′ Krummhorn 61 pipes

Tremulant

SWELL (Manual III, enclosed)

16′ Contra Viola (TC, from 8′ Viola)

8′ Viola da Gamba 61 pipes

8′ Viola Celeste (TC) 49 pipes

8′ Muted Violes II (digital)

8′ Rohrflöte 61 pipes

4′ Principal 61 pipes

4′ Koppelflöte 61 pipes

4′ Unda Maris II (digital)

2-2⁄3′ Nazard (TC) 49 pipes

2′ Flageolet 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Quint (ext Nazard) 12 pipes

2′ Plein Jeu III–IV 232 pipes

16′ Fagotto 61 pipes

8′ Trumpet 61 pipes

8′ Fagotto (ext 16′ Fagotto) 12 pipes

4′ Fagotto Clarion (ext 16′) 12 pipes

8′ Vox Humana (digital)

Tremulant

FANFARE (digital, prepared for pipes)

8′ Principal

8′ Flute Celeste II

4′ Octave

2′ Doublette

8′ Trompette en Chamade

Fanfare On Great

Fanfare Off Choir

PEDAL

32′ Untersatz (digital)

16′ Principal (digital)

16′ Subbass 32 pipes

16′ Pommer (Choir)

8′ Principal 32 pipes

8′ Subbass (ext 16′ Subbass) 12 pipes

4′ Choral Bass (ext 8′ Princ) 12 pipes

4′ Gedeckt Pommer (Choir)

32′ Contra Fagotto (digital)

16′ Posaune (ext, Sw 8′ Tpt) 12 pipes

16′ Fagotto (Swell)

8′ Trumpet (Swell)

4′ Clarion (Swell)

4′ Fagotto Clarion (Swell)

Couplers

Swell to Great 16

Swell to Great 8

Swell to Great 4

Choir to Great 16

Choir to Great 8

Choir to Great 4

Choir to Choir 16

Choir Unison Off

Choir to Choir 4

Swell to Choir 16

Swell to Choir 8

Swell to Choir 4

Swell to Swell 16

Swell Unison Off

Swell to Swell 4

Choir to Swell 8

MIDI to Pedal

MIDI to Great

MIDI to Swell

MIDI to Choir

38 ranks, 2,248 pipes

John Bishop

Designed for the space

When an organ builder accepts the challenge of creating a new instrument for a particular space, they incorporate all the features of the room: architecture, acoustics, ambient climate, and building surfaces like floors, walls, and ceilings. All are factors that influence the design of the organ. Many builders have a portable windchest equipped with blower, regulator, and sample pipes that they ship to the church, allowing them to hear and compare pipes of different scales at different wind pressures in the room where the organ will go. If the walls, ceilings, and floors are made of materials that absorb sound, the builder recommends changing them by replacing carpet with stone tiles, sealing soft ceilings with material that reflects sound, and doubling or tripling the thickness of sheetrock walls.

A formula is developed that includes the scope and content of the organ, the scales of various ranks of pipes at certain wind pressures, and the adaptation of the room that encloses it. It is both a scientific equation and an artistic composition. It is purposeful and intentional; there is no sense of “hit or miss.” Building a pipe organ is an expensive adventure, and it is important to get it right.

Perhaps I am describing an ideal. Often there are compromises because of budget limitations or conflicts with other groups within a parish about changing the look and feel of a sanctuary—a congregation that is accustomed to carpets and pew cushions may not part with them easily. In any case, it is customary for an organbuilder to spend a lot of time and effort creating the most effective equation considering the limitations.

If each instrument is carefully planned for a specific room, how can it be that we routinely relocate organs from one place to another? That has been central to my work as director of the Organ Clearing House for nearly twenty-five years. We accept as new listings those organs we judge to be good candidates for relocation, and we help guide the placement of an organ based on our sense of the same design equation used to plan a new instrument. Sometimes it is necessary to design and build a new case to get the architecture right. In other cases it helps to rescale some of the stops to increase the depth of the sound of the organ. Increasing the scale involves making the pipes larger in diameter relative to their length by adding new pipes for the lowest few notes, moving the pipes up the correct number of holes and cutting them shorter to make the correct pitch. Increasing scale along with raising wind pressure will make an organ more bold and powerful, ready to fill a larger space with sound.

§

A couple years ago the Organ Clearing House organized the relocation of Gabriel Kney’s Opus 93 (two manuals, forty ranks), built in 1980 for First Community Church of Dallas, Texas. The organ was offered for sale because that church decided to divest itself of real estate to create an endowment it could administer to meet specific needs of the community, confining the organized worship to more simple surroundings. The organ’s original home was a contemporary room with a sharp-pitched roofline, something like an A-frame. It was moved to a richly decorated chapel at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in Saint Meinrad, Indiana.

The organ has classic lines and proportions. It is housed in a free-standing “honey” oak case with a narrow lower section that spreads wider midway up to accommodate a common three-tower design. The towers have flat roofs that neatly parallel the flat but coffered ceiling of the chapel. The honey color of the case complements that of the wooden chairs, while walls and ceiling are a similar but darker hue. Someone seeing the organ for the first time in the chapel at Saint Meinrad might think it was originally designed for that room.

The bright and powerful classic tones of the organ carry effectively through the large space, which with its contoured ceiling provides a rich acoustical surrounding. Mr. Kney’s equation for the creation of an instrument for the church in Dallas transposed easily to the different surroundings.

About twelve years ago, we relocated a 1916 Casavant organ, Opus 665, from the “downstairs church” at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston, Maine, to the nave of Church of the Resurrection on East Seventy-Fourth Street at Park Avenue in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Four 16′ stops from previous organs in the church were incorporated and added to the specification. The Pedal Principal 16′ became the Great 16′ Violone; the Gemshorn 16′ extended the Postif Dulciane 8′ to play at 16′ on both manual and pedal; the Pedal Bourdon 16′ serves as an independent pedal stop with the remote Positif; and the Pedal 16′ Quintadena was cut shorter to create a 10-2⁄3′ Quinte, which effectively increased the scale of the stop by five notes. A fourth “new” 16′ stop was created with the extension of the Récit 8′ Hautbois with a new bass octave so the rank could speak at 16′ pitch on manual and pedal, making a total of four sixteens and a ten-and-two-thirds added to the already sonorous Double Open Wood, Subbass, and Trombone. Pretty good foundation for a forty-rank organ.

Originally, there were two Open Diapasons on the Grand Orgue. We left one in that division as the usual foundation of the main principal chorus, and the other, larger diapason became the base of a new Solo division, which includes a restored Skinner French Horn and new replicas of a Skinner Harmonic Flute and high-pressure Tuba.

These and other modifications transformed the organ from a downstairs small-town organ to an upstairs big-city organ. You can read about this instrument and follow links to see full specifications at resurrectionnyc.org/organ.html.

Monumental art

I am thinking about moving large objects that were made for specific places after reading an article by Hilarie M. Sheets published in The New York Times on October 13, 2023, “Moving a Masterpiece to LaGuardia is a High Wire Act.” Orpheus and Apollo is a metal sculpture 190-feet wide and forty-feet deep comprising 188 Muntz metal bars¹ suspended in a system of complex angles from 444 woven stainless-steel wires. The wires were fastened to eye bolts in the ceiling personally by the sculptor Richard Lippold (1915–2002) in the grand lobby of Philharmonic Hall in New York City’s Lincoln Center. The work was in place for the opening of the hall in 1962 (E. Power Biggs, Catharine Crozier, and Virgil Fox shared the dedication recital of the Aeolian-Skinner organ there that year), but fifty years later conservators grew concerned about the stability and safety of the massive complex work. The wires that suspended the heavy metal bars were fraying, and as a second reconstruction and renaming of the hall was being planned, Orpheus and Apollo was documented, dismantled, and placed in a storage facility in New Jersey. Just like seemingly countless pipe organs I have seen go into storage, there was little hope that the grand piece of art would ever see the light of day.

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger, lecturer at the Parsons School of Design and Pulitzer Prize winning author of the column “Skyline” in The New Yorker magazine, was serving as consultant to Lincoln Center for the selection of the architect of the transformation of Philharmonic Hall, then Avery Fisher Hall, into Geffen Hall, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for the reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport. As he followed the planning of those two major projects, he noticed similarities in the two monumental spaces and conceived the idea that Orpheus and Apollo might be installed at LaGuardia. “Lincoln Center had a sculpture in search of a space, and the airport had a space in search of a purpose,” Goldberger said of the atrium at LaGuardia. The article continues, “With the sculpture as the centerpiece of this new gathering spot with a mezzanine lounge, Goldberger feels it is ‘entirely consistent with what Lippold intended, which was to enliven an architectural space, to have people moving around it.’”

Peter Flamm, executive director of the Lincoln Center Development Project, said, “We believed LaGuardia to be the best solution that provided a manner to appropriately appreciate the piece.” Lincoln Center not only gave Orpheus and Apollo to the Port Authority but also funded the restoration and re-lacquering of the 188 metal bars. When conservator Marc Roussel dismantled the sculpture, a precise 3-D scan of the original installation was created—that was included in the gift to the Port Authority.

Frank Rapaccioli of the fine-arts mover Dun-Right Carriers was responsible for the installation at LaGuardia, converting the model into a format that mapped out the placement of the screw-eyes and the lengths of the new steel wires that determined the height of each end of the sculpture. The original layout had to be changed to accommodate the lower ceiling in the LaGuardia atrium, and conservator Roussel was charged by the Lippold Foundation to observe and approve those changes in the interest of preserving as much of the integrity of the original installation as possible.

The installation took thirty days. At the outset, there was a lot of trial and error as the installers and curators realized how easy it was to leave wires rubbing against others, and many pieces had to be cut down and moved even a few inches for clearance. As the work progressed they got the hang of it, and there were far fewer “back steps” in the second half of the project.

The article concludes, “While profoundly disappointed about the sculpture’s displacement, Anthony C. Wood, executive director of the Ittleson Foundation, which originally funded Orpheus and Apollo at Lincoln Center, is relieved that it was so well documented and hasn’t been consigned to storage, in pieces, for eternity. Putting it in a new and exciting home, where it will be seen by more people, is the silver lining,” Wood said. “But you don’t have to be an art expert to know that it’s going to be different. How could it not?”²

This story speaks of inspiration, cooperation, and flexibility. Paul Goldberger had the great idea, and officials and conservators at Lincoln Center and the Port Authority cooperated to make it happen. The fact that the iconic sculpture would not fit in the new space in its original form did not stop them. They reconfigured it to fit, retaining as much of the work’s integrity as possible. The overriding sentiment was that it is better to have the work renovated and installed in a busy public place than to have it languish in storage, never to be seen again.

§

We at the Organ Clearing House have faced just this question with numerous pipe organs. Imagine a large three-manual, nineteenth-century organ built by E. & G. G. Hook or Henry Erben. It is installed in an immense balcony, stands thirty or forty feet tall, and has a footprint thirty feet wide by twelve feet deep. (I am thinking of a particular organ I visited last week.) What newer church can accommodate an instrument of that size? But when a potential purchaser who loves the sounds of organs from that era arrives representing a church that has adequate space for this organ but would wish to equip it with electric stop action and a solid-state combination action, I would be tempted to refuse on the grounds that the historic monument should be preserved without alteration. What do I achieve? Nothing. The interested party moves on, and the organ remains dormant.

Why not consider adapting that grand organ to suit the needs of a modern congregation? After all, there would be only a few churches that could house such a massive organ. A careful restoration of the windchests, reservoirs, keyboard and stop action, and pipes could be enhanced by adding electric solenoid stop action motors to the existing mechanical stop action. The only actual violation of the original organ would be drilling piston buttons into the keyslips between the keyboards, and the original keyslips could be retained in case someone later chose to reverse the project and remove the electric action.

The organ would be used and admired, and it would sound just as it did when it was new. It would leave the vast assortment of historic organs languishing in storage or in abandoned buildings.

When conservators restore a piece of furniture owned by Marie Antoinette, they place it behind velvet ropes, keeping visitors from touching it. When we restore or renovate a pipe organ, we intend it to be used. The purpose of preserving an organ is so people can hear the timeless sounds.

§

There is a grand relief-plaster sculpture thirty feet wide called The Spirit of Transportation in a secondary waiting room in the Thirtieth Street Station in Philadelphia. One passes it on leaving the main concourse and heading for the public restrooms or the Amtrak first class lounge. It was created by the Austrian sculptor Karl Bitter (1867–1915) who emigrated to the United States in 1889. The Spirit of Transportation was created for the opening of Philadelphia’s Broad Street Station and depicts the history of transportation from ox carts to fanciful imaginations of air and space craft. When the Thirtieth Street Station was built, its predecessor the Broad Street Station was demolished, but curators and designers had the foresight to preserve this and several other important sculptures. One might have preferred to have the work installed in a busy central place in the new station rather than in an out-of-the-way place, but at least it was preserved where it can be freely admired by the public.

§

In the first weekend of November 2023, my colleague Amory Atkins and I attended dedication concerts of the rebuilt and reimagined 1977 Klais organ at Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church on Lexington Avenue (at the CitiCorp building) in Manhattan. I have written previously about the emergency removal of the organ a couple winters ago following a major water main break at the intersection of East Fifty-Fourth Street and Lexington Avenue. The lower levels of the church were profoundly flooded, and while there was only about a half inch of water in the organ, there was great concern about mold developing and the need to remove the organ quickly for remediation in the entire room.

There had been questions about the viability of the instrument for many years. It has an iconic case designed by Massimo Vignelli, but the windchests and mechanical action were problematic, the wind system was inadequate, and the tonal structure was substandard. The organ was shipped to the workshop of C. B. 
Fisk, Inc., in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where it was reworked with a new wind system and tracker action, several lovely replacement voices, and a general revoicing. The resulting instrument is a joy to hear. The preservation of the case and visual design of the organ was an important move, retaining the original architectural content of the striking and unusual sanctuary.

This project was a great example of how thoughtful changes can extend the life and improve the usefulness of an artwork. It is exciting to celebrate that organ’s rebirth concurrently with the installation of the restored and re-invigorated Lippold sculpture, Orpheus and Apollo. Neither project was a strict historical restoration, and both brought new life to important works of art through open-minded appraisal and thoughtful craftsmanship. There are a lot of ways to interpret the concept of historical preservation.

Notes

1. Muntz metal is an alloy of 60% copper and 40% zinc that is stronger, harder, and more rigid than other forms of brass.

2. Hilarie M. Sheets, “Moving a Masterpiece to LaGuardia is a High Wire Act,” The New York Times, October 13, 2023.

David Engen

David Engen holds degrees in organ from St. Olaf College and the University of Iowa, and a master’s degree in software engineering from the University of St. Thomas. He has been in the organ business since 1970. He is currently president of Grandall & Engen, LLC, in Minneapolis where he shares duties with vice-president David Grandall.

Editor’s note: many of the organs mentioned in this article can be found with stoplists and pictures at the website of the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Charles George Hendrickson, 85, died at his home in Saint Peter, Minnesota, on December 17, 2020. He was born June 10, 1935, in Willmar, Minnesota, to Roy and Frances (Eklund) Hendrickson. Roy Hendrickson was an attorney and member of the board of directors at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, from which Charles graduated in 1957. His intent was to continue in nuclear physics, but he once admitted to me that during his time of graduate study at the University of Minnesota, aspects of nuclear physics were “beyond me.” He taught physics at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and Northeast State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

I believe it was after his father’s death that his mother became secretary to the president of Gustavus Adolphus. It was she who introduced Charles to the woman he would marry, Birgitta Gillberg, a language teacher at Gustavus Adolphus and later at nearby Mankato State University. He taught physics at Mankato State, and he and Birgitta were married in Sweden in 1964. They had two sons: Eric and Andreas. Birgitta preceded him in death by two years.

In 1964 he started building his first organ in rented space in an old canning plant in Winthrop, an instrument for nearby First Lutheran Church. The three-manual organ of thirty-four ranks, which has since been enlarged, had the first Rückpositiv division in Minnesota. David N. Johnson, then of Saint Olaf College, played the dedication recital.

Philosophy

I first met Charles at about the time the Winthrop organ was completed in 1966. He was measuring pipes in the new Holtkamp organ (Job Number 1778) at my home church in Minneapolis, Westwood Lutheran Church, Saint Louis Park. He told me of the upcoming David Johnson recital at Winthrop, which I attended. I started working for him in 1970 and continued for much of the time until 1984.

Charles was a fan of the architect Mies van der Rohe and ascribed to his “less is more” philosophy (although in the shop we often changed it to “more is more”). Most of his designs with casework are simple boxes. He also much admired the work of the organbuilder Robert Noehren, whose unit organs on all-electric action were a big influence.

More than one hundred organs came from the Hendrickson shop, ranging in size from a one-stop, one-rank portable “organetto” (Opus 19) to his “magnum” Opus 92 of four manuals and seventy ranks for Wayzata Community Church in Wayzata, Minnesota. Most of his organs were built for churches, but many were built for colleges (both concert halls and practice rooms), and several were built for individuals. There was a series of three three-stop portativ organs built for touring groups, the first for the Saint Olaf Choir, designed to fit through the door of a Greyhound bus.

Many organs had mechanical action, and in general the smaller organs were unit organs on all-electric action. These followed the Noehren philosophy of unification, where octave unification was avoided if possible.

One of Charles’s notable innovations was the use of plywood Subbass pipes. Built in the shop, they were made of three-quarter-inch plywood. In the ravages of Minnesota’s wild seasonal humidity swings, almost every old organ we encountered had splits in the big pedal pipes. Plywood avoids this, and these pipes were used in virtually every organ. He also exclusively used aluminum for the façade pipes above 4′, made by Justin Matters of South Dakota.

Another unique feature of the small unit organs has to do with celeste and tierce stops. In a very small organ it is difficult to justify the expense of either of these. Both are typically the softest stops, and both can be either string or flute scale. We found that if the tierce is borrowed from the celeste (tuned flat instead of sharp), you can have both in a single stop by adding just a few more pipes. One tunes the tierce perfectly from middle C up, then tunes from there down for a pleasant flat celeste (beats tend to get too wild in that range if tuned to the perfect tierce). It is an inexpensive compromise that is of great benefit to a tiny organ.

Friends and collaborations

Some of the best organs to come from the shop during my time were designed in conjunction with friends who acted as consultants. Among those were Merrill N. (“Jeff”) Davis, III, of Rochester, Minnesota, and William B. Kuhlman of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.

Both pushed Charles to some of his most inspired designs, visually and tonally. Opus 4 was a pair of positiv divisions added to a Wicks organ in memory of Jeff Davis’s first wife at the Congregational Church in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. In an acoustically dry room, these positivs pulled the sound of the enclosed Wicks into the church. This was but the first collaboration. Many other projects resulted in very unique and unusual instruments over the years.

Bill Kuhlman was behind what was to become the first mechanical-action organ constructed in Minnesota in the late twentieth century. This was a thirty-six-rank teaching organ for Luther College (Opus 10) in Decorah, Iowa. As a successful teacher, Bill had many students study on that organ who went on to careers in music.

Other consultants included Robert Kendall and Robert Thompson of Saint Olaf College and Kim Kasling, then of Mankato State University.

Significant instruments

I had personal experience and/or input in almost all of the organs from Opus 1 through Opus 70, and it would be tempting to tell stories of each one. Except for the three portativs, no two were alike. (Fritz Noack once told me that when you mass-produce organs, you have an opportunity to replicate your mistakes!)

One overriding memory I have is that every time we built a mechanical-action organ, the shop looked forward to building electric action. When we were lost in the wiring of electric-action instruments, we would long to build another tracker.

Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, Opus 10, two manuals, 36 ranks

After the Winthrop organ had launched the company (we cleaned and added to it some years later after a Christmas Eve fire), all organs through Opus 9 were built in the Hendrickson garage and backyard. Starting with the Luther College organ (Opus 10) the operation moved to the current shop location at the north end of Saint Peter in an industrial park. The shop was built during the winter of 1970–1971. During the first rainstorm in 1971 the skylights leaked, and several of us frantically covered the Luther windchests in the middle of the night to prevent damage.

There was a lot of overcompensation in design. The pallets were large, we had complex bleed holes in the channels, and we used foam slider seals. Having a heavy coupled action, it had optional electric couplers. The horizontal trumpet was on electric action and played at 16′, 8′, and 4′ on the Great and at 8′, 4′, and 2′ on the Pedal to create maximum “blast.” There were prepared stops in each division. Perhaps the most unusual feature was that the whole organ could be moved around Koren Chapel at Luther with an air flotation system by one person! Gerald Near wrote his Second Fantasy for the dedication concert.

Jensen-Noble Hall of Music was opened in late 1982 on the Luther campus, so the Hendrickson company was engaged to move the organ into a teaching studio in the spring and summer prior to the opening. Being the only employee left who had helped build it, I wound up in charge of disassembly and reinstallation. We were able to take what we had learned from building about a dozen tracker organs in the intervening years and apply those lessons to what became a successful renovation. Since there was no need for the flotation system in a studio, we removed it and built a new and more reliable pedal action in that space. Pallet openings and pallets were reduced in size, resulting in a lighter action that no longer needed electric couplers. The blast from the horizontal trumpet at multiple pitches was not needed in the smaller space, so the trumpet was placed on mechanical action and lower wind pressure, speaking from the Great channels. Three of the five prepared stops were added. It continues to function, fifty years after construction, as a teaching and practice organ under Bill Kuhlman’s successor, Gregory Peterson.

Saint John Lutheran Church, Owatonna, Minnesota, Opus 34, three manuals, 51 ranks

Saint John Lutheran Church is a huge A-frame building, but the typical front transepts are in the back balcony. Floor to ceiling windows in the balcony provide wonderful light, but the acoustic issues for a gallery organ are significant since glass does not reflect bass. Charles’s solution was to cantilever the main organ as far into the room as possible and to provide a very large Rückpositiv as well as a prominent horizontal trumpet.

Since there was virtually no unification on the manuals, I talked Charles into building slider windchests. We opted to try the Holtkamp slider chest design with all-electric magnets on the channels rather than pallets with pull-downs. Forty-five years later the organ continues to serve the church—as does Shirley Erickson, who was organist when the organ was installed!

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Mankato, Minnesota, Opus 35, three manuals, 59 ranks

Following right behind the 51-rank Owatonna organ, we tackled what would briefly become the largest mechanical-action organ in Minnesota. (The Fisk organ at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, Saint Paul, followed very soon thereafter.) Kim Kasling was consultant, and Jim Dorn was organist. An original plan for a high, stacked organ in the right front of the nave eventually became a balcony installation. Again, a large Rückpositiv was in the design, but the ancient church balcony could not hold its weight if placed in the normal location on the rail. It sits instead on the floor, right behind the keydesk, with new steel beams under the floor to hold the weight.

A huge Great division with two mixtures sits above a relatively small Swell, with Pedal split and across the back inside the organ. There are many pipes from the previous organ spread throughout, as well as a 32′ Bourdon from the old Soul’s Harbor organ in Minneapolis and a 16′ open wood diapason discarded from the Sipe rebuild of the organ at Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester, Minnesota. The church interior has been tastefully remodeled since the organ went in, and there is now less carpet than there had been.

First Lutheran Church, Saint Peter, Minnesota, Opus 45, two manuals (with a third coupler manual), 44 ranks

First Lutheran Church in Saint Peter was the Hendrickson family church. Founded in 1857 by Swedish immigrants, 164 years later it retains its Swedish roots, although services have been held in English for 100 years. It has always been closely connected with Gustavus Adolphus College, which is just a mile away. On Mother’s Day, May 13, 1962, the old church was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Charles was already involved in organ renovations, and there was an existing organ fund.

The firm of Harold Spitznagel and Associates of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, designed the new church to replace the old one on land purchased on the edge of town. The first service was held in the new edifice on September 5, 1965. The sanctuary was half a cube, 76 feet on each side and 40 feet high topped with clerestory windows. The congregation did not want to suffer another fire, so this building is made of concrete and brick. As a result, the sanctuary has incredible acoustics for music.

To avoid having a temporary electronic organ, Charles assembled parts he had on hand into an eight-rank exposed organ that he leased temporarily to the church. The four-second reverberation made this mongrel organ surprisingly successful. It was later rebuilt for another institution.

In 1975 plans began in earnest for a new organ. The original concept had four manuals with a Rückpositiv division. Fundraising and unrelated issues delayed the project, and in a period of high inflation the organ shrank by the month. We finally decided to start over and took the tonal design of the Luther College organ as a starting point. The entire Luther organ can be found within the specification of the First Lutheran organ. One major difference is inclusion of a coupler manual.

This became the flagship demonstration organ for the company, being located just a mile from the shop and in a room with incredible acoustics. What many do not realize is that the asymmetrical design of the organ case is inspired by the brick sculpture on the front wall of the church (the story of Creation). The pipe shades are inspired by the bird figures in that sculpture. The asymmetrical “Family of Man” and the birds are at the top.

Saint Wenceslaus Catholic Church, New Prague, Minnesota, Opus 47, three manuals, 43 ranks

Robert Thompson of nearby Saint Olaf College was consultant for this organ and gave the organ a decidedly French accent, although this is a congregation of Czech descendents. This was the only organ built during my time at the shop with supply house chests, ordered from Laukhuff. Robert Sperling always voiced in a Germanic style. Initially, the Recit 8′ flute sounded like a quintadena. After reworking it with higher cutups and nicks, it was the stop that elicited the most comments from visitors. Sperling thought he had ruined it. The whole time he was revoicing he grumbled that he was turning it into a 1920 Möller Melodia!

First Unitarian Church, Rochester, Minnesota, Opus 49, two manuals (with third coupler manual), 24 ranks

Merrill N. Davis, III, of Rochester was the consultant for this project. Fondly called “The Bell Organ,” the 2′ on the Ripieno division is a Glockenspiel; there is a wind-driven Zimbelstern; the Continuo mixture is a Glockenzimbel, which starts at 2⁄5′ pitch and includes a tierce on every note. The unison on the F above middle C is the F above high C of a 2′ and had to be voiced with a magnifying glass. Like First Lutheran Church, it has a third coupler manual. The casework is walnut, and the Continuo division in Rückpositiv position has no façade.

Saint John’s Lutheran Church, Kasson, Minnesota, Opus 57, two manuals, 29 ranks

Merrill N. Davis, III, was again consultant. Kasson is not far from Rochester. This organ was conceived with a big blockwerk on the Great based on a 16′ Principal with a big mixture. There are two cornets on the Great—a four-rank mounted cornet of flute scale, and a three-rank Sesquialtera of principal scale, along with a dark trumpet. Originally the Swell did not couple to either the Great or Pedal. These couplers have since been added. What started as an unsuccessful 1′ Principal on the Great was changed to 8⁄9′ to add spice to the ensemble and to the two cornets. The organ was originally tuned to Chaumont temperament.

Saint John’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Opus 63, three manuals, 47 ranks

Saint John’s Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis is one of the biggest rebuild projects we undertook. Hillgreen-Lane had rebuilt the previous organ (perhaps a Hall) in 1959 at 32 ranks. Our 1983 rebuild significantly enlarged the organ and made access for tuning and servicing much easier than it had been in the Hillgreen-Lane organ. Many ranks were retained. Much of the Pedal is recycled from the Hillgreen-Lane. A string had been converted into an 8′ Gelind Gedackt by Hillgreen-Lane, but the scale was very small and the caps did not seal. We rescaled it again. We presume it had been Hillgreen-Lane that had soldered two diapasons together end-to-end to make a 16′ Salicional, which was retained. This organ had one of the early multiplex relay systems, this one donated by Dirk Moibroeck of Cincinnati (ICMI).

Union Presbyterian Church, Saint Peter, Minnesota, Opus 64, two manuals, 11 ranks

Though far from a significant organ, Union Presbyterian Church is an example of the smaller all-electric unit organs that were quite successful. Union Church’s acoustics were horribly dry when the organ was designed, but when the chancel was modified for the new organ we discovered a small space with a very warm acoustic. When the organ was first played the room amplified it too much! We dropped the pressure and revoiced everything. For many years this was the location of a well-attended hymn festival, and the organ has often been used with various instruments. A small-scale trumpet was added in later years, and the relay and combination action were recently replaced with current technology. The 4′ Octave, mixture, and trumpet are on the right side near the console. The Bourdon/Rohrflute and 8′ Principal trebles are on the left side behind the choir. The Swell is in the middle behind the grill, with the largest 16′ Subbass pipes (plywood) on its roof. Organist at the time, Charles Eggert, was consultant.

Saint Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Opus 78, three manuals, 62 ranks

The two largest organs were built after I left, and I have never seen the Sioux Falls organ. Nonetheless, it is a significant instrument in a large and very reverberant space.

Wayzata Community Church, Wayzata, Minnesota, Opus 92, four manuals, 70 ranks

The company’s magnum opus is in a suburb west of Minneapolis. C. Charles Jackson gave funds for it, and Charles Hendrickson’s long friendship with sculptor Paul Granlund at Gustavus Adolphus was the genesis of the sculpture (“Aeneous Aegis”) in the middle of the organ case. For many years this was home to an extensive organ concert series under staff organist, Diana Lee Lucker. Charles attended most of these concerts. Following Diana Lee’s retirement, this series ceased.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Excelsior, Minnesota, Opus 111, two manual, 29 ranks

Trinity Episcopal Church had been home to a five-rank Möller organ (Opus 8026). The new organ was impetus for a complete church remodel project, which is quite successful with movable chairs and hard surfaces. The Hendrickson organ includes pipes from the Möller as well as pipes from a practice organ (Opus 20) built for the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire that was repurchased. Andreas Hendrickson designed the unusual façade.

Shop stories

The Luther College organ had a flotation system, which Charles developed the summer of 1971. Each iteration of his design resulted in the call to everyone in the shop to come and stand on a piece of plywood to see if it would float with the added weight. We eventually had a winner that was installed on the organ.

The Rochester Unitarian organ was playing in the shop when Jeff Davis came to see it. He did not like the relationship between the 4′ and 2′ of the Continuo division, so a new rank was ordered and the ranks affected were re-racked.

There was a fire at the shop on November 15, 2013, that originated in one of the light fixtures. Even though the majority of the building was left intact, insurance deemed the structure a loss, and a new building was put up in its place. Amazingly, only one wood pipe rank was in the shop at the time. The remainder of that particular project was stored down the hill in the nearby shop warehouse.

Children of the shop

Most organ shops have spinoffs, and Hendrickson’s shop was no exception. Notable among the “children” of the shop is Lynn Dobson, of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., of Lake City, Iowa, founded in 1974. I succeeded Robert Sperling as voicer in 1979 and remained until 1984. My company, Grandall and Engen, LLC, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, has been operating since 1984 and does tuning and enhancements for many clients in the Twin Cities area and western Wisconsin, including a number of universities. The third offshoot is Rob Hoppe, of Robert D. Hoppe & Associates of Algoma, Wisconsin, founded in 1986. He often builds new organs with digital enhancements. Charles’s two sons, Eric and Andreas, took over the business when Charles retired in 2015 and continue today.

 

Read more about Charles Hendrickson here.