Buzard Opus 42

John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois

Opus 42, St. Bridget Catholic Church, Richmond, Virginia

From the builder

The new organ at St. Bridget Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia, is the 42nd new organ to come from the workshop of John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders in Champaign, Illinois. It was completed on October 1, 2013, and inaugurated by Ken Cowan in concert on November 15.

The organ’s visual design was guided by the parish’s desire to reclaim a large stained glass window, which the former organ completely blocked. Pastor Monsignor William Carr, who began his clerical career at St. Bridget as the assistant pastor in the 1970s, remembered the beauty of the occluded window and began discussions with John-Paul Buzard in 2005 about the possibilities. The deteriorating mechanical condition and musical limitations of the previous instrument hastened the desire to proceed. The Great Recession delayed the start of the project until the parish raised all the funds to purchase the organ, as their bishop required. 

The gallery’s floor space is quite limited and the window is large. But, the church’s acoustical volume and musical needs required an instrument of a larger tonal size than that which would have been possible with a traditional design. This required some outside-the-box creative thinking, and resulted in our recommendation that the Great division be suspended over the gallery rail, and that the enclosed divisions be thought of as more a divided Swell than independent Swell and Choir divisions. Area organist Grant Hellmers was invited to consult, and enthusiastically agreed that the design met both musical and architectural requirements. The Great’s profile is kept low in order to keep this portion of the organ below the field of glass. The former heavy wood railing was replaced with a more transparent wrought-iron rail. The two enclosed divisions are located in matching cases on either side of the window. The cases’ designs utilize shapes and details found elsewhere in the Tudor-revival building. The result is that the organ cherishes the window, and the gallery and organ are architecturally integrated into the entire worship space rather than being set apart.

Executive Vice-President and Chief Engineer Charles Eames created an instrument whose physical essence truly flows from the building, therein creating room for a larger instrument than the space would have otherwise held. With the new organ in place, the gallery has an additional 100 square feet of usable floor space for the choir and other musicians, which it did not have previously.

This is indeed a three-manual organ. The three-division design evolved from the original two-manual divided Swell concept. The introduction of the 8′ Claribel Flute into what became a somewhat untraditional Choir division allowed the instrument to take on its three-manual identity. The organ exhibits a far greater variety of tone colors and pitch ranges than is typical of many instruments of its size. And it has the uncanny ability to take on the appropriate tonal characteristics of various historical and national styles to fit the character of the musical composition. All of history informs and directs us in the evolution of our singular “Classically Symphonic” tonal style.

The engineering, mechanical systems, and pipe-making all support the artistic end result. The main manual windchests are all electrically operated slider and pallet chests. The chests for the unit stops have expansion chambers built into the very thick toe-boards, to replicate the winding characteristics of the slider chests. All of the pipes are made of high tin content pipe metal, even in the bass, rather than zinc. The large pipes play promptly without having to use beards. The result is fullness and warmth without any hardness or inelegance of tone quality, all the way to the bottom of the compass.

The church’s acoustics change drastically when the room is filled with people, and the church is nearly full every time the organ is used. Tonal Director Brian Davis ably met the challenges that this condition presents by scaling and voicing the instrument for optimal performance when the room is full. The result is that the organ is never too loud, but it fills the room with sound even when played softly. An entire congregation can be supported in its singing with a single 8′ Diapason; the strings are voluptuous and shimmering; the haunting Flute Cœlestis provides an air of mystery; the Choir reeds provide some of the most beautiful cantabile colors imaginable; the smooth and stately Tuba soars above full organ. Nearly every stop can be used with any other to create a new musical color.

Superior tonal design, sensitive voicing, and painstaking tonal finishing result in the exquisite blend and balance of the individual stops and their choruses, relating to both themselves and to the room. And, as Ken Cowan demonstrated to the delight of his audience, there are many ways that this instrument can render seamless dynamic changes. As is the case with all Buzard organs, symphonic color and romantic warmth never sacrifice sprightly clarity and transparency of tone for rendering polyphonic music. 

The church’s growing music program is under the direction of Allen Bean. The children’s program, which Bean instituted and includes both boy and girl choirs, has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

Thanks to the staff of Buzard Pipe Organ Builders whose professionalism shines forth in all the work we undertake!

John-Paul Buzard, Artistic Director

Brian K. Davis, Tonal Director

Charles Eames, Vice President and Chief Engineer

Keith Williams, Director, Service Department

Shane Rhoades, Foreman, Production Department and Cabinetmaker

David Brown, Foreman, Service Department

Christopher Goodnight, Master Cabinetmaker

John Jordan, Service Technician

Michael Meyer, Cabinetmaker

Dennis Northway, Chicago area representative and Service Technician

Jay Salmon, Office Manager

Stuart Weber, Senior Service Technician

John Wiegand, Service Technician

Ray Wiggs, Console and Windchest specialist

Jonathan Young, Tonal Department Associate

—John-Paul Buzard

As a first-time voicer on any project, let alone one of this size, the installation of the St. Bridget’s organ was an eye-opening experience for me. The tonal design of the instrument was set before I was brought onto the Buzard team, but I had the opportunity to voice several stops under the tutelage of Tonal Director Brian Davis. Because of the acoustical characteristics of the room, the organ had to have plenty of treble ascendancy while still maintaining warm foundations and good blend. Thus, the higher pitches “sang out” a bit in the voicing room, but the effect in the church is a lively sound, not at all top-heavy but not dark or muffled.

The organ proved an overwhelming success—clear choruses and the proximity of the Great case to the seating area mean contrapuntal music can be rendered quite effectively; the variety of reed colors available lend themselves to solo work as well as forming a striking Swell reed chorus; two contrasting strings in separate boxes add variety to the foundations; and the presence of two cornets, one in the Great, enables the organ to reproduce French Classical music particularly well. However, it is equally adept at handling more modern literature and orchestral transcriptions, as was demonstrated by Ken Cowan at the inaugural recital. 

Throughout the process of voicing and tonal finishing, I was struck by how each installed stop expanded the ability of the organ as a vehicle for improvisation and interpretation of literature. The body of music this instrument will render is indeed large, and with that in mind I went back to Richmond at the beginning of November to record enough music to demonstrate some of its capabilities, including pieces by Guilmant, Langlais, de Grigny, and several major Bach works. All came off admirably, a testament to the versatility of the instrument and the integration of colors not usually found on American organs, such as the large Pedal 4′ open flute.

The St. Bridget’s organ represents a tremendous outlay of time, energy, and planning in pursuit of an instrument that will handle repertoire of any period with a clear but rich sound, and one which I hope the congregation will treasure for years to come.

—Jonathan Young, Tonal Associate

Buzard Pipe Organ Builders

From the director of music

St. Bridget Parish, a Roman Catholic parish of about 7,000 registered members, is among the largest in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. Established in 1949, with the building completed and consecrated in 1950, the parish has thrived since its inception. 

The church building is Tudor style with Gothic elements. Seating only 500, the church provides five regular Masses every weekend to accommodate parishioners. Four Masses are led by organ and cantor, with assistance from choral ensembles. The Sunday evening Mass is led by piano, guitars, and a contemporary choir.

I became Music Minister at St. Bridget in October 2005. The primary accompanying instruments at that time were a transplanted E. M. Skinner organ, which was ¼-step flat and in need of restoration, and a mid-1920s Steinway M, also in poor condition. The Parish Adult Choir of about 20 singers sang for one Mass on Sunday morning, and the other Masses were led by volunteer cantors.

Since then, the music ministry has grown. The Parish Adult Choir has grown to 35 voices, and choirs for children (absent from the music ministry for more than 30 years) include a Boy Choir of 11 singers, and a Girl Choir of nearly 30 choristers. The Boy and Girl Choirs, using the RSCM Voice for Life Program, have established themselves as important and valued ensembles, and distinguished themselves in performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

As the parish’s music ministry has grown, so has the need for an organ that could accompany an ever increasingly diverse music ministry, in a church whose acoustics change dramatically depending on the number of worshippers in the church.

The installation of our new instrument evolved out of conversation between Monsignor Carr and me in August 2005. The 1920s E. M. Skinner organ that so nobly served this parish since the 1970s, brought here from the now deconsecrated Monumental Church in downtown Richmond, was in need of restoration. Conversation quickly turned to action. Within a few months we had explored restoring and enlarging the Skinner organ, with additions that would give it the flexibility required for our growing program. We also received from John-Paul Buzard a proposal for a new instrument, one that would be tonally designed for our acoustical space, give us the flexibility we need to support choirs, cantors, and congregation, and uncover a great west window that is an architectural feature of the church.

The original design proposed by Mr. Buzard underwent several modifications over the following months. The stoplist was refined, as the organ became slightly smaller in scope than we originally envisioned, yet considerably more flexible. Mechanical components were also addressed in this process (another nod to flexibility), including independent swell shades on two sides of each enclosed division. The design process of this instrument was a delight for me as parish musician. The parish is forever grateful for the work of our Organ Project Consultant, Grant Hellmers, whose wisdom and experience helped define the parish’s needs in an instrument, and brought clarity to the process as St. Bridget personnel and I worked with the Buzard shop in the design phase.

Once the design was finalized, the Buzard shop began to plan the physical design of the instrument, and, under the direction of Tonal Director Brian Davis, began to envision the tonal color of each and every stop in the instrument. Mr. Davis’s ability to take the numbers that represented the (ever-changing) acoustical properties of the church, and to determine scale and timbre of each of more than 2,000 pipes in 38 ranks, producing more than 48 stops, proved to be remarkable. Charles Eames also worked magic, engineering the organ that John-Paul and Brian envisioned to fit into a relatively small space.

Several weeks of voicing accomplished by John-Paul Buzard, Brian Davis, and Jonathan Young brought St. Bridget Parish’s organ to completion. The instrument’s design, its pipes, its mechanicals, the construction of the instrument’s beautiful casework, its installation, its voicing, the work of St. Bridget Church’s own organ project committee, building committee, and staff, altogether required more than 20,000 hours of labor. I believe that even when it was labor bought and paid for, it was a labor of love, and that the Buzard shop always acted with a sense of vocation.

St. Bridget parishioners gave freely of their time to make sure the church was ready to receive the instrument. John McCulla coordinated our efforts with the Buzard shop. Richard Lewis designed the mechanical and electrical components the church provided. Terrence Kerner arranged for the addition of HVAC for the organ gallery. Patrick Ross and the St. Bridget maintenance staff were always on hand to help subcontractors and the Buzard crew with whatever they needed. These parishioners have remained involved even after the organ’s completion to assure the project is truly complete and in keeping with the church’s beautiful architecture.

Several enabling gifts allowed this project to move forward. In all, some 265 parishioners, a relatively small number of our many parishioners, made this instrument a gift to the parish. Additionally, still more parishioners have contributed to the Friends of Music Fund at St. Bridget, to enable an inaugural concert series, so that we can make it a gift to the Richmond community.

Because this platform is here for me to do so, I want to express my special gratitude to our Pastor, Monsignor Carr, who began this conversation more than eight years ago. He envisioned a pipe organ for St. Bridget Parish. He let the donors to the project know of our need. He guided Parish Council, Parish Finance Council, and all who made decisions about the organ throughout the process. And, if there is anyone who delights more in this instrument than I do, it is Monsignor Carr.

—Allen Bean

Minister of Music, St. Bridget Parish

From the organbuilder

It has been a high honor for me and my firm to design and build this new three-manual pipe organ for the St. Vincent Archabbey Basilica. The new Gallery Organ of 51 stops and 72 ranks of pipes was installed beginning in July 2014 and completed in October, having spent the previous two years in construction. The basilica is home to St. Vincent Archabbey, the oldest American Benedictine monastery, St. Vincent Parish, St. Vincent College, a four year co-educational institution, and St. Vincent Seminary.

This organ is the culmination of 18 years of thought, prayer, vision, and tenacity on the parts of the Benedictine community and the organbuilder. Nearly 20 years ago, I was asked to provide consulting services to address the failing organ previously installed in the basilica. The need for a new organ had become apparent to most all the monks because of the old organ’s deteriorated mechanical condition, but its greatest flaw was that the former instrument was tonally only about 30 percent as large as would be required to fill this large building with a wide variety of tone colors and volume levels. Abbey Organist and Choir Director Rev. Cyprian Constantine, OSB, embarked on a tireless effort to educate his confreres and superiors to what was really required, if sacred music at the abbey, parish, college, and seminary were to be taken to the highest level.

Following the old organ’s demise, use of an electronic instrument gave the community the time to raise the funds to begin construction. Sufficient funds had been raised from the parish in a previous campaign to allow us to design and construct a small Apse Organ and a console, which would control both it and the planned-for Gallery Organ. The Apse Organ is installed in two small chambers carved out of the sacristy behind the apse and utilizes the best pipework from the previous organ as well as new stops. From its installation in 2007 until the new Gallery Organ arrived, the Apse Organ accompanied the college’s choral ensembles and monastic services in the Great Choir; the electronic instrument was used for parochial Masses and services in the nave.

When it was determined to proceed with the Gallery Organ, the budget allocated for it 18 years previously was insufficient for the complete instrument and could not be increased. We had a dilemma on our hands: if we built an organ to simply accommodate the budget, it would repeat the past mistake of being too small for the basilica’s heroic size, volume, and the musical requirements placed upon an instrument in such an important and enormous place. So, we decided to build an organ with the infrastructure of a complete instrument of the correct size, installing the Great, Swell, and Pedal, but preparing the Choir division for future addition. This would provide the abbey with heroic bodies of sound to support the liturgical needs and accommodate a goodly body of the solo organ literature. The prepared-for Choir division will include a wide variety of softer orchestral reed colors and flue choruses for more registrationally involved choral accompaniments, and will act as a secondary foil to the Great for playing solo literature requiring three independent manual divisions. Currently a single console controls both organs. A second gallery console is also prepared for future addition for recitals and solo work, so the organist doesn’t have to suffer the delay of sound reaching his ears—while playing in real time—as at present.

Architecturally, the gallery posed a challenge: the gallery is not large, nor is the wheel window located high enough up on the wall to allow a generous configuration of pipes and their mechanical systems to live under it. Additionally, we were instructed that the organ must be located entirely in the gallery with no pipes over the rail. After reviewing the many drawings I had made during past years, Rev. Vincent Crosby, OSB, the abbey’s resident artistic director, suggested that he simply wanted to see pipes in the gallery, with only the amount of casework necessary to support them. This general direction and a rough sketch was the genesis for the visual design.

The Great division is split into two windchests located just behind the front of each of the large façade pipe groupings. The Swell is located on the right; the prepared-for Choir division will be on the left. The large 32′ and 16′ Pedal Trombone resonators and the 16′ Double Open Diapason basses are made of wood so that they can lie down under the window, with the remaining Pedal stops, the Solo Tubas and Trombas standing vertically under and around the window. The large façade pipes are all made of copper-lined polished tin, comprising the Pedal 16′ First Open Diapason, the continuation of the Great 16′ Double Open Diapason from the wood basses behind, the Pedal 8′ Principal, and the Great 8′ First and Second Open Diapasons. The smaller façade pipes in the central display are from the Pedal 4′ Open Flute. The largest pipe in the façade, low CCC of the 16′ Pedal First Open Diapason weighs over 350 pounds and required six men to hoist into the gallery; the smallest pipe’s speaking length is only an eighth of an inch. The metal pipes were all made in
the south of Germany, coincidental to the south German heritage of St. Vincent Archabbey. 

The decorations on the cases’ woodworking take their cues from the painted decorations in the colonnades in the basilica. These include 24-karat red-gold-leafed interlocking rings on a deep green background between maroon and gold-leaf striping, with blue enameled rosettes with gold-leaf highlights centered in each ring. Although the lower portion of the case cannot be seen from the main floor, being blocked by the solid balcony rail, it is made of 1½′′-thick solid white oak, incorporating Romanesque arches in each panel opening, stained and finished to match the other woodworking in the basilica.

John-Paul Buzard’s tonal style is easy to describe, but the most difficult to carry out successfully: “classically symphonic” (a term coined by a reviewer in The Diapason), Buzard organs intend to play music from every historical and nationalistic school with musical éclat and flair. (A bold statement, to be certain!) The challenge in achieving success in this difficult style is how to create an instrument that plays most everything, yet has its own singular and very individual artistic character. But, because we are Americans in the 21st century, I believe that our liturgical and concert organs need to be able to play everything. Therefore, every historic and nationalistic style of organbuilding is represented to some degree in each Buzard organ, but interspersed through the instrument evenly so that a balanced eclecticism is achieved. We don’t create this by building entire divisions of the organ in single styles as many do: a German Great, a French Swell, an English Choir, for example. The reason that we could in good conscience prepare the Choir division for the future is because of this even-handed dispersion of the style of the stops’ construction and voicing. When the Choir division is installed, then this instrument will be a complete artistic achievement. Although this organ is currently very impressive sounding, I liken it to a tapestry that is missing a color or two of embroidery.

The sumptuous acoustical environment of the basilica allowed us to truly freely exercise our voicers’ art. The St. Vincent Archabbey Basilica has, at its maximum, a reverberation time of 6.5 seconds; bass frequencies are nicely amplified by means of hard reflective surfaces on the walls, floor, and ceiling. This allowed us to achieve the rare effect that depending upon the piece of music played, you can easily imagine yourself in Paris, Haarlem, or York Minster! 

The organ was dedicated in a solemn service and concert on Sunday, November 23, 2014. Our own tonal associate, Jonathan Young, filled in for Father Cyprian Constantine, OSB, as recitalist, due to Father Cyprian’s need for emergency retinal surgery. Everyone on the staff of Buzard Pipe Organ Builders brings his or her own individual talents to the family table (although not every one of us can sit down and play a concert with two weeks’ notice!). And a new generation of organbuilders is being nurtured at the Buzard shop, as you will note in the “Here and There” column of this issue of The Diapason.

Deepest thanks to Father Cyprian Constantine, OSB, Father Donald Raila, OSB, Father Stephen Concordia, OSB, Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, OSB, and all the priests and monks at St. Vincent who were so complimentary and encouraging of
the project.

Thanks especially to the staff of Buzard Pipe Organ Builders for their tireless efforts.

Charles Eames, Executive Vice President and general manager

Brian K. Davis, Tonal Director

Keith Williams, Director, Service Department

David Brown, Foreman, Service Department 

Shane Rhoades, Foreman, Production department 

Trevor Dodd, Service Technician 

Christopher Goodnight, Master Cabinetmaker

Dennissia Hall, Receptionist and Administrative Assistant

John Jordan, Service Technician

Michael Meyer, Master Cabinetmaker 

Dennis Northway, Chicago-area Representative and Service Technician

Jay Salmon, Office Manager

Stuart Weber, Service Technician

John Wiegand, Service Technician

Ray Wiggs, Console and Windchest specialist

Jonathan Young, Tonal Associate

—John-Paul Buzard

From the tonal associate 

(and recitalist)

There are some unusual sounds in this organ, designed and scaled by our Tonal Director Brian Davis, who grasped the potential of the basilica and took full advantage of the unique acoustical environment to use some stops that don’t typically work in American churches. The empty room features around six seconds of reverberation and, perhaps more importantly, strong side and rear reflections, especially from the curved wall at the apse. The organ contains no fewer than three harmonic flutes, including the very wide-scale 8′ on the Great that functions like a true French Flûte Harmonique. The chorus reeds in the Swell are harmonic as well, and contrast nicely with the German-style Great Trumpet. Very unusual among American organs is this Vox Humana, built in French style and based on an example by Callinet. The large 8′ Great First Open Diapason and a mounted Cornet elevated six feet above the north Great windchest are particularly effective in the accompaniment of congregational singing; the bass-friendly room enables the pedal registers to provide a generous amount of gravitas without being pushed. A main chorus that extends up through five-rank Mixture and three-rank Scharff provides clarity in an acoustic that has the potential to be muddled at times.

Not surprisingly, the organ plays French music with ease. But, some of the stops that we might think of as being peculiarly “French” lend themselves very well in this room to other schools. The Vox Humana in particular is quite the chameleon, at home in Böhm’s Vater unser im Himmelreich as much as it is in Franck’s A-Major Fantasy. One of the more ravishing sounds on the instrument is the Swell Celeste, which extends all the way to low C.

I had the honor of playing the dedication recital when Fr. Cyprian Constantine, the incumbent organist, had to undergo emergency eye surgery. I chose a program that was French-biased but eclectic, including music from Preston, Widor, Franck, Bach, Vaughan Williams, and Tunder—the latter, music that typically isn’t played on “symphonic” organs like this. But the variety of colors, clear principal choruses, generous flutes, and panoply of reeds enable a wide range of literature to be rendered effectively. Tunder’s chorale fantasy on In dich hab’ ich gehoffet, Herr, especially, sounds amazing here—not what one would expect!

—Jonathan Young

Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, LLC, Champaign, Illinois, Opus 33, 2006

St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church, Zionsville, Indiana

Zionsville, Indiana is a quaint community about 30 minutes north of Indianapolis. It has retained its rural character, but added modern coffee shops, restaurants, and shopping along the historic Main Street. Farms dot the outlying area, inhabited primarily by today’s generations of their founding families. Horses are kept for sport. Until only last year, Main Street featured an equine and tack shop, where one could purchase saddles, bits, and bridles, and be measured for a custom-made pair of English riding boots.

St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church sits on a lane in the newer part of town. The church was originally built in 1968. An early 20th-century Sanborn tracker-action organ was renovated and installed by Goulding & Wood in 1988, and the church was expanded to its present and complete form in 1997. Indianapolis architect Tim Fleck, of Woolens, Molzen, and Partners, designed and finished the space.

These days it is a luxury for a small rural church to have a pipe organ of any description, and St. Francis used their old tracker organ to its greatest and fullest extent. However, as the parish and its music program grew, the old instrument was found wanting. In 1992, their rector, The Rev. Sandra Michels, invited me to visit, having heard of the success of our then new organ at the Episcopal Campus Chapel at the University of Illinois. We met, and I offered several recommendations for instruments of differing size.

The church wrestled with a “catch-22.” The building is not so big as to require a large organ to fill it with sound for vigorous hymn-singing. However, the ambitious choral program of traditional Anglican offerings really cried out for tonal variety—which only a somewhat larger instrument could offer. And, of course, since no one at the church really knew what pipe organs cost, the price came as a real shock. The organ project was shelved, and, as the parish continued to grow, the then new organist/choirmaster Lee Barlow took up the cause afresh for a new instrument.

Lee was acquainted with the many tonal and mechanical benefits of slider chests, and the discipline that they bring to good organ design. But he also wanted to take advantage of the flexibility that unit work can bring to a well-designed pipe organ, as long as it did not in any way compromise the instrument’s integrity.

Having some stops appear on unit chests also became advantageous as we learned that the organ’s initial purchase price had to be limited to a fixed dollar amount, based upon a donation received from a very generous parishioner. Although the donation was certainly significant, the amount was less than a tonally complete organ would cost. We had to design an organ that could at least initially be built for the amount of the single donation—and be efficiently expandable to the proper size as succeeding contributions were received. Partially because unit stops are more expensive than stops planted on slider chests, they make good candidates for preparations, and easier reductions to an organ’s initial purchase price.

Initially, more stops were prepared for the future than the printed specification shows. Although it was against my nature to do so, I had a positive feeling that the church would reinstate the important stops in time for them to be included as the organ was constructed in the shop, and indeed they did!
The limited balcony space was also an issue. Therefore we opted to place the Great in a case projecting over the balcony rail, and place the Swell and Pedal divisions in a case centered on the balcony floor, at the rear wall, behind the choral singers. We kept the Swell and Pedal case simple, echoing the classical architectural design of the chancel and its furnishings. The slightly more fanciful Great case relates to the building’s round window frames in its use of rounded towers with rounded pipe shades. Roman mouths in the façade pipes tie both cases together nicely. The cases are made of 11⁄2" thick solid white oak, with walnut and basswood accents. The front case’s pipe shades are carved—albeit by machine—in a 19th-century pattern. The console is also made of 11⁄2" thick white oak, with polished walnut interior accents, keyboards, slips, nameboard, and drawknob wings.

The action is primarily electrically operated slider and pallet windchests. The unit stops have expansion chambers built into every note’s toe and valve holes, to replicate the speech and repetition characteristics of the slider chest magnets. Our treatment of the actions and chests encourages beautiful speech, and reconciles the slight difference in repetition characteristics between the slider stops and the unit stops.

In small organs, every note of every stop is crucial to the entire organ’s tonal structure. And, dividing the organ with the Great over the rail poses some listening challenges for the organist. We like for the Swell to balance the Great. Absent a Swell 8¢ Diapason, the Swell Salicional and Stopped Diapason blend together to create a composite foundation tone, and balance the Great Diapason. Once the foundations are set, their choruses are built up from these references. Since the Swell is further away from the listeners in the nave, the Swell Salicional sounds very bold indeed at the console. But, for accompanying, it is at a perfect point for softer contexts when the expression box is partially or fully closed.

The Open Diapasons in our organs are very personal musical statements, and I pray that organists and organ purchasers will give me artistic license to grow and evolve as time passes. Those of you who have followed my work during the last 15 years will note that our earlier Diapasons were larger in scale than those we’re building now. Especially in smaller organs, a slightly smaller scale, blown on a moderate pressure, can be cut-up and voiced to produce a beautifully warm, solemn sound, and still have plenty of “urgency” to the tone. Here we have Diapasons that are warm indeed, with a compelling palette of upper partials. The result is warmth without fatness, and an uncanny ability to blend with upper pitches to keep the entire chorus interesting, without becoming “spiky.”

Just as Diapasons are the meat of the sound, the reeds, strings, and flutes are the spice in the cooking! The flutes are all different, and colorful. The Great uses our cheeky 8' Flûte à Bibéron, or “baby-bottle” flute; the Swell, a smoky wooden 8' Stopped Diapason. The 4' flutes’ construction is opposite that of the 8' stops, so that their sounds blend better, and provide contrast between divisions. The Swell strings are lush and beautiful, and lend themselves nicely to being super-coupled with the expression box closed at just the right moment in an anthem or improvisations. The Swell and Pedal Bassoon/Oboe is fundamental and mildly powerful in the bass, but becomes more hollow and plaintive as it enters the manual compass. As is typical of our Oboes, it is primarily meant to color the flues for accompanying, but is also a lovely, lyrical soft solo voice. The Swell Trumpet is slightly on the dark side, in deference to the nature of the small room, but remains interesting by virtue of the open, tapered shallot openings, and slightly thinner tongues, weighted at the ends. When installed, the Pedal Trombone, an independent Pedal reed, will be on slightly higher pressure so that it can have a measured profundity. The future Tuba (note I have not used the adjective “Major” in its nomenclature) will be on moderately high wind pressure; its top three octaves will be horizontally mounted at the top of the Swell case’s pediment.

Thanks to the rector, The Rev. Sandra Michels; organist/choirmaster Lee Barlow; and Dr. Marilyn Keiser, who assured the church that this organ would not be too big for the space! Thanks also to the dedicated people on my staff who continue to build some of the most inspired instruments in America!

—John-Paul Buzard



Charles Eames, executive vice-president, chief engineer, general manager

Brian K. Davis, associate tonal director, head voicer, director, tonal department

Phillip S. Campbell, business manager

Keith Williams, director, service department

Stephen P. Downes, pipe preparation, racking, tonal associate

C. Robert Leech, cabinet maker

Stuart Martin, cabinet maker

Jenaiah Michael, receptionist

Evan Rench, pipe maker, voicer, racking, tonal associate

Jay K. Salmon, office manager

Lyoshia Svinarski, cabinet maker

Shayne Tippett, winding systems

Ray Wiggs, console, electrical systems, wind chest construction

From the organist/choirmaster

The reality of a new instrument was launched by a financial gift from one of St. Francis’s founding members. The new organ needed to support the congregation for service music and hymnody; accompany the choral music, which spans 500 years’ worth of literature; play a majority of the organ literature; and accompany diverse instruments for our concert series.

After hearing and seeing many organs, talking at length with organbuilders, and reviewing various proposals, it was clear that John-Paul Buzard’s thoughtful proposal of a two-manual, 27-rank specification and double case layout would provide an instrument that would meet the requirements of our space and music program. Much gratitude goes to our organ consultant, Dr. Marilyn Keiser, who both affirmed the project’s vision and confirmed John Buzard’s proposal as its realization.

Working with John Buzard and company was pure pleasure. John’s enthusiasm knew no bounds when it came to discussing any aspect of the new organ. He was always open to questions and willing to answer in detail. We are very grateful to him and Chuck Eames for wrestling around the prepared stops; we look forward to installing the Pedal 16' Trombone, the solo 8' Tuba, and the Great and Pedal 16' & 8' Gedeckts.

John’s knowledge and skill are self-evident in both the visual and sonic beauties of the instrument. The organ design was impressive on paper, but in three dimensions it is absolutely magnificent. Visually, it has given a henceforth unknown height to the rear gallery. Musically, its softest sounds fill the room, yet at its fullest it flattens not the ear. It is a joy to play, and it beckons practice. Many and most gracious thanks to you, John-Paul Buzard, for bestowing upon us a masterpiece of your artistry.

—A. Lee Barlow

St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church, Zionsville, Indiana, Buzard Opus 33

20 stops, 27 ranks

GREAT (Manual I, 4" wind pressure)

16' Lieblich Gedeckt (stoppered wood, preparation)

8' Open Diapason (polished tin, façade)

8' Flûte à Bibéron

8' Gedeckt Flute (ext)

4' Principal

4' Spire Flute

22⁄3' Twelfth

2' Fifteenth

13⁄5' Seventeenth

11⁄3' Fourniture IV

8' Oboe (Sw)

Tremulant

8' Tuba (high pressure, horizontal, atop case, prepared)

Great to Great 16-UO-4

Swell to Great 16, 8, 4


SWELL (Manual II, expressive, 4" wind pressure)

8' Stopped Diapason (wood)

8' Salicional

8' Voix Celeste (tc)

4' Principal

4' Harmonic Flute

2' Recorder

2' Full Mixture IV

16' Bassoon

8' Trompette

8' Oboe

Tremulant

Cymbalstern (7 bells)

8' Tuba (Gt prep)

Swell to Swell 16-UO-4


PEDAL (various pressures, partially enclosed & expressive)

32' Subbass (1–12 digital ext, prep)

32' Lieblich Gedeckt (1–12 digital ext, prep)

16' Bourdon (stoppered wood)

16' Lieblich Gedeckt (Gt prep)

8' Principal (polished tin, façade)

8' Bass Flute (ext Bourdon)

8' Gedeckt Flute (Gt)

4' Choral Bass (ext Principal)

4' Open Flute (ext Bourdon)

16' Trombone (preparation)

16' Bassoon (Sw)

8' Trumpet (ext Trombone)

4' Shalmei (Sw Oboe)

8' Tuba (Gt)

Great to Pedal 8, 4

Swell to Pedal 8, 4