Dobson Pipe Organ Builders Opus 93

Three Decades of Building Organs in Lake City, Iowa

John A. Panning is tonal director of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders. A native of Wisconsin, he worked for two years with Hammes-Foxe Organs, Inc. in the Milwaukee area prior to joining Dobson in 1984. In these twenty years, he has been involved in every facet of pipe organ design, construction and maintenance. Mr. Panning has served two terms as Secretary of the American Institute of Organbuilders, and is currently a member of the AIO Journal committee. He was a member of the National Council of the Organ Historical Society from 1985–1991, and has served on two OHS convention committees. He has been North American Editor of Publications for the International Society of Organbuilders since 1991.

Thirty years ago this month, Lynn Dobson opened an organ building workshop in Lake City. Three decades later, clients from near and far have made the journey to this small western Iowa town.

Lynn A. Dobson, founder of the Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, was born in Carroll, Iowa, in 1949, and grew up on a farm in nearby Lanesboro. In 1966, he received a scholarship from the Hill Foundation to attend the Minneapolis School of Art summer session for gifted students. He graduated from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska, in 1971 with majors in art and industrial education. During his college years, he built a twelve-stop mechanical-action organ in a shed on the family farm; this organ, Op. 1 (II/15), was eventually sold to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa, where it still serves today. Upon graduation, Dobson taught high school art in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. However, the desire to be involved with organ building persisted, and in 1974 he left teaching to work for the Hendrickson Organ Company of St. Peter, Minnesota. In November 1974, he established his own firm, opening a small shop at 120 West Main Street in Lake City, Iowa.

What follows is a chronicle of the more important dates in the company’s history, a big-picture overview of three decades of art and craft as practiced by an increasingly prominent Midwestern American organ builder.

1975 ~ The young company’s first contract comes from one of Dobson’s former teachers, Antony Garlick, a music professor and composer at Wayne State College. The ten-stop residence organ incorporates both new and revoiced pipework. When Garlick moved in 1986, he sold the organ to Mary Brooks of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In 1998, she in turn sold it to The Church of the Holy Spirit in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, and Dobson was once again called upon to move the organ, making several additions to suit its new, larger home. In his first year of business, Dobson is accepted as a member of the American Institute of Organbuilders (AIO).

1976 ~ Olivet Congregational Church, St. Paul, Minnesota, signs a contract for Op. 4 (II/33). The organ’s donor gave his gift to the church on the condition that it help launch the business of a promising young organ builder. At this time Lynn Dobson was assisted by his father Elmer Dobson, Jon Thieszen, who first began as summer help during college and would later become the company’s technical designer, and voicer Robert Sperling, a former co-worker at Hendrickson. The resulting instrument is a monumental achievement for so young a firm.

1979 ~ The company moves to its current location at 200 North Illinois Street, completely renovating the historic building and adding an erecting room with a 30¢ ceiling. In addition to instruments built for area churches, Dobson receives commissions from two Minnesota colleges as the decade closes. The first is a small studio organ for St. Olaf College (Op. 8, II/7; 1978). The second Minnesota institution, Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, commissions an organ for its chapel (Op. 10, II/21; 1979), located in the school’s historic Old Main building. Op. 10 enjoys wide attention in organ journals. In 1996 it undergoes some tonal additions (increasing its size to 24 ranks) and receives a dramatic revision to its case to better suit its second home, Bethany’s new Trinity Chapel.

1980 ~ The decade opens with larger and more diverse projects, including one less than a block from the original Main Street shop: Lake City Union Church purchases a two-manual instrument (Op. 13, II/29; 1980). Dobson is engaged by Westminster Presbyterian Church of Des Moines, Iowa, to complete the organ (Op. 14, II/38; 1981) left unfinished by Lawrence Phelps Associates after that firm’s insolvency. Nearby Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, contracts for a practice organ (Op. 16, II/3; 1981) and a teaching studio organ (Op. 21, II/18; 1982). The capabilities of the shop were enlarged during this period by several new employees, among them Tom Kult, a skilled cabinetmaker who later becomes shop foreman; David Storey, an organ builder who had previously worked for Jim McFarland in Pennsylvania; and Lake City native Sally Winter, secretary. Robert Sperling becomes full-time voicer. The firm is accepted for membership in the International Society of Organbuilders and is invited to join the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America (APOBA); Lynn Dobson is elected to the AIO Board of Directors.

1983 ~ The completion of large two-manual organs for the Church of St. Michael in Stillwater, Minnesota (Op. 23, II/34; 1983) and First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, Kansas (Op. 24, II/43; 1983) are harbingers of Dobson’s expansion into the rest of the country. Op. 24 is the largest organ built by the firm to date, and is the first organ in the United States to employ a “dual” stop action, one that can be operated mechanically by the organist as well as electrically through a solid-state combination action.

1984 ~ John Panning, an organ builder from Wisconsin, joins the crew this year; he is later appointed the firm’s tonal director. The shop is remodeled and enlarged at this time to accommodate the fabrication of mechanical key action parts and console chassis. In November, the firm celebrates its 10th anniversary with an open house and a recital by Guy Bovet on Op. 13 at Lake City Union Church; hundreds of clients and friends of the company attend.

1985 ~ Op. 28 (II/30; 1985), for The Church of the Holy Comforter in Burlington, North Carolina, is the first of many Dobson instruments to be located outside of the Midwest. From 1985 to 1990, the firm builds twenty new organs in Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina and Virginia, in addition to five Midwestern states. Eight are for universities and colleges, of which five are institutions affiliated with church bodies: Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas (Op. 27, II/19; 1985), St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota (Op. 29, II/30; 1985), Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Op. 42, III/44; 1988), Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan (Op. 44, III/49; 1989), and Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa (Op. 46, II/15; 1989). Op. 42 and 44 are both for new college chapels designed in cooperation with Dobson. New shop personnel by the end of this decade include Meridith Sperling (pipe racking, general organ building), Lyndon Evans and Randy Hausman (cabinetmakers), Dean Heim (general organ building, and later shop foreman), Art Middleton (key action and consoles) and Bob Savage (leatherwork and electrical). Dobson hosts the annual spring meeting of APOBA, during which the firm is elected president.

1989 ~ The first AIO Midyear Seminar is held at the Dobson shop. Twenty organ builders from across the country participate in lectures on case design and construction, cost accounting, shop administration and equipment. By this time the firm is well known for its artistic and innovative organ case design.

1990 ~ Gradual evolution of the firm’s tonal style continues. Although specialized instruments such as the organ in Italian style for Indiana University (Op. 35, II/26; 1987) have been built, most are of eclectic design. Earlier instruments explored the neo-classic aesthetic; new projects blend both classical and romantic influences. Op. 44 (1989) at Calvin College includes a 16¢ Open Wood in the Pedal, two enclosed divisions and a rich, smooth tonal palette. Joining the firm this year are Kirk Russell (business manager) and Dean Zenor, an organ builder from Connecticut.

1992 ~ Two instruments built this year demonstrate the firm’s range. Op. 55 (II/32) for St. John Lutheran Church in Storm Lake, Iowa, features Kirnberger III tuning, dual wind systems (a wedge bellows for flexible wind, a parallel-rise bellows and wind stabilizers for steady wind) and a freestanding case with attached console at the rear of the church. The chancel location and Anglican church music emphasis of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan, result in Op. 57’s (II/42) more romantic tonal design. Op. 56 (II/17), for Trinity Lutheran Church, Manhattan Beach, California, is the first Dobson installation on the West Coast. The firm is incorporated as Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., a new 4,500 sq. ft. wood shop is built, and a pipe shop is set up. The company becomes a prize sponsor for the National Improvisation Competition of the American Guild of Organists.

1993 ~ Op. 60 (III/49) for First United Methodist Church, Mesa, Arizona, the firm’s seventh three-manual instrument, features a Solo as the third manual rather than a more customary Positive or Choir. Voiced on 6≤ wind pressure with mechanical action, this division includes an 8¢ Harmonic Flute, 4¢ Flute Octaviante, Cornet V, and 8¢ Bombarde, all under expression except for the Cornet, which is mounted outside the Solo enclosure.

1995 ~ The mid-’90s see an even wider variety of projects, ranging from Op. 62 (II/11; 1994), a residence organ for Rich Wanner in Berkeley, California, to the 1996 renovation of the important four-manual 1959 Schlicker organ at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, and its enlargement to 102 ranks. Other notable organs delivered are Op. 65 (II/36; 1995) for the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, Op. 67 (II/32; 1996) for Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, and Op. 69 (II/31; 1997) for Pakachoag Church, Auburn, Massachusetts. Voicer and pipemaker William Ayers joins the firm during these years.

1998 ~ The organ for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, (Op. 70, II/45) unabashedly combines classical and romantic tonal elements in a fresh and original way. This same line is followed in the large three-manual instrument for West Market Street Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina (Op. 71, III/58; 1999), voiced in collaboration with Los Angeles organ builder Manuel Rosales. A somewhat more classical course is taken with the instrument at St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, Louisiana (Op. 73, III/38; 2000), which is greatly enhanced by the Abbey church’s five seconds of reverberation. Joining the firm by the end of the decade are Scott Hicks (general organ building), Gerrid Otto (windchests, general organ building), John Ourensma (voicing, pipemaking) and Randall Pepe (wood pipemaking and general organ building).

2000 ~ The firm’s work at the beginning of a new century includes the monumental instrument for the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California (Op. 75, IV/105; 2003) and the company’s first contract for a major concert hall, Verizon Hall in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (Op. 76, IV/125; 2006), the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra. These high-profile projects bring Dobson into collegial working relationships with world-famous architects: José Rafael Moneo for the cathedral project and Rafael Viñoly for the concert hall.

2003 ~ Not to be lost among the contracts for immense organs are instruments of more normal size delivered to churches and universities in Delaware, Illinois, and Minnesota. Op. 78 (III/42) for St. John’s Methodist Church in Augusta is Dobson’s first instrument in Georgia, housed in an elegant cherrywood case with carved pipeshades. Joining the firm during the first years of the century are Antal Kozma (technical design) and Donny Hobbs (general organ building, voicing, pipemaking).

2004 ~ Op. 80 (II/26), for St. Paul’s Church, Rock Creek Parish, Washington, D.C., was set up and played in Lake City during a 30th anniversary open house. To further celebrate, a festive reception for friends of the company was held during the Los Angeles AGO convention following Martin Jean’s recital on Op. 75 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The second phase of the installation of Op. 76 (IV/125) in Verizon Hall takes place during the summer, while Op. 79 (II/23), for Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church, Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, is installed in the fall. Ongoing design work includes a significant concert hall instrument for the new Atlanta Symphony Center, designed by famed architect Santiago Calatrava of Zürich. Instruments for the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, give the shop a small respite between these large projects.

Since 1994, the daily operation of the shop has been under the direction of a management team consisting of Lynn Dobson (president and artistic director), John Panning (tonal director), Jon Thieszen (technical designer), Dean Heim (shop foreman), Dean Zenor (project manager) and Kirk Russell (business manager).

News, specifications of every organ, and many photographs can be found on Dobson’s website at

<www.dobsonorgan.com&gt;.

Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd.

William Ayers, 1994, voicer, pipemaker

Mitch Clark, 2004, technical designer

Lynn A. Dobson, 1974, president and artistic director

Lyndon Evans, 1988, cabinetmaker

Randy Hausman, 1988, cabinetmaker

Dean Heim, 1988, shop foreman, general organbuilding

Scott Hicks, 1997, general organbuilding

Donny Hobbs, 2003, general organbuilding, voicing

Antal Kozma, 2001, technical designer

Arthur Middleton, 1987, machinist, key action, wood pipes

Gerrid D. Otto, 1998, windchests, general organbuilding

John Ourensma, 1999, voicer, pipemaker

John A. Panning, 1984, tonal director, voicer

Kirk P. Russell, 1990, business manager

Robert Savage, 1989, leatherwork, electrical, general organbuilding

Meridith Sperling, 1985, windchests, general organbuilding

Jon H. Thieszen, 1975, technical designer

Sally J. Winter, 1983, accounting and secretarial

Dean C. Zenor, 1990, key action, administrative

The Parish of All Saints, Ashmont; Dorchester, Massachusetts

Skinner Organ Company,
Opus 708—1929

Restoration by Joe Sloane, Jonathan Ortloff,
Jonathan Ambrosino

The City of Boston boasts Episcopal churches both grand and humble. In the Anglo-Catholic tradition, two stand out. The better known is the Church of the Advent on Beacon Hill, one of the earliest parishes in the United States to propagate Oxford Movement principles. The Advent’s sister congregation is the Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, in Dorchester. Annexed to Boston in 1870, Dorchester today is a patchwork of class and culture, its lower neighborhoods filled with triple-deckers once intended as worker housing, its grander homes standing proud on the hills and parks.

The Parish of All Saints was founded as a chapel in 1867, serving primarily English railway workers. By 1872 the congregation built a wood-frame church. One snowy Sunday in 1879 a carriage driver, unable to take his Unitarian master and mistress from Milton to downtown King’s Chapel, suggested they stop to worship at All Saints instead. Struck by the experience, Colonel Oliver and Mary Lothrop Peabody were eventually confirmed in the Episcopal Church, and began a relationship of beneficence to All Saints that resulted in a pivotal example of American architecture. All Saints is the first major work of Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, instigating a new Gothic revival that would dominate American church building until World War II. First inhabited in 1894, All Saints was embellished for the next three decades as something of a laboratory for Gothic design. Two chapels were added, and eventually all three altars richly developed. The stone reredos can be seen as a foreshadowing of Goodhue’s later masterpiece at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue; in the Lady Chapel triptych stands Johannes Kirchmayer’s most exquisite carving.

Despite its elegant home, All Saints remains the proud working-class sibling of its posh Beacon Hill sister. The congregation is diverse in that word’s un-political sense, reflecting its neighborhood, the heritage of Anglican missionaries in the Caribbean and West Indies, and that strand of humanity that will always drive past other churches for liturgical expression in this style. The Choir of Men and Boys, founded in 1888 and once among dozens in the Diocese of Massachusetts, is today the last surviving. It offers music at the Sunday High Mass and special feasts, but also safe haven and pocket income for boys of many stripes. Notable musicians have served here, none more famous than Archibald T. “Doc” Davison, who later went to Harvard and found fame as conductor of the Glee Club; and later Herbert Peterson, Joseph Payne, Michael Kleinschmidt, and Fred Backhaus. Organ scholars and assistants have included Ray Nagem, Hatsumi Miura, and Andrew Sheranian, the latter returning in 2010 to assume his present position as organist and choirmaster.

If Ernest Skinner once complained that Cram made beautiful churches with terrible organ chambers, Ashmont’s is the sorry prototype—a shanty with insubstantial walls and inhospitable rooflines. In 1902 Hutchings-Votey provided 28 stops on tubular-pneumatic action; in 1910 came the present carved façades, tracery, and pipes. William Laws electrified the action in 1930 and moved the console to its present location, though retaining a mechanical swell linkage, parts of which survive. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s, Boston organbuilder Thad Outerbridge made considerable tonal revisions, transforming the original Taftian tonal scheme into something more energetic, articulate, and brilliant. This was done with respectable craft and for next to nothing on the original chassis, which, in contravention of the usual mid–20th-century tale that electro-pneumatic actions can only be short-lived, remained in functioning order for almost eight decades.

When in the late 1970s failure became too widespread to ignore, the church’s devoted musician, Herb Peterson, cast about for a rebuild. The project, done with good intentions by builders “from away,” resulted in a mechanical mayhem of old and new parts. The organ limped along from 1981 until C.B. Fisk installed a fine three-manual, Opus 103, in a new nave gallery in 1995. For a time, it provided all accompaniment, but secure choral leadership proved too challenging at such distance. Judicious rebuilding of the chancel organ by George Bozeman in 1999 allowed 20 of the 34 stops to play again. From that point on, a pattern developed whereby the organist plays voluntaries and hymns on the Fisk, and walks forward to conduct choral portions. (The structure of the Mass, and the placement of the minor propers, makes this a more logical commute than may first appear.)

However diverse its congregation, All Saints suffers no confusion of liturgical or musical aims. The only paid positions are the rector, organist, and professional choristers (including all boys and teens); there is neither sexton nor secretary, but vigorous lay involvement. In modern times, a modest endowment and faithful pledging have kept the parish in humble health. When the realities of a 120-year-old structure forced a full-scale restoration, it was clear that what the building demanded was well beyond what the parish could ever hope to afford. In a stroke of fortune almost too staggering for comprehension, the church received, first, an anonymous gift to cover an in-depth existing conditions survey, and, later, an eight-figure grant to fund not only the vast majority of a comprehensive renovation but also a matching amount toward a $2 million preservation endowment. These developments energized the parish to undertake additional fundraising, completing a project many had considered impossible.

As these events unfolded, the plight of the chancel organ was never entirely absent—the cherry on a sundae that itself could scarcely be afforded. But certain gentlemen of the choir were not entirely indisposed to vision, and ears pricked up when one of my tuning helpers, organist Joshua Lawton, told me about Skinner Opus 708 in the now-closed First Methodist Church of North Adams, Massachusetts. While a student at Williams, Josh had served a year as organist at First Methodist, and he gave good reports of the organ’s tone and unaltered condition. A visit in October 2011 disclosed one of the last instruments built at Skinner’s subsidiary plant in Westfield, Massachusetts, of exactly the right size and scope for All Saints. A second visit in December included All Saints’ rector, Father Michael J. Godderz, and a group of opinion leaders. Everyone liked what they saw and heard, so another choir gentleman, Timothy Van Dyck, set about writing friends of his parents, who just happened to be lovers of Skinner organs and were prepared to donate generously. Their initial gift made possible the purchase, removal, and storage of Opus 708 in June 2012, a task undertaken by Joe Sloane, myself, members of the Organ Clearing House, and a group of volunteers from All Saints. The example of our generous couple eventually inspired others, including the Joseph Bradley Charitable Foundation. A September 2014 fundraising concert by William Porter, on the Fisk and Skinner organs at Harvard University’s Memorial Church, brought our Skinner project to full funding.

The enthusiasm for a Skinner at All Saints was rooted in the conviction that any accompanimental instrument should equal the resplendence of the building’s other appointments. Since the Fisk handily addresses literature and congregational singing, a chancel organ could focus on choral support without distraction. An organ in the orchestral style was not as important as having a palette of smooth, subtle, and timeless tone that, even at its most energetic, would not compete with voices. In Opus 708 we were grateful to find equal balance between chorus work and color stops, warm foundations and telling mixtures.

From a restorer’s point of view, Opus 708 had led a charmed life. The cool mountain air had kept summer humidity at bay, while a damp basement blower location seems to have prevented dry winter baking. Downsides were few. Some water damage in the Swell had led to compromised rebuilding, but in only one offset chest. And the basement dampness eventually encouraged a vivid yellow mold to overtake both blower and static reservoir. These components were left in place, where they doubtless glow still. Otherwise, the ethic of this project was not unlike that applied to the church itself: restore as conservatively as possible, avoid anachronism, place reliability and longevity above all. This philosophy meant that any technique that might benefit the mechanism—dowel-nutting for wind-tightness, replacing cork gaskets with leather, more securely fitting reservoir wind boxes—was eagerly adopted. Where some aspect of Westfield construction was merely different from the Boston Skinner factory, it was preserved; where sub-standard, it was sensitively refashioned to promote wind-tightness and seasonal security. We also felt it was time to reconsider certain cosmetic practices that have become commonplace in the restoration of these instruments. In the end, we preferred to introduce no new shellac on wood or common metal pipes, to retain and carefully refit the original tuning sleeves, and to wipe clean most wooden surfaces and keep their gorgeous finish intact rather than sand or introduce additional coats of shellac. It was necessary to refinish the three-manual console cabinet and bench to match the new surroundings, but all internal machinery was restored, including the original combination action. We never considered any other option, and thought it beneficial that organ scholars learn the old skills of hand-registration on this manageable little instrument. The Skinner console sits where the Laws one did, a bit higher for better visibility. With its original ivory and lustrous wood, it seems entirely at home.

Re-engineered in a now-sturdy chamber, Opus 708 speaks with both greater clarity and profundity than the old organ ever did. Fortunately, Cram’s thorny chamber is similar to the one in North Adams, but it was still sheer luck that CCC of the Contrebasse (the organ’s only mitered flue pipe) tucks up less than a half-inch from the ceiling. In the end, one stop had to be added. Part of All Saints’ prior chancel organ was a copper horizontal trumpet in the nave tower, which some in the congregation were keen to see preserved. This we have done, but inside the organ chamber, using a Skinner windchest, Skinner reservoir, and Skinner pipes, including a 16-foot extension. The blower for the old stop has been incorporated as a booster, providing the Tromba with its 12-inch pressure in a line that continues under the chancel to wind the console. Skinner electro-pneumatic switching from the 1928 Princeton Chapel organ (kindly donated by the A. Thompson-Allen Company) conveys the necessary signals; Tromba and Trombone knobs from the 1926 Skinner console at Boston’s Trinity Church (generously contributed by Nelson Barden) have been fitted, displacing original Chimes knobs. The engraving doesn’t match; we don’t mind.

The two people most responsible for this project are Joe Sloane and Jonathan Ortloff. Joe worked for Nelson Barden for 25 years and is one of the most thorough and sensitive restorers anywhere of this type of instrument. Jon trained with Steve Russell in Vermont and spent two years at Spencer Organ Company before recently establishing his own enterprise. With deliberation and patience over 20 months, these gentlemen have reviewed, engineered, restored, and considered how this job might best unfold. Joe’s son Ian has been on hand to help, and I have had a voice in the organ’s engineering, layout, and other major decision points, as well as restoring flue pipes, undertaking general coordination, and all contractual and financial management.

In this effort our small team has been materially aided by colleagues of longstanding. Our friends at Spencer Organ Company provided a good deal of leathering, as well as assistance in flue pipe restoration, principally from Martin Near. The good men of the A. Thompson-Allen Company “found” a hole in their schedule to help with offset chest and tremolo restoration. Christopher and Catherine Broome did their usual superb job on the organ’s five reeds, particularly in making a convincing 73-note register out of three partial Skinner ranks. Mike Morvan did beautiful restoration on the keyboards, while Amory Atkins, Terence Atkin, Joshua Wood, and Dean Conry brought their usual steam-locomotive energy to dismantling, moving, and building everything in their path. Finally, Duane Prill took time from his busy schedule to help in the tonal finishing. The organ was brought into use on May 10, in a fairly spectacular packed-house evensong in honor of Our Lady, which also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the ordination of the Reverend F. Washington Jarvis, priest associate of the parish for 39 years. The instrument saw completion this month.

•

Of the 750-odd instruments to bear “Skinner” on their nameplates prior to the merger with Aeolian, 27 were installed within the city limits of Boston. These included church organs such as Old South and Trinity; theatre organs at the Capitol (Allston) and the downtown Metropolitan; five residence installations, including one with a tin façade; and the factory studio, on which player rolls were recorded and clients wooed.

Of these 27, not a single one survives—certainly not in any form Ernest Skinner would recognize. They are either altered beyond recognition or discarded. Therefore, to return a Skinner organ to Boston (even one built in Westfield) goes beyond the satisfaction of giving a good organ a worthy home. It simply feels better knowing that this pivotal American organ-builder is now represented not merely in his hometown but right in his old neighborhood, just a few miles from his old Dorchester factory and first house. To execute the project in a purposely conservative manner seems just as right for All Saints, a church in which the old ways hold forth not archaically but with purpose, vitality, and joy.

—Jonathan Ambrosino

Installation

My son Michael works for an architectural fabrication company in Boston that manufactures design elements for buildings, such as corporate logos with programmed LED displays, sophisticated signage, and art installations. They’ve made signs for Logan Airport in Boston, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Public Theater in New York. Recently, Mike built a clock tower that also displays arrival and departure information for installation in the international terminal of Logan Airport. It is in the form of an airplane wing, mounted vertically, and was the gift of Swissair. It is made of aluminum with lots of curved edges and a fancy paint job.

Mike’s work is similar to building organs in that a product is built in a workshop and taken on the road for installation. It also means that father and son get to be tool geeks together.¹ As I have done scores of times in my career, Mike goes on the road with a crew, staying in hotels, eating meals on a per diem budget in restaurants, and dealing with the logistics of getting things done while out of town.

Wendy and I live on East 9th Street in New York City, between Broadway and University Place. It’s in the heart of the campus of New York University, a bustling and colorful place. The other day, HVAC equipment was being delivered to a building up the street. There were signs placed at the beginning of the block (it’s a one-way street) a week ahead of time, saying the street would be closed Saturday and Sunday. Early Saturday morning, a crane arrived, the street was closed, and workers spent two days hoisting the machines to the roof of the five-story building. We live on the tenth floor, so I could look down and see the commotion. I was interested that of the twelve workers on the roof, only two were wearing hard hats.

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Installing a pipe organ is a logistical tour de force. There’s often a lot of work to do on the building to prepare for the organ, creating a blower room, running wind lines, reinforcing floors, painting walls, and installing lighting. It’s fun to make a festival out of the delivery of the organ. Parishioners come to church on Sunday wearing work clothes, the truck arrives as the service ends, and organbuilders and parishioners work together to carry the organ parts into the church. Follow that with a pizza supper, and you’ve got a party and a fun introduction for a new organ in town. 

Some churches have wide driveways and parking lots that allow a big truck to back right up to the door, even sometimes putting the truck’s ramp right into the narthex. But one church where we installed an organ had a steep and winding driveway, and it was impossible to bring the semi-trailer to the door. We had to transfer the organ into a smaller truck and make several trips up the hill. It was a big organ, it was January, it was Wisconsin, and it was snowing. 

In smaller churches, we have the run of the place, taking over the kitchen for making lunches and working without interruption or inconvenience, just making sure that the sanctuary is clear for worship on Sunday. Remote locations can be difficult. We installed a residence organ in far northern Idaho, where it was a two-hour round trip to a hardware store, it took UPS extra days to make deliveries, and the Moose Knuckle Lodge was the only restaurant. Their kitchen had no ovens or fryers, just a griddle and a microwave oven, and we exhausted their menu pretty quickly.

A large, complex, and highly anticipated organ installation is under way now at St. Thomas Church in New York City. Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., worked for years with the late John Scott, organist and director of music at St. Thomas, an active organ committee, and consultant Jonathan Ambrosino planning this immense and sophisticated organ. You can read a description and specifications of the organ at http://dobsonorgan.com/html/instruments/op93_newyork.html.

The organ will have 102 stops and will feature an elaborately carved and decorated case on the south wall of the chancel, opposite the magnificent north case designed by Bertram Goodhue for the church’s 1913 Ernest M. Skinner Company organ.

Preparing a stately stone building for the installation of a 64,000-pound pipe organ is a herculean task. The Great and Positiv divisions will be installed in the new case, cantilevered over the choir stalls. In order to keep all that weight from bearing on the church’s stone walls, a huge steel structure has been installed. There are a few spots in the organ where it’s obvious that the structural engineers and the organbuilders had to work together closely to get all that material to fit.

I visited St. Thomas Church the other day where Lynn Dobson and John Panning gave me a tour of the partially assembled organ. All of the windchests were in place, along with wind regulators, ladders, walkboards, and lots of sturdy racks for supporting large pipes. Another truckload of parts and pipes was scheduled to arrive the next day.

St. Thomas Church is on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 53rd Street, one of the busiest neighborhoods in the city. It is halfway between St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trump Tower, next door to the hyper-popular Museum of Modern Art, and right in the heart of the legendary high-end shopping district. The sidewalks are always packed with tourists, shoppers, and street vendors, and the Dobson workers have to unload four, maybe five semi-trailers parked at the sidewalk.

When you’re delivering to a church in a big city, there’s never a loading dock, and you can never put the ramp of a truck on the top step at the church door. You go to City Hall to purchase a parking permit that allows you to put cones on the street, but you still have to watch like a hawk that no one tries to sneak in and park. Five years ago, the Organ Clearing House delivered a three-manual organ to the Church of the Resurrection on East 74th Street and Park Avenue, a much quieter neighborhood than St. Thomas, but we still had to stand with heavy loads on our shoulders while Park Avenue people walked their ten-thousand-dollar dogs along the sidewalks.

And in that church, like most of the places we work, there’s not much going on in the nave during the week, so you can put furniture pads on the pews and stack the whole organ on them early in the week, knowing that most of the big stuff will be up in the chamber before the weekend. St. Thomas Church is open to tourists, and there’s a busy schedule of weekday services. They’ve built a temporary wall closing off a side aisle of the nave to create storage space for organ parts and a workroom for the organbuilders. But there’s not enough space to accommodate all the organ’s components, so the Dobson people have the incredible task of sorting and organizing the myriad parts and pieces so the succession of truck deliveries contain what is needed soonest. Leave one windchest leg at the shop by mistake, and the job could come to a halt.

The truck arrives the night before the scheduled delivery to take advantage of lighter traffic in the wee hours, and an army of workers spends the day carrying components and packages across the sidewalk and up the stairs into the church. The first time I was on such a crew for the installation of the Flentrop organ at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1977, an overseas shipping container was delivered to the sidewalk on Euclid Avenue, and the team spent the entire day carrying the organ up the 20 stone steps to the nave. The organ had come from Rotterdam, across the Atlantic Ocean and up the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Port of Cleveland on a ship named Calliope. 

There follows a ballet of hoisting and rigging. Floor frames, which position the legs of the organ’s structure and ground-level components, are assembled and leveled. The structure is installed and prepared to bear the weight of the windchests, which are then hoisted into place. Workers on the chancel floor are busy teeing up the next few pieces while those in the chambers are turning screws, fastening pieces into their permanent homes. It’s a little like a game of Tetris, with oddly shaped pieces drifting along a pipeline.

At St. Thomas Church, massive towers of scaffolding have been installed on both sides of the chancel. They are partially obscured by safety netting so it is difficult to see the chamber interiors from the floor. But once upstairs, it’s quite a spectacle. As many times as I’ve stood or worked in a partially assembled organ, especially a huge one like this, I still marvel at the process. Where else but in a large organ chamber do you see such a display of human handiwork? The 600-year heritage of organbuilding culminates anew with each installation. All the different functions of a large organ are intermingled into one fantastic whole.

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St. Thomas Church is a landmark for the world of church music. Since 1913 when the present building was opened, along with its new Skinner organ (Opus 205), the organists have been T. Tertius Noble (of free-accompaniment fame), T. Frederick H. Candlyn, William Self, Gerre Hancock, and John Scott. Daniel Hyde is the newly appointed successor to John Scott, whose tenure was sadly cut short by his sudden death.²

According to its website, the St. Thomas Choir School is “the only church-related boarding choir school in the United States, and one of only three of its kind remaining in the world.” The choir has an intense schedule. A recent article about the choir in the New York Times stated that the boys are singing more than 20 hours each week. A look at the church’s calendar makes it clear that the organbuilders have a lot to work around.

The new Dobson organ will be a workhorse, played dozens of hours each week, and heard by tens, even hundreds of thousands of people each year. It will be played by some of the finest organists in the world. It was a thrill to stand inside the partially assembled organ, thinking of all the wonderful music yet to come. I’m grateful to Lynn and John for welcoming me, and I sure look forward to hearing the organ. You can see many photos of the construction and installation of this organ on Lynn Dobson’s and Dobson Pipe Organ Builders’ Facebook pages. It’s worth a ramble!

In recent memory, there has been a string of exciting organ installations in New York, including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. James’s Episcopal Church, Christ and St. Stephen’s, Fordham University, Grace Church, Church of the Ascension, Church of the Resurrection, and Marble Collegiate Church. The organ at St. Thomas Church will surely be a thrilling addition to the fleet.

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Social media is a techno-sociological phenomenon that has taken the world by storm. I have an active community on Facebook, which is mostly limited to professionals in the pipe organ world. While sometimes it seems the whole thing is actually a revolution by cats trying to take over the world, for the most part, I find it stimulating and edifying, and a wonderful way to keep in touch with my profession. It is mid-June as I write this column, and in recent weeks I have seen countless posts of church musicians and school music teachers wrapping up their program years.

Students are saying goodbye to their important mentors, young organists are leaving academia to go out into the world, and choir directors are celebrating the bittersweet emotion of saying goodbye and looking forward to a few months with a lighter schedule. Lots of you out there are posting photos taken during year-end choir parties—festive gatherings of close-knit communities celebrating the time they’ve spent together. In many churches, the choir is the busiest volunteer group. While most committees meet monthly, the choir is together in the building twice a week, at least.

A few years ago, the music publisher J. W.
Pepper released a video interview with John Rutter, one of their most celebrated composers. I wrote extensively about that video in the July 2015 issue of The Diapason, and you can see the video online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm-Pm1FYZ-U. I’m reminded of this as I view the year-end posts. John Rutter says:

Choral music is not one of life’s frills. It’s something that goes to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls. You express, when you sing, your soul in song. And when you get together with a group of other singers, it becomes more than the sum of the parts. All of those people are pouring out their hearts and souls in perfect harmony, which is kind of an emblem for what we need in the world, when so much of the world is at odds with itself. That’s just to express in symbolic terms what it’s like when human beings are in harmony. That’s a lesson for our times, and for all time. . . .

Musical excellence is, of course, at the heart of it, but even if a choir is not the greatest in the world, it has a social value, a communal value. . . . A church or a school without a choir is like a body without a soul.

While I’m not an active sports fan, I have been one for much of my life: my father and I had an unbroken streak of 25 consecutive opening-day games at Fenway Park in Boston, and I understand the value of teamwork in athletics. But for the life of me, I can’t understand why a public school system would cut a music budget in favor of sports. And this has nothing to do with the increasing awareness of the dangerous long-term effects of the more violent sports.

At its root, choral singing is a basic human activity. We must breathe to live, and when we exhale across our vocal chords, we gain the power of speech. If we sustain our speech, sustain our vowel sounds, we’re singing. Voilà! When we’re singing together, we’re exchanging our very breath.  

Many of you are a month away from bringing the choir back together for a new year. It’s not one of life’s frills, and it should never be a chore. “It’s something that goes to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls.”

Notes

1. Recently, we were gathering at hotel in western Massachusetts for a family wedding.  Mike arrived at the same time as Wendy and me, and walked over to my car to greet us. My car is a Chevrolet Suburban, which has a long, deep interior, so I’ve made a tool with a hook that helps me pull stuff toward the back where I can reach it. As I fished for a suitcase, Mike laughed and said, “That’s what separates us from the animals.” I think he was comparing me to a chimpanzee using a stick to get ants out of the ground!

2. I wrote about John Scott following his death in the October 2015 issue of The Diapason.

Quimby Pipe Organs Opus 71

March 18, 2016, marked an important milestone in the history of the pipe organ in Chicago. Chicago was founded in 1837, and the first traceable organ was installed in the city that same year by Henry Erben of New York City, in St. James Episcopal Church (now the Cathedral). Nearly 180 years later, the largest organ in the city was dedicated in concert just a few short blocks away at historic Fourth Presbyterian Church. The organ is Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc., Opus 71.

Fourth Church, founded in 1871 with the merger of North and Westminster Presbyterian Churches, built its present edifice along what is now North Michigan Avenue between 1912 and 1914. At that time, the “Lincoln Parkway,” as it was then known, was not nearly as developed and fashionable as it is now. Today’s neighbors include high rises such as the John Hancock Center.

The English and French Gothic church was designed by Ralph Adams Cram; the accompanying buildings the church erected at the same time were designed by Chicago’s Howard Van Doren Shaw. For this grand, new building, which was the city’s largest Presbyterian church, the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston installed its Opus 210, a four-manual, 57-rank organ. This was Mr. Skinner’s second organ to be finished in the city, the first, Opus 207, completed about a month earlier. The specification included many Skinner specialties: English Horn, French Horn, Orchestral Oboe, a high-pressure Tuba Mirabilis, and an early Kleine Erzähler. Opus 210 was typical of Mr. Skinner’s work of the period, but the organ suffered, as did many organs of the day, from being cramped in poorly designed chambers that did not allow the sound of the instrument to freely emerge and command the nave. In 1946, Aeolian-Skinner freshened the instrument with modest additions to the Great, Choir, and Pedal divisions, but this did little to alleviate the organ’s innate problems.

In 1971, Aeolian-Skinner returned to Fourth Church, commissioned to build its Opus 1516, a four-manual, 125-rank organ. It was the last four-manual organ completed before the builder closed its doors. A “period piece,” with the latest tonal thinking in its design, the organ was an instrument played by countless artists in recital throughout its 45-year history. Yet, for this author and many others, the best place to hear the organ was from the console, in the choir gallery just outside the main chamber at the front of the nave. In 1994, Goulding & Wood of Indianapolis made slight modifications to the organ and installed a new case in the south balcony, at the same time that an acoustical renovation was carried out in the sanctuary, a project that included removal of three inches of horsehair from the ceiling and the installation of a new oak ceiling. Despite good efforts, the largest organ in Chicago still did not speak well into the church, and within fifteen years, mechanical issues became problematic.

Fourth Church is an active congregation with 5,200 members. With numerous choirs and instrumental ensembles that enrich worship, the congregation also sponsors recitals and concerts that provide programs several times most any week. The church’s organ plays a vital role in this downtown ministry. Fourth Church embarked on an ambitious program to replace the organ with a new and unique instrument to the city that will serve the church for its next century or more. An extensive educational program about the need for the new organ and its funding brought enthusiastic and generous responses. A $3 million dollar project came to fruition with Quimby Opus 71. The Aeolian-Skinner organ was removed in August 2014, and some of its pipework (and that of Skinner Opus 210) would be reused in the new organ. A new tonal opening was created in the south balcony to improve tonal egress.

The new five-manual console (only the second in Chicago, and the only here today) was hoisted into the choir balcony in November 2015. On Sunday, November 22, a portion of the instrument was used and dedicated in worship. A reception for donors and other invited guests that month included a short recital, to the great delight of all in attendance. A new case for the Positiv division was constructed in the north balcony, in the same style as that in the south balcony. Skinner’s original façade in the choir gallery is still in use, as well. The completed organ comprises 142 ranks and 204 stops.

The Friday evening before Palm Sunday, a near-capacity crowd filled the pews of the floor of the nave for the dedicatory concert by John W. W. Sherer, organist and director of music for Fourth Church for exactly twenty years. Attendees waited in electrified anticipation for the beginning of the program. Sherer’s program included: March on a Theme by Handel, Alexandre Guilmant; Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, Johann Sebastian Bach; Prelude on ‘Iam sol recedit igneus,’ Bruce Simonds; Fantasy in E-flat Major, Camille Saint-Saëns; Giga, Enrico Bossi; Marche Héroique, A. Herbert Brewer; and Symphony VI in G Minor, Charles-Marie Widor.

Reverend Shannon J. Kerschner, pastor, opened the evening with brief remarks and a prayer. Sherer’s program was the focus of the evening, an excellent choice of music to put the new organ through its paces. Sherer’s smiling face throughout the evening assured those in attendance he was enjoying the music as much as we all were. His program selections and registrations were carefully calculated to show off the best sounds of the organ. (The Positiv and Antiphonal divisions were not finished for this program.) Sherer’s playing throughout the evening was masterful; his technique in this difficult literature demonstrated wide breadth of musicality. To me, the Widor symphony was the finest of the evening, bringing together the broadest ranges of color and dynamic, with attention to the great emotions of the work.

The new organ provides a unique voice to the metropolitan area, and for this, we are grateful to Sherer, Fourth Church, and Quimby for their vision and hard work. Chicago has a wide palette of organ sound, but nothing quite like this instrument. The dedication brochure notes that the instrument is “conceived as an American symphonic organ, with English Romantic leanings, and is especially notable for individually beautiful and characteristic tone colors, which, while widely diverse, nevertheless blend together seamlessly to create a wide range of ensembles.” With seven manual divisions (Great, Swell, Choir, Positiv, Orchestral, Fanfare, and Antiphonal), the instrument certainly lives up to its design principles. (To view the organ’s stoplist, visit quimbypipeorgans.com/in-progress/new/fourth-presbyterian-church.)

One might be concerned that 142 ranks in a room this size would be entirely too much. The organ does indeed command the room (in a way the previous organs never were able to do), but it does not become so burdensome that one begins to look for exit signs. This organ has broad fundamental, coupled with upperwork, a combination not heard in this space before. The orchestral voices are lovely, and for this writer, undoubtedly the strings are the most remarkable. The Quimby organ is surely the most flexible of the three instruments that have graced this building. The only instrument of this builder in the city and its immediate suburbs, it is a welcome addition to our rich artistic scene.

The only disappointment of the evening was the lack of organists in attendance. In our day, with fewer and fewer pipe organs under commission, with churches closing or no longer using their organs, Fourth Church is to be enthusiastically thanked for its commitment to its music program and outreach. We need to support these events with at least our presence. But if you missed this event, there will be plentiful opportunities, as the church has many organ recitals scheduled in the near future.