Gerard Pels dead at 59

Bill Halsey was born in Seattle, where he studied piano and composition from an early age, and began organ lessons in his teens. While a student at the Sorbonne, he had access to the two-manual unmodified tracker-action Cavaillé-Coll organ at Saint Bernard de la Chapelle, in a northern arrondissement of Paris. This fueled his interest in historic organs, and after spending fifteen years serving in organist positions at St. John Cantius, St. Peter Claver, Church of the Assumption, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, all in Brooklyn, New York, he took a permanent leave of absence to explore historic organs, first in France, and later in Italy.

After living in Italy, I had the
opportunity to go to Egypt to study Arabic. I had always been fascinated by Arabic literature and music, as well as the prayer chants that are so much a part of life in the Moslem world. They are similar to Gregorian chant and synagogue chanting, and remind me of the days when I was 17 and singing in a Gregorian chant choir. You can tell time by the call to prayer, and what’s especially nice is the antiphonal effect from different mosques “going off” at slightly different moments.

All Saints’ Cathedral, Cairo
I found a job playing organ for the English Mass at the Anglican All Saints’ Cathedral of Egypt and the Horn of Africa, working primarily with the English chaplain, Father Mike. The cathedral is a modern concrete monolith, the interior all open and designed to have the upturned folds of a Bedouin tent. The organ is placed high in a rear gallery, and benefits from good acoustics. All Saints’ dates from 1988 and was a replacement for the old cathedral in Tahrir Square, built in 1938 but torn down in the 1980s to make way for one of the ubiquitous Cairo freeways.
I was immediately struck by the quality of the organ, which I was told came from the old cathedral but seemed even older than 70 years, more like at least 100 years old. It was a small two-manual tracker action, everything—console, pipes, bellows, windchest—contained in a rather plain-looking wooden framework. It had a nameplate, Bevington and Sons, but no date or opus number, and was in remarkably good condition for its age. It reminded me of small Italian organs, but lacked the most minimal solo stop like Vox Humana that even the smallest Italian organ has. However, the quality of the Open Diapason and the principal chorus on the Great make it quite serviceable for a wide variety of organ music. The Swell division, as often happens even in much bigger organs, is too weak to compete with the Great.
In summer I took a trip to Italy. I had plans to do a concert with a violinist friend in Ostuni. The violinist specializes in Hispanic music and we were going to perform, among other pieces, a violin and piano partita I had written on songs by Luz Celenia Tirado, one of Puerto Rico’s most famous composers. However, the concert, through a series of unfortunate events, was endlessly delayed and then didn’t come about, and I finally returned to Cairo at the end of September.
Father Mike gave me my job back, which rather surprised me, since I had been absent so long, and he also excitedly informed me that two Belgian organbuilders had visited the organ while I was gone. They were going to come back, do a complete cleaning and tuning, and there would also be two recitals and a masterclass with an organist from Belgium. I was pretty surprised by this, thinking Cairo cut off from the world of organbuilders and masterclasses. He said the work was financed by a foundation, which I found out later was called Ktesibios, after the Alexandrian inventor of the hydraulus organ; they worked on Egyptian organs in exchange for accommodations and the cost of their airfare. The reason for their visit also included presenting the renovation they had been doing on the organ at the Basilica of Heliopolis, with a concert and masterclass by the same organist from Belgium.
I had never seen an organ dismantled, cleaned, and tuned, and the two organbuilders, Gerard Pels and Filip Willems, had asked for a helper, so I volunteered for the job. The two couldn’t have been nicer or more informative about the progress of the work. We took out all the pipes except the heaviest façade pipes; several pipes were missing, which led to a call to their firm in Belgium to see if the factory could supply the required small pipes.
During the work, I learned a number of very interesting things about an organ I thought I knew well. Gerard Pels, who besides being president of the Ktesibios Foundation is also the head of Pels Orgelbouw, an organbuilding company his family has operated for generations, had also come to the conclusion that this organ was more than 70 years old. Research was done, leading to the discovery that the organ came from another All Saints Church that predated the old cathedral, and that the organ was probably built around 1900. But alterations had been made, whose date is not altogether clear; for example, a stop was added, a Mixture on the Great, on electric action. Moreover, the whole pedal register, 16′, 8′, and 4′, is a unit rank on electric action. The history of this pedal stop is unclear, whether it existed in the original organ, or was simply added at some point, perhaps in 1938 to give more gravitas to the organ. The Mixture, in Pels’s opinion, was added for the new cathedral to give the organ a more Baroque sound.
One of the most interesting things I learned concerned the Swell, which includes 8′ 4′ 2′ flutes and a Larigot, and is quite weak because there is no diapason. But, during the dismantling, Gerard Pels was quite surprised to discover that the 2′ flute had the scale not of a flute but of a diapason, causing it to overbalance the 8′ and 4′ stops. Since the weakness of the Swell came from the fact it lacked a diapason chorus, this led me to consider playing melodies on the Swell down an octave, to mimic at least a 4′ diapason. This also gives the effect of having a 16′ on the Swell, which is very useful.
The work was limited by the time frame, only two days, and the pipes were cleaned and put back, and a few problems were fixed—most importantly, replacing a broken pipe on the Great Octave, and repairing a broken tracker on the Swell. The missing pipes were replaced by pipes from Pels Orgelbouw, some from the 18th century, brought to Cairo by Gerard Pels’s 84-year-old mother.
The organist from Belgium, Pieter Van de Welde, titular of the organ at the Antwerp cathedral, chose to do all Baroque works for both his noon and evening concerts. At noon he played Bach’s “St. Anne” Prelude in E-flat and a fugue by C. P. E. Bach; he went on to skillfully demonstrate the whole gamut of different stops with various chorale preludes and trio sonatas by Bach. In the evening he played, among other works, pieces by Buxtehude and Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor. I had really never heard the organ from downstairs played by a professional, and was impressed not only by the massive power it had in the big tutti but also the strength of just a single diapason.
The masterclass, which came between the two concerts, was a little strange. A number of people who played at other Cairo churches came just to watch and ask questions, and a few young people tried out piano pieces on the organ, but I was the only organist to actually play organ pieces, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G major. Pieter Van de Welde gave me some very useful tips and corrected some mistakes I was making.

Heliopolis Basilica
The city of Heliopolis was built in the early 20th century as a new modern development by the Belgian Baron Empain, who constructed churches and mosques for the new neighborhood, including the Catholic basilica for the large foreign Catholic community. There is something of a mystery about the organ itself. It was installed in 1914 by Theofiel Boeckx, an apprentice of Gerard Pels’s great grandfather, but there is debate about the actual builder. The nameplate reads Theophile Boech, Facteur, 10 mars 1914, but Gerard Pels found evidence inside the organ that some of the parts or pipes were made in Georges Cloetens’s factory.
Theofiel Boeckx’s name on the organ was, however, the inspiration for the Ktesibios Foundation. Raymond Batroussi, the basilica organist until recently, when he left Egypt for Canada, had asked Gerard Pels to take him on as an apprentice organbuilder and restorer in Belgium, but he couldn’t get a visa for Belgium. He did, however, arrange for Pels to visit the Heliopolis Basilica and see the organ, to give him advice about restoring it. When Pels saw the organ and the nameplate, he was intrigued by the family connection. He realized the restoration would be a delicate affair, so decided to found the Ktesibios Foundation to fund his own involvement in the project. Pels’s blog, <http://www.ktesi bios.eu/ktesibios emails.html>, provides a good history of the restoration, done in November 2009. It’s in Dutch, but Google translate provides an adequate English version.
Apparently one of the major problems was the wind system, an unusual and novel system. Pels and his coworkers had to order a new blower from Belgium and solve problems in order to reduce the noise of the system and make it more efficient. The organ has three manuals, and the third, which is devoted solely to a type of reed organ, remains unusable because the workers didn’t have the equipment in Egypt to repair it.
This time the masterclass took place the day before the concert, and was even stranger than the masterclass at All Saints’. Again, I was the only one to play real organ music. There were a few kids doing piano pieces, but Pieter Van de Welde understandably seemed in a hurry to start preparing for the next day’s concert. The concert at the basilica, a presentation of the restored organ, was going to be a very prestigious affair. Susan Mubarak, the wife of the Egyptian president, was coming. The Belgian ambassador and a big group from the embassy would be there. The Ktesibios Foundation had even sold tours from Belgium, including the pyramids with the concert, for 890 Euros a head!
On Friday, security was tight, and the concert started over an hour late because Mrs. Mubarak was late. The church, which seats about 500, was filled to bursting. Mr. Van de Welde performed a mostly lightweight program starting with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, ending with Widor’s Toccata; in the middle were Verdi’s Triumphal March from Aida and other softer pieces, such as Flor Peeters “Oh God, thou faithful God,” and Aalaiki’ssalaam by Naji Hakim. It’s fair to say the soft pieces worked best. The diapason chorus on this organ seems quite weak. To get any power, Van de Welde had to use a really annoying 16′ Trombone on the Pedal that drowned out the manuals. 1914 was a strange era in organbuilding; many builders, including very prestigious firms, were trying innovations that didn’t really work. The emphasis was on symphonic stops with fancy names and this led to neglect of the basic diapason chorus or the 8′ and 16′ foundations that are so important for the Romantic repertoire.
In December I was hired to play the basilica carol service and formed a more nuanced view of this organ. Obviously, any true evaluation of it must wait for a complete restoration that includes the reed organ on the third manual, which may make up for the lack of solo reed stops—clarinet or oboe—on the organ. The Positif to Grand Orgue coupler is not at present usable because when it is engaged there is a cipher. The most usable solo stop is the Grand Orgue Viola di Gamba. The trumpets on the Grand Orgue and Positif are not really solo stops; they are the reeds that in the French system make up the Grand Jeu. The organ in many ways seems like a collection of spare parts—but over the course of a day and half of rehearsal and the carol concert, where I accompanied not only singers but also a flautist and violinist, I began to realize that this organ has a lot of good elements; it’s just necessary to find out where they are and how to use them.
But the cathedral organ is undeniably a better instrument. The moral of this story is that bigger isn’t necessarily better. The cathedral organ has no reeds or solo stops, but the strength of its foundation stops means it is suitable, with creativity, for a wide variety of solo music, while perhaps really being optimal, and certainly designed primarily, for accompanying Anglican choral music and chanting. That said, the basilica organ has many interesting capabilities that would take more time to explore and recognize.

Bevington organ at All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral, Zamalek, Cairo

GREAT
8′ Open Diapason
8′ Hohl Flute
4′ Principal
2′ Octave
Mixture II

SWELL
8′ Lieblich Gedeckt
4′ Flute
2′ Flageolet
11⁄3′ Larigot

PEDAL
16′ Bourdon
8′ Bass Flute
4′ Octave Flute

Couplers
Swell to Great
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal

Heliopolis Basilica

GRAND ORGUE
16′ Bourdon
8′ Montre
8′ Flute Harmonique
8′ Viola di Gamba
8′ Bourdon
8′ Quintatön
4′ Prestant
4′ Flute Harmonique
2′ Doublette
Mixture II
Cornet V, starts at middle C
8′ Trompettetuba

POSITIF
8′ Diapason
8′ Flute Harmonique
8′ Salicional
8′ Voix céleste
6′ Quinte
4′ Violine
4′ Eoline
4′ Flute echo
2′ Flageolet
8′ Trompette Harmonique

PEDAL
16′ Contrebasson
8′ Octavebasse
16′ Trombone

Couplers and expression pedals:
Octave aiguë sur Grand Orgue
Tirasse au Positif
Tirasse au Grand Oruge
Positif au Grand Orgue
Crescendo
Tremolo
Vibrato
Playing aids, fixed combinations: Piano, Mezzoforte, Tutti, General Cancel.

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

Joel Kuznik has served as a college organist and professor, a church musician, a pastor, and as a business executive on Fifth Avenue, Wall Street, and at MetLife. After several years of retirement from business, he revived writing for professional journals, something he had done since his college days. After attending the Bachfest 2003 in Leipzig, he again began writing articles and reviews. With over 60 pieces in print ranging from reviews of concerts and festivals, travelogues, books on church music, concert hall organs, CDs and DVDs, he was recognized and named to the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA) in May 2005. He is also a member of the American Bach Society and serves on the board of the Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity in New York City, where he has lived for 32 years. His organ teachers were Austin C. Lovelace, Frederick Swann, Ronald Arnatt, David Craighead, Jean Langlais, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier, and Anton Heiller. As a member of the AGO, he has served as dean of the Ft. Wayne chapter, on the executive board of the New York City chapter, and on the national financial board. He holds a BA summa cum laude from Concordia Sr. College (formerly at Ft. Wayne), a Min.Div and STM from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and an MM from the Eastman School of Music.

Mention Saxony to most organists, and they immediately think of the 18th century, Gottfried Silbermann and his catalogue of 31 extraordinary instruments, which are still being played.1 An amazing testimony! But today one hears more and more of Kristian Wegscheider, widely admired for his dynamic restorations of Silbermann organs as well as those of Hildebrandt, Schnitger and Ladegast—and whose reputation as a builder is so respected that he was considered for the new organs at St. Thomas, Leipzig and the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
Steven Dieck, president of C. B. Fisk, Inc., credits Wegscheider with being “very helpful in discovering the ‘secrets’ of Gottfried Silbermann and continues to be, not only for us, but also for any other organbuilder. There is no disputing that Kristian and his shop are the experts on the work of Gottfried Silbermann.”
Stefan Engels of Leipzig’s University of Music & Theatre notes that “Kristian Wegscheider is one of the leading organ builders of our time when it comes to the restoration of historic instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries. His knowledge of style, his talent for research, and his ability to relate to the distinct sounds of old organs is unique. It is a joy to experience this artist and his superb work.”
And, as Steve Dieck points out, Wegscheider has an international involvement and impact. “Once East Germany opened itself to the rest of the world, Kristian’s company became a member of the International Society of Organbuilders. Shortly after that, he helped to organize one of the ISO’s biennial congresses held in Dresden. He is currently second vice president of the ISO and again helped to organize the congress in September 2008, which began in Gdansk, Poland and worked its way by train and boat to Stralsund, Germany, where members of ISO visited significant organs.”2
“He continues to share his vast knowledge of the works of Gottfried Silbermann with his many organbuilding colleagues around the world. He has visited the U.S. many times, and was invited to collaborate with Fritz Noack in making a ‘Hildebrandt’ style organ for Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas.”
And those who have been fortunate to hear Wegscheider’s restorations or new instruments would add, “This is a builder about whom Americans need to know more.”

Background
Kristian Wegscheider was born in 1954 in Ahrenshoop, a small resort town on the Baltic Coast of Northern Germany. After stints in the army and a year with a furniture-maker, he began his apprenticeship with the esteemed Jehmlich Dresden organbuilding firm, which dates back to 1808 and is associated with the restorations of the magnificent Silbermann cathedral organs in Dresden and Freiberg.
Kristian immediately took an immense interest in historic organs and worked on restorations in Berlin and Leipzig. He became head of Jehmlich’s restoration department and supervised restorations of the 1714 Silbermann in Freiberg’s Cathedral and the 1868 Lütkemüller organ at the Güstrower Cathedral.

Orgelwerkstatt Wegscheider Dresden
As Wegscheider writes for his firm’s website,3 the creation of his organ workshop in Dresden in 1989 coincided with the fall of the Wall and became possible with the parallel vehement political and social changes. These were indeed complicated times in the GDR, and the emergence of a new private company was no simple venture.
At the time it was not unusual in the GDR for restorations and even the repair of organs to be delayed up to 20 years. In 1987, that gave Wegscheider an idea, often treated perfunctorily and bureaucratically, to create his own workshop specializing in restorations and repair. He overcame numerous hurdles—among other things, getting a trade license and acquiring the space for engaging in a trade, and one couldn’t get one without the other.
In order to bridge the gap, Wegscheider worked for almost a year in the restoration workshop of the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Leipzig. With the assistance of friends and with some luck, however, the initial problems were overcome. That was all quickly forgotten, once work began in the spring of 1989 with the reconditioning of an old carpenter’s shop in Dresden’s Neustadt (“new city”).4 His first two coworkers were the organ builder and pipemaker Hartmut Schütz, who had also trained with Jehmlich, and his long-time friend and a carpenter, Matthias Weisbach. Requirements were completed in December of 1990, and Wegscheider was able to receive his certification as a master craftsman (“Meisterbrief”).
The workshop officially began operating June 1, 1989, and in September there was a big celebration with friends and colleagues. For this historic event, a narrow-gauge steam train was rented, and the area in front of the shop was transformed into an open-air theatre. When the borders opened that fall, a group of five made a week-long “discovery journey” into the “West” finally to hear and investigate for themselves organs they had often read and heard about, an adventure that just weeks before had seemed impossible.
During this week, the team was able to examine the old instruments of East Frisia (Ostfriesland, a costal region along the North Sea bordering the Netherlands to the west),5 which for them was like an “organbuilder’s paradise.” There they also inspected the shop of the famous Jürgen Ahrend, contacted the North German Organ Academy, and had discussions with organ experts, musicologists and organists. This all became invaluable in forming their own firm and served as the basis for artistic work. Additional “educational journeys” became a regular experience and took them to South Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. How exhilarating this must have been—the new freedom to explore and discover!

Wegscheider: first projects
The first project was a new instrument for the Allstedt Castle Chapel in Mansfeld. The small organ was to complement the Baroque room and conform to old established models of classical organbuilding. The shop was to do something that had never been done in East Germany before—to make an instrument completely from wood, tin, lead, leather and brass without using plywood, aluminum, nitrate lacquer, plastic and prefabricated mechanisms.
Also, this instrument would reflect Wegscheider’s long-held interest in providing two temperaments that can be played interchangeably: meantone for Renaissance music and well-tempered for Baroque. The idea originated in Charles Fisk’s dual-temperament organ at California’s Stanford University (1984),6 but this was to be the first such instrument in Europe, with Wegscheider working to improve the result both technically and musically.7
This new organ for Allstedt was followed by a number of restorations in the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Thuringia, while at the same there developed partnership work in Saxony. Much of the work, now with seven co-workers, involved restoring damaged organs, some long unplayable due to water damage or wood worms. Other builders had refused to work on them or recommended replacements, but to Wegscheider these instruments were too valuable to be discarded. Congregations, in turn, were grateful for the efforts of their municipalities to preserve these organs.
Expansion
By 1993 it was clear that the company needed new, larger facilities. The company had expanded to ten employees, with only 400 square meters of workspace and with insufficient height to assemble instruments. Finally a carpenter’s workshop was found in Dresden–Hellerau in the old village center of Rähnitz. During the move, the firm continued to work on a restoration of the Silbermann for the Bremen Cathedral (I/8, 1734)8 and an identical copy of it for the Silbermann Museum in Frauenstein, so that the dedication of the new workshop in July 1994 could take place in a concert using both organs with the Dresden Baroque Orchestra.
After all this excitement, work continued routinely, but always with interesting projects. One was the extensive renovation of the Schulze organ, with the reconstruction of a 32′ Posaune in Markneukirchen, a town in Saxony known as a center for making musical instruments as well as its Museum of Musical Instruments. Another instance was building a new 20-rank organ inside an historic case in Steinwedel near Hannover, which demonstrated what a builder like Wegscheider with experience in historical models could do.

Langhennersdorf, Nikolaikirche
But the high point of this period was completing the renovation of the organ at St. Nicholas Church in Langhennersdorf, a beautiful village near Freiberg. This Opus 1 by Silbermann’s apprentice Zacharias Hildebrandt (1722) as his Meisterstück (masterpiece) was built to certify him as an organbuilder. It is a revelation to hear—exciting, vibrant, present, colorful, and commanding.
But all this came after some blood, sweat and tears. Begun in 1989–90 during the turbulent reunification of Germany, this was Wegscheider’s first big contract and was threatened by obstacles beyond his control. However, he remained determined and continued working piece by piece as the church, which was committed to the challenge, raised funds. What exuberance there must have been at rededication on Reformation Day, 1996!

Langhennersdorf Nikolaikirche9
1722 Zacharias Hildebrandt (II+P/21)
1989–1996 Kristian Wegscheider

Hauptwerk
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflöte
8′ Quintadena
4′ Praestant
4′ Spitzflöte
3′ Quinta
2′ Octava
III Mixtur
II Cymbeln
III Cornett (from c1)

Oberwerk
8′ Gedackt
4′ Rohrflöte
3′ Nasat
2′ Principal
2′ Waldflöte
1′ Sifflöte
11⁄3′ Quinte
II Cymbeln

Pedal
16′ Sub-Baß
16′ Posanenbaß
8′ Trompete

Tremulant
Shove coupler II/I
Pedal coupler I/P
Manual compass C, D–c3
Pedal compass C, D–c1

Choir pitch: a = 468 Hz
Modified meantone

Dresden-Loschwitz church
The lessons learned in Langhennersdorf would prove helpful in designing the 1997 organ for a church in the outlying regions of Dresden-Loschwitz. The organ was conceived as a large one-manual and pedal instrument that would combine the typical stops of Silbermann with other 18th-century Saxon builders in one division, but some stops are also playable on a second manual. The building, virtually destroyed in the 1945 Blitz by an errant bomb, has been restored with spectacular but simple beauty. The church—with its historic altar rescued and restored from the Sophienkirche, where Bach played two recitals (1825 and 1731), and where his son Wilhelm Friedemann was organist (1733–1746)—has its organ sitting center stage in the second gallery.
The impact of this small instrument is remarkable and a joy to hear. Just a day after playing and listening to the impressive Silbermann-Hildebrandt (III/47, 1755) at Dresden’s Hofkirche and the imposing new Kern at the Frauenkirche (IV/67, 2006), the sound of this little organ in the suburb of Dresden-Loschwitz moved 45 American organists last September to spontaneous smiles of delight and satisfaction. The stunning immediacy of the sound combined with the brilliance of the ensemble and the colors of individual stops was a joy to hear.
And then listening to Wegscheider himself—on how Silbermann swept into this part of Germany with the fresh bold sounds of France and dominated organbuilding, on the speech and design of his pipework, and clarifying differences of temperament in the area—was an informative revelation. The man has a large presence, an expansive expression of speech, and in his eyes the gleam of an inspired creator, all reflected in his restorations and new designs.

Dresden-Loschwitz:
Loschwitz Church10
1997 Wegscheider II+P/20

Manual I
16′ Bordun
8′ Principal
8′ Gedackt
8′ Flauto traverso
8′ Viola di Gamba
4′ Octave
4′ Rohrflöte
4′ Flauto amabile
3′ Nasat
2′ Octave
2′ Flöte
13⁄5′ Tertia
1′ Flageolet
III Cornett (from g)
III Mixtur

Manual II (stops from I)
16′ Bordun
8′ Gedackt
8′ Flauto traverso
8′ Viola di Gamba
4′ Rohrflöte
4′ Flauto amabile
3′ Nasat
2′ Flöte
13⁄5′ Tertia

Pedal
16′ Bordun
8′ Octavbaß
8′ Violonbaß
4′ Octavbaß
16′ Posaune

Tremulant
Manual shove coupler
Pedal couplers I/P, II/P

Manual compass C–e3
Pedal compass C–e
Pitch: a = 440 Hz
Tuning: modified Valotti
Wind pressure: 70 mm

Houston, Christ the King Lutheran Church
Wegscheider has been involved in several “Bach organs.” The first was in collaboration with the Noack Organ Company at Christ Lutheran Church in Houston, where he served as co-designer.

Christ the King Lutheran Church, Houston
Builder: Noack Organ Company, 1995
Co-designer: Kristian Wegscheider II+P/30

Hauptwerk
16′ Bordun
8′ Principal
8′ Viola di Gamba
8′ Rohrflöte
4′ Octava
4′ Spitzflöte
22⁄3′ Quinta
2′ Octava
III Mixtur
II Cimbel
IIII Cornet
8′ Trompete
8′ Vox Humana

Oberwerk
8′ Gedackt
8′ Quintadena
4′ Principal
4′ Rohrflöte
22⁄3′ Nasat
2′ Octava
2′ Waldflöte
13⁄5′ Terz
11⁄3′ Quinta
1′ Sifflet
8′ Krummhorn

Pedal
16′ Principal Bass
16′ Subbass
8′ Octaven Bass
4′ Octava
16′ Posaunen
8′ Trompete

The organ at Christ the King Church follows the example of Hildebrandt, thus adding a Bach organ of a new dimension on the North American continent.
Fritz Noack and the Noack Organ Company were selected to design and build the organ. Noack is an American builder born and trained in Germany and uniquely situated to bridge the Saxon past and the Texan present. Kristian Wegscheider of Dresden, restorer of important Silbermann organs, accepted appointment as a design consultant; Reinhard Schaebitz of Dresden, voicer in the restorations, assisted in the voicing; and most of the metal pipes were built near Dresden in the workshop of Günter Lau. The result is a wonderful instrument which not surprisingly, but quite remarkably, evokes the look, feel, and sound of an 18th-century Saxon organ. One can imagine Bach’s walking in, sitting down without missing a beat and, as was his custom, pulling all of the stops to see whether or not the instrument has “good lungs.”
This Bach Organ possesses attributes commonly found in organs built today in historical style—tracker action; mechanical stop action; keys suspended below the pipe chests; a flexible wind supply provided by bellows; flat rather than radiating pedalboard; narrower, shorter manual keys; no pistons or combinations; and tuning in a historic temperament. The Saxon style imposes a series of additional design characteristics. The entire organ is housed in one case, rather than in compartments for each division according to the Werkprinzip; the case design and beautifully executed carvings employ 18th-century Saxon conventions; and the case is built of pine and painted (blue-green, red, and gold leaf). The Oberwerk to Hauptwerk coupler is activated by shoving the Oberwerk manual forward, and the Oberwerk does not couple to the Pedal. The pipe scalings are taken from Hildebrandt’s, and the principal pipes have a high tin content rather than lead.11

Stuttgart, Musikhochschule
Another “Bach organ” was built by Wegscheider for the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, which has a large collection of historic prototypes. One can see an overview at <http://www.mh-stuttgart.de/studium/orgel/ueberblick/&gt;.

Stuttgart: State University of Music and Performing Arts
2006 Wegscheider
II+P/21

Hauptwerk
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflöte
8′ Viola di Gamba
8′ Quintadena
4′ Octave
3′ Quinte
2′ Octave
2′ Terz (from 2′) [listed as 2′ but actually 13⁄5′]
III Mixtur
8′ Trompete

Positiv
8′ Gedackt
4′ Spitzflöte
4′ Flauto dolce
2′ Gemshorn
II Cymbal
8′ Vox Humana

Pedal
16′ Subbass
8′ Principalbass
4′ Octave
16′ Posaunebass
8′ Trompettenbass
Manual compass: C, D–d3
Pedal compass: C, D–f
Pitch: a1 = 466 Hz
Tuning: Modified Pythagorean

In the winter 2005–06 issue of Spektrum, Prof. Jürgen Essl writes:

In the fall of 2006 organ music of Bach will ring out. Then the long-anticipated “Bach organ” will supplement the university’s instrument collection. The Dresden organ builder, Kristian Wegscheider, received the commission to build an organ of 21 stops on two manuals and pedal according to 18th-century Thuringian and Saxon models. It is intended to be the ideal instrument for presenting Bach’s organ music with its choice of stops, its style of construction, its keyboard range, its speech and intonation.
Kristian Wegscheider is an undisputed expert in this area, and it would be hard to find a more first-class organ. Naturally there is no absolute “Bach Organ.” Johann Sebastian Bach, as is well known, played on many organs and was frequently active as consultant and examiner. The composition of the organ is therefore also no copy of an existing historical instrument, but an approximation of the Bach sound world in a variety of ways. The new organ is based on Bach’s expert opinion of existing instruments of similar 18th-century size, e.g., (Gottfried) Silbermann and Trost, on the compositional characteristics of his organ music, the restoration experience of the organbuilder and last but not least on the size of the room.12

Essl added in an e-mail to the author, “Indeed there were a large number of special problems for which Kristian had a good solution and fought hard to get the right results.”

Freiberg, Petrikirche
Another recent collaboration, this time with Jehmlich, was the restoration of Silbermann’s largest two-manual organ, at the Petrikirche in Freiberg, completed and rededicated in July 2007.13 It is an instrument with pizazz, brilliance, and clarity, while individual stops retain character and color. It also happens that the best CD that effectively reflects Wegscheider’s work is a recent release of a recording at the Petrikirche on the Syrius label, Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. 4, with works from the early Weimar period played with verve, imagination, and excitement by Helga Schauerte (Syrius 141433, €22.00; <[email protected]>; the Organ Historical Society carries other recordings by Schauerte).

Freiberg: Petrikirche
1735 Silbermann
1959, 1993/94 Jehmlich Brothers
2006–07 Wegscheider, together with Jehmlich Orgelbau
II+P/32

Hauptwerk
16′ Principal
8′ Octav Principal
8′ Viol di Gamba
8′ Rohr-Flöte
4′ Octava
4′ Spitz-Flöte
3′ Qvinta
2′ Octava
2′ Tertia (from 2′) [listed as 2′ but actually 13⁄5′]
IV Cornet (from c1)
IV Mixtur
III Cymbel
8′ Trompette
16′ Fachott

Oberwerk
16′ Qvinta dena
8′ Principal
8′ Gedackts
8′ Qvinta dena
4′ Octava
4′ Rohr-Flöte
3′ Nassat
2′ Octava
11⁄3′ Qvinta
1′ Sufflöt
Sechst Qvint Altra (4⁄5′, 13⁄5′ from c1)
III Mixtur
8′ Vox humana

Pedal
32′ Groß-Untersatz
16′ Principal Bass
8′ Octaven Bass
16′ Posaune
8′ Trompete
Tremulant
Manual compass: C, D–c3
Pedal compass: C, D–c1
Manual coupler II/I
Pedal coupler P/I
Tuning: 462.5 Hz
Temperament: Neidhardt II
(for a small city), 1732

In summary, restorations include organs by:
Gottfried Silbermann
Niederschöna, 1715/1993, I/14
Bremen Cathedral, 1734/1994, I/8
Jacobikirche, Freiberg, 1717/1995/2006, II/20
Reinhardtsgrimma, 1731/1997, II/20
Tiefenau, 1725/1997, I/9
Dresden Cathedral, 1755/2002, III/47, jointly with Jehmlich Orgelbau
Petrikirche, Freiberg, 1735/2007, II/32, jointly with Jehmlich Orgelbau

Zacharias Hildebrandt
Langhennersdorf, 1722/1996, II/21

Friedrich Ladegast
Biederitz, 1868/1997, II/12
Hohenmölsen, 1851/1998, II/24
Merseburg Cathedral, 1855/1866/2003, IV, 84, joint with Eule/Bautzen and Scheffler, Frankfurt/Oder
Pomssen Wehrkirche, 1671/2000/2007, 1/13

Wegscheider’s firm has built to date thirty new organs including:
Silbermann Museum, Frauenstein, copy of Bremen positive, 1994, I/8
Güstrow Cathedral, 1996, I/15 registers with bass drums, bells, cymbelstern, 2 cuckoos, drum, nightingale
Dresden–Loschwitz, 1996, II/20
Bremen Cathedral, 2002, I/8
Cologne–Michaelshoven, 2003, II/ 28 (in the style of Silbermann/Hildebrandt)
Stuttgart, Musikhochschule, 2006/2007, II/21, Bach Organ
Sacrow-Potsdam, Heilandskirche, 2008/ 2009, II/17 registers
Current work includes:
Fritzsche-Treutmann-Organ in Harbke (restoration in cooperation with Dutschke-Orgelbau), completed 12/07 and dedicated 5/08
Altarpositiv, Kreuzkirche in Dresden, dedicated 5/08
Stellwagen Organ in Stralsund St. Marien (1659).

Organbuilding in the United States and Canada is a thriving art practiced in hundreds of shops throughout the continent. Emerging from decades of stylistic extremes, organbuilders are combining a wealth of knowledge from the past with new technologies to meet contemporary design challenges. North American builders, compelled by a unique spirit of cooperation and openness, are successfully raising the artistic standards of this time-honored craft. (American Institute of Organbuilders, descriptive statement.)

The organ has occupied a prominent place in the musical culture of Canada since the days of the first European settlement, chiefly because of its close connection with church music and the ambitions of many congregations. The first organs, brought from France, were installed in Québec City around 1660. An anecdotal report mentions the acquisition by a Halifax church of a Spanish instrument that had been seized on board a ship in 1765.1 Following a period in which organs continued to be imported from England and France, organbuilding began as early as 1723 and flourished mainly in Québec and Ontario from the mid-19th century onward.2 By the second half of the 19th century, organ building had become a relatively important industry in Eastern Canada, where companies had acquired sufficient expertise to compete in the international market, including the United States.3

The development of organbuilding in Canada proceeded through several phases, beginning with early builders.4  The first known organbuilder was Richard Coates, who arrived in Canada from England in 1817; he supplied mainly barrel organs to several small churches in Ontario. Joseph Casavant, the first Canadian-born builder, installed his first instrument in the Montréal region in 1840; he transmitted his skills to his sons, who later established the company that achieved world-wide recognition. The arrival from the United States of Samuel Russell Warren in 1836 marked the introduction of professional-calibre organbuilding into the country. His family firm had produced about 350 pipe organs by 1869; it was sold in 1896 to D. W. Karn (see below). Other prominent organ builders included Napoléon Déry (active 1874-1889), Eusèbe Brodeur (a successor to Joseph Casavant in 1866), and Louis Mitchell (active 1861-1893) in Québec, and Edward Lye (active 1864-1919) in Ontario.

The years 1880-1950 were marked by unprecedented growth in organbuilding, beginning with the establishment of Casavant Frères in 1879 in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec. The Canadian Pipe Organ Company/Compagnie d'orgues canadiennes was established in 1910 by some former Casavant staff, also in Saint-Hyacinthe (when the firm closed in 1931 its equipment was acquired by Casavant). Prominent Ontario builders included the firms of Richard S. Williams (founded 1854 in Toronto), Denis W. Karn (commenced 1897 in Woodstock), C. Franklin Legge (founded 1915 in Toronto, joined by William F. Legge 1919, who later established his own company in Woodstock around 1948), and the Woodstock Pipe Organ Builders (an organization of skilled craftsmen in that Ontario town, 1922-1948). Several smaller, independent builders were active for a time in Ontario, the Maritime provinces, and Manitoba (late 1880s). British Columbia, on the other hand, seems to have had no indigenous organbuilders, for instruments were imported from the United States or from England on ships that sailed around Cape Horn; one of the earliest arrived in Victoria from England by this route in 1861.

In the early 1950s some organbuilders, encouraged by younger organists who had played European instruments, as well as the increasing availability of sound recordings of these organs, turned to classical principles of organbuilding to counter what they perceived as the colorless sound palettes of Canadian organs of the 1930s. The return to earlier tonal aesthetics, inspired by the so-called 17th-century "Baroque organ," found expression in the construction of bright-toned, tracker-action instruments. The "new orthodoxy" was enthusiastically assimilated by Casavant Frères and by a number of independent builders in the same region, some of whom had received their training in Europe. Karl Wilhelm, Hellmuth Wolff, André Guilbault and Guy Thérien, Fernand Létourneau, Gabriel Kney, and Gerhard Brunzema were prominent in this movement, and many of them are still in business. Their accomplishments, along with the activities of other known organbuilders of the 1990s, will be described in chronological order, according to their founding dates, in the remainder of this article.5

Casavant Frères, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec (1879)

Casavant is the oldest continuing name in organbuilding in North America. Joseph Casavant (1807-1874), the father of the founders of the company, began his organbuilding career while still a Latin student at a Québec religious college, where he completed an unfinished organ from France with the help of a classic treatise on organbuilding. By the time he retired in 1866, after 26 years in business in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, he had installed organs in 17 churches in Québec and Ontario, but none of them survive. His sons, Joseph-Claver Casavant (1855-1933) and Samuel-Marie Casavant (1850-1929), worked for Eusèbe Brodeur, their father's successor, for a few years. They opened their own factory in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, in 1879, following an extended tour of western Europe inspecting organs and visiting workshops; Claver had apprenticed briefly with a Versailles builder before the tour. In the early years the Casavant brothers were conservative in their tonal design, emulating the ensemble sound of the kind they had heard in old-world instruments that they had examined during their European tour. But from the outset the brothers were innovators, beginning with improvements in the electric operation of their organs in the 1890s. As their reputation spread beyond the cities and towns of their province, production increased steadily.

The company experienced difficult times in the 1930s due to economic conditions, much standardization, and repetitive tonal design. Production was curtailed during the years of World War II due to a shortage of materials, and the company manufactured many unit organs during this period. Later, new initiatives were undertaken by several imaginative artistic directors who served with the firm between 1958 and 1965: Lawrence Phelps from Aeolian-Skinner in the U.S.A.; and European-trained Gerhard Brunzema, Karl Wilhelm, and Hellmuth Wolff.

Most present-day Casavant organs exhibit a conventional design that retains both symphonic and modern elements in subtle synthesis. Casavant organs are recognized for their special tonal qualities and the way the individual stops are blended together into a chorus at all dynamic levels. Time-tested actions include tracker, electrically operated slider windchests, and electro-pneumatic (since 1892; tubular-pneumatic was last used in the mid-1940s). The company workshop has eight departments: metalworking, woodworking, mechanism, consoles, painting, racking, voicing, and assembly. Virtually all components are made in the workshop, including all flue and reed pipes (to 32-foot-length), reed shallots, windchests, consoles, keyboards and pedalboards, and casework, although specialized wood carving and gilding are done by outside artisans. A few electrical components, such as blowers, power-supply units, electromagnets, solid-state combination and coupling systems, and hardware, are purchased from world-wide suppliers. All visual designs are coordinated with their intended surroundings; there are no stock designs. Organs are completely assembled for rigorous testing and playing in preparation for on-time delivery.

The company resumed the construction of tracker-action instruments in 1961 after a lapse of about 55 years, producing 216 such organs since that date. By the end of 1998 the total output amounted to 3,775 organs of all sizes, and many of these have received enthusiastic testimonials from renowned recitalists over the years. Although sales were limited mainly to North America until World War II, Casavant organs now have been installed in churches, concert halls, and teaching institutions on five continents. The firm's largest instrument is a five-manual, 129-stop organ with two consoles installed in Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas, in 1996. The great majority of the very large instruments have been installed in locations in the United States; the exception is the four-manual, 75-stop organ in Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts, in 1987. The company also engages in renovation projects and additions to existing organs.

The key personnel include Pierre Dionne, President and Chief Operating Officer (from 1978), formerly Dean of Administration at the Business School of the University of Montréal; Stanley Scheer, Vice-President (1984), formerly Professor of Music and Head of the Department of Fine Arts at Pfeiffer University, Misenheimer, North Carolina, holds a Master of Music degree in organ performance from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey; Jean-Louis Coignet, Tonal Director (1981), a professionally trained physiologist with a doctorate from the Sorbonne, contributor to music journals, the most knowledgeable authority on the work of Cavaillé-Coll today, was formerly organ expert for the City of Paris; Jacquelin Rochette, Associate Tonal Director (1984), formerly Music Director of Chalmers-Wesley United Church, Québec City, holds a Master's degree in organ performance from Laval University, performs regularly on CBC radio, and has recorded works by several French composers for organ; Denis Blain, Technical Director (1986), with many years of practical experience in virtually all aspects of organbuilding, is in charge of research and development; Pierre Drouin, Chief Engineer, holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Laval University, introduced computer-assisted drafting, and supervises the design and layout of each organ. In 1998 the company had 85 full-time employees, many with more than 30 years of service with the company. All levels of management and production personnel function as a team.

Keates-Geissler Pipe Organs, Guelph, Ontario (1945)

The company was established in 1945 in London, Ontario, by Bert Keates (he came from England in his infancy) and relocated to Lucan, Ontario, in 1950. When it was incorporated in 1951 the assets of the Woodstock Pipe Organ Builders (formerly Karn-Warren) were purchased. The company moved to Acton, Ontario, in 1961, a more central location in the province. In 1969 the growing firm took over the business of the J. C. Hallman Company, a manufacturer of electronic instruments and pipe organs, when it discontinued making pipe organs (but not parts for them). For several years some organs were manufactured under the name of Keates-Hallman Pipe Organs.6 The company moved to Guelph, Ontario, in 1994.

Dieter Geissler was born in Dittelsdorf, Saxony, Germany, where he began his trade as a cabinetmaker. At the age of 14 he commenced his apprenticeship with Schuster & Sohn, Zitau, where he remained from 1946 to 1950. In 1951 he moved to Lübeck, West Germany, where he worked as a voicer with E. Kemper & Sohn for five years. In 1956 he moved to Canada to join Keates's staff. When Keates retired at the end of 1971 Dieter Geissler became president of the firm, which he purchased in 1972, and adopted the present company name in 1982. His son, Jens Geissler, joined the company in 1978.

Keates-Geissler organs are offered in all types of action and are custom built to any required size. Altogether, 147 new organs7 have been installed at locations in Canada, the United States (about 15), and Barbados, West Indies. The output includes a number of four- and five-manual instruments; the largest is a five-manual, 231-stop organ, installed in the First Baptist Church, Jackson, Mississippi, in 1992 (a compilation of its original 1939 E. M. Skinner instrument, a 1929 five-manual Casavant organ removed by Keates-Geissler in 1986 from the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, and some additional structures by the company). The firm has undertaken a substantial number of renovation, rebuilding, and reinstallation projects over the years, about 1,500 altogether, about 75 of these in the United States.

All wooden pipes are made in the factory, but metal pipes are made by Giesecke or Laukhuff in Germany to the company's scaling specifications; preliminary voicing is done in the factory before final voicing on-site. The windchests of electro-pneumatic instruments feature Pitman-chest action that includes some unique features to overcome the effects of extremes in temperature and humidity; the company is the only such manufacturer in Ontario and one of a few in Canada. Expandable electronic switching systems are designed and made in the factory from readily available components to facilitate replacement. Solid-state switching and multiple-memory combination actions are also manufactured. Console shells are handcrafted from solid wood in the factory; tracker touch is an available option. Keyboards are custom made to the company's specifications by Laukhuff, Germany, and blowers are acquired mainly from the same company. The company had four full-time employees in 1998; other part-time workers are hired as needed.  

Guilbault-Thérien, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec (1946)

This company originated with the Providence Organ Company, established in Saint-Hyacinthe in 1946. The partners, André Guilbault, whose father Maurice Guilbault had worked for Casavant, and Guy Thérien, a voicer from Casavant, joined forces in 1968 when the elder Guilbault retired. The present company name was adopted in 1979. When André Guilbault retired in 1992, Alain Guilbault (no relation) acquired an interest in the company.

At the outset the company manufactured electro-pneumatic instruments, but built its first mechanical-action instrument (Opus #1 in a new series), a two-manual, 7-stop organ, in 1970, immediately followed by several small one- and two-manual instruments. From 1974 onward the typical instruments were medium-size, two-manual organs. Larger instruments of three or four manuals began to appear with greater frequency after 1983, the largest being a four-manual, 45-stop organ installed in Grace Church, White Plains, New York, in 1989, the only installation in the United States to that time. While the tonal layout of the organs is mainly inspired by European sources, mainly French, the swell divisions of the larger instruments are sufficiently versatile to handle symphonic literature.

The output of new organs was about 55 to 1998, mainly in Québec and Ontario. The company's work has also involved the restoration and reconstruction of a similar number of Québec organs, mainly by Casavant, but including some of historical significance that are over a hundred years old by such early builders as Napoléon Déry and Louis Mitchell. 

Several compact discs featuring performances by Québec organists on instruments manufactured by the company, or on reconstructed historical Casavant instruments, have been released in the past decade.8

Principal Pipe Organ Company, Woodstock, Ontario (1961)

The company was established by Chris Houthuyzen in Woodstock, Ontario, a town with a continuing tradition of organbuilding. The founder served his apprenticeship and received further training in The Netherlands before coming to Canada. Small to medium-sized instruments, employing electro-pneumatic action, are the company's specialty, with a contemporary emphasis on the guiding principles of Dutch organbuilding. A total of 119 installations have been completed over the years; the largest was a four-manual, 58-rank instrument. Wooden pipes are made in the shop, but most metal pipes come from suppliers in the United States; their scaling is dictated by the acoustics and intended use of the organ. Chests, reservoirs, ducting, consoles, and casework are manufactured on the premises. Much of the company's work involves rebuilding and maintaining organs, as well as the installation and servicing of church bells, including cast and electronic carillons on behalf of the Verdin Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. The company had three employees in 1998.

Gabriel Kney, London, Ontario (1962-1996)

Gabriel Kney was born in Speyer, Germany; his father was a master cabinetmaker and amateur bassoonist, and his mother was a singer. He served his apprenticeship in organbuilding with Paul Sattel in Speyer (1945-1951), where he assisted in the restoration of historic, sometimes war-damaged, instruments, along with new organ construction. Since the era was a time of transition from the "Romantic" style of organbuilding to the concepts of Orgelbewegung, this trend provided him with the opportunity to learn about and participate in the building of organs of both concepts. Concurrently he was a student of organ literature, liturgical music, harmony, and improvisation at The Institute of Church Music in the same city.

He emigrated to Canada in 1951 and joined the Keates Organ Company in Lucan, Ontario, as an organbuilder and voicer. In 1955 he was co-founder, with John Bright, of the Kney and Bright Organ Company in London, Ontario, with the intention of specializing in tracker instruments. The timing was premature, for only a few musicians and teaching institutions found such instruments of interest; with the exception of two teaching organs of tracker design supplied to a college in the United States, most of the early organs were requested to have electric key action. In 1962 Gabriel Kney established his own company in London, Ontario, where, with enlarged facilities and a staff of six to eight, he specialized in mechanical-action instruments. Organs from the period between 1962 and 1966 were designed in the historic manner of Werkprinzip, with organ pipes enclosed in a free-standing casework and separated into tonal sections. The tonal design of smaller instruments followed 18th-century North European practices, with some tuned in unequal temperaments of the period.

Altogether, his shops produced 128 organs since 1955; the largest in Canada being the four-manual, 71-stop, tracker-action instrument with two consoles in Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto. Since the early 1970s almost three-quarters of the installations were in locations in the United States, several of these in large universities. Occasionally maintenance and historic instrument restoration projects were undertaken.

Wooden pipes were made in the shop, with the exception of very large pipes made to specifications by suppliers in the United States, England, or Germany. Metal pipes also were made to order by independent pipemakers in Germany or Holland. Some console components, such as keyboards, were obtained from suppliers in the United States, England, or Germany. Electric switching devices came from the United States in earlier years, later from England. Blowers were imported from Laukhuff in Germany, Meidinger in Switzerland, or White in the United States. All casework and chest construction was done in the shop.

In 1996 Gabriel Kney retired from active organbuilding and closed his company. Since then he has acted as a consultant to churches seeking advice on organ purchase, restoration, and tonal redesign, and sometimes to other organbuilders.

Karl Wilhelm, Mont Saint-Hilaire, Québec (1966)

Karl Wilhelm was born in Lichtenthal, Rumania, and grew up in Weikersheim, Germany. At the age of 16 he entered apprenticeship with A. Laukhuff, Weikersheim (1952-1956), followed by working experience with W. E. Renkewitz, Nehren/Tübingen (1956-1957), and Metzler & Söhne, Dietikon, Switzerland (1957-1960). After moving to Canada, in 1960 he joined Casavant Frères, where he established the department and trained several employees for the production of modern mechanical organs; while there he was responsible for the design and manufacture of 26 organs. In 1966 he established his own firm, first in Saint-Hyacinthe, then moved to new facilities in Mont Saint-Hilaire, near Montréal, Québec, in 1974. For a while he was assisted by Hellmuth Wolff, now an independent builder (see below).

Karl Wilhelm specializes in building mechanical organs of all sizes, 147 to date, of which 69 are located in the United States and two in Seoul, Korea. Of the total output, 43 are one-manual instruments, 93 are two-manual instruments of medium size, and 11 are three-manual instruments--the largest is a 50-stop instrument in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Toronto, installed in 1983. Two have detached consoles, and four have combination actions with electric stop-action; all instruments have mechanical key action. The design and layout of instruments adhere to the principles of the classical tradition of German and French organbuilding. Three-manual instruments feature a large swell division, suitable for the performance of Anglican Church music and the Romantic repertoire.

All wooden pipes are made on the premises, along with almost one-half of the metal pipes that are handmade of a tin-lead alloy; other metal pipes are imported from Germany. Scaling and voicing are done in the classical open-toe manner for natural speech and mellow blend. Windchests and bellows, consoles and action, and cases are manufactured in a 9,000 sq. ft. workshop. Organs may have cases of contemporary design, or perhaps are more ornate with moldings and hand-carved pipe shades that are compatible with the architecture of the location. Blowers are acquired from Laukhuff, Germany; miscellaneous parts come from other suppliers. The firm does not engage in rebuilding or renovation but services and tunes its own instruments throughout North America. In 1998 the firm had five employees, all trained by Karl Wilhelm.

Wolff & Associés, Laval, Québec (1968)

Hellmuth Wolff was born in Zurich, Switzerland. While a teenager he apprenticed with Metzler & Söhne, Dietikon, Switzerland (1953-1957); in his spare time he built his first organ, a four-stop positiv instrument. He received additional training with G. A. C. de Graff, Amsterdam (1958-1960) and with Rieger Orgelbau, Schwarzach, Austria (1960-1962). In the United States (1962-1963) he worked with Otto Hofmann, in Austin, Texas, and Charles Fisk, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. After moving to Canada he worked with Casavant Frères (1963-1965) in its newly established tracker-action department, and then with Karl Wilhelm (1966-1968), with whom he had worked at Casavant. In the interval 1965-1966 he returned briefly to Europe to work as a designer and voicer with Manufacture d'orgues Genève, in Geneva. Besides playing the piano and singing in choirs wherever he went, he completed his musical training by taking organ lessons with Win Dalm in Amsterdam and later with Bernard Lagacé in Montréal.

In 1968 he opened his own business in Laval, Québec, with one employee; his present associate, James Louder, started his apprenticeship with Hellmuth Wolff in 1974, after training in classical guitar and English. The first large project undertaken in that year was the construction of a three-manual, 26-stop instrument at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, New York City; this was one of the city's first modern tracker-action organs and it incorporated features not yet seen in North America. In 1977 the company moved to a new shop; the firm became incorporated in 1981, and James Louder became a partner in 1988.

Hellmuth Wolff has been part of the Organ Reform in North America since the movement came to this continent in the early 1960s. He specializes in mechanical-action instruments, large and small, whose design is inspired by French or German classical traditions, although other styles are represented that are designed to accommodate a wide range of organ literature. A total of 42 organs have been manufactured; about one-half of these were installed in locations in the United States. While a few small residence or practice instruments have been built, the majority are two-manual organs, in addition to eight three-manual organs, and one four-manual, 50-stop/70-rank instrument installed in Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1989.9 Other related activities include rebuilding, restoration, and maintenance work, chiefly in the Montréal area.

Wooden pipes are made on the premises, while metal pipes are acquired from several pipemakers in Canada, U.S.A., and Europe; some reeds are made there, also. Windchests, consoles, and cases are also manufactured on site. Blowers are acquired from Meidinger and Laukhuff in Germany. Several installations feature both mechanical stop-action and capture systems; the first was built in 1977 for the Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist, in New York City; it was probably the first such system in North America. Both sequencers and traditional multilevel capture systems are used. There were eight employees in 1998.

Hellmuth Wolff, along with his associate, James Louder, have contributed to symposiums and written publications on organs and organbuilding.10 Fourteen compact discs, featuring performances by Canadian and American artists on Wolff instruments, have been released, and three others are in preparation.11

Brunzema Organs, Fergus, Ontario (1979-1992)

Gerhard Brunzema was born in Emden, Germany, and grew up in Menden on the Ruhr river, a northern part of the country where there was an abundance of historic organs. After World War II he apprenticed with Paul Ott in Göttingen and worked with him as a journeyman organbuilder (1948-1952). He received extensive technical training, including acoustics, at the Brunswick State Institute for Physics and Technology (1953-1954), and received a Master's degree in organbuilding in 1955. In 1953 he joined the prominent European organbuilder Jürgen Ahrend in the construction and restoration of organs, some in Holland and Germany of great historical significance; this association continued for 18 years. After emigrating to Canada he joined Casavant Frères in 1972 and served as artistic director until 1979; during that time he was responsible for the design of several notable organs in Canada, the United States, Japan, and Australia, along with the restoration of a number of historic Casavant instruments in Ontario and Québec. His experience at Casavant gave him the opportunity to work with very large organs, an experience that was lacking in Germany.

In 1979 he established his own business in Fergus, Ontario. Throughout his career he specialized mainly in small, one-manual, four-stop, continuo organs (25 in all); most of his nine two-manual instruments--the largest was 25 stops--were made between 1985 and 1987. In 1990 he was joined by his son, Friedrich, who had completed his apprenticeship in Europe. Until the time of his death in 1992, Gerhard Brunzema's total output amounted to 41 instruments; of these, 20 were installed in Canadian locations (mainly in eastern provinces), 17 in the United States, one in the Philippines, one in South Korea, and two in European countries. The tonal design of his instruments was strongly influenced by Schnitger organs that he had studied and restored while in Europe. He believed that basic organ design cannot be learned through restoration work, because such instruments were conceived by others; nevertheless, in restorations the intentions of the original builders should be respected. As for new instruments, his philosophy was that "An organbuilder should choose a style and stay with it, so that he not only continues to develop his own skills, but also continues to help improve the skills of the people working for him. . . . Become a master of one thing, get over the initial difficulties very quickly, and then polish your knowledge, the details of which will finally add up to a very good result."12

Koppejan Pipe Organs, Chilliwack, British Columbia (1979)

Adrian Koppejan was born in Veenendaal, Holland, and apprenticed with his father, who was an organbuilder there. He worked with Friedrich Weigle in Echterdingen by Stuttgart, Germany (1963-1966), with Pels & Van Leeuwen in Alkmaar, Holland (1968-1972) as shop foreman of the mechanical organ department, and with his father's company, Koppejan Pipe Organs, in Ederveen, Holland (1968-1972). He moved to Canada in 1974 and established his own company five years later.

Adrian Koppejan strives for a clear, warm, but not loud sound in his instruments, a preference inspired by classical organs of North Germany. This sound palette is reflected in the instruments in which he specializes: small and medium-size tracker instruments; he has built five electromechanical organs, as well. His output to date consists of 19 organs; these have been installed in churches and private residences in British Columbia, Alberta, and Washington state. His largest organ is a three-manual, 31-stop, electromechanical instrument, with a MIDI system, installed in the Good Shepherd Church, White Rock, B.C., in 1995. An instrument of similar size was constructed in 1998. Rebuilding, restoration, maintenance, and tuning are also part of regular activities.

Wooden pipes are mostly acquired from Laukhuff, Germany; metal pipes come from Stinkens in Holland and Laukhuff in Germany. Keyboards are made in Germany by Laukhuff or Heuss. Winding mechanisms, consoles, solid oak cabinets, and casework are manufactured in the shop. Blowers are supplied by Laukhuff, and electrical control systems come from Peterson in the U.S.A. There were two part-time employees in 1998 as Adrian Koppejan reduced the scope of his operations in anticipation of retirement.

Orgues Létourneau,  Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec (1979)

Fernand Létourneau was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, where he worked for while as a carpenter before entering employment with Casavant Frères in 1965; there he apprenticed with his uncle, Jean-Paul Létourneau, who was head reed voicer. He remained with the company for 14 years, where he was head voicer from 1975 to 1978, when he decided to set up his own independent company. First, with the help of a Canada Council grant, he embarked on an organ tour of Europe to study the voicing of old masters. Upon his return to Canada in 1978 he began building organs in Sainte-Rosalie, Québec, and became incorporated in 1979. His first organ, a two-manual, 6-stop instrument, was started in the basement of the family house and then displayed in the shop of a cabinetmaker; it was later acquired by the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec, Hull, where dozens of students have learned to play the organ on this small instrument. In 1984 he moved back to Saint-Hyacinthe, where three other organbuilders were already established. The factory's first building was formerly a municipal water-filter plant; the partially underground space provided a room 35 feet in height, ideal for erecting organs. A second industrial building was acquired recently to supplement the original premises.

A total of 55 organs of various sizes have been built to 1998; 13 others are in progress. The great majority have mechanical action, utilizing classical principles used in European instruments, and with the flexibility provided by ranks inspired by Dom Bédos, Schnitger, and Cavaillé-Coll. The largest will be a four-manual, 101-stop, mechanical-action instrument intended for the Francis Winspear Centre, Edmonton, Alberta. International distribution has been common from the outset, beginning with three early instruments that were installed in Australian locations in the early 1980s (the builder had become known on account of his activities as a voicer of Casavant instruments in that country). Others have been placed in New Zealand, Austria, England (Pembroke College, Oxford, 1995; an instrument is under construction for the Tower of London for completion in late 1999), the United States (over one-third of the total production), and Canada (chiefly eastern provinces, a few in the west). The company now has permanent representatives in the United States, England, and New Zealand. Fernand Létourneau prefers to build instruments of eclectic tonal design that are suitable for the performance of a wide range of organ literature. Historic restorations have also been undertaken.

All organ components, with the exception of electronics, are made in the factory, including wooden and metal pipes to 32-foot length, keyboards, consoles, and casework. Blowers are acquired from Laukhuff, Germany. Middle-size organs are equipped with electronic sequencers, card readers, and similar devices. The company is constantly engaged in rebuilding and restoring instruments of different vintages to original condition, about 50 to date, several of which have been designated as historical or heritage instruments. In 1998 there were 45 full-time staff in the Létourneau "family," of which a number are related to one another as father-son/daughter, uncle, brother, cousin, and husband-wife.  

Grant Smalley Pipe Organs, Victoria, British Columbia (1984)

Born in Sidney, near Victoria B.C., Grant Smalley has worked as an organbuilder since 1966. He was associated with Gabriel Kney from 1968 to 1979, primarily building tracker-action organs and installing them throughout Canada and the U.S.A. During the last eight of those years he assumed Kney's tuning and maintenance business in addition to his organbuilding duties. He returned to Victoria in 1980 and established his own business four years later, buying out the organ maintenance service of Hugo Spilker, who had done restorations in the area. His associate, Douglas Adams, received formal training in instrumentation and systems technology, and manufacturing engineering technology; in addition to assisting in the construction of the new shop, he is responsible for electrical design, construction, and mechanical work. Beverly Smalley, the wife of Grant Smalley, handles the business and financial operations. All three are active participants in community choral groups.

Grant Smalley has built several small organs: a four-stop positiv organ, mechanical action (1985); a four-stop, portable, continuo organ with 56-note transposing keyboard, mechanical action (1989); and two continuo organs of 31/2 and 41/2 ranks, both with mechanical action (1995, 1997). The major activity, however, is organ restoration, along with regular tuning and routine maintenance work: about 50 organs throughout Vancouver Island and Greater Vancouver. A number of heritage organs in Victoria, including several instruments built by Casavant Frères in the early 1900s, and others by English and American makers, have received extensive overhauls in recent years.

Wooden pipes, most windchests, consoles, and casework are built in the shop; metal pipes are ordered to specifications and voiced there. Other components acquired from suppliers include keyboards, drawknobs, switching systems, and blowers.

Blair Batty & Associates, Simcoe, Ontario (1985)

Blair Batty was born in Simcoe, and as a teenage organ player he acquired an interest in the mechanical workings of organs. His organbuilding career began with the Keates Organ Company, Acton, Ontario, where he learned windchest construction, wiring, tuning, and installation procedures. In 1976 he moved to Europe, where he learned the craft of metal pipemaking with Jacques Stin-

kens, Zeist, Holland, and the art of reed manufacturing with Carl Giesecke & Sohn, Göttingen, West Germany. During that period he travelled extensively throughout Europe to study examples of French, German, and Dutch organbuilding. In 1977 he went to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to join C. B. Fisk as a pipemaker and draftsman, then in 1979 he was invited to head the pipe shop of the Noack Organ Company, Georgetown, Massachusetts. In 1981 he returned to Canada to work for Brunzema Organs, Fergus, Ontario, then returned to Simcoe in 1985 to establish his own firm. Since then he has visited England on several occasions to study the instruments of Willis and Hill.

The company has built three new organs. One is a two-manual, 27-stop instrument of eclectic design incorporating Schnitger-inspired choruses, a French-character trumpet, and Dutch/French-style Swell mutations, with console-equipped MIDI (1991). Another is a two-manual, 19-stop instrument of British-inspired design in which the basic choruses follow William Hill, but includes a Schnitger-style trumpet, a cornet and mutations of classical French design, and string stops scaled and voiced on Cavaillé-Coll principles (1993). A four-rank box organ was built for a private customer.

The company specializes in restoring and rebuilding older organs, employing the techniques and materials of the original builder as far as possible, and provides tuning and maintenance service to about 100 churches annually throughout southwestern Ontario. Most of the components of organs are produced in the factory: Pitman and slider windchests, bellows, rollerboards, tremulants, keyboards and pedalboards, and consoles. Pipes, both wooden and metal (including reeds), are generally made on the premises; the metal pipeshop and foundry section has a 12-foot, polished granite casting table, one of the few in Canada. Blowers and electrical combination and switching actions are acquired from external suppliers. The firm also provides services, parts, and pipes to other builders and tuners. A large reference library of historical and current organ design data, including pipe scalings of hundreds of historic organs, is maintained. A computer-assisted design (CAD) system is used. The firm had three full-time employees and several part-time helpers in 1998.

Gober Organs, Toronto, Ontario (1985)

Halbert Gober was born in Austin, Texas, and began his organbuilding career with Otto Hofmann (1969-1972), an organbuilder in Austin known as an early proponent of the tracker revival. Following university studies in liberal arts and architecture, he lived in Germany from 1972 to 1980. During the first four years he studied music, architecture, and organbuilding; in the remaining years he was employed with various organbuilders, including Rensch in Lauffen-am-Neckar (1972); Jann (1977-1980), where he completed his formal apprenticeship in 1979; and Felsberg in Chur, Switzerland. Following his move to Canada in 1981 he was employed as a voicer with Karl Wilhelm until 1985, before opening his own shop in the Montréal area in that year. From there he served as a freelance voicer and pipemaker for several organbuilders in North America and Europe.

He established his own shop in Toronto in 1991, where he commenced building tracker-action organs. Output to date amounts to six two-manual instruments of medium or small size; the most recent of these is a five-stop studio organ for the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Rebuilds and tonal revision projects are also undertaken. His philosophy is to draw on the full heritage of historical organbuilding in the construction of cohesive and logical instruments, with equal priority to dependability and musicality.

Wooden pipes, along with metal pipes made of cast and hammered lead, are manufactured on the premises. Reed pipes, including shallots, are also made in the shop. Action parts are from Germany. There were three employees in 1998. 

Pole & Kingham, Chatham, Ontario (1985)

 Donald Pole and Ron Kingham founded their company in 1979 and then incorporated in 1985, when the construction of complete new organs commenced. Earlier, between 1966 and 1968, Ron Kingham had been an employee of John Bright, a co-founder with Gabriel Kney of the Kney & Bright Organ Company in 1955; he built a house organ under John Bright's supervision. In the first five years of their association, the partners' work was limited to tuning, repairs, cleaning, and general maintenance.

Since 1985 they have built and installed seven new electrical-action instruments (two incorporating some older parts), mostly of medium-size, all in Ontario churches; two other instruments were provided to churches in Michigan, U.S.A. While their instruments are designed to meet both liturgical and performance needs, recent organs have a Romantic bias, and the Symphonic era is recalled in a new, three-manual, 36-stop instrument (the largest to date), with its six-rank String Organ division, installed in Holy Trinity Anglican Church, in Chatham, Ontario, in 1997. Other services include restoration of both tracker- and pneumatic-action organs, rebuilding with solid-state switching, enlargement, and tonal additions, along with general maintenance and tuning.

Wooden pipes (Bourdon, Chimney Flute, Gedeckt, and Doppelflute--the latter scaled after a fine Karn stop), windchests and reservoirs, and consoles are made in the shop; metal pipes are obtained from suppliers in Canada, U.S.A., Germany, and Holland. Five employees worked with the partners in 1998.

Juget-Sinclair, Montréal, Québec (1994)

Denis Juget, a native of the Savoy region of France, received his diploma in fine cabinetmaking in Annency, Haute-Savoy, France, in 1979, then worked as an apprentice with leading organbuilders on both sides of the Atlantic, with whom he acquired skills in all phases of organbuilding: Lucien Simon, Lyon, France (1979-1983); Robert Chauvin, Dax, France (1983-

1985); Wolff & Associés, Laval, Québec, upon his arrival in Canada (1985-1991); Orgelbau Goll, Lucerne, Switzerland (1990-1991); Orgelbau Rohlf, Seitzental, Germany (1992-1994); and Karl Wilhelm, Mont Saint-Hilaire, Québec (1992-1994). Special assignments be-tween 1988 and 1990 involved the restoration, renovation, and voicing of several organs in Austria, Italy, and Spain. His organbuilding enterprise began in 1994 in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Québec, in a backyard, two-story, former chicken coop, which was converted into a workshop. In the following year he completed a two-manual, 3-stop house organ for a private client.

Following studies in science at McGill University in Montréal, Stephen Sinclair worked first as an apprentice cabinetmaker, then as an apprentice organbuilder with Wolff & Associés (1989-1991). He received practical working experience in general organbuilding and reed-stop restoration with Manufacture d'orgues Franc-comptoise, Courtefontaine, France (1995, 1997); pipemaking with Georges Blaison, France (1996) and N. P. Mander, London, England (1997); and general organbuilding, design, voicing, maintenance, and tuning with Wolff & Associés (1992-1998). He joined Denis Juget as an equal associate in 1998.

The company divides its time between the restoration of historic instruments and the construction of small mechanical-action organs. Since 1995 five two-manual, 3-stop, house organs and one continuo organ have been manufactured; three of the house organs for clients in the United States. Works in progress include two similar house organs for destinations in Québec and Germany, and a two-manual, 10-stop practice organ for the University of Cincinnati, ready in 1999. The house organs incorporate a design by Denis Juget that enables them to be moved relatively easily without breaking down the action.

All parts are made in-house, including wooden and metal pipes, wind chests, bellows, rollerboards, keyboards and pedalboards, drawknobs, and casework (hand-planed in solid wood, using mortise-and-tenon construction). Blowers are purchased from Laukhuff, Germany. Several part-time workers assist in various stages of production and installation. Following relocation in late 1998 to an industrial space with 30-foot cathedral ceilings in Montréal, the associates intend to make the leap from building practice instruments to full-fledged church organs in the near future.

D. Leslie Smith, Fergus, Ontario (1996)

Leslie Smith grew up in southern Alberta, and acquired his interest in music at an early age through involvement in church choirs and piano lessons. He developed an early fascination with organ building and enrolled in organ performance studies at the University of Calgary after completing high school. Using practical skills acquired from his father, who was a carpenter and mechanic, he completed several kits for harpsichords and clavichords, and established an association with a local organ serviceman who introduced him to the techniques of maintaining and tuning electro-pneumatic instruments. In 1973 he moved to London, Ontario, to continue his organ studies at the University of Western Ontario. While in that city, he became acquainted with Gabriel Kney, in whose organbuilding shop he worked on a part-time basis for several years. In 1982 he joined Brunzema Organs in Fergus, Ontario, where he remained for 10 years as a journeyman organbuilder. After the death of Gerhard Brunzema in 1992 and the closing of his organbuilding operation, Leslie Smith worked as an independent contractor in pipemaking and voicing on a number of projects in Canada and the United States. His first organ, a two-manual, 11-stop studio organ was undertaken in 1982 as a part-time project while working with Gerhard Brunzema; it was completed in 1992.

In 1996 he established his new workshop on part of the former Brunzema premises. In the same year he produced his first commission, a one-manual, 6-stop, mechanical-action organ, for a cemetery chapel in Montréal. A similar organ, but without pedals, was supplied to a church in Kansas City, Missouri. Although eclectic and innovative in terms of tonal and visual design, Leslie Smith's approach is inspired by the work of mid-19th-century Canadian and American firms such as S. R. Warren of Montréal and Hook & Hastings of Boston, favoring generous scaling and higher pressures.

Wooden pipes for these two instruments were made in-house, but metal pipes were supplied by F. J. Rogers, Leeds, England. Blowers came from Laukhuff, Germany. Keyboards, and key and stop action were fabricated in the shop. Stops are divided into bass and treble, using a special form of drawstop mechanism developed by the builder. Cases are made from common hardwoods, using traditional construction techniques.

Maintenance work to organs of all makes and construction in Ontario and Québec comprises a significant part of his activity; in 1996 he was appointed curator of the largest pipe organ in Montréal, a four-manual, 86-stop Casavant instrument (installed in 1932, rebuilt in 1992 by another firm) at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, and will soon undertake complete rebuilding projects, as well.

The Future of Organbuilding

The status of organbuilding in the 21st century is not easy to predict, given the variety of factors involved. Generalizations about the number of future organ installations are risky; nevertheless, it is interesting to note that, within roughly the last three decades, while the annual production of instruments of all sizes peaked several times in the 1980s, the low periods of the 1970s were again matched in the years since 1994. Whether this recession will continue in the coming years is uncertain, but some recent trends provide clues to a possible future.13

The fact that few new organs have been installed in Canadian locations in recent years is not surprising, for the distinguishing characteristics of the "golden age" of the organ in the early years of the twentieth century--in terms of the erection of new church buildings, the proliferation of organbuilding firms that supplied both churches and motion picture theaters with instruments, and public enthusiasm for organ recitals played by local and touring recitalists--are not likely to be repeated, considering shifting cultural values along with the various musical and other forms of entertainment now available.

Although most organbuilders have confined their operations to meeting only local and regional needs, several Canadian firms have cultivated the international market with apparent success. The services of the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a crown corporation of the Government of Canada that assumes the role of prime contractor and subcontracts all of the contract back to the Canadian firm, are available for companies seeking worldwide clients.

As for the tonal design of new instruments, the uneasy hybrid designs of earlier years largely have been abandoned in preference to the rediscovered qualities of universally admired older instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries, without blindly copying them. Although instruments of neoclassical design, with their historically "authentic" stoplists, are not entirely suitable for the performance of all schools of organ music, they are probably more versatile than the earlier generation of organs for general liturgical and performance purposes. On the other hand, some organbuilders prefer an eclectic approach, a matter that is subject to ongoing debate.14 The recent strong demand for mechanical-action instruments may eventually stabilize, for reasons relating to architecture, economics, changing musical tastes, and a return to the Romantic idiom in repertoire. Purchasers may prefer some of the advantages of nonmechanical instruments, such as the consistent keyboard touch and flexible console location provided by electric action.15

Much of the earlier activity of new organ construction has been redirected to rebuilding and restoring older instruments, some of historical significance. Most Canadian organbuilders engage in this growing activity, which can provide churches with a cost-effective alternative to the purchase of a comparable new instrument. Routine maintenance work is also part of the service provided by many firms, large and small.

Pipe organs have always been expensive, so electronic instruments utilizing highly developed digital technology now provide an economic alternative for church congregations lacking the will or the means to acquire and maintain a pipe organ. The respective merits of pipe organs and electronic instruments have been debated since the latter were first introduced. Nevertheless, there is an obvious answer, based on musical criteria, to the question, Which is preferable: a poorly designed, badly maintained pipe organ, or a high quality electronic instrument? Electronic instruments have a place in locations where pipe organs are out of the question, whether for space or budgetary considerations. They have proved adequate for the liturgical requirements of many small or medium-size churches with limited budgets, and these instruments have provided competition for more costly pipe organs. The increasing acceptance of electronic instruments further diminishes the probability of a significant number of new pipe organ installations in the coming years. On the other hand, educational institutions (those that are not financially beleaguered, if any) and affluent congregations of some churches (not necessarily the largest) undoubtedly will continue to prefer pipe organs for musical, historical, or social reasons, and such instruments can be supplied only by the larger, well-established, organbuilding companies.

The role of the organist is of considerable importance in ensuring a future for organbuilding. If a church considering the purchase of a new organ already has a fully trained organist, this person, working with a musically educated and supportive committee, can influence the decision in favor of a pipe organ in preference to an electronic instrument, providing that a realistic fund-raising objective can be achieved. A church with an adequate pipe organ will seek a highly trained individual to play it, and such organists ordinarily prefer appointments to churches with pipe organs; once hired, their presence encourages the continuation of the pipe organ tradition.

Changes in the liturgical practices of some religious denominations may have a subtle, long-term effect on the future of organbuilding. The emergence in some congregations of youth-segregated services, with their unique liturgical practices that employ guitars or other instruments associated with folk music or religious rock groups, may produce a generation of worshippers unfamiliar with the organ, its musical heritage, and its literature. A broader associated issue is the question of the future of institutionalized religion and its possible decline due to the growth of science, education, and secularization, or its theological transformation into various manifestations of individualistic spiritual development. These possibilities undoubtedly will take many years, perhaps centuries, to resolve.      

Shifts in population characteristics introduce another factor into the question of the future of organbuilding. Some suburban churches located in stable neighborhoods now have congregations comprised largely of aging members living on limited incomes, not offset by significant numbers of younger, fully employed members. If the present job of organ maintenance is difficult for such congregations, even with skilled volunteer labor working under the supervision of a trained organ technician, the acquisition of a new instrument is beyond consideration; in fact, the amalgamation or dispersal of these congregations is the more likely scenario. The inevitable result would be the closing of some church buildings, along with the possible removal or relocation of existing pipe organs. The more affluent churches with a wider spread of ages among their members, and which encourage the full participation of younger members in their musical programs, are the only ones that will escape this fate, thus leaving open the possibility of the purchase of a new organ in the distant future. A related consideration, which provides a cause for optimism, is grounded in the speculation that recent declines in per capita real income may stimulate group activities at the expense of individual life styles, and that churches may again become a center of social as well as spiritual activities. In such contexts the pipe organ, as a cultural, religious, and artistic centerpiece, may serve as a source of pride and inspiration, and as a vehicle for the renewal of congregations.16

Over the longer term, increased public awareness, combined with both formal and informal educational opportunities, may contribute to the sustained vitality of the organ culture generally, including organbuilding. Radio broadcasts of organ recordings, instructive television programs, increased concert programming for organ and other instruments, and the development of audiences for subscription series of organ recitals, would increase knowledge of the organ among the general public. In the educational system, in-service sessions on the organ for school music teachers, the preparation of classroom learning materials for use in regular music instruction courses, and the participation of students in on-site inspection trips and demonstrations would provide practical contexts for raising awareness of the organ at a level that students can understand and enjoy.17 As for organists, competitions or commissions for hymn arrangements, sacred songs, or new compositions for the organ could be fostered on both the regional and national levels by the Royal Canadian College of Organists. These informational and educational programs would contribute to the development and maintenance of an appreciative audience for the organ throughout the coming decades. Such forms of revitalization would ensure the future of the King of Instruments well into the 21st century.

REFERENCES

                        13.              Some of the following material is adapted from the chapter, "The Future of the Organ," in Hartman, The Organ in Manitoba (note 5 above).

                        14.              See Quentin Regestein and Lois Regestein, "The 'Right' Organ," The Diapason, August 1998, 13-16; September 1998, 17-18. Radically opposing points of view debate the legitimacy of a "universal" hybrid organ, one that is perfect for everything.

                        15.              R. E. Colberd, "Pipe Organ Building: the Nineties and Beyond," The Diapason, July 1994, 12.

                        16.              Ibid., 14.

                        17.              For a description of a recent educational event for school children, see Valerie L. Hall, "Meet the King of Instruments: A Successful Workshop Model for Kids," Organ Canada, July 1998, 9.

The Odyssey of an Organbuilder

R. E. Coleberd, an economist and retired petroleum industry executive, is a contributing editor of The Diapason.

Introduction

The careers of numerous American organbuilders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are the story of a journey—from Europe to the United States or from shop to shop. From Germany came George Kilgen and Philipp Wirsching; from England John T. Austin, Octavius Marshall, and Henry Pilcher. In the U.S., Adolph Reuter’s sojourn took him from Barckhoff to Pilcher, Verney, Casavant (South Haven), and Wicks before he founded his own firm first in Trenton, Illinois, and then Lawrence, Kansas. A. G. Sparling moved from Lyon & Healy to Stevens to Holtkamp. These individuals and their firms are typical of the rich and colorful history of pipe organ building in America. Yet perhaps none of them comes close to the odyssey of Stanley Wyatt Williams 1881–1971 (see photo). Williams’ lifetime spans the arc of his era—from Robert Hope-Jones to G. Donald Harrison (Aeolian-Skinner) with stops at Electrolian, Wirsching, Murray Harris, Robert-Morton, Kimball, and E. M. Skinner. His talents as a voicer and tonal finisher played a pivotal role in the succession of nameplates in the U.S. West Coast pipe organ industry, and his stellar reputation led to important sales by recognized national builders.

Early Life

Stanley Wyatt Williams was born in London on October 29, 1881, the youngest of four sons and two daughters of George Edward Williams, who described himself as a “gentleman,” having made a comfortable living in the brewing industry. His family was musical; his mother sang a solo for Queen Victoria, and each of the sons was taught a musical instrument.1 As he recalled many years later: “I was always a little bit crazy about organs, not that I knew anything about them.”2 After attending the Mostyn House School in Cheshire and the Whitgift Grammar School at Croydon, Surrey, he enrolled in Dulwich College (southeast of London), founded in 1619.3 G. Donald Harrison graduated from there some years later. Suffering a health setback, Williams withdrew from school on the advice of a London physician.4 In the ensuing soul-searching, a well-known London organist, Charles Lawrence, took him to see an organbuilder and the instrument in the builder’s home. “That interested me more than ever,” he later commented, and he determined to become an organbuilder.5 His daughter, Mary Cowell, recalled that the family apparently was none too pleased with his choice of vocation, considering organbuilding a “trade” and thus beneath the dignity of their aristocratic image.6 Nonetheless his father paid the two or three hundred pounds required to enroll him as an apprentice to the legendary organbuilder, Robert Hope-Jones.7

An electrical engineer by profession who held an important position with the National Telephone Company in Liverpool, Hope-Jones was organist and choirmaster of St. John’s Church in Birkenhead, across the Mersey River from Liverpool. With local financial backing he organized the Hope-Jones Organ Company in Birkenhead, building instruments first in the factory of Norman & Beard in Norwich, and then in the Ingram, Hope-Jones shop in Hereford.8 Williams joined him in 1899 at age 18 (see photo, page 25). He couldn’t have found a better teacher or a more prophetic environment in which to acquire organbuilding skills and prepare for what would become a most interesting career. “As an apprentice . . . I was assigned to work at every phase of organ building. I voiced, I carpentered, I electrified—everything about organbuilding had to be learned. It was something I was later very grateful for.”9 “Not only a genius, but a great teacher,” said Williams of Hope-Jones: “He taught all of us to think for ourselves.”10

The controversial and enigmatic Hope-Jones would exert a profound and far-reaching influence on the King of Instruments through his revolutionary tonal and mechanical innovations. He pioneered what would emerge as the symphonic-orchestral voicing paradigm that swept the American industry in the 1920s. This type of instrument was marked by an ensemble of different tonal groups all at the same pitch, in contrast to the time-honored chorus of different pitches within the same tonal family. Mixtures and mutations were discarded and replaced with unison voices of comparatively wide or narrow scale pipes on higher wind pressures. The entire instrument was enclosed.11 Hope-Jones’s mechanical inventions included double-touch, a key characteristic of theatre organs, and high resistance electro-magnets requiring very little current.12

After completing shop routines, Williams joined the road crew and worked on the organ in the Hereford cathedral. There he met and fell in love with Isabel Robbins, whom he would marry in January 1908. When Hope-Jones immigrated to the United States in the spring of 1903, Stanley elected to remain with the former partner, Eustace Ingram, finishing instruments then under construction. A fellow worker asked whether he had ever considered moving to the States, and told him that an American firm, the Electrolian Company of Hoboken, New Jersey, was looking for a voicer. He interviewed, accepted an offer, and bidding farewell to his sweetheart in Hereford crossed the Atlantic in 1906.13 Williams was to be among several former Hope-Jones apprentices who came to America.14

The Land of Opportunity

Voicers are the cornerstone of any organbuilding enterprise. Stanley Williams was called to voice and finish instruments built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, now relocated to Hoboken and renamed the Electrolian Organ Company.15 He installed and finished the Electrolian-built 19-rank, two-manual and pedal instrument in the Wolcott School in Denver, Colorado (among whose pupils was Mamie Dowd, the future wife of President Dwight Eisenhower), and finished an instrument built for a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. His reputation as a gifted voicer and finisher soon became well-known, for, as he later recounted, when he returned from Philadelphia to Hoboken, seven job offers awaited him.16 The Electrolian assets were next acquired by the legendary Philipp Wirsching of Salem, Ohio, whom Stanley met when he finished the instrument Wirsching built in 1907 for Our Lady of Grace Roman Catholic Church in Hoboken.17 Wirsching moved the business to Ohio, and Stanley joined him there.

Among the Electrolian assets Wirsching acquired was a contract for a two-manual and pedal organ with player attachment for the new palace of the Maharaja of Mysore, India. In January 1908, Williams returned to England, married his sweetheart Isabel, and in July the couple set sail for India to install the organ, traveling through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.18 This was to be the “Great Adventure,” surely one of the most fantastic episodes (see photo, page 25) in the history of organbuilding the world over, and long a familiar topic of conversation in the rich folklore of the industry (see James Stark and Charles Wirsching Jr., The Great Adventure, forthcoming). Stanley and Isabel returned to England in January 1910, and in March sailed for America where Stanley resumed work with Wirsching.

While finishing an instrument in Terre Haute, Indiana, Williams received a telegram from the Murray M. Harris Organ Company in Los Angeles asking him to come to the West Coast to finish voicing the instrument they were building for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Los Angeles19 (see stoplist). Charles McQuigg, the Harris head voicer, had left the company, no doubt mindful of its precarious financial condition.20 Williams responded, completed the assignment, and returned to Ohio. Then the Harris people, having recognized his skills and eager to maintain their reputation for fine instruments, offered him the head voicer position in the newly reorganized firm. Williams accepted and moved to Los Angeles in 1911 where he would remain for the balance of his career. As David Lennox Smith, Harris scholar, observed: “the most notable addition to the staff of the Murray M. Harris Company in its final years was Stanley Wyatt Williams.”21

Los Angeles Organbuilders

At the turn of the century the market for the King of Instruments on the West Coast was vibrant and growing rapidly, built upon the tidal wave of immigration and the rapid pace of church construction in the emerging metropolitan landscapes. Moreover, the spirit of enterprise was everywhere, marked by numerous “self-made” men eager to apply their talents and fortunes to railroad building, telegraph, mercantile trade, real estate development—and organbuilding. Local businessmen and their funding initially played a pivotal role in the succession of organbuilder nameplates in Los Angeles, as they did in establishing the industry elsewhere, for example, in Erie, Pennsylvania.22 But these “outsiders” invested with virtually no inkling of the inherently high-risk business of building pipe organs. Cost estimating, pricing, competition, and, especially, critical problems of cash flow vexed most builders and overwhelmed others.23 As Stanley explained: “You had to watch your pennies very closely to have a couple left when you finished an organ.”24 For a while the euphoric atmosphere of large buildings, talented employees, and fine, heavily publicized instruments masked these fundamental concerns. But before long financial realities took over.

Murray M. Harris

Organbuilding in Los Angeles began in 1895 when Fletcher & Harris built a two-manual instrument for the Church of the Ascension, Episcopal, in Sierra Madre.25 Murray M. Harris (1866–1922), a skilled voicer who had apprenticed with Hutchings in Boston, continued on his own. In 1900 he recruited a cadre of skilled artisans led by William Boone Fleming (1849–1940) who became superintendent. Harris acquired a spacious factory building and prospered by building instruments for the local market.26 In July 1900, the firm was incorporated as the Murray M. Harris Organ Company and capitalized at $100,000.27 In 1903 Harris contracted to build a 140-stop Audsley-designed instrument for the St. Louis Exposition. It was to be voiced, at Audsley’s request, by John W. Whitely, a well-known English voicer, described as “one of the pioneer spirits in the Birkenhead shops of Mr. Hope-Jones.”28 The St. Louis organ was something of a watershed in American organbuilding history. As David Lennox Smith commented: “The influence of the St. Louis organ could soon be seen in the String Organ divisions, multiple enclosures, and other new features that were included with growing frequency in specifications for large new organs.”29

Soon financial problems began that would continue to plague Harris. Working capital proved inadequate to finish the mammoth St. Louis instrument. In August 1903, the Los Angeles Times reported that shareholders, including Harris, his wife Helen, and others, were delinquent in court-ordered assessments of $10 per share on their stock. The problem resulted when only 352 shares, par value $100 per share, were actually subscribed, and thus of the authorized capitalization of $100,000, only $35,200 was paid-in and perhaps even less. The court stipulated that the additional stock be auctioned off at the company offices to acquire the funds necessary to keep operating.30

Enter Eben Smith, an archetypical entrepreneur who was described in the press as a “mining man” and “Colorado banker.” He had made a fortune in Colorado silver mines and was president of the Pacific Wireless Telephone Company.31 Smith purchased 500 shares of Harris stock, thereby acquiring a controlling interest in the business. He renamed it the Los Angeles Art Organ Company.32 In 1905 a patent infringement lawsuit threatened the company with liquidation, whereupon key employees, led by Fleming, moved east for a brief sojourn in Hoboken, New Jersey, under the name of Electrolian Organ Company.33 By September 1907, the employees, minus Fleming (who moved to Philadelphia where he was subsequently employed to superintend the installation of the St. Louis Exposition organ in the Wanamaker store), were back in Los Angeles, having joined the reorganized Murray M. Harris Organ Company.34 The head voicer was now Charles W. McQuigg, a protegé of John W. Whitely, who had remained in Los Angeles and served briefly as the Pacific Coast representative of the Barckhoff Church Organ Company of Pomeroy, Ohio.35

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and First Church of Christ, Scientist

The 1911 instrument Stanley Williams was called to voice and finish reflected the manifold changes in stoplist design and voicing taking place in the industry. With Harris’s training at Hutchings and acquaintance with other work in the east, it was not surprising that his early stoplists closely paralleled the work of these builders.36 The 1901 Murray Harris at Stanford University is a good example. As described by Manuel Rosales, who restored this instrument in 1986, the Stanford Harris was a typical 19th-century instrument featuring a well-developed principal chorus on the Great, a secondary chorus on the Swell, and a small Choir organ with not a full chorus but other colors. The voicing, on three to four inches wind pressure, was gentle and clear. Flutes were not exaggerated, i.e., no tibia tone, strings were precise and clear, and pedal stops were well balanced with the manuals. In contrast, the St. Paul’s specification (see stoplist, page 24) was confined to an ensemble of unison and octave voices at 16¢, 8¢, and 4¢ pitches, with emphasis on the 8¢ voice, representing the trend of the day. Diapason scales were much larger, and string scales much smaller than in earlier instruments.37 This characteristic most likely reflected the influence of John Whitely, the voicer who was closely associated with Audsley and who joined Harris in 1903, as well as Charles McQuigg, said to have “absorbed much of Whitely’s technic and ideal.”38

The first organ where Stanley’s design influence is found is the 1912 instrument for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Los Angeles (see stoplist). Having also felt the impress of Whitely in England, he substituted a Tibia Clausa, a Hope-Jones stop, for the customary Gross Flute on the Great.39 But as Rosales points out, the absence of a tremolo on this division indicates this voice was viewed as filling out the ensemble, in contrast to a solo voice as found in a theatre organ. This organ contained a Dolce Cornet on the Swell and a 22?3' and 2' on the Great in what might be termed a vestigial chorus, but in no way could it be considered a well-developed Great chorus, which by this time had largely disappeared from American stoplists. What emerges is an accompanimental instrument in which the high-pressure Tuba, dominating the ensemble or playing solo against it, is symbolic of the trend.40

Tonal Philosophy, 1913

Williams’ expertise in voicing and finishing was soon recognized. In February 1913, he was the featured speaker at a meeting of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.41 His comments reflected his knowledge of English organbuilding, his background with Hope-Jones, and focused on the character and content of foundation tone. True diapason tone must predominate, he asserted. Subject to broad limits, it is bounded by string tone at one end of the spectrum and flute tone at the other. Old diapasons were “mellow and sweet,” a cantabile sound suited to today’s Choir organ. He faulted “Old Masters” for failing to preserve the character and power of voicing throughout the entire compass, which he attributed to imperfect scaling. The prevalence of upperwork and the introduction of “harsh” reeds, in the middle of the 19th century, overbalanced diapason tone, Williams said, leading cynics to refer to the “sausage frying” sound of a full Swell. To remedy this result, diapasons were increased in scale and number. Hard, stringy and nasal, they were brilliant in a way that favored upper partials, sacrificing fundamental tone and thereby blending well with mutations and reeds. Then the pendulum swung back to the other extreme and high-cut mouths produced a flabby tone devoid of the necessary partials and bordering on the fluty.'
He outlined the foundations of a three-manual organ, reflecting the Hope-Jones influence and the tastes of the time. On the Great manual the first diapason should be large scale and with a leathered lip; the second diapason, of medium scale, not leathered, but not in any way stringy. The third should be a “mild and sweet” voice, and quite soft, much like the work of Father Bernard Smith. On the Swell, a Hope-Jones phonon-type should be the first diapason, large scale and leather-lipped, necessary to balance the Swell reeds. The second should be a violin or horn diapason. For the choir organ, a mild geigen or gemshorn was the preferred voice. He cautioned that every stop in a well-voiced organ must have its “individuality,” and lamented builder fads, which he found detrimental to the advancement of the instrument. He challenged organists and organbuilders to work together to uphold the dignity of the instrument and its music to insure its high place in the church service. Williams’ comments offer an interesting contrast to today’s perspective and were superseded in his own thinking as reflected in his work with Kimball and Skinner.

Murray M. Harris, continued

In 1912, a year after Williams joined the Harris firm, financial problems reappeared. Murray Harris sold his interest to a retired mining man from Mexico named Heuer, who soon became disillusioned with the meager (if any) profits in organbuilding, and sold out.42 In August 1913, control of the company passed to E. S. Johnston, former manager of the Eilers Music Company in Los Angeles, who in November that year advertised the Johnston Organ and Piano Manufacturing Company as successor to the Murray M. Harris Co.43 Johnston and real estate developer Suburban Homes then agreed to build a 75,000 square foot factory in Van Nuys, which opened in November 1913. Soon, however, working capital was again exhausted. Johnston and his partner Bell journeyed east in search of funds but apparently returned empty-handed.44 Then Suburban Homes of Van Nuys, having turned down Johnston’s plea for financial backing, were the new owners by default. They renamed the business California Organ Company and promptly palmed it off to the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles, holders of the mortgage on the factory building.45

Robert-Morton Organ Company

At this time a sea change was taking place in the whole concept of pipe organs and in the industry that built them. The theatre market, with its radically different instrument, was growing rapidly, having displaced the higher-cost pit orchestra. Equipped with tibias, kinuras and other voices as well as traps and toy counters, these instruments were ideally suited for accompanying silent movies. The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, whose name would soon become the generic term for the theatre pipe organ, was already enjoying a nationwide business. Within less than ten years, organbuilding in America would be virtually divided into two separate industries, with Wurlitzer, Robert-Morton, Barton, Link, Marr & Colton, Page, and Geneva identified almost exclusively with the theatre paradigm. Other builders, although they built theatre organs, were primarily identified with the church instrument and market.
The California Organ Company was at a crossroads. Would they continue in the church organ industry, now well established nationwide and well represented on the West Coast? Or would they recognize and capitalize on the growing theatre organ market? The resources were in place in Van Nuys: a well-appointed modern factory, skilled artisans, and a talented, experienced senior management, which together had guaranteed the succession of nameplates. As the late Tom B’hend, whose research chronicles much of the history of this era, observed: “The Wurlitzer Hope-Jones instruments were gaining popularity; the unit principle was being accepted without reserve by up and coming theatre organists . . . If the California Organ Company were to enter the theatre field, it would be necessary to produce a unit instrument of comparable quality.”46 With his rich background as an apprentice of Hope-Jones, who could be better qualified to design and build such an instrument than Stanley Williams? As Williams later reflected: “I was the one man on the West Coast who could put this sort of instrument into production.”47

Enter the American Photo Player Company of Berkeley, California. In 1912 this firm produced a small tubular-pneumatic pit instrument combining a few ranks of flue pipes and perhaps a reed stop with a piano. Booming sales and nationwide distribution alerted them to the tremendous potential for a unit theatre organ.48 Negotiations beginning in the spring of 1916 led to the merger of the California Organ and American Photo Player companies and on May 2, 1917, the Robert-Morton Organ Company was duly incorporated.49 As the late David Junchen, noted theatre organ biographer, commented: “Werner (Harry J. Werner, Photo Player promoter) had found just the ticket for expanding his theatre sales, and the owners of the California Organ Co. had found a buyer for the albatross they didn’t want anyway.”50 Stanley Williams was named plant superintendent and the following year vice president. Opus 1, a two-manual organ designed by Williams, was built for the California Theatre in Santa Barbara.51 As B’hend noted: “The men and women who built pipe organs in Southern California never left their work benches to take up fabrication of the Robert-Morton pipe organ.”52

The new company increasingly focused on the theatre instrument, but initially it continued to service a spectrum of the local market, including churches. In 1917 Morton built a $10,000 instrument for the A. Hamburger and Sons Department Store in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times noted that it was the first organ of its kind on the Pacific Coast, and was acquired “for the purpose of giving the people a musical education and making shopping more pleasant.”53 In 1920 Williams sold and most likely designed a 72-rank, six-division, four-manual organ for Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.54 Edward Hopkins lauded Williams’ “English training, practical experience at the voicing machine, and open-minded progressiveness,” saying the Bovard organ “stands pre-eminent.”55 This instrument featured Morton’s horseshoe console (Morton didn’t build drawknob consoles) and concrete swell boxes enclosing the entire instrument.

W. W. Kimball Company

Williams, a realist in business matters, recognized that Morton made the right choice in electing to build theatre pipe organs. Yet his heart was with the classic church organ, and the Bovard instrument no doubt reinforced his convictions. As his daughter reflected: “He didn’t like traps and toy counters.”56 He resigned from Morton in early 1922, and was feted by employees at a Saturday afternoon gathering at the shop in recognition of his eleven years service to Morton and its predecessors.57 Momentarily, he elected to go out on his own. He and his wife Isabel, together with Carl B. Sartwell, his colleague at Morton, formed Stanley W. Williams, Incorporated and built perhaps one or two instruments, his daughter believes; the details are unknown.58 But the odds were against them. By this time what local capital had been available was already committed to the theatre organ business, and nationally known church organ builders were well represented on the West Coast. Stanley soon wisely recognized that with his interests, his next opportunity lay with an established (i.e., well-capitalized) church organ builder.

Williams then began a five-year sojourn with the W. W. Kimball Company of Chicago as their West Coast representative.59 His decision was no doubt influenced by his former colleague in Van Nuys, Robert P. Elliot, with whom he shared many details in a common philosophy of organbuilding. The much-traveled Elliot, who joined California Organ as vice president and general manager in October 1916, left in May 1918 to become head of the organ department at Kimball in Chicago.60 A dynamic and aggressive firm, Kimball was ever alert to market opportunities, and recognized that their name, well-established in pianos and reed organs, carried over into the market for pipe organs. A large newspaper advertisement by the Eilers Music House in Los Angeles, in April 1912, promoting the Kimball Player Piano, mentioned Kimball as “America’s Greatest Pipe Organ Builders.”61

During this period the Kimball company was making far-reaching changes in the mechanical and tonal character of their instrument, attributed primarily to the influence of Elliot and George Michel, the latter widely acclaimed for his superb reed and string voicing. As Junchen noted: “If George Michel was the voice of the Kimball organ, R. P. Elliot was its soul.”62 Improvements in Kimball engineering and action design, coupled with elegant workmanship, were marked by abandonment of two-pressure bellows and two-pressure ventil windchests with hinged pouches in favor of a pitman-action windchest with springs under the pouches. Tonally, Kimball moved away from the liturgical motif in church organ design toward a pronounced symphonic and orchestral paradigm, a new direction for American organbuilders.63

In Los Angeles

Stanley Williams opened his Kimball office in the downtown emporium of the Sherman-Clay Music Company. “For half a century, Sherman, Clay & Co. has been the philosopher and friend of good music on the Pacific Coast,” they advertised.64 When churches went looking for a pipe organ, they logically began with a music retailer. The connection between music retailers and organ sales was a salient but long-overlooked feature of marketing the instrument during this time. As early as 1902, Harris was represented by Kohler & Chase in San Francisco and then independently by Robert Fletcher Tilton, a well-known musician with an office in the Kohler & Chase building.65 In Los Angeles, the Aeolian Company was represented by the George J. Birkel Music Company, and Welte-Mignon by the Barker Brothers department store. Showrooms soon appeared. By 1926 Wurlitzer, Robert-Morton, and Link all maintained showrooms in Los Angeles.66

Williams’ work with Kimball began immediately, as did the maintenance business he established. He installed, finished, and perhaps sold the 23-rank, three-manual Kimball organ in the world-famous Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, an early megachurch seating 5,300 (see stoplist, page 27). This church, dedicated on New Year’s Day 1923, was built by the flamboyant evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the International Church of the Four Square Gospel.67 It is a colorful instrument now undergoing restoration in what was once a wonderful acoustic, ideally suited to the worship style and tastes of the founder and the congregation. In what must have been the pinnacle of unification and duplexing, 23 ranks of pipes were spread over 61 speaking stops. Each rank was playable at three or more pitches and duplexed to two or more manuals. Synthetic stops included a saxophone and orchestral oboe. Couplers greatly increased the power and versatility of the instrument. The Orchestral division is in the same chamber as the Great, sharing voices and thereby giving the illusion of a larger organ as does the number of stop tabs on the console.68

Other Kimball sales by Williams in Los Angeles churches included organs in Hollywood Presbyterian, St. James Episcopal, Precious Blood Roman Catholic, and Rosewood Methodist churches.69 He also supervised the re-installation of the 1911 Murray Harris instrument in St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in the new edifice in 1924, replacing the original console with one built by Kimball.70 The largest Kimball organ he sold, in 1926, was a 56-rank, 65-stop, four-manual for the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles (see stoplist).71 The West Coast correspondent of The Diapason, Roland Diggle, described it as having “lovely solo voices and a stunning ensemble.”72

Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner

In 1927 Stanley Williams made his last move, the capstone of his illustrious career, joining Ernest M. Skinner of Boston as Pacific Coast representative.73 He welcomed the opportunity to affiliate with America’s foremost builder of this era, and Skinner in turn was pleased that a man of such knowledge and reputation would now add luster to his prestigious firm. This association was celebrated with a dinner for the local organ fraternity at a fashionable downtown restaurant.74 In July 1928, Williams installed a two-manual, ten-rank, duplexed and unified Skinner instrument, Opus 690, in his home. An enclosed instrument representative of small residence organs built by the Boston patriarch, it comprised a diapason, unit flute, flute and celeste, string and celeste, and four reeds: vox humana, clarinet, French horn, and an English horn—the latter two Skinner favorites.75 Sales of two-, three-, and four-manual instruments began immediately: a four-manual for Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles, in 1927, Opus 676, and in 1930 a 78-rank, four-manual organ for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Opus 818, designed by Harold Gleason in consultation with Lynwood Farnam and G. Donald Harrison (see photo above).76 The same year another four-manual organ was built for Temple Methodist Church in San Francisco, Opus 819.77 Sales in 1931 included a four-manual organ for First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, Opus 856, and the following year a four-manual for the residence of prominent Pasadena pediatrician Dr. Raymond B. Mixsell, Opus 893. Organizer of the Bach Festival in Pasadena, Dr. Mixsell engaged Marcel Dupré to play the inaugural recital on his instrument.78 Williams’ extensive service business, established when he began working for Kimball in 1922, carried him through World War II, when organ companies could no longer build new instruments. After the war, heavy sales resumed.

Tonal Philosophy, 1959

In 1959 Stanley was asked to appraise and recommend updates for the 1926 Kimball organ at the First Baptist Church in Los Angeles, an instrument he had sold and installed.79 The document he prepared sheds light on the evolution of Williams’ tonal philosophy and offers key insights into the prevailing orthodoxy of the 1920s, especially the practices of the Kimball Company, a long-neglected major builder. He asserted that during the 1920s, the entire organbuilding industry in the United States was “to some degree” influenced by the theatre pipe organ. Williams lamented this trend, which saw higher wind pressures and voicing of flutes, diapasons, strings, and reeds that tended to isolate and magnify their differences. He acknowledged the positive contribution of the theatre epoch in “better engineering practice and the speed and reliability of action.”

Williams called for major tonal revisions to make the instrument more suitable for worship services, choir accompaniment, and interpretation of the instrument’s great literature. These revisions included replacing all flue pipes in the Great division except the Gemshorn and the Melodia, substituting a Quintadena for the 16¢ Double Open Diapason, and eliminating the Tromba (see stoplists, pages 27 and above). On the Swell manual the many new ranks recommended included a “small scale bright tone trumpet” in place of the Cornopean, and on the Choir new mutations and a Krummhorn. He recommended revoicing the Gamba and Celeste on the Solo division for a “broader and softer” sound. In 1965 this instrument was enla