Hochhalter renovates Casavant Opus 2860

Quimby Pipe Organs, Warrensburg, Missouri

Dunwoody United Methodist Church, Dunwoody, Georgia

Quimby Pipe Organs Opus 76, recently installed at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, comprises 100 ranks distributed over five manual divisions, playable from a four-manual and pedal console. The completion of this instrument represents the culmination of an idea and process that began in 2007. After many attempts to make an organ project “go,” either as a stand-alone project, or paired with other proposed major capital work on campus, it wasn’t until the need for a major renovation of the sanctuary occurred that a new organ, installed in a different location, became a necessity and, eventually, a reality.

This was a particularly challenging and yet ultimately rewarding sanctuary and chancel renovation project, the genesis of which was to adapt the space so that the church’s contemporary worship service could relocate from a social hall to meet in the sanctuary, where a traditional service and music program were making good use of the traditionally styled space and generous acoustics. The emergent projects goals were many, among which: 1) to relocate the choir and organ from the rear gallery to the chancel; 2) to somehow create organ chambers in a space where they didn’t exist and where there didn’t appear to be room for them; 3) to acoustically deaden and otherwise transform the room for the successful accommodation of the contemporary worship service; 4) but to do this without permanently changing the acoustics of the space for traditional worship.

The spacious sanctuary, which had been constructed new in the year 2000, had excellent acoustics, and even though the former organ, which had been relocated from a much smaller sanctuary, was undersized for the room, the acoustics of the space enabled the organ to remain in use for nearly twenty years following its temporary location. It was well constructed and a good example of its type; it simply didn’t go far enough in its scope to support the music program.  As director of music Sonny Walden and organist Mary Ruth Solem will immediately tell you, it not only wasn’t loud enough, it also wasn’t soft enough, and there were too few opportunities for smoothly graded dynamic levels in between the two.

The renovation solution was costly, but effective. Space for organ chambers was created, encroaching on unused above-ceiling space outside the existing chancel, the footprint of the original chancel, and a mechanical mezzanine behind the chancel. A choir loft with built-in risers was constructed in front of the new organ chambers. For contemporary worship, retractable acoustical banners lower down from the attic, covering the choir loft, Chancel organ, Antiphonal organ, and all windows at the push of the button. The result is a space acoustically and visually suitable for amplified music, electronic projection, and colored LED lighting effects; it has had a net-zero impact on the intrinsic acoustical quality of the space.

From an early point in the dialogue, the church voiced an interest in exploring the possible use of high-quality vintage American pipework for incorporation into a new instrument. Given our experience in working with vintage pipework for new organ projects that are not restoration-focused, we enthusiastically agreed, and began the search for an instrument that would fit the bill—something that would allow artistic latitude and freedom in the creation of a new, unified identity, but which would also contribute a unique tonal provenance and material advantage to the project.

What we eventually found, in fact, were two organs, which the church ultimately bought and placed into storage until the project could be realized. The first, Ernest M. Skinner Co. Opus 195 (four manuals, 66 ranks), dating from 1913, was originally installed in Grace Chapin Hall at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, where it was used until it was vandalized in 1959. As the story goes, which is now almost as apocryphal as it is difficult to document, an organ student, following his end of semester juries, entered the organ chamber, and destroyed nearly everything he could access. From that time until the organ was removed in 2011, the organ was mothballed at Williams College and never played again. A careful cataloguing of the surviving pipes following the organ’s removal from the college revealed a surprising picture: perhaps a third of the organ’s ranks either missing or damaged beyond any cost effective repair; another third showing some damage but imminently repairable under skilled hands; and a final third, perhaps, completely untouched and as good as the day the organ was installed.   

Surviving examples of pipes from the Great Diapason chorus, which was nearly entirely destroyed, exist from all pitch levels of that ensemble—from a 16′ Double Open Diapason through a three-rank chorus mixture—and provide an interesting insight into Skinner’s tonal work for a large organ in the early 1910s. These are scaled and voiced to be heroic while also harmonically developed and bright—not at all dull. The ensemble has much more in common with highly developed diapason chorus work at the culmination of the nineteenth-century American building tradition—before organ ensembles devolved into a tonal center around the unison pitch, with little-to-no upperwork—than it does the Skinner sound we have come to know and appreciate from the 1920s. It stands in complete contrast to his work from later periods, and it is a shame that this chorus work was destroyed.

In addition to the usual very fine diapasons, flutes, strings, and reeds, Opus 195 is the first Skinner organ to have one of the now-famous Skinner French Horns, and also is where the Skinner Corno di Bassetto first made its appearance. A review of the tonal specification for the new organ demonstrates that this defunct organ, constructed by one of the foremost early twentieth-century American organbuilders, has made a significant contribution to the new organ at Dunwoody, including the very fine Pedal 32′ Contra Bourdon, which produces some of the deepest tones in the instrument, and the Solo 8′ Tuba, which is the loudest stop in the organ.

The second organ procured for use in the new instrument was constructed in 1939 by Casavant Frères, Ltd. (three manuals, 42 ranks) for the now defunct Chapel of the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington, New Jersey. Like most Casavant organs dating from the 1930s, this organ was constructed and voiced according to English Romantic ideals, brought to Casavant by tonal director Stephen Stoot, and included diapason chorus work of remarkably heavy construction, superbly constructed wood flutes, and English-style reeds. Our own assessment is that the flues were never voiced up to scale, and, as we found them, were rather lackluster and dull as individual voices. The reeds seem to have suffered an unfortunate fate following a haphazard revoicing prior to the closing of the seminary. After the seminary was closed in the early 1980s, the organ was repeatedly flooded due to serious roof leaks over the organ cases. Nevertheless, in terms of substantial, beautifully constructed pipework, suitable for revoicing, Casavant Opus 1600 presented a wealth of material. Most of the water damage was sustained by the 32′ Contra Posaune, which because of its miters, held the water in the miter knuckles, where, completely undetectable from the outside, the zinc corroded from the inside out. These pipes have been substantially reconstructed and revoiced and form the bass of the Pedal 32′ Contra Trombone at Dunwoody.

It may seem strange to conceptualize the combination of pipework from two very different instruments, constructed nearly thirty years apart, and with widely divergent tonal ideals in mind, in an attempt to create any kind of instrument that has a cohesive tonal identity. And it’s true that this is probably not a good idea, at least if it is approached with a restoration-conservation mindset, where the ranks from each respective organ are to retain their original voices, balance, and relationship to one another. That approach is on its own extremely valid, and certainly equally satisfying, and should certainly have been undertaken if, say, this were a project where the Skinner pipework (were it all intact) and mechanics were to be restored as an entity and installed in an environment that demanded a 1913 organ sound. However, because of the vandalism the 1913 Skinner all but disappeared in the 1950s, and the 1939 Casavant, with beautifully and substantially constructed pipes, was, as we found it, unevenly and under voiced, possessing a disappointing ensemble. Neither organ, as we encountered them, was playable or usable, and neither organ stood much prospect of restoration and reuse elsewhere. More importantly, we were not tasked with a restoration project by the church, but rather, to create something new using to advantage the accumulated material at hand.

Looking beyond this, however, it’s helpful to place the 1913 Skinner and 1939 Casavant organs, while different, both as a part of an organbuilding continuum that continued uninterrupted in development and refinement from its fifteenth-century origins right up until the middle twentieth century. Organs from later in this continuum are markedly different from earlier instruments, but each builder in this centuries-long procession built upon what had been given by the previous generation, at least until this succession was interrupted by the Organ Reform Movement. For the first time in organbuilding history, the work of the immediate past was swept away, intentionally and deliberately, in an effort to recapture ideals—sometimes real, and sometimes supposed—that marked organbuilding in an earlier age.

While it’s certainly true that the Organ Reform Movement has left a mostly-positive legacy (and some noteworthy landmarks of twentieth-century organbuilding) on the contemporary American organbuilding landscape—even though most contemporary organbuilders have moved beyond the strictures of its dictums—at QPO, we like to regard our own work as very much a return to the continuum and succession that existed prior to World War II. What would it be like, we ask ourselves, if organbuilding had continued uninterrupted, and the work of each new generation an expansion of what had gone before, rather than a violent reaction against it? We like to think that Opus 76 at Dunwoody United Methodist, along with a number of other recent projects, has given us a chance to explore this in detail.

As to the ensemble, Opus 76 has the hallmark of any QPO ensemble from the past twenty-five years or so: highly characteristic, individually beautiful colors or voices that are simultaneously extremely effective and flexible ensemble players. These individualist voices are each strong, characteristic examples of their class and type, and are the sort of voice you want to hear played alone—full of intrinsic beauty and interest. However, beautiful, characteristic voices alone are not enough, for we’ve all heard and played organs where the colors individually are beautiful, but combine intractably into loose ensembles, mixing like oil and water, where the ear can pick apart all the constituent parts. On the other hand, we’ve all heard and played organs where decent or even very good ensembles are given, but a review, one by one, of the individual voices reveals bland, uninteresting color and voicing. One of the measures of any great organ—whatever the period, style, or timbre—is that the individual voices pass this litmus test: to be highly characteristic, colorful, and intrinsically beautiful, and yet nevertheless combine with others to form a wide array of flexible and dynamic ensembles of all types.

In Opus 76, there are, in fact, individual voices that may be recognizable as early “Skinner,” pre-WWII “Casavant,” or even modern “Quimby,” but in each and every case, the emphasis in terms of voicing has not been to maintain the original voice, but to expand upon it, changing it as required so that a new identity is revealed: an organ that speaks with one voice, a cohesive ensemble, and a truly musical instrument.

A review of the accompanying tonal specification will reveal where Skinner or Casavant ranks were used in the new disposition, but the basic concept is as follows. The choruswork for Great, Swell, and Choir-Positive is all Casavant, which has been revoiced and in some cases rescaled to achieve the bold, colorful, heroic-yet-transparent, and clear organ ensemble we strive for. Skinner diapasons from the Swell of 195 were repurposed in the Antiphonal organ chorus. Throughout the organ, colorful flutes and strings were used from both organs. The Casavant Swell reed chorus has been revoiced and resides in the Great. The Skinner reed chorus, at least in part, after substantial reconstruction and revoicing, is in the Swell. The Casavant 32′ Contra Posaune, 16′ Trombone, and 8′ Tromba have been combined to provide a reed that plays at 32′, 16′, 8′, and 4′ in the Pedal and at 8′ in the Solo. One rank of the pipes from the church’s former instrument, along with the Zimbelstern and Chimes, was reused in the new organ: a very fine 8′ Trompette-en-Chamade, now installed vertically, in the Antiphonal organ, and called “8′ Harmonic Trumpet.”

Because of its favorable placement and lack of enclosure, the Antiphonal diapason chorus functions more like a Grand Choeur, rather than a secondary, lesser Great. It is a spectacular effect, at once foundational, colorful, and heroic that must be experienced to be fully appreciated.

Most all of the mechanics and internal structure of the organ, including the windchests, façade pipes, console, and winding system, are completely new. Manual windchests for all straight manual ranks are electro-pneumatic slider windchests, constructed according to the Quimby-Blackinton design, with square drop pallets that allow for copious winding of heroically voiced pipes on a common channel. Also importantly, the chests are constructed without slider seals, which means that the organ won’t have to be de-piped and disassembled to replace the slider seals in a few decades, when they are bound to fail.

Our standard electro-pneumatic unit-action windchests have been used for most pedal ranks and manual unit ranks; the exception here exists in a few instances, where 1913 Skinner unit action windchests were restored for reuse with original ranks, such as the Solo 8′ Tuba and the Pedal 32′ Contra Bourdon and 4′ Solo Flute.

The winding system includes a 10-H.P. vintage Spencer blower, which provides 6-inch wind pressure for most manual and pedal flues, and 10-inch wind pressure for all reeds and Solo flues. The Solo 8′ Tuba is on 20-inch wind pressure, with its own step-up blower. New cone-valve reservoirs, according to our custom design, which is an adaptation of the Skinner reservoir, have been constructed for regulation of wind in the Chancel organ. The Antiphonal organ makes use of a blower and static wind system that was retained from the previous organ.

All manual divisions, except the Antiphonal, are individually enclosed by 2-inch-thick expression shutters and solid wood walls, which enable the heroically voiced ensembles to be brought down to a surprising diminuendo, and the soft voices to fade to nearly a whisper. A new four-manual and pedal console was constructed to a custom design and finished to match the renovated interior of the church, with solid oak exterior cabinetry and solid walnut interior.

During the first choral rehearsal with the new organ, director of music Sonny Walden told Mary Ruth Solem, “I know I’ve never said this before in this room, but the organ is too soft. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to say that?!” And he burst out into joyful laughter. Later, as she has continued to rehearse and perform with Opus 76, Mary Ruth said, “I am starting a long friendship with this instrument!  It’s beautiful, and I am immensely grateful . . . . This is a rare gem.”

We hope that the assessment will over time continue to be as equally enthusiastic and kind, as Opus 76 finds its place in the heart of traditional worship at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, and also in the greater organ world beyond. For our own part, at QPO we have found that working with the vintage fabric, as represented by the many ranks of pipes, originally constructed and voiced by some of the most reputable of our organbuilding forebears, has taught us many lessons, and will continue to yield an impact on the development of our organs into the future.

Because the organ is substantially new mechanically, and because the sound of the new organ is completely unlike a 1910s Skinner or a 1930s Casavant, we have given this instrument an opus number in our body of work. To be sure, the completed instrument does, in certain instances, reveal its parentage, but the overall ensemble has as much in common with all-new organs constructed by Quimby Pipe Organs as it does either Casavant or Skinner. This is no mere restoration of an artifact or the assemblage of collected parts; rather, this organ has been conceptualized to be musically communicative, inspiring, and above all, to support the music ministry and worship cycles of Dunwoody United Methodist Church in the broadest, most flexible way possible; an instrument that offers options, rather than limitations. In this regard, Opus 76 is an original creation—a testimony of our own time; one that we hope will remain timelessly relevant for generations to come.

—T. Daniel Hancock, A.I.A., President

Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc.

GREAT (Manual II, enclosed, 17 ranks, flues 6″ w. p., reeds 10″ w. p.)

16′ Violone (a & b) 73 pipes

16′ Bourdon (Ped)

8′ Open Diapason (b) 61 pipes

8′ Harmonic Flute (a) 49 pipes, 1–12 fr 8′ Stopped Diapason

8′ Stopped Diapason 61 pipes

8′ Violoncello (ext 16′)

51⁄3′ Quint (MC) (b) 37 pipes

4′ Octave (b) 61 pipes

4′ Wald Flute (a) 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth (b) 61 pipes

2′ Fifteenth (b) 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Seventeenth (b) 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV (b) 244 pipes

16′ Double Trumpet (b) 61 pipes

8′ Trumpet (b) 61 pipes

4′ Clarion (b) 61 pipes

8′ Tuba (Solo)

8′ Harmonic Trumpet (Ant)

Chimes (d) 25 tubes

Tremolo

Great to Great 16

Great Unison Off

Great to Great 4

SWELL (Manual III, enclosed, 24 ranks, flues 6″ w. p., reeds 10″ w. p.)

16′ Spitz Flute (b) 73 pipes

8′ Open Diapason (b) 61 pipes

8′ Chimney Flute 61 pipes

8′ Spitz Flute (ext 16′)

8′ Gamba (b) 61 pipes

8′ Voix Celeste (b) 61 pipes

8′ Flauto Dolce (b) 61 pipes

8′ Flute Celeste (TC) (b) 49 pipes

4′ Octave (b) 61 pipes

4′ Night Horn 61 pipes

4′ Salicet 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Nazard 61 pipes

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes

2′ Flautina 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Mixture IV–V 281 pipes

16′ Contra Trumpet 61 pipes

16′ Contra Oboe (a & b) 73 pipes

8′ Trumpet (a) 61 pipes

8′ Oboe (ext 16′)

8′ Vox Humana (a) 61 pipes

4′ Clarion (a) 61 pipes

Tremolo

Swell to Swell 16

Swell Unison Off

Swell to Swell 4

CHOIR-POSITIVE (Manual I, enclosed, 20 ranks, 6″ w. p.)

16′ Contra Dulciana (a & c) 73 pipes

8′ Geigen Diapason 61 pipes

8′ Claribel Flute (b) 61 pipes

8′ Gedeckt (c)  61 pipes

8′ Erzähler (b)  61 pipes

8′ Erzähler Celeste (GG) (b) 54 pipes

8′ Dulciana (ext 16′)

8′ Unda Maris (TC) (c) 49 pipes

4′ Geigen Octave (b) 61 pipes

4′ Traverse Flute (b) 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Nazard (b) 61 pipes

2′ Harmonic Piccolo (a) 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tierce (a) 61 pipes

1-1⁄7′ Septieme (a) 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Larigot 61 pipes

1′ Sifflute 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Mixture III–IV 190 pipes

8′ Clarinet (b) 61 pipes Tremolo

8′ Tuba (Solo)

8′ Harmonic Trumpet (Ant)       

8′ French Horn (Solo)    

8′ English Horn (Solo)    

Chimes (Great)      

Choir to Choir 16

Choir Unison Off

Choir to Choir 4

SOLO (Manual IV, enclosed, 12 ranks, 6″ w. p., Tuba 20″ w. p.)

8′ Stentorphone 49 pipes, 1–12 fr Pedal 16′ Diapason

8′ Doppel Flute 49 pipes, 1–12 fr Pedal 32′ Bourdon

8′ Gross Gamba (a) 61 pipes

8′ Gross Gamba Celeste (a) 61 pipes

8′ Dulcet II (a) 122 pipes

4′ Orchestral Flute 61 pipes

4′ Violin 61 pipes

8′ French Horn (b) 61 pipes

8′ English Horn (c) 61 pipes

8′ Orchestral Oboe (c) 61 pipes

Tremolo

16′ Ophicleide (ext 8′, 1–12 Ped Tbone)

8′ Tuba (a)   73 pipes

8′ Harmonic Trumpet (Ant)    

8′ Tromba (Ped)

4′ Tuba Clarion (ext 8′)

Solo to Solo 16

Solo Unison Off

Solo to Solo 4

PEDAL (unenclosed, 10 ranks, flues 6″ w. p., reeds 10″ w. p.)

32′ Contra Bourdon (a) 73 pipes

16′ Open Metal Diapason 56 pipes

16′ Bourdon (ext 32′)

16′ Violone (Great)

16′ Spitz Flute (Swell)

16′ Contra Dulciana (Ch-Pos)

10-2⁄3′ Gross Quint (ext 16′ Open Diap)

8′ Octave (ext 16′)    

8′ Bourdon (ext 32′)

8′ Violoncello (Great)

8′ Spitz Flute (Swell)

6-2⁄5′ Gross Tierce (a) 44 pipes

5-1⁄3′ Quint (ext 16′ Open Diap)

4-4⁄7′ Septieme (b) 32 pipes

4′ Super Octave (ext 16′)

4′ Solo Flute (a) 32 pipes

3-1⁄5′ Tierce (ext 62⁄5′ Gross Tierce)

2-2⁄3′ Mixture IV 124 pipes

32′ Contra Trombone (b) 85 pipes (enclosed with Great)

16′ Trombone (ext 32′)

16′ Double Trumpet (Great)

16′ Contra Trumpet (Swell)

16′ Contra Oboe (Swell)

8′ Tromba (ext 32′)

8′ Trumpet (Swell)  

8′ Oboe (Swell)

4′ Tromba Clarion (ext 32′)

4′ Oboe (Swell)

8′ Tuba (Solo)

ANTIPHONAL (Manual IV, unenclosed in rear gallery, 15 ranks, 6″ w. p., Harmonic Trumpet 10″ w. p.)

8′ Open Diapason (a) 49 pipes, 1–12 fr Ant. Pedal 8′ Octave

8′ Concert Flute (a) 49 pipes, 1–12 fr 8′ Bourdon

8′ Bourdon (c) 61 pipes

8′ Gamba 61 pipes

8′ Voix Celeste (TC) 49 pipes

4′ Octave (a)   61 pipes

4′ Harmonic Flute (c)   61 pipes

2′ Fifteenth (a) 61 pipes

2′ Mixture III–V 244 pipes

8′ Trumpet     73 pipes

8′ Harmonic Trumpet (d) 61 pipes

Zimbelstern (d)

Antiphonal to Antiphonal 16

Antiphonal Unison Off

Antiphonal to Antiphonal 4

ANTIPHONAL PEDAL (unenclosed in gallery, 2 ranks, 6″ w. p.)

16′ Bourdon 44 pipes

8′ Octave (c) 44 pipes

8′ Bourdon (ext 16′)

4′ Super Octave (ext 8′)

16′ Posaune (ext Ant 8′ Trumpet)

8′ Trumpet (Ant)

8′ Harmonic Trumpet (Ant)    

ORIGIN KEY

(a) ranks from 1913 Ernest M. Skinner Company Opus 195, formerly in Grace Chapin Hall, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

(b) ranks from 1939 Casavant Frères Opus 1600, formerly in Immaculate Conception Seminary Chapel, Darlington, New Jersey.

(c) vintage Skinner ranks from QPO inventory.

(d) ranks and tuned percussions from 1972 Schantz Opus 1125, formerly in Dunwoody United Methodist Church, Dunwoody, Georgia.

All other ranks are either new by Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc., or from QPO inventory.

CONSOLE ACCESSORIES

INTER-MANUAL COUPLERS

Great to Pedal 8′, 4′

Swell to Pedal 8′, 4′

Choir-Positive to Pedal 8′, 4′

Solo to Pedal 8′, 4′

Antiphonal on Pedal 8′, 4′

Swell to Great16′, 8′, 4′

Choir-Positive to Great 16′, 8′, 4′

Solo on Great

Antiphonal on Great

Swell to Choir-Positive 16′, 8′, 4′

Solo on Choir-Positive

Great to Choir-Positive 8′

Pedal to Choir-Positive 8′

Manual Transfer

COMBINATION ACTION

General pistons 1–20 (thumb) and 1–10 (toe)

Great divisional pistons 1–8

Swell divisional pistons 1–8

Choir-Positive divisional pistons 1–8

Solo divisional pistons 1–8

Antiphonal divisional pistons 1–5

Pedal divisional pistons 1–5 (thumb), 1–8 (toe)

General Cancel Piston

Set Piston

Memory Level Up and Down pistons

Previous and Next pistons (5 each, thumb) and toe studs (1 each)

Transposer Up and Down pistons

General Crescendo pedal 60 positions, three adjustable and one standard

REVERSIBLES

Great to Pedal piston & toe paddle

Swell to Pedal piston & toe paddle

Choir-Positive to Pedal piston & toe paddle

Solo to Pedal piston & toe paddle

Swell to Great piston

Choir-Positive to Great piston

Swell to Choir piston

Antiphonal on Great piston

Antiphonal on Swell piston

Antiphonal on Choir piston

Antiphonal on Solo piston

Antiphonal on Pedal toe paddle

Pedal on Divisionals piston

32′ Contra Bourdon piston & toe paddle

32′ Contra Trombone piston & toe paddle

Sforzando I and II pistons & toe studs

Manual Transfer—piston & indicator light

Crescendo on Solo Expression piston & indicator light

EXPRESSION & CRESCENDO

Great Expression Pedal

Swell Expression Pedal

Choir-Positive & Solo Expression Pedal

Solo Expression & Crescendo Pedal

SUMMARY

Great 17

Swell 24

Choir-Positive 20

Solo 12

Antiphonal 15

Antiphonal Pedal   2

Pedal 10

Total 100 ranks

Photo credits, including cover (except where noted): Sandra Jausch, Vitamamans-Pictures

John Bishop

Walter Holtkamp and the American Classic

At the Organ Clearing House, we have been working on a Holtkamp organ these days, which has spurred me to remember the fleet of Holtkamps I have known and worked with. I spent my formative years working with John Leek in Oberlin, Ohio, starting when I was a student and John was the school’s organ and harpsichord technician, and continuing after my graduation and after John left the school to form his own company. We built several harpsichords and one complete organ together, and we worked through countless service calls, releathering projects, major repairs, and organ relocations. John had apprenticed and started his career in Holland and immigrated to the United States to work with Walter Holtkamp, Sr. (1895–1962). While working on Holtkamp organs at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he learned that the school was looking for a full-time technician and felt that was the job for him.

John had an active organ maintenance business, and given the proximity to Cleveland, the home of the Holtkamp Organ Company, we worked on dozens of their instruments. Oberlin professor Garth Peacock was organist at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River, Ohio, a 1950s brick building known affectionately (or otherwise) as “The Blue Whale,” where after several unheated service calls for the three-manual Holtkamp, we arrived for a tuning to find the sexton chortling, “I’ve got it good and hot in there for you this time!” Jack Russell was the organ teacher at Wooster College, where the big Holtkamp in the chapel was housed in a cinderblock corral. And David Dunkel, who graduated from Oberlin a few years before me, was organist at Saint Philomena’s Church in East Cleveland where Holtkamp had built an organ with an exposed Rückpositiv in 1936, touted as one of the first Rückpositivs in the United States.

I have written often and recently about the three-manual Holtkamp (1956) in Saint John’s Chapel of the Episcopal Divinity School, formerly the Episcopal Theological School (now defunct) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where my father taught homiletics, and where I had my first organ lessons in 1968. Melville Smith, director of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, was organist of the seminary and a strong advocate of Holtkamp organs. Charles Fisk was an apprentice in the Holtkamp shop, E. Power Biggs was a neighbor of the seminary, and the innovative design of that organ must have attracted a lot of attention.

Recently, the Organ Clearing House was involved in the sale of the fifty-four rank Holtkamp at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, Ohio, my father’s home church, where Gerre Hancock began his illustrious career. My father had two LPs of Boar’s Head festivals at Christ Church as led by “Uncle Gerre,” which included some of the earliest great organ playing and improvisation I ever heard. (Dad also had a Musical Heritage Society recording of vespers at Saint Mary the Virgin in New York City with McNeil Robinson improvising on the marvelous Aeolian-Skinner organ.)

I pulled out my well-worn copy of Orpha Osche’s seminal book, The History of the Organ in the United States, to review her piece about Walter Holtkamp, and found some great insights into his work in his own words and those of his competitors. Walter Holtkamp believed in simple console design, so the ubiquitous Holtkamp console has a table on which the keyboards sit with a simple box above them to house the stop-rail and music rack. Anyone familiar with Holtkamp organs will recognize that little row of six coupler tablets in the center of the stop rail, the basic unison couplers for a three-manual organ. Holtkamp wrote,

There now seems to be a genuine desire on the part of serious musicians to reduce the number of console appliances and spend this money on the inside of the organ. This matter of simplifying consoles directly concerns the couplers. We have far too many couplers. If fewer couplers were used the present confusion in coupler arrangements would never have arisen.¹

Was he implying that musicians who use couplers are not serious? Of course, there are differing points of view. The style of playing developed and advocated by such geniuses as Lynwood Farnam depended heavily on super- and sub-coupling. But Farnam was no showcasing fool. The spectacular console he designed for the 1917 Casavant organ at Boston’s Emmanuel Church included such beauties as “Swell Octave Couplers to Cut Off Swell 2′ Stops.”

Look at the stoplist of most any Holtkamp organ, and you will see lots of fractions and Roman numerals—those voices that speak at intervals and have particularly high pitches. Tasteful use of those stops precludes the use of super couplers. Any organ tuner will tell you to avoid coupling mixtures up and down octaves and to couple mixtures between keyboards only with care. If the Positiv and Great are not in tune with each other, you have nothing to gain and everything to lose by coupling the two together.

Thirty years ago, I knew a tuner who had worked for Aeolian-Skinner who regularly changed the pistons on organs he tuned, taking super-couplers, tremulants, and redundant mixtures out of the combinations, muttering to himself. And several Möller organs I have known had electro-pneumatic cutout switches that would not allow a Celeste and a Mixture to play together, or a Mixture and a super-coupler. Another trick was that a Mixture would not play unless you drew an 8′ Principal.

Upstairs and downstairs, and in my lady’s chamber

Holtkamp believed that a listener/viewer should be able to discern the content of an organ by looking at it, and most of his organs left all of the unenclosed pipes out in the open. With just a little knowledge about the construction of organ pipes, one can construct a stoplist without seeing the console. And with only a few exceptions, Holtkamp organs had only one enclosed division. Holtkamp wrote, “The Swell is the only division under the influence of the shutters. The shutters are plainly visible, and the onlooker is not in doubt as to the function of the apparatus.”²

This visibility of interior components reflects the Bauhaus School of Architecture as practiced by Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, where “form follows function.” It reflects Holtkamp’s thought that an organ should be “honest.” The highly regarded Holtkamp organ in Crouse Hall at the University of Syracuse is a stunning example of this philosophy. What you see is what you get.

Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music houses a modest three-manual Holtkamp organ built in 1972, the work of Walter’s son, “Chick” Holtkamp. A colleague asked me to listen for balance at a rehearsal where she was playing the organ in a large piece for chorus and orchestra. My first suggestion was to stop beating time with the Swell pedal. The shutters were up there flapping “in front of God and everyone.”

The focus on exposed pipes was a factor of sound as well as appearance. Holtkamp was rebelling against the practice common in early and mid-twentieth-century organs of placing pipes in remote chambers. He wrote, “With the present conditions of organ placement, the organist is in the unfortunate position of the man who must woo his lady by correspondence.”³

In my long experience tuning organs, I know a significant disadvantage of organs with many exposed pipes—they are dirty. An organ case or chamber limits the number of airborne particles, protecting the pipes from accumulating excessive dust. I maintain a Delaware organ with many exposed pipes, located in a church on a busy street corner in Manhattan. There is so much dirt and debris in the pipes that Mixtures and other upperwork cannot be tuned.

Anything you can do, I can do better.

Walter Holtkamp and G. Donald Harrison of Aeolian-Skinner were contemporaries, and both were interested in exploring the sounds of classic organs, together contributing to the development of what we now call the “American Classic” tradition. However, Harrison believed in the complex consoles that Holtkamp denounced and regularly installed organs in chambers, a practice that Holtkamp abhorred.

Harrison’s organs reflected his English heritage. The Swell division typically contained a Principal chorus and multiple reed stops, equipping the instruments for extraordinary expressive capabilities, especially valued for choral accompanying. The Swell divisions in Holtkamp organs were less important and less developed than the Great or Positiv divisions and usually included only small reeds such as Schalmei, Bassoon, or the fractional-length Dulzian.

Harrison’s organs used Ernest Skinner’s pitman windchests exclusively. Holtkamp’s extremist philosophy married him to slider chests, the traditional form developed in Europe in the earliest centuries of organ building. We are familiar with the mantra that the classic slider chest with key channels creates superior blend of choruses of voices because all the pipes of a single note from each stop in a division are arranged over a common key channel. In other words, middle C of every stop on the Great is above the middle C key channel. The stops that are speaking are those whose sliders are open, and the air from the open pallet is common to all those middle C pipes.

Walter Holtkamp cheated. While most of his organs have slider stop action, at least on the Great, those chests do not have key channels, but are large open vessels with internal key action similar to that of an Austin organ, with a single round valve under every pipe. That valve action is complex and tricky enough to adjust that it is hard to tell why Holtkamp used them, especially when he was sacrificing the advantages of key channels.

Walter Holtkamp, Sr., was a transitional figure in the history of the twentieth century American pipe organ. His company was founded by George Votteler in Cleveland in 1855. Hermann Holtkamp of Saint Marys, Ohio, joined Votteler in 1903, and the firm was later known as Votteler-Holtkamp-Sparling. Hermann’s son Walter took control of the company in 1931.

By following the evolution of stoplists year by year, it is easy to see how the organs of G. Donald Harrison and Walter Holtkamp developed on different paths. Into the 1950s, while Harrison was producing stately masterpieces such as found at Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Thomas in New York, Holtkamp’s instruments were more edgy and experimental. Like Charles Fisk a decade later, Holtkamp had a large following of admirers, devotees, and advocates. His organs were installed in many prestigious schools of music, including Oberlin, University of California at Berkeley, Trinity College, Yale University, and General Theological Seminary in New York.

Another set of recordings in my father’s collection featured Princeton University organist Carl Weinrich playing Bach on the Holtkamp at General Theological Seminary, a statement from the 1950s version of progressive musicians. This was exactly concurrent with E. Power Biggs’s introduction of the Flentrop organ in Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum and his wildly popular series of recordings, E. Power Biggs Plays Bach Organ Favorites.

Ironically, an example of Holtkamp’s popularity as a progressive organbuilder resulted in the commissioning of a Schantz organ. In the 1950s, Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, was planning for a new organ for the Bryan Recital Hall in the Moore Music Center. They hoped to have an organ by Holtkamp, but the state required that they solicit three bids and take the lowest. The result was a Schantz organ designed by Walter Holtkamp. You can read about that organ at https://pipeorgandatabase.org/OrganDetails.php?OrganID=19242.4.

In 1979, John Leek was engaged to move all the organs owned by Bowling Green State University into their new music building. I had graduated from Oberlin in 1978 and was working with John full time. To spruce up the Schantz organ with its thousands of exposed pipes, we took all the pipes over five feet tall to the workshop where we sprayed them with fresh coats of nickel-gray paint. We loaded the pipes into a U-Haul truck, packing them with appropriate care, and took our usual ten-in-the-morning coffee break. I started off to Bowling Green in the truck, leaving John to make a few phone calls. He would follow me ten minutes later.

As he told it, he drove around a corner on Route 20 heading toward Wakefield, Ohio, and saw a U-Haul truck off the road on its side. A pickup truck had run a stop sign and crossed the highway in front of me. The truck was lying on its left side, with a utility pole where the windshield had been. I was lying in the grass when I came to. It was raining. I still have no idea how I got up and out of the cab through the passenger side door. EMTs were working on me. I had a nasty wound on my scalp. This was six weeks before my wedding. I was put on a stretcher. The woman at my head tugged on the stretcher and said, “Jesus Christ, is he heavy.”

John Leek gave the tow-truck driver a fist-full of money and had him deliver the righted truck to the workshop, where he found that our packing was good enough that there was almost no damage to the organ pipes. Months later, happily married, but still badly bothered by my wound, I was doing a service call on a Möller organ in Sandusky, Ohio. I had removed the pedalboard and was fixing something “down there.” I stood up, cracked my head on the corner of the keyboard table, and a piece of windshield glass came out. I still have a lump there.

Some damn fool . . .

In 1922, Ernest Skinner built a landmark organ in the auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art. In 1933, Walter Holtkamp added a nine-rank Rückpositiv division to it. I imagine the addition must have stood out from the lush strains of the Skinner, but it was considered revolutionary. Sadly, by that time, Ernest Skinner’s philosophies had run out of fashion, and he was no longer sought after to speak at organists’ conventions. In a letter dated February 20, 1976, Robert Baker, the founding director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music wrote,

. . . at the Boston Convention in the 1930s, Mr. Skinner found himself standing alone and both hurt and bewildered in the lobby of the Copley Plaza. Walter Holtkamp, who told me this story, saw him standing there, and said to himself, ‘Now this is a perfect shame!! There stands one of the greatest figures in the art of organ-building, and all those sissies are afraid to go up to speak to him, for fear they might lose face amongst their peers!’ So Walter sauntered over, saying ‘Mr. Skinner, I am Walter Holtkamp from Cleveland, and I just want to thank you for all you have meant and done for the art of organ-building through your splendid career.’ Mr. Skinner, by that time a bit hard of hearing, and a bit slower on the uptake by then, got only one thing out of this, and that was the word ‘Cleveland.’ So he responded, ‘Cleveland! Say, you know, I have one of my best organs out there in the Art Museum, and some damn fool has come along and just ruined it.’ ⁵

Notes

1. Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States, Indiana University Press, 1975, page 386.

2. Ochse, page 388.

3. Ochse, page 388.

4. For those who are not aware, most of the organs I mention in this column­—in fact most of the organs in the United States—are documented in the Pipe Organ Database of the Organ Historical Society. If you would like to know more, open https://pipeorgandatabase.org/Organs.SearchForm-Quick.php in your browser, and fill in the form.

5. Dorothy Holden, The Life and Work of Ernest Skinner, Organ Historical Society, 1987, page 179.

Létourneau Pipe Organs, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada; Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church is a large, welcoming ELCA congregation founded in 1908. Serving the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, the church opened its present sanctuary in 1952 with subsequent additions to the church complex to accommodate the congregation’s growth and needs. An unusually active congregation, Gloria Dei undertakes its outreach and social justice ministries enthusiastically through various environmental, housing, hunger, and advocacy initiatives.

The pipe organ from Gloria Dei’s previous church building served the new sanctuary until it was replaced in 1962 by M. P. Möller’s Opus 9864. A three-manual instrument, the Möller employed significant unification throughout its modest specification, making the very most of its 36 ranks. The small and oddly shaped organ chamber dictated that the Möller had to be shoehorned in to a rarely seen degree. With chamber openings along one side of the chancel, most organ tone passed laterally across the chancel where it was then reflected off the opposite wall and dispersed out to the nave—but not before first passing through the deep chancel arch. As a result, the Möller was barely adequate for its many roles and was augmented in 1975 with the addition of an eight-rank Antiphonal division high on the back wall of the sanctuary, again by M. P. Möller.

After more than five decades of service, the Möller’s electro-pneumatic windchests were exhibiting typical signs of wear and leather failure, but the cramped organ chamber made chest repairs unreasonably difficult and costly. Cleverly, a unit chest was set up as an interim solution at the back of the Swell division to serve as a catchall for dead note actions as they came up. Pipes whose actions had failed were plucked from their original chests, reset on the unit chest at the back of the chamber, and the unit chest wired accordingly to the switching system.

The accelerating frequency of problems with the Möller was a serious issue, but the organ’s compromised location meant that a complete restoration—or even an all-new instrument in the same chamber—would not provide the improvement Gloria Dei was seeking. As part of their deliberations, the Gloria Dei organ committee looked carefully at all options as far as the organ’s placement and soon determined that the organ should go across the front wall of the chancel. Exceptionally, the organ committee’s discernment process blossomed into a larger sanctuary renewal campaign entitled “Rise, O Church.” In the words of Pastor Bradley Schmeling, “Rise, O Church is more than just buying a new organ or doing some remodeling. It’s about our dedication to be a growing, vibrant congregation ready to meet the needs of future generations and our neighboring community.”

In the meantime, Létourneau had been advertising a 1959 Casavant Frères pipe organ that the company had rescued from a closed church in Toronto, Ontario. The advertisement proposed completing the Casavant’s specification with several new stops, and this caught the attention of Gloria Dei’s organ consultant, Gregory Peterson, then of Luther College, and Tim Strand, Gloria Dei’s director of music.

The Casavant was an early instrument in Lawrence Phelps’s tenure as tonal director and displayed some of the first steps in the profound and rapid change of style Phelps oversaw in Casavant Frères organs. Vestiges from the era predating Phelps include the 16′ Flûte conique and the 8′ Aeoline stops in the Swell plus an augmented Pedal division. On the other hand, the Choir 4′ Koppelflöte, the organ’s narrow-scaled reed stops with parallel shallots, the generally thin-walled pipework, and the boldly scaled upperwork were examples of Phelps’s emerging aesthetic. As the Casavant featured no casework or façade pipes, our advertisement also offered new casework with façade pipes for the expanded instrument.

With the Casavant’s 34-rank specification as a starting point, we expanded the instrument with eighteen additional ranks to complete each of the instrument’s four divisions. To the Great division, we added a 16′ Contra Geigen stop and a soaring 8′ Flûte harmonique, as well as trumpet stops at 8′ and 4′ pitches. The Swell division was already largely complete; the only changes were the replacement of the 8′ Aeoline with a proper 4′ Principal stop and the addition of a new 16′ Bombarde stop with full-length resonators scaled to match the 8′ Trompette and 4′ Clairon.

Devised in an era when Positiv divisions were coming into fashion, the original Choir division was judged to be short on 8′ foundation tone. The addition of new 8′ Geigen Principal and 4′ Geigen Octave stops addressed this point, as well as the new undulating rank to go with the 8′ Spitzflöte. A new three-rank Sharp mixture completes the Choir’s principal chorus, offering more brilliance than its counterparts in the Swell. To augment the existing Swell 8′ Oboe and Choir 8′ Clarinet stops, we added a delicate 8′ Cor anglais as a third solo reed option.

The Pedal division was built on a rich-toned 16′ Contrabass stop in zinc, though it was originally extended to play at 8′ and 4′ pitches. The original 8′ extension of the 16′ Subbass rank was maintained, but new 8′ Principal and 4′ Choral Bass ranks plus a three-rank mixture were added to provide a true pedal chorus. Bold reed stops at 16′ and 8′ were also added to give the Pedal the necessary grandeur and color.

The Casavant electro-pneumatic windchests in solid mahogany were restored in our workshops, with new electro-pneumatic chests provided as needed. The original chests’ 68-note compass was retained and carried over into the new windchests as well. The organ’s painted casework was designed by Claude Demers and was constructed from maple; it features polished pipework in 70% tin from the Great 16′ Contra Geigen, the Great 8′ Principal, and the Pedal 8′ Principal ranks.

The eight-rank Antiphonal division and its 8′ Trompette en chamade with polished brass resonators were retained as part of the project for added support from the rear of the nave. The Möller electro-pneumatic windchests were restored, while the Antiphonal’s wind system was rebuilt to incorporate a new blower.

The instrument is played from a new three-manual console with the shell made from rift sawn red oak and the interior panels in walnut. Built to be as compact as possible for good sightlines, the console offers organists 999 levels of memory, twelve General pistons with sequencer, a sostenuto effect for each manual, a Great-Choir Manual Transfer feature, and a Pedal Divide coupler. Numeric displays showing the positions of the Swell and Choir’s expression shades are included, as is Solid State Organ System’s Organist Palette. An iPad-controlled suite of features, the palette includes a wireless record-playback interface, visual management of the General piston sequencer, a transposer, and control of the various sostenutos and the Pedal Divide coupler.

The organ was delivered to the church in late October of 2022 and was installed in collaboration with the Organ Clearing House. The voicing of the instrument commenced after Thanksgiving with the welcome participation of Jonathan Ortloff for several weeks, and the project was wrapped up in the New Year.

Létourneau’s Opus 137 was played by Tim Strand in its first solo concert on April 23, 2023. Seminal works by Cook, Bach, Duruflé, and Vierne were heard by a large and especially enthusiastic crowd, as were the world premieres of two new pieces. The first, Partita on “Rise O Church, like Christ Arisen” by David Cherwien, is based on the hymn of the same name, tune Surge Ecclesia (written by Mr. Strand), and featuring words written by Dr. Chewien’s late wife Susan. The second work was a rich new setting of the Swedish tune “The Earth Adorned in Verdant Robe” for saxophone and organ by Robert Buckley Farlee, with Kurt Claussen playing the soprano saxophone.

Many people played important roles—some visible, some less so—in helping us and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church realize this organ project. We would like to thank Tim Strand, Gregory Peterson, Pastor Bradley Schmeling, Mike Kruger (chair of Gloria Dei’s Sanctuary Renewal Task Force), Teresa Sterns (project manager for Gloria Dei), Todd Kraft and Sara Du of HGA Architects, the team at Langer Construction, the Organ Clearing House, and the Ortloff Organ Company.

—Létourneau Pipe Organs

Photo credit: Andrew Forrest

 

GREAT – Manual II

16′ Contra Geigen 68 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Principal 68 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Harmonic Flute 68 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Gemshorn 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Bourdon 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

4′ Octave 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

4′ Rohrflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV 244 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Trumpet 68 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Clarion 68 pipes new, 56% tin

Great 16′ - Great Unison Off - Great 4′

8′ Trompette en chamade 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework (with Antiphonal)

Zimbelstern

SWELL (enclosed) – Manual III

16′ Flûte conique 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Viole de gambe 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Voix Celeste 61 pipes from g8, Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Rohrflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

4′ Principal 68 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Nachthorn 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Piccolo 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Mixture III 183 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

16′ Bombarde 68 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Trompette 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Oboe 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework, new shallots

4′ Clairon 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

Tremulant

Swell 16′ - Swell Unison Off - Swell 4′

CHOIR (enclosed) – Manual I

8′ Geigen Diapason 68 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Gedackt 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Spitzflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Flute Celeste 61 pipes from g8, new, zinc and 56% tin

4′ Geigen Principal 68 pipes new, 56% tin

4′ Koppelflöte 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2-2⁄3′ Nazard 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

2′ Flageolet 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

1-3⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

1′ Sharp Mixture III 183 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Clarinet 68 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

8′ Cor anglais 68 pipes new, zinc and 56% tin

Tremulant

Choir 16′ - Choir Unison Off - Choir 4′

16′ Trompette en chamade (TC) from Great

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

ANTIPHONAL – floating

8′ Spitz Principal 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

4′ Octave 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

4′ Gedackt 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

2′ Super Octave 61 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

1′ Mixture III 183 pipes M. P. Möller pipework

PEDAL

32′ Resultant derived

16′ Contrabass 32 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

16′ Geigen from Great

16′ Spitz Principal 12 pipes extension of Antiphonal 8′ Spitz Principal

16′ Subbass 32 pipes Casavant Frères pipework

16′ Flûte conique from Swell

8′ Principal 32 pipes new, 70% tin

8′ Bass Flute 12 pipes extension of 16′ Subbass

8′ Flûte conique from Swell

4′ Choral Bass 32 pipes new, 56% tin

2-2⁄3′ Mixture III 96 pipes new, 56% tin

16′ Trombone 32 pipes new, 56% tin

16′ Bombarde from Swell

8′ Trumpet 32 pipes new, 56% tin

8′ Trompette en chamade from Great

4′ Trompette en chamade from Great

Intermanual Couplers

Great to Pedal

Great 4′ to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Swell 4′ to Pedal

Choir to Pedal

Choir 4′ to Pedal

Antiphonal to Pedal

Swell 16′ to Great

Swell to Great

Swell 4′ to Great

Choir 16′ to Great

Choir to Great

Choir 4′ to Great

Antiphonal to Great 

Swell 16′ to Choir

Swell to Choir

Swell 4′ to Choir

Great to Choir

Antiphonal to Choir

Choir to Swell

Antiphonal to Swell 

 

59 stops, 60 ranks, 3,591 pipes

 

Mixture Compositions

Great Mixture IV

c1 to b12 19 22 26 29

c13 to b24 15 19 22 26

c25 to f42 12 15 19 22

f#43 to b48 8 12 15 19

c49 to c61 1 8 12 15

Swell Mixture III

c1 to f18 15 19 22

f#19 to f30 12 15 19

f#31 to f54 8 12 15

f#55 to c61 1 8 12

Choir Sharp Mixture III

c1 to d#16 22 26 29

e17 to d27 19 22 26

d#28 to c#38 15 19 22

d39 to c49 12 15 19

c#50 to c61 8 12 15

Antiphonal Mixture III

c1 to f18 22 26 29

f#19 to c37 19 22 26

c#38 to c49 15 19 22

c#50 to e53 12 15 19

f54 to c61 8 12 15

Pedal Mixture III

c1 to g32 19 22 26

 

Builder website: www.letourneauorgans.com

Church website: www.gloriadeistpaul.org

Pasi Pipe Organ Builders, Inc., Roy, Washington; Saint George’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia

From the organ builder

When all the stars line up as they have for this project, a happy outcome is almost a sure thing. Right from the beginning, several years ago, when I was invited to submit a proposal for a new organ at Saint George’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia, all the different components of a good chance were there.

Dr. Benjamin Keseley sent me a packet of complete information about the building and the music program at Saint George’s and their desire for a new instrument. Following a site visit and meeting with the organ committee, we submitted the proposal with specifications and drawings. The window needed to be preserved in its full glory and there needed to be ample space for the choir. The goal was to end up with a rather complete two-manual and pedal instrument without borrowing between stops.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the good people at Saint George’s led by the Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams, rector, who has lent a great amount of support to the music ministry. A special thank you to Dr. Benjamin Keseley, minister of music, always ready to listen and act on the many components that made this project a success. Thank you to the choir, the backbone of a church music program, and all the friendly people at Saint George’s.

None of all this could have happened without the team effort at Pasi Organ Builders, starting with Markus Morscher, long-time right-hand wood guy who ensures smooth operations at the shop and installations; Maurine Pasi, reed pipe maker, carver and general organ builder; Luke Sumerfield, pipe maker; Anthony Balducci, on site installation; David Cason, finish voicing assisting on site; Mark Matters, stop action combination system including wiring.

Thank you to everyone contributing in any way to the successful completion of Opus 28.

—Martin Pasi

From the voicing assistant

I assisted with the voicing of Pasi Opus 28 during the month of November 2021. Part of that experience, unique for an organist, was to hear the instrument come into being in an integral way, a kind of slow-motion evolution. It has been fascinating to hear so many individual voices and colors emerge into a cohesive and artistic whole!

At 33 stops over two manuals and pedal, this instrument includes complete principal and flute choruses in all divisions, colorful variety in foundation and reed voices, and several uniquely colorful stops. Principal choruses have the required brilliance for clarity while the individual tone of the pipes is remarkably warm and vocal in quality; these are plenums with both liveliness and gravitas. The Swell plenum is not secondary to the Great but stands on its own with brilliance and character. Capped and open flutes are available at 8′ and 4′ pitches, and the 4′ flutes are particularly “telling” in the room, giving the cornet combinations remarkable weight. The mutations and 2′ stops simply dance. The Great Trumpet has plenty of brilliance, and like the principals, it is warm throughout its range. The Swell 16′ Dulcian adds transparent warmth and color to the ensemble and is of course a beautiful solo stop. The Swell strings are quite bright, with gentle speech, and carry throughout the room beautifully. Pedal reeds also lend harmonic color while adding to the fundamental presence of that division. The two 16′ Pedal flues—one open, one stopped—complement each other well; the bass tones in the Pedal are present, and never out of balance. (At the conclusion of my time with the organ, the Swell Trumpet and Oboe were not yet in place.)

A few unique features lend even more interest to this already expressive instrument. Most Pasi instruments include an 8′ Suavial, which is tuned as a celeste to the 8′ Principal; the effect is bold and swimming foundation tone. The Quintadena is transparently bright and colorful in contrast to the warm flutes. A rare luxury is the Swell Principal, which is in the façade! Its construction is nearly the same as that of the Great Principal, and its tone is only slightly different. Having both principals in the façade is part of what gives Opus 28 its sense of gravitas, and along with the Pedal Principal, the option to play a Bach trio on balanced and singing principals is more than welcome! These layers of effect, placement, and color from the principals, Quintadena, and Suavial lend the kind of color and variety that we normally only expect from choruses and upperwork. These quieter effects coupled with a responsive action make this instrument imminently expressive; there are layers and layers of color to explore.

Organists who play this instrument for the first time will notice the sensitive action and buoyant acoustic. The overall playing experience is a delight and quite intimate thanks to the proximity of the console to the case; the console is detached, but not distant. At the bench one can hear the room and still sense the immediacy of the action. The console layout is neat and comfortable, with all stops and controls easily visible. The control system is by Pipe Organ Control, which integrates perfectly with the console, with minimal pistons for memory and sequencer control.

I must not omit an obvious first impression for any who see this instrument: the case. The visual impact of this instrument is stunning. Like the tone of the instrument itself, the visual element of the case and façade complements the church without overwhelming the space, a clear testament to the artistry of Martin Pasi and his immensely talented shop of artisans.

Congratulations to Martin Pasi and Saint George’s congregation on this collaboration.

—David Cason

David Cason is organist of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lawrence, Kansas. He continues organ study with James Higdon at the University of Kansas where he earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in organ performance.

From the minister of music

Saint George’s Episcopal Church is a vibrant, social-justice-minded parish located in the heart of Arlington, Virginia, a few miles from downtown Washington, D.C. The music ministry spans from cradle to grave, offering a graded choir program for children as well as choral and bell opportunities for adults. Music is a cornerstone of the Saint George’s community, from Sunday morning to monthly Evensong, concerts, and informal gatherings.

When I arrived in the summer of 2009, I found a delightful congregation strongly committed to their ministries, including music. The organ was a 1911 Wicks that was reengineered by Newcomer Organ Company and installed into an annexed chamber off the front of a newly built nave in 1952. At two manuals, 25 stops, and 27 ranks, the organ received minor reconfigurations throughout the years. In the past twenty years it had fallen into disrepair, not because of neglect, but simply because it was not designed to last for that long. The console and switching system were in a very fragile state. There were also fundamental design flaws: its scaling was too small for the room, and a floor level placement meant the pipes spoke directly into the choir’s ears. Despite these things, the organ sounded remarkably better than it deserved because the room’s acoustic was quite good.

With the arrival of a new rector in December 2010, the parish soon began to address the need for an updated and accessible worship space. The church recognized that the organ and room were linked: changes to one affected the other. An organ committee was formed to work alongside the renovation committee to evaluate the organ and determine how to best support the needs of a growing and dynamic music ministry. After receiving a thorough education in organ building, the committee commissioned an independent review of the instrument from John Santoianni, curator of organs at Duke University, to supplement their own review and study. The vestry unanimously agreed with John and the committee’s conclusion that building a new instrument would yield the most successful result, and in the long run be the most cost-effective path forward.

The committee continued their work visiting many organs from electronic to hybrid to electric-action and mechanical-action instruments. Through this extensive survey and research, they determined that a mechanical-action instrument would be the best choice for the church. After soliciting proposals and interviewing several organ builders, the committee and vestry chose Martin Pasi. His proposal was for a two-manual, mechanical-action instrument of 33 stops, 39 ranks, with a detached console. The committee was impressed by Pasi’s approach to organ building and the fine attention to detail in all aspects of his instruments.

As an organist who knew Pasi’s work, I was thrilled with the choice. I have played several of Pasi’s instruments and have been impressed with the responsive action, the quality of stops rich in fundamental tone, and the lyrical voicing—and his organ cases are beautiful.

While the organ committee did its work, the renovation side of our project focused on the redesign of the nave to provide an accessible altar and space. Plans for the choir area were designed in conjunction with Martin’s design. This allowed us to prepare a proper seating area for the choir with clear sight lines to the organ console, construct steel floor supports for the organ, design in-floor heating so that it was not under the organ or other instruments, and provide proper humidification and future electrical connections for the organ.

From the very beginning of these projects, I insisted that Saint George’s retain the services of an acoustician. Having experienced the exceptional results of Bob Mahoney’s work at Bales Organ Recital Hall at the University of Kansas, I knew this was essential to a successful space renovation. We hired Bob to guide our process and committed to having acoustical considerations be one of our core principles for the renovation. I was pleased that the parish quickly understood addressing these considerations at each step of the journey, while not inexpensive, would yield invaluable results. We were thankful for Bob’s approach to acoustical design that sought to tune the building acoustic for music and treat the spoken word with technology. To this end, the church installed a Meyer line-array column speaker that successfully allows for the spoken word to be understood clearly in a reverberant space.

Acoustical modifications to the room included the installation of a new silent HVAC system, complete with tunneling large, insulated ducts under the floor to move large quantities of air slowly. Care was taken to ensure air returns were at a significant distance from air supply to reduce noise. All HVAC systems were designed to noise criterion 25.

Further acoustical upgrades to the building included the addition of an inch of solid wood to the nave ceiling to increase bass response and filling voids in the plaster walls of the chancel with high density foam insulation to create a solid mass. The old chamber that would be used for the Pedal division was strengthened with double layers of sheetrock placed on studs eight inches on center. Cavities were filled with high-density foam.

A new ceiling was constructed above the choir area with a sawtooth design to help move sound out past the proscenium arch. This ceiling design proved extremely effective. Final acoustical tests reaffirmed our acoustical work was highly successful with a new reverb time of over four seconds (before organ installation) and a significant increase in bass response. This was all one could hope for in a simple room from the 1950s that seats 300 people. The tremendous results of the room’s acoustical modifications have enabled our new organ to speak in a very relaxed and free manner.

The installation of the organ was a joyous occasion for the people of Saint George’s with nearly fifty people, aged 4 to 92, carrying in many parts of the organ on a Sunday afternoon in early October 2021. The parish support for and excitement about this organ is broad and infectious. This beautiful instrument will support our needs for leading congregational singing, accompanying the choir, and playing of a wide range of organ repertoire for generations to come.

Opus 28 is a sheer joy to play. From the quality of its sounds to the vocality of its voicing, soulful winding, and exquisite action, this instrument sings. I am continually impressed with each stop’s ability to function well both in solo and ensemble roles. It is efficient and plays like a larger instrument. The layout of this organ makes it an exceptional tool for teaching about all aspects of the organ, including construction, design, and winding (with its optional foot-pumped bellows). It is an instrument that teaches you how to play.

I commend Martin and his team for their exceptional work. We are thrilled to be a part of the Pasi family and blessed to count Martin and his associates a part of our community. They brought forth a beautiful instrument of praise for the worship of God. This project is a fine example of the perfect marriage of room and instrument, and we couldn’t be happier. We look forward to sharing it for years to come. Soli Deo Gloria!

—Ben Keseley

Minister of Music, Saint George’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia

 

Builder’s website: pasiorgans.com

Church’s website: saintgeorgeschurch.org

Photo credit: Dr. Benjamin Keseley

GREAT

16′ Bourdon 58 pipes

8′ Principal 58 pipes

8′ Suavial (MC) 34 pipes

8′ Spitzflöte 58 pipes

8′ Quintadena 58 pipes

4′ Octave 58 pipes

4′ Nachthorn 58 pipes

3′ Quinte 58 pipes

2′ Octave 58 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Terz 52 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV 221 pipes

8′ Trumpet 58 pipes

Zimbelstern

SWELL

8′ Principal 58 pipes

8′ Gedackt 58 pipes

8′ Viol 58 pipes

8′ Viol Celeste (TC) 46 pipes

4′ Principal 58 pipes

4′ Rohrflöte 58 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Nazard 58 pipes

2′ Octave 58 pipes

2′ Waldflöte 58 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tierce 52 pipes

1′ Mixture IV 221 pipes

16′ Dulcian 58 pipes

8′ Trumpet 58 pipes

8′ Oboe 58 pipes

PEDAL

16′ Open Bass 30 pipes

16′ Subbass 30 pipes

8′ Principal 30 pipes

8′ Spitzflöte 30 pipes

4′ Octave 30 pipes

16′ Posaune 30 pipes

8′ Trumpet 30 pipes

 

Tremulant

Swell to Great

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

 

Freestanding case in solid hardwood, detached console

Hand-carved pipe shades

Mechanical suspended key action

Electric stop action with combination system by Pipe Organ Control/Matters

Foot-pumped winding system with three bellows in addition to the blower-fed bellows (75mm of wind on water column)

Well tempered tuning

Balanced Swell pedal

Slightly concave pedalboard

33 stops, 39 ranks, 1,996 pipes

John Bishop

Connectivity

It does not seem that long ago that packing a briefcase for a business trip meant gathering file folders and notebooks. Today, all my files are digital, and my briefcase is full of chargers for iPhone and iPad and the power cord for my laptop. I admit to carrying an HDMI cord with adapters so I can plug into the television in a hotel room and watch movies or other good stuff using laptop, iPad, or phone, and I carry an extension cord to be sure I can set up camp comfortably. I add to all that a Bluetooth speaker so I can listen to music and NPR programs with rich sound. There are a lot of wires in my wireless life.

My desk at home similarly includes wires that make the essential connections of my life, and I had to add one more yesterday. The printer in a drawer under my desk, happily connected to Wi-Fi, suddenly went hermit on me and refused to perform. I ascertained that the Wi-Fi connection had failed and spent most of an hour mucking around with passwords, straightened paper clips, and reset buttons . . . to no avail. If this had happened at our home in Maine, I would have jumped into the car (it was snowing) and driven forty-five minutes to Staples to buy a cord. Luckily, I was in New York, where Staples is immediately across the street from us. The only door I have to pass is an ATM. Even though it was snowing, I did not bother with a jacket and ran across to get the cord. I fished it through the hole I had made for the printer’s power cord, and I was back in business.

I suppose I will want to renew the Wi-Fi connection sooner or later, but as I only paid $125 for the printer, I may just buy another one rather than spending more time trouble-shooting. Wendy’s printer is working fine, as is all of our other wireless gear, so I feel safe assuming that the printer is the culprit. It is not all that long ago that I put paper directly into a typewriter, and there was no question about the need for connectivity.

§

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, scientists and engineers were racing against each other to perfect the harnessing and application of electricity for everyday life. J. P. Morgan’s mansion at Madison Avenue and East 36th Street in New York City was illuminated by Thomas Edison in 1882. There was a fire that spoiled Mr. Morgan’s expensively appointed study that necessitated replacing a lot of wiring, but he was very proud to be on the forefront of that revolution and invited hundreds of people to parties at his home, encouraging them to marvel at the new equipment.

Three years earlier, E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings had completed a 101-rank masterpiece of an organ for the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. I have not done the research, but I feel safe guessing that it was the largest organ in the United States at that time. (https://pipeorgandatabase.org/OrganDetails.php?OrganID=7254) Just look at that Great Chorus! Though the organ now has electric action opening the pallets, it was built without electricity, with mechanical key and stop action and a human-powered wind system.

Within ten years of the completion of the organ at Holy Cross, organbuilders were experimenting with electric power in pipe organs. Builders like George Hutchings and Ernest M. Skinner were developing the electro-pneumatic actions with which we are familiar today. In 1906, Mr. Skinner completed his massive instrument (Opus 150) for the newly unfinished Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. With four manuals and eighty-four ranks, it was among the first really large fully electro-pneumatic organs in the world, completed just twenty-four years after the Holy Cross organ. (http://aeolianskinner.organhistoricalsociety.net/Specs/Op00150.html) And by the way, it had electric blowers.

That was quite a revolution. It took barely a generation to move from tracker action, proven to be reliable for over five hundred years, to electro-pneumatic action—that new-fangled, up-and-coming creation that provided organists with combination actions, comfortable ergonomic consoles (decades before the invention of the word ergonomic), myriad gadgets to aid registrations, and, perhaps most important, unlimited wind supplies. Many organists were skeptical of the new actions, thinking that because they were not direct they could not be musical.

In spite of the skepticism, electro-pneumatic organs sold like fried dough at the state fair. Before the end of 1915, the Ernest M. Skinner Company produced more than 140 organs (more than ten per year), forty-six of which had four manuals. (Who would like to go on a tour of forty-six pre-World War I four-manual Skinner organs? Raise your hand!) The negative side of this is the number of wonderful nineteenth-century tracker organs that were discarded in the name of progress, but it is hard to judge whether the preservation of those instruments would have been advantageous over the miracles of the innovation of electro-pneumatic action.

And a generation later, what went around came around when the new interest in tracker-action organs surged, and scores of distinguished electro-pneumatic organs were discarded in favor of new organs with low wind pressure and lots of stops of high pitch.

§

Early electro-pneumatic organs relied on elaborate electro-pneumatic-mechanical switching systems for their operation. Keyboard contacts operated matrix relays to control keyboard and stop actions. Consoles were packed full of coupling and combination machines, inspired along with the development of the vast multiplication of switching systems that supported the spread of the telephone. The wiring diagram of a Skinner organ is remarkably similar to the old telephone switchboards where operators inserted quarter-inch plugs into sockets to connect calls.

Along with “traditional” organs for churches and concert halls, the advance of electric actions fostered the theatre organ, a vehicle that allowed a musician to rollick through the countryside along with the antics and passions of the actors on the screen. The invention of double-touch keyboards expanded the scope of organ switching, as did the ubiquitous “toy counters” that duplicated the sounds of cow bells, train whistles, sleigh bells, thunder and lightning, car horns, and dozens of other sound effects that might have a use during a movie. Those novelty sounds were not synthesized, but produced by the actual instrument being manipulated, struck, shaken, or stirred by an electro-pneumatic device. Push the button marked “Castanets,” and a half-dozen sets of castanets sound across the Sea of Galilee. Ole!

The original switching system of a big electro-pneumatic organ is a thing to behold—electric relays in rows of sixty-one, seventy-three, or eighty-five (depending on the number of octaves in a rank, a windchest, or a keyboard). Each relay has a contact for each function a given key can perform. In a big four-manual organ with sub, unison, and super couplers every which way, multiple windchests for each division, and unified stops around the edges, one note of the Great keyboard might have as many as twenty contacts in various forms. Sometimes you see that many contacts physically mounted on each key, with miniscule spacing, and tiny dots of solder holding the connections fast. Spill a cup of coffee into that keyboard, and your organ technician will spend scores of billable hours cleaning up after you.

One organ I worked on for years was in fact two. The organ(s) at Trinity Church in Boston included a three-manual instrument in the chancel and a four-manual job in the rear gallery. Of course, both had pedal divisions. The console functioned as a remote-control device, its keyboards, stopknobs, pistons, and expression pedals operated a complex relay in a basement room directly below. The outputs for seven keyboards and two pedalboards (491), 175 stop knobs, 45 coupler tabs, 7 pistons, and 4 expression pedals (48 for shutters, 60 for crescendo) were in the cable going to the basement, a total of 826 conductors. But wait, there’s more. Since the combination action was also in the basement, the conductors from the combination action that operated the drawknobs and couplers were in the same conduit, bringing signals up from the basement. Drawknobs and couplers totaled 220, and each needed three wires (on coil, off coil, and sense contact)—660. All together, the console cable comprised 1,486 conductors.

When my company was engaged to install the new solid-state switching and combinations in that organ, we wired all the equipment to the existing relays in the basement and chambers, bought an orphaned console for temporary use and equipped it with new stop jambs with knob layout identical to the original, and set everything up with plug-in connectors. After the evening service one Sunday, we cut the console cable, dragged the original console out of the way, placed the temporary console, and started plugging things in. With just a little smoke escaping, we had the organ up and running in time for the Friday noon recital. One glitch turned up. One of my employees consistently reversed the violet/blue pair of conductors in our new color-coded cable so throughout the complex organ, #41 and #42 (soprano E and F) were mixed up!

When something goes wrong like a dead note or a cipher, physical electric contacts are fairly easy to trouble-shoot. Once you have acclimated yourself to the correct location, you are likely to be able to see the problem. It might be a bit of schmutz keeping contacts from moving or touching, it might be a contact wire bent by a passing mouse. Organ relays are often located in dirty basements where spiders catch prey, stonewalls weep with moisture, and careless custodians toss detritus into mysterious dark rooms. Many is the time I have seen the like of signs from a 1963 rummage sale heaped on top of delicate switching equipment.

Oxidation is another enemy of organ contacts that are typically made of phosphorous bronze wire that reacts with oxygen to form a non-conductive coating, inhibiting the operation of the contacts. Also, in a simple circuit that includes a power supply (organ rectifier), switch (keyboard contact), and appliance (chest magnet), a “fly-back” spark jumps across the space between contacts as a note is released. Each spark burns away a teeny bit of metal until after millions of repetitions the contact breaks causing a dead note. You can see this sparking clearly when you sit with a switch-stack with the lights off while the organ is being played.

You can retro fit a switching system by installing diodes in each circuit (which means rows of sixty-one) that arrest the sparks. You can replace phosphorous bronze with silver wire that does not oxidize, but you still have to keep the whole thing clean and protected from physical harm.

§

Just as the telephone companies have converted to solid-state switching, so has the pipe organ industry. Solid-state equipment is no longer new; in fact, it has been around as long as electro-pneumatic organs were before the revival of tracker organs. But perhaps some of you don’t actually know what “solid-state” means. A solid-state device controls electricity without any physical motion. Circuits are built using semi-conductors. What is a semi-conductor? A device that conducts electricity under certain circumstances or in particular ways, less fully than a standard conductor. A piece of wire is a conductor. Electricity travels freely over a piece of wire in any direction.

A great example of a semi-conductor is the diode I mentioned earlier that contains “fly-back” sparks when a circuit is broken. The diode can do this because it conducts electricity in only one direction. It has a wire on each end to connect to a circuit, and power can flow from the switch through the diode to the magnet (if you have installed it facing the right way!). When the contact is released, the power cannot come back through the diode from the magnet to the switch. Semi-conductor.

Some semi-conductors are in fact switches (transistors) with three legs. Apply power to one leg, and power flows through the other two. Integrated circuits are simply little gadgets that contain many transistors. Resistors are gadgets that reduce the flow of power by resisting it. The advance of electronics has been enabled by the reduction of size of these components. I have transistors in my toolbox that are replacements for common organ controls that are each the size of my pinkie fingernail. Huge! I have no idea how many circuits there are in my iPhone, but it must be millions.

I first worked with solid-state organ actions in the late 1970s. One job was in a rickety Anglican church on East 55th Street in Cleveland where we were installing one of the earliest Peterson combination actions in an old Holtkamp organ. The church had a dirt crawl space instead of a basement, and as the apprentice, it was my job to crawl on my belly with the rats (yup, lots of them), trailing cables from chamber to console. We followed the directions meticulously, made all the connections carefully, crossed our fingers, and turned it on. Some smoke came out. It took us a couple hours to sort out the problem, and we had to wait a few days for replacement parts, but the second time it worked perfectly. I do not believe we were very sure of what we had done, but we sure were pleased.

In around 1987, I became curator of the marvelous Aeolian-Skinner organ (Opus 1202, 1951) at the First Church of Christ, Scientist (The Mother Church) in Boston. With over 230 ranks and 13,000 pipes, the instrument had heaps of electro-pneumatic-mechanical relays. As I came onboard, wire contacts had started to break at a rapid rate, and as the switches were mounted vertically, when a contact broke, it would fall and lodge across its neighbors causing cluster ciphers. Ronald Paul of Salt Lake City, Utah, had been contracted to install a new solid-state switching system, and I was on hand to help him with many details. I was assuming the care of the organ from Jason McKown who had worked personally with Ernest Skinner at the Skinner Organ Company and cared for the Mother Church organ since it was installed. Jason was in his eighties and still climbed the hundreds of rungs and steps involved in reaching the far reaches of that massive organ.

Jason looked over all the shiny gear, bristling with rows of pins and filled with those fiberglass cards covered with mysterious bugs, shook his head, and said, “this is for you young fellows.”

Swing wide the gates.

Over the past fifty years, most of us have gotten used to solid-state pipe organ actions. In that time, we have seen the medium of connections go from regular old organ cable to “Cat5” to optical fiber. I know that some of the firms that supply this equipment are experimenting with wireless connections. I suppose I may be asked to install such a system someday, but while I am committed to solid-state switching and all its benefits, I am skeptical about wireless.

Forty years ago, I was organist at a church in Cleveland that had a small and ancient electronic organ in the chapel. I was happy enough that I almost never had to play it, but there was one Thanksgiving Day when the pastor chose to lead an early morning worship service in the chapel. Halfway through that service, human voices blared out of the organ, decidedly irreverent human voices. The organ was picking up citizens band radio transmissions from Euclid Avenue in front of the church. I dove for the power cord. “Roger that, good buddy. Over and out!”

We have wireless remote controls for televisions, receivers, radios, even electric fans, and it is often necessary to punch a button repeatedly to get the desired function to work. And there was that printer yesterday, choosing idly to skip the bounds of our Wi-Fi router and booster, requiring the introduction of a new wire.

When I think of a wireless connection between the console and chambers of a large pipe organ, I imagine sweeping onto the bench, robes a-flutter, turning on the organ, pushing a piston, and garage doors throughout the neighborhood randomly opening and closing. Swing wide the gates, I’m coming home.

B. Rule & Company, New Market, Tennessee;

First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, Tennessee

Brad Rule

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

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

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

Pipework

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

Acoustics

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

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

Esthetics

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

Solutions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

B. Rule & Company staff:

Steven Lloyd

Hannah Martin

Naomi Martin

Julie Mundy-Sullivan

Brad Rule

 

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

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

16′ Gedeckt revoiced 61 pipes

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

8′ Diapason Dolce ext 16′ Diapason Dolce 12 pipes

8′ Bourdon revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Octave revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Spireflute new 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth revoiced 61 pipes

2′ Fifteenth new from middle C 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV revoiced 244 pipes

8′ Trumpet revoiced 61 pipes

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

8′ Chimney Flute revoiced 61 pipes

8′ Salicional revoiced 61 pipes

8′ Celeste revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Principal new from middle C 61 pipes

4′ Nachthorn revoiced 61 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Nasard revoiced 61 pipes

2′ Blockflöte revoiced 61 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tierce revoiced 61 pipes

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

16′ Clarinet new, replaces 16′ Basson 61 pipes

8′ Trumpet new 61 pipes

8′ Oboe revoiced 61 pipes

Tremulant

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

8′ Spireflute replaces 8′ Quintadena 61 pipes

8′ Gedeckt revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Principal revoiced 61 pipes

4′ Koppelflöte revoiced 61 pipes

2′ Superoctave revoiced 61 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Nasat revoiced 61 pipes

1′ Sifflöte revoiced 61 pipes

1⁄2′ Zimbel III revoiced 183 pipes

8′ Krummhorn revoiced 61 pipes

Zimbelstern

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

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

16′ Subbass unaltered 32 pipes

16′ Violone revoiced 32 pipes

16′ Gedeckt from Great

8′ Principal revoiced 32 pipes

8′ Gedeckt revoiced 32 pipes

4′ Choral Bass revoiced 32 pipes

4′ Rohrflöte revoiced 32 pipes

2′ Nachthorn revoiced 32 pipes

2′ Mixture IV revoiced 128 pipes

16′ Trombone revoiced 32 pipes

8′ Trumpet revoiced 32 pipes

4′ Schalmei revoiced 32 pipes

 

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

Chamade to Great 16   

Chamade to Positive

Chamade to Pedal

 

Couplers

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Positive to Pedal

Swell to Great 16

Swell to Great

Positive to Great

Pedal to Great

Swell to Positive 16

Swell to Positive

Swell to Swell 16

Great/Positive Reverse

  

46 stops, 55 ranks, 2,925 pipes

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

 

Pistons:

10 generals

5 divisionals each division

Next and Previous

Swell, Great, and Positive to Pedal reversibles

Chamade to Great reversible

Chamade to Positive reversible

Zimbelstern reversible

Swell expression pedal 16 stages

Programmable Crescendo pedal

 

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

Church website: www.fpcknox.org

 

Photo credit: Hannah Odom