Noack Opus 159

Noack Organ Co., Inc.,
Georgetown, Massachusetts
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Crosse, Wisconsin

From the director of music
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe consists of several buildings and various outdoor devotional areas and religious sculptures located on 100 scenic acres just outside the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin. It is the vision of its founder, the Most Reverend Raymond L. Burke, who was the Bishop of La Crosse at the time the shrine complex was begun, then became Archbishop of St. Louis, and who recently was appointed Prefect for the Apostolic Signatura in Rome, but who has continued his leadership role at the shrine. Although the shrine facilities are still a work in progress, the heart of the shrine, the Shrine Church, was recently completed and was dedicated on July 31.
This magnificent church is built in a richly decorated traditional style, cruciform in shape with a large dome above the crossing. The architecture is the result of a collaboration of Michael Swinghamer of River Architects in La Crosse and Duncan G. Stroik, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The church seats approximately 450 persons and is a wonderfully reverberant space. It is a building of national significance.
A suitable instrument was needed for this inspired space, and we were very fortunate in securing the Noack Organ Company of Georgetown, Massachusetts as the builder. In addition to my duties at the shrine, my primary position is that of music director and organist at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman in La Crosse. We had already arranged for Fritz Noack to build two new organs for the cathedral (to be completed in August of 2010) when it became apparent that the Shrine Church had progressed faster than anticipated and would need an organ by summer 2008. The Noack firm was selected to build a very substantial three-manual instrument for the shrine.
The organ is located in a high choir loft at the rear of the nave. It is first and foremost an organ for liturgical use, but it is also a fine recital instrument, and in fact our liturgical practice includes the performance of substantial solo organ repertoire, so these purposes are not clearly distinguished. The liturgical aspect demands that the organ also serve effectively as an accompanying instrument both for the great choral/organ literature and for congregational singing. This organ has already demonstrated that it does all of these things very well.
The beautiful organ case, based on a design by Duncan Stroik, is thoroughly integrated into the room, both visually and aurally. The placement of the Swell division at the lower level of the main case is ideal for working with the choir. The Great is at the top for optimal projection down the nave, the Pedal is in side towers, and the Chair organ is located in the traditional location on the rail of the loft. The instrument speaks with perfect clarity in the room. The well-designed stoplist provides a versatile assortment of beautiful timbres which, while lovely individually, work together to form a coherent and balanced ensemble. The console is detached to make working with choir and orchestra practical. The key action is mechanical and the stop action is electric, with an extensive combination action and multiple channels of memory, providing excellent control over the touch and easy management of registration.
This outstanding Noack organ, optimally designed and placed, will provide many years of exciting and profoundly spiritual music for the Church at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
—Brian Luckner, DMA
Director of Music and Organist
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

From the organbuilder
We had already planned a large new organ for the Roman Catholic Cathedral in La Crosse, Wisconsin, with Dr. Brian Luckner, who directs a superb program of sacred music there. While funding for that instrument was still under way, I received a phone call from him asking simply if we would be interested in building first a three-manual organ for the new church under construction at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near La Crosse. He would trust me completely with the tonal design, as we had already done much mutually beneficial brainstorming “inventing” the cathedral organ(s) and we knew quite well what sort of organ would be best for the Shrine Church. The case, however, was to be built according to the design by architect Duncan G. Stroik, of South Bend, Indiana, who was in charge of the interior design of the church.
We organ builders may have a reputation of dislike for cooperation with architects, a reputation that has its root in an outdated scenario where architects act as if they know everything about designing any visually important aspect of a building, including organ cases, and where organ builders consider themselves great architects.
Actually, I was delighted to accept this promising challenge. Several of my closest family are professional architects, and I have always respected and enjoyed close cooperation with members of that profession. Just to avoid discord, my firm’s contracts always state that we are ultimately responsible for the entire design of our organs, including the case. Duncan’s plan proved to be elegant, and respectful of the finest classical traditions, and we were happy to retain all of its décor and overall flair. We merely modified the shape to reflect the actual layout of divisions and the precise dimensions of the speaking front ranks (Diapason 16' on the main case and Dulciana 8' on the Chair). We were fortunate to engage James Lohmann, who has carved most of the beautiful pipe screens on our organs to date, for the pipe shades, tower consoles, and angel heads to float below the Chair case. Partially because of the relatively short time between contract and planned dedication of the church, we engaged the woodworking firm of Hawkes & Huberdeau (both partners having learned their trade in our shop!) of Amesbury, Massachusetts, to make the solid mahogany case. This unusually festive-looking organ bears testimony to a successful cooperation between all designers and craftspeople who poured the essence of their skill into this challenging project.
The technical design of the instrument, including the intricacies of balancing the Chair organ beyond the edge of the organ loft, and the electrical stop and combination action, were competently detailed by our Ted Brinduse. I myself enjoyed doing all the pre-voicing at the shop, while the on-site finishing was beautifully achieved by our David Rooney. Our team also included Aaron Tellers, Alan Meyers and Frank Thompson, with Eric Kenney (as he has for over thirty years) supervising. In moving the organ to La Crosse and the on-site erecting of the large parts on the instrument, we again had the capable help of the “A-Team” from the Organ Clearing House. Considering that at the time of the installation, the church was still a bustling construction site on a hillside surrounded first by several feet of frozen snow and later foot-deep mud (and no access for the big truck), their job was particularly appreciated.
I often have been asked what style we normally follow in the design of our instruments, and I usually try to avoid formulating a reply. The only honest answer would be: our own contemporary style, which, I might hasten to add, respects and is inspired by many historic styles that have given us a rich gift of organ music. The tonal architecture of North German Baroque organs is, of course, part of this gift. We also find that reeds that could have been made in France in 1800 actually work rather well in this context. I have made New England my home for almost half a century now, and so it may come as no surprise that stops such as our Bell Gamba (one of our favorites) and Oboe do not stray too far from those of the Hook brothers. To me the greatest achievement is to turn what could easily be a faceless collection of unrelated parts into one cohesive, musically attractive instrument. Our focus is on touching the listener’s heart, rather than to be completely governed by the goal of providing accurate media for the performance of a specific literature. If that appears as though we are avoiding an important task and opportunity for the organ, fear not. It often comes as a surprise that so much of idiomatic literature sounds, at least to our ears, so “right” on this instrument. Perhaps therein lies the secret: a truly beautiful sound will take precedence over a mediocre, but “correct” sound. As I noted above, I probably should avoid trying to define our style.
A few details may be of interest. Most of the Diapason chorus and strings are made of 70% tin, except for the Great Diapason 8', which is of almost pure hammered lead. Most flute chorus pipes, including the 5-rank mounted Cornet (after Dom Bedos, but all ranks open) are from “common metal,” an alloy of 70% lead and 30% tin. The wood pipes are from select, standing-grain pine. All stopped metal pipes are soldered shut after having been tonally finished in the church; the smaller open metal pipes are cone-tuned. Zinc is used only to provide strength on the lowest part of the Trombone resonators. All reed boots are made as solid wooden units, but the reed blocks are the conventional hard lead type. The lowest seven pipes of the Double Diapason are shared by Great and Pedal; all other ranks are independent.
The temperament is after Vallotti—a slightly unequal system in which the thirds over C, G, and F are rather pure and get coarser with more sharps and flats, and all fifths are either pure or twice as tempered as in equal temperament (which is still quite “nice”). Wind pressure is 80mm (31'8'), provided by a blower in a separate room with a small static reservoir and large parallel-opening bellows and solid wood ducts in the organ—to provide a complete noise- and turbulence-free, calmly “breathing,” quite stable wind system.
The organ has slider windchests and a self-adjusting mechanical key action without any assist devices, except for the largest front pipes, which are on pneumatic offset chests. Trackers are wooden, running in wooden guides. Rollerboards are solid aluminum (tubular often being unpleasantly audible). The sliders are moved by solenoids; there is an eight-level combination system from SSOS. The freestanding keydesk has bone-covered natural keys. The fancy stop knobs are moved by Harris propulsion magnets and are set in fiddleback maple stop terraces. The swell action is mechanical.
Before the shrine opened, I had the opportunity to bring a small group of attendees of the AGO national convention from Minneapolis for a preview visit to the shrine. When Brian Luckner played a multi-faceted program with elegant articulation and thoughtful registration for us, my style worries quickly evaporated. I was even more assured of this organ’s ability to fulfill its true role at the church’s four-hour dedication service with Brian, who also had composed a large amount of the music, again at the keydesk providing a wealth of wonderful music.
We owe much thanks to the founder and director of the shrine, the Most Reverend Raymond L. Burke, its music director Dr. Brian Luckner, the executive director of the shrine, Sister Christa Marie Halligan, and the architects Duncan G. Stroik, Michael Swinghamer, and Sherry Wall, all of whom supported us in the most sincere manner. Seldom have we undertaken a large job in which so much mutual trust and support carried us to a successful completion.
—Fritz Noack, FAIO
President, The Noack Organ Co., Inc.

AGO post-convention organ crawl
Fritz Noack led one of the most interesting organ crawls imaginable, following the Minneapolis AGO convention. The twenty of us, who were the lucky ones to take part in this, got to see and hear his latest opus in a church (a shrine, actually) that is not yet open to the public. A scenic two and a half hour bus ride alongside the Mississippi River took us to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where the new Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe was having the finishing touches applied to its extremely ornate Italian Renaissance structure, housing a three-manual, 40-stop mechanical action (electric stop action) Noack organ in the rear balcony. To say that this was a unique treat would be a gross understatement.
Brian Luckner ably demonstrated the organ, proving that it is comfortable in many styles of repertoire. Well winded, elegantly voiced, with comfortable action and beautiful casework (African mahogany, like the pews in the new building), the organ seemed to reveal an endless array of possible colors from old (Buxtehude) to Romantic (Vierne) to contemporary (Leighton). It handled it all with aplomb! The shrine was opened in July, and pilgrims can take the half-mile walk up the path to the church to witness a glorious building housing a spectacular organ. Our trip was capped with a lunch served at the Pilgrim Center and another scenic trip back to the Twin Cities, including seeing a bald eagle flying over the river!
—Jonathan Dimmock
San Francisco
<www.jonathandimmock.com&gt;

GREAT — Manual II
16' Double Diapason 51 pipes 70% tin, front, C–F# = Ped Dbl Diap 16'
8' Diapason 58 pipes hammered lead
8' Chimney Flute 58 pipes 30% tin
8' Viola 58 pipes 70% tin
4' Octave 58 pipes 70% tin
4' Harmonic Flute 58 pipes 30% tin
22/3' Twelfth 58 pipes 70% tin
2' Fifteenth 58 pipes 70% tin
8' Cornet V c'–c''' 125 pipes 30% tin, mounted
11/3' Mixture IV–VI 318 pipes 70% tin
8' Trumpet 58 pipes 70% tin

SWELL (enclosed) — Manual III
8' Diapason 58 pipes 50% tin (C–F Haskells)
8' Gedackt 58 pipes 30% tin
8' Bell Gamba 52 pipes 70% tin (C–F = Diapason 8')
8' Celeste (from G) 51 pipes 70% tin
4' Octave 58 pipes 70% tin
4' Recorder 58 pipes 30% tin
2' Gemshorn 58 pipes 30% tin
2' Mixture IV 232 pipes 50% tin
8' Cornopean 58 pipes 30% tin
8' Oboe 58 pipes 70% tin

CHAIR — Manual I
8' Stopt Flute 58 pipes 30% tin
8' Dulciana 58 pipes 70% tin, front
4' Prestant 58 pipes 70% tin, front
4' Chimney Flute 58 pipes 30% tin
22/3' Nasard 58 pipes 30% tin
2' Octave 58 pipes 70% tin
13/5' Tierce 58 pipes 30% tin
1' Whistle 58 pipes 30% tin
1' Sharp III 174 pipes 70% tin
8' Cremona 58 pipes 30% tin

PEDAL (AGO pedalboard)
16' Double Diapason 32 pipes 70% tin, front
16' Stopt Bass 32 pipes wood
102/3' Quinte 32 pipes wood
8' Diapason 32 pipes 50% tin
8' Gedackt 32 pipes 30% tin
4' Octave 32 pipes 50% tin
16' Trombone 32 pipes zinc and 30% tin
8' Trumpet 32 pipes 30% tin
4' Clarion 32 pipes 30% tin

Gober Organs, Inc.,

Elora, Ontario, Canada

First Church in Oberlin,

United Church of Christ,

Oberlin, Ohio

The opportunity to build a new tracker organ for First Church in Oberlin, Ohio afforded us the opportunity to interpret traditional organbuilding principles in the light of the aesthetic and acoustical demands of this historic congregation’s 19th-century building, as well as the community’s culture.

The town of Oberlin was founded in 1834 by settlers coming to what was then the Western Reserve of the original States. From the outset, the community was marked by a religious fervor, even a certain similarity to utopian communities common in the United States at the time. For decades, the pastor of this congregation, as well as the president of Oberlin College, was Charles Grandison Finney, famed throughout the United States as an evangelistic leader. The town was a hotbed of socially progressive activity. Two focuses in that realm were the abolitionist movement opposing slavery, and the temperance movement, which sought to improve the quality of life among working families by expounding the moral and practical benefits of abstinence from alcohol use. The memory of abolitionism remains visible today in the form of local monuments and historic sites relating to Oberlin’s role as a station on the Underground Railroad. (The long-ended activities of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union had effects on liquor bylaws in the town until very recently.) The tradition of political positions espoused by groups and individuals in the community—both in the college, the dominant cultural force in town these days, and in the town at large including its churches—is a clear outgrowth of a heritage dating back to its beginnings.

The other obvious context our new organ finds itself in is that of the opulent array of organs found in the town’s churches and in the buildings of Oberlin College and its Conservatory of Music. One of these organs, a Barckhoff organ in Peace Community Church, was built in the 19th century. All the others relate more or less directly to another progressive wave, one that swept Oberlin in the 20th century: the organ reform movement. They range from the conservatory’s two one-manual Flentrop organs from the mid and late 1950s—one of which had been in the Busch-Reisinger Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, prior to the arrival of the 3-manual organ there—to the Cavaillé-Coll-style Fisk organ in Finney Chapel, completed in 2001. The whole assemblage numbers about 30 organs, including practice instruments and continuo organs, built by Brombaugh, Bedient, Noack, and Holtkamp, among others. My employees and I have taken care of most of these instruments for almost fifteen years, and can attest to the compelling nature of the collection both in terms of its overall quality and as an admonishment against hubris in planning and building fine pipe organs.

The sanctuary of First Church, known as the Meeting House, in the tradition of New England Congregational churches, is a spare, nearly square room with a flat ceiling, white walls, and lots of light pouring in through tall windows with small panes of streaky glass. The seating capacity is over 1000 in pews both on the ground level and a balcony, which surrounds the room and forms the choir loft at the front.

First Church has had various organs, the first one having been built by Hook & Hastings in the 19th century. Successive modifications of the Meeting House since then were accompanied by new organs, most recently an electropneumatic one built by Homer Blanchard in 1962. It was assembled from a variety of components old and new and housed in a handsome neo-classical case, a holdover from an earlier Estey organ. The Blanchard organ included some windchests, swell boxes, and ranks of pipes from E. M. Skinner Opus 230, originally built in 1914 for the no longer extant Second Church in Oberlin.

In replacing the still serviceable 1962 organ, the church’s goal was to have a mechanical-action instrument that would convincingly fill the Meeting House in spite of its rather dry acoustics, while drawing more on historical antecedents than its predecessor had. By the time I was approached for a proposal for an organ, it had become clear to the First Church organ committee that although the previous organ had had three manuals, it would be more rational to concentrate a new organ’s resources on two manuals.

This new organ was to become an instrument whose focus, apart from the accompaniment of the congregation singing traditional Protestant hymns—including many from the 19th century that remain a staple—would be the performance of organ literature, not least that of the post-1800 era. Its specification bears some resemblance to a Hook organ of similar size, but there are differences—the lack of an Aeoline, or echo string, and the inclusion of a large treble Cornet in the Great, for example, relating to the performance of literature that we view as canonical, and our relative lack of interest today in playing the transcriptions of orchestral and popular music that were de rigueur.

The congregation’s desire to keep the existing organ case seemed obvious, both from a practical standpoint and from the wish to preserve the accrued history of the building. The case is large and located in the ideal position in the church, though not shaped at all like a typical mechanical organ, being 30' wide and 10' deep but only 18' high. Nonetheless, it was possible to fit our organ’s design into the logical matrix that defines a well-conceived tracker organ: the major third pipe layouts result in the compactness necessary for simple, short and optimally light action, while providing plenty of space for the pipes to speak and easy tuning accessibility. And the direct relationship between windchest layout and façade permits straightforward and efficient winding of speaking façade pipes.

The two manual divisions are located across the center half or so of the case, the Great in front and the Swell behind. The bass and tenor pipes of the Great Diapason 8' are in reverse chest order in the façade’s center opening. The Pedal windchests are at either end of the case, and their façade pipes are the tenor range of the Pedal Diapason 16', interspersed with those of the prepared-for Violoncello 16', following the major third layout of the chests. Ours is not a large organ in number of stops, but each stop is complete—each of the 8' foundation stops is present from low C, and, given the generous pipe scaling throughout, the organ fills the case completely.

The appearance of the organ exterior is little changed. The mouths of each group of façade pipes, of 70% tin, now form a garland-like curve mirroring the arched openings in which they stand. The new keydesk en fenêtre, in contrast to the white painted case, is of solid mortise-and-tenon, frame-and-panel black walnut with a natural oil finish. The stop names on the drawknobs were written in a style evocative of 19th-century American organs by Toronto calligrapher Diane Iannuziello and scanned and laser-engraved onto the faces.

In seeking antecedents for our organ, I considered the history of the congregation and its building in the perspective of their origins as a settlement of a New England Congregationalist group. The First Church sanctuary is a large, nearly square flat-ceilinged room surrounded on all sides by a balcony, which in the front of the room forms the choir loft. Although it is a solid 19th-century building, it is acoustically unsupportive, with its large windows, partly carpeted wooden floor, and cushions on many of the pews. The surface which, given the location of the organ high up in the room, should be most supportive of the organ’s tone, is the ceiling. But it consists only of a single thickness of drywall, the result of a renovation that saw the removal of the original plaster ceiling.

This is not unlike the situation for which many of Hook & Hastings’ organs were conceived. I visited several of their instruments seeking a better understanding of how they filled such rooms with music. Here I found foundation stops that are a world away from wispy neo-Baroque principals. The diameter of a typical Hook Great Principal is larger than the Pedal Principal of many a 20th-century tracker. Such pipes are capable of giving forth a strong fundamental tone without being “pushed” using ears or beards, and it was just such a broad, unforced foundation that First Church’s new organ would require.
By the same token, the most striking stop from Skinner Opus 230 that was still playing at First Church was the Pedal Open Wood Diapason 16¢, a stronger cousin of corresponding stops in Hook organs. The effect that extremely powerful stop had in First Church’s dry acoustic could be likened to that of a healthy Subbass in a resonant room. It was evident that those Skinner pipes needed to become part of our new organ, and that the scaling of the organ as a whole would have to be as generous as that of the Hook pipes I had examined. The higher-pitched elements in the principal choruses did not require the same kind of departure from our norm, but I also lavished attention on the scaling of the reed stops in order to obtain an effortless strength from the fundamental with no hint of harshness.

Besides the Wood Diapason, there were other stops from Skinner Opus 230 that I felt had a place in such a scheme—in spite of the seeming improbability of Skinner pipes in a tracker organ. These included, in addition to the Pedal Wood Diapason and Bourdon, the Swell Bourdons 16' and 8', the Viola da Gamba and Vox Coelestis, and two 4¢ traverse flutes, one of which became a 2' in our organ. What I was banking on with these manual stops was the potential for infusing them with new life by opening the toeholes to more than compensate for the somewhat lower wind pressure we used. For the strings, that was the sole voicing adjustment needed; in the case of the flutes, I further optimized the tone by adjusting the other major factors, the windway size and languid position, just as I do with new pipes. For all the stops, the effect was great—in spite of the heavily nicked languids, those stops speak with greater intensity than they did in the predecessor organ and are very much at home in this organ’s overall sound. The Skinner organ’s Clarinet will also take its place as a second reed in the Great when funds become available.

Another element from the 1914 Skinner instrument that we reused to great advantage is the swell frames from both the Swell and Choir boxes, with their priceless sugar pine shutters. They are on three sides of the large swell box. To maximize the damping effect of the closed Swell box, all of its other surfaces are double-walled with dead air spaces between. The resulting dynamic range exceeded our wildest expectations.

The organ is tuned in a new, slightly unequal temperament devised by Oberlin organ performance student Titus van den Heuvel. In contrast to other unequal temperaments, it favors keys in the flat and sharp directions from C major equally, a valuable feature in a church where many hymns are sung in the “many flat” realm.

The organ’s presence in the Meeting House was enhanced through acoustical improvements specified by acoustician Dana Kirkegaard. These amount to an unseen “bandshell” behind and above the organ. At the rear, hardboard was installed inside the church’s exterior brick and the void between filled with vermiculite, harnessing the solidity of the masonry and providing heat insulation. The very essential and particularly laborious ceiling reinforcement was undertaken with great vigor by a stalwart team of volunteers from the congregation. In the front third of the church, over the organ and choir, lightweight but highly rigid panels consisting of corrugated cardboard sandwiched between thicknesses of plywood were added above the ceiling. The installation of this material entailed trimming individual pieces to fit in the irregular spaces between the 19th-century ceiling joists, then bonding them securely to the top side of the drywall using gallons of adhesive—without this step, the presence of the panels would have had no effect.

The organ was dedicated as the Cauffiel Organ, honoring musician Jane Cauffiel Thomson, a long-time Oberlin resident and First Church member, whose visionary idea and generous gift towards the building of a new organ got this project started. An inaugural recital played jointly by Oberlin Conservatory professors David Boe and James David Christie took place in September 2004. Since then numerous other concerts have taken place, including a weekly noon series. It was organized by First Church organist Bálint Karosi, a conservatory graduate student who has been a Westfield Center Scholar and competed for the 2006 Grand Prix de Chartres. Other recitalists have included Jean Galard, organiste titulaire of Beauvais Cathedral and St. Medard in Paris, and László Fassang of Budapest and St. Sebastián, Spain. In February 2007, First Church was the scene of a Langlais Festival of the Oberlin Conservatory, which featured a recital and masterclass given by Marie-Louise Langlais. And in addition to its primary use in the weekly services of First Church, the organ is used by both Oberlin Conservatory professors as a teaching instrument two days a week under an arrangement between the conservatory and First Church.

A CD recorded on the organ by Bálint Karosi is forthcoming. It includes performances of works by Bach, Widor, Liszt, and Mr. Karosi himself, and will be available from Gober Organs, Inc., and First Church.
This is the first time in my work I have undertaken a synthesis like this, and it has been a challenge whose pleasures have at least equaled those of designing a new instrument from scratch. I am a firm believer in the principle that constraints foster good art. Some of the constraints here were given, others, like the effort to incorporate historical tonal material, were inspired by the cultural context of the instrument.

Among the people I owe thanks to are Prof. David Boe, who advised the First Church organ committee on this project, and Dr. Harold Slocum, its chair. First Church member David Clark spearheaded the implementation of the physical preparations for the organ’s installation and took care of the generous housing arrangements. Richard Houghten planned and installed the SSL electronic stop and combination action. And last but not least, Gober Organs employees Matthias Schmidt, Wendy McConnell, Burkhard Moeller, Mike Collins, Ian Hathaway, and Hendrik Oudshoorn.

—Halbert Gober



Photo credit: Halbert Gober

Gober Organs, Inc.

50 First Line Road

Elora, Ontario N0B 1S0

Canada

www.goberorgans.com