Reuter opus 1 centennial

The Reuter Organ Company has built a new manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters at 1220 Timberedge Road in Lawrence, Kansas. Reuter, a fixture in downtown Lawrence since 1919, decided to leave its historic location to build a new structure more suited to production efficiency. The World Company purchased the previous location at 612 New Hampshire, including three buildings, one of which was the site of the former Wilder Bros. shirt factory, dating from the 1880s, one of the oldest manufacturing facilities in the city.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on June 4, marking the official opening of the new facility. The day's festivities included tours of the building from 2:30–4:30, presentations and ribbon cutting at 4:30 p.m., and a reception following. Albert Neutel is president of the company; Albert Neutel, Jr., is executive vice president. The ribbon cutting ceremony was organized by the Law-rence Chamber of Commerce and included presentations by the following: Sandy Praeger, state senator; Scot Buxton, Lawrence Chamber of Commerce; Steve Kelly, Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing; and Albert Neutel. Allison Vance Moore of Law-rence was the emcee.

The new factory

The $4 million project features a 75,000 square-foot building on 7.15 acres. The new facility is more than twice the size of the old one, and all operations now reside on a single level instead of five separate stories in two buildings. Instead of waiting turns for a  slow elevator ride, workers can simply walk around the single-level shop to access each department. One of the best improvements to the operation is air conditioning throughout the entire shop.

The move represents a significant milestone in the history of pipe organ building in this country. The last new facility by a large major U.S. organ builder was over 30 years ago.

The planning of the new shop was in the works for over a year, long before an architect and contractor were engaged. Company personnel spent time studying production flow, materials handling, and work stations. The building was de-signed to receive new and raw materials on the north end and send completed organs outbound on the south end. Each instrument works its way from north to south, where it is assembled, tested, dismantled, packed, and loaded through the assembly room and shipping dock.

Visits were made to other organ and pipe shops in the United States and Europe, in order to gain an understanding of what worked best and worst in these manufacturing situations. An "open shop" concept was finally decided upon. Several architects were asked to comment and prepare a conceptual rendering of a shell to house this open shop. After studying these proposals, Architect One of Topeka, Kansas was chosen to develop the plans for the project. A. G. Tollefson of Lecompton, Kansas was chosen as the general contractor.

The new facility boasts many distinctive features. The assembly room measures 72' x 76' with a 48' ceiling. Riding across the ceiling is a five-ton hoist. Materials arrive in a 130' x 45' receiving room. The adjoining lumber storage and mill shop measures 114' x 30'. The zinc and copper pipe metal leave the receiving area to join the 135' x 55' pipe shop. The spotted metal is cast in a special room complete with planer and storage bins. All of these areas are equipped with large overhead doors to allow for movement of materials via forklift.

Reuter's nearly 50 employees now enjoy breaks in the new "cafeteria" area equipped with kitchenette and vending machines. Data drops are installed throughout the building. This facilitates the use of high technology anywhere in the shop as needed. The CNC router is enclosed in its own room, complete with vacuum table, storage, computer platform, telephone and data connection.

History of the firm

Reuter was founded in 1917 in Trenton, Illinois, as the Reuter-Schwartz Organ Company, formed by Earl Schwartz, Henry Jost, and A.C. Reuter. Mr. Reuter had previously worked for Wicks, Pilcher and Casavant since about 1904. A. G. Sabol, Sr., who was with Casavant at the time, joined his uncle, A.C. Reuter, in the new firm. The company started with six employees, besides Reuter and Sabol, including Jake Schaeffer, a noted voicer who had worked with Reuter at Casavant; E. J. "Pat" Netzer, woodworker; William Zweifel, pipe maker; and Frank Jost, console maker. Only one organ was built in 1917, an instrument of eight stops over two manuals and pedal, sold to Trinity Episcopal Church in Mattoon, Illinois. After this instrument was completed and set up in the erecting room, a tornado struck Trenton and blew out one factory wall. The assembled organ was severely damaged. The company carried insurance, and a new organ was built and installed in Trinity Church as opus 2. During the following year, a total of ten instruments were built and installed. In 1919, 14 instruments were built and installed, including opus 14 for the Masonic Temple in Lawrence, Kansas.

In 1919, the company decided to move to Lawrence, Kansas, purchasing the Wilder Bros. shirt factory as its new headquarters, where Reuter remained until this year. The board of directors was listed as E. G. Schwartz, A. C. Reuter, H. T. Jost, G. O. Foster, and W. B. Downing. Foster and Downing were both with the University of Kansas. The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce had pledged funds to help defray the cost of moving. On January 1, 1920, the new office was open for business, and on March 1 the remodeled factory opened for production. The first organ built in the Lawrence plant was opus 27, a 23-rank instrument for Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas. Earl Schwartz left the company in July of 1920, and the name was changed to "The Reuter Organ Company." During the "roaring twenties" business increased rapidly to 51 instruments in 1928. Reuter first began exporting organs in 1954. Opus 1101 was installed in St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Edmonton, Canada. Subsequent organs have been installed as far afield as Taiwan, and, scheduled for 2003, an instrument for Seoul, Korea.

Franklin Mitchell joined the company in 1951 as special representative and consultant, and in 1957 was appointed tonal director. He was elected vice-president in 1964. In 1980 he became president and partner, a position he held until 1983, when he became chairman of the board. He continued in that role until his retirement in 1995. Mitchell died on March 31, 1998.

Albert Neutel joined the company in 1980 as plant manager. He partnered with Mitchell that year to purchase the company. In 1983, when Mitchell became chairman of the board, Neutel become the seventh president of the firm. His son, Albert Neutel, Jr., has been associated with Reuter for twenty years. In 1986, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee to represent the company in the Midwest and Southeast. He returned to Lawrence in 1997 as executive vice president.

Recent installations

Among Reuter's notable installations are Glens Falls Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls, New York (IV/61); First United Methodist Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado (IV/80); West Texas State University, Canyon, Texas (III/63); Augustana Lutheran Church, Denver, Colorado (IV/60); Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (IV/105); St. John's Lutheran Church, Allentown, Pennsylvania (IV/82); First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia (IV/80); and University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Washington (IV/93).

The company has announced plans to increase sales by 15–20%, and reports  at least $7 million worth of orders for the next 18 months. Current and upcoming projects include: Trinity United Methodist Church, Wilmette, Illinois (III/63); First United Methodist Church, Williamstown, West Virginia (II/18); Church of the Ascension, Rockville Centre, New York (II/19); St. John's Episcopal Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico (III/57); First United Methodist Church, Winfield, Kansas (II/29); First Presbyterian Church, Lincoln, Nebraska (III/65); So-Mang Presbyterian Church, Seoul, Korea (II/34); and Salem Missionary Baptist Church, Brooklyn, New York (III/31).

Board of directors

As part of the festivities to introduce the new facility, Reuter's board of directors was on hand: Robert Billings, developer, president, Alvamar, Lawrence, Kansas; Robert Coleberd, economist, president (retired) Pac-West Oil Data, Mission Hills, California; Stephen Hamilton, minister of music, Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal), New York City; Joe Kelly, president (retired), board vice-chairman, Douglas County Bank, Lawrence; Charles Merritt, director, Pueblo Choral Society; Thomas Murray, attorney at law, partner, Barber Emerson Springer Zinn and Murray, LC, Lawrence; and Albert Neutel, president, Reuter Organ Company.

For more information about Reuter and the new facility, visit their web site at www.reuterorgan.com.

Homer Ashton Ferguson III received his bachelor of arts degree with a major in music from Illinois College in May 2000, studying organ with Rudolf Zuiderveld and piano and conducting with Garrett Allman. In May 2002, he completed his master of music degree at Arizona State University under the direction of Kimberly Marshall, where he is currently working on his doctoral degree in organ performance. He is also the organist and music associate at Central United Methodist Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

Joyce Johnson Robinson is associate editor of The Diapason.

Bach and Beyond: Bach and Bach Reception in the 19th Century

November 7-8, 2003, scholars and performers gathered for the organ symposium “Bach and Beyond--Bach and Bach Reception in the 19th Century,” sponsored by Illinois College (Jacksonville, Illinois), under the direction of Dr. Rudolf Zuiderveld, professor of music and college organist, and co-sponsored by MacMurray College (Jacksonville, Illinois), First Presbyterian Church (Springfield, Illinois), and John Brombaugh (Eugene, Oregon).

Day One: by Homer Ashton Ferguson III

Rammelkamp Chapel at Illinois College and Annie Merner Chapel at MacMurray College were the venues for the first day. Registration began at 1:00 p.m. in the foyer of Rammelkamp Chapel, and James Dawson, owner of Oberlin Music in Oberlin, Ohio, set up a sales booth for conferees to peruse various publications concerning the organ.

After a warm welcome by Dr. Zuiderveld and Dr. Axel Steuer, president of Illinois College, the symposium began with the keynote lecture given by Russell Stinson, the Josephine Emily Brown Professor of Music at Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas. Stinson’s lecture, “Bach’s Organ Works and Mendelssohn’s Grand Tour,” revealed some new insights into the reception of Bach’s organ music during the nineteenth century, the era of the so-called Bach revival, through the examination of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. The address gave conference participants a preview of Stinson’s recent research which has been codified in his latest book, The Reception of Bach’s Organ Works from Mendelssohn to Brahms, scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in late 2005. The book will contain four rather hefty chapters on four major figures of 19th-century music (Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms) and will investigate how they responded to Bach’s organ music, not only as composers but also as performers, critics, theorists, and teachers.

Mendelssohn was the ideal figure for the “rediscovery” of J. S. Bach’s genius. He composed over thirty works for the organ, often using the organ music of Bach as a model, his editions of Bach’s organ chorales were among the first ever published, and as a concert organist he introduced Bach’s music to the general public. Stinson dwelled on one particular time period in Mendelssohn’s career, his self-named “big trip” of 1830-32, the longest Bildungsreise ever undertaken by a musician in modern times. His travels took him through Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, and England as well as many German cities.

Mendelssohn’s journey began as a Bach pilgrimage, with stops in Leipzig and Weimar, where he was presented with manuscript copies of two Bach works by the publisher Breitkopf and Härtel. His time was also spent with Goethe, who owned six Bach manuscripts, two of which contained organ compositions. Goethe, a long-time fan of Bach, requested that Mendelssohn visit the local organist. Upon doing so, Mendelssohn reported that he played the “D-minor Toccata.” Stinson continued at some length in establishing that the “D-minor Toccata” reference was definitely a reference to the infamous BWV 565. This conclusion stems primarily from a letter sent from Paris to his family in 1831 in which he requests to be sent copies of six different Bach organ works, including a “Prelude and Fugue in D Minor,” which he identifies by notating the first two beats of the Dorian toccata. This eliminates the Dorian as a possibility because Mendelssohn knew that piece as a prelude, not a toccata.

In late July 1831, Mendelssohn arrived in Switzerland. In need of practice, he began to work on his technique using Bach’s organ works as his pedagogical tool. A letter Mendelssohn wrote to his family while stranded in the village of Sargans revealed that even at this point in his career he still lacked, at least according to his standards, the pedal technique necessary to perform Bach’s big organ works.

Upon his arrival in Munich several weeks later, Mendelssohn continued to focus his attention on mastering his pedal technique. Again, he found himself struggling in his conquest, only this time the organ he had to practice on was partially to blame. Mendelssohn wrote in a letter to his family, “I also play the organ every day for an hour. But unfortunately I cannot practice as I wish because the pedalboard lacks the five uppermost notes.” He did marvel at the beauty of the organ, though, and commented on finding the perfect registration for the famous setting of Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele.

As Stinson continued to demonstrate the influence of Bach’s music upon Mendelssohn, he touched briefly upon Mendelssohn’s sense of profundity in sharing Bach’s organ works with his family and friends. In an account regarding BWV 740, Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, Vater, Stinson remarked upon the popularity of playing Bach’s organ works as keyboard duets on the piano. Within a rather emotional letter dated November 14, 1831, Mendelssohn sent this chorale to his sisters Fanny and Beckchen to play as a duet, noting, “Now play this chorale with Beckchen, as long as you are together, and think of me while doing so.” Stinson further illustrated this by quoting Fanny in a letter she had written to Felix two years earlier, apropos of Bach’s organ preludes that: “Beckchen is pounding out the pedal part with virtuosity, and it does my heart good to hear her. Old Bach would laugh himself to death if he could see it.” At this point in the lecture Dr. Stinson and his student, Skye Hart, resurrected an old performance practice by playing BWV 740 on the piano, in duet form.

On April 22, 1832, Mendelssohn sojourned back to London, regularly playing the postlude at Sunday morning services at St. Paul’s Cathedral, even as he had done to great acclaim in a previous visit in 1829. The organ at St. Paul’s proved to be the ideal instrument on which to perform Bach’s music, due to its larger compass in comparison to other instruments in London. Mendelssohn’s organ playing there is well documented and Stinson went into detail to support the fact that Mendelssohn’s Bach playing was revolutionary for the English organ scene. It was in London that Mendelssohn achieved the level of mastery that he had sought in the performance of Bach’s organ works.

Within this discussion one of Stinson’s most remarked-upon assertions concerned the Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533, the so-nicknamed “Cathedral.” Stinson believes that it was Mendelssohn’s introduction and repeated performance of this work to English audiences at St. Paul’s Cathedral that led to its nickname. All of the conference participants, including Christoph Wolff, could not think of any evidence to contradict this assertion and were in agreement that this may very well be the forgotten source of this often-quoted moniker.

Stinson concluded his stimulating opening to this conference, noting, “(Mendelssohn) would continue to occupy himself with Bach’s organ works his entire life--as a performer, composer, editor, antiquarian, pedagogue, and ambassador-at-large. Without question, he was the most influential champion of this repertory during the early Romantic era.”

The conference continued with a recital by Jay Peterson, professor of music and college organist at MacMurray College. Performed in Annie Merner Chapel on the MacMurray College campus, the recital featured the historic 1952 Æolian-Skinner Organ, Opus 1150, of four manuals and 64 ranks. This organ, installed under the auspices of Professor Robert Glasgow, then a member of the music faculty, has been dutifully guarded and maintained by Peterson. He recently completed a compact disc recording of this organ featuring American organ music in celebration of the fiftieth birthday of this landmark.

Dr. Peterson readily showed off the colors of the organ through his performance of 19th-century organ music, demonstrating his ability as a commanding performer. The program: Sonata in B-flat, op. 65, no. 4, Felix Mendelssohn; O World, I Now Must Leave Thee, My Heart Abounds With Pleasure, Blessed Ye Who Live In Faith, O God, Thou Faithful God, My Heart Is Ever Yearning, op. 122, Johannes Brahms; Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Franz Liszt.

Day one of the symposium concluded with a recital by Douglas Reed, professor of music and university organist at the University of Evansville, on the Hart Sesquicentennial Organ in Illinois College’s Rammelkamp Chapel. This recital attracted a large audience from the surrounding community as it was the November event on Illinois College’s McGaw Fine Arts Series.

Building upon a theme set earlier by Jay Peterson at MacMurray College, Dr. Reed played a program dedicated solely to the masters of the 19th century. His program construction was well-conceived as he “book-ended” his recital by opening with the first movement of the Symphonie Romane by Charles-Marie Widor and then closed with the Final. Originally premiered in 1900 in Berlin, Widor received his inspiration for this symphony from plainchant. Reed continued with a performance of Robert Schumann’s Six Studies for the Pedal Piano, opus 56 (1845). The remainder of his program consisted of Brahms’ Prelude and Fugue in A Minor and Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 5 in D Major.

The evening ended with a reception in Kirby Rotunda on the campus of Illinois College; organ scholars socialized and expounded upon ideas new and old. The inaugural kickoff of Illinois College’s biannual organ symposium was indeed a success. Events are currently being scheduled for November of 2005 and November of 2007, with focus in ‘07 on Dieterich Buxtehude in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of his death.

Day Two: by Joyce Johnson Robinson

All of Saturday’s events took place at First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, home to John Brombaugh’s 3-manual, 70-rank Opus 35.

The day began with an organ demonstration, “Music around Johann Sebastian Bach,” by Rudolf Zuiderveld, organist of First Presbyterian and professor of music at Illinois College in Jacksonville. The program comprised works by Bach’s predecessors, contemporaries, and successors, from Frescobaldi through Brahms, and included a hymn, “If You But Trust in God to Guide You” (Wer nur den lieben Gott), whose verses were preceded by organ preludes of Bach, Krebs, and Böhm. The Sonatina in d by Christian Ritter showcased the full organ, including the 16’ and 32’ pedal Posaunes. The organ is robustly voiced for a full congregation, and the room has a lively acoustic. Yet even with a sparse population in the church, the full organ was loud but not unpleasantly so. The instrument is essentially north German/Dutch, but can capably handle music of other styles as well. In Dandrieu’s variations on O Filii et Filiae, the organ’s French capabilities were highlighted, including récits de nazard, tierce, basse de trompette, flutes, larigot (siffloete), cromorne (dulcian), cornet, cimbel and Grand Jeu. The reeds offered just enough bite, the flutes were clear and full. The organ most definitely possesses gravitas, as demonstrated in Louis Marchand’s Fond d’orgue (Deuxième Suite), in which the 16’ Praestant enriched the plenum without detracting from its clarity.

Next, organists, including students of Douglas Reed (University of Evansville), Russell Stinson (Lyon College), Dana Robinson (University of Illinois), and graduates of MacMurray College and Illinois College played for the masterclass led by Robert Clark, organ professor emeritus of Arizona State University. All but one played Bach works. Dr. Clark’s suggestions reflected the concerns of making music, as well as matters of technique and registration. In order to accommodate all the students who wished to play, the masterclass continued after the lunch break. Participants in the class and in the subsequent recital were Zach Guenzel, Tim Weisman, Cecilia Bogowith, Alicie Zeilenga, Skye Hart, Jeremy House, Nicole Eyman, Luba Tkachuk, Alison Lewis, Scott Montgomery, Jin-Kyung Lim, and Kirk Rich. See Tsai Chan and Alison Lewis played in the masterclass although not in the recital; Robert Horton and Christine Smith played in the recital only.

Following the masterclass, Christoph Wolff of Harvard University delivered a lecture on the authenticity of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Prof. Wolff outlined the claims against Bach’s authorship, which are primarily based on interpretations of sources and on stylistic grounds. His remarks focused on a Berlin Staatsbibliothek manuscript; he considers this source, copied by Johannus Rinck, to be correct in its attribution to Bach. Wolff also discussed details of notation and stylistic traits (such as the arpeggiando figures) which would place the work early in the eighteenth century, and explained the octave doubling at the opening of the toccata as a way around the lack of a 16’ stop on a smaller organ--a way of achieving the effect of a North German plenum.1 Having been reassured that our beloved warhorse was indeed by Bach, we returned to the sanctuary to hear the masterclass participants present their pieces at a recital that capped off the afternoon.

The symposium concluded with a re-creation of Mendelssohn’s “Bach Concert” of August 6, 1840, at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. The concert began with a full organ introductory work by A. W. Bach, followed by Johann Sebastian’s Fugue in E-flat (BWV 552b), Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (BWV 654), Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BWV 543), Passacaglia and Thema fugatum (BWV 582), Pastorella in F (BWV 590), Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565), and closing with Mendelssohn’s Choral and Variation on Herzlich tut mich verlangen, and Allegro (Chorale and fugue) in D minor. Robert Clark, Russell Stinson, Rudolf Zuiderveld, Douglas Reed, and Jay Peterson collaborated with stirring playing; for those who had immersed themselves in details of these works’ histories, stylistic details, and performance practice, the concert was a satisfying ending to the weekend’s events.2

The Odyssey of an Organbuilder

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

Introduction

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

Early Life

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

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

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

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

The Land of Opportunity

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

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

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

Los Angeles Organbuilders

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

Murray M. Harris

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tonal Philosophy, 1913

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

Murray M. Harris, continued

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

Robert-Morton Organ Company

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

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

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

W. W. Kimball Company

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

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

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

In Los Angeles

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

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

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

Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner

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

Tonal Philosophy, 1959

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

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

David Engen holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Church Music, Magna cum Laude, from St. Olaf College (1971), Master of Arts in Organ Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa (1973), and Master of Science in Software Design and Development from the University of St. Thomas (1988). He is a Senior Manager in Sales and Marketing IT at Seagate Technology in Bloomington, Minnesota, and owns David Engen & Associates, Inc., maintainers of pipe organs in the Twin Cities area and western Wisconsin since 1983. He is a member of the Kimball Organ Steering Committee for the City of Minneapolis, contributes occasionally to various music journals, consults on organ design, and is webmaster for the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists ().

Introduction
W. W. Kimball of Chicago emerged in the 1920s and 1930s as a major builder of quality pipe organs, both “classic” and “theatre” in style. [See R. E. Coleberd, “Three Kimball Pipe Organs in Missouri,” The Diapason, September 2000.] In 1932, Minot Teachers College (now Minot State University, <www.minotstateu.edu>) in Minot, North Dakota, installed a 22-rank Kimball designed by William H. Barnes in the college auditorium. A recent restoration by the Reuter Organ Company of Lawrence, Kansas, has given the organ a second life, and for the first time in over a decade the public can again hear this organ. It now serves as a practice and teaching organ for a new generation of students.

Minot in the 1920s
In the 1880s and 1890s, Minot hosted many gambling houses and saloons. By the 1920s, the city had built new churches, a hospital, established the college as a degree-granting institution, and formed many cultural organizations. By 1928 Minot ranked as one of the most prosperous cities in the country, based on business volume. The Great Northern “Empire Builder” began its Seattle-to-Chicago route in 1929, passing through Minot, and the Soo Line began its “Mountaineer” service between Vancouver and Chicago.
Between 1920 and 1930, Minot’s population increased from 10,476 to 16,099. Music and cultural organizations flourished. As early as 1909, the community presented a December performance of Handel’s Messiah. The Teachers College, known first as the Normal School, offered a music curriculum in 1919. In 1921, the community started a Schumann Club and a 40-member community band. Students from the college performed Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado in 1925. In the summer of 1926 a 150-voice community chorus inspired creation of a permanent Minot Community Chorus, directed by the college’s music department chair. The 60-voice chorus first performed in January 1927. The college orchestra of 52 members first performed in 1929.
The Normal School opened in 1913. Dr. George A. McFarland became president in 1922 at the age of 64 and ran the school until his death in 1938 at the age of 80. By 1924 the Normal School had become Minot State Teachers College and offered a BA degree in education. Old Main had been expanded with a new west wing just before Dr. McFarland began his tenure. By 1925, Old Main had a new north wing housing an auditorium and a gymnasium. The auditorium would later house the Kimball organ and be named for Dr. McFarland.

Purchase
In such a fertile cultural environment, the college and the community of Minot came together to fund the organ project. A $5 gift by Mrs. Emma Cotton in 1925, earmarked specifically for an organ in the new building, started the fund drive. In 1926 the faculty pledged $1300, followed by pledges from students and college organizations, but the total fell far short of the contract amount. The college realized they alone could not fund the $12,500 needed for an acceptable instrument for the auditorium, so they extended the campaign to the business community. As a railroad town, Minot had grown quickly and the business community was active and strong. Pledges reached $10,000, still short of the goal. A final push by the business community a few years after the 1929 stock market crash allowed the college to sign a contract with Kimball at the beginning of 1932. Harry Iverson, well known for organ service and installation in Minneapolis, installed the Kimball in May of that year. Designer William H. Barnes of Evanston, Illinois, dedicated it on June 9. Total project duration, from contract to dedication, was only five months!
At the dedication concert by Dr. Barnes, the following inscription appeared on the front of the dedication brochure:

The Gift Organ . . . is presented to The State Teachers College of Minot, by the Faculty, Alumni and Students of the college and their organizations, generously and appreciatively aided by and supported by citizens of the City of Minot.
In his program, Barnes commented about the tonal design of the organ. His program was as follows:

Grand Choeur Dialogué, Gigout
Reverie, Bonnet
Caprice Héroïque, Bonnet
Choral Improvisation, Karg-Elert
The Legend of the Mountain, Karg-Elert
Andante (Sixth Symphony), Tchaikovsky
Scherzo (First Sonata), James H. Rogers
Pantomime, de Falla
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, J. S. Bach
Prelude to Lohengrin, Wagner

No other news about the organ is readily available until the departure of the last college organist in 1995. Sixty years after installation, the organ was almost silent. It was rarely used until disassembly in preparation for the building restoration.
One wonders about a possible connection between this Kimball and its much larger cousin 500 miles closer to Chicago, the great Kimball installed in the Minneapolis Auditorium in 1928. Separated by only four years, the Minneapolis Kimball has 121 ranks—120 of them playable by the 5-manual “concert” console, and 26 of the unit ranks plus a Kinura playable by the 4-manual “theatre” console. That organ is in storage in the Minneapolis Convention Center, which replaced the old Auditorium, awaiting city funding for restoration. The tonal design of the Minneapolis organ is incredibly complete for an organ designed in the 1920s, with principal, reed, flute and string choruses throughout. Three full-length 32′ stops (Open Diapason, Contra Violone, Contra Bombarde) give the organ majestic weight. Flutes and strings provide a broad range of colors and volumes. Complete principal choruses form a sturdy backbone. Reeds cover the gamut, from soft and imitative to stupendous. Was this design influenced by the local church musicians who had formed the Minot chapter of the American Guild of Organists about a decade earlier, and most of whom had studied in Europe? Did Kimball learn anything while building this huge organ that they applied to the Minot project? We will never know, but the possible connections are intriguing.

Physical layout
The Minot auditorium is much like other theaters built during this era. The main floor and balcony seats face a stage with a proscenium arch and orchestra pit. The backstage area is small. Restrained décor frames the two pipe chambers that face the auditorium from the side walls, just outside the proscenium. One story above the stage floor, the triangular chambers speak directly into the hall. The large shutter openings hold a double height shutter front. Acoustics are typical of a modest-sized theater, having a “ring” but no distinct reverberation.
This layout is problematic for performances with a chorus on the stage due to the closeness of the chambers to the listeners, which make balance and coordination with the singers a challenge. Discussions to correct this problem included the possibility of sound openings added to the rear of the chambers, and/or possibly a positive organ, able to be controlled from the main console. Funds did not allow this issue to be resolved at the time of restoration.
The left chamber houses the Great/Choir pipes on two levels, with the Pedal 16′ Open Wood on offset chests around the perimeter. The Great, mostly on the lower chest, plays many of the Choir stops as well. The Choir stops and the Harp occupy the upper level.
The right chamber houses the Swell, again on two levels. The upper chest holds the unit stops—the trebles of the Bourdon/Chimney Flute and the Trumpet. Offsets of the 16′ Bourdon, the 16′ Trumpet and other 8′ basses line the perimeter. Below the 16′ Bourdon basses is the “Vox in a box,” with its own tremulant.
Both chambers are full of pipes. Reservoirs on the floor under the chests make access for servicing a challenge. There are many ladders and walk boards, so the pipes are easy to reach for tuning. Lighting is good.

The need for restoration
After 1995 when the last college organist left the university, visitors played the organ occasionally. When dismantled before the building restoration in 2002, it barely played since the damaged basement wind line restricted airflow. Windchest leather was still intact, although the exposed leather of the high-pressure reservoirs was not in good condition and failed shortly after arrival in Lawrence. Bear in mind the upper Midwest experiences huge temperature and humidity swings each season. Humidity ranges from as low as 5% in the winter to more than 90% in August. This exposed the wood and leather parts to a great deal of stress every year of their life. It is amazing to consider that after 60 years the organ still worked as well as it did. This is a testament to the quality of materials and workmanship of the Kimball Company.
Before his retirement, President Erik Shaar spearheaded a building restoration project, which included the organ. The organ committee selected several regional and national organ building and service companies as possible contractors. Five firms submitted bids, and the committee awarded the contract to the Reuter Organ Company of Lawrence, Kansas. A community and college organ committee, chaired by Dr. Doris Slaaten, Professor Emeritus of Business, undertook the fund-raising. A single pledge of $100,000 helped kick off the campaign—far more than the original $5 gift from Mrs. Cotton in 1925! The college renamed McFarland Hall to Ann Nicole Nelson Hall after a victim of the World Trade Center attack of 9/11.
With a decline in the rail industry, Minot has been reasonably successful in finding its fortune in other industries, including hosting a nearby Air Force base and persisting as a major regional shopping destination. While Minot remains a prosperous community of some 35,000, its once large and active churches, many of Scandinavian heritage, are today a shadow of their 1920s glory years. As found in many communities, large buildings built for large congregations with big choirs and active music programs are no longer filled for worship. In an attempt to recapture the crowds, many clergy have resorted to “modern ensembles” and “blended worship,” aiming at a new common denominator that theoretically attracts the young. The organ is often not part of the equation.
Interest in the pipe organ is thus waning in Minot as it is in many communities. The small community of organists, all of whom have made their primary living in other occupations, heroically came to the aid of the university’s Kimball and helped in the fund-raising.

Reuter today
In its 90-year history the Reuter Organ Company of Lawrence, Kansas (<www.reuterorgan.com&gt;) has grown from a regional firm to an industry-leading builder with a national presence. Like most of the major organ builders in the country, the Reuter shop, found less than an hour from Kansas City, is now managed by a new generation. Since the life cycle of a pipe organ is so long, changes in administration and philosophy of the builder do not show quickly on the national stage. This is true of Reuter, where Albert Neutel Jr. (“JR”) has recently taken over management from his father Albert Sr., who in turn had run the company following the long tenure of Franklin Mitchell. Reuter recently moved out of their downtown Lawrence building into a new shop at the north edge of Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas. The building was designed specifically for organ building. Raw materials arrive at the north end, all manner of manufacturing occurs in the middle, and assembly, testing and shipment occur at the south end. Some of the special features of the building are visible in the high assembly room near the shipping dock. There is a wood floor that allows the workers to screw organ parts in place. A gantry crane at the ceiling positions heavy parts anywhere in the room. Windows admit natural light. A balcony on two sides allows workers to move about without the need to assemble scaffolding. This room is large enough that several instruments could be undergoing assembly simultaneously.
There are many other features of the building worth noting. The large central shop includes space for making both wood and metal pipes, wind chests, casework, consoles, keyboards, and other small parts, as well as a large area devoted to pouch board assembly. Other rooms include the computer-controlled CNC router, metal casting, a large spray booth, drafting rooms, several voicing rooms isolated from shop noise, and executive offices and meeting rooms.
The Reuter crew makes almost all of their own parts. Through engineering and experimentation, the staff incorporates reliability and longevity into all of their components. Extensive testing of parts results in improvements based on scientific evidence and experiment. Rebuilds of older Reuters bring naturally aged parts through the shop. Where they find deficiencies of design in areas such as console construction, the staff can design in changes so future parts will be better and last longer.
Reuter is a small company with its roots in the heartland, and its people exhibit the common Midwestern traits of honesty and hard work. Their philosophy is inspired by the musical possibilities that present themselves with each project. They seek to build a solid and reliable product based on their own experiences with electro-pneumatic actions, yet informed by the benefits of computerized drafting and scientific inquiry. Some examples of this are:
• Adapting the Blackinton-style slider chest where suitable.
• Exclusive use of welded copper pipes (not soldered) rather than zinc where there is a possibility of pipe collapse during aging.
• A cleverly engineered solution for mounting horizontal trumpet pipes that encourages tuning stability.
• A method of “preplaying” keyboards during construction so keyboards will not need depth adjustment after installation.
• A redundant key contact that almost eliminates the possibility of dead notes caused by contact failure.
Over the decades, Reuter has built hundreds of organs in a wide range of acoustic settings. This experience has defined the pipe materials and scaling schemes. Most clients choosing to go the route of an electro-pneumatic instrument want the flexibility of a movable console, sub- and super-couplers, extensions and duplexing. Today, Reuter is creating both new instruments and rebuilding old ones.

Details of the restoration
This project was not a total historic restoration in the Organ Historical Society sense of the term. The OHS presents the following guidelines for restoration (last revised in 1986) on their website (<www.organsociety.org/html/historic/restore.html&gt;):
• In general, all extant original components should be preserved and properly repaired.
• Pipework should be carefully repaired by a professional pipemaker, replacements for missing pipes being made of the same material and construction details as the originals.
• Keyboards, stop controls, and other console components should be kept in, or restored to, their original condition.
• Pitman, ventil and other forms of tubular-pneumatic or electro-pneumatic wind chests should be restored using original techniques of design and construction and compatible materials and replacement parts.
• Original bellows, reservoirs, wind trunks, concussion bellows, and other components that determine the wind characteristics of any organ should always be retained and releathered.
• It is highly desirable that a restorer keep detailed records, measurements, photographs, etc. during the course of the restoration work.
Project organizers not only wanted to return the organ to like-new condition, but they also wanted a reliable instrument that will serve the current and future needs of the college. To that end, a genuine restoration was neither desirable nor practical. The console, for instance, was not salvageable. Reuter and the planners undertook the following, as detailed in the contract:

1. Releather all wind chests, including note pouches (1541), primaries (447), stop actions (15). (Reuter carefully reproduced leather thickness under OHS guidelines. All pouch springs were returned to their original notes. When winded there were no ciphers.)
2. Replace stop action connectors and all pitmans (903).
3. Releather Chime action.
4. Releather Harp action.
5. Releather expression motor power pneumatics (20) and primaries.
6. Releather tremolo motors (4).
7. Releather concussion bellows (4).
8. Replace all chest magnets (943).
9. Replace all tuning slides on metal flue stops with new stainless slides.
10. Repack all tuning stoppers on wood pipes.
11. Repair tuning scrolls on reed stops.
12. Make necessary repairs to any damaged pipes.
13. Provide miscellaneous replacements for missing pipes, made to match. (Only a few were missing.)
14. Clean and revoice all reed stops (5), with new tongues as needed. (In fact, the reeds were in such good condition after cleaning that they needed only minor changes.)
15. Clean all metal pipes.
16. Clean all wood pipes and parts and give all a new coat of lacquer.
17. Build a new 3-manual console with a movable platform and storage closet offstage.
18. New microprocessor solid-state switching and combination action.
19. New DC power supplies (organ, console).
20. At the suggestion of a consultant early in the project a digital 16′ extension for Choir Geigen Diapason notes 1–12 was proposed. (A new unit action replaced the straight action. Reuter retained the original action so it can be restored easily in the future if desired.)

A Reuter crew moved the many parts, already in storage, to the shop in Lawrence. There were no drawings of the layout, and none of the Reuter crew had ever seen the organ assembled in its Minot home. They undertook to reassemble everything and succeeded in figuring it out. The crew carefully measured everything, including the rise of the various bellows, before releathering. At the start of the work, plant manager Robert Vaughan told the crew that their charge was to restore all parts to like-new condition, in the style of the original Kimball work. It was not to be “Reuterized.” After cleaning, voicers checked the pipes and made only minor changes. Fortunately, the organ had suffered from “benign neglect” and was essentially as Kimball had left it.
The organ stands today in excellent condition. The clean pipes, with shiny tuning slides, look new. Even the wood pipes, with a new coat of lacquer, could be mistaken for new. New leather on all exposed reservoirs is clean and supple, and the key action is fast and crisp. The new console is beautiful and convenient to play. It has built-in wheels for movement to offstage storage, with just a few wires to connect to a convenient receptacle backstage. Reuter is justifiably proud of the result.
The restoration shows a few minor changes from the original tonal design. The biggest change was converting the 8′ Geigen Principal of the Choir from a straight stop into a unit stop, thus making it available at several pitches on both the Great and Choir. All parts from the original configuration are in storage, according to OHS guidelines, so it could be restored as a straight stop again in the future.

Rededication
Diane Bish played a dedication concert on October 19, 2004 to mark completion of the project. The well-received program adequately showcased the many colors in this small organ:

Now Thank We All Our God, Karg-Elert
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Bach
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Bach
Bolero de Concert, Lefébure-Wély
Carillon de Westminster, Vierne
Jubilation Suite, Gordon Young
Three Hymn Improvisations, arr. Bish
Nimrod (“Enigma” Variations), Elgar
Toccata (Symphony V), Widor

In remarks and in the program text, the organ was presented to the community as complete.

Impressions
Kimball was one of the top builders of the era. Beautifully made pipes sit on a solid mechanism. It is no surprise, then, that this organ holds many lovely sounds.
The strings probably are the most satisfying to our ears today. The Salicional and its Celeste are gems, both of construction and of sound. The tapered Flute Dolce and its Celeste are ravishing in their beauty. Coming in third is the delicate Dulciana and its flat Unda Maris.
There are just a few flutes on this organ. Most interesting is the Choir Concert Flute, of Melodia form in the tenor range, but double length and over-blowing in the melodic range. It mimics the orchestral flute, yet its tone is mild. The round but delicate Swell Rohr Bourdon is the real workhorse, having to provide six pitches in the Swell. The true solo flute is the Doppel Flute of the Great.
There are eight diapasons of various pitches and scales. There is a principal chorus on the Great, with double 8′s, a 4′, and the original Grave Mixture now available as independent 2-2/3′ and 2′. There is no mixture in the organ. The Swell has its own 8′ as does the Choir. The Pedal has a 16′ Wood Diapason. Note in the original dedication program the scaling of some of the manual diapasons. Great Diapason I is scale 40, Swell Diapason is scale 42, and Great Diapason II is smaller at scale 44.
Five reeds occupy positions on all three manual divisions. The Swell Vox Humana and Choir Clarinet are soft and typical of the period. The Swell Corno d’Amour, in the shape of a trumpet, produces the sound of an oboe but with slightly more body. Perhaps because of its unification at three Swell pitches and three Pedal pitches, the large and dark Swell Trumpet dominates the organ.
Through no fault of Reuter, the organ is somewhat disappointing in the room. Reuter did, in fact, bring up the trebles of many ranks to even them out. This organ was designed to play period literature and transcriptions, but it simply isn’t big enough to move the volume of air in the room. A tubby Pedal Diapason, a refined but small Great Diapason chorus, and one dominating reed do not make much of an overwhelming impression in the room. At a recent performance of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with the local orchestra, some listeners wondered when the organ was going to come in! This comment may have more to do with the Kimball orchestral voicing than with its effect in the room. A similar comment was heard following a performance of the same symphony by the Minnesota Orchestra with the 120-rank Minneapolis Auditorium Kimball, which had no problem making a big impression by itself!
Is it fair to criticize this organ from a 21st-century perspective for being something it was never intended to be? Probably not! It came out of the theatre organ era when the “classics” were largely transcriptions from the orchestral repertoire. Note the literature Barnes played at the first dedication, which included Tchaikovsky, de Falla and Wagner. Yet this is clearly not a theatre organ. Unlike its much larger brother in Minneapolis, there are no complete diapason and reed choruses, and unification provides most of the upperwork. It is a baby symphonic organ, not intended to be loud and not intended to perform what we now consider to be the classics of the organ literature. It came from a different philosophy—but it was built like a tank!
The rebirth of an organ department appears to be on the horizon (there are 3–4 beginners now), and the organ can serve admirably for teaching the basics of technique. Its lovely and subtle colors are appropriate for teaching and the fundamentals of trio playing, hymn playing and registration. Should the department grow, however, teaching the larger repertoire, organ history, and registration would be a challenge. The faculty would need to rely on the use of nearby (and larger) church organs. This idea is not new, and there are several large organs not far from the campus.

Conclusion
In spite of the Great Depression, the community leaders of Midwestern Minot made a major investment in their college in 1932. They could not see into the future where, just a few years later, teacher salaries would be cut by 40% and faculty would be required to live on campus. They had the foresight to acquire a top-quality organ, also built in the Midwest, which served for many decades before unavoidable wear required a restoration. The Reuter Organ Company we know today, founded just over a decade before the Kimball’s construction, is a company of individuals sharing a similar background. It seems fitting that time should bring the two together. Their meeting was mutually worthwhile: Reuter gained experience from one of the top organ builders of the early 20th century, and Minot got what is essentially a new organ. The community of Minot will be much richer for it.n

Thanks are due to Prof. Charles Dickson of Minot State University for his 1985 draft of “Minot History 1920–1940,” available on the Internet. Thanks also to Kari Files, Selmer Moen, and Gary Stenehjem for behind the scenes information about the project. Thanks also to the staff of Reuter, and especially to JR Neutel and Robert Vaughan who gave a detailed tour of the Reuter shop.