Schoenstein & Co. Organ Builders, Benicia, California, has built a new organ for Saint Michael’s Abbey, Silverado, California: three manuals, 31 voices, 34 ranks, electric-pneumatic action; Opus 183.
Saint Michael’s Abbey is a new Romanesque building patterned after nineteenth-century French cathedrals. The Janet Curci Family Foundation came forward as benefactor of the new instrument, which was built to play French Romantic repertoire.
Although the tribune organ is a luxury unto itself, its tonal design had to be economical. Cavaillé-Coll’s signature “four fonds” (Montre, Flûte harmonique, Gambe, Bourdon) are only effective when each can be heard as a meaningful addition to the ensemble. The beauty of these organs is the ability to make myriad tonal variations with simple voices. No voice is superfluous.
With so many stops of the same type throughout the organ, it is critical to vary scale, construction, and voicing in an organized manner to achieve a satisfying tonal result. In addition to several diapasons, there are six open flutes (four of which are harmonic), five strings, three stopped/tapered flutes, and a variety of French-style reeds. Most fonds are treble-ascendant and slotted, and the live acoustic allowed for a Cavaillé-Coll approach to chorus scaling all the way up through the Fourniture.
For information:
schoenstein.com
www.stmichaelsabbey.com
Photo credit: Louis Patterson
The organ is featured on the cover of the May 2024 issue of The Diapason.
https://www.thediapason.com/content/cover-feature-schoenstein-co-opus-183
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