Open house on January 10 for new pipe organ for Cornell University

Anabel Taylor Chapel
Cornell University Baroque Organ
Ithaca, New York
GOArt / Parsons / Lowe

Selection
In 2003 Cornell University began planning for a new Baroque organ that would complement the existing Aeolian-Skinner organ in Sage Chapel (Opus 1009 III/68, 1940), as well as other smaller instruments located on campus. The decision was made to place the new instrument in an enlarged rear gallery, constructed with heavy timbers, in the intimate acoustic of Anabel Taylor Chapel. The new Baroque organ would be built by the Gothenburg Organ Art Center (GOArt), part of Gothenburg University in Gothenburg, Sweden, under the primary leadership of researcher and organbuilder Munetaka Yokota. This would not merely be an organ in “Baroque style,” but as much as possible, a reconstruction of an organ that could have been built in the late 17th or early 18th centuries by the German builder Arp Schnitger. The organ that Schnitger built in 1706 for the Charlottenburg Schlosskapelle (Palace Chapel) in Berlin was used as the primary model. This instrument is unique in that it blends the usual characteristics of Schnitger’s instruments built for the area around Hamburg (northwest Germany and the Netherlands), and characteristics of instruments in eastern and central Germany similar to what Johann Sebastian Bach would have known. It was also a sizable instrument for the Palace Chapel in which it stood.
The Charlottenburg organ was unfortunately destroyed during World War II, but there are recordings of the organ in addition to several photographs and documentation data, which allowed GOArt to use the original organ as a model. Because the Charlottenburg organ was confined in an unusual space, it was decided to follow a different model for the case design. The organ built by Schnitger in 1702 for the church of St. Salvator in Clausthal-Zellerfeld was chosen as a model for the case. Although its mechanism has been replaced several times since, the original Schnitger case is still in existence.
During the planning for this project, it was also decided to research how Schnitger built instruments in a city that was some distance from his home in Hamburg. This prompted GOArt and Cornell to enlist cabinetmaker Christopher Lowe of Freeville, New York, and Parsons Pipe Organ Builders of Canandaigua, New York, as local collaborators on the project. GOArt would design the organ, make the pipes, and build the keyboards, pedalboard, music rack, and bench, and provide all of the blacksmith work. Chris Lowe would construct the case, moldings, and balcony structure, and Parsons would build all of the internal mechanism: bellows, foot pumping mechanism, wind trunks, sperrventile, tremulant, key action, stop action, and windchests. The Parsons firm, Chris Lowe, and Munetaka Yokota would all work together to install the completed organ once the organ was set up and tested at Parsons’ Canandaigua workshop.

Parsons’ participation
Each new project brings its own set of challenges, and when a project involves three primary collaborators working for a university that demands perfection, those challenges could become overwhelming. However, working carefully through each new challenge, the final result speaks for itself as to the dedication to quality brought by each party.
One of the first challenges that we were presented with was the process of communicating design drawings. The design team in Gothenburg created a 3D CAD model of the organ. This model could be imported to our own 3D software, enabling us to measure components and create our own supplemental technical drawings. Three-dimensional computer modeling provides us with a greater sense of how all of the components relate to each other, allowing us to look at any combination of components and to rotate the computer model, and examine it from many angles. This was especially useful during this project, as this construction style was new to our staff and different from that to which we were accustomed.
Although the communication of CAD files across platforms provided challenges, other modern forms of communication were invaluable to this project, and are something that we guess Schnitger might have appreciated if it had been available to him. The use of Internet video conferencing allowed us to demonstrate and ask questions about specific shop techniques while allowing us to watch as Munetaka addressed these questions through demonstration, sketches, and gestures. These calls became daily occurrences during the latter part of the project and were crucial to its success.
This project was to be a “Process Reconstruction”—a term coined by the GOArt research team to describe the method used to discover unknown construction techniques, through the process of actually building the organ, rather than just through scholarly discussion. In other words, sometimes we cannot know the specific process or the correct way of building a component until we have experimented. In the end, this required us to learn many new skills and gave us an appreciation for the process that we may not have otherwise known.
The use of woodworking techniques consistent with the period was essential for the project’s success. We were permitted to use power equipment to mill lumber and cut it to size, but the final surface needed to show the traces of hand planing and scraping. As modern woodworkers, we are more likely to reach for our router or palm sander than for our hand plane. The necessity of using hand planes and scrapers in this project has re-trained us to reach for those tools and complete the task at hand before we could have gotten the router set up. The organ is made entirely of quarter-sawn white oak. This construction style relies heavily on joinery, some nails, and some glue. Long nails, ranging in length from 4 to 5 inches, were hand-forged by a blacksmith in Sweden, along with all the other ironwork required for the key and stop action, the bellows pumping mechanism, and the casework hinges and locks. Leather was provided by a German supplier, using period tanning techniques.
The key and stop actions are made in a manner consistent with Arp Schnitger’s practice. The key action rollers are made of white oak. Key action squares are made of iron and were supplied by GOArt. Most trackers and stickers are made of white oak, and the ends are hand wrapped with twine for strength. All metal trackers are of brass wire, and all trackers and stickers have hand-bent brass wire ends inserted. The key action is suspended, which means that the keys pivot at the tail and hang from the trackers or rest on the stickers from the chest. The Manual key action travels up from the key to the rollerboard, which is nailed to the back frame of the organ. The Rucwerk keyboard pushes stickers that carry the action to a rollerboard, which is located under the organist. The Pedal key action also relies on stickers that transfer motion to a rollerbox, which carries the motion, via trackers rather than rollers, to the Pedal chests on either side of the organ.
The stop knobs are made of pear that has been dyed black, with a bone button in the center. The stop action traces and trundles are made of white oak, with iron arms and levers. The iron arms are heated red-hot and then pounded into the oak trundles and are secured by quickly peening the iron.
The organ is winded from four large wedge bellows located in an isolated room in the tower of Anabel Taylor Chapel, approximately 30 feet above and behind the organ. The bellows can be foot pumped, or an electric blower can be used for practice without an assistant. Solid oak windlines connect these bellows to the organ. Windlines are joined with splines or inserted with tenons, and all joints are sealed with leather. A single Schnitger-style tremulant affects the entire organ.
Five windchests are located throughout the organ. The Manual and Pedal each have two chests, and the Rucwerk has one. All of the chests are built of solid quarter-sawn white oak. Given the wide humidity swings common to New York State, leather slider seals are used to eliminate runs and provide consistent wind to the pipes through changing climatic conditions. This required that each individual toeboard be carefully shimmed to allow the sliders to move with the correct freedom.

Casework
The casework was made by Christopher Lowe and Peter DeBoer in Chris’s workshop outside of Ithaca, New York. As the parts were made over an eleven-month period, they were assembled in a nearby barn. The case is made almost entirely of quarter-sawn white oak, mostly domestic. The oak in the long pedal tower frames and the thick posts at the console sides was imported from Germany. The rear panels are made of unfinished pine. Traditional joints hold the frame together: dovetails, splines, and pegged mortise and tenon. The panels are held together with clenched wrought-iron nails and have hand-forged iron hinges where access is needed for tuning. The molding profiles taken from the Schnitger organ in Clausthal-Zellerfeld were smoothed with an array of old wooden molding planes and custom-made planes and scrapers.
When Chris asked for guidance on what the finished surface of the moldings should be like, Munetaka responded, “We want to see the tool marks . . .
but they have to be nice tool marks.” The insides of the panels are finished with an extra deeply scooped texture for its acoustic property. All the oak has been fumed with ammonia to darken it, and the exterior surfaces were rubbed with linseed oil with iron-oxide pigment. The pipe shades are of basswood scroll-sawn to leafy shapes, and were painted by Joel Speerstra and his mother, Karen, with shadows and details to appear three-dimensional.
The casework was dismantled from the barn and moved to our Canandaigua workshop in November 2008. The interior components were installed over the next year, and the entire organ was enclosed in a tent and fumed with ammonia. Following this process, three wooden stops were installed for testing, and the organ was featured in an open house event at our facility on January 10, 2010.

Installation
Installation of the organ began in February 2010. This process required more on-site construction than to what we are accustomed. Because the pipes were shipped directly to Cornell University, the racking process had to be completed on-site. This required burning the rack holes to the correct size, for each pipe, in a tent outside the chapel in the frigid February air. The various tapered irons were carefully heated in a hand-crank coal forge; monitoring the exact temperature of the irons was critical to the process. Once ready, the irons were used to enlarge the holes by burning the wood until the pipes fit correctly. All of the upper racking was performed on-site, with the façade pipes being carefully carried up the scaffold to be marked for the precise location of the hook. Once soldered, a pin was located and driven into the oak rack.
All of the pipes that are offset from the main chests are conducted with lead tubes that were individually mitered, soldered, and fit on-site, and forced into leathered holes in the toeboards.

Pipework
The majority of the pipes in the organ are combinations of lead and tin. The wooden stops are made of pine. The pipe metal was cast on sand, as it would have been in Schnitger’s time. This technique was “rediscovered” by GOArt as part of their original research project in Gothenburg. In contrast, the modern method of casting thick metal sheets and then planing metal to the desired thickness by machine, produces a weaker material because it removes the hardest metal from the outer surface.
As Munetaka Yokota notes,

If the handcraft worker has to do everything by hand, then she or he will have the incentive of casting it as close as possible to the desired thickness and with the desired taper, and scraping it minimally, but very carefully, in the areas where it must be scraped well for acoustical reasons. This much more complex process works with the metal to create a sheet that gives a structural and acoustic result that, almost as a byproduct of the process, is as close as possible to the original Schnitger pipes. . . . Process reconstruction was developed with the goal of reproducing the acoustical quality of the 17th-century organ pipes, and this . . . philosophy is applied to the rest of the organ production as much as possible.

Final product
The organ was publicly presented during the Organ Inauguration and Dedication Festival and Conference, March 10–13, 2011 on the Cornell University campus. Many lectures were presented detailing the world that existed when the original organ at Berlin’s Schlosskapelle was introduced in 1706. There were demonstrations of the organ’s individual stops and a discussion about the construction process, and numerous concerts to demonstrate the organ as a solo instrument as well as how it worked together with other instruments. The inaugural concert by Harald Vogel was presented twice to allow more people to experience the new instrument in the intimate space of Anabel Taylor Chapel. The first inaugural concert also featured the new composition Anacrusis by Kevin Ernste. This piece featured the organ with electronic sounds as well as live organbuilding sounds made by numerous students and organbuilders who had worked on the instrument.
We would like to thank Professor Annette Richards, University Organist, who was the impetus behind this project and the glue that held it all together. Professor David Yearsley also provided welcome support and encouragement throughout the project. The support of Jacques van Oortmerssen, who served as inspector for Cornell during the project, was crucial to its success, and his performance during the festival was a tribute to his contributions.
The artistic endeavor of building the organ now gives way to the artistic endeavor of using it to teach and to enrich the lives of people for generations to come. For Parsons Pipe Organ Builders, there is a single underlying purpose to creating these beautiful instruments: that this organ will be used by Cornell students to glorify God through weekly services of worship.
—Parsons Pipe Organ Builders
4820 Bristol Valley Road
Canandaigua, NY 14424-8125
888/229-4820
www.parsonsorgans.com

To view a descriptive video produced by Cornell University, visit <http://www.cornell.edu/video/index.cfm?VideoID=1017&gt;.

Parsons’ staff:
Richard Parsons
Calvin Parsons
Duane Prill
Peter Geise
Aaron Feidner
David Bellows
Glenn Feidner
Graham Sleeman
Jay Slover
Matthew Parsons
Steven Martindale
Tony Martino

Photo credit: Timothy Parsons, unless otherwise indicated

Anabel Taylor Chapel
Cornell University Baroque Organ
Ithaca, New York
GOArt / Parsons / Lowe

MANVAL (II)
1 PRINCIPAL 8 fus
2 QVINTADENA 16 fus
3 FLOITE DVES 8 fus
4 GEDACT 8 fus
5 OCTAV 4 fus
6 VIOL DE GAMB 4 fus
7 SPITZFLÖIT 4 fus
8 NASSAT 3 fus
9 SVPER OCTAV 2 fus
10 MIXTVR 4 fach
11 TROMMET 8 fus
12 VOX HVMANA 8 fus

RVCWERK (I)
1 PRINCIPAL 8 fus
2 GEDACT LIEBLICH 8 fus
3 OCTAV 4 fus
4 FLÖITE DVES 4 fus
5 OCTAV 2 fus
6 WALTFLÖIT 2 fus
7 SEPQVIALT 2 fach
8 SCHARF 3 fach
9 HOBOY 8 fus

PEDAL
1 PRINCIPAL 16 fus
2 OCTAV 8 fus
3 OCTAV 4 fus
4 NACHT HORN 2 fus
5 RAVSCHPFEIFE 2 fach
6 MIPTVR 4 fach
7 POSAVNEN 16 fus
8 TROMMET 8 fus
9 TROMMET 4 fus
10 CORNET 2 fus
(preparation)

TREMVLANT
VENTIEL MANVAL
VENTIEL RVCWERK
VENTIEL PEDAL
CALCANT

Four wedge bellows

Pitch: a1 = 415 Hz
Compass: Manuals C, D–d3
Pedal C, D–d1
Temperament: Werckmeister III

The stop names are presented as on the stop labels. Note that the “x” has been replaced by a “p” in both the Rucwerk Sepquialt and Pedal Miptur, possibly as a nod to the division names Rückpositiv and Pedal.

30 stops, 40 ranks, with one preparation.

An important project is happening in Göteborg, Sweden. In August, 1998, along with about 100 organists from all over the world, I attended the International Organ Academy of GoArt: Göteborg Organ Art Center, at Göteborg University, Sweden. This has become a major center of research, organ-building, teaching and performing. A recent visit there last year was the occasion to observe progress on the building of a four-manual, 54-stop, mean-tone organ after the style of the late-17th century in North Germany. The organ will be unveiled at the biennial International Organ Academy in Göteborg, August 5-18, 2000. For the background and purposes of GoArt, see the article by Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra (The American Organist, July, 1996) and their Web-page (URL: www.hum.gu.se/goart/organac.htm); here I will summarize briefly.

The Göteborg Organ Art Center is the brainchild of Hans Davidsson, a GU music faculty member and brilliant young organist and musicologist, working under the inspiration of Jacques Van Oortmersson and Harald Vogel. It was begun in January 1995 as an inter-disciplinary center for organ research and performance bringing together the strengths of the Göteborg University Musicology Department and the School of Music. It is now an independent center in the GU administrative structure. An international panel of musicians advises GoArt, including Jean Boyer, Pieter Dirksen, Frederick K. Gable, Ludger Lohmann, André Marçon, Kimberly Marshall, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jacques Van Oortmersson, William Porter, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, Kerala Snyder, Axel Unnerbäck, Joris Verdin, and Harald Vogel.

GoArt's stated objective is to cover the entire spectrum of the art of the organ by linking the efforts of musicologists, performers, and organ builders, in order to study historic instruments, documents, music and performance practice issues. This blurring of traditional lines has led to a center that is bursting with energy and creativity and whose impact on the organ world is already keenly felt.

This multi-disciplinary approach has produced a number of tangible outcomes:

* the establishment of archives containing musical sources on micro-film, photographs and other media;

* education and research, with the emphasis on historically informed and discerning music-making;

* a wide-ranging collection of instruments, drawing inspiration from the many golden ages of organ playing;

* in-depth studies of the relationships between organ art and history, aesthetics, ideology and liturgy;

* dedicated well-rounded artistic training aimed at producing musicians who are able to balance intuition with intellect;

* the reconstruction of instruments on scientific principles which will serve as primary sources of information about performance practice.

The current six-year long project is entitled "Changing Processes in North European Organ Art: 1600-1970 - Integrated Studies on Performance Practice and Instrument Construction." This integration of performance, literature, and musicological research is linked together by the instruments--the hallmark of GoArt--valued as an indispensable research tool in the organ performance. This collection of organs in various styles includes a mean-tone organ by John Brombaugh in the Haga Church (2 manuals and pedal; 21 stops); a 19th-century French style organ built by the Dutch builder Verschueren (3 manuals and pedal; 43 stops, featured in the 1998 GoArt Organ Academy) housed in the recital hall of the School of Music; a "Father" Henry Willis organ built in 1871 housed and in the Örgryte Church (3 manuals and pedal, 31 stops); an instrument inspired by the Swedish Baroque style built by Gustavsson (2 manuals and pedal; 16 stops); and a pedal clavichord reconstructed by Joel Speerstra after the Gerstenberg instrument in Leipzig. (This is used to explore the connections between clavichord and organ techniques.)

Housed in the Örgryte Church, the organ currently in production is the aforementioned North German style mean-tone organ, using the work of Arp Schnitger as a primary model but also incoporating aspects by earlier builders such as Scherer and Fritzsche. Visually, it uses as a model the now defunct Schnitger organ of the Lübeck Dom. Tonally, the new organ is inspired by the organ of St. Jakobi, Hamburg, but also incorporates aspects of the organs of the Aa-Kerk, Groningen and St. Cosmae, Stade.

Some of the most sophisticated research into historic organ-building methods is being carried out and put into practice jointly by scientists of the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Göteborg and Master Organbuilders at GoArt (Hans Van Eeken, head draftsman; Mats Arvidsson, responsible for construction of the organ, excluding organ pipes; and Munetaka Yakoto, research and organ pipe production). The collaboration among these scientists and artisans has yielded new thoughts and discoveries in air-flow, acoustics of the room and the organ chamber, and materials and pipe construction.

One of the most interesting achievements of this project has been the retrieval of pipe making methods that were used until the time of the Industrial Revolution. The scientists at the Chalmers Institute were able to ascertain the formula for many metal alloys used by Schnitger and others. Organologists explored church records and the annals of builders of the time in order to re-construct the method of casting pipe metal on sand. This affects the cooling process of the pipe metal, thereby affecting the molecular structure, and ultimately the quality of the metal and the sound. Quite possibly this is the first time these techniques have been used since the early 18th century, and the people at GoArt are convinced that this old technique is, in part, responsible for the special sound quality of historic organs. More information on the North German organ, including the stop-list and a description of the church in which it is housed can be found on the GoArt web site: http://www.hum.gu.se/goart/w3b.htm#ngorp.

But all of this research could be mere mental gymnastics were it not brought to life by a vital and informed faculty in performance best displayed at the biennial GoArt conferences. In order to promote the next International Organ Academy, allow me to recall a few events from 1998.

This two-week course had several themes: one week devoted to "Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and the French Symphonic Organ," another to "The North German Organ" with special emphasis on the chorale fantasia, and an extended weekend symposium on "The Organ and Liturgy." The schedule was grueling yet rewarding, especially if you were willing to participate fully. Sessions began usually at 9 am and carried through until the late evening. It was not possible to attend everything, but a mere perusal of the program tells one of the richness of our legacy. Four primary kinds of meetings call the academy together (98% of which are done in English): master-classes, lectures, workshops, and recitals. Among some of the more engaging pedagogical experiences of the last academy were a session on Froberger by Ludger Lohmann of Stuttgart, a class on Alain by Jacques Van Oortmerssen (Amsterdam), an exploration of Franck's chorales by Jean Boyer (Lyon), and a class on Italian Baroque music by André Marçon (Bern).

The workshops were a cross between master-class and lecture and allowed listeners to focus on specific aspects of research as it relates to performance practice. Kimberly Marshall devoted two of her sessions to the genesis of early liturgical music for the organ and the music of Jeanne Demessieux. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra unveiled some of her latest discoveries in the pedagogy of improvisation in the late 18th century. André Marçon led a detailed analysis of Frescobaldi's "Fiori Musicali" and alternatim practice in Baroque Italy. William Porter gave an insightful workshop on "Generating Principles of the Late 17th-century North German 'Praeludium'."

The lectures are too numerous to list but were nonetheless provocative and memorable. Jesse Eschbach, on the verge of the publication of his new book on Cavaillé-Coll, discussed the organ builder's thoughts on modernizing Classical and Post-Classical organs. Jean Ferrard discussed Cavaillé-Coll's relationships with Lemmens, Loret and Franck. Pieter Dirksen (a brilliant young musicologist who has recently published a book on the keyboard works of Sweelinck) spoke about Lübeck and Bruhns and the final stages of the North German chorale fantasia. Kerala Snyder explored Bach and the Lutheran liturgy and the unlikely topic of the connections between the French tradition and Buxtehude. Fenner Douglas gave a withering and yet very accurate appraisal of the neo-classic renovations that happened to historic French organs in the 1950s-70s.

And now to the heart of the matter--performance. Were it not for this aspect, GoArt may be little more than a meeting for musicologists. But in these two weeks, I heard fine organ playing on beautiful instruments.

In the Haga Church (Brombaugh mean-tone organ) André Marçon opened the academy with a moving performance featuring music of the Italian baroque. While the instrument is built in the North German style, the transparent colors of the principals admirably revealed the subtle singing quality of this repertoire. Marçon is steeped in this period, and displays his acumen beautifully through intelligent, colorful and expressive articulation and phrasing.

One of the great moments of the entire Academy was to hear William Porter on the same instrument, this time playing music of 17th-century North Germany. Two variation sets of Scheidt ("Vater Unser" and "Io son ferito lasso") were among the highlights of this program. Porter's playing of this music is rivaled by few others. Gauging each tempo correctly, using old fingering practices to expressive ends, discovering the beauty of the simplest of registrations, and knowing the architecture of this music are among the reasons why his playing is so remarkable. The program closed with a riveting performance of the Bruhns "Praeludium in G," but not before he improvised a chorale fantasy on "Gelobet sei Gott" that made one think it was Buxtehude at the organ!

The French symphonic organ was a featured instrument at this year's academy. Generous in scaling and voicing, even though the Verschueren organ is housed in a recital hall of limited acoustic, the organ is nonetheless colorful and brilliant without being overwhelming to the listener. The sounds of the montres and strings were particularly convincing. Jean Boyer's performance of Messiaen's La Nativité was one of the memorable moments of these two weeks. Boyer is an extremely intelligent man (as he displayed to us in his teaching and lecturing), and this intelligence is wedded to a musical soul. Ludger Lohman gave a stellar performance of the Vierne Fifth Symphony and Kimberly Marshall gave a wonderful overview of some of the great works of Demessieux. I regret missing a performance by Hans-Ola Ericsson of Livre du Saint Sacrament of Messiaen (the recital BEGAN at 11pm!!) but reports from reliable sources the next day glowed with unanimous approval. Apparently the audience was spellbound for the 21/2 hours of this event.

Director of GoArt, Hans Davidsson, apparently possesses all of the important gifts of the complete artist/teacher: intellect, creativity, vision and musicality. These were demonstrated throughout the conference but particularly as he was featured in a recital of the Third Part of Bach's Clavierübung, in the Bethlehem Church. This performance revealed a deep understanding not only of this great music, but also of the theology that lay behind it. It was a profoundly moving event.

Curiously, the recitals that seemed to encourage the most discussion afterwards were not organ recitals at all. Joris Verdin, harmonium player and organist from Belgium, completely amazed everyone by his subtle and expressive playing on the GoArt French harmonium. While this instrument was well-known and used by French organists in the 19th century it has since fallen out of use, especially in the United States where the harmonium uses a different wind system than the European version. The subtle nuances that he was able to achieve with this instrument were nothing short of miraculous and brought to life music which sounds little more than hum-drum on the organ. Equally noteworthy was an evening spent in the Gunnebo Castle in nearby Molndal. It was a marriage of sensations: there the audience sat in an 18th-century home listening to a music of the period played on a replica of an 18th-century double clavichord. The featured performers, Joel Speerstra and Ulrika Davidsson, played music of late 18th-century Germany while Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra improvised a charming sonata in late 18th-century style using the principles she had discussed only days before in her lecture. Here was a real unity of architecture, sound, music and knowledge that exemplified what GoArt is able to achieve.

GoArt is currently engaged in a number of publications, perhaps the most significant being a massive tome called The Organ as a Mirror of Its Time, edited by Kerala Snyder. This book, which will be available in the Fall 2000, traces the significance of the organ in western culture, particularly as building styles were affected by and helped shape liturgical practice, improvisation, and the secular music aesthetic. The specific foci include the organs of the North German Masters, Swedish organ-building practices and the French and German organs in the 19th century. Chapters on the organ reform movement and the latter-day performance practice movement are also included. Among the contributors are the current GoArt planning board and faculty.

Information on the upcoming GoArt International Organ Academy (August 5-18, 2000) may be found at http://www.hum.gu.se/goart/w-100b.htm. The focus will, of course, be the North German Baroque Organ and the conference will unveil the new instrument currently being finished. Performers and clinicians will include Harald Vogel, Daniel Roth, Ludger Lohmann, David Yearsley, Rudolf Kelber, Yuko Hayashi, Lynn Edwards, Pieter Dirksen, Paul Peeters, William Porter and many others. Contact information: Organ Academy, School of Music, Box 210, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden; ph +46-31-773 52 11 or -773 52 06; fax +46-31-773 52 00; e-mail [email protected]

http://www.hum.gu.se/goart/w-109.htm#fee

In a time when the organ seems to be on the periphery of musical performance, and as awareness of the instrument even among the musically informed is at an all-time low, the Göteborg Organ Art Center has positioned itself to be a catalyst in the midst of this crisis. Their solution does not provide a single-style agenda, nor a bag-full of tricks meant simply to "thrill" audiences. Rather, its broad base reminds us of the richness of the legacy that has been given us and calls our attention again to the depth and breadth of the largest of all instrumental repertoires.

The Organ Historical Society’s Annual Convention, August 11–14, 2014

The Organ Historical Society’s 59th Annual Convention took place in central New York with the historic Genesee Grande Hotel, Syracuse, as convention headquarters, though some of us stayed at the equally pleasant Park View Hotel three or four blocks away, owing to a lack of accommodation at the main hotel. One might not normally bother with such details, but I would like to begin by mentioning that Birnie’s Bus Service of Rome, New York, provided the OHS with the best bus service I think I have ever experienced on any convention. I also have to say that after the Vermont convention of last year, perhaps the best OHS convention ever, I was not expecting the Syracuse convention to be nearly as good. But in the event, I was very presently surprised to find that, if a little shorter than last year’s, it was in many ways equally fine. Enormous credit for this is due to Ryan J. Boyle, the chair of the convention, and his committee, as well as the Richmond staff and the Board of Directors of the OHS.

Sunday, August 10, and Monday, August 11

On Sunday, August 10, there was a pre-convention tour of New York State wineries, and on Monday morning there were further wine events, tours, and museum visits. The pre-convention events included a recital by Jillian Gardner, a student of James David Christie at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Gardner’s recital took place in the Lodi Historical Society on E. & G. G. Hook Opus 140, a two-manual organ built in 1852.

The convention proper, however, began at 8 p.m. on Monday evening with Hector Olivera’s recital on the 1952 Walter Holtkamp, Sr., III/61 organ, Job number 1659, in Hendricks Chapel, Syracuse University. This organ incorporates much of the action and pipework from the previous Aeolian organ, Opus 1771 of 1930. The instrument was designed in consultation with the redoubtable Arthur Poister (1898–1980), who served as music director of Hendricks Chapel from 1948 to 1965. Mr. Olivera is, of course, a great showman in the tradition of Virgil Fox and, ably assisted at the console by his frog Harry, gave us a very entertaining recital. His performance of the Aria from Bach’s Suite in D Major, BWV 1068, reminded me a great deal of Virgil’s. Among other things, he gave us some very interesting stereophonic cuckoo effects in the Allegro from Handel’s Organ Concerto No. 13 (“The Cuckoo and the Nightingale”), and ended with an improvisation on a submitted theme, which turned out to be the hymn tune Lasst uns erfreuen, finishing with a skillfully improvised fugue. 

Tuesday, August 12

Tuesday, August 12, began with a short bus trip to Temple Concord in Syracuse. This is one of the oldest Reform synagogues in the United States; its present building dates from 1911. 

Joby Bell treated us to a recital on the IV/44 Tellers organ, Opus 998 of 1965. The Tellers Organ Company, successors to A. B. Felgemaker & Co. of Erie, Pennsylvania, was of course a relatively local company in this part of the country. I had never heard any of their instruments from the 1960s before and was quite impressed with the sound of this organ. It has a neo-baroque specification, but is a warm sound with no tendency toward screechiness in the voicing, such as one finds in many instruments of the period. That such an instrument could sound so fine in a relatively unfavorable acoustic is a great tribute to the Tellers firm. The organ proved an excellent medium for Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E-flat (“St. Anne”) while Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur’s haunting In Paradisum gave Joby Bell the opportunity to show off the contrasting flutes of the Antiphonal and Echo divisions. The recital ended with a fine performance Sowerby’s Pageant.

We proceeded then to St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Syracuse where Silviya Mateva, one of last year’s OHS Biggs Fellows, treated us to a recital on the church’s 1951 Casavant organ. This organ, which replaced an earlier one by Morey of Utica, was an old-style Stephen Stoot Casavant, built at the time when the firm had hardly begun to take note of the neo-classical movement. Its rich tone suited it extremely well to the Elegy of William Grant Still, and Ms. Mateva made good use of the Swell Cornet as a solo stop in Bach’s Chorale Prelude on ‘Allein Gott in der Höh sei ehr,’ BWV 662. Lionel Rogg’s Partita on ‘Nun freut euch’ also came off very well despite being a modern piece in neo-baroque style. I did feel, however, that the organ was a little heavy for the Buxtehude Präludium und Fuge D-Dur, BuxWV 139, and though it was very well played, I rather wished she could have chosen a piece more suited to this particular instrument.

After lunch at the Franciscan Church of the Assumption, where we were able to inspect the historic plumbing in the restrooms, we took the buses to St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Solvay, New York. The City of Solvay developed largely around Ernest Solvay’s ammonia-soda process for the production of sodium carbonate. The Solvay plant closed in 1986, leaving the city both economically depressed and environmentally compromised, but following massive redevelopment, things have greatly improved in recent years. I was particularly looking forward to hearing the organ at St. Cecilia’s, a II/15 tracker by J. H. Willcox & Co. of Boston, Opus 23 of 1872. Since in the 1980s, I belonged to Trinity Episcopal Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which originally possessed an 1872 Willcox with a practically identical stoplist; this organ had been electrified by Durner c. 1920 and replaced by Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1240 in 1955. 

I was therefore looking forward to hearing what an original Willcox sounded like, as there are very few of them still around. Organist and organ-builder J. H. Willcox was one of several members of the E. & G. G. Hook firm that left and started their own companies shortly after Frank Hastings took over from the Hook brothers. After a couple of years, J. H. Willcox & Co. morphed into Hutchings, Plaisted & Co., and then into Hutchings & Co. I was by no means disappointed in my expectations, since the Willcox organ turned out to be one of the outstanding organs of the convention, and Christopher Marks gave an excellent recital on it. The organ has some exquisite strings and flutes, a bright, sparkling Great chorus and a surprisingly impressive full Swell. Among other things, the recital included some interesting pieces by American composers. Among these were the Miniature Suite of James H. Rogers (1857–1940) and the Variations on an American Air (Stephen Foster’s “Old Folks at Home”) by I. V. Flagler (1844–1909), of whom there will be more to say more anon. The recital concluded with the first ever performance of Romance and Tarantella by Kurt Knecht (b. 1971), commissioned for this convention by Christopher Marks.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Syracuse to visit another delightful tracker organ, a II/21 instrument William A. Johnson of Westfield, Massachusetts, Opus 43 of 1855, enlarged by Johnson & Son c. 1865. The recital was given by Robert Kerner, one of the principals of the organbuilding firm of Kerner & Merchant, and again we were by no means disappointed. Though more refined and less brilliant than the Willcox, the Johnson organ proved to be an excellent medium for both classical and romantic music, including Sweelinck, Buxtehude, Bach, Franck, and Boëllmann. Kerner included some movements from Franck’s L’ Organiste, and I thought the beautiful flute stops of the Johnson organ were particularly effective in these. We heard again the Prière à Notre-Dame from Boëllmann’s Suite Gothique, also included in Hector Olivera’s recital at Hendricks Chapel the previous evening, and I have to say I much preferred hearing Mr. Kerner play it on the Johnson.

Later in the afternoon we took the buses to Plymouth Congregational Church in Syracuse, which is the home of one of the finest four-manual Möller organs I have ever heard, Opus 5827 of 1930, with some tasteful additions made by Kerner & Merchant in 2012. The organist was Bryan Anderson, a four-year student at the Curtis Institute who is surely going to be one of the outstanding organists of his day. Brilliant, yet quiet and unassuming, he played the recital entirely without music. The main work in his program was Karg-Elert’s Homage to Handel, a series of 54 variations on a ground bass. Besides being highly virtuosic, this is a wonderful piece to demonstrate an organ, since in the course of its 54 variations it uses just about every registration conceivable. 

Following cocktails and dinner at the Drumlins Country Club, we finished Tuesday’s program with a recital given by the Syracuse University Organist (now on the University of Michigan faculty), Kola Owolabi, with Gabriel DiMartino, trumpet. This was performed on another three-manual Walter Holtkamp, Sr., organ, Job number 1649 of 1950, in the Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College, Syracuse University. It incorporates pipework from previous instruments by Roosevelt and Aeolian. It was a ground-breaking instrument at the time it was completed. Crouse College was originally the women’s department of Syracuse University; then it became the performing arts center, and now—the artists and dramatists having moved to other buildings—it is occupied exclusively by the music department. The concert included Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541, as well as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition transcribed for organ and trumpet by Vincent DiMartino, Gabriel DiMartino, and Kola Owolabi. In the middle of the recital, we also heard Owolabi play J. G. Walther’s Partita on ‘Meinen Jesum lass ich nicht’ on the other organ in Setnor Auditorium, a I/4 tracker with pull-down pedal by the Strasbourg firm of Schwenkedel, Opus 123 of 1968. It is a very pretty little instrument of its kind. And so to bed . . .

Wednesday, August 13

The Wednesday program required us to get up a little earlier than normal for a day trip to Ithaca, New York. On the way we stopped at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Cortland, New York, where John Ronald Daniels gave us a recital on the church’s II/21 Morey & Barnes tracker, Opus 165, which was first used on Christmas Day of 1895. The organ is feisty, bright, and forthright. In some of its moods it reminded me of the work of Father Willis in England. It had previously been visited 34 years ago on the 1980 OHS convention. 

Following some several solo organ pieces by Théodore Salomé, Daniels was joined by the Clinton String Quartet in Salomé’s exceptionally beautiful Berceuse, op. 59, no. 5 (1894). This piece was written for a concert organized by Guilmant, but not performed, and has rarely if ever been performed since until now. Following it came Rheinberger’s well-known Cantilène from Sonata 11, which furnished an opportunity to show off the organ’s uncommonly fine Oboe. The Trumpet was similarly showcased in David N. Johnson’s Trumpet Tune in E. The recital ended with Lefébure-Wély’s wonderfully tasteless Boléro de concert. I shall probably not be around to see it, but it is very much my hope that this fine Morey & Barnes organ will still be there to be enjoyed by future OHS members in another 34 years’ time.

On our arrival in Utica we split into two groups, and the group I was in went first to Trinity Lutheran Church for a short recital by Annie Laver on John Brombaugh’s Opus 2 of 1966, a small one-manual-and-pedal instrument of nine ranks. The recital included works by Buxtehude, Böhm, and Reincken. Following lunch at First Presbyterian Church (whose fine IV/84 instrument by Russell & Co., Opus 47 of 2006, we were unfortunately unable to hear owing to construction work in the church) we went to the First Unitarian Society of Ithaca, New York, which is the home of Hellmuth Wolff & Associés Opus 16 of 1975. This is a II/26 tracker, and it has a sister organ in Wolff’s Opus 6, formerly in the Anabel Taylor Chapel of Cornell University in Ithaca, and now at Binghamton University (SUNY). Jonathan Biggers, who played the recital at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca, is professor of organ at Binghamton, so he gets to play the other Wolff organ there. He gave an excellent recital of Bach, Böhm, and Bruhns (the G major), and the organ sounded exceedingly fine, though perhaps a little loud for the room.

After lunch we moved to the Uris Hall Auditorium for the OHS Annual Meeting, after which we divided into three groups, which perambulated the Cornell campus for the rest of the afternoon. My group went first to the Sage Chapel of Cornell University for a recital given by Gregory Crowell on the I/7 Vicedomini organ built in Italy in 1748. As well as seven speaking stops, this instrument has an Ussignoli (Nightingale) stop and a double-acting Sforzando marked “Tiratutti.” Appropriately, Mr. Crowell’s recital consisted mostly of early Italian music, though an exception was James Woodman’s Gagliardo, which gave us an opportunity to hear the Ussignoli. Another piece, Bernardo Storace’s Ciaccona, enabled us to hear the 8-ft. Voce Umana (Principal Celeste).

Our group next went to Barnes Hall Auditorium for a lecture by Cornell music professor and university organist, Annette Richards, on “The Genesis of the Cornell Baroque Organ,” describing how the Wolff organ in the Anabel Taylor Chapel was replaced by a replica Schnitger organ built in collaboration with GOArt at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. This collaborative effort was overseen by Munetaka Yokota, and involved a cooperative enterprise between workers from GOArt, Parsons Pipe Organs, and CCSN Woodworking of Ithaca, the latter being responsible for the case. The Schnitger organ chosen for replication was that of the Court Chapel at Charlottenburg, built in 1706 and unfortunately destroyed in World War II, though not before every aspect of it had been painstakingly catalogued by Karl Schucker. The case was based on the instrument at Claustahl-Zellerfeld and the mechanism on several North German Schnitger organs. However, the tonal design of the Charlottenburg organ that has been duplicated was most unusual in being, unlike other Schnitger organs, designed primarily for the performance of music of the Galant style. The room where the lecture was held also contains a GOArt pipe organ, a I/5 with divided keyboard built in 2003, but we unfortunately did not get to hear this.

After the lecture we went to the Anabel Taylor Chapel to hear a recital on the II/42 GOArt Schnitger replica organ of 2009–10 that Professor Richards had been discussing. The recital was given by another Cornell music professor, David Yearsley, who appropriately included mostly repertoire from the Galant style. The organ case dominates the Anabel Taylor Chapel, and I was afraid that the sound might prove overwhelming. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that the volume was just right for the room, and that it was indeed a magnificent instrument of its kind. 

Following a cash bar and dinner at the Celebrations Banquet Hall in Ithaca, we returned to Sage Chapel for the evening recital given by Christopher Houlihan on the celebrated III/68 Aeolian-Skinner organ, Opus 1009 of 1940, which incorporates quite a bit of pipework from the previous organ, Ernest M. Skinner Company Opus 175 of 1909. This was a landmark organ in its day. The recital included three works by J. S. Bach, together with the Grande pièce symphonique of Franck. Although the latter is probably my least favorite of Franck’s twelve major organ works—I find it a little long and rambling—Houlihan gave a magnificent performance of it. At the end of the recital we were treated to the Scherzo from Vierne’s Symphony No. 2 as an encore, and I also thought this came off very well on the organ. Houlihan played the three Bach pieces, including the Passacaglia in C Minor BWV 582, extremely well, but here I thought the Aeolian-Skinner basses a little ponderous for Bach—certainly in comparison with the GOArt organ we had just heard. Organ design has come a long way since 1940! And so back to Syracuse . . .

Thursday, August 14

The doyen of Syracuse organists is Cornell University Organist Emeritus Will Headlee, a familiar figure at OHS conventions. Thursday, August 14, began with a recital given by Professor Headlee on the Ernest White Möller organ at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour, Syracuse, New York. This was M. P. Möller Opus 9734, an instrument of three manuals and five divisions, built in 1962. The recital was titled, “Homage to Ernest White 1901–1980,” and I was expecting something rather screechy-sounding. Once again I was pleasantly surprised for, as Professor Headlee explained, the church asked for an organ in the English Cathedral tradition and this is exactly what Ernest White gave them. Two manual doubles and independent, pure-tuned mutations on the Pedal division add to the instrument’s rich effect. Indeed, I thought it in many ways more useful as an eclectic organ than the Aeolian-Skinner in Sage Chapel, being equally at home, for example, in works by Bach and Karg-Elert.

Following this we all piled in the buses for a visit to St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Camillus, New York, home of a II/21 Schlicker of 1965. Allison Evans Henry gave a recital of Bach, Howells, Vierne, and from the Syracuse Collection, Homage to Persichetti by Janet M. Correll (b. 1942). We also heard a charming arrangement for Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major, arranged for organ and classical guitar. The solo guitarist was Timothy Schmidt. This was a very nice little organ, and indeed I don’t think a small church looking for value for money in 1965 could have done any better than to buy a Schlicker organ such as this. We then split into groups again, and my group went first to Cazenovia College for an extremely pleasant luncheon. For anyone who is looking for a college for their undergraduate degree and who is especially fond of ice cream, of which they had a splendid selection, Cazenovia College ought to be near the top of the list. 

In the afternoon we went first to the First Presbyterian Church in Cazenovia, home of C. B. Fisk Opus 70, a II/32 tracker of 1976. The organ contains some pipework from the previous instrument by J. G. Marklove. Christopher J. Howerter treated us to a program of de Grigny, Bach, Buxtehude, and Canadian composer Sir Ernest Campbell MacMillan’s Cortège académique. We also heard our Convention Chair, Ryan J. Boyle, singing bass, and alto Abby Witmer, accompanied by the organ in Dudley Buck’s “The Lord is My Light.” This is an excellent organ all round; one of Charles Fisk’s best, I would say. 

We went then to the May Memorial Unitarian-Universalist Society of Syracuse where we heard a recital given by Glenn Kime on the II/28 Holtkamp organ, Job Number 1797 of 1965. The repertoire consisted of Pachelbel’s Praeludium in D Minor, three Bach chorale preludes, the last movement of Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 1, and two movements from Spirits and Places by Ernst Bacon. These were very pleasant and most unusual, and we were honored to have the composer’s widow in the audience. In spite of it having no swellbox, I thought that this was the most versatile and attractive of all the Holtkamp instruments we heard during the convention. 

Following dinner in the Armory Square neighborhood of Syracuse, we walked to the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for the last, and one might say culminating, recital of the OHS convention. Immaculate Conception’s organ is a three-manual built by Frank Roosevelt of New York City, Opus 520 of 1892, rebuilt and tastefully augmented by Schantz in 1980. Schantz’s head voicer, Bob Maye, did excellent work matching the new work to the old, and the organ now has three manuals and pedals and 60 ranks. Our recitalist was the internationally acclaimed Diane Meredith Belcher, who played an excellent program commencing with the Passacaglia on a theme by Dunstable by John Weaver, who was present in the audience and indeed as an OHS member had attended the whole of the convention. This was followed by the Lullaby from the Second Suite of Calvin Hampton, Gigout’s Pièce jubilaire en forme de prélude et fugue, Étoile du soir from the third suite of Vierne’s Pièces de fantaisie, and Rheinberger’s magnificent Sonata No. 8 in E Minor. Altogether a wonderful end to a wonderful OHS convention.

Friday, August 15 

On Friday morning, my wife and I departed Syracuse and wended our weary way through Ontario and back to the Midwest. The lucky few got to stay another day for the optional post-convention tour. This included visits to Johnson & Son Opus 510 of 1878 at First Baptist Church, Meridian, New York, to Skinner Organ Company Opus 644 of 1927 at St. James Episcopal Church, Skaneateles, New York, a Steere & Turner of c. 1891 at Willard Memorial Chapel, Auburn, New York, and St. Mary of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Auburn, New York, which has both an 1890 Carl Barckhoff Church Organ Co. organ and another one of 1872 by Garret House. Recitals were given by Carol Britt, Rosalind Mohnsen, Matthias Schmelmer, and Nicholas Bideler. For an even more select few who had been able to register early, there was also a lunch cruise aboard the Judge Ben Wiles
motor launch. 

Hans Davidsson is general artistic and research director of the Göteborg Organ Art Center, GOArt, as well as artistic director of the Göteborg International Organ Academy. In 2001, he was appointed professor of organ at the Eastman School Music and project director of the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI). In 2006, he was appointed visiting professor at the Bremen Hochschule für Künste, Fachbereich für Musik.

When the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester opened its doors in downtown Rochester, New York in 1921, its benefactor George Eastman made sure that the first class of organ students had facilities that were state of the art, and a superb faculty. In the early twentieth century, Eastman’s truly American vision of the pinnacle of the organ art even allowed that first class of students to choose whether to study “theatre organ” or “legitimate organ” playing. To meet twenty-first-century needs for organ education with the same energy, vision and commitment, Eastman has embarked on a program called the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative, or EROI. EROI’s main goal has been to update and expand Eastman’s collection of instruments for the whole range of the organ repertoire, making it a global organ facility. EROI’s first major step was to install the largest Italian Baroque organ in North America in the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in 2005. Its next project will be to restore the Skinner Organ Company’s Opus 325 at Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall to its original 1921 condition. The current phase, the Craighead-Saunders Organ, will be inaugurated in Christ Church (Episcopal) across from the Eastman School of Music on October 16 at EROI’s seventh annual organ festival.
The Craighead-Saunders Organ is a new two-manual, 33-stop instrument named after David Craighead and Russell Saunders, two renowned professors of organ at the Eastman School of Music. They will both be celebrated by faculty, students and alumni at the opening symposium of this year’s festival, including the presentation of a new biography of Russell Saunders by Martha H. Sobaje.
The Craighead-Saunders Organ is a scientific reconstruction of an organ from 1776 built by Adam Gottlob Casparini for the Holy Ghost Church in Vilnius, Lithuania, and represents a Baltic-North European building style from the height of Enlightenment-era Europe. The finished instrument is the result of a six-year interdisciplinary research project between GOArt (the Göteborg Organ Art Center) and the Eastman School of Music on the processes of eighteenth-century organ building. GOArt is an interdisciplinary research center at Gothenburg University in Sweden, devoted to the study of the organ and related keyboard instruments and their music. A basic idea shaping GOArt’s research environment is to study the organ not just as a musical instrument, but also as a visual object, cultural artifact, and technological construction, and to communicate its research results to students, scholars and builders. In this latest project, GOArt worked in collaboration with a reference group that included leading American organbuilders as well as key members of Eastman’s faculty. This reference group made decisions for the project by consensus through the entire design and building process.
The result is a new and fresh instrument that challenges us to listen to, look at, and interact with an aesthetic that hasn’t been experienced this way anywhere since the end of the eighteenth century. The instrument’s soundscape is made up of over 1800 carefully reconstructed pipes that have been voiced by Munetaka Yokota based on strict principles that follow the original instrument’s design and documentation. Its case, built following eighteenth-century methods, creates an object like a Baroque theater set, painted in egg tempera and gilded and hand-burnished by German experts and a small army of volunteers. The colorful instrument and its generously proportioned new timber-frame balcony will provide an opportunity to explore eighteenth-century vocal and ensemble music using a large organ as the main continuo instrument. The tonal resources will make it possible to explore traditional continuo registration practice in this repertoire for the first time in a century.
The Craighead-Saunders Organ’s potential to offer new perspectives on the music of J. S. Bach and his sons and pupils has inspired the two-day symposium at the heart of this year’s EROI Festival, entitled “J. S. Bach and the Organ.” This symposium, co-sponsored by the Westfield Center, brings together leading Bach scholars and performers from around the world. Highlights will include the 2008 Glenn E. Watkins Lecture delivered by Christoph Wolff, as well as a concert of Bach’s cantatas performed by members of the Christ Church Schola Cantorum and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Players.
On Saturday the festival continues with a final symposium, “Reconstruction as a Model for Research and Creation,” co-sponsored by the Organ Historical Society. A natural continuation of the EROI Festival in 2007 (“New Dimensions in Organ Documentation and Conservation”), lectures and panel discussions will address the complementary process of documenting the original Casparini organ and creating the reconstruction in Rochester.

Rochester participates in the AGO Organ Spectacular
The 2008 EROI festival will help celebrate the American Guild of Organists’ International Day of the Organ here in Rochester. A Sunday afternoon program co-sponsored by the Rochester AGO chapter, “Organ Spectacular—An International Organ Celebration,” will give alumni and registered participants the opportunity to experience the wide range of Rochester’s growing organ landscape. This year, two new organs in Rochester will have their inaugurations during the festival. Paul Fritts has just completed his Opus 26 for Sacred Heart Cathedral, and George Taylor and John Boody the new Tannenberg-style organ, Opus 57, in Pittsford First Presbyterian Church. Throughout the day, other participating venues and area churches will offer open houses, mini-concerts, and/or organ demonstrations by resident organists and Eastman students. This will take place in cooperation with the Rochester AGO chapter. For more information and a list of events and locations, contact Nicole Marane, event coordinator ([email protected]), or visit the EROI (www.rochester.edu/EROI) or Rochester AGO (www.agorochester.org) websites.
The inaugural festival for the Craighead-Saunders Organ at Christ Church will take place October 16–20 in conjunction with the University of Rochester’s Meliora Weekend and the Eastman School of Music’s Eastman Weekend. Registration materials are available online on the EROI website. For more information on the Craighead-Saunders Organ and recent photos, visit <www.esm.rochester.edu/EROI/c-s.php&gt;.

Spellings and capitalizations are all according to the original stop labels from the 1776 Casparini organ and the order is given according to the use of these capitalizations.

CLAVIATURA PRIMA
BOURDUN. á 16.
PRINCIPAL. á 8.
HOHLFLAUT. á 8.
QVINTATHON. á 8.
Octava Principal. á 4.
Flaut Travers. á 4.
Super Octava. á 2.
Flasch Flot. á 2.
Qvinta. á 5.
Tertia. á 1 3/5
Mixtura. á 5. Choris.
Trompet. á 8.

Claviatura Secunda
PRINCIPAL. á 4.
IULA. á 8.
Principal Amalel. á 8.
Unda Maris. á 8.
Flaut Major. á 8.
Flaut Minor. á 4.
Spiel Flet. á 4.
Octava. á 2.
Wald Flot. á 2.
Mixtura. á 4. Choris.
Vox Humana. á 8.
Dulcian. á 16.*

PEDAL
Principal Bass. á 16.
Violon Bass. á 16.
Full Bass. á 12.
Octava Bass. á 8.
Flaut & Quint Bass. á 8.
Super Octava Bass. á 4.
Posaun Bass. á 16.
Trompet Bass. á 8.

*This position was never occupied on the original windchest.
There is no information preserved about the type and pitch of the reed stop once planned for this position. The Craighead-Saunders Organ has a Dulcian 16?.

Accessories
Ventil ad Claviaturam Primam.
Ventil ad Claviaturam Secundum.
Ventil Pedall.
2 Tremulants
BEBNY. (Drum)
Vox Campanarum (Glockenspiel)
Gwiazdy. (Cymbelstern)
Kalilujactgo. (Calcant)
Shove Coupler (Claviatura Secunda to Claviatura Prima)
Pedal to Claviaturam Primam Coupler
Compass: Manuals: C–d3; Pedal: C–d1

The 2006 EROI Festival was presented by the Eastman School of Music and the Westfield Center October 12–15. The topic was “Aspects of American Organ Building in the 20th Century with emphasis on E. M. Skinner and John Brombaugh.”

The Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI)

When the Eastman School of Music opened its doors in 1921, it housed the largest and most lavish organ collection in the nation, befitting the interests of its founder, George Eastman. Mr. Eastman provided the school with opulent facilities and stellar faculty, creating an expansive vision for organ art and education in the 20th century.
Over the years, the Eastman School has built on this vision by offering one of the most distinguished organ programs in the world. In keeping with this tradition of excellence, the Eastman School of Music has embarked on a long-range plan, the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI), which will extend George Eastman’s vision into the 21st century.
With the aim of making Rochester a global center for organ performance, research, building, and preservation, the Eastman School will assemble a collection of new and historic organs unparalleled in North America. An incomparable teaching resource, this collection will offer access to organs of diverse styles and traditions to talented young musicians from around the world.
Tourists, scholars, and music lovers will be drawn to Rochester to hear the varied sounds of these extraordinary instruments. The Italian Baroque organ inaugurated within the frame of the EROI Festival 2005 marks the first concrete milestone in EROI Phase One. A new instrument closely modeled after a Lithuanian organ built by Casparini in 1776 will be constructed and installed in Christ Church (Episcopal) by 2008, in cooperation with the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester.
The restoration of the historic Skinner organ, housed in the Eastman School’s Kilbourn Hall, and the restoration and replacement of the school’s fourteen practice organs, will complete the initial phase of this ten-year plan.
—The EROI Brochure 2006

See for information on Eastman, EROI Festivals, and for a PDF file of the 2006 Festival brochure, which has the complete festival program, biographies of participants, and detailed documentation of all the instruments played, with specifications and historical background for venues and organs. For information on organbuilders with links to E. M. Skinner and John Brombaugh, see .
Photo composition and text: Joel H. Kuznik Photo credit: Nicole Marane<.i>

Organs

At the opening of the EROI Festival William Porter, known for his traditional improvisatory skills, delighted attendees with an authentic performance on the mighty Wurlitzer Opus 1492 (1926, 121 stops, 12 ranks; restored by the Rochester Theatre Organ Society) at the Rochester Museum and Science Center.
Bozeman-Gibson Opus 24 (1984, 23 stops, 31 ranks, with gifts of Vox Humana by Paul Fritts, 2005, and Pedal 16' Posaunenbass by Flentrop Orgelbouw, 2006), modeled on Gottfried Silbermann’s instrument at Grosshartmansdorf, Germany. Currently on loan to Eastman and housed at Asbury First United Methodist Church.
“Gleason’s Dream Machine” designed by the legendary Harold Gleason for Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall, Skinner Opus 325 (1922, 6,030 pipes, 91 ranks, 83 stops), scheduled to be restored by 2010. Today it is Rochester’s largest organ.
John Brombaugh’s landmark 1972 Opus 9 (20 stops, 29 ranks), originally built for Ashland Avenue Baptist in Toledo, Ohio; now on loan to Sacred Heart Cathedral (RC), Rochester until 2008, when they receive a 52-stop Paul Fritts organ. The compact casework and pipework of extraordinary craftsmanship complement the remarkable sound.
Holtkamp organ (1962, 40 stops, 45 ranks) at the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, with its modern façade and neo-baroque tonal concept, typical of the mid-20th century.
Builder John Brombaugh discusses the concept of his Opus 9 and the importance of “vocale” voicing, inspired by his experience as a boy singer and found in old instruments throughout Europe, typically in Principal sounds to imitate the human voice.
Historic Pennsylvania Samuel Bohler organ (1869, 8 stops, 7 ranks), with a clear, crisp sound, at the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word. Built for Muddy Creek Presbyterian Church, Pennsylvania; restored by R. J. Brunner and Co. in 2006.
Console of the South End Organ, Aeolian Opus 947 (1904, 59 stops, 66 ranks), in the George Eastman House, where Harold Gleason played for breakfast each day and musicales twice a week with a resident string quartet. Still playable by rolls or console.
Computer image of the Craighead-Saunders organ to be installed in Christ Church (Episcopal) beginning July 2007, with completion in 2008. The organ is modeled on the exceptional Casparini organ (1776) at the Holy Ghost Church in Vilnius, Lithuania.
John Brombaugh and friends—how many do you know? Left to right: builder Martin Pasi, Aaron Reichert (Taylor & Boody), Munetaka Yokota (GOArt, Göteborg), John Brombaugh, builder George Taylor, builder Paul Fritts, Bruce Shull (Paul Fritts), Frits Elhout (Flentrop), and Mats Arvidsson (GOArt, Göteborg).