Wesleyan College renovates historic organ

Size matters, part two
First assignment: Please reread In the wind . . . in the May issue of The Diapason. Thank you.
Robin Hall is a very cool man. I met him in his office on West 34th Street in New York late on a February afternoon. A two-foot model of Sponge Bob Square Pants hangs from the ceiling. Kermit the Frog sits on the desk next to a DVD of Miracle on 34th Street. The walls are painted Wasabi Green. Kermit clashes with the walls—It isn’t easy being green. There’s a rack of file folders on a shelf under the window behind his desk—the folders are bright orange, obviously chosen to complement the walls. A snappy haircut, stylish eyeglass frames, and a breezy enthusiastic manner complete the picture.
Mr. Hall is a vice president for Macy’s department stores, and his office is in Macy’s flagship store on Herald Square. He heads the company’s department of Annual and Special Events. While I expect some department stores consider inventory to be the height of annual events, when you think of Macy’s you think of the Thanksgiving Day Parade. The department employs about 50 people who produce the parade, in-store flower shows, and public fireworks displays, to name a few activities. The hanging Sponge Bob is a sculptor’s model for a huge parade balloon. A few blocks away, there’s a parade studio with welders, woodworkers, and the cadre of artisans needed to build the floats and balloons for the parade, the artsy little bridges and gazebos that are installed in the store for flower shows, and all the other gizmos and gadgets that are the products of this unique division.
When I observed that he has a dream job, Robin pointed through the wall to the guy in the next office saying, “he’s the one with the great job.” He’s the one who interviews, reviews, auditions, and coordinates the high-school bands that travel to participate in the parade each Thanksgiving. You might think that job to be a nightmare of logistics, cancellations, and odd requests from hundreds of people, but Robin referred to the huge excitement of the many families traveling to New York so their kids could march in the great televised parade. Attitude matters.
Our conversation was about an hour long, ebullient, rocketing from one thing to another. At one point Robin said, “. . . more than in many other facets of modern life, passion is common in my world. I’m surrounded by passionate people doing the things they are passionate about.” (See Photo 1: a disinterested listener.)
Wouldn’t it be great if someone like this were in a position of responsibility for the care and promotion of a monumental public pipe organ?
A few years ago Macy’s merged with Federated Department Stores. The new company spun off Lord & Taylor. Lord & Taylor moved out, and Macy’s moved into a grand building on Market Street in Philadelphia, originally built by John Wanamaker to house his legendary department store, which included just that monumental public pipe organ. That’s right—the people who produce the Macy’s Parade are in charge of the Wanamaker Organ.
Last month I wrote about the history of that iconic instrument, hence the assignment for rereading. This month I share my reflections after spending 36 hours with the organ and the people around it. It was organ curator Curt Mangel who told me about Macy’s hearty support of the organ. Curt encouraged me to get in touch with Robin Hall; that referral led to my interview with him. Robin told me that when Macy’s acquired the Wanamaker properties, Melissa Ludwig, regional director of Macy’s Stores for the Philadelphia area, “sent an e-mail around” that described the relevance and reputation of the Wanamaker organ and in effect encouraged store management to be aware of the importance of the stewardship of the organ.
Robin Hall told me much about the importance of music in Macy’s heritage. He described an upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall, A Tribute to Macy’s, which would include newly commissioned songs. Each of the 80 versions of the Macy’s Parade has been a major musical event. For 40 years Macy’s has produced the July 4th fireworks on the New York waterfront in collaboration with the New York Pops Orchestra. Live music is considered an important part of any Macy’s event. Robin told me, for example, that the East Village Opera Company would be performing at upcoming corporate meetings. Special events are not a marketing tool, but central to the company’s mission. Attractions like the parade and flower shows are assets to retail activity and an opportunity for Macy’s to give back to the community. Simply put, Macy’s has always believed that music and theater are an essential part of the shopping experience. Special events enhance the brand. And emotionalism is “almost a religion.” How’s that for a corporate priority?
As Macy’s has long been devoted to musical and artistic extravaganzas, what better organization to have responsibility for the world’s greatest musical instrument? I was told how the Wanamaker Organ was a perfect fit into the portfolio of the Special Events Division, that it would “have a natural place in the Macy’s method.” Plans are under way to feature the organ in new types of programs and to enhance the listening experience in the Grand Court. And beyond mere enthusiasm is considerable tangible support. In its first years of stewardship of the organ, Macy’s has committed to the design and purchase of a new Peterson combination action (remember, there are 462 stop-tablets and 167 pistons!) and to the refinishing of the massive ornamented case of the six-manual console.
My hour in Robin Hall’s office was inspiring—how thrilling to hear of a major retail corporation wholeheartedly involved in arts and culture. It was fun—Robin is a compelling and engaging person. And it was encouraging—we live in a world dominated by bad news, in a culture that celebrates mediocrity, and my heart was warmed by the enthusiasm emanating from a corporate office in Manhattan in support of an organ in Philadelphia.
But the real thrill that day was to hear Robin talk about Peter Richard Conte, the Grand Court Organist, and L. Curt Mangel III, the curator of the organ. Robin spoke of how Peter understands the mission of the organ, that he is a serious, exceedingly skillful classical musician who knows how to balance high culture and popular populist selections, and who has a highly developed sense of fun. He spoke of Curt’s deep dedication to his work, his technical and organizational skills, his encyclopedic understanding of the instrument, and the work of keeping it in good condition. (See Photo 2: Peter Richard Conte [aka The conjurer].)
Peter Richard Conte has been Grand Court Organist at the Wanamaker Store since 1989. The hundreds of concerts he’s played at the store—along with his active touring schedule—make him one of America’s most experienced performers. In addition to what must be dozens of hours at the keyboard each week, Peter is both skilled and prolific at transcribing major orchestral repertory for his performances. His neat large-format manuscripts are peppered with colored dots indicating registration changes—the preparation time is obvious. I felt privileged to stand next to Peter while he played a noontime recital that included the “Immolation Scene” from Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, César Franck’s Choral in A minor, and Robert Hebble’s intricate and sexy Danny Boy (melody in the pedal, accompaniment packed with the “ten dollar chords” described in Ted Alan Worth’s rambling, moderately literate, intensely personal recollections of Virgil Fox in The Dish). The console is bewildering. I’ve mentioned 462 stop-tablets, but you have to see it to appreciate it. There are eleven expression pedals and six keyboards. Peter’s hands are just like everyone else’s except they each have eight telescoping fingers and each finger has three knuckles that are not double but universally jointed. He flies through the most complicated passages with apparent ease, the observer having hardly a chance of comprehending the relationship between the printed score and what’s happening on the keyboards.
It sounds like a parlor trick, but it’s so much more. While the symphony orchestra comprises dozens of separate voices that are independently expressive, it’s usual for organists to think of expression as a one- or two-dimensional concept. Peter Conte playing the Wanamaker organ produces expressive effects that defy the commoner’s understanding of the pipe organ. Independent voices on three keyboards simultaneously, two pedal voices, one of which is a high-note melody, and inexplicably one voice in decrescendo with another climaxing—oh yes, remember those brass bars under the keyboards that operate the shutters, and look at those sneaky thumbs. (See Photo 3: Swell Shoes?) Amazing. A decrescendo into nothingness accomplished by running a thumb across a row of stop tablets like a line of falling dominoes. Breathtaking. A powerful burst from an array of colorful stentorian solo reeds. Thrilling. And all the while, commerce is going on. Macy’s customers are trying on shoes, sampling cosmetics, matching neckties to shirts, paying for their purchases. Peter’s abilities as an organist and performer are exceeded only by his understanding of the limitless instrument at which he sits.
The late Charles Fisk reportedly defined a “reed” as “an organ stop that needs two days of work.” This organ has 82 ranks of reeds. There are more than 30,000 pipes, each with a valve that’s a potential cipher. Heaven may or may not know how many electrical contacts there are, but Curt Mangel does. (See Photo 4: L. Curt Mangel III—The man behind the curtain.) Curt is a brisk energetic man whose gait announces his sense of purpose. He speaks with authority and precision, each sentence including an extra clause for explanation. It’s hard to ask him questions, because so much of what he says is answers. Curt has been curator of the Wanamaker Organ since March 2002. He guided me through the instrument, talking of history, challenges, dreams, and accomplishments. He told me how it’s possible, even usual, for two or three tuners to work in the organ at once, each with an assistant at a tuning keyboard, working in different divisions with shutters closed. His command of technical details reveals the diligence and intensity with which he has informed himself about the organ.
Curt showed me the newly commissioned organ workshop on the third floor of the store. Assistant curator Samuel Whitcraft and apprentice Scott Kip work with Curt to facilitate large-scale restoration projects and day-to-day maintenance. New equipment, large windows looking out at City Hall, spacious work areas, and historic photos combine to make a most agreeable working environment, space provided by Macy’s in the spirit of their positive attitude toward the future of the organ. (See Photo 5: The Wanamaker Organ Shop.)
Together and separately, Peter and Curt are enthusiastic advocates of this mammoth organ. They speak freely about their love of the instrument, their devotion to its heritage, history, and future, and of their mutual respect. They are working in a climate of collegiality and cooperation with the people at Macy’s—reveling in the opportunity to work with this special instrument with the support and encouragement of its owner. But it was not always like that. There have been long periods during which it was difficult to secure funding. There have been management teams that limited practice time because of the cost of after-hours security. There have been disputes over decibel levels during daytime performances. There have been periods during which the future of the organ was uncertain. Perhaps the greatest contribution to the organ by long-time curator Nelson Buechner was his dedication during what devotees to the Symphonic Organ might term the long dark days of the Revival of the Classic Organ.
And in the darkest of those appeared Ray Biswanger, founder and president of the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ. Ray has been instrumental and effective in the advocacy of the organ to its various owners. Working with Curt Mangel, the Friends have established the Symphonic Organ Symposium, an educational effort that organizes the gathering of ten or so volunteers, all professional organbuilders, for four or five days at a time, about four times a year. Curt lays out large repair projects, lays in the necessary materials, and lays on the marching orders. This confluence of talented professionals provides an unprecedented forum for the exchange of ideas, techniques, and experiences—hence the emphasis of the symposium’s educational value. This extraordinary effort is what allows us to experience the Wanamaker organ in such wonderful condition. The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ provide lodging and meals for symposium participants who volunteer their time and pay their own travel expenses.
Recently there was a special event to unveil the new organbuilding workshop. At the same time, the newly restored chorus of Vox Humanas was introduced. Originally part of the Orchestral Organ (currently under restoration), Manual 8' Vox Humanas I–VII (originally I–VI—they added one—you can’t have enough Voxes!), Manual 16' Vox Humana, and Pedal 16' Vox Humanas I–II (count ’em, ten ranks of Voxes in the same room) have been installed in their own division in a prominent location behind the shutters that were originally for the Orchestral Organ. As the ten ranks stand neatly in pairs on windchest divisions, there are five regulators and five tremulants to “complete the bleat.” Amazingly, but after all logically, Peter asked Curt to provide “Vox divisional pistons!” Sure enough, that extraordinary chorus has its own pistons allowing Vox crescendi and Vox decrescendi. And the proof is in the pudding—what a singular effect when that thumb runs down the buttons at the end of a phrase. (See Photo 6: You don’t see this every day.)
Free of the burden of all those Voxes, the restored Orchestral Organ will be installed in a new location to the right of the main organ at the same level as the String Organ. It is testament to the community’s regard and opinion of the organ that 380 new square feet of floor space are being provided for the organ. Think how many Speedos and bikinis they could sell in that amount of commercial space. The Orchestral Organ is scheduled for installation in the spring of 2008. After that, the restoration of the Great Chorus—a separate division of large solo Diapason, Flute, and String voices—will begin in the fall of 2008.
Philadelphia is a good vacation destination. Excellent restaurants and hotels abound, historic shrines and sites are everywhere. There are dramatic vistas that include photogenic bridges and waterfronts. And for the organ nut there is immense wealth. If you want to plan a trip, look into schedules of organ performances at the new Kimmel Center (home of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the new 125-rank Dobson organ) and Irvine Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania (162-rank Austin). You might also try the Girard College Chapel where there’s a 102-rank E. M. Skinner organ. Four terrific organs, 851 ranks.
In the last few years, the Organ Clearing House crew has spent considerable time in Philadelphia dismantling, packing, and later shipping the massive Möller organ from the now-destroyed Philadelphia Civic Center (it’s now at the University of Oklahoma, where it will be restored as part of that school’s new American Organ Institute). That work, along with the 2002 AGO convention, and the fact that Philadelphia is “on the way” from Boston to lots of other places, have provided me with ample opportunities to visit the Wanamaker Store. And the longer that organ, Peter Conte, Curt Mangel, and the good people of Macy’s are working together under the same ornate roof, the more reason for all of us who love the pipe organ to visit Philadelphia.
Writing about statistics, stoplists, or histories cannot do real justice to the experience of hearing this organ. You must go. There are countless opportunities—go to www.wanamaker organ.com to see the schedule of concerts, to join the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, to make a contribution to this amazing work, and to purchase a copy of Ray Biswanger’s thoughtful, balanced, and copiously illustrated book about the organ, Music in the Marketplace. Tell them I sent you. There is nothing else like the Wanamaker Organ, anywhere. Don’t take my word for it. And don’t miss the Brazilian steak house next door.

Winthrop University began in 1886 in Columbia, South Carolina as the Winthrop Training School, to train women teachers. Robert Winthrop, chair of the Peabody Foundation in Boston, was the philanthropist who made the effort possible, with a generous gift of $1,500, plus a personal check for $50 for books to David Bancroft Johnson, the Columbia Superintendent of Schools, who was the school’s mentor. The state legislature soon found reason to establish a Normal and Industrial School for Women, and in 1895, Rock Hill was the chosen city. Winthrop’s name was retained. Some decades later the name was changed to Winthrop State College for Women. Eventually it became Winthrop College. Men were admitted in 1974, and a few years later the name changed to Winthrop University. Some 6,500 students at bachelor and master degree levels populate the campus today. The Department of Music is in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
The College Auditorium and Conservatory of Music (the wording engraved in stone high up on the outside façade) were built in 1938–39 with funds from the WPA (Work Projects Administration). For fourteen years the concept of an organ for the College Auditorium (later designated the James F. Byrnes Auditorium) was a dream of the music department head, Dr. Walter B. Roberts. Under Roberts’ guidance, alumni raised $15,000, and the State of South Carolina appropriated $35,000. Ultimately, the 1952 contract with the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts, was for $59,865. Some months later another $3,000 was applied to the contract for the 32′ Contre Basse. The Class of 1914 (which in that fateful year was so penniless that it was unable to leave a class gift) achieved its goal in 1955 by donating $1,400 for the Deagan chime stop. The total of the initial expenditure added up to $64,265.
A 1951 letter from G. Donald Harrison, president and tonal director of the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, thanks Dr. Roberts for the invitation to design an organ for Winthrop, but Harrison goes on to say:

. . . as the college is a state school, bids will be necessary. I feel that in view of this it would be useless for us to put in a bid as we are bound to be the highest bidder with absolutely no chance of landing the contract.
President Sims just a week later, July 17, responded that

. . . the determination of which organ offered the most for the price could not be made on a mere dollar basis . . . I cannot guarantee that the committee will eventually select the organ you submit, still I do want you to feel that any proposal you make will receive careful consideration . . .
A month later, Harrison sent a specification of the proposed instrument and a justification of the tonal design that reflects the philosophy now known as “American Classic.”

Fifteen or more years ago, I developed a type of organ which combined both Classical and Romantic material in one instrument, the sole idea being to produce an organ that was capable of giving authentic renditions of all types of worthwhile organ music and an instrument that would suit players such as Virgil Fox, on the one hand, and Professor Fritz Heitmann at the Berlin Dom, on the other.

Harrison himself was in the auditorium in August 1955 for the final voicing of the organ. It was ten months later that Harrison died in his apartment in New York City, while finishing the rebuilding of the E. M. Skinner organ (Opus 205A) in St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue.
Today the D. B. Johnson Memorial organ stands as one of the few Aeolian-Skinner organs with Harrison’s signature that is not a rebuild of a previous instrument. It reflects Harrison’s 1950s concept of what his American Classic sound should be, and he obviously took advantage of calculating his design for the 3,500-seat space, which boasts a two-second reverberation time. Virgil Fox played the inaugural recitals November 2 and 3, 1955.
For the first ten years after the installation, the college organists (a title no longer used) were Jeannette Roth, Wilbur Sheridan, Wilmer Hayden Welsh, and George Klump. David M. Lowry became college organist in 1965. Lowry became professor emeritus in 1996, and has remained the part-time organ professor since. Many undergraduate and graduate students have performed their degree recitals on the Byrnes Auditorium organ. Lowry has been heard in nearly 100 performances—solo recitals, lecture-recitals, ensemble concerts, symphony orchestra programs, and the annual Festival of Carols.
The roster of guest artists on the organ is remarkable, due greatly to the support of Dr. Roberts for its first few years, then with the continued support of Dr. Jess T. Casey for over thirty years. That list includes Marie-Claire Alain, Robert Anderson, Robert Baker, David Craighead, Catharine Crozier, Virgil Fox, Fernando Germani, Jerald Hamilton, Yuko Hayashi, Anton Heiller, Paul Jenkins, Wilma Jensen, Marilyn Keiser, Jean Langlais, Simon Preston, Alexander Schreiner, Larry Smith, Murray Somerville, John Chappell Stowe, and many others.
As with the purchase of the instrument, the search for a builder to restore the instrument fell into a category of specialized work where the low bid did not have to be the winner. A panel of judges read the proposals, and the voting for the winner was under the supervision of a state agent. Létourneau Pipe Organs of Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec won the contract. In 1967, Fernand Létourneau, at just 23 years of age, was present in Rock Hill installing an organ for another firm when Marie-Claire Alain played a recital in Byrnes Auditorium. Following the concert, he came to a private party for her and engaged her in conversation about Dom Bédos de Celles. It was a significant moment in his life that he has never forgotten, and he made it very clear to Winthrop authorities that he was in total agreement about not changing anything tonally on the organ. Andrew Forrest, artistic director of the firm, achieved total cooperation with all the artisans in the project.
Today the restored organ stands as one of the country’s prized historic instruments, in that the number of nearly pure G. Donald Harrison signature organs becomes ever more rare.
—David Lowry, DMA, HonRSCM
Professor of Music Emeritus
Curator for the Restoration

The Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company’s tumultuous history is well documented and the cast of characters still seems familiar nearly forty years after the company’s demise. The books The American Classic Organ and Aeolian-Skinner Remembered by Charles Callahan vividly illustrate the ideas, external pressures and internal tensions that shaped the company until 1972 and, indeed, there remain many parallels in the daily machinations of an organ shop over thirty-five years later. Specifically, The American Classic Organ provides helpful insights into the motivations of G. Donald Harrison, the company’s tonal director from 1933 through to his death in 1956. Jonathan Ambrosino has also done much to document Aeolian-Skinner and Harrison’s rise to prominence through his writings for numerous journals and his scholarly liner notes for JAV Recordings’ series of recordings on vintage Aeolian-Skinners.
Aeolian-Skinner’s Opus 1257 in Byrnes Auditorium at Winthrop University is a remarkably unaltered example of Aeolian-Skinner’s work in 1955. Harrison’s work in the 1950s was marked by a number of prestigious rebuilding projects, and against this backdrop, the Winthrop contract represented a real opportunity for Harrison to design a large instrument free from outside influences. All decisions regarding the organ’s tonal design, from its stoplist to scaling and winding details, were left to Harrison, and the console plate bearing his signature indicates a particular interest in the final result. Following the organ’s installation during the early summer of 1955, Harrison traveled to Rock Hill to personally supervise the tonal finishing for several days during the month of August. As such, the D. B. Johnson Memorial Organ is a landmark instrument: in addition to its celebrated status as a superbly effective pipe organ, it also represents one of the last significant Aeolian-Skinners supervised from beginning to end by Harrison.
Jumping ahead to the 21st century, the D. B. Johnson Memorial Organ was still in remarkably good form some 52 years after it was completed, thanks to Professor of Music Emeritus David Lowry’s efforts. Fundraising for the restoration was generously provided by Winthrop alumni plus local individuals and businesses, with the project being spearheaded by Shirley Fishburne and David White and the university’s Alumni Association and Development Offices. An in-house recording of the instrument’s au revoir bash on May 21, 2007 gives a good account of repertoire from Bach to Howells to Diemer, rendered with conviction and color. Nonetheless, the instrument was in growing need of attention by then: the console’s pistons were temperamental at best, one of the pneumatic swell engines had failed entirely, and with increasing regularity, individual notes or entire stops had become unreliable or outright inoperative. From the very beginning of the project, it was imperative that the instrument remain tonally unchanged, and our approach here was to treat Opus 1257 with great deference. Largely a mechanical restoration, the instrument is today ready to serve for additional decades as an acclaimed concert and teaching instrument.
The most obvious indicators of the recent work are the discrete changes to the instrument’s four-manual console, though the console had also undergone some earlier restorative efforts. The organ’s original remote combination machines had been replaced by a primitive Solid State Logic (now Solid State Organ Systems) capture system in the early 1980s—following repeated floods in the auditorium basement—and three of the console’s four manuals had also been recovered with new ivories. As part of the 2007–2009 restoration project, the console was upgraded with new solid-state equipment, including capture and coupling systems. The console now boasts 256 levels of memory, a USB-based system for storing and recalling memory levels, the usual complement of general and divisional pistons, and a new general piston sequencer. The new coupling system also permits a Great–Choir manual transfer and restores the console’s All Swells to Swell feature (now programmable on general pistons as desired). At the request of David Lowry, one new coupler was added for additional flexibility, the Positiv to Choir 16′.
The console’s original silver wire and bronze plate contact system was restored with new silver wire contacts, while the four manuals’ bushings were replaced and the ivory key coverings cleaned and polished. New thumb pistons and toe pistons—in the Aeolian-Skinner style—were provided, using the same contact mechanism as the originals, while the original pneumatic stopknob actions were replaced with new electro-repulsion solenoids from Harris Precision Products. The walnut console shell and elegant dog-leg bench were both stripped, repaired as needed and refinished.
The organ itself was dismantled in late May of 2007, and the console, reed stops, and other restorable components were packed and shipped to our workshops in Québec. All 8′ and smaller flue pipes were also removed from the chambers and packed carefully for storage in various locations within Byrnes Auditorium. Subsequent to the organ’s return, the chambers were cleaned and painted by John Dower and Company.
Once in our workshops, all of the organ’s various pneumatic actions were recovered with new leather, including wind reservoirs, concussion bellows, expression motors, pouchboards, note and stop primaries, and tremolo units. The organ’s reed stops were carefully dismantled, cleaned and measured; resonators were repaired as needed and then each stop was checked on a voicing jack. As much as possible, the existing reed tongues were reused, with new tongues being provided only where the existing tongue was damaged. The single exception to this was the bass octave of the Choir 16′ English Horn, which was revoiced to cure a chronic slow speech problem.
We returned to Winthrop University with the organ in October 2008 to begin reinstalling the organ’s many components. During this process, the two wind reservoirs that had proved impossible to remove were recovered with new leather, and all of the organ’s wind chests and wooden framing were wiped down. The organ’s flue pipes were also cleaned prior to reinstallation, with tuning scrolls being soldered closed and re-cut for the 16′ and 8′ octaves. The longest pipes of the 32′ Contre Basse extension had originally been mitered to fit under the chamber ceiling and were fitted with baling wire slings in the early 1960s for support, with the slings coming down through holes in the plaster ceiling above. To provide better access to the top of the chamber, we built a new access ladder and platform, and the mitered 32′ pipes were fitted with new twill tape slings. Again, the slings pass through the chamber ceiling to a sturdy metal frame in the attic above. The tuning scrolls on these large pipes had also, over time, succumbed to gravity and unrolled and ultimately proved impossible to salvage; these scrolls were cut off and custom-made tuning sleeves lined with felt were provided for tuning.
The organ’s wind system and electro-pneumatic windchests were then reassembled, with care taken to replace all wind trunk collars with new split leather gaskets. The organ was also entirely rewired within the chambers, joining the new SSOS coupling system to the new Reisner electro-magnets that were retrofitted in our workshops. Wind pressures throughout the organ were restored to those listed in the 1955 specification, as the Swell and Choir divisions had slipped slightly. The wind reservoir feeding the 8′–4′ Trompette en chamade rank and the Pedal 16′–8′–4′ Bombarde unit was, however, restored to the 87⁄8″ pressure as it was when we began our restoration.
Following the reassembly of the instrument and testing, a team of voicers began their work that continued into January 2009. All of the organ’s 3,820 pipes were thoroughly regulated for proper volume and speech, but few alterations were made in cases where there were obvious problems between adjacent pipes. New adjustable toe blocks were fitted for the bass octaves of the Great 16′ Contra Geigen and the Swell 16′ Flauto Dolce, allowing much finer regulation for these pipes. The relatively simple but time-consuming regulation process yielded some unexpected results, with particular improvements in the clarity and overall refinement of the 32′ and 16′ registers.
A detailed inventory was also taken on site of most flue stops in an effort to flesh out G. Donald Harrison’s scaling practices at the end of his career. Generally, the pipework confirms that Harrison favored narrow basses and broader trebles, coupled with a fine, refined style of voicing. Reed stops are generally small to average in scale—the 8′ Trompette en chamade and the Swell 8′ Trompette were built to the same scale!—but are on generally high wind pressures. A surprising variety of shallot types were also used to good effect.
Prior to our restoration, two tonal alterations had been made to Opus 1257. The first change was a revision of the Swell III-rank Plein jeu, as the original was felt to be insufficient against the powerful Swell reed chorus. Modified in 1965 by Arthur Birchall, the mixture was transposed up a fifth, going from 2′ pitch to 11⁄3′ pitch. From a detailed examination of the pipes, it appears that as many of the 1955 pipes were reused as was practical, requiring but 31 new pipes to complete the revised stop. Despite its non-original composition, our restoration of the organ left the III-rank Plein jeu in its 1965 form, as the mixture is a good fit with the rest of organ and in particular, addresses the Swell reeds in a telling fashion.
The 8′–4′ Trompette en chamade was also modified during the 1970s by moving up the break between natural and harmonic-length resonators, with the first harmonic pipe moving from c25 to f#31. This cured persistent tuning problems in this range and what David Lowry remembers as “an unfortunate tone akin to a New York City taxi cab.” At the same time, the unit chest for this stop was also moved to the very front of the Great-Pedal chamber from its original location beside the Pedal main chest for better projection. An angled plywood baffle was also added above the pipes, providing protection from dust contamination and directing sound out of the chamber.
In conclusion, our work on the D. B. Johnson Memorial Organ at Winthrop University is one of the most interesting and best-documented restorations we’ve been privileged to carry out in recent years. Opus 1257 is a persuasive, musical instrument through which Harrison’s tonal philosophy shines; it has much to offer today’s tonal discussions. We are grateful to have had this opportunity to restore and perhaps more importantly, learn from this magnificent pipe organ.
— Andrew Forrest, Artistic Director
Létourneau Pipe Organs

GREAT (3-3⁄4″ wind pressure)
16′ Contra Geigen
8′ Diapason
8′ Spitz Principal
8′ Holzflöte
4′ Principal
4′ Rohrflöte
2-2⁄3′ Quint
2′ Super Octave
1′ Fourniture IV
2′ Cornet III–VI
8′ Trompette en chamade (Pos)
4′ Clairon en chamade (Pos)
Chimes (Ch)

SWELL (expressive) (6″ w.p.)
16′ Flauto Dolce (ext)
8′ Geigen Principal
8′ Stopped Diapason
8′ Viole de Gambe
8′ Viole Celeste
8′ Flauto Dolce
8′ Flute Celeste (t.c.)
4′ Prestant
4′ Flauto Traverso
2′ Fifteenth
1-1⁄3′ Plein jeu III
16′ Fagot
8′ Trompette
8′ Hautbois
8′ Vox Humana
4′ Clairon
Tremulant

CHOIR (expressive) (5″ w.p.)
8′ Viola
8′ Viola Celeste
8′ Dulciana
8′ Concert Flute
4′ Prestant
4′ Flûte harmonique
2-2⁄3′ Sesquialtera II
16′ English Horn
8′ Cromorne
4′ Rohr Schalmei
Tremulant
8′ Trompette en chamade (Pos)
4′ Clairon en chamade (Pos)
Chimes

POSITIV (3″ w.p.)
8′ Nason Flute
4′ Koppelflöte
2′ Principal
1-3⁄5′ Tierce
1-1⁄3′ Larigot
1⁄4′ Cymbel III
8′ Trompette en chamade (8-7⁄8″ w.p.)
4′ Clairon en chamade (ext) (8-7⁄8″ w.p.)

PEDAL (5″ w.p.)
32′ Contre Basse (ext Gt 16′) (6-1⁄4″ w.p.)
16′ Contre Basse (6-1⁄4″ w.p.)
16′ Geigen (Gt)
16′ Bourdon
16′ Flauto Dolce (Sw)
8′ Principal
8′ Gedeckt Pommer
4′ Choral Bass
4′ Nachthorn
2′ Blockflöte
2-2⁄3′ Mixture IV
32′ Fagot (half-length ext Sw 16′)
16′ Bombarde (87⁄8″ w.p.)
16′ Fagot (Sw)
8′ Trompette (ext) (87⁄8″ w.p.)
4′ Clairon (ext) (87⁄8″ w.p.)
8′ Trompette en chamade (Pos)
Chimes (Ch)

Mixture Compositions (as of 2009):

Great IV Fourniture:
c1 to b12: 22-26-29-33
c13 to b24: 19-22-26-29
c25 to b36: 15-19-22-26
c37 to b48: 12-15-19-22
c49 to f#55: 8-12-15-19
g56 to c61: 5 - 8-12-15

Great III–VI Cornet:
c1 to f18: 15-17-19
f#19 to f42: 12-15-17-19
f#43 to f54: 8-12-15-17
f#55 to c61: 5-8-8-10-12-15

Swell III Plein jeu:
c1 to f18: 19-22-26
f#19 to f42: 15-19-22
f#43 to f54: 12-15-19
f#55 to c61: 8-12-15

Positiv III Cymbel:
c1 to f6: 36-40-43
f#7 to b12: 33-36-40
c13 to f18: 29-33-36
f#19 to b24: 26-29-33
c25 to f30: 22-26-29
f#31 to b36: 19-22-26
c37 to f42: 15-19-22
f#43 to b48: 12-15-19
c49 to c61: 8-12-15

Pedal IV Mixture:
c1 to g32: 19-22-26-29

Size matters

We’re fascinated by superlatives. We admire great engineering feats and geographical marvels, and we are skeptical of fallacious claims. When a family restaurant advertises “the world’s largest ice cream sundae,” we expect something big but we doubt whether the claim is true. I went to  and saw a video of someone named Higgenbotham jumping off an eight-meter platform into an 18-inch deep pool of water, setting a new record. Pretty silly, but he did it in front of a huge audience and stood right up waving his fists. He must have been very proud.
Hammacher-Schlemmer claims to be selling the World’s Largest Crossword Puzzle. According to their on-line catalogue, it “hangs on a full seven feet by seven feet of wall space and has 28,000 clues for over 91,000 squares . . . a 100-page clue book, with no repeats, provides the hints.” (“Comes with a storage box.”)
Until I started writing today, I thought that the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River was the largest canyon in the world. It’s as much as 8,799 feet deep (that’s 1.66 miles) and almost 275 miles long. But when I Googled® “world’s largest canyon” I learned about the Great Canyon of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River in the Himalayas of Tibet, which has a maximum depth of more than 17,500 feet (3.3 miles) and is more than 308 miles long. It’s located in a very remote area forbidden to foreign travelers, and has apparently been revealed only recently to the rest of the world.
The world’s largest city is Bombay where the population was 12,778,721 in 2005. That’s larger than the entire country of Zimbabwe (12,671,860). New York City is number eight with 8,143,197 residents in 2005.
The Nile is the longest river in the world with a total length of 4160 miles. While the Amazon is second longest (4049 miles), it’s the largest in volume, discharging something like seven million cubic feet of water into the ocean every second.
I looked up tallest buildings and found an argument about whether or not antennas should be counted (Sears Tower in Chicago if you don’t, Taipei 101 in Taipei if you do). What a time-sink is Guinness! (Get back to your writing.)
We brag about our pipe organs by citing statistics: “It has 20 reeds.” “It has three 32's.” “It has three 8' Opens on the Great.” But let’s be careful. In the organ world (or elsewhere in the world of the arts), bigger is not necessarily better. Most of us have generally known that the Midmer-Losh organ in the Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is the largest in the world, but we also know that it’s not playable, and when we read more carefully we find that some experts believe that the entire specification has never been playable at once. One legend says that the early staff of the organbuilding workshop at the Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia claimed that the Atlantic City organ was never finished.1 Small wonder that they would want to make such a claim—they were involved in building what they believed would be the world’s largest organ.
As with skyscrapers, it turns out that it depends how you count. Here is what seems to be current and definitive regarding the dimensions of the largest pipe organ in the world:

Atlantic City       Wanamaker’s
Ranks    452            469
Pipes   33,112       30,067
Weight (tons) 150    2872

It’s easy to guess why the Atlantic City organ has more pipes but fewer ranks—the bottom three of seven keyboards have 88 notes! Wanamaker’s has the edge by 17 ranks, but where did the extra 137 tons come from? (I imagine that the same person who figured out the weight of these organs also did the numbers for the cubic capacity of the Amazon.) (See Photo 1, The Grand Court.)

The customer is always right

John Wanamaker was the personification of the classic American success story. He attended school through the age of 13 and opened his first store in Philadelphia at the age of 22. His stores grew progressively larger as he introduced retail policies that are central to the industry today. Wanamaker was among the first to offer guarantees, refunds, and fixed prices; he introduced the first restaurant in a store, and was a pioneer in the use of newspaper advertising for retailing, including the first full-page newspaper ad.3
The unprecedented opulence of the Wanamaker stores in both Philadelphia and New York allowed customers to express their personalities as they shopped. The very wealthy were catered to in special ways—those with more modest incomes were made to feel special, and had specialty goods of high quality made available to them as never before.
It was John Wanamaker’s appreciation of beauty that inspired him to include pipe organs in his stores from the very beginning. That appreciation was instilled in his son Rodman whose love of the organ began early in his life. Devout Presbyterians, John Wanamaker was a Sunday school teacher at Philadelphia’s Bethany Presbyterian Church, and young Rodman was the organist. The family’s country home Lindenhurst boasted an important personal art collection and a large two-manual Roosevelt pipe organ, all of which was destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1907.4
Longtime Grand Court Organist Mary Vogt linked John Wanamaker’s original inspiration for the construction of a truly monumental organ in the Philadelphia store to this fire. He lavished attention on Rodman, his only surviving son, and knew how much the Lindenhurst organ meant to him. The Grand Court organ was therefore offered as consolation to Rodman, and once the project was underway, John Wanamaker deferred to Rodman’s exquisite artistic and musical taste for the fulfillment of the vision that has now provided the world with one of its most important musical instruments.5
The Grand Court of the Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia is an immense space, taller than it is long or wide. America’s major organbuilders were considered for the commissioning of a new organ, but John Wanamaker commented that it would take years to construct a new organ large enough to fill the space, and the financial climate of the time was unstable (the Panic of 1907 was just ending). Then a wonderful opportunity presented itself.
Organbuilder Murray Harris had been chosen to construct a huge concert organ for the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904. It was planned that after the World’s Fair, the organ would be moved to a new convention hall in Kansas City, Missouri (the initials “KC” were carved in the console’s music rack). The scope of this contract necessitated the building of a larger factory and considerable expansion of the firm’s staff, and the company’s capital was stretched so thin that stockholders were assessed $10 a share to raise needed cash. Their outrage led to the end of Harris’s association with the firm, which was reorganized with company superintendent William Boone Fleming in charge.
The organ was a great success at the World’s Fair, attracting millions of visitors to hear recitals played by the world’s greatest organists, including a landmark series of 40 recitals by French master Alexandre Guilmant. But when the fair was over, both Murray Harris and the Los Angeles Art Organ Company were insolvent. While the organ was being built, in the confusion during the reorganization that resulted in the formation of the latter firm, the contract with officials in Kansas City had never been ratified. It was voided and the organ was placed in storage in St. Louis in default.6
The organ had been in storage for five years before John Wanamaker focused on acquiring it. Finding such an immense organ “ready-made” seemed an ideal solution for the grand space in the Philadelphia store.
Organbuilder George W. Till had worked with Odell in New York for many years. When he left that firm in 1905, he had heard that John Wanamaker was looking for an experienced organbuilder who could also repair and tune player pianos. By the time the Wanamakers were considering the purchase of the St. Louis organ, George Till was well ensconced as the house “organ-man.” Till was dispatched to inspect the organ in storage and was later charged with closing the purchase and arranging for the organ to be shipped to Philadelphia.
While most organbuilders are accustomed to being able to move their instruments in rented trucks, the St. Louis World’s Fair organ filled 11 railroad boxcars. The train left St. Louis on the evening of August 5, 1909. William Fleming was engaged to supervise the installation of the organ. George Till was to be the “tonal man.” From the first times the organ was heard in the store, it was evident that it was inadequate to fill the immense space of the Grand Court with sound. Shortly after its dedication on June 22, 1911, the Wanamaker Organ Shop under the direction of both Till and Fleming was established on the 12th floor of the store. Over the ensuing years the organ was expanded from its original specification of approximately 130 stops to its present gargantuan size.
My source for this historical background is the beautifully produced book Music in the Marketplace written by Ray Biswanger, president and one of the founders of the Friends of the Wanamaker organ. If you are interested in reading the history of this unique organ and the people who built it, funded it, and have played on it, visit  where you can order a copy. (And while you’re at it, join the Friends.) There are dozens of wonderful photographs of the organ, specifications of the Grand Court organ in several stages of its development, and photos of the Grand Court decorated for different festivals and celebrations. On the website, you can also see the schedule of regular performances, hear streamed radio broadcasts, and purchase recordings of the organ by several distinguished artists.

Just the facts, ma’am . . .

Here a few tidbits I single out from the specification that help define for me the scale of the Wanamaker Organ (See Photo 2, The String Division):
The 88-rank String Division includes 58 eight-foot strings, all of 73 notes, all ranks starting on low C. A quick glance shows 34 eight-foot Diapasons on the manuals. The Main Pedal Division has 54 ranks, and only five stops borrowed from the manuals.
Another quick glance shows 82 ranks of reeds. There are altogether seven different ranks at 32' pitch—one of them is a Bourdon with half-length resonators.
More than virtually any other large organ I know, the Wanamaker Organ is a “straight organ.” There is very little borrowing. A large percentage of the manual ranks have 73 notes. And true curiosities such as the two-rank Clarinet in the Swell, the nine-rank chorus of Vox Humanae (recently reconstructed as an independent division!), or the chorus of strings in the String/Orchestral Pedal Organ at 16', 102⁄3', 8', 51⁄3', 4', 22⁄3', 2', 13⁄5', 11⁄3', and 4⁄5' (this division includes two full-length 32's and a total of 19 ranks and 716 pipes) add up to separate the organ from any other in the world. You cannot say it’s the best or largest of its class, because it’s the only organ in its class! (See Photo 3, String/Orchestral Pedal Organ, 32¢ Contra Diaphone and 32' Contra Gamba.)
The six-manual console is as elegant in design and construction as any I’ve seen. There are 692 stop tablets in eleven rows. There are 167 pistons. And under each of the six manuals there are brass slides about three octaves long that operate the expression shutters. The woodworking is exquisite, the materials rich and colorful—a world-class single-class console for a world-class single-class organ. (See Photo 4, Wanamaker console, Peter Conte, organist.)
Maintaining an organ of this scale is a continuous process. It requires all of the usual organbuilding skills, of course, with the addition of extraordinary organizational skills and patience. And how do you go about playing such a thing? One of the things I love about my work is the number of different organs of all sizes, shapes, and descriptions that I get to play. But sitting in front of a console like this is bewildering. And what about funding? Simply and bluntly put, how much does it cost to keep an organ with 82 reeds in any kind of presentable good tune? Remember, this is an organ that is played in public 12 times every week.
The Wanamaker Organ by itself is special enough. It’s a marvel—it’s over the top—it’s indescribable. But in my opinion the real story is the group of people who are gathered around the organ—the organist and his associates, the curator and his colleagues, and the executives and officials of the corporation that now owns the grand store built by John Wanamaker, which has been handed down through several generations of ownership.
The May Company has recently taken control of the Philadelphia Wanamaker store. Their division of Annual and Special Events (think of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade) has assumed responsibility for the organ, by all accounts an exciting and constructive move. A new Wanamaker’s Organ Workshop has been established in the building, and ambitious plans for the further renovation, preservation, and presentation of the organ are in the works. (See announcement, page 3.) To put it simply, the organ is now owned by a corporation that understands its importance as a musical instrument, cares deeply about its place in America’s cultural life, and is committed to maintaining it in the best possible condition.
So consider this column as background, and join me here in the next edition of The Diapason so I can tell you about those wonderful, brilliant, welcoming people who are the modern-day stewards of the world’s grandest organ.

Notes

1. Biswanger, Ray, Music in the Marketplace, Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Press, 1999, p. 241.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., p. 35.
4. Ibid., p. 47.
5. Ibid., p. 49.
6. Ibid., p. 330.