Organ Media Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization chartered to encourage and help those who seek to share the art and music of the classical organ in its many forms through the use of both traditional and emerging media forms. As technology becomes an increasing part of our daily lives, we want to ensure that the organ continues to be heard, not only in our churches and concert halls, but everywhere around the world. The music of the organ often speaks to us from a different time and age, and so we must work to ensure that its musical voice continues to sound through the channels our modern world provides. It is the goal of the foundation to bring the labors of those that work to create and recreate the music of the organ to a willing, listening, and watching world. Through our work we hope that the music of the organ will continue to inspire as it has for so many centuries. Visit our website to support our efforts and find out about our other projects. www.organmedia.org
I was an acolyte at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in NYC when Alec Wyton was Organist and Choirmaster (late 60s/early 70s), so I heard him play his "Fanfare" many times. It's interesting to hear it on a different instrument! At St John the Divine it was almost impossible to coordinate the State Trumpet with the main body of the organ about 500 feet away. I like the way it comes together when all the pipes are "local."
The restoration of this organ is miraculous, carried out over many years. It is big in scale yet colorful and each sound captivating in itself. Listen to a recording of the organ in 1964, when it was played from a 3-manual theater organ console and sounded simply wretched. Now it is incisive, bold, everything blends well and -- as the titulaire says -- “it’s a warm hug”.
This was unexpected! What great sounds, and all the ancient to old to modern pipework goes together amazingly. I can hear that this organ can play American, German, and even fiery French very effectively. What could’ve been a Frankenstein is actually a surprising tonal masterpiece. Bravo to whoever brought all of this together! One of my new favorites!
Interesting, but quite disappointing. It would be nice to see the full stop list. The acoustics are dry, and the demonstration less than inspiring. I'm sure the organ functions fine for service playing. I guess like most people, this organ does its job, but doesn't stand out from the crowd.
I have been playing a two manual 1892 Farrand and Votey. Some pipes from another instrument were added later. Sadly, in the the 1980s all of the original reeds were removed among other things.
We actually have a 3 manual F&V in Salt Lake so that makes three extant examples! Its opus 116 from 1892. The Bell Clarinet looked familiar in your vid, and the Vox Humana in the salt lake organ was imported from France (there’s still a maker’s label in French in low C). The SL organ has a pedal 16’ Trombone and an Echo division to boot. The church where this organ lived closed in the last year or so and the organ was removed (I believe by ML Bigelow) for installation in a church in Provo. pipeorgandatabase.org/instruments/8545
Farrrand and Votey were the successors to Roosevelt, and then (via Hutchings and Votey) became part of Aeolian. Is the Doppelflote similar to a Roosevelt one? Is the Clarinet a free-reed rank?
The Doppelflote should be very similar to Roosevelt. After Hilborne Roosevelt died, his brother Frank decided to sell the company, and F&V bought the intellectual property and moved the business to Detroit. (They also bought Grandville Wood & Son around the same time.) William Farrand and Edwin S. Votey split in 1897. Farrand stayed with reed organs, while Votey took the pipe organ division with him and founded the Votey Organ Company. That company was bought by Aeolian in 1899. Votey then merged with George Hutchings in 1901. Votey invented the Pianola piano player about 1895-1896 and became the vice president of Aeolian in 1897. I suspect he was involved in a number of companies but that's for further research.
I helped do the monthly or quarterly (dont remember which) maintenance on the original WW Kimball organ back in 1970. No one notified us of the replacement. Walsked in to do the tuning and found a temporary Allen while the first Reiger was installed. Imagine our surprise to find the Kimball gone. Hard to imagine going with the same builder that that blew the first attempt. Must have had a big incentive. This instrument is FABUALOUS.
There are only 7 extant William King Organs. I have one complete 8/2 from 1878 in storage awaiting restoration saved from the dumpster and the pipework from an 1882 who's mechanism was trashed in the 60s. Superb instruments. Extremely rare
Stefan makes mention of the tuning as being "Fisk" temperament. Is that the same as the temperament that Charles Fisk developed for House of Hope Presbyterian church in St. Paul in the late 1970s? I have the tuning charts for that somewhere in a book. I know that "House of Hope" temperament was definitely well-tempered and favored the key of F Major.
Gorgeous building. I love all the black. The current organ is stunning. Too bad Reuter got their mitts on it. In fifteen years, it will be falling apart, and the guarantees will have expired.
Listening from NW Tas Australia, would be interesting to see if you do a tour over to Aus. we only have a small handful of pipe organs in our small state but significant none the less.
Little factoid here: this Hakim piece was commissioned by John Roberts (Norfolk, VA) in 2002, and I was the page turner for John during the inaugural performance of the piece in July, 2002 :)
And Skinner got his inspiration from Cavaiile- Coll who invented the symphonic organ and many of the stops still used in organs today most especially the fiery reeds.
I visited this organ on the OHS 1986 Convention. I note from the photos on the OHS Database that that there is a shipping label of the Tellers-Sommerhof Organ Company of Erie, Pa. inside, suggesting that its original home was not in Iowa, and that Tellers-Sommerhof moved it here.
Very appreciative of the parish that honors their heritage with the preservation and continued use of an historic instrument. Blessings to them, and to you for sharing this little gem.
Beautiful. As always a sympathetic and interesting tour of a small but nicely proportioned instrument. It's easy in this day and age to decry the "borrowed octave" with a common stopped 8ft serving for the OD as well, but we should never forget the sacrifice that people made in 1868 in order to be able to afford an organ for their place of worship. The cost of that "missing" octave would be significant but if it was a choice between that and a reed organ, I know which I'd rather have. As always, thank you for posting.
So, making a pipe takes 30 minutes. You are able to make, lets say 15 pipes a day. For a small organ, that has 1300 pipes, it will take about half a year to make all the pipes. But there are bigger organs with 5000 pipes. And these are not rare. While biggest organs have over 30 000 pipes.
Nice organ! When I look at the front pipes, I think it's 50%/50% Lead/Tin. I was told that only such alloy gives you the "spotted metal" look. But ik can be misinformed ;)
When I played my concert here in 2015, I was very struck by the effect of the "Grand Bourdon" IV of the Pedal. This is an original Walcker stop. The nomenclature is a surprise to modern players, but Walcker used this term for a 32' series Cornet is other of their organs (Votivkirche Vienna, Cathedral Riga...). Methuen's has a stopped 10-2/3', open 8', 6-2/5' that's stopped in the bass and open in the treble (and has inverted upper lips), and a stopped 4-4/7' that was re-racked by Æolian-Skinner to that pitch from its original 4'; all these ranks are flute scaled and of wooden pipes. I found that, when used in an ensemble registration, the Grand Bourdon gave an effect of a dark, smooth, and perfectly blending 32' Posaune. One benefit of its being made of smaller flue pipes is that the whole speaks very promptly, much more so than an actual reed would. My console assistant said, in a rather surprised tone, "that gives clarity to the Pedal line." And that clarity wasn't due to it including higher pitches, because those are heard simply as tone color of 32' pitch. I found that this stop really drove the Pedal part because of its prompt speech, something that actual 32' pipes never do because of their slower speech. I used it in Bach's G major Prelude BWV 541 to superb effect.
