Toaster OUT, 19 stop Tracker IN...

[KB7DQH]

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110716/NEWS/107160321/-1/NEWSMAP

By DUSTIN SHANE HALL
dhall@capecodonline.com
July 16, 2011

CHATHAM — In the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church on Cross Street, the gold pipes of the church's massive new organ shoot up nearly 30 feet from the floor.

The custom-built organ was a gift from a church parishioner. It will be officially dedicated at a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday featuring organist and recording artist Joan Lippincott.

Church organist Jeanne Kuzirian said she was overwhelmed the first time she saw the instrument at the church in April.

"You come in at the top level and you're looking down at it, and you're just speechless," said Kuzirian, who has been the church's organist for the past 11 years. "My husband was with me, and he thought, 'Is she having a stroke or what?' But look at it."

About five years ago, the parishioner, who Kuzirian said did not want to be identified, offered to donate a new instrument after noticing problems with the church's old electronic organ.

"It was at the point where it had been here over 25 years, and there are parts of it that start to fail," Kuzirian said.

"Think about your computer 25 years from now. This was a digital organ with computers inside of it. It never completely stopped, but there were times that some notes wouldn't sound."

After many meetings with builders, church officials made the decision to have a new wind-driven pipe organ constructed. With input from the donor, the job was given to the Noack Organ Co. of Georgetown. Construction began in January 2010 and church members made monthly visits to Georgetown to check on its progress.

After more than a year of construction, the organ was completed this March. It was dismantled and moved from Georgetown to Chatham in April. Members of the construction crew relocated to Chatham for nearly a month while the organ was being reassembled at the church.

"It was a very pleasant cooperation between the people of the church and ourselves and the way it came about — that an angel came down and said, 'OK, you guys need a new organ,'" company founder Fritz Noack said.

Noack was born in Germany and started his company in Lawrence in 1960. The Chatham organ is the 154th instrument the company has built, which is why it has been dubbed Noack Opus 154.

The company's organs are priced according to the number of stops (or voices), he said. The Chatham organ has 19 stops, and the company charges between $20,000 and $30,000 per stop, depending on the size and complexity of the instrument, Noack said.

As Kuzirian played a piece by Bach at the church this week, the pipes filled the sanctuary with a clean, natural sound that was difficult to mistake for a digital instrument.

"We like to think of this instrument as a living thing," Kuzirian said. "Because of the air going through the pipes, you can hear the phrasing, and hear what is happening with the instrument, and you're able to put some of your own expression into it. Whereas with an electronic keyboard, you touch it and the sound happens, and that's it."

For the Rev. Nancy Bischoff, who took over as the church's pastor earlier this month, the presence of the new organ was a welcome surprise. She said that the donor's generosity was appreciated by the congregation.

"It's a huge gift, and it's a very humbling gift for a congregation to receive," Bischoff said. "It's an act of grace to receive a gift like that, and the congregation has been very gracious in receiving that gift with the spirit in which it was intended, which is to glorify God. The gift was given to the glory of God, not to this church."

Eric
KB7DQH

[diapason]

Marvellous news! The toaster lasted for 25 years - this organ will last for centuries.  Laudate Dominum.

Nigel

[organforumadmin]

Dear Eric


Thanks so much for keeping eyes open for examples of this - hopefully when churches who are considering buying a digital electronic organ or investing heavily in computer simulation, they might find threads like this on this forum and see what people have done, been there and got the T-shirt and then done for the church what they should have done in the first place.


On the other hand, just as "Kendrickism" has a place proved by the numbers of people who then discover more traditional liturgy, so the electronic instrument here kept the spirit of organ music alive enough for it to survive. It's for this reason that this forum permits and encourages discussion of electronics as in the end they lead back to pipes . . .


Best wishes


Forum Admin

[KB7DQH]

Thanks so much for keeping eyes open for examples of this - hopefully when churches who are considering buying a digital electronic organ or investing heavily in computer simulation, they might find threads like this on this forum and see what people have done, been there and got the T-shirt and then done for the church what they should have done in the first place.

Well, here we go again :o 8) ;)

No idea what the stoplist looks like, but.........4026 pipes!

http://www.postcrescent.com/usatoday/article/39143117?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

STAMFORD, Conn. (WTW) — The giant fish on the hill along Bedford Street is as much a monument to acoustics as it is a home to First Presbyterian Church.

So when the congregation gathers for services in "the fish church," music is central to the celebration.

"One of the glories of this space is it's a spectacular building to see but it is also a spectacular building to hear, the sound is so immediate," said Jim Wetherald, minister of music at the church since 1978.

For his first 13 years on the job, Wetherald performed on an electronic organ he said did not live up to the space. It sometimes shut down during services because electronics would fail, so when a committee formed to discuss a replacement, he was thrilled.

With the new organ, Wetherald hoped for a mechanical action design. The mechanical action organs echo a 12th century design. When the organist plays a key, the action triggers reactions with sticks pulling one another to open valves and control the flow of air through pipes, creating sound.

The board fielded 20 bids for the project. Because the building itself followed the Modernist movement of fusing function with aesthetics, the congregation sought the same in the proposals. They chose a mechanical action design proposed by the Texas-based Dutch company of Visser Rowland, known for building organs to suit the rooms that house them.

"This room is 220,000 cubic feet of air space. In order to make it audible they had to build this organ so that it wasn't too bottom heavy, because this room by its shape is very bass responsive. So this organ is built with lots of clarity, high frequency stops to get that sounds out into the room," Wetherald said.

"Part of the spectacular nature of the sound on this instrument is that it has got this big broad bottom on it and this sparkling shimmering top," he added. "It has this great character that other builders just wouldn't get."

During the organ's installation, parts were spread throughout the sanctuary and piled onto the pews, Wetherald said. First beams were set to support three tiers of wind chests, then the wind chests to support the pipes and finally Honduran mahogany panels encased it all, 4,026 pipes in total.

"The whole point of building the case for the organ is to make it look like a work of art, but the truth is that all the pipes are at different lengths because each pipe has to reach a different length to get a different pitch," Wetherald said.

Wetherald has played the instrument almost daily since its installation. At 65, he says he is planning to stay with his beloved 1991 Visser Rowland for good.

"This building makes you feel fabulous. When you walk in it's goose bumps, and sound-wise when you make music in the building it's really thrilling," he said. "I love this organ. I hope that when the congregation hears me make music, I hope that they know I love this organ when they hear it."

;D ;D ;D

Eric
KB7DQH