Pipe organ needs more exercise to stay sound...

[KB7DQH]

98-year-old 'Rock' church pipe organ needs more exercise to stay sound
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
By ERIC CRUMP/Editor

She's going to be 99 years old this summer, so it's not surprising she needs a little extra care these days.

But the prescription for the pipe organs at First Presbyterian "Rock" Church in Marshall is not rest.

For the past few years, she's gotten too much rest, according to the Rev. Pam Sebastian.

The church hasn't had a regular organist for about five years, according to church Secretary Dorothy Crafton. And it hadn't had any significant maintenance for much longer, Sebastian added.

So when it began to show signs of age, church officials sought counsel from several companies that specialize in pipe organ restoration and maintenance.

At first, the news was discouraging. Sebastian said one company estimated the costs of restoring the organ at more than $100,000 -- a shocking amount that was far beyond practical consideration.

Consultants suggested switching to an electronic organ, which they said could deliver the same sound. Church leaders were reluctant.

"We want to keep what we have, as long as it works," Sebastian said.


Then Doug Funston of Mid-States Pipe Organ Company of Liberty looked at the organ, and he had a different approach.

"We found a perfect guy for this old instrument," she said.

It was clear to Sebastian that Funston felt some affection for the old instrument and had a sense for what was needed to keep her going -- a few tweaks and adjustments, a bit of repair, but mostly -- use.

"It just needs to be played," Sebastian said. "This organ just needs to flex its muscles to stay well."

That's the next challenge for the church. Sebastian said early efforts to find an organist have not been successful. There aren't as many organists around as there once where, and those who play are in demand, she said.

But church officials will continue seeking someone who might be willing to play the organ periodically.

In the meantime, Sebastian and Crafton have been doing research on the instrument's history.

They weren't sure exactly when it was installed, so they contacted the company that installed it, Wicks Pipe Organ Company of Highland, Ill.


The company was very helpful, Sebastian said. Crafton called them one morning and by the next afternoon, company officials had sent information by email.

"The guy at Wick said, 'The file on First Presbyterian Church and the organ is an inch thick,' so apparently there was a lot of correspondence at the time," she said.

The company's records helped Crafton and Sebastian pinpoint the time period so they could find church records about the purchase.

They located a book of session minutes from July 1913, and there was the entry noting formation of a committee authorized to make arrangements for the purchase of a pipe organ. The entry is signed by Jacob Van Dyke, session clerk.

Records received from the pipe organ company suggest a certain amount of negotiation ensued, as the price of the instrument came down from a starting point of $2,500 to the final deal for $2,000.

The number of great pipes were reduced to 244 and the number of stops from 18 to 13 before the final configuration was settled. According to the contract specifications, the organ has 785 total pipes, 13 stops, eight combination pistons, six couplers and nine accessories, including a crescendo pedal, balanced swell pedal, crescendo indicator, wind indicator, blowing level, swell tremolo, great to pedal revisible, suitable electric motor and blower, and a bench.


"It would have been amazing to see how it was delivered and how it was put together," Sebastian said, noting that transportation then was nowhere near as fast and easy as it is today.

The cost was paid by the church's Ladies' Aid Society. Some of the women involved in the project were Mrs. Annie Hagedorn, Mrs. E. G. Schurig and Miss Berta Fransisco.

"It was their project," Sebastian said.

Also on the purchasing committee were Prof. Edgar Sands Place and church pastor the Rev. Robert Cecil M. McAdie.

The contract with Wicks Pipe Organ Co. was signed Aug. 16, 1913. According to the contract, the Ladies Aid Society paid a first installment of $1,300 and was required to pay subsequent installments of $233, $232 and $234 at six-month intervals, which included 6 percent interest.

The old records also reveal something of a mystery. In December 1913 the session accepted the resignation of the church organist, Miss Bertha Fransisco. Sebastian said there was no clear indication why she left the post about the time the church was purchasing a new pipe organ.

The church then hired Edgar Place, who apparently was not a member of the congregation, to be Fransisco's successor. He was paid $5 per week.

"We apparently hired a professional," Sebastian said.

Finding a regular organist hasn't been as easy today as it appears to have been in 1913. Sebastian said Funston is planning to visit the church periodically to do maintenance work, but the instrument still needs regular workouts, and the congregation continues to seek organists who can put the old organ through its paces.

Contact Eric Crump at ecrump@marshallnews.com

And some advice in a comment to the article...

Greetings,

I feel bad, as an organist, offering this advice, but to keep your Wicks organ in working condition you don't need an organist. When I was tuning pianos for people who did not play them regularly I told them to keep it in tune to play the "Dust Rag Concerto." It also applies to organs. Have someone go to the organ every day, turn it on and turn on all stops (use Crescendo Pedal or SFZ button). Take a clean rag and start at the bottom of the keyboard and push groups of keys down from bottom to top, then top to bottom. Do this several times on both keyboards and then on the pedals, and you will be cleaning the contacts in the console as well as the contacts in the action. I once auditioned for an organist position on a 3-manual Wicks organ and the choir director apologized for the poor condition of the organ - only about half of the notes played. I did the dust rag treatment and within about 15 minutes the entire organ was working perfectly. I played there for three years and only had two or three little problems. You might also offer the organ as a practice instrument to organ students or a teaching organ to teachers without charge. You'll be doing each other favors! Best of luck.
-- Posted by hydrant on Thu, Jan 5, 2012, at 11:23 AM

http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1801143.html

Eric
KB7DQH

[Pierre Lauwers]

This is particularly important with pneumatic actions; the more you play them, the better
they go. The leather parts remain fit, the temperature within the soundboards remains close
to the one that prevails outside, the dust cannot accumulate in minute adjustments...
We have several pneumatic organs in Belgium that work perfectly since more than 100 years,
to the point the belief "Pneumatic was not a good idea" is seriously questionned nowadays.
All those organs are played every day, either in busy churches or in colleges (College St-Michel,
Etterbeek/ Brussels is a good example) since day one.

Best wishes,
Pierre

[David Drinkell]

This is so true!  When I came here, the organ hadn't been played much apart from on Sundays and there were a number of minor but irritating faults.  I play it every day and it hardly ever gives any trouble, despite being over eighty years old and overdue for a major overhaul.

Up the road, there's another big four manual Casavant which had a resotration a few years ago.  When we held a Lent recital series on it, there were all sorts of things happening that shouldn't, but all that it needed was playing!  Unfortunately, the small sanctuary organ and the piano get played much more often than the big organ - such a shame!  If someone went up there once a week, pulled out all the stops and sat on the keys, they'd have a lot less trouble.

Having had great kindness shown to me in the past by some truly great organists (such as Francis Jackson), I long ago made a vow that if I were ever in charge of a large and interesting instrument I would let people play it.  I have stuck to that, and the organs have been better behaved as a result.  Our tour guides have instructions that visitors who express an insterest in the organ should be offered the chance to play.  After all, the worse that can happen is a dreadful noise!

[Lucien Nunes]

This can be an interesting challenge for organs installed in locations where they can only rarely be played. A few cinema organs, in particular, are located in commercial venues where no official venue time is available for the organ except during performance. One instrument that comes to mind, which we are supposed to keep in full working order, is used on average once per year. And of course that is a unit organ with 2,000 pneumatics, some of which can only be exercised by thumping away at the fat solo reeds on 25" which you can't do in the middle of the night in a residential area.

It would be very handy if the actions all had separate winding. Then we could program the electronic transmission to start the blower up every morning, run through every note on every stop 10 times and shut down again, but with the wind to the pipes cut off at the ventils.

Lucien

[AnOrganCornucopia]

But wouldn't that then result in the pipes getting all clogged with dust?

I understand the predicament and that some maintenance is probably better than none, but I can't see that the instrument could be maintained in full health by any means other than a thorough-going playing.

Of course, there are some organs which are in the opposite predicament - quite a bit is having to be spent on the big Skinner at Yale and the Lewis in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow because both instruments are incredibly busy! The Lewis in particular gets about 5 days off a year, with every other day centred around a lunchtime recital, plus practice, sometimes other recitals, recording sessions...