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...A Pipe Dream...

Started by KB7DQH, June 07, 2012, 12:17:57 AM

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KB7DQH

QuoteBy: Ken Keuffel | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: June 03, 2012


It arrived in boxes and boxes and boxes of pieces, from Massachusetts to Winston-Salem, in an 18-wheeler.

"Some of these pipes are the size of a cigarette. Some are humongous. They're all designated and marked," said Brad Zabel, a member of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, for which a rare 1898 Hook & Hastings pipe organ is being restored.

Zabel called the work the "most remarkable puzzle kind of project."

For Scott Carpenter, the organist at St. Timothy's, having a larger instrument "will open up a whole new world of organ literature and an infinite range of color in sound."

"When I accompany the singing of the Psalms, I'll be able to select certain sounds on the organ to bring out the text," Carpenter said. "So I might use the celestial sounding string stops to bring out the text of 'incense rising to heaven' or the trumpet stop played in the lower part of keyboard to highlight 'the beast of the field.' "

The organ's restoration has been in the works since the late 1990s, begun by John Farmer, a member of the church and a nationally known organ restorer.

Farmer bought the 19th-century landmark organ and gave it to St. Timothy's.

The instrument — built by a now-defunct firm once regarded as the leading organ builder in the United States — would have been demolished along with a condemned church that had housed it in Taunton, Mass. It will be placed in St. Timothy's in the fall of 2013 after a $380,000 church-financed restoration at Farmer's shop.

"I simply could not imagine that fine, historic organ destroyed," said Farmer, who dismantled the instrument in Taunton, placed its parts into numerous boxes and had them transported here.

"I gave it to St. Timothy's without any strings in the hope the parish would see the same value in the organ as I did. Once it was their property, they could have sold it to another church to raise some quick dollars, but fortunately wiser heads prevailed and its restoration was approved."

The organ will be worth between $1 million and $1.2 million when it is restored. It will not only join a large and diverse body of finely made pipe organs in Winston-Salem, it will also "make a phenomenal instrument for St. Timothy's," Farmer said.

Hook & Hastings was in business from 1827 to 1935. Its organs "were the Tiffany of their day," Farmer said. "They had a sterling reputation all over."

Once the organ is installed, St. Timothy's will host a dedicatory recital, and internationally known artists will play it in a series of recitals, said Christin Barnhardt, the director of music ministries at St. Timothy's. Farmer said he wants students to have access to the instrument as well.

Farmer said he expects the Hook & Hastings organ to better serve the musical needs of the sanctuary in St. Timothy's than the church's current organ does now. The sanctuary, built in 2000, seats about 375 people. The current organ, a one-manual (keyboard) instrument built by Farmer, has been sold to First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro and will soon be moved to its chapel. It is better suited to about half as many people.

The Hook & Hastings will have 35 stops and three manuals, and it will be 35 feet tall, 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide, Farmer said.

The congregants of St. Timothy's will be able to hear organ sounds that are quite unlike those of today.

"The inclination in today's organs is to have sounds that are loud, bright and in your face," Farmer said. "The further back in time you time go, organs tend to be broader and mellower in sound."

The restoration at St. Timothy's has been going on since 2010. It includes everything from repairs to the cleaning of pipes. Volunteers, including members of St. Timothy's, have been stopping by Farmer's shop to help clean pipes.

Stephan M. Reavis, a volunteer cleaner who has studied organs, hailed the Hook & Hastings' rescue from demolition.

"Hook & Hastings was considered by many to be the master organ builders," he said. "Most have been radically rebuilt, altered, broken up for parts, or were destroyed. This organ is the only large Hook & Hastings organ of the late 19th century that has not been significantly altered, and the mechanisms and appearance are original."

One factor contributing to this unaltered state may have something to do with the peculiarities of history.

The Hook & Hastings to be installed in St. Timothy's first occupied a building in Taunton where the Winslow Congregational Church worshipped. In the late 1960s, Winslow Congregational moved out, and a Baptist church moved in.

When the Baptists constructed a baptismal pool at the church, the contractor damaged the floor, Farmer said. "He broke all the mechanical mechanisms that were connected to the keyboard. The instrument instantly became dead. They had no interest or money to make that repair."

The organ had not been functional for about 30 years when Farmer bought it for $18,000 from the congregation that last occupied the old Winslow Congregational Church before it was torn down. Had the organ remained operable, "it may have been modernized," Farmer said. "The integrity of the instrument remained intact, as a result of the breakage."

The volunteers cleaning pipes at the restoration are discovering something about New England churches, namely that they used coal furnaces. More than a little coal dust has accumulated in the pipes and organ.

"We have to clean the organ," John Farmer said. "It is a machine. It will not work as efficiently. It won't stay in tune. I can't put together an organ that's filthy-dirty."

The participation of a congregation in an organ's restoration or assembly, or both, is not unusual, organ experts say.

"It creates a sense of pride," said William Osborne, a noted player of local organs. "People say, 'Gee, it's a wonderful instrument. I had something to do with it.' "

There are educational benefits to involving church members in organ work.

"The organ is a complex machine," Farmer said. "People don't realize the sheer amount of work that's necessary to make the instrument completely whole. ... They gain a new sense of appreciation for their instrument."

Zabel is also the chairman of the organ committee at St. Timothy's. The boxes he was talking about took up the majority of space in Farmer's basement for the better part of 12 years until St. Timothy's decided to get behind the restoration with a serious fundraising campaign and volunteer labor that could save thousands of dollars.

Farmer said he became aware of the organ in Taunton after Alan Laufman brought it to his attention.

Laufman founded the Organ Clearing House (www.organ

clearinghouse.net), which works to "preserve those organs threatened by urban development, parish consolidations and closings, and changing styles of worship by relocating them to appreciative new homes."

Laufman was dying of pancreatic cancer when he called Farmer to tell him about some important business he wanted resolved before he died, namely an organ in Taunton that faced demolition if a home for it was not found. Might Farmer know of someone who would be interested in acquiring it?

Farmer did not, but after looking the organ over in Taunton, he came to believe the instrument would be just the thing for St. Timothy's.

Farmer said he hadn't talked with St. Timothy's about the possibility of restoring and installing the Hook & Hastings in the church before he bought the instrument and dismantled it into thousands of pieces that ended up in boxes in his basement.

"We have taken a leap of faith," Farmer said, referring to what he and his wife, Kristin, told church officials. "All we ask is that you consider the options we're giving you. Think about restoring the organ or selling it and using the money for another project."

Farmer acknowledged he was taking a risk but said, "If we didn't make that move, nothing would happen."

"That move was a surprise to the church," Farmer said. "They hadn't really expected it. There was some controversy over what we had done."

Some congregants felt Farmer was looking for work, though the proposal specifically called for another firm to do the restoration work so that there would be no conflict of interest. Cost was another concern, although restoring an instrument would be about a third of the cost of the roughly $1 million needed to make one from scratch.

"In today's economy, churches just can't afford to ignore that possibility," Farmer said.

The proposal was tabled and studied. Eventually, enough people became interested in it to give it traction. Farmer was asked to submit a bid. He refused. The church's vestry would not accept this stance. Eventually, Farmer was persuaded to submit a bid. He won the bid to restore the organ. St. Timothy's is close to raising the $380,000 needed for the restoration, Zabel said.

The thrill of making the Hook & Hastings a reality at St. Timothy's hasn't worn off yet.

"This is an opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime," Farmer said. "We don't want it to pass by."

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/jun/03/wsmain01-a-pipe-dream-ar-2328126/

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."