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Yet another(!) Toast Toaster replaced with a used Tracker

Started by KB7DQH, August 29, 2013, 07:23:29 AM

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KB7DQH

What caught my eye was spotting Tacoma, Washington in the excerpt of the following page in the Google Alert ;)  As the article states this instrument was removed from a church in Arizona which recently received a brand-spanking new instrument from Paul Fritts and Co...  and is now being installed by the same firm in its new home in Canada, replacing a dead electronic  ;) ;) ;)

http://www.saultstar.com/2013/08/27/willowgrove-united-brings-in-tracker-organ-after-year-long-fundraising-drive

Quote   Willowgrove United brings in tracker organ after year-long fundraising drive



Electronic sounds appear to be out as another local church opts to ring out its hymns on a genuine pipe organ.

Organ builders from Tacoma, Wash. began putting together a tracker organ at Willowgrove United on Tuesday and are expected to finish sometime Thursday.

Michael Connell, the church's organist and music director, said it is exciting to see a concert-quality instrument installed at Willowgrove.

"The congregation here is extremely supportive of music," said Connell, who teaches music at Rosedale French Immersion.

Willowgrove is the second church in as many years to bring in a tracker organ, a term that refers to a physical rather than electronic link between the organ's keys and the valve that allows air to pass through the instrument's pipes. St. Luke's Cathedral, an Anglican church on Brock Street, spent about $75,000 in 2012 to purchase one built by Germany's Rudolf von Veckerath.

Connell, who studied organ performance at the University of Western Ontario, said it is hard to match the sound of a genuine pipe organ.

"It's a real living, breathing instrument," said Connell.

This one was purchased after the electronic organ at Willowgrove experienced a prolonged outage.

It was made by J.W. Walker and Sons, of England, and Connell said it is believed to be the only English tracker organ in the city and one of fewer than 10 in Canada. It's also a one-of-a-kind creation having been custom built in 1991 for St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Tucson, Ariz., which Connell said is about the same dimensions as Willowgrove.

"That makes it a great fit," said Connell.

Paul Fritts and Co. Organ Builders, which dismantled the organ in Arizona and constructed that church's new instrument, are reassembling it in the Sault.

Connell said it would have cost St. Alban's at least $180,000 to have the organ built. Willowgrove purchased it for $30,000 after a year-long fundraising campaign and transported it themselves by rental truck to the Sault.
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."

David Drinkell

Hmm - well, we know what they mean but what a lot of innocent errors in the press report.  They've confused electronic with tracker in reference to control and infer that there are only 10 tracker organs in Canada, which is rather out of the ball-park.  Maybe they mean there are only 10 Walker organs in Canada, which is probably also not true although Walkers were not know, as far as I know, for exports to this part of the world (Casson, Bevington and Forster & Andrews are the leaders in Newfoundland).

Still, good news and may they enjoy their Walker for many years.