Seven years in the making...

[KB7DQH]

BIRMINGHAM-AL -

East Lake United Methodist Church celebrated the construction of its pipe organ with a hymn festival Sunday afternoon. The 5,460-pipe organ took seven years to construct.

"It's my dream that the organ will lift people to God and draw us closer to each other," said organist Barry Norris.

Organist John Schwandt, associate professor of organ and director for the American Organ Institute at the University of Oklahoma, played the organ for the festival.

"There are little cabinets and cubbyholes and places you have to squeeze into, and sometimes the volunteers are bigger than the holes we have to squeeze into," said church member Bill Davis who helped assemble the instrument. "But it's a marvelous instrument, and that's what we love about it."

The goal is for others to hear the music and visit the church to play. Church members said it's a gift that keeps on giving.

"It's to unique in the industry and in the world," Davis added

http://www.abc3340.com/story/16472568/east-lake-methodist-celebrates-pipe-organ-seven-years-in-the-making

Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

Another new organ project completed after 7 years...

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/apr/08/vital-organ-church-spends-7-years-refurbishing-ins/

The façade of First Presbyterian Church has been likened to Bethlehem on more than one occasion. During Tracy Resseguie's seven-year process of repairing and updating the church's pipe organ, he realized the church needed a star of its own.

Now it has one — in the form of a Zimbelstern, a star-shaped part of some church organs that rotates and makes a continuous tinkling sound when played.

But the church has much more than that: It has a whole new pipe organ, and this morning, on Easter Sunday, the congregation of the church will hear the organ sing for the first time.

The new organ, which was built by Reuter Organ Company in Lawrence, is double the size of its predecessor. At 37 ranks, the organ will envelope the church with scores of harmonic tones it's never been filled with before. A "rank" is a set of pipes that make different sounds.

The previous organ was a 15-rank organ built by the Hagerstown, Md.-based M. P. Möller Pipe Organ Company, and installed when the church was built in 1968. After being played for more than 40 years, the organ began to have problems.

"When you turned that old girl on, that was all you got," Resseguie says.

Müller went out of business in the 1980s, so getting new parts for the organ ranged from difficult to impossible. Reuter, though, was the company who always worked on the organ when it needed to be fixed.

Reuter removed the old organ in late January. The church has been using a piano during service for the past three months.

"It's amazing how much we've missed it," Resseguie says.

Some of the pipes from the former organ that were in better shape were refurbished and included in the new organ, keeping a touch of history with the new instrument.

The fact that Reuter built the new organ has a place in history, too. Reuter has been designing and constructing organs for more than 90 years. In '68, Müller outbid Reuter for the project, so in a way, Resseguie says, it's fitting that the company built the new and refurbished organ.

"The church really felt like it was like righting a wrong," he says.

The congregation voted on whether to install a new organ in July, and Resseguie said the vote was unanimous. The capital campaign for the organ and a handful of smaller repairs to the church began in October. The church has raised $600,000 so far, well above the $450,000 the organ installation and construction cost.

But before the organ could have its Easter debut, Bill Klimas, artistic director for Reuter, spent several days voicing the organ.

"The organ is a machine that has to be taught how to sing," Klimas said. "And at this point, we're giving it very beginning singing lessons."

And a relevant comment or two...

#
Xwards (anonymous) says...

What a difference a vowel and an umlaut can make. The organ in this article was actually built by the M. P. Möller company in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Müller built the renowned organ at Sint Bavo kerk in Haarlem, the Netherlands, in the 1730's. Mendelssohn, Händel and the 10-year old Mozart played that organ and it is referred to in Moby Dick.

To add to the confusion, Muller is well-regarded, modern day organ builder from Ohio.
April 9, 2012 at 7:30 a.m.

   
#
Yeoman2 (anonymous) says...

Yeah, I made the same comments in yesterday's article. But as I have seen in the past, this newspaper has a mental block about details when it comes to the technical and historical events regarding the pipe organ,

Actually, I think the Reuter rebuilt and made additions to the Moller organ, I am pretty familiar with that instrument.. TYhey have been known to claim credit before for work of a previous builder. But I am glad to see that some attention has been paid to this instrument.
April 9, 2012 at 10:14 a.m.

Eric
KB7DQH