A Ruffiati/M&O hybrid....

[KB7DQH]

http://www.olivet.edu/news/newsDetails.aspx?Channel=%2FChannels%2FSite+Wide&WorkflowItemID=805be91b-80ba-4c4b-b09f-b9175d2d62f4

One of the world's significant new organs was recently installed at the new Betty and Kenneth Hawkins Centennial Chapel on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. Individual tuning and voicing of each pipe are now underway.

An instrument of 125 ranks, its size and quality rival the best pipe organs found in the churches and concert halls of the United States, as well as the great cathedrals of Europe. It contains 75 ranks of Ruffatti handmade, wind-blown pipes. The digital component features the remaining 50 ranks, created by the Massachusetts firm of Marshall & Ogletree. The four-manual console controls the "speech" of thousands of pipes, many of which are visible to the audience in the 3,046-seat auditorium that is the organ's home.

I would have to say that it is one of the largest hybrid organs ???

Eric
KB7DQH

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

This instrument focusses at the heart of the hybrid organ debate. The instrument was for sale on ebay and I was encouraging a school to buy it and import it back to England. It's open toe voicing and tonally quite interesting and an organ builder I consulted said that it was likely to be bright.

However we have the issue of an instrument of great purity and integrity in its tonal scheme, now enlarged electronically possibly to be a much more versatile and eclectic instrument.

Preservation or bastardisation?

It will certainly be interesting to follow the result.

Best wishes

David P

PS I am mistaken in identifying this particular instrument as having been on ebay - but the issues are the same

[NonPlayingAnorak]

http://www.olivet.edu/news/newsDetails.aspx?Channel=%2FChannels%2FSite+Wide&WorkflowItemID=805be91b-80ba-4c4b-b09f-b9175d2d62f4

One of the world's significant new organs was recently installed at the new Betty and Kenneth Hawkins Centennial Chapel on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. Individual tuning and voicing of each pipe are now underway.

An instrument of 125 ranks, its size and quality rival the best pipe organs found in the churches and concert halls of the United States, as well as the great cathedrals of Europe. It contains 75 ranks of Ruffatti handmade, wind-blown pipes. The digital component features the remaining 50 ranks, created by the Massachusetts firm of Marshall & Ogletree. The four-manual console controls the "speech" of thousands of pipes, many of which are visible to the audience in the 3,046-seat auditorium that is the organ's home.

I would have to say that it is one of the largest hybrid organs ???

Eric
KB7DQH

I'm sorry, but with all due respect to Doug Marshall and David Ogletree (is that the right way round?), I don't see the point of this. 75 ranks is a lot of pipework by any reasonable yardstick, and, if voiced right, could provide very great versatility. If you can afford an instrument that big, surely raising the additional  money to enlarge it (if not quite to 125 ranks!) isn't going to be that big a deal? It'll be interesting to hear what it's like, though. If the electronic module is an afterthought, I hope that there's a way you can just play the original all-pipe instrument and not need to worry about accidentally selecting an electronic stop...