Our Thoughts on Three Manual Design
For several years we have had an ideal three-manual organ design in our minds. Our very well received instrument at Cumming First United Methodist Church, was the early prototype for the design, but it did not quite go the full distance, due to budget restraints.
As one reads the trade journals of late, it seems that the stoplists of many medium-sized three-manual organs are similar, yet we think there is more to a successful solution: correct selection and placement of the exact elements is critical.
The several instruments that follow all corrrectly incorporate the things we think should be in a complete, but moderately-sized three-manual organ in the 21st century.
These include:
-Two expressive divisions
-16' Open plenum on the Great with English Trumpet
-16' Closed Flute/8' Principal plenum on the Swell with Cornet, broadly scaled strings with extended-range Celeste, and French reeds
-8' Open plenum on the Choir with bright, but relatively low-pitched mixture and broad, blending color reed.
-8' Harmonic Flute as one of four 8' flue stops on the Great
-8' Solo Trumpet
-32' pitch line in the Pedal
The Greats contain stops that are homed inside the Choir expression box, as noted by the (Ch.) superscript on the drawknob heads. That superscript, however, is more informational than anything, to let the organist know that the stops in question are under expression. In practice, we regard the Violone, Flute Harmonique and Trumpet ranks as being part of the Great ensemble, and they are so scaled. But putting these pipes in the Choir allows the Violone to be the tertiary 8' Principal, the Flute Harmonique to have expression and tremulant, and the Trumpet to crescendo as the Great plenum is played. The plethora of 8' tone under expression makes choral accompaniment a sheer joy.
The Cornet requires special attention. We have always believed it needs to be in the Swell, which then allows the Choir to be a real division too. But just as important, it must also include the correct elements if it is to be a good Cornet wherein the pitches lock together to produce a solid sound. These include a fully capped 8' Flute, a tapered 4' Flute of medium scale, and additional pitches above that comprised of ranks that get more and more cylindrical with progressively narrower mouths.
As our ears have matured, the tone of our organs has taken a noticeable Anglican bent. By that, we mean they sound broader and fuller; some might say darker--we prefer to say richer. And while we find screeching Mixtures a particular annoyance, our organs are still clear in tone. Each of the Mixtures throughout our organs, are set at a different pitch, none as high as they would have been 20 years ago. Brightness is achieved through voicing which blends, not through shrill pitches that test the upward limits of human hearing. And super-coupling of Mixtures is definitely not required.
Like many of your parishioners, we have come to dislike organs that anihilate the listener with sheer volume. We know that the broader the sound of the organ, the more likely the congregation will accept a grander overall volume level without complaint. Our client congregations have approved our approach by singing heartily with our instruments, the ultimate test of success.
We strongly believe that organ specifications are not something that should be blythely drawn up for the fun of it, or just to be different. We now have several instruments to the same basic stop list. They are in a variety of room sizes and seating capacities, and for clients with differing musical programs. Scaling and voicing treatments are definitely adjusted to the clients' needs.
But the literature of the instrument, as well as the requirements for accompanying, demand that certain stops be in certain positions on an organ of any given size. If you have more money in the budget, there are certain stops that are correct to add next. Failure to include the right stops on any instrument, severely limits that organ's ability to do its job.
When you have a winning combination of the right stops in the right place, that work together to do their job of accompanying congregation and choir, and playing the literature of the instrument, we think that is pretty special. You should hear what we mean!
________________________________________________________________________
As one reads the trade journals of late, it seems that the stoplists of many medium-sized three-manual organs are similar, yet we think there is more to a successful solution: correct selection and placement of the exact elements is critical.
The several instruments that follow all corrrectly incorporate the things we think should be in a complete, but moderately-sized three-manual organ in the 21st century.
These include:
-Two expressive divisions
-16' Open plenum on the Great with English Trumpet
-16' Closed Flute/8' Principal plenum on the Swell with Cornet, broadly scaled strings with extended-range Celeste, and French reeds
-8' Open plenum on the Choir with bright, but relatively low-pitched mixture and broad, blending color reed.
-8' Harmonic Flute as one of four 8' flue stops on the Great
-8' Solo Trumpet
-32' pitch line in the Pedal
The Greats contain stops that are homed inside the Choir expression box, as noted by the (Ch.) superscript on the drawknob heads. That superscript, however, is more informational than anything, to let the organist know that the stops in question are under expression. In practice, we regard the Violone, Flute Harmonique and Trumpet ranks as being part of the Great ensemble, and they are so scaled. But putting these pipes in the Choir allows the Violone to be the tertiary 8' Principal, the Flute Harmonique to have expression and tremulant, and the Trumpet to crescendo as the Great plenum is played. The plethora of 8' tone under expression makes choral accompaniment a sheer joy.
The Cornet requires special attention. We have always believed it needs to be in the Swell, which then allows the Choir to be a real division too. But just as important, it must also include the correct elements if it is to be a good Cornet wherein the pitches lock together to produce a solid sound. These include a fully capped 8' Flute, a tapered 4' Flute of medium scale, and additional pitches above that comprised of ranks that get more and more cylindrical with progressively narrower mouths.
As our ears have matured, the tone of our organs has taken a noticeable Anglican bent. By that, we mean they sound broader and fuller; some might say darker--we prefer to say richer. And while we find screeching Mixtures a particular annoyance, our organs are still clear in tone. Each of the Mixtures throughout our organs, are set at a different pitch, none as high as they would have been 20 years ago. Brightness is achieved through voicing which blends, not through shrill pitches that test the upward limits of human hearing. And super-coupling of Mixtures is definitely not required.
Like many of your parishioners, we have come to dislike organs that anihilate the listener with sheer volume. We know that the broader the sound of the organ, the more likely the congregation will accept a grander overall volume level without complaint. Our client congregations have approved our approach by singing heartily with our instruments, the ultimate test of success.
We strongly believe that organ specifications are not something that should be blythely drawn up for the fun of it, or just to be different. We now have several instruments to the same basic stop list. They are in a variety of room sizes and seating capacities, and for clients with differing musical programs. Scaling and voicing treatments are definitely adjusted to the clients' needs.
But the literature of the instrument, as well as the requirements for accompanying, demand that certain stops be in certain positions on an organ of any given size. If you have more money in the budget, there are certain stops that are correct to add next. Failure to include the right stops on any instrument, severely limits that organ's ability to do its job.
When you have a winning combination of the right stops in the right place, that work together to do their job of accompanying congregation and choir, and playing the literature of the instrument, we think that is pretty special. You should hear what we mean!
________________________________________________________________________
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
OF TRAINS AND PIPE ORGANS
From the first time I walked into the building unannounced one day while passing through town, and happened to meet Charlie Overton, the affable Minister of Music, I knew the possibility of building an organ for the First United Methodist Church of Lebanon, Tennessee, had the potential to be one of those organ-builder-dream-jobs.
An equally nice and very open-minded Organ Committee was receptive to suggestions, and willing to travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to see our organ at the Cathedral of Christ the King. Whether it was actually that organ, or the authentic Kentucky Barbecue we had for lunch is debatable, but as we parted ways, I was pretty certain we were going to build them an organ. During the process, the Minister of Music changed, but no momentum was lost as the new man on the podium, Windell Little, was totally on board.
The church building itself hails from the 1960’s, a handsome “contemporary” Georgian building. The church’s former Moller organ, from the late ’20’s, had been moved from the old building by J. Alex Koellein, a quite capable organ technician in the Nashville area, who, in a former life, had been a station agent for the Tennessee Central Railroad, track of which runs about two blocks behind the present Lebanon church building.
He added several new ranks of well-made pipes and a new console in the move, but unfortunately, the entire instrument was installed in chambers on each side of the divided chancel.
From an organ builder’s standpoint, we were struggling to come up with both a placement and a visual that would look good, project the sound well into the room, and stay in good usable tune. While cantilevered dual side chests were briefly considered, the fact that one chamber was on the east side of the room, with the other on the west, both with three outside walls, meant that the pitch relationship of the pipes in those chambers would change as the day wore on and the sun moved around the chancel on the south end of the building.
Standing in the spray booth painting pipes for another job one day, a “visual” suddenly occurred to me. I went to the drawing board and penciled the idea over half of a large blown-up picture I had taken of the church’s chancel. That sketch was eventually converted by PipeShader, a professional organ visual designer, into a real-looking computerized image, and presented to the church, where it was quickly accepted. But there was other work to be done before that could happen.
Friend and frequent organ-building colleague, Larry Sprinkle, who, like me, has an interest in trains and railroading, had decided to travel cross-country with me to the American Institute of Organbuilders Convention, in Concord, California. We would intentionally travel by car, so that we could follow the transcontinental railroads, Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, through Texas and New Mexico, on the westbound trip. This would carry us not only by the Grand Canyon, where resides a steam locomotive we had both known locally several years earlier, but by such iconic railroad places as Cajon Pass, descending into Los Angeles basin, and Tehachapi Loop, the latter crossing the mountains near Bakersfield.
Along the way, we stopped in Oklahoma City, a place to which I find myself drawn when in the area, remembering the utter destruction of the Federal building, with huge loss of life, including children.
Coming home, we followed Union Pacific on the northern route across Donner Pass, and through Salt Lake City (remember the “golden spike”?), and on to Chicago, where we picked up some materials for the Lebanon organ in the van we were driving.
Despite the spray-booth brainstorm, Larry and I had not talked about the job, so he was surprised when, without explanation, I diverted off westbound I-40, into Lebanon, to look at the church.
Besides being an organ person, Larry also has an engineering background. I took him into the building, where we walked around the room a few minutes, and then I said “can the (concrete block) walls on each side of the chancel window be knocked out?”
The very handsome stained glass central window is recessed about 4 feet, to an outside wall beyond the front chancel wall, so that there is a hidden hall passing from one side to the other, for the convenience of the choir. The area above the hall was an enclosed floor-to-ceiling dead space on each side of the window, about 25 ‘ tall.
In typical Larry fashion when he’s thinking, he quietly stroked his chin, walked around the chancel behind the walls, went outside to look at the building from that vantage, and after about 10 minutes of pondering, said “yes; they aren’t structural. They can be removed.”
Apprehensive that the organ committee would think I had lost my mind, I nevertheless approached them with the concept of removing the walls and recessing the organ back into the gained space, sealing up the side chamber tone openings in the process. To their great credit, they immediately bought into the concept, and engaged an architect to do the engineering.
Local building contractor, Mike Walls, who had done other construction for the church, was engaged to do the work. While preparing the organ spaces, the carpet was replaced by hard flooring throughout the room, and the padded pews were refinished to their dark mahogany color, substantially improving the acoustics.
The false walls removed and the outside walls well insulated with glued-on styrofoam, the new organ occupies the depth of the gained space. It is supported on long legs, so that the choir can still walk under it from side to side, and enter the choir loft on the outside ends through doors that are part of the organ case. The structure of the organ itself is totally self-supported to the floor, and relies on the building only to “brace” it. Built of heavy, medium-density-fiberboard, painted to match the white pew ends, the lower organ cases serve as perfect reflectors for the sound of the choir, now located across the chancel instead of divided. And the MDF make very effective enclosures for the Swell and Choir sections.
Pipes of the Pedal 16’ Principal and Great 8’ Principal, made of aluminum by Matters, Inc., are cantilevered from the structure of the organ to form the facade. Surprisingly, the total weight of the 12 longest pipes is only about 250 pounds on each side.
Several of the 1960’s pipes added by Koellein, were reused in the new organ, among them the Pedal Rauschquinte, made from the former Great 2 2/3’ and 2’ stops, as well as the 16’ Trombone. The 16’ Subbass, painted white to blend in with the walls and case, are also “previously owned” from our warehouse stock. The remainder of the flue pipes were made by Stinkens, of The Netherlands, with reeds by Oyster Pipeworks, of Ohio. Bradley Jones, Tonal Director, voiced the flue pipes in our shop, and was assisted in the final tonal finishing by David Beck. The pipes play on our own electro-pneumatic slider-and-pallet chests.
A couple of stops are of special interest: the Swell 8’ Geigen is a large-scaled string, almost Principal in scale, and serves as the basis of the Swell secondary ensemble.
The Great Major Flute starts as a large-scaled Rohrflote, and becomes a Harmonic Flute in the upper registers, hence the Great Tremulant.
The mahogany drawknob console, also built in house and stained to match the pews, with bone and rosewood keys, is easily movable throughout the chancel, on recessed casters, and connects to the organ by one very small fiber-optic “wire”, that quickly plugs in at two different locations. The relay system, also by Matters, features multiple memory levels, transposing and record/playback capabilities.
Randall Dyer and Associates organ number 100, was completed in time for Christmas, 2017. The opening concert in January, by Andrew Risinger of West End United Methodist Church, in Nashville, was played to a room so full that the doors had to be locked because of fire occupancy regulations. A subsequent concert by Dr. Wilma Jensen, was similarly well attended. And the two demonstrated that the organ can literally play anything that is put to it.
Though not a large instrument, the organ donors are happy, the musicians are happy, and the congregation sings their lungs out. For what more could an organ builder dream?
- - - -
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Lebanon, TN
III/32
GREAT ORGAN - Unenclosed except as noted
16’ (Sw.)Bourdon
8’ (Ped.)Solo Principal,
8’ Principal, en facade, 8 up 70% tin, 61 pipes
8’ Major Flute, 1-12 Pedal, 49 pipes
4’ Octave, 70% tin, 61 pipes
2’ Doublette, double-draw, Mixture
IV Mixture, 244 pipes, 70% tin
8’ (Sw.)Trompette
8’ (Sw.)Oboe
Tremulant
Chimes - existing
Cymbelstern
8’ (Ch.)Grand Trumpet
SWELL ORGAN - Expressive
16’ Bourdon, 61 pipes
8’ Geigen, 61 pipes
8’ Celeste, 49 pipes
8’ Bourdon, 12 pipes
4’ Principal, 61 pipes
4’ Spitzflöte, 61 pipes
2 2/3’ Nasard, 61 pipes
2’ Blockflöte, 61 pipes
1 3/5’ Tierce, 61 pipes
III Plein Jeu, 183 pipes
16’ Oboe, 61 pipes
8’ Trompette, 61 pipes
8’ Oboe, 12 pipes
4’ Clarion, 12 pipes
Tremulant
CHOIR ORGAN - Expressive
8’ Copula, 61 pipes
8’ Erzähler, 61 pipes
8’ Erzähler Celeste, TC, 49 pipes
4’ Koppelflöte, 61 pipes
2’ Principal, 61 pipes
1 1/3’ Quinte, 61 pipes
8’ Clarinet, 61 pipes
Tremulant
16’ Grand Trumpet, TC
8’ Grand Trumpet, 61 pipes, high pressure
PEDAL ORGAN -
32’ Resultant, derived
16’ Principal, 73 pipes
16’ Subbass, Existing, 56 pipes
16’ (Sw.)Bourdon
8’ Principal
8’ Subbass
8’ (Sw.)Bourdon
4’ Principal
4’ Flöte
II Rauschquinte, existing, 122 pipes
32’ Reed Cornet, derived
16’ (Sw.)Trombone, 12 pipes
16’ (Sw.)Oboe
8’ (Sw.)Trompette
4’ (Sw.)Oboe
8’ (Ch.)Grand Trumpet
From the first time I walked into the building unannounced one day while passing through town, and happened to meet Charlie Overton, the affable Minister of Music, I knew the possibility of building an organ for the First United Methodist Church of Lebanon, Tennessee, had the potential to be one of those organ-builder-dream-jobs.
An equally nice and very open-minded Organ Committee was receptive to suggestions, and willing to travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to see our organ at the Cathedral of Christ the King. Whether it was actually that organ, or the authentic Kentucky Barbecue we had for lunch is debatable, but as we parted ways, I was pretty certain we were going to build them an organ. During the process, the Minister of Music changed, but no momentum was lost as the new man on the podium, Windell Little, was totally on board.
The church building itself hails from the 1960’s, a handsome “contemporary” Georgian building. The church’s former Moller organ, from the late ’20’s, had been moved from the old building by J. Alex Koellein, a quite capable organ technician in the Nashville area, who, in a former life, had been a station agent for the Tennessee Central Railroad, track of which runs about two blocks behind the present Lebanon church building.
He added several new ranks of well-made pipes and a new console in the move, but unfortunately, the entire instrument was installed in chambers on each side of the divided chancel.
From an organ builder’s standpoint, we were struggling to come up with both a placement and a visual that would look good, project the sound well into the room, and stay in good usable tune. While cantilevered dual side chests were briefly considered, the fact that one chamber was on the east side of the room, with the other on the west, both with three outside walls, meant that the pitch relationship of the pipes in those chambers would change as the day wore on and the sun moved around the chancel on the south end of the building.
Standing in the spray booth painting pipes for another job one day, a “visual” suddenly occurred to me. I went to the drawing board and penciled the idea over half of a large blown-up picture I had taken of the church’s chancel. That sketch was eventually converted by PipeShader, a professional organ visual designer, into a real-looking computerized image, and presented to the church, where it was quickly accepted. But there was other work to be done before that could happen.
Friend and frequent organ-building colleague, Larry Sprinkle, who, like me, has an interest in trains and railroading, had decided to travel cross-country with me to the American Institute of Organbuilders Convention, in Concord, California. We would intentionally travel by car, so that we could follow the transcontinental railroads, Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, through Texas and New Mexico, on the westbound trip. This would carry us not only by the Grand Canyon, where resides a steam locomotive we had both known locally several years earlier, but by such iconic railroad places as Cajon Pass, descending into Los Angeles basin, and Tehachapi Loop, the latter crossing the mountains near Bakersfield.
Along the way, we stopped in Oklahoma City, a place to which I find myself drawn when in the area, remembering the utter destruction of the Federal building, with huge loss of life, including children.
Coming home, we followed Union Pacific on the northern route across Donner Pass, and through Salt Lake City (remember the “golden spike”?), and on to Chicago, where we picked up some materials for the Lebanon organ in the van we were driving.
Despite the spray-booth brainstorm, Larry and I had not talked about the job, so he was surprised when, without explanation, I diverted off westbound I-40, into Lebanon, to look at the church.
Besides being an organ person, Larry also has an engineering background. I took him into the building, where we walked around the room a few minutes, and then I said “can the (concrete block) walls on each side of the chancel window be knocked out?”
The very handsome stained glass central window is recessed about 4 feet, to an outside wall beyond the front chancel wall, so that there is a hidden hall passing from one side to the other, for the convenience of the choir. The area above the hall was an enclosed floor-to-ceiling dead space on each side of the window, about 25 ‘ tall.
In typical Larry fashion when he’s thinking, he quietly stroked his chin, walked around the chancel behind the walls, went outside to look at the building from that vantage, and after about 10 minutes of pondering, said “yes; they aren’t structural. They can be removed.”
Apprehensive that the organ committee would think I had lost my mind, I nevertheless approached them with the concept of removing the walls and recessing the organ back into the gained space, sealing up the side chamber tone openings in the process. To their great credit, they immediately bought into the concept, and engaged an architect to do the engineering.
Local building contractor, Mike Walls, who had done other construction for the church, was engaged to do the work. While preparing the organ spaces, the carpet was replaced by hard flooring throughout the room, and the padded pews were refinished to their dark mahogany color, substantially improving the acoustics.
The false walls removed and the outside walls well insulated with glued-on styrofoam, the new organ occupies the depth of the gained space. It is supported on long legs, so that the choir can still walk under it from side to side, and enter the choir loft on the outside ends through doors that are part of the organ case. The structure of the organ itself is totally self-supported to the floor, and relies on the building only to “brace” it. Built of heavy, medium-density-fiberboard, painted to match the white pew ends, the lower organ cases serve as perfect reflectors for the sound of the choir, now located across the chancel instead of divided. And the MDF make very effective enclosures for the Swell and Choir sections.
Pipes of the Pedal 16’ Principal and Great 8’ Principal, made of aluminum by Matters, Inc., are cantilevered from the structure of the organ to form the facade. Surprisingly, the total weight of the 12 longest pipes is only about 250 pounds on each side.
Several of the 1960’s pipes added by Koellein, were reused in the new organ, among them the Pedal Rauschquinte, made from the former Great 2 2/3’ and 2’ stops, as well as the 16’ Trombone. The 16’ Subbass, painted white to blend in with the walls and case, are also “previously owned” from our warehouse stock. The remainder of the flue pipes were made by Stinkens, of The Netherlands, with reeds by Oyster Pipeworks, of Ohio. Bradley Jones, Tonal Director, voiced the flue pipes in our shop, and was assisted in the final tonal finishing by David Beck. The pipes play on our own electro-pneumatic slider-and-pallet chests.
A couple of stops are of special interest: the Swell 8’ Geigen is a large-scaled string, almost Principal in scale, and serves as the basis of the Swell secondary ensemble.
The Great Major Flute starts as a large-scaled Rohrflote, and becomes a Harmonic Flute in the upper registers, hence the Great Tremulant.
The mahogany drawknob console, also built in house and stained to match the pews, with bone and rosewood keys, is easily movable throughout the chancel, on recessed casters, and connects to the organ by one very small fiber-optic “wire”, that quickly plugs in at two different locations. The relay system, also by Matters, features multiple memory levels, transposing and record/playback capabilities.
Randall Dyer and Associates organ number 100, was completed in time for Christmas, 2017. The opening concert in January, by Andrew Risinger of West End United Methodist Church, in Nashville, was played to a room so full that the doors had to be locked because of fire occupancy regulations. A subsequent concert by Dr. Wilma Jensen, was similarly well attended. And the two demonstrated that the organ can literally play anything that is put to it.
Though not a large instrument, the organ donors are happy, the musicians are happy, and the congregation sings their lungs out. For what more could an organ builder dream?
- - - -
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Lebanon, TN
III/32
GREAT ORGAN - Unenclosed except as noted
16’ (Sw.)Bourdon
8’ (Ped.)Solo Principal,
8’ Principal, en facade, 8 up 70% tin, 61 pipes
8’ Major Flute, 1-12 Pedal, 49 pipes
4’ Octave, 70% tin, 61 pipes
2’ Doublette, double-draw, Mixture
IV Mixture, 244 pipes, 70% tin
8’ (Sw.)Trompette
8’ (Sw.)Oboe
Tremulant
Chimes - existing
Cymbelstern
8’ (Ch.)Grand Trumpet
SWELL ORGAN - Expressive
16’ Bourdon, 61 pipes
8’ Geigen, 61 pipes
8’ Celeste, 49 pipes
8’ Bourdon, 12 pipes
4’ Principal, 61 pipes
4’ Spitzflöte, 61 pipes
2 2/3’ Nasard, 61 pipes
2’ Blockflöte, 61 pipes
1 3/5’ Tierce, 61 pipes
III Plein Jeu, 183 pipes
16’ Oboe, 61 pipes
8’ Trompette, 61 pipes
8’ Oboe, 12 pipes
4’ Clarion, 12 pipes
Tremulant
CHOIR ORGAN - Expressive
8’ Copula, 61 pipes
8’ Erzähler, 61 pipes
8’ Erzähler Celeste, TC, 49 pipes
4’ Koppelflöte, 61 pipes
2’ Principal, 61 pipes
1 1/3’ Quinte, 61 pipes
8’ Clarinet, 61 pipes
Tremulant
16’ Grand Trumpet, TC
8’ Grand Trumpet, 61 pipes, high pressure
PEDAL ORGAN -
32’ Resultant, derived
16’ Principal, 73 pipes
16’ Subbass, Existing, 56 pipes
16’ (Sw.)Bourdon
8’ Principal
8’ Subbass
8’ (Sw.)Bourdon
4’ Principal
4’ Flöte
II Rauschquinte, existing, 122 pipes
32’ Reed Cornet, derived
16’ (Sw.)Trombone, 12 pipes
16’ (Sw.)Oboe
8’ (Sw.)Trompette
4’ (Sw.)Oboe
8’ (Ch.)Grand Trumpet
