Note to TAO readers: Delivery of the print version of the December issue of TAO may be delayed as much as two weeks. The New Dobson Organ at St. Thomas Church In New York City By John Panning and Jonathan Ambrosino View the new case View the 1913 case View the Stop List Lovers of church music have long made St. Thomas Church, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan’s swank Midtown, a place of pilgrimage. Within its landmark Gothic Revival walls, the parish has forged a unique musical perspective, combining a high Anglican choral tradition with organs of French inspiration, a musical practice that strongly informed the tonal design of our recently completed Opus 93. The two basic requirements demanded by this tradition—color and discretion … [Read more...]

Two Tales of Two-Manual Organs By Patrick J. Murphy View an enlarged cover Stop List Organbuilders dream about having the opportunity to construct fine large instruments that stunningly display their creative ethos. The realities of today’s market, however, more often challenge builders to create highly flexible instruments in very limited spaces and budgets. Many congregations give in to these limitations easily, threatening the extinction of quality music in their worship life. But there are many parishes, even small ones, that understand the value of quality music in their services and find ways to overcome the perceived limitations. Patrick J. Murphy & Associates recently had the fortunate opportunity to provide modest … [Read more...]

St. Paul’s Memorial United Methodist Church South Bend, Indiana Berghaus Pipe Organ Builders Inc. • Bellwood, Illinois View an enlarged cover Stop List By Jonathan Oblander Situated on the corner of Colfax and LaPorte avenues in South Bend, the Gothic St. Paul’s Memorial United Methodist Church was designed by architect S.R. Badgely and dedicated on March 15, 1903. The church and furnishings were generously funded by the Clem Studebaker family, whose wagon and then automobile manufacturing business operated for 115 years. Although Clem Studebaker helped lay the cornerstone of the church in 1901, he unfortunately died before seeing its completion. However, he is memorialized as a member of the crowd listening to the apostle Paul … [Read more...]

Multum in Parvo The New Schoenstein at Church of the Redeemer Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts By Jack M. Bethards and Michael S. Murray View an enlarged cover View the Stop List Working within strict space or budget limits is the intriguing challenge of organbuilding. My fascination with it began with this description of the 1899 Willis at St. Bees Priory in James B. Jamison’s marvelous book Organ Design and Appraisal. “The scheme resembles an athlete trained down to hard muscle, without a superfluous ounce of flesh. The specification disdains ornaments and concentrates on essentials. I can also state that its color flexibility is astonishing, largely because of the individual stop beauty (there never were lovelier voices) and the way … [Read more...]

Northrop Auditorium and its Reconditioned Aeolian-Skinner Opus 892 by Mike Foley View an enlarged cover View the Stop List       Completed in 1929, Cyrus Northrop Memorial Auditorium was named after the University of Minnesota’s second president and remains an iconic structure on the university’s Minneapolis campus. The Aeolian-Skinner, Opus 892, was installed in four sections between 1932 and 1935. We were called to survey the organ in 2009. Northrop seated 4,847; it was a distance of 206 feet from the stage to the balcony’s rear seats. From there, one almost needed binoculars to see the console. I was used to seeing a theater’s organ chambers in the side walls aiming the sound squarely at the audience. … [Read more...]

Christ the King Chapel St. John Vianney Theological Seminary Denver, Colorado Kegg Pipe Organ Builders • Hartville, Ohio By Charles Kegg View the Stop List View the Mixture Compositions Every new pipe organ project, large or small, has a unique sense of importance. Rarely are we afforded the opportunity to build an instrument that will inspire generations of clergy to high ideals. Our new organ at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary is a rare honor for an organbuilder. The goal we shared with associate professor of sacred music Mark Lawlor was to build an instrument suited primarily to the multiple daily Masses of the seminarians. The failing electronic organ from 20 years ago had “replaced” the original 1931 Kilgen pipe … [Read more...]

SS. Simon and Jude Cathedral Phoenix, Arizona Peragallo Organ Company Paterson, New Jersey by John Peragallo IV View an enlarged cover View the Stop List  “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” --Daniel Burnham As organbuilders, we are uniquely privileged to experience many rewarding moments in the process of seeing a new pipe organ come to life. Those moments are all the more amplified when this process includes a vibrant ministry that will realize the full potential of the new instrument. From our first interactions with the staff and organ committee at the Cathedral of SS. Simon and Jude, we sensed that the pipe organ was going to serve as the cornerstone of sacred music within the Diocese of … [Read more...]

First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church Duxbury, Massachusetts Andover Organ Company • Lawrence, Massachusetts By Matthew M. Bellocchio View an enlarged cover View the Stop List  Duxbury, on the Atlantic coast 35 miles southeast of Boston, was settled by some of the original Mayflower Pilgrims. By 1632, a group including John Alden and Myles Standish left their small Plymouth farms and went north to work larger lots along Massachusetts Bay. In 1637, their settlement, having met the legal requirements to be set off as a separate community with its own church, was incorporated as Duxborough (original spelling), the second town in the Plymouth Colony. Elder William Brewster was the church’s first leader. The church embraced the … [Read more...]

St. Paul's Chapel of Trinity Church Wall Street New York City Noack Organ Company • Georgetown, Massachusetts View an enlarged cover View the stop list View a sample week of music-making at Trinity Wall Street From the Director of Music and Arts From my first day at Trinity Church Wall Street, I have urgently desired to see world-class pipe organs reinstalled in Trinity’s three liturgical spaces—not merely our iconic 1846 Richard Upjohn building at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street and its attached All Saints Chapel, but also in St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity’s second functioning church home dating from 1766, five blocks up from Trinity Church at Broadway and Fulton Street. To my core, I believe that living, breathing … [Read more...]