Pipe Organ
Since the age of five I have been drawn to the organ. The
organ was distinctively different to me from all other musical instruments.
Every church I visited and every home that had an organ always aroused my strong
desire from within to play the instruments. I would always go up and watch the
organist and when they finished, I would talk to them about their instrument. It
did not matter if it was a small tracker in the Methodist Church in Itasca,
Texas, a workhorse Hammond at the Central Baptist Church in the same town or
larger instruments where ever I was such as the large four manual Moller at
First Presbyterian in Oklahoma City or the Flentrops and Casavants at
Westminster Choir College in Princeton NJ. I have always been enamored by the
music of the organ. I have always been intrigued by the construction of all
organs both pipe and electronic, but especially pipe organs. When I could obtain
permission (and many times when I did not bother to) I went inside the organ
chambers, looked at the chests, studied the pipework and very often enjoyed
playing the instruments. I noted chest construction, winding, acoustics and all
types of organ action as well as the wide variation of organ stop and ensemble
sounds.
While in college I purchased the bibles of organ building -
The Art of Organ-Building by George Ashdown Audsley (first published in 1905 and
corrected and published again by Dover in 1965) and The Contemporary American
Organ by William H. Barnes (published by J. Fischer & Bro. eighth edition
copyright 1965 and first published in 1930). I read these books over and over. I
studied the photographs and line drawings. I ordered promotional literature from
virtually every organ builder in the United States. For many years I toured
organ companies throughout the United States and England to observe organ
construction first hand. I still take advantage of such opportunities when I am
in a new city and learn of a local builder.
| Organ Stoplist for Larry D.
Ellis Residence Organ, Denver, Colorado USA |
Great
8' Gedeckt (61 pipes)
4' Principal (61 pipes)
2' Gemshorn (61 pipes)
II Mixture (122 pipes)
8' - 4' Trumpet (73 pipes)
Positive to Great
|
Positive
8' - 4' Rohrflute (73 pipes)
2' Principal (61 pipes)
8' - 4' Trumpet (from Great)
Zimbelstern
|
Pedal
16' Gedeckt (12 pipes)
8' Gedeckt (from Great)
4' Rohrflute (from Positive)
2' Principal (from Positive)
8' - 4' Trumpet (from Great)
Positive to Pedal
Great to Pedal
|
I spent ten years designing my organ and two more in
construction. The chest and console along with the installation of two ranks of
pipes were finished in May 1994. As with most organ designs I started with the
stoplist specifications. I used my engineering skills and wrote a program to
design my drilling templates for the windchest. I decided to implement an idea
of halving the spacing between pipes in the same fashion that the pipe diameters
are also halved on specified intervals. This provided the benefit of reducing
the chest size considerably from one with consistent pipe spacing. The same
program was modified to draw a scaled drawing of my pipe layout so that I could
assemble a styrofoam model prior to actual windchest construction. When I was
pleased with the layout, I was ready to start the chest construction. I selected
direct-electric action for my construction. I carefully laid out the drilling
templates on the rack board and toe board and drilled the pilot holes through
both simultaneously. I then separated the boards and properly sized the pipe
holes in the toe board. The chest was then sanded, stained and finished. The
next step was the installation of the hundreds of direct electric valves. Then
came the extensive wiring and soldering process. Following that was the racking
of the pipes. A pipe jig was used to identify the precise diameter of the
supporting whole for each pipe to be installed. The rack holes were then drilled
and precisely sized using the original pilot holes in the rack board. Pipes were
checked and occasionally the holes were fine tuned to make certain that the
installed pipes were vertically plumb.
The original 8' Gedect is made of maple by
Artisan Builders in Fargo
ND. The 4' Principal was manufactured and voiced by Mr. Ben Williams of Knowlton
Organs in Charlotte NC. Voicing was done on 70mm pressure.
The electronic switching circuits were constructed using
printed circuit cards and electronic components purchased from
Devtronix. They have proven to be very reliable. The blower was manufactured
in Germany. The wind reservoir was manufactured by
Organ Supply in Erie PA.
I designed the console to be very traditional in style, but
not grandiose. The two keyboards, the AGO pedalboard and the bench were
manufactured by Klann Organ
Supply. The key switches and reed pedal switches were supplied by
Peterson Electromusic.
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