4. The Organs

The Americans have used their own natural inquisitiveness and ingenuity to re-examine traditional organ approaches.

· The organs of Taylor and Boody are superb examples of fine craftsmanship based on the 17th and 18th Century North German tradition, but I suddenly found some superb English William Hill sounds coming out of their organs (Trinity, Staunton).

· John Brombaugh has achieved some wonderful singing sounds but using new techniques for action (Springfield).

· Lynn Dobson does the most sophisticated, superb and well-crafted balanced actions. His style has developed throughout his career and is achieving a distinctly modern American sound (influenced by the 19th Century Hook Brothers) (Pakachoag and Storm Lake).

· I will never forget the individual sound of Rosales at Claremont, drawing from Murray Harris, Caville-Coll and a wealth of other builders and yet very individualistic.

I also saw some very impressive small organs. Even in this wealthy country, small organs are alive and well.

· The 8-stop Fritts organ at Stanford is inspired by the 1610 Compenius organ. It contains 16', 8' and 4' reeds of exquisite beauty, and is capable of accompanying medium congregations in the large Memorial Church.

· Schoenstein have a small 8 rank organ in St Agnes, San Francisco. It utilises electric action and extension, and in the large acoustic, is a wonderful and versatile instrument.

· At St Paul's Seminary, St Paul, the 21-stop Noack organ must be regarded as a small organ in such a large building. I can only describe its tone as English Classical, and this sound permeates the whole space with music.

· By contrast, the 13-stop, single manual Farmer organ in St Timothy's Church utilises divided stops to give more variety than its size suggests. I believe that in Australia, all four approaches to small organs are valid, assuming that the acoustic is large enough to carry the sound throughout the building.

This raises the question of acoustic. Every organbuilder bemoaned the modern practice of building churches and halls with as little acoustic as possible. They offered various solutions to achieving good organ tone in poor acoustics. They ranged from not altering the scaling but using more stops, to using larger scaling.

I attended the Dobson organ opening at Red Wing. This building had a very dead acoustic, it was full of people and at the opening I heard choirs, a flute, handbells and even a bagpipe. The organ was always clearly audible throughout the building. Dobson had used larger scaling and slightly more aggressive voicing and regulation. It was very successful. Likewise, the Glatter-Gotz/Rosales at Palos Verdes used the same techniques to achieve a quite remarkable tone and clarity in the dry building.

Some organbuilders noted with relief that some modern architects are now returning to ensuring good live acoustics in modern buildings because of singing and the realisation that often amplification causes more problems than it solves.

I played some really fantastic instruments. I have already mentioned some of them and should include the Pasi organ at Lynnwood, the Fisk at Stanford, the Richards, Fowkes at Boston and the 1866 Hook at Newburyport. However, playing the Taylor & Boody organ in St Thomas', New York was an epiphany for me.

The organ is in a west gallery and has only 22 stops. Every stop blends and it was possible to use many combinations of stops that should, in theory, not work. The reeds were smooth but pervasive which can also be said of the chorus. The flutes were simply beautiful. The suspended action gives an intimacy to the player controlling the speech of the pipes. The wedge bellows give a good flexible wind system that enables the organ to breathe throughout the music rather than giving harsh chords. In short, this is less a mechanical instrument and more a living instrument based on the human voice.

I believe that new organs will have a viable future in this country and encourage new organists if they look beautiful, sound beautiful and have a responsive action such as the best organs I have seen and heard on this trip.

Last updated 26 July, 2005