|
|
|
Auditorium Organ |
The Auditorium Organ
(Organ Specifications)
Notes by Thomas Brown
The Auditorium organ was built by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ
Company of Boston, Massachusetts. Immediately after its installation in 1959,
the organ became – and remains – perhaps the most important example of the
company’s work from the period. The commanding display of exposed Great,
Positiv, and Pedal pipework forms the visual centerpiece of the massive
conference chamber which seats nearly 5,800 people. The main organ is framed by
nineteen acoustical clouds suspended above and in front of it, and by choir
seating and the large rostrum beneath it. The entire room is covered by a huge
dome, culminating in an oculus rising some 100 feet above the floor.
G. Donald Harrison, President and Tonal Director of
Aeolian-Skinner and one of the twentieth century’s most influential organ
builders, was responsible for the organ’s initial design and specification in
the mid-1950s. Following Mr. Harrison’s untimely death in 1956, Joseph
Whiteford was appointed Tonal Director and, in collaboration with consultants
Catharine Crozier and Harold Gleason, finalized the design and formulated the
organ’s pipe scales.
The Auditorium organ is a superb example of the
"American Classic Organ," a concept and design developed by
Aeolian-Skinner that mingles the colors and textures of both German and French
organs from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with twentieth-century
voices developed or adapted by the builder. This scheme was conceived to allow
the performance of a wide body of the organ literature.
The organ’s tonal foundation is based on a 32’ Principal,
a stop that speaks nearly an octave below the lowest note on the piano and
provides a tremendous gravity to the organ’s ensemble. In reality, the longest
pipe in this stop is nearly forty feet long and stands in the center left
"tower" of the façade. In contrast, the smallest pipe is about the
size of a lead pencil and speaks nine octaves higher. The entire organ is played
from an elegant, solid walnut four-manual console located on a platform just
above the rostrum.
An antiphonal organ of three divisions is located at the
opposite end of the conference chamber. It may be played from its own two-manual
console in the rear balcony as well as from the main console. A dramatic feature
of the Auditorium organ is the Trompette en chamade, a bold voice of
horizontal trumpets mounted atop the antiphonal organ.
Several ranks have been judiciously added to the organ over
the years to increase its flexibility and scope. These stops were designed,
made, and voiced in Aeolian-Skinner style, in some cases by former
Aeolian-Skinner employees. The instrument now employs solid-state relays and
combination action, and utilizes a MIDI system, which includes a digital
record/playback system, allowing a performance to be recorded and immediately
played back exactly as performed.
This noble organ contains nine divisions, 113 ranks and 6,334
pipes. |
|
|
|
Temple Organ |
The Temple Organ
(Organ Specifications)
Notes by Thomas Brown
The Community of Christ Temple is home to a remarkable organ
built by the Canadian firm of Casavant Frères Limitée, of St.-Hyacinthe,
Quebec. Built in 1992 and installed in the early months of 1993, the Casavant
organ contains four manuals, 60 stops, 102 ranks, and is the result of more than
20,000 hours of planning and building. The 5,685 pipes are distributed on three
levels behind the façade in an organ case that is fifty feet high, forty feet
wide, and eight feet deep. The organ’s many pipes are made of a variety of
materials, including polished tin, lacquered zinc, a mixture of tin and lead
that forms "spotted metal," and polished copper, used for the Trompette
en chamade, which extends horizontally from the case.
Jean-Louis Coignet, Tonal Director of Casavant Frères and
Organ Expert to the city of Paris, France, designed the instrument, which
combines classical French principles with modern technology. The organ utilizes
mechanical action for the Grand Orgue, Positif, and Récit divisions, and
electropneumatic action for the fourth keyboard, the Résonance. The organ’s
Résonance division is most unusual in the United States and takes its
inspiration from the work of an early French monk organ builder, Brother Isnard,
who built the first such division in St. Maximan, France, in 1772. The Temple
Résonance expands selected pedal stops to manual compass and adds great power
and complexity to the organ’s ensemble.
As with the Auditorium organ, the foundation of the Temple
organ is built upon the 32’ Principal. The longest pipe in this rank, speaking
at only 16 cycles per second and standing nearly 40’ tall, may be seen at the
extreme right in the organ’s façade. The smallest pipe has a speaking length
of only ¼ inch.
The organ’s nomenclature is predominately French in
recognition of the instrument’s basic tonal orientation. Although the organ
boasts a variety of classical stops, it is a decidedly Romantic organ whose
sound envelops the listener.
The Temple is a spectacular venue for the organ, for music,
and for worship. The organ’s façade was designed by Jean-Claude Gauthier to
be purposefully understated so that it might contribute to the serenity of the
Temple interior. The Temple sanctuary, which accommodates about 1,600 people,
has an internal volume of one million cubic feet. The room’s shape and its
spiral, which ascends to 195 feet above the floor, contribute to an
extraordinary acoustic with four seconds’ reverberation, providing bloom and
grandeur to the organ tone and music, and drama to the spoken word.
The Casavant organ is a fitting complement to the Auditorium
organ. "Without question," wrote former Kansas City Star music
critic Scott Cantrell, "it is one of the most glorious organs in North
America." |
