My first big tear-down

[vaneramos]

Organs are aptly named. On the inside a pipe organ looks like guts. We spent Monday and Tuesday eviscerating a small country church in Chesley, a 90 minute drive north from here. All the parts have been carted down to Les's shop in Fergus, mostly by horse trailer. Over the next few weeks, the electrical controls will be completely replaced, along with some valves and other small mechanisms. Then we'll take everything back to Chesley and reinstall it. I spent yesterday morning crawling around the space beneath the floor of the organ, pulling out old wiring and wind pipes. I emerged covered from head to foot in black dust. Then there was a lot of heavy grunt work: carrying, loading, and unloading two hours later.

Today was relatively light: John and I cleaned pipes and wind boxes, while Les began tinkering, and taking things apart. That will become the rhythm of our usual days.

Organ pipes are arranged in ranks, each using different constructions and mechanisms to produce distinctive sounds. An organ typically contains a wide variety of pipes. From the console the organist uses stop controls to determine which pipes, or combinations of pipes, are activated by the keyboards (called manuals) and pedals. Large church organs commonly have thousands of pipes. The world's largest operational pipe organ, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia, has 28,482 pipes in 461 ranks. The small organ from Chesley has about a dozen ranks. The other organ we will build in Dundas this year will eventually have about 30.

These handsome little wood pipes are called flutes d'amour. They are made mostly of pine; the second wood is probably cherry. The other pipes, made of cast zinc, are from the diapason, the most important set of pipes in most organs, providing the distinctive, foundational sound.

Comments

[sandraregina.livejournal.com]

I really like the sound of a good organ. I think its very cool that you get to work with them, take them apart and put them back together again.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I'm learning so much about them! They really are fascinating.

[mhkrabat.livejournal.com]

Whoa! I missed something along the way! When did you start working on pipe organs?
I have a life-long love for the sounds these magnificent instruments can make. While I know fairly little about them (perhaps more than someone disinterested in them) I do know that something like the Saint Saens organ symphony can make me stop what I'm doing, shut my eyes and absorb the sonic textures. One memorable experience in my life was a top to bottom tour of the Wurlitzer in the Fox Theatre in Detroit back in the late 70s before the place found it's second wind and shine.

Probably not a bad idea to wear a dust mask or a respirator when faced with that black dust. It can't be good to breathe.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I got to play the new Kimmel center organ (quite big but not the Wanamaker which is in a Macy's) in Philadelphia for a minute last year.

[mhkrabat.livejournal.com]

That had to be a thrill. I checked the link you provided. What a gorgeous instrument (what can be seen) and looks like a very nice house too.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

What a fascinating experience! But I wouldn't have known what to play.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Well here is the original news flash from October 25:

http://vaneramos.livejournal.com/517137.html

You can also read my organ building tag attached to this post, which has everything else I've posted about it so far. Technically it is occasional work, but we have two big jobs, and it appears I'll be employed full-time at least until Easter, and there will be lots more work through this year.

I've never been especially fond of organ music (although the Saint-Saens is one piece I really do love), but now that I understand what's going on with an organ, I find the music much more intriguing. I found myself turning up organ music whenever it came on the radio over the holidays.

About the dusk mask, yes. Les doesn't use them, so I plan to pick one up for myself.

[trinapink.livejournal.com]

Fascinating! But..."eviserated?" LOL.

I play a silly electronic box, and I don't even have a diapason on my machine.* I'd LOVE to be in control of all those ranks of lovely pipes. Do you get to play, when you are finished, just to hear the sound?

*I'm probably not being fair to my instrument. It's a respectable church organ, with a full set of stops and pedals. I just get frustrated 'cause there's so much I don't have (like any reeds, at all, in my Great or Pedals, etc.).

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize you played organ! You might have a diapason by a different name. German-style organs call it the Principal, and French-style call it Montre or Praestant.

I played an organ for a friend's wedding once, years ago. I just adapted a few piano pieces, but now that I'm learning how an organ works, I realize how much I missed. It's a bit intimidating, and I haven't actually played one since I started working on them, besides holding down keys while Les tuned the pipes. But this is making me want to take lessons.

[trinapink.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know that I play well! But yes, I play.

Actually, I'm a self-taught pianist who taught myself to play the organ when our church organist moved away. But I've been taking lessons since June from Dr. Jeannine Jordan, a wonderful teacher as well as gifted organist.

LOL about the diapason. Yes, I do have principals (of course!): from 16' to 2'. But my organ is an aging Baldwin (nobody else knows they made them either), and the principals on my organ don't sound anything like the diapason on the organ I take my lesson on (Rogers). So I forget they are the same. And neither of them sound anything like those glorious instruments you're working on!

Organ is VERY intimidating. The first three times I tried to play it, I came home and cried. Then I called my mother, and she'd suggest one or two things to make it easier. And I'm stubborn--I hate admitting defeat. So I kept going back. I got fairly competent with hymns and things, but I stopped improving. That's when I started lessons--and learned how many bad habits I had. It was almost like starting over!

But now...now I can make it sing. When I first started playing, I complained that it was a machine, not a musical instrument, and I couldn't express anything. But in fact, its range of expression is MUCH wider than the piano.

You should definitely at least play around a little. I'd think, with the understanding gained from actually working on the innards, you'd find it a very rewarding experience, even if you don't get to performance level.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I went to grade eight in piano, so the keyboard aspect would be easy to learn. The intimidating part is how to use the stops to get the right sounds out of it, and using the pedals would be difficult.

It sounds like you have had fun with it, though.

[trinapink.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you wouldn't have any trouble with the manuals! Even the keyboarding part is definitely different--but you'd adjust in no time.

The pedals just take practice (my teacher has me doing "pedal aerobics, LOL), just like the piano did. And it comes much faster than piano did because you already know the notes and their relative positions. All you have to learn is the muscle memory.

The registration is the fun part! It's fairly simply in concept (there are only four sound families), but it seems to me, the more you learn, the more there is to learn. But OH, what you can do!

If you decide to try it, I recommend But What Do I Do With My Feet? The Pianist's Guide to the Organ by Janette Fishell. It's out of print, but you can usually find copies here and there.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

I knew you were working; what I didn't know was how much fun and enjoyment you would be getting out of it. It sounds like GREAT fun!!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Incredibly, it has fulfilled all the things I wanted out of a job at this point. It's physical but usually not heavy, and not soul-deadening. It's interesting, I'm learning a lot, and it's not stressful. I enjoy the people I work with, and expectations are clear. I'm actually more competent with tools than Les's previous assistant, so it feels like I'm adding to productivity, and he's appreciative of my work. I'm even earning a higher hourly wage than I had expected from a starting position. I can choose my own hours, which allows me to continue with the other small job I recently started, and my volunteer shift at the queer library.

The only down side is that there is no security or benefits, but it looks as if I'll be able to work full-time at least through most of this year. After that it will be dependent on whatever new contracts turn up. But for now this doesn't worry me.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Me too. The last few years it has occurred to me that if I could go back and start over, I would study music. So it's good fortune that has brought me be involved in music this way. I've never particularly liked most organ music, but as with many things, a little knowledge makes it much more interesting. I'm tuning in. Organs are complicated enough to intrigue me. Now I'm actually interested in learning to play.

[deanarae.livejournal.com]

I am jealous of your job! I find it fascinating. I find pipe organs fascinating. When I was a kid, I attended a church with a beautiful old pipe organ. There was something special about it - the kind it was or something - but I can't remember what. I was very involved in the music of the church, singing in the choirs, playing in the hand bell choir, and so, at some point, got a behind-the-scenes tour of the organ. We also, for a while, had a very talented organist who could make the whole building shake when he played - which was great, because he was a diminutive mouse of a man in stature and demeanor. I used to love to go up in the balcony when he played and feel the floorboards vibrate.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

My new job is pretty sweet, I admit. I haven't had much opportunity to hear any of the organs played yet, but now that I'm learning how they work, I'm much more interested than I was before in discovering the repertoire.