Wear and tear

[vaneramos]

Les and I are spending about two weeks restoring the two manuals (keyboards) and pedalboard for the pipe organ at St. Paul's Basilica, Toronto. It is the oldest instrument I've worked on, built in 1898 by R.S. Williams & Sons. It was restored in 1977 by Gabriel Kney. Les was working for Kney at that time, so he has a long history with the organ.

It is also the first tracker organ I've worked on. All my experience up until now has been with electric actions, mostly with electro-pneumatic valves controlling wind to the pipes.

In a tracker organ the action is purely mechanical. Each key controls a pipe or pipes directly via an intricate series of slender wooden rods, called trackers. The parts articulate using an assortment of pins and levers. Wherever two parts rub together, they're insulated with felt, leather or a combination of the two. These materials tend to wear out after 30 or 110 years. I've spent most of this week replacing leather strips around the back ends of the keys.

Les made a service call today, so I had the shop to myself all afternoon, and sad thoughts.

Someone I have loved for several years, and considered spending more time with, seems bent now upon a self-destructive course. I had glimpsed something beautiful in him, but during our last encounter I saw a dragon laying waste to his best qualities. I've encountered alcoholism, but never quite this way before.

Comments

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

First off, now I know exactly what a tracker organ is, and I've heard that my church has one of the first of those types installed in our area (Seattle). Not sure if it's earlier than the 60's or not but when the church was founded, it was in the early part of the last century if I recall, maybe as early as the 1890's but had an addition built and it opened in I think the fall of '62 or '63 and the organ is at least that old and it's a tracker.

Sorry to hear of your friend and his problems, such as alcoholism.

I like that image of you working on the keys. You've come a long way since I began reading your journal and it seems to me this job seems to suit you to some degree at the very least.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I don't know how far back tracker actions go, but I think that technology was used for several hundred years before the invention of electricity. Electro-pneumatic actions started to replace them in the 19th Century, and tracker organs went out of fashion during the first half of the 20th Century. However they have certain advantages, and have made a reappearance since WW2.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

*blush* Thanks, it's the real day-to-day me.

[eniastoa.livejournal.com]

There is something satisfying about working carefully with hand tools that isn't available any other way.

Something steadying.

There's so many ways to get out of balance, it's good to have activity like that in your life.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

It became clear to me this year that manual labour is the ideal day job to counterbalance my writing and other creative work, partly for the reasons you mention. It presents physical challenges, which I enjoy, and I never have to bring it home. I also loved assisting some friends in light contract work this past summer—renovating basements and so on.

As long as there's variety. I don't know how long I could last in a factory. Hopefully these jobs will keep me busy for a while.

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

I am fascinated by the inner workings of musical instruments of all sorts, so thank you for posting this.

Those overalls look great on you, BTW.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks handsome. Maybe I'll have a chance to show you the inside of an organ someday. They're fascinating. I've been working on them for two years, and still have barely scratched the surface of what there is to know about them. Every one is different, which adds to the fascination.