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Rapid City
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Message from the Dean and Chapter Administrator
Welcome to the Rapid City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Our Chapter is one of approximately 300 chapters of the national organization, which serves more than 15,000 members in the United States and abroad. The Rapid City Chapter, formerly known as the Black Hills Chapter, was founded in 1963. The Chapter serves the entire Black Hills area of South Dakota, including Belle Fourche, Custer, Deadwood, Hill City, Hot Springs, Lead, Spearfish, and Sturgis, as well as Rapid City.
Calvary Lutheran Church is the official home of the Rapid City Chapter. Chapter meetings and many musical events are held here. Our public events are open to the wider community and all are welcome to attend. Calvary Lutheran Church is located at 5311 Sheridan Lake Road, Rapid City, South Dakota.
The mission of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) is to foster a thriving community of musicians who share their knowledge and inspire passion for the organ. We share our knowledge in local workshops and presentations on music and organ playing. We hope to inspire passion for the organ by offering concerts by members and guest recitalists. These musical events are open to all.
Rapid City is home to a number of fine pipe organs. Builders represented include Austin, Casavant Frères, Salmen, Schlicker, and Temple organs. These instruments are a wonderful resource for our community.
Local Events
Membership
We’d be happy to welcome you as a member! You don’t need to be an active, professional organist or choir director to join the AGO. Membership is open to all who have an interest in the organ and/or choral music. If you are not an active, paid organist or choir director, you can become a Chapter Friend for $20.
Join online by visiting the AGO National website and clicking on “Membership”, then “Join the Guild”, and select “Join as a Chapter Member or Friend”. At the bottom of that page, click on ***Online: Start your AGO chapter membership process and fill in the application form.
Please renew, or join again if your membership has lapsed. Having more people involved in our Chapter means that we can put on more interesting programs.
For more information on becoming a Rapid City Chapter member, please email Albin Spreizer at Email or Audrey Fenner at Email
Placement
Employers and job seekers are invited to post and search listings of available positions on the Guild’s National Website.
Certification
Contact Us
Albin Spreizer, Dean al@calvaryrapidcity.org
Audrey Fenner, Treasurer/Chapter Administrator fenner3@att.net
Links
Facebook: fb.me/AGORapidCityChapter
November 2019 TAO Feature Article
Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Skinner Organ Company
Boston, Massachusetts
Opus 573 — 1926
Nave Organ Tonal Reconstruction
Jonathan Ambrosino and Foley-Baker Inc.
New Console
Richard S. Houghten and J. Zamberlan & Co.
View the Stop List Original Specification
View the Current Stop List Page 1
View the Current Stop List Page 2
by Jonathan Ambrosino
Background
H.H. Richardson’s Trinity Church of 1877 was a one-building revolution in architecture. Hilborne Roosevelt’s Opus 29 aimed similarly high, being the niftiest bit of organ technology to arrive in Boston since the 1863 Music Hall Walcker. Stretching five stories, from basement water motors to attic Echo, this New York–built organ should have been an auspicious launch into a Boston market dominated by Hook & Hastings, Hutchings, and Johnson. But, unanticipatedly stifled in its chancel chamber, Roosevelt’s organ made distressingly little impact. Trinity’s rector, Phillips Brooks, had a one-manual Hook & Hastings installed in the nave gallery, to test that location; Brooks paid for it himself, since the vestry wouldn’t. Buoyed by the little organ’s effectiveness, the vestry acceded, and had the Roosevelt moved there in 1881, by Hutchings (perhaps smirking with schadenfreude).
![](https://www.agohq.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Old-console-300x248.gif)
For the next four decades, Trinity’s organs were a carousel of taste and trend: updates to the nave organ, a 1902 chancel organ to accompany a new choir of men and boys, electric action in 1904 joining everything together. Inevitably, Ernest Skinner arrived on the scene, furnishing an imposingly tall four-manual console (Opus 479) in 1924, and then a new four-manual, 54-stop nave organ (Opus 573) in 1926. Francis Snow, Trinity’s French-educated organist, had chaste registrational tastes, and his stoplist may have been telegraphing either classical desires or anti-ponderous hopes. The Great had a full chorus with three opens but no open double; the Pedal had both metal and wood open 16′ s. Further novelties included two Swell oboes, bright and dark, an absence of large flutes, and an uncommon Choir 8′ Trumpet. The record is largely silent on this organ’s success, save this from Louis Vierne, who played it in 1927:
Not a day passes that I don’t dream about your magnificent instruments I played over there; their marvelous touch, their fine tone, their perfect and sensitive action haunt me. It seems as though I were dreaming when I think of Trinity Church, Boston, of St. John’s, Los Angeles, Hollywood High School, Williamstown, and Utica.
Was Snow as captivated? By 1931 he had had a few changes made, and in 1938 yet more, now from Ernest M. Skinner & Son: lean Choir Trumpet, Pedal upperwork, lighter-toned Pedal reed with 32′ Fagotto bass. (Skinner happily reused the 1926 wood Bombarde at Washington Cathedral, where, considerably altered, it remains.) Far greater change was yet to come.
The Faxon Era
In the mid-20th century, Boston had no more influential or well-rounded organist than George Faxon: student of Albert Snow (Emmanuel Church, Boston), Harold Darke, and Carl Dolmetsch; trumpet player, organ professor, jazz aficionado. He served Church of the Advent and St. Paul’s Cathedral before coming to Trinity in 1954, and by his retirement in 1980 had transformed Trinity’s organs. It began in 1956 with a new Aeolian-Skinner console, purposely three manuals and as compact as the old one was towering. Novelties included most strings and celestes on single knobs that, drawn halfway, produced the first rank only; a sostenuto; second-touch manual pistons for discrete Pedal combinations; and a split cancel piston, retiring nave or chancel independently.
Through the 1960s, Faxon addressed the organ’s sound. His sensibilities lay along American Classic lines, and though to the best of anyone’s knowledge G. Donald Harrison never touched a pipe at Trinity, it is Harrison’s ethos Faxon pursued. Skinner-trained tuner-technician Jason McKown carried out this work, in cooperation with Aeolian-Skinner. Changes in the nave between 1961 and 1967 used some new Aeolian-Skinner pipes, several existing ranks, and a few recycled stops from the 1902 chancel instrument. In 1963, Aeolian-Skinner installed a new all-enclosed chancel organ. Eventually, it too received the McKown touch: certain mixtures lowered in pitch, prominent chiff curtailed. Dissatisfied with the 32′ Bourdon Skinner had retained from the Roosevelt, Theodore Parker Ferris, Trinity’s rector from 1942 to 1972, donated a new, larger-scaled one in 1967, provided by Aeolian-Skinner.
From chancel to nave, subtlety was the keynote: a fine mesh of mild choruses and unaggressive reeds, blend above all. In the late 1970s, Trinity’s organ was a staple of my teenage Sunday evenings, turning pages while Frederick MacArthur or Thomas Murray fashioned grand oratorio accompaniments. Thomas Murray made his first all-transcription recording here in 1981. It was a fine instrument with a beautiful spread and many magical effects.
So . . . what happened? For one thing, the carousel of taste and trend spun ’round again. The 1979 Prayer Book and 1982 Hymnal suggested increased levels of congregational participation, and with them perhaps a new kind of relationship among choir, organ, and congregation. Various tonal changes after 1980, during the tenure of Ronald Arnatt, achieved an increase in power, at a cost of musical sense. The Great chorus, always mild, now cowered beneath a raging Swell. In its Faxon iteration, the organ could be registered with aplomb. Now, it sounded best when played by those such as Brian Jones or Ross Wood, who knew what to leave off.
A New Vision
When Richard Webster arrived at Trinity in 2005 to work alongside Director of Music Michael Kleinschmidt, he found a congregation Brian Jones had trained to sing heartily, but an organ that struggled to lead them rewardingly: lean Pedal, light unison, aggressive chorus reeds, Skinner’s orchestral colors muted and unrepresentative. In 2010, Richard succeeded Michael as Director of Music, and gradually developed a vision informed by his 30 years at St. Luke’s in Evanston, with its famous 1921 Skinner. In short, could Trinity get its 1926 Skinner back?
The issue was not mechanical. Trinity’s organs have always been well cared for, notably during the 17 years of Foley-Baker’s curatorship with full renovations of nave (1999–2001) and chancel (2007). But apart from the usual reconditioning, a few new windchests made necessary by water damage, and some spurious digital voices, the organ’s musical imbalances went unaddressed. Certainly a Skinner ideal could work here, a sonic profile that resembles, in its way, the appearance and sound of the building itself. Without firm principles, though, any project could devolve into sentimental kitsch: another twirl of the carousel. Furthermore, it was important to remember the breadth of offering here. The four Sunday services are considerably varied in style; dozens of guest organists filter through every year for a popular Friday recital series; conventions involving choirs or organs invariably come here. As yet unchanged, the chancel organ is the primary vehicle for choral accompaniment, leaving hymns and repertoire to the nave. Therefore, any revision to the nave organ’s tonal palette needed to foster seriousness of ensemble as well as beauty of tone if it were to earn its place among Boston’s showcase instruments.
Still, the most intriguing path to recreating a Skinner flavor would be to use pipes built and voiced in Skinner’s shops. Primed by the availability of ranks gathered by Nelson Barden but ultimately unused for his project at the Community of Jesus in Orleans, Massachusetts, I initiated talks with Richard Webster in 2011. Mike Foley was quickly folded into the discussions, and a collaborative project planned. Together, Foley-Baker and I have a long history with Trinity’s organs: they as curators and rebuilders from 1997 to 2014, I from younger years and, now, as curator since 2014 and project overseer.
Reconstruction is the proper term here, where only 27 of the original 54 stops survive. It isn’t a typical rebuild, in which one person’s philosophy guides the recasting. Nor is it truly restorative in nature, since the instrument isn’t being returned to any specific prior state. The concept of “restoring” an organ using vintage pipes is itself a bit dubious, for it supposes that stops from the same builder are interchangeable. In truth, certain Skinner registers are stock voices: softer flutes, routine strings, echo voices, orchestral reeds. But the chorus elements, specially scaled for each organ, were always individual. As we gathered pipework over a number of years, the original scaling was borne in mind, and stops along those lines sought wherever possible. And in the background, I had to reconcile this new vision with a lingering fondness for certain aspects of the organ’s Faxon-era iteration, in particular the 1960s Swell reed-and-mixture chorus. That department once had a marvelous restrained fire, enjoying kinship with the iconic Swell at Boston’s Church of the Advent. In its original, then exaggerated, form, that tone had been part of the Trinity sound for half a century—something congregations and hundreds of guest organists had known. It seemed wrong to eliminate that quality altogether.
In the end, those charged with such a project must accept two realities. First, one can only acquire what is available and fashion a result suiting that material. Second, only Skinner himself sitting at the console could recreate his own work. Those involved today cannot act as clairvoyants channeling the dead. Instead, they must rely upon their own good sense and experience, and take ownership of the outcome.
The New Console
After 60 years of playing and a few partial renovations, George Faxon’s 1956 console was worn out. Moreover, its rationale for compactness now seemed outmoded, with an established pattern of two musicians, not a lone organist conducting from the bench. It was time once again for this four-manual organ to enjoy a four-manual console. There was no question to whom Trinity would turn for this piece of the project: Richard Houghten, with his now customary support from the shop of J. Zamberlan & Co. Once president of what was then Solid State Logic Inc., Dick has been responsible for some of our era’s most beautiful and forward-thinking consoles, usually in the Skinner or Aeolian-Skinner mode, most in collaboration with the talented builder Joseph Zamberlan. This team provided the new console at Duke University when Foley-Baker rebuilt the 1932 Aeolian there, and the renovated Aeolian-Skinner console for Harvard University’s relocated 1930 Skinner.
![](https://www.agohq.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/5G1A0179-300x200.jpg)
Trinity’s new console is fashioned from white oak with a walnut interior, placed on a mobile platform with elegant oak flooring, edged in solid brass. Several features combine retrospective detailing with the latest technology:
• Cabinet particulars follow design details in H. H. Richardson’s 1877 chancel furnishings.
• Knobs and pistons of reduced size, together with drop-sill construction and no rolltop, allow comfort without undue height.
• The keyboards, with solid ebony sharps and bone-covered naturals, have a mild tracker touch. A principal goal was to eliminate wiping contacts wherever possible. Thus, key movements are sensed by Espressivo, a solid-state system that allows different attack and release points to optimize repetition, while not affecting key touch in any way.
•Similarly, Hall Effect thumb piston sensors by Arpad Muryani will never suffer contact failure. Walker sensors in the pedalboard and swell shoes function similarly.
• An expression matrix assigns the six shutter fronts to any or all of the four balanced pedals. The matrix has its own divisionals, and can be set on generals if desired. As a bonus, the chancel transept shutters can now operate independently.
![](https://www.agohq.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Expression-Matrix-72-dpi-1-300x235.jpg)
The entire complement of SSOS features is incorporated here:
• Organist’s Palette (with sequencer customizing, adjustable pedal divide, and other functions) is supplemented with a few refinements. For flexibility, All Pistons Next is separated into All Generals Next and All Divisionals Next. Go To permits direct access to any memory level, by entering its number via general pistons.
• The wireless Tuning for MultiSystem allows a single technician, via an iPod, to set temperaments and key quickly through any combination of stops. We use this device constantly—cleaning magnets, adjusting valves, blowing out chests, adjusting swell engines, installing pipes—all without needing someone at the console.
• Recorder for MultiSystem, controlled either at a console panel or remotely via the iPod, allows registration and balances to be evaluated away from the console. On one organist Sundays, the musicians sometimes record short snippets to give pitches so they don’t have to leave the podium.
• Voicing for MultiSystem has a full keyboard and stop control via wireless laptop. Taking this rig anywhere in the building is convenience incarnate for tonal finishing.
The Houghten-Zamberlan attention to detail is pervasive. Beyond all his fine design work and cabinetry, Joseph discovered Garolite, a material visually akin to Bakelite, which was used for the indicator bezels, bench height indicator, and expression matrix. In addition to his usual meticulous interior finishing, Dick used tiny LEDs for the shutter indicators, and non-distracting lighted buttons for the expression matrix. The console has individual power supplies for all lamps and indicators, each separately dimmable so that illumination can be finely adjusted.
![](https://www.agohq.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Knobs-and-tablets-72-dpi-300x158.jpg)
Perhaps the greatest homage to Skinner comes in the digitized approximation of the hand engraving found on his consoles. High-resolution photography at Yale University’s 1929 Skinner console, by Zachary Ventrella of the A. Thompson-Allen Co., formed the basis for a font by Los Angeles graphic artist Jack Foster. Multiple variables for every letter and number, further customized in Adobe InDesign (slanting, fattening, slimming), permit myriad subtle variations between adjacent examples of the same character, as one finds in the original hand engraving. Gene Ladenes at Harris Precision Products deserves special thanks for his many hours working with us to get everything exactly right.
The Tonal Work
The present specification mostly follows the 1926 one, with a few departures:
GREAT: When the Roosevelt was moved in 1881, its green-stenciled facades went with it. They stand opposite one another across the gallery, supplemented with gold pipes facing east. In 1926, Skinner used only the north facade for the Pedal 16′ Second Diapason. We wanted a 16′ open beneath the three Great Diapasons, so it seemed logical to reactivate the north facade as the bass, paired to a Skinner treble. Foley-Baker made it all work mechanically (action box and tubing for the facade, new treble chest alongside the main Great); we provided treble pipes and adjusted the facade voicing. With no available vintage replacement for the Doppel Flute, a typical Skinner Claribel takes that position.
![](https://www.agohq.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Bezels-162x300.jpg)
The chorus is made of registers from 1921 to 1934, mated as closely as possible to the 1926 chorus’s scaling. With so much material from 1927 to 1934, however, the effect is surely brighter than the original, with stronger melodic emphasis and keener trebles. One hundred eleven pipes of the original Mixture survived, dispersed among five registers of the Faxon era. The originals were inventoried, any cut-down pipes lengthened, and new fill-ins made by Jerome B. Meyer & Sons. The effect is convincing, and still telling above the powerful reconstituted reed chorus. The original Clarion is joined to replicated Tromba and Ophicleide ranks, made by Shires in England to the original scales.
SWELL: Stoplist differences between 1926 and 2019 are: a second mixture in place of the Clarabella, two trumpets instead of the oboe pair, and a principal-toned 2′ Flautino instead of the original Piccolo. The primary chorus, 8-4-2-III, is made of Skinner sets from 1919 to 1931. Like the Great, the effect has a keenness and sparkle, particularly given the silvery quality of the small-scale 1931 Mixture III. The Chorus Mixture IV is the 1961 Aeolian-Skinner tin Fourniture. It was always excellent, and needed only a bit of strengthening to shine through this new reed quartet. The Posaune and Cornopean (1939 and 1923 ranks, respectively) are the familiar burnt caramel, which pair logically to the Mixture III for ordinary use. The 1961 Trumpet and Clarion, with small-scale resonators and French shallots, are now in their third voicing, perky but not vulgar. Suppressing the Cornopean and adding all the upperwork produces a full Swell with something of the Faxon flavor. Retiring the Trumpet, Clarion, and Chorus Mixture IV evokes the older type of Skinner Swell. With everything drawn, it’s a powerhouse. Supporting voices have been regulated along conventional lines, in some instances being strengthened after Faxon-era calming.
![](https://www.agohq.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Console-Cabinetry-72-dpi-1-227x300.jpg)
CHOIR: This department has two departures from 1926. First, the crisp 1960s 8′ Viola remains, in place of the original Dulciana. With the Erzähler ranks now separately available, there seemed little point in having two echo-type unisons. The Skinner-replica Corno di Bassetto, made by Austin and voiced by David Broome in 1994, was added on a unit windchest during John Bishop’s time as curator. That left one windchest position free, hence the useful 4′ Fugara, midway between the Diapason and Viola. The surprise here has been the Orchestral Trumpet, of narrow scale with slender, bevel-ended shallots like those in an English Horn. The stop had been converted to 4′ in the 1960s and rebuilt several times. Now beautifully restored to 8′, and voiced with suppleness, the Trumpet falls midway between the Swell’s dark and bright reeds, lending keenness to the massed foundations.
SOLO: The Gambas and Concert Flute have been returned to a more extroverted state after some Faxon era taming; the color reeds are familiar and excellent. A splendid new Tuba Mirabilis, built by Shires, crowns the tutti. Added in 1987 and voiced by Jack Steinkampf, the copper horizontal trumpet had been revoiced in 1994 at Austin by Zoltan Zsitvay. For this project, its pressure was lowered to 10″ and voicing adjusted again. It is now more of a final chorus reed than a fanfare stop, properly leaving that role to the Mirabilis.
PEDAL: The original scheme has been largely reinstated, with a few tweaks. Foley-Baker’s adroit engineering and reconditioning of the 1921 open wood is a great success. While hardly Skinner’s largest scale, these pipes nevertheless prove the building amply supportive of low frequencies. Dr. Ferris’s 32′ Bourdon may have improved on Roosevelt’s, but it tended to cough and sputter. Higher cutups did the trick here, improving speech, power, and fundamental. The 1929 Pedal Trombone is another winner from Skinner’s best period. Try as we might, however, we could not persuade Washington Cathedral to relinquish Trinity’s original 32′ Bombarde pipes. Therefore, A.R. Schopp’s is building its first true Skinner replica. Bernie Talty of Parsons Pipe Organ Builders joined Jonathan Ortloff and me for a day at Kilbourn Hall in Rochester, documenting Opus 325’s 32′ Bombarde in detail. David Schopp and his team have done their own research at Opus 582, in Stambaugh Auditorium, Youngstown, Ohio, studying Skinner’s method for mitering wood pipes. This crowning element should arrive in 2020.
The Team
In this project, the Foley-Baker team, headed by Philip Carpenter, and I planned various details over several years. When contracts were signed in 2017, Foley-Baker took on the larger mechanical tasks and major chest modifications. Having installed the new Choir and Solo windchests in 2001, and partnering often with Organ Supply Industries since then, it was logical that Foley-Baker work with OSI on those tasks. Foley-Baker also handled reed re-racking, as well as coordinating re-mitering by pipe maker Tim Duchon. In Boston, my team handled flue pipe reconditioning and racking, most pipe removal, trucking, and installation, and all tonal finishing. The staff of Ortloff Organ Company (where I have shop space) gave material help with pipe reconditioning, while the Organ Clearing House served up their usual unflagging assistance as movers in chief.
Eastman-trained organist Duane Prill has been voicing organs for 30 years, chiefly at Parsons Pipe Organ Builders as well as with Manuel Rosales on several projects. In our work together over the past decade, Duane has been more than just a tonal finisher, but someone with musical and technical insights that always enrich the result. In a similar vein, it’s hard to think of working on a Skinner-related project of this magnitude without reed specialists Christopher and Catherine Broome. Apart from the 32′ Bombarde, every reed pipe here has gone through Chris’s hands; the beauty, variety, and stability of tone is indelibly linked to his talents. Last, but hardly least, my primary work colleague, Joe Sloane, has made all manner of things possible: racking new flue pipes, repairing toeboards and chests, managing crews, getting chambers clean again after 20 years of Copley Square tourism and dust. Since 2008, Joe and I have jointly curated some of Boston’s landmark instruments, and nothing I do in that vein would be remotely possible without him.
Finally, this project would not have happened without the leadership and drive of the musicians: Richard Webster and, from 2011, Associate Director of Music Colin Lynch. These gentlemen have been engaged at every turn, in fundraising, congregational education, console design input, and tonal suggestions. But the best part has been their sheer enthusiasm. It’s easy to work on any project when the musicians are this encouraging, supportive, and patient.
* * * *
Would Ernest Skinner have recognized this mélange of original, relocated, and replicated material? We can’t know, of course, just as only time will tell whether this is something of permanence or merely another revolution of the carousel. The far richer and warmer sound seems, in the end, only marginally less brilliant than before, pervasive without being ponderous. Even at full bore, the ensemble stops shy of that point at which energy for its own sake devolves into mere loudness. There is still space for the voices this organ hopes to lead. And that, at least, is something Skinner clearly sought, even in his most powerful instruments. After all, in this commanding space, shouldn’t God and His faithful take center stage?
Jonathan Ambrosino is a tuner-technician based in Boston, who also works nationally as consultant, tonal finisher, and writer. His other work on 20th-century American organs includes the 1930 Aeolian at Longwood Gardens; the Skinners at St. Paul’s Rochester (1927) and All Saints, Ashmont (1929); the Aeolian-Skinners at Calvary, Memphis (1935), Groton School (1935), Church of the Advent, Boston (1936), St. Mark’s Philadelphia (1937); and the Kimball at St. John’s Cathedral, Denver (1938).
Photography: Len Levasseur
AGO Affirms That Black Lives Matter
The American Guild of Organists recognizes and affirms that Black lives matter. We call upon every chapter and all of our members to speak out against racial bias and take action to make the world a better, safer, and more secure place for the members of the Black community.
Now is the time for us to search our souls for ways to be more caring, to be better brothers and sisters to our Black colleagues, and to demonstrate our unwavering support for their professional advancement and success.
The tragic murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, the equally senseless killing of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta on June 12, and the death and injury of so many others are heartbreaking and inexcusable. We extend our condolences to their families and friends, and we stand in solidarity with the countless thousands of people around the world who have marched to protest systemic racism against the African-American community.
It is our turn to step up to the challenge. We must listen to diverse voices in crafting solutions to our problems. We must reach out to find new partners to help us chart the best path forward. We must engage.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
― Archbishop Desmond Tutu
We are indebted to AGO Past President Eileen Guenther who brought to our attention the accompanying commentary which she recently updated at our request. Dr. Guenther in turn has acknowledged with thanks the theologians Drs. Douglas Strong, Willie Jennings, and Soong-Chan Rah, who developed most of the material in the post.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
It was not ALL lives that were ripped from their homes in Africa;
It was not ALL lives that were separated from families and marched to the West African coast;
It was not ALL lives put into the dank, dark tombs of the slave castles;
It was not ALL lives crammed into European (and, in North America, particularly British) slave ships;
It was not ALL lives laid side by side like cargo in the hulls of the ships;
It was not ALL lives that were force fed because they staged hunger strikes;
It was not ALL lives that were casually thrown overboard to be devoured by the sharks that followed the slave ships;
It was not ALL lives that were brought to the New World as slave labor;
It was not ALL lives stripped naked and put on the auction block;
It was not ALL lives that were bought and sold by “God-fearing Christians”;
It was not ALL lives that were whipped and beaten on the plantations;
It was not ALL lives that were systematically and repeatedly raped by white slave owners;
It was not ALL lives who were hounded by attack dogs, beat with cruel instruments of torture, and intentionally sold away from their families when they dared to try and escape the horrors of slavery;
It was not ALL lives who were daily assaulted in their very identity, denied that they were made in the image of God;
It was not ALL lives who were repeatedly told they were less than human;
It was not ALL lives who were diminished by the 3/5 compromise, the Missouri compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and the Dred Scott decision;
It was not ALL lives whose communities were wiped out because they sought to build a life for themselves after emancipation;
It was not ALL lives that were told “separate but equal” with the “equal” never being equal;
It was not ALL lives but black lives that hung from trees throughout the country during the Jim Crow era;
It was not ALL lives, it was Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Roberson, and Carol Denise McNair, four little black lives who were blown up at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church;
It was not ALL lives that were beset by attack dogs and by fire hoses;
It was not ALL lives but the black lives of Emmitt Till, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X who were systematically assassinated;
It was not ALL lives that have been victims of police violence, but it was the black life of Michael Brown;
It was not ALL lives, it was the black lives of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland;
It was not ALL lives, it was the black lives of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Sharonda Singleton, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Daniel Simmons, Sr., DePayne Middleton Doctor at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston;
It was not ALL lives, it was the black life of Alton Sterling;
It was not ALL lives, it was the black life of Philando Castile;
It was not ALL lives, it was the black of lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks…and so many others;
It is not ALL lives that are targeted with unequal charges for drug offences, thereby resulting in mass incarceration;
It is not ALL lives that the prison industrial complex exploits.
These historical events did not involve the destruction and death of ALL lives, they were black lives that have been systematically targeted and abused by American society. Yes, all lives matter, including those of police officers, but black lives have NOT mattered for 400 years, and that’s why we must vehemently and consistently assert that they matter now–and in the future.
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
― Elie Wiesel
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
― Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
AGO partner organizational statements on how Black lives matter…
RCCO (Royal Canadian College of Organists)
Sacramento Valley Chapter
Message from the Dean
Welcome to the Sacramento Valley Chapter Web page!
Our chapter of nearly 100 strong is a growing and vibrant organization which promotes the organ and supports each other as colleagues.
We have a busy program season with monthly events that include not only concerts, but workshops and educational seminars. We also sponsor 2 to 6 students a year through our robust scholarship fund which raises money every two years by our Bach-a-thon members recital. Among the many exciting events, we try to have a major recitalist every season, this coming one, we hope to have Oliver Latry from Notre Dame Cathedral in April 2021.
We publish a full color PDF newsletter every month with informative articles and chapter happenings. This July (2020) we saved the Centennial Organ at Chico State University from leaving the country at auction. We are currently involved with the “investors circle” to find a new home to house this magnificent Central German Style organ built by Munataka Yokota.
We also recently merged with the North Valley Chapter so we can do even more for the organ in the Sacramento Valley.
If you are an AGO Member and you are traveling this way, check out our newsletter and join us for an event, or two. If your new to the area or an organist in our fine valley, please join us as we together, stand united to promote the organ and support each other as colleagues!
Ronald Paul Sidhu
Concert Season
Our next season is looming large but like everyone else we are awaiting the all clear for in person concerts and workshops. Stay tuned as we plan our next season for 2020-2021 which we hope will be crowned by a concert par-excellence from Oliver Latry at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacramento in Sacramento. (April 2021)
Join our Facebook page to get current updates from our chapter and local friends!
Newsletter
June 2020
July 2020
August 2020
Membership
Our membership now includes the old chapters of Stockton and North Valley and covers (on the map) from Stockton to Redding. We feature a different member every month in our newsletter’s Membership Profile.
Placement
Employers and job seekers are invited to post and search listings of available positions on the Guild’s National Website.
Scholarship
The Sacramento Valley chapter of the AGO is committed to educating new organists! We have and maintain a strong scholarship program with 6 teachers and as many students in any given year. Some of our students not only become local organist but have gone on to continuing education at Eastman and Notre Dame.
We are proud to be supporting and educating the next generation of organists. They are the future of the organ.
Contact Us
Ronald Paul Sidhu, Dean
Phone: (916) 765-6562
Links
September 2020 TAO Feature Article
Boston Avenue United Methodist Church
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Foley-Baker Inc. • Tolland, Connecticut
By Mike Foley
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We were working in Tulsa when I spotted a unique Art Deco building standing tall at the end of the city’s princely Boston Avenue. It looked like a small version of the Empire State Building. I was told it was Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, designed by a most talented local artist and teacher, Adah Robinson. It opened in 1929 and indeed was meant to look as strikingly strong and elegant as it does. The interior is very large, with meeting rooms and offices everywhere, including the senior pastor’s at the top of the tower. The focal point is the 1,358-seat sanctuary-in-the-round, accessed by a spectacular narthex. The entire place is an Art Deco paradise.
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Kilgen was contracted to install the original four-manual, 51-rank organ in the four chambers located to the left and right of the choir pews. In traditional settings, this would be a typical arrangement, but the wide, theater-like sanctuary meant that chambers were considerably separated. Despite being hidden behind heavy plaster grilles, with its big scales and high pressures, the Kilgen’s sound was doubtless quite heavy. It all went away in 1961 when the church purchased Möller Opus 9580 (four manuals, 71 ranks). Nearly a knee-jerk reaction to the sound of the Kilgen, the Möller was well built but typical for the ’60s: low pressures, thin, and brilliant. In 1986, Möller returned to broaden the sound, and they added another 34 ranks. The work also saw half the chambers and their openings enlarged. The restrictive grilles were replaced with new facades, thereby allowing the larger specification as well as improved tonal egress. The added stops did indeed broaden the tonal palette, but the process left the chambers so stuffed that the layouts were a cacophony of pipes, chests, wind lines, and wires. Plain and simple, they looked like Grandma’s attic. Tuning access was difficult; service was in places impossible.
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During a major project on the Austin at Tulsa’s First Presbyterian Church, their organist, Ron Pearson, introduced us to Susan and Joel Panciera, the music team at Boston Avenue, and Fred Elder, a much-informed and interested retired BAM organist. Shortly after, we began including the organ in our tuning rounds. This gave us a good opportunity to get familiar with both its strengths and weaknesses. In time, we were asked to present a plan to rebuild the instrument. This would be no small task.
There was no changing the chamber placements or improving the sanctuary’s dry acoustic. Something that could be tackled, however, was the chamber wall surfaces. Dating from the Kilgen’s time, instead of projecting sound out, these soft, wood walls absorbed and retained sound. Everything from bass to treble suffered. Even swell shade effectiveness was compromised. Therefore, right after we had removed the organ, the project started with the church’s contractor stiffening the walls and covering every surface with drywall, finished glass-smooth and painted gloss-white. It worked! Whispers within them became audible most anywhere in the sanctuary. For the first time in the church’s history, these chambers would properly project sound. Excitement grew.
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Over the years, the organ had grown to an unwieldy 105 ranks, some of which were redundant stops and others of which, the organists admitted, were seldom used. We determined early on that the existing chambers were more suited for a smaller instrument. Our design therefore reduced the total count to 76 all-important ranks. Each was carefully specced—or if reused, selected—to achieve the best possible tonal cohesion: the two words that determine the tonal success of any instrument.
Mechanically, new slider chests replaced Möller’s leather-heavy pitmans. Simple schwimmer reservoirs saw over half of Möller’s 31 bellows go away, clearing the decks for new and proper layouts that made for a well-laid-out and serviceable organ. The annoying pitch drift that existed between divisions was tackled with all-new insulation behind the chamber walls and ceilings. Especially subject to drift were the many speaking facade pipes, as the temperatures outside the chambers were often different from those inside. Roomier chambers saw the facades become mute and their new replacement pipes installed inside, within their divisions. Voila! No more pitch drift.
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The console was gutted to the shell. New manuals, pistons, jambs, and a proper lineup of drawknobs make for a most welcome and new level of comfort for the organist. Updating and reusing the recently installed Peterson relay system offered good savings. The console was refinished with new contrasting colors and a new adjustable-height bench.
The 1929, 15-horsepower Spencer blower was completely reconditioned and reused, as was the original static reservoir. Air lines were cleaned and flanges regasketed. The rebuilt instrument uses soldered, galvanized metal wind lines throughout.
Every piece of reused equipment was completely reconditioned. Every piece of leather was replaced. Every flue pipe was washed or cleaned, repaired as necessary, and revoiced on our voicing machines. Any cracks in wood pipes were spline-repaired. Reeds were all reconditioned by Broome & Company.
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Regardless of how perfectly an organ looks and works, in the end, it all comes down to its sound. As always, I am proud to offer that our tonal director, Milovan Popovic, has once more worked his magic and come up with what is without question a most desirable outcome: a musical organ. It becomes obvious the moment organists try their hand. Most seem to feel the organ makes the most of whatever they play. This medium- to large-size instrument offers three principal choruses, three different sets of strings, and a good variety of flutes. The Solo reeds satisfy any melody, plus there are two 16–8–4 reed choruses that build ensembles to massive but musical climaxes. These are capped by the new high-pressure Tuba located in the Antiphonal chamber, masked by the now unused en chamade that was dangerously inaccessible. Thanks to those hard chambers, the organ’s bass purrs or roars. The room’s floor can actually be felt shaking. The Wurlitzer small-scale Diaphone sits always in the background, but instantly, albeit gently, projecting any 16′ pedal tone.
At FBI, we can build organs, but having opportunities like this to be a Monday-morning quarterback, finally fix the wrongs, and deliver a genuinely satisfying instrument is what we’re really all about. For the record, we selectively reused and revoiced 51 percent of the Möller pipes. The bottom-line cost for the project represented an approximate 21-percent savings over the cost of a like-kind new pipe organ. A dedication program will be planned for the future.
Mike Foley is president of Foley-Baker Inc. Website.
All photos (including cover): Miller Photography Inc.