Organ Restoration Project
Here’s a progress report on
the restoration of the organ, to date. I
would like to be able to relate that it is 100% complete, but we’re even now
not quite to that point and likely won’t be by May 4. For those champing at the bit to hear the
chimes once again announce Sunday morning worship, I regret to have to mention
that, owing to their placement directly in front of the door to the organ
chamber and because of that, an impediment to the builder’s ability to maneuver
freely, they will be the very last
accessory to be returned. The good news
is that the May 4 service will not be much at all impacted by what remains to
be finished. That which has been
completed on the organ is also completely useable and sounds more spectacular
than I could have imagined. All of the
new pipes that were purchased for the swell division have been installed and
most are working beautifully. These
include the pipes to complete the swell principal chorus (the Octave and the
Mixture) and the lowest twelve notes of the Flugel
Horn, which was removed from its original eight-foot pitch and reseated to
sixteen-foot pitch. These additions have
given both the swell division and the organ as a whole the extra power that it
lacked in its bass register and the treble presence that it never had. It is now an organ that possesses among the
most color diversity of any instrument I’ve ever heard or played, and for an
instrument of its comparatively modest size, it is THE most colorful instrument
I know of. I attribute this not only to
the talents of the original builders and to the 1920s ethic in tonal design of
which it is a product, but also to the profound knowledge that our organ
builder, Greg Hand, has of that period’s instruments. Before the restoration was undertaken, I had
asked Bill Van Pelt, one of the country’s leading authorities on early 20th
century instruments, his opinion on adding extra stops. He warned me about haphazardly tacking on
additions for the mere sake of extra sound and extra color, citing his own
observations of the disastrous results of poorly planned alterations. Our good fortune and the hand of God at Westminster have placed
the project in Greg’s hands, and he has steered it carefully, such that what has
been added has been a logical extension – a completion – of the original tonal
concept.
This past week a regional
officer of the American Guild of Organists came down from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
to visit and speak to our chapter. I
took the opportunity to show her the Westminster
organ. Her comments to me were, I
thought, spot-on: that at it’s loudest, yes it is loud – it should be loud at its loudest
(conversely, at its softest it should be hush – very hush – which it is) – but even at its loudest it is never
obtrusive or grating. Rather, it fills
the room with a rich, warm and resonant sound.
I would personally add to that observation that, as I sit in the pews
and listen, the sound strikes me as akin to the sound produced by the organs
that the great English builder Henry Willis produced in the first decade of the
20th century for that country’s cathedrals. One last observation – the sound
metamorphoses as one walks from the front of the sanctuary to the rear and, in
my personal opinion, the farther back in the room one stands or sits, the more
satisfying an already satisfying sound becomes.
Bob Blevins
Director of Music/Organist
