Halloween Organ Music

Hey Guys!

So, since today is Halloween, I thought I would share a couple of organ pieces that I particularly like, since organ music is often heard on Halloween. These two pieces are really cool, so I hope you listen to them!

The first is probably the most famous piece of organ music. It was featured in an early film version of Phantom of the Opera, and has been featured in many creepy and/or dramatic films since then.  It has become an iconic piece in today's culture, since just about everybody has heard the beginning of this piece at least once.You'll probably recognize it in the first fives seconds or so.

This piece is the Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, by Johann Sebastian Bach.

More history on the piece, and how it became associated with Halloween is very well summarized in this article.

Here's one of my favorite recordings of it, played on an organ that Bach may have played in his lifetime:

So, that's the famous one. This next one is a little more obscure, but it's one of my absolute favorite pieces. It's just so dramatic, and I hope to one day be able to play it!

This is the Toccata from Leon Boellmann's Gothic Suite. If you can, listen to this on some larger speakers, or with some good headphones, because this piece is so dramatic, and you lose some of the effect on smaller speakers.

Here's the video:

And, though it isn't classical, who could forget the now-famous overture from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera?

Here's a good recording of it played on a nice pipe organ:

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you enjoyed these three pieces as much as I did!

A Neat Organ and a Sad Story (with a New Happy Ending!)

As a little announcement about myself, I am now officially a member of the American Guild of Organists, or AGO! They are a great organization dedicated to excellence in organ and choral music, and I know some great people involved. Check them out at www.agohq.org/ or my local chapter at uvago.org!

As I mentioned last time, I took a little day trip this weekend. I was in the Ogden, UT area, and I had some pipe organs to find! I wanted to go to the Ogden LDS Tabernacle, but there weren't any meetings there today, and every other chapel I went to was occupied with Primary Program Rehearsals, except for one: the Washington Terrace 4th & 6th Ward Chapel.

I discovered this building, once again, through LDS Architecture.
Here's the link to their page on the chapel. with some great photos (a lot better than mine, actually):
LDS Architecture - Washington Terrace 4th & 6th Ward
There's some great history of the building there and some more photos on the tour handouts they have posted. It's definitely a good read, but not necessarily organ-related.

I only had a few minutes in the chapel, so I didn't have time to turn on all the lights for the pictures, I had just enough time to play a hymn, before leaving to get to a visit with some dear friends.

Here's my best photo of the organ:

It looks pretty impressive with all those beautiful brass pipes! I've never seen a Wicks organ like this with brass pipes before. It looks absolutely stunning! The organ has some very nice stops on it, the flutes are very nice and the principals are decent. There's an interesting stop called Oboe (Syn) 8' which sounds like an 8' flute with a high mutation or 2' stop playing with it. I like it, but I'd rather have a real oboe stop.

Here's the console. Notice the clock off to the right. The good news is this organ is in tune and loved. The bad news is that it is in disrepair. The Swell manual will not play unless the Swell to Swell 16' or 4' is engaged, or the swell stops will play coupled to the Great. The trompette rank is also missing a couple of pipes. This is the beginning of the sad story.

Here's a close-up of the console. This organ is a 5-rank Wicks built in 1961. But it may not have too many more years in the building. According to some members I spoke to, LDS Facilities The bishops of the wards in this building believe that when this organ breaks, it's going away and an electronic organ is coming to replace it, since they did just that at the nearby stake center. Therefore, they have kept it quiet that the organ is having troubles.

Fortunately, the members of these wards love this organ so much that they could probably raise the money to fix it and get the Church to let them keep it, especially if they start now, before it disintegrates completely. I believe it's probably just some electrical or mechanical issues inside the console, since the Swell stops still play, just not where they normally would. If anyone knows someone in Facilities Maintenance, or someone that could help save this organ through either skills or funds, I think this chapel could make a neat, intimate concert venue for the Ogden area. The chapel has a lot of character and is a nice acoustic space. It may not be the fanciest or largest organ, but it has some great stops, is in a great building, and has a lot of character. If you know anyone who could help with this project, or who has some inside influence, please contact me at right with their information, and I will pass it on.

UPDATE April 2016: Through some contacts in the American Guild of Organists, I have learned that this organ has been inspected, and a local company has the contract to rebuild the instrument later this year! Upon hearing the sad story, I emailed this post to a contact in the Salt Lake City AGO Chapter, which administers the Ogden area, and he passed it on to Clay Christiansen, who sits on the Musical Instrument Selection Committee for the LDS Church worldwide. When he learned of the removal of the pipe organ at the stake center, Christiansen was apparently very surprised, responding that removing pipe organs "is NOT the policy!" He then went with several others to inspect the instrument, and the decision was made to renovate it.

Here's my selfie. I'm smiling because I hadn't yet heard the sad story. And because I have hope for it, and because I got the chance to play it. (And now, I'm smiling again because I know the happy ending!)

Have a great night everyone! I have plenty of pictures of organs I played a couple of months ago that I haven't had the chance to post yet, so keep your eyes out for those coming soon!

LDS Washington Terrace 4th & 6th Wards:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated):

Year: 1961

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 5

Location: 4760 S 200 E Washington Terrace, UT

Two Favorites - A Building and an Organ

This was a couple of months ago, but I just got some information I wanted for this post tonight at an AGO event, so I'm posting today.

These photos were taken in early July 2014.

The first chapel I went to on this particular day was the Provo 1st Ward Chapel, one of the most beautiful chapels I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

More photos of the building and information about the architects are available at the following link: LDS Architecture - Provo 1st Ward

Here are some quick pictures of the organ, taken by me:

Starting with the selfie:

Here's a closer shot of the organ. I know it's a Wicks and was rescued by a Provo bishop from an identical chapel in Arizona that was being demolished, but other than that, all I can tell you is what it's like to play.

The organ sounds pretty good, and it's in a great acoustic space, but there are a couple things to note: 1. There is no combination action (memory levels) in the console. 

2. There are probably only about 8-9 ranks in this organ. It's not very big, and it's not very loud.

3. The blower seems to be getting old. I pulled all the stops and played a C major chord, and I noticed that the pitch dropped momentarily, as if the organ were running out of breath.

Here's a cool shot taken from the back of the chapel just under the balcony (yes, a balcony in an LDS church. I know, right?) This is the favorite building. I love this place, and I would go back again just to see it. My school had a Christmas concert here when I was in elementary school, and I remembered how beautiful this building is from that day. 

The coolest thing about this evening was the experience I had playing this organ. As I played my interpretation of Diane Bish's arrangement of "God of our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand," an older couple and their friend walked in and sat on the back row of the pews. The gentleman came forward as I finished, and introduced himself as an attorney for the Church visiting from Canada. He, his wife and a friend had come to visit this beautiful building. With tears in his eyes, he recounted a story of when he was on his mission, I believe, and they were brought into a Catholic mass. He distinctly remembers them playing the aforementioned hymn, with a choir, organ and trumpeters from the choir loft in the rear of the church. He remembers being deeply touched by the experience and asked me to play the hymn again before he left, which I gladly did. I can see why this reminded him of his experience in the mass, since the arrangement I was playing emphasizes the trumpets on the organ quite a bit. As they left, he said "Thank you for playing that for us. You just made our day!" It's always nice when your music touches someone like that. 

And in case that amazing experience wasn't enough, I thought I would go find an organ that my friend Becca had told me about previously. She had given me the address, but I found no record of this church's organ anywhere else, so I went, not knowing what I would find.

What I found was this:

I walked in and I thought, WOW! And the sound was equally a wow! This organ has a drawknob console and a LOT of stops for a 2-manual organ. And it's powerful. And looks beautiful. I wondered about the origin of this organ for a long time, as there is no builders' mark on it anywhere to be found. I attended an AGO event this evening and spoke to local organ builder David Chamberlin, who said he has tuned this organ several times. He referred to it as the Provo Park Ward, and told me that it is a Wicks, but had been partially remodeled with the help of the late Dr. Douglas Bush and Mike Ohman (not sure the spelling is correct). He told me it has 9 ranks, and was built originally in the 50s or 60s, with Bush and Ohman making their modifications to it in the 1980s. 

This is one of my top 3 pipe organs I have ever played, since it has some great voice, and a relatively large number of stops and voices for a chapel organ. This organ is also less unified than others. Unification is when one rank of pipes is used for several different stops. This one still has some unification, but there are, for instance, different sets of pipes for the principal in the Pedal and in the Great, which gives it a more powerful sound and makes it easier to distinguish when stops are being played in different divisions.

Here's a view from the console:

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun that evening. I went to one of my favorite buildings, and discovered one of my favorite organs. What organist could ask for anything more?

That's all for tonight, guys, but more will be coming soon, I'm taking a little day trip here in the next few days, and I have planned to make some "organ stops" (pun intended) along the way.

Take care, everyone!

Organ Specifications:

1. LDS Provo 1st Ward Chapel:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated):

Year: Unknown, Building Built 1928, Organ added later

Manuals: 2

Ranks: Probably 8 or 9

Location: 195 S 100 E Provo, UT

2. LDS Provo Park 1st Ward Building:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company, modified by Doug Bush and Mike Ohman

Opus Number (if indicated):

Year: 1950s or early 60s (original), Building built 1946, organ modified by Bush and Ohman mid-1980s

Manuals: 2

Ranks: Around 9

Location: 101 W 800 N Provo, UT

Provo Park 1st Ward - Stoplist

Deja Vu - Some Familiar Sights

Okay, it's kind of late since I just got home from playing these organs, but I saw a couple of things that looked familiar to me.

I went looking for something a bit less familiar, a unique Swiss-inspired chapel located in Springville, UT. I found out about it here: 

Beautiful Swiss-Influenced Chapel in Spanish Fork

The author thought the chapel was in Spanish Fork, UT, whereas it is actually located in Springville, UT. Thanks to a Facebook post from an awesome friend who lives somewhat near this chapel, I located it, and went tonight to play the beautiful pipe organ there.

Sadly, when I got there, the chapel was locked, which forced me to talk to someone to see if they would open it for me. I found the Bishop of one of the wards sitting outside his office with another member. They indicated to me that the functioning pipe organ had been removed, that the pipes were still there behind the screen (the black shape on the wall above the rostrum in the photos) but had been disconnected from actually playing, and that an electronic organ was used for church meetings instead. This is an interesting decision from the Church, since this is such a unique building and they are preserving it, but not its organ.

The good news was that shortly after this, the member sitting with the Bishop said "Well, if it's a pipe organ you want, then you want the chapel over on 4th and 4th." They gave me directions to another LDS building just 4 blocks away, where there was "one of the top pipe organs in the state."

Here's a picture of that pipe organ:

No, I didn't go back to the Sharon East Stake Center, this is a different organ, but it is one year newer and has a different style of stop tabs. As I recall, the stops are the same as well, but there may be a difference in one or two of them. Other than that, the entire building is literally identical to the Sharon East building.

Here's my selfie:

This organ is one I played a couple of months ago, but it has pretty much the same stoplist as Sharon East Stake's organ, and this organ in Springville. It is located in northern Provo, and was sort of a first Deja Vu of the Sharon East Stake's organ.

So, that was today's first Deja Vu. This next one isn't quite as similar, but the console is what was familiar.

I recently had the chance to play an organ solo in a Sacrament Meeting in Cedar Hills, UT. I performed that solo on an Allen Protege digital organ. And the organ below has a console almost identical to that organ's console, but it also has some pipes attached.

Here are the pipes:

And here's a wider view:

This organ is what is called a Hybrid Organ. This means that it has some stops that are actual pipes, and some that are entirely digital. This is great, because it lowers the cost of getting additional voices (types of sound) out of your pipe organ, but it is, of course, better to have an all-pipe organ.

That being said, this is one of my favorite chapel organs. You get the great pipe sounds for about 2/3 of the stops, and you still get the additional voices, such as oboe, clarinet, etc. (and clarinet stops aren't all that common compared to others!), so it's a win-win situation.

This particular organ was recently tuned and maintained, and I am happy to say that this is probably what I would try to get in my building if we were up for an organ replacement. It's less expensive than an all-pipe organ, and you get more stops. Like I said before, win-win.

Here's my selfie. This organ is located in an LDS chapel in the foothills of Provo, UT.

Anyway, those were my "Deja Vus" for today. I hope that you guys enjoyed it!

And here are the specs for these organs:

1. LDS Springville Spring Creek South Stake Center:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company
Opus Number (if indicated):
Year: 1978
Manuals: 2
Ranks: 11
Location: 350 N 400 E Springville, UT

Spring Creek South Stake - Stoplist

2. LDS Edgemont 12th Ward Chapel:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company
Opus Number (if indicated):
Year: 1978
Manuals: 2
Ranks: 11
Location: 320 E 2950 N Provo, UT

Edgemont 12th Ward - Stoplist

3. LDS Oak Hills Stake Hillside Chapel:
Built By: Allen Organ Company/Heritage Church Organ Company of Orem, UT
Opus Number (if indicated):
Year: Unknown
Manuals: 2
Ranks: Hybrid Pipe & Electronic
Location: 1960 N 1500 E Provo, UT

Oak Hills Hillside - Stoplist