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