So in late July, I went to Wellsville, UT and Pleasant View, UT to attend my mission president's homecoming and reception. We stopped by the Logan LDS Tabernacle first, where they have a large and beautiful pipe organ, to see if I could play it, but there was nobody there. That does mean, however, that I had my shoes with me that day.
Fortunately for me, the chapel in Wellsville where my mission president spoke is adjacent to the Wellsville Tabernacle, which was sold by the church a couple of decades ago. The Organ, built by Henry Pilcher's Sons, was originally installed in the adjacent tabernacle, and was rebuilt by H. Ronald Poll & Associates of Salt Lake City, and moved to the chapel when the tabernacle was sold. It was installed in 1982.
My dad was with me that day, so he took some photos of me playing this organ, since I was playing during the meeting block and didn't have a ton of time to play.
So, let's start with some photos of the Wellsville organ. Here's a shot of the case:
You'll notice in the shot below that the swell shades on one side are open, and the other side's are closed. This is because the Great and Swell divisions are both in expression (inside a swell box) with the exception of the facade pipes. I like this, it allows for greater versatility in playing and registration.
Here's a closer-up shot of the organist (yours truly) in lieu of a selfie.
And here's a wide shot of the organ in the room. I really like how this is set up, and the organ's tone quality is very clear and crisp. Everything is very well-voiced and it feels very well buttoned down compared to a Wicks. Of course, Wicks has made some good organs, but this is much nicer. It does not, however have any reed stops or any mixtures. This organ is amazing though. I really, really enjoyed playing it. Sadly, the ward organist didn't know much about organs. She never changed registrations, and never played the pedals. She had no idea how to bring the best out of this treasure of an instrument. Hopefully someone takes the time to teach her how to play, because this organ deserves it.
After the church meeting and my short organ practice session, we headed South to Pleasant View, where my mission president was having a sort of meet-and-greet with everyone who had come for the meeting. This meant we had to pass through Brigham City, where there is a new LDS temple. We wanted to see it up close, and see what the spire was that we could see on a building near it. Fortunately, that spire, just across the street from the Temple, belongs to the Brigham City Tabernacle, also known as the Box Elder Stake Tabernacle. This organ is a Reuter, refurbished by (you guessed it) H. Ronald Poll & Associates.
This is the first Reuter I ever played, and it was neat, because the pipes are voiced to fill a much larger space than your typical LDS chapel, so they seemed quite loud to me, since I was sitting right in front of them. This organ was the first I have played to have a Clarabella, a beautiful flute stop, a Flute D'Amour, a higher-pitched flute stop, and a Cornopian, a trumpet-like reed stop. It was cool, but an older gentleman who was there to give tours of the Tabernacle told me that when the organ was to be refurbished, another company made a bid and proposed several reed stops and a set of chimes, but in the end Ronald Poll won the bid, and the organ came to be as it is now.
This is the only shot we got of the entire organ case:
It's pretty high up in the room, and you can come up either the front or back end of the building to the balcony from the ground floor.
Here's a slightly closer shot. I think the facade pipes may be purely decorative, but I could be wrong.
And here's your close-up of the organist (yours truly).
You'll have to click on this next one to get the full effect. My dad took this panorama from the rear end of the balcony while I was playing. This shot gives you the idea of the type of space this organ is in. You can sort of tell by the way the case looks that it was installed long after the tabernacle was built. It was neat to hear the reverberations in this large space, especially those of the Cornopian. That thing is pretty loud.
So that was my little field trip. It didn't work out quite the way I had planned, but it ensured that whenever I'm going to visit a church other than my own, I make sure I put my organ shoes in the car! It really pays off, and I'm glad I had them with me, even though the Logan Tabernacle was closed at the time.
My next post will be about some organs I played the following week, all in Orem, UT. I'm still catching up on posting the organs I played this summer. As I play new ones, they will be posted right away, but I'm staggering these older photos to keep things neat.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Here are the specifications of the two organs:
Wellsville LDS Stake Center:
Built By: Henry Pilcher's Sons, moved and rebuilt by H. Ronald Poll & Associates
Opus Number (if indicated): 1422 (Pilcher), 8 (Poll)
Year: 1928, renovated 1982
Manuals: 2
Ranks: 9
Location: 30 South Center St. Wellsville, UT
Brigham City/Box Elder LDS Tabernacle:
Built By: Reuter Organ Company, rebuilt by H. Ronald Poll & Associates
Opus Number (if indicated): 966 (Reuter)
Year: 1951, Refurbished 1992
Manuals: 2
Ranks: 9 (originally, may have changed with renovation.)
Location: 251 S. Main St. Brigham City, UT
