Springville - A Second Trip

About a month ago, I was in Springville again to see a friend, but this time I came more prepared. I had more information about some of the organs in Springville, and this one was just a few blocks from my friend's home. I had been waiting for a while to get into this particular chapel, and I finally made it that evening.

It was funny, as I was playing, one of the bishops who uses the building came in and, optimistically hoping I was from the other ward that uses the building, inviting me to play for their sacrament meetings. I told him I would love to, but that it was too far away for me to travel every Sunday and that I had commitments in my own ward, but otherwise I would love to!

The organ in this building is a small but nice 1949 Reuter.

Here's a photo of the main facade:

I really like the visual design of this organ. I like the different colors of the wooden pipes and the principals in the center are rather striking. The larger wooden pipes on either side are actually stuck to the wall, either with glue or screws of some sort. I thought that was interesting. 

The console of this organ is also very nice. It has a neat little design on the sides and the rear:

The pedalboard is also a little different. It still feels close to if not exactly like AGO standard and is still concave & radiating, but it looks different in that the natural keys have a cutout near the console end of them. I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't think to. Silly me!

Speaking of the keys, I love the touch on this organ! You barely have to depress the key at all and you get sound out of the pipes. This makes it much easier to play faster passages on this instrument. The toccata from Bach's BWV 565 was very enjoyable here, though not very loud. This organ is pretty small, and there are no reeds or mixtures. But what there is is in tune and a pleasure to play. This organ would be more suited to hymn playing or to some baroque and earlier pieces, rather than French romantic or most modern classical music. 

One of my favorite stops on this organ is the Dulciana. It's a smaller, lighter Principal that almost resembles a string stop, and it's absolutely beautiful. You don't see them so often on these organs, yet they are so useful, especially with how the organ is used in LDS services, as we do a lot of quiet preludes before and after our meetings, sometimes incorporating a short interlude near the middle of the meeting, just before the administration of the Sacrament.

Personally, I love a good reed chorus, some trumpets, and a nice 16' Posaune in the pedal, they demonstrate the majesty of the organ and are a lot of fun to play. But organs such as this one and the one at the Utah State Hospital, organs that focus on the beautiful soft tone colors, are a nice break. They are beautiful, and allow for a nice, relaxing break from the hustle and bustle of life. I'll take a good Dulciana or an Erzähler any day of the week, it's a nice escape for me, since a lot of the time I play the organ to unwind and de-stress from the many activities I enjoy so much.

Anyway, Here's a wider-angle shot of the pipe facade. Once again, I really like the way those different colors of wood contrast with each other, and with the paneling on the wall (and yes, I know the smaller ones on the top are painted, and so are the swell shades.). 

...And the obligatory selfie:

Have a great day everyone, more to come soon!

And here are your organ details:

LDS Springville 1st & 3rd Ward Building

Built By: Reuter Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated): 854

Year: 1949

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 5 (Originally, probably added to later)

Location: 55 North Main St. Springville, UT

Springville 1st & 3rd Wards - Stoplist

Salt Lake Adventures

Hey everyone!

I apologize for not having posted anything for a couple of months.

School has been crazy, and I'll get home late at night tired, and ready to just go to sleep.

Such is the life of a college student.

I have played a couple of new organs, but today's post is going to focus on my trip to Salt Lake City a couple of months back. There's so much to say, that I'll just have to get started right away!

The Salt Lake Chapter of the American Guild of Organists hosted an Open Console and Organ Crawl at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral with its 2011 Bigelow Organ and at the Salt Lake LDS Tabernacle, with its world famous 1948 Aeolian-Skinner. It was a great day, and I got to spend time with some other organists, both from Utah Valley and from SLC. I drove up with my friend Bryce and we both had a wonderful experience playing these two world-class instruments.

Let's start with St. Mark's. This organ is a 40-rank, 3-manual tracker action organ built by Bigelow & Company of American Fork, UT, and it's absolutely beautiful. It's in a great little acoustic space, too. It's a great balance between live and dead. It's live enough that there is some reverberation, but dead enough that the sound is still clear and doesn't overlap with itself as it does in buildings with a more live acoustic.

More information about this organ can be found at bigeloworgans.com

Here are some great shots, thanks to Becky of SLCAGO:

This one is from one end of the organ loft:

This is from the other end, and you can see the Ruckpositiv on the left. This is a small division of German origin that hangs on the gallery rail behind the organist. It can be a whole organ on its own, and it generally contains some smaller, softer stops.

Here's my selfie, you can see the Ruckpositiv just there on the edge with the main case behind it:

Here's a shot I took of the main case, to focus on the 8' Processional Trumpet, what is known as an "en chamade" stop. These are the pipes coming straight out of the front of the case. They are very loud, and were a lot of fun to play in my rendition of "God of our fathers, whose almighty hand," inspired by Diane Bish.

I was very impressed by the organ at St. Mark's. I looked all over it, and I could not find one single flaw. It was meticulously assembled and maintained, and was a pleasure to play. Before we began playing, Adam Hansen, the resident organist of St. Mark's played snippets of a couple of pieces to show how well this organ handles both German Baroque and French Romantic music. It was absolutely amazing. He played the beginning of Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor BWV 565 as the German example, and a bit of the ending of Louis Vierne's "Carillon de Westminster" as the French example. It blew me away how perfect both of the pieces sounded on this instrument. Kudos to Bigelow & Co. for designing and building such an impressive instrument!

Before I forget, here's St. Mark's small organ, which is only 4 ranks, 1 manual and no pedal. It's portable in that it can be rolled around the building, and you can either plug it in or operate it with a hand crank. This organ was restored by Bigelow in the 1980s. I didn't get to play this one, but I thought you all might like to see it.

Now on to the reason I went in the first place: The Salt Lake Tabernacle organ. This organ has a long history, which includes one of my ancestors, John J. McClellan, Jr., who I have mentioned here before. He oversaw this organ's renovation by the Austin company in 1916, and played on some of the many pipes I played that day. 

This organ has some of the greatest sounds on it! There are two great trumpet-like stops, juxtaposed with each other on either side of the case, the Trompette Harmonique and the Tuba Mirabilis, which allows the organist to create a call-and-response effect with the trumpets across different sides of the stage. This organ also has an antiphonal division, meaning that there are pipes in a chamber at the back of the room, allowing for yet more call-and-response effects. And the strings on this organ are so lush and soul-stirring it's absolutely unbelievable! This was truly a once in a lifetime experience, but I really hope it's not!

Since we did the organ crawl at the Tabernacle, I'll show the shots of me playing first, then the shots of our trip inside the organ.

Before we played, we heard a 30-minute recital played by Linda Margetts, one of the Temple Square organists, and professor of organ at the University of Utah. It was a great recital, and Dr. Margetts put her own little spin on the end of Bach's BWV 565, which was neat.

I opted to play my arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go," since it was a piece that would use the amazing strings on this organ, and it was a spiritual moment, as well as a nerve-wracking moment. I was so nervous, even though I wasn't performing for an audience. This is the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Organ we're talking about here! It was more spiritual than anything, playing a piece I wrote for my sister on pipes once played by our ancestor.

Here I am playing:

And another shot with a better view of the Facade:

And a more close-up view. In case you were wondering, I only had a few minutes, so I didn't get to set my own stops. Rob Stefanussen, a frequent guest organist on Temple Square and proprietor of one of the best YouTube organ channels, set the stops for me. I wish he had given it reeds and mixtures towards the end of the piece, but I didn't tell him to, so that's okay. I would like to go back and play this piece again, and play something else that takes better advantage of the reeds.

Now for the trip inside the organ. This was really cool. It was neat to see the different stages of the organ, since it has been rebuilt 4-5 times since its original installation. Bryce and I spent an extra half hour talking to Robert Poll, the curator of organs on Temple Square, as well as one of the gentleman from the Rocky Mountain Organ Company, who assisted with the renovation of the organ when the building was renovated in the early 2000s. There's so much to know that I couldn't possibly explain it all here, but feel free to contact me, and I'll tell you more!

I will tell you this: Of all the pipes you can see, only ten of them are real, and those are the ten largest ones: the six in the two main towers, and the one on the front and the side of each of the two next largest towers for a total of ten. The rest have been fake since the beginning. But don't worry, other than the ten you see, there are 11,613 more lurking behind the scenes that provide the rest of the tones. This is a 206-rank organ, so there's a lot going on here!

There's also a neon sign on the organ, behind a grille just under the center of the facade, so it is invisible unless you are close to the organ case. It reads "Quiet Please." It is currently disconnected, as it is so old that they need a special transformer for it, and since it isn't used, they haven't bothered fixing it.

Here are some of the pipes we saw from inside. I didn't take a lot of pictures, because I was too excited, and too preoccupied with the questions I had for the curator.

Here's a violone:

And part of the Bombarde in the pedal:

Here's the plaque from the Organ Historical Society, recognizing the historical nature of the instrument. I just realized, it's also inadvertently a self-portrait, but don't let that bother you.

In the large metal room/box you see in the background are the blowers that run the main organ. Air entering the chamber is temperature and humidity controlled, and heavily filtered before it enters the blowers. This helps keep the tuning stable in the pipes.

 Here I am standing next to the main blower. This blower provides air to all of the stops in the manuals of the organ, while the smaller one behind it runs a few of the larger ranks. The large pipes had a tendency to steal too much air from the treble pipes, so they separated them.

Here you get a better view of both of the blowers. There is a third blower, but it runs the pipes at the back of the room, and is hidden from view, as are the pipes. These are behind a grille that is easily mistaken for an air-conditioning vent. The man in the white shirt and tie is Robert Poll, the organ curator.

So that was my amazing day in Salt Lake City. It was an out-of-this-world type of experience for someone as amateur as me to be able to play and visit two world-class instruments such as these, and I am very grateful to SLCAGO for letting me participate. I hope I will have the chance to again play these instruments, as well as (eventually) the LDS Conference Center, the LDS Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Assembly Hall on Temple Square and Salt Lake City's Cathedral of the Madeleine. A man can dream, right?

I've played a couple of chapel organs recently, so I'll post those in a couple of days. I figured I'd keep this separate since this is already one of the longer posts I've written.

Summer break is coming and I will have a lot more time to take and post photos of organs! Starting in the fall, things will slow down, but I'm very excited for summer, as I'm sure you are!

Have a great day, and keep your eyes peeled for more posts soon!

Orem Organs - And Salt Lake to come soon!

I'll explain the Salt Lake part first:

Yesterday I participated in an Open Console and Organ Crawl event in Salt Lake City at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral and the Historic Tabernacle on Temple Square. I had the opportunity to play both of these wonderful instruments, and enjoy the music and company of some wonderful and talented organists. 

I will write a longer, more detailed post about this shortly, I am waiting to get some pictures back from another AGO member who brought a nicer camera than I did.

In the meantime, I thought I would post pictures and information about a couple more organs in Orem that I played last Summer. 

This first one is one of the larger pipe organs in an LDS chapel, at 17 ranks. It is located in the Sharon Stake Center in Orem, UT, and was built by the Wicks organ company in 1969. It recently underwent renovation and restoration, to ensure its performance for years to come.

Here's a photo of the facade:

As you can see, there are a LOT more pipes than are typical for your typical LDS Chapel Wicks Facade. There are usually only a couple ranks visible, but this has at least three or four open to the room.

One interesting thing about this organ is the types of the 17 ranks. Prior to this, the largest organ I had seen in an LDS chapel was 13 ranks, but it had a Rohr Schalmei, a great 16' Trompette in the pedal division, and 16' Gemshorn in the Great. It was more eclectic in its tonal design than this organ, at least to my inexperienced ear. So you can see that I was pretty excited to see what kinds of interesting stops I would find on this organ. Sadly for me, most of these additional ranks had been used for different types of flute stops. Not that I don't love a good Nachthorn, but I think this organ could have been made more tonally diverse, and therefore more versatile, by replacing one or two of those flute ranks with an interesting solo reed, such as an Oboe or Clarinet, or extending the pedal down to an actual 32' rather than just a resultant*. I still like this organ a lot, but I am admittedly puzzled by the tonal design.

*A resultant is two ranks of pipes that reproduce the overtones of a lower rank. They are used for 32' stops with a 16' and a 13 2/3' rank, or for a 64', a stop called a Gravissima. 

So here's my selfie, with excitetement, before I found out there was no oboe. Console is located behind the pulpit to the right (stage left), as it is in most LDS buildings.

After I finished at the Sharon Stake, I went to another nearby chapel, the LDS Orem Stonewood Stake Center, and was pleasantly surprised by a 9-rank 1994 Wicks organ. Its tonal quality is a lot nicer than those of the older Wicks organs, especially those from the 1970s, but it's no Schantz. I like this organ very much, but I didn't have a lot of time to get to know it, so I only got a couple of blurry pictures, since it was late and I needed to get going.

So here's the selfie of that one:

And here's a wider shot of the chapel. There are 41 pipes in the Facade, which I'm pretty sure is a principal, with the rest behind the gray screens just behind the main facade.

Overall, I would be happy to play either of these instruments every Sunday if I had the chance, but if I had been the one in charge when they were installed and designed, I would have done things just a little differently: I would have chosen a more eclectic tonal design for the Sharon organ, and for the Stonewood organ, I may have chosen a different builder if it had been within the budget.

Have a great Sunday everyone, and I'll be back with more pictures soon!

LDS Sharon Stake Center:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated):

Year: 1969

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 17

Location: 545 South 800 East, Orem, UT

Sharon Stake Center - Stoplist

LDS Orem Utah Stonewood Stake Center:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated):

Year: 1994

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 9

Location: 450 South 100 West, Orem, UT

Friends, Fugues and Fournitures

Let me just start with a shout out to my awesome readers! You have helped me locate so many new organs to play, got me access to play them, and supplied me with such great and detailed information about these instruments. THANK YOU!!! 

As a small announcement, I will be adding a link to a stoplist for each organ in Utah County I have shown here on the blog. The link will be at the bottom of each post near the specifications and address for each organ. I'm still working on getting some of the information, so stoplists will be going up one by one, but keep an eye out for them.

This week has been a wonderful week for me as an organist. On Saturday, I went to the Utah Valley American Guild or Organists' Pedals, Pipes and Pizza activity on Saturday, and I got to go inside Bigelow's Opus 16! It was a really neat experience to see the inside of an organ up close. I also noticed how meticulously crafted, tuned and maintained Bigelow organs are. I've seen the pipework of several instruments up close, and Bigelow's is so pristine, right down to the tuning scrolls on the pipes Here's a picture of me inside the organ:

Yes, it was a great day, as you can tell by my face. I also made some new friends in the local AGO chapter, which was wonderful! I even met a couple of fans of Pedals and Pipework, which was really cool! 

One of the people I met, Bryce, made me an offer I couldn't refuse, to play the organ at the Alpine Stake Tabernacle in American Fork! We set a time on Monday, and I met him at the Tabernacle to discuss and play this instrument. We were joined by David Chamberlin, who I have mentioned before, a local organ builder and talented organist who is very versed in the history of the Alpine Tabernacle Organ. 

Here's a picture of the organ, and I'll give you the condensed version of the Organ's history:

This organ was completed in 1923 by the Austin Organ Company, after persuasion by John J. McClellan, tabernacle organist (and my relative) to have Austin, one of the foremost organ builders at the time and who had just renovated and expanded the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ, to build this one. Over the years, some changes were made. The current Trompette was originally a Tuba stop, and the organ got a new console in 1976 after being vandalized. When this happened, several stop tabs were added, plans having been made to add these ranks to the organ, but they have not yet been added, and the new console is almost 40 years old. Stops that were simply "prepared for" have a red dot on the stop tab, so as not to confuse the organist. Here's the console:

You'll see from the stop list, this organ is very symphonic. It has both a clarinet and an oboe, a vox humana, some beautiful flutes, and two separate ranks of strings with accompanying celestes. Another interesting thing about this organ, is that some of the ranks extend up to the 2' range, even though there are no functioning 2' stops on the organ. This top octave of pipes is accessed using a 4' coupler, meaning that everything being coupled is played an octave higher than normal. This allows something resembling a full principal chorus to be achieved.

Also, the bar above each divison's stops is a divisional cancel when depressed. I can't tell you how many times I have wanted one of these! Sometimes, I'll have the Pedal set up just right, but I need to start from scratch on the Swell, so I push the general cancel and Whoops! There goes my perfect pedal. This is a feature more organ builders should integrate into their consoles, it makes it so much easier to play. 

This console was also a little confusing at first to me, since there are two rows of stop tabs. With stop jambs and drawknobs, I know the standard location of the divisions, as I do with a single row of stop tabs, but with more than one row, it confused me at first, but it's less confusing after playing for a while. This organ's manuals are also farther apart vertically than they are on other three-manual organs I have played, which, once again, took some getting used to, but is fine after playing for a bit.

This organ's sound is unique. It's not quite like anything else I've ever played. The Tutti is not quieter, but less bright than on most of the organs I have played. I understand this is part of the design, and I like it. This organ is capable for pieces some traditional or more baroque-style pipe organs would not necessarily be capable of. And I love the eclectic nature of symphonic organs, there are so many different tone colors to play with, even on organs with relatively few ranks for a symphonic instrument. 

Here's another view of the organ, from the balcony. Bryce made it in this shot! He's at the console:

This is the last tabernacle we have in Utah County, and we are very blessed to have it. I don't think many people realize what a treasure this instrument is. Though it has had some minor changes over the years, this instrument is pretty close to how it sounded in 1923 when it was first installed. And it's still in amazing condition, with Austin's impeccable build quality manifest in every piece I had contact with. The organ sounds wonderful and brings life to the space. I see why John J. McClellan wanted this organ installed, it's wonderful, and most of all unique.

And here are a couple fun photos; my selfie and a nice shot of me at the console!

Keep your eyes out for more posts soon! I have several pictures from last year I still need to show you, and some new organs to play as well, thanks to you!

Have a great week, everyone!

LDS Alpine Stake Tabernacle:

Built By: Austin Organs, Inc.

Opus Number (if indicated): 1130

Year: 1923

Manuals: 3

Ranks: 20

Location: 100 E Main St. American Fork, UT

Alpine Stake Tabernacle - Stoplist

A Personal Record and a Personal Connection

First of all, Happy New Year everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, I've been pretty busy with finals, and with work over my Christmas break from school. I still have a few older pictures to post, so I'll be finishing with those soon, and I will be trying to play more organs as time permits.

Also, for anyone who is interested, or has kids who are interested in organs, there's an event going on this Saturday morning here in Utah Valley sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, called "Pedals, Pipes, & Pizza." It's a great opportunity for children, adults, and young people to get to know more about how a pipe organ works, and about what organs are all about. More info is available here for those who are interested in attending.

I gave this post the title "A Personal Record and a Personal Connection." The personal record occurred back in July, in that I played three different pipe organs in one day. I'll get to that in a minute.

I was browsing some articles on various organs the LDS Church owns, and I discovered one that mentioned Alexander Schreiner, one of the greatest organists to ever serve at the Salt Lake LDS Tabernacle. It mentioned in passing the name of his teacher, John J. McClellan, who also served as organist at the Tabernacle, and on the LDS Church's original music committee. I knew that I have some ancestors who are McClellans, so I looked at my family history, and, lo and behold, John Jasper McClellan, Jr. is my Great-Great-Great-Swell Uncle! (Just kidding about the Swell, though I'm sure he was a swell guy...) In his time McClellan would have overseen the renovation of the Tabernacle Organ by the Austin Organ Company in 1915 (its second renovation, it has undergone two since then), and of course played it extensively. It's pretty neat to know that I'm related to one of the early organists at the Tabernacle! What a privilege! I guess I know where my love of organ music comes from!

So there's the personal connection. Now on to the personal record.

One evening in early August of last year, I decided to go check some out. I ended up driving all over Orem a couple of times, since the Sharon Stake Center (photos to come soon) was locked, and when I initially went to the Cascade 1st & 2nd Ward Building, someone was actually practicing the organ, so I found another and went back later. The Sharon 1st & 2nd ward building was a surprise, I didn't know if it actually had a pipe organ, but I got in and played it. I ended up driving past it and the Sharon Stake center several times to check and see if they were open, and it all paid off eventually.

And yes, you counted that correctly. Three different pipe organs in the same evening. What a day!

Let's start at the Sunset Heights Stake Center. I knew about this organ since a good friend of mine was baptized at this chapel my senior year of High School. I remember the organ being very striking, as it looked different from most other LDS chapels, and most pipe organs I had seen up to that point.

Here's a photo of the facade:

As you can see, it's a combination of exposed pipework (front center, nothing around the pipes), encased pipework (front right and left, pipes in gothic arches), and enclosed pipework (visible through the open swell shades, rear center). This is one of my favorite LDS organ facades, because it is so unique and eclectic. You really don't see much else like this in an LDS chapel, the organ usually doesn't try to draw so much attention to itself.

Here's the console:

The on switch is under the edge to the right of the manuals, and is somewhat hidden. This organ has three memory positions, and a Full Organ toe piston, which was broken when I visited it. Both the memory and full organ pistons are mechanical. They physically move the rocker tabs, not with a motor. The rocker tabs are also heavier than I expected, leading me to believe that they are at least partially mechanical as well. 

And here's the selfie:

This organ was built by the Reuter company, which is uncommon for LDS chapels, much like the design. I love the tone quality of this organ, I find it to be more smooth and refined than you find in most Wicks organs. The principals and flutes are clear and bright enough, and it has a "Geigen Principal," which is a hybrid string/principal stop, a more principal-like version of a Gemshorn or an Erzahler. Very nice!

On to the next organ, at the Cascade 1st & 2nd Ward Chapel. The LDS seminary I attended in high school used to have morningside meetings, where a guest speaker would come teach about the Gospel, in this building from time to time. I don't remember ever attending one, but I wish I had, just look at that organ! 

This organ is one I would love to have in my chapel, because I love the facade, and I love the tonal diversity of it, as compared to other LDS chapel organs built around the same time (1970s). This one has several unique stops, which I will explain shortly. Above you get a good view of the powerful16' Trompette pipes, positioned vertically along either side. These play with a powerful force that shakes the console! They are very fun to play!

Here's a wider view:

And the selfie...

Here's the console, drawknobs and all! This organ has 13 ranks of pipes, which is one of the larger organs I have seen in an LDS building, so I guess there wasn't enough room for stop tabs. Drawknobs, such as these, in addition to being great fun to play (you actually get to 'pull out all the stops!'), allow the organ builder to position more stops within easy reach on the console.

Here are a couple of the unique ones. In addition to having an extremely high (an somewhat piercing) 1' principal stop, this organ has a 4' Schalmei in the Pedal division (top center of the photo below) and an 8' Rohr Schalmei in the Swell. I like the sound of these, they are soft solo reeds, much like an oboe, but I didn't know what a Schalmei was. According to the internet, a Schalmei is an ancient instrument considered to be the predecessor to the oboe, much like the krummhorn is considered predecessor to the clarinet.

This building is nice as well, so here's a wider view of the chapel:

Starting with the selfie this time, for the Sharon 1st & 2nd Wards. This was a nice surprise, as I wasn't aware of this organ until I played it. The building was available when I happened to stop by, and I discovered this neat little instrument.

The way they positioned the pipes here, and the high ceiling of the chapel makes for a nice acoustic space, as well as a grand appearance:

Here's the view from the console:

And here's a view of the console. This organ didn't seem too special compared to other Wicks instruments at first, but then I remembered that it is only the second one I have seen with a 32' resultant stop. Looking around, I couldn't see where they could possibly have put 32' pipes, and it turns out I needn't have wondered. This stop is a Resultant, which uses a 16' rank and a 10 2/3' rank to produce the same harmonics as a 32' rank does. Playing a piece at full organ, it honestly doesn't make a ton of a difference, but, now that I know how to use it, I imagine it can be fun to engage on a final chord, to a nice effect.

Also, this is the first time I ever saw an old MIDI sequencer on a pipe organ. This is probably the oldest one I have ever seen, and I have since seen the same unit on two other organs. It allows for organists to create their own profile, which is just a memory level with their name on it, and lets one save his or her memory settings to a floppy disk, or a USB flash drive on newer models.

Was that post long enough for you? I'll be posting more pictures soon, I still have a couple more sets of "organ-hunting" pictures from last summer I haven't had time to upload. I'll continue to upload new pictures as I take them. I'm also working on uploading some recordings as well, so you can hear the stops I talk about enjoying so much!

Organ Specifications:

Orem Sunset Heights Stake(LDS):

Built By: Reuter Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated): 1812

Year: 1972

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 11

Location: 1260 S 400 W Orem, UT

Sunset Heights Stake - Stoplist

Cascade 1st & 2nd Wards(LDS):

Built By: Wicks Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated): 

Year: 1973

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 13

Location: 481 E Center St. Orem, UT

LDS Sharon 1st & 2nd Wards:

Built By: Wicks Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated): 

Year: 1974

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 8

Location: 641 S 400 E Orem, UT

Some Fun Christmas Organ Solos

This post will be a bit less talk and a lot more action.

I imagine that most people in the world see the organ as an instrument that is used primarily to play hymns and classical pieces. And most people would be right. There are, however, lots of fun things you can do with even a small organ.

The following are three of my favorite organ solos, all of which are Christmas songs.

The first is by Cameron Carpenter, one of today's most brilliant and unique organists. He is the only organist to ever be nominated for a Grammy award. His playing style is very unique and somewhat controversial. I personally enjoy his compositions. Here's a video of him playing his arrangement of "Sleigh Ride" at the Marshall & Ogletree Organ at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, which he helped to design. This organ is all digital, but it uses some new technologies I won't go into now to make it sound so authentic! This organ incorporates sounds from a classical and a theatre organ to create such a cool effect, with percussion and everything. It's all coming from the organ.

Here's the video:

This next one has some of the most amazing pedal work I have ever seen! This is "Go, Tell it on the Mountain," Arranged and performed by a man who is probably my favorite organist, Richard Elliott, Principal Organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir:

And here's Richard Elliott, with my favorite Christmas organ solo ever, his own mashup of "Good King Wenceslas" and just about every significant part of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite:"

Have a Very Merry Christmas, everyone! 

My Ideal Friday Night - Utah State Hospital Chapel

It's been a while since I've posted, because I've been so busy with my studies. Finals are right around the corner, so I probably won't post anything else for another week or two, but I'll make it a good one!

Last night was a really fun night for me for a couple reasons:

1. I got to play a fantastic little pipe organ!

and 2. I went on a fun date after I finished playing! 

As the title suggests, that is nearly my ideal Friday night!

The organ I played was an 8-rank, 2-manual Wicks organ in the chapel at the Utah State Hospital in Provo, UT. They have the chapel to provide a worship space for their patients, no matter their beliefs, so the space is configured to be able to support LDS sacrament meetings, as well as Catholic Mass, and other religious services, along with meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous, etc. 

Here's a link to their website, with an outdoor photo of the chapel: 

USH Chaplain Services

I was able to play this chapel because it was rented out for the evening by Arches Academy, a small private school where my mom is a member of the faculty. Arches rented out the chapel for the evening for their annual Christmas concert, featuring the students of the school. My mom spoke to some of her fellow faculty members, and found out that there was a one-hour window--that happened to fit my schedule perfectly--in which I could go in and play the organ. I am grateful to the staff of the Utah State Hospital and the faculty of Arches Academy for making it possible for me to play in such a beautiful space on such a fun instrument!

The thing that makes this organ unique in this area is that it is positioned at the back of the hall. That is unusual for this area, since there is a very high number of LDS church buildings, and they all have their organs positioned at the front of the room, rather than the rear.

Here's a photo of the rear with the organ (pipes and console) taken from just forward of the center of the hall:

Here's the front of the hall, for those who are curious:

Here's a closer-up view of the pipe facade. Notice a couple things: First of all, no swell box. This organ does not have expressive capabilities (For my non-organist friends, this doesn't mean that I can't use it to express myself, but rather that I can't control the volume of the sound directly. I can add and remove stops, but not change the volume of the stops I have pulled.). Second, You will see some pipes left of center in this photo that appear to be in pairs. These are not a 2-rank Sesquialtera Mixture, but rather a 2-rank Erzähler stop. This is probably my favorite stop on this organ, and it occurs both on Manual I and Manual II, as this organ refers to them as, either as both ranks together, or individually. Manual I also has a 16' Erzähler, which is also beautiful. It's a hybrid sound, in between a principal and string sound, and I like the sound because it doesn't get as buzzy as strings sometimes can, and it's softer and smoother than a principal. Erzähler are hard to find, and are great for prelude or any meditative music.

My parents came to see me play for a few minutes, and my dad was once again my photographer:

It was really nice, I played a few different hymns and a pop song, then spent a good 20 minutes doing some improvisations on Christmas songs (mostly religious, but a couple were secular)! 

 Here's a closer-up view of the Zymbelstern, as I described in my post about the Provo Central Stake Center Organ. The kids who were coming into the concert loved this, they were simply enthralled by it! Those who had come before I left (I had to leave before the concert started) stood there in awe when I "made the bells ring," as did some of their parents! In this case, the bells are hanging on little wire hangers, and there is a set of small clappers (like mallets) that spin around when a toe piston is pushed, ringing the bells and creating a lovely twinkling, tinkling sound in the room. You can see it near the center of this photo, just above the center supporting beam for the organ.

  

Here's the console, and it's a pretty unusual design. It's narrow at the top, like a Holtkamp, but it uses drawknobs above the manuals, instead of the stop tabs or tablets typical of this design. (Non-organists: drawknobs are pulled out like these. Most of the other organs I have played use stop tabs, so just look back at some of my other photos if you are curious.) It was pretty comfortable to play though, I felt right at home, and I really enjoyed being able to observe what was happening from the back of the room. That was fun! That said, this organ has no reed stops, and no mixtures, either. I can't say I'm surprised, though, because the space is rather small, and a reed chorus could easily overpower someone sitting in the congregation. The principal chorus (with a flute for the 2' instead of a principal) is plenty powerful, and adding some of the mutations to the 2' gives you a pseudo-mixture, which produces a similar effect to an actual mixture stop. To be honest, it was refreshing to see an organ with more focus on some beautiful quiet stops, rather than some beautiful loud ones. The Erzähler stops are a very, very welcome addition!

And here's my selfie:

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season! In case I don't get to write another post until then, Merry Christmas to you all, and remember that Jesus Christ is the reason for the season!

Utah State Hospital Chapel (Multi-Use):

Built By: Wicks Organ Company

Opus Number (if indicated):

Year: Unknown, rebuilt 1993-1994

Manuals: 2

Ranks: 8

Location: 1300 E Center St. Provo, UT

Utah State Hospital - Stoplist