Lemieux Pipe Organ Company | 2006 Organ Historical Society Convention

10/11/09

October 11th 2009, 1pm. Dedication of Lemieux & Associates Pierce Memorial Pipe Organ at Bethesda Episcopal Church, Saratoga Springs NY.

Here's some pictures!

Lemieux & The Pierce Memorial Organ was conceived in that special place in the mind where artistic idealism reigns. It is a unique instrument for a unique situation. It was designed to enhance the worship music with three purposes in mind: Accompany the choir with soft registers, support congregational singing with a strong principal foundation, and provide distinctive solo voices as a solo/antiphonal division.

Stylistically its inspiration is derived from the 1920 Skinner organ that was removed in 1968 to make way for the cutting edge sound of the bright neo-baroque Casavant organ in the Chancel. Organ design aesthetics are a very interesting subject. Unlike other instruments such as the violin, the organ is constantly metamorphosing along with the culture, both tonally and technologically. In this way it is a mirror of our culture, and the best examples are able to withstand the test of time. The Skinner organ was huge; twice as big as the Casavant, and resided behind a magnificent Gothic revival case from a 1847 Henry Crabb organ originally at Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, NY. This was an anathema to the current organ aesthetics that were ubiquitous in the nineteen sixties. Everything had to be bright and articulate and able to play Bach clearly, even though they had yet to make the leap of actually copying historical instrument. This practice became the cutting edge in the nineteen eighties. Luckily, the 1968 Casavant organ is a great example of it's style. But as fate, or irony would have it, the Skinner style has come back with a vengeance and is now widely regarded as a high watermark in American organ building.

Bethesda church was looking to recapture some of the more English inspired sounds of the Skinner. To this end, pipework from the teens and twenties was acquired to create the gallery instrument you hear today. Interestingly, two of the ranks were fabricated by the Samuel Pierce Organ Pipe Company of Reading, MA (no relation?). These pipes were from the 1913 Harvard Club organ in Boston, MA. Though Pierce was not a high profile company like Skinner, their work is consider to be among the finest available in its day and the construction and voicing of these pipes is of exceptional quality. The Principal facade pipes you see, are from a rare Mason & Hamlin pipe organ, and are made of Zinc and have impressively thick Gothic mouths. The Open Diapason, was made by Kimball in 1920. Like Mason and Hamlin, Kimball out of Chicago was also know for piano making, but made beautiful pipe organs as well in the early twentieth century. The rest of the pipe work consists of an Erzahler and Erzahler Celeste (a Skinner invention and his favorite string stops), a big flutty Bourdon, a breathy Harmonic flute (that sounds like a real traverse flute), an Oboe, and a Cornopean (a loud trumpet-like reed stop). With the exception of the pianissimo strings, each stop is as large scaled (sized) and opulent sounding as the space permitted ("whatever you do, don't block the windows!").

The casework takes its design from the 'arts and crafts' style paneling that's behind the side alter beneath the organ pipes. The refurbished 1925 organ console came from a church outside Philadelphia and was originally painted white. It has been striped and refinished to match the dark Bethesda woodwork. It still has its original ivory keys which were in great shape. Some other innovative and radical design features include a 1/4" birch soundboard ceiling to create resonance, very thick swell shades for a better dynamic range, electro-pneumatic unit chests (to handle the higher pressure responsively), state-of-the-art digital control system with record and playback features as well as numerous other features, as many stops and couplers as we could fit for the savvy organist to have the ability to make exponentially more combination variations. Pulling out all the stops is not recommended until year 2033 when the human ear has caught up to the mass of sound output this organ is capable of.

To give one illustration of the differences between the two organs, the 45 rank Casavant runs off of a 1.5 horsepower blower motor with a wind pressure of 2.5". The Pierce memorial organ utilizes a 5 horsepower blower motor to provide 8 unitized ranks with 6" wind pressure. Unification refers to playing the same eight ranks at several different pitch levels and over the organ's three divisions (Great, Swell, and Pedal). This is why the Gallery organ has forty stops on the console but only contains eight ranks. The Gallery organ is able to be played from the chancel organ as well. This was quite a challenge, but not unusual for churches that have two organs.

It takes many people to bring a complex project like this into reality. To everyone who had a hand in it, I am eternally grateful. The people who contributed hundreds of hours to the project include Farrell Goehring, Isaac Harlow, Rance Kirby, and Normand Lemieux. I am also grateful to the staff and congregation of Bethesda, especially Farrell, without whom we could not have done this. He has given freely and generously of his time, and without additional financial compensation for doing so. And, of course the Pierce Family for donating the funds that made it all possible.

As with any organ project it is impossible to say for sure if it was going to work in the space and as a complement to the Chancel. It is always a leap of faith informed by intuition. But thankfully, it really does work. The two organs being diametrically opposed style extremes, somehow blend marvelously. In this way, through this dichotomy, it represents our time and our ability to accept a collage of aesthetics simultaneously. Even though inspired by the 1920 organ and utilizing all pipework from this era, this organ represents this day and age in other ways. It's technology is cutting edge, and gives the organist complete control over it's resources. It's sound is opulent and powerful; designed to get the attention of an amplified and ear budded population. But moreover, all this aside, it is designed to blend harmoniously with and seamlessly augment the comforting and steadfast traditional worship service that Bethesda has been torchbearer of for a century and a half. May the souls of this century and those to come, through word and song, find the same peace at Bethesda that so many families and forebears of the past have cherished deep in their hearts.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Daniel Lemieux, President Lemieux & Associates Pipe Organ Co., LLC

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Soli Deo Gloria,