| FARMER
CITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Farmer City, Illinois Opus XVII, 1987 |
| FARMER
CITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Farmer City, Illinois Opus XVII, 1987 |
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This instrument, based largely on the
church's 1905 Hinners organ (Opus 643) of 16 ranks, was unaltered from its
original location and design for 82 years, except for the change of the blower
from water to electrical power. The placement of the instrument in the
"Akron-Plan" sanctuary required Hinners to position the interior 90 degrees from
the normal configuration dictated by the stock model casework. As a consequence,
there were a considerable number of lay-out problems which made it virtually
impossible to give proper attention to the instrument, and therefore, many
maintenance requirements and proper tuning were by reason of inaccessibility,
neglected. The problems seemed so insurmountable that they prompted one
consultant retained by the church to advise them to consider a different organ
altogether. Because of the way the playing action was designed, coupled with a
relatively high wind pressure, the instrument had become extremely laborious,
therefore virtually impossible to play.
In attempting to address all of
the deficiencies of the instrument, the first foregone conclusion in order to
justify the retention of the instrument was to make it accessible in order to
provide proper tuning and maintenance. Considerable valuable interior space was
taken up with the original reservoir, which had deteriorated to the point where
the instrument would have to be completely dismantled in order to re-leather it;
the cost of which would have been far in excess of the modern wind system
installed in its place. While utilizing springs for pressure regulation, the
inertia owing to the mass of the generous replacement reservoir tops and the
re-use of the original trunking system allow the instrument to have a gently
flexible wind, yet allowing far greater stability than was possible with the
original reservoir and its complimentary load of bricks!
The mechanical
playing action was changed from the original balanced key lever action (typical
of Hinners) to a self adjusting, suspended action incorporating aluminum tracker
squares and pulldown wires. The radiating, horizontal tracker runs were kept as
original but the tracker material was renewed. The pedal was converted to
electric action and augmented to five stops, based on three ranks, from the
original two. A new keydesk scaffold, including keyboards, covered with Ebony
naturals and Boxwood accidentals, was imported from West Germany for the playing
action renovations. The stop action remains in its original mechanical form.,
except in the case of the Pedal and facade pipes, which utilize electrified
drawknobs matching the mechanical ones.
With the Pedal and facade pipes
converted to electro-pneumatic action, it then became possible to eliminate the
many hundreds of feet of cardboard conductor to feed those pipes because of the
convoluted configuration of the instrument. Since connections to the Pedal pipes
no longer were to be done by trackers, the rear interior of the instrument was
re-configured in multi-story fashion to conserve space to allow access to all of
the Pedal pipes and to the Swell Box by means of an internal ladder to a service
platform which did not exist before the re-build.
While the original
stoplist demonstrated the fact that Hinners tended to be quite conservative, as
applied to stoplist design, it left the church wanting for stops which would
allow the satisfactory performance of a reasonably complete cross-section of
organ literature, as well as effectively lead congregational singing. Because
Hinners made practice of "stock-model" organbuilding, the scales for the pipes,
which would be appropriate in a room twice the dimensions of this sanctuary,
mandated re-voicing to allow the pipes to sing without being overly loud. This
was accomplished by lowering the wind pressure and cut-ups on several stops, and
generally applying a combination of closed toe voicing in the basses graduating
to open toe voicing practice in the trebles. Several stops have been re-voiced
with some unusual, but very successful transformation, in order to meet the
needs without resorting to all new pipework. In particular, the Sesquialtera II
was built by plugging node holes and re-pitching the old Swell tapered Harmonic
Flute treble pipes for the 2-2/3. The AEoline pipes were re-pitched and
re-voiced for the 1-3/5'. The original 4' Flute d'Amour was combined with the
existing bass octave of the Melodia to obtain an 8' Rohr Flöte. Finally, the
existing Oboe-Gamba was re-pitched and re-voiced to become the Instrument's new
Swell 2' Principal.
While it was desired that the instrument largely
conform to present-day tonal concepts, there was also a desire to retain the
best features of the old organ, and for that reason it was decided that the
stenciling which was discovered on the facade pipes when they were stripped for
repair work should be replicated in order to return the instrument to it's 1905
appearance. For many years, the pipes were simply white with gold mouths. This
also presented the opportunity to eliminate 14 dumb pipes which were planted on
the facade. Other used facade-type pipes were found in the builder's inventory
and were incorporated into the design allowing for the addition of an 8'
Prestantbass stop in the Pedal. The two largest pipes, plus the balance of the
treble pipes, are planted in the interior of the instrument.
The effect
of the new stenciling is at once stunning, giving the instrument a sense of
belonging, since the new artwork has picked up on color themes found throughout
the sanctuary; particularly in the windows.
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SOLI DEO GLORIA!
Those participating in the project were as
follows:
Richard M. Schneider, President: Initial consultation,
stoplist and tonal engineering, voicing pipes, tonal finishing and electrical
work.
Joan Schneider, Secretary/Treas: Fiscal management,
bookkeeping, wood pipe varnishing, materials procurement.
John R.
Nodeen, Shop Foreman: Woodwork, windchest re-building, wiring, action work,
wind systems work, Pedal and swell modification work, installation and tonal
finishing.
Jerry R. Smith, Shop Assistant: General shop work,
woodwork, racking pipes, parts-making, slider chest toe-board modifications,
facade pipe repair and re-finishing, metal pipe polishing and repair, and zinc
pipe making.
James P. Donovan, Shop Assistant: Stopper
re-leathering, reservoir leathering, and miscellaneous
assistance.
David P. Moore, Electronics Tech: Custom-construction
of Solid State Relay System for Pedal and Facade chests.
K.O.
Schneider, Retired Chairman of the Board: Construction of swell shades,
fabricate windchest magnet contactors and misc. wood parts.
Timothy D.
Gage, Admin. Assistant: Installation and general shop work.
Mary
Watt Yeadon, Artist: (Prairie Town Art Studios, Farmer City, Illinois):
Re-created original facade pipe artwork and re-stenciled pipes.
The
builders owe a debt of gratitude to numerous volunteers from the church,
including John Overton, Gene Houser and Bob Foulk, who almost daily stopped by
to lend their advice, aid, tools, Coffee and good senses of humor to the
project. The builders were also assisted by various volunteer groups within the
church who varnished wood Pedal pipes and helped strip the old paint off the
facade pipes before repairs were started and the pipes were base-coated for the
artist's work.
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© 2002, Schneider Pipe Organs, Inc. |  |