USA

In 1991, we were asked to build a house organ for the late Stephen Simon in his country home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on the southernmost tip of Cape Cod.The organ is built on a gallery in a large sitting room, and was intended for practise, composing, and concerts involving Mr. Simon’s musical family. Unusually,…

In 1616, the year of William Shakespeare’s death, and probably but a stone’s throw from his Globe Theatre at Southwark just south of the River Thames, a group of people founded the earliest Independent Church ever founded to survive to the present day. “Joyning togeather they joyned both hands with each Brother and Covenanted togeather…

When our North American representative, Malcolm Wechsler, reported after his first visit to the Episcopal church of St Peter, St Louis, he said this might be the job which would test our resolve to use only mechanical action for new instruments. He might just have been right. St Peter’s had an ageing electro-pneumatic instrument divided…

St Paul’s Church is a brick, colonial-style building erected in 1739 and originally called Borough Church, but reconsecrated as St Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1832. Although it has been remodelled a number of times, it retains its historic character, including unusual box pews. The church is famous locally for a cannonball that is lodged in…

Amid grandeur, a subtle palette … One was struck by the transparency and tactile loveliness of the sound … Kent Tritle … sought a versatile religious and musical instrument which, it seems, he has found. This organ, designed to have a French Romantic character, but with enough versatility to allow it to reach back into…

Building a new organ for a church towards the end of the 20th century presents, perhaps, more of a challenge to an organ-builder than ever before in history. Two or three decades ago, the likelihood was that the instrument should follow the strict edicts of the Classical Revival movement. In the meantime, the appreciation of…

The Skinner organ in Princeton University Chapel was installed in the newly-completed building in 1928. Although Donald Harrison had recently joined the company from Willis, and was soon to oust Ernest Skinner from power, the Princeton organ remained essentially in the earlier Skinner tradition – that of the finest and most opulent Romanticism. The 100…

Not many churches have more than one organ these days. However, in the past it was by no means so unusual for large churches to have two or even more organs in the one space. In France large churches often had a main organ, usually sited on a west gallery, and a smaller instrument in…

The new organ for Peachtree Road United Methodist Church is the culmination of over four years of planning and building. Discussions began at an early stage in the planning of the new Sanctuary to ensure that the instrument suited the building and the use to which it would be put. Initial proposals suggested an organ…

This cabinet organ of four stops was purchased by the Peabody Institute (part of the Johns Hopkins University) for use with ensembles and choruses, as well as recitative and continuo work. It has also been used for recital and lecture-recitals on occasion. Recently it was transported to New York to accompany the Monteverdi Choir and…