The Team

Here's a photo of members of the Robert William Wallace Pipe Organs install team toward the end of a week of excellent work. On Monday Mark Scholtz and Bill Hamner will start tonal finishing of the Great, Swell and Pedal. Those divisions are running and have been tuned several times as well as had some voicing work. 


We have most of the Choir chests set up, winded and wired. Around Nov. 10 we'll get the Choir finished and put in the pipes, including the big Tuba. When that's done we'll put in the facade pipes. There are 28 of them and the will stand on four separate toe boards mounted in the top of the cabinets in the sanctuary (altar area) below the organ.  They will be winded from two offset chests in the Great chamber. Hoses, one for each pipe, will run from the offsets to the toe boards below. That will be an exciting day! 

New Photos of Facade Pipes



Here are the latest photos of the facade pipes. In the top photo, the lower four are Diapasons and the upper one is a Dulciana.



Great and Swell Complete

This week we got the swell completed, including getting both sets of shades operating. Chuck and Mark got the pipes tuned up and did some regulating as well. There are four 8' reeds: Oboe, Waldhorn, Cornopean and Vox Humana. The oboe is particularly fine, broad enough for a chorus reed, and transparent enough to serve (at 4') for a clarion. The Cornopean, on many instruments seeming a dull trumpet, is fiery - especially so next to the warm and tastefully woolly Waldhorn. The strings are amazing - independent 8' and 4' each with a celeste - and (hold onto your sox) a String Mixture derived from the 8' (Salicional). Despite the great Audsley's endorsement of such things, I was a honestly a little skeptical of derived mixtures, but it sounds great and is just right as a crown on the string chorus. Throw in the Vox, get the trem going and shut the inner shades and now you're cookin (though maybe not for your average Sunday Mass!!) We will also have a derived mixture on the Great, from the Dulciana, and I'm quite interested to hear that. I'll talk about the Swell flutes including the fabulous 4' Harmonic Fl. in a later installment.

As for the Great, the swell shades for the enclosed Great were installed - they are 8' tall and 16' wide! The louvres are 2 3/4 inches thick. Today we loaded in the remaining pipes for the Great but weren't able to hear them - work on the main windline from the blower prevented us from turning on the wind. I had the privilege standing on the ladder passing the pipes up. 


Let me remark briefly about the regulating: the pipework from A. R. Schopp is remarkably fine, consistent from top to bottom and very well voiced already. Tonal finishing will be a joy!


Here are some photos. You'll see our statuary is now all in.

Mary William Baine working in the enclosed Great
in front of the Trombone and Violone pipes.
Several of the 1st Open Diapason pipes are to her left.



The 2nd Diapason and the Octave on the Great.



Looking into the enclosed Great. The wooden pipes
on the right are from the Major Bass. Behind the
shades are pipes of the First Open Diapason.

Pipes in the enclosed Great.

The bottom notes of the Violone - note the beards,
wooden cylinders painted black, in front of the mouths.

In the Swell, the Vox Humana, with the Oboe
to the left and the Salicional to the right.

The 4' Harmonic Flute in the Swell. Note the holes drilled in the
pipes to make them overblow at the octave (hence the name Harmonic).

The Harmonic Flute and the Stopped Diapason (Swell).

More pipes!

Here's me handing a pipe up to Debi Lee.

Our new crucifix group, sculpted by Thomas Marsh.
The noonday light coming through the stained glass
 was too complicated for my cellphone camera to make
 sense of. That's Saint Michael in the background.

Oh, my goodness, that sounds good!!!

The console got hooked up today and we got to play the 16'/8' Waldhorn and the 16' Major Bass (large scale wood). One cannot put into words how great it sounded!! The room is working great too. Hopefully tomorrow we get the rest of the Swell reeds and the Great tromba.

Some more photos

The the Great, Swell, and Pedal are all wired and winded, and the inner shades of the Swell have been installed. While the installation team takes a few well deserved days off, here are a some more photos taken over the past few weeks. 

Chuck setting in an Oboe pipe. Notice
the stubby gray Vox Humana pipes.

The rear swell shades of the Swell division.

The main (12") windline coming from the
blower through our mechanical room. 

Refurbished Bourdons showing their elegant new wooden hooks.

Facade Pipes Preview!!

There will be 28 pipes in the reredos/facade that we are creating. They range in length from 8 ft up to over 18 ft. Today I received photos of some of them, still at the Schopp plant. They are of flamed copper and I think they are extraordinarily beautiful. 


Don't forget you can click on the photos to see the full-size version.

Some pipe feet.

Four elegant feet.

Four Dulcianas and two Diapasons. They are standing with their feet up.
When installed their feet will be at the bottom as usual.

The tin mouths are of the "Romanesque" style with
a round arch, as opposed to the "Gothic" pointy style.