The American Guild of Organists

Cover feature

May 1998

The organ at Christ Church Cathedral—like everything in New Orleans—has an interesting lineage.  The original organ was built by George Jardine in 1847 at the time a new church was constructed on Canal Street.  Jardine did additional work in 1860, and this organ was moved to the present cathedral, erected on St. Charles Avenue, in 1886.  Here the organ remained without alteration until M. P. Möller was contracted to supply a new action and enlarge the organ in 1922 (Opus 3314).  Fourteen ranks of the Jardine were retained, and from the contract we know that the original organ had a manual compass of 58 notes and a pedal compass of 27 notes.  Among these was a very large-scaled 16’ Open Wood Diapason (low C was 24” x 18”).  Five of these retained ranks (including the Dolce Cornet) had been replaced over the years.  The remaining ranks were examined closely with the intent to reuse as much of this pipework as possible, but deterioration of the large wooden pipes and inappropriate scalings reduced the number of reusable ranks to three.  The most significant of these is the Great 8’ Diapason, the core of the original Jardine organ.  These pipes begin at F18 since the original front case pipes had been replaced by Möller.  The 16’ octave of the Swell Gedeckt was also retained, but there were too many damaged and/or garden-variety replacement pipes to warrant reusing anything above C13.  The Swell 8’ Vox humana is wholly complete.  More than likely, this was added at the time the organ was moved to the new building, although there are no known existing stoplists or the Jardine instruments.

Although the tonal resources of the 1922 organ were rather pedestrian by today’s standards, some voices were good and unique.  The 32’ Bourdon extension to the Subbass was retained as was the 16’ wooden Violone (1–24).  The solo reeds, if not built by Gottfried at that time, were at least patterned on his scales and construction techniques.  These include the 8’ Oboe, the 8’ Clarinet, and perhaps the large-scaled Pedal 16’ Posaune (Trombone).  The Swell 4’ Harmonic Flute by Möller was also retained.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, the organ underwent a series of tonal enhancements and expansions under the direction of the canon precentor.  Most of the added fluework came from the shop of Thomas Anderson, a former Æolian-Skinner pipe maker.  Jack Steinkamp reworked several reed stops and added the Trumpet Major of 18½” pressure that began life as a Kimball Tuba.  John Ballard and Associates of San Antonio, Texas provided the most significant amount of work, in particular, the addition of a Trompette en Chamade and a Bombarde division (whose 8’ Trumpet and 4’ Clarion are a matched E. M. Skinner set).  These additions were completed prior to the 1982 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, held in New Orleans.

Goulding & Wood became involved with the organ in the mid-1980s and continued to make tonal refinements.  By 1990, it had become apparent that the Möller action had seen its day, and the many piecemeal additions, while tonally significant, created a mechanical monster.  In 1991 the cathedral entered into a contract with Goulding & Wood to renovate the organ totally.  This work was completed in July 1994.

There were several goals set for the 1994 renovation.  First and foremost were new mechanical systems, including console and windchests, installed according to a new and logical layout.  Second, but of no less importance, the tonal scheme of the organ was completely reviewed with new stops added and wit h the entire organ redesigned and revoiced.  Organ cases were also constructed to replace the old pipe facades.  These cases not only supplied room for needed additional voices, but allowed the tonal opening—all of which are in structural walls—to be cleared so that sound could emanate from the chamber as freely as possible.  The cases reflect the architecture of the building, and the pipe shades emulate the flower motif that is present in the crowns of the columns and in the Resurrection window behind the altar.

The most significant tonal enhancements were the addition of a Positive and the expansion of the Pedal division.  The plenums of all the divisions, including the pedal, are on Goulding & Wood’s electro pneumatic slider chests, while the Bombarde division, Swell reeds, and other high-pressure flues are on conventional elect pneumatic unit and pitman chests.

The switching is handled by Solid State Logic’s recently developed MultiSystem, a software-governed, multiplex system.  Because the organ is used extensively in recital programs, the combination action contains 32 channels to prevent “piston competition” between the recitalist and the church organist on any given weekend.  The keyboard naturals are covered in bone, and the sharps are made of ebony.  The organ has four blowers: the main blower is ten horsepower and the Bombarde blower is three horsepower.  Separate blowers exist for the Major Trumpet and the Chamade.

The Chimes are playable from both the Great and Bombarde manuals.  The Great compass is the standard G20–G44, and the stop is pre-coupler (will not couple).  On the Bombarde manual, the compass is G8–G32, and the stop is post-coupler.  This allows the Chimes to be played from the Pedal via the Bombarde to Pedal coupler.  The high-pressure Solo reeds (Trumpet Major and Martin Trompette en Chamade) are pre-coupler with one exception: the Major Trumpet can be couples as the super and sub pitches on the Choir only to enhance the “soloing out” of hymn tunes, etc.

The Positive, which is a floating division, is located behind its 8’ Principal case, facing the church choir.  In this position, it serves as the secondary plenum division to the Great and as reinforcement for the Choir by providing additional support and clarity to the accompaniment ensemble.  The Positive may be assigned to any of the four manuals via a drawknob in each manual division.  The 8’ Gedeckt is a specially constructed wooden set of pipes with English blocks and is particularly suitable for continuo requirements.  The cornet of this division is the Terzian ensemble of 1-3/5’ and 1-1/3’ pulled as separate stops.  With the 2’ and 1’ a Carillon mixture can be formed that will augment the harmonics of the French-style Cromorne.

The Great division is behind the 16’ Principal case and speaks into the nave.  Besides the expected plenum stops, it contains the Jardine Diapason and a large Solo Flute built by Austin in 1916.  The top break of the Mixture is on D#52 to accommodate the two works of J. S. Bach that exceed by two notes the normal 49-note compass of his time.  This division also contains the traditional flute cornet built upon the 8’ Rohr or Chimney Flute.

The Swell is the largest manual division of the organ.  All the flue work is on one slider chest.  The reeds, all voiced on 5”, are on one pitman chest.  The design emulates the typical English/American Classic full Swell expanded to include a second mixture and a cornet ensemble of light principal character.  The reeds have French shallots and the 4’ Clairon breaks back to 8’ pitch on G#45 in the French Romantic practice.  In this same vein, all the manual 8’ reed stops employ reed pipes through G56, except for the Vox Humana, which goes to flue pipes on C#50.  The Choir is the most subdued division of the organ.  The 2’ and 1-1/3’ stops are tapered metal and voiced towards the flute side, but not so much as to prevent their being used with the small-scaled Geigen and Fugara as a small accompaniment chorus.  The 8’ Clarinet is ideally suited to English choral literature that so often calls for this sonority.

The Bombarde division was designed to support the existing E. M. Skinner 8’ and 4’ harmonic reeds to provide a large reed chorus, but one whose sonority is more rounded than the Swell French chorus.  The 16’ Bombarde is new, and the Mixture is based on 2’ pitch.  The pipework of the solo cornet consists of principal pipes, but these pipes have languids of a lesser degree, contain only 30% tin, and have a higher halving ration so that the sonority, while full and large, does not become “screamy” as it ascends in pitch.

One of the most difficult challenges in building any large organ is to maintain cohesive ensembles wile offering a diversity of solo possibilities.  This was especially so in this situation with a legacy of existing pipework.  The chamber locations, which could not be altered, also presented its share of logistic and tonal concerns.  But through careful planning and design and the merits of the common-channel windchest, the attributes of balanced choruses, clean and clear plenums without harshness, and full and rich ensembles without the loss of clarity won the day.  The cathedral looks forward to continuing its musical heritage with this instrument as it leads worshipers and thrills audiences through the musical energy that only a pipe organ is able to create.

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