St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

SMLC Current Organ Progress

Organ PipeLine
What Color will the new organ be??

Color?? When one talks of color, we usually think of, red, blue, yellow,...etc. What color will you paint your living room and will it match the carpet? Or how about an artist mixing and blending colors for a painting. But when we speak of colors for the new organ we are not about painting the organ pipes red, blue, yellow, and purple. The word color can also be used to describe sounds. While it is hard to put into words what a sound quality is like, let me try to describe to you some of the new sounds on the organ.

Imaging a large flowing meadow of green grass on a relaxing Summer day. That describes what is called the string celeste, a beautiful, quiet, lush, and relaxing sound.

Now turn to a deep, rich, fiery red of a hot Cajun meal, that could best describe the reeds or trumpets. On the organ, they add excitement, and a zest in the music at the right time.

Back outside looking up into the light royal blue sky, with a few clouds gently blowing through; that would go along with the warm and flowing flute stops or ranks on the organ.

If we think of the brown earth that supports and gives us a foundation; we can think of the Principal or Diapason ranks of the organ. These sounds give the foundation and support for the whole organ. These sounds are like vanilla ice cream that you could add many flavorful toppings, but the vanilla needs to be tasty all by itself, too.

Just as visual color has many shades and degrees, so too does aural/sound color. Some flutes will be navy blue, other a light pastel blue with a hint of green. Some trumpets will be fire engine red while others will be a deep rust and others a quiet beautiful rose color. Some earth tones of our principal chorus will be think and rich caramel color and others a tan sandy beach. It is the organ builders job then to set up a palette of colors for the organist to use.

This is where the fun can now begin. As a painter mixes and matches the right colors to achieve just the right shade, so too does the organist mix and match sound colors to get just the right volume, feeling, mood, and quality needed for the music at hand. Putting a reddish/brown earthy principal with the forest green string pipes for a warm embracing sound when we as a congregation start to sing the strains of: "Oh, Beautiful for Spacious Skies." The fire red trumpets when we praise our Lord singing: "Lift High the Cross." Or how about the navy blue flutes when we remember Jesus’ suffering on the cross with the words of "Ah, Holy Jesus, how hast Thou offended?"

Just as the eye is capable of seeing thousands if not millions of shades of color, so to is the ear able to hear many shades of sound color. We look forward to sharing many colors and shades with you in the years ahead.

12/97

The Organ PipeLine:
A Progress Update

Progress on the construction of the new Schlicker pipe organ being built at the factory in Buffalo, New York is moving along just fine. In the last three months the console shell [keyboard control center] and console accessories are under construction and nearing completion. Final placement of stops and controls will be made closer to the completion. The metal for most pipes has been cast and is now aging before being cut, welded and formed into pipes. The bellows, or lungs, of the instrument have been completed. These supply the organ with the necessary wind to make it sing. Layout design has been started, but waiting for final location decision from the church. Scaling, or just how each pipe should sound, has been started, laying out the ratios and formulas for the right length of the pipe in proportion to its diameter and in harmony with the space of our church. This is a very time consuming process due to the fact that each organ is a custom built and each church has different acoustical need and spaces. The approximate weight of the organ is about 18,000 pounds with the addition of the movable console adding 1,000 lb. for a grand total of almost 10 tons. Thinking about that, the organ costs about $22 a pound.
Watch for future updates as more information becomes available. The next process at the factory will be starting to form the approx. 3,200 pipes that will be used to sing the praises of the Lord in worship at St. Matthew’s

11/97

The Organ PipeLine
Update on the Status of the Organ

At the beginning of April St. Matthew's pipe organ began to be assembled at the Schlicker Organ Factory in Buffalo, New York. This 12-week process is when all the pieces of the organ puzzle, literally thousands: pipes, wind-chests, façade, electrical wiring, wind-ducts, keyboard, etc., that have been made over the past two years come together. They make the organ mostly playable at the factory, fix any problems, do the final touch-ups and then take it all apart for delivery to Wauwatosa.

The company has been here to measure our space for the new organ on a number of occasions, to make sure it will fit. One of the major concerns is that the floor the organ sits on is level. With a façade that measures over 28 feet in height and across the west wall of the church, it is easier to make adjustments at the factory than finding out about problems once the organ arrives.

Another process that had to wait until our new space was completed is the pre-voicing of all the 3000+ organ pipes. This task can only occur once the builders know the church acoustics. They then spend a lot of time at the factory adjusting the pipes to sound at the correct loudness and tone quality. Again this is a long process that if done at the factory is a time saving task for us once they organ arrives here.

The first piece of the organ should arrive in September. A crew of people will help unload the trucks it will arrive in. Pipes will range in size from about an inch to more than 18 feet and a couple hundred pounds. Then it will take about six weeks to screw and hammer and lift all the pieces in place. After that it will take 4-5 months to do the final voicing of the organ and finish the final tuning. Plans are to have some of the organ done for Christmas and completion for Easter. It has been a long wait but will be most worthwhile when the first chord is heard in worship.

5/2000

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Page Revised November 2000