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Archive for the ‘The Shelbyville Organ. Follow the Progress of an Actual Organ Project:’ category

The last time I posted to this blog was last spring, just before the spectacular rededication concert on the E.M. Skinner/Reynolds Associates organ at High Street United Methodist Church in Muncie, IN.  Raul Prieto Ramirez, the world-renowned virtuoso who now TEACHES ORGAN AT BALL STATE UNIVERSITY gave us a wonderful program. After High Street, we […]

  Organ pipes are durable.  In fact, well-made organ pipes, properly cared-for, can last nearly forever.  They become a portal to the past, as we hear sounds that were crafted decades or even centuries ago. Part of a major organ project, such as the one at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Shelbyville, is repairing and […]

  The organ’s console isn’t the organ, as I have pointed out before. But it’s certainly a major part of the organ. This week, after six months of careful renovation at our shop and at the shop of one of our specialty suppliers, the organ console for the St. Joseph organ returned to its place […]

Together, new pipes and old will form a new chorus of sounds for St. Joseph’s Church.

Note: There comes a time in almost every organ project when the customer is wondering when they will see their organ again. Rebuilding an organ such as St. Joseph’s 1912 M.P. Moller organ is labor intensive and time-consuming. Besides all the big construction, each individual pipe from the old organ has to be assessed, cleaned, […]

When we last checked in on the pipe craftsmen in the Czech Republic, they had poured sheets of hot liquid metal onto a long table to cast the material for the new organ pipes for the Shelbyville organ. Then, we had to wait. Even in our busy, hi-tech world, some things take patience. If we […]

  What’s so special about a pipe organ? Well… THE PIPES! The new organ at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Shelbyville, IN, will include pipes made by the skilled hands of master craftsmen over a century ago, and undergoing restoration by skilled hands in our shop, and in the shop of our master reed maker, […]

So, if you’ve been following along, we’ve come up with the perfect recipe for the delicious soup that will be the Shelbyville organ. Let’s see… In a 4 quart pot, combine 3 quarts of hearty broth, 2 quarts of tomato sauce, 2 1/2 pounds of beef, 4 large potatoes, 2 large onions, 3 celery stalks, […]

  Today, I want to share some random thoughts about a process that isn’t at all random – designing, or in the case of the Shelbyville organ, re-designing the sound of a pipe organ. It continues to amaze me how many people, even including some otherwise competent musicians, don’t understand the basics of this most […]

  It is proving to be a busy (and exhausting!) summer. In the midst of several projects that are happening in the shop, we are making some important changes to our facility itself. We are moving our CNC router shop to our new (a few years ago) back building, which has been finished inside and […]

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