UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Transcription

1 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date: I,, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair:

2 Taylor & Boody Organbuilders: An American Builder with a European Voice A document submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in the Keyboard Division of the College-Conservatory of Music 2008 by James Warren Walton B.M., James Madison University, 1979 M.M., The Catholic University of America, 1987

3 Abstract The primary focus of this document is an examination of the historically informed artisan organ builder Taylor & Boody. This document includes an abbreviated history of organ building, an examination of classic organ building techniques and a description of representative organs built by this firm. This paper concludes with a discussion of the influence of artisan builders on the large factory organ builders. iii

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5 CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION...1 II. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ORGAN...6 III. BIOGRAPHIES OF GEORGE TAYLOR AND JOHN BOODY...12 IV. GEORGE TAYLOR AND JOHN BOODY AT JOHN BROMBAUGH S SHOP...17 V. HISTORY OF THE COMPANY: THE DIVERGENCE...19 VI. THE TAYLOR & BOODY COMPANY IS ESTABLISHED...23 VII. CHARACTERISTICS OF A TAYLOR & BOODY ORGAN...27 VIII. REPRESENTATIVE ORGANS...51 IX. THE AMERICAN PROBLEM...78 BIBLIOGRAPHY...87 Appendix Opus List v

6 Chapter I Introduction Taylor & Boody Organbuilders is a North American organbuilding company located in Staunton, Virginia, and is a premier builder of mechanical action organs in an historically informed style. Taylor & Boody s aesthetic is primarily influenced by the design and construction techniques utilized by organ builders in Holland and North Germany from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. While artisan builders such as Taylor & Boody inspire the support of many advocates, detractors often attempt to discredit them as primitive and anachronistic. In this document I will defend historically informed organ building generally and the artisan builder Taylor & Boody specifically as a musically valuable current in twenty-first century organ building. I have chosen Taylor & Boody because of their reliance on historically informed design and construction methods, and instruments among musicians. I first became acquainted with Taylor & Boody s work in 1983 when they built an organ for Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Richmond, Virginia. This was also my first exposure to the compelling sound of an historically informed organ, and marks the beginning of my interest in how this sound was created. The two following testimonials demonstrate the high regard for Taylor & Boody organs among musicians in Europe and North America. In an article for The Musical Times, John Hamilton listed Taylor & Boody in the top five builders in 1984, based upon Worcester, Massachusetts. 1 Boyd Jones wrote in an article for the American Organist: John Hamilton, An Emerging US Organ-Building Movement-1, The Musical Times 125 (June, 1984): 1

7 The organs of Taylor and Boody cannot be equated with the neo-baroque instruments of earlier decades. They are at once more historically informed and more universally useful. Their historical approach is partially a result of considerable study of old organs. They have documented pipes from numerous European antiques, and had an opportunity to dismantle the Schnitger organ of the Aa-Kirk in Gronigen. In this country they have restored the 1802 David Tannenberg organ in Madison, Virginia, and have done restorative work on several smaller organs for museums. 2 Harold Vogel described the American builders of which Taylor & Boody is a part: Those who are building in historical styles have established a quality standard that approaches that of the antique organs, not only in terms of design, craftsmanship, and materials, but also in terms of sound and musicality. It is a renaissance in the truest sense, nourished by the mutual influence that has existed between the development of early music performance practice and instrument making that is a hallmark of the astonishing musical culture of the late twentieth century. 3 Taylor & Boody belong to the specialized and conservative current of twentieth and twenty-first century organ building that draws its inspiration from the sixteenth through eighteenth century North European master builders. Lynn Edwards of the Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies described the trend in this way: In current American organbuilding it is possible to identify a distinct school of builders whose orientation is historical and based to a large extent on surviving North European Baroque organs. What they hold in common is their reliance on historical models in establishing the conservatories, and residences throughout the country and now abroad as well are a unique blend of the old and the new. 4 2 Boyd Jones, Timeless Qualities: Boyd Jones visits Taylor & Boody in Staunton,Virginia, Choir & Organ, 5 no. 3 (May-June 1997) : Gustav Fock, Hamburg s Role in North European Organ Building. trans. Lynn Edwards and Edward C. Pepe. (Easthampton: The Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies, 1997), ix. 4 Lynn Edwards, ed., The Historical Organ in America: A Documentary of Recent Organs Based on European and American Models, (Easthampton: The Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies, 1992), i. 2

8 Pipe organ building styles in North America vary widely from scientifically exact copies of historical instruments to instruments with electric actions and combinations of pipes and electronic voices. These styles are driven by the complexity of constraints and the philosophies of the purchasers and builders, and by the manner in which the inevitable compromises are reached. The constraints imposed on organ building include space, cost, musical style, and acoustics. Any of these factors may lead a purchaser to select a particular builder or a builder to accept or reject a contract. Some purchasers will only consider a builder that will supply an electric combination action. Some builders will only build in an acoustically sympathetic room. While the best criteria for judging the success of an instrument is its musicality, critics often judge an instrument based upon their individual preferences of era and national style. In an article describing the organ for California State University in Chico, Munetaka Yokota described the characteristics of a superior organ: The beauty of the best historical organs is manifested in the dynamic balance that arises from complex yet perfectly integrated proportions. The performer and listener can relate to the organ through its appearance, feeling, and sound, as we can relate to God s creation. We see that historically the direction of organ building moved away from this dynamically balanced art. Struggling to regain this important principle, which lies within and across styles and which distinguishes superior art from mediocre, we have recently learned a great deal about the elements of the historical organs. The qualifying factors which may lead to this principle of integration, other that the basic requirements of mechanical and structural functions, can be summarized as follows: A. All pipes speak at their most natural point, creating stable pitch and a wide latitude of good speed of pressure increase or decrease. B. acoustically; therefore, the entire organ cooperates fully and richly. 5 Perhaps all artisan builders wouldn t state these criteria in the same language, but the 5 Munetaka Yokota, California State University, Chico, in The Historical Organ in America: A Documentary of Recent Organs Based on European and American Models, ed. Lynn Edwards (Easthampton: The Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies, 1992),

9 central philosophy is the same regardless of the particular national style or era they find appealing. The principal characteristics of Taylor & Boody organs include tracker action, hammered lead alloy pipes, cut-to-length flues, soldered caps, flexible winding, unequal temperaments, slider chests with pipe groupings arranged by major thirds, and free-standing cases. This firm saws the lumber and smelts the metals for all components the only part constructed elsewhere is the electric blower. This provides the utmost control over every aspect of organ construction and results in quality for which they are constantly praised. Taylor & Boody s stature as an artisan builder of the highest rank and significance in the arena of historically informed design and construction is supported in print, recordings, and national reputation. Their work is worthy of examination because of this stature. I will demonstrate the value of these instruments by describing their importance within the art of organ building. I will begin by describing the education and training of George Taylor and John Boody, and how those experiences shaped the philosophy and methodology for organ design and construction. Both men benefited from working with John Brombaugh as partners until Brombaugh s move to Oregon, and both have come under the influence of Rudolph von Beckerath. George Taylor apprenticed with him, and John Boody apprenticed under Fritz Noack, a former von Beckerath craftsman, now master builder on his own. In addition to these apprenticeships, both men have undertaken trips to Europe to take exhaustive measurements while examining important historical instruments. Taylor and Boody also participated in the project to dismantle the Schnitger organ in the Aa-Kerk in Gronigen, The Netherlands. These experiences have contributed to the wealth of knowledge and understanding these men possess of the design and construction of historic North European organ builders. This understanding has 4

10 informed their choice to follow historic models and methods in new organ design and construction. I will defend Taylor & Boody on a musical and hand-crafted quality basis, relying on the evidence of highly regarded representative instruments. I propose that the historically informed techniques of employing hammered metal pipes, slider chests, flexible wind, free-standing organ cases and sophisticated unequal tuning can provide those musical qualities that are the properties of a successful instrument, and a respected and admired style and valuable influence on other philosophies of North American organ building. 5

11 CHAPTER II A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ORGAN The work and worry that fell to my lot through the practical interest I took in organ-building made me wish that I had never troubled myself about it, but if I did not give it up the reason is that the struggle for the good organ is to me a part of the struggle for the truth. Albert Schweitzer, How did we arrive at this present age? The North European organ as we know it, with one or more claviers for the hands and often including a pedal clavier for the feet, began its long road of development in the late Middle Ages. Early examples would have sounded every pipe situated on its key channel when the associated key was depressed, as there was no stop mechanism to shut off the various rows (ranks) of what we now call the blockwerk. One of the first developments was the stop, which opened or closed the individual rank by means of a slider which ran under the toeboard of the windchest. The earliest organs allowed the lowest pitches of this monolithic principal chorus, or blockwerk, to be controlled individually, and the highest pitches were controlled as a compound stop. The controlling action of the individual pitches was entirely mechanical, with a tracker connecting the key to the windchest via a rollerboard which distributed the action to either side of the chest. This allowed the organ builder to balance the chest for wind supply, to build the windchests more compactly, and to arrange the note layout of the chest to avoid the drawing 6 Stephen Bicknell, Organ Building Today, in The Cambridge Companion to the Organ, ed. Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 82. 6

12 effect of adjacent semitones. The keydesk was built into the base of the case as an integral part of the frame, case, and action. Metal pipes were constructed from castings of lead sheets which were hammered to change the molecular structure of the metal and to provide an irregular interior surface. Both of these properties in conjunction with the weight of the lead helped to encourage a vocal sound from the organ. The case was an integral part of the organ and served to blend, focus, and project the sound into the space, and to protect the internal workings of the organ from damage. One major development of the fifteenth-century organ in Northern Europe was the pedal clavier. This invention allowed the feet to assist in playing a bass line utilizing a manual pulldown connection or independent pedal registers, or by contributing a distinct voice in playing polyphony or a cantus firmus. Many improvements in the form of imitative voices were developed throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the discovery of scale the relationship of the diameter of a pipe to its length allowed for the expansion of the palette of colors from principals to flutes and strings. The blockwerk was gradually divided into more independent stops, though it usually included at least one compound mixture stop. The organ continued to be built by small shops of skilled craftsmen in this form until the mid-nineteenth century, allowing for variations in regional taste and function. Nicholas Thistlethwaite described pre-eighteenth-century organ building this way: By 1700 a comparison of organs in leading European cities would reveal extraordinary contrast of scale, disposition, effect and function, and yet, despite unmistakable regional characteristics and local preferences (suspended key actions in France, separate Pedal cases in Hamburg, en chamade reeds in Spain and Portugal) the technology of the organ remained essentially that inherited from the late-mediaeval builders. Some innovations had been tried (couplers, ventils, tremulants, toy stops, transmission) and, of course, tonally, the organ of 1700 was radically different from that of 1500 in many respects, but the technology was essentially the same and provided a 7

13 foundation upon which the leading builders of the late seventeenth century raised regional organ cultures of great refinement and distinction. 7 The first major shift in organ action occurred in the 1840s when Aristide Cavaillé-Coll began to build a large organ for the church of St. Denis in Paris. The expressive control and dynamic range that he promised to the purchasers required increased wind pressures and rendered his instrument nearly unplayable with manuals coupled. Fortuitously, Charles Barker, an English inventor showed his pneumatic engine to Cavaillé-Coll and demonstrated that the Barker lever could reduce the force required by the player using many stops and coupled keyboards to a movement similar to a piano, and Cavaillé-Coll immediately bought rights to use it, saving his instrument from ruin. 8 This invention made possible the extremes of dynamic range that the musicians of the Romantic era wanted for the organ which in turn provided the origin of the French symphonic crescendo. It was also the first step in divorcing the keydesk from the body of the instrument, if only by a few feet, and the first step in separating the physical connection between the player and the pallet. The second shift arrived when organ builders realized that the pneumatic engine could replace rather than merely assist the heavy mechanical action. Tubular pneumatic action used the same pneumatic engine principle, but replaced the mechanical linkages with lead tubes which conducted the controlling pressurized air from console to chest. From this point it was a small step to applying pneumatic engines to stop control, and for allowing even more remote placement of chests through the use of pneumatic relays. The action was often very slow and allowed only minimum control of the pallet by the performer. 7 Nicholas Thistlethwaite, Origins and Development of the Organ, in The Cambridge Companion to the Organ, ed. Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), Nicholas Thistlethwaite, Origins and Development of the Organ, in The Cambridge Companion to the Organ, ed. Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 13. 8

14 The third shift occurred with the use of electricity and magnets to replace the lead tubing, and the transfer of the primary pneumatic engine into the chest. This type of action was experimental in the 1860s and was developed simultaneously by many builders into the twentieth century. This action was faster than tubular pneumatic, but the action was also more immediately opened and closed, and dependent entirely on the properties of the magnets and pneumatics, with no subtle control over the pallet s quality of movement by the performer. It allowed for an infinitely greater number of stops and higher wind pressures because the performer s ease at the console was no longer affected by the resistance of the pallets. It also allowed an even greater separation between the console and pipes, which led to the practice of abandoning the organ case and enclosing the divisions of the organ in chambers. This action is the most widely used in the United States because of the capacity of most components to be mass-manufactured and the market dominance of the large organ manufacturers located in the United States. These practices were the result of organ builders pursuit of expressiveness by providing a wide range of dynamic control and spatial effects. Frequently, the architecture of churches in the United States contributed to problems of organ placement and forced many compromises detrimental to the distribution of organ sound. In the early years of the twentieth century, many builders took advantage of the latest technology to build massive orchestrally-inspired instruments, though most builders still employed mechanical action for smaller organs. At the same time, the first murmurings of the organ reform movement were being heard in Europe, especially after Albert Schweitzer s book The Art of Organ Building and Organ Playing in Germany and France was published in The first attempts to return to classical organ ideals were constructed by G. Donald Harrison of the Aeolian-Skinner company and by Walter Holtkamp of the Holtkamp Organ Company in the 9

15 late 1930s. These early efforts appeared to be more of a reaction to the heavy sounds of the symphonic organ an anti-romantic position than a true emulation of classic organ building. The result was the self-stylized American Classic organ, which claimed to be able to render the music of all major schools authentically. This type of organ was characterized by the absence of reeds on the Great and Positive, articulate voicing on these divisions, and often the Positive was exposed not in an organ chamber. The swell division was supplied with Romantic-era strings and French reeds. In the late 1950s, many people in the United States organ world were delighted with the recordings made by E. Power Biggs on the Flentrop organ imported from Holland for the Busch- Reisinger Museum at Harvard University. The enthusiasm for this organ became the catalyst for a full decade of European imports for churches and universities across the country until a new generation of American artisan builders began to produce organs of outstanding merit. Charles Fisk produced the first wave of American organs that attempted to return to classical organ design and construction after completing a thorough and scientific study of historic European instruments. Many builders of his generation and the next, notably Fritz Noack and John Brombaugh, completed training or apprenticeships with European builders and proceeded to convey what they had learned to their colleagues and students. By the 1980s all organ building traditions extant in 2008 had been established. The major division of these traditions occurs over construction methods those of the large manufacturer and those of the small shop or artisan builder. The large organ manufacturers primarily produced electric and electro-pneumatic action organs which attempted to emulate the sounds of a particular national style or era, or continued in the American Classic style or massive symphonic style. The artisan builder usually followed one era within an historically informed tradition of organ building-whether Dutch, North 10

16 German, Central German, French or American. Taylor & Boody sprang from this milieu of widely divergent organ building in The following chapters will describe the origins of their style, discuss the historical methods that inform their work, and their contributions to other styles of organ building. 11

17 CHAPTER III IN THE BEGINNING: BIOGRAPHIES OF GEORGE TAYLOR AND JOHN BOODY Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities. William Bridges George Keith Taylor was born in Richmond, Virginia to Richard Taylor and Virginia White on April 26, He attended Woodberry Forest School and graduated with a degree in sociology at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia in He was the assistant organist at Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church in Lexington during his college years. Upon graduation he received a study grant from the Ford Foundation that provided support for three-and-a-half years as an apprentice with Rudolf von Beckerath in Hamburg, Germany, where he studied until When his apprenticeship was completed, he returned to Amelia,Virginia, and rebuilt an 1896 Moline which was formerly located in the old Porter Street Presbyterian Church and moved it to Amelia Presbyterian Church. In 1970 he began work with John Brombaugh & Company in Middletown, Ohio, and soon became a partner. He continued with Brombaugh until 1977 when Brombaugh moved to Eugene, Oregon. He started Taylor Organbuilders with John Boody in May of George Taylor married Carol Anne Harris from England in June, George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May

18 Organ building was in his blood. In his own words: It is a disease. Once you catch it, you're fairly caught. I've been really caught up with it since I was a youngster. I played the organ; I was interested in how the pipe organ worked as early as 1956 when I was in my early teens. 10 When Taylor was a senior in high school he met Susanne Bunting, the university organist of the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. The university was waiting for the new German-built Rudolf von Beckerath organ to be installed at Canon Chapel. When the von Beckerath organ arrived, he helped install it. The arrival of this instrument was the inspiration for Taylor to decide on a career in organbuilding. He was fascinated by what he saw and believed that "this was by far above the best thing I had ever seen." 11 It was during his time in Germany apprenticing with von Beckerath that he decided that mechanical action was superior to electric or electro-pneumatic actions. While at Washington & Lee restoration of the college chapel was begun with a grant from the Ford Foundation Fund. The restoration architect from Boston asked that New England organbuilder Charles Fisk perform the restoration. Barbara Owen came to Lexington to appraise the organ and suggested enlarging it to a two manual instrument, possibly by adding a Rückpositiv. Instead, Taylor advised that Lawrence Walker from Richmond only restore and repair the organ to make it fully playable. Taylor believed that the organ, a one-manual Henry Erben built in 1872, should be restored without out-of-character additions. This was the beginning of his interest in preserving the integrity of historical instruments. After his apprenticeship, Taylor returned to the United States in His first project was to rebuild an old organ from Richmond, Virginia, built by the Moline Organ Co. He moved 10 Jeffrey Hanna, "Stepping Forward into the Past," in W&L, The Alumni Magazine of Washington and Lee University 58, no. 5 (September 1983): George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May

19 the instrument to his grandparents' home church, Amelia Presbyterian, which had never possessed an organ. This project was not performed according to his current standard, but used a philosophy and technique more in keeping with Alan Laufman and The Organ Clearing House- an organization that seeks to relocate serviceable organs in churches on a budget often with a few improvements, which are not always performed with the best conservation method. The revised organ had nine stops, eight in the Great and one in the Pedal. Taylor did not trust himself to voice the principals and asked von Beckerath to do it. Taylor recalled: I invited Rudolf von Beckerath to help me voice it. Norman Ryan and some other people were with us. And he worked on the 8' Principal, the 8' Gedackt, the 4' Octave, and the Mixture. He completed those in a day and a half. He voiced the Mixture in one afternoon. I asked him; do not make it too loud. It was the first organ ever in that county. He had a wonderful time. I asked him for some guidelines to finish the organ. And he did a wonderful job on the organ He got more soul into the sound. We drank a lot, stayed up late, drank more and had a good time. He liked being with me. In his case that was always reflected in the work he was doing. If you kept the martinis flowing, you could expect a good organ. After that people said, well of course you are going to start a business. Oh no, I loved organ building and knew more than most people, but I wasn t so sure George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May

20 John Hanson Boody was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, to Phillip Cutler Boody and Esther Hanson Boody on March 1, He attended high school in Wakefield, Massachusetts and attended the University of Maine. He majored in forestry for one year then switched, graduating with a B.A. in music in He married Janet Reed from Moylen, Pennsylvania on June 16, During vacations in the years 1966 through 1970 he worked with organ builder Fritz Noack, except for thirteen months between 1968 and 1970 when he served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He began work with John Brombaugh in 1971 and soon became a partner. When Brombaugh decided to move his operation to Oregon, Boody joined George Taylor as a partner in Taylor Organbuilders in 1977, which became Taylor & Boody Organbuilders in Boody s interest in organs began in Wakefield at the First Baptist Church, where he sang in the choirs. The organ was an 1862 E. and G.G. Hook and Hastings tracker action organ of 25 stops, two manuals, and pedal. He acquired more experience with the organ in the Church of the Transfiguration in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. This church had a tracker organ, and Boody helped to get the organ ready for the summer by helping the organist tune and adjust the trackers. His first foray into building musical instruments began while in college. He built a harpsichord and clavichord for the music department from early Zuckermann kits. Boody recalls: "They needed them, and I was the one interested in doing it." 14 John Brombaugh was working for Charles Fisk at the time and introduced Boody to Fisk and Fritz Noack. On Brombaugh s recommendation, Noack accepted Boody as an intern for the summer of 1967 and continued during the winter, spring, and summer breaks of Most of his work with Noack involved relocating old Maine organs. 13 John Boody, interview by author, 14 May Ibid. 15

21 Boody recalled his experiences with Noack: I first started out leathering Subbass stoppers. But soon I started making wooden chests, wooden pipes and Posaune resonators. So, at the Noack shop I had some basic tool making and woodworking experiences. When I got out of college in the summer of 1968, we did a rebuild of an organ in Massachusetts, and made it from one-manual to a two-manual. Today we would be shocked if we did that kind of work on a historical organ. George Bozeman and I did that project, as he worked for Fritz Noack too. Already that second summer, Fritz let me free-ride. We changed the stops, changed the case, and, for my honeymoon, my wife and I installed the organ. We worked on quite a number of organs for Fritz. Then his shop moved from Andover to Georgetown [Massachusetts]. We built a house organ for Lee Hastings Bristol. I worked on the Worcester three-manual organ he built. I made a lot of windchests for that. We used a lot of plywood at that time. Fritz is a modern German-style builder. He learned from von Beckerath too. Von Beckerath was the world leader then, and Noack was an open kind of person; he took a lot of different people [into his shop]. And he had done a lot of important projects here in this country that, so we thought, had a link with history. But of course, what John Brombaugh was doing was to use the influence of Klaas Bolt and Harald Vogel and turn his organs into real historical-style organs. 15 After graduation, Boody completed an independent project to restore a ten-stop Hook and Hastings organ for the University of Maine. Brombaugh encouraged Boody to join him in Ohio, but Boody s military service and family issues delayed his joining Brombaugh until John Boody, interview by author, 14 May

22 CHAPTER IV TAYLOR AND BOODY WORK WITH JOHN BROMBAUGH Craft: The irregular and intimate quality of things made entirely by the human hand. Willa Cather John Brombaugh's interest in organs began with the tracker organ in his boyhood church in southwestern Ohio. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Cincinnati and Cornell University. While at college he listened to the new organ recordings of Helmuth Walcha and E. Power Biggs on old Dutch and North German mechanical action organs, which began his interest in replicating those sounds. He apprenticed with Charles Fisk and worked as a journeyman with Rudolf von Beckerath in Hamburg before establishing his shop in Middletown, Ohio, in John Boody s responsibilities in the Brombaugh shop were centered on building the components of the organs, and he quickly assumed the position of foreman. George Taylor was primarily an organ designer, but was directly involved in voicing pipes and helping Brombaugh define the sound of a Brombaugh organ. 16 The alignment of these responsibilities later carried into the business practice of their own firm. The organ building industry in Europe relies on the system of apprenticeship for its craftsmen, a system which is entered upon completing a course in a technical high school. Most American builders have completed a university education prior to beginning the organ-building art. Taylor, in the dedication brochure of the organ for Yokohama, Opus 17, described the situation: 16 George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May

23 Many Japanese people are no doubt surprised that such a prestigious school as Ferris should buy an American organ. Indeed, American organ builders are popularly considered the stepchildren to the Europeans in this craft. But the judgment is not altogether fair. Over the past twenty-five years the art of organ building has flourished among a few firms in the United States. There the importance of emulating the European antique organs was understood sooner than it was in Europe where the steel grip of modernism still held sway. American builders were leaders in going beyond the limitations of the German neo-baroque style. Gradually a style emerged which gained respect beyond the borders of North America. This development was made possible partly because of the friendly cooperation among builders, and partly because Americans do not make the traditional distinction between uneducated craftsmen and academic experts. An American craftsman today frequently holds a degree from a university. Thus he or she is better equipped to understand the work in a cultural perspective, while at the same time keeping a hand on the materials and tools which express these ideas. 17 This is not to say that the apprenticeship system is unknown in the United States; all artisan builders have benefited from a period of employment with a master builder. The difference is that the European system is very strictly defined, and the opportunities in U.S. companies are more diverse and fluid, allowing the interests of the apprentice to choose a course. 17 George Taylor, Ferris University, Yokohama Dedication Booklet, December 4,

24 CHAPTER V THE DIVERGENCE But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time. Mitch Albom. On July 4, 1976, Brombaugh hosted Harald Vogel and Klaas Bolt in his shop for a celebration of the newly completed organ for Central Lutheran Church in Eugene, Oregon. This was the last day that the organ was playable in the shop. The next day it was dismantled, crated, and shipped to Eugene for installation and voicing. Brombaugh had planned on moving to the West Coast, but he had hesitated, knowing that everybody might not follow him. When the organ was fully loaded, there was some space left in the truck. Boody went up to the office and told Brombaugh: way: Now here's your chance, you ve got half a truck; you have to pay for the whole truck to get it out there. Now do you want the pipe-shop materials or not? And he said: Put it on. And that's how that decision was made. So we shipped off the pipe-shop to the West coast, you see, all the shears and the heavy equipment. It is really interesting, those moments when things get decided. 18 Taylor and Boody were not willing to move to the West Coast. Taylor recalled it in this John Brombaugh decided to move, and Boody and I were both the sort of people who believed in what he was doing and wanted to help him do that. But we weren't particularly interested in moving to the West Coast, and he tried to tell us that that was the only thing worth doing. He loved it out there. But we were both East Coast people, and John Brombaugh was so determined that he forced us, wanted us so passionately to believe in it and didn't we agree. So we said: We weren't so sure. But perhaps if he hadn't forced us so strongly, like, eat this food and like it. There's something within me that 18 John Boody, interview by author, 14 May

25 says: I don't like it and maybe I don't have to like this. So, independently, both John Boody and I decided that we really didn't want to make that move. 19 In the summer of 1976 while finishing the Central Lutheran organ, George Taylor was given permission by Brombaugh to pursue negotiations for a small organ for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, because Brombaugh was not very interested in building a small organ. A recommendation was needed, because the church was reluctant to engage a soon-to-be independent builder with little cash and no established reputation. He was fortunate to acquire a recommendation from Charles Fisk. Taylor recalled what happened: And Charles [Fisk] told them: I can't build you the organ you want, but if you would like me to suggest another firm, I will. They wrote him back and asked him, please do. So Charles Fisk wrote to me, and asked me, What I am to say? I was on the West Coast and hadn't made up my mind, you see. And then, John Brombaugh made up my mind for me, so I wrote to Charles and said: Go ahead; tell them I want the job. Charles then wrote them a priceless letter, which said: "If you can possibly persuade George Taylor to build an organ for you, you should search no further." This was just the kind of compliment I needed. I was thrilled with that job. But they didn't sign the contract for another year and a half. 20 The first job that the new partners did together was the releathering of the schwimmers (wind stabilizers) in the Rudolph von Beckerath organ of the Canon Chapel at the University of Richmond in Virginia. Brombaugh then gave Taylor and Boody the partnership's contract to build an organ for the Presbyterian Church of Coshocton, Ohio. Taylor and Boody traveled to Europe in 1977 and attended Harald Vogel's Nord- Deutsche Orgel Akademie in Bunde. While they were in Groningen, they were asked to dismantle the world-famous Arp Schnitger organ of the Aa-Kerk. The church was being restored and the organ had to be removed for safekeeping. The contract was awarded by Cor Edskes, who entrusted the new partners with the work, most likely to avoid jealousies among Dutch 19 George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May

26 firms. They inspected, photographed, and measured pipes and mechanical parts of the historic organ. The organ contained Schnitger material from 1702 and older stops dating back to the 16th century. It was an invaluable experience of access to historic organ building. George Taylor recalled the experience: We did the Coshocton organ with a lot of ideas from that experience. And so, in a way, Edskes kind of used us to get us to do what he wanted to do, but at the same time he saw if he gave us some fresh ideas we would go back and make some good organs. Cor Edskes is funny; he has so much information and kind of keeps it to himself. But he liked us; we were the young organ builders, and we were not politically loaded, not part of a Dutch organ company. He did not want to be tied up with some Dutch organ company taking the stuff out. I think that he wanted to decide how the organ was going to be put back together all by himself. I don't know if he thought he was going to do it [all by] himself. 21 The consultant for the new organ at Coshocton was Fenner Douglass, at that time professor of organ at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He was able to convince the church that a tracker action instrument would be the best choice. In the dedication brochure, Douglass wrote an elaborate description of the pitfalls of the electric and pneumatic actions that had downgraded organs. About the new organ he wrote: The new Taylor organ is a thing of beauty to behold. It is entirely made by hand and designed to fit into the restricted space available for it. It will, with proper care, survive the passage of fashion. What is most important is that it consists only of what is essential. There will be no need to remove it, sell it, or change it to satisfy the whim of a future generation. Rather, its design is so simple and its operation so clearly efficient that it will need nothing more than normal loving care and occasional tuning. 22 The organ was dedicated on May 20, 1979, at the time of the rededication of the extensively refurbished church (acoustical improvements were made to the church, such as the installation of a new solid oak platform in the center of the church). Recitals were given by Fenner Douglass on May 19 and George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May Fenner Douglas, The Presbyterian Church of Coshocton, Ohio Dedication booklet,

27 Taylor reflected on this organ: Coshocton had pipes from Stinkens. I will never forget the day that Harald came to see that organ. We made our own reeds. You should hear that organ sometime; it has the biggest, fattest trumpet you ever heard. Sounds like a tuba, a sackbut. And ugly in the middle. But it had something; it had warmth there. But those [Stinkens] pipes were not well-made, and it took Harald Vogel to explain to me how badly they had been made, because he listened to the organ and asked me: "What's wrong?" and he went up inside. And he has always been a good critic, to listen to our organs and say exactly what he thought. Sometimes he likes them better than others, and he is always fair in saying; you really need to work on this. We looked inside, and it was of course the pipes. When you have only built one organ, you expect it to be the best thing ever, and it is very hard to take criticism, especially from someone you respect. But he was right, absolutely right. And criticism is the only thing that is really interesting. You know, real, heartfelt, caring criticism. You have done a good job here, but you need to improve on this. We looked at those pipes, and there was no overbite on the upper lip. The pipes were made with the upper parts too far back. Furthermore, the windways were too narrow and there wasn't any way to change this arrangement, and thus, there was no way to make the pipes sing ideally. The pipes work all right, but it's not a great sound, and you could never get great intensity or power out of them. 23 It took Brombaugh & Associates. Inc. another year to send out the following press release, dated March 28, 1978: John Brombaugh & Co., formerly a partnership for building tracker organs near Middletown, Ohio, was reorganized in the summer of Former partner Herman Greunke is curator of organs and harpsichords at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Partners George K. Taylor and John H. Boody have a new shop for tracker organbuilding at 7422 Elk Creek Road, Middletown, OH known as Taylor Organbuilders, and are presently constructing instruments going to Coshocton, Ohio, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Vincennes, Indiana. John Brombaugh & Associates, Inc., relocated to the Pacific Northwest with present shop in Springfield, Oregon (Mailing address: 2932 Wingate, Eugene, OR 97401). Although the former group is now in three locations, they remain as close friends collaborating on various research projects to advance the state of the art of building fine pipe organs George Taylor, interview by author, Staunton, Va., 14 May Newspaper clipping from the files of Taylor & Boody Organbuilders. 22

28 CHAPTER VI THE TAYLOR & BOODY COMPANY IS ESTABLISHED You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go. from Oh, the Places You'll Go! Dr. Seuss. After a year in Middletown, Ohio, Taylor & Boody relocated to Staunton, Virginia in a former schoolhouse after a successful appeal for a variance to local zoning regulations. The building required massive repair effort and was renovated to accommodate the diverse activities of organ building, including a metal casting room, voicing room, woodworking shop and a multistory assembly room. With a permanent and well-fitted home for their organ building enterprise, the company was ready to accept ever larger contracts. The organ building philosophy of this young company was taking a more concrete form as the workshop took form. Here are Taylor's reflections about his company, after finishing an organ for Yokohama, Japan: The design of the Ferris organ is not copied from any particular instrument. Like all of our work, it reflects our interpretation of those things we like in the work of our teachers and colleagues, past and present. In this sense it is eclectic. Our choices are personal and arbitrary, reflecting our interests, tastes and understanding at the time of the project. Years ago we learned that when we set out to copy someone else's work directly, the product is never convincingly exact. The experiment can be instructive but is nevertheless influenced by what we consider important and what we overlook in the original. Like it or not, the results are always our own. Thus, we do not purport to make copies George Taylor, Ferris Girl s School, in The Historical Organ in America: A Documentary of Recent Organs Based on European and American Models, ed. Lynn Edwards (Easthampton: The Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies, 1992),

29 John Brombaugh believes that there cannot be an all-purpose organ capable of playing the music of the various schools authentically. In his opinion, a builder should study one organ building style until he is comfortable, and design and build continuing in that style. 26 Stephen Bicknell wrote about John Brombaugh s instruments: A Brombaugh organ had all the virtues of purity, plus elaborately carved historical casework, luxurious details executed in precious timbers, and many exuberantly cranky touches in direct imitation of the eccentricities of the Renaissance and Early Baroque amongst them unsteady or free wind and unequal temperament. 27 In a similar vein, Taylor & Boody want to produce instruments encompassing the best of past principles and the best ideas their imaginations can muster, not copies of earlier organs. They are trying to interpret historical models for modern-day use. 28 The organ ideal that both Taylor & Boody consider beautiful is represented by the historic organs of Northern Europe, initially acquired during their apprenticeships and expanded in the Brombaugh workshop. This ideal often places these men in the strictest current of historically informed organ building, though there are examples of more eclectic design in their work. Taylor & Boody is working for its customers, and the demands of particular instruments may cause the firm to consider broader approaches. Taylor & Boody is following directly in Brombaugh s footsteps by adopting the philosophy of building in one historical tradition, though George Taylor had already embarked along that path during his apprenticeship with Rudolph von Beckerath, and indeed had been captivated by the von Beckerath organ in Canon Chapel, University of Richmond during its 26 Marga Jeanne Morris Kienzle, The Life and Work of John Brombaugh, Organ Builder (DMA Diss., University of Cincinnati, 1984), Stephen Bicknell, Joe Kennedy, "Putting the Art Back in the Organ," Tempo, Roanoke Times & World News, October 23,

30 installation. Taylor & Boody have assimilated seventeenth and eighteenth century methods of North European organ building into its own distinctive style. The central core of its organ sound is firmly rooted in a principal chorus inspired by the Schnitger organs built for the protestant churches of North Germany, where the organ was required to lead congregational singing. Consequently, the principal sound is warm and rich, and builds to a cheerful brightness with the addition of higher-pitched stops. While many of their instruments display the influence of the Hamburger Prospekt of Schnitger-styled organ cases, they can incorporate more eclectic sounds borrowed from other European traditions, though they rarely cross the boundaries of traditional national schools. John Boody described their philosophy: Build a good organ, and people will listen to it no matter what. Build a responsive key action that works well and make the sounds provocative. Because the differences in regional building style are slight. We have never deviated from the basic Germanic style of voicing of the principals and the composition of the mixtures. 29 The argument of some purists would be that the eclectic organ is just an amalgamation of stops without tonal coherence and integrity. John Boody countered this position. He claimed that the stoplist and character of the type of eclectic organ that Taylor & Boody has built resembles a Hildebrandt organ, though a division might be enclosed in a swellbox. The Schnitger organ is the basic model, with some influence of three or four other historic organs without mixing national styles. John Boody described their work in these words: The importance of the artisan builder is related to the craftsmanship and in the total expression of all the details of the organ. Some builders have an idea about an organ, draw up the plans and order parts from an organ supply house. With Taylor & Boody, you are not only getting an organ, but also an American craft object with vast decorative detail. It is an intense way of working John Boody, interview by author, 14 May John Boody, interview by author, 14 May

31 The concept of the organ as a craft object is a defining principle of the artisan builders and is the key element that the large manufacturers often try to emulate. The large builders would like to acquire a share of this market, but have not been able thus far to incorporate all aspects of this ideal. 26

32 CHAPTER VII CHARACTERISTICS OF A TAYLOR & BOODY ORGAN The organ is nothing but a machine, whose machine-made sounds will always be without interest unless they can appear to be coming from a living organism. The organ has to seem to be alive. Charles Fisk 31 One of the first characteristics an organist notices after the initial visual impact of an instrument is the quality of the keyboard action. Absolutely essential to the shaping of music is an articulate and responsive key action. Most historic organs used a suspended action, where the tracker connection was suspended from the pallet to the midpoint of a long key hinged at the back. Taylor & Boody has always employed suspended actions of this type in the keyboards, even for Rückpositiv actions, with stickers positioned below the back ends of keys. After early attempts with some of the action constructed of aluminum, the action has since been fabricated entirely of wood. The trackers are usually constructed from old and stable wooden organ pipes. In some instruments the rollerboards are slanted to simplify the action and provide easy access to the pallet box in the back of the windchest, an innovation learned at Brombaugh s shop. Following the practice learned from John Brombaugh, the natural keys are covered with cow shinbone, which unlike ivory never yellows or becomes brittle. Cow bone lasts indefinitely and displays a pattern similar to woodgrain. The black keys are usually made of Gabon ebony. 31 Charles Fisk, The Organ s Breath of Life, in The Tracker Organ Revival in America, ed. Uwe Pape (Berlin: Pape Verlag. 1985),