A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company, Lithonia, Georgia
Episcopal Church of the Advent, Madison, Georgia
Many who are familiar with our work will know us as a progressive firm that is building some respectably sized instruments. Our current contract book includes over 400 new ranks including a five-manual, a four-manual, several large three-manuals, and a couple of mid-sized two-manual organs. Large organs have their unique challenges and offer the opportunity to work on a large tonal and visual canvas. Our firm is grateful for this work and the opportunity to contribute to organbuilding in a meaningful and quantitative manner, and I would invite visits to our website to see some of these exciting projects.
However, I must confess that the small instrument has a great deal of allure in its challenge. In a large organ, the stop relationships can be more prescribed in their given roles. In a small organ, stops must be dual-natured chameleons to be truly effective. The instrument designed for the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Madison, Georgia, is such an organ. This instrument required much attention to the subtleties in stop design and voicing in this intimate worship space.
For those not familiar with the historic Georgian town of Madison, it is located directly on the route followed by William Tecumseh Sherman on his “March to the Sea” during the Civil War. This campaign resulted in very little pre-Civil War architecture being left in Georgia along the soldiers’ route. Madison would have been burned, except that the former U.S. Senator Joshua Hill was in residence in Madison and persuaded Sherman to spare the city. Local folklore today has residents referring to the city as “the town too pretty to burn.”
The Episcopal Church of the Advent in Madison also has an interesting history. The first church building on the present church grounds was built in the late 1820s for the Methodist Episcopal Church. This frame building was replaced by the present brick edifice in the early 1840s. The property changed hands to the Christian Church in 1900 and later to the Episcopal Church in 1961. At this time there were alterations to the building evocative of elements of the historic Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in Virginia. Later alterations to the sanctuary included the building of a larger rear gallery in the 1993. The new gallery provided the possibility for a small central location for an instrument. Amidst the amalgam of architectural changes was a need for an organ design that would be at home even with divergent architectural styles. This is a modest-size building with a seating capacity of about 200 including the choir.
Our firm was one of several called to present ideas for an organ for Church of the Advent. The instrument would not be large but would need to serve the varied music needs of this parish. Our firm very strongly considered mechanical action for this instrument. However, it was clear that the space allocation would allow only a relatively small mechanical-action instrument, and there was a strong desire by the church for an instrument of larger size and tonal breadth. In the end we chose a case motif that was traditional, but a key action that would allow a larger stoplist and more generous scales due to flexibility of layout.
The tonal concept of the organ was jointly drawn up by Arthur Schlueter III and Carl Klein, consultant, to support organ literature as well as congregational and choral accompaniment. The organ contains 15 ranks and was conceived to provide the resources that are normally found in a much larger instrument while maintaining independence of choruses that is usually not found in a smaller instrument. We challenged ourselves that the two-manual instrument should have a complete principal chorus, a flute chorus, a string and companion celeste, a primary and secondary ensemble/solo reed, and adequate pedal with two 16¢ registers. This was a tall order for the small dimensions allowed for the organ case. We conceded that unification and duplexing would be important considerations in developing the specification desired by the church. However, it was important that our design maintain division independence and minimize octave parallel borrows within a division. For example, the Great divisional can be registered with principals, flutes and reeds at 16', 8', 8', 4', 4', 2', mixture II–III, reeds 8', 8' for congregational accompaniment without the presence of parallel borrows. The organ is conceived as a one-manual instrument duplexed to two manuals under one common expression, except for the unenclosed Great 8' Principal. This expressive treatment allows unique duplexing of organ stops. As an example, the Swell 8' Gedeckt plays as the 4' Gedeckt in the Great, and the Swell 8' Gemshorn plays as the 2' Octave in the Great. Our guiding intent was to allow divisional independence. Stop design, mixed materials (wood and metal), variable scales, and careful voicing allow for the full effectiveness of this tonal design.
The location of this organ would require a freestanding case that would have to find its place within the church architecture. I have often enjoyed the study of older American instruments and their builders’ choices to blend styles of architecture across many lines. Towards this end we chose to very loosely embody the work of organ design elements that would have been prevalent in the late 1700s to early 1800s. In effect, we used the design of the organ case as a temporal bridge between the 1700s and the 1800s.
The space allocated for the organ was 10' tall, about 12' wide, and 7' deep. Because the balcony location defined the proportion of width to height, it became important in the design to give a feeling of loft belied by the actual proportions of the organ case. This was accomplished by the careful placement of the individual façade pipe elements. The exposed façade pipes are all functional and are from the 8¢ Principal rank of the organ. Some of the pipes in the bass octave of the 8' Principal were internally haskelled, which enabled us to position the pipe mouths above the balcony rail to avoid a “stove pipe” look to the right and left of the organ case. This allows the pipes to remain an identifiable element that contributes to the design of the organ case. These pipes are finished silver with gold mouths. The carved pipe shades break up the visual weight of the organ case and again were designed to minimize the proportions of width to height to give the organ case a less weighty appearance. The carved pipe shades are loosely modeled after the work of early eastern United States organbuilders and are finished in antique gold to soften their visual impact against the case and gold-gilded pipe mouths. The organ case is built of mahogany with a light stain. The woods are designed to develop a natural umber as it ages with the church.
With the location of the choir on the side of the case, the organ was built with expression openings to the side of the case in addition to the front. With virtually all of the resources of the organ under common expression, a rich palette of resources is available for choral accompaniment.
The console is modeled after early American design and stop layout. Although older in appearance by design, the console incorporates numerous modern features for the convenience of the organist. These include transposer, multiple memory levels, and record/playback capability. In the design of the console we were very careful to consider the issue of sight lines. The layout of the balcony required the organ in the center and the choir to the left of the organ case. The space allocation would not allow a separate detached console without displacing choir members. The only viable choice was an attached console, but this left the question of what type of design. On a small instrument we built for Lumpkin United Methodist (II/9) in Lumpkin, Georgia, we had a simple keydesk with a vertical drawknob arrangement. In this instance, such a layout would create a major sight line issue between organist and choir. Our choice was a terraced drawknob design with the console body thrust rearward out of the case to allow a better sight line to the choir. This has allowed the organist to be able to see the majority of the choristers. Prior to building the console we built models of the organ console to assess the comfort of registration and sight line and make necessary adjustments to maximize those features. To minimize width and allow ease of stop registration, the drawknobs are limited to rows of seven on the horizontal spread and four rows on the vertical spread. The turned Macassar ebony drawknobs with oblique heads are positioned at a slight angle toward the performer. Careful attention to these details resulted in a console that is very comfortable to register and play.
The organ was scaled by Arthur Schlueter III. As is the practice of our firm, the tonal finishing of the organ was accomplished with several repeat trips to work with the pipes and then evaluate the results. We find that this method of tonal finishing results in a finer degree of voicing than is possible from one concentrated trip. The organ was tonally finished under the direction of Arthur Schlueter III, Daniel Angerstein, and John Tanner with input from Carl Klein.
The organ dedication service was played by Carl Klein, with members of the Atlanta St. Mark’s United Methodist Church Choir and music ministry, under the direction of Gary Arnold. The major donation for this instrument was in memory of Michael A. McDowell, who served as organist for St. Mark’s Church for many years. Members of Mr. McDowell’s family were present for the organ dedication service. His Episcopal family was originally from Madison and found the gift of this organ to be a fitting honor to his service in the ministry of music. The members of the Schlueter family and firm would like to express our appreciation to the all of the participants that enabled this instrument to be placed in the service to God.
The A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company was founded in 1973 and is located in Lithonia, Georgia. “Soli Deo Gloria” was incorporated into our corporate seal to remind ourselves and others of why we build these instruments for worship. As we have discussed in previous articles, the building of an instrument is not the result of one person’s efforts but the work of a team of artisans. In this regard, our firm is truly fortunate.
A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company wishes to acknowledge contributions to this organ installation: Loree Reed, Rector, Episcopal Church of the Advent; the organ selection committee; Carl Klein, organ consultant.
—Arthur Schlueter III
A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company staff:
Art Schlueter Jr., president
Arthur Schlueter III, vice president/ tonal and artistic direction
John Tanner, vice president of production/tonal finisher
Howard Weaver, senior design engineer
Bob Parris, executive assistant
Shan Dalton, office manager/administrative assistant
Katrina Thornton, financial secretary
Barbara Sedlacek, office support
Patty Conley, marketing, sales, relay wiring
Rob Black, master cabinetmaker/organ engineering
Jeffrey Chilcutt, CNC operator
Mark Montour, woodwright
Rick Peterson, woodwright
Carlos Inestroza, assistant woodwright
Marc Conley, production supervisor
Bud Taylor, assistant production supervisor
Al Schroer, voicing, tuning and service, organ assembly
Bob Weaver, tuning and service, assembly and leathering
Kevin Cartwright, tuning and service, assistant voicer
Dallas Wood, tuning assistant, organ assembly
Sam Polk, tuning assistant, organ assembly
Joe Sedlacek, Sr., console wiring
Joe Sedlacek, Jr., console wiring
Michael DeSimone, leathering, assembly
Dustin Carlisle, reservoir assembly and leathering
Kelvin Cheatham, parts assembly, wood finisher
Jorge Sandoval, parts assembly, leathering
Wilson Luna, parts assembly, relay and chest wiring
Norma Renteria, parts assembly, chest wiring, leathering
Ruth Lopez, parts assembly, leathering
Mike Ray, electronics technician
Herb Ridgely, Jr., sales and support staff
Don Land, sales and support staff
Richard Stewart, sales and support staff
Photo credit: Patty Conley
The firm can be contacted at:
A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company
P.O. Box 838
Lithonia, GA 30058
(800) 836-2726
GREAT
16'Gedeckt (Sw)
8' Principal
8' Harmonic Flute (Bourdon bass)
8' Gemshorn (Sw)
8' Gemshorn
Celeste (Sw)
4' Octave
4' Gedeckt (Sw)
2' Super Octave (Gemshorn)
III Cornet (Sw)
II–III Mixture 11⁄3' (159 pipes)
8' Trompete (Sw)
8 Hautbois (Sw)
Swell to Great 16'
Swell to Great 8'
Swell to Great 4'
SWELL
16' Gedeckt (ext)
8' Gemshorn
8' Gemshorn Celeste
8' Gedeckt
4' Fugara (ext)
4' Spitz Flute (37 pipes)
2' Nazard
2' Block Flute (24 pipes)
13⁄5' Tierce
11⁄3' Quint
16' Basson-Hautbois (ext)
8' Trompete
8' Hautbois
Tremulant
PEDAL
16' Subbass
8' Octave (Gt)
8' Gemshorn (Sw)
8' Gedeckt (Sw)
4' Octave (Gt)
4' Harmonic Flute (Gt)
2' Octave (Gt)
16' Basson-Hautbois (Sw)
8' Trompete (Sw)
4' Trompete (Sw)
4' Hautbois (Sw)
2' Hautbois (Sw)
Great to Pedal 8'
Swell to Pedal 8'
