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New Organs

October 17, 2011
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Kegg Pipe Organ Builders, Hartville, Ohio Private Residence, Palm Springs, California

Kegg Pipe Organ Builders, 

Hartville, Ohio

Private Residence, Palm Springs, California

Traditionally, American residence organs have taken one of two roads. In the first half of the twentieth century, the Aeolian company specialized in a style of organ that was heard but not seen. The pipes were typically in fairly remote chambers, and the music was mostly intended to provide a luxurious background to some other activity around the house. Scaling and voicing could be done in a normal or even aggressive way, relying on distance to blend and mellow the final result.

In the second half of the century, with the advent of the Organ Reform movement, a residence organ became much less of an entertainment device (radio and recordings had filled that role) and more of a practice instrument. Crisp, responsive key actions were far more important than variety of color, and many an organist spent countless hours training his fingers and feet to control two eight-foot flutes while his mind’s ear heard Schnitger.

The function of the new Kegg organ for a private residence in Palm Springs, California, falls somewhere between these two. The client uses it to practice, yes. But his organ playing is something he does purely for pleasure, not a first or even second job. It is nearly impossible in these pages to find the term “unification” without the qualifier “judicious” close at hand. The Palm Springs organ goes beyond simply embracing the unit organ concept: it exploits it! Even this electric-action unit organ needs to be responsive and meticulously regulated to encourage good technique, but it also must be beautiful to listen to, musical in its own right, and visually cooperative with the guest suite whose 16 x 24 space it shares.

It begins with taking into account that the requirements of this organ differ significantly from a church organ of the same size. There is no congregation to lead in singing, no choir to accompany, no bride to bring down the aisle, and no Easter Sunday postlude, although all of that music will probably be played.  

The specification is built around trying to extract as many different color combinations as possible from the resources available. All eight of the ranks are quite similar in volume, so that any given pair of stops drawn from them has a reasonable chance at sounding balanced. The two flute stops in particular change construction frequently in order to emphasize different colors at different pitch ranges. They include stopped wood, capped metal, chimney flute, koppelflute, spitzflute, open and harmonic pipes. The Viola and Celeste are scaled small enough to have a definite string tone, but are voiced gently enough to beguile even a listener standing directly in front of them. The Quinte is voiced to work well with the Octave in the wired Mixture, providing a satisfying but not earsplitting top end to the ensemble. The unenclosed Principal gives a solid foundation to the rest of the organ with the shades open, but also sings a rich velvety solo line, particularly in the tenor range, when the shades are closed. Finally, the capped Flugelhorn walks the fine line of being able to simulate “full Swell” as a chorus reed, or play solo melodies against a variety of accompaniment registrations. 

Two other components are crucial to the success of this instrument: a very effective swell box, and a virtually silent, well-regulated tremulant. A great deal of care was taken in making the swell box as airtight as possible. The bottom 15 pipes of the 16 flute are wood, and mounted horizontally behind the swell box, with their mouths speaking into it. The 16 swell shades are operated noiselessly in 32 stages by an electric shade motor.

At a small dinner party the evening the tonal finishing was completed, the client chose as his opening selection Alec Wyton’s arrangement of the Billy Strayhorn tune, “Lotus Blossom.” We did not hear an organ preparing a player for a real performance somewhere else. We heard an instrument completely content with its surroundings, happy to get out of its own way and let the beautiful music sing for itself. And that is a deeply rewarding experience for our company of organ builders.

—Fredrick Bahr

 

Kegg Pipe Organ Builders

Charles Kegg, President*

Fredrick Bahr, Tonal Director*

Philip Brown

Michael Carden

Joyce Harper*

Philip Laakso

Thomas Mierau*

Bruce Schutrum

*members, American Institute of Organbuilders

 

Kegg Pipe Organ Builders

1184 Woodland St., SW

Hartville, OH 44632

330/877-8800

[email protected]

www.keggorgan.com

Tonal Resources

1. 8 Principal (unenclosed) 61 pipes

2. 16 Rohrflute 85 pipes

3. 4 Harmonic Flute GG 54 pipes

4. 8 Viola GG 42 pipes

5. 8 Viola Celeste TC 37 pipes

6. 4 Octave 73 pipes

7. 113 Quinte 49 pipes

8. 16 Flugelhorn 85 pipes

GREAT

16 Viola TC 4

8 Principal 1

8 Harmonic Flute 2 & 3

8 Rohrflute 2

8 Viola 4

8 Viola Celeste 5

4 Octave 6

4 Harmonic Flute 3

4 Rohrflute 2

2 Piccolo 3 & 6

III Mixture 6 & 7

8 Flugelhorn 8

Swell to Great 8

MIDI Ch. 1

MIDI Ch. 2

 

SWELL

8 Rohrflute 2

8 Viola 4

8 Viola Celeste 5

4 Principal 6

4 Harmonic Flute 3

223 Nazard 7

2 Octave 6

2 Flute 2 & 6

135 Tierce 2 & 6

113 Quinte 7

1 Fife 2 & 6

16 Bassoon 8

8 Flugelhorn 8

4 Hautbois 8

Tremulant

Swell 16, UO, 4

MIDI Ch. 3

PEDAL

16 Bourdon 2

8 Principal 1

8 Flute 2

8 Viola 4

4 Octave 1

2 Cantus Flute 3

16 Bassoon 8

8 Flugelhorn 8

4 Hautbois 8

Great to Pedal 8

Swell to Pedal 8, 4

MIDI Ch. 4

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