organ issues

As mentioned last time, the pedal division of our instrument has issues. Mostly, they are now resolved. It took me all day.

It needed to be done: this Sunday's voluntaries, the Kyrie - Christe - Kyrie from the Clavierübung of Bach, are in the key of E flat, and the three worst-offending notes were E flat, A flat, and B flat. In practice on Sunday evening and Tuesday, the pieces sounded wretched.

I have been trained as a piano technician. I worked professionally in that field for a while back in the late 1970's, and have done a fair amount of piano maintenance in the churches I have served since then. With organ repair, I am an amateur.

Two churches ago, I had the privilege of playing a fine three-maunal instrument by the firm of Randall Dyer & Associates, who remain my favorte organbuilders. They built the instrument; their shop was a mere three hours from my church; they came through town regularly to service a number of instruments; and this was (and remains) one of their "flagship" installations. Thus, I happily left the work to them. And I got spoiled by their excellent and reasonably-priced service.

One church ago, the instrument was a large Hill, Norman & Beard electropneumatic. It was a good instrument, in a large stone neo-Gothic edifice with good acoustics (and a congregation that filled maybe ten percent of the seats on Sundays). It had a fine English Tuba and was spectacular for playing Howells, as well as accompanying the English choral repertory. And it needed to be rebuilt -- which it has been, a few years after I left. Its issues were mostly in regard with the forest of wiring between the console and the switchboards, and a nonfunctional combination action. This was beyond my ken, there was no money for even the most basic maintenance and tuning, and there was not a reliable technician anywhere in the area, so I played the parts of it that worked and left the rest to the Lord.

And now, I play a fine and historic mechanical action Pilcher, relocated to our parish by the Organ Clearing House. For many years, it was serviced by an outstanding local technician, but about the time I started work here, he indicated that he no longer wanted to work on it. He recommended another technician, who has done some work, not very satisfactorily. But it did not need much; it stayed in tune, except when the north wind would blow through the pipe chamber. Christmas Eve was often an adventure in intonation. It needed almost no repair work; it was nearly a century old and thoroughly "settled in." After a couple visits from the second technician, I took care of what little tuning and repair it needed myself.

We had to remove the organ for storage during the recent renovation project. This was done, very professionally, by an organbuilder in the next state. Since the re-installation, the pedal linkages have, again, "settled in" with regular playing, and a few of them have needed adjustment. But we have no money for additional work, not that there is a local technician I would trust to do it. Today was the day: I was determined to set things right, for the honor of J. S. Bach and the Holy Trinity.

The repair of a mechanical action organ is mostly straightforward. Anyone with patience and some mechanical aptitude can do it. The difficulties are two: diagnosis, and getting to the place in the chamber where the work needs to be done.

I needed to reach the locking adjustment nuts for three notes at the pedalboard. But they are behind the pedal coupler stickers. Finally, I figured out that if I removed the Swell pedal, that would give me enough room to do the work, and so it was: mission accomplished. Then, there were several notes where the pedal division played, but if the manuals were coupled, they would "half-play" -- partially open, sounding out of tune. In the end, I worked through the entire gamut of the manual-to-pedal coupler, getting all the notes nice and even and accurate.

The bottom octave of our Bourdon 16' is on its own little side chest, over against the wall. The low E has been silent since shortly after the re-installation. It can be reached only by climbing over the reservoir on one's belly, then working at an awkward angle without seeing what one is doing. The locking nut had fallen off; I found it, put it back on, and tightened it into place. Were it readily accessible, it would have been five minutes' work; as it was, it took me nearly two hours. But in the end: mission accomplished. From now on, I will take pride in that E when it plays.

We had some plastic over the Great division to protect it from leaks during the roofing project. The roof being complete, I took the plastic down. Enough of the pipework got bumped between the contractor putting the plastic in place and me taking it down that I spent another hour or so tuning pipes on the Great.

A few mysteries remain, for which I can only scratch my head at present. Most notably, two notes on the pedal reed play perfectly when that is the only stop pulled, but sound as if they are starved for air when other stops are pulled with it. I have no idea what could cause this, for if anything should be gasping for air, it should not be the reed stop, which does not use as much air as the other stops. But on the whole, the organ is in good shape, and all without costing the church a penny beyond my salary. If the past is any indication, it should need little additional work for the remainder of my tenure.

It is a joy to delve into the inner workings of a musical instrument -- or for that matter, any beautiful mechanism. I do a bit of auto repair, and it is the same joy. I love the beautiful, jewel-like perfection of the engine in our Honda Civic, just as much as the action of a Steinway grand piano -- or the linkages of a mechanical organ action. I love the pure intervals when the pipes come into tune. I love the sense that this day, I have accomplished something.

Soli Deo gloria.