Featured Pipe Installation

First Presbyterian Church

A note from Master Organ Builder Burton Tidwell

The organ for First Presbyterian Church represents an unprecedented marriage of the centuries old tradition of pipe organ building with today's digital sampling technology. While the use of digital voices in pipe organs is not a new practice, this organ is unique in that every detail of its design and execution has been under the single-minded artistic direction of a pipe organ builder who, since 1971, has been involved in the creation of more than 300 instruments across the nation. This organ has been tailored specifically for this historic edifice.

Our mandate has been to provide a comprehensive instrument of uncompromising quality mindful of good stewardship in creative use of resources from the 1967 Möller organ. Visually, the instrument remains unchanged: Its familiar pipe facade, now mute, stands within casework originating from the early 20th century Hutchings organ. Behind this facade, the organ's tonal resources are placed in a newly configured loft designed to overcome its location deep within the chancel and separated from the nave by the proscenium-style archway. The back wall of the chamber has been moved forward, the side walls moved inward, and all surfaces hardened to encourage the development, blending and projection of sound. This remodeled space has facilitated placement of the entire organ several feet forward and immediately behind the facade, which together with meticulous design of all tonal elements assures that the organ fully engages the room and surrounds the congregation with a rich, warm, clear and unforced sound.

The core of each of the primary divisions of the organ consists of pipes speaking on new electric action slider windchests, a mechanism of enduring design that provides for a compact arrangement of the pipework but most importantly an paralleled quality of pipe speech and blend. To this core, digitally sampled pipe voices have been blended seamlessly to realize the tonal goal of creating a flexible instrument which sings with a clear, articulate voice essential for serving all of the varied needs of the musical life of the church and in communicating the great body of organ literature.

The successful blending of pipes and digital resources depends first and foremost upon the ability of an experienced pipe voicer/finisher to attend to every note of each voice - pipe or digital - to ensure both distinctive individual voices and a cohesive ensemble. First Church's instrument incorporates an unprecedented arrangement and use of audio systems for distributing the digital voices: No more than two voices of diverse nature occupy any one audio channel, while the 12 notes of each octave of the musical scale of any voice are heard through four-channels vs. one or two channels of a common digital organ.

All new components were custom built according to exacting specifications. Allen Organ Co., Macungie, supplied the console and digital resources; new pipework and mechanism were crafted by OSI, Erie. Matt Baldwin, Menchey Music, was project manager and worked closely with Jesse and Janet Betlyon of Betlyon Organ Service in the organ's installation. My long-time colleague, R.L. Hulsey, Kingston, Tenn., provided invaluable expertise for the demanding requirements of refined tonal finishing of the organ's pipework.

For all of us who have been involved in the conception and realization of this instrument, it has been our privilege to work with First Presbyterian Church. We have have been challenged to create a unique cutting-edge instrument and have completed our tasks mindful of the responsibility of bringing to First Church a musical instrument that should - with the test of time - be recognized as much more than the sum of its parts.

Burton K. Tidwell, Organbuilder

Testimonials

"The weekend I recently spent in the fine company of the newly-restored and enhanced organ of First Presbyterian Church, York, PA was a salutary and rewarding experience for both the large and appreciative recital audience as well as for myself. Burton Tidwell's inspirational work is displayed in an entirely positive fashion, the melding and matching of both winded and digital technology being nothing short of a revelation. Numerous times during my rehearsals I found that I had not the slightest clue which was actually a pipe rank or an Allen sampled digital example, the two being so well suited to exist in such a close and artistically rewarding context. Please allow me to extend full marks and a resounding thanks as well for the vision of both Jim, the musical incumbent of the church and Matt Baldwin, the project manager for having masterminded and brought this thrilling undertaking to fruition. Well done!" Carlo Curley www.carlo.com