Dear List,
 
I forgot to mention: the Gross flute on the Great of Austin Opus 22 is
very powerful in the upper register and very orchestral sounding.  Now
to mention some characteristics of Opus 22 that struck me:
 
1. There are no unifications or duplexing anywhere, yet this organ has
electric action.  Could it be that John T. Austin hadn't yet figured out
the use of "frog" pneumatics to enable such? I wonder...
 
2. The presence of celestes, even one at 4' pitch.  Could it be that
this organ originally had no supercouplers?  That would account for the
4' celeste, though the Choir has been substantially altered with
additions from the original Echo organ.  As many of you will know,
celestes weren't very common on American organs until after 1900.  They
appeared, but not in the numbers found on this organ.  Could this be an
alteration of 1913?  That would make sense.
 
3.  Look at the HUGE number of pedal stops in comparison to most
American organs of the period!  The 3 manual 1892 Johnson I played in
recital yesterday, mechanical action and somewhat smaller to be sure,
had only three pedal stops, yet this organ has no fewer than 11!  A very
forward looking innovation indeed.  Yet it betrays its date in other
respects, such as the presence of an 8' Violoncello in the pedal,
instead of a principal or more likely, an extension of the 16' Open
Diapason.  The indefatigable Chester Cooke, who is a fixture at organ
events in our area and who is extremely knowledgeable about such things,
pointed out to me that in spite of all of the pedal stops, they weren't
very prominent in comparison to the three stops on the Johnson organ,
which veritably shake the building.  Odd. Maybe it's due to the acoustic
qualities of the building... In comparison the 1899 3 manual Hutchings
of similar size in Christ Church, Ansonia, CT, has only three pedal
stops which are unified to provide 7 speaking stops.  No doubt this
discrepancy is due to the differences between the Hutchings action
(designed by a very young E.M. Skinner, BTW) and that of the Austin
Universal Chest. Very interesting....
 
4. I was surprised at such an early appearance for another Austin
hallmark: enclosed stops on the Great organ.  This became a trademark of
two later Austin tonal directors: James Jamison and Richard Piper.
Sensibly, however (in my opinion at least) was the presence of the Gross
Flute 8' as an unenclosed voice in the Great. I note also that the 1899
Hutchings I mentioned earlier also has a Gross Flute 8' on the Great. It
seemed to me that Austin Opus 22 showed some striking similarites to
Hutchings work of the period.  It is also very interesting to note that
this organ caused a committee of distinguished New York organists headed
by Huntington Woodman to choose Austin over Hutchings and Odell for a
large contract in New Jersey.  Orpha Ochse read us excerpts of
Huntington Woodman's report, BTW.
 
This is an extremely interesting organ; Orpha Ochse said that it will
merit an entire chapter in her forthcoming book on the Austin company.
I do hope that Opus 22 survives intact, and unmolested. It's a great
organ, and a very important early survival from this builder.
 
Stephen Roberts
 
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