I knew Justin for many years, he was a delightful man with lots of
interesting ideas.I remember when I first stepped of the plane in December 9
1959 I was hired by Val Holzinger also a delightful man but NO organ
builder. Val was a String Voicer for Robert Morton. His skills where quite
good there. His organbuilding skills and ideas where ..........well lets
just say not so wonderful.
In those days they all build screechephones Even A/S I don't care what
anyone said it was all Lousy!!!!!!!!!!!! NO EXCEPTIONS. I just wanted to
get back on the airplane and go back to Holland. One thing stopped
me.............I LOVED THE USA It has been a struggle for the past 49 years
to make organs here in less then ideal rooms, with a Mirada of options of
idiot consultants and a pendulum that only knows extremes. Yes we are in a
phase now that wont last either with some builders building megaphones.
Today I would still be on top of the heap if it where not for some very
crooked churches and a stupid, ignorant, destructive, vicious, unfounded,
lawsuit which was settled but cost 300K and touched and almost destroyed
the lives of some 30 people.
Yet here comes the wonderful USA with its sickness of lawyers. But I still
love it because I can still make it and build many more organs that work for
church and liturgies.
By the way this November I will have been an organ builder for 50 years. It
was good to know people like Justin and Val and many more that tried to
build what they thought was right and wonderful. Money was never their
goal. they simply loved there dreams and what they did. They were and are
what this country is all about. We can say negative things about them, but
we must remember others will do that about us also at some point. Pieter
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlie Lester" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 1:31 AM
Subject: Justin Kramer "Screechophone" [x-posted]
> I rec'd a private (off-list) knuckle-rapping for my, yes,
> disparaging comment about the Justin Kramer organ in one of
> the churches where I play. To wit:
>
>
> =-> .... might I may add that I do not think that:
>
> "1965 Kramer Screechaphone"
>
> is an appropriate comment to be made in public for one of
> our very solid organ builders of Los Angeles organs. <-=
>
>
> Well, we are all entitled to our opinions I guess, and that
> is not only MY opinion about the organ at Holy Trinity, but
> that of just about everyone else who has heard or played it.
> Organist and layperson alike. (There's not a stop in the
> instrument that does not screech, shriek, quack or cluck,
> including the Swell strings. You haven't lived until you've
> heard a Voix Celeste with a chiff.)
>
> INCLUDING, ironically enough, Mr. Kramer himself who, at the
> time of his death, was working on a proposal to update his
> instrument there and augment it with DIGITAL equipment!
>
> Now, THAT may not necessarily be a welcome bit of news to
> those who admired Mr. Kramer, but there it is. He came to a
> point in his life (that more in our craft should) where he
> realized that Pipes-Only instruments are not necessarily --
> and certainly are not always -- the "be all to end all."
>
> And Holy Trinity is a textbook case-study of one such
> situation. Justin had some very innovative and highly
> workable ideas for expanding his instrument there with
> digital augmentation [given that there is simply not room
> for even one additional rank of pipes] along with a new
> solid-state console.
>
> As to its tonal design, he told me once, "When I put the
> organ in down there, I voiced it according to what the
> organist wanted, and in fashion with the 'Baroque Fad' at
> the time. Looking back, I have to ask myself what on earth
> was I thinking?!"
>
> Anyone who knows me and of my friendship with Mr. Kramer
> knows that I would never speak ill of him as a person. He
> was a very, very dear man.
>
> (He was so very kind as to "bequeath" to me his clever and
> delightful "Jug-Orgel" -- a pipe organ made of beer bottles!
> Unfortunately, it had sat in a storage facility for many
> years and all the plastic tubing had fossilized along with
> myriad other mechanical problems. Restoring it was a task
> beyond my means and ability, so I in turn passed it on to
> the Orange County ATOS. I do not know of its current
> whereabouts or condition. The last I heard, it was in
> storage somewhere at Plummer Auditorium I believe.)
>
> And he did build some lovely instruments in Los Angeles. His
> very fine instrument for St. Victor's West Hollywood for
> example (which has, since, been considerably enlarged).
>
> Unfortunately, Holy Trinity was not among them for a variety
> of reasons, some of them beyond his control. (I have, more
> than once, outlined the long, sad soap opera of the Great
> Organ Swindle that occurred there in the 1960s. No, he was
> NOT a part of that, but had to come in afterward and clean
> up a big mess made by a local organ-crook.)
>
> I won't belabor the point any further, other than to just
> make VERY CLEAR that I was only commenting on the organ that
> I have been playing for almost 15 years, and not on the man
> who built it.
>
> Just wanted to make sure the record was set straight on
> this, so thank you all for indulging me.
>
> ~
> C
>
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> Note: opinions expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the individual con-
> tributors and not necessarily those of the list owners nor of the Uni-
> versity at Albany. For a brief summary of list commands, send mail to
> [log in to unmask] saying GET LSVCMMDS.TXT or see the web
> page at http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/lsvcmmds.html .
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>
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Note: opinions expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the individual con-
tributors and not necessarily those of the list owners nor of the Uni-
versity at Albany. For a brief summary of list commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask] saying GET LSVCMMDS.TXT or see the web
page at http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/lsvcmmds.html .
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