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Subject:
From:
"John @ Michael's Music Service" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
John @ Michael's Music Service
Date:
Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:09:42 -0500
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Here in Charlotte, there are three:

In 1960, Schlicker rebuilt an 1895 Johnson organ of 2 manuals, formerly
of St. Mark's Lutheran (Charlotte) and moved to the chapel of Covenant
Pres, a very dry room. They kept some pipes and the manuals and action.
It became a neo-Baroque instrument, very unlike its original self.
Barbara Owen highly criticized it back then.

In 1961, they built a mostly new organ of 3 manuals from an 1899 Farrand
and Votey (First Pres., Charlotte), keeping some pipes, chests, and
facade. This is one of the most unpleasant organs that I know, since it
is a very bright organ in a very dead acoustic.

In 1975, they rebuilt the Covenant Pres. A-Sk in Charlotte (1952) with a
new console with new stop names (it has very recently been replaced with
a new Harris console with reversal of tonal revision to come by Stewart
Goodwin, as well as some acoustical renovation). Schlicker revoiced the
Great and some other stops. Unfortunately, all of this was due to
mediocre acoustics and trying to make the organ compensate for that.

The two musicians at these churches were greatly influenced by the
Neo-Baroque movement of the 50's and early 60's. They thought that a
bright organ would be great!! But they did not think about how it would
sound in a DEAD acoustic.

I always thought that the Noehren recordings did not sound good, as it
was in a dead room. I believe that these recordings did NOT help the
preservation of older organs. It is not a BEAUTIFUL sound, just VERY
clear!

But the Schlicker in the chapel at Concordia, Ann Arbor, sounds great to
its now reverberant acoustic, which it did not have from 1967 (when the
organ was built) to about 1980 when acoustical treatment was removed.

Again, acoustics make or break any organ. (Have you heard the Hammond on
the Virgil Fox recording [NYC] or the Mario Salvador recording [Mexico
City cathedral]? It even sounds pretty good!)
--
Cheers!
John Apple
--
MICHAEL'S  MUSIC  SERVICE   || 4146 Sheridan Drive, Charlotte, NC 28205
Free Reference & Referrals  || 704-567-1066 Telephone
"Organ Music Our Specialty" || http://michaelsmusicservice.com

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