AN ORGAN SURVEY OF A CAPITAL CITY Prepared by Paul Roeder. Saturday, August 27, 2011

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1 Hilbus Chapter of the Organ Historical Society Where the Tracker Action Is! ============================================================================ Volume 42 Number 2 August 2011 Whole No. 373 ============================================================================ AN ORGAN SURVEY OF A CAPITAL CITY Prepared by Paul Roeder Saturday, August 27, :00 AM ST. PAUL S LUTHERAN CHURCH (Missouri Synod) 31 Rowe Blvd (Rowe Blvd. and Farragut Road) Annapolis, Maryland Levsen Organ Company 2 manual and pedal - 13 ranks Charles W. Ames, Music Director - Organist From Washington, DC: Follow Route 50 East from Washington, D.C. toward Annapolis, MD. Take Exit 24, Rowe Blvd and bear right (South) at the bottom of the exit ramp. Church is on the right at the first light. From Baltimore, MD: Follow Route 50 West toward Annapolis. MD. Take Exit 24B, Rowe Blvd. and bear right (South) at the bottom of the exit ramp. Church is on the right at the first light. ============================================================================== CHAIRMAN: Gordon L. Biscomb, 305 Stevens Circle, Apt. 3A, Aberdeen, MD (410) VICE CHAIRMAN: Paul S. Roeder, Page Court, Cumberland MD (301) SECRETARY-TREASURER: Carolyn Booth, 9200 LaBelle Lane, Gaithersburg, MD (301) EDITOR: Kevin M. Clemens, 711 Court Square Way, Edgewood, MD (410) EDITORIAL ADVISOR: Carolyn Fix, 116 Battle Street, SW, Vienna, VA ) Articles and news may be submitted to the Editor electronically: kevinclemens@mac.com Dues are due in October: $14.00 mailed to Secretary-Treasurer (Checks payable to: HILBUS CHAPTER, OHS)

2 11:30 AM Lunch ROMANO S MACARONI GRILL 178 Jennifer Road Annapolis, Maryland (Westfield Annapolis Mall Area) From St. Paul s Lutheran Church: Head Southeast on Rowe Blvd. toward Farragut Road. Make a U turn at Taylor Avenue. Continue straight onto Bestgate Road. Turn left onto Medical Parkway. Take the 2nd right onto Jennifer Road. Restaurant is on the right. 1:15 PM ST. JOHN NEUMANN MISSION CHURCH OF ST. MARY S 620 Bestgate Road Annapolis, Maryland Casavant Freres Ltée Pipe Organ 2 manual and pedal - 20 ranks - Opus 2414 Harry Thompson, Director of Music and Organist From Romano s Macaroni Grill: Head West on Jennifer Road toward Annapolis Mall Road. Make a U turn onto Medical Parkway. Take the 2nd right onto Bestgate Road. Turn left onto North Bestgate Road. St. John Neumann Mission Church - Sanctuary

3 Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church 15 Randolph Street Hagerstown, Maryland AN ADVENTURE BETWEEN STATES Reviewed by Rick Morrison Seven chapter members visited pipe organs in Western Maryland and in nearby Pennsylvania. In Hagerstown we saw and heard the 4 manual 60 rank Schantz Organ in Trinity Lutheran Church. The organ was installed in 1995 as part of a major redecorating of Trinity s 1909 Gothic nave. The Schantz speaks into the nave in twin cases which contain polished zinc basses of the Great and Pedal 16 Principals. Several colorful ranks from the church s 1958 Möller were retained for use in the new organ. Chest action is electro-pneumatic slider. The console is movable and the organ has the usual solid state control systems. Chapter member Carolyn Booth performed contrasting works to demonstrate the organ. We were fortunate in that our visit was just one week after voicers from the Schantz factory spent a week at Trinity refining and throughly tuning this elegantly voiced organ. The Rev. Greg Shook, organist and director of music, demonstrated the organ s hymn playing capability.

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6 St. Paul s United Methodist Church 750 Norland Avenue Chambersburg, Pennsylvania After lunch at Bennie s Italian Restaurant in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania we visited St. Paul s United Methodist Church in Chambersburg. In the late 1990 s St. Paul s built a new church in a campus like setting in a rapidly developing area north of Chambersburg. Their previous church in downtown Chambersburg, had been destroyed in an arson fire. Lost in the fire was a 3 manual Möller which contained several ranks which dated back to the church s 1897 William A. Johnson & Son organ. At the time the new church was being designed the organ committee visited St. Paul s Episcopal Church, K Street, in Washington, D.C. With a new pipe organ ordered from Schoenstein & Co. St. Paul s organ last rebuilt by Lawless and Association in 1975 was for sale. The committee quickly decided to buy it for the new church. In restructuring the organ for its new home, Lawless-Johnson Organ Company built a new 16 case with Principal facade, some new windchests, and a new 3 manual movable, terraced drawknob console. The organ has electro-pneumatic action and a solid state control system. Several lovely ranks date from the original 1901 Lyon and Healy Organ. Of note is the Swell Oboe with its original reed tongues. It was voiced and signed by Edwin Hedges ( ) the famous turn of the 20th century reed voicer. Hedges began his career with the William A. Johnson & Son Organ Company. When the Johnson Company closed, Hedges went on to do voicing for organ pipemaking firms in his long career. Carolyn Booth demonstrated the organ for us, and St. Paul s organist/ director of music, John angle, accompanied us in singing a hymn. For more details on the history of this organ see the OHS Organ Atlas, 2011, page 172. Author Carl Schwartz gives a very fine and thorough history of the organs of St. Paul s, K Street, Washington, D.C. The organ remains under the care of Lawless and Associates.

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11 Sunday, 10 July 2011 Dear Members of the Hilbus Chapter, OHS: First, I must give the members of the Hilbus Chapter s 2011 National OHS Convention Committee my congratulations for the outstanding convention which their efforts produced during the period of 27 June to 2 July 2011 in Washington, D.C. and vicinity! The excellent choice of organs which were visited, the recitalists who performed, the meals which were provided, the Holiday Inn which housed us, - all were exceptional. I especially want to thank Carl Schwartz who served as the convention committee chairman. He coordinated the many tasks associated with putting together a convention. His constant attention to the many details assured the convention s success. I especially congratulate him for the tremendous effort which he expended in writing many of the organ histories contained in the 2011 OHS Convention Atlas. That was a monumental undertaking! Thanks to all our members who participated throughout the convention to ensure that it ran so smoothly. To each of you I say WELL DONE! Next, I am having our editor enclose the letter and it s attachment that I received from Bob Hutchins regarding having more of our members participate in organizing an organ crawl in their area. If you have never set up an organ crawl before, Bob s letter explains very well what is involved and it will serve as a good guide to follow. Please consider organizing one of our monthly crawls in your area, select a date, choose the organs you want to visit and coordinate well in advance with the organist involved. Let me or Kevin Clemens know the date involved so that we can ensure that we don t have more than one crawl on the same date. When you have settled on the organs we ll be visiting, send a listing of the organs, to include the date, time, the location and driving directions to Kevin Clemens so that he can publish them in the appropriate issue of the Hilbus New Letter. Enjoy your summer, and I hope to see you on our next organ crawl. Sincerely, Gordon L. Biscomb Chairman, Hilbus Chapter, OHS

12 SUGGESTIONS FOR PREPARING A HILBUS OHS ORGAN CRAWL (IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE ONE BEFORE) 1. Selecting the area and organs for a crawl -Call friends who are organists, pipe organ enthusiasts, OHS/AGO members, or in the organ building /servicing business for recommendations. Organists are usually happy to have fellow organists visit to see the instrument they play on a regular basis -Use the "OHS Pipe Organ Database" on the main menu in the OHS website at You can search by city to get a listing of all the pipe organs in that city, showing builder and number of manuals/ranks for each instrument, in most cases. -Plan for a crawl to see an organ you would like to play or hear and then use the OHS Pipe Organ Database to find other organs in the same area or ask the organist at one church about other interesting organs in the area. 2. Making the contact Once you have a list of organs you'd like to see, but you don't have a contact for each, call the church/ organization and get the name and telephone number of the organist, who usually serves as the host. On behalf of the Organ Historical Society, ask the organist about visiting for a crawl. 3. Selecting a place for lunch If you don't know a restaurant in the area, one of the organists or contacts can usually make a recommendation. 4. Preparing the information for the monthly Hilbus Newsletter -Using recent monthly Newsletters as a guide, prepare all the regular information (in format, if possible) and it to kevinclemens@mac.com by the first Saturday of the month of the crawl, earlier if possible. -Specific directions for driving are very helpful 5. Follow-up -It is useful to follow-up with an or telephone call to each of the hosts after the schedule is complete and/ or a call to confirm the visit a few days before the visit. -The hosts might like to know the locations and times of the rest of the schedule in case they would like to join us.

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14 HILBUS CHAPTER NEWS AND BEYOND ORGAN RECITAL Sunday, October 2, :00 p.m. Organist, Philip Cooper will play the rededication recital of the oldest Tannenberg Organ at Zion Moselem Lutheran Church in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Ray Brunner did the restoration. ORGANIST / CHOIRMASTER POSITION Holy Comforter Lutheran Church 3319 Alabama Avenue Southeast Washington, DC (202) Karl Wilhelm Pipe Organ 2 manual and pedal - 14 ranks Mechanical key and stop action. Church has A+ acoustics and services are high church. Current organist / choirmaster and Hilbus member, Paul Birckner is retiring because of health problems with cellulitis. Many thanks to Gordon Biscomb for the photography found in this newsletter.