The completion of the School of Music expansion made possible an ideal space for such an instrument. The tonal and visual beauty of the instrument as well as the architecture of the room have already become a source of enjoyment, pride and inspiration for lovers of organ music in the community. The register of visitors includes names of organists and organ builders from North America, Europe, Australia and Japan. The decision to build a tracker action organ was a musical choice.
Tracker action makes possible the most intimate contact between player and instrument.
While tracker action was obviously the only possibility for Baroque organs, it was just as much the norm for the great Romantic instruments of France, Germany and England. A major movement in North America, especially since about 1970, has been the return of tracker action in modern instruments. Just as period instruments have become, for many informed listeners, a preferred venue for performance of music of the past, the historic organ brings a special vitality to the organ music of earlier period. Except for a few hardware items the Fritts organ is virtually hand-crafted, representing some 13,000 hours of individual labor. The process of casting the metal, forming sheets, hammering and cutting the metal and finally forming the pipes, is the same now as it was many hundreds of years ago.