Evening star., 1952-11-09
By George Kennedy
Stor Stoff Correspondent

HAGERSTOWN, Md, Nov. g.
The increased interest in religion
in America is causing capacity
production at one of Hagerstown's
larger manufacturing plants, the
M. P. Moller organ factory.
The organ industry Thought il
was in its heyday in the booming
'2Os when organs were being built
into the big movie palaces and
milIionaires were installing them
in their big town and country
mansions.
The theater business seems to
be gone for good and few houses
large enough to contain a real
pipe organ are being constructed
these days. But new church
edifices are being built all over
the country and orders for organs
are swelling the backlog of the
leading organ manufacturers.
IA Months Work on Books.
The Moller company, which is
one of the half-dozen firms which
can build a real big organ, has Ia
months work on its books.
A recent order was an organ
with 5000 pipes for the st. Paul's
Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio
a memorial to the late Harvey
Firestone. An organ with a four
manual console four rows OF
keys) is now being constructed
for the First Christian Church OF
Whittier, Calf, and another good
sized job, this one with 1,200 pipes
is being built for the First Baptist
Church of Milledgeville, Ga.
The industry is not as con-
cerned as it was with the COM
petition from the electronic or
gan, in which the sound from
tiny pipes in an instrument not
much larger than a piano is am
plifed to initiate the sound OF
the great organs. They are salts
field that churches will always
want the real thing-that a pipe
organ is high ON the list of hopes
of every pastor or committee
building a new church.
Fascination in Its Building.
The building of a great organ
is a fascinating thing to watch.
You realize how little you know
about organs when you are shown
a handsome set of zinc pipes with
a high polish and when it is ex-
planned that these pipes do not
make music, but are placed in
front of the installation for ap-
peal - ;e only.
Thai is true of many organs
today. The pipes you see are mere
decoration. The pipes that make
the music are hidden.
We went into one of the voicing
rooms where Homer Lewis, one of
the voicers, was adjusting set
of metal pipes, one by one.
He had a keyboard before MIN.
the same arrangement of keys as
in one of the manuals on an Or
ganiSt's console. There was also
an electric blower in the room
that was sending air to the row of
pipes on the rack above the key
board. These were reed pipes. He
would press one key. listen. then
make an adjustment of the reed.
Nears Perfection in Job.
The voicers, our guide explained,
are not musicians. Organists
would not make very good voicers,
he went on. They would be inter-
ested in the effects they could get
by playing chords. The voicer is
man whose ear has the duality
of true pitch" He can name any
note he hears. He has a very
The voicers have their own Ian
simple job to do and he ap-
proaches perfection in doing it.
guage. The sound Of a pipe can
be 'tubby" or nasal" Both are
bad. They adjust the pipes
sound between those flaws.
There is a head voicer. our guide
explained, who starts each OF his
men off with middle C and they
then bring the octaves of pipes on
the rack into harmony with That
note.
Variety of Sounds Amazing.
We began to realize the amazing
number and variety of sounds that
the modern organist has at his
finger (and toe) tips even without
No.