Main organ of Fairchild Chapel in Oberlin Conservatory

*For other organs at Oberlin Conservatory see this page for the Flentrop organ at Warner Hall and this page for the Fisk organ at Finney Chapel.*

The **main organ of the Fairchild Chapel in Oberlin Conservatory** (Ohio) was built as Opus 25 of the American historically-informed organbuilder John Brombaugh and Associates and has 2 manuals, 3 divisions; a pedal division (with 3 stops yet 1 rank due to Werck transmissions) and 14 stops. The organ is based on principles of the building style of the early 17th century North German Baroque organ school - particularly inspired by the works of the organbuilders Gottfried Fritzsche and Friedrich Stellwagen.

The formal name of the instrument is the **Mary McIntosh Memorial Organ**.

The organ was completed and installed in the chapel in Spring 1981 and was developed by Brombaugh in coordination with ideas by the late David Boe (who donated the choir organ), the Dean, and Dr. William Porter, Professor of Organ and Harpsichord, conservatory faculty. It was later dedicated in a concert by the esteemed researcher, organist, and organologist Harald Vogel on 27 September 1981 with musicians. The chapel also houses a one-manual six-stop positive organ which acts as the choir organ (as a result this is the main organ).

## Description

The organ has 2 manuals, a pedalboard, 16 stops, 19 ranks, and a total of 982 pipes. There are 2 pipe-towers on the case, which (along with the smaller pipe-flats along them) contain the pipes of the Werck's Præstant 8' - the lowest of which is E. The chest type is slider, and the action is suspended tracker. It is tuned to pure 1/4-comma meantone and has 3 sub-semitones per octave, and the Brustwerk may be opened or closed using a trapdoor. The Mixtura V-VII acts as a brilliant soundcrown for the Werck (although many ranks of the mixture double other harmonics for each note and at best there are only 5 unique sounds at once), and either the Sesquialtera II or the Quint 3 may be engaged using the same stop knob (the Sesquialtera is drawn if the stop is drawn halfway through and only the Quint is drawn if it is fully drawn). The Sesquialtera may begin at either middle c (French/German) or middle c# (Iberian) in order to play certain repertoires.

The Brustwerck has 2 stops: a Regal 8' which is permanently on, and a Hohlquinta 3' which speaks from middle c; the division was modeled after the original Pre-Schnitgerian division by Antonius Wilde in the St. Jacobi-Kirche in Lüdingworth (Cuxhaven). The organ has 78mm (3.07") of wind pressure and is tuned to A = 465hz (Chorton) which is a semitone above A = 440hz. The case is made of fumed oak, zebrawood, maple, bog oak, rosewood, sugar pine, and Douglas fir. The manuals are made of cow-bone and ebony; and the case-doors and panels are made of western red cedar. The organ only has one coupler; a Werck to Pedal coupler - and the pedal has a Subbass 16' (the pedal's only independent rank) as well as a Praestant and Trommett 8 which are both borrowed from the Werck. The organ's wind system may be hand-pumped in a historic manner by bellowsmen (Kalkant)with 2 wedge-bellows if desired, but it is primarily pumped using an electric blower. The stop action is mechanical.

The Brustwerck of this organ has the short octave, in which D on the bottom octave is where F# normally is, E / G#, and C/E respectively. The pedal has a short octave, in which D is where Eb would normally be found, and C/D respectively. The instrument's compass is CDE-c''' for the Werck and Brustwerck; and CDE-d' for the Pedal. The Werck has double-accidentals on what would be F# and G# on normal keyboards: the front accidental is D or E and the back accidental is F# or G#. The Werck has double-accidentals on Eb/D#, G#/Ab, and Bb/A# (of each, the former is the front accidental) - this is called "broken octave". The Brustwerck has no double-accidentals, including those on the bottom octave of the Werck. This means that each rank of the Werck has 56 notes (15 notes per octave except for the bottom octave), while the Brustwerck has 45 notes. The pedal has the same double-accidentals as the Werck from Tenor-C, while the bottom octave has no double-accidentals in addition to the short octave. The façade pipes' mouths are gilded with 23-carat gold-leaf; and the 2 reed ranks are arranged to be easily tuned by the organist.

The metal flue-pipes were constructed out of the finest lead and tin alloys and were hammered and voiced for a vocale sound. Cone tuning was used for these pipes, and soldered dome-hats for the stopped metal pipes.

The Werck Praestant 8 and Oak Principal 8 borrows C, D, F# and G# from the Werck's Gedackt 8. The lowest pipe in the facade is E.

There is a handwritten inscription by the builder himself and his team by the organ's bellows area which reads:

**Our Opus 25 was completed in 1981**

**for Fairchild Chapel at Oberlin College.**

**It was built on the bank of the Willamette**

**River in Eugene, Oregon by:**

**John Brombaugh**

*(etc.)*

A demonstration of the organ by Balint Karosi is available on YouTube.

## Disposition

### I. Werck

*Compass: CDE-c''' (52 notes)*

*\*Drawing the stop knob halfway brings on the Sesquialtera II, which speaks from middle C or C#. When the stop is fully drawn, the Quinta speaks throughout the compass*

*\*\*CC, DD, FF# and GG# are from Gedackt 8'*

### II. Brustwerck (enclosed)

*Compass: CDEFGA-c''' (45 notes)*

 11
45 pipes

### Pedal

*Compass: CDE-d' (28 notes)*

 13
 14

*Accessories include a Tremulant, which is adjustable depending on how far the drawstop is pulled. It has only coupler (Werck to Pedal), a drawstop.*

*Demonstration available here (by Balint Karosi)*