Hickory, North Carolina —First Baptist Church

Hickory, North Carolina — First Baptist Church
Four manuals and pedals, 81 stops, 109 ranks
Movable Casavant terraced style drawknob console, compass 61/32
Electro-pneumatic action
Opus 3827, 2004
Photographs: Stanley Scheer
The building of a large instrument presents special challenges and opportunities
for a builder. One of the important initial challenges at First Baptist Church was
to study the location of the components of the instrument and resolve the way the
organ speaks into the church. The re
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and tone openings did not allow the sound to have free egress into the nave or
chancel. Therefore the organ chambers were remodeled and new tone openings
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ould be heard clearly
without pushing the tone or having it sound muffled. Dr. Dennis Fleisher,
acoustician for the project, observed that the existing parallel side walls in the
choir loft kept the sound of the choir from projecting effectively into the nave so
we designed casework at the angle he proscribed as a way to provide better sound
reflection for the choir at their level while projecting the sounds of the Grand
Orgue and Pédale principal choruses at the upper level. The angling of the
casework permits the inner faces of the casework to be viewed more easily from
positions throughout the church while drawing the eye toward the center of the
chancel giving prominence to the baptistry as the primary focus of the chancel.
The organ cases contain speaking façade pipes from the Grand Orgue
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and lower lips.
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design and is the first of its kind. A console
to control the full resources of such a large
instrument becomes necessarily large just
to be functional. In working to make the
console of this instrument as compact and
user-friendly as possible, we turned to the
early large electro-pneumatic Casavant
organs that have consoles modeled on
French instruments where the stops are
arranged in short terraces. These consoles
are models of efficiency in that the stops are easy to reach and the overall height
of the console is kept to a level lower than the typical English style console.We
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that the organist can easily read the names and pitches engraved on the stops
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used in the construction of the console is mahogany. The exterior is finished to
match the existing pulpit furniture, while the interior is finished slightly lighter in
color to contrast with the pau ferro stop knobs, labels and ebony detailing. The
manual natural keys are covered with bone while the pedal natural keys are
maple. The manual and pedal sharps are ebony.
The tonal design of any organ needs to address the worship and music program
of the church in order to become an asset to the overall program and worship
experience. To achieve this goal, the organ builder must create a specification
that is eclectic and creative. In order to avoid a fault of some large instruments
that are collections of every imaginable stop, the tonal architecture is based on
historic principles drawn from the different traditions in organ building,
especially the French symphonic aesthetic, along with 125 years of experience at
Casavant Frères.
The tonal concept of this organ is based on fully-developed Grand Orgue, Récit,
andChœurdi
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s
i
onsfeaturing complete principal, flute and reed choruses, plus a
Solo division that includes a chorus of large-scale harmonic flutes, colorful solo
reed stops and a chorus of smooth and powerful Tubas. The Pedal includes a
variety of thirty-two and sixteen-foot stops, thus providing a broad range of bass
tones, completed by appropriate upper work in all tonal families. In order to
provide the broadest dynamic range possible, from a whisper to a full sound of
heroic proportions, four of the five manual divisions(
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t
,Chœur
,Sol
oa
nd
Antiphonal) are under expression. Of particular note is the formidable seamless
crescendo that can be made from the most ethereal sounds to the majesty of the
full ensemble.
In designing a pipe organ to be installed in a church seating 1200 worshippers, it
is of prime importance to include a great number of stops providing the
instrument with significant resources in the bass (thirty-two and sixteen foot)
and mid (eight foot) ranges. In this organ, the bass and mid range stops represent
about two-thirds of the tonal resources of the instrument. Moreover, many
sixteen and eight-foot bass pipes are made of wood in order to provide additional
solidity to the bass registers.
Of special note is the Antiphonal, a division made entirely of pipework from the
previous Estey instrument. We selected the best stops from that instrument and
took care to respect the original voicing in order to retain the sound of the organ
that accompanied worship at First Baptist Church for many years. Other links to
the previous instrument that have been incorporated in the new organ include
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,Har
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visually impressive Trompette en chamade. The horizontally mounted polished
copper pipes of this trumpet stop are located high on the rear wall allowing the
sound of this brilliant reed stop to speak prominently and dramatically across the
length of the building. Further details may be found in the reprint of the March
2005 cover feature article of The American Organist magazine in the Published
Articles section of the website.
Grand Orgue
Violonbasse
16
Montre
8
Violon (Ext.)
8
Flûte à cheminée
8
Flûte harmonique (common bass)
8
Prestant
4
Flûte ouverte
4
Grande Tierce
3-1/5
Doublette
2
Cornet V (TC, on a separate chest)
8
Grande Fourniture II-III
2-2/3
Fourniture V
2
Cymbale III
1/2
Bombarde
16
Trompette
8
Clairon
4
Trémolo
Grand Orgue Unison Off
Chimes (Solo)
Choeur
Bourdon doux (Ext.)
Salicional
Bourdon (Stopped wood)
Dulciane
Unda Maris (TC)
Octave
Flûte douce
Nazard
Principal
16
8
8
8
8
4
4
2-2/3
2
Récit
Gambe (Ext.)
Diapason
Cor de nuit
Viole de gambe (Slotted)
Voix céleste (GG, slotted)
Flûte douce
Flûte céleste (TC)
Octave
Violon
Flûte octaviante (harmonic)
Nazard harmonique
Octavin (harmonic)
Tierce harmonique
Fourniture III (Chorus mixture)
Plein Jeu V (Full mixture)
Trompette (Ext.)
Basson
Trompette
Hautbois
Voix humaine
Clairon
Trémolo
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16
8
8
8
8
8
8
4
4
4
2-2/3
2
1-3/5
2
2
16
16
8
8
8
4
Antiphonal Organ (floating) 1
Bourdon
16
Diapason
8
Bourdon (Ext.)
8
Viole de Gambe
8
Voix céleste (TC)
8
1
Pipework from previous organ
Choeur (c0ntinued)
Antiphonal Organ (continued)
Flûte
2
Tierce
1-3/5
Larigot
1-1/3
Septième
1-1/7
Piccolo
1
Cymbale IV
2/3
Douçaine (Ext.)
16
Trompette
8
Cromorne
8
Chalumeau
4
Trémolo
Chœur1
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1
Clochettes
Harp 1
Celesta (Harp super)
Solo Organ
Diapason (Slotted)
Diapason céleste (TC, slotted)
Flûte double
Octave (Slotted)
Flûte harmonique
Piccolo harmonique
Clochettes II
Clarinette basse (Ext.)
Haut
boi
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or
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he
s
t
r
e
Clarinette
Cor anglais
Trémolo
Solo Unison Off
Cor français
Tuba Magna (
TC,f
r
om 8’
)
Tuba Mirabilis
Tuba Clarion (Ext.)
Chimes 1
8
8
8
4
4
2
1-1/3
16
8
8
8
8
16
8
4
Chamade Organ (floating)
Bombarde-en-chamade (
TCf
r
om 8’
)
Trompette-en-chamade
Clairon-en-chamade (Ext.)
1
from previous organ
© Casavant Frères
16
8
4
Principal
Flûte douce
Octave
Fourniture IV
Trombone (Ext.)
Trompette
Trémolo
Zimbelstern
4
4
2
1-1/3
16
8
Antiphonal Pedal Organ
Bourdon (Antiphonal)
Bourdon (Antiphonal)
Trombone (Antiphonal)
Pedal Organ
Contre Violon 2
Contre Bourdon 2
Contrebasse (Open wood)
Violonbasse (Grand Orgue)
Soubasse
Gambe (Récit)
Bourdon doux (
Chœur
)
Octavebasse
Violon (Grand Orgue)
Bourdon (Ext.)
Bourdon doux (
Chœur
)
Octave
Flûte
Théorbe III (Derived)
Fourniture IV
Contre Bombarde (Ext.)
Bombarde
Petite Bombarde (Grand Orgue)
Basson (Récit)
Trompette (Récit)
Douçaine (
Chœur
)
Clarinette basse (Solo)
Trompette
Clarinette (Solo)
Tuba Mirabilis (Solo)
Clairon (Ext.)
Clarinette (Solo)
Chimes (Solo)
2
Digital
16
8
16
32
32
16
16
16
16
16
8
8
8
8
4
4
10-2/3
2-2/3
32
16
16
16
16
16
16
8
8
8
4
4