First Unitarian Æolian-Skinner Pipe Organ

Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1433, 1964 (rebuilt after 2000 church fire)

Russell Portativ 2022

360 Interactive View Inside Gallery Chamber (drag cursor to look up/down)

Worcester Area Pipe Organs (click column names to sort rows)

First Unitarian church home page

(rebuilding completed 2003-4, dedication service: January 2004)

First Unitarian Church of Worcester was founded in 1785. The original meeting house building at the present site was dedicated in 1851, and various pipe organs were installed in 1855, 1901 and 1922, before we installed our current Aeolian/Skinner pipe organ in 1963-64. In 2000, roof replacement work caused a steeple and roof fire which resulted in $4 million in damages to the church, and $750,000 in damages to the organ. The organ was expertly rebuilt by Russell and Co. of Vermont, with some tonal additions, and a dedication service in January 2004 and a dedicatory concert series in October 2004. In 2010 the organ was dedicated to Will Sherwood in celebration of his 25th year at First Unitarian. In 2013, a new & unique organ bench was custom built and dedicated in memory of Gordon Gurney, solo emeritus and organ curator for five decades. The bench features a flip-top seat (on hinges) which allows flexible height adjustment for different organists and allows the organist to easily stand to conduct a cappella repertoire from the console position. The organ has a total of 81 stops, and 3994 pipes in 67 ranks. With four keyboards and another "keyboard" of foot pedals, this instrument keeps the organist very busy, as he directs the choir with nods of the head.

Below is detailed information about the various aspects and parameters for the instrument. The list of stops (ranks) in a pipe organ is call the "specs" which show the
tonal resources available for the organist.

Gallery Organ and Console

Console type:	Detached 2003-4: Moved back to center balcony (original Casavant orientation)
Stop controls:	Drawknob (Harris)
Pedals type:	Radiating, concave
Action:	Pitman chests
Key:	Electro-Pneumatic
Stop:	1997: Harris solenoid drawknobs/tilting tablets, 2003: Classic Organ Works capture memory, relay & midi interface formerly 1995  SSL capture action memory; prior A-S electro-pneumatic mechanical capture action "machine"
Temperament:	Equal
Tuning (a'):	440 Hz (hot summer: 447Hz)
No. stops:	81 (119 stopknob controls)
No. ranks:	67 (original 1964: 61 ranks)(in 2003 added 6 ranks of pipes, and Digital voices: 7in pedal, 1 in Choir)
No. pipes:	3994      (Original 1964: 3453)

2003-4 rebuilding tonal alterations are shown in red.
Organ Benches at First Unitarian

Great Organ (Exposed)

61 Notes, Manual II

Swell Organ (under expression, whiffle tree)

61 Notes, Manual III

Choir Organ (under expression, whiffle tree)

61 Notes, Manual I

Delete: Cromorne 8' (moved to positiv)

Positiv Organ (Exposed)

61 Notes, Manual IV

Delete: Tremulant(Choir, originally for Doppelflute winding)

Pedal Organ -- 32 Notes

Delete: Resultant 32' (principal-based)
Delete pipes: Bourdon 32' -- 10 Pipes(CCCC, CCCC# were resultant) (1964 A-S had stopped 10 pipes of the Casavant open 16')
Delete duplex access: Gemshorn 2' (Great)
Delete duplex access: Cromorne 2' (Choir)
Delete: Quint 5 1/3'
Delete: Principal 16' -- 12 Pipes (never had been satisfactory, overblown, cut-ups too high, etc.)

Console

Flip-top hydraulic-height adjustable bench
"Tracker Touch" springs under each key
Slide-out "drawer" reveals stops to control Portativ division (on wheels in the front of the church)

Couplers

Great to Pedal 8'
Swell to Pedal 8'
Choir to Pedal 8'
Positiv to Pedal 8'
Swell to Pedal 4'
Choir to Pedal 4'
Pedal to Great 8'
Swell to Great 16'
Swell to Great 8'
Swell to Great 4'
Choir to Great 16'
Choir to Great 8'
Choir to Great 4'
Positiv to Great 8'
Positiv to Swell 8'
Swell to Choir 16'
Swell to Choir 8'
Swell to Choir 4'
Positive to Choir 8'

Combinations
Replace: Old SSL 32-Level capture action with adjustable crescendo and sfzorando (installed 1995)
New capture action, integrated with key action solid state, including MIDI (record/playback, MIDI voices, & remote console)
99 Levels; Sequencer (next/last) has one programming regardless of Level selected.
Control System is Classic Organ Works

Swell -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 0
Great -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 0
Choir --1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 0
Positiv -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 0
Couplers -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 0
Pedal -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 0 (Toe studs duplicated by thumb pistons)
General 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11,12,13,14,15,16 (Thumb pistons)
General 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (no: 6 thru 10)    11,12,13,14,15 (Toe studs)
General Cancel
Setter Thumb Piston (includes traditional hold-and-set feature as well as SETTER button)
   (Hold & set: Press piston and after one second the drawknob solenoids disengage and then the system "listens" to any drawknob changes and remembers those at the time of the release of the piston)
Division cancels operated by division name tablets
French manual transfer
Pedal Divide

Mechanicals

Swell Expression
Choir Expression
Crescendo Pedal with Bar graph Indicator (three separately programmable Crescendos)
Full-Organ Reversible Piston and toe stud with Light Indicator

Reversible Thumb Pistons and Toe Pedals:

Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Choir to Pedal
Positiv to Pedal
Swell to Great
Choir to Great
Positiv to Great
Bourdon 32'
Fagotto 32' (Contra Fagotto)

Additional 3 assignable reversers A-B-C (these toe studs enable particular drawknob(s) to be reversed: pull the desired stop(s) and SET like a piston to select which stop(s) the toe stud affects - it can be more than one stopknob and reverses those stopknobs).

Schematic locations of stops on drawknob jambs:   left jamb,   right jamb
Information for substitute service organists

5-rank Portativ (2022) and Remote Console (2021)

Remote console can play the Portativ division as well as all of the gallery divisions.
Both the remote console and portativ pipes (blower self-contained) are on wheels and fit in the elevator to be usable most anywhere in the church.

MANUAL I                               Rank Derivation
8          Principal                                  2
8          Rohrfloete                               3
4          Octave                                     2
4          Gedeckt                                   1
2          Super Octave                          2
1 1/3    Quint                                       4
MANUAL II
8          Gedeckt                                   1
4          Rohrfloete                               3
2 2/3    Nasat tc                                   4
2          Blockfloete                              1
1 3/5    Terz tg                                     5
PEDAL
16        Subbass                                   1
8          Principal                                  2
8          Gedeckt                                   1
4          Octave                                     2
4          Rohrfloete                               3

DERIVATION   (five ranks)
Rank#                          Stop Name                 No. Pipes      I                 II            Pedal              
1          16                    Subbass*-Gedeckt       85 pipes         4                8-2          16*-8           
2          4                      Octave                         73 pipes         8**-4-2       -             8**-4              
3          4                      Rohrfloete (c1-49)        49 pipes         8***            4                4                
4          1 1/3                Quint                            54 pipes         1 1/3          2 2/3 tc         -                
5          1 3/5                Terz (g20-d51)             32 pipes         -                 1 3/5 tg        -               

Total Pipes: 293

*Subbass 16': notes 1-12, 8’+5 1/3’ or borrow from gallery organ, selectable.
**Principal 8': Common bass from Gedeckt 8' plus Rohrfloete 4' or borrow from Gallery Organ, selectable.
***Rohrfloete 8': Common bass from Gedeckt 8'

Note Pipes 1-24 of Gedeckt 8’ rank are pre-existing from the Builder’s stock.
            Historic Source: 1928 Aeolian Organ previously installed in the Higgins House, Worcester

Remote console positioned in center aisle to accompany choir and orchestra.

Aeolian-Skinner list of Stoplists

This instrument (Op 1433) original 1964 stoplist

1964 Letter to Aeolian-Skinner company of installation complaints/punchlist - many of the voicing/regulation issues remained until the time of 2001 rebuilding

More information about First Unitarian:

• Diagramatic history of the church, instruments, etc.: GIF picture, Acrobat format, textual outline
• Music Program
• First Unitarian home page

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