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Cover feature Kegg Pipe Organ Builders, Hartville, Ohio Zion Lutheran Church, Wausau, Wisconsin Zion Lutheran Church in Wausau, Wisconsin, has deep roots in Lutheran church music, laying claim to both Paul Bunjes and Carl Schalk in a distin- guished lineage of musical leadership. Though less well known, Viola Bonsa was also a part of that lineage, and we are delighted to give a wink in her direc- tion with the name of the Swell 8′ string. Virginia Giese is the current Kantor and Music Director, and Rev. Steven Gjerde is Pastor. An organ that had served the church well in a previous space was moved to the new building in the 1950s and placed on platforms in the rear gallery that were to be surrounded with appropriate case- work. The layout was tight at best, and the casework never materialized. As the musical understanding and requirements developed and changed over the years, so did the organ. Various revisions and additions were made, sometimes with One of the large tower shades little or no regard for scaling and even less for accessibility for tuning or repair. Choral music has been a longstanding The organ lost its identity and virtually and cherished feature of worship at Zion. choked on itself. In the Lutheran liturgical tradition, choirs Designing a new organ for Zion gave us have often been likened to the company of angels: “Praise him, all his angels, praise an opportunity to exploit some of the ef- him, all his heavenly hosts” (Psalm 148:2). fects of placement. There is no question For this reason, they are typically placed that the focused sound of encased pipe- in a gallery at the back of the nave, where work in direct line of sight to the listener their voices can fall upon the congregation differs substantially from the refl ected like a benediction and raise congregational sound of pipes enclosed in a swell box singing to heights that it cannot reach on its perpendicular to the listener. Yet each of own. This “celestial” role of the choir led to those placements can have distinct advan- our suggestion that the pipe shades feature carvings of the archangels. It gives visible tages. Our often-copied all-electric chest expression to our working theology of mu- design with expansion chambers fi tted to sic, in which the Church joins the heavenly each note allowed us the freedom to lo- hosts in their unending hymn. cate pipes where they needed to be in the tonal strategy, and still arrange them for An additional, deliberately planned greatest ease of tuning. case decoration is brought about by The sounds most often used to lead the refl ection of the large stained glass congregational singing—Great and Posi- window in the highly polished façade tiv—are placed in the front of the cases pipes. This kaleidoscopic effect chang- in direct line of sight to the congregation. es minute by minute, and we found These two Principal choruses are nearly it particularly beautiful in the early equal in volume, but are quite different Kegg organ, Zion Lutheran Church, Wausau, Wisconsin morning winter light during our Janu- in color and weight. Instead of the more ary tonal fi nishing. usual front-to-back or up-and-down re- Kegg consoles are known for their lux- lationship of these two choruses, they urious comfort and ease of use. When- dialog from side to side, complementing ever practicable, they are easily movable each other when used together. on integral casters. At Zion, space in the The sounds most often used to ac- gallery is at a premium and there is really company the choir—Swell and Enclosed only one choice for console location. We Great—sit farther back, with the shades chose to make it stationary, and actually opening toward the choir loft. This place- narrowed our standard geometry slight- ment gives the singers the advantage of ly, without sacrifi cing anything, to make hearing direct sound from the organ, but the new console fi t precisely where the gives the congregation a perspective with previous one had been. the voices distinctly in the foreground. Many parishioners turned out to help The previous organ had the lowest nine unload the moving van and carry all the pipes of the 16′ Open Wood installed in pipes, pieces and parts into the church. the ladder shaft at the very back of the In a scenario familiar to every pipe right organ platform, in what appeared organ installation team, we watched to be a hopelessly buried location. Sur- as their joy in fi nally receiving their prisingly, the room responds very favor- long-awaited new organ slowly faded to ably to bass frequencies generated there, concern, then changed to all-out panic and we followed the cue, successfully in- as every square inch of their spiritual stalling the 16′ Subbass in the matching home was covered with at least one lay- location on the other side. er of organ. By Sunday morning, 90% The Festival Trumpet, with its resona- of those organ parts had been moved at tors and fl ared bells of polished brass, Console (photo credit: Mark Krambs) least twice more, once up into the gal- was originally planned for a location high lery, then up once more into place on on the front corner of the chancel. In a part of worship. As with all of our designs, The tower crowns have discreet poly- the organ platforms. Ten days after the decision made just hours before the or- we aim to have the new organ appear to chrome accents of gold and aqua to co- van pulled up in front of the church, gan left the shop, the church requested have been built with and for the building. ordinate with other decoration in the everything was in place, working, and that it be relocated to the back with the It is deeply satisfying when parishioners roof beams. Decorative bands across the ready for tonal fi nishing. rest of the organ. After some re-engi- tell us that the new organ looks like it has fl at sections are also polychromed and The organ was dedicated during the neering and new chest construction, it always been there. topped with carved crosses. The use of morning liturgy on February 21, 2010, now makes its dramatic statement from Several elements make this case in- exaggerated foot and body lengths in with a concert that afternoon played by the gallery rail. teresting. The four towers on each case, these sections that face the choir lends Dr. David Heller of Trinity University, One might fear that such a mix of di- especially the large corner ones, appear the impression that these pipes are deli- San Antonio, Texas, who also served as rect and refl ected sound would result in to extend weightlessly over the edge of cately scaled, greatly reducing their vi- consultant to the church. chaos in the listener’s ears. Such is not the organ platforms, even though their sual weight in the gallery. As music director, Virginia Giese is the case! The sound in the nave is rich, cantilevered supports are anchored se- The 100 façade pipes all speak, and putting the new organ through its paces, clean and bold—a sound with a depth of curely by the weight of the rest of the are from the Pedal, Great and Positiv both in excellent support of the parish fi eld that no speaker system can begin organ. The effect is subtly enhanced by Principals, Octaves and Choralbass. liturgies, and reaching out to the larger to reproduce. the fact that the bottom of the casework The pipe shades, hand-carved from community through performance oppor- One of the most important goals of the sits 1/8″ above the platform and seems basswood by Spirit Williams of Hocking tunities. An extensive concert series has new organ project was providing a fi tting not to touch it at all. Hills, Ohio, feature Archangels Gabriel, already begun, featuring Kathrine Hand- visual design. After decades of exposure to Our use of CAD software, particularly Michael, Uriel, and Raphael on the two ford, Ken Cowan, Michael Burkhardt, naked organ parts, we wanted to reward in 3D modeling, was of tremendous help large corner towers. The pipe shades on Paul Jacobs, and Chelsea Chen, among the people of Zion with an organ case not only in engineering this much organ the remaining towers depict the tradi- several others. Details of these and other that doesn’t just “clothe the naked,” but into the available space, but also in plan- tional symbols of the twelve Apostles. concerts on Kegg organs can be found at also feeds those who hunger for beauty as ning the many visual aspects. Pastor Steven Gjerde writes: <www.keggorgan.com>. 28 THE DIAPASON Jan 2011 pp. 28-30.indd 28 12/9/10 11:58:57 AM Large tower shade being carved by Spirit Williams literature, but for the added variety it can this new instrument is a dream for the provide as a solo stop. The Cromorne, player; everything is where it’s supposed located on both the Great and Positiv to be located—from the order of the divisions, possesses a beautiful, piquant drawknobs and pistons to the location quality that is superb for solo lines. And of the sequencer. This is one of the most fi nally, the reed stop that gathers the user-friendly consoles you will ever fi nd, most attention (both visually and tonally) which further enhances the experience is the Festival Trumpet, mounted on the for the player.