The Diapason October 2014

THE DIAPASON OCTOBER 2014 St. John’s of Lattingtown Episcopal Church Locust Valley, New York Cover feature on pages 30–31 Cover feature Glück Pipe Organs, from St. John’s. It was this little organ, highly informative books, whether with walnut caps. Because this is a two- New York, New York with roll-playing mechanism, which technical or historical. It was co-opted manual instrument, some solo stops are St. John’s of Lattingtown appears to have infl uenced the church’s by the speculative and operative arms duplexed between the manuals, and Episcopal Church, choice of Skinner to build his Opus 447 of organbuilding to describe service- some extension work is included. Of note Locust Valley, New York when the church was reconfi gured for its playing instruments of small scope are the variably scaled 16′ Pedal exten- reopening in 1924. The church organ was and grand effect, most associated with sion of the Skinner string and the 24-pipe An historic idyll a smaller affair of eleven ranks, built in English builders of the past 150 years, downward extension of the Great 2′ The hamlet of Lattingtown, a sub- Skinner’s Westfi eld shop. although the French have been parallel Gemshorn as the Pedal 8′ Spitzfl öte and enclave of Locust Valley on New York’s Neither of the small Skinner organs adepts. The criteria for this appellation 4′ Choral Bass. Although it is my policy Long Island, is named for the locust remains intact. Frieda Frasch Whiton remain nebulous, and the label has been to avoid unifi cation of any manual rank at trees that forest the terminal moraines divorced Henry in 1921, married Count adhered to organs of between 18 and 40 adjacent pitches, opting for a two-octave left by receding glaciers. The land was David Augustus Constantini the follow- ranks, two or three manuals, French, separation, the Chimney Flute appears purchased from the Algonquin-speaking ing year, and upon the count’s death in English, or American, with mechanical twice in the Great department, charm- tribe of the Lenape nation in 1667, and 1937, married Baron Carl Gottlieb von or assisted action. ing at the unison, beguiling at the octave. during the late nineteenth century, the Seidlitz, to whom she remained married In designing this 20-rank instrument The short-but-useful-compass 8′ Herald region became known for its quiet seren- until her death in 1951. The fate of the for St. John’s, I chose to focus upon Trumpet is voiced on the same pressure ity while enjoying proximity to New York house organ appears lost to history. what the substantive literature demands as the rest of the organ. Its distinction City, where many of the area residents of the organ. Thousands of American comes from its scaling, shallot style, and also kept city homes and offi ces for their The commission instruments have harbored lovely stops, voicing, its tone warmer and rounder business interests. Ten years ago, Eric Milnes, director but could never honor the wishes of than its name implies. By the 1920s, society architects such of music, approached me about build- the composers who wrote organ music. as Delano and Aldrich; Bertram Gros- ing a new organ for St. John’s, which I Since concert literature was written by Expression: upstairs, downstairs venor Goodhue; McKim, Mead, and assumed would be a mechanical-action church organists for the instruments The Great and some of the Pedal White; Cass Gilbert; and Carrère and organ in historic style and temperament, they played in church, I always choose to fl uework are unenclosed above the Hastings designed resplendent resi- as Mr. Milnes has earned an internation- work backwards from the score to create impost, and the remainder of the organ’s dences for privacy-seeking industrialists ally celebrated reputation as a conductor instruments with the required voices at resources are under expression, includ- and fi nanciers in the Glen Cove region, and historical keyboard artist specializing the right pitches, properly grouped and ing the Herald Trumpet and four of the whose names may still be unfamiliar to in the historically informed performance usefully juxtaposed. Desirable elements fi ve 16′ stops: the Violone, a downward most. The imposing estate houses were of Baroque keyboard, instrumental, and in an organ of this limited size are an extrapolation with a broadening scale (and are) known by name rather than choral music with period instruments. anchoring principal chorus, warmly and of the 8′ Viole de Gambe, with Haskell by street address, including attorney Yet to my delight, he envisioned a power- elegantly voiced with a clear, silvery re-entrant tubes; the Bourdon, extended William Dameron Guthrie’s vast prop- ful, multifaceted, colorful adjunct to the mixture of sensible composition; a col- from the 8′ Stopt Diapason; the Bom- erty, “Meudon,” named for Château de Episcopal liturgy that could authentically lection of fl utes of diverse structure barde, an extension of the Trumpet; and Meudon in the Parisian suburb where interpret the concert repertoire. The use and material; a tierce combination for the Basset Horn. This is accommodated Marcel Dupré kept a house fi tted up of electropneumatic action opened the solo work; a pair of vibrant strings of by a two-story expression enclosure, with with a Mutin-Cavaillé-Coll organ. door to a world of tonal possibilities in authentically cutting, exceptional char- upper and lower banks of shutter blades. In the bucolic Locust Valley–Glen which the two of us could scratch our acter; the three primary reed colors The knob engraved “Lower Shutters Cove region, about a dozen houses in the academic itches free from the strangula- (Trumpet, Oboe, and Clarinet, the last Off” disables and closes the shutters at “neighborhood” were furnished with pipe tion of purist dogma. The challenge was of which must play in dialogue with the the choir-loft level while permitting the organs by the Aeolian Company, includ- not to acquiesce to bland “eclecticism,” cornet); and a pedal division producing entirety of the enclosed organ to speak ing the II/27 in Louis Comfort Tiffany’s but to devise an enchanting chameleon a very clean pitch line that can be heard through the controllable upper set “Laurelton Hall,” the IV/63 in Nicholas F. without spawning a generic creature moving clearly beneath and through the behind the Great, using the nave’s ceil- Brady’s “Inisfada,” and the colossal IV/107 devoid of character and personality. manual textures. No wasted space, no ing as a sounding board. The Great 16′ in Frank W. Woolworth’s “Winfi eld Hall.” wasted metal. Double Diapason is also enclosed, yet Yet it was the wife of sulfur baron Henry The musical formula By good fortune, the Skinner Salicio- has no pipes of its own, being derived Devereux Whiton who is listed as the cli- The Latin multum in parvo, or “much nal and Voix Céleste, as well as the Pedal from the Swell 4′ Principal from C25 ent for the II/13 Ernest M. Skinner organ in little,” often is used to assess the use- 16′ Bourdon, survived the onslaught of to G56, and the bass taken from the 16′ of 1919 for their house “up the road” ful content-to-thickness ratio of short, the Orgelbewegung, so some heritage Bourdon/8′ Stopt Diapason unit. The pipework, renamed, lives on in the addition to the ensemble is one of nobil- organ. The new metal pipes are built of ity and gravity without muddiness. The a spotted alloy of 50% tin (including the Pedal 16′ Subbass provides signifi cant hefty resonators of the Swell 16′ Basset punch, never shared by, or extended Horn). New timber pipes are poplar from, its manual brethren. Detail of case, Glück Opus 18 Console of Glück Opus 18, St. John’s of Lattingtown Episcopal Church 30 Q THE DIAPASON Q OCTOBER 2014 WWW.THEDIAPASON.COM The organ case The remarkable oak casework was carved by William and Alexander Clow of Edinburgh to the designs of Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, and was the gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Pierpont Morgan. The Clow brothers had completed the carved fi gures in the Chapel of the Knights of the Order of the Thistle at St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, in 1911 and were a perfect team to work on a small sum- mer church of this stature. The organ case was part of a much larger decorative program by Sir Robert and fi nanced by Morgan; the entirety of St. John’s is pavé with exuberant carving in this style. The case was altered to accommodate the Skinner instrument, and again in the 1970s. In the course of decades, carved panels were discarded, crockets cut down, and a brash horizontal trumpet stop installed. Carvings were desiccated and cracked, and the case had settled after structural elements were removed Sebastian M. Glück in the organ loft with the voiced pipes of Detail of key cheeks during the last campaign of alterations. the Mixture, ready for installation and tonal fi nishing Our mission was to structurally stabilize and restore the case to the spirit of The family of artisans at Glück Pipe longed for the more eclectic instruments case in particular is a splendor to behold, the Skinner era, with new components Organs is grateful to have been invited of my youth, when I was a student of and required the most loving care in its respecting the aesthetic sensibility of to design and build this jewel in a jewel Gerre Hancock, John Weaver, and Ver- conservation and adaptation to a new Morgan’s gift.

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