Grandall and Engen LLC 10550 County Road 81, Suite 118 Maple Grove, MN 55369 763-951-3016 Proposal/Transplant St John’s Lutheran Church, Howard Lake, MN Renovation and transplant of Casavant Opus 2956, 22 ranks, 1966 David Engen and David Grandall, 24 November 2020, v1 8 January 2021, v2 “shrink” Summary We propose to acquire the 22-rank Casavant organ, Opus 2956, from Luther Seminary Chapel of the Cross. It will be reconfigured and slightly expanded to fit the sanctuary of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Howard Lake, MN. Most of the existing Wicks pipes will be incorporated to expand the tonal resources, representing good stewardship of the original funds and allowing the organ to have more variety for service playing. A few ranks from our stock will be included, as well as a new 16’ reed. Confidentiality & Valuation This proposal and the ideas within are and remain the property of Grandall & Engen, LLC. It may not be transmitted or viewed by parties other than members and staff of St. John’s Lutheran Church without written permission of Grandall & Engen, LLC. All pipe organs should be insured for replacement value should there ever be an unrecoverable disaster, such as fire. By mid-2020 this amount has increased to $29,750 by applying the CPI index. This formula places the value of the organ at St. John’s at a minimum replacement value of $135,000. Should it be sold as is, the value would be street value, or roughly $4,500. Future Maintenance Pipe organs are complex machines with thousands of moving parts. As such, you can be assured of the need for future, on-going maintenance costs. Like a car which must have oil changes, new batteries and occasional tune-ups, the pipe organ needs similar ongoing care. It cannot be expected to work flawlessly for decades without regular attention. The typical home-owners’ association is required by law to keep a reserve for future repairs or replacement, such as roofs and driveways. Owners of pipe organs rarely put money aside for future repairs, relying instead on “self-insuring” on the assumption that money can be found when the time comes. In some cases, the amount of money needed, having increased due to inflation, exceeds an institution’s ability to pay. In these cases, the organs unfortunately gradually go mute. If a small amount of money is set aside in a reserve fund every year, future repairs can be guaranteed and your organ will continue to serve reliably for many generations. Wicks Opus 4893 The existing Wicks organ, Opus 4893, was built for a different building in 1968 or 1969. We presume it was the old church since the Wicks opus list online is incomplete and we cannot find reference to this opus number. It was moved into the present building sometime following its construction in 1988. The original organ consisted of four ranks, three of which are inside the swell box and are not visible. The box is much larger than is necessary to hold these three ranks, so it looks much bigger than it actually is. One rank forms a facade in front of the shutters. A 21-pipe ¼-length 16’ “Contre Trompette” was added at a later date. At note 22 it joins the 8’ Fagott (full length) inside 2 the swell box. These newer pipes have lids on top of their resonators and are extremely buzzy due to their very short length and large diameter. It is a VERY poor tonal match. The organ is 4.5 ranks today, 337 pipes, still with the original Wicks phosphor-bronze switching system. This is the source of numerous dead notes that come and go. The blower and reservoir are located in the attic space above the pastor’s office, behind the block wall. The DC low voltage power supply is also located in this space. The console is on the main floor with a large bundle of cables serving the analog switching system going under the adjacent choir risers. All unit switching is inside the console – there is no separate relay inside the organ. The console is quite heavy and cannot easily be moved. The switches make noise. The choir, when present, sits under the organ shelf in a tonal “shadow”. With the current configuration it would be difficult for the choir members to hear the organ in balance. The console location also makes it difficult for the organist to hear the organ well, although the fine acoustics of the room and numerous nearby reflective surfaces make it much more successful than might be expected. This organ is very small, despite its visual appearance. It is highly unified, which hinders the organist’s ability to clearly lead the congregation. It has one stop from each of the four pipe organ families: principal, flute, string, reed. Each rank is available at many pitches, and this results in the “missing note” phenomenon where one might play a note but there are no pipes left since all are playing already. The inability to add rhythmic drive through articulation is what damages the organ’s leadership ability. The availability of a great variety of organ tone is simply missing. • 16’/8’/4’ Subbass/Rohrflute, 85 pipes (flute) • 8’/4’/2’/1’ Gemshorn TC, 73 pipes (string/hybrid) • 8’/4’ Fagott ,73 pipes (reed) + 16’ Contre Trompette, 21 pipes • 8’/4’/2’ Principal, 85 pipes (principal) Casavant Opus 2956 Casavant Opus 2956 of 22 ranks from 1966 at Chapel of the Cross at Luther Seminary in St. Paul is for sale for $19,400. This organ was designed and voiced by Lawrence Phelps and is on very low wind pressure. This organ is a good size for St. John’s, although we believe the tonal design is not the best for church service playing. A pipe organ in a liturgical church must do many things: 1. Foremost is leading hymns and liturgy. The Casavant excels at this. 2. Second is accompanying everything from a single child’s voice to full choir to brass ensemble. With no enclosed Swell, the Casavant would not do this well at all. 3. Third is playing voluntaries – for preludes, postludes, offering, wedding processions and contemplative music for funerals. The Casavant will excel at this for organ music before the Romantic period, as well as some contemporary music. The vast amount of music from the Romantic period would not fare well on this organ. The list of requirements is quite broad, and only an organ with adequate, varied resources can be expected to be successful at all of these. The voicing style is quite different from the Wicks. Tonal finishing of the Casavant is vastly better quality than the Wicks. 3 Proposal The Casavant will be a good fit, but it needs some changes – both physical and tonal – to fit the available space and to be a truly versatile church organ. We feel that the Opus 2956 Positiv division should be converted into a Swell by enclosing it in a box with shutters. (Casavant concurs with this change.) The Casavant requires greater depth than the St. John’s shelf provides. From the building plans, we can see that there are steel beams on both sides and the front face of the shelf. The shelf may or may not need additional support. Our solution is as follows: 1. Church’s contractor (at Church’s expense depending on engineer’s advice): Add vertical steel from the shelf to the floor to brace the shelf to hold more weight. We can easily hide this inside the lower casework. 2. Move the Positiv chest from the shelf, converting it to a Swell division under the shelf. New casework will enclose it. 3. Elevate the windchests on the shelf to allow maintenance access underneath, and provide “skirting” casework. The Great Principal 8’ will almost touch the ceiling. 4. Rearrange the Pedal wind chests (currently along the back wall) that make the organ deep in the area vacated. The Pedal would be grouped mostly behind the facade at the right end of the shelf. 5. The existing Casavant facade will remain intact and be placed on the front face of the shelf. 6. Move the choir and Casavant console across the room on a rolling platform. Recycled materials from both organs • Wicks 16’ Rohrflute 1-73 becomes 16’-10.2/3’-8’ Gedeckt for the Pedal (44 pipes) • Wicks 8’ Gemshorn (tc) 13-61 becomes the Swell 8’ Gemshorn Celeste TC (49 pipes) • Wicks 8’ Principal 13-73 becomes Swell 4’ Principal (61 pipes) • Wicks 8’ Fagott 1-61 becomes Great 8’ Trompete (61 pipes) • Wicks 16’ Contra Trompette 1-12 to become 16’ extension to 8’ Schalmei (12 pipes) • Casavant console • Casavant blower • Wicks blower • Casavant reservoirs • Wicks main chest, 4’ Principal chest This represents re-use of most of the Wicks pipes and all of the Casavant pipes. All of the Casavant wind chests will be retained and used after receiving new leather. New materials • 8’ Gemshorn, 61 vintage pipes from our stock • 4’ Spitzflöte, 61 vintage pipes from our stock • Laukhuff “puffer” style tremulants for the Swell • Syndyne MS8400 relay system with integral combination action • Peterson nameboard with new stop action magnets and tilting tablets (Z-bracket) • 2 swell pedals (Swell, Crescendo) 4 • 2 Organ Supply Industries keyboards, with 27 pistons following AGO standard, non- tracker touch • 13 Toe studs, exact layout TBD • Up to 2 New Organ Supply Industries reservoirs where required • New wind chests by Grandall & Engen (Trompete, Gedeckt), offsets • 2 low voltage power supplies • 1 rolling platform, Organ Supply Industries • Miscellaneous wind lines • 1 Peterson RC-150 Swell motor; new ½ shade front (Wicks will be retained for other 1/2) • Tube steel to support shelf (contractor, if required) • Materials needed to create Swell enclosure and grill, including 1 or 2 doors, plywood & batten design Unused materials (these become property of Grandall & Engen) • Wicks 16’ Contre Trompette, 13-22 • Wicks 8’ Principal, 1-12 • Wicks console • Wicks power supply • Wicks reservoirs (TBD) Scope of Work 1.