Atlanta, Georgia
Cathedral of St. Philip

Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1399
Notes on the 1991 Revoicing Work


Originally finished tonally by Don Gillette, who had to extensively voice-up the organ, 
being in what was originally a dead room. In the early '90's, the ceiling
(Guastavino Acousti-Lith tiles) was coated with six thick layers of clear latex
acrylic, which dramatically improved the acoustics of the room. Hendriksen was 
then engaged to re-scale some of the principal choruses in the Gt., Sw., and Ch.. 
This also included re-composition of the 2 mixtures in the Great, the Acuta in the 
Swell, and the Cymbel in the Positive. Pipework from the Gallery division (not 
used due to water damage) was used to provide a different 4' Octave as opposed to 
the original 4' Fugara. A new Mixture was added to the Choir.     

In my opinion, some of the up-scaling of the various principal work was necessary,
due to the overly optimistic scaling (on the small side -- anticipating a very live room, 
and finding the opposite). The result has been that the three 8' 
Principals sound much too much alike, whereas before there had been a nice 
three-tiered contrast of sounds. 

The most glaring change was in the compositions of the mixtures mentioned. The 
Great Fourniture was originally IV-VI rks., and could prove a little unwieldly tuning & 
stability-wise, and the change to a straightforward IV rks. was OK, but 
the down-pitching of the Scharff really was not necessary. More egregiously done 
was the severe down-pitching of both the Positive Cymbel and Swell Acuta mixtures, 
to wit: The Cybel was originally a 33-36-40 layout, a very high "tinkly" Baroque 
type of sound, which was bowdlerized into a 22-26-29 mixture which does not match 
the rest of the ensemble. Worse yet is the fate that befell the Swell Acuta, which 
was originally a 26-29-33, a wonderful perfect "cap" to the full Swell chorus with 
reeds, then changed to a 19-22-26, which essentially mirrored the Plein Jeu, minus 
the bottom rank. It could be argued that in so doing the "teeth" of the full 
swell's "bite" were pulled. 

What SHOULD have been done was to carefully ease the volume of these high 
mixtures back a bit, as they had had (in Don Gillette's words)"the daylights 
pushed out of them." The pitch layouts were classic Aeolian-Skinner, and did not 
need the drastic revisions visited upon them. 

All that aside, this organ is still incredibly thrilling to listen to. Full organ 
is downright TERRIFYING at the console. The swell strings (Viole-De-Gambe & 
Celeste) are very bold, almost caustic at the console, but create a golden shimmer 
in the room that can't be described. The 32' Bourdon is the PRESENCE, and the 
reeds are some of Oscar Pearson's finest work. Even after all these years, this 
instrument is still my favorite. 

Great recordings include Michael Murray's Encores ala Francaise (the Poulenc 
Concerto only) and Todd Wilson's In A Quiet Cathedral.

[Received on line from James A Taylor, October 22, 2008]