First Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Indiana
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Completed
in 1885, the church had an organ installed at the front of
the nave, and although it spoke on the main axis of the
room, much of the organ was buried behind a wall in a very
cramped chamber, originally a small apse. In a previous
renovation, the apse had disappeared from view to become
home to the Swell division. The Great and Pedal, typical of
the organs of the 1960 Organ Reform movement, were displayed
on chests cantilevered on the front wall. The choir could
not hear the organ well, especially the Swell division, thus
making organ accompaniment of choral works difficult at
best.

Since major repairs were needed on the old organ, whose
the internal design left many parts inaccessible for tuning and
maintenance, the final recommendation was to build a new
instrument incorporating several of the best ranks of pipes
from the old organ.

The plan for a new organ evolved to design a case that would
stand on the chancel floor against the front wall. Because
floor space was at a premium, slider chests became an
important factor in space conservation. The existing shallow
apse was reopened behind the case to house the balance of
the instrument, including the larger pedal stops. In order
to provide for better choral accompaniment possibilities,
the Recit was located just behind the lower left side of the
casework with shutters opening both forward the nave and to
the left side where the choir is seated. The Grand Orgue and
Pédale divisions were situated at the post level of
the case, where they speak directly into the nave.

Acoustic improvements were carried out so that now all
surfaces are hard and reflective. The floors under the pews
are hardwood, the center aisle is slate, and the chancel has
a wood parquet floor.

The main organ is built to provide the maximum amount of
color and variety in a well-developed two-manual design.

* The Grand Orgue has a complete principal chorus based on
the Violonbasse 16′, which incorporates 24 pipes from the
previous organ’s pedal division. The old pipes were
completely revoiced and placed on new chests. The stop is
available on both the Grand Orgue and Pédale at 16′
and 8′ pitch levels. Flute colors include the Flûte
à cheminée 8′ and the slightly tapered
Flûte conique 4′. Many solo sounds are available,
including a warm-sounding, large-scale Flûte
harmonique 8′ and the principal-scaled, brightly colored
Sesquialtera II, which provides a contrast to the wide-scaled
Cornet décomposé of the Récit. The
Clicquot shallots of the Grand Orgue Trompette 8′ gives a
brilliant color in contrast to the darker, rounder tones of
the Recit Trompette, which has Cavaillé-Coll
shallots. For added flexibility, the Récit
Douçaine is available at 16′ and 8′ pitch on the
Grand Orgue.

* The Récit Bourdon 16′ was retained from the
previous organ and revoiced to blend with the new stops. The
14-stop Récit has a rich resonant sound, from the
soft, warm string and céleste to the chorus of reeds,
which gives a powerful effect to the full Swell ensemble.
The swell enclosure is made of thick panels of solid maple
and the shades have specially designed gaskets that
dramatically increase the dynamic range of expression from
completely closed to fully open at 90 degrees.

* The Antiphonal plays from the bottom manual of the
three-manual console and while its name is indicative of its
location at the back of the nave, its manual location
reveals a hint of its function as a kind of Choir division
within the organ as a whole. Because the room acoustic is so
favorable and the physical distance from the front of the
church to the back is not great, this division functions
quite well as a third manual division of the main organ. Yet
its spatial separation provides a charming, special effect
to music played in dialogue with the other divisions. The
The antiphonal division is completely under expression except
for the Montre 8′, whose polished bass pipes are en
façade over the rear door of the church. Pipes from
five stops of the previous organ were completely revoiced to
blend with the new ranks, yielding a small but solid plenum.
The division’s eloquent Flûte douce and Flûte
céleste is the softest stops on the instrument and
can be made to sound quite ethereal by closing the
Antiphonal shades.

* The abundant supply of generously scaled 16′ flue
resources and the Dom Bédos shallots of the Bombarde
16′ give the organ a solid foundation in the room, where the
sturdy structure of walls, floor, and ceiling reinforce
rather than weaken the bass.

The above is a portion of an article by
Jean-Louis
Coignet, Jacquelin Rochette, Stanley R.
Scheer
The
American Organist, February 1996
Source:
http://www.fpccolumbus.org/public_html/pages/aboutus_files/organ.html