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STOPLISTS

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CONSOLES

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Builder: Tellers Organ Co.
Position: Console in Fixed Position, Center
Design: Traditional With Roll Top
Pedalboard Type: Concave Radiating (Meeting AGO Standards)
Features:
3 Manuals (61 Notes)32 Note Pedal4 Divisions46 Stops64 RegistersElectrical Key ActionElectrical Stop Action✓ Crescendo✓ Combination Thumb Piston(s)✓ Combination Toe Piston(s)✓ Coupler Thumb Piston(s)✓ Coupler Toe Piston(s)✓ Sforzando Thumb Piston(s)✓ Sforzando Toe Piston(s)

Stop Layout: Stop Keys Above Top Manual
Expression Type: Balanced Expression Shoes/Pedals (Meeting AGO Standards)
Combination Action: 'Hold and Set' Pneumatic/Mechanical
Control System: Unknown or N/A

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DETAILS

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This instrument is: Extant and Playable in this location

Jim Stettner on January 13th, 2023:

The contract signing date was July 1, 1963. Cost was $39,030.00.


Scot Huntington on January 13th, 2023:

.The organ was a new installation in a new building. The organ was contracted for in the Fall of 1964 for installation in Fall of 1965. The organ is installed in spacious chambers on either side of a central cross in this semi-circular chancel. There being no visible pipes, the instrument in installed behind grills covering pleated acoustically transparent draperies. The organ was designed by consultant Hans Vigeland, a prominent organist in Buffalo and who for several decades was Director of Music at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Although Jamestown is less than 50 miles from the factory in Erie, negotiations were handled by the Tellers Western NY rep, Robert Po-Chedley in Buffalo.

The organ was voiced on low pressure with a bright and transparent style of voicing typical for the era. The organ console was either rebuilt or replaced in a major update of the control system in 2007 by the Fischer Organ Co. of Erie, but reportedly without tonal changes-- just renaming of a number of stops.

A recent Facebook video of a standard church service here (Jan. 2023) shows several rows of front pews have been removed to create a performance area, and the "music" employs a combination of drum set, baby grand piano, guitar, electric keyboard, with microphones and songsters. The result is what one would expect. The choir loft is empty, a television screen is set up behind the altar to hide the organ console front and center in the choir loft, and it appears that under normal circumstances, yet another complete and perfectly serviceable instrument sits unused. One hopes it hasn't been discarded completely. Balzac's famous statement, "fashion wears out more organs that time ever will" comes to mind.

Related Instrument Entries: Fischer Organ Co. (2007)

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