This entire church project is amazing and the church building is magnificent. However, only 20 ranks of pipes for the main organ really is grossly undersized considering the scale of the structure. This new church has a planned capacity of over 1,000 people according to press releases (largest Catholic church in Kansas, which is awesome). However, according to the APOBA (Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America), a church with seating for 1,000 should have between 65-86 ranks in the organ as a rough estimate. Therefore, 20 ranks represents only about about 1/3rd to 1/4 of the pipes typically called for in a gallery organ in this size of a church. The unfortunate truth is that in buildings of this size, the larger number of pipe ranks may be something more like a necessity than a luxury. Many TLM churches seem to prefer the French practice of using the organ to lead/accompany congregational singing of the Kyriale, as well as lead entrance/recessional hymns. In addition, both loud and softer organ literature seems to be used. The smaller Aolian-Skinner Chancel organ might be able to do this for private masses with smaller capacity, but certainly not in a fully packed church on a Sunday or feast day. Therefore, the bigger organ would need to be powerful enough to lead as well as accompany. Sound needs to reach from the back to the front of the nave to support the whole congregation with a solid amount of sound still in reserve. In situations with a larger organ, the volume would be provided a combinations of more stops graduated in appropriate volume. In a larger specification, pulling out/pushing in the appropriate number of stops could result in fine-tuned differences in tone and volume to accomplish all of these tasks. In this case, you can voice some of the 20 ranks to be very powerful to reach the front of the nave, but then it will be challenging to get the graduated "range" of "soft-to-middle-to-loud" sounds that are useful for a church organ; there just aren't enough pipes to fully bridge the gap and balance with other combinations. You could "borrow" stops from different divisions or use "unification" to make a bigger stoplist, but this does not fully solve this problem as it doesn't really change voicing/tone. Also, unification, while useful, can be a problem if used too much. It basically means using one rank/row of pipes for multiple "stops" via electronic switching. If one rank has a problem such as a cipher (note sounding by itself) or dead note, it will then affect more than one stop/division, hindering playability of the organ. Quimby is a good organ builder with a proven track record, so that is a plus. Hopefully if the current 20 rank plan goes through it is indeed expanded over time. However, adding 30-60 ranks to a 20 rank organ to really get it up to size could be more difficult than just starting from scratch and building a brand new, bigger organ....
A 20 rank organ will never fill that place with sound. There should be at least 70, with a complete swell, great and positif plus pedal down to 32’. This is a typical boring Catholic Church installation. Hopefully they will find a donor to allow it to be expanded to proper size for a building that large. Sorry but I’ve seen too many churches cheap out ont the organ to save a buck.
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I know nothing about organs, but this was a fascinating video! Can't wait to visit the new Immaculata when it's complete!
This entire church project is amazing and the church building is magnificent. However, only 20 ranks of pipes for the main organ really is grossly undersized considering the scale of the structure.
This new church has a planned capacity of over 1,000 people according to press releases (largest Catholic church in Kansas, which is awesome). However, according to the APOBA (Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America), a church with seating for 1,000 should have between 65-86 ranks in the organ as a rough estimate. Therefore, 20 ranks represents only about about 1/3rd to 1/4 of the pipes typically called for in a gallery organ in this size of a church.
The unfortunate truth is that in buildings of this size, the larger number of pipe ranks may be something more like a necessity than a luxury. Many TLM churches seem to prefer the French practice of using the organ to lead/accompany congregational singing of the Kyriale, as well as lead entrance/recessional hymns. In addition, both loud and softer organ literature seems to be used. The smaller Aolian-Skinner Chancel organ might be able to do this for private masses with smaller capacity, but certainly not in a fully packed church on a Sunday or feast day. Therefore, the bigger organ would need to be powerful enough to lead as well as accompany. Sound needs to reach from the back to the front of the nave to support the whole congregation with a solid amount of sound still in reserve. In situations with a larger organ, the volume would be provided a combinations of more stops graduated in appropriate volume. In a larger specification, pulling out/pushing in the appropriate number of stops could result in fine-tuned differences in tone and volume to accomplish all of these tasks.
In this case, you can voice some of the 20 ranks to be very powerful to reach the front of the nave, but then it will be challenging to get the graduated "range" of "soft-to-middle-to-loud" sounds that are useful for a church organ; there just aren't enough pipes to fully bridge the gap and balance with other combinations. You could "borrow" stops from different divisions or use "unification" to make a bigger stoplist, but this does not fully solve this problem as it doesn't really change voicing/tone. Also, unification, while useful, can be a problem if used too much. It basically means using one rank/row of pipes for multiple "stops" via electronic switching. If one rank has a problem such as a cipher (note sounding by itself) or dead note, it will then affect more than one stop/division, hindering playability of the organ.
Quimby is a good organ builder with a proven track record, so that is a plus. Hopefully if the current 20 rank plan goes through it is indeed expanded over time. However, adding 30-60 ranks to a 20 rank organ to really get it up to size could be more difficult than just starting from scratch and building a brand new, bigger organ....
Jeeps
I used to be proficient at the organ. Maybe... 🤔 I could be talked into being recruited for organ duty...
A 20 rank organ will never fill that place with sound. There should be at least 70, with a complete swell, great and positif plus pedal down to 32’. This is a typical boring Catholic Church installation. Hopefully they will find a donor to allow it to be expanded to proper size for a building that large. Sorry but I’ve seen too many churches cheap out ont the organ to save a buck.