Austin Organ, Opus 2419

3 manuals, 16 ranks, 1,042 pipes

By Mike Foley*

The organ was originally built by the Austin Company in 1963 (Opus 2419).  It was designed for accompaniment purposes and voiced on the mild side.  The 1960s reflected a tonal era in organ history that was intentionally meant to "lean out" any fat sound in an instrument.  This included pedal.  The organ had 14 ranks of pipes and because it was both a performance and teaching instrument, these were spread over 3 manuals.  Perhaps its most unique feature was that the entire instrument was on casters and could be rolled out from a far rear corner on the stage.  Except for the console, it was entirely self contained.  I wish we had photos but alas, we do not.  The Austin company might.  They're still in Hartford.

In those days, a relatively young, John Holtz was the head of the Hartt organ department.  A new builder (and friend of Holtz's) was one, G. Edgar Gress who built organs (Gress-Miles Organ Co., Princeton, NJ).  Gress' tonal thinking was, in a nutshell, loud!  In about 1963, he was hired by Hartt to revoice opus 2149 to make it much bolder and loud enough to be used in solo performance (something for which Austin had never intended).  Gress significantly loudened all the stops of the Great and Positiv, so much that many felt the instrument's original "charm" had been lost.  Austin was so angry over the fact that Hartt had brought Gress in only a few years after they'd built the organ, that they essentially disowned the instrument.  Whether or not what Ed had done was right can only be judged by history.  The work is reversible; however, this process is considerably more time consuming and costly.  A few years ago, the church hired us to try and tame some of the most offending stops.  This made a nice difference.

In 1982,  Holtz, decided to upgrade the department's instruments.  The seldom played Austin was getting more damaged than used and therefore the decision was made to sell it and put the funds toward a smaller very portable pipe organ.  I'd already been contacted by the United Congregational Church of Tolland and when I heard of the instrument's availability I immediately called Rev. Don Miller.  The selling price was $40,000; Don and the committee went, looked, and plunked their money down thereby immediately beating out a fast-growing number of interested buyers.  Our price to modify and move it was $21,000 (such a deal). 

When the church was totally rebuilt in 1976, pipe organ chamber space was created in the form of two shallow, long chambers.  We were able to modify the organ's layout to nicely fit the space and the organ installation came out quite well.  There was a dedication service for the organ on November 18, 1984.  The recent sanctuary enlargement created two ideal chambers into which the Austin was moved.  There's space there for additions which should be considered.  Especially desirable would be added bass.  Sharon Tierney (rightfully) always wanted to replace that Positiv mixture with a clarinet.  I hope that someday these changes will come about.  The bass should be done electronically as the blower's capacity is being stretched as it is; added bass pipes would cause it to fatigue.

Stop List 

*Mike Foley is from Foley-Baker, Inc. in Tolland and is responsible for helping us set up and maintaining our organ.

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Updated March 03, 2012
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