"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing." (Psalm 100:1-2)

Serving the Streetsville and Meadowvale communities since 1836.

Phoenix Organ Installation Diary at Streetsville United

At a special congregational meeting held December 15, 2002 the congregation of Streetsville United Church approved the purchase and installation of a Phoenix PD-351 Digital Organ to replace its current Keates Pipe Organ with some components dating back to 1920. This diary will attempt to log the progress of the organ's construction and installation during the spring of 2003.

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

The Organ Arrives

Monday night was spent cleaning up a variety of uncompleted tasks prior to arrival of the organ: this involved laying carpet on the new organ pit floor, ensuring the pipe chambers were free of encumbrances, finalizing electrical connections and preparing for new grill covers for the two pipe chambers.

At 12:35 p.m. today, under record high temperatures for April 15 (27C) and clear blue skies, our new Phoenix Digital Organ finally arrived at the church doorstep. Seen at left are several of the keen members who came to provide assistance with getting the console into the sanctuary: Bruce Emerson, Dianne Nowoselski, David Penty, (Rev.) John Tapscott, Charlie Walsh, Gary Clipperton, Jim Anderson (Phoenix) and Les Cunningham. Kerry Poulsen is also hidden behind David; Don Russell was there somewhere. With so many assisting, the console was on the main sanctuary level within minutes. and rolled right up to its newly renovated organ loft. It was initially placed in the center of the pit to leave room for the speaker cable attachment. At this point Peter Mara arrived to connect the designated (but standard) outlet to the church power panel.

Prior to its arrival, Bruce and Don Russell removed some of the pipes at the rear of the choir loft to prepare for arrival of the replacement Great Division speakers to accommodate the dimensions available. One of the greatest challenges was getting the 25 cu. ft. sub-woofer into the right (north) pipe chamber; only removal of the door permitted unfettered access. One other preparation detail: Les Cunningham and I assisted with the mounting of the panel covers to cover the newly created hole in the pipe chamber front walls to ensure minimum interference with generated sound.

Within two hours of its arrival, upon completion of the speaker wiring, notes were being generated on the Great Division. After moving the console into its final position and installing the pedalboard and bench, Don Anderson, Phoenix Organ's Chief Organist and Technology Officer, commenced his voicing activities, initially on the Great Division whose speakers are mounted behind the pipes behind the choir loft. Most interesting aspect here was the ability to hear the notes of a Diapason stop run across the entire physical width of the choir loft pipe chest and back (and alternating notes from side-to-side as a traditional pipe organ might). Subsequently Don moved onto voicing the Swell, Choir and Pedal Divisions for the English tonal specification.

The entire evening was spent voicing the organ, getting initial settings for each of the stops to ensure better fidelity of sound. Before leaving, Don played a hymn that literally shook the choir pew I was sitting in. (Managing volume is probably going to be one of our organists' major challenges.) Tomorrow Don will continue voicing and spend some time with our organist, Robin, in preparation for the first choir practice.

Pictures on the Tolton Organ page have been updated to reflect the final console and configuration.
Posted 4/15/2003 10:44:00 p.m. by Jim Courtney