Aeolian-Skinner Organ
The St. Luke's Aeolian-Skinner Organ
A great conductor once described music as "a joyful celebration of God." Probably no other voice in all music brings people closer to the Creator or inspires greater reverence than the sublime harmonies of a cathedral organ. The St. Luke's Aeolian-Skinner, a rare instrument among American church organs, was built into the sanctuary 50 years ago.
 Building began in late 1956 and the organ was ready for use but not fully complete by April 7, 1957. It was played for the first time on that date and the dedication concert was performed May 1, 1957 with Alexander McCurdy, Philadelphia, as guest organist.
As part of inaugural ceremonies for both the instrument and sanctuary, some of the world's leading organists played dedicatory recitals at St. Luke's during the organ's early years. Among them were Alexander McCurdy of Westminster Choir College; Jean Langlais, blind French composer and organist; Dr. Alexander Schreiner of the Mormon Tabernacle, and Flor Peeters, Belgian composer and organist.
It requires four levels in the church to house the organ's mighty works. In the basement is the blower room, where generators provide the wind power that produces its vast sound. The blowers, bellows and contact equipment for the organ stops fill a large room.
Two floors up in the choir loft is the console, and soaring above it are the pipes - 5,557 metal and wood cylinders and tubes, each providing its own unique tone - the shape and size determining the sound. When it was built in 1956-57, the organ was exceptional for its sheer size. It still is extraordinary for the free-standing pipes, all exposed to full view. The smallest pipe is barely an inch high; the largest is 16 feet tall. Also, there are percussion pipes; chimes, celesta and harp.
"Basically this is a symphonic orchestra wrapped up in one instrument," Choirmaster Robert Fasol explains. He is the third organist in its four decades.
The thousands of pipes are arranged in six divisions and 95 ranks and are controlled by four keyboard manuals, a pedal board, three series of expression pedals, 96 stops, some controlling up to eight ranks of pipes; 28 tabs that couple manuals and pedals, 65 thumb pistons and 25 toe pistons. With just hands and feet, the organist must command all these elements and more while reading music, all at the same time. No wonder the player often needs a page turner!
The Gift
 The St. Luke's organ was a gift from the late Bill Doyle, longtime member eminent layman and owner of Doyle Office Supply Co. in downtown Oklahoma City. Built and installed at a cost of more than $100,000, a comparable instrument today would require at least $1.2 million, it is estimated
Ann Doyle Hopps (Mrs. Howard B. Hopps, Jr.), remembers her father's love for music.
"He had no formal musical training, but he did have a mandolin which he played by ear. Boomer Sooner and Silent Night were about his repertoire," she recalled. Every year, Doyle gave members of the Sanctuary Choir a Christmas gift, thanking them for their service. Always active, his enthusiasm extended to tennis and volleyball. "Whatever he did, he did from the heart," Mrs. Hopps related.
Doyle's wife, Elizabeth, belonged to First Presbyterian Church, but "Father was always loyal to St. Luke's." For many years Bill and Elizabeth Doyle underwrote the organ concerts at St. Luke's.
Doyle was born near Maud, Oklahoma, and as many of his generation worked from age 10, delivering groceries to people who lived on farms. Largely self educated, he finished eighth grade and later, attended Hill's Business College before starting his career as a salesman. After many years of generous service to St. Luke's, he died in 1984.
The Organ and Its Place in Religion
Much has been written about the organ and its place in religion. Genesis 4:21 in the King James Bible contains the first reference in recognized history, describing Jubal as "the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." Psalm 150 exhorts believers to praise God with "the sound of the trumpet, with the timbrel and dance ... with stringed instruments and organs."
Most histories credit Ctesibius, or Ktesibios, an engineer from Alexandria, with inventing the benchmark "hydraulis," in the second or third century B.C. Using water pressure to stabilize the wind supply, the hydraulis was the prevailing organ for many centuries and continued to be used well into the Middle Ages.
 Very early organs, bearing little resemblance to today's grand musical structures, were sounded by the breath of human players sometimes a swarm of them blowing across the pipes. It wasn't long before mechanical devices, usually some form of bellows, replaced human lungs. But manpower was needed to operate these, and many performers were required as players and blowers.
St. Jerome wrote of one organ at Jerusalem with a sound so thunderous it could be heard at the Mount of Olives, a mile distant. Powerful blows were required to operate its levers and slides, causing one historian to speculate that "a performance of one of these monstrosities with its crowd of toiling blowers and players... must have been a spectacle in itself."
From the fourth century, Byzantium was the center of organ building, the same era that writers and artists began to record the use of instruments powered by hydraulics and pneumatics. Used primarily for pagan rituals during the Roman era, organs began to appear in the church about the fourth or fifth century of the Christian era. The first organ in Western Europe was a gift in 757 from Constantine V to King Pepin the Short, who ruled provinces that comprise part of modern France.
By the 10th century, England and Germany were centers of organ building. An instrument built about 950 for Winchester Cathedral is described as having 400 pipes and 26 bellows. It required two players and 70 men to operate the bellows. Keyboard controls emerged in the 13th century and by another 100 years, composers were writing music exclusively for the organ.
Over the next several hundred years, the instrument's harmonics and mechanics evolved throughout Europe and elsewhere, with Gottfried Silbermann (1683 1753) of Dresden recognized as possibly one of the greatest organ builders of all time. In the early 20th century, electrical power replaced human labor for mechanical control, fostering a trend to instruments of many pipes and great power.
Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company History
Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company
Boston, Massachusetts
In our time, G. Donald Harrison, who headed the Aeolian Skinner Co. in 1956 and was a major designer of the St. Luke's organ, was world renowned for work to re-establish Silbermann's ideals.
Aeolian Skinner was considered the foremost organ builder of the mid 20th century.
Aeolian's reputation had rested on tonal design and quality of mechanisms. Its instruments were unsurpassed for clarity, richness, color and brilliance of tone. Skinner was famed for development of the symphonic organ, creating a variety of orchestral sounds, and for technological inventions that advanced organ building. By the late 1920s, both companies faced problems brought on partly by the Great Depression. After decades of intense rivalry, the competitors merged on Dec. 28, 1931, and at once, dominated the craft.
The making of all musical instruments had been banned during World War 11, and its end heralded what probably was the greatest construction and manufacturing boom in U.S. history. A surge in housing was matched by church building. Demand for new and expanded Organs was unprecedented.
 When St. Luke's began discussions with Aeolian-Skinner in the early 1950s, G. Donald Harrison, who had come to the firm from Skinner, was its president. He was famous throughout the music world for his building of the Mormon Tabernacle organ of 188 ranks. Known to have had heart problems, Harrison died suddenly on June 15, 1956.
The American Organist magazine reported that "news of his death rang through the organ world like a funeral knell." It tolled for St. Luke's as well, delaying work on the organ for months. In letters between Cecil Lapo, then Minister of Music, and Aeolian-Skinner, company officials referred to these problems:
Its forerunners were the Aeolian Co. of New York, which reigned supreme from 1890 to 1930, building almost 900 instruments in churches, theaters, music halls and homes of the wealthy, and the Skinner Organ Co. of Boston, pioneer of many mechanical and tonal advancements.
- Attrition was claiming the craftsmen who were among the world's greatest organ builders, with no younger ones to take their place. There were few working drawings or written directions in the factory. Organs were built from aging artisans' knowledge and experience, and the old men were dying. Death and sickness were listed among reasons for St. Luke's delay.
- During building of the St. Luke's organ, the Aeolian-Skinner factory was condemned by the state of Massachusetts to build an expressway, and company employees were forced to do much of the work on a new building. "It would take an architect years to learn our exact requirements," president J.S. Whiteford wrote.
Aeolian-Skinner did not discuss some of its woes: the company could not hold onto the preeminence it had known under Harrison. "We have lost the only man who could carry on the advance in tonal work that he had started," an associate wrote to a friend. The economics of organ building shifted from large factories like Aeolian Skinner to small builders. Contracts failed to contain escalator clauses, and Aeolian Skinner frequently lost money on major projects.
 After reaching the pinnacle of fame and prestige, Aeolian-Skinner gradually lost it all in the 1960s. Despite investment support from an Oklahoma rancher, E. David Knutson of Guymon, losses and growing competition continued to weaken the company. The aristocrat of organ building crumbled into bankruptcy. Operations ceased at the end of 1972. Assets were sold. Engineering records acquired by an Oregon company were then donated to a California historian and restorer. Some documents remained in Knutson's hands.
"An irreplaceable body of accumulated experience, tradition and knowledge vanished into history," The American Organist wrote later. Together, the Aeolian Co., Skinner Co. and Aeolian-Skinner built more than 2,200 pipe organs.
Installation
Getting the organ installed as the St. Luke's sanctuary rose around its spaces was one problem. Acoustics were another. An early design for the St. Luke's sanctuary was a cathedral in the Gothic style. Harrison and his successors at Aeolian-Skinner designed the organ's scale and voicing for a long, narrow building with a reverberant interior. The round sanctuary absorbed sound rather than echoing it, resulting in what former St. Luke's organist Fred Haley describes as a "dead room."
 "The acoustics of the church are not flattering to the organ sound," Haley said. Carpeting over the entire sanctuary floor eventually was removed except for aisles, and other acoustical alterations were made. Some organ pipes also were replaced by Aeolian-Skinner, and in 1962, the entire organ was re-voiced by the company, with the organ builder and the church splitting costs.In a March 30, 1962 letter to Dr. Donald Jensen, then Minister of Music, Aeolian-Skinner president John J. Tyrrell wrote about G. Donald Harrison's "repeated references... to the very difficult acoustical aspects of the final building shape." Tyrrell added, "It seems inconceivable that we would not have seen building plans before the organ contract was signed... We would today go about the scaling, voicing and tonal finishing of the instrument somewhat differently..."
Despite the early problems, Harrison and others responsible for the St. Luke's organ have left a rich legacy. The following was read at the dedication:
"We dedicate this organ to the cultivation of a high art: to interpretation of the message of the masters of music; to appreciation of the doxologies of the church, and to the development of the language of praise which belongeth both to earth and to heaven.
"We dedicate this organ to the wedding, to thanksgiving on festal occasions, and to such inspiration in the service of song that all people may praise the Lord.
"We dedicate this organ to the healing of life's discords, and the revealing of the hidden soul of harmony, to the lifting of the depressed, and the comforting of the sorrowing; to the humbling of the heart before the eternal mysteries, and the lifting of the soul to abiding beauty and joy, by the gospel of infinite love and good will."
No other musical instrument approaches the power and majesty of such an organ. For 40 years, it has inspired those who worship in its presence. It comforts, exalts, brings joy, hope and peace, entertains. For all those years, it has made joyful noise unto the Lord.
ST. LUKE'S ORGANISTS 1957-PRESENT
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Winifred Curtis
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1935-1957, Organist Emeritus 1957-1984
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Fred Haley
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1959-1988
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Robert Fasol
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1989-Present
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ST. LUKE'S GUEST ARTISTS
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May 1957
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Alexander McCurdy
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Westminster Choir College , New Jersey |
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June 1957
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Catherine Crozier
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Rollins College , Florida |
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January 1958
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Carl Weinrich
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Princeton University , New Jersey |
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January 1959
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Alexander Schreiner
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Morman Tabernacle , Utah |
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February 1959
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Jean Langlais
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Basilica of Ste. Clotile, Paris, France |
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November 1959
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Flor Peeters
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Royal Flemish Conservatory, Brussels, Belgium |
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June 1962
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Wilma Jensen
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Oklahoma City University , Oklahoma |
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February 1963
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Marilyn Mason
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University of Michigan , Michigan |
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April 1964
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John Weaver
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Holy Trinity Lutheran Church , New York |
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April 1965
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Frederick Swann
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Riverside Church , New York |
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May 1966
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Robert Anderson
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Southern Methodist University, Texas |
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May 1967
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George Markey
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Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York |
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May 1968
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Joan Lippincott
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Westminster Choir College , New Jersey |
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April 1969
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Robert Cundick
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Morman Tabernacle , Utah |
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April 1971
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Sr. Theophane Hytrek
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Alverno College , Wisconsin |
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May 1974
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William Teaue
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Centenary College , Louisiana |
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May 1974
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David Craighead
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Eastman School of Music, New York |
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June 1993
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Michael Farris
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Eastman School of Music, New York |
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May 1994
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Paul Manz
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St Luke, Illinois |
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February 1997
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Paul Manz
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St Luke, Illinois |
AEOLIAN SKINNER ORGAN COMPANY, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Opus 1237, 1956
Joseph S. Whiteford
 GREAT
Violon, 16', 61 pipes
Principal, 8', 61 pipes
Spitzflote, 8', 61 pipes
Bourdon, 8', 61 pipes
Principal, 4', 61 pipes
Rohrflote, 4', 61 pipes
Quint, 2 2/3', 61 pipes
Superoctave, 2', 61 pipes
Fourniture, 3 5 ranks, 245 pipes
Comet, 3 5 ranks, 233 pipes
Cymbel, 3 5 ranks, 183 pipes
Chimes, 25 bells
SWELL (under expression)
Gedeckt,16', 73 pipes
Principal, 8', 73 pipes
Rohrflote, 8', 73 pipes
Viole de Gamba, 8', 73 pipes
Viole Celeste, 8', 61 pipes
Gemshorn, 8', 73 pipes
Gemshorn Celeste, 8', 61 pipes
Aeoline, 8', 73 pipes
Prestant, 4', 73 pipes
Koppelflote, 4', 73 pipes
Octavin, 2', 61 pipes
Plein Jeu, 3 ranks, 183 pipes
Cymbel, 3 ranks, 183 pipes
Bombarde, 16', 73 pipes
Tompette, 8', 73 pipes
Hautbois, 8', 73 pipes
Vox Humana, 8', 73 pipes
Clarion, 4', 73 pipes
Tremulant
Swell, 4'
Swell, 16'
CHOIR (under expression)
Quintaden, 16', 73 pipes
Viola, 8', 73 pipes
Viola Celeste, 8', 61 pipes
Rohrflote, 8', 73 pipes
Dulciana, 8', 73 pipes
Unda Maris, 8', 73 pipes
Gemshorn 4', 73 pipes
Nachthorn, 4', 73 pipes
Nazard, 2 2/3', 61 pipes
Piccolo, 2', 61 pipes
Tierce, 1 3/5 ', 61 pipes
Plein Jeu, 3 ranks, 183 pipes
Bassoon, 16', 73 pipes
Cromorne, 8', 73 pipes
English Horn 8', 73 pipes
Rohr Schalmei, 4', 73 pipes
Harp, 8', 61 bars
Celesta, 4'
Tremulant
Choir, 4'
Choir, 16'
POSITIV
Cor de Nuit, 8', 61 pipes
Octave, 4', 61 pipes
Koppelflote, 4', 61 pipes
Nasat, 2-2/3', 61 pipes
Blockflote, 2', 61 pipes
Terz, 1-3/5', 61 pipes
Larigot, 1-1/3', 61 pipes
Sifflote, 1', 61 pipes
BOMBARDE
Diapason, 8', 61 pipes
Octave, 4', 61 pipes
Grand Fourniture, 6 ranks, 366 pipes
Bombarde, 16', 61 pipes
Trompette Harmonique, 8', 61 pipes
Clarion Harmonique, 4', 12 pipes
Chimes
Bombarde, 4'
Bombarde, 16'
PEDAL
Bourdon, 32', 7 pipes
Contre Bass, 16', 32 pipes
Bourdon, 16', 32 pipes
Violon, 16' (Great)
Quintaten, 16' (Choir)
Gedeckt, 16' (Swell)
Octave, 8', 32 pipes
Spitzflote, 8', 32 pipes
Still Gedeckt, 8' (Swell)
Quint, 5-2/3', 32 pipes
Choral Bass, 4', 32 pipes
Nachthorn, 4', 32 pipes
Blockflote, 2', 32 pipes
Mixture, 4 ranks, 128 pipes
Bombarde, 16', 32 pipes
Bassoon 16' (Choir)
Trompette, 8', 32 pipes
Clarion, 4', 32 pipes
Chimes
COUPLERS
Swell to Great UNISON
Choir to Great
Bombarde to Great
Positiv to Great
Swell to Choir
Bombarde to Choir
Positiv to Choir
Bombarde to Swell
Great to Choir
Great to Bombarde
Swell to Swell 16' OCTAVE
Swell to Swell 4'
Swell to Great 16'
Swell to Great 4'
Swell to Choir 16'
Swell to Choir 4'
Choir to Choir 16'
Choir to Choir 4'
Choir to Great 16'
Choir to Great 4'
Bombarde to Bombarde 16'
Bombarde to Bombarde 4'
Bombarde to Great 16'
Bombarde to Great 4'
Positiv to Great 16'
Positiv to Great 4'
Great to Pedal PEDAL
Swell to Pedal
Choir to Pedal
Bombarde to Pedal
Positiv to Pedal
Swell to Pedal 4'
Choir to Pedal 4'
Bombarde to Pedal 4'
COMBINATIONS
Great 1-10
Swell 1-10
Choir 1-10
Bombarde 1-5
Positiv 1-4
Pedal 1-10
General 1-10
Duplicated by toe studs
General Cancel
English type ivories on keys
MECHANICALS
Swell Expression Pedal
Choir Expression Pedal
Crescendo Pedal
Sforzando Reversible Pedal and Piston
Great to Pedal Reversible, Pedal and Piston
Swell to Pedal Reversible, Piston
Choir to Pedal Reversible, Piston
Bombarde to Pedal Reversible, Piston
Positiv to Pedal Reversible, Piston
All Swells to Swell
Pedal to manual combinations "On" and "Off' for each manual
Reference Sources
The Columbia Encyclopedia Second and Fifth Editions, Columbia University Press.
The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 11th Edition; Dodd Mead
The New Oxford Companion to Music, Vol. II; Oxford University Press
The American Organist, May, 1990 Edition
The St. Luke's United Methodist Church files and materials from the Aeolian Skinner Co. (now defunct)
Copyright © 1997-2006 ARTS @ ST. LUKE'S
Researched and Written by Mary Jo Nelson
Guest Artist Time Line by Dorris Burk
Lay Out and Design by Timothy Hein
Photographs by Robert Taylor
Photograph of Bill Doyle by Curtis Portrait
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