Tremulant/Wind Stabilizer
Control to disable Bw Cornet c’ for Iberian and English music
Couplers: Ruckpositive/Great        Brustwerk/Great       Great/Pedal       Ruckpositive/Pedal
Builder:  John Brombaugh & Associates, Eugene, Oregon
Construction:  January 1985-May 1986; tonal finishing April 1987; dedication April 23-25, 1987
Registers (stops): 34  Ranks: 50  Pipes: 2,326
Keyboard compasses:  Manuals C-g’’’ (56 notes) Pedals C-f ‘ (30 notes)
Key action:  mechanical, suspended  Stop action:  mechanical
Layout:  follows the example of North German organ builder, Arp Schnitger (1648-1719)
Wind pressure: 73mm (2 7/8”)

Woods and metals

Main organ case: Appalachian white oak (fumed with ammonia, then oiled)

Lower organ case, including keydesk: ebony, zebrawood, beech, maple, Brazilian rosewood

Manuals: naturals are Sitka spruce with cow shin bone coverings; sharps are ebony

Pipe shades and Brustwerk doors: American walnut with painted and gilded ornamentation

Slider wind chests: white oak, western red cedar and sugar pine

Wood pipes: white oak, Alaskan yellow cedar and alder

Metal pipes: hammered sheets of tin/lead alloy; majority of pipes are 98% lead to produce a vocale quality; some pipes contain 23% tin to produce a silvery quality

The Golden Age in the development of music for wind-blown pipe organs is associated with its use in the Western Church. Because this use varied from place to place and country to country just as the church did, it is impossible to take any single historic model as representative of everything an organ is, just as an ideal orchestra for Haydn's music would hardly suffice for Stravinsky's or vice versa. In creating a new organ for a state educational institution like ISU, the organbuilders considered it appropriate to select a model related to the ancestral heritage of a majority of the university's students as a starting point. Students from the State of Iowa are, in large part, of North European descent, a region providing a coherent building format that is simultaneously appropriate to a wide variety of fine musical literature like that of the renowned composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, whose music has been a continuous inspiration to the builders of ISU's new organ.

Of course, in today's world one will find many answers to any question. For example, contemporary musicians discuss-ing the use of historic concepts when planning an instrument will give concerned responses. In developing this organ, our goal was to give the high educational niveau at ISU a medium sized example of the finest in contemporary organbuilding that will motivate further musical study while providing inspiration to those playing and listening to it. The result we arrived at is such a complex synthesis' of so many historic and modern ideas that, like our American population, will be considered late 20th century American rather than Danish, North German Baroque, or whatever

Among the historic ideas used was the employment of mechanical key and stop action. This is the so-called "tracker" action which is named after the wooden linkages that interconnect the keyboards with the valves letting the air into the pipes and is respected throughout the musical world because of the sensitivity it provides the musician for controlling the musical resources.

The metal pipes throughout are made of hammered sheets the organ builders cast from an alloy of lead, tin, and some minor elements. The majority of the pipes contain a 98 percent lead alloy similar to that already used in organs built in the Middle Ages; it is musically satisfying because of the vocale sound produced. Another group of pipes uses a tin-lead alloy with about 23 percent tin. A few sets, like the Ruckpositive facade, are made from an alloy with 86 percent tin which gives a silvery sound. Several sets of flute-toned pipes are made of white oak, Alaska yellow-cedar, and alder. The manual keyboards are made of sitka spruce with cow shin bone coverings for the naturals and sharps of ebony. Ebony, zebrawood, beech, maple, Brazilian rosewood, and parchment complete the fittings around the Keydesk in the lower main case. The casework is primarily constructed from Appalachian white oak that was fumed with strong ammonia, then oiled. The pipe shades and Brustwerk doors are carved from American walnut. The remaining ornamentation and moldings are painted and gilded with 23 carat gold leaf, as also are the mouths of all front pipes.

The physical layout used in the ISU organ is reminiscent of the organs produced by the Hamburg-Lubeck school exemplified by instruments from the great builder, Arp Schnitger, who lived in the generation before J. S. Bach. It was an unfulfilled dream of Bach to have been appointed organist on Schnitger's still-extant 4 manual organ in Hamburg's Jacobikirche. At the upper center of the Recital Hall organ is the main case housing the pipes played by the principal or "Great" manual. The secondary manual plays pipes in the small case at the back of the organist, which consequently is named "Ruckpositive," and can project sound with a sense of immediacy because of its location close to the listener. The tertiary manual plays pipes behind the carved doors immediately above the player in the Breast of the organ. The Pedal plays the pipes in the tall, narrow cases at the left and right of the entire assembly. A vital part of the organ, hidden from view in the basement below the stage, is the blower and large wedge bellows which provide and control the wind for the pipes that is conveyed to the windchests upstairs by large conductors, The resulting windpressure will support a column of water 73 mm (2 7/8"). A "Tremulant," located in the lower part of the maincase with the other vital mechanical parts of the organ, can shake the wind to provide a pleasant variation in the sound of the organ. The tonal Disposition of the organ is given in the Specification on the following page.

The ISU Recital Hall organ was entirely built (save the electric blower, nuts, bolts, etc.) in the shop of John Brombaugh & Associates, Inc. and is the firm's Opus 29. Construction began in January 1985, the completed parts were delivered and physically assembled at ISU in May 1986, and tonal finishing was done in the time before dedication in April 1987. The organbuilders' shop is located on the left bank of the Willamette River just east of the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, and is one of several in America that has won worldwide acclaim. Their work has advanced the ancient art of organbuilding with skills devoted to the many crafts needed to fabricate a complex mechanism involving wood and metalworking, using knowledge of the musical, architectural, and mechanical arts and a deep interest in the history of the pipe organ and the music it has inspired for the Western civilization.

The shop staff, in order of earliest employment and listing what each contributed to help create the ISU Recital Hall organ, is:
Jeff Lake -- metal pipes, wood carving, installation
Munetaka Yokota -- reed pipe maker
Russ Norberg -- bellows, windsystem, wood pipes
David Campbell -- metal pipes, action metalworking, calligraphy
Ken Dieringer -- case, windchests, keyboards, keymechanism, installation and project manager
Ken White -- reed pipe assistant
Boz van Houten -- casework, windchests, pipe racking, installation
Chris Fralick -- casework, stop action, rollerboards, installation
Bruce Fowkes -- pipe racking, pipe prevoicing
Cornelius Vogel -- rollerboard parts
Ray Morse -- pipe racking, pipe prevoicing, installation
Mark Clark -- installation, voicing
John Brombaugh -- design, voicing
Christa Brombaugh -- bookkeeping, gilding, advice, and encouragement

The shop staff wants to thank the many people at ISU who have collaborated throughout this project, in particular Dr. Arthur Swift, head of ISU Department of Music; professors Lynn Zeigler-Dickson and Carl Bleyle, who chose the organbuilding firm; the music department staff: Joan Hast-ings, Jan Schneider, Patricia Coy, Richard von Grabow, R. W. Borck, Gary White, Jeffrey Prater, former organ professor; Martha Folts, and ISU Physical Plant manager Vern Faber and assistants whose help has made this project come to fruition. Thanks also to Iowa's native organbuilder; Lynn Dobson, for his advice and support. It is our hope that the people of the state of Iowa and students at ISU will benefit for many years to come from our joint efforts and those of ISU's alumni and friends whose financial support through the ISU Achievement Foundation made this special project possible.

-- John Brombaugh