Zion Lutheran Church
Racine, Wisconsin

5 ranks

1997

The tonal design for this organ follows that of the late baroque southern German tradition while three sets of reused pipes provided motivation for the construction of this new instrument.

Stored in a basement for a number of years, the pipes were about all that was left of value from an old church organ. Their late Victorian character held much promise for reuse, and this organ was built to incorporate them.

The exact date and origin of the old pipes is unknown despite some research. Their construction suggests that they were probably made between 1890 - 1910.

See the section below for a story on the material donated to this project.

Click here for a short organ piece made to illustrate the Hohlpfeife 8' and Octav 2' used together.

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A Phone Call Brings Opportunity to Design a
Chamber Organ
Steve Panizza

I got a call one day from someone willing to donate a pipe organ he said. This was originally a church organ that became displaced when its former congregation moved into a newly built structure.

Parts of the organ ended up being stored in the basement of a building belonging to a member of the church. The owner could no longer store these and all would end up in a dumpster unless I wanted anything.

I said I would take a look and traveled to a small town just west of Chicago. Here is what I found when I arrived.

1. Pipes

There were seven ranks of pipes.  Most were stored like this and many were crushed. Most of the metal pipe ranks had bases that were zinc while the trebles were spotted metal. Most scales were wide and languids were heavily nicked.

I brought back all the pipework. Most of it ended up going to a scrap metal recycler because of extensive damage. I found only three ranks that were useful and could be repaired and revoiced for use in the chamber organ design I intended to build.

2. Components

The reservoir was present but not the blower.  A few case panels of white oak were also present but not much else. Most of whatever casework that belonged to the organ along with the windchests were still located in the original church having been too difficult to remove. I guessed the blower was probably left behind also.

The reservoir was in good shape but was much too large for use in this design. It also would not have been useful in a historically accurate winding system.

3. Console

The electric console was present but since anything here was going to be used to build a tracker organ it was not brought back to the shop.

Panizza
Organbuilding

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Hohlpfeife 8' old pipes
Viol 8' old pipes   (from tonal f)
Flaut 4' old pipes - open wood with inverted mouths
Octav 2' new pipes
Quint 1 1/3' new pipes