OLD PARAMUS REFORMED CHURCH

THE MUSIC CORNER


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Prepared by our Music Director, Stewart Holmes

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THE  OLD  PARAMUS  CHOIR
Stewart Holmes, Director, seated at organ console.



Stewart Holmes, Music Director and Organist



THE ORGAN CONSOLE IN ALL ITS GLORY
The organ is really comprised of two separate organs - one smaller division
in the gallery, played by the first keyboard; the other located behind the
header pipes in the choir loft and played by the upper keyboards.


The front division of pipes behind the choir loft

Closer view showing the stencil designs on the pipes

The smaller division of pipes in the gallery
A Tour of Our Nevin Organ

The Nevin Pipe Organ was constructed between 1997 and 2000. Entirely built by hand, it contains over 2400 pipes, all sitting on windchests which are supplied by air pumped from the blower located in the basement of the church. The pipes are located both behind the choir loft and in the balcony. Because of space limitations in the main organ chambers, and budgetary restrictions, the new organ used some of the pipes from the former instrument. These older ranks are located in the Swell Division. In addition, Walker Technical, Inc. built the computer system for the console, and provided 17 ranks of digitally reproduced pipe sounds.


The Great Organ

The most important part of the organ's sound comes from the Great Division, located up front behind the facade pipes on the right. You can see the pipes lined up in the photo. This division is played from the middle keyboard. They are sitting on a wind chest, which has small valves inside it, and under each pipe. When a key is pressed on the console, the respective pipe plays because a signal has traveled from the console to the windchest. The more pipes that are played, depending on which drawknobs on the console are selected, the louder the sound.




The Console

The new console of the Nevin Pipe Organ is a marvel of electronics. Each of the keyboards control a division of the organ, hence there are 4 divisions. Each division likewise has many sets of pipes. The organist controls which pipes are playing by pulling out one of the "stops" on the jams located on either side. These drawknobs are clearly visible in the picture. Programmable buttons (called pistons) and toe studs (pistons for the feet!) are conveniently located so that the organist can change any or all of the stops at once. In the days before this "combination action" system, that job was the responsibility of a "registrant" who reached back and forth to change stops while the organist played.

The Gallery Organ

The Gallery Division is really unique; you can walk into it, provided I'm with you! (I love to conduct tours through this division and will offer that to any group within and outside our Church family.) On our organ the Gallery Division is really a second Great Division. That's because of the difficult acoustical environment; the main organ is located in a box behind the choir and too far away from the main body of the church. We elected to build a division whose primary responsibility was to support congregational singing. I'm holding one of the principal pipes.

 The Swell Organ

The Swell Division is also located up front, to the left and behind the facade. It is played from the bottom keyboard. The Swell is a primary "color" division of the organ, used to accompany choral and solo singing, and to add richness and weight to the sound. You can see the reed pipes in the photo; they are the ones with the conical shape. On an organ, a trumpet pipe is considered a reed pipe because it has small brass reeds inside of the pipe. This division is built inside an acoustical room which has shutters like venician blinds. I can open or shut these shutters, thereby controlling the volume, with controls by my feet.

The Pedal Organ

Many people are surprised when they realize that, yes, an organ console has a set of pedals down at the bottom, but didn't realize that it actually is a 2 1/2 octive keyboard. This division has only a few ranks of pipes. Other ranks are "borrowed" from the other divisions. The pedal division traditionally contains the largest pipes of an organ. They can be 16 feet in length, and in some cases, 32 feet tall. Those pipes control the lowest notes, often not heard but felt! In our instrument, because of space and budget limitations we elected to have Walker Technical design digitally mastered ranks of pipes. The "cabinet" for the two large 32' ranks is taller and wider than a refregerator, It sits on its side at the back of the gallery.