The Fisk-Nanney Organ

With the completion of the Fisk organ in Memorial Church, a dream of 25 or 30 years has been realized. That dream was to have an instrument which could reproduce the sound of Baroque music as authentically as possible, and which would be different and separate from the beautiful Romantic sound of the existing Murray Harris organ.

The project was really given impetus in 1973 when the will of the late Evelyn Almack Turrentine revealed a gift to be used for a new organ in Memorial Church. As time went by, problems developed in the selection of the appropriate organ builder, and in the placement of the organ in the church.

The first selected site in one of the transept galleries was abandoned due to dubious visual esthetics and unpredictable acoustics. Then the choir loft which met both the required visual and acoustical standards was selected. After examination, however, it was discovered that it would not support the weight of the new instrument. Due to insufficient funds to cover the great expense of reinforcement and rebuilding, the project was brought to a halt for several years. Help came when a gift from the late George Morell was designated to support the construction — this in recognition of the interest which he and his wife Virginia had maintained in the Church and its organ project.

As plans were expanded increasing the size of the organ, Jacques Littefield and Walter Hewlett pledged their assistance to achieve our ultimate goal.

The magnificent Charles Fisk organ is an eclectic 4-manual Baroque-type instrument of 73 ranks and 4,422 pipes. In addition to the usual Baroque organ features of mechanical action, pipes speaking directly into the room, bright and high upperwork, and short, straight and flat pedalboard, this organ is equipped with both French and German reeds and choruses, a Brust-positiv division with mean-tone tuning for early 17th-century music, and a special lever to switch the other three manuals from well-tempered to mean-tone tuning. This change in tuning is made possible by having five extra pipes (two for each “black” key) in each octave. The Brust-positiv which is fixed in mean-tone has two split-keys per octave (namely D sharp-E flat and G sharp-A flat).

The design of this organ with its many unique features represents the results of the research and collaboration of Charles Fisk, Harald Vogel and Manuel Rosales with some assistance from Herbert Nanney. Using a combination of elements from historic East German, North German, and French organs plus dual temperaments, this organ is the first instrument in the history of organ building that is capable of reproducing nearly all organ music written from the 16th through the 18th centuries with the proper sounds. Instead of the usual eclecticism which starts with Bach’s music and adds stops for the playing of 19th- and 20th-century music, this organ has a new unique eclecticism which encompasses almost all the sounds and tunings needed for the authentic performance of early music.

All materials and workmanship in the organ are of the highest quality. The case is of poplar; the keyboards are made with grenadilla, a South American hardwood; naturals and sharps are rosewood, and capped with bone. Pipes are made mostly of varying degrees of tin and lead.

The members of the Fisk Company work very well as a team, and all are entitled to congratulations on the completion of this fine instrument. Because of the excellent training given them by Charles Fisk and their ability to cooperate well with each other, the workers were able to finish this organ despite the untimely death of Charles Fisk during the project.

Special credit should be given to Virginia Lee Fisk, his widow, who kept the company functioning well and to Steven Dieck, project foreman. Others deserving special mention are Robert Cornell, and David Waddell, shop foreman, who aided Dieck in structural and mechanical design; Charles Nazarian for work on visual design, and Roger Martin for carving pipe shades. In addition, the work of head voicer, Stephen Kowalyshyn, assisted by Casey Dunaway, is greatly to be admired.

Other workers to whom appreciation is expressed are Stephen Boody, Gregory Bover, Mark Clark, Linda Dieck, Kees Kos, Jerry Lewis, David Gifford, Mark Nelson, Brian Pike, David Pike, David Sedlak, Akimasa Tokito, and Janice Waddell.

The Fisk-Nanney organ was named for its builder and for University Organist Emeritus Herbert Nanney. It is considered by many as one of the finest organs in the world.