Buzard Opus 48

In closing, I humbly acknowledge and gratefully thank my team from the bottom of my heart for their tireless efforts, enthusiasm, and beautiful work.  This organ’s installation was greatly prolonged by many challenges imposed upon us.  Our entire staff (and their spouses back home) met them with grace, extraordinary patience, and un-flagging effort.  I am extremely proud of their outstanding accomplishments in every aspect of this instrument: from the planning and engineering, through the construction, installation, and voicing.  And I’m extremely grateful for the Parishioners’ patience and understanding.

-John-Paul Buzard

The Buzard team always welcomes the opportunity to design and build an organ for institutions that lean heavily toward the performance of English Cathedral/Collegiate Chapel repertoire. In reality, it is perhaps far more accurate to alter that term to “the American interpretationof English Cathedral repertoire”. When some US choirs are generously welcomed to the UK for week-long residencies in those hallowed spaces that inspired the repertoire, they fall ever more deeply in love with it and strive to bring the mountain-top experience back to their home church completely intact.

The integrity of the repertoire remains constant, but nothing else is the same! The shapes, construction methods and acoustics of our rooms are vastly different. Worship styles, though always being adapted on both sides of the Atlantic, are fed by very different traditions and heritage. Organ builders apply their art in a variety of ways to help bridge the gap and let the music live in the new environment. Sometimes it is a virtual reproduction of a much-admired stoplist. Sometimes it is a detailed documentation and copy of the scaling of a particular stop, or even incorporating one or more ranks from an historic organ that has been removed from service.

The Buzard approach, particularly in this organ for St. George’s, takes some of those techniques into account, but does not stop there. In multiple discussions with Woosug Kang and Gerry Senechal, the outstanding Directors of Music, we studied specific examples of pieces that highlight their choices of music on a regular basis. Rather than identifying individual stops that would be needed, we concentrated on issues of balance, tone color, composition of critically important accompaniment ensembles, blending, and above all, flexibility. 

It has been a rare treat to voice an organ in the revised acoustic environment of St. George’s. Scott Riedel’s recommendations have provided a room that, without excessive reverberation time, responds with extraordinary evenness throughout the frequency range. This has allowed us to voice the organ with clarity at its softest, building smoothly to a thrilling full-organ sound, without ever needing to exaggerate anything in order to fill the room. We have deliberately concentrated our efforts in shaping the blending characteristics of stops in the mezzo-piano to mezzo-forte range, making choral accompaniment a real joy. Having three separate divisions enclosed and expressive enhances the experience!

The sound of any organ is always the result of many people who have contributed to its design, construction, installation, voicing and ongoing maintenance. I have often said that our ears are able to detect sounds that have been loved into existence. Along with my colleagues on the Buzard team, we are honored and proud to offer you this gift. Come and hear it for yourself!

-Fred Bahr

From the Organist

As long as I live, I will never forget the first Sunday we were permitted to use the new organ in worship; though only half the pipework of Opus 48 was installed and voiced at the time, the good people of Buzard correctly judged that there would be enough to support worship.  That morning I not only had the opportunity to play but also to sing a bit, and as Woosug concluded the hymn introduction, I became keenly aware that the organ’s sound had involuntarily drawn me toward it in such a way that I absolutely had no choice but to burst into the first stanza.  The warmth and support of the organ was like gravity; if I didn’t begin to sing, the rocks themselves may well have!  What an incredible, unprecedented feeling.  

I was not alone; I immediately noticed that the entire congregation was indeed singing; the contrast from the previous Sunday was night and day!  I had expected there to be a great, though surely gradual, increase in congregational song, but I could never have imagined that it would happen in the space of a single hymn introduction.  The organ has transformed every hymn it has accompanied since; I have never had a more supported, enabling, and satisfying hymn-singing experience in my life.

In that glorious first moment that morning, the organ fulfilled the aspirations of its design; from the very beginning, the chief purpose of the instrument has been to support Anglican musical worship.  The measure of success of any Anglican organ lies in its ability to accompany both the choir and congregation; Opus 48 not only does both beautifully but brings to bear an astonishing array of color – and at any volume.  The Swell division features strings at 16’, 8’ and 4’; the Great includes three 8’ Open Diapasons (as the 8’ Dulciana is of Willis disposition, essentially serving as a Third Open), and even the 8’ Clarinet and 16’ English Horn of the Enclosed Great work beautifully in chorus roles.  The Pedal 32’ Contra Trombone is both full-length and fully enclosed, allowing it to tastefully reinforce the final chord of a Gloria at Evensong, but can also thunder at full voice at the end of a closing voluntary.

The organ accompanies splendidly but is no retiring wallflower; in addition to the 8’ Cornopean in the Swell, there is also an 8’ Trompette Harmonique which gives white-hot fire to French literature and allows for powerful text-painting in hymns.  The splendid Solo Tuba Mirabilis becomes the Ophicleide 16’ in the Pedal, ensuring that there is never a lack of foundation.  The Pedal Trombone is playable on the Great as Trombas 16’, 8’, and 4’, all under very effective expression.  There is a total of seven 16’ ranks in the manuals alone.  The 16’ First Open Diapason in the Pedal lies on its side beneath the Rose Window, and to quote Fred Bahr, it “owns the real estate.”  Even full organ becomes noticeably fuller and more grounded when the Pedal First Open is added!  The sound of full organ fills every corner of the room; even in the back pew, one’s entire body senses the pervading warmth and embrace of the organ.

Opus 48 has fundamentally changed how we are able to worship at St. George’s; I could never adequately express my gratitude for the genius, skill, and love of John-Paul Buzard, Fred Bahr, Felix Franken, Shane Rhoades, Scott Riedel, and Clay Jackson, among many others.

We are happy to welcome any visitors to come play this glorious instrument; please don’t hesitate to be in touch when you are next in Nashville!

-Gerry Senechal

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Stoplists