Instruments and Facilities

Organ students attend most of their music classes, lessons, recitals, and practice sessions in the main Music Building, located at Avenue C and Sycamore streets on campus. Across Avenue C are the Music Practice buildings (designated Music Practice North and Music Practice South) for practicing piano, percussion, and other portable instruments. A short walk across campus in the other direction, facing Hickory Avenue near Avenue A/Fry Street, is the Main Auditorium, which houses the III/55 1949 Möller, Op. 7676, and includes the recently acquired 1985 Bedient IV/41 French Classical Organ. Both are used for teaching, recitals, and practicing. Organ recitals also take place in the Organ Recital Hall, Room 253, the dedicated organ facility in the Music Building which houses the Rieger II/11 tracker. The 1962 Hofmann II/24 organ located at the right side of the Concert Hall in the Music Building is used for teaching secondary students, for occasional recitals, and for practice. Organ students have priority to use the Hofmann, with some exceptions, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. Four practice organs are available on the third floor of the Music Building: three Hofmann II/9 (two trackers, one electric key action), and one Flentrop II/2 tracker (with mean-tone tuning).

Teaching and Performance Organs

Ardoin-Voertman Concert Organ
WINSPEAR HALL
HELLMUTH WOLFF STOPLIST
Completion 2008

1985 Bedient IV/41
A recent addition to the UNT organ collection, acquired through a generous gift from Robert and Shirley Ottman, is the Bedient IV/41 French Classical Organ, located in the Main Auditorium. It was built for St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, MI, as a gift to the church and to the community from Sara H. Lowry and O. William Lowry by the Gene R. Bedient Co., Lincoln, NE, and dedicated in Grand Rapids September 14, 1986. The design was based on research of historic French organs at Souvigny, Houdan, Poitiers, Mitry-Mory, plus various written and other sources. It is built in the style of an 18th century French organ, although not a copy of any particular instrument. Technological changes make exact replication impossible and financially unfeasible. The case is made of hand-planed white oak, stained and finished with a traditional rubbed shellac finish known as "French Polish." Special moulding cutters were ground in the Bedient shop to approximate the moulding profiles of the 1778 organ at Souvigny. The keyboards are of oak with naturals of cowbone and sharps of ebony. The traditional French type pedalboard is oak.

The simple suspended mechanical action system uses trackers of sugar pine and brass with rollerboards of steel, oak, brass and hickory. Positif and Echo backfalls are of oak. The stop action system is of steel with stop knobs of walnut and porcelain faces. Windchests are of mahogany, oak, sugarpine, with some brass, steel and leather used. The front pipes feature raised romanesque mouths, and are made of 88% tin burnished to appear shiny. All interior metal pipes have lead feet and languids, a common French practice. The reed resonators and bodies of the interior open pipes are of 88% tin, while the bodies of the metal stopped flutes are of lead. All tin and lead sheets were hammered before being made into pipes. Wooden pipes are of oak and mahogany. The wind system consists of an electric blower with large, multiple-fold bellows that deliver 100 mm of pressure through a series of oak windtrunks and through the Tremblant doux and to the chests.

Specifications of the 1985 Bedient IV/41

1949 Möller, Op. 7676, III/55

The 1949 Möller III/55 organ housed in the Main Auditorium, originally built in 1924, was thoroughly rebuilt under the direction of Professor Helen Hewitt in 1948-49, and represented an "enlightened" tonal design for an organ of this period with principal choruses in the Great, Swell, and Pedal divisions. No doubt due to Professor Hewitt's formative years in Paris as a student of Joseph Bonnet and Louis Vierne, the Swell reeds received special attention and are a fine specimen of French reeds as understood by mid-twentieth century American builders. Unfortunately, the entire instrument was buried 12 feet in back of the large tonal openings, resulting in poor tonal focus and clarity, not to mention sluggish response for the player at the console. Most of these difficulties have been addressed and the organ stands today as a well-preserved, representative example of mid-twentieth century electro-pneumatic actions. A thorough mechanical restoration was completed in 1994-95, and since 1999, a number of tonal improvements and additions to the stoplist have greatly enhanced the organ's flexibility for nineteenth- and twentieth-century repertoire. Additionally, the decorative plaster dagger motifs in front of the organ chambers were reduced by about 60 percent in 1999, allowing for the instrument to speak much more clearly and brilliantly in the room.

Of special interest are the new 8-foot Harmonic Flute on the great; the new Tierce and Grosse Tierce on the swell division; and the Cromorne 8 on the choir, a gift of Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier "in loving memory of her husband, Maurice Duruflé" in April 1992.

SPECIFICATIONS OF THE MAIN AUDITORIUM ORGAN

M.P. Moller, 1924
Rebuilt by M.P. Moller, 1949
Tonal revisions, 1991-92, 1999-2002
 Restored 1994-96

NB This organ retains all of its 1949 action. There is no solid-state switching or combination action.

Rieger, II/11 Tracker
Nearly all organ students begin their study at UNT on the Rieger II/11 tracker, located in the Organ Recital Hall, Room 253, the 24/7 dedicated organ facility. Each student is allowed a set amount of practice time weekly on this organ, and hours are assigned weekly. The Rieger is scheduled for a major overhaul in January 2003.

Stoplist for Rieger II/11

Hofmann II/24 Mechanical Action
The 1962 Hoffman II/24 Mechanical Action is located in the Concert Hall of the Music Building where it serves as secondary teaching and recital instrument.

Practice organs
The four practice organs are on the third floor of the Music Building. They include:

Hofmann II/9 mechanical action
Room 340 (Shown at right)
Manual I: Gedeckt 8', Principal 4', Quinte 1 ⅓'
Manual II: Spitz Flute 8', Rohr Flute 4', Prinzipal 2'
Pedal: Subbass 16', Pommer 8', Choral Bass 4'
Couplers: II/I, I/Pedal, II/Pedal

Hofmann II/9 mechanical action
Room 337
Manual I : Gedeckt 8', Gemshorn 4', Quinte 1 ⅓'
Manual II : Spitz Flöte 8', Rohr Flute 4', Prinzipal 2'
Pedal: Dulzien 16', Pommer 8', Choral Bass 4'
Couplers: II/I, I/Pedal, II/Pedal

Hofmann II/5 electric action, unit organ
Room 335
Manual I : Gedeckt 8', Principal 4' Quintadena 4', Spitz Flöte 2', Quinte 1 ⅓', Zimbel II
Manual II : Quintadena 8', Gedeckt 4' Nasat 2 2/3', Principal 2', Terz 1 3/5'; enclosed division
Pedal: Quintadena 16', Gedeckt 8', Quintadena 8', Principal 4', Gedeckt 4', Quintadena 4'
No couplers

Flentrop II/2 mechanical action
Room 349
Meantone tuning

For information on organ studies contact:
Dr. Jesse Eschbach, Chair, Keyboard Division
Phone: 940-565-4094
jeschbac@music.unt.edu