University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, May 1, 1991
5
Reuter Organ: the making of music
Organ pipes frame the stained glass window at St. John the Evangelist Church, 1229 Vermont St.
Jeff Noll, employee, installs the expression shoes that control the volume of the organ.
Story by Jonathan Plummer
Photos by Joseph Lies
Dan Abrahamson adjusts end-caps on a pipe in preparation for tuning.
Katherine Kochler adjusts the height and tension of each key.
The fields of science and art can seem diametrically opposed. The logic that rules engineering seems opposite to the passion of music.
Yet these two worlds live together in a 35-foot room at the Reuter Pipe Organ Company, 612 New Hampshire St.
Bob Vaughan, production manager,
the three and one-half story room is where workers assemble the crew of about 13,000 hours of work.
"To build an organ is first a musical experience," he said. "But it is not enough to be a musician; you need to be a good craftsman."
Vaughan seems proud to say that although he has a bachelor of arts degree in organ performance, he has attended the program for 22 years on a degree of experience.
"Every organ is different and presents a different set of problems," he said. "When you solve those problems there is an amount of satisfaction."
But just as Vaughan's degree of experience shows through, so does Stone's in evidence as he runs his callused hand over a smooth piece of wood, noticing its flaws and noting ways to fix them.
The pipes start as a sheet of metal that is soldered together.
"That man over there is one of the few key makers in America," Vaughan said, pointing to a man guiding a piece of wood under a saw.
In the end the keyboard will be fit into an organ somewhere, maybe far away, may be near Lawrence. But Stone said he would not know where it went; he will be in the middle of another one by then.
That man, Gilbert Stone, said he had been working for the company since 1952. While Stone's keys are in organ consoles all over the country, he said he did not consider himself a craftsman.
And the bridge between logic and passion will have begun again.
"I don't have any musical background or anything," he said. "I just consider myself a day laborer I just worked at 16 and then went into the Army."
An organ built by Reuter Co. is in the Trinity Lutheran Church.
in the final assembly room, Rod Czerniak places completed pipes in a rack.