Pipe Organ Database

Updated through online information from Scot Huntington. -- The Berkshire was a motely collection of floor-sweepings pipework, at least two ranks having pipework from 5(!) different sources. It was typical of the builder's work: excessively chiffy, low cut ups and little to no nicking, pipework pushed to the edge of functionality, and extreme brilliance. In 1988 at the request of the organist Victoria Wagner, a college classmate of the rebuilder, the organ was revoiced and some pipework reworked on a marginal shoestring budget. A proposal to rebuild the organ with new, custom-designed pipework was continually shelved over the next two decades. Following rebuilding of the Frazee pipe chamber as the organist's study and other work in the building in the 2000's, the organ was improperly protected. Consequently, the chamber and pipework was covered with plaster and sawdust, the church refusing thereafter to allocate funds to properly depipe and clean the instrument.

The rear gallery was off limits to the organ after first being proposed in 1988, until the ban was suddenly lifted for a new tracker organ in 2016. The choir area in front with the Berkshire was overly crowded for a growing choir sitting in heavy, unnecessarily large oak chairs. Moving the music forces to the rear gallery was an improvement for all the musical forces.

The original stop labels for the Berkshire were in what was described by the builder as "International Nomenclature". Instead of stop names, pictoral depictions of the pipe form constitued the stop name-- a V for the Trumpet, and inverted V for the Gemshorn, the outline of a chimney pipe cap for the Rohrgedeckt, parallel lines of various widths for strings and principals, and a sine wave squiggle for the Tremolo. These were replaced in 1988 with traditional stop labels.

According to a history of the parish organs published in the 2016 Noack dedication program, "In 1988 S. L. Huntington & Co. of Stonington, Connecticut made significant tonal improvements to the Berkshire by revoicing and reordering its available musical resources. The rededicated instrument was celebrated in concert on October 17, 1988 with recitalists Victoria Wagner, Greg Crowell, Daryl Bichel, Earl Eyrich, and Peter Sykes."