St. Edith Catholic Church
Livonia, Michigan Opus 42R, 2022
The organ at St. Edith's was first installed in 1982 in the
old sanctuary by Wayne Warren and Phil Robertson. The 1926
Casavant ventil chests were from the old St. Peter and Paul
Cathedral (now gone.) Most of the old pipework was from a
c.1912 Felgemaker organ in Port Clinton, Ohio. Several new
stops came from Organ Supply Company, and so did a new OSI
console. The organ was moved to the present sanctuary in
1990, with a facade featuring the largest pipes of the
Pedal and Great 8' Principals.
Richard Abdoo maintained the organ for most of the next
thirty years. There were multiple releatherings because of
chronic roof leakage. He added 16' electronic stops in 1995
to help with weak bass in the Pedal, and a Pitch Diapason
was added near the church choir. Mr. Abdoo also added the
Mayland chimes, in 2003.
By 2012 the 1982 console had developed recurring problems,
and service calls were necessary more and more often.
Wigton Pipe Organs was asked to bid on a new console,
and also address a few ongoing problems, such as wind
noise, weakness in the Pedal division, and to improve
the appearance of the organ facade. We designed and
built a console to match the oak and walnut altar
furniture. We solved the wind noise problem by
installing a static reservoir for the Great division.
We added a large-scale Subbass to the Pedal, and
extended the Pedal Principal and Great Trumpet
with 16' bass octaves. In lieu of a Trumpet en chamade
we added a high pressure solo trumpet. The organ now
has a solid state relay system with a fiber optic link
to the chests.
In February of 2022 Dr. Dave Wagner played a dedication
recital on the refurbished organ.
STOPLIST Great 16' Lieblich Gedackt (Swell) 8' Principal 68 pipes 1-17 Facade 8' Rohrflute (Prep) 8' Melodia 68 pipes 8' Gambe (Prep) 4' Octave 68 pipes 4' Rohrflute 68 pipes 2' Super Octave 68 pipes Mixture III 183 Pipes Regulated, new tuning slides 8' Grand Trumpet * 68 pipes New, hooded copper, Great Chamber 8' Trumpet 65 pipes Chimes * Blank Couplers: Gt/Gt 4, Sw/Gt 16, Sw/Gt 8, Sw/Gt 4, Midi on Great Swell 16' Lieblich Gedackt 61 pipes 8' Violin Diapason (Prep) 8' Stopped Diapason 68 pipes 8' Lieblich Gedackt 12 pipes 8' Salicional 68 pipes 8' Voix Celeste t.c. 56 pipes 4' Principal 61 pipes 2 2/3' Nazard 68 pipes 2' Doublette 68 pipes 1 3/5' Tierce 61 pipes Plein Jeu III (Prep) 8' Grand Trumpet * Chimes * Tremulant Blank Couplers: Sw/Sw 16, Unison Off, Sw/Sw 4, Midi on Swell Pedal 32' Accoustic Bass (from Subbass) 16' Principal 12 pipes New aluminum facade 16' Subbass 32 pipes New, large-scale wood 16' Lieblich Gedackt (Swell) 8' Principal 32 pipes 1-17 Facade 8' Bass Flute 12 pipes (Subbass) 4' Choralbass 32 pipes (Principal) 4' Bourdon (Lieblich) 16' Trombone (Gt) 12 pipes 8' Grand Trumpet 8' Trumpet (Gt) Notes * Non-coupling Couplers Gt/Pd 8, Gt/Pd 4, Sw/Pd 8, Sw/Pd 4, Midi on Pedal Totals 22 stops, 34 Registers, 24 ranks, 1481 pipes Console Features Matters, Inc Organ control system 10 General pistons, duplicated by toe studs 5 Great divisional pistons 5 Swell divisional pistons 5 Pedal divisional toe studs Set/SFZ/General cancel pistons 99 memory levels Transposer Piston sequencer with next and last pistons On board record and playback system Programmable crescendo pedal Swell pedal Tracker touch keyboards
