A new pipe organ coming into Grace Episcopal Church

topey@sanduskyregister.comHand-forged artistry of the past and the present are coming together to create something beautiful.Grace Episcopal Church is building a new pipe organ, retaining the best of the old in the new.The original organ, constructed by the Johnson Organ Company, was installed at Grace in 1893. In 1974 portions of the organ were rebuilt."We have wanted to do this for five years," said Jeff Fowler, organ renovation project manager along with Jim Hart. "The pipes had metal fatigue. We had patched it up here and there."A big supporter of the project was George Mylander who died this month at the age of 83. "George wanted to hear his organ," Fowler said.The organ is again being restored to pitch perfect tones. Many of the hand forged copper pipes from 1974 are being saved, along with many sets of pipes from the original organ of 1893. These glowing pipes will be re-voiced to marry the deep dramatic tones popular to the sensibilities of the 19th century with the bright tones people wanted in the 1970s.It is the job of John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders to bring both to the church. The Champaign, Ill., business has been restoring, rebuilding and constructing parts for the pipe organ for months. "The people here at Grace Episcopal Church have been one of our best clients," owner John-Paul Buzard said. "They are sweet people. They are unified behind the project."Buzard's father was an Episcopalian priest, so the young Buzard was always at church. Buzard recalls he was often asked to help the 80-year-old church choir master work on the organ, squeezing into spaces as his mentor would tell him what to do. At six years old his path in life was set.Members of the the church have been talking with Buzard about the project for about three years. Work on the organ started early last year.On Wednesday, they were at the church to start the installation process which they anticipate taking four to six weeks.First thing was to carefully take the old copper pipes from the existing organ. Some of the old pipes cannot be reused because of metal fatigue, but the builders will reuse 20 sets of pipes. There are 61 pipes in each set so the company salvaged 1,220 of the existing pipes, some from 1893 and some from the 1974 restoration.The organ will have a total of 60 sets of pipe when done giving Grace Episcopal Church the best of both musical worlds, Buzard and his tonal director Brian Davis will make sure of it.The pipes will be metal and wood — mahogany, pine, poplar and cherry. The craftsman who build these organs, both woodworkers and metalworkers, pay attention to the details — woodworkers work in dimensions of 1/32 of an inch, while metal workers think in 1/1000 of an inch, Buzard said. Those small variations can affect the mechanical operation of the organ and the tone it produces.Buzard and his crew have the sensibilities of engineers with the soul of artists.Once installed, the pipes will have to be voiced for the acoustics of the church. An organ's voice is its volume and the color of its tone. Buzard will make sure the organs speech is correct, meaning it responds promptly when a key is struck. "If you hear one of our organs, it has the same tone quality, the same musicality," Buzard said.The crew started to bring in the first pieces, called Schwimmers, which regulate the pressure of the wind once it is inside the wind chest."Here are the first pieces. It is a red letter day," Buzard said.John Buzard, owner of Buzard Pipe Organ Building out of Champaign, Ill. talks about the quality of the pieces for the new organ that his company made for Grace Episcopal Church in Sandusky as they are brought in to the church Tuesday morning. Workers from Buzard Pipe Organ Building out of Champaign, Ill. carefully carry in pieces of the new pipe organ into Grace Episcopal Church in Sandusky on Tuesday morning. Copper pipes from the old pipe organ lay in the aisle inside Grace Episcopal Church and will be reused in the new organ being installed. Copper pipes from the old pipe organ lay in the aisle inside Grace Episcopal Church and will be reused in the new organ being installed.