And it outsources some of its work to former employees. Instead of 80 employees, the company now employs 13. Wick said the company weathered the recession and responded to slowing demand by rethinking how it did business. The local Catholic priest had asked John Wick to study organ and become the church organist. “It takes concentration to listen and to observe what the instrument is doing and to try to balance everything together,’’ said Wick, whose grandfather and uncles started the company in 1908.ĭespite a major downsizing in 2011, Wicks is one of only a handful of companies in the Midwest that still build and service pipe organs. Over 110 Years Continuing a Family Legacy The Wicks Organ Company started in the early 1900s on the second floor of a jewelry and watch-making store in Highland, Illinois. Organ tuning is a tedious process that requires “a good ear,” he said. But not all pipes move the same amount so the job of the tuner is to get all of them back together at the same pitch.’’ When that density changes, it changes the pitch. And since the pipe organ is a windblown musical instrument, the temperature affects the density of the air going through the pipes. “So the climate, the humidity, the temperature of the room is set differently at those two times of the year. “Most churches have a heating season and an air-conditioning season,” Wick said. The instruments are usually serviced twice a year - at Christmas and again at Easter - coinciding with major shifts in the weather. The working pipes of the Old Cathedral's organ range in length from 2 inches to 16 feet. “It’s hard to go to an organ concert because all I hear is what’s wrong,’’ he said. It will take Ressler hours to tune the organ, but he likes the challenge of perfecting the sound. And you just try to move fast so that they all stay together because the temperature is shifting in the room and pitch can shift while you’re doing it.’’ 0:00 / 16:27 The Pipes of Highland - Wicks Organ Company promotional film Organ Media Foundation 8.6K subscribers 5.3K views 3 years ago The Pipes of Highland was a late 1960s production of. A Highland musician opened her business The Highland Music School in the old Wicks Organ Company factory building. These two sets here are both reeds, and they have an actual moving metal reed inside, and there’s a little wire that you adjust to get the reed to come to the right pitch. And wood pipes with stoppers that you manipulate. “There’s wood pipes that have little scrolls on them. “The metal ones have a slide on them which allows you to change the length of the pipe just a little bit because that’s what changes the pitch,’’ he said. Using a thin tool, called a tuning knife, he gently adjusted the misbehavers. While his assistant sat at the organ’s console playing one note at a time, Ressler compared the pitch with an electronic tuner - and listened with his experienced ear. He had climbed up a narrow ladder to reach a shelf of shorter pipes - the oboes - and he was coaxing them into perfect pitch. And there’s a bunch of others that are just peculiar to the organ - principals - that sound like what pipe organs sound like.” The metal pipes are either string-like - like violins. “The different materials make them sound different. “They all have a different voice,’’ Ressler said. A period of eight weeks was required for the installation.Tuner Dave Ressler climbs inside the pipe organ at the Old Cathedral.A selected group of 73 experienced organ builders took part in its construction.There were eleven kinds of lumber used for making various wood parts.The wire used for the various electrical parts connections would be long enough to encircle the globe several times.Visit our site to book our Stained Glass Hall today. The total weight of the organ was 28,000 pounds, out of which about 12,000 pounds of metal were used to make the pipes. Olde Wicks Factory Special Event Center is a rental space for all your most important events in IL.In 1937 it represented the greatest and latest achievement in organ building. It was build to be a three manual organ with 3,329 pipes and keys made of genuine ivory. Mary Cathedral, personally supervised the construction of the instrument at the Wicks Factory in Highland, Illinois. He chose the local Wicks Organ Company, and with Rev. Mary's Institute in O'Fallon, Missouri, who had a wealth of experience with organs, to design the new cathedral organ. Schlarman appointed noted church musician Dom Ermin Vitry, OSB, from St. Skylar & Maliks Winter Wedding at Olde Wicks Factory in Highland Illinois. In the late fall of 1935, Bishop Joseph H. After a little stroll through the park and some sweet moments on the old.
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