Connections and Consultations on the Organ at Christ the King Lutheran in Houston

by Susan Ferré ​

It was announced that the planned installation in July, 1995, of a new 28-stop, mechanical action pipe organ to be built by the Noack Organ Company of Georgetown, Massachusetts, would be in consultation with Saxon master organ builder, Kristian Wegscheider, of Dresden, Germany. I was a bit surprised not to see my name attached as consultant, having consulted on the project for nearly 10 years, with trips to Houston at the invitation of Carroll and Dorry Shaddock, who envisioned it, largely paid for it, and who hosted me royally during those many years. Reassuringly, I was asked to play the new organ on November 10th, 1996, a concert I remember, as I was moved to tears as I played.

In that time, many other connections had been made, with invitations for the group I was directing, the Texas Baroque Ensemble, to play at the church, whose several members hailed from Houston. Other invitations came from the Houston Harpsichord Society, along with collaborations with Robert Lynn's annual Bach concerts. Kathy Fay, from Houston, was just beginning the Boston Early Music Festival then, and we were delighted to offer original instrument performances in Houston and around the state of Texas.

In the Fall of 1989, I joined a Westfield research trip to (then) East Germany, organized by Lynn Edwards, just as people were escaping to the West through Hungary. On the trip were historians, organists, and builders: Christoph Wolff, Don Franklin, Barbara Owen, David Yearsley, Quentin Falkner, Harald Vogel, Kimberly Marshall, Robert Clark, Robert Bates, George Ritchie, Russell Stinson, John Butt, and others from Germany. Although, we knew nothing about it, the wall would fall within days of our return. One of the employees in the Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden shop, Friedemann Buschbeck, where we visited, and where the organ builders John Brombaugh, Gene Bedient, Dan Jaeckel, Mark Nelson and Robert Cornell carried on intense, spirited discussions, with our Dresden hosts, slipped out of the country, making his way to Florida, then becoming our go-to restorer for the organs of Round Top, TX, one of which, was an English chamber organ that had languished in Joe Blanton's shop in Albany, TX, until Ted Blankenship saved it. My husband and I eventually donated it to Round Top, where we directed an annual Early Music Festival. The organ had been restored painstakingly in our home by Susan Tattershall. Friedemann Buschbeck, the Dresden builder in question, carried on the work of Susan Tattershall, Ted Blankenship, Otto Hofmann and Rubin Frels from Victoria. That's another long story of connections. I digress.

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My first trip to Houston was occasioned by the tragic deaths of three NASA astronauts in the capsule on the ground.  Known in the valley was B. R. (Bev) Henson, director of choral activities at T.C.U. in Fort Worth, where I was an organ student. Bev was selected to provide music for the Memorial, carried live on television nationally. Long story short, I missed the bus (by about 15 minutes) which carried the singers to Houston that Saturday morning. Panicked, I hopped in my '53 Chevy, floored it, burning up the motor, but arriving at Love Field in time to board a plane to Houston. I had a credit card by then. When the singers and a furious Bev Henson arrived on stage at Jones Hall, I had practiced on the mighty Rogers I was to play, played as if my life depended on it, and was never again accosted for being late. Again, I digress.
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When I returned to Houston from E. Germany, I suggested that Kristian Wegscheider be involved in the organ project, as Carroll wanted a "Bach" Saxon organ for Christ the King. Off to Dresden he went. The fall of the wall had made that possible. Meanwhile, we had contracted with Fritz Noack to build such an organ. We had had other proposals, including similar ones from Gene Bedient. When on the E. German trip we were listening to a Renaissance 5-stop organ in Halle tuned in quarter-comma meantone, I was moved to comment that such an organ would satisfy my desires for life. John Brombaugh happened to hear me, and commented that he could build such an organ. Gene Bedient had been standing behind John and he added, in a quiet voice, and I quote, "I, too, can build that organ -- I can build it cheaper!" Having already consulted on at least a dozen organs in Dallas, several contracts of which had gone to Gene because he could build beautiful organs with a French accent, not counting restorations he was doing in Fredericksburg in the Hill Country, Gene won the bid that day, proposing a group of 3
organs to be built of similar descriptions, thus resulting in the cost savings. All three were sold easily, one of which became mine, tuned in quarter-comma mean-tone. But before that time, in the summer of 1992, he had proposed three organs of varying sizes for Christ the King. They remain remarkably similar to the finished organ by Fritz Noack. One of them not selected for Houston became a cherished new organ in Rogers, Arkansas, with a French accent, for a Catholic church. I digress.

After Carroll Shaddock's trip to Dresden, he hired Kristian Wegscheider to contribute to the project by creating the Principal 8', shipping it from Dresden, and Fritz, to his credit, and to my surprise, agreed! We had a contract. I'm proud of the work which produced this organ, its unusual façade, and beautiful painted casework which appears to lift the organ right off the floor!

My foray into organ building began in the early 1970's in the French Pyrénées when, needing to practice, I found the nearest organ at Lavelanet, an organ by Puget (and sons). The touch was so heavy that my practice there was difficult. I called on my cousin, David Ferré, an electrical engineer from Seattle, who had been working with area organ builders in the Northwest, to help. With David directing the show, we took apart the mechanical action, cleaned the organ, and made it playable so that we were able to enjoy an official "rededication," which then led to invitations to work on other organs in the region, namely, at Chalabre, where we spent months doing electrical work on a Merklin, which David mastered.

During that time I kept telling people, "I PLAY the organ, I don't BUILD them," but rumors of an organ-building American named "Susan" were circulating. The day I was asked to play the organ at St.-Bertrand-de-Comminge, which was "needing work," was the day I ran into the person working to restore it, the OTHER American Susan (Tattershall), who was telling people that she was an "organ BUILDER, not a player." To this day we address each other as "Other." We became life-long friends. That's a long story for another time, except to note that she and Martin Pasi had worked together on restorations of old organs in the mountains of Italy, where pipes made of lead, tuned in mean-tone, were common, the resulting warm sounds appreciated. The Omaha Cathedral organ by Martin Pasi, with his ingenious solution for a dual temperament of warmest beauty, led to an international symposium co-sponsored by the Westfield Center with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Saint Cecilia Schola Cantorum in 2005 which has carried us even now into a future yet known, deftly demonstrated by a program played by Robert Bates, then from Houston.

Connections to the builders in the Northwest, began in earnest in the mid-1970's with long, endless late-night discussions over proposals, temperaments, and organ sound itself with John Brombaugh, followed some years later by talks with Mike Bigelow, Greg Harrold, and Munataka Yokota. I lived in Tacoma for a year at Pacific Lutheran University, filling in, because of the tragic late-night shooting death of Jim Holloway (from Texas where I had been teaching). Jim had been killed on the last day of class. The first day of class was on 9-11, yes, THAT September 11th. I spent the year falling in love with the work of Paul Fritts, again, another story for another time, except to say that on an organ research trip to Oklahoma and Kansas we heard and played a small organ in a dry room by Paul Fritts, which moved us to tears. The Dallas Cathedral, now a Shrine, Santuario de Guadalupe, for whom we had traveled, asked for and received a bid from Paul Fritts on a 50-stop organ painted red, designed for the balcony. Another calamity, the sex scandal in the Dallas Diocese, erased any possibility of a new organ there. Shortly thereafter, such an organ by Paul Fritts, with a red case, was completed and installed in St. Joseph Cathedral in Ohio.
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Addendum: In 1963, Emmet Smith, our TCU organ professor, took us, his organ class, to E. Texas to visit the organs built by big oil in Kilgore and Longview, then on to Shreveport, where we met Bill Teague. We were welcomed and guided by Roy Perry. It was there we fell in love with the beautiful sounds of organs in the hands of inspired builders and voicers. The East Texas Pipe Organ Festival keeps those dreams of beautiful organ sounds alive and present for all of us. Thank you, Lorenz!

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