JULIAN RHODES' DREAM ORGANS
THE LARKIN ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, BUFFALO, NEW YORK, USA
MOLLER 1925
The Larkin Administration Building was designed in 1904 by Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), who wrote that it was:
...a simple cliff of brick hermetically sealed (one of the first air-conditioned buildings in the country) to keep the interior space clear of the poisonous gases in the smoke from the New York Central trains that puffed along beside it.The building housed the administrative staff of the Larkin Soap Manufacturing Company. Art historian Neil Levine wrote:It was built of masonry material - brick and stone; and in terms of the straight line and flat plane the Larkin Administration Building was a genuine expression of power directly applied to purpose, in the same sense that the ocean liner, the plane or the car is so. And it’s only fair to say that it has had a profound influence upon European architecture for this reason.
What Wright was trying to do... was to create a modern building that would give the workers a sense of what he called a family gathering place.The central atrium was surrounded by five stories of open balconies and was top-lit. Staircase towers stood at each of the four corners. No distinction was made between managers and employees - it was a model of open-plan, non-hierarchical, democratic office planning. The building housed more than 1,800 employees and had over 50,000 visitors annually. There was an employees' lounge with a piano, and the management provided weekly lunchtime concerts. Moller was commissioned to install a 146-stop concert organ, an apt focal point for the interior and a fitting symbol of a united community. It cost $63,000 and stood at one end of the Atrium on the third storey.
The interior... opened up into what, today, we would call an atrium-like space which in effect does for the office building what the hearth or the fireplace did for the family home. That’s to say, provide a sense of focus.
The following stoplist is taken from Moller specification sheets found in 1990 in the library of the Royal College of Organists, London.
GREAT 16 Double Diapason front 16 Tibia Clausa wood 8 First Diapason wood & metal 8 Second Diapason 8 Third Diapason 8 Fourth Diapason 8 Gross Flute wood 8 Gross Gedeckt wood 8 Fern Flute wood 8 Fern Celeste wood 8 Violoncello mild tone 8 Cello Celeste 8 Gemshorn 8 Gemshorn Celeste 5 1/3 Solo Flute wood & metal 4 Octave 4 Flute Harmonic 2 2/3 Twelfth 2 Fifteenth III Cornet 12.15.17 16 Double Trumpet 8 Tromba 8 Trumpet ext. 4 Clarion Chimes 25 bars Harp 8 TC; 61 bars Harp 4 ext.; 61 notes Piano 8 Piano 4 CHORUS GREAT (enclosed) 8 Choral Diapason 8 Violin 2rks 8 Cello 2rks 8 Tibia Plena wood 8 Major Tibia Clausa wood 5 1/3 Salicional Quint [given as 2 2/3ft. in the source] 4 Suabe Flute 2 Solo Piccolo 8 Harmonic Tuba 8 Harmonic Trumpet 8 English Post Horn 8 Major Vox Humana Marimba 49 notes Marimbaphone 49 notes Orchestral Bells 49 notes Glockenspiel 49 notes GREAT DUPLEX (from Choir) 8 Concert Flute 8 Flute Celeste 8 Dulciana 4 Flute d'Amour 8 French Horn 8 Orchestral Oboe 8 Musette SWELL 16 Contra Viole 16 Bourdon wood 8 Diapason Phonon 8 Open Diapason 8 Violin Diapason 8 Hohl Flute wood 8 Gedeckt wood 8 Flauto Dolce Celeste wood [2 ranks?] 8 Viole d'Gamba 8 Viole Celeste 8 Viole d'Orchestre 8 Viole Celeste 8 Salicional 8 Salicional Celeste 5 1/3 Gemshorn 4 Principal 4 Violina 4 Rohr Flute wood 2 2/3 Flute Twelfth 2 Flageolet V Dulciana Mixture 16 Posaune 8 Cornopean 8 Oboe 4 Clarion 8 Vox Humana Tremolo Chimes Great CHORUS SWELL (enclosed) 8 Choral Diapason 8 Violin 2rks 8 Cello 2rks 8 Tibia Plena wood 8 Major Tibia Clausa wood 5 1/3 Salicional Quint 4 Suabe Flute 2 Harmonic Piccolo 8 Harmonic Tuba 8 Harmonic Trumpet 8 English Post Horn 8 Major Vox Humana Marimba 49 notes Marimbaphone 49 notes Orchestral Bells 49 notes Glockenspiel 49 notes SWELL DUPLEX (from Solo) 8 Philomela 8 Gross Gamba 8 Gross Gamba Celeste 8 Major Violin 4 Hohl Pfeife 8 French Trumpet 8 Cor Anglais CHOIR 16 Quintaton 8 English Diapason 8 Geigen Principal 8 Concert Flute wood 8 Flute Celeste wood 8 Dulciana 8 Unda Maris 8 Mezzo Violin 4 Flute d'Amour wood & metal 2 2/3 Nazard 2 Harmonic Piccolo 1 3/5 Tiercina 1 1/3 Larigot 8 Clarinet 8 French Horn 8 Orchestral Oboe 8 Musette 8 Ethereal Dulciana (5 ranks "as at West Point", each rank drawing independently. 341 pipes.) Tremolo Harp 8 Harp 4 SOLO 8 Stentorphone wood & metal 8 Philomela wood 8 Gross Gamba 8 Gross Gamba Celeste 8 Major Violin very keen tone 4 Hohl Pfeife wood & metal 8 French Trumpet 8 Cor Anglais 16 Tuba Profunda ext. 8 Tuba Mirabilis 4 Tuba Clarion ext. Tremolo PEDAL 32 Contra Bourdon wood 32 Resultant wood 16 First Diapason wood 16 Second Diapason wood 16 Third Diapason Great 16 Violone wood 16 Contra Viole Swell 16 Tibia Clausa Great 16 Bourdon ext. 16 Lieblich Gedeckt Swell 10 2/3 Quint ext. Bourdon 8 Octave Bass ext. 8 Cello Great 8 Bass Flute ext. 32 Bombard 16 Trombone 16 Trumpet Great 16 Posaune Swell 16 Tuba Profunda Solo 8 Tromba Great 8 Tuba Mirabilis Solo 4 Clarion Solo Piano 16 Piano 8 PEDAL CHORUS (enclosed) 16 Open Diapason ext. manual Tibia Plena 16 Bourdon wood 8 Tibia Plena manual 8 Cello manual 8 Flute ext. 16 Tuba manual ext. 8 Tuba manual Expression pedals: Swell, Choir, Solo, Chorus, Register Crescendo. Piano expression and sustain.
In the Moller stoplist the piano was specified as a 8ft. 11 1/2in. Steinway; in other sources it was noted as a 9ft. Chickering. The Choir five-rank Ethereal Dulciana was presumably modelled after the Choir Unda Maris ranks at West Point, which included very sharp, sharp, flat and very flat celeste ranks.The larger chorus structures of the Larkin instrument are typical of their time, rather majestic in a foundational kind of way. It is the reciprocal interplay of stops among the divisions which is the main feature of interest. The resonances include:
Chorus: Violin - Choir: Mezzo Violin - Solo: Major ViolinThe way in which these ranks appear from division to division, sometimes at unexpected pitches, often standing apart from the main tonal structure, creates in the stoplist a multi-layered quality reminiscent of many large 16th to 18th-century European organs; a deliberately un-logical, dislocated quality as though some additional tonal forces were waiting in the wings, as though some part of a largely unrealised scheme had managed to gain a hold in reality. It also serves as a unifying force, a subtle means of drawing the whole stoplist together.
Great: Violoncello - Chorus: Cello
Great: Tibia Clausa 16 - Chorus: Tibia Plena & Major Tibia Clausa 8
Great: Solo Flute 5 1/3 - Chorus: Solo Piccolo 2
Swell: Salicional 8 - Chorus: Salicional Quint 5 1/3
Great: Gemshorn 8 - Swell Gemshorn 5 1/3
There are eleven unison manual diapasons but no chorus mixture. Great has a mass of lush 8ft. tone including three celestes. The Solo, as was often the case in contemporary American organs, is in effect a Bombard division; the 'solo' registers are in the Chorus division, available on Great, Swell and Pedal. There are 25 ranks of unison manual strings, from delicate Dulcianas and Salicionals, through warm Gemshorns and Gambas, to rich cellos, keen violins, and the Gross Gamba on Solo.
There is little manual extension in the instrument; the number of stops is some thirty fewer than at Holy Communion Church, South Orange, NJ but there are more than twice the number of ranks. This lavish approach meant that a tonal cornucopia could be created, a Joseph's Coat of colour. When compared with Frank Lloyd Wright's building it seems rather old-fashioned; the spiralling tonal columns of the West Point organ, or the big, clean lines of the Atlantic City instrument, would accord better with the modernist architecture. But as a tone-producer it has a leonine dignity all its own.
The Larkin Building was demolished in the 1950s; the organ was sold to the Schlicker Organ Co. and was broken up for parts.
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