The University Scholars Program

The pipe organ has had a vast history, one that started as a solution to an engineering problem. As it developed into a musical instrument, the organ was soon one of the staple fixtures in churches in most of Europe. As religions diverged, so did the traditions of aesthetic and functional issues of not only church design and construction but also their pipe organs; the foundations for which were deeply ground in the heritage of the local people: their tastes, beliefs, practices, and traditions. This divergence has taken many forms and has lead to different places; so now as a result, modern people can look at and appreciate the vast quantity of aesthetic and functional differences between various spaces (be they church and/or performance), and their pipe organs. Locally, one can observe the sundry differences in the large number of church organs not only around the country, but closer to home: the Southeast. How do organs, in their design and construction, relate to their spaces in an aesthetic and functional sense? How do the aesthetics of their design and the tonal characteristics of their sound relate to their religious beliefs, musical tastes, and musical practices? Conversely are there any spaces, church or performance that dictate how organs are constructed? In answering these questions I have examined several Gainesville churches and churches around the Southeast and found several aspects that correlate with German and French traditions, even mixing in some American interests. It is this study that attempts to find just a small handful of examples of how different organs have been built to reflect various churches’ heritages and how the timbres and aesthetics of these magnificent instruments reflect a long history of music making in the church.