ALLEN ORGAN INSTALLATIONS

St. Christopher's Allen organ includes 7 stop lists easily accessed from Allen's Stoplist Library. This organ also has Allen Vista™ MIDI, extending the musical language and creativity available to the organist. From Baroque and neo-Baroque (Arp Schnitger and Schlicker), English Cathedral and Cavaillé-Coll to Classic Allen, the stop-list library offers pipe-organ sound and 8 distinct historic tunings.

The stop engravings and the default tonal palette for this organ reflect the reformed Neo-Baroque movement in organ building that took shape in North America through the first half of the 20th century. This was a time when reform was sweeping across Europe and North America in all the arts, including architecture. In fact, the interior of St. Christopher's church is influenced by the leading proponent of art reform during this time, Frank Lloyd Wright. In terms of organ building and music, it became a time to re-dedicate attention to the organ and its vast repertoire rather than continue to ignore it in favor of large-scale orchestral transcriptions.

The Schlicker tonal principal is modeled after the traditional North German concept of a "Werk-Prinzip" and is further characterized by a brightness and clarity of tone. St. Christopher's church will benefit from this default tonal scheme for the clarity and articulation that is integral for performing the contrapuntal textures of Bach. However, Schlicker was also a master at bridging the tonal specifications that Bach set-out in 17th century Germany with the warmth as heard in the Chorales of César Franck. Schlicker from Allen is an ideal palette for delivering authoritative support to congregational singing and a meaningful palette for solo repertoire. This level of detail means that well over 500 years of organ repertoire and organ building can be credibly represented and performed on this instrument. The quality of construction and of sound redefines the state-of-the-art in organ building. Allen organs are built to satisfy the congregation and, with the tonal features and moving mechanical drawknobs, this instrument is also designed with the organist in mind.