A. William Thurmeier

Golden Eagle Organ Company

E-218 Ave. B South

Saskatoon, SK

S7M 1M4

(306) 384-6600

goldeneagleorgan@sasktel.net

1974 – 1975 Organbuilder’s Apprentice

David McDowell Organbuilder (retired)

16225 Forecastle St.

Tucson, AZ

USA 85739

(520) 825-9736

This photo was taken in May, 2009. Dave was 91

My introduction to Organbuilding began in a full apprenticeship position in a small firm of three employees plus the master builder, Dave McDowell. Dave came from a family with a long tradition of organ building. His grandfather worked for many years for the Roosevelt Organ Co. and then moved to Colorado and set up his own business. Dave first learned pipe voicing and tuning and other skills working in his grandfather’s shop. He was subsequently hired by Ernest M Skinner and Son Organ Company in 1938. He worked for a time in their plant making glue, later organ pipes, then in the erection room, and finally in tuning. After some time at the Methuen plant he was sent to study organ building in Germany. His study was cut short by the war and Dave returned to live near his father in Tucson, Arizona. After serving in the army during the war, Dave was hired for a time installing organs for the W. W. Kimball Organ Company and finally as a representative for the Rueter Organ Company, working out of Tucson for some years. Finally he went independent and began building his own instruments. His opus list totals 82 instruments.

My work for him covered almost every area of organbuilding except the making of pipes which he had discontinued because of a bout of lead poisoning he had just recovered from. Some of these activities are as follows:

-Assistance in making additions to two electropneumatic organs (Aeolian-Skinner in Christian Science Church, Tucson, Arizona,

1974 and McDowell Organ in a Lutheran church in Tucson, Arizona, 1974).

-Servicing and tuning of many organs including McDowell, Austin, Rueter, Wicks, Kilgen, Aeolian-Skinner, Möller, and many others.

-Releathering and building of electropneumatic and direct-electric windchests, reservoirs, and shutter mechanisms.

-Wiring of consoles and switching systems.

-Training in voicing and tuning of both flue and reed pipes.

-Assistance in building of 10 rank electropneumatic organ (First Presbyterian Church, Casa Grande, Arizona, 1975).

1976 – 1980 Organbuilder

Opus 01 Christus Victor Lutheran Church (subsequently purchased by the Reorganized Church of Latter Days Saints)

1220 Pennsylvania N.E.

Albuquerque, NM, 87110

USA

The photo with the lower casework installed has been lost

This organ was originally intended as a home practice instrument for myself. It consists of four ranks:

16’ Gedeckt (97 pipes)

4’ Principal (85 pipes)

2 2/3’ Quint (61 pipes)

16’ Free reed Oboe (73 reeds)

Everything is unenclosed except the free reed, located in a chamber to the left behind a grill. These ranks are distributed across two manuals and pedal with considerable intelligent unification. The keying and stop actions are electric (top two octaves) and electropneumatic (all the rest) of my own manufacture but following principles learned at McDowell Organs. This organ was completed and installed in February of 1980.

1989 – 1996 Benedictine monk and organbuilder

Opus 02 St. Peter’s Abbey

Box 10

Muenster, SK

S0K 2Y0

(306) 682-1777

(306) 682-1766 fax

This organ was begun during my time in St. Peter’s Abbey as a monk in 1989. The work was undertaken in spare time while engaged in many other duties in the monastery until March 1996 when I left the monastery to found my own organ building company in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The organ was completed in stages:

January 1996: At this time the console and 10 Antiphonal ranks were completed as well as the lower part of the organ case. The Antiphonal ranks were playable. (See photo above.)

July 2000: The entire Great and Pedal divisions were completed. Five ranks of pipes for the Swell (8’ Koppelflöte, 8’ Gamba Celeste, 2 2/3’ Nazard, 2’ Flautino, and 8’ Trumpet) were prepared for. The rest of the Swell was completed.

October 2004: The last five ranks were voiced, installed, and tonal finished, thanks to a generous gift from the Oblates of St. Benedict. With this the entire organ was completed.

This organ has five divisions: Swell, Great, Pedal, Antiphonal Manual, and Antiphonal Pedal. The Swell, Great, and Pedal divisions are all pipe, the Antiphonal divisions are electronic (Sonic Creations). The Swell and the softer ranks of the Great and Pedal are under expression. The rest of the Great and Pedal are unenclosed and exposed. There are 21 ranks of pipes and 10 electronic ranks. The tonal architecture of the organ is designed primarily for the accompaniment of the monastic chant and hymns for the small community at the Eucharist in a small and rather vibrant building. Small scales were used and several softer 8’ stops provided since these form the foundation of the chant accompaniment. The organ offers a full plenum without being overpowering as befitting a monastic organ. The dedication was held April 10, 2005.

1996 Founding of Golden Eagle Organ Company, March 19.

The company was begun after moving to Winnipeg where subcontracted work was carried out for Musselwhite and Associates. This included various reed and flue pipe revoicing and tuning in Winnipeg, plus the usual mechanical and electrical repairs to various organs about the city during 1996.

1997 to 2005

Completion of opus 2 as outlined above and seen below.