Bippen, Pictures, Wander plans, Beaverton
Post date: Aug 13, 2014 10:12:53 PM
5 June 1966
Maybe my memory is worse than I think, but I don’t sever remember California as green as Germany is now. Maybe there is something to this idea of Winter and Spring! German towns are about half trees, even though most have no park as such.
Kleuker organ in Bippen
I was no sooner back in the firm when the Master came and said, “Could you help in Bippen?”, a small village on the other side of Osnabrück (where the Protestants signed the peace treaty after the 30-years war). For a year we’ve been building an organ there—many times changed—and now they want to dedicate it and it’s not finished. It’s been made smaller twice without reducing the number of pipes and we are having problems fitting them all in. The church is very old—originally Romanesque, then Gothic windows were put in, then in 1650 the interior was made Baroque, in 1850 a new entrance was added. This corner of Niedersachsen is very pretty and has many very old churches. I sent home (to California) pictures of the organ we just finished. (The biggest pipes are 16 feet long.) Also the fountain in front of the public swimming pool in Bielefeld (every public building project must budget 10% towards art), and farmhouse near here, and me and my German girl-friend Gudrun Schneider. The last was taken on our Easter hike in the Harz mountains.
Christuskirche, Nuess
Bielefeld Hallenbad
Hagen Lükewille House
Jim and Gudrun Schneider
Last night Gudrun and I went to a chamber concert of old music (newest piece 1500) in the Burg Sternberg. Today a bunch from the hiking group are going to the swimming pool to renew our tans from last weekend. We are trying to decide what to do on the weekend of 17 June (German Unity Day). Either we go to Sauerland, the hills south of Paderborn, or to the upper Weser River and Soling hills. If we can get enough tents we will try to camp, otherwise we’ll stay in a Youth Hostel. It will have to be cheap after the holiday on the North Sea. Another possibility is a canoe trip on the Weser.
Right after Christmas I have to go to Beaverton, Oregon, to install a Kleuker organ. That will (I hope) give me enough money and time to find some smaller rebuild jobs around Seattle. I think our combination of Glenn (acoustician [and voicer]), David (organist), and me [engineer] is unbeatable. No other organ company in US has such a a musically and technically trained core.