Aeolian-Skinner Opus 888 Watertown, MA

[solovoxhumana]

Yesterday, I had the chance to visit and play Aeolian-Skinner Opus 888 located in Watertown, MA. This 4 manual organ, originally built in 1932, is located in Dwight Hall of the Perkins School for the Blind. Upon arrival, I was disappointed with the amount of modification to the original 1932 stoplist which eliminated 2 pairs of strings, the Swell Vox Humana, the Great Second Diapason and Erzahler, etc. In their place were many higher pitches stops, mutations and mixtures. The "Gallery" organ used to play from Manual IV and was the chapel Frazee organ which is currently unplayable.

[solovoxhumana]

Great Division

Great Division

Choir Division

Pedal Unit Bourdon 16'-4'

[rjsilva]

So how did it sound?

[solovoxhumana]

Minus a few dead notes, the instrument sounds good! It is unfortunate that the organ has been modified and tinkered with over the years and really lost the Skinner sound.