Tonal Experts “Finish” Barton Organ Installation at TCR

CEDAR RAPIDS - One minute you'd swear a giant bird was scratching around in the rafters of Theatre Cedar Rapids; the next that someone was running a power drill or had stepped on a cat. But then, with a faint whoosh of air and for the first time in more than three years, the pipes of the Rhinestone Barton organ make beautiful music.

This is the culmination of five days of intense work by the team of Ken Crome (left) and Lyn Larsen, theater organ experts from Reno, Nev., and San Diego, Calif. It is finally the reuniting of the replicated 14-rank organ console and the 1,100-pipes in the theater's upper chambers that entertained audiences for 80 years. It is the first shakedown of a new computerized system that replaces flood-damaged mechanicals in this $240,000 project (funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency) that promises to produce bone-thrilling music for decades to come.

Ken, 65, and Lyn, 67, have worked together for 35 years to revive dozens of theater organs around the country.

Ken, through his Crome Organ Company in Reno, duplicated the console's wooden case, keyboard, pedals and inner workings with poplar, yellow cedar, plastic and metal, using original parts when possible. It came to Cedar Rapids last spring for finishing touches and installation.

Lyn, a musician since the age of three who played on the Mighty Wurlitzer (also damaged in the flood) at the Paramount Theatre to a sold-out crowd in the early 1970s when he performed up to 40 concerts a year, lends his ear.

"We are here to get all the pipes to sound the same, to get the different pipes to blend with their partners," says Ken.

So, up in the "rafters" Ken works, adjusting the pipes, traps, and wind regulators, while Lyn, at the console, pushes the right keys. They communicate by two-way radio, by signals Ken "taps out" on the keys and, rarely, by shouting across the theater.

"You've got to remember," Ken says, "the organ has to sound good in the room."

The tonal finishing, as it's called, is completed one note at a time. Should it be louder or softer? Have more upper treble or less? How fast does it play the moment it starts to "speak"? Is it rock solid and stable? Does it blend well within its rank of pipes?

"Sometimes," Lyn says, "you listen to it and it's not correct so I give him some more taps and we do it again and again. We can do it ten times."

No wonder it took them five long days to complete the task, with plenty of breaks thrown in to rejuvenate the senses.

Yes, like wine tasters cleansing their pallets, the tonal finishers must let their ears rest.

"Your ears," Ken laughs, "get numb."

So, have they had any problems?

"You always do," Lyn says.

"Not something I'd want to put in the newspaper," Ken laughs.

But, by Tuesday evening they'd completed their task. The pipe organ sounded great. And, says Darren Ferreter of the Cedar Rapids Area Theatre Organ Society, a few more finishing touches will have it ready for its public debut sometime this fall.

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