Restoration & Written by:

Kent Arnold

Long Beach CA

562-425-4740

SCHIEDMAYER HARMONIUM

Finds a New Life

Back in June of 2002, I was contacted by the conductor of the Southwest Chamber Music saying

they were in search of an harmonium for their concerts. The only instrument I could find at that time

was a small Weaver parlor reed organ that I had just restored and tuned to A440. The concert

went well but I could tell that a larger instrument was needed. At that time I had no lead on a

proper harmonium but I did have back in the shop a two manual and pedal Seybold from 1904.

It took me several months to restore this twelve rank organ but that is another story. The Seybold

was then used for their next concert. The organ had the volume they needed and they were

very pleased with it, but I knew it still was not the true harmonium that their ensemble called for.

Seemed that a concert size harmonium was not to be found in this city. In October of 2002,

I contacted Mr. James Tyler and told him of the need here in Los Angeles. I guess I called

the right person after looking thru the ROS directory for he had one in his shop up in

San Francisco. Jim sent me some pictures and I drove up to the bay area to investigate.

I guess I lucked out, it fit in my van and Jim gave me a price that I could afford so who could

ask for more.

Well, I got it back to the shop, and after my back recovered from moving it, I started on the process of rebuilding. The first thing to do was to find resources for the missing draw knob faces and the wadding.

Mr. Tyler again was a great help by getting me in contact with Louis Huivenaar in the Netherlands. Louis

was able to find a source for matching the missing porcelain draw knob faces in Germany and his wife

actually made the wadding to original specification. The workmanship was well worth the price.

The wadding that was at one time installed in this instrument was too small, as a result felt was jammed into correct leaks and the upper action would not activate the stops correctly. The case work also was altered for the upper action sat too low.

After I received the parts needed and much great advice from both Jim Tyler and Louis Huivenaar, I started the task of rebuilding. The case was at one time stripped and the wood was not the best to do a natural finish. Case repairs were done and a coat of black gloss enamel was applied. The intention was to do several coats and wet sanding for a piano finish. I did not want to touch the internal finish of the stop jam as I wanted to keep the original decals. Well a long story got short, to my surprise that one rough coat on the case matched the stop jam. A wise man told me years ago if it works do not fix it. This also helped my concern that this was to be rented out and we all know about movers and concert halls. A solid bottom was also put on so that dollies would not damage the feeders from the underside in moving. But something was still not right, the music rack. At one time a piano music rack was installed, but this just did not look the part. Again Luis came to my rescue and sent me a stencil from an sister Schiedmayer harmonium located on his side of the world. Back to work I went. Below also is what was found pasted inside the reservoir as to seal the wood. At least we know that it was made after September 1884.

The Lower action was rebuilt and the wadding replaced.

Funny how when the correct materials are used, these instruments come back to life.

The upper action was cleaned up and repaired as the pallets were still in good working order.

Then came the reed work, tuning & voicing. I have tuned several pipe organs and reed organs but I quickly realized that tuning thirty reed organs would be easier than one harmonium. I quickly gained much respect for Mr. Huivenaar who does this on a regular basis.

Finally I got it all back together and in good working order. I was quite amazed on the amount of musical nuances that this instrument had compared to most reed organs, they are a class of their own.

Now I had only one more problem, seemed we had a chicken and egg problem out here. Harmoniums have not been used out here in Los Angeles as it seemed none could be found. Well now that I got a working harmonium we have no Harmoniumist. Then one day as I was working on a church organ, I met a concert organist, Mr. Christoph Bull, who was there practicing. He proceeded to tell me that he played harmonium at church in his younger years. Now really folks how often does this happen? Then to top that off, he was born near Stuttgart, Germany, where the Schiedmayer was built. This was too uncanny but I am not one to argue with fate.

I am pleased to say that the Schiedmayer Harmonium had its debut on March 20 at the Norton

Simon Museum and the concert was repeated the following Tuesday at the Colburn School of

Performing Arts. The Bruckner 7^th Symphony was preformed by the Southwest Chamber Music

and they can be reached at www.swmusic.org for more information. I need to say a big “Thank

You” as none of this would have taken place if it was not for the help of ROS, Jim Tyler, Louis

Huivenaar, and most of all, the now “Grammy winning” Southwest Chamber Music. If it was not

for their Conductor, Mr. Jeff von der Schmidt wanting to do the music of the harmonium, I would

never have started this project. One never knows what could happen till one asks. Someone

asked, and another grand instrument has been saved from the ashes.

Post script:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic then wanted a harmonium tuned to A=442 so off I went again.

Mr. Tyler found me the Kotykiewicz from Lou Harrison’s estate. It has been rebuilt and tuned for

the Philharmonic at Disney Hall. The Schiedmayer tuned at A= 440 is now used for Southwest

Chamber Music and the Los Angeles Opera.

Kent Arnold