Paul Fritts an American organ builder based in Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

 who, following historical models, has created over twenty mechanical action instruments that have contributed to the revival of historically informed organ music. The Fritts organ at St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

 is his largest instrument to date, with three manuals (keyboards) and 66 stops. Other recent Fritts instruments of note are located at the University of Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

 (2 man. 34 st.), Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...

 (2 man. 39), and Pacific Lutheran University

Pacific Lutheran University

Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. In September 2009, PLU had a student population of 3,582 and approximately 280 full-time faculty...

 (3 man. 54 st.). The organ at PLU was the largest Fritts organ built before the organ in Columbus.

Several of the most notable American performers have recorded on Fritts organs, among them William Porter

William Porter (organist)

- Life :Porter studied organ at Oberlin College and Yale University where he received the DMA degree in 1980. He taught harpsichord and organ at Oberlin from 1974 to 1986 and taught organ, music history and music theory at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1985 to 2002...

, Craig Cramer

Craig Cramer

Craig Cramer is an organist and professor of organ at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, where he teaches organ performance and organ literature to undergraduate and graduate students of the university. He is active as a recording artist and concertizes frequently under the...

, Christa Rakich, and Robert Bates. In addition, the renowned German scholar and performer Harald Vogel

Harald Vogel

Harald Vogel is a German organist, organologist, and author. He is a leading expert on Renaissance and Baroque keyboard music. He has been professor of organ at the University of the Arts Bremen since 1994.-Books & articles:...

 has recorded on the Fritts organ at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Seattle (Op. 19).

Fritts is part of a larger movement of organ builders who, in the wake of the Organ Reform Movement

Organ reform movement

The Organ Reform Movement or Orgelbewegung was an early 20th century trend in pipe organ building, originating in Germany and already influential in the United States in the 1940s, waning only in the 1980s...

, have sought to apply historical organ building principles in crafting modern instruments. This movement does not seek to copy historical instruments, but in some sense be "apprenticed to them." That is, Fritts builds Fritts organs, not Arp Schnitger

Arp Schnitger

Arp Schnitger was a highly influential German organ builder. He was primarily active in Northern Europe, especially the Netherlands and Germany, where a number of his instruments survive to the present day; his organs can also be found as far away as Portugal and Brazil.Notable examples still in...

 organs, although the influence of the latter can scarcely be denied. Other builders in this movement include John Brombaugh

John Brombaugh

John Brombaugh is an American master pipe organ builder, known for his historically-oriented tracker action instruments, some of which are capable of playing at different historical pitches.-Personal life and early training:...

, Richards, Fowkes & Co.

Richards, Fowkes & Co.

Richards, Fowkes & Co., are builders of historical-style mechanical-action pipe organs. The firm is located in rural Ooltewah, Tennessee, just outside of Chattanooga and was founded in 1988 by Bruce Fowkes and Ralph Richards...

, Taylor & Boody, Fisk, and Fritz Noack

Noack Organ Company

The Noack Organ Company is a pipe organ manufacturer based out of Georgetown, Massachusetts.Fritz Noack began the company in 1960 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Prior to that he had worked with a number of organ builders in Europe and the United States...

.

External links

• Paul Fritts & Company Organ Builders
• Pipe shade carvings for Fritts Organs Opus 5, 11 to 25, 27 and 28 were designed and carved by Jude Fritts.
• Fritts organ at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, dedicated 2004, Opus 24
• Fritts organ at St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio, dedicated 2006, Opus 25
• The Gottfried and Mary Fuchs organ at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, dedicated 1998, Opus 18
• The Marion Camp Oliver Organ at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle, Washington, dedicated September 14th, 2003, Opus 22
• Fritts organ at the Belle Skinner Recital Hall at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, dedicated 2002, Opus 23
• Fritts organ at Grace Lutheran Church in Tacoma, Washington, dedicated 1992, Opus 13