Ernest Martin Skinner

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Ernest Martin Skinner (born January 15, 1866 in Clarion , Pennsylvania , † November 25, 1960 in Dorchester , Massachusetts ) was an American organ builder .

Æolian Skinner Organ in Arlington Street Church in Boston

Life

Skinner was 1866 in Clarion (Pennsylvania) was born. In the 1880s he worked with George H. Ryder and Jesse Woodbury. In 1893 he developed the first electro-pneumatic action for George S. Hutchings (1889–1901) and his new organ in New York's St. Bartholomew's Church . Numerous other inventions such as the electropneumatic “pitman” (wind) charger (1899) or orchestral solo tongues, which are still often built in the USA , can be traced back to Skinner.

In 1904 he founded Ernest M. Skinner & Company in Dorchester , Massachusetts. The company soon struggled with financial difficulties, as Skinner was a genius organ builder but could not handle the finances profitably. Thereupon the millionaire Arthur Hudson Marks became a partner in the management and decisively determined the development of the company, which from then on operated under the name Skinner Organ Company . In 1932, the Skinner Organ Company and the Æolian Company were merged to form the Æolian-Skinner Company under his leadership . Under the new organ builder Donald Harrison, who was hired by Marks from England, the company devoted itself more and more to the ideas of organ movement . Ernest Skinner then left the company and founded a new workshop with his son in Methuen, MA. The Aeolian-Skinner Company existed until 1972.

Selected Works

St. Bartholomew's (NYC Park Avenue)
  • 1911: New York, NY: St. John the Divine (rebuilt by Skinner in 1954)
  • 1921: Boston, MA: Old South Church (used organ from a concert hall in Minnesota, installed in Boston in 1985)
  • 1922: Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Convention Center
  • 1923: San Francisco, CA: California Palace of the Legion of Honor
  • 1927: Chicago, IL: Rockefeller Chapel
  • 1927: Saint Paul, MN: Cathedral of Saint Paul
  • 1928: Candé near Tours / France: Chateau de Candé (only original installation in Europe)
  • 1928: New Haven, CT: Yale University, Woolsey Hall
  • 1931: Toledo, OH: Holy Rosary Cathedral
  • 1937: Washington DC: Washington National Cathedral (rebuilt several times)
  • 1947: New York City, NY: Riverside Church (rebuilt several times)
  • 1947: Methuen, MA: Organ Hall (conversion of the Walcker organ)
  • 1956: New York, NY: St. Thomas Church (remodeling)
  • 1965: New York, NY: Metropolitan Opera
  • 1971: Chicago, IL: 4th Presbyterian Church
  • 1971: New York, NY: St. Bartholomew (renovation & extension, largest organ in NY)

literature

  • Jonathan Ambrosino: Skinner, Ernest M (artin) . In: Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel (Eds.): The Organ. To Encyclopedia . Routledge, New York, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-94174-1 , pp. 518-520 .
  • Arthur Hudson Marks: A Biography of Ernest M. Skinner . In: Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel (Eds.): Stop, Open and Reed . tape 1 , no. 4 , 1922.
  • Who was who in America. : volume 5, 1969-1973 with world notables , Marquis Who's Who, New Providence, NJ, 1973, p. 666.
  • Ernest M. Skinner: The modern organ . New York, HW Gray, 1917. New York, American organist, 1925. Braintree, Mass, Organ Literature Foundation, 1974, 1980. Bibliotheca organologica. 62. ISBN 0-913746-11-8 .

Web links

Commons : EM Skinner  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Organ in the Metropolitan Opera
personal data
SURNAME Skinner, Ernest Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Organ builder
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Clarion , Pennsylvania , USA
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1960
Place of death Dorchester , Massachusetts