American organ building firm. It was formed in 1931 when the firm of Ernest M. Skinner & Co. acquired the organ department of the Aeolian Co., which had made its reputation building organs with self-playing mechanisms for private houses, changing its name to Aeolian-Skinner. In 1933 there was a reorganization in which G. Donald Harrison, who had joined Skinner in 1927, became technical director and Skinner’s activities were curtailed. In the same year Skinner, after increasing disagreement with Harrison over tonal matters, began a new company in Methuen, Massachusetts, with his son, Richmond, who had purchased the former Methuen Organ Co. factory and Serlo Hall the previous year.
During the 1930s the Aeolian-Skinner Co. continued to rise in popularity, and in 1940 Harrison became president, succeeding Arthur Hudson Marks (1874–1939), a wealthy businessman who had become its owner and president in 1919. Under Harrison the firm became a leader in the trend away from orchestral tonal practices and towards a more classical sound. It was Harrison who coined the term ‘American Classic’ to refer to this more eclectic type of tonal design. On his death, Joseph S. Whiteford (1929–78), a lawyer and majority stockholder, became president. Although he had some experience of organ building, he did not possess Skinner’s or Harrison’s background, and under him a slow decline began. In the early 1960s he withdrew his interest, and Donald M. Gillett, the head voicer, became president. In 1968 Robert L. Sipe (b 1940), who for ten years had been building organs in Dallas, joined the company; he became vice-president and tonal director in 1970. A year earlier the firm had moved to new premises in Randolph, Massachusetts. The move did not improve the firm’s financial standing, which continued to worsen in spite of drastic cutbacks. Nevertheless, in 1970 Aeolian-Skinner built its first mechanical-action organ for Zumbro Lutheran Church, Rochester, Minnesota. However, by 1972 the firm was forced to leave its new quarters and reorganize. Gillett left to become tonal director for M.P. Möller, Sipe returned to Texas and his own business, and Emil David Knutson, chairman of the board, became president. Less than a year later the firm’s few remaining assets were sold and it ceased to exist.
At the peak of its career Aeolian-Skinner built many organs for notable churches, halls and colleges, including Grace Cathedral, San Francisco (1934), Symphony Hall, Boston (1950), the Mother Church, Boston (1952), Riverside Church, New York (1955), Lincoln Center, New York (1962, later moved), and Kennedy Center, Washington, DC (1969).
W.K. Covell: ‘G. Donald Harrison’, MO, lxxix (1955–6), 671–2
J. Fesperman: Two Essays on Organ Design (Raleigh, NC, 1975)
O. Ochse: The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington, IN,1975)
J. Ambrosio and N.Barden: ‘A History of the Aeolian-Skinner Co.’, American Organist, xxiv (1990), 269–80
C. Callahan: The American Classic Organ: a History in Letters (Richmond, VA,1990)
A. Kinzey and S.Lawn: E.M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List (Richmond, VA, 1992)
C. Callahan: Aeolian-Skinner Remembered (Minneapolis, 1996)
R. Smith: The Aeolian Pipe Organ and its Music (Richmond, VA, 1998)
BARBARA OWEN