(b Huddersfield, 21 April 1889; d New York, 14 June 1956). American organ builder of English birth. A graduate of Dulwich College, he joined his father's firm of patent agents in 1912, and served in the RAF during World War I, entering the London organ-building firm of Henry Willis & Sons in 1919. There he became an assistant to Henry Willis III, learning pipe voicing and design, and in 1921 he was elected a director of the firm. In 1927 Harrison accepted a position as assistant general manager with the Ernest M. Skinner Co. in Boston, and the following year collaborated with Skinner on the large organs in Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan and Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago, where he introduced Willis-style choruses and other tonal innovations. By 1931, when the firm merged with the Aeolian Company, differences in tonal philosophy had begun to divide Harrison and Skinner, with many clients favouring Harrison's approach, and in 1933 Harrison was appointed technical director. Three years later Skinner left, but by this time large contracts such as that for Grace Cathedral in San Francisco (1934) were being designed and overseen entirely by Harrison. During the 1930s Harrison's English tonal philosophy began to be influenced by the ‘organ reform’ movement, and after a visit to Germany in 1937 he began to introduce Baroque-inspired flutes and reeds into what would become known as ‘American classic’ tonal designs, of which the organ in St Paul's Chapel, Columbia University (1939), was a notable example. After the hiatus of World War II, two important commissions, the rebuilding of the Walcker organ in the Memorial Music Hall, Methuen, Massachusetts (1947), and the large new organ for the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City (1948), consolidated this eclectic tonal philosophy which was to strongly influence American organ building for the next two decades. The popularity of this approach made the Aeolian-Skinner firm the leader in the 1940s and 50s, and Harrison was almost overwhelmed by the quantity of work for which he was contracted. He visited Europe again in 1955 and while he took note of the burgeoning ‘neo-Baroque’ movement there, was of the opinion that it was not applicable to American churches. Nonetheless, he continued experimenting with scales and voicing right up to his last instrument, the large French-influenced organ for St Thomas's, New York; while working on the final tonal finishing of this organ, he died suddenly of heart failure. His influence on American organ building was considerable, and helped to pave the way for the historically informed eclectic tonal designs of the late 20th century.
See also Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co.
B.W. Downward: G. Donald Harrison and the American Classic Organ (DMA diss., Eastman School of Music, U. of Rochester, 1976)
J. Ambrosino: ‘G. Donald Harrison’, American Organist, xxii/12 (1988), 66–8
J. Ambrosino: ‘A History of the Aeolian-Skinner Co.: the Harrison Years’, American Organist, xxiv/5 (1990), 269–76
C. Callahan: The American Classic Organ: a History in Letters (Richmond, VA, 1990)
BARBARA OWEN