Martin Ott Opus 70 at Concordia University Wisconsin
Martin Ott Opus 70 was commissioned in 1992 for Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon. The specification gives seven stops and seven ranks with mechanical action.
Inside the room: Concordia's student practice studio
Opus 70 was built for Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, where the builder's page places it in a studio for student practice. The account does not give the room's volume or measured acoustic response. For scale, it later compares the Concordia instrument with Opus 87, a six-stop, six-rank teaching organ built for Indiana University in 1997.
An academic organ may be heard at close range in lessons and at greater distance in recital. A room plan and department records would show which conditions applied to Opus 70. No such measurements accompany the old page.
7 stops and 7 ranks: the scale of Opus 70
Opus 70 is summarized as an organ of 7 stops and 7 ranks. The difference between those totals matters because a stop name does not always correspond to one independent rank. Such a scale suits practice, continuo or intimate rooms when the surrounding project history supports that use. The numbers alone do not assign a purpose. The manual count is not stated in the short summary. These totals establish scale; they do not replace the actual specification.
Opus 70 gives the same number for stops and ranks. The match is useful, though only the disposition can show whether every control had an independent pipe set. That distinction keeps a numerical summary from turning into a guessed tonal scheme.
Console and transmission: Concordia's student practice studio
The key action of Opus 70 is mechanical, or tracker, in the company description. A key moves connected parts that open the pallet for its note. The label explains the route of command, while touch weight still depends on leverage, couplers and regulation.
Mechanical action makes the geometry inside the case part of the player's experience. In Opus 70, the principle is known while measurements of key travel and resistance are not.
Wood, metal and placement: Concordia's student practice studio
Taken together, these construction details give Opus 70 a physical identity beyond its stop count. A complete case drawing and internal chest plan are still missing.
Console position can reveal the intended relationship between player, choir and room. It does not, by itself, explain the internal division plan of Opus 70.
From dedication to daily use: Concordia's student practice studio
The company page places the instrument in a studio, where it served students as a practice organ. It also names John Behnke in connection with the organ department. The source compares the project with two related instruments. Opus 71, built in 1992 for Diane E. Grenwelge in Houston, also had seven stops and seven ranks. The page additionally names Larry Smith and Christopher Young as chairs of the organ department. An academic commission can move between practice and public performance. For Opus 70, only the players and events named in the historical account are treated as part of that musical life. The surviving text gives no dated performance event.
Without a named player or program, the musical account remains modest. That is preferable to assigning repertory to Opus 70 from its stop count alone.
Evidence, images and unanswered questions for Opus 70
The starting point is Martin Ott's own Opus 70 page, retained in its February 6, 2020 form. Readers can compare the account with 3 images linked on that page. Each file was linked directly from the same project entry. Caption or credit information survives for 1 of them. That dated account is useful for the commission history, not as proof of the organ's state today. A modern condition note would bring the history forward without rewriting the older evidence.