Martin Ott Opus 84 at St. Johns and St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church
Martin Ott Opus 84 was commissioned in 1995 for St. Johns and St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Reedsville, Wisconsin. The stop specification gives 16 stops and 19 ranks with tracker action.
A room shaped for sound: the carved Luther Rose in Reedsville
Edward Meyer of Martin Luther University in New Ulm, Minnesota, served as organ consultant. The freestanding organ stood on the rear balcony. At St. Johns and St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, the organ had to find its place within a working worship space. Front, gallery and balcony sites change the organ's relation to choir and altar; this article follows only positions documented by the builder.
Siting and acoustics need to be read together, though they are not the same evidence. The commission description can locate Opus 84; describing the room's response requires measurements or first-hand technical notes.
16 stops and 19 ranks: the scale of Opus 84
The published count for Opus 84 is 16 stops and 19 ranks. Stops name the organist's available controls; ranks count the pipe sets behind those choices. According to the 16-stop summary for St. Johns and St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, the scale sits between a practice organ and the largest church installations. For Opus 84, it leaves open how the builder divided resources among principals, flutes and reeds. No manual count appears in the condensed technical note. These figures sketch scale without describing tone.
The two totals for Opus 84 are separated by 3 ranks. Compound stops can create that difference; only the complete disposition can show where the extra ranks lie. This is why the two numbers belong together in print.
From console to pipe: the carved Luther Rose in Reedsville
A tracker mechanism links the keys, connecting parts and pallets in one physical linkage. The outline assigns that principle to Opus 84. Response and comfort would have depended on the precise layout and subsequent regulation, neither of which is measured on the entry.
Because the keydesk was joined to the organ case, the player's position formed part of the architecture of Opus 84. The technical description from St. Johns and St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church documents one point: later regulation cannot be read from that layout alone.
Music and people: the carved Luther Rose in Reedsville
The company entry does not name a dedicatory recital or describe a later relocation, tonal change, ownership transfer, or present condition. In worship, an organ may accompany congregational music or take a solo role. For Opus 84, those roles are kept separate unless the commission narrative or a dated program connects them. The record identifies no resident organist or later concert.
Later testimony could add the sound and people now absent from the written history of Opus 84. Until then, the technical record carries the story.
Evidence, images and unanswered questions for Opus 84
The former Martin Ott page for Opus 84, dated February 6, 2020, provides the principal evidence for this article. The entry supplies 1 linked image to be read beside the written account. Their presence in the project entry ties them to Opus 84. According to the surviving sources for St. Johns and St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, individual image credits are absent from the extracted material. Its evidence stops before the present day; present location, access and condition need more recent confirmation. The most valuable additions would be a full disposition and a recent survey.