The backstage of Auer Hall looks like a mechanic's shop. \nRows of soldered metal pipes, wooden freights full of tools and two-story-high scaffolding hide behind the façade of an instrument so large, it soars from the balcony to the rafters in height. \nThe pipe organ, with its unassembled parts amounting to more than $750,000, has never fired a single note from the barrels of its flutes. \nIts maker won't be finishing it either. \nIn 1992, the IU School of Music hired Los Angeles organ designer Manuel Rosales to create the first and only performance pipe organ on campus. \n"In the late 1980s, when my colleagues and I were looking for an artist, we were looking for someone uniquely talented," said professor Larry Smith, chairman of the organ department. "At the time, Rosales was the premier craftsman of organs in the country, so he was the builder of choice." \nAn organ becomes an extension of the auditorium in which it lives. Rosales was responsible for tailoring the instrument to the specifics of the Auer Hall venue in the Simon Music Center and the faculty's preferences. \n"We had a consultation with the builder back in the beginning," Smith said. "We discussed the flavor of the instrument -- the kind of sound we wanted and the way we wanted the keys attached to the pipes." \nRosales was in charge of crafting those preferences to the hall's size and acoustics. \n"It's kind of like when you're buying a car," Smith explained. "It's like saying, 'I want power windows, but I don't want the electric seats.' You decide how the money is spent." \nThe contract negotiated between IU and Rosales stated the job was supposed to be completed in 1997, Smith said.
Contract dissonance \nThirteen years and $750,000 later, the University can't sue. \n"The contract specified that if the parties were in a dispute, instead of taking (the complaint) before a court, it would be taken before arbitration," said Sharon Groeger, associate University counsel. \nArbitration is a form of legal negotiation in which an impartial person hears evidence from all parties and then makes a decision. Groeger said arbitration is not typical for IU agreements. \nBut IU was not suspicious that the inclusion of a clause restraining both parties from suing one another was an indication of future problems in the deal.\n"I think probably everybody expected that the organ would be completed to our specifications, and everyone would be happy," Groeger said. \nRosales' attorney Peter Steinberg explained his client prefers to settle matters outside of court. \n"Mr. Rosales is not a litigious person -- he is an artist," Steinberg said. "He does not want to sacrifice his creativity. In a karmic sense, it's negative energy."\nBut the School of Music and University counsel contest that Rosales was straying too far from the task. \n"There were a number of stages outlined in the contract," Smith said. "Once he was late on one deadline, he was late on everything else." \nSteinberg said his client saw the situation differently. \n"Mr. Rosales contends he wasn't given proper feedback from the University, and that's why he was unable to complete the project," Steinberg said. "He filed bankruptcy because of pressure put upon him by IU." \nIU initiated arbitration in 2004 to collect compensation for damages, but Rosales filed bankruptcy in February 2005. \n"Essentially, he didn't finish the job. In the arbitration, we were asking for almost $2 million, but he filed bankruptcy," Groeger explained. "The arbitration is just over when the dissenting party claims bankruptcy." \nBut Steinberg said the University was just trying to win a large arbitration settlement. \nThe results leave little hope for the pipe organ's completion in the near future. \n"The organ is out of Mr. Rosales' control now," Steinberg said. "But as Mr. Rosales stated in a recent deposition, he wouldn't be averse to finish(ing) the project if proper guidelines could be arranged to this day." \nThe School of Music has yet to make any official decisions on the matter. \n"It's in pieces," Smith said. "Its fate has yet to be determined."
Standing room only\nOut of the 31 organ majors in the department, zero of them will touch the keys of a performance hall organ for their senior recitals. \n"It does, in some ways, have a negative impact on the department," Smith said. "We have always been somewhat hampered by the lack of a performance hall home. We have one of the largest departments in the nation, but we don't have a church on campus with an organ or a working performance hall organ." \nSmith said nine practice organs and two studio teaching organs are in the annex.\n"But the practice organs are just that," he said. "They're smaller instruments, and they aren't intended for audiences." \nSenior organist recitals have typically taken place either in a local area church off campus or in one of the teaching studios. Smith said one studio holds fewer than 40, while the other has a capacity of only 75 audience members.\nSome students who use the studio organs opt to play half of their recital repertoire in the first studio and half in the second. \n"They get so crowded, people have to stand up in the back of the room and spill out into the hallway," Smith said. "But if a recital takes place in both studios, at least the back half (of the audience) gets to take turns and trade places with the front (half of the audience)." \nSmith said pipe organs present a unique dilemma because they have to be permanent fixtures in a hall. \n"Until the school does come to a conclusion on the matter, we simply do the best we can do," Smith said.
