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Somehow I missed a front-page student exposé on the Rosales organ disaster at Indiana University.

"Mr. Rosales contends he wasn't given proper feedback from the University, and that's why he was unable to complete the project," [Rosales's attorney Peter] Steinberg said. "He filed bankruptcy because of pressure put upon him by IU."

Sauers, Elisha. "Silenced Sounds." Indiana Daily Student 4 October 2005.

I don't know what kind of feedback he was expecting. He's a professional and he signed a contract. If he was expecting some sort of hand-holding, well, maybe he would be better off at a small liberal-arts college rather than a state school. And if Rosales felt enough pressure to file for bankruptcy, then clearly he was given some amount feedback.

This would make for a pretty lame piece of theater:

Rosales: I require proper feedback!

Indiana University: Finish the organ.

Rosales: I'm leaving!

I don't pretend to have a grasp on the bureaucratic and financial intricacies of this case, but from what I can tell, the organ is terribly designed.

As part of my Organ Construction and Design course at IU, we will be hacking through the overgrown jungle of trackers and howling ciphers that is Rosales's Opus 27. I am looking forward to this and hope to photographically document profound design flaws in their natural habitat. You will be able to view the results on Sinden.org.

Tangent: The article also inadvertently summarizes a typical organ lesson with Larry Smith (affectionately known as SMITHL): "It's kind of like when you're buying a car . . . It's like saying, 'I want power windows, but I don't want the electric seats.'"