The symphonic organ sought to emulate the effects of a symphony orchestra with imitative solo reeds, colorful flutes and warm string-toned stops.
While these organs were well-suited to orchestral transcriptions, they lacked the clarity and brilliance needed to accurately play polyphonic music from the 18th century and earlier.
The works produced are then originals, and while they can possess all the advantages of other good work, they have their own personality and reflect their own good time.” The pipe organs at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Church of the Advent in Boston, and at St. John’s Chapel in Groton, Massachusetts, are often as cited as the first “turning point” instruments produced under Harrison’s direction.
Each contained Baroque-style stops on low wind pressure with several different high-pitched mixtures – a vast departure from the norm in organ building at the time.
A heavy smoker, Harrison died of a heart attack after weeks of overworking himself during hot summer months for the rebuilding of the E.M. Skinner organ at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue for the 1956 American Guild of Organists national convention in New York City.