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Vol. 45 No. 1
March 29, 2006 |
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Organs of note ...
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Hook and Hastings: Turn of the century (estimated
1890s to 1901)
Claim to fame: the oldest working pipe organ in a
Long Island Catholic Church
Where: St. Dominic’s Chapel in Oyster Bay
Pipe Ranks: Nine (There are usually 61 pipes in a
rank, one for each key on the console.)
Catalog shopping: It was ordered through the
mail.
Interesting tidbit: A child used to pump air with
bellows by hand, filling the organ reservoir and wind
chest with air. Now the work is done by an electric
blower, but you can still see the old pipe that
channeled the air creeping up in the stairwell leading
up to the choir loft.
In St. Dominic’s chapel, amidst the stained glass, dark
wooden arches, and chandeliers, there is what looks like
an old wooden box at the back of the church: an old Hook
and Hastings mechanical action organ, dating from the
turn of the century. This instrument is the oldest
working pipe organ in a Catholic Church on Long Island,
more than 100 years old.
This pipe organ “survived the 20th century,” said Tim
Carl, director of music at St. Dominic’s in Oyster Bay.
“And it is practically the same instrument it was 100
years ago. No one has fiddled with it.”
The organ — called a tracker organ — differs from its
more modern counterparts. Now, many pipe organs have
electrical or magnetic trigger systems to open the pipes
to allow air through. This Hook and Hastings pipe organ
is “purely mechanical,” said Mr. Carl. “When a player
depresses an ivory key on the console, there are a
series of levers that open the corresponding pipe so it
will sound.”
“This organ has been played through so many happy and
sad times — times of transition, through so many
sacraments,” he said. “It is a big honor for me to play
it. When I play weddings and funerals, I know that I am
about to sit in front of tradition.”
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Matt Sullivan solders wiring on a pipe organ toeboard
at the Elsener Organ Works factory in Deer Park. |
Dana Emery shapes a pipe organ leg
in the wood shop at the Elsener Organ Works. |
Earnest M. Skinner organ: 1916
Where: St. William the Abbot, Seaford
Pipes: 39 ranks of pipes, almost 2,200 pipes
Stops: 54 stops, “a good mix of flutes, reeds,
and strings,” said parish music director Alfred Allongo.
Coming: Elsener Organ Works in Deer Park is
hoping to have the pipe organ fully installed by
Christmas 2006
With their former electronic organ sounding like “an old
vacuum cleaner,” according to director of music Alfred
Allongo, the parish knew it was time for a new organ.
But the question was what kind: electronic or pipe?
New electronic organs sound almost indistinguishable
from pipe organs because they use digital samples of
real pipe organs, yet as time ticks on, the speakers age
and sound quality fades, explained Mr. Allongo.
Electronic organs last approximately 30 years while pipe
organs can last centuries, he said.
On the other hand, pipe organs are more expensive to
install and need to be tuned twice a year and
maintained.
When St. William’s first received an estimate for a pipe
organ, they were shocked: $240,000 to $400,000. An
electronic organ seemed a bargain by comparison:
$151,000.
But last Holy Thursday, Mr. Allongo received news that a
pipe-organ aficionado had saved an old organ from the
trash heap. A Presbyterian parish in Connecticut was
moving and they no longer wanted the instrument. The
donor stored the instrument and later donated it to St.
William the Abbot through a contact at the Virgil Fox
Society. (The late Virgil Fox has been called the
greatest organist of the 20th century.)
Although the pipe organ was free, the repairs,
restoration, additions and installation of the
instrument will still cost $182,000. “The sounds of
these pipes will not change,” said Mr. Allongo. “One
hundred years from now worshipers will be hearing the
same sounds we are hearing,” said Mr. Allongo.
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Organist Michael Bower at the
massive keyboard at St. Agnes Cathedral. |
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Wicks Organ Company: 2001
Where: St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre
It’s big: It’s the largest pipe organ in a
Catholic Church on Long Island with more than 80 ranks
of pipes. Some pipes are the size of a thumbnail and
others are nearly 20 feet tall. There are two organ
consoles, one near the altar and one in the choir loft.
For decoration: While sitting in the cathedral in
Rockville Centre, it is hard not to notice the pipes
placed above the altar and in decorative rows. What many
don’t know is that most of the pipes in the cathedral
are unseen, hidden in two rooms flanking both sides of
the choir loft in the rear of the church and in another
chamber in the east transept.
Breath support: Three blowers make these 4,400
pipes speak.
Interesting tidbit: During the installation
process, the parish had to remove pews while a crane
installed steel I-beams to hold the weight of the huge
pipes.
Michael Bower, co-music director at St. Agnes Cathedral,
has an F# in his jacket pocket.
After climbing a ladder into a high and hidden room in
the cathedral filled with hundreds of pipes, he grabbed
two pipes: an F# and a C. He toots each one. One sounds
like a little bird, the other like a child’s recorder.
He holds the little pipes gently like small children to
show The Long Island Catholic reporter. He even counts
one of the pipe’s six little “teeth” and pinches the
large “cheeks” of the other.
If each pipe is a child to Mr. Bower, then he has a
large family of 4,400, although he refers to them all
collectively as “my baby.”
In a way, this pipe organ is a baby.
Unlike the organ at St. Dominic’s Church in Oyster Bay,
which has seen the passing of 100 years, this organ was
fully installed in 2001 and is composed of all new
parts. It was designed specifically for this cathedral.
The parish decided to replace their aging electronic
organ with a pipe organ in celebration of the Jubilee
year to ensure a legacy of good music at the cathedral
and to encourage congregational singing, said Mr. Bower.
“I think that the pipe organ encourages people to sing,”
said Mr. Bower. “In pipe organs real air is passing
through them, just like when people sing.”
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Last modified:
11/17/2007
© Copyright 2006 The Long Island Catholic |
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