News:

If you have difficulty registering for an account on the forum please email antespam@gmail.com. In the question regarding the composer use just the surname, not including forenames Charles-Marie.

Main Menu

2,098 pipes (in area organ) will be ‘smoking’ Sunday

Started by KB7DQH, September 19, 2012, 10:20:34 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

KB7DQH

http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/2012/09/07/2098-pipes-area-organ-will-smoking-sunday/

Quoteby Michael Caruso

It's been said that one person's loss is another's gain. If so, the same is true when it comes to pipe organs and the churches in which they can be found.

In April of 2007, St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Germantown was closed due to declining membership and rising maintenance costs. Quintessentially Victorian in style, looking as though it had been extracted from one of the Barchester novels of the 19th century master Anthony Trollope, the church was designed by George W. Hewitt and Frank Furness, with a subsequent addition by Theophilus Parsons Chandler Jr. Considered a jewel in Philadelphia's architectural crown, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Among its treasures are two 1909 stained glass windows executed by muralist Violet Oakley, a former student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The pair of windows delineate Jesus' New Testament parable of the wise and foolish virgins. In addition to the Oakley windows, there are two Tiffany windows of comparable artistic stature.

Yet another gem in St. Peter's Church was its 1923 E.M. Skinner pipe organ. Skinner was among the most important organ builders in America, designing and building pipe organs for the chapel at Girard College in North Philadelphia, the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Harlem Heights, New York, the National Episcopal Cathedral of SS. Peter & Paul in Washington, D.C., the Cleveland Public Auditorium and the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh.

The organ at St. Peter's Church in Germantown is listed as Opus 407, meaning that it's the 407th instrument designed and built by E.M. Skinner. It boasts 32 ranks or types of pipes, 30 stops or registrations, three manuals ("great," "swell" and "choir" keyboards), and pedal board, for a total of 2,098 pipes. It's a relatively small pipe organ, yet it was considered a sterling example of Skinner's romantic/symphonic style of instrument design.

Rather than allow the pipes to deteriorate as a result of the church's closing, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania centered in Philadelphia contacted Father Mark Horack, S.J., the pastor of Old St. Joseph's Church in Society Hill. "Old St. Joe's," as it is affectionately known, is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia, founded by Jesuit Fathers in 1733. The church is a National Shrine of Religious Freedom because it was, at one time, the only site where the Catholic Latin Mass could be publicly celebrated in all of the British Empire (obviously when Pennsylvania was still a British colony)..

The Episcopal Diocese informed Father Horack that the organ would not be dismantled and sold off in pieces if Old St. Joseph's would agree to move, refurbish and use it for religious services. Father Horack, who is now the pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, D.C., accepted the free gift. The project was continued and brought to a successful conclusion through the efforts of Father Horack's successor at Old St. Joseph's, Father Daniel Ruff, S.J., and Norman Gouin, the parish's director of music. The first stage of the organ's restoration was overseen by C.M. Walsh Pipe Organs in Collingdale; the project was completed by Emery Brothers of Allentown.

Old St. Joseph's Church will bless and dedicate the newly restored pipe organ, which once served the Germantown community for 84 years, with a recital Sunday, Sept. 9, at 3 p.m. Andrew Senn, the organist and music director of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, 21st and Walnut Streets, will be the soloist in a program that includes his own transcription of Rossini's Overture to "Il Turco in Italia," J.S. Bach's Prelude & Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552, Percy Whitlock's Folk Tune and Andante Tranquilo from "Five Short Pieces," Franck's "Chorale No. 1 in E major" and "Les Cloches de Hinckley" by Vierne. Senn is an alumnus of Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music and has been the organist & music director at First Presbyterian since 2006. Previously, he was organist and music director at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Germantown.

Old St. Joseph's Catholic Church is located at 321 Willings Alley (near the intersection of 4th and Walnut Streets) in Society Hill. For more information, call 215-923-1733.

http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/2012/09/12/happy-ending-1923-pipe-organ-gtown-church/

QuoteHappy ending for 1923 pipe organ from G'town church

Local Life September 12, 2012 0 Comments and 1 Reaction

by Michael Caruso

The journey that began in sadness five years ago for the 1923 E.M. Skinner Opus 407 pipe organ came to a happy conclusion Sunday, Sept. 9. The exquisite gem of an instrument that started its life of service to the faithful at the now-shuttered St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Germantown was officially given a second life of making music for the parishioners of Old St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Society Hill with a service of blessing and dedication.

'AFFAIR' THIS SATURDAY: The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion at 200 W. Tulpehocken St. is hosting The Magnificent Maxwell Affair on Saturday, Sept. 15, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Oaks Cloister, 5829 Wissahickon Ave. in Germantown. The privately owned Oaks, with ballroom, ratskeller, large adjacent studio, carriage house, sculpture garden and more, has been lovingly restored. The "Affair" will include music, a silent auction, food, wine, etc. Valet parking provided. More information at 215-438-1861 or www.ebenezermaxwellmansion,org

The solo organ recital was performed by Andrew Senn. The Curtis Institute of Music alumnus previously was organist and music director of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Germantown; he now occupies the same position at the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Senn opened the program with his own transcription of Rossini's Overture to his opera, "The Turk in Italy." J.S. Bach's "Prelude & Fugue in E-flat major" followed. Senn then played the Folk Tune and Andante Tranquilo movements from Percy Whitlock's "Five Short Pieces," Franck's "Choral No. 1 in E major" and closed with Vierne's "Les Cloches de Hinckley."

Pipe organs are always designed to fit into a specific space and to support a specific liturgy. In the case of Skinner's Opus 407, the architectural setting was in the Victorian Gothic Revival of the second half of the 19th century; the liturgical practice was the "low church," Protestant-leaning worship style of many if not most Episcopal congregations at the time in the U.S. Although Old St. Joseph's Church is the oldest parish in Philadelphia, its current church is the third structure built on the site. Styled in the Greek Revival fashion of the early 19th century, it was consecrated in 1837. Gothic Revival churches tend toward both visual and acoustical darkness whereas Greek Revival churches tend to be bright and open in look and sound.

Old St. Joseph's boasts among the best acoustics in Philadelphia: opulently resonant without too much reverberation. It would, therefore, be a venue in which the Skinner would be able to speak with a more forward sonic projection. One would assume that its tones would be more crisply delivered, and its colors would be more sharply delineated. And this was definitely the case Sunday afternoon for an audience that nearly filled the church's intimate space.

HOT MUSIC FRIDAY: Hot Club of Philadelphia, an acoustic jazz quartet dedicated to the music of legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt, was a big hit when they played Pastorius Park on July 25 as part of the annual summertime Pastorius Park Concert Series presented by the Chestnut Hill Community Association. This Friday, Sept. 14, 9 p.m., they will play at the Mermaid Inn, Winston Rd. & Germantown Ave. More information at www.hotclubphilly.com

Senn accompanied the full-throated singing of the hymns by the congregation with style and panache, and the Skinner served him superbly. He was equally proficient accompanying the parish's Schola Cantorum (an all-volunteer choir drawn from parishioners conducted by the church's music director, Norman Gouin) in Benjamin Britten's "Festival Te Deum." The Schola also gave a lovely rendition of Pitoni's unaccompanied "Cantate Domino."

Senn's transcription of the Rossini may have been an odd choice with which to open an organ recital following a religious service, but it did show off the instrument's symphonic concept. One did, indeed, hear the various choirs of an opera orchestra preparing its audience for a delightful music comedy. The Skinner worked less well in the Bach. It reminded me of a pianist playing a Prelude & Fugue from the Well-Tempered Klavier (meant by Bach for the harpsichord) with the damper pedal held down too long.


Eric
KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."