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New pipe organ offers inspiration to Greeley church

Started by KB7DQH, August 02, 2011, 05:22:01 PM

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KB7DQH

 :)http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20110801/NEWS/708019953/1002&parentprofile=1001

Greeley, Colorado...

QuoteThere is a tension among those in a church when it builds something for itself.

"You are always asking, 'What do you spend out there, and what do you spend on yourself?' " said Nate Miller, the minister of the First Congregational Church of Greeley.

Miller knows that despite the excitement oozing from his congregation, some may see the church's new, gleaming, half-million dollar pipe organ as a sign of opulence, a church's celebration of itself. Miller believes the opposite.

It is called an organ for a reason, he said.

The church's first organ was built in 1907, and church members knew it needed an overhaul way back in 2004. Experts told them they could spend $250,000 on it and no one would know the difference. Or they could double the cost and build something that filled the room rather than tickled it.

The first organ had history to it. It was donated by Mrs. Benjamin Eaton. THE Eaton. But by the time it reached the church's current location, at 2101 16th St., it wasn't built for a large sanctuary. Kim Pace, the church organist, said it had a sweet little sound. But Bach didn't write for sweet little sounds.

Dorothy Elder, the coordinator of the church's children's choir, became the project's lead cheerleader, in her words. She led a year of research and traveled to other parts to listen to organs. Early on, they decided they didn't want a digital organ. That organ, she said, plays a digital recording of a sound.

"We wanted a living, breathing organ to lead us in a living, breathing worship," Elder said.

She wanted an organ to accompany singing, a mellow sound that could also fill the room. She wanted something else too.

"There's a power that a full organ can give," she said, "that invokes God himself."

They signed a contract in 2007, then signed another last year with Quimby Pipe Organs in Warrensburg, Mo., once the economy allowed it again. Quimby workers spent almost the whole summer installing it. There were parts in boxes swallowing space, the way Legos can overtake a child's bedroom. There are more than 2,300 pipes. It took a month just to put the guts together, and just a couple weeks ago, a dozen big, grunting pipes were installed. It took five grunting volunteers just to move one of the boxes out of the refrigerated semi-trailers. It was supposed to be finished this weekend, but this is a breathing instrument, and it takes time to work out the kinks. It takes nine months, after all, for a baby to develop its lungs.

After years of planning, Elder now preaches patience. Usually.

"I'm just so excited," she said as she slapped her hips and danced around.

The church tore out its carpet to improve the acoustics, because, as workers from Quimby told her, an organ is only as good as the room in which it sings.

This organ didn't come from a single gift by an Eaton resident but from donations of 150 families to pay the $515,000 tab. The first organ cost $3,340. Inflation is a beast.

The construction of the organ, as you've probably already guessed, is an event itself. Quimby only builds four or so a year. Plans were drawn up years ago. Yet the company still works on the fly, too, to fit it in the sanctuary.

Pace is as eager as Elder. Musicians sometimes refer to sounds as colors, and the old organ was a single crayon. The new one is a box of 128. Pace, who has a piano and organ performance degree but didn't pursue a career in music, couldn't play much of the organ repertoire on the old one because it couldn't hack it. She's emailed Elder constantly when she's been away and has spent hours helping the crew fine-tune it.

Pace has already pulled out Bach, of course, but she wants to get other groups involved, from orchestras to jazz bands, to play that music, as well. She hopes to share it with performance students. It's too great, she said, to keep it to themselves.

"I think the words spoken in church feed our mind and the deeds feed our community," Pace said, "but the arts feed our soul."

This is why they call it an organ, Miller said. Its music, along with the choirs, beat as the heart of a church.

"It's all a part of our mission," Miller said. "If quality music will inspire folks to get out there and, you know, feed the hungry, then everyone wins."

It should be finished by the middle of August, though the only real deadline is Sept. 11, when the church plans to dedicate it. There's no hurry. It needs to be perfect. And then, they can hope for inspiration, for that moment when choirs and the organ fill the room, and rather than opulence, their congregation hears angels.

Contact staff writer Dan England at (970) 392-4418 or dengland@greeleytribune.com.
Dedication
The First Congregational Church, 2101 16th St. in Greeley, is scheduled to dedicate the new organ at its 10:30 a.m. service on Sept. 11. The service is open to the public.


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."

diapason

What a great report!  The language is, to an English ear, very much more' forceful' than we would expect from an English newspaper, but that adds to the excitement of the article (I'm wearing my media hat now  ;) ).  The phrase which really sums it up for me is "There's a power that a full organ can give," she said, "that invokes God himself."
Let's see that engraved in every organ loft!

Nigel

KB7DQH

The reporter did an excellent job here of transmitting the enthusiasm  and excitement of the persons involved in this project to the reader and thus makes the reader as enthusiastic and excited... 

The other statement that should be borne to mind by those considering or embarking on similar projects:

Quote
Pace has already pulled out Bach, of course, but she wants to get other groups involved, from orchestras to jazz bands, to play that music, as well. She hopes to share it with performance students. It's too great, she said, to keep it to themselves

(or for those already in care of a pipe instrument for that matter 8)

What we lack is a companion article which would tell the story of what will happen with the 1907
instrument...  Could another "worship space" sized appropriately for the "old" pipe organ receive it, restore it, and keep it playing, where it too could "invoke God himself ???

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."

AnOrganCornucopia

Bach didn't write for sweet little sounds? Well I guess he didn't write a whole bunch of trio sonatas and chorale preludes then...