Andrew Carnegie...

[KB7DQH]

From the following...

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3153189

The story of Andrew Carnegie needs no introduction. A Scottish immigrant to the United States, he built the US Steel empire in the latter part of the 19th century.

His personal philosophy was to spend the first third of one's life getting all the education one can, to spend the next third making all the money one can and to spend the last third giving it all away to worthwhile causes.

Carnegie did all three. In the last third of his life he gave away more than $4.3 billion (in 2010 dollars) to artistic, educational and cultural endeavours including the funding of 4,000 public libraries. The Owen Sound library was one.

Less well known was Carnegie's patronage of the pipe organ. While Carnegie Hall in New York is well known, it is less recognized that Carnegie help fund the purchase of 7,689 organs, of which 4,092 are in the United States.

What is not recognized is that the Carnegie Fund, however, only shared in the building of 124 organs in Canada and just 86 in Ontario.

The organ in Central Westside is one of those 86 in this province. Although it has been expanded over the years, many of the original parts and pipes are still present.

The Carnegie gift was based on a matching grant system. Carnegie offered to match, dollar for dollar up to $5,000 (equal to $100,000 today), that the Westside Methodist Church raised for the organ. They were successful.

The program of assistance to the arts and churches and community organs ended with Carnegie's death in 1919, but the principles involved in this donation are significant and worth considering.

According to documents of the Carnegie Fund on the Internet "The pastors of the churches visited were questioned closely as to the effect produced upon the contributions of the members by a gift as large as that made by the Corporation. The unanimous declaration was made that it had been a stimulus to individual giving and in many instances illustrative figures were presented to show that the benefactions of the church had been doubled since the installation of the organ. A part of such increase was usually ascribed to the larger congregations attracted by the better music."

In other words, better music meant better congregations and larger giving. The report went on: "In no instance was it acknowledged that the gift had had a pauperizing influence. On the contrary, it was frequently asserted that the application for assistance had not been made until the church had made a strenuous effort to buy an organ and had failed and then when it was learned that by raising one-half the required amount the Corporation would contribute an equal sum, new life was given to church workers. Their success afforded a proof of their giving potentiality and set a standard which the pastor cited in all subsequent appeals for contributions."

The Carnegie gift energized giving and made better things possible.

"It was gratifying to receive the assurance in every single instance that the organ was in use at every service. The only exception was that in some of the Southern cities where the heat made it necessary to hold services in the basement during two months of summer."

In other words, the organs were used and used well.

The conclusions of the report are even more interesting.

"The investigator summarized his conclusions as follows:

"1. Churches are contributing instrumentalities in the social and cultural advancement of a community -- the aggregate of communities make the Nation.

"2. The efficiency of the services of a church is augmented by the use of a pipe organ, hence, through the church, the organ indirectly contributes to the social and cultural advancement of the community.

"3. Directly, the organ when used in recitals and by students of music, renders an important cultural service."

I figured this would be a nice hot-burning log I could throw on the fire of pipe organ enthusiasm...

Eric
KB7DQH

[Barrie Davis]

Just out of interest the organ at Holy Trinity Coalbrookdale was rebult by Harrison and Harrison by a grant from the Carneige Trust in 1907.

Barrie

[KB7DQH]

And a follow-up article...

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3166112

He wondered "how many other Carnegie organs are in Grey and Bruce counties?"

As a start to answering his query, there is at least one: the pipe organ at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Wiarton.

This organ at St. Paul's was built and installed by Breckels & Matthews of Toronto in 1906.

At that time, it cost $1,500; $750 of which was covered by a Carnegie grant.

Like the organ at Central Westside it has been in regular use at worship services and lovingly maintained by the congregation ever since.

St. Paul's organ has two manuals, 16 stops and couplers, 515 pipes and, unlike many older pipe organs, has been maintained in its original condition. It features the original tubular pneumatic action and cone tuning and the pipes on the façade feature their original hand-painted decoration.

The only change made over the last 100 years was the addition of an electric blower mid last century. The organ was originally run by a hand-operated bellows.

The hand bellows, however, still exists in working condition behind the choir loft.

The organ at St. Paul's was recently recognized as "an instrument of historic merit" and awarded historic organ citations by both the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Organ Historical Society in the United States.

Sandy Richardson Wiarton

Eric
KB7DQH