 |
excerpted and updated from by George Hafemann On August 12, 1896, New York's Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan dedicated the new diocesan seminary at Dunwoodie, named after St. Joseph, as its two predecessors had been. Among its many fine appointments was a splendid new organ, the first of three instruments that would successively reside high in the east gallery of the chapel of Saints Peter and Paul. The first organ was built by the venerable firm of John Henry and Caleb Sherwood Odell, founded in 1859. At the time, the company was quartered on West 42d Street in Manhattan. Later they would move to Yonkers, where they would continue to craft fine instruments until 1980 (many original Odells are still in existence). The century-old language illuminating the key features of the organ and spelled out in the contract signed by Odell and the "Most Reverend M. A. Corrigan" on the last day of November, 1895, testifies to the care involved in the instrument's construction: The bellows were to be large enough to "supply the fullest legitimate demand" of wind; the feeders could be operated by a motor, or by "a fly-wheel for hand blowing." The windchests were designed so that the smaller treble pipes would not be "robbed" of wind by the bigger basses. The action, which Odell had developed and patented, was designed to "ensure an absolutely prompt and light touch throughout, of the utmost simplicity and reliability." The console was "so arranged as to give the greatest facility to the player." The scaling of each stop was "to be in accordance with the best standards, and such as only adopted in strictly high-grade instruments." This instrument was built at an agreed-upon cost of $3,600 and delivered in the early summer of 1896. The Odell served the seminary well during the early part of the new century. By the late 1930s, however, the seminary's financial situation was such that the maintenance of the organ could not be kept up. In 1942, Francis Cardinal Spellman, then New York's archbishop for three years, moved quickly on a frugal but workable proposal, taking the war effort into account. The Atlas Organ Company, a small Bronx repair firm on Bronx River Road near 240th Street, still had in its shop an instrument that would do. It was probably originally a Möller organ, two manuals and pedal, of eight or nine ranks extended to about fifteen stops, with electro-pneumatic action. This organ served the seminary through the war years and beyond, but by the mid-1950s it was in bad condition, and the Odells, who serviced it, advised that something be done fairly soon. In 1947 Msgr. Richard B. Curtin, '42, recently appointed director of music at the seminary, was appointed to head the archdiocesan Commission on Church Music. This brought him into contact with many organ builders, including the respected Canadian firm of Casavant Frères. It would have been impractical to undertake repairs to the 1942 instrument, so Msgr. Curtin suggested that an entirely new organ be built for the seminary. Casavant offered to build an instrument of forty-one ranks, spread across three manuals and a pedal, for a price under thirty-five thousand dollars. With the approval of Msgr. Francis Reh, then rector, a contract was signed, and the new organ was scheduled for delivery in 1960. Documents issued as a result of the Second Vatican Council mandated an evolutionary experiment: to occupy the front of the chapel, a second console was borrowed from the old Kilgen organ (which itself was in the process of retirement) at the St. Joseph's Normal Institute, the novitiate of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in upstate Barrytown. The Kilgen console was brought to Dunwoodie and wired into the organ. The result was successful enough that Msgr. Curtin, using funds raised from recordings of the seminary choir, contracted the Delaware Organ company to build a permanent console, which was installed on the north side of the sanctuary. The organ had served admirably for more than two decades when the chapel was restored in 1983 under the guidance of Terence Cardinal Cooke. The Delaware console was relocated to the south side of the chapel in a space formerly occupied by six choir stalls. Throughout the late 1980s periodic maintenance was done on the organ, including the releathering of reservoirs, and the replacement of the original swell shade motor and tremulant. In 1986, Fr. Anthony D. Sorgie, '82, was appointed Director of Music, filling the position that Msgr. Curtin had left some twenty years before. During his tenure, the instrument has enjoyed a wide audience through the annual Advent-Christmas Concert. The organ has also been played in recital by a number of well-known concert organists, Marsha Heather Long, Robert MacDonald and Gail Archer among them. It may also be heard on the three compact disc recordings issued by St. Joseph's Seminary: the 1993 Advent-Christmas Concert, and the two volumes which comprise "A Jubileeof Sacred Music": A Treasury of Sacred Music (1996) and A Treasury of Sacred Music Volume II (1999). By the early 1990s, the organ had once more begun to exhibit signs of its age. The reed stops suffered from tuning instabilities, and the frequent mechanical repairs began to add up. The chancel console, in almost three decades of regular service, was plagued with a failing combination action. Since the seminary would be celebrating its centennial in 1996, it was determined that a restoration of the organ would be one of the projects undertaken in anticipation of this milestone. On June 21, 1995, a contract was signed between St. Joseph's Seminary and Casavant Frères. The complete project, including a new three-manual console in the chancel, cost $128,115. The funds for this endeavor were raised through the "Organ Restoration Program," which received well over four hundred gifts of all sizes in the space of four months. The organ was re-dedicated on December 14,1996, by Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, then rector of Dunwoodie. Mr. Donald Dumler, principal organist at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, played a program including works by Bach, Dupre, and Edmundson. Following the completion of the major restorative work, the entire organ was releathered over the course of a year, beginning in the spring of 1998. More recent work has included the replacement of the leather hinges on the reservoirs, which contain and pressurize the wind for each division of the organ. All of the work has been performed under the supervision of Mr. Donald R. Dulaney, regional representative of Casavent Frères and curator of the seminary organ since 1995. While the Casavant renders organ literature of all schools with a certain authenticity, perhaps its greatest claim to fame will remain its service, day in and day out, to the spiritual, liturgical, and musical formation of the seminarians. For almost forty years, this instrument has led the community in praising God through song, a duty which it will continue faithfully in Dunwoodie's second century of service to the Church. |
