Christmas at Saint Mary in Fredericksburg

It's been some time since my last post. Thanksgiving Day, the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Sundays of Advent, the Rite of Acceptance of our inquirers in the Order of Catechumens, a number of funerals and weddings and of course Christmas (11 Masses in less than 24 hours) have been celebrated with our new organ!  The instrument is truly a joy to play. In particular, the diapasons and strings especially are so vivid and full of energy. The reeds (all nine of them) are just grand and the flutes are truly 'magical'. I would like to think that Henry 'Father' Willis would be very pleased with what we have done: a huge palate of color, especially genuine 8 and 4 foot color designed to support every moment of liturgical worship. 


Of particular interest over the past month has been the weddings and funerals. The average Sunday Mass is attended by over 600, and while the organ fully serves a packed church, the challenge of playing hymns effectively for a funeral attended by 50 is just as easily met by this organ. Even at the reduced volume level necessitated by a small congregation, there is a fantastic variety of registration possible. 


Here are some photos I took on December 26 in the mid-afternoon with most of the lights outs. The main light was from the drearily clouded skies that day (we had an on-again - off-again snow "event" (as they say nowadays)).

New Altar Dedicated - Organ Played for the First Time

On Monday, November 22, our bishop presided at a Mass to dedicate our new altar and rededicate our church, following its extensive renovation. The evening before, we celebrated First Vespers for the Dedication of a Church. Our Youth Choir formed the schola for the liturgy, leading psalms and antiphons, and the organ was heard publicly for the first time. The prelude was Bach's famous and lovely Schmucke dich, showing off the organ's gorgeous swell diapason in the chorale melody.


There are photos of both liturgies and I'll get them up as soon as I can. We're all still catching our breath after these major events. The dedication Mass lasted 2 1/2 hours (which is normal for a Roman Catholic liturgy of this type.)

Ready to Play

This week saw the conclusion of installation, and we are ready to play the organ starting this Sunday evening at a special Solemn Vespers celebrating the dedication of our new stone altar and the re-dedication of our church. On Monday evening our bishop will preside at the Mass of Dedication. 


The end of the week was bitter-sweet as we looked forward to the use of this incredible instrument but also realized we were soon to say goodbye to the amazing experience of installing such an organ, as well as goodbye, for now, to some new dear friends, Mary-William, Kathy, Bill, Debi, Pat, Steve, and Chuck. They all were the hardest working people in Fredericksburg for the past ten weeks. In any major installation there will be challenges provided by the instrument and/or the site, and our friends from COCA/Robert William Wallace Pipes Organs adapted to/rolled with/patiently endured all of them. Our parish is so grateful for what they have done for us and for their continual warmth and good cheer.


Here are photos from the past week. 

The cover has been put on the
relay cabinet, always a good sign.

In the forground is the main static reservoir. The main windline
 enters beneath it through the floor. Behind it on the right is the
 booster blower for the Pontifical Tuba; on the left is its regulator/
reservoir. We're blowing the Tuba at 18" now and it sounds great!

The view out the Great early Thursday evening.

On the last day, with twilight falling, Debi, Bill and
Mary-William contemplate voicing the bass
octave of the Dulciana. Pat and I helped too. Bill
worked on the pipes while we were his extra hands
with the fragile, slender pipes. Mark was at the console
downstairs. We did in 20 minutes what would have
taken an hour without the extra helpers.
It was one of those magic moments. 

Pipes in the Choir

Here are some photos I took of the pipe work in the choir division. 

The boots of the Pontifical Tuba.  Note the tiny treble pipes.

The bells of the Pontifical Tuba.

This is the Bois Celeste; it goes with the Chant Flute.

The Oboe Horn (capped, conical pipes)
and the Clarinet (cylindrical pipes).

The Oboe Horn and the Clarinet again.

The Chant Flute, one of our vintage ranks. The large
pipes in the background are the Violin Diapason.
Also visible is the Octave and Viole. In the foreground
 are some of the Viole Celeste pipes. 

The Pontifical Tuba ominously looking through the inner swell shades.

Final Delivery

On Wednesday, with the entire Robert William Wallace install team back on site, the final delivery arrived. Work began immediately and in a few hours the remaining choir division chests were in place for wiring and winding, and the English Horn and the 5 rank Swell Mixture were put in. At the same time preparations began to mount the facade pipes. By Thursday the special toe-boards were in place as well as the offset wind chests that supply the wind, through hoses, to those toe-boards. On Friday, up went the 23 of the 25 facade pipes. The remaining 5 will be mounted after we no longer need to access the organ through the front. That will be a sad day, for the hatch in the organ floor is not a lot of fun. 


Meanwhile, when it was quiet enough, tonal finishing continued with work on the Salicional and the Horn Diapason (Swell) and the Violoncello (Great), among others. I'm anxious to hear the stops of the Choir division, especially the Magic Flute, the Viole and its Celeste, the Clarinet and, of course, the Pontifical Tuba. Actually, we have heard the bass C of the Tuba, as the chest is running. The rest of the pipes probably won't go in until all winding and wiring is complete.

Tonal Finishing

Tonal finishing began this week as Bill Hamner and Mark Scholtz worked through the flue work of the Great. One of this week's goals was to fully realize the envisioned relationship between the 1st and the 2nd Diapason. Their relative positioning in the chamber, as well as the fact that the 1st diapason (of larger scale than the 2nd) is one of the vintage ranks (c. 1960) we had refurbished, meant the pipes needed some tweaking now that they can be heard in the acoustics they now call home. Below, Mark (in red) and Bill work on pipes mounted on a voicing machine, basically a small organ arranged so the voicer can conveniently work on the pipes.

The Team

Here's a photo of members of the Robert William Wallace Pipe Organs install team toward the end of a week of excellent work. On Monday Mark Scholtz and Bill Hamner will start tonal finishing of the Great, Swell and Pedal. Those divisions are running and have been tuned several times as well as had some voicing work. 


We have most of the Choir chests set up, winded and wired. Around Nov. 10 we'll get the Choir finished and put in the pipes, including the big Tuba. When that's done we'll put in the facade pipes. There are 28 of them and the will stand on four separate toe boards mounted in the top of the cabinets in the sanctuary (altar area) below the organ.  They will be winded from two offset chests in the Great chamber. Hoses, one for each pipe, will run from the offsets to the toe boards below. That will be an exciting day! 

New Photos of Facade Pipes



Here are the latest photos of the facade pipes. In the top photo, the lower four are Diapasons and the upper one is a Dulciana.



Great and Swell Complete

This week we got the swell completed, including getting both sets of shades operating. Chuck and Mark got the pipes tuned up and did some regulating as well. There are four 8' reeds: Oboe, Waldhorn, Cornopean and Vox Humana. The oboe is particularly fine, broad enough for a chorus reed, and transparent enough to serve (at 4') for a clarion. The Cornopean, on many instruments seeming a dull trumpet, is fiery - especially so next to the warm and tastefully woolly Waldhorn. The strings are amazing - independent 8' and 4' each with a celeste - and (hold onto your sox) a String Mixture derived from the 8' (Salicional). Despite the great Audsley's endorsement of such things, I was a honestly a little skeptical of derived mixtures, but it sounds great and is just right as a crown on the string chorus. Throw in the Vox, get the trem going and shut the inner shades and now you're cookin (though maybe not for your average Sunday Mass!!) We will also have a derived mixture on the Great, from the Dulciana, and I'm quite interested to hear that. I'll talk about the Swell flutes including the fabulous 4' Harmonic Fl. in a later installment.

As for the Great, the swell shades for the enclosed Great were installed - they are 8' tall and 16' wide! The louvres are 2 3/4 inches thick. Today we loaded in the remaining pipes for the Great but weren't able to hear them - work on the main windline from the blower prevented us from turning on the wind. I had the privilege standing on the ladder passing the pipes up. 


Let me remark briefly about the regulating: the pipework from A. R. Schopp is remarkably fine, consistent from top to bottom and very well voiced already. Tonal finishing will be a joy!


Here are some photos. You'll see our statuary is now all in.

Mary William Baine working in the enclosed Great
in front of the Trombone and Violone pipes.
Several of the 1st Open Diapason pipes are to her left.



The 2nd Diapason and the Octave on the Great.



Looking into the enclosed Great. The wooden pipes
on the right are from the Major Bass. Behind the
shades are pipes of the First Open Diapason.

Pipes in the enclosed Great.

The bottom notes of the Violone - note the beards,
wooden cylinders painted black, in front of the mouths.

In the Swell, the Vox Humana, with the Oboe
to the left and the Salicional to the right.

The 4' Harmonic Flute in the Swell. Note the holes drilled in the
pipes to make them overblow at the octave (hence the name Harmonic).

The Harmonic Flute and the Stopped Diapason (Swell).

More pipes!

Here's me handing a pipe up to Debi Lee.

Our new crucifix group, sculpted by Thomas Marsh.
The noonday light coming through the stained glass
 was too complicated for my cellphone camera to make
 sense of. That's Saint Michael in the background.

Oh, my goodness, that sounds good!!!

The console got hooked up today and we got to play the 16'/8' Waldhorn and the 16' Major Bass (large scale wood). One cannot put into words how great it sounded!! The room is working great too. Hopefully tomorrow we get the rest of the Swell reeds and the Great tromba.

Some more photos

The the Great, Swell, and Pedal are all wired and winded, and the inner shades of the Swell have been installed. While the installation team takes a few well deserved days off, here are a some more photos taken over the past few weeks. 

Chuck setting in an Oboe pipe. Notice
the stubby gray Vox Humana pipes.

The rear swell shades of the Swell division.

The main (12") windline coming from the
blower through our mechanical room. 

Refurbished Bourdons showing their elegant new wooden hooks.