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.