Organ-ic Discovery

Last week I received a call from a guy in the area who belongs to the Organ Historical Society. He wanted to look at our organ with another guy coming in from Philadelphia. The guy from around here has seen our organ before, and they're considering including our organ in their annual convention in 2010 (it'll be in Pittsburgh).

One of the first things I learned when I was appointed here was that the organ was donated in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie hated organized religion (it was dull, hypocritical, and divisive, in his opinion), but he absolutely LOVED the sound of pipe organs. He had organs and full-time organist in all his homes, and he donated hundreds of organs to churches across the country. When asked why he donated organs to the churches he hated, Carnegie replied, "To lesson the pain of sermons."

What I didn't know about our organ until last week is that the Organ Historical Society thinks it's the last surviving organ of its kind, an Austin tubular-pneumatic. Jim, the guy who called me, considers it "a real gem." I think he's worried we're going to rebuild it or replace it at some point. Not while I'm around, we won't.

So we'll be getting a visit in a couple weeks from these organ guys. I don't know much about organs except that I love the sound of them, but I'm looking forward to their visit so I can learn more about these wonderful instruments.

For more information about the Organ Historical Society, visit organsociety.org.