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First Presbyterian dedicates organ |
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Tuesday, 11 December 2007 |
 A Friday night event introduced community residents to the 1884 Jardine pipe organ recently installed at First Presbyterian Church in Benton.
“This organ came from upstate New York,” said Doyle Webb, a church elder who was instrumental in acquiring the instrument. “Everyone should come by and hear this amazing instrument ... It sounds like an orchestra. It is pretty remarkable.”
The organ was built in New York City in 1884 by George Jardine and Sons and had been in use until 1979 when an organ clearing house in New York assumed ownership of the instrument. The organ has around 600 pipes, made of both wood and metal, and the tallest pipe stands at 18 feet off the floor.
Webb said the organ clearing house approved the Benton church receiving the instrument after the church submitted an application and a history of the local congregation.
“A former music director of the church told us about the organ clearing house,” said Webb. “ We sent in an application and it was approved ... so now we have this beautiful organ in our church.”
After the clearing house approved the application, the organ was sent to Erie, Pa., to be refurbished. Webb said it cost around $90,000 to bring the organ into working condition. After the refurbishing work, it was shipped to the Benton church, where it was installed by Gary Coleman of Benton. Webb said that it took about four weeks for Coleman’s work to be completed.
The organ was left in its original form, including the original stenciling on the pipes. The only addition was changing the manual wind source to an electrical source.
In conjunction with the dedication, Mary Mozelle, associate organist of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.,conducted a narrated musical program titled “The Sights and Sounds of the Pipe Organ.” In her presentation, Mozelle explained the need for the electrical modifications.
“In the past it used to take 9 to 10 or more strong men to make a wind source for the pipe organ,” Mozelle said. “But with the addition of electricity in modern times, an electrical system can do that same job.”
Mozelle is affiliated with Concert Artists Cooperative and performs regularly as a keyboard artist, both as a solo recitalist and with orchestra. As a solo artist, she has appeared throughout the United States and in Great Britain.
“The Sights and Sounds of the Pipe Organ” in Benton marked the 14th performance of the program by Mozelle and will be presented as a workshop at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in June 2008 in Minnesota.
Before Mozelle played selections from G. F. Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Pachaebel and others, she talked about the history of the organ and shared specific information about the 1884 Jardine pipe organ.
“The pipe organ is the king of instruments,” Mozelle said. “It is the oldest keyboard and dates back about 2,000 years. There are nine ranks on this organ ... Each rank is a row of pipes for each key and there are about 600 pipes altogether on this organ.”
Mozelle explained how each pipe has its own unique sound. The larger the pipe, the lower the note will be, she said. And the smaller the pipe, the higher the note will be.
During a reception following Mozelle’s presentation, attendees were given the opportunity to view the organ, from the front and back. They also viewed examples of the pipes inside the organ.
Before the concert, several key people in Saline County and New York were thanked for their efforts in bringing the 123-year-old organ to the church including: members of the First Presbyterian Church, Berry Beard, Gary Coleman, Richard Galbraith, Organ Clearing House, Jane Jessup Mayer, Ron and Brenda Sasfai, Dr. Kathleen Scheide, The Stewart Trust, D.L. Webb, Doyle Webb, the 2005 Worship Committee, the church choir, and Rae Ann Fields, who chaired the Worship Committee in 2005.
“I hope everyone can come by and see this organ,” Webb said. “It is like going back in time. It is like a beautiful piece of furniture that makes beautiful music. It is just a grand thing to see.”
First Presbyterian Church is at 501 N, East St. in Benton. Information about the organ is available by calling the church office at 315-7737. |
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