Apr. 17, 2016

Rebuilding, Part I

Photo shows the console of the historic Kimball pipe organ of Scottish Rite Cathedral, Saint Louis, Missouri [ See menu bar, Photo Album I }.
This is an

Photo shows the console of the historic Kimball pipe organ of Scottish Rite Cathedral, Saint Louis, Missouri [ See menu bar, Photo Album I }.
This is an "8-foot organ" [See blog, Borrowing And Unification], an instrument of over 3,500 pipes, and not just pipes, but a myriad of other mechanical parts that wear over time and require periodic maintenance and rebuilding.
Sitting at an instrument like this, with this much tonal spread, beauty, and sheer, thrilling power at your command, you get the sense that playing an organ isn't merely an esthetic experience; it isn't just something you do because you like it, but it's attached to something sublime, something profound.
It's something that can open the gates of heaven before any and all listeners ... those who have an open heart.
Restoration of these instruments isn't merely a matter of giving to a noble project for that space exclusively, but it's something more broad than that.
It's supporting great organ music which spans hundreds of years, and this music will be heard by countless numbers of people, indefinitely into the future.
(con't in Part II)

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