PAST PROJECT
Blessed Seelos Catholic Church Organ
New Orleans
In 2003, the Blessed Seelos parish suffered a major loss when their sanctuary caught fire and the inside of the building was badly burned, setting the pipe organ in the balcony on fire and completely destroying it. While the structural integrity of the building was preserved, the building had to be brought up to code in so many respects that all insurance monies were spent making the building habitable and no money was left for a replacement organ. The original organ was a Pilcher (1868) and the organ that was destroyed was a Wicks (1951).
In 2005, Katrina struck and nearly destroyed the church's parish hall but did not damage the sanctuary. Rita followed with an additional round of water, and the outlook for the parish was dim. A group of four churches in the Seattle area (Madrona Presbyterian Church, Seattle Community Church, University Presbyterian Church, Mercer Island Presbyterian Church) got together determined to make a difference for the Blessed Seelos parish. They sent down a series of crews and completely rebuilt the parish hall in 2006 but did not work in the sanctuary. In November, 2006, the sanctuary was again habitable, but there was no organ. They are currently using an electronic keyboard.
The members of the Blessed Seelos parish are ethnically diverse and they are not wealthy. 40% of the congregation is hearing impaired, and many of these people are entirely deaf. Every service and committee meetings are signed. Here is a link to the history and photos of the Blessed Seelos parish.
In response to the need, the Board of Directors of the Pipe Organ Foundation agreed to provide the church a pipe organ at no cost to the church. The organ will be significantly larger than the previous organ which burned, and it has been designed tonally to meet the needs of hearing impaired persons. The design of the organ was by James Stettner of Stettner Pipe Organs in Seattle. The organ is a combination of two Moller organs from the 1920s and it is being rebuilt by our volunteer labor. Installation of the organ will occur the first half of June, 2008. Here is a link to a detailed accounting of the sources for the parts are of this organ and their history.
The electronic switching and driving mechanisms are from the Syndyne Corporation of Vancouver WA, and they provide multiple memory levels for the combination action, a transposer, Auto Pedal by which pedal stops can be played on the Great manual, and other advanced features which will make the organ highly usable to the Blessed Seelos parish. The tonal resources and specifications for the instrument are as follows:
BLESSED SEELOS PIPE ORGAN TONAL RESOURCES Great (unexpressive; 4 ranks+ chimes;
256 pipes, 20 tubes) Swell (expressive; 7 ranks; 472 pipes) Pedal (unexpressive; 2 ranks; 88 pipes) TOTALS: 13 ranks of pipes, 816 pipes, 20 tubes
The following is the final list of stop
tablets (46 total): Swell (15 stop tablets) Pedal (14 stop tablets) |
