St. Patrick – St. Anthony Church is the proud home of two pipe organs, which are prominently featured in our vibrant music ministry. Read more about the organs and the story of how we added a second organ in 2020-2021.
This recording of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is from our Organ Blessing Concert from October of 2021, featuring Dr. Gabriel Löfvall on the Austin Organ, and Dr. Ezequiel Menéndez on the Schantz Organ.
Want to hear more from our Organ Blessing Concert? Here’s the link to the entire evening!
Austin Organs, Inc., Opus 2091
In 1951, Austin Organs, Inc. of Hartford installed an organ in the rear gallery consisting of two manuals (keyboards) and 21 ranks of pipes. A devastating fire on December 30, 1956 damaged the organ considerably, and it was rebuilt by Austin in 1957. At the time, the Great Principal Chorus (the metal pipes seen in the central section of the organ), was reduced in scale echoing tonal trends of the day. In later years, acoustical renovation of the building gave the organ a somewhat forced and unpleasant quality. To remedy this, in 1997 Austin undertook an extensive revoicing program which greatly improved the sound of the organ to make it more versatile. Indeed, for a rather small instrument of just 21 ranks, it is capable of filling a large space with a grand sound, making it seem much bigger than it actually is.
Schantz Organ Company, Opus 1437
A glance at a post on Facebook in September 2020 was the spark that brought us to this evening’s blessing of our new chancel organ. The newly appointed Pastor, Fr. Tim Shreenan, happened to notice that a pipe organ located in Avon, Connecticut was available to whomever wanted it. He immediately contacted Gabriel Löfvall to see if this might be a viable option for the parish. Gabriel responded enthusiastically, saying that he always hoped to find a suitable organ that could be located behind the reredos at the opposite end of the church from the Austin organ in the rear gallery.
Working with the Organ Clearing House, an organization founded in 1961 to relocate or rescue unwanted pipe organs, we were able to obtain the instrument which had been built by the Schantz Organ Company of Orville, Ohio in 1977 for Christ Church Episcopal in Avon, CT. The church closed in 2012 and was subsequently purchased by the Farmington Valley American Muslim Center, Inc. which converted it into a mosque. A stipulation required that the organ be removed from the mosque by the end of October 2020.
During the week of October 19-23, 2020 a team from the Organ Clearing House disassembled the organ, packed it into a truck, and transported it from Avon to downtown Hartford. When it arrived on October 21, it was partially erected, but it would be several more months before the organ was made fully playable.
In January 2021, Alex Pipe Organ Service was engaged to complete the assembly of the organ. Working through the afternoon and evening hours, Alex Belair and Michael Tanguay assembled the wind system of the organ, including a built-in electric blower as well as the metal wind ducts that branch out from the central reservoir in the bottom section of the organ case to the wind chests above. At the top of the organ are the pipes of the Great division which is played on the bottom manual of the console. Inside the case, behind the façade pipes and a set of vertical expression shutters, sits the Swell division played from the upper manual.
One question that couldn’t be answered until the organ was completed was how the organ would sound in its new environment. We are blessed with a very reverberant church but we weren’t prepared to hear how much aural presence the Schantz organ is capable of producing. In fact, it’s often difficult to tell exactly where the sound is coming from – front or rear? It is certainly a versatile instrument that can be used for a range of uses, but especially as a service instrument where the organist, sitting directly behind the altar platform, becomes an integral part of the liturgical action.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to the generous parishioners who helped make the Schantz organ possible. The Chancel Organ, as it is known, has made its mark on our liturgical life, and has helped us to enhance our worship in manifold ways.
