Historic church, organs, etc.

[saxikath]

They've started installing a new pipe organ at my church. This church dates from, I think, 1740; the organ isn't nearly that old.

But I was struck by the juxtaposition of the historic church and big metal pipes piled in the pews.



Kind of grainy, because I wasn't using the flash.

Pipes in the pews:





Pipes in place:







And here are a couple of bits of church history:







There are also two other organs in the church. One is a gallery organ from 1805 on more or less permanent loan from Harvard. The other is a funny little thing we found in the bell tower. We'd been using it, unknowingly, as a table for years. I did some poking around on the web, and it looks kind of like portable organs that military chaplains used, except this one doesn't pack up into a suitcase. It's by the same company, though. It's a fun mystery to be poking at.

Comments

[stevie-stever.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I love pipe organs, but I won't lie: some of these photos had me thinking Sweeney Todd imagery. ;-)

[leighjen.livejournal.com]

My 'rents have one of those little portable organs! I used to play with it all the time when I was young. I should ask them where they got it. I think I always assumed that they picked it up in Japan where they got all the nice pieces that live in our house. I will have to ask when I go home for the holidays.