About Our Organ
Patricia Will, First Unitarian Organist from 1975 to 2023, provided the history of the majestic Aeolian Skinner organ. Pictures were taken from a Pipe Organ Seminar and Demonstration held in January 2013 at First U.
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The console is dated 1918 Aeolian Skinner. In 1937 pipes ordered by another church arrived and they were not able to afford them. Sarah Joslyn bought the pipes and gave them to First Unitarian. On June 26, 1984, the roof caught fire as a result of a workman throwing a match into the gutter which was full of dead leaves.
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Water from fighting the fire poured through the Swell division and the firefighters stomped on most of the pipes during containment - the division was ruined. The organ was removed, rebuilt, enlarged and reinstalled.​Pat believes it is now 52 ranks. She recalled that when she first began playing the organ in 1976, the console was in the organ loft, making it difficult to know how the music sounded in the sanctuary.
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As part of the 1984 restoration project, the console was moved to the front of the sanctuary, making it much easier for the organist to hear exactly what was being played.
There are 3 manuals: swell, great and choir. The great pipes are the ones easily seen. The swell pipes (when seen from the organ bench) are on the left, the choir pipes on the right. Volume of both the swell and the choir is regulated by shutters which are controlled by pedals on the console. There are many preset buttons and 128 levels so the possibilities of preprogramming the registrations seem to be infinite. There is a crescendo pedal which will gradually add pipes. When open every pipe in the chest will open, making the floor-shaking properties of the organ quite impressive – a sound some people like and some really, really don’t like (most often those with tinnitus).