Pipe Organs and a famous Chicago church

There is an interesting video on YouTube about the pipe organ project going on at St. John Cantius in Chicago.

If you don’t know much about pipe organs, you could learn a few things from this 12 minute video.

Remember: the pipe organ is mentioned by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council as the instrument which has pride of place for sacred music.

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About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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12 Comments

  1. joanofarcfan says:

    Fr. Phillips is my pastor. He once said pianos are for saloons and guitars are for protests. The music program at St. John Cantius is a wonderful thing. Their Requiem Mass is so magnificent, once you have heard that, you’d never go back to Kumbaya. I pray this project will be successful.

  2. teomatteo says:

    did they say in the video where (what church) they are pulling this ‘tina mae’ organ from?
    and what will become of their current organ?
    just wondering..thanks
    i’m excited to be visiting st. John Cantius in november for a wedding…

  3. jdskyles says:

    The Casavante Opus 1130 organ is currently housed at St. James Methodist Church on the south side of Chicago. St. John Cantius will be a great new home for it. Please help out. http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=25475

  4. jdskyles says:

    The Casavante Opus 1130 organ is currently housed at St. James Methodist Church on the south side of Chicago. St. John Cantius will be a great new home for it. Please contribute to the restoration of this wonderful instrument.

    http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=47055

  5. mrose says:

    Wonderful! St. John Cantius and Fr. Phillips have been so good to me.

  6. Dennis Martin says:

    The video did not say, presumably intentionally . It suffices, perhaps, to mention that it is an orphaned organ that needs a home. It’s not being taken away from someone who would otherwise be using it.

  7. Elizabeth D says:

    Madison’s Cathedral Parish is going on a pilgrimage to St John Cantius and to “Marytown” and the shrine of St Maximilian Kolbe in Chicago tomorrow. I have heard so much about SJC but never been there (I do not drive) so excited to visit this church and learn about their charism of “restoring the sacred”. We will have a tour of SJC by Fr Phillips. Mass will be celebrated there by Fr Kevin Holmes rector of the Cathedral Parish.

    I looked up where the “Tina Mae” organ is from by searching for “Casavant Opus 1130”. It is a church of a mainline protestant denomination, it seems reasonable to be discreet in regards to the people thankfully providing the organ, I did not find a parish website for that church, only a Methodist directory entry which may or may not be current, which suggests that Sunday attendance is very small.

  8. Elizabeth D says:

    Well I said the denomination without having meant to

  9. Ohio Organist says:

    There is more information about this project, including the identity of the (closed) Methodist church from which the organ is coming, in the Fall 2011 newsletter of the Patrons of Sacred Music at St. John Cantius: http://www.scribd.com/doc/63664283/Fall-2011-Notes-from-the-Choir-Newsletter-for-the-Patrons-of-Sacred-Music

    The specifications of Casavant Opus 1130 are available here: http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=47055

    St. John Cantius has a form that you can use to donate money: http://www.cantius.org/go/music/category/organ_fundraising_project/

  10. albizzi says:

    Sad to say, the developments in the numeric sound techniques introduced with the last electronic organ looks to be taking over the old pneumatic / mechanic organ systems.
    My nephew who is a very good organ player recently convinced our parish priest to buy one of these new generation organs and I have to acknowledge that the result is jaw dropping. The organ can play with the same preregistered sounds as those of Notre Dame de Paris’s organ or that of the St Jacobi’s Church in Hamburg (and some other well know instruments) through a special computer software. Obviously the quality of the amplifier & loud speakers, together with the adjustment to the church’s acoustic are very important.
    The price was almost half that of a classic instrument and the quality cannot be compared.
    The end of the organ manufacturers?

  11. my kidz mom says:

    I’m a member of the Fr. Phillips Phan Club! Had the wonderful opportunity to attend Mass at SJC and meet him. The work he continues to do in restoring the sacred is such a blessing for Chicago and for the universal Church. May God continue to bless his efforts.

  12. joanofarcfan says:

    Re: electronic vs. pneumatic. I’d kind of miss the wheezing and air gulping of the old-timers. There’s something about the vibrations deep in the chest. And if the end result is up to a “sound guy,” it could possibly mean trouble. But then I feel the same about records; that an electric 78 rpm has an “open room” sound that later recording techniques do not.
    But I can appreciate what you are saying about the new ones, albizzi.

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