SACRED HEART ORATORY Wilmington, Delaware 917 N. Madison St. 2004 Russell Meyer & Associates, Op. 7 The first record of an organ installed in Sacred Heart Church is in 1895. Historical documents refer to organists playing for special occasions before that date, so presumably they were playing on a harmonium (pump organ). On February 4, 1895 there was a grand organ recital on a new pipe organ built by John Brown, whose shop was located in the 1600 block of West Ninth Street here in Wilmington. Mr. Brown built about 100 organs all over the country, including a large organ for the cathedral in Savannah, Georgia. This original organ for Sacred Heart was a two-manual instrument with tubular pneumatic action. Several fine ranks of pipes from this organ survive in the present instrument; the pipes bear the initials "J.B." It appears very likely that large portions of the visible woodwork and facade pipes may also be from that organ. On December 5, 1938 a new organ was dedicated with a performance by the parish organist, a Mr. Joseph Dale. This was a three-manual, 27-rank instrument built by the Cannarsa Organ Company of Pittsburgh, and it comprised largely recycled material. At the time, it was the largest organ in the Diocese of Wilmington and the second largest organ in Delaware. The core of the organ was an instrument originally built by the C.S. Haskell Company of Philadelphia as its opus 313, which would date it somewhere between 1915 and 1922. How an approximately 20-year-old organ from somewhere else arrived in Sacred Heart Church is surely an interesting story, but so far we have been unable to uncover any records of where it came from of how it was acquired. The Haskell was a two-manual organ of 18 or 19 ranks on electro-pneumatic slider chests; nearly all of its ranks remain in the present organ. Cannarsa installed the slider chests atop walk-in and crawl-in air boxes that appear to have been built by the Austin organ company prior to about 1904 and relocated to Sacred Heart Church. A third manual division, the Choir division, was made up primarily of pipes from the John Brown organ playing on new electric unit actions. Twelve pipes each of a 16´ Trombone and a 16´ Violone were added along with a Cornopean rank to replace the Haskell one; these were most likely recycled pipes. Perceived gaps in the tonal specification were remedied, largely to good effect, with pipes reworked from the John Brown organ - these consisted primarily of 4´, 22/3´, and 2´ stops. A new set of Chimes and an Austin Harp were special additions. (It should be noted that the Cannarsa Company served as installers for the Austin Company until 1935.) By the late 1970s, the organ was badly in need of repair. Through the generosity of Mr. J.E. Cummings and Mr. A. Branson Frye, who donated many, many hours of labor, the organ was patched into playable condition for a Members' Recital of the Delaware Chapter of the American Guild of Organists on March 15, 1998. At the time of the restoration of the Oratory building in early 2003, problems with the blower motor, console, leaking gaskets, and damage from plaster dust and workmen in the chamber had rendered the organ unplayable. We at Russell Meyer & Associates suggested to Brother Ronald Giannone that, in keeping with the beautiful restoration of the building, a thorough repair and renovation of the organ was in order. We were eventually awarded the contract for the work. Our intent was to preserve the intrinsic character of the organ with necessary tonal improvements, along with a thorough mechanical reconditioning. We built a new English- style console of quarter-sawn white oak, incorporating book-matched burled walnut panels that had been hidden under the red stain of the old console. We made a new music rack to match these panels, and supplied walnut key cheeks and key slips, as well as drawknobs and pedal sharps of walnut. The state-of-the-art Emutek control system permits a moveable console with 20 levels of combination memory, a transposer, and built-in record/playback. The electric unit actions in the Choir division and offset chests were replaced with new ones, and the pulldown mechanisms for the slider chests were replaced with new all-electric units imported from Germany. Many of the smaller offset chests that had posed obstacles to access for tuning and maintenance were relocated. The blower motor was reconditioned, and new rectifiers and all-electric swell motors were installed. All the pipes were cleaned, repaired, and fitted with new tuners. The reed ranks were reconditioned with new tongues. The facade, which had bowed about three inches, was realigned and reinforced for stability. The facade pipes were repaired and repainted, and the twelve largest ones were restored to playable condition, which they had not been since 1938. Slight alterations were made to the line of the tops of the facade pipes to improve the appearance, and new woodwork panels were added to the front of the case to better reflect the architectural details of the room while permitting tonal egress. A set of small dummy pipes in the central arch was replaced with the new brass pipes of the Pontifical Trumpet rank, which project their commanding tone horizontally. We also added new mixture ranks to both the Great and Swell divisions. An Oboe Horn in the Choir division was replaced by a 1927 Austin Clarinet formerly in the Beth Israel Synagogue of Northfield, New Jersey. We also replaced the rather unsuccessful Vox Humana and Flautino ranks of the Swell division with other vintage ranks of the same names, and added a metal Octave/Principal rank (originally from a Bartholmay organ in the now-defunct Holy Trinity German Lutheran Church of Camden, New Jersey) to the Pedal division. We replaced the pneumatic action to the Deagen Chimes with an all-electric action, restored the Austin Harp with all-electric primaries, and added a new Zimbelstern. The new control system also made possible the additions of several borrowed stops for convenience, most notably the 32´ stops in the Pedal, the 16´ stops in the Great and Choir, several Pedal stops, the Nazard and Larigot in the Choir, and the Trumpet in the Choir and the Clarion in the Great. The entire organ was revoiced and tonally refinished by Brantley A. Duddy and members of our staff. Members of our company working on the organ were: Russell Meyer, Steven Van Name, Joseph Ritter, William Lowe, Adam Bojaciuk, and Richard Lewis, with outside help from Dennis Cook, Michael Giamo, Richard Sawicki, Gregory Stilwell, Margaret Van Name, David Vytlacil, and Eugene Meyer. We also want to recognize the assistance of the Oratory's electrician, Karl Schweiger, and members of the Oratory's staff. We are grateful to Brother Ronald for entrusting us with the honor of renovating this venerable organ in this beautiful and acoustically marvelous church. - Russell Meyer