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Trinity Church is proud to have an Aeolian-Skinner organ, opus 998, built in 1940, and designed by G. Donald Harrison. A Festival Concert was performed on 19 May, 1991, by Dennis Schmidt, in honor of the re-dedication of instrument.

By 1856, when Trinity Church was built, instrumental music, sung Psalms, and various liturgical texts had become common in Episcopal churches.  It is unclear, parish records being what they are, when the first organ was installed in the building.  It is known that the present instrument is at least the third pipe organ to play here in this century.  

In any case, it is clear that members of the parish have long valued fine music.  

The instrument began its life nearly half a century ago in Denworth Hall at Bradford (then Junior) College on Friday, June 14th, 1940, when Frederick Johnson performed its dedicatory recital.  It was known at Bradford as the "Cornelia Warren Memorial Organ", after the trustee whose 1926 bequest paid a significant portion of its purchase price.  (The memorial plaque remains on the left-hand side of the console.)  It was regularly played for many years before gradually falling into disuse, and ultimately disrepair.  

In 1989, a combination of circumstances brought the organ, and Bradford College's interest in selling it, to the attention of the Parish.  With the help of Scott Sykes, organist at Trinity, Mark Peterson of the music faculty at Bradford, and Thad Outerbridge, the organ's historical significance and enormous potential were realized.  The Vestry decided to acquire it as the replacement for the Mary Porter Wardwell Memorial Organ, lost in the fire of 1969.  

The move from Bradford College involved both craftsmanship and high-tech challenges. The parish and Mr. Outerbridge decided to make no tonal alterations, other than regulation. Fortunately, even though barely playable in 1989, most of the instrument's leather was in excellent condition.  In fact, the chest actions are all playing on their original leather today (1998).

In the course of the move, certain reservoirs were restored, the console re-leathered, and a new blower installed.  A solid-state, digital, multi-level system (occupying one cubic foot in the console cabinet) replaced the electro-pneumatic-mechanical memory system for combination pistons (formerly occupying a room of its own).  A second digital system drew into one area the couplers, cut-outs, relays, and switches formerly disposed in five separate locations.

Local musicians who remember the instrument in its former location recall it as "gentle" and "lady-like" in character.  Today, in the smaller, acoustically brighter space here at Trinity, the organ has considerable more authority, though still capable of great subtlety.  In its current location, it is unequivocally clear that Aeolian-Skinner did not compromise their reputation for quality in the pipework and mechanical portions when building this instrument.

Of all musical instruments, the organ must seem to the un-initiated enormously complex, mysterious, and incomprehensible.  That apparently similar organs should have such diverse tonal "personalities" is at the same time a source of fascination and a reason for the instruments lack of acceptance among some musicians.  

In recent years, considerable interest has emerged in the work of G. Donald Harrison, the Englishman who designed this instrument.  Much has been written about, and recorded on, his surviving instruments.  Opus 998 remains obscure, perhaps because it had fallen into disuse before the renewal of interest in Harrison's work.

Among the other organs designed by G. Donald Harrison are those in the Church of the Advent, Boston (1935), and the Groton School (1935), both of which include Positiv divisions, then a daring innovation.  Opus 998 includes a delightful six stop Positiv, visible at the very front of the organ chamber, and is in other ways similar to the larger instrument at the Advent. The organ at the Advent, along with Harrison's very well known instrument in the Mormon Tabernacle at Salt Lake City, are indisputable masterpieces of the organ builder's art.  We believe that Opus 998 to be at least a minor masterpiece.

Additional information on Aeolian Skinner is available.

Great

Positiv

Swell

Pedal

Couplers

Piston Coupling

Reversibles

Copyright © 1998- Trinity Episcopal Church

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