Refurbished organ at Christ Episcopal is unveiled in style

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Christ Episcopal Church in Glen Ridge presented an organ recital Sunday, April 17. Aside from the music, enjoyed by a modest yet appreciative audience of 40, the event was noteworthy for two reasons: It was an opportunity to hear the newly restored Moeller organ belonging to the church played by a first-prize winner of the Fort Wayne National Organ Playing Competition.
“The Fort Wayne competition is a biggie,” said William Davies, the musical director of the church.

Colin Lynch was the organist. His hourlong program consisted of a bolero by Lefebure-Wely; a much newer composition, “Miroir,” by Wammes; a Bach fugue; a chaconne by Buxtehude; and a Dupre fugue. A resident of Boston, Lynch grew up in Basking Ridge. He said his appearance at Christ Episcopal was “a homecoming.”

Davies said he wanted Lynch for the recital.
“We both went to Delbarton,” Davies said, adding they attended the school years apart. “And we have another connection. Ray Horton, the school’s musical director, both started us playing the organ.”

Davies said he first heard Colin play while the latter was a high school student.
“I sent him the stop list for the organ,” Davies said. A “stop list” is a listing of all the different musical instruments that the organ can mimic. “We went back and forth about today’s program.”

The organ is a three-manual, 35-rank instrument. It was built and installed in 1951, according to Davies.
A rank is a set of pipes through which wind passes to produce a sound. A manual is a keyboard. The organ played at the Glen Ridge church has three levels of keyboards, or three manuals. Its ranks produce a wide range of sounds imitative of other instruments, and some sounds particular to itself. The amount of wind passing through the pipe of a pipe organ is controlled by a knob or stop.

“The organ was over 60 years old,” said Davies, who has been the musical director at the church for five years. “Like everything, it wears out. The console where the keyboards are, the connections were electro-pneumatic, a combination of electricity and air pressure. Peragallo, in Paterson, did the refurbishment.”

Before the organ was fixed and refitted with digital components, mechanical failures prevented sounds from being produced.
“It was progressive,” Davies said about the problems. “It was happening over a couple of years.”

The malfunctions, he said, would sometimes necessitate a change in a music selection, or the keyboard on which it would be played.
“Peragallo took out the entire console last June and replaced the electro-pneumatic action with a digital one,” he said. “It’s great, the best possible combination. A pipe organ digitally rebuilt makes it more reliable and more flexible.”

Peragallo worked on the refurbishment from June to September of last year. While the work was being done, the company loaned a small, electrical organ to the church.

The old system, Davies said, gave the organ 10 pistons with which to make sounds.
“Now we have 10 levels of memory,” he said. “That’s 10 times as many combinations of stops than before.”
Because it has been refitted with digital components, the organ can be programmed.

“It’s nice to know it all works,” Davies said. “And it makes playing, in some practical ways, easier.”
Someone in the market to buy a new organ, Davies said, could still have one based on the old method of producing sound. But the choice nowadays is to go digital.

The refurbishment cost the church $60,000, he said.
Audience members at the recital were able to follow Lynch’s artistry by watching two live video transmissions of his playing. These were projected onto two small screens, set side-by-side, before the audience.

Lynch, at the organ, was hidden by the screens. However, there was a video camera transmitting the movement of his hands, and a second camera trained on the movement of his feet on the pedals. Between compositions, he would come out and address the audience.

After one selection, he said his high school guidance counselor tried everything to talk him out of pursuing the career of an organist. Lynch, who is not a very tall man, said his counselor finally asked him if his feet could even reach the pedals.
“This next piece I would like to dedicate to Father Giles,” he said. “I think you’ll see why.”

The audience did see why. For the playing of this composition, Lynch’s work on the foot pedals was no less enthralling than Fred Astaire’s work on a dance floor.

A reception followed the recital. At that time, Lynch said he took the organ for four years at Delbarton.
“I hated it,” he said. “I could play fancy stuff on the piano. But after four years, something clicked.”

He also acknowledged that being an organ player makes it easier for someone to get into music school. But he also said a piano player often works alone while an organist works with others.

Also during the reception, Christ Episcopal Church Pastor Diana Wilcox said good music, along with good family missions and good preaching, was a reason why her church was experiencing an increase in attendance.

Regarding the organ, she said a former member of the church had promised a $5,000 matching gift to pay for the refurbishment.
“Music is another way of lifting up a joyful noise to God,” Wilcox said.

According to program notes, Lynch holds a Masters of Music in organ performance from Yale University. He serves as associate director of music at Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston.