Delicate ‘continuo’ organ to be dedicated

BANGOR – A handcrafted, Maine-made portable pipe organ officially will join its much larger and famous cousin, the E. & G.G. Hook pipe organ, this weekend at St. John’s Catholic Church on York Street.

The Wissinger continuo organ will be dedicated in a sacred concert at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The St. John’s parish and youth choirs, along with members of the All Souls Congregational Church choir and instrumentalists, will perform.

Kevin Birch, director of music and organist at St. John’s Catholic, will demonstrate the new instrument during an open house from 5 to 6 p.m. today.

“The sound quality of the continuo organ is very delicate, very chamberlike” Birch said Friday. “That sound is excellent in support of young voices. It provides a beautiful way to teach children how to pitch, how to blend their voices and how to listen. It enables choirs to get right up close.”

Continuo is a musical term that refers to a keyboard accompanying part that provides or fills out the harmonic texture.

The Wissinger organ complements the church’s well-known Hook organ, which was built in 1860 at the company’s Boston factory and brought up the Penobscot River on a ship. The larger instrument has more than 2,000 pipes compared with the 246 pipes in the smaller organ, according to Birch.

The Hook organ cost $5,000 in mid-19th century dollars. The church raised $30,000 for the new instrument, according to Birch.

The Wissinger has a self-contained wind system in its base, Birch explained. A blower powered by electricity supplies the wind for the small organ that is similar to the one that provides air to the larger instrument.

Darron Wissinger, a nationally recognized organ builder who lives and works in Rockland, made the smaller organ. The St. John’s instrument is the only one of Wissinger’s organs owned by a Maine church, Birch said Friday.

“The Hook organ,” Birch said, “produces a grand range of sound and can accompany even the most elaborate choral and solo music.

“Throughout history, large organs have often co-existed side by side with small organs,” he said. “Over the last 50 to 75 years, with the resurgence of interest in early music, these kinds of keyboard instruments have re-emerged.”

Birch said that because the organ could fit inside a van, the choir would be able to travel and perform at other churches and venues. He expected the Wissinger, however, would be used most often in sacred liturgy with small groups.

“It’s a little masterpiece,” Birch said of the new instrument. “I’m really excited it was made in Maine. It’s a great organ in miniature and I’m having a great time getting to know it.”

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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