1875 E. & G.G. Hook and Hastings Organ - Cathedral of the Holy Cross - Boston, Massachusetts
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Brent Johnson, Richard Clark, and Matthew Bellocchio explore the E. & G.G. Hook and Hastings pipe organ of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston Massachusetts.
OHS entry for organ: pipeorgandatabase.org/organ/7254
Cathedral of the Holy Cross Music Page: holycrossboston.com/music/
Concert Series: holycrossboston.com/concert-s...
Andover Organ Company: www.andoverorgan.com/
Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America: apoba.com/
Cesar Franck's Choral no. 2 in B Minor: • César Franck - Choral ...
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00:00 Opening Improvisation
01:20 Introduction
02:48 Great
15:05 Swell
25:48 Choir
30:09 Pedal
34:23 Inside the Organ
44:21 Inside the Swell
50:00 Final notes
51:35 Closing
54:47 The Bells (and sirens) of Boston 
Видеоклипы
This organ has everything he needs and nothing he doesn't!
Richard has great communication skills and is very inclusive when he talks. He makes me feel that I am part of the conversation as I watch the video. Very nice demonstration of a very significant instrument.
Most important line of the presentation, everyone take note: stops have to be beautiful individually by themselves. That’s what made these organs so excellent every stop was a musical instrument in and of itself and then they combine to make the whole instrument even better. Too many stops on the neo Baroque instruments of the 60s were just rungs on a vertical ladder and had no individual beauty. This type of instrument is the pinnacle of American Organ building.
Case in point: The great 8' Clarabella is magnificently lyrical both by itself and with other ranks.
The lack of beauty of each individual voice is a problem by no means limited to neo-baroque organs.
Kudos, to the Cathedral changing the acoustics and restoring the organ! GREAT JOB!!!
One word: “Wow!”
If Cesar Franck had lived long enough to tour America and had heard this organ, can you imagine the extraordinary pieces beyond the “Trois Chorales” he would’ve written to fully realize this tonal palette?
Somehow, I KNEW that sooner or later, Organ Media Foundation would do a video of this landmark pipe organ! Thanks everyone! This instrument really represented the emergence of America's pipe organ builders as rivals to the great European organ builders.
The original tubular pneumatic action was reportedly a bit sluggish, but the stop list and voicing remain unchanged and we are lucky to have it still. This organ needs to be better recognized as the landmark organ that it is, and the restoration needs to be completed.
It is a very important example of American organ building.
@fredriklarsson8105 Even the later Skinners, Austin’s, Kimballs from the USA, and Casavants from Canada had innumerable beautiful tonal combinations and much better craftsmanship than they are given credit for. And the later organs after around 1955 were often harsh at full organ level.
This organ never had tubular-pneumatic action. It originally had mechanical action, with Barker machines for the Great, Pedal, and basses of the Swell and Choir. Then it was electrified in the 1920s, fitted with a horseshoe-style tongue-tablet console, which the organ still had when I visited it in 2001.
@@timothytikker1147 I didn’t know that. Thanks for the correction. Maybe it was a later instrument that I read about and I confused it with this one. There is a photo of the original console in the pipe organ database. I know that some of the tubular pneumatic organs built in 19th century America were really sluggish.
About 12 years ago, I was in Boston on vacation and decided to call Leo Abbot and asked to see the organ! We made an appointment for the next day. He gave me a chance to play the instrument, and gave a very complete tour through it afterward. I felt like the luckiest person alive! I will never forget this experience! Richard Clark does a wonderful job of explaining how important this instrument really is! He makes it so easy to understand! GREAT video!
I also think the organ is inextricably linked to Leo's name. I remember at the end of a recital intermission, he would play a tritone on the low notes of the Bombarde, such that everyone knew it was time to shut up again! 😅
Love and appreciate Maestro Clark’s enthusiasm for the instrument!
Perhaps the greatest extant 19th century American organ.
Wow, great interview and organ / organist
One of the crowning achievements of 19th century American organbuilding.
I got to go inside this in the early 80s. The pipe metal is so thick that it was all I could do to lift 4'c of the great 8', if I remember correctly spotted metal maybe all the way down but certainly at 4'c.
Absolutely great people displaying a wonderful organ. Thank you!
What beautiful improvisations:)
Rich, symphonic sound, slushy, and I just LOVE IT!!! The combination with the vox humana and 32ft should be labeled "pure ecstasy". I would love to hear that on a Bach chorale. Yes, I am one of "those" organists. Music is art and all art is subject to interpretation. Don't like my interpretation? Plug up your ears.....😁
@greggb1969, I'm a semi professional organist and I totally agree with you! Acoustics of the building and the materials of the building play a major role in how well tuned each pipe will sound throughout and sounds like to me this one particular organ seems to meet the needs of the entire cathedral and congregation!
What a sound! They don't build them like they used to. Thanks Brent!
Very nice sound and nice organ
This has to be the best episode ever of Organ Media Foundation. What a phenomenal instrument.
I love the enthusiasm and the instrument.
Wonderful!
Fascinating! As a seminarian, I had opportunities to play this organ somewhat frequently. The tuba was not working and it was the old W. F. Law console with theatre type tabs. [That guy ruined many a Boston organ!] Most of the organ was playable in the late 60s. Have you had a chance to go to Saint Thomas Aquinas in Jamaica Plain? There is a beautiful E. & G. G. Hook 3 manual organ. In 1973 when I was assigned there, only two stops were playable which was frustrating to Manny Zambelli who was the organist. I was asked by the Pastor, Msgr. Donelan to see what could be done to get it up and running. With the help of David Cybulski, Jeff Brody, Charlie Callahan, Leo Abbott, and myself, the organ pipes were cleaned, the bellows releathered, hitchdowns reset, trackers replaced. David found a 'winker' for the bellows. The Organ had been purchased from Saint Paul's Episcopal Cathedral at Boston Common many, many years earlier. We discovered that the original organ had a 16' wood trombone in the pedal which we were in the process of obtaining from Hector Morneau of Salem; but Msgr Donelan died before that was accomplished. The organ sang well for his funeral.
What a beautiful cathedral and wonderful magnificent organ and amazingly talented organist. Dominus vobiscum.
Et cum spiritu tuo 🎶🙏
If I remember correctly (not guaranteed in a man with post-cardiac arrest brain damage!) those 'gothic' columns in the nave arcade of this cathedral are of cast-iron: not stone. When visiting more than twenty years ago, we had no idea the cathedral had such a magnificent organ installed. Thank you for this glorious post.
One of the most beautiful performance on this magnificent organ
This is astounding! Thank you for sharing this!!
What an outstanding instrument! I had only heard it in a recording made many years ago and it was excellent then, but the restoration has really brought it to life. I wish I could hear it in person!
I was waiting for this! I love Richard, and this is like having a nice visit with him in person. Such an amazing instrument.
yes Richard is professional organist he knows his instrument like the back of his hand fantastic church , Brent Johnston the interviewer is one hot guy he is so fanciable .
One of the best organ in Boston Massachusetts. Richard Clark
Someone needs to sample this for Hauptwerk!! Help with the restoration funds!!
Nice Acoustics and Colorful Organ Stops
A great overview of the organ at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. I have the fortune of singing with the Cathedral Festival Choir (the expanded choir for ordinations and other special liturgies) and having know Richard for nearly 20 years now. While the organ sounds good while singing in the loft, I've heard it from near the front of the church during organ concerts and it can sound rather magnificent. Overall, it's rather well suited for the space at the Cathedral!
Impressive acoustics in the cathedral.
O. M. G
There is a Cathedral here in Charleston SC that resembles the architecture or this one exactly. Quite nice!
I could listen to him Improv all day and would never lose interest! Richard if you can see this comment, are there any albums you have of you on this instrument? Apple music barely has anything of yours on it.
56 note keyboard compass on three manuals: good money saving move to reduce the cost without compromising the musical result. Sounds like the newer cathedral powers at be took organ care seriously.
For a soft stop they should have added an 8' SIlverflute/SIlverflute celeste, the softest ethereal stop, to the organ.
Thanks for the great demo! I remember visiting this organ in the late 70's when it was in awful shape. Great to see it was saved! Question: Is the organ now electroneumatic pull downs on the original slider chests? Also - any word on the status of the Immaculate Conception Hook organ over on Harrison? Does it still exist? Thanks again!
Good question. The Immaculate Conception was my church as an ado❣️
...as a child and through college. I was in the Immaculate
...choir. Once they converted the church to condominiums, who knows. For the Easter Vigil, I would sing at its 7pm service. Then I'd run to Northampton St. and grab the bus for Harvard Sq., and join the congregation for St. Paul's glorious service.
On a Sunday morning, we'd walk from our home in the project to Harrison Av., turn left, and my mother would grab my siblings and head for the Cathedral. I would turn right and head for the Immaculate, well into my college years. Gone are the days.😰
It still exists and Saint Paul's in Cambridge is looking for funds to install it.
I was wondering which wood was used in the chests themselves and the chamber walls.
I am amazed that the carpet demons were battered down. So many churches LOVE carpet. One needs to be elfin to fit in the space for tuning.
I would imagine hard woods.
1875 E. & G.G. Hook and Hastings.
Was this originally a tracker-action organ? If so, when and why was it changed?
Yes, it had mechanical action, with pneumatic lever action for the Great, Pedal, and basses of the Swell and Choir. It was electrified in the 1920s, because in those days that was the norm.
It would be interesting to see a fourth manual installed, a sort of Resonance manual that can borrow much of the instrument into a new division. The embarrassment of riches on this instrument could mean that half of each division could be borrowed onto the 4th manual.
The organ is on slider chests, and so that kind of borrowing is simply not possible.
Pleas bigger organs!
Please work on ensuring consistent volume between the organ and the comments. This is a consistent problem. One has to turn up the volume to hear the comments, and then immediately turn the volume way down when the organ is playing!
You may wish to visit an audiologist or an Ear-Nose-Throat doc. The normalization in this video is just fine. Organs are dynamic.
@@Cookster997 An objective measure of the audio output between the spoken and performing segments of the videos indicates otherwise.
@@samcarter634 What would you propose to make it better? Increase the loudness of the spoken sections even further? You may be right! I might just tolerate the changes in loudness more than others. The difficulty here is two-fold. The organ in reality is MUCH louder than the spoken voices, and there are probably separate microphones in the nave to capture the organ in the room.
Sit back and enjoy the video, or visit another site! 😢
No issues, here
Horrible sounding organ