The ‘king of instruments’

If you are a lover of pipe organs and organ music, Montreal is the place to live! The American author Mark Twain once called it the “city of a hundred bell towers” and traditionally where there are churches, there are also organs.

As I write, the month-long Canadian International Organ Competition, held every three years, is underway. Begun in 2008, this competition selects 12 of the most promising and talented artists from around the world, then brings them here to thrill audiences with works performed on some of Montreal’s most magnificent pipe organs.

In the suburb of Lachine where my husband and I live, we enjoy attending free monthly organ concerts at Eglise St. Anges, a large Catholic Church.

Learning to play

Looking for a new challenge, I began playing the pipe organ in my early 30s. Having begun with piano at age six, I was already familiar with the keyboard and had accompanied a variety of choruses and choirs. There was a pipe organ at my home church, available for practice.

My organ teacher was a rather staid, older gentleman who was organist and choirmaster at a Catholic church on Sherbrooke Street. I remember my first lesson, looking with awe at the beautiful, stone church, then, with trepidation, making my way up the narrow wooden staircase to the organ loft. My teacher played a classical piece and the beauty of the sounds reverberated off the stone walls. I was immediately hooked.

Unlike the piano, pipe organs have several keyboards in addition to individual stops and foot pedals. It was the latter that I found challenging. As you can imagine, all of this takes practice – lots of it!

The beloved organ

Slowly, gradually, I made progress. At first it was a question of mastering simpler pieces, then on to more complex ones. Finally, I got to play my first Prelude and Fugue! At my home church, I was able to occasionally play for Sunday morning services, and slip in a classical piece when appropriate.

But – alas! – the day came when the church decided that it could no longer keep the pipe organ. The church said it didn’t have funds to maintain it and also needed the space. It was a sad day, especially for myself and the other organist. It really did feel like I was losing an old friend.

This decision has been made in many churches across Canada. Pipe organs are expensive to maintain and not many people know how to do it; there are fewer organists; and changing musical styles have brought other types of music into churches. Does the “king of instruments” have a future?

Maintaining interest

Dr. Alexandra Fol is a Canadian/Bulgarian organist and composer at St. James United Church in downtown Montreal. “High art is expensive,” she says. “It costs a lot to train organists and also to maintain organs. But grants are available, and a church can apply to the government for a grant to restore an organ.” Grants have been essential in maintaining the beautiful, four-manual Casavant organ at St. James.

As fewer people attend church, there is less contact with organ music and hence there are fewer people interested in becoming organists. “You can’t get excited about something you know nothing about,” says Dr. Fol. It’s important for young people to be exposed to the beauty of the organ, which she does through summer camps and workshops. The day after we met for our interview she was traveling to a Catholic school in Thunder Bay, Ontario to conduct an organ workshop for francophone students.

There are others who are also introducing the organ to young people. In recent years the Royal Canadian College of Organists, together with Orgues Letourneau Canada, has produced a number of Orgelkids kits. The kit is a “mechanical, two-rank pipe organ in a box” crafted specifically for children to have the experience of assembling a working pipe organ. It uses skills that children are learning in school (science, technology, engineering and math) and can be built in less than an hour.

Worth keeping?

Dr. Jonathan Oldengarm, former organist and music director at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal and presently at the Metropolitan United Church in Toronto, had a thoughtful response to my question about why the organ is worth keeping. “Within the Protestant and Catholic traditions,” he says, “so much of our theology has traditionally been taught and internalized through music and song, most often to the accompaniment of the organ. The pipe organ [. . .] was one of the highest technical, musical and artistic accomplishments that humanity could offer. That sense of wonder and mystery still surrounds a large pipe organ in a huge church in 2024. [. . .] This is a beautiful, rich and ancient art that I have faith will survive, even if it’s not as prevalent as it once was.”

Even though I enjoy attending organ concerts, it’s in the context of worship that I find the organ so beautiful. I think back to one particular memory, tucked away in my mind, when I was playing the organ for a Christmas Eve candlelight service at my church. The soft tones of the organ, glow of the candles, and the joy on peoples’ faces all contributed to a lovely ambience as I played the Swedish carol, “A Thousand Candles.”

We light a thousand candles

bright around the earth today,

And all the beams will shine

across the heaven’s grand display.

Dear brightest star o’er Bethlehem,

O let your precious light

Shine in with hope and peace

toward all in every home tonight.