I am sure that you have heard the old saying, “Lightning never strikes the same place twice.” Well, that’s not true: lightning can strike twice in the same place during one storm, or, it can strike in the same place years or even centuries later. THAT is what happened at St Paul’s. A few years ago, the organ was struck by lightning that affected several of the sensitive computer cards in the organ console, as well as in the organ switching unit in the sacristy.
Perhaps you remember that on Sunday, July 2 at our combined service with St Peter's, Key West for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul that I was playing the piano rather than the organ. Earlier that week, the gallery part of the organ (up high at the rear of the nave) was struck by lightning. We had an emergency visit from our dear friends at Guzowski and Steppes pipe organ builders. We were able to get most of the organ up and running the following week. However, the gallery is still silent until new computer cards are received and installed (probably a repair bill around $5,000 or so).
At the same time (planned prior to the lightning strike), four sets of pipes in the swell and choir divisions of the organ (up behind where the choir sits) were removed. Some of the pipes were original to the organ. Made of over 90% lead, these pipes were the "foundation" colors, sounds that made up the general sound of the organ. They weren’t particularly beautiful to the ear, not attractive to look at, and not much hope to improve on them. Typically, old lead pipes, that have no real re-use, get recycled, melted down, and used for more safe uses of lead. All of these pipes will be replaced by newer "spotted metal," tin, and zinc pipes. These pipes were residing in a beautiful Schantz pipe organ in a church in Miami, a church who has decided not to use the pipe organ any more (a very sad day, in my opinion).
These vintage pipes, from the 1950s, represent some of the finest tonal pipe-work that Schantz ever made. We will pay a very minimal amount of money to clean them and voice them for St Paul’s. You can see some of them in the photo here. I am excited that in the next month or so, we will have them installed, hopefully resurrecting the gallery organ at the same time. It is said that the building of a cathedral is never complete, the scope, by nature, is open-ended; and the project will never be complete. I would venture a guess that the same thing can be said for the building of a pipe organ. It has been a joy to see the organ at St Paul’s GROW and morph into a substantial instrument.
Thank you to all of you who have given to the organ fund. Thank you, thank you! Let the organ at St Paul’s continue to stir us, lead us, sustain us. And, as J.S. Bach wrote on so many of his musical scores: S.D.G. It stands for Soli Deo Gloria: to God alone the Glory!
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