Music History

Real pipe organs are becoming increasingly rare, as churches and other institutions are forced by budgetary restrictions to opt for the less expensive and easier-to-maintain electronic organ. Any organ expert — or even novice — will tell you there is simply no comparison. Whereas electronic organs are mass-produced in factories to create generic sounds, each pipe organ is unique, designed specifically for a certain listening space. PipeOrgans.com describes the difference as “analogous to the difference of monophonic sounds compared to stereophonic sounds multiplied many, many times over.”

The organ at Christ Church was designed and built by Cole and Woodberry in 1898 — the same time the church itself was built — and comprises 1,734 pipes and two manuals. A third manual has never been operational, but stands ready should the church choose to expand and add more pipes to accommodate it. Cole and Woodberry were organ builders who operated in the Boston area from 1870 to around 1924.

Horatio Parker, then the organist at Trinity Church in Boston, approved the specifications for the organ. Although recognized as a fine composer himself, Parker is best remembered as the teacher of Charles Ives, one of America’s greatest composers.

1925. When the chancel of Christ Church was completely revised with the wood panels and present altar, the organ was renovated as well — this time by Hook and Hastings, a Boston-area company (1827–1935) considered in its day the premier organ builder in America.

1981. The Morel Organ Company of Arlington, Massachusetts completed the most recent renovations, at a cost of more than $18,000 — opening several of the wooden panels to increase sound projection and adding entirely new stops to the organ’s repertoire. Thomas Murray, the internationally renowned American organist then serving as music director at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, gave the dedication recital on September 27, 1981, describing the refurbished organ as “most adequate [an instrument] for the support of hearty congregational singing and artistic accompaniment of the choir.”