Judy: Pipe organs have a storied
history throughout western
civilization, but demand for the
king of instruments has seen a
steady decline in recent
decades.
Special correspondent Fred de
Sam Lazaro reports on one
attempt to change that.
His report, from collegeville,
Minnesota, is part of our arts
and culture series, canvas.
[Bells tolling]
Fred: The bells Harold a new day
at St. John's, a monastic and
college community nestled on
3000 acres of lake and forest in
central Minnesota.
But on this September day, the
attention was on sounds coming
from inside the abbey church.
[Organ music]
>> It is really, really
stunning.
[Organ music]
Fred: World-renowned organist
Stephen Carr was rehearsing for
the inaugural concert on an
instrument that has been newly
expanded to flood this
sanctuary.
>> Is a surprise for people who
perhaps have never heard an
organ recital and wonder where
all of the sound and color is
coming from, because you cannot
see it.
Most of what you will hear is
behind this red scrim.
I've never seen anything like
it.
Fred: I got a chance to peek
behind the screen thanks to
Casey Maren.
>> All of this below the level
of the second floor is the
original organ.
It works beautifully for what it
was built to do.
It just wasn't quite powerful
enough for this room.
Fred: A St. John's graduate and
organ builder himself, he has
maintained this one for 45
years.
>> You can tell that is in tune.
We ended up preserving the old
instrument and building upon it.
The new organ tops it off and
gives it the extra power it
needed.
[Organ sounds]
Fred: Many instruments use
mechanical pumps to send air
through pipes but this one uses
electronic signals.
To tune it, he uses a phone app.
>> On the control side, things
were up currently with the
technology.
On the sound side, we were back
centuries.
Fred: The pipe organ dates back
to ancient Greece and its
industrial scale evolution came
long before the industrial
revolution.
>> In its earliest incarnations,
it made more noise than pretty
much anything before gunpowder.
Fred: Michael Baroni is a
leading historian on the organ
and host of a radio program,
pipe dreams.
>> Certainly someone who lives
in the countryside, a farmer
come into a gothic cathedral,
and hearing the organ sound,
nothing has been comparable in
their life.
It is astonishing.
Fred: It is godlike.
>> Indeed, it it has been
thought to represent the voice
of god.
Fred: The more hefty the sound,
the heftier the voice of god and
better.
They went from three keyboards
to four, and from 3000 pipes to
about 6000 >> The organ is like
a small city of 6000 people.
6000 pipes.
Half of them were kind of
homesteaders when the church was
built and the other half came in
in the last couple years.
Fred: Thousands of pipes,
everyone handcrafted by a team
led by martin.
>> Scrape off the paint.
Fred: He has worked for three
decades out of a converted
schoolhouse near Tacoma,
Washington.
The larger base or lower end
pipes are milled from hardwoods.
Some as tall as 32 feet and
weigh up to 850 pounds.
Up the treble scale with tin and
lead pipes, rolled, soldered and
tapered by hand.
>> Now I have it ready to go on
the voicing machine.
Fred: He relies on electronics
to confirm what his ear is
telling him, that the pipe is
sounding the right no.
The typical organ like the one
at St. John's takes up to two
years to build, ship and
reassemble in its permanent
home.
An exacting, increasingly rare
craft.
Only a few builders remain in
business in America, most of
them older, like martin, who
trained in his native Austria
before immigrating to the U.S.
Four decades ago.
It was while he was installing
the organ at saint Martins --
St. John's, he had time for
reflection, at about age 60, who
would succeed him.
The idea, why not move the whole
operation to St. John's abbey?
He is in his hopes on a campus
of thousands of students with a
history of woodworking.
Most of the organ is crafted
from sustainable forests.
Fred: -- >> People will come up
and that makes all of the
difference, they have skill with
their hands but also the
attitude.
Fred: A passion for the
instrument?
>> Yes, a passion for the
instrument, a passion for the
work people do with their hands.
Fred: Sometime next year, he and
his fellow craftsmen will move
into a newly expanded were
working -- woodworking shop.
For one of the monks, it is a
silken glove fit.
>> Our commitment to music and
communal singing, communal using
making, is an embrace of what
the monastic tradition has
offered for many centuries, and
hopefully sustains us into the
future.
>> Are you ready to play?
>> As long as I am here.
>> Ladies and gentlemen, welcome
to nights -- tonight's featured
artist.
[Organ music]
Fred: This concert was a kickoff
event into that future.
[Singing]
In a nod to the benedictine
tradition of gregorian chants,
he recruited a trio of monks.
Through the evening, he brought
out the impressive range and
capability of the new organ.
[Organ music]
In a building that defied church
tradition, on an instrument that
is arousing embrace of it.
For the pbs newshour, this is
Fred de Sam Lazaro in Minnesota.
Judy: You have to be in awe of
what they are doing.
Thank you.
Fred's reporting is a
partnership with the undertold
stories project at the
university of St. Thomas, in
Minnesota.
♪♪