Let The Organ Play

You not only hear the notes of the huge 1896 Kimball pneumatic organ housed in the relatively small Union Sunday School building in Clermont, Iowa, you feel  them. It is an uplifting experience, a testament to the fact that organs have been used for so long to evoke emotion as they call people to worship.

As I sat near the keyboard watching four organists -- Steve Story of Hawkeye, Sally Boie of Hawkeye, Marvin Kerr of North Liberty and Otter Dreaming of Decorah -- ply their craft, I also felt the love they have for this great instrument,  the largest of its kind in existence today.

This concert (see today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette) was billed as a farewell, as a "'Till We Meet Again" program. The organ will be disassembled and refurbished this winter by nationally known Dobson Pipe Organ Builders Ltd. of Lake City, Iowa, to return again for the first concert next year, tentatively scheduled for April 25. 

"It's an honor to play it," Steve says. "An honor to be asked. It is steeped in history."

The organ was purchased by former Gov. William Larrabee for his daughter, Anna, who played it into the 1960s. It is one of many gifts Larrabee gave to Clermont including his Montauk mansion, the Larrabee school and  a statue of Abraham Lincoln that stands in its own park.

If you love the sound of a full organ and have not heard this one, you owe it to yourself to stop at one of the free will concerts next year. With 1,554 pipes, some as tall as 16 feet, this organ puts out a sound like no other.

Played for church services until the regular services ended in 1966, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and acquired by the State Historical Society of Iowa in 1976. Once it was restored in 1979 and re-dedicated in 1980, a regular concert series began.

Valued at upwards of a half million dollars, the organ requires regular maintenance for all of its intricate parts. The problem lately has been that screws used in the 1979 restoration have rusted, preventing some of the pipe valves from closing all the way, causing them to "whisper." These ghost noises can make it seem as though the organist has hit wrong notes -- not something anyone wants to hear.

Once it has been refurbished again, I  have no doubts that it will play as good as new, as good as it did 113 years ago. That's when it will be at its best, when anyone who treasures organ music should stop to take a listen.