Trinity Church Music Program
Trinity Church has a vibrant music program highlighted by our music director, Jim Smith, the Trinity Church Choir and many talented Trinity Church member musicians.
During the academic year, the Trinity Church Choir performs every Sunday at the 11:00 a.m. service providing a program of traditional sacred music. Several times during the year, the Choir performs Evensongs and other special programs open to the community.
Music News
The Choir
The Trinity choir is also back after a well-deserved summer holiday. We are happy to welcome our new soprano section leader, Tracy Sturgis, a teacher at Settlement Music School and a graduate of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Music this year will include Spirituals as well as music from the Russian Orthodox liturgical tradition.
The Organ
After a few weeks of vacation at the shop of Colin Walsh, our organ console came back to Trinity in mid-September, ready for a year of hard work after a well-deserved refurbishment. The console is now equipped with the latest digital equipment, including a combination action with 25 levels of memory. Aging contacts were replaced and the console was made ready to receive seven new ranks of pipes. The second phase of the project will be raising the money to complete this work. Please consider a contribution to the special fund for renovations to the organ when considering memorial or thank offerings. [See Organ Renewal Project, below]
Organ Renewal Project
Since the 1970s Trinity Church has been well served by an organ purchased from Casavant Frères, Canada. While the intrument is well made and well voiced, it was one of the smallest practice room models that Casavant made at that time. The organ as it is now is a beautiful and worthy instrument, but one with many gaps in its tonal range, thus limiting possibilities for choral accompaniments as well as the amount and type of repertoire that can be successfully played on the instrument. Further, the console (the desk from which the instrument is played) had begun to show the wear and tear that could be expected from a 30 year-old instrument.
The Immediate Problem
the console had begun to show the wear and tear that could be expected from a 30 year-old instrument
The question of the console was addressed by the vestry in the summer and fall of 2004. The firm of Colin Walsh Pipe Organs, which has had the contract for service and maintenance of the instrument, was awarded a contract for the necessary repairs. These include replacing all the contacts in the keyboards, a rebuilding of the combination action (the device which permits the organist to change his selection of stops with one action of the hand or foot) and the application of the latest digital technology.
The Future
At the same time, Jim Smith, our organist and director of music, brainstormed with Mr. Walsh about possibilities for rendering the Trinity organ more flexible and useful for the accompaniment of the choir and congregation during the parish's liturgies and special musical events. The agreed upon changes and additions are prepared for in the renovated console, i.e., blank stop tablets will be provided for them. These changes fall roughly into two classes.
Five completely new stops are planned for the organ as well as electronic downward extension of several existing stops
- The rewiring of the chests to make the existing stops available in more places on the console and at various pitch levels. This device, known as unification or "borrowing," is often avoided by organ builders because it does not correspond with the ideals of earlier centuries, ideals which were strictly adhered to by zealous organ reformers in the mid-Twentieth Century. When dealing with an instrument with so few resources, as is the case at Trinity, judicious unification would permit much more flexibility.
- The addition of new stops or ranks of pipes. This measure, which is of course the costliest part of the project, would further fill in the "tonal holes" in the instrument in a way that unification cannot. The construction of new chests (the boxes on which the pipes sit and where the wind waits to be admitted to the pipe) represents a good portion of the expense. Five completely new stops are planned for the organ as well as electronic downward extension of several existing stops.
Why Now?
the parish and its music program have outgrown the organ as it now stands
The repairs to the console, already funded and engaged to, are absolutely necessary to maintain the instrument in playing condition. But there is also a sense in which the parish and its music program have outgrown the organ as it now stands. Time and again parishioners point out the importance of music in worship, and Trinity is blessed with one of the most dedicated and accomplished choirs in the area. Further, our church building has excellent acoustics for music performance and is often in demand as a venue for Philadelphia area musicians. The cost of an entirely new pipe organ would be prohibitive, but the changes proposed are affordable, would take advantage of the excellent musical qualities already possessed by the instrument and would be highly effective relative to their cost. Moreover, one only need to look at the improvements being made thanks to the Imagine Trinity project to know that there is an increased commitment to the practical function of our buildings and to their esthetics. Wouldn't it be wonderful to extend that renewal and to make our organ a fit instrument for Trinity's needs?
How Much Will it Cost?
Some funds for this purpose have already been received
The upgrade work, exclusive of the console renewal already approved by the vestry, will come to about $70,000. Some funds for this purpose have already been received. A committee composed of Trinity Church music enthusiasts will begin looking into raising the rest of the funds. One or two fund-raising projects, perhaps including a concert, will be planned. We hope to raise the remainder of the funds with memorial and other gifts.
Please contact Jim
Smith or John
Ogden for more information.
Swarthmore Area Music Links
John Alston is a favorite guest singer with the Trinity Church Choir. He also directs the Chester Children's Chorus. If you ever get the opportunity to attend one of their performances, don't pass it up!