Highwood Lutheran Church lays claim to having the oldest pipe organ in the Province of Alberta and the third oldest in Canada. The organ, Opus 81, was completed in 1870 by the J.H. and C.S. Odell Organ Company of New York. It was built for a Presbyterian church in the Village of Sing Sing (now Ossining), New York. It was obtained by Highwood from a Baptist church in Ossining in 1967. It has been recognized by the Historic Organ Committee of the Royal Canadian College of Organists as an historical instrument.
Highwood Lutheran's organ is a mechanical, tracker-action instrument. The organ has two manuals (keyboards) and a pedal-board. The manuals each have 58 keys and the pedal has 25 keys. There are 23 ranks, 4 couplers, 8 combination pistons, and approximately 1,200 individual pipes ranging in size from a few inches long to 16 feet long. It has three divisions, or sections, the Great Division, the Swell Division and the Pedal Division.
Our organ now has some “new” pipes. The pipes in the trumpet stop were not original to the Odell organ. They were replaced at some point in time with a French style set of pipes. In July 2017 we made an exchange of pipes with a Lutheran church in Regina to an English style set that is more compatible with the Odell pipes. These pipes were manufactured in 1856 by Johnson and Son Organ Company of New York, so they are actually older than the original Odell pipes. Organist Rick Vander Woude says “The sound seems to be fitting and it's giving a little bit more of that rounder brilliance to the full organ sound."
Although the organ comes to us from another place and time, it speaks to us boldly and clearly today in sounds that we can love and understand. It is ideally suited to the liturgy of the our church, for hymn-singing, and for accompanying our choir.
Highwood Lutheran's organ is a mechanical, tracker-action instrument. The organ has two manuals (keyboards) and a pedal-board. The manuals each have 58 keys and the pedal has 25 keys. There are 23 ranks, 4 couplers, 8 combination pistons, and approximately 1,200 individual pipes ranging in size from a few inches long to 16 feet long. It has three divisions, or sections, the Great Division, the Swell Division and the Pedal Division.
Our organ now has some “new” pipes. The pipes in the trumpet stop were not original to the Odell organ. They were replaced at some point in time with a French style set of pipes. In July 2017 we made an exchange of pipes with a Lutheran church in Regina to an English style set that is more compatible with the Odell pipes. These pipes were manufactured in 1856 by Johnson and Son Organ Company of New York, so they are actually older than the original Odell pipes. Organist Rick Vander Woude says “The sound seems to be fitting and it's giving a little bit more of that rounder brilliance to the full organ sound."
Although the organ comes to us from another place and time, it speaks to us boldly and clearly today in sounds that we can love and understand. It is ideally suited to the liturgy of the our church, for hymn-singing, and for accompanying our choir.
Rick Vander Woude has a blog page where he provides information on the service music for Sundays as well as additional music insight.
Rick Vander Woude plays the Easter hymn Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds
Rick Vander Woude plays the hymn Praise My Soul, The King of Heaven
A video explaining the construction of Opus 81 can be found here.