The search committee gradually narrowed down possible fabricators until it developed a short list of three. “Then we just went and did site visits to see and hear their instruments,” Bliley said.
Front-and-center for the cathedral was how to responsibly use the considerable amount of money allotted for the organ project.
“It was not so much about what’s going to cost the least,” Bliley said. Rather, the committee was focused on “what’s going to be the best use of the resources that go towards the organ long-term.”
“People are making donations,” Kenny-Urban said. “How do we use these responsibly for something that will last centuries?”
‘The majesty and gentleness of God himself’
Before the organ can last centuries, it must be perfectly fitted to the cathedral’s majestic space and acoustics. That involves not just installing the organ correctly but “sounding” it, or ensuring that its thousands of pipes work correctly and interact with the church’s soaring architecture.
“We have to go through every single one of those and make small adjustments so that it sounds its best in this particular room,” Ross said. “That process itself is two-and-a-half to three months of work.”
The sounders will work in teams of two to three people, 12 hours a day, six days a week, Ross said.
Robin Côté, the president of Juget-Sinclair who first started working at the shop in 2002, said the “magic [of organ-making] is in small details.”
“The artist that is making a portrait of somebody; it could be well done, but it could [also] be really, really impressive,” he told CNA. “You know, the treatment of the light, or small textures on the face.”
“It’s hard to define exactly what really makes a work of art outstanding,” he said. “So that’s what we are trying to do. We are searching for an idea. We have a musical idea in mind. We are searching for sound, searching for how the instrument reacts to our fingers.”
“We have a vision, but then we have to adapt our vision to the space,” he said of the sounding process.
Father Tony Marques, the rector of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, told CNA that the organ’s “power, range, and finesse reflect the majesty and gentleness of God himself.”
“The instrument also mirrors the Church’s response to God, as we praise him with all that he has given us: our longing for beauty and our ingenuity that produces mellifluous sounds,” Marques said.
He pointed to Vatican Council II document Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, which states that the pipe organ “is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to higher things.”
“Significantly,” Marques said, “the case of the new pipe organ resembles the Cathedral’s façade — a reminder that the purpose of the instrument is to enliven the Church’s prayer.”
Ross stressed the intensive and demanding amount of work that has gone into drafting, constructing, assembling, and fine-tuning the organ.
“Thirteen people spent two years of their life working full time to build this organ,” he said. “And so there’s a certain sort of attachment that comes with that, at least for me. I sort of see all the instruments that we build as having their own personality.”
Bliley said the basic construction of the organ is “based off of old-world technology that’s still working and playing” centuries after it was first built. The cathedral’s new organ, he said, “should be here for a long time.”
Marques, meanwhile, said the towering majesty of the organ will continually bring people closer to God.
“This grand instrument will almost touch the cathedral’s ceiling,” he said, “lifting minds and hearts upward, to heaven.”
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
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