Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., Lake City, Iowa
Church of St. Peter Claver,
West Hartford, Connecticut
Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Lake City, Iowa, has completed its Op. 85 for the Church of St. Peter Claver in West Hartford, Connecticut. The parish, founded in 1966, erected a church in 1969 to the designs of John Riley of the firm of Russell, Gibson and von Dohlen of West Hartford. Peter Claver, a Jesuit priest, spent forty years in Cartagena, Colombia, in the early 1600s, ministering to slaves shipped there from Africa. To recall this service, the design of the church evokes the hold of a ship, an image familiar to slaves, with light being admitted from a latticed skylight above.
As originally built, St. Peter Claver was supplied with an electronic organ and wall-to-wall carpeting. But the organ project, undertaken in 2006 at the initiative of Tim Stella, St. Peter Claver Director of Music, and Ezequiel Menendez, Director of Music at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, was part of a renewal of the church building, including enhancements such as a tile floor. The musicians, originally located at the front near the altar, were given a dedicated space at the rear of the church. While this proved advantageous in many ways, it required the organ to be placed under the lowest point of the ceiling, with the added vexation of two roof trusses passing through the space. Because the ceiling is low, the case design is a horizontal, rather than vertical, composition. The Great Prestant 8′, the organ’s single principal stop at 8′, wouldn’t fill the façade from side to side, so Lynn Dobson created groups of pipes that float in front of a neutral wooden screen. The organ case, made of white oak with a natural finish, is slightly folded in the middle like a book, making a very shallow V that fits gracefully into the corner and embraces the choir. The screen behind the horizontal wooden ribs is a muted blue, while the exposed pipes of the Pedal Bourdon 16′ are painted a burgundy color.
Though the organ budget was not large, the church renovations significantly improved the acoustic, greatly enhancing the effectiveness of the organ and all musical sounds created in that space. The stoplist provides all of the basics: a complete principal chorus on the Great, a lesser chorus capped by the principal-like Gemshorn on the Swell, a variety of flutes including the ingredients for a jeu de tierce on the Swell, a pair of strings, and a reed in each division. In addition to the normal unison couplers, there is a Swell to Great 16′ coupler, which greatly increases registrational possibilities. Principals, strings and reeds are made of 75% or 52% tin; flutes are made of 30% tin or poplar. The organ is voiced on 75 millimeters wind pressure, supplied by a blower within the organ case and regulated by a large weighted reservoir. Mechanical key and stop actions are provided for the manuals, and electric action for the two Pedal stops. The console is detached; built of white oak like the case, the console interior and music rack are trimmed with American black walnut and veneered with Carpathian elm burl.
The organ was dedicated in November 2007, and Ezequiel Menendez, assisted by his wife Mercedes Featherston, presented a dedicatory recital on October 20, 2008 that included works by Mendelssohn, Zipoli, Couperin, Hollins, Franck, Piazzolla, Ginastera and Bach.
—John Panning, Tonal Director
Dobson Pipe Organ Builders
GREAT – 58 notes
8′ Prestant
8′ Chimney Flute
4′ Octave
2′ Fifteenth
11⁄3′ Mixture IV
8′ Trumpet
Swell to Great 16′
Swell to Great 8′
SWELL – 58 notes (enclosed)
8′ Gedackt
8′ Salicional
8′ Celeste FF
4′ Principal
4′ Open Flute
22⁄3′ Nazard
2′ Gemshorn
13⁄5′ Tierce
8′ Oboe
PEDAL – 32 notes
16′ Subbass
8′ Bourdon (Subbass)
16′ Fagotto
8′ Trumpet (Fagotto)
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Tremulant (affects entire organ)
