Wayne church makes sound investment

WAYNE, Neb. — The organ situated high above Grace Lutheran Church’s sanctuary was built 30 years ago.

But the instrument’s design harkens back to the days of Beethoven or Bach — when organs used pipes and air instead of electronic devices to produce sound.

Now the congregation is preparing to celebrate the organ’s “birthday” with a concert and celebration Sunday.

Manufactured by the Casavant Frères in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada, the organ operates using a technique called “tracker action,” which incorporates a mechanical linkage between keys or pedals pressed by the organist and the valve that allows air to flow into pipes of the corresponding note.

While this type of organ was the norm years ago, most of today’s organs use electricity to connect the key to the valve.

“It’s a more expensive way of building organs,” said the Rev. Carl Lilienkamp, senior pastor of Grace Lutheran.

The organ cost around $135,000 in 1979. Today, Lilienkamp estimates it’s worth around $800,000.

“They could have gotten three electronic organs for the price,” he said.

Had it not been for a persistent minister, Grace Lutheran probably would have had an electronic organ, too.

By the mid-1970s, the organ, which was installed in 1951, needed to be replaced, said Allan Wittig, who was on the committee commissioned with buying a new organ.

The Rev. John Upton, who served at the church at the time and was “musically inclined,” convinced the committee, and eventually the congregation, that buying a mechanical organ was an investment, Wittig said.

Voters approved the idea in October 1977, but the organ wasn’t installed until the spring of 1979. It took that long for the Casavant company to build the instrument, assemble it, make sure it was working properly, take it apart, transport it to Nebraska and reassemble it, Lilienkamp said.

Since then, the mammoth instrument — which weighs more than 6,000 pounds — has filled much of the church’s balcony. It contains 2,080 pipes ranging in size from one-half inch to more than 8 feet.

The organ’s “voice” is controlled by 30 “stops” that are manually adjusted to control the amount of air that flows through the pipes.

The resulting sound can imitate the high pitch of a flute, the majestic tones of a trumpet or the low vibrations of a bass or cello.

On a recent morning, Bonnie Hanson played a number of classical pieces and hymns on the organ by manipulating four sets of keys — including the pedals — and the stops that are situated on either side of the keyboard.

Every move had an impact on the resulting sound.

“You have to know what stop to pull if you want the melody line to be louder or softer,” the Carroll, Neb., woman said.

That’s important when playing for congregational singing, she said, as the organ shouldn’t drown out the voices.

In addition to its impressive look and sound, the instrument has the advantage of being virtually maintenance free, needing only regular tuning. And its life expectancy is hundreds of years, compared with several decades for an electronic instrument.

For that, Lilienkamp and the parishioners at Grace Lutheran Church are grateful.

“It’s an investment in music that goes beyond the ages,” he said.