Getting Organ-ized

Our piano teacher invited her students to attend an organ workshop presented by our local chapter of the American Guild of Organists (who knew there was such a thing?).  It was held at a chapel in Provo with a cool tracker organ.  The kids were told about the history and unique nature of the organ, they saw the pipes and other guts of the instrument, and everyone had the opportunity to play the it.  The workshop was followed up with pizza in the Relief Society room, of course.

(source for these pictures)

It's hard to see in this picture, but the words "Glory To God In The Highest" are carved
at the top of the woodwork, which was done by members of the stake when the organ was built.
D&C 25:12 is also quoted in a block below the pipes.

Because the keys and pedals are directly attached to the pipes on this organ, the organist
faces away from the chorister and congregation.  The wooden rectangles above the music stand
open to reveal mirrors the organist uses to see the chorister.

I was impressed by the interest a young organ enthusiast had in the organ, and found the blog post he published about the organ a couple of years ago.  Read the entire post HERE.  I included an excerpt below, describing the organ in the Provo Utah Central Stake Center.

The late Doug Bush, a former professor of organ at BYU and member of the Provo Central Stake Presidency pushed to have this tracker-action organ made by M. L. Bigelow & Company of American Fork, Utah ordered as the replacement to the stake's aging electronic organ in the 1980's.

A tracker action organ is basically an organ that is entirely mechanical. This is the type of organ played by Bach and Mozart, and was used before it was possible to have an electropneumatic action. Basically, all the pipes are connected to the keys by wires, and by thin pieces of wood called trackers. It's interesting, since when you activate more stops, the keys get harder to press. Also, when you couple 2 of the manuals together, or couple one or more of them to the pedals, keys go down that you aren't playing.

During Cat's turn at the organ, she played Pachelbel's Canon in D, which she's been working on in her piano lessons.  She thought it was really cool and now wants to learn to play organ.  She admits that it's the challenge of it that she finds attractive.

We invited one of Cat's piano-playing soccer-team friends to
attend the workshop also, and they both really enjoyed it.