The Casavant Pipe Organ Project

St. Joseph’s Church in Salem has received an extraordinary donation of a marvelous Casavant pipe organ which had previously been owned by Pacific Lutheran University. Casavant is one of the world’s finest, most respected, and oldest organ building firms, with its organs in many of the largest cathedrals, churches, and other venues world-wide. As one example, in 2012 Casavant was selected to build the new large organ for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. To date, they have built 4000 organs worldwide. Our donated organ, now in storage, was built by Casavant in 1952, the same year our present parish church was being constructed.
 
Pacific Lutheran University built and dedicated in the 1990's its new Mary Baker Russell Music Center, part of which is the Lagerquist Concert Hall, which houses the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Organ, built by PLU alumnus Paul Fritts and Company, in Tacoma, a view blocks away from PLU (the organ was completed in 1998). That done, PLU went to work on the previous music center, to repurpose it. They needed to remove the organ because of this internal change at the school, in which the theater department was taking over various spaces that had belonged to the music department. The theater department had no need of the instrument, and due to limited space at the school, another home was needed for the organ. This change was occurring during the summer months, and the organ needed to be removed by the beginning of the fall term. Pacific Lutheran University first attempted to sell the instrument, but as the timeframe for sale was so short, it received no acceptable offers. Due to a number of connections with the Director of Music at St. Joseph’s Church in Salem, the university agreed to donate the organ to St. Joseph’s, provided that the church pay for the instrument’s removal and transport. This acquisition has a miraculous aspect to it, as to build a similar organ from scratch today would cost well over one million dollars. 

1. Much of the organ needs to be restructured to fit the church space, as the building in which it was previously housed is significantly different architecturally from St. Joseph’s church.

2. Each of the nearly 3000 pipes needs to be cleaned, adjusted, tuned, and voiced.

3. Leather on many of the pipes as well as on other components needs to be replaced.

4. Some new mechanical parts such as wind chests need to be constructed.

5. Some of the components on the organ console also need to be updated.

1. It is permanent, unlike electric organs. St. Joseph’s has had three electric organs in the last few decades alone.

2. It fulfills the original intentions of the people who built St. Joseph’s, as they constructed the church with a pipe organ in mind. We know this because much of the infrastructure (conduits, etc.) is already in place to allow for a pipe organ.

3. A pipe organ, especially one of this quality, will sound significantly better than an electric organ; it will feature direct sound naturally produced by air through pipes, instead of computer-generated sound wired through speakers.

4. It will benefit the church building also in terms of visual aesthetics. Pipes will give a sense of breadth and height in the choir loft, as well as beautifully framing the Christ the King stained glass window.

5. It would be one of the finest pipe organs in the state of Oregon when installed. Only a small handful of organs in the state would be in its class. As St. Joseph’s is the largest Catholic parish in the Archdiocese, the church ought to have an instrument which is appropriate to its role as a liturgical leader in the region.

6. The organ will be an outstanding resource for outreach and evangelization, as many people may be drawn to the parish because of this exceptional instrument.

7. Vatican Council II, Benedict XVI, and our own Archbishop Sample have all written at length on sacred music, and all of them discuss the importance of the pipe organ as the primary musical instrument in Catholic worship.

8. This organ would provide an outstanding resource for the training of young people who would wish to study the instrument.

9. The crisis in vocations to the priesthood has been to some extent caused by the lack of liturgical and musical quality across the United States. We need to inspire our young men to become priests by fostering quality in the sacred liturgy.

10. The fact of the reception of the organ as a donation impels the acquisition of funds needed for its installation; it is a gift from God!