Treasures in our midst: 
The historic pipe organs of Eastern Ontario

The Review speaks to two musicians who worry that the historic Casavant organs of Eastern Ontario could slip through our fingers before we realize their true value.

By Jean Sarrazin

Many people dream of discovering a Stradivarius violin in their attics, but many church congregations in Eastern Ontario are in exactly that position; of having a treasure in their midst – that dusty old pipe organ up in the choir loft – without being aware of its true value.

This lack of awareness of the value and historical significance of the many century-old (and older) Casavant pipe organs in our region is the primary reason that these treasures are in danger of disappearing. Other reasons include declining church populations and the scarcity of funds that goes hand-in-hand with those smaller congregations.

Dwindling congregations have resulted in many local churches closing and the sell-off of church buildings which have taken place over the last few years in Western Quebec and Eastern Ontario.

And if the old church buildings hold little or no value for society, then it is no surprise that the church’s contents – the sculptures, stained glass panels, religious artifacts and of course, the organs, also appear to have little value.

But the news is not all bad. Bucking the trend is a small but growing number of congregations which are realizing the value of what they have and are taking steps to preserve their historic buildings and their contents.

In 2007, Alexandria’s St-Finnan’s Cathedral and Ste-Anne-de-Prescott Catholic Church both had their Casavant Freres pipe organs recognized as being historically significant by two different organizations. The Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) and the Organ Historical Society (OHS) of America issued certificates attesting to the importance of these two instruments; the opus 284 Alexandria organ built in 1907, and Ste-Anne’s opus 85 organ built in 1897.

The RCCO awarded Ste-Anne-de-Prescott’s 1897 Casavant a Class A citation which means the instrument must still be in its original condition and have been built before 1930. The wind supply may be powered electrically but the original blowing system must still be intact. No changes can have been made to the organ’s chests, tonal work, console, wind system, or organ case. (photo J. Sarrazin)

The Review spoke to two local musicians who were instrumental in having the Ste-Anne Casavant officially distinguished as historically significant; Vankleek Hill resident Richard Hague and Dr. Bruce Wheatcroft of Glen Nevis.

Hague co-directs the Amaryllis Women’s Choir with his partner, Carol Hague. Wheatcroft is an internationally-acclaimed organist who is co-owner with his partner, William Hutton, of the Abbey for the Arts in Glen Nevis. Both Hague and Wheatcroft have very definite positions on the value of these heritage instruments.

Internationally acclaimed organist Dr. Bruce Wheatcroft performs Noël Écossais (A. Guilmant) on St-Eugene’s 1893 Casavant organ as part of the Amarylis Women’s Choir Christmas Concert which took place in the church on December 2, 2007. (photo J. Sarrazin)

The future of these and other old instruments has been close to Hague’s heart for years. His father built several harpsichords from scratch and Hague still has one under wraps in his living room. His blood pressure still rises when he talks about what remains of a 1901 Casavant that used to provide music for a Vankleek Hill church. Most of that instrument found itself in a junk heap on the sidewalk outside of the church and all that remains of Casavant Freres Opus 148 is a rack of silent pipes still standing in the church sanctuary. 
It was Hague who convinced Lucie Brunet of Ste-Anne-de-Prescott to apply to the two organizations (RCCO and the OHS) to have the church’s organ considered for accreditation and it was Hague who introduced Wheatcroft to Brunet for his considerable encouragement and support in putting together the necessary documentation for that application.

Wheatcroft has been quietly working in the background to help raise public awareness about the hidden treasure that the old pipe organs of Eastern Ontario and West Quebec represent. The Stradivarius metaphor referred to earlier is one of Wheatcroft’s favourite ways of explaining the magnitude of what is sometimes being overlooked right under people’s noses in the region.

Wheatcroft says the vintage organs are valuable to the community because they are a direct link to that community’s history. He says like historic buildings or art or music, organs are an accurate reflection of the people and the culture of the time period from which they originate.

The fact that some of the region’s church buildings are being deconsecrated and closed down to be sold and/or re-purposed represents a double jeopardy for heritage church organs. This is because a pipe organ and the hall it has been built for are almost inseparable. It is the sound of the organ in its acoustic space that we have come to identify as the "church-organ" sound. It may be quite obvious to us that a church without an organ cannot achieve that particular sound, but it may be less obvious that an organ without a church cannot create that sound on its own, either

Wheatcroft’s dissertation for his doctoral degree was about acoustics in the worship space and

he believes that when we listen to the music of a heritage organ, say one that was built around 1850 (and there are a couple of those in the region), the sounds you hear reflect a specific time and place. In other words we would be listening to exactly the same sounds that would have emanated from that instrument’s pipes back when Canada was just becoming a country.

"If you have an Edwardian style of music or a Victorian style of music, then the organ sounds that you hear when you step inside the building will reflect the sound of the music and the intent of the composer of that period in time," continues Wheatcroft who waxes poetic when he tries to describe the uniqueness of the sound of the early Casavant instruments. For him, the foundational pitches of the early Casavants have "a lovely, rich, smooth, dark-chocolate kind of colour," and he smacks his lips as he says this.

As sad as the earlier example was of a piece of Vankleek Hill history being lost for all time, with the partial dismantling of the St-Gregoire Roman Catholic Church organ, an even more disturbing example of abandonment and destruction surfaced during the research for this article.

In September of 2005 The Review reported on plans to demolish l’Église Saint-Julien in Lachute, which had been built for the community by the Ayers family in the 1930's. A Casavant Freres organ – opus number 1586 – was built for that church in 1938.

The various reports of damage done to the church by vandals after it was closed in 1996 are disheartening enough but images that have surfaced on the internet of what was done to the church’s Casavant are truly disturbing. . .

This image shows what is left of the organ’s console and keyboard after it was pushed from the organ loft onto the marble floor, far below. (photo courtesy Exploration Urbaine) 

This photograph shows the remains of St-Julien's organ pipes, strewn about the organ loft; bent and broken and flattened. (photo courtesy Exploration Urbaine)

The two images above are posted at  Exploration Urbaine - a web site dedicated to exploring the interior of abandoned but historically significant buildings. 

Ernest Champagne, a member of the Comité de Sauvegarde de l’Église Saint-Julien de Lachute – a group of parishioners dedicated to saving their church from the wrecker’s ball – appeared before the Quebec National Assembly’s Commission on Culture in September of 2005.

Unfortunately, by September, 2005, even the parishioners were prepared to admit that it was too late to save Saint-Julien, the irreversible damage had already been done but they were appearing before the commission to plead that policies be put in place by the Quebec government to protect other churches and their historic contents from dying similar deaths.

Locally, there is still much work to be done if the historic organs are to be saved. Wheatcroft says the certificates of merit are just "a good first step". He acknowledges that funds are tight for the smaller congregations but he encourages them to do their best to sustain and maintain the organs until the funding to restore them comes along - and he is confident that it will.

"I’ve seen that happen, over and over. Somebody will step forward and say, ‘I think this is important and I’m going to help you’."

Internationally-acclaimed organist Dr. Bruce Wheatcroft (at the keyboard) and his partner William Hutton (in the mirror) are co-owners of the Abbey for the Arts in Glen Nevis. We see them checking out the sound of the pipe organ in l’Église St-Albert. 

Wheatcroft believes that public awareness is key to preserving the heritage organs and that saving them will also have a larger impact far beyond the musical value of the instruments. 

The Casavant brothers built 50 organs in the year 1923, including opus number 1,000 for a Presbyterian congregation on Madison Avenue in New York City. Above we see opus 1,011, built the same year in l’Église paroissiale de Plantagenet. (photo J. Sarrazin)

"The organ is really a catalyst, it has a spin off for the church, it has a spin off for the community that all of these people are a part of - it’s all positive, it’s all good," says Wheatcroft, "When people recognize that there is a treasure in their midst, there is an enormous swelling of the chest that says, ‘I’m proud’."

The pipe organ in l’Église St-Albert.  -- opus 45, built in 1894 -- was among the first fifty of the thousands of organs built by the Casavant brothers starting in 1880. (photo J. Sarrazin)

In December, the author accompanied Wheatcroft, Hutton and Hague along with organ tuner and technician Sylvain Brisson of Embrun on a small tour of some churches in the region to ascertain the state of their Casavant organs. The tour revealed that most of the instruments in the region are in need of some kind of repair and restoration work. In one location the oboe pipes were missing, in another the original ivory keys had been replaced with modern plastic ones, in yet another church part of the inner workings of the organ had been taken apart and not put back together again.

Brisson says he is confident that most of these problems can be corrected and he will be working on various organs over the coming months to make them performance-ready. The ad hoc group of musicians hopes that Brisson is right because plans are under way to produce a recording featuring Wheatcroft performing on at least six or seven of these historic organs. The CD is tentatively planned for release in the fall of 2008.

Rockland's first Casavant, opus 413, built in 1910 was destroyed by fire. ’Église Trés Sainte-Trinité of Rockland is now home to Casavant brothers opus 765, built in 1918. This beautiful sanctuary escaped the impact that the church's modernizing reforms of the 1960s had on some other churches. (photo J. Sarrazin)

AUDIO: 
Listen to audio recordings of two of the region's 
heritage organs.

Ste-Anne-de-Prescott’s 1897 Casavant organ Opus # 85:
Ottawa organist Gilles Maurice Leclerc performs an improvisation on a theme provided to him by fellow organist Dr. Bruce Wheatcroft at a recital the celebrate the designation of the instrument as being historically significant by the RCCO and the OHS. The sound clip begins with an introduction by Dr. Wheatcroft in English and a French translation by Lucie Brunet to set up Leclerc's improvisation.

St-Eugene’s 1893 Casavant organ Opus # 38:
Internationally acclaimed organist Dr. Bruce Wheatcroft performs Noël Écossais (A. Guilmant) as part of the Amarylis Women’s Choir Christmas Concert which took place in the church on December 2, 2007.

Photo gallery: click here 
Images of three of the region's heritage organs;
’Église Très Sainte-Trinité of Rockland;
 l’Église St-Albert;
l’Église paroissiale de Plantagenet

LINKS:

The Organ Historical Society of America

The Royal Canadian College of Organists

The "Explorations Urbaines" web site (where the images of St-Julien’s destroyed Casavant organ and other photos of the church interior are posted)

See gallery of l’Église Saint-Julien de Lachute photos from 
The Review archives, taken in September, 2005.

The Quebec National Assembly’s Commission on Culture September, 2005 meeting attended by Ernest Champagne, on behalf of the Comité de Sauvegarde de l’Église Saint-Julien de Lachute -- complete minutes

List of downloadable documents presented to the Quebec Commission on Culture including Champagne's presentation.

View the 37-page PDF document of the Comité de Sauvegarde de l’Église Saint-Julien de Lachute presentation made by Champagne to the Québec National Assembly’s Commission on Culture -- September, 2005.