Project 42

Parsons Pipe Organ Builder’s Opus 42 (completed in 2014) began its life as Casavant Frères Opus 1592, installed in 1938 at Most Holy Rosary Parish, Syracuse, New York, near the end of the Great Depression. Tied to Casavant’s generous scaling, the cavernous nature and excellent acoustics of the Most Holy Rosary edifice allowed the relatively small 14 rank organ to serve the basic needs of the parish for an extended period of time. Some 75 years later, the organ required restoration and the addition of tonal resources to increase its versatility for leading worship. Under the careful guidance of Fr. Fred Mannara, the Parish entered into a contract with Parsons Pipe Organ Builders to maintain the existing character of the organ while doubling its size.

The Great, Swell and Pedal divisions of the organ are housed in existing chambers located directly behind the baldachin. The Choir division is situated in an adjacent gallery located in close proximity to the Great. No exposed pipes exist in the organ. The chambers themselves are particularly curious because they are deep, oddly shaped, and contained a variety of tonal obstacles. To ensure effective tonal egress into the worship space, the organ structure and winding systems were reconfigured and new 2 ¼” thick expression louvers were built for both the Swell and the Great divisions to maximize both the available tone openings and the effective dynamic change that shades should offer. As with all our remanufacturing projects, our designs provide suitable maintenance access for all components and wide passage boards for tuning; a huge improvement over what existed.

The organ utilizes a Virtuoso solid-state control system. Additionally, the wiring and fusing systems were upgraded to meet the new requirements of the NEC. To ensure stable tuning, a micro-climate system was installed that provides gentle heat in the isolated chambers and fans for air circulation to ensure temperature in the chambers track with that in the chambers.

While decidedly romantic in its tonal makeup, additions to the organ include upper-work, mixtures and mutations that combine in extraordinary fashion with the existing registers and give the organist considerable leeway in registering service music and the majority of the organ literature. In particular, the addition of a high-pressure reed (Tromba) that plays in the Great, Choir and Pedal divisions adds an element of grandeur found lacking in the original installation.

The French-terraced style three-manual and pedal drawknob console features manual keyboards with bone naturals and ebony sharps. Bloodwood was used for the key frames and stop jambs providing an interesting contrast to the stained white oak console. The console is moveable, but is typically positioned behind the baldachin and in front of the choir stalls. When required, the console moves easily from its “home” location to any position on the sanctuary platform.

Parsons Pipe Organ Builders wishes to thank Fr. Fred Mannara, Pastor and Mr. Paul Burgay, Music Director for their invaluable assistance. We are also grateful for the help of Chris Broome who provides both new and rebuilt reeds for many of our instruments and Mr. Jonathan Ambrosino, who collaborated on the tonal design and finishing of the instrument.