Lots of days I blog something that I have just learned hours or even minutes before. This isn’t one of those days – I learned this, oh, I don’t know, maybe three or four days ago.
We’re all familiar with the vertical pipes of the organs in the Tabernacle and the Conference Center. What I learned earlier this week is that organs sometimes have horizontal pipes that look like trumpets, projecting their sound directly into the church or concert hall. The term for such stops is (showing off my newfound knowledge here) en chamade.
But admitting my almost complete ignorance of organ construction isn’t the cat I’m letting out of the bag. This is:
The “Cathedral of the Rockies” (otherwise, the First United Methodist Church) of Boise, Idaho, recently added trumpets en chamade to their magnificent organ, and on May 3 they held a concert (program here) to dedicate that addition to the glory of God and in memory of John A. Wells, a Cathedral member and musician whose widow sponsored the purchase and installation of the “Wells Thunder En Chamade.” The concert was captured on video and you can view it here: Dedication of the Herald Trumpets.
Why, other than in the interest of fine music, would you want to view the video?
Because (and here’s the cat coming out of the bag) the Cathedral’s principal organist – whose part in this dedication concert runs from 36:13 to 1:00:25 — is David Young, who comments here at Keepa as David Y. And because (here’s another cat escaping, with David’s permission, finally) David is “the Phantom” who provided organ and piano recordings for the old Mormon Christmas music used for one of Keepa’s Advent features and for other occasional posts. Thanks, David.
Enjoy those few minutes of the organ recital. It’s fun, and informative … and has a Mormon angle.
This is great. Thanks, Ardis and David.
Wow! How wonderful. There’s a cool high-speed video of the installation of the “trumpets” at about minute 32 (just before David performs). (I haven’t watched much beyond that, yet.)
Very cool.
Wonderful!
Very enjoyable concert!
Meow. (Thanks, Ardis.)
Which just goes to show that if a lawyer dedicates himself to some useful art or trade he has a chance to make a positive contribution to the world after all. (Channeling my inner Brigham Young, tempered by doubts about just why did I decide to go to law school half a lifetime ago.)
Thanks, Ardis and David!
David, you need to toot your horn, or en charmade pipe, earlier. I was in Boise on May 4 for another concert. Had I known about this wonderful event, I would have gone a day earlier.
Ardis, thanks for sharing!
Wonderful, David! That was fun to watch!
Thanks, Amy. Thanks, all.
Fantastic. I was introduced to those “Moroni’s Trumpet” pipes because the pipe organ in the Barrus Concert Hall at Ricks College had them. But I didn’t know what they were called.