James Dengler, Director of Music at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, plays the church’s organ for Mass and special services. The church will host a recital featuring a variety of French organ music at 3 p.m. Sunday. Donations will be accepted to support the church’s campaign to purchase and install a new organ.

By Holly Claycomb

hclaycomb@altoonamirror.com

A variety of French organ music will be presented during an organ recital at 3 p.m. Sunday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, 806 11th St., Altoona.

The concert, to support the church’s pipe organ campaign, will be performed by Claude Fabinyi, organist from First Lutheran Church, Altoona; Dylan Brown, a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Christine Clewell, associate professor of organ at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; and James Dengler, director of music at Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The concert is free of charge. All donations received will be put toward the new organ that is scheduled to be installed next fall, Dengler said.

The concert will be performed on the church’s current pipe organ, Dengler said, noting the console dates from the 1960s and, with a grin, said it has outlived its lifespan by about 30 years.

Not only has a new organ become a necessity as the old model has lost the ability to perform some of the sounds integral to an organ, but a remodeling project years ago covered up the Mount Carmel stained-glass window in the choir loft.

While the window is visible from the outside, the organ pipes cover nearly the entire window, allowing only a bit of light to shine through at the very top, Dengler said.

When the organ is replaced, the area will be opened up, allowing light to fully shine through the church’s namesake window, he said.

The project will also provide more space to accommodate the choir in the loft high above the congregation in the back of the church, he added.

“We’ll be putting the choir loft back the way it was before the early ’80s, when this pipe set up was installed,” Dengler said, pointing out the decorative pipes that front the main pipes and mechanics of the organ. Basically, the new organ will take up the same amount of space, but be spread apart in the middle and angled back to flank the window.

In preparation for the project, the church purchased an unused organ last year that is the same as the church’s current instrument. The pipes from that organ, coupled with the church’s current pipes and new ones being made by Viscount Organs in Mondiano, Italy, will be used to create a “hybrid” organ for the church, Dengler said, adding that Viscount Organs is the largest manufacturer of organs in the world.

It’s quite an undertaking, he said, noting the project wouldn’t be possible without the support of the congregation, corporate donors and the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

“There is no question that sacred music enhances the Liturgy,” said Tony DeGol, spokesman for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. “Second Vatican Council emphasized the importance of sung prayer as part of worship and recognized the power of voices uniting in praise of the Lord. The Bishops of the United States have also stressed the value of appropriate music as part of the Mass.”

The new organ will be a mix of pipes and digital technology and will be installed by Whitesel Church Organs, a third generation family-owned company in Virginia. The company has completed more than 2,200 organ installations and rebuilds throughout the United States, Dengler said, noting he traveled to Virginia to try out an organ similar to the one the church will receive.

He admits he wasn’t sold on the digital part of the project until he had the chance to hear the organ being played and found he couldn’t tell the difference between the manually-played flute and the digital version.

“The digitized sounds are voiced the same as the pipes,” he said, noting each pipe and each digital tone is individually voiced after the organ is installed.

Next year, once the pipes are shipped from Italy, and sometime after Easter services, the Mount Carmel organ will be dismantled and transported to Virginia where Whitesel will integrate the old pipes with the new and set up the organ.

Then, Dengler will go to the Virginia shop and play the organ as Whitesel makes adjustments.

The completed organ will then be dismantled and installed in Mount Carmel, where workers will complete the installation and tuning process.

The entire project will take more than a year, Dengler said, noting he signed the contract at the end of August and the new organ is expected to be in place in time for services next fall.

A dedication and recital will be held sometime in the fall, Dengler said, adding that the church will use an electronic organ for the weeks between dismantling the old organ and installing the new one.

Through donations, corporate donors and the support of the diocese, Dengler said it’s great to see that people continue to value organ music.

Not only will the church use the new organ, but various groups including the Blair Concert Chorale, will be able to use the instrument. And, the church can expand on concerts utilizing the organ, Dengler said.

“It’s a big deal for the diocese to support the music program in the local parish,” he added.

“Our voices and musical abilities are a gift from God, and the church cannot think of a better way for us to use those talents than to glorify Him,” DeGol said. “Perhaps no one summed it up better than Saint Augustine when he said, ‘He who sings, prays twice.'”