It took a semi-truck to deliver Concordia's newest musical instrument Tuesday morning. The organ, constructed by Casavant Frères in Quebec, was unloaded into the recently renovated recital hall in the Music Center on Concordia's campus.
Three men from Casavant Frères made the 1,400 mile trip along with the organ, switching from French to English as they worked with their Nebraskan counterparts to make sure the last 100 feet of the delivery went as smoothly as the long drive from Canada.
"We are very excited to have the instrument arrive. This is a big day," said Dr. Jeffrey Blersch, chair of the Department of Music and university organist. "There are some pieces I recognize as they come off the truck, and I am really looking forward to see what the organ looks like in our facility."
Blersch traveled to St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, in early April to see the organ. It was fully constructed and tested in the Casavant workshop and then disassembled for the trip to Nebraska.
Opus 3868 is a 3-manual, 38-rank organ with more than 2,000 pipes that, according to Blersch, will serve the university well for both instruction and performance.
"We proposed a 3-manual instrument because it gave us so much more flexibility for teaching," he said. "We also designed the specifications of different stops and rank colors with teaching in mind. We have 15 current students with organ as their principal instrument and another 10 to 15 studying organ this year."
For the next three weeks workers will re-assemble the organ, starting with the wind lines that run from the mechanical room in the basement up into the case of the organ.
After everything is back together, another four weeks will be spent perfecting the tonal values of the pipes in response to the recital hall. The dedication and inaugural concert for the organ will take place in the fall.
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