** Special thanks to Phil Riddick for providing us with the original program booklet.  Phil studied at Redlands and spent a lot of time on this instrument before the 2003 rebuild.  The current console is a Reuter console, but Phil remembers the old Casavant style console.  Unfortunately, there are no pictures available of the original console.

MEMORIAL CHAPEL ORGAN REDEDICATION |1927 CASAVANT FRERES OPUS 1230 | MAY 17, 2003, 4:00 P.M.

An anonymous gift to the university, the Casavant Frères Organ Opus 1230 was dubbed “unsurpassed in the West” with its 4,266 pipes, 66 sounding stops, 61 ranks and a 1,500-pound console. Delivered to campus in December 1927, the organ wok five weeks to install and tune before the February 19, 1928 dedication of the Memorial Chapel. At the February 28, 1928 dedication of the Casavant, Pietro A. Yon, a renowned composer and Vatican organist, played the opening recital. As the music reverberated throughout the Chapel nave, the power of the “king of instruments” was felt by all. Throughout seven decades, the Casavant has been a centerpiece both on campus and in the Redlands community. It is played at all major university events including the enduringly popular Feast of Lights, is integral to the School of Music education program and is showcased every spring in the Redlands Organ Festival. As part of the 2002-03 restoration of the Memorial Chapel, the university undertook a $650,000 project to repair and restore the organ to its original grandeur Today we welcome the beloved Casavant back to the Memorial Chapel and its well-deserved place in our hearts.

HISTORY

UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS | REDLANDS, CALIFORNIA | CASAVANT Opus 1230

On September 27, 1926, Business Manager George P. Cortner wrote to Casavant Frères explaining that the University was building a chapel to seat fifteen hundred people and that they were interested in a “four manual organ including harp, chimes and probably (an) echo organ.” He described Redlands as a “most beautiful city of fifteen thousand…it has been known not only for its beauty but also far its culture. It is a music-loving city.” “We do not care for a great many of accessories such as go with a moving picture organ. We wish an organ of sufficient volume to fill our auditorium. We are very anxious as to the quality of the tone…as we wish every pipe to answer its specific purpose and not be used for three or four different stops.” The response from Casavant came from Stephen Stoat who would soon become the Tonal Director of the firm. Since it was Casavant’s general practice to build instruments with a more classical approach, the request to avoid unnecessary unification and theatre organ accessories was immediately understood and appreciated. Mr. Stout prepared a specification for a four manual organ of fifty-eight ranks distributed over Great, Swell, Choir and Solo divisions. This specification was sent to Professor Charles Howard Marsh who was studying with Marcel Dupré in Paris. On January 4, 1927, Mr. Marsh wrote to Mr. Stoat, “I have your letter of December 18 enclosing (the) specification for the proposed organ at Redlands…In fact, I have just written Mr. Cortner the strongest letter I can, urging him by all means to accept your proposition, which I honestly believe to be superior to anything he could get for the money in the U.S. I have tried to explain to him the superiority of the Casavant materials, workmanship and voicing over all American makers with the possible exception of Skinner—and inasmuch as you are offering a better balanced organ than Skinner, hope the University will follow my advice and give you the contract.” “The addition of a harp stop would be very simple…one suggestion I would like to make and that is the addition of a French Horn to the Solo… showed this specification to M. Marcel Dupré…and (he) confirmed my own beliefs in the superior quality of the Casavant organ. I asked him about the addition of a French Horn and…he assured me that you could build a French Horn very similar and just as effective as the French Horn that Skinner builds. I have also talked with M. Dupré about the style of the console and he thinks as I do, the French style of stop-knobs in steps or terraces are preferable. I am suggesting this to Mr. Cortner also.” On February 11, 1928, following completion of the instrument, Mr. Cortner wrote, “We wish to express to you our appreciation for the quality of the instrument which, we feel, in every sense of the word, is a first class organ.” In November of the some year, University Organist Arthur Poister expressed his appreciation, “I am enjoying tremendously the greatness and the finesse of this lovely instrument.” Opus 1230 was the third, and largest Casavant organ installed in California in 1927.

In 2001, our beloved Casavant Opus 1230 returned to its 1927 creators, the Casavant Frères in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada for a much needed restoration.

While in Canada, 70-plus years of accumulated grime, soot, smog and dirt were removed from inside the organ, damaged pipes were repaired; those missing and beyond repair were replaced, remaining pneumatic actions were replaced by electric systems and windchests were rebuilt to the more reliable Pitman action. The reeds now have Cavaillé-Coll shallots.

In preparation for the Casavant’s return to the university, the organ chambers were repaired, painted, new lighting was installed, and the organ’s air system was redesigned to draw air from inside the Chapel rather than from the outside—a contributing cause of dirt entering the organ.

On January 6, 2003, the Casavant returned to the Chapel and with the assistance of three installers from Casavant Frères, a local organ technician and workers from Tilden-Coil Constructors Inc., the reinstallation began. 4,266 pipes were uncrated, sorted and laid onto the Chapel floor, which was cleared of half of its seating. Then pipe by pipe, the organ was installed—beginning with the largest pipes of the organ—the Pedal and Great divisions.

Once the organ was reinstalled, workers began the installation of the ornate plaster grills Steel structural support beams were added behind the grills and lost grill sections were painstakingly restored by artisans. Once in place, painters completed the restoration by artfully matching the grill’s original colors.

The next and final phase of the installation required the most meticulous care – the artistic interpretation of the actual final sound.

In early March, two voicers from Casavant, experts with pipes built in the 1920s, arrived to complete the voicing and tuning of each pipe. For four weeks, the voicers adjusted each pipe to speak correctly within its rank and gave them their initial tuning. The final tuning of the entire organ was completed on April 3, 2003, and after a final playing, the contract with Casavant was signed at the console.

The completely restored Casavant has a decidedly new sound. What was once a thick, heavy tone is now a clean, full, resonant one and the University of Redlands once again possesses one of the finest pipe organs in Southern California. This truly remarkable instrument will not only enhance the teaching and performing of the organ repertoire,m but will impact the many activities of the university and the community of Redlands.

Through its wise investment and stewardship, the University of Redlands can look forward to another 75 years of glorious music.