Page 8 - MLD Book

my bed saying, “Two children were brought into this world today. You have a daughter, and the pipe organ arrived at Calvary at the same time. Which do you like better?” As I recall, I said something dumb like “I thought it was going to be a boy!” Michelle had taken her time actually being born. I had had a few labor pains so Melvin’s mother came from Trenton to babysit Maria. She arrived, and I decided I would go to Bach Society rehearsal as usual, mostly to escape her! (She always said that Melvin and I belonged together because I was as queer as he was!) It was sort of an unusual rehearsal because Melvin kept whispering to me between pieces “How close are the labor pains?” When they became 5 minutes apart, he announced that rehearsal was over. That was soo unlike him to ever cut a rehearsal short, so people didn’t believe him and kept sitting in place! Finally they left (we had to lock up, of course) and we went to the old Baptist hospital on Barret, but nothing happened until noon the next day. They told Melvin to go on and teach at U of L, but when he got back, Michelle had arrived and he missed the whole thing! Both organ and child have turned out to be great delights to this day and if the Calvary organ is used today by others as the specification intended it to be, it can create thrilling sounds especially designed for the Calvary building. Uh oh, getting into dangerous territory!
I HAVE WRITTEN A SEPARATE DOCUMENT CALLED AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALVARY MUSIC 1860-2006, in which much is documented about all the Calvary organs, the organists, and the choir singers. It underlines the fact that music has played a great part in the history of Calvary even from the beginning, Although the origin of the very first organ was not known, we do read that at the very first vestry meeting an organist was hired at $200 per year, as well as a “suitable person” to tune the organ, and an extra 50 cents per week allotted to the sexton’s salary, presumably to be the organ bellows pumper! Documentation shows that choir singers were employed as earlier as 1868 with Miss Fanny
Nold as the leading soprano. Vestry members were so enamored with Miss Nold that they divided personally the cost of a new gold watch for her in appreciation! A notable entry in the 1911-1912 budget shows the music budget to be $2,500 out of a total parish budget of $8,591. That’s one fourth of the total budget, which makes the dissolution of the music budget and the firing of the choir by Mr. Waterhouse when I began at Calvary even more remarkable. Tradition doesn’t always prevail in the philosophy of new always being better!
service would be Bach’s setting of “All glory, laud, and honor.” Morning Prayer was read, (the 1928 PB was the book at that time), and a Pachelbel cantata was sung,, with choir, junior choir, and soloists. In addition to LaNell Barnes and Ken Renner, the Rector, Wilfred
The new Casavant organ was dedicated on Palm Sunday, April 11, 1965. It being Palm Sunday, the first time the organ was heard in