OFFERING FOR AN ORGAN: CHURCH SEEKS BUYER FOR 1926 PIPE ORGAN

With its high ceilings and wooden surfaces that reflect sound, area musicians say Old St. Vincent's Church is a wonderful place to play an instrument.

The historic sanctuary downtown, recognized as a religious and cultural center, wants to take advantage of those acoustics and install a new pipe organ.

The church is in the midst of a fund-raising campaign for the organ and plans a dinner and dance with music by the Jerry Ford Orchestra tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Elk's Lodge.

The fund-raising event was one sponsored by the church years ago when it was in the midst of a restoration project for the interior of the church. "We haven't had it for 15 yeas or so and had requests to revive it," said Loretta Schneider, a church member.

The church also wants to revive its organ sound with installation of a new 21 rank Schantz pipe organ. The existing organ is just five ranks.

"The old organ is still in good working order but was never quite adequate for old St. Vincent's," Schneider said.

The church would like to see its old organ, a1926 Kilgen with a two-manual console, find a new home in another church, preferably a local congregation. "What we'd like to do is give it to another church," she said.

Schneider doesn't think the task would be too tremendous but there is a concern about transportation logistics to get all the pipes to a new location.

Several downtown churches also have undergone pipe organ refurbishing projects or have installed new organs in recent years.

Trinity Lutheran Church, St. Mary's Cathedral, First Presbyterian and First Baptist Church all have pipe organs that lead worshippers each week.

While pipe organs can produce beautiful sound, the instrument is one that requires plenty of care and attention.

And the number of people who can play the organ is continually decreasing. Most organists began by playing piano, and fewer children are taking those music lessons today. Another obstacle is that to play an organ, students must take lessons and practice and that's usually at a church.

"You have these two angles that play into this business," said Dr. Gary L. Miller, an organ instructor at Southeast Missouri State University. "It's difficult to recruit to the keyboard in general, but to the organ specifically."

Organs have been played since the 1400s and the instrument's popularity rises and falls as worship styles change. -programmed sounds.

In regard to church culture, many congregations aren't choosing organs because they believe it to be a "funeral home sounding instrument," Miller said. "Organs are generally viewed as being old-fashioned. It's the way church music was viewed 20 or 30 or 40 years ago."

The Old St. Vincent's committee involved in studying replacement of the organ heard a Schantz organ at First Baptist Church in Charleston, Mo., and chose that company for its instrument.

The arrival of the new organ should be sometime between January 2002 and summer 2002 company officials told Miller, who has acted as a consultant for the church.