St. Brendan Catholic Church
Hilliard, OH
2/8 Humpe
1981
In the photo
above is the Humpe 2/8 pipe
organ in St. Brendan Catholic Church in Hilliard, Ohio. Despite its
small size, the organ is able to provide sufficient sound to lead the
congregation in song. These pages give some information about the
instrument's specifications and construction.
Parish and Church History
St. Brendan Church is located in Hilliard,
Ohio which is
a suburb of the city of Columbus. The parish has been in existence
since 1956 and is one of the
top five largest parishes in the Columbus Diocese with over 3,500
families. The size of the parish is expected to expand as new homes are
built in former farmland fields in Hilliard not far from the church.
The current
church was built in
1981 and expanded in 1995. Capacity of the church is a little less than
1,100 people. As can be seen above, the church is laid out in a
semi-circle with the organ sitting on the left side of the room. The
terrazzo floor and lack of any carpeting anywhere in the room make it
very bright thus sound travels well. Hence the small stature of the
organ is not as much of an issue than it would be if the room had
carpeting or other sound dampening accessories.
The
organ was built by Joe Humpe of Humpe Organ Company in Richmond, OH
under the consultation of then Diocesan Music Director Msgr. F. Thomas
Gallen (an old photo of Msgr. Gallen can be found here).
The organ's console was built with expansion in mind and includes
several blank knobs for additional ranks, however the organ was not
expanded during the church's expansion.
While fully functioning, the church's organ shares Mass
accompaniment duties with a couple Contemporary Music
ensembles. It is an instrument of small stature, and should
the
parish need to build a new church due to parish growth, the instrument
likely would be replaced (there is nothing of historical significance
in the instrument to suggest it should be preserved). However for now,
the
humble Humpe organ ambles along.
Sound
Clip
Title
Crescendo
with Sforzando - Starting with a C chord, the crescendo pedal is slowly
depressed adding ranks along the way. The small size of this instrument
is quite evident by the relatively few ranks added along the way,
especially in the lower registers.
Credits and Links
I'd like to thank the staff at St. Brendan for assistance and access to
the instrument. Thanks also to former St. Brendan Music Director Pete
McClernon for providing historical information for the
instrument.