Oh, All Right

If you listened to the video of "No Tramp of Soldiers' Marching Feet" in my previous post, here's a little story to go with it. The first note of the hymn introduction--that big, low trombone that leads into a marching motif--used to be even bigger and lower. Yesterday after church I remarked to my husband that as powerful as it is, it doesn't quite sound like it did the first few years he did it. He proceeded to remind me that when we first came to our current congregation the organ had several 32-foot pipes. Such massive pipes are really too large for even our sanctuary, and so they were squeezed into a space that is too small for them. Ultimately they became a hazard--loose, rattling, and in danger of collapsing on the rest of the organ--and the decision was made to have them removed. They were replaced a few years ago by several new 16-foot pipes. Phillip told me that to get that old sound back we would have to go out and find some aging, bent 32-foot pipes and improperly mount them in our organ loft, resulting in a nice, rattling effect when they were played.

I told him I could learn to live with the 16-foot.