A sound investment: $50K restoration breathes new life into historic organ at First Churches

NORTHAMPTON — The 18-foot stenciled pipes and cherry facade of the First Churches organ has towered over the church’s sanctuary unchanged since 1889. It’s a historic piece, and after 40 years of being the organ’s doctor, organ builder and historian, Bill Czelusniak has been integral to preserving every aspect of the immense instrument.

Without maintenance, relics like this organ turn to ruins, which is why Czelusniak is back at First Churches for a six-week process of replacing leather components of the organ that are both “movable but airtight” and compress air to power the organ’s sound. The base notes have been silent for some time, said Czelusniak. For the organist, the fixes will mean more sounds to work with, and listeners may hear and feel more bass.

“Everything inside, materially and mechanically, is premium, first-rate,” he said.

The church’s organist, Sarah Kraaz, also showered praise on the instrument as Czelusniak’s crew of four professionals crawled into the instrument’s components last week.

“This organ is distinguished by the fact that all the parts are still the old parts” said Kraaz, formerly a professor of the organ at Ripon College in Wisconsin. She said the piece enhances services not only musically, but visually.

“It’s like a magnet for attention,” she said.

An unexpected anonymous donation of $25,000 to the church’s organ fund made the current $50,000 maintenance effort possible.

“It was a gift of God, shall we say — a check just came in the mail for $25,000,” Kraaz said.

She added that another gift is Czelusniak, president of Messrs. Czelusniak et Dugal Inc., because “organ builders don’t grow on trees.”

Aside from routine maintenance over the decades, Czelusniak has been called in for extensive overhauls as well.

In 2007, the plaster over the organ was falling and temporarily closed the church. The conditions meant the organ needed to immediately evacuate to preserve it. Czelusniak was responsible for dismantling the entire organ piece by piece, and then again establishing it once the ceiling had been repaired.

As not only a builder but an organ historian, Czelusniak explained the organ’s origins — a feat that was only possible because of people “of means” within the congregation, he explained.

“What you see is mostly the Johnson organ,” said Czelusniak, referring to William A. Johnson, an organ builder out of Westfield, who is responsible for the indulgent neo-Baroque facade that has gone unchanged.

Looking at the pipes of the organ from a distance, you’d expect them to be smooth, but they are actually coarse and rutted due to a layer of gesso plaster over the zinc pipes.

“This was a complicated decor process that we’ve learned from other decorating experts was not common,” Czelusniak said. “This was a really special job done here.”

But there’s more to the organ than meets the eye.

“Everything you see from the front is one thing,” he said. “Everything behind is something else.”

In 1936, Ernest Skinner of the Methuen Organ Company was hired to incorporate a new organ into the Johnson facade.

Hence the organ is a Johnson-Skinner organ. “It is about 40% Johnson, 60% Skinner,” Czelusniak said.

The new Skinner organ brought “mystery” to the church with its three manuals, 52 stops and 42 ranks.

“In the early 20th century, everybody wanted organs that could sound like an orchestra — like playing for an opera, or something that could create mysterious sounds,” Kraaz said, a trend that changed beginning in the 1940s and 1950s, the professor added.

She explained further that, “This is very much a kind of romantic instrument. It’s got string stops, and it can do beautiful, lush sounds, as well as loud ones.”

The First Churches organ ended up meaning a boom in business for Skinner after one of the most noted organists of the 20th century, Virgil Fox, dedicated it after the updated instrument’s completion.

Fox was famous for being the organist at Riverside Church in New York City. He stood out from his peers for his “Heavy Organ” performance — a performance he gave in Paradise City when he played in First Churches using the complexity of the Johnson-Skinner masterpiece.

On Sept. 28, after the organ has completed its recovery, there will be a rededication with another opportunity to hear, “just how versatile the organ is,” Kraaz said.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.