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PRO-CATHEDRAL’S PIPE ORGAN – CASAVANT ORGAN, OPUS 2928

Organ gallery view

A Brief History

At the time of the refurbishment of the Cathedral in 1967 an earlier Casavant Organ Opus 635, built in 1915 had been moved out and replaced with the Opus 2928 in 1968, a classic-Style, ‘Bach organ’.  The main divisions were the Great, Positiv and Pedal employed schwimmer winding which allowed the instrument to be suspended over new gallery seating, totally free of the floor.  As the choir was moving to the chancel, a small chancel organ was built there to accompany them and keep them in tune.  In 1979, the choir moved back to the gallery and the three manual console was also moved.  In 2003 the new expressive Swell Organ was installed under the main organ providing a controlled division very close to singers and providing a Romantic sound not available from the 1968 instrument.  As the decoration of the cathedral was changed to warm colours and the organ cases to new dark mouldings, so the tone of the organ has been deepened by changing the pitch of the mixtures, enlarging the scale of the pedal basses and making the full length Pedal Contrebass 16′ playable as a manual stop for the Great Organ.

For more detail about the organ prior to the 2003 renovations, click here.

STOP LIST – 1967 & Revisions in 2003 with addition to Swell Organ, new pipes marked with *

GREAT ORGAN FEET PIPES
1 Contrebass (1-32 from exisiting Pedal Contrebass, 33-61 new*) 16 61
2 Prinzipal 8 61
3 Bordun 8 61
4 Oktave 4 61
5 Waldfluöte 4 61
6 Superoktave 2 61
7 Mixtur IV-V (existing Mixtur V revisited and pitch deepened) 1 1/3 269
8 Dulzian 16 61
9 Trompete 8 61
POSITIV ORGAN FEET PIPES
10 Gedackt 8 61
11 Prinzipal 4 61
12 Koppelflöte 4 61
13 Waldflöte 2 61
14 Quinte 1 1/3 61
15 Scharf IV (existing Scharf V revised and pitch deepened) 1 244
16 Krummhorn 8 269
Tremulant
Positiv 16′ Coupler
SWELL ORGAN FEET PIPES
(Expressive, new division located under Great and Positiv Organ)
17 *Chimney Flute 8 61
18 *Viola da gamba (1-6 stopped) 8 61
19 Vox Coelestis (from Ten C; pipes of original Chancel Salicional 8′) 8 49
20 *Pprincipal 4 61
21 *Flute 4 61
22 *Nazard 2 2/3 61
23 *Piccolo 2 61
24 *Tierce 1 3/5 61
25 *Plein Jeu III-IV 2 225
26 *Bassoon (half length, extension of no. 28) 16 12
27 *Trumpet 8 61
28 *Oboe 8 61
Tremulant
Swell 16′ Coupler
Swell 4′ Coupler
CHANCEL ORGAN FEET PIPES
(floating)
29 Holzgedackt 8 56
30 Erzähler 8 56
31 Spitzflöte 4 56
32 Waldflöte 2 56
33 Zimbel III 1/2 112
CHANCEL PEDAL FEET PIPES
34 Metallgedackt 16 32
PEDAL ORGAN FEET PIPES
35 Resultant (wired from no. 37) 32 —
36 Prinzipal 16 32
37 Subbass (rescaled 2 notes*) 16 16
38 Blank tablet — —
39 Octave 8 32
40 Pommer 8 32
41 Choralbass 4 32
42 Mixture III 2 96
43 *Posaune ( 1- 12 half length) 16 32
44 Bassoon (from Swell no.26) 16 —
45 Oboe (from Swell no. 28) 8 —
46 Klarine 4 32
47 Oboe (from Swell no. 28) 4 —
COUPLERS
(Classic Organ Works multiplex combination system with MIDI in, MIDI out interface)
Great    / Pedal 8
Positiv    / Pedal 8
Swell    / Pedal 8
Swell    / Great 8
Swell    / Pedal 4
Chancel    / Pedal 8
Positiv    / Great 16, 8, 4
Swell    / Great 16, 8, 4
Chancel    / Great 8
Swell    / Positiv 16, 8, 4
Chancel    / Positiv 8
ADJUSTABLE COMBINATION PISTONS
(Classic Organ Works combination system with 99 levels of memory)
Great 1 2 3 4       Thumb
Positiv 1 2 3 4       Thumb
Swell 1 2 3 4       Thumb
Pedal 1 2 3 4       Thumb
General 1 2 3 4 5 6 Thumb & Toe
Cancel                    Thumb
Adjuster                    Thumb
REVERSABLE PISTONS
Great    / Pedal Thumb & Toe
Full Organ                    Thumb & Toe
BALANCED PEDAL
Crescendo on all stops and couplers and Swell Expression share a single pedal, controlled by illuminated push button.
ANALYSIS
                                     Stops Ranks Pipes
Great Organ 8 12 725
Positiv Organ 7 10 610
Swell Organ 11 14 835
Chancel Organ 6 7 368
Pedal Organ 8 10 320
TOTAL 40 53 2858
The organ has electro-pneumatic key and Pitman stop action. The case, bench and pedalboard of the three manual, detached console, are of oak.   The console was converted to all-electric action in 2001. All stops and couplers are controlled by rocking tablets placed above and beside the keyboards. The manual keys are of ivory and the concave, radiating pedalboard has naturals of maple and sharps of rosewood. All key and pedal contacts of sterling silver operated by the Casavant patented system featuring self-cleaning motion and tracker touch for the manual keyboards. A hinged-type music rack is of tempered plate glass.

Additional information regarding the organ prior to 2003 can be read on our Organ History page.

If you want to know more about the organ builder, visit their site Casavant Freres Web Site