Organs
The church houses a grand,
wonderful pipe organ built in 1921 by Casavant Freres, Limitee in
St-Hyacinte, Quebec. The American Classic Organ
Company of Chester, Connecticut is currently performing major repairs to
the instrument. We hope for a major renovation of the instrument in the
near future. More about the organ, can be found by clicking
 |
| Fideli
organ, circa. 1860, was rescued from a music shop in Naples
and now resides in our chapel. |
Aside from
the Casavant, the church also houses the Zeno Fedeli organ in the
chapel. The church's former music director, Gordon Adams,
discovered this instrument lying in a music shop on Via Roma,
Naples, Italy. It appears to have been built around 1860 in a town near Assisi. It
was sitting unused in a church in Naples for over two decades. It
was packed and moved to Philadelphia by the U.S. Navy, later moved to
the Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. Work had been
done on the instrument by a builder in New York. The school
donated the organ to the Church of the Holy Trinity in 1980.
Chime
The church is also blessed
to have a traditional chime (chimestand) of 10 bells. (Proper
nomenclature of the instrument only refers to a carillon as having at
least 23 bells; less than that number is referred to as a
"chime"). The pitch of heaviest bell is F in the
middle octave. The keyboard range is F-F. The whole instrument was
installed in 1902 with bells by Meneely/Troy. There are two added
semitones : the sharp 4th (which is the original church
bell, by Meneely/West Troy) and the flat 7th.
The original church bell
was owned jointly by the Presbyterian Society and also the town. It was
damaged in 1779 during the Revolution and became useless. Around 1760,
Captain Richard Alsop gave an organ to the parish (likely prior to his
wedding). After the war, a new bell was donated by John Alsop of
New York (Captain Richard's brother). It was installed in 1786. In
1799, it was voted to share again with the Presbyterian people the
right to use the church bell. In the same year, it was voted to give
the sexton of the church "the sum of ten pounds lawful money." (His services
also included sweeping the floors each time!)
These days we are
blessed to have the music ministry of Diane Reid, who elegantly
plays the chime before services. Occasionally, students visit to play
the chime from Wesleyan University (where a 16-note chime exists in
their cupola). Visits to the console can be arranged by contacting
Michael Fazio at the church.
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